Recipes I'm going to try when I have more time

Cooking tonight, potstickers for the Superbowl party at work tomorrow. Next week I'm going to try:

Pepper jelly: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/jalapeno_pepper_jelly/
Garlic Polenta: http://www.health.com/health/recipe/0,,50400000109413,00.html



Note to self: Remember to post the [very basic] polenta recipe.

Herbed Chicken Breast

Not wanting to go out and get food, I defrosted a chicken breast, cubed it (apparently you're supposed to cook it first so it doesn't dry out, but I figure it'll marinate and cook faster this way. I'm HUNGRY, and if I'm that hungry it will taste good whether its dry or not), and marinated it. I'm planning to pan-fry it later. I will update with how it turned out after ward.


Marinade:
- Some olive oil
- Some honey
- Some lemon juice
- Some mustard (plain yellow)
- Salt
- Black Pepper
- Celery seed
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Thyme


Update: It turned out very well. I fried with an onion and an apple, both chopped into pieces more or less the same size as the chicken. The rosemary and the mustard were the two flavors that really worked well of each other. Next time I would use 2-3 onions, or 1 larger one. I used normal yellow onions.

Banana Nut Muffins (With Vegan modifications)

As a need-to-get-rid-of-overripe-bananas recipe, I got this recipe from my mom for banana nut muffins. Had to make it as a vegan recipe once. It comes out well in both cases.

Original Recipe:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
0.5 tsp baking powder
1 cup oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 mashed bananas
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 c chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F
Use muffin cups or grease a muffin tin
 Mix the dry ingredients together
Mix the wet ingredients together
Mix the wet and the dry ingredients together
Spoon into the muffin cup
Cook for ~25 minutes. They should be done when a toothpick comes out clean.


I prefer the muffins without chocolate chips. I've also used walnuts, pecans, and almonds in various incarnations of this recipe to good effect. I also would modify it to only use 1.5 cups sugar. These muffins as written are very sweet.

Vegan modification: use ~3 extra bananas instead of the eggs, and leave out some of the sugar. The ones I made came out very well but very sweet using two cups of sugar.

Baked Brie in Cranberry Sauce

Continuing my theme of apples and cranberries for the day (and all measures are still approximate):

2 cups flour
1 egg
1 tsp salt
water
1 can cranberry sauce
1 wedge of Brie
1 granny smith apple


1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Combine the flour, egg, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add water in increments and knead, until the dough forms a smooth but not sticky ball.
3. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness, then line a greased/floured oven-safe dish with it
4. Pour the cranberry sauce into the dough and make into a bed
5. Place the Brie in the bed
6. Cut and peel the apple, and layer on the cheese and in the sauce.
7. Bake until Brie is soft and crust is cooked, ~ 20 minutes. Don't quote me on this, watch the cheese. Serve warm.



Note: Next time I do this, I will probably try pre-cooking the crust, then turning the oven down to 175 F to heat the cheese.

Cranberry Apple Pie Oatmeal

Again with the disclaimer: All measures are incredibly approximate, because I don't measure.



5 Granny Smith Apples
1 Mackintosh Apple (It was just lying around)
1/2 package of fresh cranberries
1 cup raisons
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon ginger
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup multi-grain hot cereal (I didn't have enough oatmeal)
2 cups evaporated milk
4 cups water


1. Core and peel the apples. Cut into bite size chunks.
2. Add cranberries, apples, and raisons into bottom of slow cooker.
3. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Toss to coat.
4. Pour the oatmeal and multi-grain on top of the fruit.
5. Pour the milk/water over the oatmeal, so that the liquid level just reaches the top of the oatmeal
6. Turn the slow cooker on high and cook until its done (to be updated how long it actually takes, ~4 hours)


Update: I forgot to add sugar. Add sugar. It needs it. Or brown sugar. Or Maple syrup. Or molasses. Anything. It doesn't need much, but it does need some.

Ginger-maple-paprika walnuts, and back to the basics with my Hurricane Sandy supplies.

Ever roasted your own nuts before? It is well worth the minimal effort. I made walnuts and ginger roasted with maple syrup and paprika. There is no set ingredient amounts. I put as many walnuts as I've got and as much chopped ginger as I have together, then pour enough maple syrup over it to coat it. Add paprika to taste. Or garlic. Or both. This time I just went with paprika.

Coat a baking pan with olive oil, then spread out the ginger/nuts so that they're one layer thick. Roast at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Take them out, get them off the pan (or they WILL stick), and try them as soon as they're cool enough to pop into your mouth.



With a hurricane, you never know how long you're going to be without power. I wasn't at any point, fortunately. Nonetheless, I am stocked up with lots of dry foods and long-lasting staples, just in case.

For lunch: Ramen (beef flavored, I know, its cheating, but it makes very good hurricane food as long as you've got a source of clean water). I avoided the salt bomb by cooking it in too much water and pulling the noodles out of the flavored water, and made it pretend to be healthy by adding sun-dried tomatos and avocado. It actually came out really well. I'm going to try chopping the tomatos a bit smaller next time.

This evening: Sliced potatoes and onions fried with diced ginger and scrambled eggs. Definitely back to the basics with this one.

Grilled Cheese and Beer Tasting

Grilled Cheese and Beer tasting: I owe you all an apology. I forgot to bring a copy of the menu home with me. It was amazing.



The night opened with Manouli with Arugula and honey, on some sort of sourdough. It was paired with a ginger-honey beer whose name escapes me. It was also truly excellent.Interestingly, the bread was toasted but without the cheese, which was added later. It made it a bit messy to eat, as the cheese was really crumbly.

Course two was some sort of danish goat cheese with asparagus on a bread that I forget but had enough flavor to stand up to the toppings. The beer was the Tenacious Traveler Shandy and was very good.

Course three was the most traditionally American Grilled Cheese of the evening. It was steak with some sort of cheddar on rye. It tasted like your good-old-fashioned-right-off-the-grill grilled cheese. The beer was an Ommegang Rare Vos. This was the bitterest beer of the evening, and was very good if you like bitter beer.

The fourth course was the best grilled cheese of the evening was a triple-brie with granny smith apples and pear chutney on pumpkin bread. It was paired with Dogfish Head Pumpkin Ale. Wow. Just Wow.

The final course was dessert and not technically grilled cheese - it was a Danish bread pudding with cherries, and an I-forget-what-but-very-sweet dessert beer. Very good. I admit that I'd have liked another serving of the triple brie for dessert, but it was pretty good nonetheless, and one of the better bread puddings I've had.


Overall, the evening was spectacular. I have never had such pinkie-finger-up grilled cheese. I will definitely go again, and highly encourage you to be inventive with your grilled cheese.