Couscous Cakes

Couscous Cakes

adapted from here

Instructions
1 cup cooked couscous
2 eggs
about 3 T panko bread crumbs
parsley, basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder
3 T olive oil

Equipment
saucepan, saute pan, stove

Instructions
Lightly beat the eggs. Mix the cooked couscous in with the eggs until incorporated. If it seems too thin, add the panko crumbs a little at a time, mixing thoroughly to see if you need more. Add the seasonings and mix thoroughly. Heat the oil in a pan. Form the couscous mixture into cakes with damp hands and drop carefully into the pan. Cook until browned on each side (about 5-7 minutes per side for me).

Yields
I got five out of this much mixture

Total time
Including cooking the couscous, about 15 minutes

Cleanup rating 3/10
Not including the pot you cooked the couscous in, all you have is a bowl that you mixed in and the pan of oil.

Difficulty rating 4/10
The trickiest skill required is knowing how much of the panko you need to mix in. It's not even hard to flip the cakes, if you wait until they're done on the first side.

Flavor rating 5/10
This is the simple, basic version. The original recommended including chopped pistachios, which I didn't have and I didn't think would go too well with the seared tuna and sauteed green beans, so I left them out. I would definitely recommend putting SOMETHING in them, and if you don't, go a little heavy on the salt, or serve them with some kind of sauce on them.

Adjustability: high
You can put all sorts of things in these, as long as they're small (or chopped fine) enough to not break up the structural integrity of the cakes. Pistachios or other chopped nuts, peas or chopped pieces of broccoli, asparagus, carrot, or other veggies, small pieces of meat like chicken, bacon, or ground beef... the possibilities are endless. You can also change the seasonings to whatever you want, and serve it with any kind of sauce (to match whatever you put inside them or serve it with).

Make it with...
I started off thinking I'd just make some sushi rice to go with our tuna, then I thought I'd try making rice pilaf, and then Birk suggested couscous or quinoa. So anything you'd make a grain with, you can make these with.

Maple Bacon Walnut Green Beans, and Candied Walnuts

Yes, vegetables are inherently good for you. But sometimes you feel like making them as bad for you as possible. Adding bacon, maple syrup, and candied nuts to them is a good way to accomplish that goal. Here's how:

Maple Bacon Walnut Green Beans

adapted from here

Ingredients
about a pound of green beans
3 T maple syrup
2 T olive oil
1 T red wine vinegar
1/2 t Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 slices cooked bacon, chopped
1/4 cup chopped candied walnuts

Equipment
whisk; pot; colander; large bowl; stove

Instructions
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Boil the green beans for 3-5 minutes (they should still be crisp). While the beans boil, whisk the syrup, oil, vinegar, mustard, and garlic together. Drain the green beans immediately and put them in a large bowl with ice water. After three minutes, drain the green beans again. Pat them with a paper towel, then toss them in the dressing. Top with bacon and walnuts. Salt and pepper if preferred.

Yields
4 servings

Total time
15 minutes

Cleanup rating 3/10
If you do this correctly, you should only have one bowl that needs good cleaning. Other than that, you have the pot you boiled the green beans in, and the colander. (And a whisk.)

Flavor rating 8/10
How can you go wrong? It's salty and sweet, bacon-y and maple-y, and still a crisp green vegetable.

Difficulty rating 6/10
For a side dish, there's a bit of work that goes into this, but it pays off. Don't forget that there are steps not technically included here (like cooking the bacon, and if you're making the candied nuts yourself, you need to get that done before you start, too).

Adjustability: low
There aren't many things you could do differently here. I suppose you could use prosciutto instead of bacon if you're the fancy type. The original recipe used pecans, but I had walnuts, and sliced almonds would be good too.

Make it with...
As you can see in the photo, I made it with a potato-onion-sausage saute (also delicious) but this could go with anything you'd pair with green beans. Beef, chicken, pork, turkey, something vegetarian (although these are decidedly non-vegetarian, what with the bacon and all).

---

If you can't find candied nuts to your liking or at all, or you have some plain nuts on standby that you want to use up, this is how I made mine. They weren't perfect, and I would adjust the recipe or find a different one (or just make the nuts earlier and let them dry some more before making the green beans) but it works!

Candied Walnuts
adapted from here

Ingredients
2 cups of nuts (walnuts, in my case)
4 T butter
4 T brown sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon (optional)

Equipment
microwave; bowl; parchment or wax paper

Instructions
Melt the butter in a bowl. Add the nuts and toss to coat evenly. Add the sugar and cinnamon (optional) and stir until incorporated. Spread on paper and allow to cool.

Yields
2 cups of nuts (plenty more than enough for the green beans recipe)

Total time
5 minutes

Cleanup rating 2/10
Only one bowl (and disposable paper) but it's a sticky mess of a bowl.

Difficulty rating 2/10
Stupid easy, just don't burn your fingers on the bowl.

Flavor rating 6/10
They're pretty good, but if I were going to eat them by themselves, I'd change something... I just don't know what.

Adjustability: low
You could add other spices, but there isn't much to this recipe, so there isn't much you can change.

Make it with...
Obviously, with the green bean recipe above. But you could put these on salads or eat them as a snack.

Chicken Lazone

I had never heard of chicken lazone before, but I ran across a recipe here and thought it sounded too easy and delicious not to try. It was good, but I think I need to make it again and let the sauce thicken a little longer and it would be perfect.

Chicken Lazone

Ingredients
2 thin boneless, skinless chicken breasts (either cut in half lengthwise or pounded flat)
garlic powder
onion powder
chili powder (I didn't have this, so I used taco seasoning... close enough!)
1 cup heavy cream
2 T and 2 T butter

Equipment
skillet, stove

Instructions
Season your chicken breasts on both sides with the three spices. Melt 2 T of butter in the pan and cook the chicken on both sides until done. Melt the remaining 2 T of butter around the chicken and pour in the cream. (If necessary, scrape up any seasoning that has stuck to your pan and incorporate it.) Cook for about 8 minutes until sauce thickens.

Yields
2 servings (two chicken breasts)

Total time
about 20 minutes

Cleanup rating 4/10
This rating was arrived at because I was a responsible adult and cleaned the pan immediately after eating dinner. Don't let this one sit. My sauce was thin enough that the little bit left in the pan just went down the sink drain, and it's only one pan so it's not too bad.

Flavor rating 6/10
Birk liked it more than I did, but it did grow on me the more I ate. Like I said at the top, I think I should have let the sauce thicken more.

Difficulty rating 5/10
It doesn't take a very long time, it's almost the same as my basic chicken recipe but with a sauce component added to the end, and the skills necessary are pretty simple (recognizing when chicken is done and when sauce is thickened).

Adjustability: medium
You can switch up the spices and maybe add vegetables or cheese or something. It's hard to say with this one.

Make it with...
I made this with garlic mashed potatoes (the sauce was delicious on them) and a recipe I'm about to post, kale and onion saute. Everything went really well together. The original recipe showed the chicken and sauce being served over a long noodle like spaghetti, which would probably be really good too.

Cost
Chicken, heavy cream, butter, and the spices all belong in my kitchenventory, so the garlic mashed potatoes (about $2) were the only thing I bought that I don't normally have on hand.

Pineapple & Soy Sauce Chicken

Pineapple Soy Sauce Chicken

Ingredients

two boneless, skinless chicken breasts

can of pineapple juice (a little less than a cup)

1/2 cup of soy sauce

1/3 cup of brown sugar

Equipment

slow cooker

Instructions

Put it all in a slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours (6 for fresh, 8 for frozen).

Yields

two servings

Total time

6-8 hours (negligible prep time)

Cleanup rating 4/5

Sticky juices in a slow cooker? Yuck. But there aren't little pieces of things to scrape off the slow cooker, so that's a plus.

Flavor rating 5/10

It was okay. The chicken was a little dry because it had to cook longer than was ideal due to our work/school schedules yesterday, and I think the sauce needed something. Maybe a little orange? I don't know. But it was edible and we ate it. Adding some of the sauce to the rice made it a little better.

Difficulty rating 1/10

You saw the instructions section, right? Stupid easy.

Adjustability: low

If you change this much, it will be a different recipe. But like I said, it needs something to fix it.

Make it with...

We had white rice with it, which went really well. I planned on sauteeing some bell pepper to add a veggie to the mix but I was hungry when I got home so we just ate without the veggie.

Kitchenventory
Everything in this recipe belongs in my kitchenventory. Chicken breasts are a common staple of our diet, soy sauce and brown sugar are always in the cabinet, and we almost always have pineapple juice on hand for mixing drinks.

French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup

Ingredients

3 large yellow onions (slice 'em up)

4 Tbsp butter

1 cup white wine (I used pinot grigio)

42 oz beef broth

Salt and pepper

bread

shredded cheese (I used Gouda)

Equipment

slow-cooker, skillet, stove

Instructions

Melt the butter in the skillet. Add onions and saute until they're soft and a little bit browned. Add the wine. Pour it into the slow-cooker with the beef broth, and a dash of salt and pepper. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Toast the bread lightly. Serve in bowls with bread on top, cheese on top of that, and add a little more soup on top of the cheese to melt it all together.

Yields

4-6 bowls of soup

Total time

4.5 hours: About 15 minutes of prep, 4 hours in the slow-cooker, 10 minutes to finish off

Cleanup rating 4/5

Slow-cooker recipes always have higher cleanup ratings. We didn't like this enough to keep the leftovers, so I strained the liquid out of it with a colander into the sink, and threw out the remaining onion pieces. Plus you have more dishes than you normally get from a slow-cooker recipe: skillet, knife and cutting board, and the five billion tears from cutting up so much onion at once.

Difficulty rating 3/10

There are many steps, but none of them are particularly difficult. You do need to try to get the onion slices approximately the same size for even cooking, but that's probably the trickiest part.

Flavor rating 4/10

Meh. I don't really know what went wrong with it, but it just wasn't very good. The wine flavor was pretty strong, which is not what I want out of a French onion soup. I think that was the biggest problem. I would cut down on the wine.

Adjustability: low

There isn't much to French onion soup. There's onions, liquid, then bread and cheese. It's rare for "peasant food" to not be very adjustable, but this one doesn't have much of anywhere to go. Different onions, different wine, different broth, different bread, different cheese, but they're all the same basic ingredients. For what it's worth, the gouda worked really well, even though the original recipe suggested Swiss.

Make it with...

I made it with beer mushrooms, sauteed beer brats with garlic, and potatoes. It could be its own meal, or go with all sorts of things.

Game of Thrones Dinner: Honeyed Chicken and Spiced Squash

I know, I disappeared from this blog for a while... Sorry! But I haven't been cooking as much because I've been doing... everything else.

Last Saturday, Beth and Chris and I entered a cosplay contest at Tidewater Comicon... and we won best group! In celebration of our cosplay (Melisandre, Margaery, and Oberyn) I wanted to make an easy dinner for everyone from the Inn at the Crossroads. I wanted to make olive bread but the timing didn't work out very well, so this is what we wound up with:

I made a pressed-for-time (some might call it "lazy") version of Honeyed Chicken. I cheated and used pre-made rotisserie chickens, but I made the sauce. I also made Spiced Squash with it (I used the modern recipe, but used butternut squash that was growing in the yard so I wouldn't have to buy acorn squash). And to pull it all together, I threw together a green salad out of what the in-laws had growing outside: a couple different types of lettuce, spinach, tomato, and some red onion Birk chopped up while I was out picking everything else.

Sauce for Honeyed Chicken

from Inn at the Crossroads

Ingredients

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup honey

dash of mint (I had to use dried)

handful of raisins

1 Tbsp butter

Equipment

saucepan, spoon, measuring cup, stove

Instructions

Combine everything in a pan and cook until the raisins start to plump. Pour it over the chicken when it's done. (Yes, it's that simple!)

Yields

I actually doubled the recipe since, as you can see in the photo, I had two chickens. (I was channeling the Hound, I guess.) But the recipe makes plenty for one full chicken.

Total time

For the sauce, maybe 10 minutes total. I was reheating the chickens so that took about 30 minutes.

Cleanup rating 2/5

I expected something with this much honey to be a huge mess, but it wasn't bad. I recommend cleaning out your pan pretty quickly though, because it does that thing where the fat floats on the top if you don't use all the sauce, and I think that's kinda gross. And rinse out your measuring cup with really hot water right after you measure the honey, and that'll be less of an issue later.

Difficulty rating 2/10

It's a really simple recipe. Even if you had to roast a chicken from scratch, I wouldn't put this over a 5/10. The timing is easy, the cooking is easy... you do need to be able to keep an eye on it, but I had Birk around for that.

Flavor rating 6/10

I thought it was a little heavy on the apple cider vinegar, but everyone else said it was good. I think it went really well with the already-seasoned rotisserie chicken, so the flavor plays well with others. And I'm pretty sure some of the vinegariness went away as the sauce cooled.

Adjustability: low

Other than adding herbs, I don't know how I could change this, but I also don't know why I would. It's basic and yummy.

Make it with...

Obviously, chicken. I don't see any reason you couldn't make it with turkey instead. I wouldn't use it with other meats, or with anything other than poultry.

Spiced Squash

from Inn at the Crossroads

Ingredients
a squash (I used butternut)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice (I skipped this because we didn't have any)

Equipment
sauce pan, stove, baking sheet, oven

Instructions
Cut up the squash into approximately 1" pieces. Preheat the oven to 375F. Heat the maple syrup in a pan with the spices for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly (do not let it boil). Remove it from the heat. Arrange your squash pieces on a baking sheet (I highly recommend lining it with foil first). Pour the sauce over the squash, coating the pieces as evenly as possible. Bake until tender, about 20 minutes. If you managed to reserve any sauce, heat it in the last few minutes and pour it over the squash when you take it out of the oven.

Yields
Two fairly big butternut squashes fed me and five friends, and the sauce was just the right amount.

Total time
This only took about half an hour, with Birk cutting up the squash while I worked on the sauce for the chicken.

Cleanup rating 2/5
Not bad, but you are heating maple syrup in a pan. I'd recommend using all the sauce on the squash to begin with, and cleaning the pan immediately, while the squash is in the oven. And if you follow my advice about lining the baking sheet with foil, it'll make it 10x better.

Difficulty rating 3/10
I learned that butternut squash is pretty tough to cut; it's kind of like a sweet potato. Beyond that, this is a very simple recipe... it's like a sweet version of my potatoes!

Flavor rating 7/10
I don't eat a lot of squash, but maybe I should start. This was really good. It's excellent for fall weather! I think I might mount an effort to get squash everywhere instead of pumpkin. (Nothing against pumpkin, I'm just not a big fan of it in everything... just pie, really.)

Adjustability: low
There are only so many spices that would go well on a squash, and there are only so many types of squash, and that's all you could really change, because that's all you're using.

Make it with...
Of course, I made it with the honeyed chicken, which was an amazing combination. But I think you could make it with anything that you consider a fall or winter meal. It's a side dish that plays well with others. And it's an excellent and easy vegan dish if you have guests with dietary considerations at the holidays. (It's also gluten-free unless you have a really weird maple syrup.)

Cheesesteaks

I'm pretty sure I've never been to Philadelphia (therefore, if I have, I don't remember it) so go easy on me here, okay? I just like sandwiches. Don't try to tell me this isn't a proper cheesesteak... I'm from the south; I'm not expected to get these things right.

Cheesesteaks

Ingredients
green pepper
onion
mushrooms
ground beef
sliced provolone
bolillo rolls
about 2 Tbsp butter

Equipment
pan, foil, baking sheet, stove, oven

Instructions
Cut up your veggies into pieces that are an appropriate size to put on a sandwich. (I mention this specifically because I made mine a little big... they shrink a little while they cook, but not that much.) Melt butter in a pan and cook the veggies on medium-high until they start to get little char marks on them. Move the veggies to a bowl to wait while you cook the ground beef thoroughly in the pan. Drain your ground beef (I set out a paper plate covered in paper towels and pour the meat onto it, pat it down with a couple more paper towels) and put it back in the pan. Add the veggies back to the pan and mix thoroughly. Turn the heat to low. Once the veggies are heated through, spread the mixture evenly in the pan and cover with slices of provolone. Preheat the oven to 250F. Once the cheese is melted, scoop the mixture into sliced bolillo rolls. Wrap each sandwich very very tightly in foil and set on the baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Yields 
I got 5 sandwiches out of one package of ground beef, one pepper, one onion, and a few button mushrooms. If we had used bigger rolls, it would have been 4.

Total time
about 30 minutes

Cleanup rating 1/5
Using one pan for the veggies and the meat makes cleanup even easier. Since the sandwiches are wrapped tight in foil, they don't leak onto the pan, so that doesn't even need to be cleaned.

Difficulty rating 2/10
These are not hard... they're just a little more time-consuming than a sandwich usually is. I was playing on hard-mode because my thumb hurt (have you ever cut your thumb by opening shampoo? I have) but still... not hard.

Flavor rating 6/10
Pretty good. I feel like there's something missing, or maybe I just should have used actual steak, but they were good.

Adjustability: high
Switch up your veggies! Change your cheese! Use steak instead of ground beef! Try chicken or pork or turkey instead! Use a different bread! Season your meat with something crazy! Every ingredient can be changed, removed, or switched out for something else. You could even go against everything Philly stands for and just put the mixture on top of rice or mashed potatoes or something, I don't know.

Make it with...
I made potatoes, and I had some green beans on stand-by to make sauteed green beans if the timing was a little off (but it wasn't). I thought about potato chips, potato salad, something with avocado (I just couldn't decide what)... it's a sandwich! Make whatever you want with it.

Bonus photos:

Veggies should look pretty much like this when they're done sauteeing.
Look at the little brown bits on some of them! YUM.

Cheese is just about melted over the meat-and-veggie mixture.
Almost time to transfer to the rolls.

Honey Mustard Dressing

I can't even try to introduce this one. I found it in an image on Pinterest (from Spark People but the image is here). Everything I want to say belongs in a section below, so here we go... honey mustard dressing.

Honey Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 1/2 Tbsp honey

Equipment

bowl, whisk

Instructions

Combine ingredients in a bowl and whisk until thoroughly incorporated.

Yields

Enough for maybe 4-5 salads? Maybe about 1/3 cup?

Total time

5 minutes

Cleanup rating 2/5

Lots of liquids to be measured so you need to clean your Tbsp several times (or have a bunch of them on hand and clean them all after).

Difficulty rating 1/10

Mix things in a bowl? That's literally all it is. Mix things in a bowl.

Flavor rating 5/10

What a weird honey mustard. Yeah, there's honey in it... and mustard, too. But that much balsamic vinegar makes it very weird, and the Greek yogurt is a little apparent for my tastes. Birk really liked it, which I guess is great, but I don't think I'll repeat this one. When I brought Birk his plate, he said, "I thought you were going to make honey mustard?" So it's obviously not your usual honey mustard... but not bad.

Adjustability: low

I wouldn't have a clue how to change this. I'd just find a new recipe if I wanted something different.

Make it with...

Well, it was good on our salad, which it was intended for. It might be good drizzled on fresh bread, too.

Bonus photos: Dinner was avocado chicken with potatoes and salad made of lettuce from our planter, cucumber, and homemade croutons.

Skillet Corn

I forgot to take a photo of this one. So I'm borrowing the photo from here, which is where I got the recipe from.

From here

Before I made this, I didn't really know what creamed corn was. It just brought to mind a tin can of gelatinous goo with corn in it. (Turns out, I wasn't far off on that count.) But I described to a coworker this corn that I made over the weekend, and she said it sounded like creamed corn. So I guess creamed corn is actually pretty good. At any rate, the original recipe poster called this skillet corn, which sounds way more delicious than "creamed corn."

Skillet Corn

Ingredients

3 cups corn

1/2 tsp salt

pepper to taste

1 Tbsp sugar (I'm fairly certain I accidentally left this out)

1/2 cup water

1 Tbsp flour

1/4 cup milk

Equipment

skillet with lid, stove

Instructions

Put corn, salt and pepper, sugar, butter, and water in 10" skillet. Cover; simmer 15 minutes (stir occasionally). Combine flour with milk. Stir into corn. Cook another 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Yields

about 3 cups of corn

Total time

20 minutes (negligible prep time, 15 minutes to simmer and 5 minutes to finish it off)

Cleanup rating 2/5

All you have to clean is a pan, spoon, and whatever bowl you put the corn in. And the measuring cup. Nothing sticky or anything; very simple.

Difficulty rating 3/10

Just make sure you stir constantly after you add the milk; I'm always very wary after adding milk to a hot pan because I know it can do weird, disgusting things. The rest is incredibly easy.

Flavor rating 5/10

Yum. It might have been better if I had remembered the sugar, but it was still good. It went perfectly with burgers and hot dogs on a beautiful-weather Father's Day.

Adjustability: low

I don't know what else you could do to it.

Make it with...

Well, like I said, it went great with cookout food. But it would also work with... pretty much anything. Chicken, beef, pork, whatever.

Maple Cookies

Happy Fathers' Day, everyone!

You know what I love about making cookies as gifts for people? I get to taste test them.

My dad loves a good maple bar, so when I ran across a maple cookie recipe on Pinterest, I thought they might make a good gift for him.

Maple Cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar

Equipment
oven, mixer, baking sheet, cooling rack

Instructions
In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Add the egg, syrup, and vanilla; mix until combined. Add soda, salt, and flour; mix until combined. Refrigerate for about an hour. Preheat oven to 350 F. Put sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 1" balls and flatten slightly; dip one side in sugar and set on greased baking sheets (sugar-side up). Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Yields
2 dozen cookies

Total time
90 minutes (a few minutes to mix everything, 1 hour to refrigerate, a few minutes to roll into balls, 10 minutes each for two batches to bake)

Cleanup rating 2/5
As long as you can manage to not get syrup everywhere while you're measuring, this is only as messy as a basic sugar cookie (simple enough to get the batter off the bowl and beaters, throw your measuring implements in the dishwasher, you're done).

Difficulty rating 3/10
The hardest part is creaming the butter and sugar, which is so easy.

Flavor rating 6/10
They're pretty good. They don't have a strong flavor (which I prefer, personally) but they're nice. I used light brown sugar, so that probably makes a difference.

Adjustability: low
I don't know what I could do to change this recipe. Maybe some kind of frosting to make it sweeter, or throw some walnuts in there?

Make it with...
Nothing, they're cookies. If I were a coffee drinker, I might think they go well with coffee... I'm not sure.

Just Two Cookies

Last night, I was poking around the kitchen looking for a snack. I found nothing that interested me, but I opened the cabinet and realized that I could make a snack, because I had all the makings of basic baked goods (because of all the cookies and cakes and such I've been making lately). So I switched to poking around on the internet to look for "small batch cookie recipes" and I was not disappointed.

(No, those aren't on the usual big plates; it's on the little tiny plate.)

Just Two Cookies

Ingredients 

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp (packed) brown sugar

1 Tbsp sugar

pinch of sea salt

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup flour

1 Tbsp (heaped) chocolate chips

1 Tbsp (heaped) butterscotch chips

Equipment
small baking sheet, oven

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F. If you want a softer cookie, line your baking sheet with parchment paper. Grease the pan if you prefer crisper cookies. In a microwave-safe bowl, soften your butter. Add sugars, salt, and vanilla to butter and mix by hand. Add egg yolk and stir until combined. Add baking soda and flour and stir until combined. Stir in the chocolate and butterscotch chips. Split into two and set on baking sheet a few inches apart. Bake about 8 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before enjoying.

Yields
2 cookies

Total time
15 minutes (preheating while mixing, then baking)

Cleanup rating 2/5
It's great to not have a mixer and mixing bowl and spatula and all that to clean... just a small bowl (like a salad bowl) and the fork I used to mix.

Difficulty rating 3/10
Sure, you have to be able to separate a yolk out of the egg, and mix thoroughly, and whatnot.

Flavor rating 4/10
I've got to stop using those damn butterscotch chips. They're just too ridiculously sweet. I would recommend going back to what the original recipe said: 2 Tbsp chocolate chips, no butterscotch.

Adjustability: medium
You could add different things: nuts, other chips, caramel bits, etc.

Make it with...
Nothing, it's just a cookie. I guess if you're into milk, you'd probably like that with them.

BBQ Pizza

I was planning a really epic dinner of dumplings with dipping sauce and a soy-honey pork, but the store was missing a few key ingredients. So I had to improvise. And I made pizza!

No, the color isn't off on your monitor (well... it could be, but if it weren't, this still might look a little odd) and I didn't burn it. It's bbq pizza!

BBQ Pizza

Ingredients
Boboli pizza crust
Jack Daniel's honey barbecue sauce
pepperoni
black olives
four-cheese blend (the same one I used on the avocado chicken parm last night)

Equipment
cookie sheet or pizza stone, oven, pizza cutter

Instructions
The instructions are actually on the Boboli crust package. Preheat the oven to 450F, put sauce, cheese, and toppings on the crust, bake for 8-10 minutes. I put the cheese on top of my toppings in the hopes that it would keep the pepperoni from sliding around when I tried to cut the pizza (like they've done in the past) but it didn't help.

Yields
an 8" pizza (which I cut into 6ths)

Total time
15 minutes (waiting for the oven to heat up takes half the time; baking the pizza takes the other half)

Cleanup rating 1/5
It hardly gets easier. No dishes involved, except the pan (which, unless you're just the worst at spreading sauce, will be almost clean anyway) and the plate I ate off of.

Difficulty rating 2/10
I had to fight with the olive can because I had a mishap with the can opener, but that isn't really the recipe's fault. There's a reason people use "make your own pizza night" as a family event... kids can do this.

Flavor rating 5/10
Not bad. I used a little bit too much sauce.

Adjustability: high
You can put ANYTHING on your pizza. Any sauce, any cheese, any toppings... whatever you want.

Make it with...
I made a big huge salad to go with mine, because I usually associate pizza and salad with Italian dressing. Probably from going to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet so much as a kid, I guess.

Cheesy Sausage Bake

I actually made this a while ago... I just forgot to post it. So here it is!

Cheesy Sausage Bake

Ingredients
smoked sausage, 1 package
1 large onion
1 potato
1/2 bag of baby carrots
olive oil
salt, pepper
paprika
sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Equipment
oven, foil, roasting pan

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F. Slice the sausage (about the thickness you see in the photo) and dice your onion and potato. Line a roasting pan with foil and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil, spreading it evenly. Put the sausage, onions, and potatoes into the pan and drizzle with olive oil; mix thoroughly with your hands. Sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, and paprika, and toss again to evenly coat. Spread it evenly in the pan. Bake for 45 minutes (stir every 15 minutes) until potatoes are forkable and golden-brown. Turn off the oven. Sprinkle the cheese evenly across the top and return pan to the oven for a few minutes to melt it.

Yields
about 4 servings

Total time
About an hour (about 15 minutes prep time with chopping and tossing, 45 minutes bake time)

Cleanup rating 2/5
The foil lining makes it easy to clean your pan. If you shred your own cheese, you have to clean the grater, which I see as a bit of a pain, but otherwise there isn't much to it.

Difficulty rating 4/10
You have to be present and paying attention the whole hour, because you need to check in and stir it every 15 minutes.

Flavor rating 6/10
It was good. I wasn't blown away by it, but it was very good.

Adjustability: high
You can add or replace ingredients pretty easily (make sure you don't use something that will devolve to mush unless you add it later in the baking process) and you can add whatever spices you want. I think I actually added garlic... I put garlic in everything.

Make it with
...nothing, unless you want to. You've got your veggies, starch, meat, even some cheese in there. I might make a green veggie on the side (peas, broccoli, a green salad) but I didn't this time.

Accidental Cookies

So, remember how I was making a ton of Mothers' Day cookies? Well, I screwed up the dough for the raspberry cookies (I forgot to add the sugar... thank goodness I tasted the dough before folding in the raspberries!). I tried to go back and add the sugar and re-mix it, but it turned into a firm dough ball that would not take raspberries well. So I saved it until later, and made these "accidental" cookies! Then I decided that they needed a little something... so I made a lime icing.

Accidental Cookies with Lime Icing

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, not softened, cubed

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

lime juice (about 2 Tbsp? I didn't measure)

powdered sugar (about 1/2 cup? I didn't measure)

Equipment

baking sheet, parchment paper, mixer, oven

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix flour and baking powder together. Add butter and knead together by hand. You should get a crumbly mixture. Add the heavy cream and mix thoroughly (with a spoon should be fine). Add the sugar (if you want to be exactly like me, swear loudly about forgetting to add the sugar in the first place). Knead really thoroughly until all the sugar is incorporated. Pinch off small balls of dough and place on parchment-paper-lined baking sheet. Bake about 15 minutes. Let them cool thoroughly on a cooling rack. Mix lime juice and powdered sugar, adjusting amounts until you have the consistency of icing you want. Drizzle over cookies.

Yields

I got about 2 dozen cookies

Total time

Hard to tell, since I made these around making the raspberry cookies, but probably about 30 minutes including 15 minutes baking time.

Cleanup rating 2/5

Any time I'm working with powdered sugar will be no lower than a 2/5. But the dough is really clean, because it's a firm ball of dough instead of a crumbly mess.

Difficulty rating 5/10

Kneading by hand is a pain in the butt. Especially since I did it twice in a row (this batch, then doing it correctly for the raspberry cookies). And getting the icing consistency right is tricky.

Flavor rating 6/10

Birk says the cookies have a biscuit-y feel/flavor, and I don't disagree. But I like them, and it means they aren't too sweet. The lime icing is pretty tart, and I like that too. I feel like this recipe has some tweaking in its future.

Sweet Palmiers

Palmiers have lots of names in French: palm trees (palmiers), French hearts (coeurs de France), elephant ears, shoe-soles... but they're usually just palmiers. And if you use frozen puff pastry, they're stupidly easy to make. We had a last-minute "oh no, one of our best employees is moving and his last day is tomorrow" situation at work, so we wrangled up some people to bring cookies and ice cream and chips and dip and drinks so we could give him a proper send-off. I made these.

Palmiers (cinnamon-sugar)

Ingredients

frozen puff pastry

sugar

cinnamon

1 egg white per 2 sheets of puff pastry

Equipment

oven, parchment paper, baking sheet, basting brush

Instructions

Thaw your puff pastry according to package directions. (Mine said 40 minutes.) Preheat oven to 400 F. Unfold the puff pastry and brush with egg white. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and sugar. Roll the right and left sides toward the center (to make the curly shape you see in the photo). Turn the log over, brush with egg white, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Turn it back over, brush with egg white, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Use a sharp knife and slice the log into ~1/4-inch slices, trying your best to keep the curly shape. Lay the slices on a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet (give them enough space to expand a little bit). Sprinkle each liberally with more sugar. (I never said these were good for you.) Bake for 12-15 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.

Yields

I used three sheets of puff pastry and got about 36 palmiers out of them, so I'll go with about a dozen palmiers per sheet of puff pastry.

Total time

I baked mine in rounds, so I did three separate bakings... took me about 90 minutes (40 minutes to thaw the pastry, a little prep time, plus 45 minutes baking time, with three rounds of 15 minutes each). If you did just one sheet, it would be about an hour (40 minutes thaw time, 5 minutes prep time, 15 minutes bake time).

Cleanup rating 1/5

So easy. If you can manage not to get sugar and cinnamon everywhere (which is easy-ish, because it's not powdered sugar, and I used Vietnamese cinnamon which is more expensive and therefore I'm more careful with it) you just have to clean the sticky sugary egg white mess off a cutting board (or, if you're smart, throw away a piece of parchment paper).

Difficulty rating 3/10

It's not very hard, but you do have to be careful with timing (I made too many without adjusting timing, so by the time I got to my third sheet of pastry, it was getting sticky because it had been thawing for too long) and without a great knife, it's hard to slice the log nicely. I managed to keep the shape okay, but good tools are necessary to be a good cook (or baker in this case).

Flavor rating 5/10

I was a little underwhelmed. I think Birk was too. But a lot of people at work praised them (and sought me out to do so) so that's probably a good sign.

After thawing the pastry, brushing with egg white,
and sprinkling with cinnamon & sugar.

After rolling it into a curly log.

After slicing. (This was the third batch. Notice the little tails on some
of the slices? That's because it had been thawing a little too long,
and it kept sticking to the knife. It's not a big deal, you can just
stick the tails to the side when you lay them on the baking sheet,
but still... that's not the goal.)

A palmier in my palm. Ha.