Sunday, August 19, 2012

Banana Peanut Butter & Chocolate Bites

Easy fun treat I found on Pinterest. Funny cuz my best friend emailed my the same pin and asked if I could make some. I don't have time to type up the directions so here's a picture tutorial instead.
So here you go, a nice little bite size dessert.








Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Italian Pizza

One of my favorite dishes that we had in Italy last year was a sauce-less pizza in the town of Parma. It was a pizza with sausage, potatoes, olive oil and cheese and it was amazing. So much so that I tend to default to it every time I make pizza now.

In the past, I use to buy pre-made pizza dough because I don't like the smell of yeast, but since I'm trying to make most things from scratch nowadays I decided it was time to get over my scent aversion. It's been almost 20 years since I last made pizza dough and I had fun making this one.

I found a dough recipe here but I simplified it to fit my lack of patience and it came out great. I would recommend dividing the dough in 3rds for thin crust or half for thick crust but definitely not 6ths like the recipe states unless you want to make small individual pizzas.


Italian Pizza
Serves 2

Dough:
(makes 2 thick crust, 3 thin crust, or 6 individual thin crust pizzas)
4 1/2 C Unbleached Flour (Chilled)
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp (Rapid Acting) Yeast
1/4 C Olive Oil
1 3/4 C Water (Ice Cold)
Cornflour
 
-Add first 3 ingredients to mixer and mix with paddle attachment.
-Add in Oil & Water and combine.
-Change out paddle attachment for the dough hook and knead for 7 mins.
-Divide dough into desired serving sizes.
-Coat a bowl with oil and place dough in coating its surface.
-Let sit for about 2 hrs.
-Place remaining dough (coated with oil) in freezer bags and store in freezer for up to 3 months.
-Once dough has settled, take out and roll on a well floured surface as desired.

Italian Pizza
4 oz Italian Sausage (Cooked)
1 Lg Russet Potato or 2 Yukon Potatoes
1/2 Tbsp Butter (Optional)
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil
1/2 White Cheese (Parmesan, Mozzarella, etc.)
Pizza Dough

-To cook the Italian sausage: place in heated pan on medium-high heat while occasionally breaking apart the meat until browned.
-To cook the Potatoes: peel then chop into 1/2 inch cubes. Remove sausage from sausage pan leaving about 1 tablespoon of grease in pan and cook potatoes in it. (Or cook in a new pan with 1/2 tablespoon of butter on medium heat for about 10 mins.
-Prepare your baking surface (pizza stone or cookie sheet) by coating with cornmeal.
-Place pizza dough on prepared baking surface then add toppings.
-Sprinkle with S&P.
-Drizzle with Olive Oil and top with Cheese.
-Bake @ 425 for ~12 mins.
-Remove from oven and lest rest a few minutes before cutting.


Sunday, August 5, 2012

And Yet Another Jam

Why so many Jams you ask, I know I've been on a crazy kick, we eat a lot of PB&J's and I love jams in tarts and on zucchini bread, over yummy french cheeses and even as a base for pizza (my Balsamic-Fig Jam pizza to come soon). So why not jam, there's so much yummy fruit around where we live and it just makes perfect sense. If you're over jammed, I apologize, but if you tried my jams you wouldn't be complaining:-) but don't worry the jams will slow down...I finally bought a food dehydrator and now I'm going crazy with that!

heh

Sorry I don't have a picture for you. Things have been super busy/crazy here and I thought it would be better to get a recipe out than to have pictures, but maybe not, you let me know and I'll take some pics!

Correction: Took a picture of the jam but it didn't come out too well so I edited it with some fun effects

(oh and about this particular jam, I think I may do some more jamming this summer cuz I'm on a roll, these jams just keep getting better!)


Strawberry-Cherry Jam
Makes ~52 ounces

4 C Strawberries (Huled and Chopped)
2 C Dark Sweet Cherries (Pitted & Chopped)
3.5 C Sugar
3 Tbsp + 1 Tsp Low Sugar Pectin
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice 

-Prep the Strawberries & Cherries and place in large stock pot with Lemon Juice & 1 C Sugar.
-If you have time, let the fruit macerate about 30 mins (I put mine in the fridge overnight only cuz I got tired) and then bring to a slow boil over medium heat.
-In a separate bowl mix 1/2 cup Sugar & Pectin and set aside.
-Cook fruit for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring often, then let cool slightly.
-Use an immersion blender to mash up the fruit as fine or chunky as you desire.
-Return to heat, stir in Sugar-Pectin and bring to a rolling boil for 10 mins.
-Add remaining 2 cups of Sugar and return to a boil for 1 min.
-Pour into small sterilized jars and either seal and place in refrigerator or process in a water bath.
-Water bath processed jams will stay good stored in a dark & cool place for one year, refrigerated jams will stay good for about 3 weeks.

NOTE: I doubled this recipe and it came out great but you can also half the recipe for a smaller batch.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Home Ground Chicken Burgers

I'm on a savings kick. We've been a bit on edge with some major financial costs this year, as I know many people are, but we're finally starting to feel the weight of me not working and so I've been trying to cut corners as much as possible. As I noted in another post I hate ground beef, but ground chicken (my usual go to ground meat) has gone up $1 per package since last year. So remembering that I bought a food mill/meat grinder last summer, I decided to grind my own chicken!

Now the last time I remember using a meat grinder was back in my culinary class days using an industrial one that ran so smoothly I had no problems...let me say this was not the case with my kitchen aid attachment! You should have seen the site, both Anastasio & I made a mess and lost about 1.5-2 lbs of chicken trying to figure out the black grease spewing from the center of the attachment.

After researching online we found some good tips & tricks so next time shouldn't be as much of a fiasco! It really is a very easy thing to do, so we'll keep grinding our own chicken meat from now on. End result only cost us the same as if we bought pre-ground, which means next time the savings will be huge at a little over $2 a pound!


Home Ground Chicken Burgers with Spinach & Cheddar
Serves 2

1 Chicken Breast (or 1/2 lb Store Bought Ground Chicken)
1/2 C Loose Fresh Spinach
1/4 C Sharp Cheddar (Grated)
3 Tbsp Plain Bread Crumbs
1 Egg Yolk
Salt, Pepper & Cayenne To Taste

-Slice the Chicken Breast in strips that will fit through the meat grinder and run through.
-Meanwhile, bring a medium size pot with ~6 cups of water to a boil.
-Using tongs drop in a big handful of Spinach and blanch for about 30-45 seconds.
-Remove spinach to a colander or plate with towel to drain.
-Once cool enough to handle, chop Spinach.
-Combine the Ground Chicken with Spinach & remaining ingredients and form into 2 patties.
-Either grill or cook in frying pan with a little oil until browned on both sides.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

It's been a long month

Hey Everyone,

Sorry again for the lack of posts, it's been a very long, busy month and although I've got a bunch of recipes to share, I haven't had a chance to write them up. Another problem I've been fighting is capturing my creations, I just haven't had the opportunities to take very many pictures that weren't late at night, and by then I'm so exhausted, I have no patience for the camera.

So I hope you don't mind a bunch of posts lacking pictures, I assure you all the recipes I post are wonderful, happy cooking!

Here are some vintage carnival cookies from a party I helped plan this month: