Barbequed Maple Balsamic Burger with Sharp Cheddar Cheese & a Giveaway

It is that time of year again, the one where we finally get to bust out our barbeques after (ideally) keeping them tucked out of water damage's way over the winter. Huzzah! I will be the first to admit, I'm not very experienced with the barbeque, I usually leave that up to Jeremy while I remain indoors making biscuits and stews and the like. But I do love barbeque flavor, and there's no better way to get better at something than by practicing it, so I went ahead and jumped right into the hot, fiery coals of our teeny tiny patio grill. And while it doesn't have the simplest layout, I found this website to be very helpful. To make the burgers a bit smokier, I placed hickory smoking chips over the coals when they heated up, right before placing the patties on the grill. The chips started smoking while the patties were cooking, giving them a hint of that nice, mildly sweet smoked flavor. And then to top off the burgers, I whipped up some balsamic ketchup. Heines made some a little bit ago, if you recall, but it wasn't balsamic-y enough for my taste. So I added Devo's Maple Balsamic Vinegar in the patties and mixed them into the ketchup, which ended up complimenting the smokey flavors in a really wonderful way. There was just enough tang and sweetness to round out the savoriness of the patty and the sharp cheddar cheese. I served them on a pretzel bun because honestly, who doesn't like soft pretzels? Jeremy and I sat down to eat them and holy crapoli, they were gooooood. Like, the kind of good where nobody talks for a while and it isn't weird because everyone's so focused on what they're eating. The patties were huge and really filing, but that didn't deter Jeremy from having two of them since he liked it so much. Highly recommend making this, will be a crowd-pleaser for all types of folks, aside from vegetarians, but I have a feeling that if they tried this, even they would have to admit that it's pretty darn tasty.

English Crumpets and a Shutterfly Giveaway

A little over a week ago Jeremy was out of town for work and I was left with the apartment all to myself. What is a young lady to do under these circumstances, you ask? Why, throw a Downton Abby-themed view-a-thon for herself and for her friends, of course! I absolutely love that PBS series, and decided to make some very undeniably English food items to nibble on while we watched the first season. I made cucumber tea sandwiches with a dill cream cheese spread and hazelnut shortbread cookies, both of which I'll post about later on, but what I enjoyed making most was the crumpets, the recipe for which I found here and shrunk down a bit since there were only four of us. Crumpets are to the English what English muffins are to us, meaning they spread butter and jam on them eat them along with tea, coffee, or breakfast. Crumpets are made from a basic blend of yeast, flour, water, and milk, allowed to rise, and then fried on a griddle like tiny tea saucer-sized pancakes. Normally, you place something called crumpet rings on the griddle, which are little circular metal cookie cutters that you pour the batter into so the crumpets can grow  taller as they cook. But I didn't have crumpet rings and didn't want to buy any, so, I made them without and although they were a bit flatter (about 1/2 inch thick) than modern crumpets, crumpet rings weren't invented until a couple hundred years ago, so I figure that mine were just ultra-traditional. The best thing about crumpets are the trademark holes that appear on top of them when they're frying. These make for excellent butter and jam holders and make each bite of the crumpet explode with tiny pockets of buttery jelly goodness. Needless to say, all 18 crumpets were gone within a day.

Chocolate Meltaway Brownies

Last weekend I had an itch for something chocolatey, and after hearing Jeremy mention that brownies were one of his favorite desserts, I decided to whip some up. They were easy to make, and although this recipe does call for some chocolate and butter to be melted down in a double-boiler, you can make your own makeshift double boiler by filling a large-ish pot about 1/3 full of water and nestling a slightly smaller pot within it to put the chocolate and butter in. I especially liked how these turned out because of the hint of amaretto, which is one of my absolute favorite flavors when used in combination with chocolate. They were nice and soft inside too, with the milk chocolate morsels all melty and smooth, but not gooey to the point where you can't eat them with your hands without them breaking apart everywhere. 'Twas the ideal brownie consistency.

I also had some very good news last week which was definitely worth celebrating with some brownies. Me and Jeremy got our wedding location secured, we'll be wed at Mount Hood Organic Farms on September 1st, 2013! I am so excited, and very relieved. Having the location contract signed and secured is light a weight being lifted from my shoulders. I feel like now that I know when and where it will be I can start getting everything else arranged with a nice sense of security. So excited about it! We'll definitely have a wedding cake, but these brownies might be fun to have on the dessert table too...

Orecchiette Pasta with Chicken in a Creamy Rosemary Lemon Sauce

Last weekend I was craving pasta like a mad woman. Nothing else would have satisfied me other than a steaming hot plate of Italian noodles with some sort of creamy sauce poured all over  and in it. So I headed over to Trader Joe's and began wandering around their dried pasta section when my eyes fell upon a package of orecchiette pasta. I'd never had orecchiette before, but always thought it'd be great for saucy pasta dishes since they're basically like little scoop-bowls. So I picked up a package, came home, and decided to make a creamy rosemary lemon sauce for it (one of my co-workers had brought in several dozens of lemons to work from their lemon tree and I had smuggled a few back home). Instead of using a heavy cream base for the sauce, I tried to make it healthier by using olive oil, 1% milk, and whisking in a tablespoon of flour. Then I melted in a tablespoon of goat cheese towards the end of the preparation to help thicken it. Once I finished preparing the dish, which was wonderfully simple to do, I tried it, and loved it. And I mean loved. Jeremy tried some too and loved it as well. It was basically just a big pasta-y lemon-y love fest. So if you like pasta, lemons, rosemary, cream sauces, or some combination of the former, I really recommend giving this a try.

Buttered Rum Cupcakes and a Pirate Giveaway

A few months ago my good friend Amanda told me that she was having a book published. So, of course, I immediately inquired as to what the book was about, and she responded, with an ample amount of glee: "LADY PIRATES!" I love an adventuresome tale, so when Lily and the Golden Lute came out this past month, Amanda gave me a copy which I read immediately, laughing hard and often. It's not your typical pirate fare, The Revenge (the pirate ship the book follows) is owned by eccentric millionaire Lily, and her crew is entirely made up of strong, smart, and biting female pirates. They get into many hilarious misadventures and there's tales of love along the way as well, but what I most loved and appreciated about the book was its wide variety of compelling female characters. They may not all be simultaneously athletic, smart, and talented, but every female character possesses at least one of those traits, usually two, which is fairly rare in adventurous fiction where males tend to take the lead roles and women the more subservient ones. Through their biting wit and saucy sword fights, the pirate crew of The Revenge really made these past couple weeks much happier for me, as work has been kind of stressful lately. So, in honor of Amanda's book, I made these delicious cupcakes, which also helped to make my week better. I was very pleased with how easy they were to make, (I used Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits instead of making the dough from scratch), and the rum and butterrum sauce heated up and baked all together with the biscuits was amazing. I don't know if it was the amount of rum in the cupcakes or how great they tasted that filled me with such joy, but I figured that as long as I was happy it didn't really matter.

Spicy Goat Cheese & Butternut Squash Triangles

One of my favorite meals is butternut squash ravioli with melted goat cheese and a dab of chili garlic sauce. I know it sounds random and weird and kind of terrible, but it's actually incredibly delicious. Something about the creamy salty tanginess of the goat cheese combined with the sweetness of the squash and the kick of the chili creates a very pleasant and comforting taste. So when I was brainstorming about what fingerfood to make for the superbowl last weekend, I decided to use the dexterity of my nimble Greek fingers to create the same flavor combination, but wrapped up in buttered filo dough. Filo dough is a very thin sheet of dough that is about as thick as a piece of paper. It can be bought in the frozen dessert area of your grocery store, usually located by the frozen pie crusts. Make sure you get the flat sheets for this recipe, not the shells or shredded filo. It can be tricky to work with because it is fairly fragile, and you need to assemble whatever you're making quickly because about 30 minutes after you break the seal of the package the filo will start to dry out and become brittle. But when you do filo right, the taste and texture more than rewards you for your efforts. I also love this recipe because the triangles came out at the perfect single-serving size, making them a great appetizer for parties and sporting events.

Chocolate Blackout Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting and a Giveaway

Last Friday was me and Jeremy's six-year anniversary. When I got home from work Jeremy surprised me with a mini picnic on the living room floor, candles lit all over the place, and the best card ever. That night we went out to a fancy dinner at Waterloo & City, an English-style gastropub, and had an amazing meal. It was my first time going to an expensive/fancy restaurant because I usually try to budget my spending really well, but we figured that after six years together we deserved to go to a nice restaurant. I had wanted to make a cake for our anniversary, but couldn't get it done during the week, so last Saturday I decided to continue the fancy trend and make a fancy blackout cake with strawberry cream cheese icing, strawberry preserves, and chocolate ganache. I got the blackout cake recipe from King Arthur Flour but changed it a little bit to make it more moist, and I used this tutorial from I am Baker for the frosting technique I applied to the sides of the cake. We loved the cake, it was just beautiful to look at and was incredibly rich, so word to the wise, when you're serving it cut a smaller piece than you would think you'd need, as you get full from it very quickly.

Roobios-Smoked Pork Tacos with Plum Grapefruit Salsa

 

This past month has been pretty crazy. I started a new position at work, which is going great, and have started jogging again after my several-month-long holiday break from any kind of physical labor. The combination of these two things has made me pretty tired once I get home from work, and it's also made me crave my one of my go-to comfort foods, tacos. But I didn't want to have just any kind of tacos to come home to, I wanted to have some that would brighten my day and really give me something to look forward to after my jogs. So, I looked around the McCormick Flavor Forecast and used their recipe for roobios-smoked sea bass and caramelized plums, but gave it a Mexican-spin. I also added some grapefruit to the salsa because Chef Mark Garcia kept mentioning grapefruits in the McCormick Flavor Forecast webinar and how they should be used more frequently, as one would use lemons or limes. The result was awesome. Smoky rich pork meat covered with a refreshingly sweet and spicy salsa.

Lemon Ginger Cheesecake

In last week's post I mentioned how inspired I was by McCormick's 2012 Flavor Forecast and that there would be more fun and unique new recipes to come. Well, here is another one of the ideas that sprang to life after my participation in the Forecast. One of the flavor combinations that they discussed was ginger and coconut, which of course sounds amazing, but for some reason the taste combination of lemon and ginger popped into my head, and since I'd been craving cheesecake for a couple weeks, I decided to combine all of these marvelous ideas into one simple and flavorful dessert. I made the crust from scratch and put some ground ginger in it for a little bit of an extra gingery kick. The filling is no-bake, which I love because baking cheesecake can be tricky, and has candied ginger, grated ginger root, lemon juice, and lemon zest in it, plus cream cheese and cool whip. I especially loved the filling because the cool whip made it nice and light and fluffy, and there's just a pleasant hint of lemon and ginger, not at all overpowering or intrusive. I'm definitely making this again in the summer, if it tastes this great when it's chilly outside I can only imagine how wonderful and refreshing it would be on a hot sunny day.

Blueberry Mole with Chicken

This past week I was invited to participate in McCormick's Flavor Forecast for 2012. I took part in their webinar and watched as chef Mark Garcia went through the various ingredients and flavors that are going to be making a broader appearance within the culinary world this year. They also posted the 6 trends of the Flavor Forecast up on their website, along with some recipes that went with each one. They all looked and sounded delicious, but I was particularly intrigued by the Blueberry Cardamom Mexican Atole. The idea of blueberry and chocolate alone was enough to make my stomach start growling, but the physical appearance of the atole reminded me a lot of mole sauce, which is what inspired me to make this dish.