Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Request?

If you have any recipe requests for me to make just leave a comment and I will get to it as soon as I can.  My cousin Katie requested that I make my meat loaf, she just can't get enough of it I guess.  Thank You! :D

Shepherd's Pie

I made this dish tonight for the family, all seemed to enjoy it :)

Ingredients:
serves: 4

6 medium Yukon potatoes, peeled, and diced.

2 tablespoons oil

1 large onion

3 large carrots cut into chunks

2 stalks of celery

6 cloves of garlic

Freshly ground pepper

1 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

5 tablespoons butter

1/2 pound ground beef

2/3 cup milk or half-and-half

your favorite cheese to sprinkle on top.

Preheat the broiler. Cover the potatoes with water in a pot; season with salt, cover and boil until the potatoes are fork-tender, 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a stovetop casserole dish or shallow enamel pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and cook until the vegetables brown, 8 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups cooking liquid from the potatoes to the casserole dish. Lower the heat and scrape up any browned bits with a wooden spoon. Cover and simmer until the vegetables are tender, 8 minutes. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons butter and the ground burgers and warm through, 5 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and mash with the remaining 3 tablespoons butter and the milk; season with salt and pepper and spoon over the casserole. Sprinkle with parmesan, if desired. Broil until golden brown, 5 minutes.

This recipe came from the October issue of the foodnetwork magazine.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Red Velvet Cake

This is Ree Drummond's (aka The Pioneer Woman) recipe for Red Velvet.  My sister made this for my brother's birthday and it was really good, it is not as sweet as other cakes and has a different texture, in a good way.

On the menu: Red Velvet Cake

ingredients:

1 cup shortening

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups of cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons cocoa powder

1 ounce red food coloring (2 ounces if you like a deeper red)

Cream Cheese Icing:

1 1/2 8-ounce cream cheese at room temperature

3/4 cup softened unsalted butter

1 1/2 pounds powered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Spray two round 10 inch cake pans with nonstick cooking spray.  Blend together the shortening and the sugar in a mixing bowl, use an electric mixture.  Set aside.

Sift together the flour and salt.  Set aside.

Mix the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, baking soda, and vinegar in a separate bowl.  Alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture to the shortening mixture in a mixing bowl, mixing after each addition.

In a small bowl, mix the red food coloring and cocoa powder.  Pour into the mixing bowl.  Mix until just combined.  Don't overbeat.

Pour the batter evenly into the cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before removing the cakes from the pans.  Cool completely before frosting.

Now beat the icing.  Place the cream cheese and the butter in a mixing bowl and whip until smooth.  Sift the powdered sugar and add it to the bowl.  Add the salt and mix.

Add the vanilla and mix until smooth.  Place one layer face down  on a cake plate.  Plop a large spoonful or icing in the center of the layer.  Using a offset spatula, spread one-third of the icing evenly on top of one layer, making sure to get the icing all the way to the edges.  Place the other cake layer on top, face down.  Ice the top.  And ice the sides with the remaining icing, being careful not to loosen crumbs as you go along.  refrigerate the cake for 2o minutes before cutting and serving. Our cake was more pink because we don't like a lot of red 40 in our food. ;) But it was just as good without it! Enjoy!

Ooey Gooey Blueberry "French Toast"

This is one of the best things I have ever tasted!  I just tried it out this morning and it was a hit!  This recipe is from Emeril Lagasse's "There's a Chef in My Family".

On the Menu: Ooey Gooey Blueberry "French Toast"

Ingredients:

Serves 10-12

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

14 slices or white or wheat bread

2 (8ounce) cream cheese

1 cup frozen blueberries

10 large eggs

2 cups half-and-half

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

Ingredients for blueberry sauce:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

3 tablespoon cornstarch

2 teaspoons orange zest

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Butter a baking dish with the tablespoon of butter.  Cut the bread into cubes.  Arrange half of the bread cubes on the bottom of the baking dish.  Cut the cream cheese into cubes and top the bread with them, sprinkle the blueberries over the bread crumbs and top with the blueberries.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, syrup, and orange juice.  Pour the egg mixture evenly over the bread mixture.



Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.  Remove baking from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature at least twenty minutes.  preheat the oven to 350 F.  Bake the "French Toast" with the foil for thirty minutes. Then take the foil off and cook another thirty minutes.  Let cool 15 minutes.  put in bowls and pour blueberry sauce over it.



Blueberry sauce:

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together the sugar, water, orange juice, cornstarch, and orange zest.  Cook stirring occasionally, until thickened, about five minutes.  Stir in blueberries and simmer for five minutes.  Add the butter until melted.  Remove from heat and ladle over ooey gooey blueberry french toast. This sauce can be ladled over a number of things.

And the ending result is:




Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Foodnetwork Magazine

The foodnetwork puts out the best magazine ever!  My sister and I get it, and I have learned a lot from it.  Here is the link to their website:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/

Monday, January 4, 2010

Fun, Strange, and Trivia, about food

A typical American eats 28 pigs in his/her lifetime.

Americans eat 20.7 pounds of candy per person annually. The Dutch eat three times as much.

Americans spent an estimated $267 billion dining out in 1993.

Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented in 1889, was the first ready-mix food to be sold commercially.

For more wacky food facts:

http://www.bitoffun.com/fun_facts_food.htm

Mini Egg Sandwiches.

You can either have these for breakfast or dinner, either way they are just as good :)

[caption id="attachment_32" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Delicious!"][/caption]

On the menu: Mini egg sandwiches

Ingredients: Biscuits

4 cups of white flour

4 cups of wheat flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup 2 tablespoons backing powder

2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 sticks of butter

enough milk to coat dry ingredients (around 5 cups or so)

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Blend dry ingredients together.

cut butter into small pieces and place them into the bowl with the dry ingredients.  Using clean fingers squish the butter into the flour until it resembles crumbs.



Pour milk into the mixture just until you can handle it without it sticking to your hands.  You might need more flour or milk it just depends.  Sprinkle a little flour on a clean counter top and put the dough on top. Sprinkle a little more flour.  Using a rolling-pin, roll out the dough 1 inch thick.  Do not over work the dough too much or the biscuits will be tough, believe me do not over work them!

[caption id="attachment_35" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Roll out 1 inch think"][/caption]

With a cup or a round cookie cutter cut out circles of dough. This would be a great time to preheat the griddle for the eggs.

[caption id="attachment_36" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Cut into circles with a cup."][/caption]

Place them on a buttered pan and cook them for around 15 minutes of until they are not doughy.  I don't really time things, I just keep an eye on them.

[caption id="attachment_38" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Place them in the oven."][/caption]

Ingredients:

an egg for each person in your family

salt and pepper for eggs

sausage patties

sliced cheese, (chipotle cheese is really spicy but super good on these sandwiches.

Tomato optional

Biscuits that you just baked

While the biscuits are in the oven crack the eggs onto the buttered griddle.

[caption id="attachment_39" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Crack the eggs onto the buttered griddle"][/caption]

while those are cooking you can cook the sausage.

After the biscuits are done, cut them in half and place half of an egg, half piece of cheese and a half piece of sausage in the middle and last but not least place the top on and enjoy! Serve with hash browns and fresh fruit.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Green Beans.

My family likes canned cut green beans so this recipe is for tasty canned beans.

On the menu: Green Beans

Ingredients:

2 large cans of cut green beans

2 tablespoons salted butter

2 cloves of garlic (cut each one in half)

salt and pepper to taste

Place the green beans into skillet, I like to leave about 1/2 cup of the canned juices from the beans.  Put the butter, salt, pepper, and garlic into the pan with the green beans and cook on medium heat until heated.

[caption id="attachment_18" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Place everything into the pan."][/caption]

Enjoy!

Smashed Potatoes

This is my family's favorite mashed potato recipe.

On the menu: Smashed potatoes

Ingredients:

10 pounds of potatoes

1/2 stick butter

1/2 cup cream cheese

2 cups milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Put a pot of water on to boil.  While the water is heating, peel and cut the potatoes and place them into a colander, rinse.

[caption id="attachment_13" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Peal and cut potatoes."][/caption]

Place the potatoes into the boiling water and cook until a fork slides nicely in and out.

Drain.

Place potatoes back into the pot, add butter, cream cheese, and milk.

[caption id="attachment_14" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Place butter, cream cheese, and milk into the pot."][/caption]

Mash until desired consistency.  My family does not like ours lumpy, so I mashed mine until smooth.

[caption id="attachment_15" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mash."][/caption]

Enjoy!

My first attempt to make fried chicken.

This is the first time ever I have made fried chicken. I think I did pretty well! It's really easy to burn the outside of the chicken so you have to stay close by.  I'm going to show you step by step (with photos) how to complete a filling, easy and delicious meal.

On the menu:  Fried Chicken

Ingredients:


2 bags of thawed fryer chicken (remember, I'm cooking for 13!)

enough buttermilk to cover chicken + 1/4 cup

5 cups of flour

3 tablespoons seasoned salt (such as Lawry's)

1 tablespoon black pepper

3 teaspoons dried thyme

3 tablespoon paprika

1/4 cup milk

Canola or vegetable oil for frying.

First things first.  Place the thawed chicken in a large bowl and cover with buttermilk. (If you do not have buttermilk then you can place about 1 tablespoon per one cup milk of vinegar or lemon juice into regular milk, let sit for about 15 minutes).  Seal the bowl and place it in the fridge for 24 hours.

[caption id="attachment_7" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Place chicken in buttermilk for 24 hours"]Buttermilk Chicken[/caption]

Heat oven to 350 F.

In a medium size bowl mix the flour and seasonings together.  Pour both milks- 1/4 cup of the buttermilk, 1/4 cup milk- into the flour mixture, and mix with a fork until lumpy, this will help the crust be crispier.  Next, fill a heavy skillet half way with oil, and heat to 365 F.  While that is heating up, its time to coat the chicken.  Take the chicken and evenly coat it with the flour mixture.  (You might have to press the mixture onto the chicken to stick).

[caption id="attachment_8" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Coat chicken evenly with the flour mixture"][/caption]

Add the coated chicken to the heated oil, you only need 4 to 5 pieces at a time or else the outside will not be as crispy.  Cover the pot and fry for 7 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure they don't over brown (I made that mistake!). Turn the pieces over and cook them for another 4 or 5 minutes. Keep in mind that when they are in the oven they will continue to brown.

[caption id="attachment_9" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Place chicken in the oil."][/caption]

After all the chicken is fried, place them on a foil lined pan and pop in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until clear juices are running out.

[caption id="attachment_10" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Place chicken on a foiled pan."][/caption]

And that my friends, is how to make fried chicken.

In my (well my Mom and Dad's)... kitchen.

Hello!  I'm a sixteen year old homeschooled girl.  I have 10 brothers and sisters.  I play the fiddle and guitar (and would give up even cooking for it!).  Our kitchen is really small, 2 people can, at different stations, put their hands out and they would overlap arms.  Since there are so many people and animals in my family (13 people, 4 dogs, 4 cats, 1 hamster, and 1 fish), our kitchen can get pretty chaotic!  I love to cook so I cook pretty much every meal, with the occasional help of my sister.  I'm planning on going to culinary school in the fall of 2011,  and taking some community college classes this fall.  I hope you will find my blog helpful.  Be forewarned that I double, or even triple, my recipes because of the size of my family.  Please feel free to ask questions and leave comments!  Thank you!