Do you use your crock pot much? I rarely use mine. John will sometimes use it to keep chili warm (he makes the best chili!!) but we don’t use it much for meals. I don’t often make recipes more than once because I like to keep trying new ones – but this is one that I thought was worth making a second time! Basically you just throw everything in the crock pot in the morning and then when you get home you have an awesome meal to eat with no prep work!
Tex-Mex Chicken Chili Serves 4, adapted from Martha Stewart
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 jar mild or medium salsa
2 tablespoons chopped chilies (from a can, in adobo sauce)
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup chicken stock
1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 small red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
Stir together the beans, salsa, chilies, flour, and chicken stock in your crock pot. Place chicken on top, season with salt and pepper. Scatter onion and bell pepper on top. Cook on low for 8 hours. (Don’t open the lid or stir) Take out the chicken, and shred (using 2 forks) if desired, then return the chicken to the pot. Serve in bowls, topped with a little sour cream on top and corn muffins on the side. Enjoy this perfect dish for a chilly fall day!
I’m one of those people that leaves myself the exact amount of time in the morning that I need to get ready and refuse to wake up any earlier, even if it’s for breakfast at home. I’m out of bed at 6:50am and out the door at 7:30am which leaves me just enough time to let the dog out and get ready, but nothing else. So I bring my breakfast to work to eat at my desk. Usually it’s yogurt and fruit, or sometimes a granola bar. I really try to limit the amount of processed foods I eat and I do enjoy making things from scratch (which I hope you already know from reading my blog!). I was watching Barefoot Contessa this weekend on the Food Network and she made granola bars. I think these will be perfect to take with me to work! These bars are super moist and chewy. I hope you find time to make your own!
Granola Bars Adapted from Barefoot Contessa (note: I cut the recipe in half because I can’t eat 12 granola bars on my own)
Makes 6 bars
1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup wheat bran
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup honey
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 cup mini chocolate chips (or whatever you like: the original recipe calls for dried apricots, dates, and cranberries)
Put oats, almonds, and coconut on baking sheet and toast in the oven at 350 degrees until lightly browned, about 10 minutes (stirring occasionally). Meanwhile, melt butter, honey, sugar, and vanilla in small saucepan over low heat. Let cool slightly. Place oat mixture and wheat bran in large bowl, then stir in the honey mixture and chocolate chips.
Line a loaf pan or small baking dish with parchment paper (to help you remove the bars easily). Spread granola into pan and bake at 300 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Let sit at room temperature for a few hours to harden before cutting into bars. Wrap each bar in parchment paper and store at room temperature.
If you want a fast, easy, somewhat “healthy” dessert, then this recipe is for you! A granita is a semi-frozen dessert from Sicily that typically is composed of sugar, water, and flavors. Three ingredients, no cooking! And if you somehow find yourself with 3 pounds of strawberries, this is a good way to use some of them up!
Strawberry Granita Somewhat adapted from Delicious Living
Serves 4
1 pound of strawberries (hulled)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Put the strawberries in your food processor or blender and puree completely. Strain in a sieve or strainer into a bowl to remove seeds. Mix in lemon juice and sugar.
Pour into a shallow dish (mixture should not deeper than one inch) and put in the freezer for about an hour.
After an hour, take a fork and scrape the mixture so it’s fluffy. Then put back into the freezer for another hour or so (until frozen) and then scrape again.
I really want to go strawberry picking this year but I haven’t gotten a chance yet. Luckily, Pine Tree Apple Orchard has picked fresh strawberries that you can buy, so I picked up a box today. Now I have over three pounds of strawberries. So I guess I will have to document in the next few posts what I do with all these strawberries. Aren’t they the best-looking strawberries you’ve ever seen?
My friend Rachel is one of the best cooks I know. I think she gets it from her mom, Lois, who is also a great cook. Rachel was co-maid-of-honor in my wedding, and at the wedding shower she threw me (which was kitchen-themed!) she had everyone bring me a recipe to share. She gave me the recipe to her scones, which I think are officially called “Rachel’s Scones” since that’s what she called them at the top of the recipe card. I’ve made them a few times and they always turn out great. I thought they would be perfect to take to work for breakfast this week. One of her suggested mix-ins is fruit, so I thought I’d try strawberries and lemon zest. In the past, I’ve done chocolate chips and also dried cranberries and white chocolate chips – both good combinations.
One great thing about scones is that they are easy to make, and call for basic ingredients that most people have around the house. This is all you need:
Rachel’s Scones Makes approximately 12 scones
3 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk (If you don’t have buttermilk, you can substitute 1 cup milk plus 1 tablespoon vinegar)
Your choice of mix-ins (chocolate chips, fruit, nuts, etc)
2 Tbsp melted butter
Sugar for sprinkling (I recommend sanding sugar or sugar in the raw)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Then, using a pastry blender (or forks or your hands if you don’t have a pastry blender) cut in the 1/2 cup butter. Mix in the buttermilk and then your choice of mix-ins.
For my mix-ins, I added lemon zest (from one lemon) and about 1/2 cup of diced strawberries. The berries turned the dough sort of pink, but that’s ok! Also, since the berries were moist, the dough got a little too sticky so I just added a few more tablespoons of flour.
Assemble the scones by one of the following methods, then top with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10-20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on the edges. The baking time will vary by how you chose to shape them.
Shaping Methods:
There are a few methods to shaping your scones. Rachel suggests forming the dough into a round (about an inch or so thick) on your baking sheet. Then you just slice the dough like a pizza.
You can also spread the dough out on your counter top then cut out the scones using a round cookie or biscuit cutter (like making cut-out cookies). This yields perfect little round scones that I think are pretty cute.
Or, if you are like me, you got a scone pan at one of your wedding showers. I’m not sure how I ended up with this gift or who/where it came from… I didn’t even know they made these and it wasn’t on my registry. I think it might be from Williams Sonoma since I recently saw one there when browsing the store. You can find one here too. Mine looks like this. I highly recommend this pan: it’s non-stick so the scones just pop right out. Convenient!
Here’s what the dough looks like in the pan:
And here’s what they look like finished:
And then I just had to make sure they taste ok. They do. Actually they’re more than ok. John says they’re the moistest scones he’s had. It’s all thanks to the melted butter!
The cafeteria at my office has these wonderful cookies called English Toffee Cookies. They only make them once a week, and I can never remember which day of the week that is, so a few months ago I decided I should try to recreate them at home. I searched the internet and found a few recipes that seemed similar. Luckily, the first one I tried out was right on! These cookies are so easy to make and I really enjoy the fact that you only have to get two measuring utensils dirty – just the one-cup measure and the teaspoon measure. That helps my tidy kitchen stay tidy!
The recipe makes a ton of cookies – perfect for sharing. I’d normally just cut the recipe in half, but it calls for 3 eggs, and last time I tried to split an egg in half, it didn’t go so well. So, I brought half the batch over to my family the first time I made them. This time I think I will share with coworkers! You could also just freeze half of the dough and take it out of the freezer next time you feel like having freshly-baked cookies.
I love cookie dough, how about you?
Here they are in the oven. If you are baking two sheets at a time, make sure to rotate them halfway through.
See, it makes a ton of cookies. There are two racks here
Coconut Toffee Cookies
Makes 5 dozen
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cup coconut
1 package (10 oz.) English toffee bits
Preheat oven to 350ยบ F. Beat sugar, brown sugar and butter in large bowl at medium speed until creamy, about 1 – 2 minutes. Add eggs, almond extract and vanilla. Continue beating until well mixed. Add flour and baking soda. Reduce speed to low, beat until well mixed. Stir in the coconut and toffee bits. Drop by rounded tablespoon on cookie sheet (I used my Silpat liners, but you could cover the baking sheets with parchment paper too). Bake 8 – 11 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Let cool slightly on cookie sheet (about 1 minute), then move to wire rack to cool completely.
I’m not sure what the deal was Saturday morning when I really wanted waffles, but my waffle iron did not want to cooperate! I’ve never had issues before, but this time they either kept cooking too quickly, even when I turned the heat down, or they kept getting stuck to the iron. After getting seriously cranky, I finally got a few good ones out of the batch. Since there’s only two of us at home, usually there are extra waffles since we each eat only one or two. I’ve found that if you cool the leftover waffles completely in a single layer, then stack and put in a freezer bag, they keep well in the freezer. Don’t stack them while cooling or they’ll get mushy. Then you can pop them in the toaster to warm them whenever you feel like having a waffle! In my opinion, it’s a healthier version of an Eggo. And waffles are so easy to make from scratch. Don’t bother with the boxed mixes!
As promised, my next few posts will probably be about strawberries. I went to the Minneapolis Farmers Market on Friday and picked up some strawberries. I knew they’d make a great topping for my waffles. Here’s an Emily-original recipe for strawberry sauce, which has been deemed “Zesty Strawberry Sauce” by John. The “zesty” part comes from the added lemon zest.
Waffles From Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, makes about 8 waffles
2 eggs
2 cups flour (all-purpose or whole wheat, I used all-purpose)
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Heat waffle iron. Beat the eggs in a large bowl until fluffy, then add in the remaining ingredients and beat just until smooth. Pour about 1/2 cup batter onto your waffle iron (you may need to adjust, depending on the size of your waffle iron). Close lid and bake until light golden brown. Repeat until you’ve made all your waffles.
Zesty Strawberry Sauce
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced into quarters
3 tablespoons of sugar (you may need more or less, depending on how sweet your strawberries are)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
Juice of one lemon
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Put all ingredients into a medium saucepan and stir. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until thickened. Top the waffles with the strawberry sauce and then with whipped cream (if desired). Enjoy!
Consider yourself warned – the next few posts just might be recipes all about strawberries! I am currently obsessed with strawberries and I’m dying for them to be ready at our local apple orchard where you can pick your own. For now I have to settle for the ones from the grocery store. Last Friday, John and I went over to my cousin Roxanne and her husband Dan’s house and I volunteered to bring dessert. Dan loves dessert. I thought these cupcakes would be the perfect thing to bring. They turned out really well! We thought the frosting tasted a lot like strawberry ice cream.
I added some chopped strawberries to the frosting, which changed the texture of the frosting. If you do add chopped strawberries, make sure you dry them well and you will probably need to add extra powdered sugar to stiffen up the frosting. As you will see, my frosting looks more runny than the picture with the original recipe. It still tasted great though.
Cupcakes 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
Frosting 6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons milk or cream
Strawberry jam (I used Smuckers Strawberry Spreadable Fruit)
Directions Make the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper or foil muffin cups. Mix together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla with an electric beater until thick and smooth (about 3 minutes). Add the butter and oil and mix well. Slowly add the milk and dry ingredients. Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full with the batter.
Bake for 20-23 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool slightly then transfer to rack to cool completely.
Make the frosting: Beat softened butter with electric mixer until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat until smooth then add the milk or cream and beat until fluffy. Mix in the strawberry jam (I used about 3 tablespoons but add as much or little as you like). Optional: finely chop a few strawberries and mix in! Or you could slice and add on top!
After graduating almost a month ago (wow, time flies), I have found myself with some extra free time until my full time job starts on June 22. I have been finding lots of food blog posts lately about bagels, so I thought that’d be fun to try!
I’m by no means an expert bread baker. In fact, the only bread I’ve ever made is banana bread, which is technically a “quick bread” so it doesn’t even count. So, instead of posting the recipe and instructions, here’s a link to the recipe I used so you can follow more expert instructions.
Since I’ve never made bread before, so I’m not even sure if my bagels turned out correctly, but they tasted pretty good! We made bagel sandwiches the first day, and I ate the rest of the bagels toasted with cream cheese and a drizzle of honey – yum! They last about a week stored in a plastic bag at room temperature. Good luck and let me know how yours turn out!
Last weekend, John and I made the trip out to South Carolina for his brother Jim’s wedding. We were only there for the weekend, so we didn’t really get to explore SC much, but the wedding was beautiful.
Does this ever happen to you: you’re traveling, staying in a hotel, and you get cravings for random foods? It happens to me all the time on trips. I tend to crave fruit and veggies because when you travel, you tend to eat all meals out, and most restaurants don’t make a point of serving good fruits and vegetables with meals (well, at least they don’t serve ones that are worth eating). Last summer when we visited Seattle, we were lucky that our hotel sat atop a Whole Foods Market. For breakfast each day, we just went down and were able to purchase fresh fruit and pastries for breakfast.
Anyway, on this trip, we made a stop at Atlanta Bread Company (which was really similar to Panera Bread we have here in MN). They had one shortbread cookie left on display. I really wanted it, but the service was so slow that I didn’t want to go back to the register to get the cookie and chance missing our plane. So, we stopped at Starbucks on the way to the airport, and I was lucky that they had shortbread cookies! However, this cookie did not satisfy my craving. It was pre-packaged, dry and crumbly. Not the kind of cookies I normally enjoy.
So, after arriving home, I just had to make shortbread cookies! These were especially good, moist and flaky (maybe due to the 3/4 pound of butter), and they were dipped in chocolate! Chocolate makes everything better. You might be like me, and hate making cookies that require rolling out, but these are worth it! These cookies sure satisfied my craving!! Make sure you eat them all within a few days, or they will get kind of dry. And if you are concerned about the amount of butter in these cookies, you can just eat one and give away the rest.
3/4 lb butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate (chips, or chocolate bar, finely chopped) I use Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Sift together the flour and salt, then add gradually to the butter mixture, mixing until the dough comes together. Shape into a disk shape, then wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This makes the dough easier to roll out.
Roll the dough out into 1/2 inch thickness, then cut out with cookie cutter. I used a 2 1/2 inch fluted round cookie cutter. Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (I always use my Silpat) and bake for about 12 minutes until edges are just barely starting to turn golden brown. If you like soft, not crispy, cookies (like me), take them out before they start to turn golden. Cool on cookie rack completely.
Place chocolate in microwave safe bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until chocolate is just melted. Dip half the cookie in the chocolate, then let harden on the cookie rack or on parchment paper.
Ah, summer. The season for grilling. I’ve recently realized that potatoes are one of my favorite foods. Roasted, mashed, fried… it’s all good! One of my favorite things in the summer is grilled veggies. I scored some fingerling potatoes (my favorite) at Cub on sale for $2.50 for a bag! I thought that grilled veggies would go great with a fun steak recipe I found on Mark Bittman’s blog, Bitten. You can visit his blog for the steak with shallot-thyme butter recipe that I made for the main course. (Note: we used filet mignon instead of skirt steak because we like that cut better.)
Fire up the grill! Here’s how you make them. There’s no actual recipe, so go ahead and add your favorites.
First, take two pieces of tin foil.
Then, wash the potatoes and cut them up so that they are similar sizes. That way they cook evenly. The smaller they are, the quicker they cook, and the sooner you can eat them!
Next, take a shallot or two and slice thinly. I prefer shallots to onions due to their milder flavor, but you could certainly add onions instead.
Now, cut up some green beans and mince some garlic. Throw it all onto the tin foil sheets. Sprinkle on some of your favorite herbs. I chose rosemary and thyme. Add salt and pepper too.
Then drizzle on some olive oil. And, then add some butter for good measure. Butter makes everything better.
Fold up the sides and close the packages tightly to seal. Throw them on the grill at medium heat for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. In the meantime, you can add the steaks to the grill. If you are lucky like me, you have an awesome grill-master husband who can get perfect grill marks on the steaks.
Look at that steak!
And here’s the finished product… it was delicious! Sprinkle a little lemon juice on the finished veggie packets to lighten up the flavor a bit.
