Umami Yummi

Last night for dinner we tried out a new recipe I found while tastespotting.

Marisa's Beef Chow Mein

picture via The Creative Pot

It was easy, TASTY, and didn't have any random, wierd ingredients that require a special trip to Many Lands. I think the only thing I'll do differently next time (because there will be a next time) is season the beef a bit before cooking it. Thanks, Marisa, for sharing!

p.s. Tomorrow I'm totally gonna go to this. And while there I will get the world's most delicious donut.

{Trying to} Welcome Fall!

(apples from the Farmers Market)

I am a summer girl all the way. I love the sun, the heat, the long days, all of it. I'm from Arizona, what can I say? BUT, I'm trying to be better about embracing the here, and now. And here and now, I live in a place that has all four seasons, and cooler weather. I've been enjoying fresh apples from the farmers market and we took our customary drive up Payson Canyon to see the fall leaves, and I took NO pictures! I know, how could I? I'll refer you to this song for explanation:

O, love that song. (Sorry the video's a little shaky, but the audio quality is pretty good.)

Anyway, another fall activity I look forward to is making delicious butternut squash soup. And this year is extra special since I grew my own butternut squash! (remember how it took over my back yard? Suffice it to say, the takeover is even more complete these days!) I have a fantastic recipe my mom created that I love (and will definitely be making soon), but yesterday I decided to make up a recipe of my own. I'm not gonna lie, I'm really impressed with myself. It turned out amazing, and you're going to want to try it. So here it is:

Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque

1/2 a large butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 small shallot, minced
1 small clove garlic, minced
3-4 cups chicken broth
aprox. 2 tsp. rubbed sage
salt and pepper to taste
oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, toss squash cubes with sage, salt, pepper, and oil to coat. Spread out cubes on a cookie sheet. Roast squash until tender, about 25-30 minutes.

In a large dutch oven, saute shallot and garlic until soft. Add roasted squash and chicken broth. Puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Add more or less broth depending on your desired thickness. You'll notice from the picture that I like mine thick. My husband says it reminds him of baby food, but baby food is not nearly this delicious. If you prefer something thinner, you can add more broth or evaporated milk, regular milk, whatever you like.

That's it! So simple, and so delicious. The only thing this soup was missing was a nice crusty roll to enjoy with it. Let me know if you try it!

The Fruits [And Leaves] of Our Labors

At the beginning of the season we planted a vegetable garden in our back yard. We've done this in the past, but two years ago pretty much nothing produced anything, so we didn't do it last year. This year, things are different. Here's what the garden looked like when we first planted.
We planted 4 different heirloom tomato varieties, 2 cucumber plants, 1 crook-neck squash, 1 butternut squash, 3 different bell pepper varieties, 4 hot pepper varieties, sugar snap peas, cilantro, and basil. Notice all the empty space covered with bark? Here's what it's looking like lately.

It's filled in beautifully! Most of what you're seeing is the butternut squash vine that has taken over the back yard, but I don't care because I already have a few big squashes on the vine. I'm pretty excited about it. See what's coming along.

We've eaten some sugar snap peas, and I've already had two BLT's with my fresh tomatoes. Fa-Nominal! But I was too busy enjoying them to take a picture.
One of the things I'm most excited about is the basil. It's thriving, so I finally made some pesto. Oh man, it's beyond good! I picked about three cups worth of leaves off the bush, and you can't even tell I took anything off the plant (I'll have to make some more!). Here I am (in my new Anthro shirt, told you you'd see me in it soon!) cutting off some leaves.

I brought them in the house and put them in a big bowl of cold water to wash off any dirt and/or bugs. I put them through the salad spinner to get them dry, then I put those in the food processor with about 2/3 cup walnuts, 2.5 oz Parmesan cheese, 1 clove garlic, 1 cup canola oil, and salt and pepper to taste, and voila!

Put it on pasta, bread, a cracker, a fork, whatever! I've eaten three meals of whole-wheat pasta and pesto in as many days. And I might just have it again for dinner tonight. It's that good. Or you can come over and have some with me. The Rockstar doesn't like it (He's crazy, but we love him anyway) and I need someone to enjoy this with me!

Been a While

'Member how I used to blog? Yeah, then I just stopped for months! Lame, I know. I've been doing a lot of thinking about making, but just not getting around to the actual making part. Some things I've been thinking about making...

Bakerella's Pillow Cookies (brownie and chocolate chip cookie all in one? Yes, Please!)

Home made basil pesto, with my home grown basil, which hasn't died! I'm not the best at keeping plants alive, but the Rock Star pretty much tends the garden, so this stuff is thriving.

I am in LOVE with these overalls. The print, the bow, the ruffles on the bottom? C'mon! I want to try and copy them. Mom, you may be getting some sewing related phone calls soon.

I'm also feeling so inspired by all the upcycling people are doing in the blog world, turning old and boring clothes into new and fabulous clothes. I have a few pieces set aside that will hopefully get a make-over soon. In the mean time, here are links to some of my favorites

1. Katies Scandalous to Fabulous Skirt

2. Ashley's Stained Shirt turned Shrug

3. Katie's Liberty Shirt Turned Skirt

4. Jess's Floral Refashion

5. Nancy's T-shirt Skirt

Oopa!

Since Nancy shared her recipe for her salad dressing after our Greek themed birthday party, I thought I'd share my recipe for tatziki sauce. The rock star isn't such a fan of gyro meat, as he relates it to meatloaf, mystery meat, etc. So when we make gyros, we just grill steak with gyro type seasonings on it and slice it thin. Mostly, I just need an excuse to eat that tatziki sauce. Oh man, I love this stuff!

Tatziki Sauce:
1 pint Greek Style Yogurt*
2 Cucumbers
2-3 cloves garlic
1 Lemon
salt

Peel cucumbers, then cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds with a spoon and discard. Dice cucumbers, and add to yogurt. Peel garlic cloves and grate with a fine grater over the bowl with yogurt and cucumbers. Juice lemon and add juice, salt to taste, but I usually do about 1 tsp. Now, enjoy, because it's delicious. Yeah, it's that easy!

*If you can't find Greek yogurt (I've been able to get it at Macey's), you can use regular plain yogurt, and strain it of the extra liquid through a tea towel or paper towels and a sieve. Keep in mind that you'll probably want to start out with more than a pint so you end up with about a pint after it's strained.

I also got my mom's recipe for making pita's. They don't end up with a pocket in the middle, but they're really tasty, and work good for making wrap style gyros.

Pita Bread
1/4 Cup warm water
1 tbsp yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
3 cups flour*
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Combine water, yeast, and sugar in mixer and allow yeast to bloom. Add buttermilk, flour, salt, and baking soda, combine and run mixer for a few minutes to knead the dough. Allow dough to rise for about an hour, then pound it down and divide into eight equal pieces. Roll out each piece into a round, and cook on stove top over medium-high heat until browned, about 2-3 minutes per side. Now throw on some of that tatziki sauce, and gyro meat, because they're best fresh. We also decided that these would work well as individual pizza crusts, or as naan for the next time you make curry or tikka masala.

* I used all plain white flour but my mom made them with 1/2 white 1/2 wheat flour, and both ways were tasty.

I'm pretty sure my heart skipped a beat when I saw this picture on tastespotting.

Chocolate, peanut butter, cream cheese, peanut butter cups. It's like a combination of all the best things you could ever eat! If it tastes half as good as it looks/sounds, I would be one happy camper. I will be trying this recipe. Peabody, you are crazy like a fox!

A Bevy of Beauties

I signed up to bring dessert to a work party at the end of this month, and I have about a googillian recipes I've been wanting do try. Maybe I'll bring a dessert platter with some of each of these. You know, so I have an excuse to try them all.

Four Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Lime Melt-Aways

Hazelnut Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Oreo Truffles

Is it obvious that I've been spending entirely too much time on tastespotting?

Pure Genius

You better believe I'll be trying this recipe:

Back in April I had a sister's weekend in Vancouver. Lots of talking, shopping, and eating delicious food. We had lunch one day at a place called Pizzacato, and Nancy and I split a pizza called the "Al Grecco" with red onions, lamb sausage, feta, garlic, marinated tomatoes, and Tzatziki sauce on the side. It was divine. I very much wished I had gotten a whole one all to myself. It gave Nancy the idea that we should make Gyro style burgers sometime. Well, that hasn't actually been tried yet, but I just came across this recipe on tastespotting. Now we really need to try it!

Red, White, and Blue Ice Cream

So Nancy tried to pretend that she made the red, white, and blue ice cream for our family 4th of July festivities, but, actually, it was me. She made the cute cookies, I made the cute ice cream. So I'm stealing her picture of it to post here, and recipe's are below. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. Think of it like Neapolitan ice cream, but red, white, and blue instead of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. And I found the templates for the flags here. Enjoy!

To keep it separated in the pan, I made the red and the blue first, with a bread pan where the white went to hold the sides up, then put that all in the freezer so it could set up. Once it was hardened, I took the bread pan out, and put the white ice cream in it's place.

Fruit Ice Cream Base (make 2 batches, one for the strawberry rhubarb, and one for the blueberry)

Ingredients:

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 pinch salt

2-3 cups fruit puree

In a medium bowl lightly whisk the yolks together with a 1/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside.
In a non-reactive saucepan combine the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 cups of the cream, and the salt. Heat the cream mixture over medium-high heat until just boiling. Remove from the heat; whisk the eggs constantly while gradually pouring the hot liquid into the yolks. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan.
Cook the mixture while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon in a figure 8 motion, over medium-low heat, until thickened, about 5 minutes. When the ice cream mixture is properly cooked it coats the back of the spoon, is satiny thick, and free of any bubbles on the surface. (The ice cream base will taste slightly egg-y.) When the mixture is thickened pull it from the heat; add the reserved 1/2 cup cream, and strain it through a fine strainer into a medium bowl.
Set the bowl of ice cream base in a bowl of ice and whisk until cool. Add the fruit puree.

Freeze the mixture in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. (Take care not to over churn the ice cream or it can have a grainy texture.) Place the ice cream in the freezer to set up for at least 1 hour. Serve.

Strawberry Rhubarb Puree Ingredients:
1/2 pint strawberries, washed and quartered
1 stalk of rhubarb, chopped
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Combine water and sugar in pot over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add strawberries and rhubarb to syrup and let simmer until softened (about 30 minutes). Process mixture through a food mill (if you don't have a food mill, use a blender and a fine sieve).

Blueberry Puree Ingredients:

2 cups blueberries

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

Combine water and sugar in pot over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add blueberries to syrup and let simmer until softened (about 30 minutes). Process mixture through a food mill (if you don't have a food mill, use a blender and a fine sieve). I added blue food coloring at this point so the end result would be more blue than purple, but that's optional.

Cheesecake Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup sour cream

6 oz cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a food processor, or with a hand mixer and a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and beat until smooth. Add sour cream and beat until smooth. Add heavy cream and vanilla extract and beat until smooth.

Freeze the mixture in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. (Take care not to over churn the ice cream or it can have a grainy texture.) Place the ice cream in the freezer to set up for at least 1 hour. Serve.

Summer Treat

I LOVE rhubarb. It reminds me of summer time in Canada. I see lots of recipes for rhubarb cake, rhubarb pie, rhubarb crumble, rhubarb cobbler. All delicious, for sure. But here's one I haven't seen before. Rhubarb Sorbet. I just might have to try this one when my mom starts harvesting her crop this year.

Kitchen Tip #273

A grapefruit spoon is the best strawberry huller you'll ever use. Plus, it's really great for eating grapefruit.

Dear Sir or Madam

Please excuse Angela for her recent absence from blogging. She's been feeling a little uninspiring lately. As a make-up assignment, she has included below a knock-off recipe of Magleby's Spinach Salad. The original has mushrooms in it, but she's not really a mushroom person, but you could add them if you wanted to. She also adds sunflower seeds, which aren't in the original, but they're really good. It's seriously delicious. Thank you for your understanding.

Magleby's Spinach Salad

1 bag spinach or baby spinach
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced
1 small shallot, finely diced
4-5 pieces bacon, cooked and chopped
1/3 cup cottage cheese rinsed and drained
1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Toss ingredients together with your favorite red wine vinaigrette (I like Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette), and unabashedly scarf it down. Also, sometimes I add dried cranberries, but just if I happen to have them on hand. Enjoy!

De. Lish. Ous

I made this limeade last night for a little get-together, and man, it was tasty! It's supposed to be like Tucano's limeade if you've ever had that, and if you haven't, just make this, because it's pretty much spot on. My husband would tell you that I have an unusual affinity for limes, and try to put them on everything, but he likes this too, so I know it's not just me. Let me know what you think!

Tucano's Limeade

Brazilian Lemonade (Limeade)
2 Limes
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbs Sweetened Condensed Milk
3 cups cold water

Wash the limes and cut off both ends. then cut into 8 wedges. Place all of the limes and the rest of the ingredients in a blender (keep the rinds on). Blend thoroughly. Then strain through a fine-mesh sieve to remove rinds and pulp. Serve over crushed ice and add a lime wedge garnish.

The recipe only makes about 4 cups of liquid, so you might want to double it depending on how many servings you're looking for. Enjoy!

Also, a very happy birthday wish to two women who I know love limes as much as I do. My mom and sister!

Peanut Butter Makes Everything Better

I made these cookies yesterday, mostly because I wanted to eat them. The second best part is that all the ingredients are pantry items, so no special trip to the store required. The best part is that they have a surprise in the middle! One thing I will say is if there are more than two people in your household, you might want to double the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1 tbsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1. In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter, granulated and brown sugar and 1/4 cup peanut butter with an electric mixer until combined. bean in egg, milk and vanilla until combined. Add flower mixture and beat until combined. Set aside.

2. For peanut butter filling, in a medium bowl stir together powdered sugar and 1/2 cup peanut butter until smooth (I used my hand to knead this dough until it was combined).

3. Scoop out chocolate dough into balls on cookie sheet and the flatten with the bottom of a glass or bowl. Scoop out peanut butter filling into balls about half the size the chocolate balls and place in the middle of each chocolate circle. fold the chocolate dough around the peanut butter dough until fully enclosed. Lightly flatten each cookie again with the bottom of the glass.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.

5. Try not to eat yourself silly!

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Cookies.

Spotting Something Tasty

Tastespotting has drawn me in way more than the Food Network ever did, and that's saying a lot. Just ask Brian. I pretty much can't process him talking to me when I'm watching food network. "I'm sorry babe, I wasn't listening. Tyler's making his ultimate homemade chocolate pudding." And on tastespotting there's a gazillion new recipes every day. Here's a tasty sounding recipe I found the other day. Goodness knows I love me some good chicken wings. And who doesn't love mango and lime. Well, Brian doesn't love mango, but he likes it. He just thinks it has a funny aftertaste. I used to think that too, but then I got over it, because it's pretty delicious anyway. I'll let you know if I try this one out.

Delicious Exfoliator

So its been warm enough that I've been wearing sandals lately, which means my heals are starting to crack. I thought I'd share my favorite way to exfoliate hands and feet. Just combine regular white granulated sugar with your favorite soap, body wash, bubble bath, etc. The ratio of sugar to soap should be about 2:1. Rub it into the skin, focusing on problem areas for about a minute and rinse off. Follow up with your favorite hand cream or lotion.

V-Day Recap

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day! I've got a pretty sweet Valentine. He brought me some beautiful roses, and some of these (he knows I love them). Nice, huh?

Then we went to the museum exhibit to enjoy beautiful Victorian artwork. I did, however, forget to dress up like a Victorian Woman. I'll have to do that next time. Steve and Emily came over after for delicious Chocolate Cheesecake. Oh, it's as tasty as it sounds. And surprizingly simple. This is the first cheesecake I learned how to make, and it's probably my favorite. You should try it, so here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
16 oz (two packages) cream cheese, softened or room temperature
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 eggs
24 oz. Semi-Sweet chocolate, melted (I told you it was good!)

In a large bowl beat cream cheese until smooth using a hand beater or stand mixer. Add sweetened condensed milk and beat until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating until smooth. Gradually add melted chocolate while mixing. Once mixture is smooth and homogonous pour into springform pan. Surround pan with foil and cook in a water bath at 300 degrees for 65 minutes. When 65 minutes is up, turn off oven completely and open oven door, allowing the cake to cool in the oven (this will prevent the top of the cake from cracking). I like it best if the cake has been refridgerated for several hours before serving. Brian likes it best with whipped cream on top. I sometimes cook it with a crust made of chocolate graham crackers and butter, but that is optional.

Lunch Time

I'm about half and hour away from lunch and Elise's recipe is making me hungry! Potato Skins, anyone?

Also, this idea is awesome/hilarious.

I'm gonna have to make a BLT just so I can try that!

Okay, now I need to stop looking at food.

C is for Cookie

I really like this recipe/idea from Elise. These might make good neighbor gifts. Yes, it's true. I haven't made neighbor gifts yet. I'm seriously behind this year. I haven't even sent out my Christmas cards yet! It'll happen, you just might get it a little after Christmas. I thought I'd help extend the celebration and festivities for you this year.