Buffalo Turds 10/10 for cookouts!!!

I found this recipe on Reddit (thanks LakeRat) on a thread for favorite BBQ side dishes. It wasn't so much a recipe as much of "hey, here is something I like to make". Below is what I did and boy did they turn out great. After making them Ray managed to knock all the bacon ones on the ground, I made a few veggie ones for the non animal murdering people. As he was picking them up there was a little circle crowded around that was eating them as fast as he could pick them up. Because I cooked them for so long on low heat the peppers were cooked just right and just the right amount of heat was left in the peppers.

Ingredients:

10 Jumbo Jalapenos (the bigger the better). Cut in half and deseeded and de-veined

1 block cream cheese

1 handful of mexican cheese or colby or cheddar

Couple of spoonfuls of salsa for some flavor and color

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

package of bacon (hopefully 20 slices)

Pepper but probably don't need any salt since the bacon should add enough salt.

Garlic. I didn't add any but it might be good too

Directions.

Cut the peppers in half and deseed and devein. In seperate mixing bowl add cream cheese and shredded cheese. Add salsa and spices. Adjust salsa and spices to taste and use it as an excuse to keep eating the dip with some chips. Fill the peppers flush with the top. I had enough filling to fill the 10 peppers (makes 20 total) with a few bites left over for me.

The original recipe said to wrap the peppers with the raw bacon but I was worried that the top of the bacon wouldn't cook so I placed the bacon in the oven spread out on a cookie sheet at 425°F (approx since our temp gage is broke) for 10 minutes. This cooked it enough to still be pliable.

Next wrap the bacon around the pepper. Put a tooth pick at each end of the bacon to hold in place. I used wood toothpicks since I was worried about the plastic ones melting.

By the time they hit the grill the grill was pretty low (as far as charcoal grills go). They cooked for probably 20 minutes or so. I placed on foil which might have helped disperse the heat as well. By the time they were done the filling was bubbly (which wasn't good for when they are dropped on the ground), the top of the bacon was still soft but cooked and the bottom of the bacon had a very nice crunch.

Overall these were a complete hit and might have to be a staple for cook outs. There was a ton of left over food but these didn't last long even covered with a little bit of dirt....thanks Ray.

Kicken Chicken Stromboli (10/10)

I first ate this cheesy gooey goodness at Goodfellas pizza in Athens during my senior or perhaps my super senior year. Combined with $1 kicker sandwiches at KFC and an unhealthy relationship with World of Warcraft my waist line paid the price. When they finally stopped making this I though I could do it myself (although I have never really perfected it the way that they did). Probably the amount of cheese.

The secret to this recipe is the copious amount of franks red hot sauce and Asian sweet and sour sauce. When I make this I usually make 2 at a time so I can have left overs so the recipe is for two. Just cut in half if you only want to make one...but why would you.

2 loaf white bread dough (in the freezer section)

1 lb chicken breast (grilled, boiled, baked or even canned would work)

banana peppers (good quality hopefully)

1 med/large onion sliced or chopped (sweet)

2 cups cheese (mozzarella or sometimes use Mexican mixed blend)

Franks red hot

Sweet and sour sauce

1 egg

Itialian seasoning

pizza sauce or pasta sauce for dipping

On a floured surface take the thawed dough and roll to about 15" long by 8" wide. Place chicken in the center and then add franks and sweet and sour. It is hard to say how much to add but you just have to use your judgement. It might take a couple of times. I like it pretty hot and saucy so I don't really hold back.

Add onion and if sliced try to arrange so they line up with the long side of the dough so when you roll it they don't puncture your dough. Add banana peppers and then cheese. Make sure you don't add the sauce on the top. This will make it harder to roll.

Roll the dough into a cylinder and close the ends. This part can be tough. I like how Stromboli from a restaurant is multiple turns rather than a filled tube but I haven't figured out how to get it that way. I think it is because I add too much stuff and my dough isn't strong enough so I always end up with a filled tube but it is still good so no real worries.

Beat the egg and paint the top of the dough and sprinkle with Italian herbs. I don't really think this adds to the flavor much but it will make it look much better and smell amazing while baking. Cut a few slits in the top for the steam to escape and bake for approx 20-25 minutes at 350.

Enjoy.

Roasted Carrot Risotto and Yellow Squash Capri Salad

So I wanted to make a fancy dinner for Lindsay since she had been traveling for work for a week. I knew that I had some Abodro rice for quick a while so I figured it was time I finally got around to making some Risotto. I search around until I found a recipe for Caramelized Lemon and Soybean Risotto which looked really good. I did know where to get soy beans so I changed it to roasted carrots.

All and all it was just ok in my opinion. I learned a lot about making risotto, the most important fact being to follow directions and use all the ingredents. I forgot the butter and the cheese. Also next time I think I will add some water in place of the chicken stock since it was a bit too salty and not really creamy. (that might be because of the omission of butter).

Next time I should follow the directions from How to make basic Risotto From Video Jug which will hopefully help.

For an appetizer (which I am glad I made because we were both hungry) was a variation on a Capri salad. Since we don't really like tomatoes it didn't make sense to make a tomato salad. In place of the tomatoes I used roasted yellow squash. I roasted the thinly sliced yellow squash at 425°F for about 10 minutes and then layered fresh mozzarella, yellow squash and a basil leaf with a little salt and pepper. I drizzled with a little bit of olive oil but I need to omit it next time.

Overall it was a pretty good meal and has a lot of potential so I should make again.

Grilled Eggplant Rolls (7/10)

We had some left over little Italy pasta sauce from last week when we had some Ohio City ravioli. I searched around the internet and how a list of 50 things to do with left over pasta sauce. They weren't really recipes but just ideas.

Left over Pasta Sauce Ideas

It was a toss up between the pizza baked potato and the stuffed eggplant. I thought it would be fun to make something nice for Lindsay so I went with the eggplant since she likes it so much.

The recipe looked a little bland so I thought I would change just a few things.

1) I got fresh mozzarella cheese and added a slice to the top of each roll.

2) I didn't have any fresh basil since the herb garden isn't up and running yet so I just used some dried Italian spices

3)I used Asiago instead of Parmesan since we like the flavor a little more

4)I added a little pasta sauce to the filling to give it a red coloring.

I bought 2 medium eggplants and it made quite a bit. Next time I would only buy 1 and cut it much thinner.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 2 Tbs red wine vinegar
• 1 large eggplant, cut lengthwise into 1/4″ slices (next time try cutting very thin)
• Salt and fresh ground pepper
• 12 ounces fresh, whole milk ricotta (about 1 1/2 cups) – other types of ricotta would be great too!
• 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for sprinkling (used Asiago)
• 1/4 tsp each salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1/4 cup of chopped basil or flat leaf parsley
• Tomato sauce
• pinch of garlic powder if on hand
• pinch of onion powder if on hand

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat.
2. Stir olive oil and vinegar together in a small bowl and brush onto both sides of the eggplant slices; season both sides with salt and pepper. Or just add the salt and pepper to the basting mixture to make it easier
3. Grill eggplant slices, turning once, until tender and golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate. This won't take very long if you cut it thing
4. In a medium bowl, stir together ricotta, Parmesan, salt, pepper, and half of the basil. Add couple of spoonfuls of sauce for color
5. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the cheese mixture onto each slice of eggplant at the tapered end – 1 inch from the bottom edge with a 1/4-inch border on each side. Roll each slice away from you and arrange rolls, seam side down, on the baking sheet.
6. Spoon tomato sauce over rolls, add slice of mozz and sprinkle a little more Asiago for looks. and place them in the oven until warmed through, about 15 minutes.
7. Sprinkle with Parmesan and remaining basil and serve immediately.

Overall these were pretty good. I'm not sure if I will make them again. Overall they were pretty easy for how fancy they were. They might be good over a bed of pasta or if you really wanted to make a fancy rich meal you could make a cream sauce for a dinner party.

African Peanut Stew (8/10) - Fall/Winter Soup

African Peanut Stew. I found this recipe on Simply Recipes . I obviously didn't take the photo. I was going to take a picture of my pot but I knew it wouldn't have turned out very well so I thought I would just post this one instead. The soup was very good and worth making again so I am adding it here.

I had some left over pepper chicken that my parents brought up so I thought it would be a good time to use it for a soup that called for heavy pepper flavor. I also bought sweet potatoes from GE which I always thought were yellow but the ones in the bin for sweet potatoes were white. I got 1.5 pounds of those plus 1 pound of yams so I could get some of that orange flavor.

Overall the soup was really easy to make but make sure you have a very large pot if you follow the recipe. I also used a 28 oz can of tomatoes since that was the only size they came in for "crushed". This recipe filled our largest pot to the brim.

Another change that I made was that I added cumin since I love it as a spice and I left out the coriander since I only had whole and didn't want to overpower the bites with it in. I doubled the cayenne because Lindsay and I like things with a little heat. It could have used a little more since it is African after all.

INGREDIENTS

• 2-3 pounds chicken legs, thighs and/or wings
• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large yellow or white onion, sliced
• A 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced (omitted because I don't like ginger)
• 6-8 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
• 2-3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 15-ounce can of crushed tomatoes (used larger can)
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup roasted peanuts
• 1 Tbsp ground coriander (omitted, didn't have ground)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste (doubled)
• Salt and black pepper
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro

METHOD

1 Heat the vegetable oil in a large soup pot set over medium-high heat. Salt the chicken pieces well, pat them dry and brown them in the oil. Don't crowd the pot, so do this in batches. Set the chicken pieces aside as they brown.

2 Sauté the onions in the oil for 3-4 minutes, stirring often and scraping any browned bits off the bottom of the pot. Add the ginger and garlic and sauté another 1-2 minutes, then add the sweet potatoes and stir well to combine.

3 Add the chicken, chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, peanut butter, peanuts, coriander and cayenne and stir well to combine. Bring to a simmer and taste for salt, adding more if needed. Cover the pot and simmer gently for 90 minutes (check after an hour), or until the chicken meat easily falls off the bone and the sweet potatoes are tender.

4 Remove the chicken pieces and set them in a bowl to cool, until cool enough to touch. Remove and discard the skin if you want, or chop it and put it back into the pot. Shred the meat off the bones and put the meat back in the pot.

5 Adjust the seasonings for salt and cayenne, then add as much black pepper as you think you can stand—the stew should be peppery. Stir in the cilantro and serve by itself, or with simple steamed rice.

Yield: Serves 6-8

Fajitas (8/10 if made correctly)

Fajitas used to be one of my go to meals in college. Back then it was just a matter of grilling up some chicken with a boat load of McCormicks fajitas seasoning. A few years ago I made a recipe from Alton Browns show good eats and it turned out great. I am going to give it another attempt but make a few modifications from other recipes I have found.

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 minced shallot

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon pepper flakes

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

3 table spoons brown sugar

2 pounds skirt steak

Add wet ingredients first (except olive oil). Then add all dry ingredients. Finally add olive oil slowly. Marinate steak in freezer bag for minimum of 1 hour. I will need to try what happens if left overnight.

After done marinating cook on med/high heat for approx 3 minutes per side. After done place in a foil boat and allow to sit for 5 minutes in their juices. Slice meat against the grain and place back in the foil boat to absorb more juices.

For the veggies just jullian multi-color peppers and onions and toss in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill on very high heat and don't turn right away. I am going to try cooking them in the same skillet that I cooked the steak in.

Pistachio Cranberry Brussel Sprouts (9/10)

Pistachio Cranberry Brussels Sprouts

Ray and Nicole came over dinner on Friday and I made two completely new recipes. They didn't really match each other but overall I thought they were quite good. The first one (and the one worth writing home about) was a reach from my standard cooking and preference. But I know that I need to eat more veggies and Lindsay likes them so much that I decided to give Brussels sprouts a go.

Usually to make any veggie decent (for me at least) I just lightly pan fry in butter with a little salt and pepper (and don't forget cheese). I have done this once or twice before and Lindsay loved it but I still had a tough time enjoying Brussels sprouts. This time I went with a very savory relish of pistachios and dried cranberries. The results were so good that I was actually going back for more. Now obviously the relish was doing all the heavy lifting and you could add it to almost any veggie to make it fantastic but the combination of the two was simply amazing.

Ingredients:

1 lb Brussels sprouts

1/2 cup pistachio meats (I used unsalted) - can be bought at trader joes

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Olive Oil - Didn't measure

Fresh parsley - optional if you have it. Approx one handful

salt to taste - Didn't need a whole lot but it did bring out a lot more flavor

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°F

Coat Brussels sprouts with olive oil and place on roasting pan or baking dish. Bake at 400°F for approx 25 minutes or until done.

Place pistachios and cranberries in food processor. Turn on and drizzle in olive oil (used approx 1/4 to 1/2 cup). Keep processing until desired consistency. I stopped the processor when they were about the size of bb's.

Combine relish and Brussels sprouts. It was hard to bet the relish to evenly coat the sprouts but if I find a good way I will add it here.

After we realized how amazing this recipe was we used the rest of the nuts and fruit to make another batch to freeze. I think you could add this to pretty much anything and it would really good. I will have to think of other good uses (like stuffing jalapeños, which we did the next day). Also since it is so simple you can make as much or at little as you want.

Homemade Gnocchi (10/10) Make this again!

I want to get a few recipes that I have recently made as well as some of my classics on the record so I don't forget them. My latest attempt at a difficult recipe was gnocci. It was my second attempt at gnocci with the first one being a complete train wreck that went straight to the trash can.

So armed with that knowledge I watched a few videos on the internet and looked through different recipes while Lindsay made a Puala Dean cream cheese pecan pie (as if that can be anything but amazing).

The first step was to boil the potatoes whole in salted water with the skins on for 25 minutes. Make sure that you add the potatoes to cold water and then turn the heat on to the water. If you place the potatoes in boiling water they might split and mess up your water concentration. Keeping the skins on helps control the moisture content. The general consensus is you don't want to potatoes too wet because you then need to use extra flour which will make them too dense and hard. Many of the recipes called for baking them but I didn't want to wait the extra time.

After the potatoes are cook all the way through next you peel them while they are still hot. The game hot potato is called that for a reason so watch out and make sure you use a kitchen towel to hold them. After they are all peeled next they go through the potato ricer or food mill. The recipes online said you can mash them but they won't turn out as good and make sure not to use a food processor.

Use the potato ricer and put the contents in a bowl. Stir in 1 large egg and stir it quickly so the hot potatoes don't cook the egg. Add salt to taste and then add two medium sized handfuls of flour. I wish I knew exactly how much flour to use but unfortunately you only want enough flour to make the gnocci sticky enough to handle and roll into a tube but not so much that it gets too dense. I got extremely lucky the last time that I made it. After you put your two medium sized handfuls of flour give the contents of the bowl a couple of whisks with the fork and then put the contents on a floured counter top. If you dough is still too wet then add a little more flour and kneed to work in. You want to keep the kneeding to a minimum so that you don't over work the dough and make it hard.

Next take a portion of the dough and roll it into a tube about the thickness of your thumb. You can add a fancy design with the tings of a fork but I didn't. Cut the gnocci into bite sizes pieces about a half inch long. After you finish with one tube put them in boiling water or if you are making extra you can freeze them at this point. If you are freezing them place them on a floured cookie sheet so they are separated and put them in the freezer. When they are frozen put them in a zip lock bag and put them directly in the boiling water when ready to cook. The gnocci are done about a minute or so after they start to float. Make sure not to put too many in the pot and skim them off with a slotted spoon when they are done. I let them rest in a collindar while I finished the rest of the gnocci.

You can put the gnocci over any sauce. This time I made a creole cream sauce which was almost too rich since it used an entire quart of cream! I won't even add it here since my heart probably should never eat that again. I want to try the gnocci with a browned butter and sage sauce or pesto although it will be good to know how it is with just a plain store bought pasta sauce.

Short Version:

Ingredients:

2 lbs whole brown potatoes (Can use as many as you want since you only need to adjust the amount of flour and maybe add another egg if you really go crazy)

1 large egg

flour

salt and pepper to taste

potato ricer or food mill

Directions:

1) Place the potatoes in large pot, salt with 3 teaspoons, bring water to boil and boil for 20-30 minutes until done.

2)Peal potatoes with paring knife and hold with towel to protect hands.

3)Pass the still hot potatoes through the ricers.

4)Place riced potatoes into bowl and add to generous pinches of salt. Add one egg and mix in quickly as to not cook the egg. Add two handfuls flour and give another few turns with a fork to mix in.

5)Place the dough on floured surface, add more flour if needed and kneed lightly to mix in flour. Dough should be just slightly sticky

6. Roll portion of dough into thumb size tube. Cut gnocchi into 1 inch pieces. Do this quickly, the dough should still be warm.

7. Add gnocchi to salted boiling water. After gnocchi floats allow another 30 seconds or so of boiling time and then skim off with a slotted spoon. Repeat rolling and cooling until all dough is used.

Reference: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-gnocchi

Introduction Post

Like all of my other blogging attempts my first post is usually about how I don't know what the direction of the blog will be but I still write a post like this in case years down the road when this blog is public and has thousands of followers they can go back and look at what started it all. Clearly that isn't going to happen yet every time I start one I still have a post just like this, so without further ado...

The goal of this blog is to help record my recipes as more than just recipes. It will give me a record of what I have cooked but more importantly some of the tips on how to cook it, advice for what to do different and a reminded of how freaking good it was so I can remember to cook it again.