Tonight, we feast! My family celebrated the return of Game of Thrones with a fancy dinner, and I thought I would share our menu.
We aimed for more rustic fair, similar to stuff possibly eaten on the show, with a few themed novelties mixed in.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! (At the stroke of midnight, be sure to run out there and scoop up all the clearance candy!)
To celebrate this day of candy consumption (and love), I've doubled down on the content. I'll be reviewing the candy as well as the recipe for lava cakes included on the bag. Will this post end up being twice as nice? Or double the disappointment?
I rarely get around to posting my own recipes, but when I posted this over on my instagram account a recipe was requested, so here we go!
Happy Saint Patrick's Day! I forgot this holiday was coming up so soon! I ended up remembering late last Sunday night, so I didn't feel like running out and buying a ton of ingredients since my fridge is already bursting at the seams, so I googled Irish recipes using some ingredients I had on hand and this awesome recipe for Irish Champ popped up!
We got a few more inches of snow, so I thought it was the perfect time to make some homemade soup.
I looked through my Pinterest recipe board, since I am still trying to make all of the recipes I've pinned, but I wanted to use ingredients I already had on hand. (Why go out and buy more food when I have a full pantry?) I had 2lbs of frozen broccoli and a full bag of shredded cheese (both from Sam's Club), so the most logical soup choice would be broccoli cheddar, and since I am a total Panera fangirl, I just had to try this copycat recipe.
If any of you are on Pinterest, you know how easy it is to get carried away and pack your boards with fancy recipes you never end up using. (Or is that just me?) My Food & Recipe board is out of control! I want to clean house and make sure that all of the recipes I'm hoarding are keepers, so there are going to be more Pinterest Recipe Reviews posted in the future.
To kick things off, one of my favorite foods ever, hot wings! These aren't your typical take-out buffalo wings either, these are Teriyaki style.
As stated in my last post, I spent Valentine's Day cooking and watching Netflix with my boyfriend. I usually cook something when I'm over his place, but I wanted to make something fancy, it was a holiday after all. My solution was for my boyfriend and I to each pick a fancy recipe from my Pinterest Board and cook it as part of our Valentine's Day dinner.
- He picked this Shrimp Scampi Flat Bread
- I chose the PF Chang's Style Chicken Lettuce Wraps
As usual, I had to alter the recipe,
Okay, so I didn't follow the whole recipe, I only made the sauce, but that was because I had a huge bag of frozen meatballs from Sam's Club in my freezer. I have already made meatballs in tomato sauce for pasta and meatball subs, but I wanted to try something new.
I hosted my annual cookie swap last week! It's year three and the cookies just keep getting better and better. As usual I made my gingerbread bats (and x-mas trees for those who don't want to explain bats at their Christmas party), and my friends and family each brought their own cookies and recipes.
I'm going to try a little something new this year, by photographing and posting links to all the recipes made this year. I thought this might be an easy way to record each year's recipes, so here we go....
They are super simple, yummy, and a great way to use up left over chicken and veggies. (It's a great way to use up little bits of leftover meats and veggies in the fridge. I made one last night using leftover turkey, corn, and other veggies from Thanksgiving.)
For the record, traditional quesadillas are made using one tortilla folded in half, similar to an omelet, but mine uses two whole tortillas to make one large round order that can be cut into fourths. I find this to be easier when serving this dish as an appetizer or a meal.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I hope all of you are safe and sound at home with family eating tons of food. (I don't know about the rest of you, but there is an Adventure Time marathon today, and I am totally watching it!)
My Uncle is hosting Thanksgiving, which is a tradition in our family, so I made a few side items to contribute.
I used Food Wishes recipe for the cranberry sauce, but (as always) I made some changes:
- Homemade cranberry sauce
- A loaf of fresh baked crusty bread
No Walnuts: I know, I know, it's in the recipe's name, how can I omit it? Well, I figured it's be better to be safe than sorry with food allergies. (Family members bring significant others and I don't know if they have any food related allergies.)
No Ginger: In the recipe, Chef John even warns the viewers not to omit the ginger, but... I did anyway. (I'm such a rebel.) I have cooked with fresh ginger in the past and my family hated it. Since it is such a strong flavor, I didn't add that either.
Everything else was done according to the recipe, and the results were delicious! This cranberry sauce is sweet, tangy, and it has a healthy dose of cinnamon. If you're not a big fan of cinnamon, you might want to use half a stick instead of a whole one, personally I love the flavor.
What recipes are you making this year?
I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and I'll see you tomorrow!
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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Remember this pizza dough recipe?
I whipped up a double batch of dough earlier today andtook a naplet it rise for three and a half hours. The crust turned out even better than last time! The final results were much lighter, similar to a delivery style pizza crust, but it didn't lose it's crispiness.
My mom's boyfriend, who I call my kinda-sorta-step-dad, has this huge fig tree in his yard. Every fall I get a TON of figs and now that fig season is back I am trying to figure out different things to do with them.
This time I made a fancy, appetizer-style, pizza.
I was running low on bread, so I decided to try out one of the recipes I found on Pinterest.
Although the author uses this as a base recipe for fancy flavored breads, I figured I should make a plain loaf first. The results? Delicious!
The outside of the bread is very crusty, while the inside is still fluffy and soft. It toasts beautifully too. I used this to make some bruschetta, which turned out delicious, but it’s also a great dipping bread. (We had some garlic and herb infused olive oil on hand.)
This recipe is super easy and it requires ingredients that are probably in your pantry already. The only possible downside is that it takes a while for the bread to rise (12 hours, or overnight), so you need to plan ahead, and the loaf is a bit small. You might have to double the recipe to get a more sandwich-friendly sized loaf, but that is really easy to do.
I love everything about this bread recipe. It was simple, delicious, and the finished loaf looks like a masterpiece. This recipe is a keeper, and I highly recommend it.
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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Remember THIS awesome bread recipe I reviewed?
I used it to make these paninis!(That was pretty obvious, huh?)
Like most of you know, I used to work at Panera Bread and I am still obsessed with their food. One of my favorite paninis was the (now discontinued) Chicken Bacon Dijon. I worked at every station at Panera and I usually made all of the paninis each weekend, so I knew what was in it. What's to stop me from recreating it on my own?
Recently I was looking into different ways to preserve fresh baked breads. I love having it on hand but I never seem to use it all before it gets stale (or in some cases moldy).
I found THIS POST about slicing the bread up, wrapping it in tin foil, and putting it in the freezer. I was a little skeptical, I don’t want bread that tastes like freezer burn, but I gave it a try anyway. I took a fresh baked French baguette that I bought at Sam’s Club, sliced it in half (sandwich style), wrapped it in foil, and tossed it in the freezer.
Guess what?
It worked!
I took the bread out over a week later and let it thaw. The final product lost it’s crusty outside, but it tasted fresh baked. (Even the crustiness returned after a few minutes in the toaster oven.)
Now what will I do with it?
My boyfriend has been wanting to make taiyaki for ages! He went online and ordered the special fish-shaped pan just so we could make some.
The batter recipe was very easy and we already had all of the ingredients in our pantry. (Which is always a plus. I hate running out at the last minute to get exotic grocery items.)
Inside each taiyaki is a generous amount of red bean paste. This ingredient might be a little tricky to find in an American grocery store, but every Asian market carries it. (We picked up a package during our last Asian Food Market trip, so we had it on hand.)
Ingredients:
CLICK FOR RECIPE
- Cake Flour
- 1 egg
- Sugar
- Baking Powder
- Milk
- **Red Bean Paste for Filling
** You can use whatever filling you’d like. If you don’t have red bean paste, try Nutella, or peanutbutter, or marshmallow fluff…the possibilities are endless!
The finished product is a warm, fish-shaped, cake filled with creamy bean paste. It’s texture is similar to a pancake, light and fluffy, which would work well with fruity fillings.
Although we burned our first attempt, we got into the swing of things right away and these were super easy to make. (You just need a fancy pan. Ebay has them MUCH cheaper than Amazon.)
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.netLike me on facebook to keep up with all my adventures!
We’ve had an ice cream maker for a while, another Aldi special buy, but we have never used it.
I had some overripe bananas, banana candies, and plain yogurt, so why not try to make some fro yo?
Since this was my first attempt I won’t write up a full recipe, but I will tell you what’s in it.
Ingredients:
This was my first time using the machine and it’s pretty easy. I look forward to making more frozen treats!
- 2 cups of plain yogurt
- 3 overripe bananas cut into little slices
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4th a cup Chopped semi sweet chocolate chips
- A few Banana Choco candies broken up into bits (About 12 candies)
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.netLike me on facebook to keep up with all my adventures!
This is my version of a drink you can buy in Chinatown, PA. It is a (really) simple recipe that is great for the summer.
Iced Honey Lemon
~ A simple and refreshing drink for summer ~
All you need is:
- 2 Tablespoons of honey
- The juice of 1 large lemon
- A little bit of boiling water (enough to dissolve your honey.)
- 5 cups of cold water
I love Panera’s Summer Corn Chowder soup. When I worked there, I could easily feed my corn chowder cravings. Now a days my career has evolved and I moved on to teaching, so I have been looking for a recipe to make my own supply, and I may have finally found one! It isn’t 100% perfect, but this is REALLY close to Panera’s seasonal soup!
Like always…I made a few modifications:
Bake it, fry it, mash it into bread…I just love zucchini.
My boyfriend and I had some really yummy zucchini fries at the Amish market the other day, and I was craving some more, so I found this recipe.
As always, I made a few modifications:
- I only had white flour on hand, so I used that instead of the whole wheat that is recommended in the original recipe.
- I used 1 cup of Panko breadcrumbs and one cup of Italian style. This was done because I just didn’t have enough Panko. The results were still crispy and delicious, but I imagine they are even crispier without the substitution.
- I also added some shredded Parmesan Cheese to the breadcrumb mixture. Parmesan goes really well with zucchini and I had some left over in the fridge.
The finished fries were healthier than the ones I had at the Amish market (which were fried in oil) but just as tasty. I really like the look of the finished fries too! These would make a pretty impressive side dish for a summer get-together or BBQ.
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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