Saturday, February 6, 2010
Jack Daniels Honey Barbecue Sauce to be exact.
Now, I’m from North Carolina. I was born and raised here but both of my parents are from the north. So even though around here barbecue is made from a pig shoulder and slow cooked for many hours and then covered with a vinegary spice mixture–I still enjoy a good barbecue sauce for chicken, ribs, or whatever else I fancy.
Matt particularly likes TGI Friday’s line of Jack Daniels glazed items, so I figured I could incorporate that into the sauce. The last time I made this I dumped it in the crock pot with some short ribs to cook and marry all day long. It was heaven.
You’ll need:
2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup vinegar (I used white, cider or wine will work too)
1/2 cup Jack Daniels
1 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 tbsp yellow mustard
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp canola oil
2 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp cayenne (if you like hot, if not skip this)
2 tsp honey
Put everything in a medium sauce pan off the stove. Once you’ve added everything, return the pan to the stove and cook the sauce on medium heat for 20-30 minutes or until all ingredients are incorporated. If you’d rather tone down the alcohol taste a tad, cook it for longer. Be sure to stir pretty frequently so your sauce doesn’t burn on the bottom. This makes about 1 quart of sauce.
Store the sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It can be stored there for several months–if it lasts that long!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
This dish was inspired by a local restaurant, Milner’s, where I had the most amazing salmon a few weeks ago. The chef used Moravian spice cookies (really thin crunchy, gingery cookies) to make a crust for the salmon which was then cooked to perfection and served with sautéed spinach, sweet potato flapjacks, fennel slaw, and a really delicious vanilla sauce.
Spekulatius are German spice cookies that are often found in grocery stores around the Christmas holidays. They taste like a mild ginger snap, and aren’t quite as crunchy. They are embossed with an intricate design of some kind, usually resembling an animal or scene you’d often see in a painting (farmhouse, ship, etc…). The particular spekulatius I had were baked with slivers of almonds on the back–I’m not sure if they all come like that, though.
We had some bad weather [again] yesterday, so I didn’t want to venture out to the store to get the spice cookies. I had spekulatius cookies in my pantry that were given to me at Christmas so I used those instead. If you can’t get spekulatius and you don’t live near me to get Moravian spice cookies, you can substitute with ginger snaps (although, the dish will likely be more spicy, so keep that in mind).
You’ll need:
15-20 Spekulatius
1/4 cup butter
2 large or 4 small salmon fillets
salt and pepper
olive oil
Throw your cookies in a plastic resealable bag and crush them finely with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer. Melt butter in a microwaveable bowl for 30 seconds, then stir in the cookie crumbs. Drizzle olive oil in an oven safe baking dish. Lightly salt and pepper both sides of each salmon fillet and place them in the baking dish. With your hands, create a crust on top of each salmon fillet with the cookie mixture. Bake at 350° for 20-30 minutes or until salmon flakes easily.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
If you haven’t figured out yet, I rarely use measuring utensils when I cook. I have about 3 sets of each measuring spoons and cups, but could probably count on one hand the number of times I have used them while cooking in the last 5 years. So, that information should be taken into account when you make one of my recipes. Especially a soup recipe. If something doesn’t taste right, add what you think is missing. You wont hurt my feelings.
Generally when I’m sick I crave hearty soups and foods that are warm and fill me up well. So, for the past few days I have been craving a hearty thick soup. But, since I don’t feel good, I don’t want to spend an hour at the grocery store trying to figure out what ingredients to get and throw together for a great soup. So I went shopping at home. Turns out I had just the right ingredients for a crab and corn chowder.
Matt got ahold of the camera.
You’ll need:
1 medium onion, diced
3-4 medium carrots, diced (or 20 baby carrots, coined)
3 ribs celery, diced
1 16-ounce bag frozen corn
10 ounces imitation crab
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 box chicken or vegetable broth
2 10oz cans cream of potato soup
2 cups milk
parsley
salt & pepper
garlic powder
hot sauce
soy sauce
corn starch
olive oil
Drizzle olive oil in a large pot on medium high heat. Dump in diced onion, carrots and celery, and sauté until onion and celery become translucent. Pour in broth and two cans of potato soup. Cover and simmer on medium for 10-15 minutes or until carrots have softened.
Add corn and crab to pot, and slowly pour in 2 cups of milk. Add Parmesan cheese, a few dashes of each: parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and soy sauce. Add hot sauce to taste (We added about 1/4 of a cup but we like our stuff spicy around here–plus I needed to clear my sinuses.). Mix chowder well, and simmer on a low boil for 5-10 minutes or until all of the Parmesan has melted into the liquid. Mix corn starch with water in a separate bowl, making sure there are no lumps, and pour it into the chowder. Mix well and turn off heat. Serve when chowder has thickened.
If you don’t like some of the veggies you could always substitute for something else. A recipe for crab and corn chowder I ran across a few days ago called for red bell peppers, but I don’t like them so I used carrots instead. Just throw in whatever you like.
I added a bit too much hot sauce so if you do the same, just add a pinch of sugar to balance it out. We ate ours with biscuits warm out of the oven.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
A few days ago I got the urge to make waffles. I haven’t made them in a long time, so I had to dust off the ol’ waffle iron and whip out the recipe book–because when I make something I usually go all out and ignore the normal. Since it was Matt’s birthday yesterday, I decided to let him choose the recipe. I, of course, swayed him a couple different directions but exploded with excitement when I saw the peanut butter waffle recipe.
So peanut butter waffles it is.
You’ll need:
2 cups bisquick (or home-made equivalent)
1-5/6 cups milk (5/6 = ½ plus 1/3)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup peanut butter (creamy is probably best for the waffle iron)
Preheat your waffle iron. Mix your bisquick, milk, oil, and egg together until well combined. Melt peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds on high. Pour in the bisquick mixture and stir until the peanut butter is fully incorporated in the batter. Pour batter onto greased waffle iron and cook for about 5 minutes, flipping halfway through if necessary to ensure waffles cook evenly.
Melt your preferred jelly (And really, in pb&j, grape is the only acceptable jelly) in a microwave safe bowl for 45 seconds on high. Pour over crispy warm waffles.
If you don’t have a waffle iron, make pancakes instead!
1 cup bisquick mix (or equivalent)
1 egg
1 cup milk
½ cup peanut butter
Melt your peanut butter in the microwave for 30 seconds. Mix well with other ingredients and cook on a hot griddle. Melt jelly and pour over the hot pancakes.
You can store leftover waffles and pancakes in an airtight container or bag in the refrigerator or freezer and reheat as needed. Reheat waffles in the toaster and pancakes in the microwave.
Don’t like jelly? Try regular syrup instead (this is what Matt did) or even chocolate syrup!
Friday, January 8, 2010
When I was little my mom used to make this for dinner pretty often. It’s an inexpensive meal, but well rounded and healthy depending on the ingredients you use. She used pasta that was shaped like ears, hence the name of the dish.
There are three basic ingredients: pasta, protein, and vegetable juice (V8). Since we’ve been trying to eat healthy, I used whole wheat pasta and ground turkey tonight.
Brown your ground turkey (or beef, chicken…or you could eliminate it completely if that’s your cup of tea) adding parsley, garlic, pepper, and a pinch of salt while it is cooking. Cook your pasta as directed on the box, drain, and combine with the ground turkey and enough vegetable juice to cover the pasta and meat. Heat through, and serve hot. We like to add cheese to ours–parmesan is the best.
With this, you get healthy carbs, protein, and two servings of vegetables per bowl. Serve fruit for dessert and you’ve made yourself a healthy, well-rounded meal. Even better, the leftovers are delicious!
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