Pretzel Buns

Do pretzels have buns?!

Probably not, but these Pretzel Buns from Brittskydoodledoodlepie are... O.M.G.! DELICIOUS!!

Before making these, I read the reviews posted on Allrecipes and I noticed some of the negative reviews said the dough was sticky. I have a couple of thoughts about this.

One, is that the recipe (I halved it) calls for three cups of flour. Well, if you have a humid day or a house that is damp (which mine is a bit), you need to add more flour to the counter when you're kneading the dough.

The second thing is to only knead it for the five minutes the recipe calls for. Since it IS a dough that is a little bit sticky, that's all you need.

Third and most important - leave it alone for a few hours and let it rise. I can't stress this enough. After I punched the dough down and shaped the rolls, I let it go for a second rise. This helps the gluten develop and gives you a very nice texture once the rolls are baked.

Ok - so yes, dipping the formed dough into hot baking soda water is a bit messy and it adds another step to the process but that's what gives them the pretzel taste, and probably the soft inner pretzel texture.

Truly if you want something unique and delicious... definitely try these! Better than the pretzel buns served in the various places around town. They are SO worth the effort!!

If you do, let me know how it worked for you!

Homemade Italian Bread with Italian Bread Dipping Oil

You know when you go to an Italian restaurant and they bring out fresh bread with an oil dipping sauce? Yeah? Well, I attempted and succeeded in doing that here at home. I have been good at making yeast breads for quite awhile now, having perfected my own pizza dough recipe. So this bread wasn't difficult for me. I know some people anguish over making homemade bread but it really is getting used to the feel and texture of the dough... and letting it sit and rise. I'm sure there is some impatience to this process for some but if you baby it and leave it alone - the result is well worth it.

I used this Homemade Italian Bread recipe and I thank MysteryGirl over at the GeniusKitchen site for submitting it.

Here are my tasty-looking results!

In addition to the bread, I made this Italian Bread Dipping Oil that I found on the Albertsons website. I have no clue who the contributor of the recipe was. I believe this is some sort of store but this oil dip for the bread was as delicious as the bread was. Hands down one to make again!!

I hope someone else attempts to make these and lets me know what they think. 

Gold Star on both from me!! 

Mochiko Chicken Wings with Orzo & Potato Parmesan

I was intrigued when I first saw this recipe for Mochiko Chicken Wings. The submitter of the recipe says it is common in Hawaii. Having never been there, I can't verify this but perhaps someone else out there in cyberland can? For me, the idea of soaking raw chicken in a thick batter overnight was a tad disturbing but I am here to say... it was worth the wait and the extra effort.

I also want to mention that I am NOT a big fan of breaded or battered and then deep-fried chicken but as I said, this recipe caught my eye and I had to try it. I want to give a HUGE thanks to IrLyndaSmith for submitting it to Allrecipes.

After frying for about fifteen minutes, the crust was nice and crisp - and I do mean it CRUNCHED when I bit into it, so that was really nice. The meat was very juicy and cooked to perfection. It wasn't greasy at all. 

The flavor? I could taste the seasonings and a hint of the soy sauce, which is a flavor I absolutely love. All in all - this chicken was a HUGE hit! I must add that I used chicken thighs instead of wings as that's all I have here. 

Here is the result of the chicken:

Mochiko Chicken

To go with the chicken, I chose this Orzo and Potato Parmesan recipe. This is the first time I ever cooked with orzo and it turned out beautifully. It was smooth, tender and it was surprisingly rich to the taste. Instead of water, I used chicken stock to bump up the flavor. I also used canned carrots out of necessity but other than that, the recipe was made exactly as stated. Here as well as in the chicken, I could taste all the ingredients and will definitely add this to my recipe stockpile. A HUGE thanks to FlemishMinx for submitting this one to GeniusKitchen.

Here is what that turned out like:

Orzo & Potato Parmesan

Mom's Salmon Mousse - Not MY Mom's, though!!

Actually, I don't know if my mom has ever made a salmon mousse. I'll have to ask her. I know this is a first for me. I have done salmon cakes and salmon croquettes but never a mousse but I found this Mom's Salmon Mousse recipe and thought I'd check it out. As always, my thanks goes out to Terri Otteni for sharing the recipe on Allrecipes.

I admit, I was expecting this to turn out entirely different. I thought it would be more than an inch high. I thought it would be light and airy - like a mousse. Maybe I did something wrong but I followed the recipe exact.

The flavor, though, it was tasty. I actually liked it. I think it would be great toasted between two slices of bread with cheese. That would make a good lunch. A sandwich with this plus a bowl of the New England Clam Chowder I made.

Here's what my version looked like:

New England Clam Chowder

Could there be a chowder better than New England Clam Chowder?

Sometimes I wonder. The version I made tonight was almost exact to the recipe and I thank CalNRachel for contributing it to Food.com.

The recipe says that it is a low fat version - I'm going to assume that's because it uses low-fat milk? I think I went a little further and used soy milk; not by reason of cutting fat but because I don't like milk. In other words, if I buy regular milk, it just goes to waste because it doesn't get used quick enough. This stuff comes in a box on a regular grocery store shelf and isn't refrigerated.

The effect here was the same as regular chowder (regardless of kind). The chowder was thick (cornstarch is a wonderful thing!), and it was flavorful. The taste of clams was obvious but not overpowering. I wanted some chunk in the potatoes so I left them whole. They were small enough that they cooked quick and were tender by the time the chowder thickened up.

This chowder is a keeper!

Check it out and make it yourself!! There won't be a disappointment!

Looks good, doesn't it?! Don't you wish you had "smell-a'vision"?! 

Red Hot Devils

Crazy as the title of this post sounds... Red Hot Devils are actually a different way of making hot dogs. Well - a different type of sauce that people of this area are probably not used to. 

Every so often, I get hungry for the mystery meat we call hot dogs. It's probably one of the very few processed foods I actually eat. Last week I had a craving for them loaded with sauerkraut. With the four dogs left in the fridge, I wanted to try something different and this recipe for Red Hot Devils appeared... it was MAGIC! Sarah M., if you're out there... THANKS!! 

I have to admit that every time I think of a hot dog, one of my former grad school professors comes to mind, Kevin Patrick. He has this strange obsession with hot dogs and it seems that every trip he takes his students on, there is a stop at some hot dog joint along the way. I took his class (my favorite of grad school) during the Fall 2014 semester and on a weekend trip to NYC, we happened to end up at two. 

The first one was Rutt's Hut in Clifton, New Jersey:

The second place we stopped, at the end of our trip, was none other than Nathan's Famous on Coney Island:

Anyhow back to reality from my trip down memory lane and back to the recipe. The sauce was reminiscent of a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce with a touch of heat and was extremely delicious!! I think most have the ingredients already on hand and it is SO worth it! I give this one a HUGE thumbs up! 

I have definitely found an awesome way to make hot dogs. I think this would even be good for a pot luck with it simmering in the Crock-Pot!! 

You try it! Let me know what you think!! 

Eggnog Cake

Suffice it to say, I bombed a recipe!!

Hey! At least I OWN it!! 

Point being, I know exactly what I did to make this Eggnog Cake not taste very well. I also should note that I absolutely LOVE eggnog, so I'm disappointed in myself for this failure.

I would, however, recommend trying it for yourself to see if it works for you. I know I will definitely try it again minus my mistake, which I will get to so nobody else repeats it. I do want to thank "whatcity" for sharing it on the Allrecipes site.

As I was casually browsing the Supercook site, this recipe caught my eye. I thought that since the coffee cake recipe was such a huge success, I'd try this one out as well. 

My botching sort of went like this: I added pineapple rum and I added TOO much! Ok, so that's NOT what the recipe called for. I didn't have regular rum so I figured this would add a nice fruity kick to an eggnog cake... boy was I totally WRONG! 

I tasted it after it came out of the toaster oven... not good! Drizzling a little maple syrup over it made it palatable, lol. I actually believe this one might end up feeding the squirrels outside.

But like I said - this was MY major "foo-paw" and I will definitely try this again using the correct ingredients at some point. Maybe for Christmas and take it to Grandma's to make guinea pigs out of the family, lol. It's a thought! LOL!

Cake with My Coffee! (recipe review included)

Good evening everyone!!

Did you ever get a craving for sweets that you couldn't get rid of? I think everyone has that problem at one time or another, but that was me tonight. This incredible craving for something sweet and the need to bake something. I killed two birds with one stone because I also wanted to find out how well my toaster oven bakes a dessert. Up until this point, I have only been using it to cook meals and the occasional toasted sandwich.

I wasn't in the mood for something that contained chocolate and most know that I'm not that fond of chocolate to begin with. I know, I know... what woman doesn't like chocolate?? Trust me, I'm definitely not normal in that respect. So to find my "sweet something" I turned to my trusted site of Supercook. It led me to this coffee cake recipe. Thanks to @startnover for contributing this recipe to the site.

I can't recall ever making a coffee cake... at least not in the past ten years. Perhaps I did in my previous life? Maybe any of my family can verify this - if they read the blog?

My memory also is lacking with the texture of the coffee cake. Are they supposed to be dense? The batter was pretty thick - perhaps it's because I used evaporated milk instead of regular milk? I CAN say, however, that the flavor of this one is very, very good! Don't get me wrong, the texture is definitely not a bad thing. It tasted like snickerdoodles and if you don't know what a snickerdoodle is... that's a shame. Google it!

I give this recipe a gold star!

Bet you can't guess what I'll be having with my coffee in the morning... HA!

Five-Ingredient Beef Roast

A few months ago I was given this recipe to try in the Crock-Pot but as I have said before, I didn't have one until last week. I vowed to try it as soon as I didn't have to spend twenty bucks on a beef roast. I think the price of meat is getting a tad bit outrageous and now consider beef a luxury item... but done like this, it's a luxury that should be created at least once.

Last night I found a beef roast at a decent price so I purchased it. It was a four-pound chuck roast and was the perfect size for my pot.

I call this recipe "five-ingredient" because that is literally all that is in it. Those ingredients were:

• beef roast
• one stick of butter
• one packet of onion soup mix
• one packet of ranch dressing mix
• one jar of mild pepper rings

That's it - nothing else. No salt. No pepper. Nothing. All you do is put the roast in the Crock-Pot, then dump the other things in. That's what I was told to do. However to evenly incorporate the other four ingredients, I broke the stick of butter in half and placed it on each side of the roast. Then I dumped the two packet mixes into the jar of mild pepper rings, put the lid back on and shook it up. That then was dumped in on top of the roast. I set in on high for about the first hour and a half then turned it to low. Five hours later and that thing was every bit of tender and falling apart that you can possibly think of. No knife needed.

The flavor shocked me. You might be thinking that it would be spicy with the peppers. Nope! Very mild, not much of a pepper flavor. I caught more of the vinegar flavor than anything else. You can relax, it wasn't an overwhelming vinegar flavor; just enough to taste. It was definitely worth the wait for both a new Crock and a beef roast.

As you can see in the picture, I made mashed potatoes. However, these weren't your typical plain run-of-the-mill potatoes. I roasted a head of garlic in the toaster oven. I believe I explained how simple roasting garlic was to do in a previous post. I mixed that into the potatoes, which I boiled until they were soft. Then I added some parsley, milk, and butter. Easy, simple and VERY tasty!!

I decided to make gravy with the leftover juice in the Crock-Pot. For that, I made a roux of half flour and butter. Cooked that down a bit and added two and a half ladle to the roux. This made a nice, thick gravy that didn't need any other seasoning.

I have a feeling that the combination of these ingredients sounds odd but it really did make an incredible-tasting roast.

I'm sending out a challenge for everyone else to try this and let me know what you think. I really don't think you'll be disappointed!

Leftover Crock-Pot Chicken = Tomato Bisque with Chicken

Remember the roast chicken I made in the Crock-Pot yesterday?

Well... I wanted to find a way to use it other than the obvious of just eating it as is. There was a large quantity of chicken left (it WAS a six-pound bird) and off the bone it yielded about three-quarters of a gallon zip-lock bag. I decided to turn to my favorite search engine Super Cook to find a new recipe to combine some ingredients.

I found this Tomato Bisque with Chicken recipe which sounded interesting. Let me be clear, I am NOT reviewing the recipe. I only used it as an inspiration for what I was about to do. I want to thank the contributor "vababe" for creating a base in which I could build on. 

For my creation, I followed the procedure of the recipe (except for the use of flour) but altered my ingredients based on what I had on hand. Let me walk you through what I did. It's simple and anyone can do it. 

As in the recipe, I cooked an onion and a few cloves of garlic in olive oil until they were soft. I then added a 28oz can of stewed tomatoes plus two 14oz cans of diced tomatoes with liquid, four cups of chicken broth, and the oregano, parsley and basil. The herbs were to my taste and considering this was a large stock pot of bisque, I used at least a tablespoon of each. These ingredients I let come to a boil. Then I took the pot off the heat and used my immersion blender to pulverize everything. Once there were no chunks left in the pot, I put it back on the stove over low hear.

I will also ask if you remember the roasted garlic cream sauce I made yesterday? Well... yeah... I did. I used it in place of the heavy cream the recipe called for. I think I had almost three cups of it left so that was added to the pot plus the chicken, and I also added parmesan cheese (again, the real stuff - not the stuff in the can).

I have to admit that I have never made bisque before and this simple combination of ingredients on hand really had a phenomenal taste! 

Try it!! 

Chicken A La Crock-Pot with Creamy Roasted Garlic Sauce

Hello there again, friends!!

I seem to recall promising to use my brand new Crock-Pot to "roast" a chicken. I say that loosely only because the cooker doesn't leave that nice, crispy skin that roasting in an oven would do. If that's what you're after, throw it under the broiler to crisp the skin, otherwise, it's good as is (at least to my taste buds).

Ok so I didn't truss it and it looks a bit strange but it was mighty tasty!! 

I created a creamy roasted garlic sauce to go with the chicken. Who doesn't love the smell and taste of roasted garlic? I mean, seriously - c'mon! Not only is it delicious, it's EASY to do!! Cut the top of the head off, put the heads in individual foil packets, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Into a 350℉ oven for about 45 minutes and POOF!! DONE! It's THAT simple!! If you love garlic as much as I do - try it, you won't be disappointed!

To make the sauce, I used ingredients I have on hand; like evaporated milk, sour cream (the last of my container, perhaps it was about a cup and a half), shredded Parmesan cheese (the real stuff, not the stuff out of the can), obviously the roasted garlic, and various herbs and spices to my taste. I heated this all in a small pot. That's the nice thing about cooking as opposed to baking - you don't need to measure. It's all by taste and it ISN'T rocket science!! Try it yourself - mine turned out... AWESOME!!

I had no clue what to do with the giblets and I didn't want to waste them; so I browned them in olive oil and butter then threw in about a third cup of flour and cooked that for a few minutes (this cooks off the flour taste and reduces the chances for lumps). Then I pulled it from the heat and added leftover broth from chicken I boiled last week. Back on the heat it went with some additional herbs and spices: thyme, sage, parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I let it simmer on the stove for two hours to develop a nice, deep, rich flavor. The extra liquid in the slow-cooker was a bit much, so I grabbed a ladle and added about five ladle-fulls into the pot simmering with giblets. This made way too much!! What do I do with all that?!

SOUP!! That's right!! I grabbed the half bag of egg noodles I had in the cupboard, a can of green beans, and a can of mushrooms. Right into the pot it went - liquid and all! I chopped up the giblets as well and threw them back into the pot. That simmered for another hour while I skimmed the fat off the top with the ladle and... POOF!! VIOLA!! Incredible tasting SOUP!

So now... not only do I have the French Onion Soup I made yesterday but I also have mushroom noodle soup! Put THAT on a spoon and slurp it!

Let's face it... I don't think I'll be cooking for a few days. Leftovers are always delicious!!

Julia Child's French Onion Soup?? Well... not exactly...

I have to admit - I have watched a few of the old black and white seasons of The French Chef with Julia Child. Okay, more than a few but who's counting?! She makes me, quite frankly, laugh my ass off - almost hysterically at some points. I don't know, maybe it's her mannerisms, or perhaps it's the way she says things at times. At any rate, she was so full of life and her knowledge and joy of cooking enraptured millions. It is definitely safe to say that she knew what she was doing. So this blog post I guess is a small homage to her.

Watching the shows brings me to this post. I watched with fascination the episode on French Onion Soup and I definitely recommend you all check it out. I have it linked, just click on the title.

Now, let me make myself clear... what I did is NOT her recipe... only the procedure. Mainly because I don't drink wine or cognac so I have none of that on hand and I don't plan to buy any either. That would be a complete waste.

My big difference was using beef stock in place of the wine. Someday perhaps I WILL get a bottle of red and make it but until then... beef stock works. Don't forget I also omitted the cognac. To take the place of those two flavors, not to mimic, but to add an extra kick that I thought would suffice, I added a bit of Kitchen Bouquet and worcestershire sauce - not a lot but enough for added depth.

The soup turned out FANTASTIC! It had great depth of flavor. I bet Ms. Child's would have approved. This is a soup that I do believe I will make again at some point.

This shot was while it was simmering on the stove with the topping ingredients ready to go.

Final tasty French Onion Soup!

Looks good, aye?!?!

New Toy!!!

Roughly six months ago my slow-cooker stopped working. For the life of me, I can't remember what I was cooking in it at the time (which goes to show how long ago it went to slow-cooker heaven) but I have missed having one ever since.

I can say that I had that thing for over twenty years ( I THINK it was a wedding gift in '94) and I thought it would last another twenty. My thought process was that it had the Crock-Pot name on it and my Grandma has one of the early models from the early 70s and hers is still going strong. I know hers is that old because she told me roughly about the time my grandfather bought it for her (before I was born). I know it's still going strong because it is the holy vessel in which her fabulous Crock-Pot Stuffing is cooked in every Thanksgiving. So those two things combined had me convinced that mine would last much longer than it did. WRONG.

The biggest reason I missed having one (other than the convenience of setting it and forgetting it) was the fact that my oven also quit working - probably a few months prior, so it was my main cooking vessel for larger recipes. I have since, as you may know if you have been following me, bought a small toaster oven with convection heat to compensate the loss of my regular oven. I will fix it sooner or later, that is a promise I make to myself.

Anyhow, last night I had to make a run to town and stopped by Ollies to see what their prices were. I was happy to see a few different sizes of the Crock-Pot brand name that I trust. I mean, let's face it, if mine lasted as long as it did and my grandma's is still going strong - why switch to a different brand? I also liked the decent price. I bought the larger one because I knew a six-pound chicken would fit into it. There may eventually be the need to pick up a smaller one at a later time but right now, this one is plenty. Let me be clear that I am NOT being paid to plug the product even though journalism and public relations IS what I hold a bachelor's degree in. I just feel that the product is solid and well-built based from my own experience (and Grandma's).

You probably guessed correctly that I will indeed be doing a whole chicken in it. That food adventure will have to wait a few days (probably Tuesday) because my chicken is thawing in the fridge.
So stay tuned for that and here is my beautiful new, sleek Crock-Pot:

"Green Bean Caesar" Recipe Review

I thought this afternoon that I would thaw a Cornish Game Hen and cook it in the rotisserie. While it was thawing, I went to SuperCook to find something different. I was not in the mood for potatoes so I thought I might try to find some sort of green bean side dish to go with my hen. Sure, green beans smothered with butter would have sufficed but I didn't want something that simple.

The site gave me a lot of recipes that seemed to be like Green Bean Casserole only without the condensed soups and milk. That didn't appeal. Other recipes had tomatoes or potatoes in them and those didn't appeal either. I wanted to try something DIFFERENT... not the same old stuff.

I found this one and thought I'd try it. It is called Green Bean Caesar. In this post, I am not going to link the member who posted the recipe out of respect for the family. Her profile said she passed - I feel that would be in bad taste.

But anyhow, it sounded very interesting to me, especially the use of salad oil and vinegar. Since the recipe doesn't specify the TYPE of salad oil or vinegar, I used a sub oil I had in the fridge and red wine vinegar.

I have to say, paired with the Cornish Game Hen that I used cajun seasoning on (make your own, I did!) the green beans were tasty. I'd recommend giving it a try. It is easy to make... just mix it up and throw it in the oven to heat - or in my case the toaster oven. The parmesan/butter/bread crumb topping while giving it some of the cheese flavor, did not look that great and left a gritty texture on top. But that's my own opinion and preference. I usually don't add breadcrumb toppings to things BECAUSE of this. Maybe I should have used the cajun seasoning in it as well but I wanted to keep it as close to original as possible - next time!!

But this is how it looked:

How about you try it and let me know!!

"Amazing Baked Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs and Potatoes" Recipe Review

I remember years ago having a computer program that I could plug my pantry items in and get a recipe - this was back in the early days of Windows operating systems. Back in the days of 3.25" floppy discs... yeah, remember those??

Anyhow, a few months ago I wanted the same type of thing with the minimal amount of items I had on hand. I was looking for variety in my food since I was tired of the same things all the time. I figured there had to be websites out there in today's day and age that would serve the same function as that old computer program. 

So I found this website: www.supercook.com. which is a reverse search engine. Basically all you do is register (which you have to do in order for your pantry to be saved) and then once you enter all your pantry items, it gives you all the delicious recipes you can make with those ingredients. Pretty neat, huh?! I think so!! :)

This morning I used the site to find a recipe for bone-in chicken thighs and found this one:

Amazing Baked Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs and Potatoes. It is rated five stars and looked pretty good. Shout out to Marie for contributing it to www.food.com!

Incidentally, since this revived blog will encompass my own creations plus others' online recipes, I will be throwing in the links as needed and crediting where it is deserved. 

I figured since I had all the ingredients (obviously, supercook told me I did), I would try this out. Of course since I love garlic so much, I definitely added more. I also added a sprinkle of parsley over the top before placing it into my toaster oven. But everything else is identical to the recipe. My two tiny changes aren't going to change the flavor dramatically. 

But here it is:

I will have to say... absolutely DELICIOUS!! The chicken was nice and moist. The skin crispy. The potatoes were cooked to perfection. My little toaster oven with the convection feature did pretty well! This is definitely one to keep in my files... and YOU should add it TOO!! 

YUM! 

Oyster Stew

Well hello everyone!! I'm back!!

It has been five years but I figured it was time for some writing for myself and perhaps to entertain the few people who actually read this blog.

I know, I know... what could possibly bring me back to this food blog? FOOD!! Plus I now have the time to actually dedicate to it. I hope everyone will get a kick out of my new musings about food, cooking, and life in general.

So sit back and enjoy the ride!!

First up...Oyster Stew.

I used canned oysters for this as I am in Western Pennsylvania and the fresh ones are kind of hard to come by. These are tasty in their own right. I stayed away from the smoked ones this time but next time I make this, I may use smoked to add a different flavor profile.

I made a blond roux... YES!! I made a roux - half flour and half some sort of fat. I used butter since that is what I had on hand and I thought it would make it taste better... doesn't everything?!

In a separate skillet, I sauteed garlic and onion and set that aside. Once the roux was bubbling, I added a combination of evaporated milk, milk, the juice of the oysters, the juice of a can of mushrooms and the onion/garlic mixture.

I also added a bunch of herbs and spices. This really was to my own taste so I am sure that everyone who wants to make it can throw in whatever they want. I like things on the spicy side so you can get the idea that is what I added.

I have to say... I am still surprised at times by my own creations. :)

I think the next time I make this, I will add corn and potatoes to make it more of a chowder. What do you all think??

A picture to get everyone salivating??