Quote of the week

"Vegetables are a must on a diet.  I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie."  ~Jim Davis

Monkey Bread

You know that age old question: If you could eat dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be? My answer use to be, hands down Bill Clinton, for so many reasons. Well really just one he was my first crush. But sorry Bill my answer has officially changed. I would have dinner with the inventor of Monkey Bread. Who is this person? And where did they come up with such gooey deliciousness? 

I have been late to join the monkey bread parade, as it is apparently well known and loved, but I am now a dedicated follower for life. 

The preparation was blissfully easy and the outcome was sinfully sweet. The whole premise of the dish is cutting up biscuits and gluing them together with butter, sugar and nuts! While there are many variations of this recipe I decided for my first attempt I would use the simplest version I found online.

I invited a few girlfriends over (to ensure I wouldn't eat the entire thing) and it was the most popular dish at brunch!

Cooking time: 40 minutes
Servings: for a lot of people!

Ingredients:
2 (16.3 oz cans) of buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup of margarine, melted
1/2 cup of walnuts, chopped

Baking:
1. Cut the biscuits into quarters
2. Mix sugar and cinammon in a ziploc bag. Add biscuit pieces and shake, shake, shake
3. Grease a bundt pan. Place the pieces on top of each other to fill the pan, mixing the walnuts in between pieces.
4. Melt the butter over low heat. Add brown sugar and stir.
5. Pour mixture over the biscuit pieces.
6. Bake 30-35 minutes.
7. Let cool for 10 minutes and Invert pan to serve.

Chocolate chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream

 I have a rule of thumb: A bakery is only as good as it's chocolate cake. It comes from the same theory as a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link.

I always crave chocolate, I am a girl after all, and hasn't chocolate been linked to the X chromosome? Well not yet, but I think my eating habits could be a pretty valid hypothesis!

The problem is whenever I order chocolate cake, I end up with a mouthful of a dry, unflavorful, imposter of what chocolate tastes like. Harumph. Why is it so hard to get that delicious chocolatey fudgeyness into cake form??? Well chocolate lovers I have found the solution to the choclate cake woes, or rather Ina Garten's friend Beatty has. I have no idea who Beatty is but in my head she encompasses everything pure and great. She's god.

The cake is so moist and full of chocolate flavor I almost teared with the first bite. She has a few unfamiliar ingredients such as buttermilk and freshly brewed coffee that add great flavor. The buttercream is out of this world. It's important to use good semi-sweet chocolate instead of chocolate chips. I used a bar of Ghirardelli chocolate.

After icing this cake I had to fight ever fiber in my body to not faceplant it. It's amazing. I have come to the conclusion, when done right, there is absolutely nothing more satisfying than chocolate cake.

Here's a link to the recipe

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe/index.html

(I'll be giving you links to Ina Garten's recipes for now. She has them copyrtighted and I haven't quite figured out what that means for blogging.)

Fav of the week!

 

This pear salt n' pepper shaker is my favorite thing of the week. They're functional and cute! I love the metallic gold color it adds to the kitchen. In an all white kitchen, one item that screams fabulous is entirely necessary! 

Buttermilk Cornbread

Unfortunately buttermilk is an item you buy in a quart and only use a cup of for any given recipe. Fortunately having leftover buttermilk always encourages me to bake new things! Its become a game for me. What can I make with leftover buttermilk? Ive tried biscuits, cakes, muffins, and now cornbread!

It was late when I started the recipe search, so I looked for something quick and more importantly not messy! I found this on allrecipes.com. At first I was skeptical because I wasn't sure of the dependability of the site, but it was someone's grandmother's recipe and for some reason that made me trust it. Anything that has descended a couple generations must have some merit. And it did! 

This cornbread was denser because of the buttermilk but absolutely scrumptious. Next time I will add in some bits of real corn for some extra texture and sugar. I definitely have a go to recipe now for my leftover buttermilk!

Cooking time: 40 minutes
Servings: 9 pieces of cornbread

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs*
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Baking:
1. Preheat oven to 375 and grease and 8 inch square pan.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Take off the heat and add the sugar, mix well
3. Add eggs and make sure they are mixed well.
4. Mix buttermilk and baking soda together and then add to the mixture
5. Mix in cornmeal, flour, and salt and stir until there are few lumps
6. Pour into pan and Bake 30- 40 minutes and until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the pan.

*Tip: Always crack your eggs in a separate bowl to ensure you do not mix a bad egg into your batter. You will know if you have a bad egg as soon as you crack it because of the rotten smell.

Quote of the week

" One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. ~Virginia Woolf"

Weeknight Pasta

The scene: It's 6:30 pm, no meat or fish defrosted, and I'm about to reach for the take out menu......but no something stops me. Somethings telling me, WAIT you are resourceful! you are creative! You can cook.......right????

So I reached for the box of pasta instead. I found 2 veggies in my fridge, mushroom and spinach and started to improvise. It was delicious and so fast that I had an extra 30 minutes in my night to blissfully do nothing.

Try this as your next weeknight quick fix!

Cooking time: 20 minutes
Servings: 5

Ingredients:
1 box of Whole Wheat Spaghetti
2 tbl olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 package baby spinach
1 (8oz) package of sliced cremini mushrooms
1/4 cup of white wine
1 tbl fresh thyme, minced
3/4 cup reserved pasta water
Parmesan cheese

Cooking:
1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute
2. Meanwhile bring a large pot of water to boil and add pasta, cook according to package directions
3. Add mushrooms to pan and cook for 2 minutes. Add spinach and continue to cook until spinach wilts.
4. Pour white wine over mushroom and spinach mixture and bring to a boil. Cook for about 7 minutes or until most of the white wine is evaporated
5. Before draining the pasta reserve 3/4 cup of the pasta water
6. Drain the pasta and add it to the mushroom and spinach mixture. Also add the reserved pasta water
7. Add thyme and cut chunks of Parmesan cheese to add on top
8. Drizzle each serving with olive oil.

Garlic Shrimp

There's something you should know about me....I'm a Food Network Junkie.  

I have favorites, I watch the shows, I make the recipes, I love all of it. I also love shrimp but I get bored with the same scampi.

I tried this recipe from Bobby Flay and really enjoyed it! The simple ingredients kept the meal light but also full of flavor. I did eliminate the chili powder because i'm not a fan of spicy but feel free to add 1/1/2 tbl of chili powder to the marinade.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped thyme leaves
6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
24 (or more up to 30 is fine) large shrimp, shelled and deveined
Salt and black pepper
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Wooden Skewers

Cooking:
1.Heat the grill medium to high heat.
2. Soak wooden skewers in water 
3. Make the marinade: 1/4 cup of olive oil, chopped garlic, 2 tbl thyme
4. Skewer the shrimp and brush with marinade
5. Heat the rest of the oil and cook the sliced garlic until golden brown
6. Remove the garlic and reserve the oil separately
7. Increase the grill to high, salt and pepper the shrimp. Grill on each side for 1.5 -2 minutes
8. Remove shrimp from skewers to a platter and drizzle with some of the reserved oil, garlic chips, and sprinkle with the rest of the thyme