Monkey Bread

Anyone that has ever been to my parents house on a weekend morning has probably had Monkey Bread.  My mom has been making it since before I was born and it's one of my all time favorite foods.  It's not something you want to eat every day but when you get the chance you can't help but stuff yourself.  It doesn't help that it's served in bite size pieces so there's always room for one more piece.The combination of the warm bread with the gooey, sugary,  buttery sauce that's on it is simply sinful. 

It's pretty easy to make too.  The most difficult part is remembering to take the frozen bread dough out of the freezer the night before.  My mom has seen many a disappointed face because of that - and it's usually mine.

Ingredients
-1 loaf of frozen bread thawed (overnight)
-1/4 cup of butter
-1 cup brown sugar, divided (you can use light or dark, but dark is better)
-1/2 cup milk divided (you can't use skim b/c it will curdle but canned milk works)
-1/4 cup light karo syrup
- cinnamon
- extra butter and brown sugar

Combine butter, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of milk and syrup in small sauce pan.  Bring to a boil and remove from heat.

Pour the mixture into a greased pan.  We always use my mom's 30 year old orange bunt pan.  I understand not everyone is lucky enough to have one of these so you can use a pie pan, a bread loaf pan, a square cake pan - anything that will hold a loaf of bread.

Tear the bread dough into little chunks.  In a small dish combine some brown sugar and cinnamon - about a 1/2 cup of brown sugar to a teaspoon of cinnamon. You might need more than this. In another dish melt about 1/4 cup of butter. Take the chunks of bread dough and dunk them in the butter, then in the brown sugar & cinnamon and plop them into the pan.  If there is any brown sugar/cinnamon or butter left you can sprinkle it over the top.

                               

Drizzle 1/4 cup of milk over the top and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until golden brown.  The bread will pop up over the pan so you might want to put a piece of foil under the pan.

Place on table until it looks like this.........

Chicken Empanadas

In these hard economic times, it's common for companies to scale back.  Perks get cut, the budget gets tighter, your favorite mechanical pencils are no longer "in policy" -  things just change.  One of the first things to go at my current company was free beverages.  When I started the fridge was stocked with pop, water and juice (the company name was also Lehman Brothers but that's a whole different story) but at the first sign of hard times the drinks got the boot.

My first holiday party was at a fancy restaurant that the company had rented out.  There were waiters walking around with cocktails and appetizers, a car service to take us to the event and then home at the end of the night, a lovely dinner, dancing.  It was top notch.  The next year - mid bankruptcy - they still managed to put together a little something.  We had a 3 hour all you can drink package at cactus, a bar down the street. Maybe not the classiest party in the companies history but not terrible.  Just when we thought we hit rock bottom we get the email for the 2009 "holiday party".  This year we were going to have an international potluck!  wait. we have to bring our own food to our holiday party?  Needless to say people weren't chomping at the bit to whip up their favorite ethnic side dish.  HR thought they'd try to up the ante so they sent a 2nd email telling us that not only will we have an international potluck but people will get to vote for their favorite in each course.  Awesome.  What's that?  do the winners get prizes - nope, just kudos to you if you get voted best dish. 

I decided to join in the fun because it was expected of me i'm a good corporate citizen.  I don't really have any sort of exciting ethnic background...my parent's aren't even sure of our nationality.  Whenever I would ask my dad what we were he would always say "heinz 57 - a little bit of everything".  Great. Thanks dad.  That helps. 

After searching for hours for something that seemed fail proof and delicious I decided on Chicken Empanadas.  Who doesn's love an empanada?  hot chicken and cheese in a wonderful crust - my mouth waters just thinking about it. 

I found a fairly simple recipe on Cooksrecipes.com.  I doubled the recipe and it made about 35 empanadas.

Ingredients
Baked Pastry:
2 frozen pie shells, thawed
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons coarse (kosher) salt
1 tablespoon dark chili powder

Filling:
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese, grated
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup cooked shredded chicken
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
1/2 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced red onion
1/2 teaspoon cumin, ground
1 teaspoon salt

In a bowl mix together all ingredeints for filling and refrigerate until ready to assemble.

On a floured surface, roll out pie shells and cut into 4-inch circles (i used the top of a glass to cut the dough).  Use all of the pie dough by re-rolling the scraps.

Place approzimately 2 tablespoons (I could only fit 1 - but my circles were a little smaller than 4") of empanada filling in center of dough circles.  Fold each circle in half and crimp edges with a fork.

Place on a baking pan or cooking sheet and brush top of each empanada with egg yolk.  I didn't have a brush so I used the back of a spoon, it worked fine. Sprinkle top with salt and chili powder.

Bake 12 to 13 minutes at 400 degrees.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  I had them both and warm is definitely better!

Chocolate Caramel Crackers

One of my favorite food combinations is Caramel & Chocolate.  However, my love for this is nothing compared to that of my friend Nora.  This is a girl who takes her caramel seriously - she will go out of her way to find any sort of caramely goodness. 

One of my favorite stories about Nora's hunt for caramel is when she was in Seattle on business.  She left a business meeting a little early to run to a store to get what she considers the best caramel sauce ever, only to find out they were out and the machine that makes it was broken. 

I used her love of caramel as my inspiriation when my friends and I got together a few weeks ago for a cookie exchange.  I stumbled upon this recipe for Chocolate Caramel Crackers.  I'm really glad I did.  They are so very good, and so very easy.  There are a couple tricks that I figured out to help you along the way.

Chocolate Caramel Crackers By David Lebovitz
Ingredients
-40 Saltine Crackers
-1 cup unsalted butter
-1 cup packed light brown sugar
-A big pinch of sea salt
-1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-1 1/2 cups semi or bittersweet chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 11x17 inch baking sheet with pam, line the pan with wax or parchment paper then spray the paper.  I found that this helps the crackers not slide when you pour the caramel over them.  One of my friends tried covering the pan with foil - as the original recipe says to do.  Her crackers slid all over the place. 

Line the crackers on the baking sheet.

In a medium saucepan melt the butter and brown sugar together and stir over medium heat until it begins to boil.  Let boil for 3 minutes stirring well.

Removed from heat and add the salt and vanilla, then quickly pour it over the crackers.  It will begin to harden as soon as you take it off the heat so this part needs to be fast.

Bake the crackers for 15 minutes. As soon as you remove them from the oven sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and let stand for 5 minutes.  Once they are mostly melted spread them evenly across the

crackers.

Once they are cool, break into pieces.  When mine were cool i gently pulled up on the wax paper and it popped the crackers off one row at a time, then i gently broke them off cracker by cracker.

Not your mom's apple pie

One of the desserts I ate the most growing up was apple pie – homemade apple pie. My mom makes the best apple pie and I’m pretty sure she could make it in her sleep if she needed to. One time when I was moving into one of my many apartments she managed to decorate my entire apartment and bake a pie at the same time, peeling apples as she walked. I don’t think my friend Nicole had ever been more impressed.

Well needless to say, I’m not my mom. I found a recipe for a Simple Apple Tart by Alice Waters and thought I’d try my hand at that. It’s probably one of the smarter decisions I’ve made in my life. I found the tart to be a great alternative to pie.

Now, some people (I won’t mention any names Nora and Sara) think that I prefer a more “old fashioned” or “weird” dessert. If you feel that way as well, you can look at this as a modern apple pie….you know, if it makes you feel better.

Simple apple tart
By Alice Waters (found on Smitten Kitchen)
-2 pounds apples peeled, cored and sliced (Golden Delicious or another tart, firm variety)(save peels and cores) 
-2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
-5 tablespoons sugar for tart (I only used 3)
-1/2 cup sugar for glaze

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees

There are 2 ways to do this, in a tart pan or free form (Galette). I don’t have a tart pan so I did it free form. I rolled the dough and placed it on a piece of parchment paper on a big cookie sheet. I kind of cheated slightly, I used store bought dough. Either way – it’s still good!

Once your dough is ready, overlap the apples onto it. Leave enough room around the edge of the dough to fold it up over the apples.

Take your melted butter and brush it over the apples and onto the dough edge. Sprinkle the Sugar all over the apples and the dough edge.

Bake on the center rack of the oven until the apples are soft and the crust is golden brown – about 45 minutes.

For the glaze, put the peels and cores in a large saucepan, add the ½ cup of sugar and pour in a little bit of water, about 2 cups. Simmer while the tart is cooking.

When the tart is done and cooled brush the glaze over the apples and crust and discard the peels and cores.  Slice and Serve (a little ice cream never hurt anyone).

The holiday's are here....

…And with the holidays come the sweets. At work there are baskets of goodies on a daily basis. At home, I’m forced to make treats for a cookie exchange with my friends. My dad has a huge sweet tooth there is always ice cream in the freezer and m&m’s in the pantry, so when I went home for thanksgiving this year I had to make him something. After much searching I settled on a recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge….it’s amazing.

I think the secret ingredient here has to be the Marshmallow fluff! I don’t think I’ve had marshmallow fluff since I was 11 and my Aunt Margaret made me my first Fluffernutter sandwich. The fluff makes the fudge much creamier than normal fudge. This stuff is addictive; you can’t have just one piece. The trend at our house over the thanksgiving weekend was to grab a piece every time you walked through the kitchen.

This a pretty easy recipe, and what i liked most is that I had all the ingredients except for the fluff.

Peanut Butter Fudge
-2 cups granulated sugar
-2/3 cup milk
-1 cup fluff
-1 cup peanut butter creamy or chunky (i used creamy)
-1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Boil sugar and milk in a medium saucepan until soft ball stage, or about 236 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Once it reaches about 236 degrees, remove it from heat and stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Pour fudge into greased 8x8 pan (i used a round pan) and chill.  I let it chill about an hour before cutting.

I heart cheese.

It’s no secret that the older I get, the more sensitive my stomach gets. The more I eat my favorite foods the less my stomach likes me, my days of having the “stomach of steel” are sadly over. One of my favorite things to eat is cheese. I heart cheese. I think people who say they don't like cheese are lying. I love warm cheesy dips, slices of cheese on a cracker, cheese pizza, cheese cake (is anyone else’s mouth watering?)….the list can go on and on and on. It’s one ingredient that when added to a dish it always makes it better. I challenge you to find the dish that this rule doesn’t apply to. I don’t know if I was born this way, or if I was infected with the cheese loving disease when I was going to college in Wisconsin.

One thing I don’t love about cheese is how I feel after I eat it. The stomach ache caused by my indulgence almost isn’t worth the joy of eating it…I think we all know that’s a lie. I have learned ways around this roadblock. I don’t love low-fat cheese…there is just something too artificial and plastic-y about it. However I’m not above using it.

One thing that goes hand and hand with cheese is pasta. Who doesn’t love a warm piece of cheese filled lasagna! Lasagna is a heavy dish, yet so delicious, about a year ago I stumbled upon a recipe for a lasagna rolls in Cooking Light and had to try it. It was amazing and didn’t leave you with that - I’m so full I can’t move feeling. Even better than that, it’s so easy to make and easier to customize. The recipe below is for a serving for 4, 2 rolls per person. If you are serving a salad or a side, 1 roll would be enough. It also calls for just mushrooms, onions and spinach; I omitted the spinach because I’m not a big fan of cooked spinach. I’d be willing to bet that you can add other veggies to the mix as well – just make sure to chop them pretty small or they won’t stay in the roll very well.

Lasagna Rolls
Adapted from Cooking Light

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 rolls)

Ingredients
8 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil (the recipe used 4 – I got away with 1)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 (8-ounce) package presliced mushrooms (I used about 4 Onces and it was plenty)
1 (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese (I used low fat Italian blend cheese – it takes a little longer to melt, but the saved calories are worth it!)
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 Jar pasta sauce
Fresh basil to sprinkle over the top

Preparation

To prepare lasagna, cook noodles according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, Add onion, mushrooms, spinach, and 3 garlic cloves; sauté 5 minutes or until onion and mushrooms are tender. Remove from heat, and stir in cheeses. It helps to have someone else chop the veggies for you, like i had here.  Katie is a great mushroom & onion chopper.

I used Classico tomato & basil sauce to pour over the top. Then I sprinkled a little Italian blend cheese and chopped fresh basil over the top. I heated it up in the oven at 350, just long enough for the cheese to melt.

Here is the nutrition information according to cooking light. It is less fat and calories if you use low fat cheese & less olive oil like I did.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 393 (27% from fat)
Fat: 11.7g (sat 4.3g,mono 3.6g,poly 1.5g)
Protein: 19.3g
Fiber: 5.9g

Cupcakes are my crack

Cooking is the one thing in my life that always makes me happy. I love everything about it. Taking little bits of this and little bits of that and turning them into something delicious (or sometimes not so delicious), make recipes my own by altering them to delight my palette (and occasionally my waistline), I even enjoy the math involved in converting a recipe for 12 down to 2.

Basically, I’m looking for outlet for my creative energy. My job as an administrative assistant at an Investment management firm just isn’t cutting it anymore (or ever).

I thought I’d kick this blog off with an old favorite, the cupcake. I consider myself a cupcake aficionado, there isn’t a cupcake that I’ve met that I haven’t been wiling to take a bite out of. That being said, my favorite favorite favorite is the amazing vanilla cupcake from Southport Grocery. I have found 1 recipe to come close to this, the Magnolia Bakery cupcake.

The recipe as it’s written makes 24 cupcakes or 1 9” layer cake. I don’t need 24 cupcakes, so I modified it to make 6; I have included the original recipe with measurements for 6 or for the entire 2 dozen.

The Magnolia Bakery Cupcake
• ¼ c. + 2 Tablespoon self rising flour – (1 ½ c.)
• ¼ c. + 1 Tablespoon All-purpose flour – (1 ¼ c.)
• ¼ c. unsalted butter, softened – (1 c.)
• ½ c. sugar – (2 c.)
• 1 large egg, at room temperature – (4 eggs)
• ¼ c. milk – (1 c.)
• Splash of vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line muffin tins, 1/2 c. capacity, with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after.

Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes.  Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

These cupcakes aren’t worth making if you don’t make the frosting along with them. It’s the best frosting ever. Teresa is a professional frosting taster.  You should call her and invite her over when you make these cupcakes.

• ¼ c. Unsalted Butter, softened – (1c.)

• 2 c. confectioners’ (powdered) sugar – (6 to 8 c.)

• 2 tablespoons milk – (1/2 c.)

• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (2 teaspoons)

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 cup of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

This frosting can also be frozen to use at a later date, however you won’t be able to frost cupcakes or a cake with it as the frosting will have set. I made some for my friend Nicole and she froze it and continues to take a little out at a time to make cookie sandwiches...because she's fat.