Fresh Corn Tortilla Tacos

Last summer I bought a mexican cookbook at a garage sale for 50 cents. I was sold when I saw it could teach you how to make a griddle out of a 15-gallon oil drum... hahaha, not kidding!



Anyway, I pulled it out last night when we decided to have tacos for dinner. What resulted were fresh corn tortillas - really tasty - and with the help of the tortilla press Scott got me for Christmas, it didn't take long at all.



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MAKE TORTILLAS
2 Cups Corn Masa
½ teaspoon Salt
1 1/8 Cup Water

- Mix masa, salt, and water to create a smooth dough.
- Separate into 16 pieces and roll into balls.
- One at a time, place dough balls between two pieces of wax paper and flatten into a disk using a rolling pin or tortilla press.







COOK TORTILLAS

- Heat ungreased griddle or fry pan over medium-high heat.
- Bake tortillas, turning frequently, until they look dry and lightly flecked with brown speck. 1½-2 minutes.
- Serve tortillas immediately while still warm.

Note: If not using immediately … cool, wrap, and store in the fridge/freezer. To serve, reheat on griddle or pan fry lightly.

Strawberry Shortcakes

The guys don't allow pre-packaged-spongy-yellow strawberry shortcakes in the house - it's gotta be "the way mom makes it", so here we go...

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STRAWBERRIES
1 Quart strawberries
½ Cup sugar

- Slice strawberries
- Add sugar and let sit while you prepare the biscuits (or refrigerate overnight)



BISCUITS
2 1/3 cups Bisquick mix
½ cup milk
3 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
¼ teaspoon vanilla

- Heat oven to 425°F.
- Stir Bisquick mix, milk, sugar, melted butter, and vanilla until soft dough forms. Divide into six portions on an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
- Split warm shortcakes; fill and top with strawberries.

Whole Wheat Baguettes

There's nothing like fresh crusty bread to go with dinner. I altered a recipe I found on AOL to make whole wheat baguettes. The nice thing about this recipe is you can take a few minutes in the morning to make and shape the dough, and then forget about it in the fridge until right before dinner. Just 20 minutes in the oven and its done! I'm sure you could use all all-purpose flour if you don't have whole wheat flour on hand.

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INGREDIENTS:
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 packages active dry yeast
1 Cup whole wheat flour
2½­ to 3 Cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp butter (cut into pieces)
1¾ Cups water
olive oil
1 egg white, lightly beaten
Optional Topping: sea salt, garlic salt, sesame seeds

- In a large bowl (or KitchenAid mixer) combine sugar, salt, yeast, whole wheat flour, and 1 cup of the all purpose flour.
- In a microwave safe bowl, heat 1¾ cup water and butter. Heat for 30 seconds.
- Gradually mix liquid into dry ingredients until just blended.
- Slowly beat in all purpose flour until you have a sticky dough (approx 1¾ cups)
- Turn dough onto well floured surface & knead until smooth/elastic ~ add flour as needed.



- Cut dough in half. Place dough balls into oiled bowls and cover lightly. Let rest for at least 20 minutes.
- On floured surface, roll each half into a 15 inch by 10 inch rectangle. Tightly roll dough into a log and pinch seam to seal. Place loaves, seam side down, on a greased baking sheet and taper the ends. Brush loaves with olive oil, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate 2 to 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 425°. While the oven is heating, remove loaves from fridge, uncover, and let stand for 10 minutes. Cut 4 diagonal slashes on top of each loaf and bake for 20 minutes.
- Remove loaves from oven and brush egg white on top of loaves and put back in over for 5 more minutes. (Optional Topping: Before baking, after you brush loaves with egg, sprinkle with garlic salt, sesame seeds, sea salt, etc, etc)

Roasted Garlic Chicken & Potatoes

For Christmas, my in-laws got me the neatest gift, a Garlic Roaster Express. You can roast up to three heads of garlic in about half the time of doing it in the oven ~ not to mention not having to heat the whole house to do it.



I decided to use it to make a take on NJ Mom's chicken and potatoes. In my version the potatoes were great, but I made the mistake of leaving pieces of roasted garlic on top of the chicken and after it baked they had a not so fantastic texture.

Next time I would use the marinade to just make a roasted garlic potato side dish for something else.

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INGREDIENTS:
2 Potatoes, thinly sliced
2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 head roasted garlic
¼ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper
lemon juice

Roast Garlic
If you don't have a nifty garlic roaster...
- Preheat the oven to 425F.
- Remove the outer papery covering of the garlic. Slice off the top of the head so most of the cloves are exposed. Place on a square of aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil. Fold the foil over the head to completely enclose it.
- Roast for about 45 minutes, until the garlic is completely soft and lightly browned.
- Let cool and then pop out the softened cloves of garlic

Marinate Chicken
- Mash garlic with a fork and stir in olive oil, vinegar, thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Marinate chicken breasts in garlic puree mixture.



Bake
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In a roasting pan, combine potatoes with the garlic puree that the chicken was marinating in; arrange chicken breast on top.
- Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice.
- Bake 50 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked and potatoes are tender.

Beautiful Turkey Stock

I was intrigued by a 2lb package of turkey necks at the local publix. Apparently some folks like to braise them like osso buco. I wasn't sure I could do that, but I thought they would be perfect for making turkey stock.

For those who might care... stocks get their body from the collagen holding the bones together. The collagen will melt and turn into gelatin if you slow simmer it. A good stock congeals with refrigeration (and I was thrilled to see that mine did)

Basic Steps:Chop → Simmer → Skim → Strain → Chill

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Ingredients:
turkey necks
1 onion, chopped
2 celery stalks (including leafy tops), chopped
1 carrot, chopped
6 peppercorns
6 allspice berries
2 bay leaves
4 chicken boullion cubes
fresh parsley
water

Instructions:
- In large stockpot, brown turkey necks in olive oil. Remove and reserve.
- In same stockpot, soften onion, carrot, and celery. Add turkey necks and remaining ingredients.
- Simmer for a minimum of two hours.
- Strain through a fine-meshed strainer. Chill.
- Scrape chilled fat off the top of the stock and discard.

Cinnamon-Apple Pancakes

Nothing too fancy, but super tasty. We added half of a peeled apple (grated) along with some cinnamon to packaged pancake mix...







Hungry Yet?

Beef Pot Pie Filling

We woke up to this this morning...


A day like this called for something warm and filling for dinner ~ preferably something that didn't require me going to the store. I decided to make what I can only describe as the filling for Beef Pot Pie. Craig had the great idea to serve it up with homemade buttermilk biscuits, so we quickly whipped up a batch.

The photo doesn't do it justice - sort of makes it look like dog food - but I assure you it was quite tasty!


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Ingredients:
1 pound beef, ½-inch cubes
2 carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 potatoes, skinned & diced
1 bay leaf
1-2 packs instant beef gravy
fresh parsley (optional)
salt & pepper



Instructions:
- Brown beef cubes. Add carrots, celery, onion, and cook until softened. Season with salt & pepper.
- Cover with water and bring to a boil
- Add bay leaf and potatoes, lower heat, and simmer until potatoes soften (or a few hours to keep the kitchen warm and smelling good!)
- Shortly before serving, add instant beef gravy packet and chopped fresh parsley (if desired), and cook until thickened.
- Season with salt & pepper to taste

Gravy Mountain

FIRST let me apologize for the blurry photo. Craig had a high school lunch flashback while making his giant open-faced sandwich with white bread, leftover roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and thick gravy.

False Advertising

Remember those commercials with the lonely Maytag Repairman? Well apparently that is a thing of the past.



Yep, you read right, that thermometer in our Maytag fridge is reading 70 degrees. Only one year and three months old and the fridge had a coronary. Hopefully the warranty will cover whatever is wrong with it, but we won't find out until the not-so-lonely repair man can get here tomorrow to look at it.

Turnip Greens

After not being able to find escarole or broccoli rabe in the stores down here, I decided to give turnip greens a try. I was pleasantly suprised. I just cut off the bottoms of the stems, steamed them and then tossed with sauted garlic, olive oil, and hot seeds. If I didn't know better I would have thought I was eating broccoli rabe.

Banana Muffins

This recipe is based on Lisa Kreft’s “Banana Crumb Muffins” on allrecipes.com. We wanted them to be closer to banana bread, so we made several changes and additions.
Makes 12 Muffins.

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Muffin Batter:
1½ Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
¾ Cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 Cup butter, melted

Topping:
½ Cup packed dark brown sugar
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1½ tablespoon butter
finely chopped walnuts (optional)


DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, mix together 1½ cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, & melted butter.
- Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
- In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, cinnamon, and nuts (if desired). Cut in 1-tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Toys

NYE Potato Gnocchi

gnocchi test run


After reading through many gnocchi recipes, I created a simplified version which gave surprisingly good results.

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Ingredients

3 cups mashed potatoes
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon Romano cheese
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
2 beaten egg yolks
2 cups all-purpose flour
chopped herbs, optional

In a bowl combine the mashed potatoes, salt, garlic powder, cheese, and herbs (if desired). Stir until well combined.

Stir in the two beaten egg yolks.

On a board, place the two cups flour and add the potato mixture. Knead all together well until combined. Do not add more liquid; just keep kneading until you have smooth slightly sticky dough.

Cut a small piece of dough and roll out into a long rope (finger width?). Cut each rope into small pillows. You can leave them as is, or create the more traditional shape. To do this, roll each pieces along the prongs of a dinner fork using one finger, in a way that the side of the piece running along the fork will be ruffled and the side you are pressing with your finger will have an indent (I have not mastered this as you can see above). Place onto a parchment lined cookie sheet in a single layer and freeze.

When frozen solid, place gnocchi into a zip-top bag and return to freezer for future use.

Jenn’s Tip: do not leave dough on the counter to finish later. Always fast freeze gnocchi after cutting. Sitting out can make the dough soft & gooey.

When ready to serve, bring large pot of salted water to a boil. When rapidly boiling, add frozen gnocchi, and stir so they don't stick to bottom. When all gnocchi float to the top let cook another two minutes, then drain and toss with favorite sauce.

New Years Eve at the Sipala's

Some random pics from our NYE festivities

beginnings of the bar setup


homemade soft pretzels, spicy mustard, and soppresatta


arugula salad on a breadstick (everything's better on a stick!)




homemade potato gnocchi with alfredo


spicy homemade dumplings (getting ready to be steamed)


individual beef wellingtons with garlicky spinach and gorgonzola


molten coconut-brownie ramekins

C is for Cookie

I still can't compete with AR's holiday baking bonanza, but I'm working on it!!

Wedding Cookies / Walnut Balls

The Christmas baking has begun!



I saw a recipe for "wedding cookies" on Mommy Cooks, and it looked similar to the walnut balls I always look forward to at Christmas time.

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Wedding Cookies / Walnut Balls

1 ½ cups butter or margarine, unsalted
¾ cup confectioners' sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups almonds, finely ground (I used walnuts)
1 tablespoon + plus 1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
confectioners sugar (extra)

- Preheat oven to 325°F (165°C).

- Cream butter or margarine in a bowl, gradually add confectioners' sugar and salt. Beat until light and fluffy.

- Add almonds and vanilla.

- Blend in flour gradually and mix well.

- Shape into balls using about 1 teaspoon for each cookie.

- Place on ungreased cookie sheets, and bake for 15 minutes. Do not brown.

- Cool slightly, then roll in the extra confectioners' sugar.

Ravioli-Pierogi Hybrid

My last kitchen adventure started as a batch of cheese ravioli. Then I saw two lonely links of italian sausage and some mashed potatoes in the fridge. Next thing I know I've made a batch of pasta wrapped sausage, potato, & cheese with a little bit of minced onion and grated carrot... sort of a cross between a ravioli and a pierogi. I know it sounds like a strange combo, but it was pretty good - honest!



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After making ravioli, freeze solid, and store in ziplock bags. To serve, boil for 6-7 minutes and then toss with butter, salt & pepper.

Filling:
2 links Italian sausage
½ onion, minced
1 small carrot, grated
1½ cups mashed potatoes
5 oz ricotta cheese
½ oz romano cheese, grated
¼ teaspoon salt

- Remove the casings from the sausages and crumble the meat into a skillet. Cook for a few minutes and then add onion and carrot, stirring, until the sausage meat has browned and the onion is golden.

- Place sausage mixture into food processor and pulse a few times. Add mashed potatoes and pulse a few more times to combine. Remove to bowl.

- Stir in ricotta, romano, and salt. Mix well and taste to check seasoning.

Dough:
2 cups flour
1 egg
1-teaspoon salt
¼ cup water (+ more as needed)

- Mound flour in a bowl or on a large work surface.

- Form a well in the mound and add the eggs, salt and water.

- Begin mixing with the fingers of one hand while using the other hand to push flour from the edges of the well into the egg mixture.

- Continue mixing with one hand taking more and more flour from the interior of the well as you go and keeping the walls of the well intact with the other hand. At one point, the dough will be intact enough to fold the well over the dough so that you can continue mixing.

- Form the dough into a ball and knead for 5 minutes or longer until the dough is smooth and feels silky.

- Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

- Remove from the refrigerator and allow the dough to rest for about 15 minutes before rolling.

Milk Chocolate Florentine Cookies

I pulled out the cookie cookbook I got last year for Christmas and bookmarked a few to try. I'm not sure how many I will get to, but here is the first experiment - Milk Chocolate Florentine Cookies. These are thin and crispy cookies that are sandwiched together with melted chocolate.

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Milk Chocolate Florentine Cookies
Courtesy of The Cookie Bible

Ingredients
2/3 cup butter
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light or dark corn syrup
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

MELT butter in medium saucepan; remove from heat. Stir in oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla extract and salt; mix well. Drop by level teaspoons, about 3 inches apart, onto foil-lined baking sheets. Spread thinly with rubber spatula.

BAKE in preheated 375° F. oven for 6 to 8 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets on wire racks. Peel foil from cookies.

MICROWAVE morsels in medium, microwave-safe bowl on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 10- to 20-second intervals, stirring until smooth. Spread thin layer of melted chocolate onto flat side of half the cookies. Top with remaining cookies to make sandwiches.

Makes 42 sandwich cookies

Roast Beef

One recipe from college we will never give up... hot roast beef sandwiches.



Italian roll + thinkly sliced deli roast beef + american cheese + cheap brown gravy + lots of black pepper ... put sandwich together, throw in the oven for a few minutes to heat up, and then broil to toast everything. YUM!

Hoisin BBQ Chicken

The temperatures are finally back to normal, so I didn't feel too bad about sending Craig outside to grill some chicken. I remembered I had an open jar of hoisin sauce in the fridge, so I decided to put something together using it (to be honest, I have no clue how long its been in there). It turned out pretty good!!

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Ingredients :
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Dry Rub :
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Garlic powder
1/4 Tsp Ground ginger
1/4 Tsp Black pepper
1/8 Tsp Five spice powder
Glaze :
2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp Honey
½ Tbsp Rice wine vinegar
½ tsp Sesame oil
1 tsp Cornstarch
1 Tbsp Cold water

- Combine the salt, garlic powder, ground ginger, black pepper, five- spice powder and rub evenly on both sides of chicken.

- Combine the hoisin sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and cold water and stir until smooth. Add the cornstarch solution to the hoisin sauce, whisking for 1 minute, then remove from the heat.

- Grill the chicken, brushing frequently with hoisin glaze, until the juices run clear.

Chili Sauce for Enchiladas

On Mom & Dad's last adventure, they brought us back a variety of dried chilis. Tonight I decided to break out a bag and make a homemade chili sauce for a chicken enchilada dinner.



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Ingredients
12 long red chiles (dried)
2½ cups water
½ onion, finely minced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 Tbsp. flour
salt

First Prepare the Chili Pods:
- Wearing gloves, take dry chili pods and rinse them in warm water. Remove the stems and some seeds. Place the cleaned chiles in a saucepan, add water, and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn off heat and cover pot to allow the chilis to steam for another 10 minutes.



- Pour the mixture into a blender and blend until a smooth puree is obtained or use an immersion blender as shown.



- Strain the puree through a sieve or colander to remove chopped bits of skin and any remaining seeds.



- Now you have a straight chili puree. You could probably use this as is, but I decided to add a little more flavor to it.



- Place oil in a saucepan and sauté onion. When transparent, lower heat, add garlic and sauté for one minute.
- Add flour and mix well.
- Add chile puree and stir for 2 minutes.
- Add water to thin if necessary and salt to taste.
- Simmer 10 minutes.

Earlier I boiled and shredded a few chicken breasts and then tossed it into the sauce to simmer away for a bit.

Tasting Note:
To me this wound up tasting just like chicken paprikash. Add a little cream or sour cream and it would be chicken paprikash.

Marinated Beef Stew

We've been eating turkey for days, so I thought some beef was in order for dinner. I decided to make beef stew using some of the ingredients I still had out from Thanksgiving - like cognac and allspice berries and serving it over left over mashed potatoes instead of noodles.

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Step One: Marinate the Beef
1.5 pounds London broil cut into cubes
1 cups dry red wine
2 cups beef broth
¼ cup cognac
2 bay leaves
8 cloves garlic, smashed
10 whole peppercorns
1 tsp dried thyme
1 onion, sliced
5 whole allspice berries (optional)

- Combine all the ingredients in a large ziploc bag and refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.

Step Two: Make the Stew
Flour
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, chunked
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
½ cups dry red wine
1 tsp dried thyme
Additional beef broth
2 Tbsp Corn starch (optional)

- Strain the marinade from the meat, reserving all the liquid, but discarding everything else. Keep the marinade.



- Melt the butter into the olive oil in a large pot. Pat the meat dry with paper towels and then coat with flour. Sear the pieces of beef until well browned on all sides, in batches if needed, and remove all meat to a plate.



- Add more olive oil to the pan if needed and sauté the onions, carrots and celery until almost translucent. Deglaze the pan by pouring in about 1 cup of the reserved marinade and ½ cup red wine and scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Pour in the rest of the marinade, browned beef, and thyme into the pot and bring it to a simmer. Simmer, covered, on low heat for about 2 hours (adding broth if necessary).

- If you prefer a thicker stew, combine 2 Tbsp corn starch with 2 Tbsp water until well combined. Add to the pot and stir until thickened.

Can you believe I forgot to take a photo of the finish product?!