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A Little Sauciness

November 6, 2008 by Lynsey Leave a Comment

When we had “Taste of the Tropics” meal I decided to make a dipping sauce for the coconut shrimp. Although they were wonderful by themselves and full of flavor I wanted a light sauce to dip it in; I guess because I was in a sauce mood! I didn’t want regular cocktail sauce; I wanted something light and semi-sweet to compliment the flavor of the sweet coconut on the shrimp.

There was nothing to the sauce. It was so easy to throw together and the end result was pretty tasty. I decided to carry the common element of the meal, cilantro, through to the dipping sauce as well. It was a very nice addition to a simple creation, but it pulled everything together. I’m sure this would be good served with other foods as well. Since there’s not a lot to it, it would be very easy to change up the flavors and things it would compliment.

Sweet Cilantro Cream

Ingredients:

1/4 Cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 Tablespoon sugar

2-3 Teaspoons cilantro, diced

Directions:

In a mixing bowl add whipping cream and sugar. Beat on high until it begins to thicken a little. Once it’s at the desired consistency add cilantro and fold in. Serve along side coconut shrimp or any other desired dish.

Triple Cheese Threat

November 6, 2008 by Lynsey Leave a Comment

When I think grilled cheese, it just takes me back to my childhood. I love grilled cheese sandwiches, there’s not a lot to them but they are so very good. Sometimes all it takes is a tall glass of milk and a hot grilled cheese sandwich to hit the spot. It really hit the spot for supper!

This isn’t you’re everyday, regular grilled cheese!!! There is nothing wrong with the classic grilled cheese sandwich (it’s a classic for a reason), but I decided to put a little spin on it. I took the Cheesy Cornmeal Breadand made a grilled cheese sandwich, but made more of a grown up version. The end result was nothing but awesome! This is one of the simplest recipes but it is so good, and it definitely settles the craving for a grilled cheese sandwich.

Triple Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients:

4 Slices of Cheesy Cornmeal Bread

1/4-1/2 Cup shredded sharp cheddar

1/4-1/2 Cup shredded pepper jack cheese

Butter, for bread and skillet

Mayo

Directions:

Although I’m pretty sure everyone knows how to make a grilled cheese sandwich I’m going to walk through the steps anyway!

Preheat a small skillet with a dab of butter over low-medium heat. Butter one side of the cheesy cornmeal bread slice and place buttered side on the skillet. Spread a little mayo on the side of bread facing up. Sprinkle a generous portion of cheese (the more the better in my opinion) on the bread. Take second slice of bread and spread a little mayo on in and place on top of the cheese. Spread butter on the side of bread facing up. Cook until golden brown, flip and cook other side until it’s golden brown and the cheese melted. Serve up with a tall glass of milk and go back to your childhood!

Recipe from: Lynsey Lou

Is it white bread or cornbread?

November 6, 2008 by Lynsey Leave a Comment

It’s a mix of both! This is yet another recipe inspired by Spencer and one of his finds at a local restaurant. I remember the first time he had this bread he went on and on about how good it was and how unique it was. He was amazed how it was a normal bread but it had the flavor of cornmeal and the cornmeal could also be tasted. The next few times he went to that restaurant he had the same sandwich with the same “jalapeno cornmeal bread”; he was definitely obsessed with this bread by now. Ever time he had it he would come home and describe the flavors of it and tell me how awesome it was to have a bread that was a real bread but flavored with cornmeal.

From all of his raves I knew I needed to be hunting for a recipe that was similar to this amazing bread. I started my hunt not a moment too soon. About a week ago he was going to this famed restaurant to get his favorite sandwich but when he arrived they were closed. Just like so many other businesses right now, they were struggling to make it with the economy being like it is and unfortunately they are closed…hopefully just for the time being.

My first attempt of this famous bread was pretty good but I am still working on perfection. I didn’t stray too far from the original recipe since this was my first time baking it but it turned tasty. It smelled so good while it was baking and then when I pulled it out of the oven the loaves were so pretty and golden! They tasted awesome; and all the flavors were very evident but not overwhelming at all. This is definitely a “must try” bread! I’ll keep posting with my modifications to this recipe and possibly with a recipe of my own!

Cheesy Cornmeal Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup boiling water
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 (1 tbsp) package active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm milk
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/4 cups grated colby jack cheese
5 to 5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used 5 Cups)

2 Tablespoons diced jalapenos

3-5 Tablespoons jalapeno juice (I will probably add more next time)

Directions

Pour boiling water over cornmeal and let stand until just warm.

Stir together sugar and lukewarm water. Sprinkle yeast over top and let stand until doubled in volume.

In a large mixing bowl, combine warm water, salt, brown sugar, 1 cup cheddar cheese, cornmeal mixture and yeast mixture. Stir well. Mix in jalapenos and jalapeno juice until evenly mixed. Add flour 1 cup at a time. When dough becomes too stiff to stir, turn out onto a floured surface. Knead in additional flour until dough is no longer sticky. Knead dough 10 minutes.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 to 1/2 hours. Punch dough and divide in half. Shape into two loaves and place into buttered loaf pans. Let rise again until doubled in volume. Carefully sprinkle remaining cheese over bread.

Bake at 375°F for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden and sides of loaf are also golden. Remove bread from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Adapted From: Shop World Kitchen

Lime Style Asparagus

November 6, 2008 by Lynsey Leave a Comment

Staying on my “Taste of the Tropics” theme; with our coconut shrimp and cilantro lime rice we also had steamed asparagus with a hint of lime. It looks like I was on another one of my lime kicks since both of my side items had lime in it. As I have said before, asparagus is a favorite side at our house. I love the flavor of it; I don’t mind eating it cooked in a very simple fashion but I also like to try new ways of cooking it too. I just like to have some “different tastes” if I feel like having a little something more.

Steamed asparagus is nothing new to anyone I’m sure. I did stay on the simple track with this specific version but I did want to give it a little something different. In trying to incorporate a little added flavor I decided to add some lime juice to the water I was using to steam the asparagus. The finished product was great; it gave it that little something extra I was looking for. This method is a great way of adding a little more flavor without drowning the food in spices, sauces and seasonings.

Lime “Infused” Asparagus

Ingredients:

1/2 Pound asparagus-fresh or fresh frozen

2 1/2 Tablespoons lime juice, divided

Water for steaming

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Place water in a pot being used to steam the veggies. Bring water to a boil then add 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Place asparagus on the steamer tray in the pot and cover. Steam to desired doneness (I steamed mine for about 4 minutes). Once asparagus is done drizzle with remaining lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Serve while warm.

Recipe by: Lynsey Lou

A Taste of the Tropics

November 6, 2008 by Lynsey Leave a Comment

The other night our meal was inspired a little by the tropics. We had coconut breaded shrimp with a sweet cilantro cream dipping sauce, cilantro lime rice and steamed asparagus with a hint of lime. All of those flavors combined remind me of somewhere sunny and warm with sandy beaches; and being somewhere like that sounds so awesome right now!

We have had a mix of weather here in Arkansas lately, so one week I can be cuddled up with big bowl of steamy soup and the next week soup is one of the last things I want to cook. Let me tell you, it’s now November and we are still experiencing weather in the upper 70’s! Crazy Arkansas weather; if you don’t like the weather just stick around and in about five minutes it will be completely different:).

Enough about the crazy weather patterns, this is a food blog not a weather blog. To compliment the coconut shrimp I made cilantro lime rice. It was awesome! You could taste a hint of all the flavors in the rice but none of them overwhelmed the other. This was a perfect side item; it was light and fresh and so simple to make. This meal was my taste of the tropics in mid November when the weather matches the weather in the tropics! CRAZY!

Ingredients:

1 Cup cooked brown rice

1 Tablespoon butter

2 Tablespoons cilantro, roughly chopped

1 1/2 Tablespoons lime juice

Directions:

Combine cooked, warm rice and butter and stir together. Once butter has coated all the rice stir in the cilantro and lime juice. Mix together well and serve.

Recipe from: Lynsey Lou

A Big Bowl of Crabby Goodness

October 30, 2008 by Lynsey Leave a Comment

Spencer has a new found craving for Crab Bisque. He has gone to a local restaurant a few times for lunch and this is his favorite thing on the menu. He has been wanting me to taste it for quite some time so I could get the taste for it and try to recreate it but I just haven’t gotten the chance. I finally decided to start searching for recipes, since I wasn’t sure when I would be able to go and try this bisque, in hopes to come across one that is similar to his new found favorite. I think we came close with this recipe!

It’s hard to try to recreate something not ever tasting it. I was going by Spencer’s memory and the recipe I found. He was very pleased with the outcome, as was I. I really didn’t know what to expect and what the texture was supposed to be since I had never had any type of bisque before. This recipe was awesome; it was so creamy and buttery and just full of flavor. I could taste every flavor that was included in this recipe; the flavor of the sauteed vegetables, even though they weren’t in the final product, were so evident…It was amazing.

This recipe was incredible and there really wasn’t that much to it. Out of all the ones out there, and there are a ton, I’m glad I chose this one to follow. Now that I’ve finally made a bisque I know that I will be making more; and I won’t be afraid to branch out now that I know what to expect. We enjoyed it so much, I hope you do too!

Crab Bisque

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 large carrot, chopped
2 stalk celery, chopped
1 quart (32 ounces) chicken stock
1 (8-ounce) can tomato paste (I used Hunt’s Roasted Garlic)
1 Pound, 4 Ounces lump crab meat (Reserve a little to top when serving)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cooking sherry
1 cup heavy cream, divided
Sea salt and ground white pepper to taste
2 teaspoons paprika
Whole or chopped chives for garnish (optional)

Directions:

In a large stock or soup pot, melt one tablespoon of butter with the olive oil. Cook onion, carrots and celery over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft but not browned. Add stock and tomato purée and simmer 20 minutes. Strain mixture through a fine sieve and return liquid to pot, discard vegetables. Measure out 1 cup of strained liquid and set aside.
Melt remaining butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Whisk in flour and stir until smooth. Very slowly stir in sherry and the cup of reserved liquid. Add this mixture to the large stock pot and bring to boil, whisking until smooth. Reduce heat, add crab meat and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. Season with sea salt and white pepper.

In a small bowl, blend 1/4 cup cream with paprika. Set aside. When ready to serve bisque, whisk remaining 3/4 cup cream into bisque and adjust seasonings. Ladle bisque into bowls and top with reserved claw meat pieces. Garnish with paprika-spiced cream and chives if desired.

Adapted From: Whole Foods

Chipotles and Ranch…a great combo

October 30, 2008 by Lynsey Leave a Comment

For the Daring Baker’schallenge this month we were challenged to make pizza dough the way classic pizzerias do. We had to toss the dough in the air and all that fun stuff. It was quite an experience and I had a blast completing this challenge. This dough is incredible as well, it takes a little more time since it is a two day process but it is so worth it. For any of you that love pizza and love making pizzas at home the dough is a must try.

For my pizza I decided to make a chipotle ranch pizza. It turned out awesome. All the flavors came out perfectly and blended together so well. There are many more pizzas I want to try and I have plenty of dough waiting on me; so I can’t wait to share them with you. This recipe is a ranch lovers dream; this will quench the heaviest craving for something ranch! I loved coming up with this pizza and we enjoyed every slice.

Chipotle Ranch Pizza

Ingredients:

Recipe for Basic Pizza Dough

2 Chicken breast, boiled

2 Tablespoons Tupperware Ranch Chipotle seasoning

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 Small onion-sliced and sauteed

1 Block cream cheese-room temperature

4-5 Tablespoons Ranch dressing mix

1/4 Cup homemade ranch dressing (follow directions on dressing mix)

1/4 Teaspoon dill

3/4 Cups shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat baking stone on highest setting for 45 minutes before cooking pizza.

Once chicken has cooled, shred and then add salt, pepper, chipotle ranch seasoning, and dill; mix together well.

In bowl take room temperature cream cheese and mix in dry ranch dressing mix.

In small skillet preheat a little olive oil and sautee onions. Remove from heat once the onions start to turn clear and get nice and carmelized.

Remove stone from oven and place dough on stone and form edges. Spread cream cheese on dough, sprinkle with chicken, add onions, drizzle ranch dressing on top, and then add cheese.

Place back in ove for 5-8 minutes; until crust reaches nice golden brown.

Chipotle Ranch Recipe from: Lynsey Lou

Daring Bakers Pizza Dough

October 29, 2008 by Lynsey 1 Comment

This was my first challenge as a member of The Daring Bakersand I enjoyed every moment of it. The challenge this month was to make real pizzaria style pizzas by tossing the dough and everything. What an experience! I definitely don’t see tossing pizzas in a pizzeria in my future but I sure did have a lot of fun.

The hosts of the challenge for this month were supposed to be: Rosa of Rosas Yummy Yumms, Sher of What Did You Eat?, and Glenna of A Fridge Full of Food. Glenna had a little too much going on so she decided to pull out of the Daring Bakers so she ended up not being a host this month. Sherry (Sher) suddenly past away in July of this year but before she did she had shared her idea of the pizza challenge with Rosa. In honor of Sher, Rosa decided to keep the pizzaria pizza as the challenge. I’m sure Sherry would have had a wonderful time doing this challenge, but in honor and as a tribute tons of pizza doughs were flying through the air in October for her. Thanks to Sherry for finding this challenge and recipe and sharing it wil Rosa and thank you Rosa for honoring Sherry through this challenge.

I have made a few different types of pizza dough but none of the doughs I’ve made have been a 2 day process. When I first read this challenge and saw the dough was going to take two days to prepare I was kind of leary. I knew it would be better to do this challenge on a weekend so I could take my time with everything and make sure I did everything as the directions read. This dough turned out incredible; the flavor was so light and fresh and it goes with basically any type of recipe you can create. This recipe makes quite a bit of dough, so it’s one that could be made then frozen in individual bags or containers in the freezer. I will definitely be using this recipe again, it was awesome.

The only guidelines to this challenge were to follow the recipe and toss it like in a pizzeria. This challenge turned us loose in the kitchen. As far as toppings and sauces, that was entirely up to the creator of the pizza. I decided since I was breaking out for this challenge I would get creative with the toppings as well and try a type of pizza and sauce that I hadn’t tried before. This got the creative juices flowing and I thought of multiple other recipes that sounded so good, so stay tuned for those! I decided to do a chipotle ranch chicken. I know that doesn’t sound as adventurous as some things but the way I went about seasoning the chicken and making the sauce was not typical. All the flavors combined in this recipe were fabulous and everything blended well.

So, on to the fun stuff…the actual recipe!!!

Basic Pizza Dough

From: “The Bread Bakers Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart

Ingredients:

4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled

1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar – FOR GF use agave syrup
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

Day 1:

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.
The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

Day 2:

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

NOTE:Make only one pizza at a time.
9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

NOTE: During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping.
In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.
You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter – for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.
13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

Here are a few pictures of the tossing process for your laughing pleasure!!!

Here’s a picture of theChipotle Ranch Pizza

There's a Blondie in my Oven!

October 28, 2008 by Lynsey Leave a Comment

And they look and smell so good!!! Is there anything better than smelling something sweet baking on a cool night, or any night for that matter? My answer to that is no! I love baking stuff and I love the smell of my house during and right after baking.

I think blondies are one of my new favorite dessert items. They are so simple to cook, there’s not a lot to them and they taste wonderful. It’s been a long time since I’ve had blondies, my parents used to cook them all the time. We used to just have them plain with nothing mixed in, they are wonderful that way but they are also a blank slate where practically anything can be added.

I made pumpkin spice blondies the other day and they turned out incredible. This time I decided to do a household favorite, peanut butter and chocolate. Spencer loves Reese’s cups, so any mixture of peanut butter and chocolate is always a winner with him! I was really pleased with the way these turned out, they had just the right amount of everything. Next time I’m probably going to try mixing in some peanut butter, just to enhance the flavor a little.

Ingredients:

6-8 Tablespoons butter- softened (I used 8 in this batch)

1/4 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup brown sugar

1 Egg

1 Teaspoon vanilla

1 Cup flour

1/4 Teaspoon baking powder

1/4-1/2 Milk chocolate chips

1/4-1/2 Reeses peanut butter chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In bowl or mixer cream butter and both sugars until smooth. Once blended incorporate the egg and vanilla. Sift flout and baking powder together and slowly add to mixture.

Add chocolate and peanut butter chips and stir until evenly incorporated.

Line 8×8 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Pour in Blondie Mixture. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool before cutting.

Recipe from: Lynsey Lou

A little spice in my life…

October 28, 2008 by Lynsey 1 Comment

Pumpkin spice to be exact! Since I’ve discovered the pumpkin spice kisses by Hershey’s I’ve been obsessed with them. I’ve seen quite a lot of different recipes being made that incorporate these kisses. After looking around at all the different recipes with these I decided to try my hand at baking something with them. The result was awesome; you could definitely taste all the flavors of the kiss as well as the other flavors in the recipe.

This time I decided to bake some blondies and add some pumpkin kisses. They turned out awesome. I probably could have added more kisses, but since this was the first time I had baked with them I didn’t want the flavor to be too much or too overwhelming. Everything blended together nicely and this ended up being a nice, light dessert.

Ingredients:

6 Tablespoons butter- softened

1/4 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup brown sugar

1 Egg

1 Teaspoon vanilla

1 Cup flour

1/4 Teaspoon baking powder

6 Pumpkin spice kisses, chilled and coarsely chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In bowl or mixer cream butter and both sugars until smooth. Once blended incorporate the egg and vanilla. Sift flout and baking powder together and slowly add to mixture.

Stir in pumpkin spice kisses, stir until evenly incorporated.

Line 8×8 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Pour in Blondie Mixture. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool before cutting.

Recipe by: Lynsey Lou

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