Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Pear Beehives

I found this beautiful (and tasty!) recipe from a magazine called "Relish" that comes as an insert to a  publication that my husband picked up at the supermarket the other week. As soon as I saw the picture, I knew I had to make it! Below is the recipe with some slight adaptations.


Ingredients
1 sheet of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry
6 soft, ripe pears*
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinammon
1 egg white, beaten

*The best way to make sure your pears are soft is to buy them a few days before you are going to make them and place them in a closed paper bag. Some kind of chemical reaction with the gases they release takes place and ripens them faster when you do this.

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. On a piece of parchment paper, roll out one sheet of dough to make a long rectangle. Cut into 6 long strips.


3. Combine cinnamon and sugar on a flat plate.


4. Peel pears and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.


5. For each pear, take a strip a dough, and starting from the top, wrap it around the pear, overlapping slightly. Place pears on a baking sheet.


6. Gently brush each pear with the egg white. Bake for 40-45 minutes until dough is golden.


 7. Serve warm and enjoy!


What do you think? What other Fall desserts have you made recently?


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Thursday, July 12, 2012

Crispy Sweet & Sour Chicken and Potatoes

It's been some time since I shared a yummy recipe with you, so here's an American spin on the typical sweet and sour chicken.


Ingredients:
8 chicken quarters
3 cans of potatoes (or equivalent)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Corn flake crumbs
Spices - salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika
1 cup soy sauce
2 cups duck sauce
1 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. Cube potatoes and layer on the bottom of a 9x13 pan


2. Put mayo in one bowl and corn flake crumbs and spices in the other.


3. Dredge chicken in mayo and then crumbs and place over potatoes. Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 350, uncovered.


4. Make a mixture of soy sauce, duck sauce and brown sugar and mix until well combined.


5. Pour over chicken and bake for another 1/2 hour.


 6. Enjoy the crunchy and saucy flavors. Yum!



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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Coffee Crumb Cake

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted all week!! Things have been CRAZY over here. Let's see, first back up to last Friday evening when our air conditioner decided to stop working. Yes, it was in the 90s outside and a cool 84 degrees inside the house all weekend. Needless to say, there was no DIYing taking place. We finally got it fixed Monday afternoon and it took about 4 hours of the AC running continuously for the house to cool down.

Then, Tuesday morning, while at a staff meeting at work, I was standing up in the back of the room and all of a sudden felt really light headed and dizzy. By the time I got to my office, I could barely see and was about to pass out. Thank goodness, someone happened to see me and realized I wasn't ok. I ended up being taken to the ER with a severe case of dehydration. Yikes!

So now it's Thursday and I figured I'd share a delicious recipe with you that you can make for any Father's Day celebrations that you have planned. I found this recipe on Pinterest and it immediately reminded me of the Entemann's cake that I used to eat growing up. I modified the original recipe to make it non-dairy (hubby is lactose intolerant) and I (and my family) think it it came out scrumptious!

Here's the recipe, as I made it with my modifications. If you do make the cake, please be sure to credit Tara as well.

New York-Style Crumb Cake
source: Cooks’ Illustrated free iPhone app and Cooks’ Illustrated May 2007

Don’t be tempted to substitute all-purpose flour for the cake flour, as doing so will make a dry, tough cake. If you can’t find buttermilk, you can substitute an equal amount of plain, low-fat yogurt. When topping the cake, take care to not push the crumbs into the batter. This recipe can be easily doubled and baked in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish. If doubling, increase the baking time to about 45 minutes. Cooled leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.


For the Crumb Topping:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted margarine, melted and still warm
1 3/4 cups cake flour

Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt, and margarine in medium bowl to combine. Add flour and stir with rubber spatula until mixture resembles thick, cohesive dough; set aside to cool to room temperature while you make the batter.

This should be the consistency when it's all mixed.


For the Cake:
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted margarine, cut into 6 tablespoon-size pieces, softened but still cool
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup soy milk
(1/3 teaspoon lemon juice - optional*)

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
*The original recipe calls for 1/3 cup of buttermilk. Since I wanted to make this recipe non-dairy, I researched non-dairy substitutes for buttermilk, only to find that there wasn't much out there. The closest I found was to add lemon juice or vinegar to soy milk so that's what I did. I asked my dad about it since he's more of a science guy than I am and he informed me that since soy milk doesn't have the same lactic acid that regular milk has, adding the lemon juice to it wouldn't really have the same chemical reaction that it would have if I added it to cow's milk. He didn't feel like it was necessary to add the lemon juice to the soy milk altogether, but I figured I'd throw it out here for you to decide. Food for thought. (Pun intended, ha!)
Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Cut 16-inch length parchment paper or aluminum foil and fold lengthwise to 7-inch width. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and fit parchment into dish, pushing it into corners and up sides; allow excess to overhang edges of dish.

In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment (I used a hand mixer because I was too lazy to take out the stand mixer), mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt on low speed to combine. With mixer running at low speed, add margarine one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no visible butter chunks remaining, 1 to 2 minutes. Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and soy milk mixture; beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping once if necessary.

Transfer batter to baking pan; using rubber spatula, spread batter into even layer.




Break apart crumb topping into large pea-sized pieces between your thumb, pointer, and middle fingers and spread in even layer over batter, beginning with edges and then working toward center. (Look how much crumb topping there is - yum!)


 Bake until crumbs are golden and toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes. Remove cake from pan by lifting parchment overhang.


  Dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.

Don't leave this mess for your hubby to clean up if you're making it for Father's Day!


Make sure you get a piece while you can because there most likely won't be any leftovers!



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Thursday, May 24, 2012

Oreo Balls

The Jewish holiday of Shavuot is coming up and it is traditional to eat dairy foods over the festival. My sister found this great recipe and asked me to make it when she hosts the family for one of the meals.  I modified it a little, based on the reviews, and it was SO easy and came out great (shhh, don't tell her I tasted some one)! With only three ingredients, you can't go wrong.


Ingredients:
1 package Oreo cookies
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

Instructions:
1. Put cookies in a bag and crush them into crumbs. It doesn't need to be as fine as flour, but there shouldn't be any big chunks.


2. Empty contents into a medium size bowl and add cream cheese.


3. Use an electric mixer to combine the cookie crumbs and cream cheese until it is evenly mixed.


4. Put the mixture in the fridge for an hour or so. (The original recipe said to put it in the freezer, but I found that it got too hard and I had to wait a while for it to soften up enough for me to work with.)


5. Put confectioner's sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll cookie mixture into one inch balls and roll it in the sugar. Place on a piece of parchment paper to harden.


6. Keep refrigerated. (Can be prepared in advance and then frozen.)

7. Try not to eat too many at once! If you make them, let me know how they come out.


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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Crispy Onion Baked Potatoes

It's been a while since I posted a recipe so I wanted to share another crowd pleaser. I admit I took the easy way out and used canned potatoes, but you can definitely use regular potatoes for this recipe. My favorite is Yukon Gold potatoes, but any type should work.

Crispy Onion Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:
4 cans of potatoes (or 4-6 baking potatoes)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup onion soup mix
1 teaspoon flour
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, crushed (or 2 tsp. garlic powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika


Directions:
1. Preheat over to 350.
2. Cut potatoes into bite size pieces and place in pan.


3. Pour remaining ingredients over potatoes and mix very well.



4. Bake uncovered for 1 hour. Raise temperature to 400 and cook an additional 15-20 minutes for extra crispiness.


Yay for one dish recipes that are easy and delicious. Enjoy!


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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Easy Crispy Baked Chicken

Here's another great, simple recipe that will definitely be a crowd pleaser. It has the delicious crispy taste of fried chicken, but it's baked!
























Ingredients:
4 chicken bottoms (I use them cut into eighths)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Crispy Coating:
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup corn meal
1/4 cup corn flake crumbs
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
oil spray (I use Pam)

Egg Coating:
1 large egg
1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1. Preheat over to 350. Pour oil on the bottom of a 9x13 pan and set aside.

2. Combine all crispy coating ingredients in one bowl and the egg coating in another.


















3. Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, then coat well with crispy coating and place in pan.

























4. Spray tops with oil spray.

























5. Bake uncovered for an hour and a half.

























6. Enjoy!

(Tip: You can prepare it all in the morning and then spray right before baking.)

Let me know how yours comes out!


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