Summer Beer

4th of July has come and gone but I can't let summer completely pass without sharing one of my favorite drink recipes...Summer Beer.  When I lived in STL, I never heard of the stuff but since moving to KC (six and a half years ago...eek!), I realized just what I was missing!

Ingredients

• 1 - 12oz can Frozen Pink Lemonade
• Vodka (don't worry if the brand is cheap because the flavor of the lemonade will mask the bite)
• 4 - 6 cans Light Beer (such as Bud Light)

Directions

• In a pitcher, empty the pink lemonade (saving the can)
• Fill the 12oz can with vodka and add it to the pitcher
• Add 4 - 6 cans light beer (depending on personal taste)
• Note: I prefer to add 6 cans of beer as the pink lemonade is a strong/sweet taste
• Mix & Enjoy!

Additional Notes

• I've never tried traditional frozen Lemonade or Limeade (instead of the Pink Lemonade) but I know folks who have and really enjoy it...totally depends on personal taste.
• I've found this to be a great recipe for both med and women...it's stout enough for guys and fruity enough for gals...a win-win situation!
• You can double, triple, etc. this recipe to serve a large group...just make sure you have a big enough container.  A group of guys I used to work with would make Summer Beer in one of those big Gatorade water jugs you see at baseball and football games...stick with the ratio above and make as much or a little as you'd like. 

Springtime Punch

Wowzers!  Life has been busy lately so I haven't had much time to blog.  Below is a ridiculously easy recipe for springtime punch...if you want to wow guests with something yummy to drink but you don't have time to make anything too fancy...look no further! 

Ingredients

• 2-liter bottle white soda such as Sprite or 7-Up
• Large can pineapple juice (I believe it’s 32oz.)
• Standard size tub lime or raspberry sherbet (your choice depending on color and flavor)

Directions

• Use punch bowl or other large bowl to mix punch
• Scoop sherbet into loose scoops and add to bowl
• Add pineapple juice to bowl
• Add white soda to bowl (carefully as it will fizz and may overflow)
• Stir to combine ingredients and serve
• Note: if your punch bowl is small, half all ingredients for the first serving and once mixture is consumed, add ingredients in equal parts to keep bowl full

 Enjoy!

Weekend Morning Cinnamon Rolls

At least one morning each weekend, I wake up early and try to put a nice breakfast together for TeamPug.  JPug loves these homemade cinnamon rolls which pair well with a homemade butter/cream cheese icing I found online.  The recipe below makes 8 rolls so we always have leftovers for breakfast the following week.  One note, these rolls are dense in nature…they aren’t flaky and won’t rise much.  Personally, I prefer the dense variety…oh, and they reheat terrifically well in the microwave.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup veggie oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, follow this recipe for quick and easy homemade buttermilk using milk and vinegar or lemon juice)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom (if you don't have cardamom, don't worry...just omit this ingredient)

 Directions

• Combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl and mix well
• Stir in veggie oil.  The veggie oil will make the dry mixture clump.  I usually try my best to break up the bigger clumps with a fork.
• Add buttermilk and stir until blended.  Once again, work clumps out of mixture with a fork.
• Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth.  Add additional flour as needed to reduce dough's stickiness.
• Roll dough into a 15"x8" rectangle.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Spread butter over dough with a pastry brush.  I’ve found it easier to soften the butter and combine with sugars, cinnamon and cardamom (steps below).  Once it’s all mixed, then I spread the mixture over the dough.
• Combine sugars, cinnamon and cardamom in a small bowl and mix well.  
• Sprinkle over buttered dough.
• Roll up rectangle, jelly roll fashion.  Roll should begin at narrow end.
• Pinch seam to seal.
• Cut the roll into 1 1/2 inch slices (should make 8 rolls).  I usually just cut the roll in half and then cut each half in half again.
• Arrange the slices, cut side up in 8/9” round or 8/9” square, greased baking pan.
• Bake until lightly browned, about 20 minutes.
• Remove from oven and serve hot.  I typically let the rolls set up for a few minutes to allow the butter/sugar mixture to harden a bit in the pan…totally a personal preference.

Icing – This recipe makes quite a bit of icing…if you’re not a big icing fan, you could probably half it and still have enough.  Otherwise, it might freeze well?!?!

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

 Directions

• Combine all ingredients and beat well with a rotary mixer until light and fluffy.  The icing has quite a bit of butter so if you don’t let the rolls cool a bit before icing, the icing will melt quickly.

Enjoy!


Thanks to Sarah Allman for this terrific cinnamon roll recipe!

Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing

This past weekend, I put together a trial run of a very special cake I’ll be baking and decorating in the near future.  I took a cake decorating class just after the first of the year and now I feel like I can conquer the cake world (or at least in my head I can)!  The cake request was pretty simple…chocolate cake and peanut butter icing.  JPug’s birthday was yesterday…the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is one of his favorites so trial run + JPug’s birthday = a perfect fit!

I started with the highest rated made-from-scratch chocolate cake I could find on www.foodnetwork.com and paired it with the Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing recipe below.  I’m not a huge fan of chocolate cake…the one I found online was pretty good (and that's saying a lot in my non-chocolate cake liking opinion).  But, the Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing was absolutely divine!  So divine, in fact, that I ate too many spoonfuls of the leftover icing last night and nearly tossed my cookies.

I would recommend using the icing below for chocolate cake or brownies…or pretty much anything because it’s so darn good!  By the way, if you make the chocolate cake from the link above, don't be alarmed if the pre-baking consistency is really runny.  Mine was runnier than any cake I've ever made but I stuck with it and it turned out just fine.

Ingredients

• 1 C Peanut Butter
• 1 Stick Butter softened
• 1 Tbsp Meringue Powder  I purchased this at Joann’s - The Craft Store
  
• 1 lb Confectioner’s Sugar
• Milk

Directions

• Add peanut butter, butter and meringue powder to mixing bowl
• Add confectioner’s sugar a little at a time and mix well  I added between 1/4 and 1/3 of the box at a time to prevent the sugar from exploding into a cloud of dust all over the mixer and me
• Add milk (1 Tbsp at a time) and thin to desired consistency  I believe I added about 1/4 C milk total…1 Tbsp+ at a time

Enjoy!

A special thanks to Emily Matthews for sharing this recipe.

Winter Wassail

Winter in Kansas City has finally arrived…in mid-February!  We had our first legitimate snowfall yesterday (a mere 2 inches) which caused a total mess on the roads but all the white should be gone later this week as warmer temps and rain roll in.

Before winter disappears completely, I wanted to share this family recipe with you.  I associate wassail with the holidays but since Christmas 2011 has come and gone, keep this recipe in your repertoire for Christmas 2012 or do something crazy and make yourself a pot on a cold winter weekend.

Ingredients

• 1 bottle Cranberry Juice Cocktail
• 1 bottle Apple Juice
• 1 bottle White Grape Juice
• 1 Navel Orange (thick sliced, pithy ends removed)
• 3 Whole Cloves
• 1 Cinnamon Stick

Directions

1. Pour ½ bottle of cranberry, ½ bottle of apple and ½ bottle of white grape juice into large pot on the stove or into a crock pot.  Note:  Your pot may hold more or less liquid...just make sure each juice type combines in equal parts.
2. Add orange, cloves and cinnamon stick to the mixture.
3. Set crockpot on high for 2 hours or bring mixture to a boil on stove.
4. Once mixture is warm, switch to low/warm setting (crockpot) or low (stove).
5. During the holidays, this will be on the stove for most of the day at our house.  As I’m writing this, I’m not sure that’s 100% safe but we’ve gone quite a few gatherings with no issues :)
6. As the mixture is consumed and your pot gets low, add juices in equal parts to the crockpot/large pot, warm as directed above and serve.
7. Leave the lid off the crockpot/large pot if you’d like the smell of wassail throughout your home.  Keep the lid on the crockpot/large pot if you don’t.  If you do remove the lid, check the mixture occasionally as some of the water will evaporate which causes your mixture to become concentrated.  Just add additional water to taste and warm.
8. If all of the mixture isn’t consumed, remove the orange, cloves and cinnamon stick and pour the mixture back into the cranberry, apple or white grape juice bottles.  Refrigerate to enjoy cold or hot in the future.

Enjoy!

Cherries Jubilee

As a child, my parents took me everywhere…no place was off limits because I was young or came with a few extra accessories (diaper bag, coloring books, etc.).  Everywhere included restaurants…both traditional/everyday and special occasion/fancy.  I can’t say with certainty but I’m pretty sure being exposed great foods at a young age is where my own passion for food began.  One of my all-time favorite desserts was at a local, upscale restaurant near our home in St. Louis.  After finishing our main course, the waiter (or sometimes the owner) would bring a cart around with all the makings for tableside Cherries Jubilee.  The restaurant has since closed but the recipe lives on in my kitchen and I hope you enjoy making it in your own.

Ingredients

• 1 15oz. can Dark Sweet Cherries in Heavy Syrup (our local store carries Oregon brand in the baking section near the pie filling…picture of the can is below)
• 1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
• 1 Cinnamon Stick
• 1 Navel Orange, thick sliced (pithy-end slices removed)  
• ¼ C Brandy (or less, depending on taste preference)
• Long-handled lighter
• Vanilla Ice Cream (enough for 3 – 4 servings)

 Directions

1. Heat wide saucepan over medium/high heat
2. In a small bowl, mix 2 Tbsp. cherry syrup (from the can) with 1 Tbsp. cornstartch, set aside
3. Add cherries and remaining syrup, cinnamon stick and orange slices to pan…cook for about 10 minutes which will allow the cherry, orange and cinnamon flavors to come together
4. While cherries are cooking, portion vanilla ice cream into single-serve bowls
5. Stir the cherry syrup/cornstarch mixture to freshen it up.  Add a little at a time to the saucepan…stirring constantly until the syrup reaches a consistency similar to pancake syrup…not runny (like water) but not too thick (like molasses).  If you find you'd like your mixture thicker, don't add additional corn starch directly to the saucepan as it will clump.  Mix a 2:1 ratio of water to cornstarch in your small bowl and add to the saucepan a little at a time...stirring constantly. 
   
6. Pour brandy on top of the cherry mixture and light with lighter…swirl the pan a couple of times until the blue flames disappear
7. Pour even amounts of cherries and syrup over ice cream and serve quickly as the ice cream will begin to melt immediately.
8. Enjoy!              

Seriously Good Granola

Before I get to the good stuff, a little background…
JPug and I both have full-time jobs. We strive to leave the house just after 7am (if not before) each weekday…I’m not saying we’re always out of the house by 7, but at least we try. Given that we’re up and at ‘em pretty early, we struggle with having delicious yet nutritious grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches. I came across this granola recipe by Alton Brown on www.foodnetwork.com a while back and tweaked it just a bit to suit our tastes. It’s become quite the staple in our morning routine…some greek yogurt, fresh berries and the homemade granola below make for a great breakfast parfait.

Ingredients

• 1 & 1/2 C rolled oats
• 1/2 C slivered or sliced almonds
• 1/2 C chopped pecans
• 1/2 C shredded, sweet coconut
• 1/8 C packed brown sugar
• 1/8 C maple syrup
• 1/8 C vegetable oil
• Pinch of salt
• Cinnamon
• 1/2 C craisins

 
Directions

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees F
• Combine oats, almonds, pecans and coconut in a large bowl
• Combine brown sugar, maple syrup, vegetable oil and salt in a separate bowl
• Once each bowl has been mixed thoroughly, add liquid ingredients to oat mixture and stir
• Spread raw granola evenly on a large cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon (I prefer to line cookie sheets with aluminum foil to simplify clean-up)
• Stir granola every 15 – 20 minutes…total cooking time will be between 40 minutes and 1 hour + depending on your preferred degree of done-ness…you’re looking for an even light/medium brown color
• Once the mixture is finished cooking, stir in craisins
• The recipe above makes plenty of granola for a week’s worth of breakfast. If you want to save time, don’t hesitate to double the recipe and freeze the raw ingredients or finished product.

Enjoy!

Quick & Delish: Mushroom Soup

A few years ago, I made a conscious decision to begin cooking meals from scratch, using fresh ingredients whenever possible. Besides tomatoes for sauces (when I’ve run out of our fresh/frozen pureed garden tomatoes) and beans for chili, I can honestly say that I don’t remember the last time I bought a canned vegetable. Two years ago, I was on the hunt to find a made-from-scratch green bean casserole recipe for Thanksgiving and this one from Food Network’s Alton Brown doesn’t disappoint. The homemade mushroom soup baked with blanched, fresh green beans and topped with French’s onions (yes canned…but I can never get the fresh ones just right) is a total hit.

This little back story brings me to today’s recipe. With Thanksgiving over, omit the green beans and French’s onions and enjoy a delicious pot of mushroom soup as winter rages on.

Ingredients

• 4T unsalted butter
• 16 - 24oz. mushrooms, trimmed and cut into ½ inch pieces (depending on how mushroom-y you like your soup)
• Suggest chopping about 1/3 and leaving the remaining 2/3 as slices
• 1t freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ½t freshly ground nutmeg
• Who has freshly ground nutmeg in their kitchen? Just use the stuff from your spice rack.
• ¼c all-purpose flour
• 2c chicken broth
• 2c half & half

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add the mushrooms, 1t salt & pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Don’t be afraid to let the mushrooms cook a little longer if you feel they need to.
3. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Sprinkle four over the mixture and stir to combine…cook for 1 minute.
5. Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute.
6. Decrease the heat to medium-low and add the half & half.
7. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, approximately 6 to 8 minutes. My soup never seems to thicken in 6 to 8 minutes. If you’ve stirred for a while beyond the recipe directions with no thickening in sight, make a roux of chicken stock and corn starch (2 - 3 parts stock to 1 part starch in a small dish) and add a little at a time until the soup thickens to desired consistency.
• A couple notes regarding the use of corn starch...
• It usually thickens better if your soup is simmering. Be careful if you raise the heat with this recipe as the half and half could scorch…just keep stirring constantly.
• Make sure you add the starch in as a roux…if you just dump it in, your soup will be lumpy.
• Corn starch can over-thicken in the blink of an eye. Like I said earlier, add a little at a time and mix thoroughly before adding more. It’s better for your soup to be on the thin side rather than over-thickened.
• If you do over-thicken, add some chicken broth to the mixture until the soup reaches desired consistency.
8. I didn’t say this recipe was healthy but it’s definitely delicious…serve with crusty bread and enjoy!

Quick & Delish: Momma's Bran Muffins

Growing up, momma made all sorts of delicious food.  She worked weeknights so we weren't able to spend a lot of time together in the evening.  She almost always had breakfast ready before I left for school and we had a sit-down dinner most nights before she left for work.  One of my favorite recipes momma made regularly was bran muffins...they're a quick, delicious grab-and-go for weekday mornings.  I'm happy to share the recipe with you...enjoy!


Ingredients

1c. Kellog's all bran cereal (original variety)
1c. buttermilk
1/2c. packed brown sugar
1/4c. butter or margarine (cut into pieces)
1 egg
1c. raisins or craisins I have a strange aversion to raisins so I typically opt for a craisin substitution
1c. flour
1t. baking powder
1/4t. salt
cinnamon and/or nutmeg to taste


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large, microwafe safe bowl, combine bran, buttermilk, brown sugar & butter....mix.
3. Microwave mixture on high for 2 minutes.
4. Stir mixture to combine and allow to cool, stir occasionally while cooling (5 - 10 minutes).
5. Add in egg & raisins/craisins.
6. Stir in remaining ingredients until combined.
7. Spoon mixture into greased or lined muffin cups...approximately 2/3 full.
8. Bake 14 minutes or until toothpick pulls out clean. 

Quick & Delish: Crockpot Pepper Steak

One of my favorite hobbies is cooking.  I love trying new recipes and challenge myself to make a sit-down dinner most nights of the week.  I’ll share some of my favorite weeknight recipes labeled “Quick & Delish” to signify tasty weeknight meals that won’t force you to spend the entire evening in the kitchen.  The recipes I’ll share are tried & true…I’ll always include my own comments as italicized remarks within the recipe & directions.  Bon appétit!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 lbs boneless beef top sirloin steak, cut into strips 
• Note: You could probably use a lesser quality cut of meat as it crumbles when fully cooked 
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• Note: I would suggest omitting the salt as the recipe is fairly salty, even with reduced sodium soy. 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 green bell peppers, cut into strips
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• Hot cooked rice 
• Note: We prefer short grain brown rice and recommend Lundberg which can be purchased at most grocery stores.  If using short grain brown rice, note the cooking time as it can be up to an hour.

 Directions

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat.  Brown steak strips in 2 batches.  Add garlic; cook and stir 2 minutes. Transfer steak strips, garlic, and pan juices to 4- to 7- quart Crock-pot slow cooker.
• Note: I prefer to brown the meat on med-high which cooks faster and really seals in the juices.  Once the pieces have a nice caramel color on one side, brown the other side, remove them from the pan and place them in the crockpot.  Add the garlic while browning the second batch.  The increased skillet temperature made it difficult to remove the pan juices once the steak and garlic were cooked.  I removed the steak pieces and added ½ c. of water to the skillet to deglaze.  The additional moisture should loosen the pan bits right up…add the liquid mixture to the crockpot.
2. Add onion, soy sauce, sugar, salt (I would suggest omitting), ginger, and black pepper to slow cooker; mix well. Cover; cook on LOW 6-8 hours or until meat is tender (up to 10 hours).  Once I added all the ingredients to the crockpot, it didn’t look like much.  I was scared to death that the meal would burn while I was at work.  It cooked for right at 10hrs and was perfect when I got home.  If you know your crockpot runs hot, I would suggest reducing the cooking time.
3. Add bell pepper strips during final hour of cooking.  Blend water and cornstarch until smooth; stir into slow cooker.  Cook, uncovered, on HIGH 15 minutes or until thickened.  Serve with Rice.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Thanks to Mary Duren for sharing this quick & delish recipe.