a date night dinner

As you may have noticed in my post about these delicious brownies, I have a gentleman friend in my life. Being the good girlfriend that I am I decided to make him sit down and relax after a busy day at work so I could cook him dinner.

Also, I needed blog material. Two birds, one stone y’all.

So I thought I would make a romantic, impressive French dish, Coq au Vin (“Rooster with Wine”). This dish is almost like a stew with a thick red wine sauce. I made it once before for a crowd but this time I decided to make it a bit smaller and lighter, but equally delicious. The traditional recipes serve 4-6, so I worked to change it to a perfect date night dinner for two.

This is a great dish to prepare ahead of time so you can wipe the onion skins and excess flour off your clothes before going over to impress your significant other with your effortless cooking. (I did all the prep work at my place and took it over to his when it was ready for the oven)

But even though this is a lighter version of a classic, men will still love it because bacon and bacon fat are involved. Y’all would disappoint me if you didn’t have a jar of extra bacon fat in your fridge. You do, right? Right.

Date Night Coq au Vin (serves 2)
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 slices bacon
1 T olive oil or bacon grease
2 cups mushroom caps, halved
12 small pearl onions, peeled
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 T tomato paste
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 T rosemary
1 tsp dried parsley
salt & pepper
2 cups egg noodles, cooked
In a bowl, combine flour with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Toss chicken breasts in the flour and set aside. Chop bacon into small pieces (hint: this is easiest done if the bacon has been in the freezer for about an hour). In a heavy bottomed or cast iron skillet, fry the bacon until crispy. Remove bacon pieces with a slotted spoon and set aside; leave the grease in the skillet. Add 1 T bacon grease or a drizzle of olive oil so the skillet is not dry. Place floured chicken into the hot skillet and allow it to brown on both sides (3-4 minutes/side). When the chicken is browned, remove from skillet and set in the bottom of a cooking dish. To the skillet, add the red wine and chicken stock to deglaze the skillet. Stir in tomato paste, garlic, parsley, and rosemary. Place the mushroom caps, pearl onions, and the cooked bacon in the skillet and stir well. Allow the mixture to reduce for a few minutes where it will become more sauce-like. After about 5 minutes, pour everything on top of the chicken in the baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. With the oven set to 375*, bake covered for 35 minutes, remove the foil, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of baking, boil some egg noodles, drain them, and set them aside. When the chicken is ready, serve over the hot egg noodles, spooning extra sauce from the dish.

happy Easter to me!

Happy Easter, Passover, and springtime! It has been consistently over 90* for more than 2 weeks here in Texas so I know spring is in full blossom (along with the flowers and pollen!).

I got a fun Easter surprise this weekend from my Mama…

Now I shall go curl up and read this cover-to-cover and patiently await the next issue in the subscription.

I’ll be back tomorrow for our regularly scheduled programming.

things I’m bad at

In no particular order, here’s a list of things I’m really bad at:

1. Waking up.

2. Shipping packages in a timely fashion.

3. Washing produce.

4. Deciding what to order at a restaurant.

5. Parallel parking.

6. Admitting when I am wrong.

7. Using a vegetable peeler.

8. Remembering names in a group of new people.

9. Walking gracefully.

10.  Ending sentences with prepositions (see first line of this post).

11. Looking attractive as a 4 year old.

old school

Today we’re going old school and making a dish from my youth. I was just hired as a swim coach & swim lesson instructor for the summer and it is making me nostalgic for the old days of swim team and swim meets. I started swimming on swim teams at age 5 and continued for the next 11 years. I still swim recreationally and it is a big part of my life.

Well back in the day, we had a standard pasta salad at swim meets. Our moms would make up big batches to sell at the concession stand and pack in our cooler to eat all weekend. I began thinking of this pasta as “swim team pasta” and this week I was having major cravings for said pasta.

It is a super easy, tasty, pasta salad that is best served cold. Feel free to add or subtract any ingredients you don’t like! Traditionally this was made with rotini (cork screw) pasta, but I was feeling the farfalle (bow tie) variety. Just pick your favorite Italian dressing and go buck wild.

This is especially good to have on hand during the hot summertime when no one wants to do a lot of cooking!

Swim Team Pasta Salad (serves 4-6)
10 oz (dried) farfalle or rotini pasta
1 medium cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 pint grape tomatoes
2/3 cups sliced black olives, drained
1 cup pepperoni (I used turkey), sliced in half
1/3-1/2 cup Italian dressing, divided
2 T grated parmesan cheese
Cook and drain pasta, then set aside to cool. Peel and slice the cucumber, then slice the pepperoni. In a large bowl, combine the sliced pepperoni, the cucumber chunks, the grape tomatoes, and the drained black olives. Mix in the drained pasta. Mix in about 1/4- 1/3 cup of the Italian dressing, combining well. Taste for seasoning and desired amount of sauce, and add in the remaining dressing to your taste. Finally, sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and mix. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Serve chilled.

special brownies

No, no. Not that kind of brownie. But these are so good they should be illegal.

Last night I went over to the apartment of my gentleman friend and baked him brownies from a brand new cookbook. Several weeks ago I was sent a copy of My Mama Made That, the new cookbook from the Hampton Roads Junior League. It is full of classic Virginia recipes from the region where I grew up and I was oh-so excited to pick a recipe to show y’all. Thanks to Suzi R for sending it my way!!!

This is a great cookbook if you are looking for some classic, indulgent Southern recipes. The seafood section looks especially delectable — being that I grew up in a water town — but the seafood is so expensive in Texas that I have yet to try any of the recipes.

I believe the exact words of my gentleman friend, upon trying the brownies, were “These are so wrong. This shouldn’t be allowed.”

These babies become double decker, gooey goodness. I had a picture of all the melting chocolate and caramel oozing, but my camera ate it. As did my tummy.

FYI: the recipe suggests a 9×13 baking dish, but we used one a bit smaller to have thicker brownies. Be like me.

Caramel Fudge Brownie Bars (makes 12 large brownies)
From the cookbook, My Mama Made That
1 package devil’s food cake mix
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
2/3 cup evaporated milk, separated
1 package soft caramels, unwrapped (14-oz)
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, butter, and 1/3 cup of the evaporated milk. Stir until the dough begins to stick together. Press 2/3 of the cake mixture into the bottom of a greased baking dish and bake for 6 minutes at 350*. Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan, combine the caramels and the remaining 1/3 cup evaporated milk until melted. When the first layer of brownies comes out of the oven after 6 minutes, pour the chocolate chips and caramel sauce onto the bottom layer. Then carefully spoon the remaining cake mix onto the top and swirl with a spoon. Continue to bake for 20-25 minutes or until the brownies test done. Remove from the oven and cool completely. Cut into bars.

homemade oreo cookies

My friend Emilie made these a couple of weekends back when I went to a cookout with her family. She has been making these cookies for a while and decided to experiment with a gluten-free variety for her cousin who is on a restricted diet. She was concerned they weren’t quite as crispy as real Oreos, but let me tell you: it is as if an Oreo met an Oatmeal Cream Pie and they had a love child.

And I have the recipe.

I could eat about a million of these things. I think I had 3 or 4 at the cookout and lapsed into a food coma shortly after. They are seriously delicious!

Emilie’s Gluten Free Oreos (makes about 18 cookie sandwiches)
Basic g-f flour mix (makes 3 cups so you’ll have extra):
1 cup Brown rice flour

1 cup white rice flour

2/3 cup potato starch

1/3 cup tapioca starch

Cookies:

1 1/4 cups basic mix g-f flour (see above)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 T butter, room temperature

2 eggs

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated. Then add the butter cut into pieces and mix until butter pieces are pea sized. Once butter is mixed in, add in the eggs and mix until well incorporated. Drop batter onto a buttered baking dish in small teaspoonfuls, leaving plenty of room for spreading. Bake for 6-8 minutes at 375*, watching closely to prevent burning.

Oreo filling:

1/2 stick butter, room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer (use the whip attachment at a fast speed to achieve a frosting consistency). When the frosting has come together, use a knife and frost the bottom of one cookie. Match it up with another cookie according to size and make a sandwich. Continue with all the cookies until you have a giant plate of cookies!
*Note: this recipe can be made with regular, all-purpose flour. The consistency of the batter will be a bit thicker and harder so you may have to roll the cookies and press them in your hands before baking them, but the rest of the steps are the same!

late night baking

In case you weren’t already absolutely certain about this earlier, let me tell you now about how ridiculous my life is. I stayed up past midnight on Friday night baking with my best friend Emilie. MIDNIGHT.

We played with science, xanthum gum, and wine to make gluten-free oreos for y’all. They are delicious and amazing and easy. And I had planned to post that recipe today, but I misplaced the recipe and instead found these pictures lurking on my camera from this weekend.

Come back tomorrow when I will have hopefully recovered the recipe and the other pictures on my camera. I promise you’ll like these cookies if I ever tell you how to make them.

honored

Today I’m honored to have my recipe for Plain Bagels featured on The Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen Blog!!

I am so flattered that my recipe was chosen and I’m also flattered to have so many new readers today! I’ll be back Monday with more food fun, but for now, go make some bagels y’all!

restaurant review: Red’s Porch in Austin, TX

Recently I met one of the owners of Red’s Porch here in Austin, a venue I had heard a lot about. As soon as I checked the menu online, I couldn’t believe that I had never visited! The menu boasts a cool mix of cajun dishes and Tex-Mex specialties. Well, I was given an offer I couldn’t refuse (free food!) and took my camera along to snap some pictures.

So my friend Emilie and I headed to Red’s, along with two of her out-of-town guests, Caroline and Diana. Nothing starts off dinner like a cocktail: the spicy Voodoo Queen. Best Bloody Mary I’ve had in Austin, hands down. And the waiter even made sure mine had a smiley face for the picture!

Glancing at the appetizer menu, we decided on the Boudain Balls and the Cheese Biscuits with Bacon Gravy. Any time I see biscuits and gravy on a menu, I simply must eat it. At one point the waiter tried to clear our plate when there was just crumbs and gravy left and we slapped his hand out of the way. I believe I actually said, “You never take gravy away from a Southerner.” I’m sure he loved me.

Then came the main event and no one could decide. Caroline and Diana ended up ordering a burger and a sandwich and splitting, so Emilie and I did the same. We split the Oyster BLT and the Smokey Goat burger. As a Virginia girl, the combination of fried oysters and bacon took me right back to the marshes of my youth. And we know that I am a sucker for anything with goat cheese on it. They were both delicious in their own way, but I think the burger was my favorite.

I think Emilie liked the BLT.

I threw caution aside and dove right into my burger, covering myself in ketchup along the way.

As we digested another round of cocktails and our burgers, we sat back and took in the scenery. I love the fact that I can eat outdoors at the restaurants of Austin almost every day of the year. And Red’s has an incredible view, especially from the top floor of the porch!

Eventually dessert arrived and we enjoyed the Fruit Cobbler and the Fried Snickers Bar. We all agreed that, while delicious, the cobbler was not a traditional cobbler. It was more like a cake than a cobbler, but still good with melty ice cream on top! However, the Fried Snickers Bar was the best. I’ve had deep-fried Snickers at the Virginia State Fair but this was way better! It was as if it has been fried in crepe batter and not just heavy breading. Delicious!

My arteries made the sacrifice to taste that for you. This is just my cross to bear.

All in all it was a delicious evening at Red’s Porch with good service, tasty cocktails, and amazing food. If you’re in Austin, head to Red’s Porch on S Lamar (across the street from Broken Spoke) and relax on the porch!

yeast tutorial

Please note: I’m not an expert. But I can pretend.

Yeast can be intimidating to those who have never used it, but I promise it is not difficult. Recently I passed on a recipe to a friend and she commented that she’s a yeast novice. It seems I have taken for granted the Mama-instilled knowledge of how to work with yeast!

To help my friend, and y’all, I will show you the basic principles of yeast and how it will change your life.

To start, you need to buy some yeast. It comes in envelopes, jars, and (more uncommonly) yeast cakes. I have never laid eyes on yeast cakes as they are more for commercial operations and bakeries. But you’ll be fine with the envelopes or the jar, easily found in your grocer’s baking aisle.

Note: 1 envelope of yeast = 2 1/4 tsp yeast from the jar.

I keep my jar in the refrigerator. Because of this I always proof, or activate, the yeast before using it. Some types of yeast are already active in our times of new fangled food technology, but I follow the school of “always activate the yeast, especially if it was cold in the refrigerator”. It won’t hurt it and will make your dough extra fluffy.

To activate yeast, you need 3 things: warm water, yeast, and a source of sugar. Sugar feeds the yeast so even if your recipe doesn’t call for sugar, adding just a pinch in with the warm water and yeast will really help things along. However, if your recipe doesn’t call for sugar but does call for milk, you don’t need to worry about adding extra sugar since milk naturally has sugar in it.

As far as the water, you can usually run your tap until it is hot and that should suffice; there’s no need to use a kettle or microwave. If you’re worried, buy a cheap candy thermometer and check that the water is within 10* of 115*. Any hotter and you run the risk of “killing” the magical powers of yeast.

Combining the warm water with yeast and sugar begins the activation process and you can sit back and relax for 5-10 minutes. Or you can sit over it and watch it curiously bubble and become foamy, as I do. I’m fascinated by yeast, actually. The above picture was taken after about 5 minutes and you can see how it looks cloudy and bubbly. I ended up letting it foam up for a few more minutes, but as long as it starts looking like I have shown above you’re on the right track to yeast success.

When the time has passed and the yeast is bubbly and foamy, you are ready to add in the rest of your ingredients and bake away! Just follow the recipe’s instructions to form the dough.

When your dough has come together, you should let it rise in a warm place, covered with a dish towel. Do this according to your recipe. If your kitchen/house is naturally cool, I suggest turning on your oven for a few minutes to bring some heat to the area and then you can place the covered dough in a bowl on or near the cooktop.

This,

will become this:

The best part of working with yeast is punching down the risen dough to knead it again!

At this point, keep following your recipe instructions and you’re ready to bake amazing breads! You can freeze yeasted dough once it has risen. It should rise again while thawing in a warm place.

See? Yeast is not that intimidating! And now that you’re a brave, brave soul and are ready to use yeast, check out my recipes and have at it!