The Theme is "Small Plates" at I Heart Cooking Club

I Heart Cooking Club's theme is small plates. What I found funny about that is....does Nigella do anything small?! Seriously....the portions, HER, any of it from her show or her books. Anyway.........



I had my heart set on those little sausages which Nigella wraps with pancetta...alas...no little sausages to be found. That's what I get for waiting until the last minute on New Years Eve! Dumb ass.....

What I made for little appies were the Cocktail sausages (like little smokies)from Nigella Express.

The recipe called for cocktail sausages, honey, sesame oil and soy sauce. I plopped the sausages in a bread pan and drizzled all of the above over them. OR SO I Thought....because when I grabbed a bottle of brown "soy" from the fridge...turned out to be Worcestershire sauce!



No matter - they were good. At least it wasn't a mistake that resulted in something we couldn't eat.




Served with hummus and small whole wheat pitas........



A nice starter before a big meal. It's been fun visiting your sites to see what you made for the small plates theme :-)

Chicken with Saffron Rice

First off, Thank you Teresa for following my blog!

Happy New Year to everyone...I hope your celebrations were fun and you have some great new goals and recipes to share for 2010. I am looking forward to catching up with everyone after being away from the online world this past week.

To start the year off with a healthy recipe Doug and I made chicken with saffron rice.



You'll need the following ingredients........

3 ½ lbs. chicken thighs and drumsticks

Salt and pepper

2 Tbs. olive oil

1 yellow onion, finely diced

1 red bell pepper

¼ tsp. crumbled saffron

¼ tsp. red pepper flakes

5 garlic cloves, minced

½ cup cooking sherry

2 ¼ cups chicken broth

1 can (14 oz. size) diced tomatoes with juices

3 cups medium grain rice

½ cup green olives, pitted and halved



Season chicken with salt and pepper. In my Le Creuset I heated 2 Tbs. olive oil and browned chicken in batches (about 7 minutes to batch). Transfer to a plate when all the chicken is browned.



In the same pot you will tip in onions, bell pepper, saffron and red pepper flakes. Cook 10 minutes or until the veggies are soft.



Add garlic and cook a minute more. Now add sherry, stir.

Add chicken pieces, broth tomato and juices. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook 15 minutes.






Add rice, olives, 1 ¼ teaspoons salt and pepper.



Cover, bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking time.


Note: I took it out of the oven 15 minutes through cooking and it was just about done. I don’t think I added enough chicken broth…or maybe added too much rice – either way, I put the lid back on, placed it back in the oven and turned off the heat.




Let stand 10 minutes before serving.






I'm sending this to Cream puffs in Venice for her Magazine Monday series.

The Alcohol Post - Happy Birthday, Rum Cake and a Ginger Pom drink

I have been neglecting Nigella a bit lately and actually planned to post this Ginger Pom drink for the last theme of I Heart Cooking Club....but by the time I downloaded photos and sat down to post, the theme changed.

Anyway, from Nigella Express, the Razzle Dazzle section, is a drink called Ginger Pom.



The recipe calls for one part Pama Pomegranate liqueur, two parts ginger ale and 2 parts pomegranate juice.

We didn't have the pom liqueur but we did have much vodka...so I substituted. There is alot of vodka around now because we have been making Kahlua (coffee liqueur)....and...it was Tristan's 21st birthday Sunday last so we stopped by the local package store and I picked up yet more vodka.

Being the designated driver for the evening, and having ginger ale with my meal, I opted to drop a few splashes of vodka in the Pom as soon as we got home.



On to the birthday.........!

Tristan turned 21 and what he wanted was a rum cake and dinner at a local oyster bar and restaurant, Barnacle Bills.

In the morning I made a rum cake, let it cool and then set it in the fridge to get a cold ooey-gooey texture. By late afternoon we headed off to get fat juicy oysters.



Anyway, here is the recipe.....it is a very moist cake and tastes even better when you put it in the fridge for a day.

Ingredients

1 package "butter recipe" yellow cake mix
1 package (small) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 Tablespoon rum flavoring with enough water to make 1 cup
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
pecans



Grease and flour a Bundt or tube pan. Place chopped pecans in bottom of pan.



Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Put dry ingredients into large mixing bowl, pour water and oil into bowl and mix with electric mixer, adding one egg at a time. Mix 3 minutes.



Pour into pan. Bake 50 minutes (that is what works for my oven).



Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
The remainder of the rum flavoring into a half cup measuring cup and add enough water to make it one half cup.



Boil 2 minutes. Pour over cake immediately after taking from the oven.



Leave it alone for 30 minutes before you invert on plate. The sauce will absorb and soak through the cake while it sits.



It's a dense cake...and sticky.......



Slice a piece for me please........



Happy Birthday Tristan!

Sticky Steamed Pudding Book

On my December 23rd post I wanted to give a little booklet away, Sticky Steamed Puddings, which I hoped would have a better home than the one I have given it.



The winner is Dave over at A Year on The Grill...send me your address at hexandkobe at Yahoo dot com and I'll pop it in the mail for you.

My Internet connection has been crap ALL day so...it's been difficult to make comments and load pages. If I can, I will be visiting and commenting to you all. If I can't, then let me say...happy new year to you and stay warm!

Apple Raisin Bars for Magazine Monday

Apple-Raisin Bars





One of the perks of Autumn and Winter is the abundance of apples at the market. There is so much you can do with apples in cooking. I actually have an apple cookbook which features many different types of apples to be used in desserts and as ingredients in main meals.

When I was growing up we had two huge apple trees in the back yard, sentries at either end of my mother’s vegetable garden.



She was the June Cleaver kinda mom who would grow the food and then make amazing meals. When she picked the apples we were sure to enjoy a homemade pie, freshly stewed applesauce, and one of my favorites – apple bars.


When I came across this recipe in an old Family Circle magazine I clipped it and filed it away. That was a year ago and it just surfaced. Don’t ask……..

Only 15 minutes of prep (barring any unfortunate accidents such as throwing chickpeas in the flour, I wrote about here), gather the following ingredients………


2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups packed light-brown sugar

2 eggs

½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups died Golden Delicious apple

¾ cup raisins


Heat oven to 350 degrees. Liberally coat a 13x9x2 inch baking pan with non stick cooking spray.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; set aside.



In a large bowl blend together sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla with a mixer. I would use medium speed. Blend 3 minutes until smooth.

Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture; mix for 2 minutes or until incorporated.



Get your diced apples and raisins ready......



Stir in diced apples and raisins



Then spread into prepared pan.




Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting into bars.



They were wonderfully cinnamony, appley, warm treats that i will surely be making again! I'm sorry it took me so long to make these.



I think they may even have been good with the chickpeas!

Ok, don't forget the giveaway for the steamed British pudding booklet from a few days ago. Check it out! I have found two more books that are going to be leaving my shelve :-)

Crockpot Pizza Casserole

If you are tired of turkey and you want something the kids (and anyone who likes pizza) will devour - here is a quick-to-fix recipe that you toss in the crock pot. What could be easier.



You'll need the following ingredients........

1 1/2 pounds ground beef or sausage (I used sausage)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
half a box of pasta (I use sea shells)
1 eight-oz package white mushrooms, sliced
16 ounce jar pizza sauce
10 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
10 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded

Brown the sausage and onions.........then drain away oils.



Cook a half box of seashell pasta while the meat is browning.......



Slice some mushrooms



Layer HALF of each of the following, in the order given, in your slow cooker:
Ground Sausage
Green Pepper
Cooked noodles
Mushrooms
Pepperoni
Pizza Sauce
Cheddar Cheese
Mozzarella Cheese
Now repeat layers..............


Here is the cooked sausage in the bottom of the crock pot....




Layers



Here it is with the cheeses added.....



Repeat the layers, Cover... set the crock on LOW for 3 hours.......it's all mixed and gooey - after only three hours!
(Note: Keep pasta covered with sauce so it doesn't become dry and crunchy)



Paired with a nice Belgian ale this proved to be a rib sticker for a cold rainy evening.


I'm sending this over to Deb at Crock pot Wednesdays.

Steak Sandwiches for Christmas Eve

This Christmas my son received a bit of a cash bonus and...meat!

Behold the slices of rib-eye steak he brought home........



Since we just wanted a simple meal for Christmas eve, and Tristan had these gorgeous steaks, we made cheese steak sandwiches. Caramelized some onions.........





Sadly, we were just about out of mozzarella so I used the tiny bit that was left and some cheddar...



Chop the rib eye and used the grill pan.....



It made a decent sandwich....but no where near as good as a steak sammy from the Philadelphia area such as Phil and Jim's Hoagies or LaSpada...



Great little meal, followed by bourbon (for Doug) and kahlua (for me) every commercial break from It's a Wonderful Life.

Hope you all had a quiet and/or festive Christmas eve - whichever one you were hoping for :-)