So I have this new cookbook which has I think five or six recipes for tapenade, which is like a topping/sauce of chopped veggies or fruit and olive oil, similar to pesto but more chunky and less oily.
I found this recipe called "Tapenade Turkey Meatballs" and it sounded amazingly delicious! And I had all the ingredients! Or so I thought... The recipe called for 1 cup tapenade. I then consulted the tapenade recipes to find that I had only about half the ingredients for any given recipe of tapenade. As you can imagine this disrupted my culinary plans for the evening. Never one to let a little kitchen adversity bring me down I figured I would just wing it and put in something else.
The original recipe called for 1 slice of bread, processed into crumbs. I didn't feel like dirtying my BRAND NEW Manual Food Processor (I FINALLY got that thing! I've been waiting since March! Oh how I love Pampered Chef <3). So I used 1/3 cup Italian style breadcrumbs. At this point I already had 3/4 lb of ground turkey in my mixing bowl with one egg, so it was time to find the flavor that would have been provided by the elusive tapenade. To my fridge I did go to look for that special secret ingredient.
What I found was a variety of dressings, condiments and other unsuitable things that had no place in meatballs. I was perusing our large variety of hot sauces when I saw Spicy Pineapple Rum Sauce (from the Pampered Pantry). It looked to have a similar consistency as the tapenades in the picture so I decided that 1/3 cup of Spicy Pineapple Rum Sauce would be just the thing for these wayward meatballs.
Everything became mixed and then I used my Small Scoop (good for cookies too :D I made those earlier in the day) to make 30 little meatballs and put them into my new Small Ridged Baker (which is the newest piece of stoneware offered by my favorite company, so I have to test it out, right?) The recipe called for me to microwave them for 6-7 minutes and I thought that was a bad idea. I do not like cooking in a microwave, though I am learning how, especially after the never-ending heatwave this summer.
So I instead baked them for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven. They came out moist, not crumbly and best of all not greasy/fatty because all the drippings collected in the ridges of my stoneware. (Which was surprisingly easy to clean, a huge relief after seeing all those ridges for the first time!) And not to forget the most important part of any dish - the flavor! They tasted phenomenal, I had amazed my own taste-buds this time. And my husband has (another) new favorite meal! :D
I paired them with a side dish of sauteed zucchini and squash from our garden, with some chopped vidalia onion, sea salt, coarsely ground black pepper and butter for flavor.
Showing posts with label Pampered Chef. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pampered Chef. Show all posts
Friday, August 12, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Grillin' Easter Eggs
Today I walked out my front door to find my dad in his front yard (directly across from my own front yard). He saw me and instead of waiting to speak to each other face to face, like I assume civilized (boring) people do we shouted across our yards to each other while I walked over. Our conversation had lots to do with where my mom was currently located and what are we eating for Easter dinner?
The first question was easy, she was brushing her hair and easily found. The second question was also fairly simple, we'd be grillin'! Now, I don't know if you readers grill or barbecue (or barbeque) or how or if you prepare food out of doors in the great wilderness of your yard, front side or back. But when we grill, we ALWAYS have macaroni salad with our seared meats. See, I had you all tricked, thinking I'd be the grill master, but no, I am the kitchen wench in this story. It's not so bad though, I get to wear great outfits! (Okay no more Ren Fair references today, promise.)
So I volunteered/was drafted for macaroni salad making. Prep work took less time than usual today, since I only had to boil macaroni - the eggs were already boiled for this venture! My parents, nieces, siblings and I had dyed eggs on Friday. While it was nice to not have to boil eggs, I was sad, as I am every year, when it came time to peel those vibrant shells away from the milky colored egg whites.
Then I had a brilliant, colorful, rainbow-rific idea. I would dye the boiled eggs again... now that they had been peeled! I Googled first and Google found me eHow and eHow said it was an overnight project involving both food coloring and water (with eggs of course) and I said I don't have that kind of time eHow!
Then I remembered that Marna (my Pampered Chef Executive Director) had just sent me a recipe for tulip eggs, which were both artful and delicious. Her instructions were to dye the peeled boiled eggs in food coloring (no water) and then cut with a v-cutter and devil and garnish appropriately. So I compromised and mixed enough water to cover my eggs with my chosen colors of food coloring, which happened to be red, yellow, blue and green because those were the colors of food coloring we had. I sliced all my eggs in half and dumped the yolks into a bowl so I could make the "sauce" for the macaroni salad while the egg whites colored.
I'm sure everyone has their own special secret recipe for macaroni salad, passed down in secret from parent to child. In any case, I do have a special secret recipe, handed down to me from my mother. So I'll tell you SOME of what goes into this particular dish, but it is my special secret family recipe after all!
For the "sauce" I crush the yolks, then add whatever spices sound delicious, miracle whip (NEVER mayonnaise), mustard, ranch dressing and a few more things - I whip that up and pour it on the boiled, drained and cooled macaroni. To chop the now colorful eggs I put them in my egg slicer, slice, turn, and slice again. This gives me no hassles, barely any mess and chopped eggs in less than a minute. I love my egg slicer!
To finish this very easy, very tasty dish I stirred in the eggs,
flatten/squish the salad in the bowl with my stir-er (a big serving spoon) and then used a paper towel to clean the edges (it saves on dishes when you mix in the serving bowl!)
Garnish with a light dusting of paprika, chill and serve! It was the most festive macaroni salad our Easter dinner has ever had!
The first question was easy, she was brushing her hair and easily found. The second question was also fairly simple, we'd be grillin'! Now, I don't know if you readers grill or barbecue (or barbeque) or how or if you prepare food out of doors in the great wilderness of your yard, front side or back. But when we grill, we ALWAYS have macaroni salad with our seared meats. See, I had you all tricked, thinking I'd be the grill master, but no, I am the kitchen wench in this story. It's not so bad though, I get to wear great outfits! (Okay no more Ren Fair references today, promise.)
So I volunteered/was drafted for macaroni salad making. Prep work took less time than usual today, since I only had to boil macaroni - the eggs were already boiled for this venture! My parents, nieces, siblings and I had dyed eggs on Friday. While it was nice to not have to boil eggs, I was sad, as I am every year, when it came time to peel those vibrant shells away from the milky colored egg whites.
Then I had a brilliant, colorful, rainbow-rific idea. I would dye the boiled eggs again... now that they had been peeled! I Googled first and Google found me eHow and eHow said it was an overnight project involving both food coloring and water (with eggs of course) and I said I don't have that kind of time eHow!
Then I remembered that Marna (my Pampered Chef Executive Director) had just sent me a recipe for tulip eggs, which were both artful and delicious. Her instructions were to dye the peeled boiled eggs in food coloring (no water) and then cut with a v-cutter and devil and garnish appropriately. So I compromised and mixed enough water to cover my eggs with my chosen colors of food coloring, which happened to be red, yellow, blue and green because those were the colors of food coloring we had. I sliced all my eggs in half and dumped the yolks into a bowl so I could make the "sauce" for the macaroni salad while the egg whites colored.
I'm sure everyone has their own special secret recipe for macaroni salad, passed down in secret from parent to child. In any case, I do have a special secret recipe, handed down to me from my mother. So I'll tell you SOME of what goes into this particular dish, but it is my special secret family recipe after all!
For the "sauce" I crush the yolks, then add whatever spices sound delicious, miracle whip (NEVER mayonnaise), mustard, ranch dressing and a few more things - I whip that up and pour it on the boiled, drained and cooled macaroni. To chop the now colorful eggs I put them in my egg slicer, slice, turn, and slice again. This gives me no hassles, barely any mess and chopped eggs in less than a minute. I love my egg slicer!
To finish this very easy, very tasty dish I stirred in the eggs,
flatten/squish the salad in the bowl with my stir-er (a big serving spoon) and then used a paper towel to clean the edges (it saves on dishes when you mix in the serving bowl!)Garnish with a light dusting of paprika, chill and serve! It was the most festive macaroni salad our Easter dinner has ever had!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Experimental Dessert: A Brilliant Creation or a Terrible Disaster?
In March I started offering My Pampered Chef Hosts and Hostesses free dessert when they host a party in the month that their birthday is in, and today (Saturday) I needed to provide a free dessert. I actually had this particular culinary adventure on Friday, but it's been a busy weekend (you know, homework, facebook, planning for the Pampered Chef party, facebook, housework, facebook...)
Originally I was going to bake a cake, but then I thought that was too boring. Then I was going to make a cookie dessert pizza thing, but decided that was too much work and too many ingredients. So I looked in my cupboard and I looked at my cookbook and I had a rare moment of total and utter recipe loss - I had no idea what I should make, and I had 12 hours until time to leave for the party (sleep took up a big part of the 12 hours). So I sat down and balanced my checkbook (math soothes me, don't ask because it probably won't make sense to you, I'm just that strange). While balancing the checkbook I came across the receipt from groceries earlier that day and on that reciept was two kinds of cheerios and an idea began to form.
I had both chocolate cheerios and cinnamon cheerios and at first I wanted to just cover and smother them all with a simple chocolate coating (2 cups chocolate chips, any kind, and 2T+2tsp shortening). It turned out I didn't have enough chocolate chips for that so I thought about the cheerio flavors - I'd already represented chocolate so more cinnamon would probably bring a nice balance to this thing I was making. I googled "cinnamon fillling" and found an amazing recipe for cinnamon rolls that I promptly stole the cinnamon filling from. I thought I would mix the cheerios in the cinnamon filling and then coat them in chocolate, like little coated candy treats. (Later I saw that cinnamon filling wasn't sticky enough to lend itself to this idea, so I came up with a new one.)
I mixed up a half batch of cinnamon filling in a mixing bowl and then a half batch of simple chocolate coating in the Double Boiler (then set to simmer so it wouldn't re-harden). I checked my cinnamon filling, and for cinnamon rolls, it would have been perfect, but I wasn't going to be making any sort of roll. So I doubled the butter (I know, I'm so bad, but it tastes so good!) and that gave it a smoother more "spreadable" consistency - but not at all sticky the way I had hoped it would be. I had another idea though, so all was not lost. But before I went and ruined two perfectly good things, I took a small bowl and mixed a spoonful of each sweet to give it a taste combined - the taste was good, the chocolate drowned the cinnamon a little in my sample, but overall there was more cinnamon filling than there was simple chocolate coating, so that wouldn't be a problem with the full size mixture.
I added the simple chocolate coating to the cinnamon filling and stirred until they were well combined, then I added 1 cup each of chocolate and cinnamon cheerios and stirred to coat. There was a lot of chocolate-cinnamon goo left so I added another 1 cup of each flavor of cheerios and stirred them in. This time they were all evenly coated without an excess amount of leftover chocolate-cinnamon sauce.
I spread out waxed paper onto two cookie sheets and cleared space in the refrigerator - chocolate sets best when chilled. I used my Small Scoop, which holds about 1 T, to scoop up about 65 of these little cheerio treats. I wanted them small because they had a lot of flavor, and if they ended up too big they'd be too sweet to eat. Once I had dished them all out I put them in the refrigerator overnight.
After packing up all my show supplies (cooking gadgets and toys, catalogs, order forms, netbook, first aid kit and aloe - I'm a little accident prone, and Pink Zebra demo products) I almost didn't remember to pack up my little creations! But luckily for me, since I had promised a free dessert, I did remember to pack them up (after sharing a few with my husband of course!) According to the guests, my brand new Chocolate Cinnamon Cheerio Treats are a brilliant creation, because there were only a handful leftover!
Next time I promise a dish, I think I'll plan ahead. (Even if these did turn out, you never know when a terrible disaster will land on your cookie sheet!)
Originally I was going to bake a cake, but then I thought that was too boring. Then I was going to make a cookie dessert pizza thing, but decided that was too much work and too many ingredients. So I looked in my cupboard and I looked at my cookbook and I had a rare moment of total and utter recipe loss - I had no idea what I should make, and I had 12 hours until time to leave for the party (sleep took up a big part of the 12 hours). So I sat down and balanced my checkbook (math soothes me, don't ask because it probably won't make sense to you, I'm just that strange). While balancing the checkbook I came across the receipt from groceries earlier that day and on that reciept was two kinds of cheerios and an idea began to form.
I had both chocolate cheerios and cinnamon cheerios and at first I wanted to just cover and smother them all with a simple chocolate coating (2 cups chocolate chips, any kind, and 2T+2tsp shortening). It turned out I didn't have enough chocolate chips for that so I thought about the cheerio flavors - I'd already represented chocolate so more cinnamon would probably bring a nice balance to this thing I was making. I googled "cinnamon fillling" and found an amazing recipe for cinnamon rolls that I promptly stole the cinnamon filling from. I thought I would mix the cheerios in the cinnamon filling and then coat them in chocolate, like little coated candy treats. (Later I saw that cinnamon filling wasn't sticky enough to lend itself to this idea, so I came up with a new one.)
I mixed up a half batch of cinnamon filling in a mixing bowl and then a half batch of simple chocolate coating in the Double Boiler (then set to simmer so it wouldn't re-harden). I checked my cinnamon filling, and for cinnamon rolls, it would have been perfect, but I wasn't going to be making any sort of roll. So I doubled the butter (I know, I'm so bad, but it tastes so good!) and that gave it a smoother more "spreadable" consistency - but not at all sticky the way I had hoped it would be. I had another idea though, so all was not lost. But before I went and ruined two perfectly good things, I took a small bowl and mixed a spoonful of each sweet to give it a taste combined - the taste was good, the chocolate drowned the cinnamon a little in my sample, but overall there was more cinnamon filling than there was simple chocolate coating, so that wouldn't be a problem with the full size mixture.
I added the simple chocolate coating to the cinnamon filling and stirred until they were well combined, then I added 1 cup each of chocolate and cinnamon cheerios and stirred to coat. There was a lot of chocolate-cinnamon goo left so I added another 1 cup of each flavor of cheerios and stirred them in. This time they were all evenly coated without an excess amount of leftover chocolate-cinnamon sauce.
I spread out waxed paper onto two cookie sheets and cleared space in the refrigerator - chocolate sets best when chilled. I used my Small Scoop, which holds about 1 T, to scoop up about 65 of these little cheerio treats. I wanted them small because they had a lot of flavor, and if they ended up too big they'd be too sweet to eat. Once I had dished them all out I put them in the refrigerator overnight.
After packing up all my show supplies (cooking gadgets and toys, catalogs, order forms, netbook, first aid kit and aloe - I'm a little accident prone, and Pink Zebra demo products) I almost didn't remember to pack up my little creations! But luckily for me, since I had promised a free dessert, I did remember to pack them up (after sharing a few with my husband of course!) According to the guests, my brand new Chocolate Cinnamon Cheerio Treats are a brilliant creation, because there were only a handful leftover!
Next time I promise a dish, I think I'll plan ahead. (Even if these did turn out, you never know when a terrible disaster will land on your cookie sheet!)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Green Pizza and Breadsticks
Part 2 of St. Patrick's Day's green eats was a green pizza and green breadsticks. I know I could have gone more green, and were I cooking for myself and my husband only, I would have, but you can't prepare a ton of food that your guests won't eat, that's just silly. These are extremely easy recipes, and if you love pizza and breadsticks, I'd say you need to give them a try!
For the pizza I started with a Pillsbury seamless dough sheet (like crescent rolls in a tube but without perforations) on a rectangular baking stone (Pampered Chef's Large Bar Pan, though I've never made "bars" on it) and baked it for 10 before adding fresh pressed garlic and tomato sauce, an easy and tasty (and fast) way to make some home made pizza sauce. On the sauce we add 4 cheese Italian blend, pepperonis, green olives and green peppers chopped with the Food Chopper and sliced green onions. Had this pizza not been meant for guests I would have also added spinach and artichokes, both chopped. However, this pizza was meant for guests so I stopped at the green onions. Then I topped those toppings with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 10-15 and it is yum!
For the breadsticks I used a Jiffy pizza crust mix that I added pesto and green onion tops to, and once flattened on a round baking stone I topped it with 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 and top with another 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. They were a little crispy, and to avoid that I'd either double the Jiffy mix or reduce baking time. I enjoyed the crispiness, but not everyone loves a crunch.
As we all know, when you have an alcoholic celebration pizza is your go-to crowd food, and nothing else will do. I love cooking, but more than that, I love it when people enjoy the food I've cooked. For that purpose these two dishes were a major hit, as everyone was pleased.
For the pizza I started with a Pillsbury seamless dough sheet (like crescent rolls in a tube but without perforations) on a rectangular baking stone (Pampered Chef's Large Bar Pan, though I've never made "bars" on it) and baked it for 10 before adding fresh pressed garlic and tomato sauce, an easy and tasty (and fast) way to make some home made pizza sauce. On the sauce we add 4 cheese Italian blend, pepperonis, green olives and green peppers chopped with the Food Chopper and sliced green onions. Had this pizza not been meant for guests I would have also added spinach and artichokes, both chopped. However, this pizza was meant for guests so I stopped at the green onions. Then I topped those toppings with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 10-15 and it is yum!
For the breadsticks I used a Jiffy pizza crust mix that I added pesto and green onion tops to, and once flattened on a round baking stone I topped it with 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 and top with another 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. They were a little crispy, and to avoid that I'd either double the Jiffy mix or reduce baking time. I enjoyed the crispiness, but not everyone loves a crunch.
As we all know, when you have an alcoholic celebration pizza is your go-to crowd food, and nothing else will do. I love cooking, but more than that, I love it when people enjoy the food I've cooked. For that purpose these two dishes were a major hit, as everyone was pleased.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Green Cookies
In preparation for a day filled with everything green, I spent yesterday evening making green cookies! I dug out my mom's recipe for chocolate chip cookies (the best and only recipe I will use) and decided to try a new recipe I found for spritz cookies.
Since I'm not really a huge fan of chocolate (other than dark) I always leave the chocolate chips out of my chocolate chip cookies, I think it makes them too sweet and I prefer to focus on the sweet brown sugar and vanilla flavor of the dough. When I cream the sugars and butter I added a healthy amount of green food coloring to make them festive. When time to bake came I used my new Small Scoop, that holds about 1 T, to make perfectly even and adorable little dough balls that baked into wonderfully round and evenly sized chocolate chip cookies sans chips. They are amazing, and very pleasing to the perfectionist in me.
For my spritz cookies I had to beat them a little extra since my butter wasn't quite softened enough, which turned out to be a good thing as it made the dough nice and fluffy/creamy. I deviated from the recipe just a bit by adding 1/4 tsp of almond extract and 1/2 T of orange zest. I used my cookie press, which I've only used once before with not the best results. It turns out that the first time I used it my dough was too soft, which is why all my cookies were only vaguely pumpkin shaped (although definitely pumpkin flavored!). I used the dragonfly/butterfly plate (not 100% which one it's supposed to be) and since these cookies are green they sort of ended up looking like clovers, which is cool because I made them for St. Patrick's Day.
At the end of my baking adventure I now know I have 2 tools I would never want to be without again (at least when it comes to cookies)! Next time, I'm going to try baking cookies on stoneware, and I'll be sure to share.
Since I'm not really a huge fan of chocolate (other than dark) I always leave the chocolate chips out of my chocolate chip cookies, I think it makes them too sweet and I prefer to focus on the sweet brown sugar and vanilla flavor of the dough. When I cream the sugars and butter I added a healthy amount of green food coloring to make them festive. When time to bake came I used my new Small Scoop, that holds about 1 T, to make perfectly even and adorable little dough balls that baked into wonderfully round and evenly sized chocolate chip cookies sans chips. They are amazing, and very pleasing to the perfectionist in me.
For my spritz cookies I had to beat them a little extra since my butter wasn't quite softened enough, which turned out to be a good thing as it made the dough nice and fluffy/creamy. I deviated from the recipe just a bit by adding 1/4 tsp of almond extract and 1/2 T of orange zest. I used my cookie press, which I've only used once before with not the best results. It turns out that the first time I used it my dough was too soft, which is why all my cookies were only vaguely pumpkin shaped (although definitely pumpkin flavored!). I used the dragonfly/butterfly plate (not 100% which one it's supposed to be) and since these cookies are green they sort of ended up looking like clovers, which is cool because I made them for St. Patrick's Day.
At the end of my baking adventure I now know I have 2 tools I would never want to be without again (at least when it comes to cookies)! Next time, I'm going to try baking cookies on stoneware, and I'll be sure to share.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Taco Munchies - A Win/Lose Recipe
A couple of weeks ago I was sent a recipe called "Taco Munchies". It looked easy and yum and something I could do quickly, I thought, "This will be a great recipe for a cooking demonstration!" So I put it in with the recipes for my sister to pick for me to demonstrate at her Pampered Chef party (later this week). I admit I didn't read it closely, just a quick skim of the ingredients, and as many long-time chefs do, I can pretty much figure out the rest after reading the ingredients. There are only so many places you can go with it after that.
I purchased the ingredients, there weren't many, and got ready to practice this recipe. It may be a case of worrying too much, but I like to practice a new recipe before making it for a crowd, to make sure there won't be unforeseen side effects. In this case, I was very lucky to have wanted to make it early. All the measurements were wrong, the baking time was wrong and even the baking temperature was wrong. If anyone were to follow these directions, they'd have many small over-flowing taco soups that would be way beyond Cajun (a colloquial for "burned"). And what else is odd is the ingredients list has garlic on it, but the instructions never called for garlic. Poor garlic. :C
So I start out unaware of these foul wrongs this recipe has, but luckily for me, when I cook for my husband and myself I always use about 1/2 or less than half the amount of meat a recipe calls for (healthier that way). So instead of 1 pound of ground beef I decide to fry 8 ounces. As it's cooking I roll out my seamless dough sheet (tubed crescent rolls with no perforations, amazing!) and cut them into squares. Not having worked with this dough a lot, I pick up a square right away and try to put it in a mini muffin cup - doesn't work out so well. It was too little and didn't cover the sides. I did a couple more and became a little frustrated, so I set it aside and measured 1 cup of salsa, because I thought an entire jar (with no specific amount listed, just "1 jar" of salsa) would be too much.
Then I realize that I have garlic out and no part of this recipe calls for me to do anything to the garlic. *facepalm* So I press the garlic into the cooking beef (which has been flipped and chopped into bits) and give it a little stir. During all this the dough has had a chance to set out and come to room temperature. I tried putting another one into a muffin cup and - success! It fit nicely, covering the sides and making little leaves on the edges. The dough definitely needed a rest before any attempts of stretching and squishing it into muffin cups should have been attempted. Next I mixed the salsa and ground beef + garlic, and my "wrong" measurements turn out to be the right ones! I had a little leftover filling but I can't imagine what I would do with another 1/2 pound of ground beef with these things!
Next comes baking. Recipe says 350, dough sheet instructions say 375, and I learned a long time ago that the people who write on those packages give you a temperature for a reason, it tends to take a lot longer if you cook them at the wrong temperature. I picked 375, I didn't want to wait an extra 5-10 minutes because of faulty temperature settings. I set my timer for 15 minutes, and after 10 I could hear them sizzling and I peeked at them to see what they were up to. They were already done, had I let them go a few minutes longer they'd have been burned and terrible - the recipe wanted me to bake them for 20 minutes, maybe because it had a lower temperature, but since this is a recipe I plan to use for demonstration, the less baking time the better. There's only so much chatter and fill you can give to people before they get bored and stop listening to you. I know, because I tend to stop listening if people are talking too much or for too long. Maybe I have ADD, but whatever.
I topped them all with cheese, which melted without additional assistance from the oven, lying recipe. Time to serve! After figuring out that I have no idea how to get the little devils out from their cups, and my traditional method of dumping cupcakes upside down wouldn't work because all the filling would fall out, I decided a couple burned finger tips would have to get the job done.
After one bite though... it was all worth it, Taco Munchies win the flavor festival this week! Perhaps it was the peach pineapple salsa, or maybe it was just a perfect combination of these comfort food flavors, but these were very yum!
Now I know how to make the recipe for later this week, and I have devised a plan involving a citrus peeler to free the munchies from their cups.
In the words of Alton Brown, "Remember, play with your food!" :D
I purchased the ingredients, there weren't many, and got ready to practice this recipe. It may be a case of worrying too much, but I like to practice a new recipe before making it for a crowd, to make sure there won't be unforeseen side effects. In this case, I was very lucky to have wanted to make it early. All the measurements were wrong, the baking time was wrong and even the baking temperature was wrong. If anyone were to follow these directions, they'd have many small over-flowing taco soups that would be way beyond Cajun (a colloquial for "burned"). And what else is odd is the ingredients list has garlic on it, but the instructions never called for garlic. Poor garlic. :C
So I start out unaware of these foul wrongs this recipe has, but luckily for me, when I cook for my husband and myself I always use about 1/2 or less than half the amount of meat a recipe calls for (healthier that way). So instead of 1 pound of ground beef I decide to fry 8 ounces. As it's cooking I roll out my seamless dough sheet (tubed crescent rolls with no perforations, amazing!) and cut them into squares. Not having worked with this dough a lot, I pick up a square right away and try to put it in a mini muffin cup - doesn't work out so well. It was too little and didn't cover the sides. I did a couple more and became a little frustrated, so I set it aside and measured 1 cup of salsa, because I thought an entire jar (with no specific amount listed, just "1 jar" of salsa) would be too much.
Then I realize that I have garlic out and no part of this recipe calls for me to do anything to the garlic. *facepalm* So I press the garlic into the cooking beef (which has been flipped and chopped into bits) and give it a little stir. During all this the dough has had a chance to set out and come to room temperature. I tried putting another one into a muffin cup and - success! It fit nicely, covering the sides and making little leaves on the edges. The dough definitely needed a rest before any attempts of stretching and squishing it into muffin cups should have been attempted. Next I mixed the salsa and ground beef + garlic, and my "wrong" measurements turn out to be the right ones! I had a little leftover filling but I can't imagine what I would do with another 1/2 pound of ground beef with these things!
Next comes baking. Recipe says 350, dough sheet instructions say 375, and I learned a long time ago that the people who write on those packages give you a temperature for a reason, it tends to take a lot longer if you cook them at the wrong temperature. I picked 375, I didn't want to wait an extra 5-10 minutes because of faulty temperature settings. I set my timer for 15 minutes, and after 10 I could hear them sizzling and I peeked at them to see what they were up to. They were already done, had I let them go a few minutes longer they'd have been burned and terrible - the recipe wanted me to bake them for 20 minutes, maybe because it had a lower temperature, but since this is a recipe I plan to use for demonstration, the less baking time the better. There's only so much chatter and fill you can give to people before they get bored and stop listening to you. I know, because I tend to stop listening if people are talking too much or for too long. Maybe I have ADD, but whatever.
I topped them all with cheese, which melted without additional assistance from the oven, lying recipe. Time to serve! After figuring out that I have no idea how to get the little devils out from their cups, and my traditional method of dumping cupcakes upside down wouldn't work because all the filling would fall out, I decided a couple burned finger tips would have to get the job done.
After one bite though... it was all worth it, Taco Munchies win the flavor festival this week! Perhaps it was the peach pineapple salsa, or maybe it was just a perfect combination of these comfort food flavors, but these were very yum!
Now I know how to make the recipe for later this week, and I have devised a plan involving a citrus peeler to free the munchies from their cups.
In the words of Alton Brown, "Remember, play with your food!" :D
Friday, February 25, 2011
My First Cooking Show
So maybe you're already wondering, "What's a Cooking Show?". You're lucky I'm such a nice lady, I'll tell you what it is! When I talk about a Cooking Show I'm referring to going to someone's house and preparing a meal in 30 minutes or less in front of a group of people, usually mostly women. During the show I explain how to use and why I use the tools I'm using. Why would I do this? I sell Pampered Chef products, the most amazing things that can happen to your kitchen! :D
In any case, my first Cooking Show was at my own home, just in case I chopped off a finger I would know where my first aid kit is! I invited all sorts of people, and practiced the recipe the day before by making it and feeding it to my husband, while he pretended to be a guest. He won two cookbooks and played with all the gadgets I used. Then he got to eat the little pizzas I made, so he had a good night!
So the day of the show comes, and at first I was really nervous, I'm wondering what was I thinking to sign up for this? I started cooking, and I started talking, and before I knew it the pizzas were baking and I was playing a game with my guests - I asked them their favorite fruit and vegetable and recommended Pampered Chef (PC) tools that could make preparing that food item easier or faster. I remembered how much I loved public speaking and how easy it is (I was a competitive public speaker in high school through an amazing program called Forensics) it was fun and natural to talk to this crowd, even if it was a small crowd of people I know.
Apparently my demonstration was a hit, and so was the fruit and vegetable game, because those were the top selling items! I was really pleased with how well I explained the Round Up From the Heart program (you round up your change and it is donated to Feeding America: http://feedingamerica.org/) because EVERYONE chose to round up!
When I started I didn't have high hopes for making money, and that hasn't really changed. What has changed is that I think I might really enjoy this. I've always loved cooking, I wanted to be a chef, open a restaurant or be a caterer. The thought that someone might not like my cooking, send me back a plate of food or special order something so it doesn't even resemble the original meal made me not want to do these things. Now, I get to do something I love for people, with none of those concerns. If I'm lucky, I'll more than break even, and if I'm not, I get to play with food and kitchen toys and meet new people.
Happy Cooking!
In any case, my first Cooking Show was at my own home, just in case I chopped off a finger I would know where my first aid kit is! I invited all sorts of people, and practiced the recipe the day before by making it and feeding it to my husband, while he pretended to be a guest. He won two cookbooks and played with all the gadgets I used. Then he got to eat the little pizzas I made, so he had a good night!
So the day of the show comes, and at first I was really nervous, I'm wondering what was I thinking to sign up for this? I started cooking, and I started talking, and before I knew it the pizzas were baking and I was playing a game with my guests - I asked them their favorite fruit and vegetable and recommended Pampered Chef (PC) tools that could make preparing that food item easier or faster. I remembered how much I loved public speaking and how easy it is (I was a competitive public speaker in high school through an amazing program called Forensics) it was fun and natural to talk to this crowd, even if it was a small crowd of people I know.
Apparently my demonstration was a hit, and so was the fruit and vegetable game, because those were the top selling items! I was really pleased with how well I explained the Round Up From the Heart program (you round up your change and it is donated to Feeding America: http://feedingamerica.org/) because EVERYONE chose to round up!
When I started I didn't have high hopes for making money, and that hasn't really changed. What has changed is that I think I might really enjoy this. I've always loved cooking, I wanted to be a chef, open a restaurant or be a caterer. The thought that someone might not like my cooking, send me back a plate of food or special order something so it doesn't even resemble the original meal made me not want to do these things. Now, I get to do something I love for people, with none of those concerns. If I'm lucky, I'll more than break even, and if I'm not, I get to play with food and kitchen toys and meet new people.
Happy Cooking!
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