recipe

Aug 28 2012

The Mac and Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I had this idea awhile ago to make this sandwich but then it occured to my while making it that a local street food vender, Wiseguy Foods, mught have a similar sandwich but anyways.

This bad boy is a combination of traditional Kraft Dinner or Macaroni and Cheese (with ham added to it) with a Grilled Cheese Sandwich. It is pretty easy to make.

First thing I did was make the mac and cheese and added the ham. I then sliced to thick pieces of my homemade bread and buttered one side of each piece. Slapped some mac and cheese in between and let it grill on low.

You have to make sure the mac and cheese is thick enough it wont fall apart. This sure does taste good. Dip it in a bit of BBQ sauce and you are golden pony boy.

Dec 24 2011

The Best Chocolate Christmas Balls

Well here we are, Christmas Eve of 2011. My did it come fast; it came so fast I think I lost some of my Christmas spirit somewhere. Nevertheless I will find it by tomorrow morning, as the family is gathered around to celebrate a great day.

One of the great things about coming home to my parents for the holidays is the baking. My mom bakes a lot and sells it at the annual craft sales that take place in November and early December and par for the course we get to eat what doesn’t sell. As I’m now older and have found I rather enjoy cooking I thought I would try my had at a – very easy – recipe. Chocolate Balls, as my brother and I would call them. They are easy and quick to make and don’t actually require any baking.

Here is what you need:

3 Squares Chocolate
2 1/4 Cups Crushed Graham Crackers
3 Cups Icing Sugar
3 Eggs
1 1/2 Cups Butter
Handful of Sprinkles – up to you

The first thing you are going to want to do is crush the Graham Crackers, if you were like me and didn’t buy the pre-crushed ones. Simply put them in a zip-lock bag and use a rolling pin to crush the heck out of them. Try and get them as fine as possible so they don’t clump together in the balls.

Next you want to get yourself a good size mixing bowl for all this stuff that will need to be mixed. Throw in the graham cracker crumbs, icing sugar, eggs and soft butter. Mix that together for a minute or two.

Meanwhile you should put your 2 Chocolate Squares into a separate bowl of such and melt the chocolate in the Microwave. If you do not have a microwave, in a pot on the stove will work as well. The chocolate doesn’t have to be bubbling, but soft enough to mix.

I’m sure you guessed the next part of this little recipe. Add the melted chocolate to the mixture you already have going on. Mix it together good and snug.

Now that you mixture is all together, you may want to let it sit for a bit to harden up before rolling. Once you have done that though, I like to roll of the chocolate before I put on the sprinkles. Generally the balls be about 1″ in diameter or small if desired. Honestly, this part is up to you.

Once you have you balls rolled…. errr…. Once your chocolate is formed, it is time for the sprinklies! yay. For me this is actually the most annoying part, so it is best if the chocolate balls are still room temperature. I have found there are two ways of doing this. The first is to lay down some wax paper and them pour sprinkles on top of it and roll the balls in that. Or a new method I came up with it pouring all the sprinkles into a zip-lock bag and putting in one ball at a time. I like the zip-lock method because it is also makes less mess.

Then boom-badda-bing you are done. I like to change up the sprinkles I use, some Christmas themed, some plain, etc. Also if you want to get adventurous and like coconut, unlike me, you can also roll the balls in coconut.

Best to store them in an air tight container in the fridge and eaten cold. They are good trust me.

Let me know what you think. I’m curious to see if anyone has done something similar before.

Nov 27 2011

Google caters to the Foodies

Google has won me over once again, as they now offer Recipe Search. There are tons of good resources for recipes online and many which I use. AllRecipes.com, the Epicurious iPad App, and so on. All of these places are good at what they do, so why does this Google search draw me in?

It draws me in because it is in a place I always am. I’m always searching for something, so why not food as well. When you watch the video you will see that there are many options you can put in place to narrow down your search. For example here is a link to a search I did for potatoes with parmesan cheese with only 30 minutes prep time and under 300 calories.

Even though my collection of Company’s Coming recipe books is growing I still foresee myself using this Google Search when I want to try and cook something different. What about you?

Sep 06 2011

Wrapping Chicken with Sage and Prosciutto

I can officially say that I’m starting to feel like Julia Child or Betty Crocker. Want a good present for me, it’s actually simple these days. Although my mother would disagree on that, one thing that I can always use is more cookbooks and more utensils (food tools). Ironically being a geek and cooking are not that far apart. Look at folks like Kevin Rose, the creator of Digg, he loves to cook and his girlfriend writes a great food blog.

Today I want to share with you an amazing dish–vegetarians be warned, this is a lot of meat–that I found in my Gordon Ramsay’s Healthy Appetite cookbook. And yes I have about 10 recipes bookmarked in this book so far. The dish I tried is stuffed chicken breast wrapped in sage and prosciutto.

What you need:

2 Chicken Breasts
4 Sage leaves
4 large tbsp of Ricotta
Sea Salt and Black Pepper
6 Prosciutto slices
2 tbsp of Olive Oil
Pinch of Thyme

So the 1st thing you’ll want to do is make sure your chicken breast is thawed. Then you’ll want to cut open the chicken breast like a book or like a butterfly. Then you want to chop up 2 of the sage leaves and mix that together with the ricotta, sea salt, pepper and thyme. Once you mix it all together in a bowl, divided it into 2 and spread it inside of chicken breasts.

You’ll then want to add the ricotta mixed to the chicken and fold them over again so it is inside. Then layout 3 slices for each chicken of the prosciutto to be wrapped around the chicken breasts. Make sure to add the remaining sage leaves into the wrap. Are you still with me?

It is probably a good idea to make sure that the prosciutto is tightly wrapped around the chicken. Make sure it is a good bundle so that it doesn’t come apart well your pan frying.

Oh you guessed it! Yes, pan frying is the next thing you have to do to these things. Although the recipe I have says you should put them in the fridge for 2 hours to firm them up. I did not do this and it turned out perfectly fine. You’ll want to heat up at pan or skillet to medium-high heat and then add the olive oil before adding the chicken wrap. At the same time you’re doing this turn on your oven to 350° and put a roasting pan inside.

When you placed the chicken wraps inside the pan fry them for 2 min. on each side just enough to firm up the prosciutto and cook the outside of the chicken. Once you’ve done that it is now time to add it to the oven. Place the chicken wraps in the center of the oven and continue to cook for 12 to 15 min. or until there’s no longer a threat for salmonella. Yes I went there.

Apparently while in the oven these chickens get tired. When you remove them from the oven, let them rest. Cover them in tinfoil for 10 min. and then serve. I didn’t have anything with mine, but mashed potatoes or some greens would go well with this meal.

For next time. Although I thoroughly enjoyed this meal and it was a lot of fun to cook, I probably won’t do it with the Sage again. While sitting here writing this I was thinking how great a bit of pesto or basil would go with the ricotta. I think I’m going to try that next time.

Please try it and let me know how it works out. If you think I did something wrong, I’d love to hear your feedback. No seriously.