Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Kind of the best cookies ever.
Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies
Originally from this site
2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
8 Tblsp unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup Nutella
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped and reserved
splash of whole milk, if necessary
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
Coarse Sea Salt, for sprinkling
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add the Nutella and beat until smooth.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla bean seeds.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  If necessary, add milk, a tablespoon at a time, if the dough is crumbly or the flour isn’t able to mix in.  Stir in the chocolate chis and hazelnuts.  Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.  Or alternatively, portion the dough at this point onto the baking sheets and either refrigerate for an hour, or freeze to use another time.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Portion dough onto cookie sheets, and sprinkle each with a bit of sea salt.  Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes for tablespoon-sized cookies, or 12-14 minutes for 1/4 cup-sized cookies.

It’s Christmas Time!

Annnd…that definitely applies to much more than the world of sweets and cookies.
To represent the Christmas main-dish world, we have:
Pomegranate Chicken!
(you could make this into cranberry chicken or even cranberry-pomegranate chicken. They’re both red. They’re both Christmas-ey. They’re both delicious.)

Originally from this site.

Sweet and Sticky Pomegranate Chicken
(serves about 3-4)

2 pounds chicken wings or legs (We used thighs)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup sweet chili sauce**
1/3 cup pomegranate juice (or cranberry juice or cranberry-pomegranate juice)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 lime, juiced
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
pomegranate arils for garnish
freshly chopped parsley for garnish
optional: dash of red pepper flakes

directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large measuring cup or bowl, mix together chili sauce, pom juice, soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, brown sugar and garlic.

Heat a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then place in the skillet and sear on each side until deeply golden and brown, about 2 minutes per side. Remove chicken and place on a plate, turning heat in the skillet down to medium-low. Pour in pomegranate juice mix and whisk, allowing the sauce to bubble and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Place chicken back in the skillet and turn and toss to coat. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove chicken and serve with chopped parsley and pomegranate arils.

For a vegetarian option:
Stir-fry celery and broccoli and a bit of fresh garlic until just tender. Add about half a can of great northern beans or some other protein of choice. If you were thinking ahead, you would have saved out some of the sauce and not poured it over the chicken. If you were really thinking ahead, you would have kept this simmering slightly for a while, to bubble out that vinegar-y taste. So…then you would dish out a serving of brown-and-wild-rice-yummy-mix, spoon the broccoli and celery and bean stir-fry over the top of that, and then pour a semi-thick yummy sauce over the top of that. Cashews go decently well with it as well.

**If you don’t have sweet chili sauce, and don’t really want to buy an entire jar and leave half of it unused for the rest of…a long time…you can make this recipe: (note that this probably will give the sauce a very different taste than if you had used real sweet chili sauce. But…we liked it anyway…)
”Sweet Chili Sauce”
1/2 cup. tomato sauce
2 T brown sugar
1/2 T vinegar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of cloves
dash of allspice
1/8 teaspoon chili powder

Yummm…Happy Christmas, everyone!

Banana Bread II

So…what happens when you’re clearing everything out for the year, and discover three mushy bananas, a bag of flour, chocolate chips, and sugar…? Banana bread, of course. Oh wait…I don’t have any eggs. Or honey. Or yogurt. Or milk. Hmmm…

This is what happens.
Banana bread with six ingredients.

Originally from this site.

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup not very packed brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter (well…I didn’t have any butter either. Unless you call spreadable fake Tesco’s margarine butter! ‘cause that’s what I used. I know, kinda gross but…:))
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda (maybe a bit less because of the decrease in sugar)
2 cups flour (I did half white and half wheat, with some flax seed and wheat germ thrown in—about two teaspoons of each. Remember that if you do half wheat flour, you’ll probably end up with a denser loaf, and it may cook faster. So keep an eye on it! :))
Optional: 1 cup chocolate chips. I used pretty massive ones.

Directions:
Mix mashed bananas and sugar.
Add melted butter. Mix well. Add flour, salt and baking soda, and mix gently until just together. Do not over-mix!
Pour batter into well greased and floured loaf pan. Smooth the top.
Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over-bake.

For Muffins:
Put batter into 12 standard muffin cups/muffin tin.
Bake muffins at 375 for 10-15 minutes.

Cocoa Vegan Brownies—Take One

Here we go! These are simple and college student friendly, and just happen to be vegan! Okay, I did actually make them in order to try my hand at making vegan brownies, but…my taste-testers claimed not to be able to tell any difference. Of course, most of them were from China, and the only girl who was actually vegan had never had a vegan brownie before.
These can also be Gluten-Free. In fact, I made them gluten-free the first time.
Cocoa Vegan Brownies:
2 cups gluten-free flour + 2 teaspoons ground flaxseed
1 cup sugar (if you leave out the maple syrup, increase the sugar to 1.5 or 2 cups)
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup soy milk (you can use whatever kind here, but I would recommend not using almond milk as that would make it inedible for people with nut allergies)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (alternatively, if you have no applesauce, use a cup of oil)
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup strong coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup maple syrup (only if using 1 cup sugar. You can leave this out and increase sugar to 1.5 or 2 cups, as above.)

Mix together the wet ingredients, and, in a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased 13x9” pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 175 degrees Celcius, for 20-30 minutes.
Enjoy!
We ate the entire pan of brownies between the lot of us…actually, they were gone within an hour of the pan’s coming out of the oven. Of course, there were…about 14 of us.

…Again?

I’m taking a break from the normal recipe post by instead posting a story from every day life here. It does have to do with food, by the way—don’t freak out too much.  

So Wednesday night I made a batch of bread dough, let it rise overnight in the fridge, and woke up at 7 am to bake it and do homework. Pretty normal, right? I mean, I was in the kitchen putting the bread into the oven and the French guy down the hall was sitting on the couch drinking his typical breakfast cup of hot chocolate and watching the BBC, and all was well with the world. Well, it gets better. Last night I made American mac and cheese and sausages for some friends. With bread on the side. It was indeed very tasty. Well, what we didn’t eat I just left with my friend, leaving me again with no bread for sandwiches (lest you forget—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the best ever. They also happen to be my favorite food group. I usually eat at least one every day. I mean really…nutritious and yummy…like the best thing ever, right?) So it was down to either buying a loaf of sliced bread from Tesco’s last night (an option? I don’t think so.) or making bread again. Well, duh…last night the first thing I did upon returning was to make another batch of bread dough. I mean, after making a cup of peppermint tea—that was a given. Again, I woke up at 7 this morning to do homework and cook my batch of bread (pardon me while I rescue said bread from the oven…) Well, there we were again. I was putting bread into the oven and Florien was sitting on the couch watching the BBC and drinking his morning cup of hot chocolate. He just kind of stared at me…”Making bread again? You must be like a French girl! Bread is very much a French thing, is it not?” Yes, well…it’s necessary for life. So there.

Chocolate Gingerbread

Originally from this site.
By the way, this is basically the best thing ever. It’s much more like cake than a sweet bread, but I usually bake it in a loaf pan. The times I’ve made it in the regular sized loaf pan it’s taken about twice as long to bake as the original recipe requires.

Chocolate Gingerbread

135 grams (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 teaspoons ground ginger
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup molasses (you can use honey if you’re desperate…like me…)
2 tablespoons flaxseed meal (optional)

2 tablespoons crystalized ginger chips
3/4 cup chocolate, coarsely chopped (I’ve made it either with or without these. Both are good.)

Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease a baking pan—I usually use a full sized loaf pan, but the original recipe allows for two small paper loaf pans or an 8 inch round cake.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter & brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Mix the buttermilk, molasses and flaxseed meal (if using) together, and add all at once to the butter mixture. Don't worry if it looks a bit curdy. Add the flour mixture and mix just until you get a smooth batter. Fold in the crystalized ginger and chocolate chips being careful not to overmix.

Bake until a cake tester comes clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. (Though if you make it in a regular sized loaf pan, it takes about twice that long to bake, between 45 minutes and an hour. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Chocolate-chip Pumpkin Muffins (yes, the chocolate part comes first as it is most important…:))

Originally from this site

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar or 3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 eggs

1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin

3/4 cup applesauce

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips*

DIRECTIONS:

In a mixing bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In another bowl, combine egg, egg substitute, pumpkin, applesauce and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray; fill two-thirds full with batter. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

*Or, you can try putting a bit of nutella swirled either on the top of the muffins each individually before you bake them, or fill each cup halfway with batter, put about a teaspoon of nutella on them, then fill the rest of the way with batter.

Honey Banana Bread

Originally from this page

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar free applesauce
3/4 cup honey
2 eggs, beaten
3 mashed overripe bananas

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce and honey. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Oatmeal Cookies—the Chocolate Chip and Blueberry Way

So…confession time. I haven’t actually tried these yet. But Thomas, the guy from Germany who lives down the hall, and his brother approved of them. So I figured they couldn’t be too bad.
Originally from this site.
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon allspice or cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed (I didn’t have any. So I just put in about a 1/2 cup of white sugar and added about 3 Tablespoons of honey. Really, I should have added molasses instead of honey, but I didn’t have any of that either. What happens when you’re a university student…)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups oats
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (I used fresh, because they don’t have frozen ones here…? And because they were on sale…)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C). Slightly spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray, or line with parchment paper or silpat mat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and allspice.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together melted butter, applesauce, sugars, egg and vanilla until well blended. Add flour mixture to applesauce mixture. Mix well. Fold in oats, then chocolate chips and blueberries. Gently, folks!!
4. Drop rounded Tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 20 large cookies.
Then give them to your friends—hopefully friends from China or Germany, because American cookies don’t really exist in those countries…so they have no standard to which to compare you.

By the way...they were good. But I've decided that they're more like breakfast cookies...:) Or the kind that you would have with a big tall cup of hot chocolate or a peppermint latte or something really wonderfully sweet. :)

Gluten-free Pumpkin Bread

Well hello again!
Guess what…it’s fall!! This means, of course, that all things pumpkin are now a huge fad.
In that spirit, we bought a pumpkin! Since they don’t have what one of my friends called “tinned pumpkin” over here, we cut it, seeded it, roasted it, and mashed it ourselves in order to make this pumpkin bread!!
The recipe is from Bethany’s Grandmother. It makes 2 small-ish loaves.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups (10.65 oz) sugar (or 11 oz brown sugar)
2 1/2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (13.35 oz)
1 1/4 teaspoons ground flax seed
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
3/8 cups milk
1 1/4 cup oil or applesauce
1 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
3 eggs
optional: about 1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
Sift together all dry ingredients except for the sugar.
Beat the eggs, then add sugar, pumpkin, milk, and oil or applesauce.
Add the flour mixture slowly, and beat until just smooth.
Pour into two greased loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (about 176 Celsius) for about 1 hour.
Allow to sit in the loaf pans for 5 or 10 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks. Enjoy!!

For the pumpkin puree—we just baked them til they were done, but here is how to do it properly:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet. Halve a sugar pumpkin and scoop out the seeds. Place the pumpkin halves cut side down your baking sheet and roast the pumpkin until it is completely tender inside, about 45 to 50 minutes. Scrape the pumpkin flesh off the skin with a large spoon (metal is great here, because of the sharper edges) and puree in a blender or food processor until smooth.(We obviously didn’t have a food processor. I mostly just used my hands, and squished the juice out afterward because ours was quite juicy. The texture was a bit…different, but it was still good. ) Let cool and use as needed.
1 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree holds about 1 3/4 cups of puree.

Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hello from Northern Ireland!

Perks of having a friend on my hall who is gluten-free...I learn how to bake so many gluten-free things!

Here's a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe that we tried back at the beginning of the semester:

From this site.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, slightly softened
2 cups brown sugar (we used white sugar+honey, as we didn’t have brown sugar or molasses)
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2-3 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
3. Mix flour, salt, soda, and baking powder in a separate bowl.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
5. Stir in chips.
6. Drop by the tablespoon onto the baking sheet.
7. Bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes. These cookies will have to be a little darker than golden brown so that they will set and hold together. Let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing. Cool completely on a wire rack.

I think we drank about one and a half liters of milk when we made these cookies… Enjoy!

Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper Quinoa

To go along with the chicken we had last night, I made quinoa! yummm…originally from this site.

Roasted Garlic, Red Pepper and Mushroom Quinoa

makes about 2 cups—serves about 6 people

1 head garlic
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup of quinoa
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Chop the top off the garlic and peel away the loose outside paper. Drizzle olive oil on cloves, wrap in foil, and roast for 20-30 minutes, or until golden. Let cool.
(okay, I didn’t actually do this part. I was kinda busy. So I just sauteed five big cloves of garlic in with the onion)

Cook quinoa according to directions on package. (I added a couple of sprigs of rosemary and some salt).

While quinoa is cooking, heat a skillet on medium heat and add olive oil. Sautee the onions for a couple of minutes, then add garlic. When the onions are getting to be translucent, add red pepper and mushrooms and saute until soft, about 6-8 minutes. (optional: when the vegetables are done cooking, add some cooking sherry or white wine and let it simmer in there for a bit, until it’s reduced a little bit.)

When quinoa is done, fluff with a fork and add peppers and mushrooms. Squeeze the entire head of garlic cloves into the quinoa, mashing some with a fork and leaving others whole. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.

Mmmm…Garlic and Brown Sugar Chicken

I’m afraid I’m pretty rubbish at coming up with names for new dishes. Oh well.
this is what I’m trying tonight, with a few changes:
Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
about…1/2 cup chicken broth?
about…1/2 cup cooking sherry or white wine?
1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
3 tablespoons brown sugar
chopped parsley, basil, thyme, whatever…optional
Directions:

1. In large sauté pan on medium-high heat, sauté the onion and garlic with the oil until tender.
2. Meanwhile, season the chicken with salt and pepper.
3. Once the onion and garlic are tender, add the chicken to the saute pan (be careful not to overcrowd the pan!). Brown the chicken, turning once or so, for 15 minutes. Lift the chicken out of the pan, and place in a foil-lined 13x9" Pyrex pan, and pour all of the juices over the chicken. 
4. Now you have two baking options:
1. You have a broiler. Nice. Good call. Broil the chicken for 10 minutes on the low setting of the broiler, in a casserole dish lined with aluminum foil. Flip the chicken over. Mix together the ginger and brown sugar and sprinkle over the chicken breasts. Broil for another 10 minutes (the sugar, etc. may caramelize a bit, but that just makes it tastier. Charcoal is usually not tasty.)
2. You have no broiler. None. Sadness. Well, I suppose we can work with that. Mix together the brown sugar and ginger and sprinkle over the chicken. Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit, 218 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes. Then turn it up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit or 260 celsius and bake another 5 minutes or so. Watch out--if your oven is temperamental, it might get burned. That would be sad. Sugars may caramelize, flavors may intensify, but smoking charcoal is usually a bad thing. 
5. About 5 minutes before the chicken is done, reheat, on medium-high heat, the pan in which you browned the chicken, onions, and garlic. Add enough sherry (or combination of sherry and chicken broth) to the pan so that 1/4 inch of liquid covers the bottom of the pan. Place the pan over high heat and bring the liquid to a boil, scraping cooked bits of food from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula.
6. Allow the mixture to simmer briefly, just until the liquid thickens slightly, and all of the bits of food have been scraped off the pan. Season with salt and pepper, add chopped parsley, and pour over the chicken (when it’s done.)

Grilled Sea Scallops

So…guess what. While we were busily cooking the yummy dish below, my dad (the best dad in the world, mind you!) was looking up a recipe for grilled sea scallops as a treat for my coming-home Saturday dinner. Best dad, right?! Well, part of the fun was helping him make the “sauce” for the scallops…which turned out ok, but was a bit unnecessary, and the scallops didn’t really pick up any flavor from the “sauce” itself.

So this is the recipe that we came up with instead, based off of this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds sea scallops (you can buy a bag of frozen scallops and defrost them. ) We just left them whole, but you could also cut them into halves or thirds.
Melted butter (quantity? Probably about a quarter cup)
Onion powder and/or dried minced onion flakes
Garlic powder
optional: red pepper flakes
shish kebob fixings (mushrooms, red bell pepper, red onion, zucchini, grape tomatoes, etc)

Mix the seasonings with the butter and brush over the scallops. Thread the fixings and scallops onto the shish kebob skewers, and grill until done (My dad is the one who knows grilling stuff…). If desired, brush with more melted butter + onion powder + garlic powder mixture.

And…sigh with bliss. Aaaaaahhhh…soooo good.

Pasta with Scallops, Zucchini, Tomatoes, and…pretty much whatever else you have on hand. :)

My first foray into the world of cooking seafood!  
I have decided that scallops are…basically my most favoritest seafood possible. Mmmmmm….
I mean, fish is great, don’t get me wrong. I love it, really and truly. But scallops…? The texture is just so…amazing! And the taste is soft, mild, just right. Sigh. Happiness.

Anyway, so we had a couple of zucchinis being useless in the fridge, so I decided to look for a dish to use up the zucchinis and fresh tomatoes we also had lying around. So…this is what I came up with.

Serves 7-9

Ingredients

3/4 pound dry spaghetti pasta (the original recipe called for a pound. This was way too much. The  box also claimed to serve only 7-8 people. It was still way too much, folks! So…I would recommend maybe serving the pasta and the rest of it up in separate bowls at the actual table, and see what happens…)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 zucchinis, diced
1 package button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup chopped fresh basil
4 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped (you can use a can of diced tomatoes, if you need to.)
1 pound bay scallops (the little ones. mmmmm…Although you can use chicken instead, if you really must…)
1/2 cup white wine
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a large pot with boiling salted water cook pasta until al dente. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet heat oil, add garlic and cook until tender. Add the zucchini, salt, red pepper flakes, mushrooms, and dried basil (if using) and saute for 5 minutes. Add wine and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, bay scallops, and fresh basil (if using) and simmer for 5 minutes, or until scallops are opaque.
3. Pour sauce over cooked pasta and serve with grated Parmesan cheese and freshly grated black pepper.

Mini Oat Buns

These are…still kind of a work in progress. So. If anyone finds some delicious ways of improving this recipe, then please do let me know. These are easily made up in just a short amount of time, and one recipe makes about 7 rolls. They are rather dense/heavy, but I think that’s mostly the fault of the tasty oats.
By the way, I’ve found these are best served hot with lots of honey and butter.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
3/4 cup oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (If you’re sensitive to salt, you might take the amount of salt down a bit.)
1/3 to 1/2 cup buttermilk (I found that 1/3 cup is not quite enough, so play around with it a bit.)
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Tablespoons butter, cut up into small chunks (the original recipe called for oil. I like butter better, but the oil also worked just fine.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

Mix together in one bowl the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter, then add the buttermilk and honey, and stir until just combined. Form into biscuit/roll shapes with your hands, about a 1/4 cup of dough in each. You should have about 7 rolls. Place an inch or so apart on a baking sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper, and bake 15 minutes, until tops are very lightly brown. Brush with spreadable margarine or softened butter right away after taking them out of the oven. Enjoy!

Cheesy Corn Cakes with Spicy Avacado Salsa

Yummmm…The sweetness of creamed corn plus spicy avacado…mmmm…

Originally from this site.

Makes approximately 15 corn cakes, depending on size

2 cups corn
1x 400g (14.11 ounces) tin creamed corn
2 eggs
1½ cups grated mature cheddar
½ tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup milk
for the spicy avocado salsa
2 avocados, chopped
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped (And by small, we mean small!!! As in, just doing half of a red onion is good. Better. Best. If you don’t want to taste onions in your mouth for the rest of the day.)
1 red chilli, finely chopped (remove seeds if you don’t like it hot)
juice of ½ lemon
salt & pepper to taste
fresh coriander and cilantro, to serve

1. In a large bowl, combine the corn kernels, creamed corn, eggs, cheddar, smoked paprika and salt and mix well.
2. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix well.
3. Slowly stir in the milk until the batter is not too thick and drops off a spoon easily. (it should also not be so thin that it spreads too much when you fry the cakes)
4. Heat a large frying pan and add some oil. (A little bit. Not too much. Actually, I found that you can do without.)
5. Fry spoonfuls of the batter until bubbles appear at the top and flip. Allow to cook on the other side. Remove from the pan once cooked and place on some kitchen paper to drain.
6. In the meantime, combine all the ingredients for the salsa and mix well.
7. When all the cakes have been cooked, serve them with the salsa, extra lemon wedges and fresh coriander.

Honey-Lime Chicken Skewers

We had these last night, along with cheesy corn cakes with spicy avacado salsa and a bowl of fresh pineapple. Yummmmm….
Originally from this site.
Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• juice of one lime
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 teaspoon Siracha (we didn't have any, so I just put in a heaping teaspoon of chili powder)
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• 2 tablespoon cilantro
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, combine your ingredients, through the cilantro. Mix thoroughly.
2. Pour marinade over chicken breasts and turn to coat. Cover and allow to marinate for at least 1 hour.
3. Grill on medium high heat for 6 to 8 minutes per side, until juices run clear.

Basil Chicken in Coconut Curry Sauce

Hey. So…you remember how I just posted the chocolate coconut ice cream recipe?

Guess what…this is what we had for dinner before the ice cream. You know…the protein part of the meal. Because, you see, you can’t just live off of dessert-y things. Unfortunately.

Oh, and you remember how on the chocolate-coconut ice cream recipe I said that my favorite part was watching the faces of my friends and family as they took their first bite? That goes for this one too. Priceless…pretty much.

Originally from this site

*Serves 4

3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 teaspoons curry powder (yellow works best)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon chili powder
1 medium red onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped (by seeding the jalapeno you lose most of the spice/heat but retain great flavor)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. Place in medium bowl. Stir together curry, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper and chili powder. Sprinkle over chicken, tossing to coat evenly. Cover and chill for 1 to 2 hours.

In a large nonstick frying pan, stir onion, basil, garlic and peppers in hot oil over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes, until onion is translucent. Add chicken and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for 5-6 minutes until no longer pink.

Combine coconut milk and cornstarch and whisk well to combine. Carefully add to skillet, whisking vigorously. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Stir in ginger. Cook and stir for another minute. Serve over hot rice.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm………

Coconut Chocolate Ice Cream

My absolute favorite ice cream recipe that I have made so far. Of course, I’ve only made four different kinds of ice cream so far, and one of them is still waiting to go into the ice cream maker. I think I’ll go do that after I finish this…so keep your eyes out for a vanilla gelato recipe.

But back to this one. Three ingredients. One of them is coconut milk. Case closed. My favorite part about this recipe: seeing the faces of my friends and family as they took their first bite. aaaaaahhhhh… Brilliant.

It is kind of…very…rich, so…savor slowly. We served the ice cream with semi-frozen strawberries, and managed to stretch it between about eight people. But then, it’s so rich that those were just the right size servings, even though each person did just get about a half cup. 

Prep Time 10 Minutes
Cook Time 10 Minutes
Servings 6-8

Ingredients

• 2 cans (13.5 Oz. Size) Full Fat Coconut Milk
• 1-¼ cup Sugar
• ½ cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

Instructions

Yields 2 1/2 cups.

In a pot over medium heat, add all the ingredients and stir. Allow to simmer until thickened slightly, about 8 minutes.

Place in a container and refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours.

Add to an ice cream maker and churn until set, about 15 to 20 minutes. Freeze until desired consistency is reached.

Note: I use a Cuisinart ice cream maker; churn time was about 20 minutes for a soft-serve consistency.

Chai Spice Cookies

For non-chocolate cookies, these are…sigh…amazing. Just wonderful. Scrumptious. Etc. Yup. They’re kinda like snickerdoodles, I guess, but with a bit different spice combination. And no cream of tartar, if you’re a snickerdoodle enthusiast.

We had these with homemade green tea gelato. The gelato was…a bit odd…but good. I think, however, that I’ll be trying out a few different recipes before I post a recipe for green tea gelato.

Oh, and by the way…these are the cookies I was making while working on pizza, in case you were just reading that post.

Originally from this site.

Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl combine sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice and black pepper. Remove 1/4 cup of the sugar-spice mixture, set aside to reserve for rolling the cookies.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar-spice mixture until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

5. Beat in egg and vanilla extract, combine until fully incorporated.

6. Slowly blend in dry ingredients mixing until just combined.

7. Using a small scoop (2 teaspoons) roll dough into balls and then into the reserved sugar-spice mixture. Place dough balls on prepared baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.

8. Let stand on baking sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Flourless Nutella Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies

Originally from this site.
We thought these were pretty amazing…especially with a glass of cold milk. A certain somebody *cough* thought they were a bit salty, and we wondered if the ratio of peanut butter to nutella should be fiddled with. Fiddling with things is one of my favorite past times, I do believe.

Yield: 16 cookies

INGREDIENTS:

1 whole Egg
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon Whole Milk
1/2 cup Creamy or Crunchy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Nutella
3/4 cup Old Fashioned Oats
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl; add the egg, brown sugar, milk, pb and Nutella. Mix just until smooth.

Add in the salt, soda and oats. Stir.

Drop heaping teaspoons onto the prepared pan and pop the cookie sheet into the preheated oven for 8 minutes.

Once the cookies are out of the oven, let them cool on the cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes to set up a tad.

Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Iron Skillet Cookie

Yup. This thing is amazing!!! I can’t even begin to describe it. So I won’t. Just try it and see for yourself.
Originally from this site.

• 5 T butter
• 1 C sugar
• 1 T molassas (I used honey because we didn’t have molasses, and it still tasted amazing)
• 1/.2 t vanilla extract
• 1 egg (If you happen to have a...rather small iron skillet, you can halve the recipe and, instead, mix 1/2 Tablespoon flaxseed and 1 1/2 Tablespoons water, and let stand for a while by themselves. This is a substitute for half of an egg, but is not nearly as tasty a way to make your cookie. :) )
• 1 C flour
• 1/2 C oats
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/8 t nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• a handful of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt the butter, sugar, and molasses together in a skillet over medium high heat. Turn the heat off and let cool for a few minutes.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
Add the egg right into the skillet and stir until combined. Add the vanilla. Then carefully stir in the flour mixture.
Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top and bake for 18-20 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
We used a square 8x8” iron skillet.
Enjoy! Which I’m sure you will…

Zucchini Brownies

Okay, so I know that I said that the other brownies recipe was a keeper. But…well, I DID just post a second pizza dough recipe after saying that the other one was a keeper. Plus, these are a different class.

The recipe is originally from here. She gives a frosting recipe for the brownies, but we found that wasn’t really necessary.

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped raw zucchini
• 1/4 cup coconut or vegetable oil, or melted butter
• 1/2 cup low fat yogurt* (regular or Greek)
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (may substitute gluten-free oat flour, if desired. I did one cup all-purpose flour plus one cup of oats, pureed in the food processor before I pureed the zucchini mix. It does give it a bit of a different texture, but we found that the texture was an attractive thing.)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (dark cocoa recommended)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan. In blender or food processor, puree zucchini, oil, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla. Set aside. In large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add pureed wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until moist throughout. Pour into greased pan, spread evenly, and bake for 20-25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. (Overcooking will result in dry brownies.) Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Cool for 20-25 minutes. You can sprinkle powdered sugar on them to make them prettier.

Pizza Dough II

Hello again, friends! We’ve been having a busy week in the kitchen this week, so expect to be overwhelmed with an abundance of very yummy recipes sometime in the near future. Hopefully sooner rather than later, but that front bed still needs freedom from all of its entangling weeds…

Well, one of the yummy dishes served up from the kitchen this week was pizza! (More or less a once-a-week dish nowadays…which is definitely a good thing, as far as I’m concerned. ) Since it was a warmer Saturday and we don’t have access to baking stones here in my sister and brother-in-law’s beautiful kitchen, I thought I would pull out an old favorite pizza dough recipe that conveniently does not require you to heat the oven to 525 degrees Fahrenheit.

The recipe is originally from allrecipes.com, and can be made either in a bread machine or by hand.

(makes 2 14-16” circles of dough, although if you like thinner pizza crusts, I made one large rectangular one rectangular one that was about 10x16 and two smaller ones that were about 12-14” circles, so three pizzas in total. The large rectangular one fed all four of us, including two guys.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons dry milk powder
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 or 3 Tablespoons wheat gluten (optional)
1-2 Tablespoons dried oregano (optional)

If you’re making the dough in the bread machine, put all of the ingredients into the bread machine bowl in the order recommended by the manufacturer, and put on dough cycle.
If you’re making it by hand, then:

Mix together yeast and water in a large bowl and let them sit a bit while you whisk together (in a medium bowl) the flour, salt, and milk powder. Add the sugar and oil to the yeast mixture, then gradually add the flour mixture into the yeast mixture. Knead the dough, then place in an oiled pyrex bowl, spray the top of the dough with cooking spray, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. If you’re in a drafty kitchen (as in…one with lots of beautiful windows in it! ), then turn the oven on to warm for about 5 minutes. Turn the oven off, and slide the bowl of dough right into the oven and let it rise for about an hour and a half.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Divide the dough into 2 or 3 portions, depending on how thin you want it to be. Roll into balls and let rest for about 5 minutes. Begin rolling out, very gradually, waiting about 10 minutes in between attacking it with a rolling pin. This part is actually really important…don’t rush here! Plus, it’s an opportunity to do other things…like make cookies at the same time….which I did.

Put the rolled out dough on lightly sprayed pizza pans and let rest again. When it starts to puff up, brush with a little olive oil, and poke with a fork all over. Bake until lightly brown on top, about 10 minutes.

At this point, you can take the crusts out, let them cool on racks, wrap them in plastic wrap, and freeze them.

Or, you can proceed with the sauce, toppings, and cheese. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is melting and very lightly browned in some spots (it depends on how much cheese you put on there! )

For our toppings tonight, we put on sliced mushrooms, a whole sliced yellow onion, a red pepper, and cooked Italian sausage, with this recipe for sauce. It…was very yummy. We used a pint of tomatoes for our sauce, and a whole onion, and it was just the right amount of sauce for the big pizza. I would highly recommend not cooking it on an aluminum pan, however—and be sure to cover whatever roasting pan you do use with parchment paper!!)