Recipe Round-up

As you all know I enjoy baking a cooking quite a bit, so I thought I'd share some recipes I've tried out over the last few months.  I'm only posting the ones that I think are worth your consideration, so if you do end up trying any of these out I'd love to hear what you thought of the recipe.

Fruit Braids

The one on the left has cherry pie filling, the center one has this blueberry sauce in it (minus the cinnamon) with most of the sauce drained off to avoid making the braid too soggy, and the one on the right has the apricot filling the recipe called for.  

These were FABULOUS!  Just one batch made enough dough for all three braids, so we were able to share these with our families for Easter.  I was definitely most partial to the blueberry, and the cherry came in a close 2nd.  I'm not a huge apricot person myself, although the filling was good.  I'm sure it would have been a totally different pastry if the filling had been made with fresh apricots instead of the dried ones the recipe called for.

Carrot Cake

This was a very dense, healthified carrot cake recipe.  Lots of fruit, nuts and carrots in it, and only 1 1/2 cups of flour in the whole thing.  Very tasty, but if you're looking for a more "cakey" recipe, this isn't the one for you.  The frosting was good, but I felt it needed a bit more tang to it, so I added a few squirts of lemon juice, which I thought made it just right.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

Oh my word!  This stuff is delicious!  Heaven on a spoon!  Stop reading this right now and go make some!  Now!  You won't regret it (unless you eat the whole batch, in which case you might).

This is a very creamy recipe, and it definitely doesn't qualify as low-fat.  You could probably lessen the damage to your waistline by either using all half-and-half or subbing some 2% milk for some of the cream or half-and-half and still have a very tasty ice cream, I'll leave that up to you. 

Pancakes with Blackberry Sauce

I realize most people already have a "go to" pancake recipe of their own, so I won't be offended if you don't try this one (although it is very good, and works just as well with whole wheat flour as with unbleached white flour or half of each) but if you have access to fresh blackberries you really should try making the sauce.  Leave the brandy out if you'd like, but it really isn't very noticeable at all.  I originally served this sauce with ice cream and brownies, which was phenomenal, but I didn't take a picture of that since we had Matt's family over for dessert and that seemed a bit rude/tacky to take pictures of their dessert before they were allowed to eat it.  I used the leftovers on pancakes the next day and that is where this picture came from.  I've made this a few times since then, always with frozen berries we picked last season, and it always turns out wonderfully.  Truly a treat, especially with those brownies I was talking about ;)

Roasted Chickpeas

Very tasty and rather addictive, and inexpensive to make.  It's a bit tough to get them dried out to that perfect crunchy state, but oh so worth it when you do! 

Corn and Black Bean Salsa

This is a recipe from my mother-in-law, and it always goes over very well whenever I take it anywhere.  It truly tastes like summer and would be a welcome addition at any backyard food fest you may be attending this year.

1-16 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 medium tomato, chopped (I often use quartered grape tomatoes)

5 green onions, chopped

3/4 c. frozen corn (I almost double this)

2 T. cilantro, chopped

1 T. red wine vinegar (I often double this also)

3 T. olive oil

1 clove garlic, chopped or minced (I usually up this a bit)

1/2 - 1 tsp. cumin (to taste)

salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste)

Combine and let set for 1-2 hours, the longer the better.  Serve with tortilla chips (Baked Lays Scoops are particularly tasty in my opinion)

Southwest Roll-ups

I read about these on one of the couponing sites I frequent and decided to give them a try.  We were not disappointed - they were very tasty and convenient.  I did make the homemade refried beans that were suggested, and they really weren't too difficult at all, and I think they made a huge impact on the overall taste (canned refried beans kinda gross me out).  They did dry out during cooking a bit faster than I had anticipated based on what the recipe said, but with a bit of salsa on the finished product you didn't even notice.  These were really handy to have individually frozen for quick lunches or dinners.  I'd unwrap them, pop them in the microwave for about 45 seconds to take the chill off of them and then toast them in the cast iron skillet for a crunchy exterior and serve with salsa.  Quick, satisfying and filling.  I hope to try out the homemade tortilla recipe in the future, but don't hold your breath for that post or you may pass out.

Baklava from "Good Eats"

*cue the heavenly chorus*

While all of the recipes I have posted here are worthy of your attention, this one is by far the most delectable morsel I have made in recent memory.  If Matt were to tell me I had to choose only one thing to give out to friends and family at Christmas time instead of my usual baking extravaganza this would be it, hands down, no second thoughts about it.  I followed the recipe as written and it was incredible.  I even went out and bought a coffee grinder so I could grind fresh spices (as recommended by the recipe's author Alton Brown - he really is a food rock star), which made all the difference in the world.  It's like a nutty, sweet, perfectly spiced celebration in your mouth.  I also tested this against another recipe and they were like two totally different desserts, with one being obviously inferior to the other.  I had some friends in my knitting group do a blind taste test and the Good Eats baklava won, hands down.  You could probably leave the rose water out and not have a noticeably different taste, I really couldn't taste it in the finished product, so that will save you a few bucks if you don't already happen to keep rose water around as a pantry staple (although I'm sure I'm the only person here that didn't have any on hand.  I'm such a slacker ;) )  As an added bonus, I discovered phyllo dough at Target today for almost half the price of the same brand at Dillons - wooohooo!
So yes.  Baklava is good.  This baklava is stupendous!
If you'd like to see the episode this recipe is featured on you can do so here.
(I so want to be an Alton Brown groupie)

Deep Dish Pizza
Mmmmmmm...pizza.
My sister-in-law Katie went to Chicago a while back and had a deep dish pizza sent home, which the family enjoyed for her birthday.  It got me thinking about making our own, so we decided to have a homemade pizza party at my in-laws a while back.  We used the crust from this recipe (scroll down for the crust recipe - be sure to get the semolina flour - it's what gives the crust that awesome crispiness) and made three different kinds of pizza - a beefy pepperoni pizza, a chicken/tomato/basil pesto pizza and a veggie pizza.  They were all DELICIOUS!

For the beefy pepperoni pizza we used the sauce mix ingredients listed here (as a side note I did make the puffy pizza in the crock pot that the sauce originally went with, and while it was tasty and the girls ate it, if you're really wanting pizza this isn't going to curb your craving.  Good for an easy weeknight meal though.) mixed with a little under a pound of browned ground beef and topped with mozzarella, turkey pepperoni and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Yuuuummmmy!
For the chicken/tomato/basil pesto pizza I just cooked a couple chicken breasts on the stove, shredded them into descent sized chunks and added some jarred pesto my mother-in-law had on hand (from Sam's) and topped it with mozzarella, sliced grape tomatoes and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Sooooo good!  I'm getting hungry thinking about it!
For the veggie pizza (not pictured) we used the same tomato sauce ingredients linked above and added mushrooms, peppers and onions along with the same cheeses mentioned above.  While I did not try this particular pizza (big surprise!) everyone else seemed to really like it.  Matt said he enjoyed how fresh it tasted with the veggies in it.
I plan to play around with this a bit to figure out a good way to freeze these pizzas.  The dough recipe (which I think is what made the whole thing so incredible) makes enough for two deep dish pizzas, so unless we're having company that's way too much for us.  I tried assembling a pizza, baking it for half the time and freezing it, then just taking the pizza straight from the freezer and baking it for an additional 25 minutes, but it was still a bit doughy in the center when the crust was perfect on the edges.  I'll probably try totally defrosting the pizza next time, which will take more forethought but probably taste better in the end.
Oh, and be sure to make your pizza in a cast iron skillet - it makes all the difference in the world!

Fortune Cookies
When my family gets together for dinner at my parents house we like to make stuff that's easier to do with more than one set of hands.  Bierocks and egg rolls are two of our regulars, and this past week we decided on egg rolls.  This gave me an excuse to try my hand at making fortune cookies.  Let me tell you, those little buggers are hot when you form then into that little crescent moon shape!  Holy cow!  This particular recipe was OK, but the cookies were very done on the outside edges while the center was still a bit sticky when the timer would go off.  This resulted in the fortunes Matt wrote sticking to the inside of the cookies (and Claire eating part of a fortune).  So while this is a novel item to make, it most definitely won't go on my regular rotation.

I hope some of these recipes have inspired you to try some new stuff at your house.
Bon appetit!