Showing posts with label Recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recipe. Show all posts

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Guest Post: Tomato Glazed Meatballs With Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

This week I am so very excited to again be featuring my blogging pal and good friend Erica. Erica runs her own wedding + event design and production house.  She shares recipes, DIY’s and beautiful photos of her events. Check out her blog if you already haven’t!

Hello again, I'm Erica from Paper Hearts + Co. (www.paperheartsncoblog.com)!

Thank again, Courtney! today I will be sharing another one of my favorite recipes from one of my favorite bloggers.

So I am seriously obsessed with the Smitten Kitchen. It is one of my very favorite cooking blogs. The Husband bought me her new cookbook for christmas. Not that he could forget because I hinted about it nearly once a day the entire month of December. So over the last few months I have put the recipes to test. Surprise, surprise, everything I have made so far has been delicious.

The first recipe on the docket was her tomato-glazed meat loaves with brown butter mashed potatoes. I paired them with garlic sauteed asparagus and green beans. Now if you are hesitant don't be, my house is a strictly a no "MEATLOAF" house. I am not a big fan and the Husband hates it! However, I was a bit tricky when I made these I called them meatballs on the weekly menu. Yes I know that they are almost the same thing. However my experience with meatloaves has been huge chunks of soggy bread with large undercooked veggies yuck! These however are really great, REALLY! The recipes calls for many of the normal ingredients found in meatloaves but it is how it is all prepared and put together that makes all the difference. So meatloaf haters unite and give these a try!
I did make a few adjustments and I have included them in the recipe:

Glaze:
4 tsp. canola oil
1/3 cup. tomato paste
2 Tbsp. cider vinegar
4 Tbsp. honey
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. spicy brown mustard
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp. brown sugar

Combine glaze ingredients in a small saucepan, and simmer, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes. Set aside. I usually make a double batch because we like lots of sauce!

Meat Loaves:
2 slices of sandwich bread
1 medium onion, finely chopped,
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium stalk celery, chopped finely
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
Olive oil, for cooking
2 lbs. ground beef
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper for vegetables

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Tear the bread into chunks and then blend it, in a food processor, into breadcrumbs. or if you don't have a food processor store bought ones are fine just use 1 cup. Place breadcrumbs in a lard bowl. Add the vegetables to processor and finely chop or do it by hand.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, coat the bottom with olive oil; add the finely chopped vegetables. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown, about 10 minutes.

Add the vegetables to the large bowl with breadcrumbs, then add the remaining ingredients. Stir together with a for. With wet hands, form the mixture into twelve 3 inch meatballs.

Space the meatballs so that they are not touching, in a baking dish, Drizzle or bush each with a tsp. or so of the tomato glaze. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Serve on a bed of brown butter mashed potatoes.


Brown butter mashed potatoes:
2 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes pealed
8 Tbsp. unsalted butter or 1 stick melted and browned
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp. Sea Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Place the potatoes in a medium saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over heigh heat, once it is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 20-30 minutes until tender. Drain the potatoes and return them to the pan.

Brown the butter in a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden, and then it will start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan. Don't wait too long the time in takes to brown vs burning is the difference of about a minute.

Add browned butter, buttermilk, salt and pepper to taste and smash them with a potato smasher until smooth or put them in your stand mixer and beat them till creamy. Serve and enjoy!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Yummy Vanilla & Caramel Iced Coffee

This was cheap, easy, and fun to make! It was slightly an experiment but it worked out well for me. Making and drinking coffee is such a delight to me! To the point that alot of my friends know to make a pot of coffee when Courtney is coming over. ; )

Making iced coffee consists of four ingredients.
1. Fresh brewed coffee (I like to use a dark roast coffee instead of a medium or light roast because the ice cubes water down the coffee to the point that I feel like I'm just drinking flavored milk water... Yuck!)
2. Half & Half (If you normally put a flavored creamer in your coffee, you will not want to use it for this recipe, because they are already sweetened creamer. So adding anymore sugar to it will be like sticking your tongue in a jar of sugar! Yuck!)
3. Flavored Syrup (Most any flavor will do! Pick your favorite, whether it be Peppermint, Vanilla, Pumpkin, Caramel, etc. You can make these at home or buy them from most grocery stores. I saw some at Target that are for $4.99.)
4. Lots of Ice

There is a basic recipe that you can used and really make almost any flavor of syrup you want. What's even cooler about this is you can use this syrup in your hot or cold coffee drinks, drizzle some on ice cream, add them to sweet recipes, or your favorite cocktail!
Your basic supplies you will need for this syrup recipe is sugar and water, then your favorite flavor. I used an organic raw sugar, because we are trying to impliment organics into our daily diet, but a regular white, gradulated sugar works fine too.   
The ratio between the sugar and water is 1 cup to 1 cup. Two cups of sugar means I need two cups of water.

Vanilla & Caramel Syrup
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of water
2 tablespoons of pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup of caramel sauce
Sealable jar (found mine for $3.00 at Target) 
Stir the water and sugar in a medium sauce pan. Turn the heat to medium high and stir well.
When the mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and add vanilla and caramel sauce. Stir well and allow to fully cool. Pour into sealable jar, label, and enjoy.

Now to the enjoying part!!!
  A. Have a glass, any size is fine, and pack it with ice, especially since you are using hot, fresh coffee.
 B. Pour in 8 oz (1 cup) of coffee. For this cup, I had to use 1 cup and a half.
 C. Add about 1/4 cup half & half which will fill the cup the rest of the way, and add about 1 tablespoon of your syrup. If you like it sweeter, add more syrup.
 D. Stir well with a fun straw and ENJOY!!
Even this guy likes it!

In the end, one bottle of syrup costs me a grand total of $1.14. Which makes each tablespoon into my coffee is worth $0.03.

There are about 57 tablespoons of coffee in a 12 ounce bag. I use about 1 tablespoon per cup of coffee on my drip machine. So I can make 57  8 oz cups of coffee. Ladro's coffee beans sell for $11.50 per 12 oz which equals about $0.21 per cup. 

One half gallon of half & half, has 32 servings of 1/4 cups. At Thriftway half & half is $5.49 for 1/2 gal (expensive!!!) but that is still about $0.18 per 1/4 cup.

My total for a delicious cup of Vanilla Caramel Iced Coffee is $0.42!!!

So you enjoy that iced coffee, that only cost you much less then $.50 to make!! That's those corporate guy's refill price!!

Additional Flavor-Aid
For Vanilla Syrup: add 3 tablespoons of pure vanilla extract after the water boils.
For Caramel Syrup: add 1/2 cup caramel sauce after the water boils.
For Peppermint Syrup: add 18 peppermints to the water and sugar before it boils.

Monday, February 17, 2014

My Sunday Drive - Egg Bake Recipe

My Grandparents are in town!!! 
Today was an early start! I grabbed a triple caramel macchiato from Starbucks and headed to practice with my love, Derek. It's so great he is on the production team because early mornings alone are hard. Plus, who's going to wipe any sleep out of your eye that you may have missed!
The sermon today was so good! Pastor Mark spoke on James 2:1-7. I encourage you to take some time and watch the video! Totally worth it!

We had lunch at Spud's on Alki then headed over to Husky's on California for some ice cream. I really enjoy my grandparent's company. I love hearing their stories and experiences. Growing up, I wasn't too interested, but they have been on this earth alot longer than I have and I've come to realize they know a thing or two. I want to be able to share their stories to my kids. 
I did get to make one of my favorite egg bakes for us to enjoy for breakfast!

Recipe for Plasch's Family Egg Bake:
2 lbs of breakfast sausage, browned, drained, and crumbled
9 slices of white bread, crusts removed & cut into squares
4 tablespoons of butter, cut into small cubes
3 cups of milk
5 scallions, chopped, including green tops
1/4 cup of chopped green bell peppers
12 eggs beaten
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (8 oz)
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper 

 Serves 12-14 folks.
1. Brown, crumble, and drain your 2 lbs of sausage. 
 2. Beat the 12 eggs well. Add milk.
3. Chop your green peppers and scallions and add to eggs.
 4. Cut the crust from your bread, and cut into thirds, then the thirds into squares. Add to egg mixture.
 5. Add cheese to the mixture.
 6. Add sausage. Stir well.
7. Butter the inside of the 9x13 inch casserole dish.
8. Pour the mixture in casserole dish and cover with aluminum foil.
9. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
 10. Bake the casserole at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 to 30 minutes.
Make sure the middle is cooked!
ENJOY!

Monday, January 27, 2014

My Sunday Drive

Sundays are probably one of my favorite days of the week.
I get to serve at my local church, spend time with friends, take a nap, and cook dinner for our roommates. I have a pretty busy schedule, so I don't always get the time that I want in the kitchen throughout the week.
Through this series, I'll let you come with me on "My Sunday Drive."
After church, Derek and I came home quite hungry. We normally start our Sunday’s off at 5 am, grab some coffee and serve at our church from 6:30 am till 12 pm. My husband is an intern over the productions department and I get the honor of singing with the band. We really enjoy what we do, but you sure work up an appetite. So we had a classic turkey sandwich.
Since we are getting ready to do our taxes soon, we have a box in our room with all of our important papers and it was time to sit down and go through it. Probably my favorite part of that was when I found some old checks and I gave Derek one of these...
...and I got this look and a "What is this?"
Priceless!
Throughout the week, our roommates are so gracious to cook dinner for us, so we decided to call Sunday's our cooking night! This is where I can try out new recipes and "Wow!" the crowd. But this weekend, was not so great. I found a sweet recipe online for Tilapia with Green Beans. It sounded amazing, check it out.
So, you'll come to find when I cook I don't always measure my ingredients. I would say I normally have a good eye for that sort of thing, but seriously, this was not good. (This was not the recipes fault it was definitely mine! Don't try the green beans, it's not worth it!!!)
However, I did get to redeem myself with a classic Peach Cobbler.
Peach Cobbler:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 large can of peaches in juice
1 stick of butter (Give me a break, I'm from the South!)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the can of peaches to a casserole dish and place it in the oven. Mix together the dry items in a large bowl. Whisk your eggs in a separate bowl, and then add it to the mixture until nice and crumbly. Remove the peaches out of the oven and sprinkle the mixture evenly across the top. Melt the stick of butter in a microwaveable safe dish for about 45 seconds. Drizzle the butter across the top and let it sit where it falls! Bake for about 45 minutes or until it has a nice golden look to it. Enjoy with ice cream or right out of the dish!

I got to finish my day playing with my roommate's two awesome kiddos, had a glass of wine with my love, and watched the Grammy's. This was a tasty, fruity Cabernet. I lean more towards the sweeter, light wines because I don't typically like a lot of alcohol. But I do enjoy a small glass with friends or my family.
So overall, it was a pretty good "Sunday Drive."