Doggie Treats

Earlier this month I made Zoey some more dog treats.  I like to make my own since they are way cheaper and I know exactly what is going into them.  Zoey has a pretty sensitive stomach so I'd rather not chance anything... She always loves getting food from us, but I've never seen her go so crazy for treats before!  She is crazy about these!

Peanut Butter and Chicken Dog Treats


1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup oats
2 cup whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together peanut butter, honey, oil and chicken broth.

In a separate bowl, combine flours and oatmeal.

Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Place dough on flour dusted surface. Roll or press dough out to about 1/4” inch thick. Use a small bone cookie cutter to cut out cookies. Roll out leftover scraps and cut out as many as possible.

Put cut out cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

 Here's Zoey going crazy for them!!!

She's sad they are all gone!

Apple Pie!

Apple pie is one of my favorite things to make.  They are so easy and fast, and can look amazing without too much work!

Alex and I tried to go apple picking earlier this year and it was a fail... the place we went to had run out of apples the day before and we didn't know that until we had driven over an hour to get there.  So on our way home we picked up about a dozen apples from a roadside stand so I could at least make some pie.

I ended up making three pies, one that we ate, one went to work with Alex, and the third got frozen for Thanksgiving.

I had a bunch of whole wheat flour around the apartment (it's what I use for Zoey's treats), so I used that for the pie crusts.

Whole Wheat Pie Crusts

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. vegetable shortening 

6 tbsp. water

Mix everything together!  Double for top and bottom crust.

For the pie I cut the apples into strips, added sugar, cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, and a little flour.

And I ended up with lots of scraps... 

Here were my end products!

Day 4- Use a Photograph for Inspiration

Today you should use a photograph for your inspiration.  The photo can me something you found online, or it can be something you've taken.  And if you can, please post the photo too so we can see where your inspiration came from.  This was is wide open to interpretation!

Day 3- Food
And here's the recap from my crafting for the day.  The challenge was a food challenge and I had been wanting to make baked cinnamon apples for a while.  But these aren't just any cinnamon apples!

All you have to do is remove the core from an apple (but not all the way down to the bottom.  Fill it with brown sugar, put a tablespoon of butter on top and sprinkle with cinnamon.  I baked it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

And ta-da!  A fast cinnamon apple!  It was good, but I think I'd rather just make a apple pie...

Mac and Cheese for the Hubby!

My husband… yes husband!  I can now say that! (I've already messed up on an earlier post with that one)  … ok, back on topic.  My husband does not like mac and cheese.  And this is a problem, because it is one of my favorite foods and has been since I was little.  I keep attempting to change his mind and I think I might have done it!  Instead of making a regular mac and cheese with lots of cheddar, I did a combination of cheddar, asiago, blue cheese, and parmesan.  

Here’s my recipe and feel free to change up the cheeses to whatever you prefer for a completely different taste!

Makes: 4-5 servings
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 lb medium pasta shells (whatever style you want!)
• 1/8 cup plain flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 ½ - 2 cups grated of cheeses of your choice
• ½ tbsp each Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cups coarse bread crumbs
• salt and pepper, to taste

Heat a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta, according to package instructions. Drain once almost cooked and pour into a lightly greased baking dish.
Meanwhile as your pasta is cooking, in a separate saucepan, melt 4 tbsp of the butter until liquid. Add the flour and whisk so it forms a paste, cook for 2-3 minutes but do not brown. Slowly add the milk, adding about 1/2 cup at a time and whisking each time until no lumps can be seen and the sauce thickens. Add a pinch of salt and a few generous grinds of pepper, the Dijon and the Worcestershire, and stir well.
Grate or roughly chop all of the cheese and stir it into the white sauce. Continue stirring the white sauce on medium-low heat until no (or very few) cheese lumps can be seen. Taste and adjust as necessary—add more Dijon or Worcestershire, salt, or pepper. Pour over the mostly cooked pasta in the pan, and stir carefully so that pasta is coated with cheese sauce.
Melt remaining tablespoon of butter and drizzle over the bread crumbs, toss to coat slightly. Sprinkle evenly over the pasta in the dish. Bake at 400 F for 15-20 minutes until topping is golden and sauce is bubbling.

Bacon Wrapped Pork...

Here’s my recipe for Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin in a Red Wine Reduction Sauce.  This was a fabrication from last week when I didn’t really know what to make with my pork loin and I started finding recipes that looked good on Foodgawker.com.  I combined the seasoning from a pork loin recipe, the bacon wrapping from another, and the red wine reduction for yet another.  It ended up turning out really well!

BACON WRAPPED PORK LOIN IN A RED WINE REDUCTION SAUCE

Ingredients:

Pork loin

Shallots

Garlic

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Red wine

Thyme

Parsley

Cook bacon in microwave for 2 minutes.

Cut pork loin into inch thick slices.

Season pork with sliced shallots, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, parsley.

Wrap bacon around pork and slide onto skewer.

Preheat oven to broil.

Flip every 4 minutes for 20 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.

Melt butter in pan.

Mix wine, parsley, thyme, and shallots in saucepan.

Simmer until thickened and syrupy.

Pour over pork tenderloin.

Let pork tenderloin marinade for the last few minutes of cooking before serving.

Enjoy!

Red Wine Reduction... Yum.

I love making steak with a red wine reduction sauce.  We don't buy very good cuts of meat so it probably could taste much better, but I still love it nonetheless.

Steak with Red Wine Reduction and Shallots

Steak

Cabernet Savignon, ½ bottle for the recipe and ½ bottle for you!

½ stick Butter

1-2 Shallots

2 cloves Garlic

Thyme Sprigs

Coarse Ground Salt and Pepper

Pour the  wine into a small saucepan along with a thyme sprig or two and bring it to a low boil.  Continue simmering until it’s reduced to just about ½ a cup.

Slice the shallots and mince the garlic.

Season the beef with salt and pepper.

In a large saute pan set over medium-high, melt half the butter until it begins to bubble and brown.  Add the beef.  Once it’s well browned on the bottom and comes up easily, turn it over.

Add the garlic, shallots and a couple of thyme sprigs and spread it all around and in between the steaks.

Reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking until the beef is done to your liking.  You can turn it once or twice.

Remove the steak to a platter and keep it warm.  Add the wine to the saute pan, scraping up all the stuck goodness from the bottom.  Stir until it’s reduced a little more.

Turn off the heat and add the remaining butter. Stir it in until it’s melted.

Pour the sauce over the steaks.

Garnish with thyme and serve immediately.  Enjoy!

We had ours with some homemade mashed potatoes too.

And for dessert some smoked cheese to go with the wine.  Smoked cheese is one of my new favorite things.  It doesn't seem to matter what kind of cheese... yum smoky.... 

General Tso's

I made some General Tso's chicken earlier this week.  And since I haven't had time to post too much lately, I thought I'd post some of my favorite recipes.

I found this recipe on foodgawker.

General Tso’s Chicken

serves 4
total time: about 30 minutes
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup water
3-4 tablespoons cornstarch
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
6-8 green onions chopped, plus more for serving
3 tablespoons fresh ginger, finely chopped or grated
hot pepper flakes (optional)
sesame seeds (optional)
hot rice, for serving

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, hoisin sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce and water. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Dredge the chicken in the cornstarch and shake off any excess.

Cook the chicken in the olive oil until browned. Remove the chicken from the skillet and cover with foil to keep warm.

Using a paper towel, wipe the skillet clean. Add the sesame oil, green onions and ginger. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Simmer mixture for 2 minutes, or until the sauce thickens a bit. Add the chicken back into the skillet, toss to coat with sauce, and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve garnished with green onions, hot pepper flakes (if desired) and sesame seeds (if desired).

Restocking the Kitchen

We were running low on some items in our cabinet so I stirred up some replacements!

First was my own hoisin sauce.

1/2 cup soy sauce
2 T peanut butter
2 T honey or molasses or brown sugar
1 1/3 T white vinegar
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
1 1/3 T seasame oil
1/4 t black pepper
2/3 t chinese hot sauce

Mix everything together in a mason jar and shake well.  Enjoy!

And I made more brown sugar! You can see how low I was before with that little layer on the bottom of leftover brown sugar.

Rainbow in a Jar!

I first saw a photo of this on Foodgawker.com and though it was one of the coolest things ever.  I have a friend who loves everything rainbow (hence the rainbow corset from an earlier post…) so it immediately went into my personal cookbook.  It is now a few months later and I still haven’t been able to find a reason to break out the recipe. 

It’s a really easy recipe.  I just bought some store white cake mix.  In case you didn’t know this, I can’t make store bought cakes.  They always fall apart on me.  But I thought since this doesn’t have to come out of the pan I should be fine.  I also was on a limited time constraint as I wanted to finish quickly.

After making the batter, I tinted each section with food coloring and layered them into the mason jars.  I only filled them about ½ full so they could rise and still have room for frosting.

Here they are ready to cook…

And the end product! 

I made frosting from scratch though and tossed some sprinkles on it. 

I then packed up a few jars to send out in the mail to a really great friend of mine who is going through some tough times.  Hopefully they will find her well and still intact!