Blackened Tilaplia with Garlic & Lime Butter

So I get recipes from all over the place but this one is from my fiance from his Men's Health. It is Blackened Tilapia with Garlic & Lime Butter. I love tilapia and we keep a huge bag of individually frozen pieces, so it makes it very easy for us to pull out what we need. This recipe is pretty simple and full of flavor. Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

2 tbls.  butter, softened at room temp.
2 tbls. chopped fresh cilantro
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp. lime zest, plus juice of 1 lime
1 tbls. canola oil (I use grapeseed oil)
4 tilapia fillets (6 oz. each)
1 tbls. Blackening Spice

DIRECTIONS

Combine the butter, cilantro, garlic, lime zest, and lime juice in a small mixing bowl and stir to thoroughly blend.  Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large cast-iron skillet or saute pan over high heat.  Rub the tilapia all over with the blackening spice.  When the oil in the pan lightly smokes, add the fish and cook, undisturbed, for 3-4 minutes on the first side, until the spice rub becomes dark and crusty.  Flip and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes, until the fillets flake with gentle pressure from your finger.

Transfer the fish to 4 serving plates and immediately top each with a bit of the flavored butter.

Side Notes: When making the butter, I found it hard to completely mix in all of the lime juice. It is just not in the nature of butter to peacefully mix with lime juice. I just spooned the entire mixture (excess juice and all) onto the fish and it came out wonderfully. Personally I believe the mixture minus the butter would be just as good but you have to love butter!
Also Blackening spice is not something that is readily available and Men's Health did not include what goes into it; so here is a recipe for Blackening Spice:
2 tbls. paprika (smoked or sweet) 
1 tbls. salt
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. cayenne
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. dried thyme or oregano leaves

This recipe can be tweaked to your own liking.

Also as this is a Men's Health recipe and is good for you I have included the nutritional facts:

4 Servings
Calories:  300
Carbs:  5.4g
Protein:  32g
Fat: 14g (6 Sat)
Sodium:  510mg

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It is not time intensive at all and can be made in about 15 minutes. I also suggest washing this down with a nice margarita!

Grapefruit Pound Cake

During the winter there is a ton of really good citrus available. I love citrus and having some when it it freezing out is like being transported to summer. So the other day I was flipping through a Cooking Light and saw a recipe for Grapefruit Pound Cake and I had to try it. Plus my fiance was very insistent that I made it right away.

• Here is the recipe:
• Ingredients
• 9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 5/8 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 6 ounces 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons grated grapefruit rind
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
• 1/2 cup fresh grapefruit juice
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°.

2. Coat a 10-inch tube pan with baking spray. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, stirring well. Place granulated sugar, butter, and cream cheese in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in oil, rind, and vanilla.

3. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to batter, beginning and ending with flour. Spoon batter into pan; bake at 325° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Invert cake. Cool on rack.

4. Place juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 3 tablespoons (about 4 minutes). Cool slightly. Stir in powdered sugar and remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt. Drizzle over cake.

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2. Side Notes: Two tablespoons is a lot of grape fruits rind. I zested two large grapefruits and got about 1 tablespoon; so I added about a tablespoon of grapefruit juice in enhance the grapefruit flavor (because I was tried of zesting.) Also I used apple sauce in place of the oil and skim milk over the 2%. I made the Cooking Light recipe even lighter.  These changes did not seem to change the cake but I found that it was done in a hour not a hour and 10 minutes. I am not sure if the changes I made were the cause of this or it just was how it worked out for me. Also I added a tablespoon of butter to the glaze to finish it off.

Wish List: As I was tirelessly trying to get 2 tablespoons of grapefruits zest on my four-sided grater, I decided I needed to make a wish list of culinary tools that I need in my life. The first item on this list is a microplane! This tool would make my zesting so much easier.


Hope you enjoy your cake!

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Mexican Chocolate Pudding

Cooking and baking lift my mood and give me peace. Baking my my yoga. My time in the kitchen makes me happy but when I really need something to make me feel better...I turn to pudding. When I am upset whipping-up a batch of chocolate pudding just changes my whole mind set. Personally I think the constant whisking is what helps me work out any Oscar the Grouch like feelings and of the course the added bonus of being able to eat a warm bowl of delicious chocolate pudding helps.
Now besides pudding helping to transform me from a villain to a Disney princess; homemade pudding tastes a thousand times better than box or store bought. There is no comparison-those who disagree are big fat liars and do deserve homemade pudding. Also it is a great way to use up some extra milk. These are great reasons
 why to make pudding but I really hope that the fact that I said chocolate pudding is reason enough to be interested.
This last week I made some chocolate pudding more to have chocolate and use up milk  than lift my mood.  I put a little twist on my chocolate pudding and made it a Mexican Chocolate Pudding to spice it up.

Here is the recipe:
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons corn starch
2 cups milk
1 egg beaten
4 oz semisweet chocolate (chopped)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
a dash of chili powder
1 tablespoon of butter

Whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, and corn starch in a sauce pan. Turn on to medium heat and slowly whisk in the milk, then add the chopped chocolate. Whisk this mixture almost constantly to prevent sticking. Let the pudding come to a boil  and cook for two more minutes while whisking constantly. Remove from heat and take about one cup of the pudding to temper into the egg. Return egg mixture to the pudding and return to medium heat. Once the pudding bubbles again, let the mixture cook for two more minutes while stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add vanilla, cinnamon, chili powder, and the butter.
Let the mixture cool. If you do not the pudding skin, place saran wrap on the top of the pudding.

Side Note: I use skim milk as I do in almost all of my recipes and so the fat content is very low in this pudding. And if you wanted to you could even leave out the sugar, as the semisweet chocolate is sweet.

Enjoy your pudding.

Goal: To have it all! Crock-pot to the rescue!

It was just the other day when my fiance was with me in the grocery store picking out several TV dinners and I was like "epic fail!"  I love providing homemade meals-it is what I pride myself in (I obviously was not doing this)! I mean I want to have it all; I want a fulfilling career and to be able to cook delicious food for those that I love. And as a side product rid my freezer of TV dinners! But to be honest I have a million things to do!
Enter in the crock-pot!
I love my crock-pot! If you are a person with things to do, this is totally a worth while investment! I mean you can make so many things from soups to pulled pork to even desserts, plus you can just set it and forget it!
This week I decided that I would use my slow-cooker to make chili;the added factor of it being only 4 degrees out helped push me in the chili direction.
When it comes to my chili, I feel the simpler the better (I mean the whole point of this is to make life easier.) I feel like chefs on TV make chili seem like chili has to be labor and time when it is just throwing flavors you enjoy in a pot! Now that being said, I make my chili with some ingredients that may not be as accessible to everyone as they are to me. I grew-up raising sheep and that is the primary meat my family eats. Getting ground beef as a child was a treat not a staple!
So this is how I make my chili. In a large saute pan I brown up a pound of hot lamb sausage. I use lamb but you can use anything. However I would use some type of sausage. I feel like the sausage does most of the seasoning for you without any of the guess work. I always go hot (personally my favorite is our chorizo lamb sausage) but if hot is not your thing choose whatever flavor you want. Once the sausage is browned, I drain off the fat and add the meat to the crock-pot. Next I saute a medium onion until it is translucent and then add to the pot. With the meat and onions I then add a 28 oz. can of tomato sauce and 28 oz. can of crushed or diced tomatoes (which ever floats your boat), a can of black beans (drained), and a can of dark red kidney beans (drained).
This is the base for my chili and I think it is great as is but sometimes I like to add a few different things-sometimes I add a can of corn.  You can add whatever vegetables you like-maybe some bell peppers or some chilies. This last time I added a nice porter to the chili. I added half of the bottle at the beginning of the cooking  process and then added the other half, half way through the cooking process. I find that the chili usually needs some salt and pepper and maybe some garlic powder or adobo seasoning.  You can add whatever you enjoy (that is the wonder of chili). 
So once you have added all of the ingredients, just put the crock-pot on low and you can go to work and come home to have dinner all ready. If you want the chili done faster put the crock-pot on high.
Now if you want something different from the traditional cornbread side to compliment your chili, I suggest Rachel Ray's Sausage, Potato and Cheese waffles.

ingredients 

• 1 link sweet Italian sausage (about 3 ounces), casing discarded
• 1 baking potato, grated and excess water squeezed out
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 2 large eggs

In a medium skillet, cook the sausage over medium-high heat, breaking it up with a fork, for 5 minutes. Add the potato and butter, lower the heat and simmer until the butter is melted, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool, about 10 minutes.In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Stir in the milk and eggs until smooth. Stir in the sausage-potato mixture.Using a waffle maker, cook the waffles according to the manufacturer’s directions

Enjoy your chili, let me know about your own versions!

Spiced cupcakes with praline and cream cheese frosting!

This holiday weekend I was able to spend time ring in the New Year with my future in-laws. For Christmas my niece received a cupcake corer in her stocking and so we decided to make some filled cupcakes for our New Year's Eve party!
We used a spice-cake box mix...which when it comes to cakes there is no huge difference in the quality of the dessert when it is from the box. Mattison and I baked the cupcakes and waited from them to cool. 
Once the cupcakes had cooled on a wire rack, we sued her cupcake cored to take the center out of the cupcakes. The corer worked surprisingly well; you did need to  help the center out a bit. I thought it may crush the cupcake but it really did not; I would how ever recommend slowly twisting the corer in. 

To fill the the cupcake we made a  pecan praline. 
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 egg yolks
• 2 cups brown sugar firmly packed
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring
• 2 cups pecans finely chopped

Makes:

About 2 2/3 cups filling.

Instructions:

step 1

In medium saucepan, combine butter, egg yolks, brown sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in maple flavoring and pecans. Transfer to medium bowl; cover surface with plastic wrap to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate 2 hours or until chilled. Stir before using; chill cupcakes. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Side Note: I cut this recipe in half. Half of this recipe was plenty to fill 24 normal sized cupcakes. If you are doing over-sized cupcakes, I would make the recipe as stated.

Once the praline was chilled, we spooned about a spoonful of the filling into each cupcake and place the cupcake core on top of the praline.

To top the these yummy cupcakes, we made Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. To make the frosting beat one 8 oz. package of softened cream cheese with a teaspoon of milk, maple syrup, and vanilla until the mixture is smooth. Then add four cups of powdered sugar; one cup at a time. 

I placed the frosting in  a sandwich bag and cup the tip of the corner to frost the cupcakes.

Side Note: I put the frosting on in a circular pattern and it cover the cupcake cap completely. 

This was a perfect winter party treat. I would highly suggest filling your cupcakes in the future.