Lemon Madeleines
(This post was originally published here as part of the Whip It Up Challenege)
I never thought I would masquerade as one of those bloggers who can be domestic twice (twice!) in one week, but here I am, bein’ all domestic again. I have been wanting to try to make Madeleines for ages–in all fairness, since I saw The Transporter, Jason Statham is so dreamy!–but after I discovered Les Madeleines in Salt Lake, I have been dying for their lemony goodness without having to pay $1.75 each. So, I finally decided to splurge for a madeleine pan, ok, “splurge” may be a bit of an overstatement, it was only $20 bucks and after sampling my handiwork I am positive this cost will quickly be defrayed by cost-per-use. Lemon Madeleines are a French cookie/pastry that are perfect for breakfast, a mid-morning snack, an afternoon pick-me-up, or even dessert. At any rate, I’ve had this recipe in my file for months, and in honor of Whip It Up and a fairly slow Thursday night, I give you my latest attempt at curtailing my own domestically dormantness.
Tin Foil Dinner
(This post was originally published here as part of the Whip It Up Challenge)
It’s that time again, time to pretend that I know my way around a kitchen, and time for ya’ll to pretend to be interested in my sometimes pathetic forays into domesticity. Now, I’m not typically the camping type, at least not so much as an adult. I don’t mind tents and campfire and scurry little critters for an overnight adventure, but much longer than that and I really start to crave a hot shower. At any rate, this week I found myself “chaperoning” my favorite group of high school students on an overnight camping trip. It’s a long story on how, exactly, I managed to end up there, but the cookery that was involved should be documented. I decided to make a classic, no-fuss, Tin Foil Dinner. I have seen these babies made a million times in a million different ways, but I have yet to put my own together and then carefully tend the thing whilst it cooks on hot coals. So, I figure it counts, right?
For those non-camping savvy individuals, a Tin Foil dinner is typically some kind of meat and veggies with a bit of sauce, wrapped in a couple of layers of tin-foil and then slow-roasted over a dying campfire. According to my experience, the hour-long wait for appropraite coals (must be white, not orange, and no flames) and the hour-long wait for cooking will guarantee that regardless of your Tin Foil Mastery, this dinner will taste fantastic.
The recipe will be after the break without any of my afterthought improvements; here’s the nitty gritties:
- Total Prep-Time: 15 minutes to put together, about an hour to cook.
- Was the recipe easy to follow: Yes.
- Are the ingredients easy to find: Yes.
- Do you need special equipment: Does a smoldering campfire count as special equipment? If so, then yes.
- Does the end result taste delicious: It was ok, I would have added more seasonings; onion, garlic, salt & pepper. Also bell peppers would have been fantastic, and perhaps cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of chicken, and maybe some chives, and…hmmm, I must make these again with some improvements.
- Would I make it again: Yes, and I may try steak instead of ground beef. Or chicken with BBQ sauce and pineapple…who wants to go camping?
- Anything Else: Make sure you have marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate so you can whip up some s’mores while you’re waiting for your dinner. And then again after your dinner.
Apple Pie
(This post was originally published here as part of the Whip It Up challenge)
My family has a lot of traditions, particularly around the holidays. For many years we would get together every Thanksgiving to celebrate, and to eat. Some of you may remember that I have a huuuuge family. Seriously? It’s ginormous. Aunts and Uncles up the wazoo and cousins all over the place; I haven’t counted up as of late, but a year ago there were over 200 people from my maternal grandparents. Needless to say, when we get together to eat it is quite the production. Food assignments are essential, and for Thanksgiving my mom always volunteered to make pie. Lots and lots of pie. There is no point in having dessert if you feel you have to scrimp and cut tiny pieces so you’ll have enough to go around, that is not the point of Thanksgiving dinner. After getting a final-ish headcount, my mom would do a little quick math and figure out how many pies she would need to make so that everyone had at least a third of a pie all to him/herself. If there are 70 people showing up for dinner, that means we needed to bring, um, something like 20 pies. (My math isn’t great, so sue me.) Pumpkin, Apple, Banana Cream, Lemon Meringue, Chocolate Mousse, Strawberry, more Pumpkin, Pecan for my uncle who loves pecans, and any other requested flavors. My mom insisted on making all pies completely from scratch. No store-bought crust, no frozen crust, no canned filling or boxed puddings. And no fake (i.e. canned or tubbed) whipped cream. Everything was made from scratch. The day before Thanksgiving our house looked like a Pie Hospital with pies covering every possible surface; the table, the counters, even spread out on the beds. The biggest trick was to transport said pies to dinner, 25 miles away. My sisters and I would pack the Civic full of pies, carefully arranging them so they wouldn’t get squished, we would each hold 3 or 4 on our laps, more at our feet, more in the trunk, even a few in the back window. Pies were everywhere. It sounds like a ton of work–it was, don’t get me wrong–but my mom was always happy to bring the pies, and they were always a huge hit. (And we only brought one or two home, if any. My mom does good math, obviously.)
All that being said, I have made pie many times before and am almost an expert and pinching the edges to make them pretty. However, I haven’t made anything for probably five years and I was curious to see if making pie really was, in fact, just like riding a bike. I searched through my piles for a new Apple Pie recipe, my favorite flavor, and commandeered Handsome’s kitchen. (It should be noted, the Pie Crust recipe is from my mom, the filling is new. No good messing with something like good pie crust.)
The recipe will be after the break, here’s the nitty gritties:
- Total Prep-Time: about 30 minutes to put together, 40 minutes to cook, an hour to cool.
- Was the recipe easy to follow: Yes.
- Are the ingredients easy to find: Yes. I used green, yellow and red apples, but you can use any variety you like, and I’ve heard of chef’s throwing in a pear or two for a little different flavor.
- Do you need special equipment: Just a pie plate. You can use a fancy mixer for the crust, but you can also mix it up by hand for equally flaky results.
- Does the end result taste delicious: Of course.
- Would I make it again: Yes, although I would definitely suggest peeling the apples before cutting them up.
- Anything Else: Even if your pie doesn’t look photo-shoot worthy, you really can’t mess up the taste. Apples + Sugar + Cinnamon is going to be fantastic no matter what it looks like. Just scoop some vanilla ice-cream over the top to cover any mistakes.
Aloha Chicken with Coconut Rice
(This post initially published here as part of the Whip It Up challenge.)
Last week I had Asian-inspired food for seven, separate meals. My boss took the New Hire’s out to lunch–Thai food. Handsome & I went out for a birthday dinner with his brother (Happy 25 Scott!)–Chinese food. I had leftovers from both of those–repeat Thai and Chinese food. However, the remaining three meals were comprised of some of the best sauced-chicken I have ever had. It was absolutely delicious, and I–the domestically dormant one–made it! I think I found this on one of your blogs, somewhere…I found the recipe scribbled on a piece of scrap paper and hiding underneath a cookbook. If this looks familiar, please claim it and I’ll link you up. That being said, I have no real name for this dish, but it has chicken, and pineapple, and a fantastic garlic-ginger-soy sauce, and I served it with coconut rice; so I am dubbing it Aloha Chicken.
The recipe will be after the break; here’s the nitty gritties:
- Total Prep-Time: 1 hour 15 minutes. 15 mins prep, 1 hour bake. You have to kind of keep an eye on the chicken, and add the pineapple and red pepper part-way through the cooking process, but that took less than a minute.
- Was the recipe easy to follow: Yes. Tending the sauce takes 10 minutes or so, but everything else is more like a dump-and-toss-in-the-oven method.
- Are the ingredients easy to find: Yes, I love ginger and would highly recommend using fresh ginger root. It’s usually by the fresh mushrooms/herbs at the grocery store.
- Do you need special equipment: I used a cheese-grater to grate the ginger and it worked just fine, although I’m pretty sure there are ginger-graters out there somewhere.
- Does the end result taste delicious: It was like paradise relocated to my taste-buds.
- Would I make it again: And again, and again.
Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa Salad with Tomatillo Dressing
(This post originally published here as part of the Whip It Up challenge.)
I can’t believe Whip It Up is over! This little recipe challenge has done amazing things for my cookery/lack-of-cookery skills. I actually feel comfortable in the kitchen with all the pans and gadgets and things. I have been saving the best of my summer domesticity for last, partly because I wanted to feel a little more comfortable in the kitchen before attempting to make Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa Salad from scratch…and partly because I didn’t actually find the recipe (hiding in the bottom of my pile of recipes) until recently. For those of you who know the goodness, nay, the divinity of Cafe Rio, you are about to enter . Mecca. Please remove your shoes and give your toesies a good scrub before proceeding. For those of you who do not subscribe to the Cafe Rio religion, you are in for a TREAT! There are not many words in the English language (or possibly even the English AND Spanish languages combined, although I am nowhere close to even conversational in Spanish) that can accurately describe the epicurean nirvana that is Cafe Rio. So I’m not even going to try. All I can say is that regardless of your cookery skills, and despite the seemingly never-ending wait for the pork to get done (18 hours in a crock-pot, your nostrils will be tantalized for HOURS!), this is so worth it. On Sunday I threw a little dinner party, and if you are questioning the edibility of these recipes, please contact Vanessa and Cole, or Aaron and Amy for their opinions. (Hint, in their opinion(s), this was a-MAY-zing!).
My Cafe Rio night consists of several different recipes, all super-easy, although I did have a very Handsome Sous Chef at my disposal. (Is it against Policy to sneak the Sous Chef a kiss? Hope not!) After the break will be recipes for Pork Barbacoa (sweet and spicy shredded pork) and the Creamy Tomatillo dressing, as well as a quick guestimation of my Pico de Gallo recipe. Also required for a true Cafe Rio salad is Cilantro Rice, which I posted about here. To build your salad, you start with a flour tortilla, add a smidge handful of cheese, a spoonful or two of black beans, a spoonful or two of rice, as much pork as you think you can get away with, pile on shredded romaine lettuce, a couple of spoonfuls of pico, some guacamole if you have it, the tomatillo dressing and then homemade tortilla strips (which I forgot to take pictures of…sorry). This high-piled concoction will change your life. Seriously.
See? Don’t you feel changed? Don’t you believe me? A-MAY-ZING! Before I get into the details of the cookery, here are the nitty gritties:
heidikins cooks 
