Baking, But With A Twist!

It's the bread. That's the twist. The bread itself is twisted. Sorry for the dumb title.

The next episode of that British baking show that we've been watching was breads, so we made a bread! Leslie had this recipe on her Pinterest for awhile, so this was a good excuse to make it. It's a braided pesto bread, and the recipe can be found here. We (well, mostly Leslie) did a great job with this one and it was delicious! The only problem? It made a ton of bread. Like, more than we could handle by ourselves. So be prepared to freeze some or give some away if you don't consume bread as readily as you do oxygen. We also didn't make fresh pesto like it calls for, but instead used frozen pesto we had left from last year. To thicken it up, we just added some extra Parmesan cheese (I think... or at least that's what I would do now that I'm thinking about it). It's always nice to put products from last year's garden to use!

And that's it for now. Thanks for reading and we'll be back soon with another exciting post!

Great British Bakers

Somehow we've gotten to the point where food is a sport. How many competitive cooking shows are there on Food Network these days? I don't even know... but there's like, a lot. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - I have great memories of watching Iron Chef with my mom when I was little and love the American version even better. But sometimes it's nice to have something a little more relaxing to watch instead of having my blood pressure rise every time Ted has them open their baskets to find some weird fish that looks like a monster and only lives in the bottom of a lake in Africa that I've never heard of. And that's where the Great British Bake Off comes in.

For those that haven't watched, it's competition where a group of amateur bakers is slowly whittled down by a series of challenges until there's only one left. Each episode features three challenges that the judges use to see who's the best and worst, with the best getting "Star Baker" for the week and the worst going home. It's really relaxing to watch and, as opposed to shows like Cutthroat Kitchen, all the competitors are kind and helpful to each other.

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, since Leslie loves the show so much, we've been watching it together and making something inspired by what they make in each episode. (She's definitely the better baker in the family, so my idea for us to make something from every episode has turned into me "helping" Leslie make us tasty treats. Luckily for me, she enjoys it and likes baked goods as much as I do. That, and the fact that she loves bacon probably more than I do, is really the foundation for our marriage.)

Episode one of this series was cakes with each contestant having to make a Swiss Roll for the first round. Well, Leslie and I have never made one of those... so why not give it a shot? Leslie found a recipe for a lemon cake roll with a lemon curd and whipped cream filling for us to try out. We did pretty well, even if the cake roll was a little over-cooked. It still rolled up nicely and tasted quite good. Really though, I love lemons in baked goods, so I was going to be happy with just about anything.

And there you have it - our first attempt at becoming great British bakers. We've got more to share, so keep an eye out for more of these foodie posts coming soon. Plus more house and travel updates on the way. Thanks for reading and we'll see you next time!

The Chocolate And The Cheese

How about a food post? Haven't had one of those for awhile... so why not now? Well, typically when it's one of our birthdays, the other makes a dessert to celebrate. For my birthday last month Leslie made an amazing lemon poppy seed cake - that was perfect for me because I like the mixture of flavors and lightness of something like that. For Leslie, on the other hand, the richer the better. Since we were in Hawaii over her birthday, I didn't get around to making her dessert until we came home. So, to make up for the fact that it was over a week late, I decided to go big - a quadruple chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. What the heck even is that? Amazing is what it is.

I started off with an Oreo crust. Since I didn't want the filling to make the crust all mushy, I removed the filling from a whole package of Oreos and then made the crust out of just the cookies (I bet there are some of you out there who would have loved to have eaten the bowl of filling I had by the end... sorry for not sharing with you). You can probably find just chocolate wafer cookies, but there weren't any at Kroger and I didn't feel like hunting around a bunch of stores, so whatever. The cookies went into the food processor with a bunch of butter to make the crust, which was then formed onto the bottom and sides of the springform pan before getting tossed in the oven for a bit. Now the crust was all ready to receive the goodness that is cheesecake.

All I had to do was throw a bunch of cream cheese, sugar, salt, eggs, sour cream, and melted chocolate into the food processor to make the batter (or is it filling - I suppose it depends on if a cheesecake is a pie or a cake... or neither). That all went into the Oreo crust already set in the springform, which was then wrapped in foil, which was then placed into a water bath, which was then placed in the oven. The magical gas heat of the oven did its job, and an hour later a round piece of deliciousness emerged. This cooled on the counter for another hour before spending the night in the fridge.

The next day, I applied the next level of chocolate (number three, for those of you counting). This came in the form of a dark chocolate and raspberry ganache. This was a simple matter of heavy cream, dark chocolate, butter, and raspberry preserves all coming together. Once the ganache cooled enough, but not too much, it was spread on the cake/pie. The final layer of chocolate was just a white chocolate drizzle (even if white chocolate isn't technically chocolate... just go with it). And there you have it - a quadruple chocolate cheesecake. But wait, there's more! I then took fresh raspberries, sugar, and salt and made a raspberry syrup/sauce to be spooned on as a topping before eating. There was probably enough raspberry in the ganache already, but why not add a bit more?

And that's how you get a quadruple chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. This was my first time making a cheesecake (cheese pie? still not sure what this actually is...) and it turned out pretty nearly perfect. Now I'm partly really looking forward to making another, because it was delicious, and also scared to, because I'll probably mess it up if I try again. I also need a good excuse to make one, since I don't think Leslie and I need to be eating cheesecake on a regular basis (don't worry, we shared this one with people too... so no, we didn't just eat a whole cheesecake ourselves).

So yeah, there you go. And I guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading!

Where There's Smoke

If grilling is cooking for men, then smoking is cooking for manly men (or really anyone who has taste buds... because smoked meat is awesome). I'd been looking for a time when I could try out my new smoker, so some friends and I picked a weekend that worked for everyone and planned a little cookout. The weekend we selected happened to be this past weekend, and somehow the weather decided to be amazing - clearly it was meant to be.

For my maiden smoke I decided to do a pork shoulder and a rack of ribs. I used one of the rub mixes that came with the smoker on both meats and then glazed the ribs with some BBQ sauce at the end of the cook. It was a simple enough process and the results were amazing! It's hard to believe what charcoal, wood chips, some seasonings, and a lot of time can do to a piece of meat.

I also decided, in order to make this an especially legit barbecue, to try making my own sauce. I followed a recipe online (with only slight variance) and it came out quite well. It's a slightly more acidic take on the classic KC style, but it balances nicely with the meat and oh man is it delicious. The recipe made a full 32oz squeeze bottle and it's already almost half gone. Apparently it went over well. I've got my sights set on something more like a Lexington style sauce used by Franklin Barbecue for my next batch. We'll see how that goes.

Somehow I managed to marry an amazing woman who supports me in my endeavors and even decided to supplement the meats of our lovely cookout with some delicious offerings of her own. Leslie made these wonderful corn muffins that really went perfectly with the meat. She also made two different kinds of mini cupcakes, both of which were great. One was a Bailey's chocolate cake with a Bailey's buttercream and the other was a lemon cake with raspberry buttercream. So freakin' good... and pretty too.

We ate in the early afternoon and then kept partying. We started off with a few rounds of BANG!, a fun little "wild west" board game. After that we pulled out the benches and had a bonfire on the back patio. Yep, a bonfire. In January. Go figure. We sat outside, taking in the (relatively) warm weather and campfire smells into the evening. We even lit up pipes/cigars, in case there wasn't already enough smoke happening for the day. But before long it got darker and colder, so we headed in and called this mid-winter cookout a success. Actually, considering the time of year, I would have called just being able to get the meat on the smoker without having to shovel a path a success - everything else was just gravy.

And there you have it - the year's first cookout. In January! Since the smoker worked so well I'm sure we'll be having plenty more of these once the weather warms up for real. I'm thinking I'll have to give a brisket a try soon... so stay tuned for that. And for more posts on here, probably.

But until then, thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Oh Fudge

Only I didn't say fudge... we made some! Yes, real fudge - not that quick fudge-like stuff floating around Pinterest these days that's nothing more than melted chocolate chips and condensed milk. No, I'm talking the real stuff here. And it's Alton Brown's recipe, so you know it's good.

We wanted to give something to our families for Christmas, and we've been meaning to try our hands at fudge making for a few years, so why not combine the two? We ended up making twenty batches of Alton's recipe in order to make enough to give to all our extended family. That's a lot of fudge! But we've got a lot of family, and what better way to spread Christmas cheer (other than singing)?

We had two double batches going at once here

The raw ingredients ready to be heated

We formed the fudge in pans and then cut it into blocks

The blocks were then wrapped in plastic before being packed in these little bags

It was a lot of work, but it was also pretty fun. And hopefully this inspires you to try your hand at something new. Thanks for reading and, even after all this time, we'll be back before too long with more lovely posts!

Grow Grow Garden

Y'all may remember that little garden we planted awhile back. Well, time has passed and, surprisingly, we managed to grow a few things! It wasn't spectacular (but it also sounds like this year was rough for lots of gardens in Indiana), but we got enough to eat and make some stuff.

One fun thing we grew this year was tomatillos. Those got blitzed up according to this recipe for salsa verde. It came out pretty great, but maybe a little hotter than I was planning. If we make this again I think I'd only use one jalapeno instead of the two I put in. It's still really good though, and Leslie even used it to make one of my favorite recipes we posted about last year.

Our garden also produced a few chilies, so we decided to do something different with those as well. What did we do? Make hot sauce! We didn't have a lot from the garden, so I supplemented our Habanero, Dragon Cayenne, and Carmen with some Jalapenos and Hungarian Hot Wax. The sauce came out pretty well, I think. It's not overly hot, and is rather sweet actually, but has a good flavor. I haven't used a ton of it yet, but I've enjoyed it so far. Hopefully we'll get a few more chilies next year and can make a bigger, better batch.

We also managed to get some good sized zucchini out of the garden. Leslie made some delicious zucchini bread and we shredded and froze the rest. I'm looking forward to more of that lovely bread all winter.

And lastly, tomatoes. They did about the best of anything in the garden. We ended up with quite a few and decided to try our hand at making some sauce. We blanched them, skinned them, and stuck them in the slow cooker with some onions, garlic, and herbs for a day before blending and freezing it. Ideally we would have canned it, but we don't have canning equipment yet. Maybe that will be our next experiment next year.

Leslie and I are also big fans of bread (in the words of Matt Bellassai, "You don't need people to have fun, you just need warm carbohydrates."), so we will occasionally make a meal out of bread and dips. One of our favorites is a bruschetta recipe with balsamic vinegar (we bust out the good, garlic-cilantro infused stuff for this). This recipe tasted even better this year when we used tomatoes and basil we grew ourselves. Delicious.

And that's about it. We used some more of our garden goods for a new recipe, but that's another post you should be on the lookout for soon. Thanks for reading and we'll see ya soon!

Jambalaya

A week ago today was Fat Tuesday and, while that doesn't mean a lot to us personally, we viewed it as a good opportunity to make a big pot of jambalaya. We got the recipe here on Allrecipes.

The Recipe

Cindy's Jambalaya

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1/2 Pound Smoked Sausage

1 Large Onion

1 Cup Chopped Green Bell Pepper

1 Cup Chopped Celery

1/2 Teaspoon Cajun Seasoning

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1 Cup White Rice

1 Can (14.5 oz) Diced Tomatoes With Juice

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

2 Cups Chicken Broth

3 Bay Leaves

1/4 Teaspoon Dried Thyme

1 Pound Shrimp (31/40 count), Peeled and Deveined

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Slice the sausage into 1/4" slices and add to the oil, cooking for about two minutes. Add the onion, bell pepper, and celery along with the salt and Cajun seasoning. Sweat until the vegetables are soft, 6 to 8 minutes. Next, stir in the rice and combine it with the vegetable mixture. Then add the tomatoes with juice, garlic, chicken broth, bay leaves, and thyme leaves. Bring the pot to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, let sit for five minutes, remove the bay leaves, and serve.

The Results

This isn't as good as Yats, but that's probably because I've never made jambalaya before. That said, this did turn out to be pretty good. We skipped the shrimp because we didn't have them on hand and used Boudin sausage I got from the Smoking Goose. This wasn't a great application for the sausage, so I'll probably use something different next time, but it worked. The recipe was really easy to make and it makes a good pot of hot food - perfect for cold weather like this.

And that's all we have for this post. Thanks for reading!

Maple-Garlic Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Yes, more food. We've been cooking a lot recently, as evidenced by our string of recipe posts. Think you can deal with that? Well I hope so, because if we keep trying recipes that turn out as good as this one then you'll be seeing a lot of cooking posts. This recipe is found here on Allrecipes.

The Recipe

Maple-Garlic Marinated Pork Tenderloin

1 Cup Maple Syrup

2 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard

1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil

1 Teaspoon Soy Sauce

3 Cloves Garlic, Minced

Pepper to Taste

1-1/2 lbs. Pork Tenderloin

Combine all ingredients but the tenderloin in a large plastic bag. Add the tenderloin, massage it to coat it thoroughly, and place in the fridge to marinade overnight. When you're ready to cook it, heat a grill or grill pan on medium-low heat. While the grill is warming up, remove the pork from the bag and place the marinade in a small saucepan. Reduce the marinade over medium-low heat for about five minutes. Brush the grill with oil and start cooking the tenderloin, brushing it with the reduced marinade occasionally. Be sure to keep the grill from getting too hot as the marinade burns easily. Cook the pork until it reaches an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees (about 20 minutes). Remove the pork from the grill and allow to rest for three minutes before cutting.

The Results

Pork is such a fun meat. It takes flavors well and can easily be enhanced without being overpowered. This marinade was great. It gives the pork a rich sweetness that's balanced out well by the soy and sesame. Yes, the soy sauce wasn't called for in the original recipe, but some reviewers recommended it and I wanted to add a bit of umami. The whole thing turned out great and was pretty easy - a double winner, I'd say.

Now, just to clear one thing up, pork can be pink now. If you saw the pictures of our pork and thought we were going to die, you're wrong. Well, not entirely... we probably aren't immortal. But this pork won't kill us. USDA recommendations changed in 2011 from a minimum internal temperature of 160 to 145. I hate overcooking food, so I pulled our tenderloins off the grill pan when they were at 145. I also knew that we'd have plenty of leftovers that would get reheated in the microwave, so by keeping them as moist as possible now they hopefully won't turn into rubber when we reheat them later. Leslie still said that she would prefer hers cooked through a little more, but she also likes her steak well done... so if you still want to cook it to 160 (no pink in the middle) then go for it. I'll just be over here enjoying my juicy, melt-in-your-mouth-tender, pink pork.

Fruit Pizza

I love pizza. I also love contrasting flavors and textures when I'm eating. I want a crunchy element to pair with a soft entree. I want a salty accent to my sweet dessert. So, when our church group decided to have pizza at our next get together, I thought it would be fun to make a fruit pizza too. It's in keeping with the theme, but is also a rich and bright contrast to the salty, meaty pies we would be having otherwise. Plus I just straight up love fruit pizza anyway, even if I'd never made it before. I found this recipe on Allrecipes and gave it a try.

The Recipe

Fruit Pizza

1/2 Cup Softened Butter

3/4 Cup White Sugar

1 Egg

1-1/4 Cups Flour

1 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

8 oz. Cream Cheese

1/2 Cup White Sugar

2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Fruit of your choice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth, then mix in the egg. In another bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Add this to the wet ingredients until just blended. Press the dough into an ungreased pizza pan and bake until lightly browned (about 10 minutes). Remove from the oven and let cool. To make the frosting, beat the cream cheese with the 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla until light. Spread this on the crust once it's cool. Slice and arrange your desired fruit on top and chill the dish until ready to serve.

The Results

Let me say it again - I love fruit pizza. And this turned out quite well, if I do say so myself. We used strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, which made for a good combination. If / when we make this again we'll probably try out some different fruit. We could probably pile it a little higher with fruit too, but we started off fairly conservatively, since we weren't sure how far the fruit we bought would go. Another change I'd probably make would be to use a smaller pan or make more of the recipe. It filled about 2/3 of a sheet pan (I don't have any crappy pizza pans lying around here), so if I made a double recipe it would fill the pan and be a little thicker crust. And that's something I wouldn't mind (Chicago Style > New York Style FOREVER!).

And that's all for now. Thanks for reading and we'll catch you on the flip side.

Sausage Zucchini Boats

The original recipe is found here on Skinny Mom.

The Recipe

Sausage Zucchini Boats

1/2 lb Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage, Casing Removed
1-1/2 Cups Light Pasta Sauce

4 Medium Zucchini

1/2 White Onion, Diced

1/2 Cup Red Pepper, Diced

1/2 Cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

2 Tablespoons Parmesan Cheese

2 Tablespoons Garlic, Minced

1 Teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1/4 Teaspoon Black Pepper

1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

Preheat your oven to 425. Cut zucchini in half length wise. Use a spoon or melon baller to remove seeds and scoop out flesh and chop the flesh into bite size pieces. Set this aside in a small bowl. Drop the zucchini halves in boiling water and boil for 1-1/2 minutes. Remove zucchini halves from water and dry zucchini with a paper towel. Spread a little over ¼ cup of marinara sauce into bottom of a 9x13 pan. Place the zucchini halves on top of the sauce with the open side facing up. Brown the sausage in a pan and chop into small pieces while browning. Drain the sausage and set aside. Heat your extra virgin olive oil in the pan, then add the diced onion, garlic, and red bell pepper to pan and sauté for 2 minutes until softened. Next, add the chopped zucchini, season with salt, pepper and garlic powder and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Return chopped sausage to saute pan and mix with the veggies. Using a spoon or spatula, add equal amounts of sausage mixture to each zucchini half. Top each half with the remaining pasta sauce and cover with cheese. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30-35 minutes in the oven until cheese has melted and zucchini is cooked through.

The Results

This was a pretty easy recipe to make and it was yummy! I can't wait to make it again when zucchinis are in season - the ones I used were very small. The only change I made to this recipe was not actually making the zucchini halves into boats. They were too small to dig out the flesh, and it was easier not too. And it tasted the same too! In the future, I will probably still just leave them as halves. I loved that this used lots of veggies. Hopefully we'll be able to use some from our garden if we can get it planted this year. Overall, I'd say this was a hit!