it’s simple and delicious.
I have to say that my friend over at Dishing Up Delights does a fantastic job on all of her recipes, but the ones that catch my eyes are her desserts. As you can probably tell from my own postings, that I am not that big into desserts, however I should be as my kids favor desserts over things like bbq pork, carne asada, and shrimp tacos. There are occasions however, especially during an extended weekend, where I do think of making desserts for them such as cinnamon pies, and homemade doughnuts, and this weekend was no exception.
Blueberries are in season right now, and they are in abundance. When I saw them at the store, I immediately thought of making a pie, but I love using my ramekins, so I immediately though of a quick and easy blueberry crumble. You know, the delicious crumble of buttery oats? Yes, that kind, and the kind that kept my daughter wanting more. This is an easy recipe, and one that my four year old daughter, I should say three year old, going on four, was able to help me with through the entire process. Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
Begin by adding the flour, sugar, and cinnamon to a large bowl. Toss in the butter, and begin mixing it into the flour with a fork. You want to keep forking the mixture until you see it build a nice crumble. Toss in your oats.
Take 1/2 of this mixture and set it aside. Take your blueberries and add them to the large bowl of oats and flour mix, and toss well.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. As the oven preheats, butter the insides of the ramekins, I used 8 of them.
Add the blueberry mixture about 3/4 of the way to the top to each ramekin. Top each ramekin with the remaining crumble that you set aside. Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes until you have a great golden brown top.
Let this sit for about 10 minutes before eating. You can serve this alone, or place a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Happy Fourth!
We recently got invited to dinner by our cousin Mark, as he wanted to celebrate his birthday. He chose a really great Indian restaurant in Brookfield, called Taste of India. I never even knew this place existed as it was tucked away in a strip mall. Their menu was pretty killer, and as I have only had Indian food on a few occasions, I let Mark do the ordering. He was well versed in Indian food as he lived in the New York city area for the majority of his life, and Indian food was abundant.
We sampled everything from samosas, nan, chicken curry, and a great spinach dish, only to name a few. Due to this experience, I have not been able to shake the aroma, and the flavors out of my mind. I truly loved the food, and you know what that means. The only true Indian dish that I know how to make is Tandoori chicken, and this my opportunity to make a killer batch of it.
Tandoori chicken is a common Indian dish, typically a deep yellow or red color, and either baked in a very hot oven, or grilled. The seasonings are spot on, and the intensity of the flavors is one that keeps you coming back for more. The smells are out of this world as well.
At first, I was going to go with just a dry rub, but as I had some yogurt laying around, I decided to incorporate that into the flavoring as well. The combination of the spices and yogurt, need to marinate the skinless chicken pieces for at least 8 hours, or better yet, over night.
Ingredients:
Get your food processor out. Add in everything but the chicken, oil, and rice. Turn it on medium and let it ride for a couple of minutes. Scrape down the sides, and turn it on again for about 30 seconds. You end up with a really killer marinade that looks great, and smells heavenly.
Get a large ziplock bag out. Fork your chicken pieces as this will help the marinade set into the chicken pieces. Place in the ziplock bag, and add in the marinade. Seal, removing as much air as possible, and place in a bowl in the refrigerator, overnight.
Before you are ready to cook, place the bowl of chicken on the counter and let it come close to room temperature. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil, and place the chicken on the baking sheet. Drizzle vegetable oil on the chicken pieces. Place in the oven for nearly 30 minutes, or until the juices run clear.
Serve on top of basmati rice, with a lime wedge, cilantro, or sliced onions. Not only will you love the flavors of this chicken, but the color is really nice as well.
I have always wanted to try my hand at tandoori chicken. It seems easy and the flavor must be great!
Mmm! Those spices sound like they make for a lovely, flavorful chicken!
A few days back I was reflecting on some of the food that I grew up eating, not so much in my house, but around town. I thought my dad always had a good taste for a few things around town, in particular the tacos from Indiana Beach, the tacos from Lord John, the stromboli in Monticello, and something called the bake. At the time, I really never understood the bake as it is baked ground beef, shaped like a hot dog, and placed in a hot dog bun. I think that confused me as a kid as the only thing that I thought should be placed in a hot dog bun was a hot dog.
Both my son and daughter love hot dogs, and cheese burgers for that matter, so upon reflecting on the things about Kokomo, I immediately thought of the bake. A soft and tender ground beef shaped hot dog, sweetened by vinegar and sugar. Light, fluffy, and moist. A big hit.
Ingredients:
To a large bowl, add the ground beef, salt and pepper, breadcrumbs, milk, and water, and mix really well. You will notice that this is really a bit smooth, and a texture that you probably do not work with that often. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Form the meat into hot dog shapes, approximately bun length, and place in your baking pan. This makes about 7-9 bakes. Combine the remaining water, vinegar, and sugar in a small bowl, and drizzle over the meat.
Bake in an over for 75 minutes, covered. Once cooked, remove from the pan to get them out of the fat it was cooking in.
To serve, place a bake in a good hot dog bun, top with diced onion and mustard, or if you are like the rest of my family, eat plain.
Something delicious, different, and from my hometown of Kokomo. Hope you enjoy.
oooh…. I will have to try this for the holiday! Finally-something different!
Who does not love phlyllo dough (filo dough)? Seriously. Paper thin sheets of unleavened flour dough, typically brushed with butter or olive oil, and baked until golden brown. You could figure out so many ways to make some dishes just out of that. I am exploring the whole phyllo dough experience lately, and granted, I made some killer baklava back in the the day, but I wanted to do something Greek this weekend, only due to the fact that I was not able to attend the annual Greek Fest held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I could not get Greek chicken off of my mind, as well as baklava, so I decided to take things into my own hands and get down and make spanakoptia.
Say that three times. Spanakopita. My kids had fun trying to say it as they watched me make this really simple, yet super delicious dish. Spanokopita reminds me a lot like baklava, however it is so much more savory as it includes feta, spinach, and parsley.
This takes about 20 minutes to prepare, and about 25 minutes to bake, and on your table in no time.
Ingredients:
Begin my making a garlic oil. This is easy, as you will bring your olive oil to medium heat in a pan, adding your garlic, and let cook until a light golden brown, being careful not to burn it. Remove the garlic with a slotted spoon, and let the oil sit in the pan. Next, add roughly a tablespoon of the olive oil to a deep skillet and bring to a medium to high heat. Add half of your spinach to the skillet. Cook this until it wilts, approximately 1 minute. Remove the wilted spinach to a strainer to remove as much water from the spinach as possible. Repeat this process with the rest of the spinach.
Next, bring the remaining oil back to heat and add in your scallions and red onion, cooking just until soft. Add in your parsley, and spinach, mixing well. Remove from the skillet and place in a small bowl to let cool.
To a larger bowl, beat your eggs, and add the feta cheese, mixing until nice and creamy. Toss in the cooled spinach mixture, and combine.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. As the oven preheats, melt your butter.
To a large baking pan, use your pastry brush, and lightly coat the pan with some melted butter. Open your phyllo dough, and cover with a towel as it can harden on you if you do not move quickly. You will lightly butter each top of the phyllo, adding six pieces on the bottom, remembering to lightly brush butter on each sheet. Once you have six down, spread the spinach and cheese mixture evenly over the top. Repeat your process with six more sheets. Add more spinach and cheese to the top, and place eight buttered sheets on top.
Bake for approximately 25-28 minutes, until you have a great golden brown color. Remove and let this cool and set before your slice into it.
Trust me on this one, it is really good. Creamy, flaky, and just watching my wife it it, really comforting. I hope you enjoy.
Handling phyllo can be tricky, though, right? Worth it I suppose, as your recipe brings to mind a type of creamed spinach (in a great way) layered between those buttery, crisp phyllo sheets. Mmmmm, maybe I better rethink my anxiety about phyllo!
Anyway, I found you on TasteSpotting and am writing to say that if you have any photos that aren’t accepted there, I’d love to publish them. Visit my new site (below), it’s a lot of fun! I hope you will consider it.
Best,
Casey
Editor
http://www.tastestopping.wordpress.com
Will be trying this soon.
If you know me, I love hot and spicy food. I just love it. I love the flavors of chilies, and the results of those flavors on my pallet. I have been thinking of the usual go to Thai dishes lately, however I wanted something different, however Asian inspired. I immediately scanned some of my favorite Chinese takeout restaurant menus, and quickly found Kung Pao Chicken, a common and traditional dish. Who can go wrong with that? I know the flavors of that dish, and I realize that I can get a nice heat off of the peppers, so I decided to come up with my version of Kung Pao Chicken.
Let’s just say that you get a nice subtle heat (my wife doesn’t like spicy food and she loved it).
This recipe also deals with a wok, and with that, you have the stir fry, so as you can tell, this one is really quick to make. You can have it ready to go within a hour.
Ingredients:
Begin by marinading your chicken. You do this by by mixing 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce, the black pepper, 1 tablespoon sherry cooking wine, and 1 tablespoon of the corn starch. Let this set and marinate for at least 30 minutes.
In the meantime, make your sauce. You simply do this by adding the sugar, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, water, 5 tablespoon of the soy sauce, and 1 tablespoon of the corn starch to a bowl. Whisk this really well.
Preheat your wok until it gets smokey hot. Add in your olive oil, and swirl around the wok. Toss in your peppers, and cashews, and quickly cook for about 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside to be used later.
Next toss in your garlic and white parts of the green onions, and cook for another 30 seconds. Add in your chicken mixture, and cook for about 4 minutes, continuing to wok and roll until they are fully cooked. Next, toss in the water chestnuts, give a stir, then the sauce you just made and watch how this sauce begins to thicken up due to the corn starch. It is truly a beautiful sight to see. Toss in your chili flakes, chilies and cashews. Give a nice stir.
Top over your rice and get ready for some serious Kung Pao flavor! Enjoy.
This is one of my favorite dishes to order when I go out, but it is so easy to make at home, that I should try it sometime.
First off, I apologize for the lack of posts this past week. My family was on vacation, and as we rented out a great condominium, equipped with kitchen, and outdoor grill, I was still on vacation, cooking for five kids under the age of nine. Most of the cooking involved noodles, rice, and not too many twists in flavors beyond teryaki skewers of beef, chicken, and shrimp, of which created leftovers of stir fried rice. It was a fun week, but a week where I was away from my usual blog posts.
Now that I am back in the groove of things, I thought I would kick up my week with a kids favorite, the doughnut.
Who doesn’t love a doughnut? Doughnuts are great any time of day, however we feel guilty, almost, when we eat them. Why? Because we typically cannot just eat one. I know I’m guilty when it comes to that.
Let me begin by talking about my kids. Before most any meal, the first question out of my 7 year old’s mouth is ‘What is for dessert?’. It is a tough one to answer, but most commonly we have ice cream, or cookies, and sometimes cake or pie, but this time around I wanted to answer with something that would shock the little guy. I said, “We are having doughnuts tonight.” His eyes opened wide and you could tell he was super excited.
This recipe, if you want to even call it that, is super simple, and is ready in no time. I usually do not tend to use store bought, pre-made items, but this one was a must.
Ingredients:
Begin by placing your biscuits on a cookie sheet. If you have a small enough cookie cutout for a circle shape, now is the time to use it, but if you do not have one, get out your shot glass to cut out circle shapes, in this case your ‘holes’, and place these on the cookie sheet as well. Now you should have doughnut shapes, and holes, from your biscuits! Let these rise on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes, at room temperature.
During this time, preheat your oil on medium heat. When the oil is heated, drop in the holes, and cook until golden brown, this only takes a couple of minutes. Place these on a plate, and sprinkle a bunch of powdered sugar on them. Continue the cooking process, and powdered sugar process.
The kids had doughnuts in no time, and the little guy was happy. Talk about doughnuts on the cheap, and being able to make a simple glaze, or cover them in sprinkles, well, you know where I’m headed.
I’m glad you had a great family vacation and welcome back!
The green onions in water idea is really working!
Looks awesome. They remind me of the old-fashioned doughnuts I love so much.
How funny – my sisters and I were just talking about these on Sunday, because my mom used to make them when we were kids!
Oh, man. I remember my step-dad making these for us on weekends. Just the other day I was thinking about making homemade donuts and then I remembered these. They were so good! I may have to try them again soon. (Even if my hips never forgive me.)
Thanks for sharing!
Stephanie
What a great idea! I never would have thought of that.
It reminds me of the donuts they make at the Farmers Market in my town, they are either powdered like that, or cinnamon and sugar…so good!
Wow, that brings back memories! Many years ago, when I was in high school, I worked for Wendy’s. Our assistant manager once brought in supplies to make donuts like these, which we cooked in the fryers after closing time. We got in such big trouble when the manager found out, but the donuts were wonderful!
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I have know for so many years that rice is the staple among many Filipino households. The rice cooker is typically on a counter top on most kitchens, and the smell of rice, great rice, is apparent when you walk into most houses. Don’t get me wrong, I love the scent of rice, and probably have to admit that it is one of my kid’s favorite dishes right now. Rice. Simply put, a great staple. As many of us eat bread throughout the day, I know those who are eating rice instead of bread, and that is a good thing.
When my oldest boy was a couple of years old, he paid a visit to my in laws house, as I believe my mother-n-law was watching him for the day as we were at a loss for day care. When he returned home that evening, my wife said, guess what Jet had for breakfast with Grandpa this morning? As he has always been somewhat of a picky eater, I began playing the game; ’sausage? eggs? fruit?, etc, etc’. Yes, those are the basics of most breakfast plates, however my boy has always refused, and we are cool with that. The answer…. Fried rice.
Fried rice? For breakfast? It didn’t take me long to think how delicious that would be, especially with eggs. I was sold, and so was Jet.
As my son is now nine years old, the years have passed, however, what I have noticed on a few occasions, especially when the family is together, is that fried rice is served for breakfast, and it is truly amazing. As I have been cooking rice a couple of times a week for the kids, I recently had some leftover rice, and my first reaction was to make sinangag, a fried rice, with lightly fried garlic, scrambled eggs, and other delicious items.
Ingredients:
Begin by beating your eggs in a small bowl. To a small skillet, add about 1 tbsp of oil, and add in your eggs, cooking on both sides. Once cooked, remove to a cutting board and let cool.
To a large skillet, add the 3 tbsp of oil, and bring to a medium-high heat. Add in the garlic, and cook for a minute or two, until it becomes a light golden brown. Once it is browned, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on some paper towel. Next, add the rice to the oil, and begin to break it down, mixing it well, so the oil gets on all of the rice, and begins to fry.
Lower the heat to medium-low. Slice the cooked eggs, and get a nice dice on them. Add them to the rice, and mix well. I used three pieces of ham, and diced that as well. Add that to your fried rice, or use your optional items as well. Mix well. Add the soy sauce, and mix well. The soy sauce adds a bit of flavor, but is nice for the coloring.
Take half of your garlic chips and add to the rice, mixing well. You are done. Add to your serving bowl, sprinkle with the remaining garlic chips, and garnish with chopped chives.
Trust me on this one. If you are looking for a different take on breakfast, or heck, just something to do with your leftover rice, this is the one. Simple, quick, and extremely delicious.
Fried rice is one of my all time favorite foods. A breakfast version sounds fantastic!
Another great recipe on my “to try” list. We love breakfast for supper occasionally, and this would be a great change for us.Thanks!
This recipe is sinful. I admit it. There is something about gravy in general that is sinful, basically because you are dealing with a bit of fat, and in my case today, I am dealing with pork fat. The bigger question is, who doesn’t love pork fat? I miss biscuits and gravy. While living in Dallas, Texas in the late 1990’s, biscuits and gravy was probably consumed once a week, primarily in the early morning hours after spending some quality time at some rockabilly or punk concert, it was a common go to dish that would help soak up the beer consumed that evening. The best plates of biscuits and gravy were always readily available at the local greasy spoon, or diner, and were pretty much spot on for the most part.
Since moving back to Wisconsin, I have to admit that I have missed not only the early morning rantings with friends, but I have really missed biscuits and gravy. It is just a dish that you don’t typically find in the north, and it was my goal to bring a killer sausage gravy to the table this week to share with my family. As easy as the ingredients look, your real challenge is to make a smooth, creamy consistency. The result is something so delicious and sinful that it really carried me back to my days in Dallas. To all my friends still in Texas, I do miss you.
Ingredients:
Begin by getting a deep skillet warming on the stove on medium to high heat. Add the vegetable oil, and the pork sausage. When you are cooking the pork, break it up into smaller pieces. The goal with pork sausage gravy is the fat, so don’t drain it. Once the sausage browns, add the butter and combine until it is fully melted. Add in the flour and make sure that all of your sausage is covered. Let this cook for a few minutes, somewhat browning the flour, but not burning. Add the milk, salt, pepper, and hot sauce, and with a whisk, mix until you begin to bring everything together. This mixture will be a bit lumpy, and a bit heavy. Begin adding the water, one cup at a time until you begin to really smooth things out. You will continue to whisk for about 5 minutes, adding more water until you really have a smooth and creamy consistency. Reduce the heat to simmer, and continue to whisk.
Taste, and season appropriately with a bit more salt, pepper, or hot sauce. Your call on how peppery you want it. I like mine with a lot of pepper.
Now, you have choices here. Add this gravy to biscuits, which I did, add them to mashed potatoes, like my wife and kids did, or sit around the skillet and with a spoon, start eating it as is!
A truly wonderful Southern dish that will never go unforgotten.
I have a major weakness for sausage gravy and biscuits. When I visit my Texan dad, who lives in Cali, he makes me a batch almost every morning. That’s enough to cushion my bones and cravings in between visits. Well, almost…
I have never really had biscuits and gravy, but it sure sounds decadent.
[...] This recipe is sinful. I admit it. There is something about gravy in general that is sinful, basically because you are dealing with a bit of fat, and in my case today, I am dealing with pork fat. The bigger question is, who doesn’t love pork fat? I miss biscuits and gravy. While living in Dallas, Texas in the late 1990’s, biscuits and gravy was probably consumed once a week, primarily in the early morning hours after spending some quality time at some rockabilly or punk concert, it was a common go to dish that would help soak up the beer consumed that eveRead more at http://www.simplecomfortfood.com/2009/06/12/sausage-gravy/ [...]