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*drool*

*drool*

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the claim:
stuffed cheese buns: beautiful, delicious evil. source
the test:
well, this recipe had me making buns from scratch, and since a lot of my stuff is packed, and i like to keep things as simple as possible at the moment, i bought some frozen bread rolls found next to the frozen bread dough in your local supermarket. they don’t take long to thaw. i put them on a greased plate, covered with plastic wrap and threw them in the fridge overnight. they even raised a little bit.

recipe says you can use any old cheese in the middle. i bought some chunk mozzarella just because of the ooze factor. 
cut cheese into 3/4″ chunks, which i think i did ok with. in fact, this exercise resulted in no overfilling consequences! woohoo!


you squish up the buns as best you can and place seam-down on your baking sheet.
it said to just put cheese on top, but i spread a little olive oil on first to get it to stick better. you can put parmasen cheese on, herbs, whatever. goes into the oven at 375 for about 15 mins. once out, put some melted butter on the tops and eat.

omg.  i made 8 of these. i ate 4, then told nate he had to eat the rest before i ate them all. CRACK.
the verdict:
5 out of 5 stars. as nate said after he ate them, “omg, nom nom nom. those are evil. never make them again.”

chicken popper thingies

chicken popper thingies

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the claim:
bacon wrapped jalapeño cream cheese bites will FLY OFF THE TABLE! source
the test:
the only addition i made to the recipe was to add some blue cheese in with my cream cheese an jalapeno. and instead of putting some cream cheese on the chicken, then adding the other stuff, i mixed it all together first so it was a spread.

assembly time! this was not as fidgety as the tacitos.
as you can see, you need to flatten out the chicken. i usually flatten mine with the mortar part of a mortar and pestel i have (it’s stone). but, that was packed away, so i flattened with the bottom of a bowl. not as effecient.
spread some filling on the chicken, roll up, and wrap with bacon, insert a toothpick to keep it all together. as you can see, i obviously have a problem with overfilling. off to the grill!

i thought these would take longer to cook, but it only took about 5 mins per side. and since i overfilled, a lot of filling seeped out and is now sitting on the bottom of my grill 🙁

yummy! the only complaint i have about them is the chicken itself is a little bland since there was no seasoning directly on the chicken. i wonder if marinating it in something beforehand would help? maybe a brine? anyway, the bacon and filling helped.
the verdict:
4 out of 5 stars. i think if the chicken were brined and had a little flavor, this would be a 5 star delight!

tacito time!

tacito time!

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the claim:
make some healthy, awesome tacitos. source
the test:
ok, let’s just say that i took some liberties with the recipe. instead of cooking chicken thighs and seasoning them, i used a rotisserie chicken from walmart. why go through so much more trouble when you can get an already-cooked chicken for pretty much the same price? plus, rotisserie chickens are yummy.

the recipe calls for chicken, spinach, tortillas, jalapeño and cheese, then  baked so it’s healthier. as you can see, i got low-carb tortillas so they were even healthier. ok, i can do this.
first, i warmed up my pan with some olive oil, chopped the jalapeño and threw the spinach and jalapeño in the pan.

if you don’t have a glove to chop hot peppers, use a plastic baggie. believe me, you don’t want to chop a hot pepper without something on your hand – i made that mistake once. only once.

plus it makes for easy cleanup! just grab your pith and seeds (the stuff that really brings out the hotness) and pull the bag over your hand and into the trash!

i threw in twice as much spinach as is shown. the stuff really cooks down.
while that cooked down, i shredded the chicken. lots of chicken!
by the time i was done with this, the oven was preheated (to 450 degrees) and the spinach was done.
ok. assembly time. tortillas get cut in half, and then it’s time to put in the stuffing. now, i don’t know if my tortillas were too small, or if i put in too much filling, or if i just have clumsy man hands, but my tacitos were a little overflowing. who wants a tacito with a single shred of chicken, two little shreds of cheese and one spinach leaf? not me.

see how the filling is outside the tortilla? ugh.

after i had used the called-for 10 tortilla halves, i had some filling leftover, so i made big burrito tacitos. onto a baking sheet and spread with olive oil. 10 minutes in the oven.

as you can see, a couple of them opened up during baking and got their guts spilled all over. not cool, tacitos. not cool.
BUT they were yummy! i’m not a huge fan of the tortilla in general, but when it’s fried or baked, i can handle them. the filling was yummy, the crispy edges of the tortilla were yummy, and it was an overall yummy experience. and low-carb, to boot!
the verdict:
3 out of 5 stars.
in the long run, they were kind of like making cake balls. a whole lot of work for a yummy outcome, but does the work outweigh the result? i’m not sure. plus, the end result was iffy with the tortillas busting open. cosmetically, they weren’t the best. but they are a yummy, healthy snack.

pie time

pie time

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fall=time to make apple pie. i wanted to make something different this time though, so i found a recipe for caramel apple pie on epicurious.

cut up the apple, tossed them in flour. then i pretty much made the equivalent of a simple syrup and added butter to it, which equalled caramel in their eyes. next time i will make my own caramel. then a streusel went on top.
the crust was make with lard and butter with a tablespoon of sugar tossed in, so NOMG.
despite the weird caramel, it was pretty darn good!

soup success!

soup success!

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i have real trouble making soup taste like how i want it to taste. tomato soup? yum, except it was gross when i made it. squash soup? yum, except my first time did not go well. recipe soup is fairly good (smashed potato soup – nomg) and chile is an exception – that always tasted like i want it to taste.
well today i made chicken wild rice and it turned out awesome.

i had some chicken soup bones from last year’s farmers’ market that needed to be used. there was some back meat and some chicken necks in there. i put it on the stove and let it simmer for about 4 hours. i got chicken stock (for the soup) and about 2 cups of meat out of it.

i threw in the chicken, half a pound of wild rice, carrots, onions, mushrooms and a handful of chopped celery. also put in a lot of salt, pepper, thyme and marjoram. oh, and a clove of garlic and shallot. i let this simmer until the rice was done.
then i put in 2 cups of cream and slurried a couple teaspoons of corn starch. that didn’t make it thick enough and i was out, so i slurried about a 1/3-cup flour and put that in there too. voila!

thick glorious soup. i ate it with some sourdough and called it a good day.
 

i baked

i baked

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remember my lamented lack of cooking? well, last weekend i made pretzel rolls.

they turned out well! pretzels are pretty sparse as far as ingredients: flour, yeast, salt, some sugar, water. let it rise, form into rolls, rise again, then put in boiling soda water for 2 mins/side. bake for 10 mins. pretzels! and they weren’t too bad, either!

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for a while

for a while

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last post for a while. my computer and i will be apart – we’re taking a break. here’s a photo of strawberry shortcake i made yesterday to tide you over.

mmm

mmm

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here’s the cake i made that was beyond awesome.

i made a 9×13 then cut it in half. the frosting was outrageous – there was so much of it. i think i might make this again for MY bday! except i might actually buy a second round or square cake pan to match one of my other ones.

nomg

nomg

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i made this cake:
http://www.foodess.com/2011/03/moist-chocolate-cake/
i don’t have my own pics up yet, but here’s a pic from her site:

omg it is glorious – a million times better than my grandma whoever’s buttermilk chocolate cake. this is now my go-to cake recipe. it calls for coffee, but you can use boiling water. i used amaretto flavored coffee, and i think if you substituted some almond extract for some of the vanilla (it calls for a TABLESPOON of vanilla!!), that would bring out more of the almond flavor. i also put some coffee in the frosting, as well as some cream cheese, and not a ton of cocoa – so it looked a lot lighter than the pic.
nomg.

check and check

check and check

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well, my flowerbed is cleared out, tulips are pretty much done for the season, fuchsias purchased and hung, geraniums in a pot, tomatoes purchased and waiting, and vegetable beds cleared and fertilized.
now we wait to see if i plant.
but i don’t want to dwell on my anxiety levels. instead, i would like to point out that the weather is awesome! but it’s sooo windy, which blows (haha, pun intended) when i am trying to run.
i’ve settled on running a mile during the week mornings and focusing on increasing my speed and breathing levels, then on sunday evenings, i will run 3 miles at a leisurely pace. i think that’s not a bad plan.
tonight i’m attempting to make hotwings. i’ve never made them, and it should be relatively easy. i’ve already prepped with wings, and they were pretty easy to clip and cut apart. then i fry them, toss them with the sauce (i have a hot wing sauce from the store and a doctored up sauce that has more barbecue-y stuff in it), then bake them. blue cheese dressing is ready to go! i’ll take pics.