Recipe Review-Spicy Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients

2 sweet potatoes
2 Tbsp Cumin
1 Tsp Chili Powder OR Cayenne Pepper
1-2 Tsp salt
4 Tbsp olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Peel and wash potatoes. Cut into tiny slices or you may prefer wedges. Combine olive oil and other ingredients in large bowl. Toss with potatoes until coated. Place on baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes. Serve with catchup or sauce of your choice.

Delicious! I tried tiny fries, but even though I baked them for longer than instructed they still didn’t turn out very crispy. I think next time I will try wedges since I know they will be soft anyway and the flavor of the potato was so yummy. Beware, these were super spicy. You might like to replace the chili powder or cayenne pepper with a milder seasoning of your choice.

I've always wanted to try making these because the two times I've had them at restaurants I've loved them. We give them 4 thumbs up!

Southwest Eggrolls and Oreo Cheesecake

BAKED SOUTHWEST EGGROLLS (from Annie's Eats blog)

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained (I used "mexican style beans" and I think they were pinto, flavored)
1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (I used canned corn, flavored with chili powder and season-all, and only in half of the eggrolls as Jeff isn't a big fan of corn)
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend (white cheddar for me)
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chile's, drained
4 green onions, chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
1 package egg roll wrappers (about 24 total)



Directions:

In a large bowl, combine everything but the egg roll wrappers. Mix well to blend. Lay an egg roll wrapper out on a work surface so that one of the corners is pointing toward you and place ¼ cup of the filling in the center. Fold the tip closest to you up over the filling, roll a bit, then take the points pointing outward and fold them in toward the center. Continue rolling into an egg roll shape until a small part of the remaining point is still free. Dip a finger in water or beaten egg and lightly brush on the edges of the free corner. Finish rolling and press to seal closed. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.
Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Lightly oil a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place the sealed egg rolls on the baking sheet seam side down and spray the tops of the egg rolls with cooking spray. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly brown, turning halfway through baking. Serve warm with salsa (recipe below).

Yes.Please. These were SO GOOD! Four thumbs up for sure! And the are as easy as combine, mix, roll and bake. Awesome!





SALSA DELISH

(variation of salsa from this blog http://annies-eats.com/2009/01/25/my-favorite-salsa-ever/)

Ingredients:

2 fresh jalapeno peppers, seeded and very coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, halved
2 large vine-ripened tomatoes
1 (28 0z.) can diced tomatoes (drained or not, depending on how much liquid you want in your salsa)
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. cumin
1/2 sweet yellow onion, coarsely chopped (nope!)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
juice of one lime




Directions:
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the jalapenos and garlic. Process until finely chopped. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add all other ingredients to the food processor. Pulse in very brief pulses until the vegetables have reached the size you desire (it does not take many pulses so don’t overdo it). Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving to allow the flavors to blend.

I love this salsa because, A) it's pretty, duh. B) it doesn't have onions! and C) it's truly fresh. It was a little sweeter than I expected and I'm not sure why. Maybe the red wine vinegar. The cilantro is an excellent touch and I would probably add even more next time. This won't last long in our house!

Intermission before dessert...


Clarence was either helping with the laundry or needing to be fluffed :)





...and now for dessert...

OREO CHEESECAKE

Crust
about 25 crushed oreos mixed with 1/2 stick melted butter, pressed into spring form pan

Filling:
2 lbs. cream cheese
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 c. chopped Oreos
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 extra lg. eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp. vanilla

To make the filling mix the cream cheese, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla and heavy whipping cream together. Fold the chopped Oreos into the filling. Pour into the crust. Bake for 15 minutes at 425°F. Turn the oven down to 325°F and bake for 50 minutes more. Remove from oven, let cool.

Frosting
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. whipping cream
1 Tbsp honey

Melt chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Cool slightly. Whisk in whipping cream and vanilla and honey. Glaze top and sides of chocolate with frosting mixture. Place in refrigerator at least 4 hours. Serve and enjoy!






I think I might not actually love cheesecake. But as far as cheesecakes go, I'm pretty pleased :) I'll consider it an early birthday cake to myself!

Recipe Review-Mushroom Edition!

White Button Mushrooms Stuffed with Brie Cheese



Ingredients:

1 package white button mushrooms, washed and stems removed
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
4 whole green onions (nope!), sliced
Splash of white wine
1 slice (wedge) brie cheese

Directions:

preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in large saucepan. Add mushroom caps and toss to coat in butter. Sprinkle lightly with salt and cook for 1 minute. Remove mushrooms from pan and place cap side down in baking dish. In same saucepan throw in garlic, parsley, onion (nope!). Sprinkle lightly with salt and splash wine. Stir around until wine evaporates, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Cut rind off of brie and cut into pieces to fit each mushroom cap. Place inside and top mushrooms with parley/garlic mixture. Place in oven for 15 minutes until brie is melted. Serve and enjoy!

All thumbs up! We loved these and ate them as a side with our pizza. I also added chopped walnuts which added a nice flavor and good crunch. YES!











ROASTED PORTOBELLO SANDWICH with Mozzarella and Braised Cooking Greens



Ingredients:

4 large portobello mushrooms
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped with a small handful of parsley leaves
sea salt freshly ground pepper
3/4 pound small braising greens, trimmed and washed, or 2 bunches of spinach, stems removed, leaves well washed
2 pinches of hot red pepper flakes
4 slices bread
8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced and set on paper towels to drain

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove stems from the mushrooms, wipe off the caps, and then scrape out the gills with a spoon. Drizzle the inside of the caps with half the oil and sprinkle on all but a teaspoon of the chopped garlic and the parsley. Season with a few pinches of salt and some pepper, then transfer to a shallow baking pan and bake until the mushrooms are hot and starting to sizzle, 8 - 10 minutes.


(mushroom on the left has been scraped)

2. Heat the remaining oil in a skillet; add the greens and saute with the reserved parsley-garlic mixture and pepper flakes to wilt. Season with salt. If the greens need more cooking, add a few tablespoons water to the pan and cook until tender. Cook off all the liquid before adding the greens to the mushrooms.









3. Toast the bread or muffins. Divide cheese among the mushroom caps, cover with the greens, and bake until the cheese is soft and warm, 5-7 minutes. Remove and set each mushroom on it's waiting toast and serve.

4 thumbs up! We both love mushrooms and the flavor here was yummy! I keep forgetting that I don't really like cooked spinach, though, so I would have left out the greens next time. Pretty easy and good,though :)

Oh, and we had fresh green beans cooked in a skillet with butter, soy sauce, fresh orange and lemon juice, garlic and salt.









MUSHROOM GOUGERE



Ingredients:

Choux Pastry
1/2 cup strong white bread flour (I can't find bread flour anywhere, so I used regular all purpose flour and it seemed to work just fine.)
pinch of salt
4 tbsp butter, plus extra for greasing
2/3 cup water
2 eggs
2 oz Emmental cheese, grated (please note, this is expensive cheese, HOWEVER, you might feel silly if you say that to the lady at whole foods, thinking it's 16.99, when in fact, it's 16.99/lb, and the little block you're holding is 3.50.)

Filling
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion (nope!)
8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
2/3 cup vegetable stock
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper

Directions:
preheat the oven to 400 degrees. To make the pastry, sift the flour with salt onto a sheet of waxed paper. (I don't have a sifter, so I just skipped this step and added the flour and salt as is.) Melt the butter with the water in a pan over medium heat, but do not let the mixture boil. Add the flour all at once and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and comes away from the side of the pan.Remove from the heat, let cool for 10 minutes, then gradually beat in the eggs until smooth and glossy. Beat in the cheese. Grease a round ovenproof dish and spoon the pastry around the side.





To make the filling, heat the oil in a large, heave-bottom skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook (nope!) stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Gradually stir in the stock. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly and cook for 3 minutes, or until thickened. Set aside 2 tbsp of the walnuts. Stir the remainder into the mushroom mixture with the parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper.









Spoon the filling into the center of the dish and sprinkle over the remaining walnuts. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until the pastry is risen and golden. Serve immediately.



17 thumbs up! Just from Jeff! He loved this and was so sweet with all his compliments about it. I thought it was good, to, but liked the filling much more than the pastry.


What was left...

Recipe Review-Dump Cake

Well this is about the easiest dessert recipe in the history of the universe! And delicious :)

Ingredients:

1 can fruit pie filling (I used strawberry)
1 can fruit pie filling (I used peach)
1 box yellow cake mix (I used butter flavor)
1 cup butter, melted

Directions:

In a greased 9 x 13 in pan layer ingredients as listed above. Do not mix but try to be sure all the cake mix is covered with the melted butter. Cook in oven at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. Cool. Enjoy. Maybe with ice-cream :) Two thumbs up!

Speaking of two thumbs up. Last time was a lie. Jeff HATES brown rice. You know, of the fiesta salad recipe variety. How could he have liked the fiesta salad, then? Good question. He didn't. Nice. AT least he was sweet about it, I guess? And that's all for now. I think we might have a snow day tomorrow. I hope so!

Recipe Review-Fiesta Salad

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked rice (hmph-see below for unpleasant details*)
1 6 0z can tuna
1/2 c diced celery
1/4 c chopped green pepper
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. sour cream
1 tomato, diced
corn chips

Directions:
combine cooked rice, tuna, celery, green pepper and lemon juice. Blend seasonings with the sour cream and stir into rice mixture. Chill for 1 hour (or two days). Garnish with tomatoes and serve with corn chips. I kept the tuna and peppers separate so that Jeff could add the tuna to his and I could add the peppers to mine. I actually heated mine up and melted cheddar cheese on it. We both put taco sauce and sour cream on ours and crunched the tortilla chips up into the whole thing. (which probably helped mask the fact that the rice was still not totally soft. yay.) All in all it turned out really yummy and I would fix it again. Using minute rice. Two thumbs up.







*So, this is quite the recipe story. First of all, there is a HUGE difference between minute rice and the other kind of rice. I, being the kitchen savvy gal that I am, have never used the "other" kind of rice. Until now. I got the rice for this recipe in the bulk aisle at Whole Foods. Pretty awesome, right? No. Not if you don't know how to cook it. Which I didn't. And still don't. So instead of adding equal parts water and rice, bringing to a boil, removing from heat and simmering while covered for 5 minutes, I boiled and boiled and simmered and simmered and added more water and covered and uncovered and after an hour and 15 minutes I finally gave up and we had grilled cheese sandwiches. I left the rice in the pot while we ate and I think it somehow, finally, got mostly done. So I stored all the other ingredients and we ate this meal two days later. Oi Vey.

In other food news, how awesome are these pitas?!


and this decadent chocolate cake, which is almost as good as the one at Whole Foods, if I would just stop overcooking it!

Recipe Review-Lemon Tart

I made this tart for dessert night with the girls. It looks so pretty (as do the rest of the desserts) however it was SO TART! I couldn't even eat one bite without puckering like I've never puckered before. It was way too sour for both Jeff and I. I took the leftovers to work, though, and it was gone by mid morning, so I guess it was OK. I'm just more of a chocolate person, I guess.

Lemon Tart
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/02/in-the-kitchen-with-marjorie-taylors-lemon-tart.html

Pâte sucrée (I guess this means pie crust in fancy talk ;)

Makes enough pastry for 2 tarts (I bought my crusts. What? making the filling was plenty of baking for me!)

1/4 cup heavy cream
2 large egg yolks
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
A pinch of sea salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Whisk the cream and the eggs together in a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt and butter. Using your fingers, incorporate the butter until you have a coarse meal. Gradually add the cream and yolks, and mix until just combined. Be careful not to overwork the dough. Bring the dough together with your hands to incorporate completely. Divide the dough in half, shape into disks, and wrap one of them to freeze and use later.

If the dough is soft, put it into the refrigerator for a few minutes prior to rolling. Place it on a lightly floured work surface, and sprinkle with a little bit of flour. Roll it into a 1/4-inch-thick circle, flouring as needed. Started at one side, roll and wrap the dough around the rolling pin to pick it up. Unroll the dough over the 9-inch tart pan. Gently press the dough into the pan, being careful not to stretch it as this will cause it to shrink when baking. To remove the excess dough, work your way around the edge pinching off the excess dough with your fingers. Chill for 1 hour before baking.

Preheat the oven to 375

Line the tart pan with the pâte sucrée. Prick the bottom with a fork and line the shell with parchment paper. Fill the lined tart with dried beans or pie weights and bake for 15 minutes. Take the tart out of the oven and carefully remove the parchment paper and dried beans. Return the tart to the oven, and bake until golden brown turning as needed to ensure even color. Set aside on a rack to cool completely.

Lemon Curd (I guess curd is supposed to be an appetizing word?)

Makes enough filling for one nine-inch (23cm) tart, or about ten 3.5” (9cm) mini-tarts, depending on their depth

4 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup lemon juice, about 5 lemons (Jeff totally juiced these for me. He's my tart hero!)
5 ounces unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

A pinch of sea salt

Whisk the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and lemon juice together in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the lemon curd has thickened and coats the back of the spoon, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. (The consistency is like melted-ice cream)

Remove the lemon curd from the heat and add the butter a little at a time, stirring to incorporate each addition before adding more. Season with the sea salt.

Strain the lemon curd into the prepared tart shell(s) while the curd is still warm. Decorate the tart with thin slices of lemon and chill for at least 3 hours. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or crème fraiche. (more fancy talk)

No thumbs up from the Schurz home. Oh well.

Recipe Review-Sun dried tomato dip

Sun Dried Tomato Dip

Jeff and I sampled a dip at Whole Foods and instead of buying thought it would be fun to try to make it. It was GREAT!

Unfortunately the ingredients are all “to taste” meaning I didn’t measure anything. So, I’ll give you some approximations and then you can make it to fit you!

7-8ish sun dried tomatoes (we got these from the bulk isle, dried, then soaked them in water)
8ish oz cream cheese
1/3 ish cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 Tbsp ish dried basil (fresh would be so much yummier)
A little garlic salt
A little sea salt
Other spices/herbs to your liking

Blend all in food processor. Serve with chips, pitas, or whatever!

Two thumbs WAY up :)