Drunkin' Beef Stew: Spicing up a classic with red wine

People think soups, stews and chowders are very impressive feats but I love making them and taking credit when others are impressed. But to be perfectly honest they are really quite simple-for the most part you just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and let it all do its thing. This winter my soon to be sister-in-law served us Beef stew with red wine-it was delish and was just so lovely on a cold night. 

Here is the recipe:

1 1/4 beef check in 2-in cubes

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon oil

3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1-in pieces

8 ounces frozen pearl onions (thawed)

2 garlic gloves chopped

2 tablespoons flour

2 cups red wine

1 cup beef stock

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 sprig rosemary

Start by seasoning the beef with salt and pepper, Turn the heat on a dutch oven on high.

Then brown beef on all sides 3-5 mins; reduce heat to med-high, Then add carrots, onions 

and garlic,  Cook for about 2 mins; stir in flour and cook 1 min; add wine and stock, 

Then add tomato paste and rosemary and bring to a boil. Cover, place in 350 oven and braise 

for 1.5 hours or until meat in knife tender and sauce thickens.

Side Notes: The red wine that you use should be dry (sweet would not be great).

Wish List: I cooked my stew in a plain old pot. So I would like to add a dutch oven to my wish list. A beautiful one that is enamel and in a funky bright color- perhaps  lime green or orange.

Once this stew is all cooked, I would serve it with mashed potatoes.  Enjoy this comfort food on a nice cold night and let me know what you think. 

And thank you Heidi for this recipe!

Twice Baked Potatoes

I love potatoes...personally I do not know how anyone could not. There are so many to prepare potatoes but one of my favorite ways is to make Twice Baked. I was introduced to this lovely potato variation from my best friend Shawna's mom. She makes amazing potatoes. The wonder of the twice baked potato is that it combines two potato classics: mashed and baked.

To make twice baked potatoes you need to bake four potatoes as you normally would for plain baked potatoes. You want the potato to be fully cooked, so the potato insides are easy to mash and work with. Once the potatoes are baked you need to cut the potatoes in half the long way. I do this while they are still hot, so if you hold the potato with an ovenmit and cut with the other hand this works well. After they are cut in half, spoon out the filling.
In a bowl combine the potato with sour cream, milk, salt, pepper and 1 1/2 cups of your desired shredded cheese. I am always a fan of extra sharp cheddar cheese. Use the same amount of these ingredients as you would to get your desired mashed potato consistency-if you like lumpy have it be lumpy or if yo like creamy and smooth make it smooth (your choice.)
These ingredients are the basics, you can add anything you want to spice up the from garlic to spinach (whatever floats your boat.) I like theses potatoes with steak, so I like to spice my potatoes up with horseradish sauce. Once you have mixed everything up, spoon the filling back into the potato skins. Lastly top your potatoes with shredded cheese. Place potatoes back in the oven at 350 and bake until the filling is hot and the cheese is lightly browned.
These are a crowd pleaser so enjoy!

My Valentine's Day Present

I have so many things on my kitchen wishlist....some more practical than others. This Valentine's Day my fabulous fiance checked off one of the things on my list. I wanted these every since I saw Sandra Lee using them in one of her cocktails. For this Valentine's Day I got Ice Balls.

These are balls used to make solid ice balls. They are perfect for cocktails because they melt slower do to their surface size. You can also put fruit or juice or really anything you wanted. I am so excited to use it for my next speicalty cocktail. Thanks Kammy!

Chocolate Chip-Coffee Muffins

I love love love muffins! But lets be honest, they are really just cupcakes that we have allowed ourselves eat for breakfast. Here is a wonderful recipe that I found in Cooking Light that any muffin lover will enjoy.

Ingredients 

• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Cooking spray
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• 1. Preheat oven to 400°.
• 2. Combine first 5 ingredients.
• 3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist.
• 4. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until done. Remove muffins from pan immediately; place on a wire rack.
•  Side Notes: In this recipe I used skim milk instead of whole milk. If any of you out there are Weight Watcherers' this recipe is 6 points which is pretty good in the muffin realm.  Once when I made this recipe with chocolate covered espresso beans that I ground up; it was a nice twist. 
• This muffin work well for a weekday quick breakfast or if you are having people over for a brunch. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

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.