Mexican Hot Chocolate

I was navigating through the Silk Milk website and i stumbled upon this recipe. I knew I had to shovel snow since it snowed here so I thought it would be a nice treat have hot chocolate when I was done. I did not have any cayenne pepper but a website told me I can substitute with chili powder so I did that. It was really good, had a nice spice to it!

Ingredients

Cayenne (optional)
2 cups Silk Vanilla, Omega-3 DHA or Chocolate
3 oz Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped)
1⁄2 tsp. Vanilla
1⁄2 tsp. Cinnamon

Directions

In a small saucepan, bring Silk to a simmer over medium heat. Whisk in chocolate, and continue to cook until chocolate is melted and fully incorporated. Remove from heat, and whisk in cinnamon, vanilla and cayenne. Pour into two warm mugs. Top with cinnamon or chocolate sprinkles.

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Chili Cheese Dip

This one has a funny story. My brother's girlfriend Gina made this and it was the first time I heard about it. Then my sister made it where she got the recipe from her. Then my friend MaryBeth mom's gave me the recipe in her sexy hand writing not knowing I heard of it. Then in my Effective Speaking class a girl made it for our end of the semester party. Then I wanted to make it for New Year's Eve which we are having at Matt's house in the Poconos.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

My mom had a new obsessive liking to Silk Milk, I like it too. I was in Whole Foods and I saw the holiday Silk Milk flavor of Egg Nog and Pumpkin Spice so I got them for the house knowing the holidays were coming up.

This was the first time I made pancakes and was successful. I think the secret is using a grill pan, a proper recipe, and using non-stick spray. This fixed all my problems because the pancakes kept shape and the grill pan made it for the perfect angle to flip them.

Also, I only had a 1/2 cup of Silk to I just cut the recipe in half. Everything was easy to cut in half except the egg, for obvious reasons but I managed. They did not taste much like pumpkin but I wanted to make them.

Ingredients

1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup Silk Pumpkin Spice
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 large egg

Directions

Whisk together dry ingredients. In another bowl whisk together remaining ingredients. Combine dry and wet, mixing gently. Cook on a preheated skillet. Makes about 12 pancakes.

Source- on the side of the Pumpkin Spice Silk Milk

Peanut Butter Apple Pie

Last Christmas I took a classic staple of pumpkin pie and made peanut butter pumpkin pie. This year I did the same with apple pie and made peanut butter apple pie. Both recipes are from Lee Zalben, who wrote the Peanut Butter and Company Cookbook which I love!

I did not venture to making my own crust because I am not that ambitious yet so I took help from the Pillsbury Dough Boy. One day I will make my own crust, maybe after if I decide to go to culinary school, which I was brainstorming the idea with my mother.

If I went to culinary school I would want to study in France or NYC, big difference. I could make this into a hobby, or second career when I retire, I am not entirely sure but it is something I would be interested in.

The peanut butter filling was heaven when I tasted an apple dipped in it. What else can be any more great than melted peanut butter, butter, and brown sugar? Peeling the apples was the worst but cutting them was a lot of fun. The sound of the crisp cool apple being cut by the knife was therapeutic.

Ingredients

6 Granny smith apples, peeled and sliced
1 cup natural peanut butter (I used PB&Co. Old Fashioned Smooth)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 pkg. pre-made pie crustr

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 450°F.

2. Place the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, and salt in a small saucepan and heat on a very low flame and stir until well combined. Remove from heat and add the cream. Mix until smooth and set aside. Let cool.

3. Place the apples in a large bowl and sprinkle the flour on top of the apples and toss with your hands until the apples are well coated.

4. Place the peanut butter filling in the pie shell. Place the apples in the filling one at a time, pressing down so that they become immersed in the filling. Periodically press down on the apples to allow the filling to rise. Continue until all of the apples are incorporated into the filling. Sprinkle the granulated sugar on the top of the pie.

5. Place the pie in the oven and bake at 450°F for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 350°F and bake for an additional 50 to 60 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Note: Cover the edges of the crust with strips of aluminum foil to protect the crust from burning. Remove the strips during the last 20 minutes of baking.

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Cheddar Potato Pierogi Lasagna

I wanted to make this because I love pierogies and I love lasagna so it is the best of both worlds.

I know with regular lasagna my family does not cook the noodles to save time and effort and they come out soft. I tried this same technique but as I am typing this I am worried that the noodles may still be hard. Although, my favorite texture in food is crunch so it may not be a bad thing, but we shall see!

Also, this is my first recipe from Food2. I am a little skeptical because these reviews are not reviewed by chefs in the Food Network even though it is a sister site of them. Plus there was no comments for the recipe.

Ingredients

1 lb lasagna noodles
4 lbs red or white potatoes
1/4 c sour cream (optional)
1/2 c milk
2 c shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 c butter (1.5 sticks)
1 onion, sliced in rings

Directions

Cook the noodles. Chop potatoes into cubes, place in pot of cold water (enough to cover), and allow to come to a boil. Continue boil until potatoes are soft enough to yield to a fork stab. Drain, mash, blend with a mixer. Toss in the optional sour cream and milk, mix some more. Add salt to taste. Stir in cheddar.

Melt all the butter over medium-high heat, then sautee onion until the rings no longer hold their shape.

Preheat oven to 375. Grease the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with some of the onion-butter. Lay noodles on the bottom of the dish, then spread the potatoes, a dollop at a time, along the length of each noodle. Once done, smooth the potatoes, then spread about a quarter of the onion on top, and drizzle a small amount of butter as well. Repeat this twice (or more if your dish can accommodate), then top with noodles and the remainder of the onions and butter.

Pop in the oven for 20 minutes. Allow to cool 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Source

Macaroons

I always wanted to make macaroons and I found this recipe at Lambert Castle in Paterson, NJ when they had their Christmas sale in the castle. If you live nearby Paterson take a visit to this castle it is so beautifully and breath taking! If you plan on going when the sale is going on becareful if you are claustophobic because there is so many things packed in the rooms, I almost had a panic attack.

On the other hand, the macaroons are very very easy. All you do is mix in the egg whites, suagr, vanilla and mix. Then you add the flour and coconut and mix more. Spoon them on a baking sheet. I like really big ones because they look like royalty.

After I melted some chocolate and dipped when end of them in they look good to be in a bakery in France. Also, the remind me of Ina Garten quality food, and we all know she is over the top but also such a great food socialite in her mansion in the Hamptons.

Ingredients

4 egg whites
1 1/2 cups suagr
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
14 oz. coconut

Directions

1) Mix egg whites, suagr and vailla well. Add flour and mix, then add coconut.
2) Line cookie sheet with foil abd drop cookies.
3) Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 15 - 20 minutes.
4) (optional) If you are a chocolate lover, melt 6 oz. semi sweet chocolate in a small saucepan, stir until smooth. After cookies are completely cool, dip one end of each cookie into chocolate. Place on waxed paper and let set.

Source-Holiday newsletter from Lambert Castle in Paterson, NJ (2009)

Jell-O Shots

This is like my third or fourth time making Jell-O shots and every time I do I need to look up the recipe, and every time it is a different one. The reason is I am always unsure how to make them so I am sure to follow the directions very carefully because a strong unshotable Jell-O is gross!

I make this connection of being unsure to I feeling like a chemist mixing together a powder artificially flavored with chemicals to make one batch taste like raspberry and the other orange with hot boiling water heated up by a Bunsen Burner and letting it cool to room temperature in a beaker. Then, I carefully measure out each shot in a glass 1.5 oz. beaker then transfer it to another plastic 3 oz. beaker being careful not to drip any of the strong homogenous liquid that has an uncanny effect of making you do things you otherwise would think twice of.

Ingredients

1 (6-ounce) box of raspberry Jell-O, or other flavor of your choice
2 cups boiling water
2 cups vodka

Directions:

In a bowl, pour the boiling water over the Jello and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Cool to room temperature, then stir in the vodka. Pour the mixture into shot glasses or Jello shot cups. Refrigerate until well-set, at least 6 hours. Makes 32 1-ounce jello shots, give or take.

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Banana Pudding

So this recipe is kind of a hybrid, very appropriate since the earth is going to flood itself because of global warming. As I was making it for a Christmas party potluck I disregarded the directions a little bit. I combined the idea of a recipe that I saw in my Effective Speaking class and the recipe for Lorna Doone Spoon Pudding on the back of the shortbread cookie box of Lorna Doone. I just call it Banana Pudding because it simpler.

So I started to lay the shortbread cookies on the bottom of an aluminum pan, that I happened to get a two for one deal unintentionally and dishonestly. I was at Shop Rite and I put the pans on the conveyor belt, but they were inside of each other and I was only charged for one. It took me five seconds to realize this and I wanted just to use quarters to pay so I let it slide. Thanks for the free pan!

I then mixed vanilla pudding mix from Trader Joe's and let it sit for five minutes. Now I have Trader Joe's pudding because I just like an excuse to buy things from other food stores besides the major chains. I was in there last weekend for who knows what reason. I wasn't sure how much Cool Whip to mix in with the vanilla pudding so I just did a cup, the recipe from Effective Speaking says 1/4 cup but what does it matter?

I realized I almost forgot the banana but I wanted another layer and I did not have enough shortbread cookies, because Marybeth and I ate them all, so I used some graham crackers from the S'mores bites from the other night and put a layer of those on top of the pudding. Then I sliced the banana and put a layer of Cool Whip on top adding peaks with the back of spoon. Then for garnish I crushed some shortbread cookies and sprinkled on top. Looks quite nice for all store bought food items. As I type it is sitting in the refrigerator chilling before the party at 8pm with some friends.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups cold milk
1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding
24 short bread cookies
1 large banana, sliced
1 container of Cool Whip
some graham crackers if you do not have enough cookies (optional)

Directions

1. Pour Milk into large bowl. Add pudding mix and beat for two minutes or until it is well blended.
2. Arrange the cookies on the bottom of an 8x8 pan, covering the whole bottom.
3. Pour the pudding on top of the cookies.
4. Add a layer of cookies, (if not enough cookies the graham crackers, break them up so when you serve they are small) on top of the pudding.
5. Slice the banana and put on top of the cookies.
6. Add a layer of cool whip covering the bananas completely.
7. Using the back of your spoon add peaks and garnish with crushed up cookies.

Source- back or Lorna Doone box

Sunny's Crunchy Peanut Butter S'more Bites

I am sitting in the lab at work, of course not working because it is the tutoring center on campus. My roommate is next to me. I go on foodnetwork.com and I see the sponsored cookie recipe. They have a new cookie everyday because of Christmas. If you know me well enough you know I love peanut butter! My roommate Matt was like, we have to make those in his screaming trademark voice. Me just agreeing with everything just says "ok!". We agree on going to the store together since I needed parmsean cheese for my chicken parm I made earlier in the day.

We go to the A&P where Marybeth works and we agree to split the costs. We find everything we need easily and we both spend like eight bucks making them. We do the express self-checkout since we spent most of the time talking to Marybeth. The screen freezes because we forgot something I guess and we waited too long. We wait for the employees to help so the express lane is not too express after all, it is a scam!

We get back to the room, I make my dinner as he starts to mix the peanut butter (chunky), confectioners sugar, and butter. We did not have a whisk or electric mixer so Matt used his hands. I am glad he did that because it was messy. He basicly rolled them into balls and pressed them into circles, it looked tedious. We let them chill out as we chilled and drank.

For the first time ever I used a double boiler and I always wanted to. I melted the chocolate chips, this time not burning them like I did last year attempting to make peanut butter buckeyes, I failed. I only dipped half of the peanut butter coins in. Some fell to their own mercy in the melted lucious chocolate but they were lucky ones. Then I dipped them in grahm crackers and coconut and put them back in the refrigerator.

Here came the messiest part of all time. The directions said put fluff in pastry bag but who owns those? So like all cooks use we used a plastic baggie. Well sticky fluff plus plastic equals messy. Matt gave up and dropped the bag that looked like it was covered in glue back in the fluff container. I came later and did it, I tried with the bag it was too messy and slow so I spooned the fluff on the coins after they set.

With the left over stuff because we used half of the recipe I rolled the peanut butter in balls and dipped them in chocolate to make buckeyes then dipped them in the grahm crackers. I just had a buckeye so far and they were amazing! I am sure the orignal recipe will be great too. I have ton so who wants some?

Ingredients

2 cups crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 sticks butter
5 cups powdered sugar
24 ounces (4 cups) milk chocolate chips, melted
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup marshmallow fluff
1 cup coconut flakes, optional
2 1/2 cups puffed rice cereal, optional

Directions

In a large bowl, add the peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar and beat with a whisk or electric beater until smooth. Using a teaspoon measure, scoop the mixture and form into balls, then press into a coin shape the diameter of a quarter. Refrigerate to set up dough cookies, about 30 minutes.

To make bites, dip peanut butter coins in melted chocolate then toss in graham cracker crumbs until coated, double dip and double coat if you feel dangerous. Arrange the coated coins on a wire rack and refrigerate for about 30 more minutes to set. Add the marshmallow fluff to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Remove the coins from the refrigerator and squeeze about 1 teaspoon of marshmallow fluff into the center of half of the coins. If you don't have a pastry bag, use a plastic bag, fill it with fluff and cut 1 corner off and dollop that way. Then top each half with another coin to make a sandwich and place return to the refrigerator to set, about 1 hour.

Options: chop coconut flakes and add them to the graham cracker crumbs to use for coating.

Add puffed rice cereal into the peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar for a bit more texture and crunch.

Source

Easy Chicken Parmesean

So I decided I want to be more creative with this blog, which I am probably stealing the idea from the movie that I saw and book that I am reading Julie and Julia. The movie was great the book is always better, like always. So instead of just putting the recipe and a mediocre review I will right my experience while making and shopping for the food. Also, I will relate any antidotes that are funny and pertinent.

The funny thing with this chicken Parmesan is my roommate Matt made the same exact thing last night. This was not planned at all. He went shopping that day and made it, I planned this weeks ago. I am a big planner when it comes to cooking. Honestly it is the one thing I really enjoy!

So I made homemade tomato sauce, taught to me by my mom before my junior year, as oppose to jarred that my roommate Matt used. This is sauce . . I mean gravy. . . which one? There is always the debate with Italians if you call it sauce or gravy. My family has this debate a couple of times, and most of the time we are not even having sauce/gravy. So how it comes up I do not know. In fact, today I had this conversation (just proving how much of a debate it is) with a faculty member at my school, Ramapo College. She said "Oh you must not be a real Italian if you call it sauce." I guess I am not. What is a true Italian? The men from mTV's Jersey Shore, I hope not.

So I cut up a half an onion and sauteed it with minced garlic from a jar, easy and cheap for a college student. Did this until they were translucent. The smell made its way up the stairs and it was a glorious smell of garlic. I added my can of Rienzi crushed tomatoes and let simmer. I seasoned it obviously with salt, pepper, basil, and red pepper flakes cause some like it hot. I let it simmer while my roommate and I went to A&P where our friend Marybeth works to get the ingredients, which was so time consuming and too good to be revealed until my next post.

When we came back I proceeded to continue the recipe, in fact, without the recipe for the very first time. I felt reckless and wild making the recipe blind. Granted I told my roommate how to make this and I better know how to make it if I can teach it. I took an egg and some milk and mixed them together in a dish with the most perfect lip around it that I feel was made for those meals that have a wet station and dry station. The chicken commuted from the wet station to the dry station lastly to its final destination the frying station. Now the recipe called for seasoned bread crumbs but I had plain so I improvised and added dried basil, oregano, garlic, and garlic powder.

I fried three batches of chicken, it could feed an army. Eight pieces in all. I put some sauce on the bottom of a pan because it will make it easier to clean. I cut huge slices out of a block of mozzarella cheese and used the rest which was grated and put on top. So the layers were sauce, chicken with slices of mozzarella, more sauce, grated cheese, and then some Parmesan. Bake it in the oven until bubbly.

I took a bite and it was the greatest chicken parm of all time because of the extra cheese and homemade sauce. It reminded me of being at a corner pizza place ordering their chicken parm. This recipe will stay in mind forever. I wish all of them did.

Ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
seasoned bread crumbs
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
8 slices mozzarella cheese, or more
1 jar (16 oz) spaghetti sauce
Parmesan cheese
Preparation:

Whisk together the egg and milk. Dip the chicken breasts in milk and egg mixture and then in bread crumbs. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken in the hot oil on both sides until golden, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Set chicken in a baking dish. Slice 8 pieces of mozzarella cheese and put two on each chicken breast. Pour 1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce over all. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and a little more mozzarella and bake at 350° for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until bubbly. Serve with spaghetti, garlic bread and a nice green salad.

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Tangy Surprise Burger

Ingredients

1 1/4 lbs lean ground beef
4 pineapple rings
1/2 cup hot and spicy ketchup
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbs. Dijon mustard
4 kaiser rolls
Deli coleslaw

Directions

1. Prepare outdoor grill on high heat. Divide beef into four portions and form patties around pineapple rings so that none of pineapple is showing.

2. In saucepan combine hot and spicy ketchup, brown sugar, an mustard and heat until sugar dissolves.

3. Grill burgers about five minutes on each side or until well done. Spoon some of brown sugar sauce over burgers several times before serving. Place patties on role and top with 1 heaping tablespoon of coleslaw. Cover with top bun and serve immediately.

Source: Best Burger Cookbook, Mud Puddle Books, 2007.

Review: This was the first time I made burgers with no seasoning in them. I miss the taste of pure beef! The pineapple inside really added to the juicey burgers. The sauce on top I added some cilantro and let a whole jalepeno just simmer in there for the smokey flavor.