Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

I don't know what it is about Sunday mornings and pancakes for brunch.  For me it's like peanut butter and jelly, or basil and tomatoes. It just goes together, man.

 This was a really easy breakfast that I wanted to show you guys. Apple cinnamon pancakes.  I used pre-made pancake mix, like Bisquick.  So buy your favorite kind.  Here's a quick way to take ordinary pancakes and turn it into something more special.

What you'll need for Apple Cinnamon Pancakes:
(Feeds 2, double recipe to feed more)

Pancake Mix
Milk
Eggs
1 green apple, peeled
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla

If you're using Bisquick: Mix 1 cup pancake mix, 1/2 cup milk and 1 egg.  Whisk together in a bowl then add the cinnamon and vanilla.

To get the apple rings, peel 1 green apple and then using a spoon, scoop out the core.  Then slice the apple into thin rings.

In a heated skillet melt some butter.  Add pancake mix by 1/4 cup amounts at a time.  Place an apple ring in the center of the pancake batter (shown above).  Cook for a few minutes on each side until the pancakes are golden brown.  Top with whatever you like. I like butter and syrup.

 I really really really liked these pancakes.  They were sweet and tart and delicious.  The fiance wasn't a fan but I think I scarred him with the last breakfast I made.  I made blueberry waffles and he got a little TOO many blueberries in his. Lately when I say I'm going to make us breakfast he asks "there's no blueberries in it is there?" He's not a huge fruit-in-the-breakfast-batter fan.

No matter.  More for me.

Spaghetti with a Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Is there any person out there who doesn't love a super easy dinner idea that can be thrown together 20 minutes before you're wanting to eat?

 I didn't think so.

I'm not that big of a fan of spaghetti.  Probably because growing up spaghetti was pretty underwhelming. My mom would over-cook the pasta and it would be mushy, which was not hidden from the blob of store bought pasta sauce dumped on top of it. (Sorry mama.)  Also I was told growing up that salting the pasta water made it boil faster.  Obviously this isn't why professional cooks (or the more informed cooks) salt their water.  You salt the water to flavor the pasta.  Who knew?!

Spaghetti for me was only good because I used to love The Lady and the Tramp. My dad taught me how to do the spaghetti smooch!  It took me a couple practice tries because I kept biting the strand of spaghetti, but we eventually got it. That is a memory from childhood that is a funny father-daughter moment.

Spaghetti with a Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
3 jarred roasted red peppers, diced (seeds removed)
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves
1 tbs tomato paste
2 tbs basil pesto
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (do 1/8 tsp if you want less spice)
olive oil
salt and pepper
Pasta (such as spaghetti, fettuccine, rigatoni, ziti, etc)

Cook pasta per box directions.

To make the sauce: Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and cook for a couple minutes until the onions are tender.  Add in the garlic, tomato paste, red peppers and white wine.  Cook for another 2-3 minutes.  Next place the mixture into a blender and puree until smooth.  Return the mixture to the skillet and add the cream and pesto.  Stir and taste. Adjust seasonings if necessary.

Toss the cooked pasta into the sauce and serve immediately.

That's Amore.

Triple Berry Ice Cream

Nothing in life is free.
I promise you.

 I had a woman call me a couple weeks ago, telling me that I won a "free" Bridal Pampering Package from Mary Kay. Of course the offer sounded great but I was really skeptical about it. But I decided to go for it anyways. I agreed to it, and invited two of my girlfriends over to experience the pampering with me. We had an awesome spread with 4 different types of wines, and lots of nibbles to enjoy while the woman gave us a hand treatment, and did our make up.  It was a lot of fun.

But...remember what I said about nothing in life ever being free?  Yeah...by the time she left this so-called "free bridal pampering" event, we had each spent over $80 in make up and lotions. And not only that, the woman was really pushy and trying to tell me that if I just spend $100 on a start-up kit, I too can host my very own Mary Kay parties and start to sell the products. Oh and don't forget that she has a brand new car outside, that I could surely have too! Yeah lady, I'm sure. 

 Needless to say I'm not THAT mad at myself. I really did need some of the stuff I bought, and not to mention it was a really fun night with good friends and good food. My fiance was a very good sport also. With a house-full of women talking about beauty. I could imagine that would be the equivalent of a house-full of fist pumping dudes talking about beer and babes. (I'm sure my time to endure that type of evening will come eventually.)

One of my friends brought over this huge bowl of a mixed berry salad. It had strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.  By the end of the night however it was just a triple berry salad, because being that raspberries are my favorite, I picked them all out.  She left all the fruit here and I had no idea how to use it all before it went bad.  

Oh I know...lets take this healthy bowl of fruit and make it into a not-so-healthy-but-incredibly-creamy-and-delicious-ice cream.  Yep.

 Triple Berry Ice Cream
4 cups of berries (I used blackberries, strawberries and blueberries)
Juice of 1 lemon
1-1/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups half and half
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
5 egg yolks, room temperature


Add the berries, lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar to a medium saucepan. Cook for 20-25 minutes on low, until the mixture has thickened and the berries have broken down.  Strain the berry mixture through a fine mesh sieve and set aside.


In a separate saucepan, heat the half and half with the remaining 1 cup of sugar.  Do not let this mixture boil. You are just heating it up.


In a medium sized bowl beat the egg yolks until they are pale yellow in color and a little thick.  While whisking, slowly pour in the warm half and half mixture.  Once you've added all of the half and half to the eggs, pour the mixture back into the saucepan, and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick.  You can test this by dipping a spoon into the mixture, and running your finger across it.  If your finger mark remains, it's ready.


In a large bowl add the cream, and berry puree together.  Strain the egg mixture with a fine mesh sieve and add it to the rest of the cream and fruit.  Place the bowl with the ice cream base into a larger bowl.  Put ice cold water into the larger bowl, but be careful not to get any water into the ice cream base.  This just helps the ice cream base cool down faster.  Place in the fridge and allow to chill until it is very cold.  Mix ice cream according to your machine's instructions.  Place in an air tight container and store in the freezer.

You're welcome.

Crispy BBQ Chicken Balls with Cheddar and Caramelized Onions

I have been using my crockpot religiously this summer. It's been unbearably hot in Chicago and the last thing I want to do is use the oven.

The crockpot is sooo easy.  This is how I make chicken.  I put the chicken (I like chicken thighs, bone in, skin on) into a crockpot, season with salt and pepper, put the lid on, set the crockpot to high, and let it cook for about 3-1/2 to 4 hours. The chicken cooks in its own juice, and will be falling off the bone tender.  When it's done cooking, you can remove the bone very easily, and the skin.  Drain the liquid, then use tongs to shred the meat, which will be very easy to do at this point.  Then add your favorite BBQ sauce (about 1 cup), or tomato sauce, or whatever. Chicken is done! So simple right?  **If you want to use boneless meat, cook time will be about 2 to 2-1/2 hours.

I made this recipe with left over BBQ chicken that I had made in the crockpot.  It is similar to these chicken balls I made before, with just a few tweaks.  My fiance gobbled these up fast.

Crispy BBQ Chicken Balls with Cheddar and Caramelized Onions
2 cups left over BBQ chicken, shredded
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1-1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1 onion, sliced and caramelized
salt and pepper
1 cup flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup cream, or milk, or half and half
1-1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
2 tsp smoked paprika

Combine BBQ chicken, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and caramelized onions.  Allow mixture to chill for 30 minutes in the fridge.  While its chilling, get 3 medium sized bowls.  In one bowl add the flour, in a second bowl add the eggs and cream (or milk or half and half), and in a third bowl add the bread crumbs and paprika.  Mix the bread crumbs and paprika, and mix the eggs and cream.  Season the flour mixture with salt and pepper.

Once the chicken mixture is chilled slightly, using an ice cream scoop for 2 inch balls and set on a plate. Next dredge the chicken balls through the flour, then egg mixture, then ending with bread crumbs.  Set on a cookie tray, and drizzle with olive oil.  Once you've dredged all of the balls, place them in the oven at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until the balls are hot, the cheese is melted and the bread crumbs are golden brown.

Serve along side ranch or blue cheese dressing for dunking.

Look at that gooey bite!

Homemade "Big Hunk" Candy Bars

Sometimes I get a craving for a very specific item. Specific and random. I haven't had a big hunk since I was a kid. They were always delicious but really hard on my teeth. I would often settle for their softer cousin, the Payday. Which instead of nougat it has soft caramel. And of course the salty peanuts.

I found an awesome website (Chow.com) that has recipes for homemade versions of all the delicious candy we've grown to love...Twix, Snickers, Kit Kats, and of course Big Hunks.

This was super easy to make and tasted exactly like the original candy bar that you can buy in stores.  However, it was slightly softer. Which made my teeth happy. Yummy.

This recipe makes a lot of candy. I haven't tried cutting the recipe in half, but I'm sure it would yield similar results if you wanted to try. I cut the candy into smaller sized pieces, and wrapped them each individually. Which took forever, but it was worth it. It makes it easier to just grab a couple to snack on, or give them away.

Homemade Big Hunk Candy Bars:

3 small jars (about 21 ounces) of Marshmallow fluff
2 1/4 cup corn syrup
2 1/4 cup sugar
6 tbs unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 jar (16 ounces) roasted peanuts, salted

In a large bowl add the marshmallow fluff and set aside.  Butter a large cookie sheet and scatter the peanuts across it, and set aside.  In a small bowl combine butter, salt and vanilla, and set aside. In a large saucepan add the corn syrup and the sugar.  Set over medium to medium high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture comes to a boil.  When it starts to boil, STOP stirring.  Add a candy thermometer and watch the mixture.  When the mixture reaches 280 degrees Fahrenheit, or the "soft crack" stage, remove from heat, and allow it to sit for 2 minutes.  After 2 minutes, add the corn syrup and sugar mixture to the bowl of marshmallow fluff. Stir to combine, then add the butter mixture, and incorporate that in.  Once combined, drizzle the mixture over the peanuts on the cookie sheet.  Let candy sit at room temperature for a couple hours until it has hardened enough for you to cut into pieces and wrap.

Penne Rigate with a Chunky Basil Pesto Sauce

I realize my posts have been few and far between lately.  I'm sorry for that.  I completed the first semester of my third year of grad school (yay me)!  I've also been a busy bee planning my upcoming wedding, which will be next spring.  And amazingly enough, I found "THE DRESS".  I have been looking and looking at hundreds of dresses and all have been good, but none of them great.  I would like the top of one dress, but the bottom of another. The dress would be too plain, or it would be too blinged out. I was beginning to worry that I wouldn't find "the one" that fit every need I had. But luckily I found it and couldn't be happier.

 I've also taken on the extreme challenge of cleaning out my closet, which is proving to be more difficult than I realized.  You know that favorite pair of jeans you've had for the last 10 years but can't get rid of because you love them too much, they fit perfectly, and you mistakenly didn't buy two pairs when you should have, and even though there is a gigantic hole in the crotch you find ways to justify keeping them? Yeah..I'm having that problem. Or I keep saying to myself, oh I'll wear that again someday...(even though it's been sitting dormant in your closet so long it has permanently stuck in the shape of the hanger).  Letting go is hard, man.

This recipe came to me in my sleep, oddly enough.  If you were to look in my freezer right now you'd find nothing but ice cubes, nuts, and butter.  In my fridge some water and some condiments are all that fill the shelves.  And in my pantry, soup and pasta.  It was amazing that I could make a complete dish.

This is a meatless pasta dish, but I found it to be hearty enough without.  It would be good with some chicken breast tossed in, or some bacon.  Mmm bacon.  

Penne Rigate with a Chunky Basil Pesto Sauce:

12 ounces (or 3/4 of a 1 pound box) Penne Rigate

1 tomato, seeded and diced

1 small red onion, chopped

1 roasted red pepper, diced

1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed 

3/4 cup prepared Basil Pesto

Parmesan cheese

olive oil

salt and pepper 

In a large pasta pot, bring water to a rapid boil.  Salt the water generously then dump in the pasta, cooking until tender but with a bite to it still (about 8-10 minutes).  Meanwhile in a saute pan, drizzle in a few tablespoons of olive oil.  Once the oil gets warm add the onion and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Saute the onion for a few minutes over medium to medium high heat until the onions are soft.  

Next to the mixture add the red pepper and the tomatoes.  Again season with a little salt and pepper, and allow to cook for a few minutes until everything becomes soft.  Next add in the pesto.  The mixture will be thick.  So, take a ladle full of the pasta water and add to the pesto mixture.  Add by the ladle full until you get the desired thickness that you want.

Once your pasta is done cooking, drain and return to pot.  Pour the pesto mixture over the cooked Penne and toss.  Sprinkle with extra Parmesan cheese.  Eat hot, or at room temperature.