Cooking, Recipe and Food Blog
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Well readers, I’m going to have to pull up Southern roots & head to the powdery hills of Colorado for a week. I know, I know it will be tough to be away from each other for so long, but no worries, I will try my best to keep in touch.
Until then, Eat well & Laugh often!
Simply Recipes: Ling Cod with Tomato & Orange recipe, very tempting! Â
Pinoy Cook:Â All about halo-halo &Â flavored suman
Cooking with Amy: Favorite thing today is Yuzu, do you Yuzu? Â
101 Cookbooks: Recent New Zealand trip photos, beautiful!Â
Baking Sheet:Â Â Yummy-looking Chai Latte Muffins recipeÂ
Good Friday morning to you, readers. So happy you dropped by for today’s quick recipe of the day. This fine morn we have a Cajun Seafood Pasta recipe on the menu. This is a perfect quickie comfort food recipe for all you seafood lovers out there. As you can tell, I have seafood pasta on the brain this week!
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
What’s Next:
Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente.
Meanwhile, pour cream into large skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until just about boiling. Reduce heat, and add herbs, salt, peppers, onions, and parsley. Simmer 7 to 8 minutes, or until thickened.
Stir in seafood, cooking until shrimp is no longer transparent. Stir in cheeses, blending well.
Drain pasta. Serve sauce over noodles & you’re done!
The new has been confirmed, Whole Foods Market revealed Wednesday that the company plans on buying Wild Oats Markets for around $565 million. That’s a couple of pretty pennies, eh?
Whole Foods has been planning to buy the chain of natural & organic markets, with locations in both the U.S. & Canada, for some time, but have finally come to a closing deal.Â
The news made shares of Wild Oats jump about 17% after the deal was announced. Whole Food execs have said they approached Wild Oats originally after they sensed what they called a “strategic gap” after Wild Oats lost their chief executive & chief financial officer. Whole Foods plans to keep Wild Oats very similar to the original store, with some changes.
I guess I can live with that. We have several Wild Oats locations here in Nashville & it will be interesting to see what happens.
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Simply Recipes:  Delicious, Becca’s Jambalaya recipe just in time for Mardi Gras Â
Pinoy Cook:  Pork Barbecue Fried Rice recipe, a great dinner for tonightÂ
Cooking with Amy:Â Â All about Pepper Plantations, with great photos!Â
101 Cookbooks: Interesting, Butternut Squash Tart recipe  Â
Baking Sheet: Yummm! Chipolte Guacamole recipe, just in time for the weekend!Â
Good morning, readers. I hope you’re ready for National Be Humble Day, but I’m not sure how you could be with this recipe just waiting for you. You’re going to get more compliments than you know what to do with using this fast & easy recipe.
What I have up my cook’s sleeve today is a delicious Orange-Lemon Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp recipe that’s sure to win everyone’s hearts & taste buds. Enjoy & get ready for springtime!
Ingredients:
What’s Next:
Combine fresh-squeezed orange juice, fresh, diced orange and diced lemon segments with olive oil, garlic and basil. Cook pasta in boiling water.
Sauté shrimp for three minutes or until done to taste. Toss warm pasta with juice mixture and shrimp. Sprinkle with parmesan and serve immediately. That’s it!
I’m all about discovering new food blogs & just this morning I looked under a Google rock & found FoodForThought. It doesn’t look like they’ve posted in a while, but the site has great photos & was a real keeper if you ask me.
FoodForThought has been making Homemade Granola Snacks since Trader Joe’s discontinued their favorite granola variety. It’s a good thing they did because this granola recipe looks fantastic! I might have to add some dark chocolate pieces, but it looks great. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
What’s Next:
Go ahead & preheat your oven to 320 F or 160 C.
Stir together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl until well combined. Add applesauce, then oil and honey or syrup, and combine well. Pour into two large, greased baking pans (I use two lasagne pans) and bake for 45 minutes, stirring once or twice along the way.
Remove from the oven, stir in the dried fruit, then cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Simply Recipes: Ham, Potato & Leek soup recipe, looks yum! Â
Pinoy Cook:Â Â Pork & Mushroom Adobo recipeÂ
Cooking with Amy:Â Â Amy news & updatesÂ
101 Cookbooks:  Her Dad’s Garlic Bread recipe looks fabulous!Â
Baking Sheet:Â Sour Cream Lemon Shortbread Square recipe, can you say delicious?!Â
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So I might have missed National Pancake Day by a day, but that doesn’t mean that we still can’t celebrate with one of my favorite foods, right? Even IHOP celebrated Pancake Day with giving customers a free short stack of those yummy, hot, melt-in-your-mouth delicacies.
Today we will join in belated festivities with a Joy of Cooking Berry Pancake recipe. It took me a while to find this recipe, I made it a few years back & loved it. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
For Garnish:
What’s Next:
Go ahead & preheat your oven to 350 F or 177 C & place your rack in the center of the oven.
Melt the butter in a heavy 10 – inch (25 cm) nonstick ovenproof skillet.Â
Meanwhile, in your food processor or blender place the egg, milk, vanilla extract, flour, salt, ground cinnamon and sugar. Process for about 45 – 60 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Once the batter is completely smooth, pour into your skillet with the melted butter.  Â
Bake for about 25 minutes or until the pancake is slightly puffed and set. Remove from oven and sprinkle the pancake with the fresh berries that have been tossed with the sugar. Gently roll or fold the sides of the pancake over the berries and slide the pancake onto your serving platter. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve with softly whipped cream or pure maple syrup.
We’ve been celebrating Mardi Gras in the United States since the late 17th century, so why break tradition? With today being the start of Mardi Gras 2007, I thought we would celebrate in style.
Say hello to the marvelous King Cake recipe. Usually, king cakes are very time-intensive to make, but this recipe makes use of our bread machines to make it a little easier on us so we have more time for celebrating. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
What’s Next:
Place all ingredients in bread pan according to manufacturer’s instructions; select dough setting and press start. NOTE: Check the dough (don’t be afraid to open the lid). It should form a nice elastic ball. If you think the dough is too moist, add additional flour (a tablespoon at a time). The same is true if the dough is looking dry and gnarly. Add warm water (a tablespoon at a time).
When dough cycle has finished, remove dough from pan and put into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in a draft free place to rise for approximately 1 hour or until the dough doubles in volume.
Lightly coat a large baking sheet with butter or vegetable spray; set aside. Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly-oiled surface. Using your fist, punch dough down with a heavy blow. Sprinkle cinnamon over the top, pat and shape dough into a cylinder. Twist dough to form a curled cylinder and loop cylinder onto the buttered baking sheet. Pinch the ends together to form a circle. Cover dough with plastic wrap and let sit for approximately 45 minutes or until the dough doubles in volume.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Brush top and sides of cake with egg white wash and bake on middle rack of oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. (A good check is to use an instant thermometer to test your bread. The temperature should be between 200 and 210 degrees.) Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. If desired, at this time, you can hide the plastic doll in the cake.
Colored Sugars Recipe:
Squeeze a dot of paste in palm of hand. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar over the paste and rub together quickly. Place this mixture on wax paper and wash hands to remove color. Repeat process for other two colors; set aside.
Lemon Frosting Recipe:
In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth (depending on size of lemon, add water if mixture is too thick or additional powdered sugar if too thin). Spoon icing over top of the cake. Immediately sprinkle on colored sugar, alternating between the three colors.
Whew! That’s finally it, you’re done & so is your delicious king cake! Enjoy the rest of the festivities!
Simply Recipes:Â Â Rose Petal Flan recipe, fascinatingly wonderful!Â
Pinoy Cook:Â Food coma with Chocolate Cheesecake Â
Cooking with Amy:Â Amy’s Banh Xeo recipe
101 Cookbooks:Â Â Baked Carrot Fries recipe, interestingÂ
Baking Sheet: Red Velvet Cake Sandwich Cookies recipe, talk about deliciously rich!Â
Good morning to you, folks. I hope you had a fabulous President’s Day yesterday & had some time to sink your teeth into one of Bill Clinton’s favorite recipes.
Today for our quickie of the day we are going to tackle a delicious & easy Pork Chop recipe. Don’t worry, this recipe is a cinch! Enjoy & let me know what you thought!
Ingredients:
What’s Next:
Go ahead & preheat your oven to 375 F or 190 C.
Rinse pork chops, pat dry and place them in a 9×13 inch baking dish.
In a separate small bowl, combine the onion, mushrooms and soup. Mix together well and sponn over the chops.
Cover and bake for 45 minutes, then uncover and bake for 15 more minutes.
Note:Â Pork chops are done when their internal temperature has reached 160 F or 70 C.
It seems like every week now there is a food scare. Last week it was salmonella peanut butter, this week it looks like it’s going to be cantaloupes.
The Dole Fresh Fruit Company has recalled several thousands of imported cantaloupes after some of the fruit tested positive for salmonella.
Dole stated the recall covers approximately 6,104 cartons of Costa Rican cantaloupes distributed to retailers in the United States between February 5 & February 8. The FDA is strongly urging consumers to thoroughly was their cantaloupes & other melons before slicing.Â
If you have any questions regarding contaminated Dole cantaloupes, you can call the help hotline at (800) 232-8888.
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Simply Recipes:Â Did someone say Cheese Fondue?
Pinoy Cook:Â Fish Fillet & Togue Stir Fry Recipe
Cooking with Amy:Â 5 things about Amy you probably didn’t know
101 Cookbooks:Â Very most favorites
Baking Sheet:Â Flourless Mini Chocolate Cakes recipe, yummm!
Happy President’s Day all around! Today I thought we would do a quickie based on a former U.S. president’s very own recipe. Not to pick any sides politically, but I found this delicious-looking Chicken Enchiladas recipe from Bill Clinton’s kitchen. I haven’t tried it myself, as of yet, but I think this will make quite a tasty President’s Day meal. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
What’s Next:
Preheat 2 Tbsp oil in skillet. Remove seeds from chilies. Chop chilies, then saute with minced garlic in oil. Drain and break up tomatoes. Reserve 1/2 cup liquid. Add tomatoes, 1 tsp salt, oregano and reserved tomato liquid.
Simmer, uncovered until thick, about 30 minutes. Remove sauce from skillet and set aside. Combine chicken with sour cream, cheese and remaining salt. Heat 1/3 cup oil. Dip tortillas in oil until they become limp. Drain well on paper towels.
Fill tortillas with chicken mixture. Roll up. Arrange side by side, seam side down, in 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking dish. Pour chili sauce over enchiladas. Bake at 250F or 121 C until heated through about 20 minutes.
An Argentinean-led study is suggesting that crushing garlic can steeply reduce the amount of its healthful properties. Well, now that’s a bummer!
Claudio Galmarini & his cohorts at at Institute of Nutrition and Technology of Foods (INTF) in Argentina have noted that past studies that have shown garlic to aid in your health have always used raw garlic. This new study examines how cooking garlic affects the chemical components associated with the healthy benefits of our favorite smelly plant.
During the study experts found that even cooking garlic for just a few minutes significantly reduced the levels of the healthful compounds. The reduction was most severe in garlic cooked whole, versus garlic that had been crushed several minutes before cooking.
What the scientists are basically saying is that by us chopping or crushing our garlic, the enzyme alliinase is being released which forms allicin which in turn breaks down all the good-for-us compounds.
What they also found in the study, is that if you crush your garlic several minutes before cooking, to allow the alliinase to work before cooking activates the enzyme, you will gain more of that good-for-you compound. Clear as mud?
So, if you’re cooking with garlic just for the sheer healthfulness of it, try crushing the cloves several minutes before you put it in the skillet so you can get the most out of your garlicy experience.
This garlic study will appear in the March 7 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
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Kalyn’s Kitchen:  South Beach Fish & Seafood recipesÂ
Accidental Hedonist: Conagra & its past sins Â
Chocolate & Zucchini: An amazing Smooth Chocolate Cake recipe Â
Eggbeater:Â Eggy’s take on love, you agree?Â
Becks ‘N Posh: Ahh, sweet seduction! Â
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Readers, I owe you an apology. I kinda dropped the ball on National Gumdrop Day & you all know how I feel about any type of food holiday! Well, even though gumdrop day was Thursday, I’m still going to keep the gumdrop hope alive anyway!
Have you ever made your own gumdrops? Chances are you haven’t, and to tell you the truth I’ve never attempted the task myself. About.com has just about everything you could possibly want to know, including this How to Make Your Own Gumdrops recipe. It looks fairly easy & pretty quick to make. This particular recipe is for Orange Gumdrops, see below for Grape & Apple-Cherry recipes. You try it & I’ll try it & we’ll see where we stand Monday, k? Enjoy & best of gumdrop luck!
Ingredients:Â
What’s Next:
Line loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches, with aluminum foil. Brush with oil. Heat 1 c. sugar and the corn syrup to boiling in 1-1/2 quart saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved. Cook, without stirring, to 280 degrees F. on candy thermometer or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard but not brittle threads.
While cooking sugar mixture, heat orange juice, pectin and baking soda to boiling (mixture will be foamy) in 2-quart saucepan over high heat, stirring constantly; reduce heat.
Slowly pour hot sugar mixture in a thin stream into orange juice mixture, stirring constantly (this should take 1 to 2 minutes); remove from heat. Stir in food color. Let stand 2 minutes. Skim off foam.
Pour mixture into pan. Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature 24 hours. Lift foil from pan and remove foil from sides. Cut into 3/4-inch squares with knife dipped into sugar. Roll squares in sugar. Let stand uncovered at room temperature 1 hour. Store gumdrops in airtight container. About 72 gumdrops. 28 calories per gumdrop.
Grape Gumdrops: Substitute grape juice for the orange juice and blue food color for the red. 28 calories per gumdrop.
Apple-Cherry Gumdrops: Substitute apple-cherry drink for the orange juice and use red food color. 28 calories per gumdrop.
Do you ever find yourself wondering what comedian Stephen Colbert would taste like? Would he be as sweet as a summer’s day? As smooth as an apple’s skin? As delectable as melting chocolate?Â
Well folks, guess what?! We finally know what that ole Stephen taste like, thanks to brilliant ice cream creators, Ben & Jerry. The infamous ice cream company is introducing the new ‘Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream’ flavor to their already fabulous lineup.
What’s it taste like? Chewed-up republicans? Nope, the new ice cream on the block will feature vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and caramel. Sounds like a new favorite to me!
As stated by Colbert himself, “I’m not afraid to say it. Dessert has a well-known liberal agenda. What I hope to do with this ice cream is bring some balance back to the freezer case.”
Reportedly Stephen will be donating all proceeds of the new ice cream to various causes via Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream Fund. What a silly guy, that Stephen is. I can’t wait to try it.
Thanks to SlashFood for the literal scoop.
Kalyn’s Kitchen:   Penne with White Bean & Tomato Sauce recipe, looks great!Â
Accidental Hedonist:  What!? Peanut butter salmonella outbreak? Is nothing sacred?
Amateur Gourmet:  All about a Valentine’s Day well spentÂ
Eggbeater: Did someone say Cardamon Chocolate Chunk Cookies? I’m listening, you had me at cardamonÂ
Becks ‘N Posh:  Love your own hoodÂ
