Fake Ginger

Fluffy Pancakes

amanda — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Pancakes are a dinnertime staple around here these days. I’m enjoying it while it lasts because once the husband comes home, pancakes will no longer fly. Unless they’re accompanied by bacon, biscuits, eggs, and possibly a cinnamon roll or 2. Yeah, you know how everyone says breakfast for dinner is an inexpensive meal? Not with my husband.

These are my go-to pancakes and have been for quite some time. It’s easy, quick, and the ingredient list is short enough that I don’t even have to look it up anymore. And they puff up unlike any other pancakes I’ve made.

If you prefer, you can use buttermilk instead of the milk and vinegar but don’t try to round the amount up to a cup or you’ll get really runny batter. This batter is great for mix-ins so go ahead and throw a handful of chocolate chips, pecans, diced banana, whatever you want in!

Last thing: I am working on changing the blog around. I really didn’t think anyone would notice but I’m so excited that you guys have noticed and are liking it. I change at least one thing everyday so don’t be surprised if it looks completely different next week. I just can’t seem to figure out what I want. But thank you for all the feedback so far and if there’s anything you want to see, please let me know!

I hope your Monday is off to a fantastic start!

One year ago: Lentil Stuffed Cabbage
Two years ago: Baked Hushpuppies

Fluffy Pancakes

Yield: about 8 pancakes

adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar or fresh lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, whisked lightly
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
cooking spray

Instructions

In a small measuring cup, whisk together milk and lemon juice. Set aside for 5 minutes to allow milk to “sour”.
In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add “sour” milk, egg, and vegetable oil; mix until no lumps remain.
Heat a skillet over medium heat; spray with cooking spray. Use a 1/4 cup measure to pour batter onto the hot skillet. Cook until bubble form on top of the pancake; flip and cook until golden brown. Serve hot.

French Fridays with Dorie – Double Chocolate and Banana Tart

amanda — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Wanna know something about family? Sure you do.

We go through a lot of bananas each week. I’m talking 5 or 6 bananas a day. And that’s when my husband is gone! They are just so versatile – pancakes, muffins, smoothies, waffles, bread, anything and everything you could possibly bake up is better with bananas!

So of course I was pretty excited about this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe: Double Chocolate and Banana Tart.

Don’t get confused though, it’s double chocolate and double banana. The crust is a chocolate shortbread crust, topped with caramelized bananas that are then covered in chocolate ganache, and finally it’s finished with raw banana slices.

(The caramelized banana slices looked like little scallops!)

I thought this recipe was simple, so impressive, and delicious! I didn’t love the raw bananas on top – for some reason, the contrast between the super rich chocolate and the raw bananas just didn’t do it for me – but those were easily picked off. I really really really loved the caramelized bananas. It gave just a little crunch to the tart.

I halved the crust recipe, got 2 small tarts (maybe 5 or 6 inches?) and then dropped a tart shell in the sink. So I quartered the rest of the recipe and it was perfect for my one tart. HOWEVER, one tart was not enough for this lady and I wish I had another one right now.

(The members of French Fridays with Dorie don’t share Dorie’s recipes because we want to encourage you to check out Around My French Table.)

One year ago: Caramel Pecan Monkey Bread
Two years ago: Gummy Candy
Four years ago: Strawberry Scones

Grown-Up Strawberry Slushies

amanda — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I’m trying to drink more wine these days.

Not for the health benefits or because I enjoy the taste but because my children are driving me absolutely crazy and having a glass of wine on a Wednesday night is not frowned upon like having a glass of tequila with a shot of Diet Coke is.

But the truth is, I cannot stand wine. I think it’s thick and smells funny and is only drinkable when it’s ice cold. Well, last week while doing my French Fridays with Dorie hopping, I learned that you can buy wine in pink cans. And since I am a sucker for cute packaging, I went straight to our liquor store, was greeted with a “Roll Tide!”, and asked them where the wine cans were. They didn’t have them (of course) so I ended up walking out with a bottle of Riesling.

I gagged on the smell alone. So I made this.

It’s just pureed strawberries and wine so… it counts as a glass of wine, right? Right?!

I thought this recipe was especially fun since it’s made in the ice cream maker but if you don’t have an ice cream maker (or don’t feel like dirtying yours), just use your blender and frozen strawberries instead of fresh ones. You’ll get pretty much the same effect.

I’ve got a glass waiting in the freezer for tonight and I am SO excited about it.

One year ago: French Dip
Three years ago: Bread Baker’s Apprentice – Anadama

Grown-Up Strawberry Slushies

Yield: about 4

from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

2 cups sliced strawberries
1 750 milliliter bottle Riesling
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar

Instructions

Put all ingredients into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Serve immediately or transfer to a freezer-safe container and put in freezer.

Coconut Lemon Bars

amanda — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I spent an entire weekend going through every cookbook I own and inputting each recipe that I wanted to make into a spreadsheet. I have some amazing cookbooks but I very rarely open them since recipes are so easily accessible on the internet these days. When I want to make something, I search Pinterest and bam, it spits out 50 different recipes of whatever it was that I wanted to make. So my cookbooks have been crazy neglected and I want that to change!

By day 2 of that little project I was pretty sick of going through recipes and started including recipes based solely on their name. Like these guys. They were called Lemon Bars and I added them to my spreadsheet because I love traditional lemon bars – the shortbread crust, a thick layer of lemon curd, and then a dusting of powdered sugar. I love those.

These are not those obviously.

Lemon Bars is probably the last thing I would have called these. They have a shortbread-esque crust but it’s made with brown sugar. Then – and this is going to sound completely crazy – you cover it with what basically amounts to German chocolate frosting (you know, the coconut pecan stuff), and then you bake it. And then finally the lemon comes into play when you glaze them hot out of the oven.

When these bars went into the oven I thought “Omg, this is one of the biggest disasters I’ve had in awhile” because they were so ugly. And then I said it again when they came out of the oven. But they are so tasty – I can’t even explain it. Coconut and lemon are perfect together anyway but for some reason it’s fantastic with the buttery crust and the slight crunch of the pecans.

You should make these. You’re going to call me nasty names as you’re making them but I promise you’re going to be pleasantly surprised.

(Also, can we talk about how cah-razy is it that I’m posting recipes from FOUR years ago down below?! Even crazier to think that it would be 5 years ago if I’d stuck with the same URL! I need a new hobby… Kidding!)

Four years ago: Cinnabon Knock-offs

Coconut Lemon Bars

Yield: about 16

adapted from Blue Ribbon Recipes

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
For the filling:
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 1/2 cups coconut
For the glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
juice of 1 lemon

Instructions

To make the crust:

Preheat oven to 275F. Line a 9×13-inch bakng pan with parchment or spray with non-stick spray.
In a medium mixing bowl, beat flour, butter, and brown sugar until combined. Press the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes; remove from oven.

To make the filling:

Increase oven temperature to 350F.
In another medium mixing bowl, beat together eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Sift in flour and baking powde; beat until just combined. Use a rubber spatula to fold in pecans and coconut.
Pour the filling over the crust. Bake for 20 minutes or until set.

To make the glaze:

Whisk together powdered sugar, melted butter, and lemon juice.
Drizzle glaze on the bars as soon as they come out of the oven.
Cool the bars completely before cutting.

Thai Turkey Burgers with Peanut Sauce

amanda — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Last week we passed the 2 month mark of my husband’s first deployment. I had been going over and over a post I wanted to write about it.

A post about how I had reached a comfortable spot. A spot where I didn’t worry.

I wanted to tell others who were starting their first deployment that the first week is worse than you can imagine (sorry) and even though you feel like you’ll never pull out of the funk, you will. I wanted to tell them that there will be a day when someone will say “Your life doesn’t stop just because he’s deployed” and you won’t yell “BUT IT DOES!”

I wanted to tell you guys how the day after my husband deployed I was emailing with a friend whose husband had already been gone a few months and she said, “Just remember that 90% of the time they aren’t doing anything and the other 10% they’re doing exactly what they were trained to do” and it helped me more than she’ll ever know.

And then the company my husband is attached lost a soldier on Friday.

I know that there isn’t a situation in the world that is made better by worrying and yet that’s all I’ve done for the past few days. I worry about my husband, about our friends who are also deployed, about the family who’s having to deal with the loss of their soldier, about anything that could possibly be worried about.

Gosh, I hate to be such a downer but I really struggled this past weekend. It’s hard to know that a member of the 1-12 Infantry family is now without her husband and 2 kids without their daddy. But that’s the reality of war and I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it.

I’m posting these burgers today because my husband would hate them! He would probably refuse to eat them and then whine to his friends about how I tried to poison him with *gasp* peanut butter burgers.

But I loved them! And even my kids enjoyed them! They peanut in the burgers isn’t super obvious so if you wanted to serve them to someone who doesn’t like “weird” food, just leave the sauce off and they probably wouldn’t be able to pick peanut butter out as an ingredient.

Happy post tomorrow, I promise! It involves bar cookies!

One year ago: Sticky Fingers Bars
Two years ago: Pecan Brownies
Four years ago: Homemade Fig Newtons

Thai Turkey Burgers with Peanut Sauce

Yield: 4 burgers

adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients

For the peanut sauce:
3 tablespoons peanut butter (I used chunky)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 – 2 tablespoons water
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (like Sriracha)
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
For the burgers:
1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup grated carrot
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
hamburger buns
lettuce (or toppings of choice)

Instructions

To make peanut sauce:

Combine peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, 1 tablespoon water, garlic, sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, honey, and ground ginger in a food processor or blender. Process until smooth (if you’re using chunk peanut butter, don’t process until all the chunks are gone – the peanuts make it better!). If it’s not coming together for you, slowly drizzle in the remaining 1 tablespoon of water until it reaches the desired consistency. Set aside about 3 tablespoons of the sauce – you will use the rest in the burgers.

To make the burgers:

Combine remaining peanut sauce with ground turkey, grated carrots, sliced green onion, chopped cilantro, salt and red pepper flakes in a large bowl. Mix until just combined and form into 4 equal patties.
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat and spray with non-stick spray. Cook patties for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until browned on the outside and cooked through.
Put the burgers on buns and top with peanut sauce and any other toppings you desire.

Summer Fun with Nestle Drumsticks

amanda — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Summer is by far my favorite season. There are just so many outdoor activities to be done, so many baseball games to be seen, and so many sprinklers to be run through. Also? A whole lot of ice cream cones to be eaten!

Nestlé recently put out some new Nestlé® Drumstick® flavors and I could not be more excited about them. Their Pretzel Dipped Drumstick Cones might just be the best thing that’s happened to me all year. They are just like the classic dipped Drumsticks but have pretzel pieces mixed into chocolatey coating! I love that sweet and salty combo as is, but add in cold ice cream and I am a goner.

They also have a bunch of new Lil’ Drums, which are just like the Drumstick but mini size! The new Lil’ Drum flavors will blow your mind: Vanilla Caramel Crunch and Caramel Graham. The Caramel Graham Cones have a caramel swirl and then little bits of graham crackers on top! They are so delicious and guess what! Only 120 calories! It is, after all, bikini season!

My oldest kid plays soccer. So twice a week, we’re out at the field cheering him on and burning up under the hot Colorado sun. Lately, we’ve been enjoying having a Drumstick on the porch after the games. They’re a great way to cool off and a fun little reward for a game well played. They are perfect for passing out at a backyard barbecue after a fantastic meal with your family and friends. Or while you’re gathered around the television watching a nail-biter of a baseball game. I can even see picking some up on the way to the beach to enjoy while hanging out on the sand.

No matter what your ice cream preference is, I bet you’ll be able to find a Drumstick that’s perfect for you! If you haven’t already tried the newest Drumstick flavors, I suggest you go out immediately and find them (especially the Caramel Graham!) and be sure you stop by and like the Nestlé Drumstick Facebook page for all the latest news!

What is your favorite summer activity with your friends and family?

Leave a comment and you’ll be entered to win a $100 Walmart gift card!

Rules:

No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

· Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post · Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

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· For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.

You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. T

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/14/2012 to 6/15/2012.

Be sure to visit the Nestlé Drumstick page on BlogHer.com, where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

French Fridays with Dorie – Provencal Olive Fougasse

amanda — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

May is turning into such a great month for French Fridays with Dorie! First there was almond-coated fish and now bread! My favorite! And something I haven’t been making a whole lot of lately.

This is a Fougasse which is one of those breads that had always intimidated me. For starters, it just looks complicated. It’s also one of those breads that needs to sit overnight before being shaped and baked. The overnight sitters are always tough for me because I very rarely plan that far ahead. And it also means that I’m thinking about bread all night long. Torture!

The Fougasse is not nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be. Like I said, it sits overnight before being rolled out, marked, and then only has to rest for about 15 minutes before going in the oven. Probably one of the easier “fancy” breads I’ve attempted since it really doesn’t have to be a specific shape.

This Fougasse is studded with olives, rosemary (I used dried), and lemon zest. The olives, even though they are so strong, don’t really add the typical olive flavor, just more of a saltiness. My 2 year old can’t stand olives but he loved the bread!

Fougasse is a cousin of focaccia so it had that crisp exterior with a nice, fluffy interior. Mine didn’t rise in the oven as much as I’d hoped it would but it was likely an issue with my oven and not the recipe. I’m looking forward to trying other Fougasse recipes now that I know how simple they are.

(The members of French Fridays with Dorie aren’t sharing all the recipes because we want to encourage you to check out Around My French Table.)

Lemonade Iced Tea Sorbet

amanda — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I know, I’m a day early again this week. I really didn’t think that whole Frozen Friday thing through, huh?

This sorbet was the very first thing my ice cream maker ever made for me. Seriously, the night I received the ice cream maker I threw the bowl in the freezer and then stood there, opening the freezer door every 5 minutes, waiting for it to freeze. I had been saving this recipe for months and was way excited to finally get to try it. And it was obviously amazing because I’m sharing it on the blog for the second time!

If you love a refreshing glass of sweet tea with lemon in the summer, this is perfect for you! It’s sweet with just a bit of lemon and you can change up the flavor by using different teas. I used a black tea with orange for this batch and it was extra delicious. I have made this a number of times and each time I stop the ice cream maker about halfway through so I can have a slushy one. I think it’s my favorite way to enjoy this recipe!

Lemonade Iced Tea Sorbet

adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

2 cups boiling water
4 black tea bags
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
1 cup ice water

Instructions

Combine 2 cups boiling water and tea bags in a large bowl; steep 5 minutes. Discard tea bags. Add sugar to tea mixture, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cool completely. Stir in juice and 1 cup ice water; chill 1 hour.
Pour tea mixture into the bowl of an ice cream maker; freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Spoon sorbet into a freezer-safe container. Cover and freeze 1 hour or until firm.

Secret Recipe Club – Chocolate Banana Muffins

amanda — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

It’s time for another Secret Recipe Club reveal! This month I was lucky enough to be assigned Edesia’s Notebook which is written by Lesa. She has hundreds of recipes that all sound fantastic like these Asian Turkey Meatballs with Peanut Sauce that are high on the list of things I want to make.

I picked these banana chocolate muffins for SRC because some days require chocolate for breakfast – like today.

I spent last night in the emergency room with my 2 year old. It was the first of what I assume will be many ER trips with those boys of mine but the kid says the free popsicle was worth taking a chunk out of his tongue so…

Yeah.

These muffins are so perfect for those mornings where you just need a little something extra to get you moving. I don’t even like chocolate that much but I couldn’t stay away from these. They’re great at room temperature but they’re perfect hot out of the oven with just a smear of butter on top.

Two years ago: Chocolate Angel Food Cake

Chocolate Banana Muffins

5.0 from 2 reviews

Yield: about 12

adapted from Edesia’s Notebook

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup of brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups of flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or spray with non-stick spray.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream together butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before moving on; add vanilla and mashed bananas.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients; mix until just combined.
Fold in chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 – 23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.

French Fridays with Dorie – Almond Flounder Meuniere

amanda — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:00:09 +0000

So the reason Frozen Friday happened a day early this week is because I wanted to participate in French Fridays with Dorie. I actually want to participate every week but then… sardines and lamb and other things I don’t like/can’t afford make their way onto the schedule.

This week’s I was especially excited about because it’s fish coated with ground almonds – and I love anything coated in almonds. Seriously, you could cover cardboard in ground almonds and I’d tell you it was the greatest thing you’d ever cooked.

This was ridiculously simple. You just brush one side of the fish with egg yolk, coat it in an almond meal and flour mixture and then fry it in brown butter. That’s it. It took less than 10 minutes and I felt like I was having such a fancy lunch!

If you can’t tell, I loved this and plan on making it again with the rest of the fish I bought. I squeezed a ton of lemon juice over the top and it was absolute perfection!

(I used tilapia because there is no water in Colorado and therefore no fish besides tilapia. Unless, of course, you want to pay $20/pound. And I don’t. I’d rather buy nailpolish.)

The members of French Fridays with Dorie don’t share the recipes because want to encourage you to check out Around My French Table but a quick google search may just bring up the recipe for you. Hint hint, wink wink.