this is totally cheating because i didn’t make it, but i ate it! does that count??
plus, who doesn’t love oogling fabulous mini party food?
mini burgers, both meat and veggie (thank you!) and little cups of french fries pre-loaded with ketchup.
can you believe the mini solo cups? i die!
and homemade pumpkin-cinnamon-sugar mini donuts.
my friends are the host/hostess with the mostess.
a guest blogger! my favorite trunk monkey! miss you, dear!
hey guys! thankful for akp letting me guest blog on icf. today we are having scrudato’s spicy chili, a recipe that i like to play around with and constantly see what ingredients work best.
chili is a simple meal, but when packed with a variety of flavors, brings a great flavor profile.
i was always in the kitchen growing up, and now that i’m an adult it’s one of my favorite things. my mom, cooking feasts while i watched, and the italian family always hungry. this chili comes from my days working at butcher/deli shop. the two biggest things i learned working there were how to debone a whole chicken, and a great set of knife skills.
for the chili, i started with my main ingredients: for the meat lovers- ground beef (which you can also substitute for turkey), two green bell peppers, one brown onion, red pepper flakes, cayenne, chili powder, and one jalapeno.
i cut the onions, bell peppers, and jalapenos into small squares, as seen above and below, before tossing the onions in the large saucepan to cook.
add a tsp of olive oil on low heat, and begin to cook the onions until they almost look translucent.
once you see the color of the onion start to change, you can add in the ground beef or turkey. cook down the beef and add salt and pepper. as a chef in your own kitchen, it depends what color you like your beef to get, but i always make sure that the meat is almost cooked before tossing in all the other ingredients for chili, as it will continue to develop when additional flavors are added to your pot.
strain a can of the following: stewed tomatoes, red beans, and kidney beans and then add them to your saucepan. for this recipe, i don’t normally use corn but thought the color would add a nice touch.
let the flavors take effect, as your vegetables and meat begin to foil into each other. normally, at this point i would add a 1/4 cup of water but it depends. most times i tend to strain the cans of tomatoes, red beans, and kidney but sometimes i forget. if your sauce has a good consistency, then don’t add any additional water.
continue to let the saucepan heat between low to medium, and let the flavors cook together. you can stir from time to time and check in, and the the one important thing at this point is consistency. is your base thick or watery? if its too watery, you can always add a little flour or corn starch as a thickening agent.
continue stirring and checking in on your chili. at this point, i add red pepper flakes, cayenne, and a little lime for a balance of heat & acidity.
working with a new recipe can be daunting at times, but it’s always fun to learn what works and what doesn’t. for this recipe, i made a cornbread to go with it (and included) some of the corn from the chili. additionally, i made sure we had all the fixin’s- sour cream, cheese, oyster crackers, and cornbread.
chili is such a great thing to make for a lot of varying reasons. everyone always likes it on a cold, rainy day, but it also provides a lot of protein, fiber, and vitamin c.
the meat provides a lot of protein, and the chiles and the beans are excellent sources of fiber. like this recipe, if you use a tomato base it also adds the vitamin c you may not be aware of.
i always like to make my guests feel at home, so i asked what each specifically wanted on their bowl of scrudato’s spicy chili.
you can be as creative and innovative with your recipe for chili, it’s always interesting to see different flavors combine for a delicious meal.
a guest post from one of my absolute favorite foodies, who also happens to make a wicked – and awarding winning! – cocktail. i sure do miss you, too, bd!
there’s two occasions on which lobster hash is a perfect brunch.
1. when you need to seal the deal in a relationship
2. anytime you’re feeling like a lush
i should note that lobster is totally within the budget these days. the seafood section at wegman’s sells this pretty stuff for $10.
while elbow length white gloves are optional, pouring yourself a mimosa is a must. so, whichever reason leads you to making lobster hash in the first place, add a splash of a delicious fruit juice to a flute full of bubbly.
to get the show on the road, dice a half a dozen red potatoes, some peppers, and some onion. i usually go for some mini sweet peppers to make the dish really colorful but a half of a green and red bell pepper will do. i add a clove of minced garlic, too.
add a tablespoon or so of olive oil to a hot skillet. throw in the red potatoes and give them a good salt and pepper. keep the heat at medium high for a few minutes to get the potatoes browned. turn the heat down to medium/medium low, add veggies and garlic, cook for a few more minutes and then cover with room to breathe, stiring occasionally. after’while the potatoes should be nice a homefry-ey, usually about 20 minutes total. while the potatoes are cooking, you’ve gotta fry up some bacon and make some toast.
give the thawed lobster meat a quick rinse, add it to an empty skillet with a tablespoon of butter.
saute those delicious lookin’ meaty lobster claws for a few minutes, strain the liquid and add lobster to the potatoes. there’s never any harm in a few sprinkles of old bay right about now.
i like my hash topped with two eggs, sunny side up, cooked in the tiniest drizzle of that fat rendered from the bacon, with a healthy grind of pepper.
some sliced green onion sprinkled on top makes my heart sing and this dish look like a rainbow.
refill your champagne flute, and enjoy!!
my dad cooks, too!
he writes: lots of apple, but for me, the lots of walnuts did the trick. heck, you make or buy whatever filling you want. (i can’t wait to try high-end cherry pie filling…and then savory sausage crumble, egg and cheese…braised lamb…soft-boiled egg, mmmmmm)
the ‘recipe’ is simply to use the pop’n fresh crescent dough in the cupcake/muffin pan. i found a tiny 4-count dough roll at the acme. it was pre-perforated into 4 triangles, but i mushed the perforations together and cut the dough into 3 squares.
i can’t say the cupcake papers are best since i have not tried this without them in a teflon muffin pan. they stick a little to the paper when still hot.
further mush the squares into rough rounds…the more you can fold them over into a sort of top crust, the better it holds together as you run to catch the bus. a little corn starch [in the filling] would help too.
you can come make me breakfast anytime!
rock shrimp onion salad – marinated in thai fish sauce, apple syrup, lime juice, mint and turkish sumac – with peppers and cucumber.
this week it’s mussels with celery, shallots, garlic, parsley, white wine and lemon infused olive oil. gilfeather turnip, french green bean, carrot, red onion wasabi spiced slaw and an amy’s bread baguette.
he’s back at it.
my uncle john is amazing in a number of ways, not the least of which as a cook. i’ve been bugging him for years to do a guest blog, and now you can see why:
that’s seafood gumbo (he uses homemade “dashi” – seaweed and bonito shavings – for gumbo stock base) and soft cornbread made with brown sugar and apple flavored maple syrup.
and it’s followed by three cheeses, two from woodcock farms in londonderry, VT, called timberdoodle and humble pie (the cheese, not the sheep. i asked). the third is an italian blend of sheep, cow and goat called cravanzina. served with more cornbread and dried strawberries.
someday i will live close enough to pop over for dinner…
the times has a really great (and growing daily) collection of vegetarian and vegan recipes for thanksgiving. (not to mention that it’s just a beautiful page of pictures and a really well-done interactive…)
miss amelia made the harvest-stuffed portobello mushrooms and reports back.
when i make them again, i will make sure to brush edges of mushrooms with olive oil so they dont get dried out (i think i missed them and mainly got the back of it), i wont use couscous, and i wont stuff them quite as much- i like my stuffing to be a bit drier. but they are very yummy on the whole.
part deux of cousin (esq.)’s baking extravaganza. and it couldn’t come at a better time of year!
if any of you readers attended miss akp’s alma mater, you may be familiar with this dessert/breakfast. i lagged 2 years behind akp at our small college in maine, and my teammates and i craved this dish all the time. when the dining hall served it, i usually had double dessert. then the next morning, if i was lucky, they would put the leftovers out for breakfast. buckle seems to be halfway between layer cake and coffee cake—the perfect dessert/breakfast double. i think it gets its name from the way that the top buckles with bumps and valleys when it cooks.
i hadn’t had this for almost 2 years when my roommate showed up with a batch of it. she generously lent me the recipe, and it is definitely as tasty as i remember it!
in a large bowl, cream:
1/2 c. shortening
3/4 c. granulated sugar
add:
1 egg
beat until light & fluffy
in a separate bowl, sift/mix (i’m generally too lazy to sift things—hasn’t ruined me yet):
2 c. flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
measure:
1/2 c. milk (i used part soymilk because i had it)
alternately add the flour mixture and the milk into the egg/shortening mix, stirring well (i tried to use an electric mixer for this part, but it made a bit of a mess—i’d recommend hand mixing). you’ll end up with a very thick batter.
spread the batter onto the bottom of a greased 11” x 7” pan. it will look like the pan is too big—it’s not. i couldn’t even get the batter to cover the bottom of the pan, and i thought i was going to have to start over again & make a double batch, but it’s a very good thing i didn’t—this will triple in size when you cook it (thank you, baking powder), so don’t worry about getting the batter into every corner, just lay out as much as you can.
top with 1 – 1 1/2 cups blueberries (i imagine that other berries work too, but i love me some blueberries, and they’re super juicy, which contributes to the moistness of this recipe).
in yet another bowl, mix 1/2 c. sugar, 1/2 c. flour, and a few shakes of cinnamon. add 1/4 c. butter or margarine (i was generous on this and probably used more like 1/3 c. but i did part butter, part margarine). you want the butter to be pretty cool and firm when you add it, so keep it in the fridge until 10-15 minutes before this step. i used a hand mixer-thingy (the picture shows it, i don’t do well with names [editor’s note: this is a pastry cutter. and incidentally, the number one search term that brings people to my blog. thanks for using it!]), or you can use a fork to “cut” the butter into the mixture. your end part should be buttery crumbles.
sprinkle these over the blueberries so that you get a nice thick layer of “topping” (it won’t look like topping when it comes out of the oven—it will look like part of the cake). bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes.
cool in the pan.
i almost forgot the last step when i was doing this—it’s the finishing touch (my buckle would have been incomplete without it!). once cool, sprinkle confectioner’s sugar on top.
definitely serve it warm. consider serving with home-made whipped cream, vanilla yogurt, or frozen yogurt. or just on its own (but on these hot days, i feel the need to compliment a warm dessert with something nice and chilly).
[interesting side note: i haven’t the faintest memory of this dessert. maybe i was too busy with the sundae bar. anyway, i’m definitely making it. and soon. yum!]
