Zucchini on Steroids!

As much as I enjoy meat, meat, meat…I also enjoy a TON of veggies! Sometimes there is nothing better than to have a buffet of veggies for dinner. With that being said I have not always had the best of luck when cooking or even baking veggies. Look at my former failed experiments, zucchini chips, half baked potatoes, zucchini and carrot sticks… those were just baking. When I cook veggies I always feel I either over cook or under cook them, on top of that if I under cook them I tend to have an allergic reaction. I know it is weird, but I have a weird allergy to most raw fruits or veggies, it causes my mouth and lips to swell (Not the most attractive sight). But we must not be deterred from trying things out despite our conditions! What kind of life is that if we were?

Alright I will get off my soap box and tell you what I made. I am definitely proud of this recipe and we will be making it again in the future! I have always wanted to try to make stuffed anything. In my previous post you will see I have had a lot of success when it comes down to stuffing meat (I highly recommend any of the previous stuffed recipes) with veggies or cheese. Now I was ready to take stuffing to a new level! All these Pinterest post make things look so easy, and then when you actually try to make the item…well its actually NOT that easy. So I steered clear of Pinterest this time and went to the old trusty Food Network! Where human beings have actually cooked and successfully made the recipe!  (Side note about Pinterest- I love it and feel free to follow me at chelsgo- however I like to  be inspired to make things and then I go compare recipes to other ones…sometimes cooking is just common sense)

The other nice thing about Food Network is that you can type in your ingredients that you have and it will pull back dinner ideas, a great way to make nothing out of something! So I bundled up all my courage and became really daring one day to cook a stuffed zucchini! And boy did it turn out great!! This is a Paula Deen recipe, and despite all of her drama, when it comes to the kitchen she has some of the best recipes around. You don’t always have to take her heavy ingredients either, lighten them up. Use light sour creams or cheeses or sodium free butter. You’re the cook, take charge of your kitchen and your life!

The things I did differently in this recipe is that I only used one zucchini, there was only 2 of us. I used fresh spinach instead of frozen, fat free sour cream (you could also use greek yogurt) and only ½ cup of cheddar cheese.  I also added mushrooms and chopped them finely. I did have stuffing left over when I only used one zucchini, but that didn't detour us from eating it. It was that delicious! The recipe is below along with pictures from my adventures. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did!

Stuffed Zuchinni

Ingredients

Finished Product with Pork Chop

• 5 large yellow squash, halved lengthwise
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup chicken flavored stuffing mix
• 1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Brush cut side of squash with olive oil; sprinkle with salt, and pepper. Place squash, cut side down, on a lined baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes, or until tender. Scoop out pulp, keeping shells intact; reserve pulp. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 5 minutes or until transparent. To the skillet, add stuffing mix, spinach, sour cream, Cheddar and squash pulp. Mix together and add salt and pepper, to taste. Cook for 3 minutes. Spoon mixture evenly into squash shells. Place on baking sheet, and bake 15 to 20 minutes, or until heated through

Stuffed-Baked and Finished

 

Blueberry Buckle

Hey Internet land!

It's summer time, kicked into full gear here in the USA. So I found this recipe looking for something sweet to make Steve and I. In the summer, I hate eating hot things like cobbler or pies etc. I also didn't want to eat just fruit. Not that I have anything against it, just wasn't in the mood for just fruit. I can't remember what exactly I googled for, but if you have found this blog than you know that you can search for anything on the Internet!!

Anyways, this is an Alton Brown recipe. Side note- I love Alton Brown! He is always precise and just like Paula Deen, no matter how many times I use one of their recipes it has NEVER turned out bad! So there is my promo for him.

I followed the recipe exactly the first time, and used the cups measurements instead of ounces. Only because lack of scales, but everything turned out great even still! The second time I made this I used cinnamon instead of nutmeg. It is in the oven now,  I'll let you know if it doesn't turn out! I am sure that it will though. Blueberries and cinnamon you can't go wrong.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did! Add a little bit of whip cream on top and that is GOOD EATS!

Ingredients

For the cake:

Nonstick cooking spray
9 ounces cake flour, approximately 2 cups
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
5 1/4 ounces sugar, approximately 3/4 cup
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
15 ounces fresh whole blueberries, approximately 3 cups

For the topping:

3 1/2 ounces sugar, approximately 1/2 cup
1 1/2 ounces cake flour, approximately 1/3 cup
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 ounces unsalted butter, chilled and cubed


Directions

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Spray a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and ground ginger. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, approximately 1 minute. Add the egg and beat until well incorporated, approximately 30 seconds. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until incorporated and then add 1/3 of the milk and beat until incorporated. Repeat, alternating flour and milk until everything has combined. Gently stir in the blueberries and pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

For the topping:

In a small bowl combine the sugar, flour and nutmeg. Add the butter and work into the dry ingredients using a fork to combine. Continue until the mixture has a crumb-like texture. Sprinkle the mixture on top of the cake. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 35 minutes or until golden in color. Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.



Happy Cooking!!! 

Rosemary and Garlic Bread

Hey Internet land!!

So again I apologize for slacking a bit in my blogging, but crazy life happenings have just been getting in the way. To share... I was promoted at my job, had a birthday, my little sister graduated, planning much needed vacations and etc. But that doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking! I have got some great stuff coming your way soon, so just bare with me. This recipe today is super easy!

For my birthday I got Steve and I a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer... We didn't have a mixer at all and I was doing everything by hand (not horrible just time consuming), so I thought that if we are going to get one we might as well go big or go home! Plus, being the sales shopper that I am, I found one for a deal I couldn't pass up!! Here is a picture of the beauty below.

I also realize that I have been doing a lot of baking as well... some meal ideas will be coming your way soon! Today though is rosemary and garlic bread recipe. I always love the artisan bread that you can by from any grocery mart and the rosemary bread that you get at some fancy Italian restaurants. So I really wanted to make some of my own. So I found this recipe just by google and the blog Zestuous came up, and it seemed pretty legit. I did have some problems with it being dense, but I will add my notes in a different color, so that way when you are reading through the recipes you will be able to not make the same mistakes I did! I also did not use the metric measurements, I didn't have a scale.

I am sure you could make this bread with what ever kind of spices or herbs you wanted, I just love the rosemary and garlic taste!

***Side note***Once you make the bread it should really be eaten at that time so you might want to plan ahead...still good the next day but not as good.

Rosemary Bread

Print

Recipe type: Bread

Prep time: 2 hours

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 2 hours 30 mins

Serves: 32

Ingredients

• 1 tsp.salt
• 650 grams King Arthur bread flour (4 ¾ cups) 
• 20 grams fresh yeast (or one packet active dry yeast, plus 1 T. sugar)
• 45 grams olive oil (1/4 cup)
• 355 grams luke warm water (1 ½ cups + 1 T)
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 2 T. dried rosemary

Instructions

1. Place an empty bowl from a stand mixer on a kitchen scale. Zero out the scale. Add salt. Zero out the scale. Add 650 grams of flour. Zero out the scale. Add 20 grams of fresh yeast, crumbled.
2. In a separate bowl weigh 45 grams of olive oil and 355 grams of water. Then pour that into the salt, flour and yeast. Add the Italian seasoning and one tablespoon of rosemary. (Note: If you have fresh rosemary, chop it and dry it in a 400 degree oven for 5-10 minutes.)
3. Using a dough hook, mix on medium speed for 5 minutes, or until a ball forms. Do not knead for more than five minutes or you will lose elasticity and flavor. 
   
4. Once the ball is formed, place it on the counter. Knead it slightly, and shape it into a ball. Cover it with an upside down mixing bowl and let it rise for about 15 minutes.(Note: if you don’t have a stand mixer, you can knead the dough by hand on a marble or granite counter top for about five minutes.) 
   
5. After it rises, remove the bowl. Cut the dough into two loaves weighing about 535 grams each. I just eye balled it, didn't have a scale to weight it out.
6. Shape each loaf into a ball and place on a greased baking sheet. I turned the dough inside out like in my previous bread baking recipes, however it made my bread really dense, so don't .  Press the remaining rosemary on top of each loaf. Cover with a wet tea towel or plastic wrap and let rise, until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
   
7. Gently remove the towel or plastic wrap. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Brush the top of the loaves with olive oil or melted butter. I had forgotten to do this step... was just so excited about using my mixer!!  Sprinkle with kosher salt. Allow to cool slightly, then slice and serve warm with a plate of olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper. I served it up with a balsamic vinegar and oil in a dish for dipping! 
   

Happy Cooking!!

Sweet Potato Biscuit / pancake

Hey everyone!

Sorry it has been a minute since I last posted! No excuse really other than life has been crazy busy! I have been cooking, but have no fear, and new post will soon follow this one!


This recipe is really easy but you have to have the right mix. So I am going to do a little product endorsement here! Unfortunately I do not have any pictured of this, you will just have to take my word on it :-)

I first heard of this product from my boss at work. She knows how much of a foodie I am, she said I had to try this. It is a biscuit mix from a mill in South Carolina called Adluh Mill. My boss suggested that I make pancakes and so did  their website. They have tons of other southern products I can't wait to try!

Follow the website for some great recipes and their products.


Until next time!

Happy Cooking!

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

I believe that I am in the cupcake mood! The first cupcakes I made, the post before this, were made from scratch. These cupcakes however are made from a box cake mix. They turned out really delicious! I made four different kinds, cinnamon, chocolate chip, plain white cake, and pineapple upside down cupcakes. When you use the box cake mix you can add any  flavors to the batter, if you want to make multiple flavors out of one box than just separate the batter in to different bowls once mixed and then put in to the pan. The ones I am particularly proud of are the pineapple upside down cup cake ones.

As I did my research afterwards, I found that this is a common cupcake to make. However, for now I will appreciate them for what they are...Easy to make! So some recipes call for the whole pineapple slices or you can use the cut slices, either way I think it will be fine. Also you can use the whole cherry or half of one. The preference is yours.

Ingredients

1 can of pineapple slices or whole pineapple slices

1 box cake mix (yellow or white) or follow previous post for scratch made cup cakes

1 jar of maraschino cherries 

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 stick of butter

To prepare the pans, you are going to spray them or grease them with butter and flower. It works either way. I did not try this recipe with wrappers because eventually you bottom is your top. Than you want to lay the pineapple down in the bottom of the pan with a cherry in the middle.

 Then sprinkle brown sugar on top of the cherry and pineapple and 1/2 tsp of butter. Now you make ask how much is a sprinkle. Well really this is going to bind everything together so enough to where everything is dusted with a little extra, you don't want to completely cover the fruit, than you run the risk of burning the sugar or even creating a really big mess :) 

Now once you have done this you want to place the pan in to oven at 350 F until the brown sugar and better have melted. **Keep and eye on it, should take but a minute or two** You don't want it to be bubbling just melted. Than add your cake batter on top of the melted sugar and then bake according to the directions on the box or in the previous post.

Once the timer has gone off, you want to flip the cupcakes over on to another pan or plate that way they can cool properly. If you let them cool in the pan, you run the risk of not being able to get the cupcake out of the cupcake pan. You can serve them hot or cold.

I served them with an icing from Paula Deen's Website. You have to scroll to to bottom of her page to review it. Here is how to make it. I added about 1 tsp of vanilla extract to mine (DON'T USE IMITATION!), just something about vanilla that cuts the sweetness just enough to be perfect.

Pineapple Buttercream Frosting: Yield: about 2 cups

1/2 pound butter, softened
2 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Beat all the ingredients in a large bowl until well combined.

What is your favorite cupcake??? 

Happy Cooking!

Genoise Cupcakes with Lemon Icing

I am definitely getting better at this baking thing. So I had the wild thought that I would try my hands at cupcakes, and not from a box cupcakes! I was feeling pretty proud of myself as I was making the batter, however they ended up a little dry. This was because I was using a cake recipe and when you make cupcakes you need to lessen the time. They still turned out delicious, which is surprising!  So needless to say this might be a full proof type of recipe.

This came from the Julia Child's Kitchen Wisdom book. And can you really go that wrong with Julia Child? Here's the recipe below, if you are making the cake than cook at 350 F for 30-35 minutes. If your making cupcakes than you only want to bake for only 15 minutes, same temp as the cake. Look below for the icing recipe. It can be used for anything!

Genoise Cake

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup plain bleached cake flour (shifted)

1 tbs plus 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tabs salt

1/4 cup warm clarified butter

4 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F, slide rack onto the lower middle level, and prepare your pan. To prepare the pan smear inside and sides lightly with softened butter. Pour 1/4 cup cake flour into pan, shake and turn in all directions to cover surface completely, turn pan upside down and bang out excess flour. 

Shift flour with 1 tabs sugar and salt and reserve the clarified butter in a 2 quart bowl. Beat the eggs in your mixer bowl with the remaining sugar and vanilla until you have formed the ribbon. At once, rapidly sift on and fold in a quarter of the flour, then half rest of the flour, and the finally all of it. Fold a large plop of this cake batter into the clarified butter and the fold it back into the batter. Turn batter into pan or into cupcakes pans no more than half way or  1/4 inch from the rim. Let them cook for the time stated above. Before you ice let the cake or cupcakes cool. 

Lemon Icing

1/4 cup of butter

3 cups of powdered sugar

2-3 tabs of lemon juice

You can hand beat the icing but if you have a mixer you can do it to. You want a nice firm icing so if it is a bit runny than add more sugar till properly thicken. 

You can also at fruits and chocolates to either the batter or the icing to create a variety. 

Enjoy!!!

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Something that I absolutely love is bread and carbs!!! If I ever went to rehab for any addiction that would be it!! I know I know... in my last post, I talked about being healthy...well I couldn't resist! Everyone now and then I need something sweet! 

So with that being said… I love a nice bread or cake with my coffee. I think I picked up this habit when I was abroad. They always had something sweet or doughy to accompany their coffee, therefore after a year of this exposure, it stuck!! I am not a big fan of the dark roasted coffee from starbucks, however I LOVE adding their very berry cake along with my white chocolate mocha! It is the perfect combination… a nice citrus flavor with the berries and my chocolate coffee!! Who could ask for a better start to a day!!

So being the foodie that I am, I got the craving for something like a very berry cake! I did a lot of internet surfing looking at the various of recipes, looking at ingredients, level of difficulty or complication.  –Side note- the one thing I love about cooking is that I know exactly what is going into my food! So I finally found a recipe through pinterest that used yogurt instead of sugar and I thought I can have my cake and eat it to!! So I write everything down on my list to get to the grocery store and I forget to buy the yogurt!!!! Of course…Well I just took this as a sign that this cake was not meant to be healthy, which was fine with me!  So after making this discovery I came across a Rachel Ray recipe and that is what I ultimately used! Her recipe did not call for a glaze, but I definitely wanted one. I added that down at the bottom of the recipe!

-Side note- I didn't have a mixer, I just did it by hand and it worked great!!

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Ingredients

·     1 1/2 cups flour, plus 1 tablespoon, divided

·     1 teaspoon baking powder

·     1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

·     Juice and zest of 1 lemon

·     1 1/2 cups blueberries

·     1/2 cup butter, room temperature

·     1 cup sugar

·     2 eggs

·     1 teaspoon vanilla

·     1/2 cup milk

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F and spray a 9-inch x 5-inch x 3-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a small bowl, whisk together the 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. In a separate small bowl, toss the blueberries with the remaining 1 tablespoon of flour.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping bowl as necessary. Beat in the vanilla and lemon juice. With the mixer on low, alternately add the flour mixture in three additions and the milk in two additions, starting and ending with the flour. Fold in the blueberries by hand. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. This bread freezes well, wrapped tightly.

Mine

Lemon Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3-4 tsp fresh lemon juice (add according to taste)

You can whisk or beat it until nice and smooth. Then pour it over the bread.

 

Rachel Rays

Happy Cooking!!