Margaritaville

It's been awhile since my last posting, and to any of the 3 or 4 people that might follow along with the blog, I apologize. To say that I've been busy is an understatement. The only thing my kitchen has produced in the last couple weeks have been peanut butter and jelly or frosted mini wheats. But between my crazy work schedule this week, I managed to find time (in the middle of the night once again) to create a pretty quick but great tasting dinner. By viewer request, I took on homemade pizza.

Lets start with the dough...

I forgot to take a picture of the dough so I found this picture on google images. This is pretty much what it looked like though.

 The dough can be made a day or two in advance, which in my case I did. As long as its kept tightly wrapped and in the fridge, it'll keep - and in fact some say it actually makes for better tasting crust if it has time to slow rise in the fridge overnight. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that statement, but since some food scientist said so, I'm going to choose to believe its true. I got the recipe out of my Bread Machine Magic book, which called for 1 C warm water, 3 C flour, 2 T olive oil, 1 t salt, 2 T sugar and 2 t active dry yeast. All of the ingredients get thrown together in the bread machine (salt on the opposite side of the yeast because it will kill it...thanks mom) and then turn the machine on and wait. This can be done without a bread machine as well, just use a mixer with a dough attachment and beat it until it forms a solid ball. Then let it rise in a oiled bowl, covered with plastic wrap for about an hour. Since I went the bread machine route, I let the dough rise in the machine.

After its finished rising, or a couple days later, the dough is ready to use. This is the fun part because you can do whatever you want to make this pizza yours. I tapped in to my inner Italian roots and made a four cheese margarita pizza. I don't actually have any Italian in me at all, but nevertheless this is one of my favorite pizzas. The first thing I did was slice up some tomatoes pretty thin and marinated them in olive oil and smashed garlic for a few minutes while the oven preheated and I rolled out my dough. Once the dough was prepped, I brushed the olive oil mixture (minus the tomatoes) on to the dough in a nice even layer. Then I sprinkled on 3 out of the 4 cheeses - mozzarella, parmesan and fontina. I arranged the tomato slices around the pizza and put some freshly chopped basil on and then topped it off with some crumbled feta. Before I put it in the oven I sprinkled garlic salt around the crust because that makes it taste extra good.

Here is the pre-baked pizza. This image is legit, not googled.

I threw it into the 400 degree oven for close to 20 minutes. It probably could have used another minute or two but it looked good enough and at this point I was pretty hungry so I decided it was done.

The finished product

Ready to eat

I've never been to Italy, but I imagine if you could take a bite out of it this is probably what it would taste like. The subtle garlic flavor really comes through in the tomatoes and I think the crumbled feta is the secret ingredient. I'll keep experimenting with other kinds of pizzas, but this recipe is definitely a keeper.

XXL Oreo: Round 1

I was snacking on a couple of these, contemplating my next blog entry when it donned on me. I wanted to make an extra extra large Oreo - in cake form. I was given a set of cake pans for Christmas a couple years ago that I had yet to try out, so i thought this would be a good opportunity to do so. They are round pans with frilled edges like an Oreo. The top pan has grooves in the bottom of it that are meant to resemble the top of the cookie. I assumed this would be a fun and fairly easy project. Here is the story of one of my more embarrassing outcomes...

I was pretty much doomed from the beginning when choosing my ingredients. Like other times when I am feeling vivacious, tonight was a different story. After sitting through a graduation ceremony in a torrential downpour, I wanted to take the quickest and easiest route possible. My normally unsophisticated pantry was fully stocked with everything I needed - Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix, water, oil, eggs and even cool whip in the freezer. I got out my pans and went right to work. I read somewhere once that while making chocolate cake its a good idea to grease the pan and dust it with cocoa powder rather than flour in order to omit any white residue. Since the top of the cake wasn't going to be frosted with anything, I thought this was probably a good idea. In retrospect, I'm not so sure if this was good advice or not...but I'll get there. I mixed up the batter and poured it into each of the pans and stuck them in the oven for a half hour. When they were done, I cooled them in the pans for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. This is where most of the cake went wrong. I started with the bottom half first, which ended up breaking in half upon removing it from the pan. Maybe I should have let it cool longer first? But the box said 10 minutes was enough! I figured it wouldn't matter much anyway since it would be the bottom of the cake. I started taking the top cake out of its pan and I had a full on disaster on my hands. The cake stuck in the grooves on the bottom of the pan that were meant to resemble the top of the cookie so I was left with a ripped up, divot-ed surface that was supposed to be the top of the cake. Thinking that it couldn't get any worse than it already was, I decided to flip the top half over and use the other side as the top. It wasn't pretty either but at least it didn't have a chunk an inch deep taken out of it. In the process of flipping it, the cake crumbled into about 6 pieces in my hands. At this point I thought I should probably just keep this mishap to myself rather than posting it for everyone to read, but then I wouldn't be holding to my original promise of documentation of trials and tribulations. I emptied a container of cool whip between layers and pieced the cake together as best I could. Here is how it turned out...

Obviously not the prettiest cake in the world, and it barely even looks like an Oreo. Not even the off-brand kind. Believe it or not, this picture actually makes it look better than it did in real life. You also can't see the entire other side which is in shambles. Oreo Cake - 1, Suzannah - 0. You can bet I'm going to take another crack at this one...

The Quinoa Project

I was recently introduced to a new grain (which really isn't new at all, its just currently in the spotlight, it was actually used regularly by ancient Incas, so its quite old). You could say its the "it" thing right now among foodies. My mom, the food hipster, has of course been cooking with it for 15 years, but it is just now making its way into my vocabulary. Per request of one of my (very few) followers, this post will be all about this grain. It's called Quinoa - pronounced keen-wah. It is used often in South American cooking and contains more protein than most other grains. Since I'm on a bit of a health kick (this week) I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to experiment with this grain and see what it has to offer.

I wasn't sure where to start with this stuff, so I typed it into Google and discovered that there are a multitude of different ways to cook it. I decided that I wanted to try out a few different recipes in order to fully grasp what this grain is all about. Besides. my health kick isn't going to last forever, so I thought I may as well get as much use out of it as I can right now.

Breakfast

Quinoa Pancakes

For breakfast I made quinoa pancakes. This is one of Martha Stewart's recipes, which can be found here. It was like any other regular pancake recipe, with the addition of a cup of cooked quinoa. Normally I can throw down quite a few pancakes, but not these guys. They were quite a bit more dense and I had a hard time finishing three. It did however keep me full for a good portion of the morning. Other than their density, I don't have much to complain about, but I'll probably stick to regular ol' pancakes from here on out.

Dinner 

Quinoa Chicken Tacos

For this I got onto Allrecipes and looked for any recipe including quinoa. I decided on the most popular and highest rated, Quinoa and Black Beans. Rather than a side dish however, I wanted to make this the spotlight of the meal, so I came up with quinoa and black bean chicken tacos. I followed the recipe down to the T and then cooked up some boneless skinless chicken breast pieces in some vegetable oil, lemon juice, water, cayanne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. I served these on whole wheat and corn tortillas with fresh cilantro, diced tomatoes and avocado.  I was pleasantly surprised with how well these came out. Turns out I can eat healthy and still still enjoy it! It made enough for 3 days worth of tacos, so I'll probably be making them again but not anytime soon. 


Dessert

Quinoa Pudding

Rice pudding is one of my favorite desserts, so when I found a recipe for quinoa pudding, I knew it had to be among the recipes I tried. This recipe was also located at Allrecipes under Quinoa Pudding. Like many of the reviewers suggested, I made a couple of alterations. I used vanilla soy milk instead of the 2 cups of apple juice it called for, and a teaspoon of lemon juice rather than two. It was a far cry from the rice pudding I know and love, but I can honestly say its 100% guilt free. It really didn't satisfy much of a sweet tooth, so I think i'll eat the leftover in the morning for breakfast. Tastes more like a hot cereal anyway. 


I guess I should note that I made all of these over the course of a couple days, not all in one day. I do have a refrigerator full of cooked quinoa now, so I will have leftovers for a few days - enough to finish my health kick without the need to cook anything else. While I may not make a couple of these recipes ever again, I'm glad that I had a chance to experiment with them and broaden my grain horizon. On the off chance that I'll ever need to cook for a vegan, I'll have a couple of recipes up my sleeve.

Apple of My Eye

I figured I may as well continue the fruit theme I started in my last post, and decided to attempt one of my all time favorite things: the caramel apple. While walking through the mall I can't help but at least take a peek at the apples in the window - being the poor college student that I am however, I rarely ever buy one for myself. Instead I wait for someone to offer to buy one for me. They are good, but its hard for me to justify spending $7 on an apple. That's why I decided to try my own version of the gourmet caramel apple...

In normal fashion, I got going on this project around 10:30 this evening. I was just too excited about it to wait until tomorrow. I found a recipe online earlier today for homemade caramel apples from a website called Our Best Bites. It looked a little trickier than the traditional unwrap-and-melt-caramels, but I was feeling rather vivacious tonight and ready for the challenge. After dinner I headed to the store, picked up a dozen granny smith apples along with a few other ingredients and then stopped at mom's house to borrow her candy thermometer, a few Popsicle sticks and her organic molasses. (Not because I wanted it to be organic, although its great that it is, but because I forgot to pick some up at the store and I didn't want to make any more stops.) Once I got home I went to work.  Here are my caramel ingredients:

Being the rebel that I am, I made a couple of changes again due to the lack of sophistication of my pantry. The recipe called for dark brown sugar, but I went with light instead. It also stressed the importance of real maple syrup rather than Aunt Jemimah's, but I took my chances. I threw it all in the pot and dissolved the sugar, then boiled it until it reached 236 degrees. I had a little trouble with this part because I'm pretty sure the thermometer slipped a little and started to rest on the bottom of the pot, making the temperature rise rather quickly. When it got to 250 degrees I panicked and took it off the heat, only to realize the caramel itself was a cool 175 degrees. I did some back and fourth action for awhile trying to raise the temperature and then gave up once I realized it wasn't going to get above 205. I'm certain my mom would have had an anxiety attack had she been watching this part, but regardless of how I got there, the caramel turned out just fine. I let it cool for a few minutes before I started the dipping, and in the mean time speared some apples that had been chilling in the fridge.

After finishing up this process, I started the dipping. The caramel was still pretty warm and gooey, causing it to slide around and pool up quite a bit around the bottom of the apple. A solid layer stayed on the apple though, so I kept going. At this point I was a little worried, and wondered if heating the caramel to 236 degrees like I was supposed to would have made a difference in the consistency. But after a few minutes of rest it started to set up.

Here they are resting. Notice the dark spots where the caramel started to burn. I blame this on the fact that I was using a stainless steel pot instead of non-stick. I ended up throwing them in the fridge for a few minutes to speed up the process. While they were resting I prepped my toppings. This next part was my favorite of the night. I had a bunch of different topping choices, which really allowed me to get my creative juices flowing. Here are a few of my favorites...

Rolled in chopped peanuts, and drizzled with milk and white chocolate

 

 

 

 

 

Rolled in sweetened coconut flakes and Heath bar, then drizzled with milk and white chocolate

My personal favorite - apple pie - rolled in cinnamon sugar then drizzled with white chocolate

 

 

Don't mind the box of Coor's Light in the background of that one. Its not mine, and I didn't realize it was in the picture until about now. 

Group shot

A few other topping choices that didn't make the photo cut included butterfinger, chopped peanuts, plain caramel with drizzled chocolate and various other combinations. A dozen of these cost me a total of $18 to make.  And I'm happy to report that in addition to looking aesthetically pleasing, they passed the taste test as well. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit proud of these. See if I'll ever go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory again!


For the full recipe, click the link to the website posted above.

Go Bananas

These bad boys have been staring at me for a week or so now, so I figured it was time to deal with them. Thinking that banana bread is too boring, I wanted to set my sights on something else that I don't normally make with rotting bananas. After a while of thinking and searching, I came up with a great idea: Banana Oatmeal bread. But here's the real clincher - I baked it in a bread machine that my mom gave me a few months ago. Alright, so its still not that original but lets be honest, what can you make with rotten bananas that's better than banana bread anyway? While the concept is the same, the way I arrived there is something new to me, so that counts as originality I'd say. I got the recipe out of the Bread Machine Magic book. Without further ado...

Here are my ingredients - or most of them anyway. Since baking this bread was a rather spur of the moment decision around 8:30 pm, I didn't quite have all of the ingredients on hand, so I took it upon myself to make a couple of minor adjustments. In addition to bread flour the recipe called for whole wheat flour, which I am fresh out of so I substituted all-purpose flour. A few less whole grains but hey, who's counting? It also called for 1 T of dry milk powder, which again, I don't normally keep stocked in my pantry. After consulting Google, I decided I really didn't need it. I was instructed to replace the powder with the amount of real milk that the powder would have made (in this case 4 T) and deduct that amount of water. Considering this recipe didn't call for any water, I just decided to wing it. I threw in about a tablespoon and a half of real milk and called it good. I added all of the ingredients to the loaf pan and let the machine do the rest. I didn't exactly account for the 4 and a half hour knead/rise/bake time on the machine, and if you remember, I didn't decide to bake it until 8:30. Good thing I'm used to being up this late writing papers!

Around 11:30 it started to smell like a bonafide bakery in here and at 12:42 am....Voila!

The instructions told me to let it cool for an hour before slicing into it. I gave it a good 20 minutes before I decided enough time had passed.

  

I slathered some butter on a piece and had myself a midnight snack. I was a little bit surprised by the taste, its not as sweet as a regular banana bread, it tastes much heartier. It was very good though, especially while it was still warm. I can see where this might make a good peanut butter sandwich or an even better banana french toast...

My bed awaits me.  

My Grand Entrance

Here I am, almost as new to the world of food as I am to the blogging sphere. While my passion for writing isn't as strong, I seem to be drawn to all things food. I can accredit this fascination to my mother, who is all but a 4 star chef in my book. I am newly graduated from a University with my BA in Sociology. I would love to say that I have a plan for the future, but quite frankly I don't. Instead, I plan on going wherever life takes me. In the mean time, as I am wandering my way through life, I'll wander my way through the world of food. This blog will bring to life any and all trials, tribulations, successes and interesting feats that I run into along the way. Join me on this journey, or don't, either way I'm digging in.