Keli's Coney Island is a flop.

"He Said"...

Went to an old Coney Island type restaurant in Dundee Michigan today named Keli's Coney Island. It is the old Nemo's and it was horrible. I ordered a swiss bacon burger and wifey ordered a steak and cheese sub and everything went down hill from there.

The waitress asked how I wanted the burger cooked and I said medium rare. She confirmed, "Just a little pink?". It was as well done as anything could be without burning it but somehow the cheese was not melted.

Wifey's steak and cheese makes you think Philly steak and cheese right? Yummy chopped steak mixed with cheese, onions, mushrooms, and maybe green pepper. Nope, not here. Her steak, if you could call it that, was whole and so full of grizzle it was impossible for her to eat. it was piled high with onion slices, tomatoes, and lettuce like you would see on a burger and of course her cheese was not melted either. This is a big pet peeve of hers.

Needless to say we won't be back.

Tootsie's Pizza Dundee Michigan

"He Said"...

Imagine this. You're anxiously awaiting the delivery guy, he pulls into your dive way and you would swear that you can already smell the pizza. The driver hands you your 2 large 2 toppings pies, cheese bread, and something called a Tootseroni all for $10.99 including delivery! (Still gotta tip scrooge!). You rush inside and open the boxes. It smells so good and it looks great. You slap a couple pieces on your plate and take that first bite and POW. You realize your mom snuck in, smashed two pieces of plain ole white bread together, spread on some of the nastiest tomato sauce you'll ever find, put three sprinkles of cheese on it and a few toppings, and threw it in the microwave and called it PIZZA!

No wonder you get so much for $10.99. Food likes this makes me with we had a dog again!

Seriously, the pizza crust was like biting into fresh plain white bread. It was super chewy without the slightest bit of crunch. The sauce has a very distinct and over powering spice that I just can't put my name on. For my money, Rivers Edge is the only place to get pizza in Dundee.

Shake'n off the Winter Blues

"He Said"...



This seems like the longest winter ever. Record cold and record snows (record heating bills too!). With the weather finally getting warm, you know it was a cold winter when 50+ is considered warm, we were craving summer food. G and I were watching Dinners Drive-ins and Dives on TV and it was all about hot dogs. We were inspired! Here's the menu:

Hot Dogs:
Koegel hot dogs split down the middle and "pan seared". I know this sounds nuts but it really did give the hot dogs a unique taste. I know what your thinking... What hillbilly pan sears hot dogs?! Trust me they were good.

Fixin's:
Bacon, sauteed onions, onions, sauerkraut, spicy mustard, pickles, and steamed buns.


Baked Beans:
My mom has always made the best baked beans but this recipe bumps mom to the back of the bus!

Ingredients:

• 3 (28 ounce) cans of Campbells pork and beans


• 1 teaspoon of minced onion


• 1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard


• 1 cup packed brown sugar


• 3/4 cup ketchup, plus 1 tablespoon


• 5 slices of crispy cooked bacon(crumbled) and two raw laid on top.

Directions

• Combine all ingredients and place in greased 3 quart baking dish.


• Bake uncovered@ 300 degrees for 2 hours.

Sautter's Potato Salad:
This potato salad can't be beat. I used to work there when I was a kid and I wish I would have grabbed that recipe! Sautter's is on Main St. in Sylvania.

The Result:
Awesome. Just what we needed to shake of the winter blues. Oh and the steamed buns make all the difference!

We are back!

"He Said"...

We took a break from blogging for a while. Just got busy over Christmas and Thanksgiving and well just got out of the swing of blogging I guess.

That doesn't mean we have stopped cooking / experimenting / and trying new restaurants.

I'll write up something a bit more detailed later but here's a few places we've been.


Sonic
Finally went to a Sonic in Flint. Basically, we went because of the commercials in our area and there wasn't a Sonic around. It was one of those places where the more you eat the worse it gets. Awesome concept... Not so good food.

La Fiesta Mexican in Dundee:
Summary - EXPENSIVE and not worth the price. G liked her enchiladas and taquitos and I have to admit the shredded beef was good. But my steak fajitas had a very bizarre flavor. I didn't like them at all. The restaurant is also one of those places that nickles and dimes you to death. Every thing, sour cream, extra tortillas, etc. cost extra. Not any place I need to go back to.

Coach's Bar and Grill Petersburg Michigan:
Still just whole in the wall bar with more smoke (cigarettes) than flavor. This place seems to just cook frozen food and charge pretty high prices for it. We didn't feel like cooking and this place was close. This is definitely on the do not return list.

Joe's Walnut Bar and Grill Petersburg Michigan:
Now this place surprised us. Fresh burgers but frozen steak for philly steak and cheese sub. They even used frozen and pre-chopped bacon for the burgers. The food was really good if you were looking for bar food (and we were). It was taco night so I grabbed two tacos just to try them and those were very good too. We'll definitely be back here and from what I hear the owner of the bar just bought the pizza place next door so he may start delivering the bar food too! Now that will be awesome! They will definitely be worked into our monthly food budget!

Homemade Stuff:
I think I FINALLY have pizza and bagels nailed down. I also made the best Thai Basil Chicken a while back but I have had zero luck duplicating it since. I changed fish sauce and that's the only thing we can think of. G just picked up the old fish sauce at the store so next time I'll try the tried and true and if it's as good as that one time I'll post the recipe. Very good stuff.

Tonight we had buffalo chicken pizzas on homemade pizza crust. One had G's pizza sauce and the other had Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (From the packet) as the sauce. I cooked the pizza dough on a 550 degree pizza stone and it turned out awesome.

Chicken and Rice Casserole

"She Said"...

Over a year or so ago J went to Cracker Barrel with his mom and grandparents and had a Chicken and Rice Casserole. They all raved about how good it was. It was our turn to host one of the many birthday parties we have and J wanted to make something similar to the Cracker Barrel version and this is what we found. We have made this recipe a thousand times now and it has always been a hit and makes great leftovers.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Tablespoons butter or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
3 cups diced, cooked chicken (I use a pressure cooker to cook my chicken)
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans of green beans, drained and rinsed
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
3/4 cup Mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
1 (6 ounce)box long-grain wild rice, cooked according to package directions (I use
Uncle Ben's Original long grain wild rice)
1 cup grated sharp cheddar
Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat butter or oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl.

Add all remaining ingredients to bowl and mix together until thoroughly combined.

Pour into a greased 3 quart casserole dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand for a few minutes before serving.


This is a great casserole to take to a pot luck or any other time you need to take food. If you are in my mom's group and pregnant this is one of two meals that I may be bringing you!

Oatmeal Carmelitas - Grab your glass of milk because you will need it!

"She Said"...

I stumbled across this recipe the other day while I was looking for another recipe and let me tell you, this is a keeper! Warm, gooey and oh so yummy. A perfect ending to a great meal or anytime for that matter, but don't forget your glass of milk because this baby is rich.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup melted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted this because I don't like nuts in food!)
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 9x9 inch square pan.

2. Combine the 1 cup flour, baking soda, oats, brown sugar, salt and melted butter. Mix to combine, mixture will be very crumbly. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

4. Let cool slightly then sprinkle over the crust the chocolate chips and chopped nuts (if using). Mix the caramel ice cream topping with the 3 tablespoons of flour and drizzle over the chocolate chips. Top with the remaining oatmeal mixture. You will need to break it into small pieces to cover.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. (it won't look done when you pull it out of the oven but as it cools it will cook more and harden). Let bars cool before cutting.

This recipe is so easy and so darn good. Believe me, you won't regret trying this one.

Thai Pizza?

"He Said"...

Okay this is a weird one and involves a bit of a story. Last night G and I got a babysitter (YEE HAW!) and went out to dinner and a movie alone! We went to this Thai place in Toledo called Tasty Thai. We both ordered this basil chicken dish and the waitress asked us how spicy we wanted it. The choices were none,mild, medium, hot, and Thai Hot. We started to order medium spice but the waitress led us to believe it was very mild. We both like spicy food so we upped it to hot. I'll save the rest of the review of that restaurant for another post but the food was HOT. I can't imagine what Thai Hot if hot was that hot! We are talking about nose running, lips burning, took an hour and 5 glasses of water to eat hot! G couldn't eat hers and had to order a new mild one.

We had to pay for the new one so we took the spicy one home and thought about what to do with it. Eating it was out of the question because nearly 24 hours later I was still suffering! So we thought about ways to tone down the spice factor. Somehow we ended up deciding to turn it into a pizza. (That's why I said it was weird!)

Turns out there are thousands of recipes for Thai Pizza. Whoda thunk?

All the recipes I saw had a peanut sauce and in one of my failed homemade Asian attempts I used a peanut sauce and it was gross so I didn't want to try it. G insisted and she's gotten pretty good at getting her way. (I'm not allowed to elaborate.)

I whisked the following together in a bowl until it was a creamy peanut butter texture but not quite as thick.

1/4 cup Jiffy creamy peanut butter

3 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

2 teaspoons low sodium soy sauce

1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground ginger (The recipe I based this on called for 2 tsp fresh)

1/2 - 1 tsp minced garlic (original recipe called for 1 fresh clove minced)

I had some frozen wheat pizza dough so I thawed that out and pre-cooked the crust, spread the peanut sauce on the crust, put the Basil Chicken leftovers on, followed by a little shredded mozzarella. I cooked the crust for 7-8 mins then put it back in until the cheese was melted (probably another 3-5 mins).

The pizza was awesome. The flavor was incredible. It was still too spicy for G but I could eat it without my lips burning. If we had leftovers of the mild it would have been fantastic and

definitely something we would make again. This is so far outside of the norm for me I can't believe I tried it let alone liked it! If your bored and don't know what to do with your leftover Asian food, give this pizza a try you won't be sorry!!!

Oh yea, the Basil Chicken had ground chicken, basil leaves, green beans, onions, and green and red peppers.

Homemade Fair Fries - Update

"He Said"...


I cut a bunch of fries cooked some and froze what I didn't need. I thought I could just put them strait into the oil from the freezer but boy was I wrong. Flavor was okay but they were soggy limp excuses for fries.

I have some left in the freezer so I am going to try again. When I put the frozen fries (a lot of them) into the 320 degree oil the temp dropped 100 degrees or so. The oil temp did not recover before it was time to take them out. This is definitely a "person of interest" in my soggy fry mystery. Next time I will try heating the oil a bit more before dropping the frozen fries in and I'll also cook smaller batches. If anyone has any suggestions here I'd be more than happy to hear them!

Hash Browns!

"He Said"...

Alright. Hash Browns, good ones, have been elusive to me. Almost as much as trying to make Carrabba's Chicken Parmesan and General Tsao's Chicken. I've tried all sorts of recipes for hash browns and none of them resemble the type of shredded potato hash browns you get at a coney island greasy spoon type restaurant. G has tried some "fancy" recipes with eggs and such in with the potatoes while I have stuck to just plain old potato recipes. All have come up short.

Last week I tried my hand again using a Pampered Chef mandolin to shred the potatoes. It shredded them fast and easy but the consistency was like cheap shredded cheese. The potatoes were very thin. I cooked them in a bit of bacon fat (I know I know... But my family is a bunch of hillbillies okay!). They were edible but nothing to write a blog about. Then yesterday I found an old stand up shredder way back in the back of our cupboard. This one had much bigger holes so I gave it another try and IT WORKED! These shredded potatoes were like little tubes instead of ribbons.

Here's what I did:

1. I washed 3-5 small to medium sized russet potatoes. (I did not peel)
2. I shredded them by hand with the biggest hole shredder I could find.
3. I washed and washed and washed until my water was clear. (3-4 times)
4. I left the potatoes in the water and threw in some ice cubes too.
5. I heated a heavy cast iron skillet medium low and threw in 1/3 to 1/2 stick of butter.
6. I had to turn the heat down to keep the butter from burning.
7. I dried the potatoes with a paper towel. I tried to get as much water off of them as possible (I learned from the home made fries flying hot oil trick!)
8. Put the potatoes in the skillet so that they are 2-3" deep all around the pan.
9. Let them cook. I checked them after 5 minutes or so with a fork just lifting up a little to see how brown they were. I would guess it took about 10 mins. You must resist the urge to flip until they are golden brown and crunchy!
10. Flip'm. Don't stir, just flip. Use a spatula to flip them in sections trying to disturb them as little as possible.
11. Let'm cook again until the second side is golden brown. This side will cook much faster and may require a little more butter.
12. EAT!

My Notes:
The heavier cut of potatoes, ice bath, and lots of butter did the trick. I still can't determine how much the ice bath helps but at this point it's a superstition so I keep doing it! Last week I had what looked like a pretty good batch going but I stirred them thinking more of them would get brown and I would have hash browns that were more crunchy. WRONG! The moisture in the potatoes ended up steaming the already crispy ones and I ended up with a soggy mess. So from now on I will resist the temptation to "stir fry" hash browns. I also pushed really hard while cutting the potatoes. My thought was that I might be able to force more potato into the holes of the shredder. I don't know if this worked or not but do it with an open hand because shredders make short work of knuckles too!

Oh baby look at the size of the holes on this shredder!

Results:
These hash browns were the best yet! I let them cook a little too long after the flip and should have added a little more butter. They burnt a tiny bit but were still very good. Nice crunch and nice buttery potato flavor! Now all I have to do is remember to take pictures!

Homemade Fair Fries!

"He Said"...

I've never been happy with the way home made french fries turned out. Soggy, burnt before they got crispy, something always happened that made me just want to throw them away and stick with Ore-ida. G and I went to Penn Station Subs a while back and their fries reset my standards for fries. Most restaurants serve the frozen pre-cooked fries that they just throw in the fryer and thaw/brown. Those usually are very crisp and crunchy but light on flavor. Penn Station makes "homemade" style fries and I believe they even cut them in the stores. The flavor was awesome especially with malt vinegar so I thought heck I'll try again. That's my stick my nose up in the air a bit wanna-be-food connoisseur /wanna-be-chef reason for making fries. The real reason, I had 30-45 mins to get dinner ready and I didn't have any frozen fries!

I did a quick search of my mentor and friend (I watch his TV shows okay?!) Emeril Lagasse's french fry recipes and I decided on this one. Plain and simple. (About 2/3 the way down the page).

I've taken a knife skills class but my ability to get consistent size/shape fries by hand is non-existent and we don't have a real fry cutter so I improvised. G bought the Vidalia Chop Wizard from Amazon a while back and I thought hey, I could use the insert by itself without the base or handle to make consistent sized fries! So that's what I did. I took the little green insert out and pushed it down through my already washed potatoes. I left the skins on for that extra flavor. (I'm lying. I was lazy and time was short.) It worked like a charm!

Here are my variations to the recipe:

1. I left the skins on the russet potatoes.
2. I didn't have time to pack them in ice and let them sit for the full 30 mins. They got 15 if they were lucky.
3. I also didn't dry them very well. I would highly recommend following his advice on this one. Hot oil is HOT and it burns! G isn't a fan of oil splatters in her kitchen either. :(
4. I committed a mortal sin by skipping the Essence too.
5. I used vegetable oil instead of peanut oil.

My Notes:
This is the first time that I ever blanched (two step frying) potatoes first. I think this and maybe to a lesser degree the ice bath really made a huge difference in the way these fries turned out. I tried a few fries after the first trip in the oil at 320 degrees and they were cooked through but soft and a bit soggy (like all my other experiences had been) they also had really good flavor at this point. I put them on a cooling rack covered with paper towel and let them cool down. After 5-10 minutes they went back in the oil at 350 degrees and this time they came out with good color and bit of crunch. I hit them with the salt right after coming out of the oil while they were still wet. These fries were not like the frozen fry variety or fast food type but more like fair fries.

Results:
The fries were inhaled by my family of chicks! Everyone loved them and wished I had made more (or not eaten so many as I was cooking). Fantastic recipe that didn't take much time at all. This will likely replace frozen fries in our house (unless I am especially lazy!)

Calzones!

"He Said"...

I've always loved calzones. Way back a long long time ago in a city far far away... Okay back to reality... In Greenville Ohio there was a little Italian restaurant near the plant that I worked at. I can't remember the name and I just tried Googling Italian Greenville Ohio and nothing came up near where I thought it was. Anyway the family that owned this place made awesome calzones. You could get anything you wanted in them and they were huge! The unofficial rule in the company that I worked for was that the person on travel always took the others in the group out to lunch and without fail this little Italian place was the destination of choice.

Anyhow... It's been years and years since I've had a calzone. Tonight lil G and I decided to make some. I searched on RecipeZaar for a calzone recipe just looking for a how to on how much I could get away with stuffing inside and how to properly seal the dough and a rough cooking time. I came across this recipe and the dough sounded really good so I followed this one to the letter except for choosing our own toppings. (I love broccoli on pizza and in calzones!) This turned out awesome! We made three small ones and they were really good. A tad over cooked at 35-40 minutes so watch that. The dough has an awesome taste and has now become the official household dough recipe! Give it a try it didn't take more than 30 minutes to get everything ready (not including rise time. Since we don't have a bread machine I used the stand mixer and let it rise for 30 mins. Could have gone 60 if I had time.) We also used G's homemade pizza sauce. I'll ask her to post that recipe too. Very good and very quick.

Awesome stuff!

BBQ Shredded Chicken

"He Said"...

Tonight G made some pressure cooker'd (is that really a word? It is at 11:30 at night!) chicken breasts. I cut one half of a breast up into very small pieces and threw it into a zipper bag with some buffalo sauce, salt, and pepper. Shook it and then put it on some homemade pizza dough with ranch dressing and more buffalo sauce mixed together as the sauce. Some mozzarella and cojack cheese (I know I know... I wanted cheddar but G wanted cojack.) In the oven on the baking stone (that always burns me!) at 500 preheated for 30 mins degrees and 8 minutes later dinner is ready! Pretty good stuff.

But the real reason for this post was the BBQ shredded chicken I made with the left over chicken breasts. I found this recipe on RecipeZaar.com. It looked easy so lil G and I made the BBQ sauce. She loved it! That little stinker sat down and ate a bowl of nothing but BBQ chicken after it was done! This sauce is super sweet with just a touch of spice from the crushed red pepper. This would be a good BBQ sauce to make in a pinch but nothing so far compares with Sweet Baby Rays.

Honey Mustard Dressing

"She Said"...

If you like Honey Mustard Dressing this is an easy and awesome homemade version! The best thing is that it only has four ingredients that are most likely already in your refrigerator.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon prepared mustard (yellow mustard)
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, honey and lemon juice. Store covered in the refrigerator. This recipe is easily doubled.


Next I would like to try my hand at Ceasar Dressing but I am still afraid of using a raw egg.

Cheddar Cheese Baked Potato Soup

"She Said"...

Now that the weather is cooling down I like to make soup for lunch. I make it for lunch because J isn't a huge fan of soups. This soup however was given a thumbs up by J. He said it tastes like a loaded baked potato! You can't beat that! This recipe is courtesy of Sandra Lee from Food Network.

INGREDIENTS:

2 to 3 baking potatoes
2 (10oz) cans Cheddar Cheese Soup
2 1/2 cups low-sodium Chicken stock
1/4 cup real bacon pieces (or diced ham)
Sour cream, for garnish
Green onion, finely chopped, optional for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

Microwave baking potatoes for 7 to 8 minutes on high. I use the baked potato sensor on my microwave. Carefully remove from microwave using oven mitts. They will be HOT! (Duh, they were just microwaved!) Set aside until cool enough to touch.

When potato is cool, cut inot 1/2 inch cubes.

Add Cheese soup, chicken stock, and bacon or ham pieces to a medium pan. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally over medium high heat. Add potato and continue to heat soup for 5 minutes.

Ladle soup into bowls and garnish with a dollop of sour cream and a few chopped green onions.

Enjoy!!!

She calls them Crash Hot Potatoes, I call them simply divine!

"She Said"...

The She I am referring to is Ree a.k.a Pioneer Woman at thepioneerwoman.com. I found her blog while doing a search on other food blogs. I love trying new recipes and new food and this recipe caught my eye, just look at that picture! Like I said in the title, these potatoes are simply divine! Crunchy on the outside, super flavorful and bake potato like on the inside. I like to eat mine with sour cream and J likes to eat his with ketchup. For an added twist you could even melt cheddar cheese or my favorite, Colby Jack and break some bacon pieces on top and then add sour cream! Mmmm...loaded bake potato.

The first two times I made the potatoes I followed her directions to the tee but last night we wanted them with dinner and time was a factor so instead of boiling the new potatoes I used my handy dandy Pampered Chef microwave steam, put a little bit of water on the bottom, whole potatoes (small) and put the lid on and microwaved for 7 minutes. This cut the total cook time down. Now lets get to the complete recipe so you can enjoy these babies too!

INGREDIENTS:

New Potatoes (or other small, round potato)
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper
Dill weed (optional)
Lawry's Seasoned Salt (optional)
Rosemary (or whatever herb you like)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil or if you have the Pampered Chef steamer, add water and new potatoes.

2. Add as many potatoes as you want to boiling water and cook them until they are fork tender.

3. Next generously drizzle olive oil on a sheet pan. Be generous otherwise your potatoes will stick to the pan.

4. Place fork tender potatoes on the sheet pan. Give them plenty of room to spread out.

5. Take your potato masher and gently press down on the potato until it slightly mashes. Then rotate the masher 90 degrees and finish flattening it. Don't smash it onto the pan, you want it to resemble a cookie.

6. Next, brush the tops rather generously with olive oil using a pastry brush or an oil sprayer filled with Olive Oil.

7. Next sprinkle with Kosher salt. Kosher salt adheres to the potatoes more easily than table salt and flavors them nicely without getting too salty.

8. Sprinkle with Lawry's Seasoned Salt (sprinkle lightly since you are also using Kosher salt), fresh ground pepper, Dill Weed and Rosemary.

9. Put it into a very hot(450 degree) oven and cook for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden and crispy and sizzling.

Mmmm....I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!!

Honey Bran Muffins - Don't use Olive Oil!!!

"She Said"...

It has been a slow week on the food front mostly because I have been so busy running around. Finally on Thursday night I got a chance to make the Honey Bran Muffins I have been wanting to make for the last two weeks. I made them once before and I remember them being so yummy and I figured they would be quick and easy to grab on our busy mornings throughout the week. The recipe calls for mixing the ingredients together, covering and refrigerating for at least 3 hours or overnight. The kids are tucked into bed, J's not home yet and I start making my muffins and then I run into a snag... the recipe calls for vegetable oil and I am fresh out since I used the last of it to make donuts a few weeks ago. Olive Oil is one thing I have plenty of so I go to the Internet and search on whether I can replace the Vegetable Oil with Olive Oil. The response was: "Most Definitely, you won't notice a difference in the taste". WRONG! BIG FAT WRONG! I made the Bran Muffins with Olive Oil, chilled overnight and made the muffins Friday morning. The whole time I was pouring the batter into the muffin cups all I could smell was Olive Oil. I made mini muffins for the girls and a dozen regular sized muffins for me and J. I get them cooked and cooled and take a bite and the only thing I can taste is the Olive Oil!!! Big disappointment :( The only good news is that my pickiest eater loved them! She ate 4 minis in a matter of minutes and was still asking for more! J took one bite and threw it in the trash and said, "yea, you can really taste the Olive Oil." I will be making these again on Sunday night with Vegetable Oil this time.

These muffins are really worth making so here is the recipe. I got it from allrecipes.com (one of my favorite recipe sites).

HONEY BRAN MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups pineapple juice
2 cups golden raisins (I use dried cranberries and sometimes I just omit this all
together.)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (do not replace with Olive Oil!!)
1/2 cup honey
5 eggs, beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
4 cups whole bran cereal (I use All Bran)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a small bowl, combine pineapple juice and raisins. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in cereal. Set
aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl combine brown sugar, oil, honey, and eggs; mix well. Add cereal mixture, and mix well. Fold in the pineapple juice, raisin mixture. Batter will be thin; it will thicken as it chills. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
4. Stir chilled batter. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups 3/4 full.
5. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F oven for 15 to 17 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

For the mini muffins I baked them for 12 minutes.

Pancakes... Homemade vs. Jiffy Mix

Homemade Pancakes vs. Jiffy Mix

Homemade 0

Jiffy 1

We love pancakes made with Jiffy Pancake and Waffle Mix. G started out with the recipe on the back of the box, added a little more water, and put lots of milk chocolate chips in them and we all love them! You should see the baby after eating these!!! Me, I like to try to make stuff from scratch (much to G's distaste and I mean that literally most of the time.). I tried this recipe today because it had 400+ ratings and an average of 5 starts but compared to Jiffy it STUNK! I am starting to think that making pancakes from scratch is going to end up in the homemade Chinese pile :(

Chaparral's - The Owner is Crazy!

He said...

G and I went to dinner at The Chaparral BBQ and Steak House last night (Without the KIDS!) and it was awesome. We read that this place had good BBQ and we are always up for trying new BBQ.

We ordered baby back ribs and onion rings. While we were waiting on our food the owner came out and talked to a family at another table. You have to see this guy. He's crazy but he sure loves what he does! He came out of the kitchen in a white tee shirt and apron. I'm sure he had pants under there two but I don't remember for sure. He looked like a wild man. You would have never guessed he was the owner until you heard him start talking about his BBQ. I don't know what they ordered but it wasn't BBQ so he ran back in the kitchen and brought them a sample of his ribs. Super friendly guy and passionate about his restaurant and his food.

G and I ordered the ribs and onion rings. The owner came out to talk to us when our ribs came out and wanted to know what we thought. He told us that he smokes the ribs with cherry wood, uses a home made rub, homemade BBQ sauce, and they are in the smoker for 5+ hours at 225-250 degrees. This guy definitely knows what he is doing and his ribs were proof. His ribs were so tender it was like eating smoke flavored bread straight out of the oven with some BBQ sauce on top. Fantastic texture. G liked the taste more than I did but they were still the best we have had in a long time (except my own of course ;)

So back to the owner. He's talking to us asking what we thought and everything. We tell him how ribs and pulled pork are our favorites. He asked if we like Carolina style pulled pork. G said "hell yea!" and he runs back into the kitchen and comes back with a thinly sliced pork shoulder sandwich with coleslaw and vinegar based sauce. It was awesome! All told we spent about $50 there for dinner. We will definitely be back, that crazy owner makes some awesome BBQ.

Creamy Frozen Coffee Drinks

"She Said"...

I love sweet blended coffee drinks like Coffee Beanery's Black and White Frappe latte, Biggby's Caramel Big Chill or even Tim Horton's Iced Cappuccino. I love them but my wallet can not say the same since the average cost of a Grande is roughly $4.00! Ouch!!! $4.00 for a coffee drink, that in my case, is gone in mere minutes! I have tried to duplicate the taste of my favorite concoctions at home but always with disappointed. This morning being another failed attempt. I thought I had it this time.

I brewed fresh coffee (4 cups) and dissolved 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of vanilla in the hot coffee. I then added 1/2 cup of French Vanilla International Coffee Creamer and 1/2 cup of Whole Milk and mixed it all together. I put it in the fridge to cool off. Once it was cool I took my Magic Bullet and added crushed ice to the container and then added my coffee mixture to the ice and blended.

My coffee drink turned out fine but it just wasn't the same as getting it from Coffee Beanery, Biggby's or Tim Horton's. From here on out I will be on a quest to make my own creamy frozen coffee drink.

Watermelon...sweet, glorious watermelon

"She Said"...

Summer is coming to an end and although I am looking forward to cooler temperatures I am still sad about the passing of a season, the last official holiday before Fall begins, the picnics at the park and all that embodies Summer. Summer may be ending but one thing about Summer that still remains is Watermelon! Sweet, glorious watermelon...dripping down your chin watermelon.
But after you have cut your watermelon into slices and feasted on the fruit, what next? You still have half of a watermelon sitting in your refrigerator taking up valuable space. Here is the answer!
Why not make it into a Watermelon Granita?
I found this recipe one day while looking for a cookbook for my very picky preschooler. It is a bit time consuming but the end product is simply delicious.

Start by making a simple syrup which is equal parts water and sugar melted together.

Simple Syrup
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil, add 1 cup of sugar to the boiling water and stir to
dissolve completely. After the sugar is dissolved remove from heat and allow to cool COMPLETELY.

Watermelon Granita

4 cups seedless watermelon cut into chunks
1 cup simple syrup
Juice of 1 lemon

In a food processor or in my case I just used a blender, combine the 4 cups of watermelon, the cooled simple syrup and the juice of 1 lemon (make sure you don't get lemon seeds in your mixture!)and puree until smooth. Pour you mixture into a 9 x 13 plastic or glass container and freeze for 1 hour. After 1 hour remove from the freezer and take a fork through the mixture raking it back and forth. Freeze for another hour while periodically checking with a fork making sure it doesn't freeze solid. Repeat by raking and freezing for another hour. Remove, rake one more time and serve. Store in an airtight container in the freezer - it should stay granular indefinitely.

We may not be able to keep Summer around forever but we can enjoy Watermelon Granita and the taste of Summer well into Fall. Enjoy!