Pinch of This, That & the Other

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Whisking Wednesdays #19

Welcome to Whisking Wednesdays!

Whew, another one of those weeks that just flew right by me and so fast that I'm late getting this party going! The weather has finally turned to Fall here in Japan and it is just absolutely incredible outside. I want to spend every minute of every day out there! Which leaves little time in the kitchen BUT sometimes you just gotta get out there and enjoy the weather a bit. Soon it'll be winter and I'll have plenty of time to make those warm hearty fill your belly meals while hiding from the cold. Halloween is coming, yeah! I'm already on the look out for some awesome Halloween treats I can make with my daughter!

Thank you all who participated in this week's Whisking Wednesdays and hope to see you back again this week!

What's more Halloween than candy corns? I love these Candy Corn Apples. They are just so Fall looking and make me want to go to a carnival!

#1
Lady Behind the Curtain
Candy Corn Caramel Apples

Did someone say bacon? Mrs. B has done it again and wowed me with one of her dishes! I'm a bacon girl and this chicken looks so juicy and the bacon on top, ohhh, how that just makes it all so much better!

#2
Misadventures of Mrs. B
Bacon Braised Chicken

I'm always on the look out for new bread machine recipes and this one looks like a good one. It is defintely on my list of breads to try out this week. There is just something I love about dough rising in my kitchen. It is something like homemade bread that I always feel makes my house feel so much more homey.

#3
A Season for All Things
Italian Bread from the Bread Machine

The Rules:

Please link up to the URL of your post, not the URL of your main blog. When it asks for "Name", type in the name of your recipe.
Please leave a link back to this post in your post or Grab My Button.
Share your delicious recipes from this week. You are welcome to link up multiple recipes.
Leave me a comment and let me know that you've linked up.
Please visit at least two others and comment on the goodies they've added to this party.
Also, I would love for you to follow me but it isn't a requirement.

This weeks theme is going to be just your favorite recipe you've made from the week. Whether it is a dessert, breakfast, dinner or snack.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Steak Sandwich

Ok so this is my new favorite sandwich. It is probably one of the best things I've eaten in recent memory and I could eat this every single day if I could get away with it. I love the new Food Network show Pioneer Woman because I'm a Southern girl and I love anything that is a down home kinda hearty meaty Southern dish. I saw this sandwich on one of her recent episodes and actually bought the stuff to make it that night. The sandwich is chopped cube steak. I use cube steak all the time, why did I not think of this! I love onions and peppers so I added a ton to my sandwich and my husband just had meat and cheese on his. So easy to throw together and so satisfying! I honestly can't wait to make this again!

Steak Sandwich

1 package of cube steak (usually 3 pieces roughly), chopped
1 yellow onion
1 bell pepper
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
A few splashes of hot sauce
1 stick of butter
2 large hoagie rolls
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 slices provolone cheese

Add about 2 tbsp. of butter to a cast iron pan (or skillet) and throw in your peppers and onions and cook until almost tender. Take out and set aside. Salt and Pepper your meat. Then turn the heat up a bit so you get a good sear on your meat and add about another 2 tbsp. butter and toss in your meat. Add the onions back to the pan and add in the Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. Finish sauce with remaining butter. Generously butter a skillet and place hoagie rolls face down to get them nice and brown as well on both sides. Top roll with meat, onions, peppers and add cheese. Enjoy!

Chunky Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I loved using oats and nuts but no one else in my house really likes these things, especially in a cookie or dessert. I saw Anne Burrell making these recently on Food Network and decided to treat myself a bit and use all the things everyone else in my house hates and make myself a delicious batch of cookies. Not to mention that I've been making a ton of different types of cookies lately trying to find one really awesome unique cookie for the Crazy Cooking Challenge reveal in October. Obviously this one wasn't the winner since I'm posting it here now. I really liked this cookie. You can see by the picture that I prefer my cookies still a tiny bit gooey in the center instead of crunchy. I'm a soft, chewy, gooey cookie gal. I changed the type of nuts in this recipe and opted to not use the sea salt at the end. I was surprised that I liked the hint of cinnamon in the recipe because I usually don't care for the combination of cinnamon and chocolate. But it was really good and very subtle.

Chunky Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 ounces block dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and kosher salt. In large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar and butter. Using an electric beater or the paddle attachment of the stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until it they are light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat them into the butter and sugar mixture. Add in the vanilla as well. With a rubber spatula or with the stand mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture. Mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks and walnuts. Spoon the cookie dough by 2 tablespoon-size balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Place the cookie dough balls 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 12 to 13 minutes. Let the cookies cool for 2 to 3 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Beef Vindaloo

I'm not gonna lie, I don't like Indian food. Not even a little bit. My husband and I have been to quite a few Indian restaurants over the years and neither one of us like anything but the Naan bread. But I love this dish. Probably because I absolutely love vinegar. I could drink it. When I make sandwiches I don't use mayonnaise or mustard I use straight up vinegar on them. My homemade dressings don't need oil unless I'm sharing it with someone. I'm a vinegar-holic. So I was drawn to this recipe because of the vinegar. I've made it probably about 4 times now and I really really like it. It is spicy with that nice vinegar taste in the background. I love making flatbread with this and soaking up all that sauce with it. I got this recipe from Aarti Party on Food Network. My only problem was finding certain ingredients. I had to make my own masala spice mix as I couldn't find one in a store but I had most of the spices on hand to easily do that anyways.

Beef Vindaloo

2 pounds boneless beef top sirloin steak, trimmed of all excess fat, cut into 1-inch cubes 

Wet Masala (spice blend): 

1 teaspoon cumin seeds (or 1/2 tsp. cumin) 

2 (1-inch) pieces cinnamon bark (or 1 tsp. cinnamon) 

6 cloves 

4 peppercorns

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoon paprika 

1/2 teaspoon cayenne 

6 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped 

1-inch thumb fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 

3 tablespoon canola oil 

1 medium red onion, very thinly sliced

1 serrano pepper, sliced in half 

Kosher salt 

In a small skillet, over medium-high heat, toast the cumin seeds, cinnamon bark, cloves, and peppercorns until fragrant, about a minute or so. (Skip this step if you are using already ground spices.) Pour into a spice grinder, and process until powdered.   In a small food processor or blender, combine the toasted spice mix and rest of the wet masala ingredients (which is the garlic and ginger). Process until smooth. Place a large, preferably nonstick pot over medium heat, and add oil. When the oil is shimmering, add the onions and serrano pepper. Stirring frequently, saute onions until golden brown, about 12 minutes.   Add the ground wet masala, taking care because it will sizzle wildly. Stir quite vigorously, and turn down heat if it's bubbling too furiously. Don't wash the food processor cup yet. Keep stirring, with short pauses, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the masala comes together as one mass, about 2 minutes. Also, you may see little droplets of oil on the perimeter of the masala. That's a good sign!  Quickly add the meat, and stir, coating the meat in the masala. Stir and cook about 5 minutes until the meat browns.   Remember that dirty food processor vessel? Fill it with 1 cup of hot water swirl it around so it picks up any leftover masala, and pour that into the pot. Add 1 teaspoon salt, stir and bring the curry to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer. Cover and cook 45 minutes. Then cook with the lid ajar for another 15 minutes, to thicken the gravy slightly.  Check the meat at the end of the cooking time; it should be tender, and not chewy at all. Adjust salt if you like, and serve over rice over with flatbread.  

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Whisking Wednesdays #18

Welcome to Whisking Wednesdays!

I can't believe it is almost October! It is still in the high 80's daily here in Japan so it feels like Fall weather is never coming. I'm thinking of starting to make some pumpkin recipes despite the weather very soon. My baby girl is about to turn 4 and wants to go to school so very bad so this week has been filled with phone calls and tours of pre-schools for her. It is amazing how eager they are to leave home, make friends, learn and jump into the world that we all wish we could get out of sometimes! I hated school, I hated work but am thankful that I love what I do now, I love staying home and taking care of my babies everyday. It is a privilege that not all mothers are able to do and I love my husband so much for making it possible. Plus, that gives me plenty of time to get in the kitchen and bake up a storm almost every day which I too love! Oh yeah, did I mention we are currently getting slammed with a tropical storm.

Thank you all who participated in this week's Whisking Wednesdays and hope to see you back again this week!

The Rules:

Please link up to the URL of your post, not the URL of your main blog. When it asks for "Name", type in the name of your recipe.
Please leave a link back to this post in your post or Grab My Button.
Share your delicious recipes from this week. You are welcome to link up multiple recipes.
Leave me a comment and let me know that you've linked up.
Please visit at least two others and comment on the goodies they've added to this party.
Also, I would love for you to follow me but it isn't a requirement.

This weeks theme is going to be just your favorite recipe you've made from the week. Whether it is a dessert, breakfast, dinner or snack.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Roasted Broccoli w/ Cheese

Since I'm on a broccoli kick I'm trying new broccoli recipes to force my household to eat more of it. Broccoli is a superfood but try convincing my family of that, they don't seem to care! Like I mentioned in my Fresh Broccoli Salad recipe, I watched Alton Brown's Good Eats this week and it was on Broccoli. I've tried two out of the three recipes from that episode so far and absolutely LOVED them. This one was so good that I ate more broccoli than anything else for dinner that night. I've roasted broccoli before but never thought to toss in panco breadcrumbs to give it a great texture. Depending on the amount of cheese you use I consider this a pretty healthy side dish.

Roasted Broccoli w/ Cheese

1 pound broccoli, rinsed and trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely grated cheese (use your favorite, I use Cheddar)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Cut the broccoli florets into bite size pieces. Cut the stalk into 1/8-inch thick, round slices. Place the broccoli into a mixing bowl and toss with the olive oil, garlic, kosher salt and pepper and set aside.

Spread the panko into a 13 by 9-inch metal pan and place into the oven for 2 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove the panko from the oven and add to the bowl with the broccoli mixture. Toss to combine. Return the mixture to the pan, place in the oven and roast just until the broccoli is tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, toss in the cheese and serve immediately.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Fresh Broccoli Salad

I love broccoli. I've been trying to find some new ways to make it for my family so they'll complain about having it a little bit less. I watched Good Eats with Alton Brown earlier this week and it was a rerun of one on broccoli. Yeah! I've learned long ago you can't please everyone with a meal though I try. My husband doesn't like raw vegetables and my daughter only likes raw vegetables. But it is always hard to find good recipes with a raw vegetable. Both my daughter and I really enjoyed this. The broccoli is very thinly minced up so it isn't over powering with it being raw. The vinaigrette was awesome. The tomatoes gave it fantastic flavor. The recipe called for nuts but since my daughter doesn't like nuts I opted to not add them. Plus, believe it or not I can't actually find fresh basil here in Japan so I had to use dried basil instead. My daughter actually liked this so much she asked for a second helping of this, which really made me happy!

Fresh Broccoli Salad

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 lemon, zested
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound broccoli, rinsed, trimmed and very sliced thinly (on a mandolin if you have one)
6 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
3 ounces coarsely chopped, toasted pecans or hazelnuts *optional
2 tablespoons chiffonade fresh basil leaves

Whisk together the vinegar, zest, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper in a medium mixing bowl. While whisking constantly, gradually add the olive oil. Add the broccoli and toss to coat. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Stir in the tomatoes, hazelnuts and basil. Cover and allow to sit, at room temperature or in the refrigerator, for another 15 minutes before serving.

Pages

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Saturday, September 17, 2011