California Cutie Pie

Hello! Here's a quick post for you. :)

I'm a big fan of clementines. For those of you who haven't tried them, they're very small, very sweet oranges. As a bonus, they're really easy to peel! I like them because they aren't really tart, like most other oranges. I only like fruits that are really sweet, so these are perfect! They're not around very much where I live, it seems. I only get them every few months, though I tend to pick up a box whenever I see one.

Often, clementines are advertised as "California Cuties", because they're so small. Note that sometimes mandarin oranges are also called that...I made the mistake of picking up some mandarins instead of clementines once! They're similar but have their differences, and I must say that I like clementines better.

My one problem is that I can never eat all of my clementines fast enough! They come in a large box, and even if you had one at every meal, they would probably last you a week. That's a lot of clementines! Last year, I found a recipe for "California Cutie Pie", made with strawberries and clementines, at the blog The Cilantropist. It looked great and like a perfectly summery treat, so I decided to try it!

It was pretty good. :) The fruits offer a nice summery touch, and the pie crust was great - my first successful blind-baked pie crust! That just means you bake the crust on its own before you add the filling for your pie. The pie is full of chopped strawberries and clementines, then topped with a sweet glaze. Perfect!

Go try out this recipe here! 

Pork and Pasta Bake

Hello! It's my last day down in College Station for a while. Heading home will be nice, though! I have 2 trips coming up (to Michigan to visit my boyfriend, and to Seattle for a family vacation), so I'm glad I get some time to chill at home before life gets busy again!

I decided I wanted to make something a little different this week...something that didn't include chicken or tilapia. Those are always in my freezer, so it's tempting to stick with them for dinner. However, that means I'm not trying much of anything new. So, I turned to my little Italian cookbook for guidance.

This is a pork and pasta bake! It has 2 delicious layers. The bottom is a mix of ground pork and vegetables (namely onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes) browned together in a pan with some olive oil, sage, and garlic. And the top? It's penne pasta, covered in a creamy bechamel sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese. Then, everything is baked together in a small casserole dish and voila! You have an amazing dinner.

It's probably because I'm a sucker for cream sauces, but I really enjoyed this pasta bake. It seems like a lot of steps, but it's really not so bad, especially if you manage your time properly. I did most of the prep work as I went (ie, chopping vegetables just before adding them), and it worked out fine for me! I recommend starting with the veggies. Then, while they're cooking through, you can make your pasta and bechamel sauce. By the time all of that's done, you're ready to load it all into your dish!

Let's go to that recipe. :)

 

Pork and Pasta Bake

Adapted from:Everyday Italian

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 T. olive oil
• 1/2 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 3-4 slices of bacon
• 5-6 button mushrooms
• 1/2 lb. ground pork
• 1/4 c. chicken stock
• 1/4 c. strained canned tomatoes
• 2 tsp. chopped fresh sage
• 1 1/2 c. dry penne pasta
• 1 1/2 T. butter
• 1 1/2 T. flour
• 1 c. milk
• 1 dried bay leaf
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 c. mozzarella cheese (divided use)
• salt and pepper

Before you start:Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and grease a small casserole dish

Recipe

Heat olive oil in a large pan to medium heat. Chop your onions and garlic and add to the oil, and allow to cook for 5 minutes, or until the onions start to soften.
Chop your bacon into small pieces, then add to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes.
Chop your mushrooms, then add and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the ground pork and break it up with a spoon. Cook until it is completely browned.
Add the chicken stock, tomatoes, and sage. Add salt and pepper to taste, bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, and cook your penne pasta for 8-10 minutes. Pasta should be a little firm when done, to allow for additional cooking in the oven. Drain.
For the bechamel sauce, in a pot melt the butter over medium heat. Add flour and stir constantly for one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and gradually stir in the milk. Then, return to the heat, add the sage leaf, and boil until the sauce thickens. Add salt and pepper and a bit of nutmeg, and take off of the heat.
Pour the pork and vegetables into the bottom of the casserole dish. 
Add 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese to the bechamel sauce, and stir until combined. Pour in the drained pasta, and mix. Pour on top of the pork and vegetables in the casserole dish. Top with additional cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes, then broil for 5 minutes to crisp up the top. Allow to cool a few minutes before serving.


Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

We are approaching our last month of summer! For me, that's weird, since I've essentially been on summer break since April (hooray study abroad programs ending early?). The end of summer heralds also the end of summer projects, which can get stressful. I have one friend who's finishing up an REU (Research Experience for Undergrads) at Notre Dame and has a presentation to prepare for, and another who just took the GRE for the first time. I figured they both needed cheering up, and they both love Nutella, so I decided to make nutella chocolate chip cookies. :D

I made tiny little cookies, which I'm not used to. They turned out really well, though! Thin and crisp and chocolatey with a hint of Nutella. Definitely something I'll make again!

I used the Hershey's chocolate chip cookie recipe, since I figured those would be classic and delicious. Then, I just swirled some nutella in! If you have another favorite recipe, just use that and add nutella in while you're folding in your chocolate chips. Just be sure to not overmix the nutella...you want it to be distributed enough to be in every cookie but not so much that it blends in completely - the swirls of chocolate are part of the fun!

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from:Hershey's Kitchens

Makes 3-4 dozen small cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 c. + 2 T. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. + 2 T. white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 c. + 2 T. flour
• 1 c. milk chocolate chips (I used minis)
• 2 1/2 T. Nutella

Before you start:Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

Recipe
Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla together in a large bowl with a mixer until smooth and creamy.
Add egg, beat well.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add gradually to wet ingredients, mixing between each addition.
Add chocolate chips and Nutella, and stir in until just combined.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges.
Allow to cool completely.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Tilapia Peach Packets

Hello! I hope you all are staying cool. :) I was hoping we might not get to 100 degrees today, since it was about 90 at noon, but silly me. I was asking for too much!

I was wanting to get better at grilling this summer, but so far the only grilling I've done was for July 4th! I suppose I'm lazy or something. This recipe can be grilled or baked in an oven...surely that counts, right? Even if I did bake it in the oven? 

Right.

This is another recipe from my very favorite blog, How Sweet It Is! You should go read it. It's really funny, and has beautiful pictures for amazing recipes. I always have my eye on those decadent dessert recipes of hers, and even if I've never tried them I'm sure they're fantastic. So, if you want a fun read with great food tucked in there somewhere, go find it!

This time, the recipe is for tilapia peach packets. And it's so easy to make! It takes about 3 minutes to prep the marinade, then you just let the tilapia chill in your fridge for a while, bake with some veggies, and enjoy. I served mine with rice and mushrooms and zucchini...mmmmm. Find out how to make your own here.

One quick tip! If you want to peel peaches easily, try blanching them! Simply let them hang out in boiling water for 2 minutes, then remove and put them in ice water. The heat loosens the skin's hold on the fruit and then you dunk the peaches in ice water to keep them from cooking. The skin should come right off!

 

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Apple Pecan Muffins

Hi, guys! On Saturday I made breakfast! When I was little, we would have breakfast as a family almost every Saturday. It was usually canned biscuits or cinnamon rolls, but that didn't make it any less delicious! 

This week, it was just my dad and I at home, but I still wanted to make breakfast. So, we went with muffins! My sister made some excellent apple cupcakes last week, and I was hoping to use her recipe for muffins. I didn't find it, but I found another that was just as good! 

I tweaked this recipe from Smitten Kitchen because I didn't want to have to go to the store in my pjs. I subbed all-purpose flour for whole-wheat flour and made my own buttermilk (1 c. milk to 1 T. vinegar/lemon juice, let stand for 5 minutes). I also added a few ingredients: nutmeg for an extra spice and pecans! My dad loves pecans, so I felt like I couldn't not make him muffins containing pecans. He liked these muffins, and you should, too!

I ended up halving the original recipe, which was a little tricky since one egg was used. I just beat the egg and poured in roughly half, so it worked out!
 

Apple Pecan Muffins

Adapted from: Smitten Kitchen

Makes roughly 9 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. nutmeg
• 1/4 c. butter (1/2 stick) at room temperature
• 1/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1/4 c. brown sugar (divided use)
• 1 egg, beaten (only use half)
• 1/2 c. buttermilk
• 1 large apple (I used Fuji)
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans

Before you start:Peel, core, and dice your apple. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F.

Recipe

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. Beat until fluffy.
Add the egg and beat until combined. Then add the buttermilk and stir in gently until just combined - overmixing will cause your batter to curdle.
Stir in dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks and pecan pieces. Stir until just combined.
Fill muffin cups roughly 3/4 full of the batter. Take the remaining brown sugar and sprinkle it evenly over the muffin cups.
Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 400 degrees. Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Cool muffins for 5 minutes, then serve.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Cinnamon Dutch Apple Pie

Mmm, apple pie. What a classic! I feel like summer isn't summer until I've had an apple pie.

Apple pie is a recipe I've made many times, and therefore I've tried very hard to perfect it. Judging by the rate at which the pie tends to be devoured, I think it's pretty darn good!

My inspiration was a local chain in the Texas A&M area, called Must Be Heaven. They're a great lunch place that serves a lot of soups and sandwiches, but the highlight of every trip to Must Be Heaven is the pastries! They make fresh quiche, cookies, muffins, and plenty of cake.

My favorite, though, is their pies. They have buttermilk, lemon, coconut, peach, and all of the classics. Their Dutch Apple pie, though, really rocks my socks off. It has a thick crisp topping, and the apples are soft and gooey and cinnamon-y. This pie comes close to capturing the greatness.

I called mine a Cinnamon Dutch Apple Pie because there's a lot of cinnamon in it. It's in the crisp and the apple mixture, and the crust is a cinnamon walnut crust. Divine!

Quick note - make sure you let your pie "rest" for half an hour after you take it out of the oven. This will help all of the baking liquid sort of gel so that your slices of pie stay together! Trust me, if you slice into it too early you'll end up with apple soup. Don't make my mistakes. :)

I will warn you! This pie is a labor of love. It takes quite a bit of preparation, since everything's from scratch. However, it's totally worth it! If you're short on time the day of, you can refrigerate the crisp and the pie crust overnight and make them the day before.

Pro tip on pie crust - don't use any more water than you have to! If the pie crust seems a little dry, try kneading it with your hands before adding water - that will often make the dough combine. Wet pie crusts will fall apart in the oven.

If you want to make it the day of, here's what I recommend! Start on the pie crust first. During the first refrigeration, make the crisp topping and refrigerate that. Roll out your crust, then chill your pie pan and then preheat your oven and prep your apples! By the time you have the apple mixture ready, the rest of your pie will be ready to assemble.

Cinnamon Dutch Apple Pie

Makes 1 pie

Ingredients
For the crust

• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1/3 c. walnuts
• 2 T. sugar
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 stick butter, chilled
• 2 T. vegetable shortening, chilled
• 2 T. ice water (more may be needed)

For the pie filling

• 3 granny smith apples
• 2 golden delicious apples
• 2 T. lemon juice
• 2 T. flour
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• pinch of salt

For the crumble topping

• 1 c. flour
• 3/4 c. oats
• 1 1/4 c. light brown sugar
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 c. (1 and a half sticks) butter, melted

Before you start:Chop your walnuts and toast in a 300-degree oven for a few minutes or until golden and fragrant. Cut your chilled butter and shortening into cubes. Peel and core your apples. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Recipe

For the crust:
Put flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts in a food processor until the nuts are coarsely ground.
Add chilled butter and vegetable shortening. Turn your food processor rapidly on and off to combine the butter until coarse crumbs form. If your food processor is too small, transfer to a mixing bowl and cut butter in manually with 2 knives or a pastry cutter.
Add water and stir until moist clumps form. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Remove dough from fridge and roll out to roughly 12" around. Use flour to keep dough from sticking. Press dough into 9" greased pie dish, crimp edges and refrigerate for another 30 minutes.

For the crumble topping:
Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl.
Add melted butter and stir until well-mixed. Refrigerate until needed.


For the pie:
Dice the apples into small pieces. Toss the apples with the other ingredients (lemon juice, flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg).
Remove pie crust from fridge and pour in the apple mixture. Press down so that the apples are tightly packed - they will be piled high!
Remove crumble from fridge and break up with a spoon. Spread it evenly over the apples, and press it down tightly.
Bake the pie for 60-75 minutes, or until the crust and crumble are golden brown and the apples are soft and bubbly.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Ginger-Glazed Tilapia

Do you ever pretend you're on a cooking show while you're cooking? C'mon, I know you do. Maybe you don't narrate every single step as you go, but surely there's some commentary going on. I know I talk to myself all the time when I cook! When I was little, I would narrate how to make a bacon sandwich (yeah, I was that kid. No lettuce or tomatoes for me!) while I was making it. 

Even now, I tend to talk to my food. Especially when coming out of the oven. I've definitely said "Hello, gorgeous" to many a dessert - complimented food tastes better, you know! But once the food is out of the oven, I tend to just enjoy it. Which, as a pretend cooking show host, is a no-no. You're supposed to gush about how good the food is and all the yummy flavors.

This fish changed that. It was sort of a flurried evening - I had friends coming over to watch tv, so I was trying to make an apple pie and fix my dinner with very little time to spare. I just threw together this fish and some sauteed veggies, then set it aside to get my pie in motion. When I finally had a few minutes of downtime, I planned to just finish it quickly and then get back to my pie to *hopefully* get it into the oven before people arrived.

I sit down with my dinner, take the first bite, and say (yes, out loud!) "This is so good!". Alone, in my apartment. Yeah, I'm kind of weird. But it was delicious! So good it made me stop and think and enjoy my food. And I enjoyed it so much that I was still peeling apples when my friends arrived. Oops.

Moral of the story: if you like seafood, make this! Also, note the massive amounts of glaze on my filet. You don't have to use that much. I'm just addicted. Serve with veggies and over rice!
 

Ginger-Glazed Tilapia

Adapted from: All Recipes

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 1 tilapia fillet
• Salt and pepper
• 1 T. honey
• 1 T. soy sauce
• 1 T. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 T. minced garlic
• 1/2 t. ginger powder
• 1 t. olive oil
• 1 t. vegetable oil

Recipe

In a cake pan or other small baking dish, whisk together honey, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and olive oil.
Coat fillets with salt and pepper, then put in baking dish with marinade. Put baking dish in the fridge to allow fish to marinate for 20 minutes.
Heat up vegetable oil in a pan to medium heat.
Put fish in pan and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until the sides are browned and the fish flakes easily with a fork. Remove from pan.
Pour the remaining marinade into the pan and bring to a boil. Cook for several minutes until glaze thickens. Pour glaze over fish. Serve immediately.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Katsu Curry

This is a meal that will change your life! I promise.

Well, it certainly changed mine! And my view of Japanese food (and it will definitely change yours). Japanese food is all sushi and fish and veggies and white rice, right? I feel like Japan gets a really bad rap, food-wise, in America. Most people's Japanese food experience stops at sushi (or doesn't even start, thanks to ingredients like salmon roe and raw tuna), or the poorly-done versions of ramen and yakisoba you can find in the instant food section of the grocery store. It's really sad. Granted, they do have hibachi grills here and there, but pickings are fairly slim.

Japanese food is really fantastic, and also pretty varied. They have a lot of dishes that are heavily influenced by other countries (yes, even Italy!), and have a variety of restaurants that rivals the US. 

And I'll get off my soapbox. :) This dish that I'm about to share with you is called katsu curry, and it is my favorite Japanese dish. I love it so much that on my last night in Japan during my study abroad, we went out of our way to find katsu curry for dinner.

Katsu is Japanese for "fried cutlet". It's usually pork or chicken, breaded in panko (the Japanese version of breadcrumbs, which are really crispy), and fried so it's nice and golden. They're often simply served over rice, but add some curry and they become magical! 

Because curry warms up so well, you can use leftover curry with this! You can also use chicken or pork, depending on what you want/what you have in your fridge. 

Katsu Curry

Serves 3

Ingredients

• 3 pork cutlets or medium-sized chicken breasts
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 c. flour
• 2 c. panko breadcrumbs
• 2 eggs
• 2 T. soy sauce
• Canola oil
• 2 c. cooked rice
• 2 c. prepared curry

Before you start: Use a fork to poke small holes in your meat, to tenderize it.

Recipe

Pour enough canola oil to create a 1/4" layer in the bottom of your pan. Heat up the oil to medium heat.
Lay out 3 bowls to create breading stations. In the first bowl, add flour and generous amounts of salt and pepper. Whisk with a fork.
In the second, add eggs and soy sauce and beat until well-combined. In the third, pour in panko breadcrumbs.
Take a pork cutlet and dredge it in the flour, making sure to completely coat it. Transfer it to the egg mixture and coat it fully. Put the cutlet in the third bowl to coat with panko breadcrumbs. If you want to make a double-coating, dip the breaded cutlet again in egg and then again in panko. Repeat with other cutlets.
Place cutlets in oil, and cook for 5-7 minutes per side until golden brown. Cutlet is done when it produces clear juices after being cut into.
Remove cutlet from pan and place it on paper towels to drain the oil from it. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Put rice on one side of a shallow bowl, slice the cutlet and place it on top of the rice, then pour the curry over the other side. Serve immediately.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Japanese Curry

We have finally gotten around to some Japanese food! I'm excited. :) I learned to make a lot of different dishes while I was in Japan, but this is by far my favorite! Curry is really popular in Japan, although it's nothing like the Thai or Indian curry you might be used to. Unlike most other Asian countries, the Japanese don't use a whole lot of spicy ingredients in their cooking. The Japanese idea of "spicy" is probably more like the "mild" version of Indian food. This is probably why I like Japanese food so much!

Curry is served in all sorts of ways in Japan - on white rice, in small rolls of bread as a snack, on fried cutlets of meat (more on that tomorrow) - even in soup form, as is common in Hokkaido, the largest city on Japan's northernmost island. It's a very flexible meal, and very inexpensive, whether you're ordering it in a restaurant or making it at home.

The secret to making curry at home are these roux cubes. Essentially, they're little blocks of oils, spices, and thickeners to make a perfectly-flavored curry. There are a lot of different brands to choose from, but Golden Curry is my variety of choice. They also have different spice ratings, so if you aren't a wimp like I am you can go for a spicier variety of curry roux. Check for them at your local grocery store in the international foods section!

What's the best part about curry? You can include whatever you like! The normal recipe calls for carrots, onions, potatoes, and meat. If I were cooking only for myself, I'd be making it with just chicken, potatoes, and onions - no carrots for me! Because I was making pork cutlets to go with the curry, I decided to make a vegetarian version - the roux cubes don't have any meat or stocks in them, so they're fine for vegetarians! 

Japanese Curry

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 3 medium-sized potatoes
• 1 white onion
• 1 large carrot
• Canola oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Water
• 4 curry roux blocks
• 3 c. cooked rice

Before you start:Chop up your vegetables. Be sure to especially chop the potatoes into small pieces so they will cook fully!

Recipe

In a large wok or pan, heat up some canola oil to medium heat.
Add chopped vegetables, and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently. Cook until onions become translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Add enough water to cover the vegetables. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer, cover your pan, and allow the water to simmer for 20 minutes.
Take pan off of heat, then add curry blocks. Stir constantly until blocks are completely dissolved. Return to heat.
Cook for 5-10 minutes, or until sauce thickens. Serve immediately over rice.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Icing

Part 2 of recipe info! This is the actual icing and cake we used for our birthday cake. This was originally a cupcake recipe, so I don't know the actual baking time for a layer cake. But just play it by ear! We did a 1.5 batch of icing so we would have plenty to cover our cake with.

Here's a quick post, because I'm lazy. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

 

Vanilla Cake

Source:The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Makes 12 cupcakes or 1 2-layer cake

Ingredients

• 1 c. flour
• scant 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 t. baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 3 T. butter 
• 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 t. vanilla extraxt

Before you start:Set butter to room temperature and preheat your oven to 325 degrees

Recipe

Beat together flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and salt until everything is combined and has a sandy consistency.
Pour in half of the milk gradually and beat until just incorporated
Whisk egg, vanilla, and the rest of the milk in a small bowl for a few minutes, then pour into the flour mixture and keep beating until just combined. Mix for a few minutes until batter is smooth.
Scoop into cupcake liners or cake pans and bake until light golden and the cake bounces back (20-25 minutes for cupcakes)
Let cool, then frost/decorate as desired.

Vanilla Frosting

Source:The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Makes icing for 12 cupcakes or double for a 2-layer cake

Ingredients

• 2 c. sifted confectioner's sugar
• 5 T. unsalted butter
• 2 T. whole milk
• a few drops vanilla extract.

Before you start:Set butter out to room temperature

Recipe

Beat the butter and sugar together at a high speed until well-combined.
Decrease the speed, combine milk and vanilla in a small bowl, then add to the mixing bowl. Beat at least 5 minutes, or until icing is light and fluffy.

Thanks for reading and happy cooking!