Superbowl Chili

Awwww yeah it’s superbowl season!! Time to cozy up and watch those guys with the tight pants play the other guys with the tight pants (clearly I know nothing about football…).

All I know about the Superbowl is that it involves good food and good times. My friend Ritu’s chili recipe is sure to warm you up this Sunday. I made this chili a few weeks ago with (shhhhhh ground beef) but she always makes it with ground turkey. And it is “some kinda good” as my Aunt Mary says.

The best part? Sprinkle some cheddar cheese, green onions and (gasp) CILANTRO for an extra HIYA kick!

Chop everything the night before to save time. I made this on a weeknight and it was ready by 8pm! And remember my rules about chopping: always wear clothes you wouldn’t mind wearing to the hospital in case you lose a finger. Just sayin.

Oh and I couldn’t find green chiles so I used cayenne pepper.

Ritu’s Turkey Chili

Cumin                   1 tspn

Sazon                   1 sachet

Kosher Salt            2 tbsp

Chili Powder           2 tspn

Green chili             4 (slice down the center) OR 1/2 tsp. Cayenne pepper

Cider Vinegar        1 tbspn.

Tomato Sauce        1 can

Diced Tomatoes     1 can

Kidney Beans         1 can (drain and rinse well)

Cannellini Beans     1 can (drain and rinse well)

Ground meat         1.5 lbs

Water/broth           1 cup

All items below need to be diced

Garlic                    10 cloves

Onion                   2 medium

Green Pepper         1

Red Pepper            1

1.   Heat up oil and add cumin and onions.

2.  When onions are transparent, add garlic.

3.  Add meat, sazon and 1 tbsn of salt. Cook until it’s no longer pink.

4.  Add peppers and let them soften a little.

5.  Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Add cider vinegar. Cook for 5 minutes.

6.  Drain cans of beans and rinse thoroughly.  If you don’t rinse them well, they’ll make the chilitoo salty. 

7.  Add beans and water.

8.  Add green chilis. Slice them down the middle.

9.  Add red chili powder.

10. Stir well and cook for an hour or more (if you’d like).

** You can put this in a slow cooker for 9 hours too!

Check out Ritu’s blog! Although she makes a mean turkey chili, she is the bomb makeup artist and gives candid tips when “bad makeup happens to pretty people.”

My Funny Clementine

This is by far the weirdest but most delarcious thing I’ve ever, EVER made.

Start by boiling fruit. WHOLE. The entire dang thing. Skins and all. *

(*actually the recipe calls for 6 boiled clementines, but I accidentally boiled them without the skins and then just grated some ZEST into the bowl and that turned out better.)

 

Then you make a cake (with no flour) out of this boiled fruit and bake it in a springform pan. Do you know what that is? It’s like a magic trick pan where the sides come off…now you see it, now you don’t!

Oh and did I mention that you need to use a food processor? I had to go to my parents house and then time travel back to 1979 to use my mom’s food processor. Seriously, this must have literally been the FIRST food processor ever. It was so old, the font looked like something out of Soul Train. Worked like a champ though.

Yes, clearly I made this for Christmas and I’m mad late. Better late than never, roighto?

Shoutout to my friend and former co-worker Charmaine, who would always peel clementines for me at lunch. I would act like I didn’t want one just so I didn’t have to peel it…but she quickly caught on.

Clementine Torte

Bear Claw

My mojo was gone. Hopelessly, I was flipping through my Cookie Bible (yes a real book) and saw this recipe.

(chorus of angels)

I had to make it. Who cares that I had to buy a Madeline pan, roast AND chop 4 cups of hazelnuts, create a piping tip and carefully place almonds as claws on the tips of these cookies? sigh.

I made these cookies twice. The first time was for a cookie exchange cue Martha Stewart  and I kinda sorta forgot to actually put the nuts in the food processor. And let me just say, 4 cups is a boatload of nuts. Go ahead and make your jokes.

So I made it again with just 1 cup of ground hazelnuts and it turned out perfectly. Oh and I didn’t have a piping tip so I just cut a tiny hole at the bottom of a sandwich bag. BAM.

Czech Bear Paws

• 1 cup toasted ground almonds
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 TSP ground cinnamon
• 1/2 TSP ground nutmeg
• 1/4 TSP salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) plus 3 TSP butter, softened, divided
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted
• slivered almonds, halved

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place hazelnuts, flour, cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl; stir to continue

2. Beat 1 cup butter, powdered sugar and egg yolk in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add flour mixture. Beat at low speed until soft dough forms.

3. Grease madeline pan with remaining butter. 1 TSP per pan; dust with flour. (If only 1 madeline pan is available, thoroughly wash, dry, regrease and flour after baking each batch. Cover remaining dough with plastic wrap; let stand at rom temperature.) Press level tablespoonfuls of dough into each mold.

4. Bake 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cookies stand in pan 3 minutes. Carefully loosen cookies from pan with point of small knife. Invert pan over wire rack, tap lightly to release cookies. Let stand 2 minutes. Turn cookies shell-side up; cool completely.

5. Pipe squiggle of melted chocolate on curved end of each cookie; place slivered almond halves in melted chocolate for claws. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour or until set.

6. Store tightly covered at room temperature. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

The bear is BACK!

Sandy Christmas

I feel like a woman in Michael’s craft stores is like a man in Home Depot. We have big dreams but just end up hiring someone else to make them come true.

This time – I did it myself! In about 2 hours.

I was invited to a craft party and needed to pick up some “crafty items” to make and share with about 8 people. I wandered around and had a bunch of crappy ideas and ended up in the ‘make your own ornament’ aisle. I didn’t see many materials so I somehow decided to layer decorative sand inside the ornaments.

Sand at Christmas?? Yes my friends. It’s a revolution.

The only downfall is that the sand gets mixed up once you move the ornament. So unless you plan to leave it hanging in your kitchen (as pictured) the ornament will end up looking a bit different each time. Which is pretty cool, eh?

Who wants one? Don’t all line up at once, I only made 4.

Dude, where’s your blog??

I lost my mojo. Bigtime. I haven’t done much cooking or crafting in awhile so my blog has been left alone like the ugly redheaded stepchild.

Let’s recap the things I did attempt:

• Garlic Roasted Mashed Potatoes: Turns out, you need a potato masher to make mashed potatoes. Baby steps. I used a whisk. A WHISK.  No bueno. nooooo bueno.
• Sponge painting a mirror: I decided to try the “sponge technique” and paint a small mirror to hang by my door. Yeahhhh it looks like the mirror has open flesh wounds and is dying.

But I’m bizack!!! I promise I’ll have something next week! I’m going to a cookie exchange tomorrow and a craft party on Sunday. So Santa’s Workshop is in full effect mmmmmkaaaaayyy

My readers keep me motivated. Both of you have been great, much love!

Hollah at my Jalapeno Cornbread

When I eat cornbread, I think of that scene in the movie Life with Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy…

Remember when the huge prisoner looks across the table (with crazy eyes) at Martin Lawrence and asks, “You go’n eat yo cornbread?” It cracks me up and I even joke with my brother Jared about that whenever we have a big family dinner.

I made this cornbread for a Mexican night at my friend Rosa’s house. Even though it calls for a lot of jalapenos, it wasn’t too spicy. This would be a great addition to a Thanksgiving meal. It was delicious and the girls loved it!

A few tips:

• Read the entire recipe. Why? Because it calls for melted, softened, and cooled butter. If you add hot butter to eggs – it cooks them!
• If you want crispy cornbread, cook it in a shallow pan.
• Use less jalapeno than the recipe calls for…my cornbread was looking a little green.

Jalapeno Cornbread

(Based on Ruhlman’s Jalapeno Cornbread recipe)

• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3/4 cup low fat milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 oz butter, melted and cooled
• 1 heaped cup frozen sweet yellow corn
• 2 large jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.

In another bowl, beat the egg and stir in the milk and butter, whisk well to combine.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir well to combine. Finally stir in the jalapeno’s and sweet corn.

Butter an oven proof loaf pan or cake tin or a cast iron skillet and pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 30 minutes till a skewer inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Serve warm.

Fake-me-out Fried Chicken

I love a challenge.

So when my cousin Rosa and my mom challenged me to a fried chicken contest I was thrilled. Meanwhile….I don’t know how to fry chicken.

(Take my “black card” now)

It’s harder than you think! The oil splatters and burns you, the chicken could fry too quickly and not cook (yukos) and alot of stuff can happen!

Sooooo I decided to take a shortcut/cop-out alternative approach. I have always heard about using Corn Flakes to fry chicken but I’ve never tried it. It makes the chicken really crunchy and yummy!

But the way I cooked it is not actually….fried. It’s baked. gasp!

It actually turned out really well though. And it was so much easier than risking burning your eyebrows off by frying chicken!

Oh and it’s a Joy of Cooking recipe! I’ve always wanted to try a recipe from that legendary cookbook.

My suggestions:

• Brine the chicken before you cook it. This allows the salt to actually get in the chicken and adds flava! mmmhmm child.
• Put the seasonings in a paper bag and shake the chicken instead of dipping the chicken.
• Add extra melted butter – it just makes everything better.

(Funny how that drumstick is so close to the camera. It’s like it’s saying “WASSUUUP?!”

Oven-fried Chicken

Ingredients

Rinse and pat dry:

• 3 1/2 pounds chicken parts

Season with:

• Salt and ground black pepper to taste
• (I also added some Old Bay seasoning for that ‘Maryland’ taste)

Whisk together in a shallow bowl:

• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk

Combine in a wide, shallow bowl:

• 2 1/2 cups crushed corn flakes
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Position a rack in the upper third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a baking sheet.

Dip the chicken pieces in the egg mixture, then coat with the corn flake mixture, patting with your fingers to make the crumbs adhere. The chicken can be prepared to this point up to 3 hours in advance and kept, uncovered, in the refrigerator. Arrange the chicken skin side up on the baking sheet. If you wish, drizzle over the chicken:

2 to 3 tablespoons melted butter

Bake until the chicken is crisp and golden, 45 to 60 minutes. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

So you’re dying to know who won the contest, right? Well, let’s just say I didn’t come in 1st place. Check out the competition:

We numbered each batch and had a blind taste test. My chicken was called “healthy” since it wasn’t fried. Annnnnd defeat.

But try it for yourself and let me know how it goes!

Special thanks to Brianna Gist for taking the photos (and for encouragement)

1 Year Blog-aversary!

It’s my 1 year blog-aversary (blog anniversary)!! It’s been a long year and I’m glad I was able to post something almost every week except the last two months/hibernation. I started out alternating between cooking and crafting buuuuuut since I like to eat so much it ended up being mostly about cooking. Big surprise.

My favorite and most popular posts were:

• Bang! Penang!
• Macdaddy Mac & Cheese
• Seafood Yumbo
• Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

So what’s next? I plan to keep on posting my experiences cooking and crafting. Do I really know what I’m doing most of the time? No. But it’s funny to watch me try.

Generally speaking, I try to cook impressive dishes that don’t require much effort. I’m just being honest. This dish totes mcgoates falls into that category.

You’re thinking barbeque shrimp has actual BBQ sauce in it? Oh no, my friend. A traditional New Orleans (N’Awlins) barbeque shrimp has spices and a ton of butter.

Mmmmmm. It’s okay to drool.Note: I recommend peeling the skrimps (yes I said it) the night before you plan to serve this dish. It saves a boatload of time. That and after peeling shrimp I don’t really have the appetite to eat them since they kinda look like the insides of the alien from Independence Day.Yet again, I digress.

New Orleans Barbeque Shrimp

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/3 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup beer, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 pound medium shrimp – peeled and deveined
• salt to taste

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir together the garlic powder, onion powder, basil, thyme, rosemary, cayenne pepper and paprika. Set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; cook and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the shrimp and cook for a couple of minutes. Season with the spice mixture and continue to cook and stir for a few minutes. Pour in the beer and Worcestershire sauce; simmer until shrimp is cooked through, about 1 more minute. Taste and season with salt before serving.

Sidenote: I cannot say Worcestershire. It comes out like “wor-chhhhh-ter-xire.”

Serve with linguine. My friend Jen had a great idea to mix a bit of the sauce with the pasta so it wouldn’t stick together. It also added some color and flava!This past year, I realized that what I enjoy most about cooking (other than eating) is actually entertaining. I invited my girls over to celebrate on a random Wednesday night and we had a great time. Thanks to my girls for supporting me!!Notice the hand in the far left – someone was hongrey!

Stay tuned for another year of bearily posts.

Special thanks to Rosa Thomas for taking this week’s photos! 

And a very, very special shoutout to Angry Asian Creations for inspiring and encouraging me with this blog!

Party of 5

I know you’re thinking of that mid-90′s show. Oh, Scott Wolf.

But this was a dinner I cooked for my friends as a thank you for walking my dog Bailey. A FANCY dinner. With CHINA. aww snap. I felt like I was playing dress-up with my mamma’s china (don’t worry..she won’t read this, she still doesn’t ‘get’ what a blog is).

Funny thing about having a dinner party…you have to do all . the. work. Which is what I wanted but it was exhausting.

I’ll give you a teaser, this week I’ll feature the drunken noodles and next week I’ll show the Asian salad, banana puddin and Southern sweet tea, OH MY!

My sister-in-law gave me this recipe (she also gave me the Chicken Penang recipe). She uses penne pasta but I decided to try the wide rice noodles. The photo shown is without any meat, but I made a second batch tonight with shrimp – it was the bommmb diggity! I must be trapped in the mid-90′s tonight.

Not bad, eh?

(So now I’m a Canadian, stuck in the mid-90′s.)

Some tips:

• the red peppers are HOT. HOT. Please use gloves while handling.
• Add more soy sauce and brown sugar to taste. Gotta get these noodles ‘drunk’ after all, roighto?
• Serve immediately. For some reason the noodles get cold really fast.

Drunken Noodles

• Boneless, skinless chicken breast cut in thin slices – about 1 lb
• Penne noodles (or thick flat rice noodles but penne is easier) – 1 lb box
• Minced garlic – 2 or 3 cloves (depends how much u like garlic)
• 1 onion – cut in strips (u know like in wedges w/the ridges in the onion)
• Thai Basil – 1 handful-ish (but add a little at 1st (5-6 leaves) & taste when mixed)
• Red Thai peppers – 2 or 3 (chop using glove or wash hands thoroughly & don’t touch eyes all night)
• Brown sugar – about 1/4 c (but its to taste so u may need more)
• Mushroom soy sauce – a few shakes
• Canola Oil (or veggie) – 2Tbsp 

Boil noodles in salted water. Drain. Heat oil in large frying pan or wok. Add chicken cook 3-5 mins, add onions & garlic & cook on med-high heat till chicken is cooked thru. Add peppers, brown sugar, & soy sauce & mix until coated & peppers look slightly cooked. Add noodles & basil. Mix well. Taste. Add more brown sugar/soy sauce/basil till u get taste just right. (Not too sweet, not too salty, not too much basil)

Southwest Salad

Oh yeah! This is the third salad in my Summer Salad Series. That’s right, three makes it an official series. HAYO

I made this salad for two different parties this month. It’s zesty, refreshing and easy to make! Grilled corn adds an extra kick! HIYA! It would be ideal to have tortilla strips, but I just literally crushed some tortilla chips in my bear hands.

I made this salad without meat. (flashback to My Big Fat Greek Wedding – what do you mean you don’t EAT NO MEAT?!)

But grilled chicken or shrimp is a great addition.

Ingredients

• 1 bag romaine lettuce
• 1 big red pepper, chopped
• 2 ears grilled corn
• 1 avocado
• tortilla strips
• BBQ sauce (I prefer Sweet Baby Ray’s)
• mayonnaise

Directions

1. Rinse the lettuce, put into a big bowl.

2. Chop the red pepper and slice the corn. Add to lettuce.

3. Crumble the tortilla chips into the salad with your bear hands.

4. Slice the avocado right before serving. Sprinkle with lime juice to add some zest and keep it from getting all brown and gross looking. Gently add to salad to keep it from getting mush.

5. In a small bowl, mix mayonnaise and BBQ sauce for the dressing. Add more or less of each to taste.

Enjoy!

P.S. My friend Susan taught me how to easily cut an avocado. Slice in half, get rid of the thingy in the middle, then cut while it’s still in the skin and just flip over!