Let's Cook!

A Pick-me-up During Finals

2010-05-06T08:53:00.000-07:00

It's finals week and that generally means stressed students everywhere. I had to meet at the library with my group to prepare a presentation for our final and I brought along a little treat. I brought cream cheese brownies, I figured we all needed a little sugar boost!
I just prepared store bought brownies and added this mixture in dollups: 8 oz cream cheese (softened), 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Do not over mix it, simply swirl your knife through the cream cheese to incorporate into the chocolate. This is always a winner!

Top 10 Super Healthy Foods

2010-05-05T05:09:00.000-07:00

I decided the blog doesn't need to only offer recipes, but provide other, important information as well. Here is a list of the top ten best foods for your body. I am very knowledgeable about nutrition and understand that it is vital to maintain a healthy, balanced diet. You should try to incorporate all these items into your diet. i like to call these items "superfoods":

1. Low fat or fat-free plain yogurt, not flavored
2. Eggs
3. Nuts (almonds, soy nuts,and pistachios are the best)
4. Quinoa
5. Beans
6. Salmon
7. Broccoli
8. Kiwi
9. Sweet potato
10.Berries

Out of the Ordinary

2010-04-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Cooking the same meals or using the same ingredients can definitely turn into boredom with your taste buds. I was starting to fall into that trap, so decided to try something new. I went to Tybee Island and bought oysters from a fisherie and steamed them all on my own! Something I've never done before. I served topped them with garlic, paprika, thinly sliced shallots, and parmesan cheese. I served them with horseradish and hot sauce. Everybody had a fit over them. This is just an encouragement to step outside your scope and try something new!

Casual Nights are the Best

2010-04-21T23:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight was just a casual night around the house. I decided to cook a simple, delicious meal for my roommates. It really taste great and looks like it took a while to prepare, while really it requires very few ingredients and is ready in minutes! They loved it, so I thought I'd share! It's called Easy Lemon Pasta with Chicken, recipe courtesy of The Neely's via the Food Network Channel:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/down-home-with-the-neelys/easy-lemon-pasta-with-chicken-recipe/index.html"

I used whole grain penne pasta instead of regular and also halved cherry tomatoes and added them. Makes a great leftover meal as well.

Going Home: Comfort Food

2010-04-21T15:47:00.001-07:00

I figured I would discuss what always goes down when I go home. That is, my grandmother's cooking that is straight up comfort food. I grew up on these home cooked meals, but my style of cooking has differentiated so much from this type that it's nice to expect it every time I go home.
My grandmother only cooks family recipes, she has led me to believe that these are simply the best. She cooks meals that are literally 90 years old! She explained that people back then did not have the availability to products we have today, but she closely substitutes.
to me, not only does this type of cooking taste great, it has a significance behind it that can never be replaced. It truly is comfort food that makes me feel right at home, with a sense of belonging.

Mom came to visit!

2010-04-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

My mom came to visit me over the weekend and we spent the day in Savannah on Saturday! Like always, we enjoyed great seafood on River Street while relaxing in the beautiful weather. After dinner came my favorite part, dessert! We walked to Savannah Sweets to buy a variety of goodies! I got my favorite vanilla pecan piece of fudge and she got chocolate peanut butter. This particular day, they had made caramel apples to look like farm animals and we thought they were so cute!
Of course, we tried one of those as well (ours was a pig) and it was not only edible, but delicious! Another neat product Savannah Sweets offered that day was a huge rice krispie treat shaped into a bee hive. I thought this idea was great for a large event, such as a birthday or summer picnic!

Easter

2010-04-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

Easter means a number of things to different people and a number of reasons to celebrate. Traditionally, my family attends church and then everyone heads over to my parents house for food and fun. We always have a variety of food, but we have never gone a single Easter without my grandma's bunny cake. I couldn't imagine an Easter without it! So the cake kept the this Easter pretty normal. Something did make it different though. My dad went Turkey hunting Easter morning and killed a large male. Sure enough, he cleaned it and decided it should be eaten for Easter lunch! Dad and I cut the breast into tenders and lightly fried them. With the rest of the Turkey, we cut into pieces,wrapped bacon around them, marinated them into vinegar with seasonings (much like Italian dressing) and grilled them. Might sound gross to some, but do you buy Turkey from the grocery store? Well, that Turkey is normally processed. This Turkey was not only the absolute freshest, it was free of preservatives and organic! YUMMY, and everyone agreed!

Meals for 2 on Valentines Day

2010-02-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

Valentines Day typically is spent with one other person, your significant other. This Valentines Day was different. I went to the Brasstown Bald Mountains with my parents and their friends to stay in one of the couples' who are dear friends of my parents beautiful, giant log cabin. There was so much snow...we had an array of activities going on all weekend. We went sledding down huge hills (more like mini mtns.), went wading through the creek for old pottery, took hikes, went bowling, got treated to the spa and last but not least - we cooked and cooked and cooked! I thought I LOVED to cook, Mrs. Yvonne (my parents friend and owner of the cabin) might just love it as much as me!

On Friday we went to the lodge and enjoyed a magnificent seafood buffet, including all you can eat crab legs! We came home and made cherry jubilee bars - so yummy!

Saturday we woke up early and made an assortment of pancakes - buckwheat, buttermilk, fresh blueberry, and chocolate chip. Let's not forget the baked french toast with homemade apple butter either! We were outdoors all day so when we finally came in from the cold we made southwestern taco soup, chili with venison, and white bean and chicken chili soup. For dessert, me and Mrs. Yvonne made not one, but two sour cream pound cakes - there was 15 of us, we had to accommodate everyone!

Finally, Sunday breakfast consisted of eggs, peppered bacon, sausage links, biscuits, homemade sausage gravy, and chocolate gravy! Later, while all the moms ran to the boutique I stayed back to help the men make some chocolate covered strawberries! The moms returned and were surprised with the yummy dessert and their spa certificates to go get a massage an hour later! That evening before packing up to leave we all made a different pasta, brought each one to the table and ate and ate!

It was such a great weekend, propbably my favorite Valentines Day ever and I spent it with my parents. I Don't know how much you know about cooking, but when baking a cake (especially in a bundt pan) like we used for our pound cake, the rule is to never open the oven door to peak. This causes the cake to fall. Well we never opened the door on the first one and it still fell. So on round two, we never opened the door again, yet it still fell. Don't get me wrong, they can still taste incredible. Mrs. Yvonne's recipe for this cake is probably the best one I've ever tried. So come to find out, the altitude and was making our cakes fall! That's right, at higher altitudes it is necessary to change the proportion of ingredients in the recipe and to adjust the temperature (usually increase) and the baking time (usually decrease). Thought I'd fill you in on that helpful bit of info for those of you who who love to cook too!

Superbowl...football, friends, and FOOD!

2010-02-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

The Superbowl game collects the most viewers in America. The football is entertaining, the new commercials are great, but the food is at the heart of many when it comes to a Superbowl gathering!
This past Sunday was the 2010 Superbowl, so I figured I could share a couple recipes and you could too! Of course grilling out or pizza is nice, but I had to bring along some fun finger foods! I took sausage balls, stuffed mushrooms, buffalo chicken dip, mini quesadillas. The sausage balls aare secret family recipe, but I can share the rest or provide the link. Everyone loved all this, I took home nothing to my family.

Stuffed Mushrooms:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/stuffed-mushrooms-recipe/index.html

Mini Quesadillas:
1 jar dried beef, diced
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese
2 T sour cream
1 bunch green onions (scallions), discard ends and chop fine
about 3 T chopped pecans
4 large flour tortillas

Mix first 5 ingredients together, spread over 2 tortillas. Top each mixture with remaining 2 tortillas. cut into squares. Serve chilled.

Buffalo Chicken Dip (I've tried several, this is the best ever. I cook and shred my chicken instead of using canned):
www.franksredhot.com/retailrecipeview.php?id=RE1242