Top 10 Best Recipes of 2012

I occasionally look back over my old posts. Last year was a great year, but it had its problems; bad photography (still working on that), cliche overly simple recipes, confusing overly complicated recipes, etc. However, there are a few real diamonds in the rough. Let's reminisce together, shall we?


#10 Easy Burgers and Fries

Aww, baby's first post! Despite its generic simplicity, I like this one for many reasons. The step by step photo tutorial is adorable and the potato method is one I'm proud of. If there's one thing I hate, it's flipping over 30 or 40 burning hot little french fries halfway through cooking. Resting on the skins = even cooking, NO flipping!


#9 Potato Skins with Ham

Transform ordinary ham lunchmeat into bacon! ...Kinda! Crisp fried ham with liquid smoke is no substitute for real bacon but it's pretty good. I love the photograph, and these always take me back to football Sundays.


#8 Eggless Cranberry Coffee Cake

The picture doesn't do this dish justice. However, the flavor and texture were to die for. I designed this as a way to use up leftover cranberry sauce; I always have a TON at Thanksgiving. I shared this with friends and they raved about it, I think someone even pinned this on Pinterest.


#7 Caramel Lover's Cupcakes

These were fun to make. It was my first paid baking job, long before I started advertising. Who doesn't love a gooey caramel cupcake with white chocolate frosting?


#6 Turkey Stuffed Soft Pretzel Rolls

A true diamond in the rough, these came out practically perfect in every way during a time when so many of my breads didn't work. I have an open pack of hot dogs in the fridge right now...I might just have to make some pretzel dogs. This picture is making me want some. It's a good picture.


#5 Pantry Cleaning BBQ Chicken Pizza

Ah yes, the "Pantry Cleaning" series. It was fun but not as fun as Use It or Lose It. I like this recipe because it gives a better and more simple description of how to make pizza crust than Soft Crust Pizza. BBQ Chicken pizza is one of my all time favorites.


#4 Imitation Crab Cakes

I love these! Not only are they delicious, decadent, fancy, easy, and dirt cheap, !!! They bring me a lot of traffic from Google search. Imitation Crab Cakes is the second most common search term that brings people to my blog. Which brings us to...


#3 Bacon Wrapped Cheddar Brats

These babies have had more hits than anything else on the blog. Bacon Wrapped Cheddar Brats  is the most common search term that gets people here! I just wish I had taken a better picture!


#2 Craving Brownies

Oh baby. I have made these several times since posting. They're just the best brownies in the universe, you guys.


#1 Italian Bread

Step by step instructions that anyone can follow. Heck, there's even a 7 minute video of me kneading dough. I make this once or twice a week, of course now I don't need to look at a recipe.

Greek Bites!

This blog post is brought to you by my dear friend Erin, author of the Low Fat Sugar Free Whole Wheat Diet Food Blog. She generously contributed jumbo pasta shells, broccoli, and dried figs. I am determined to use them all, and I'm thinking Greek appetizers! Also, I have some cucumbers that need to be used yesterday, so it works out perfectly.
These recipes are designed as part of a set. Each recipe makes 4 small servings, adjust your amounts accordingly.

*GREEK BITES*

Grilled chicken strips with tzatziki

Fig and feta pizza

Greek stuffed pasta shells

...Too much fun. :)

Grilled Chicken Strips with Tzatziki

Chicken:

2 large raw boneless skinless chicken breasts

Vinaigrette dressing

Sauce:

1/2 cucumber, grated

1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Prep these together:

Cut each breast into 4 long equal strips. Marinade in dressing for 1 hour in the fridge.

Combine sauce ingredients. Cover and chill in fridge for 1 hour. 

Grill the marinated chicken, or pan fry. Serve with cold sauce.

Greek Stuffed Pasta Shells

8 jumbo pasta shells

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup finely chopped broccoli

1/4 cup finely chopped olives

1 minced garlic clove

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/3 cup cream cheese

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

1/3 cup marinara sauce

Boil the shells for 10 minutes. Rinse in cold water and drain open-side down.

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine all remaining ingredients except feta in a bowl. Scoop a small spoonful of the mixture into each shell, and top each shell with feta. Garnish with basil, oregano, or parsley if desired.   Spread a thin layer of marinara sauce into a baking dish. Add shells. Loosely tent with foil and bake for 20 minutes covered, 5 minutes uncovered. 

Fig and Feta Pizza

1 pizza crust (make half of this, rise once, stretch into a pizza crust)

1 Tbsp butter

12 figs, fresh or dried, roughly chopped

2 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Preheat oven to 425. 

Melt butter in a skillet and cook the figs for a minute or two. Add honey and balsamic vinegar,  reduce for 4-5 minutes or until the mixture thickens. 

Spread the fig mixture evenly onto the crust and top with feta. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until the crust is browned. 

*SPECIAL* Use Or Lose: Spicy Mango Chicken Melts

Recently, a beloved coworker of mine moved on to bigger and better things.
She just happened to be a culinary genius and a personal inspiration.
She also just happened to leave a few things in the break room fridge and freezer!

It had been a while, and nobody claimed them, so the boss said I could have them. I decided that not only was I going to use them, I was going to use them together on a super special edition of Use It or Lose It!






Spicy Mango Chicken Melts
Makes 4 appetizers or 2 meals

2 raw boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup vinaigrette dressing, plus 1 tablespoon
1/2 cup chopped mango
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped jalapeno
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cinnamon-raisin English muffins, split
2 Tbsp butter (optional)
4oz sharp cheddar cheese, sliced

First, marinade the chicken in the salad dressing for 1 hour, reserving 1 Tbsp for the salsa.
While the chicken is marinading, combine the mango, onion, jalapeno, sugar, salt, and 1 Tbsp salad dressing in a bowl. Cover and chill for 45-60 minutes.
Preheat the broiler for the cheesy cinnamuffins.
I recommend grilling the chicken, but you can bake it or pan-fry if you want to. Rest the cooked chicken while you broil the 4 muffin halves; you can butter the muffin halves before stacking 1oz of cheddar cheese on top if you like, or you can just use cheese. Broil for 3-4 minutes or until cheese is melty and a little bubbly.
Remove cheesy cinnamuffins from oven and plate them. Slice the cooked chicken breasts horizontally and place 1/2 breast on each muffin cut-side down. Top with your mango salsa and garnish with cilantro, parsley, or basil if desired.

Guys, I just gotta say, these came out amazing. If you make them, do it as written. Trust me. ;)

Use It or Lose It - Fried Ravioli

This was made completely from scratch. Feel free to take shortcuts. ;)

My leftovers:
-Cooked ground turkey mixed with tomato sauce and cheddar cheese
-1/3 cup of cream cheese
-A few wrinkly old potatoes

I have been craving fried ravioli for quite some time. I researched the art of making pasta dough; generally, you would use eggs for this. I only had 1 egg and I needed that for egg wash, so I left the eggs out. This is how the vegans do it. Act like you're making Italian bread dough, but leave out the yeast. Place in an airtight container and rest for 30 minutes. It's that simple.
To make the filling, I made mashed potatoes and mixed them in with the cream cheese and meat mix.
To make a proper fried ravioli, you really need breadcrumbs. I didn't have bread...hell, I didn't even have crackers. I started to worry....then I found my Matzo. Matzo can be breadcrumbs, with a little love.
A good ravioli warrants a nice chunky tomato sauce. In the food processor, I combined: 1 can tomato paste, 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 cup water, 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp dehydrated onion, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1 tsp black pepper. I pulsed this until it was nice and chunky, then cooked for 30 minutes.
Rolling out the dough is a little difficult, it won't want to stay flat. Just keep rolling and be sure your surface is sufficiently floured. Use egg wash to stick them together. I don't have a crimper or a stamp or anything, so I cut squares with a knife and pressed with a fork.
To be safe, I froze the raviolis for 30 minutes, coated with egg wash and breadcrumbs, and froze for another 30. You don't have to, but this will guarantee no fall-apart.
Fry in an inch of oil for 2-3 mins on each side and drain on paper towels.

...Sorry these instructions are a little vague, but this took like 3 hours. Which is why I encourage you to take shortcuts if you can. There are many detailed recipes out there; this post is more of an inspiration for those leftovers you don't know what to do with.

ABC = Always Be Creative. :)
(Also, I am temporarily without a camera. These were taken on my Nintendo DS, hence the funky look. Thanks for reading. This dish was a lot of work and a whole lot of fun.)

French Bread Pizza

Mostly, I want to use this as an opportunity to explore the difference between Italian bread and French bread. I've made several pizzas on Italian, and called it French bread pizza; tonight, I decided to make authentic French bread for the job.
There are subtle differences between Italian and French bread:

-Italian bread is formed into a medium-fat loaf, while French bread is rolled into a long stick.
-Italian bread is made with olive oil, French bread contains no fat.

With these things in mind, here's my French bread pizza recipe. For more detailed breadmaking instructions, see Italian bread.

1/2 cup water between 85-105 degrees
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
Your favorite pizza sauce and cheese

Stir yeast and sugar into warm water, allow to proof. In a bowl, combine flour and salt, add yeast mixture. Stir to combine and turn out onto a floured surface. Knead for 7-10 minutes. Place dough into a lightly greased bowl and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Once dough has risen, punch it down and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. On a clean smooth surface, spread dough out into a flat rectangle, about 10"x18". Roll dough up tightly to form a long loaf. Using a sharp knife, score the dough diagonally 2-3 inches apart. Place loaf on a cookie sheet prepared with a sprinkling of cornmeal. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 450. Spritz loaf with water, and place it in the oven. Spritz again every 4-5 minutes until the loaf is done; it will take on a rich brown color and sound hollow when tapped.
Once bread is cool, slice it into 4 slices as shown, first vertically down the middle then each half horizontally. Prepare your oven's broiler. Add sauce and cheese to your bread slices and broil for 3-5 minutes or until cheese is melted and browned to your liking.
E N J O Y. :D

BBQ Cups with Tater Tots & Slaw

It's a fun twist on BBQ with 2 sides. To make the pork, I followed my Country Ribs recipe with shorter cooking times.

First, make the slaw. My slaw is very simple: 4 cups chopped cabbage, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 2 Tbsp tarragon vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper. Combine these ingredients and allow to chill while you make the meat and potatoes.

To make the BBQ pork and the baked potatoes, cut 2 medium sized pork chops into bite sized pieces and massage with a spice rub. Cook the pork uncovered in the oven at 350 for 1 hour, along with 2 potatoes (washed, fork poked, and rubbed with olive oil and salt). 

Pull the pork and potatoes out of the oven. Toss pork with barbecue sauce of your choice and set aside. Once potatoes have cooled, slice in half longways and scoop out the innards. 

Combine the innards with 1/4 cup flour, 1 egg, 1 Tbsp minced onion, and 1 tsp salt. Pinch bite-sized chunks of potato mixture and carefully roll in flour to coat. Set floured potato balls on a wax-papered plate or cookie sheet, and pop them into the freezer for 30 minutes. 

To make BBQ cups, fill emptied potato shells with barbecued pork and bake for 15-20 minutes at 350. 

To make tater tots, heat 2-3 inches of vegetable oil to frying temperature. Fry potato balls for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. The finished product will be light and pillowy. For a crunchier exterior, coat with bread crumbs.

Top BBQ cups and tater tots with BBQ sauce and serve with slaw. 

Pretty Pretty Pink Cupcakes!

So I saw an article which, facetiously or not, stated that cupcakes are sexist and representative of selfishness and isolation.
You can read the article here, but be warned, this article has very naughty language!
This made me sad. So, naturally I wanted to rebel. What could be girlier than lemon cupcakes with pink frosting spiked with white zinfandel? ;) xoxo

The Cupcakes: (from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, except I used lemon extract in place of vanilla and melted vanilla ice cream in place of milk.)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup melted vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp lemon extract
1 egg

The Frosting:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup Crisco
4-5 drops red food coloring
1 cup white zinfandel

To make the cupcakes, prepare a muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners. Preheat oven to 375.
Combine cake ingredients in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and light, 2-3 minutes. Fill cupcake liners halfway with batter and bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
To make the frosting, combine Crisco with powdered sugar. Add white zinfandel 1 Tbsp at a time and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. Take the remaining wine and drink it.

;)