posted by Melanie on April 09, 2010 category : Food, Recipes, Videos

Video: Chicken and Dumplings

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Ingredients:

Chicken:
  • 3 Chicken Breasts with bone and skin
  • 4 cups low salt chicken broth
  • 4 celery stalks, rough chop (don’t throw any part of it away)
  • 2 mediums onions, rough chop (don’t throw any part of it away)
  • 4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
  • 8 peppercorns
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • bay leaf
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup flour
Dumplings:
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon
  • 1/4 cup cornmeal
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 7 oz heavy cream or whole milk

Directions:

  1. In large stock pot over medium high heat, add first 9 ingredients (everything but butter and flour.) Bring to a boil, lower to a mild simmer and cook for 30 minutes.
  2. Remove meat and set aside and strain all liquid into a bowl, set aside.
  3. Reserve carrots in bowl and throw away all remaining ingredients (celery, onions peppercorns and bay leaf).
  4. Let chicken cool slightly and remove all meat from bones. Throw bones and skin away.
  5. Now make the dumplings!!: Mix all dumpling ingredients just till moist and set aside.
  6. Put pot on medium heat to melt butter, add flour and stir nonstop for 2-4 minutes until it’s a light brown color.
  7. Slowly stir in broth, then add chicken and carrots, bring to a light boil.
  8. Spoon dumplings over chicken and cook covered for 10-12 minutes. (Dumplings will be really wet.)
  9. Remove lid and cook for another 10-15 minutes, until cooked through.

So first off, this video is chopped all to hell! I couldn’t make the 10 minute limit so I had to cut out a bunch of stuff. I’m sorry about that. If something doesn’t make sense, just send me a quick email and I’ll get right back to you. Also, although it looks like a lot of ingredients and directions, please don’t be intimidated. It is really one of the easier things I have posted on here. It’s been suggested to me that for the new cook I leave some info out sometimes, so I’m trying to make sure I put every step on here.

I hope you liked the video and recipe. Thanks for watching!

xoxo,

Mel

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posted by Melanie on March 25, 2010 category : Food, Recipes, Videos

Video: Butter Chickpea Curry

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Ingredients:

  • 4 medium potatoes, cubed and cooked
  • 1 head cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces, steamed
  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 2 teaspoons curry powder
  • 2 teaspoons garam masala
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 can crushed tomatoes (regular sized can)
  • 2 teaspoons tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup cream (or milk)
  • 1 (12 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) rinsed and drained.

Directions:

  1. Place potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil over high heat; simmer until the potatoes are tender. Drain, and set aside.
  2. Steam or microwave cauliflower until it’s cooked but still firm. Drain and set aside.(You can cook the potatoes and cauliflower ahead of time, just throw them in the fridge up to one day.)
  3. Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic, and cook until the onions are soft and translucent.
  4. Stir in curry powder, garam masala, ginger, cumin, and salt. Cook for at least 2 minutes, stirring the whole time. (Don’t worry that it’s a weird pasty mess, it will be fine once the liquid is added. Promise.)
  5. Pour in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, cream, and chickpeas. Stir in potatoes. Simmer at least 5 minutes, up to 30 minutes

This dish can be served right away, but it’s also delicious when it’s had some time to sit and let the flavors come together. If you let it cool then reheat it don’t forget to add a little water, as the curry can thicken up quite a lot. You want the curry to be like a heavy gravy, not lumpy and grainy.

Hopefully you saw in the video how totally easy this is. It’s a great dish, and even though it’s vegetarian I still feel like a hedonist when I eat it.

As always, enjoy and let me know what you think.

xoxo,

Melanie

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posted by Melanie on March 18, 2010 category : Food, Recipes, Videos

Video: Triple Decker Grilled Cheese

Topic: Recipes

Here’s a video on how to make my world famous triple-decker grilled cheese. This is a fool proof way to make friends and attract a hottie. (Swear to God, it worked for me!)

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posted by Melanie on March 11, 2010 category : Food, Recipes, Videos

Video: French Toast

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Serves 6

Ingredients:

  • 9 eggs
  • 2 1/4 cups whole or reduced-fat (2%) milk
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 12 3/4-inch-thick slices French bread

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees (to keep cooked french toast warm.)
  2. Wisk all ingredients together (except bread of course) in large bowl.
  3. Soak both sides of bread in wet ingredients until fully saturated.
  4. Heat large skillet to medium/medium high heat, coat skillet with butter. (Butter should sizzle but not smoke.)
  5. Place bread in skillet and cook until golden brown, 3-5 minutes. Flip over and cook 3-5 minutes more. (May take more or less time depending on oven and skillet. Keep an eye on it!)
  6. Once french toast is done, place in oven to keep warm. Make sure to put more butter on the skillet before cooking the next batch.

This recipe is really easy, and produces great French Toast!  Don’t forget that it’s very sweet. Preserves or even fresh fruit would be a great topping if you can’t handle too much sweetness. Let me know what you think!

xoxo,

Melanie

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posted by Melanie on March 04, 2010 category : Food, Recipes, Videos

Video: Quick, delicious pasta sauce

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Ingredients:

  • 2 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 8 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 32oz. cans whole tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil (triple the amount if fresh)
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more if you want heat)
  • 1/4 teaspoon oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon marjoram
  • bay Leaf
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1teaspoon sugar
  • pinch of black pepper (more to taste)

Directions:

  1. Saute chopped onion and garlic in olive oil on medium heat till tender and somewhat translucent
  2. Add basil, pepper flakes, oregano, marjoram, bay leaf (and any other seasonings you may want into saucepan and stir for 2 minutes
  3. Add both cans of tomatoes (including juice), salt, sugar and pepper and bring to a boil
  4. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 – 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes or so.
  • This recipe was soooo easy! What I like so much about it is how versatile it is. If you’re a new cook, just follow the recipe and it will turn out great. If you’re a little more comfortable in the kitchen, trying adding some things. Red wine, vodka, cheese, meat, different seasonings, there’s really no limit.
  • Also, don’t forget that this is a great recipe to double. It doesn’t increase your cooking time, and pasta sauce freezes great! I like to put it in zip-lock sandwich bags, freeze it, and then when I’m in the mood for a simple meal I can pull one out and defrost it real quick.
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posted by Melanie on March 03, 2010 category : Food, Recipes

Garbanzo bean, lentil and vegetable Stew – Recipe

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Close up of amazing Vegetarian Stew, yum!

makes 4 serving

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cups chopped onions
  • 3 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 3 Tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
  • 2 1/4 cups canned vegetable broth
  • 2 1/4 cups water
  • 1 cup dried lentils
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 15 to 16 oz can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
  • 1 1/2 carrots, peeled and cup in 1/4 inch rounds
  • 1 cup frozen Lima beans
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (looks great but you don’t have to have it.)
  • 1 oz bag fresh spinach leaves (or 1/2 a bag of frozen)

Stew on rice with cornbread

Directions

  1. Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium low heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until soft and golden (about 10 minutes)
  2. Add tomato paste, coriander, caraway and cayenne; stir one minute.
  3. Stir in broth, water and lentils. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until lentils are almost tender about 15 minutes.
  4. Add garbanzo beans, carrots, Lima beans and parsley. Cover and simmer until carrots are very tender, about 20 minutes.
    (If you want, you can cool this and refrigerate this a day ahead. Bring it back to a simmer before continuing)
  5. Stir spinach info stew. Cover and cook just until spinach wilts, about 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  6. Ladle soup into bowls, over rice, and prepare to really enjoy your meal!

Who knew vegetarian food could be so good?!

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posted by Melanie on February 27, 2010 category : Food, Recipes

Recipe: Lasagna that rocks!

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Ingredients

  • 1 pound hamburger
  • 1 small onion
  • 1/2 pound sausage
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 bottles of tomato sauce of your choice (or try the pasta sauce from this site.)
  • 1 package (16oz) lasagna noodles
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese
  • 8oz. cream cheese (soften)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream

Directions

1. chop onions and garlic, get ingredients ready.

2. Saute onions and garlic until soft, about 6 minutes.

3. Add both kinds of meat and brown.

(When meat is fully cooked it should look like picture below.)

4. Add spaghetti sauce to browned meat and keep warm, letting the flavor combine.

5. Put water on to boil in large pot, while that is heating up, combine Ricotta cheese, cream cheese and sour cream in large mixing bowl.

6. Beat on medium speed until it is smooth. (The softer the cream cheese is the easier this will be. Cream cheese tend to be lumpy when mixed.) Set aside.

7. Once water is boiling, add noodles in small batches, making sure that they soften enough to be submerged totally in the water.

8. Follow directions on box for cooking, cook until Al Dente. Once they are done, drain and set out on paper towels out of the way until cool.

9. in 9″x13″ glass dish, cover bottom of pan with sauce and meat, follow with one layer of noodles, overlapping a bit.

10. Next, cover with all of the filling.

11. On top of filling do a layer of sauce, a layer of noodles and another layer of sauce. (At this point lasagna can be refrigerated overnight.)

12. Cover with aluminum foil and cook in a 350 over for 1 hour.

13. Remove tin foil, add mixture of mozzarella and cheddar cheese and cook another 10-15 minutes.

14. Prepare to be hugged, proposed to and adored. They’ll never know how easy it is to do, they’ll think you’re magical. And you know what? You are.

xoxo,

Melanie

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posted by Melanie on February 26, 2010 category : Food, Photos, Recipes

Recipe: Roasted Garlic

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This is a great way to use up Garlic that’s beginning to get old. (You can tell it’s getting old when you cut it and it’s beginning to sprout. See second picture down.) This is one of my favorite things to eat in the world, enjoy!

You will need:

1. Garlic

2. Olive Oil

3. Aluminum Foil

3. Oven safe dish

4. Salt and pepper

1. Cut Garlic bulbs 1/4 inch from top with a SHARP knife.

2. Set cut garlic bulbs in Aluminum foils squares that can wrap around bulbs completely.

3. Pour extra virgin olive oil over bulbs until oil begins to spill over. (Don’t put much more in!)

4. Make sure each bulb is saturated. (I recommend you keep the olive oil, it will be Garlic flavored and great for dipping bread into!).

5. Wrap each bulb up, making sure they are covered, put in oven safe container.

6. Cook in 375 degree oven until garlic is very soft and caramelized looking. (45 minutes to an hour normally.)

Tonight I had this on toasted french bread with a little sea salt. It was amazing! But my other favorite way to prepare it is to get a good quality blue cheese, fresh basil and a baguette. Slice and toast the baguette, smear some blue cheese, roasted garlic and a tiny bit of basil. It is really heaven in your mouth. Be careful though, one time I ate two entire bulbs of garlic and they almost sent me home from work the next day. Oops!

Please let me know if you have a good recipe using roasted garlic, I’d love to post it here.

xoxo

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posted by Melanie on February 01, 2010 category : Recipes

Watkins Maple Syrup

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  • 2 cup Sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 t. maple flavor

Mix sugar and water in saucepan over medium heat until all sugar is dissolved. Keep at a super low simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in maple flavor.

Voila, instant yummy maple syrup!

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posted by Melanie on January 29, 2010 category : Inspiration, Links, Photos, Recipes

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

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So, thanks to my dear Ellyn I am actually salivating. Whoever took this picture is an effing artist….

Follow the link for the Caramel Apple Sticky Buns recipe.

Thanks to The Pioneer Woman!

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