Scones, round two!

This time with chocolate chips, coconut flakes, and a peanut butter layer. You can probably leave out the coconut flakes, or replace the peanut butter layer with nutella!
Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter (cold, or frozen)

1/2 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 cup of coconut flakes (optional)

1 egg
1 tsp almond or vanilla extract
1/2 cup of yogurt (tart or vanilla should work) or sour cream


8 tsp peanut butter


Oven preheated to 400*

Directions:
1. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (or in my case, dump them in a bowl and stir with a fork)
2. Cut the cold butter into small cubes, and add to the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, whisk, or fork. It should be grainy/sandy when it's well incorporated.
3. Add the chocolate chips and coconut flakes.
4. Whisk the egg, extract, and yogurt together, and then add to the flour/butter mixture.
5. Mix with a fork until you can't anymore, and then work it with your hands until you have a nice ball.
6. Lightly flour a cutting board, and then place the ball on it. Flatten into a disk about 8-9 inches across (or 3/4 inch thick). 
7. Cut into 8 pieces with a pizza cutter (or sharp knife).
8. Cut each slice in half (not all the way through) like you're making a sandwich, so that when you open the scone, it looks like a diamond.
9. Put about 1 tsp of peanut butter inside the scone, and reseal it.
10. Place the scones on a greased and floured cookie sheet, sprinkle a little sugar on top of each one, if desired, and then bake at 400 for 16-18 minutes (the tops should be slightly golden.

Grapefruit Cheesecake-Cupcakes. Success!

Lime Cheesecake-Cupcakes

My friends and I had an Iron Chef competition recently, and the secret ingredient was....LIME!

This was a creation that happened, well, by accident. In any case, it was a very delicious accident and I thought I'd share:

Ingredients:

Cake:

1/2 cup butter, softened (not melted)

2/3 cups of sugar

1 8 oz package of fat free cream cheese (or the regular stuff)

1 Tbsp lime zest

2 eggs

3 drops of green food coloring (optional)

1 cup of flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

Glaze:

3/4 cup of powdered sugar

1/4 tsp lime zest (plus extra for garnishing, if desired)

juice of about 2 limes

Directions:

0. Preheat the oven to 325F

1. Cream the butter and sugar with a mixer at low speed

2. Add the cream cheese and lime zest, and beat until smooth

3. Add the eggs and green food coloring, and beat until smooth

4. Gradually sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt, beating at low speed until just incorporated. As mama always says, "don't overbeat!" Suriously though. Once the flour is close to being incorporated, I usually switch over to a spatula and start folding the mixture the rest of the way.

5. Divide the batter evenly into 12 cupcake cups with liners.

6. Bake on the middle rack for 30 minutes (depending on your oven, I'd start checking every five minutes or so at around 25 minutes - these baked for about 30-35 minutes). The tops should feel firm. You can always test one if you're not sure   :) The inside should be dense and moist, but not gooey - kinda like the lovechild of a cupcake and a cheesecake.

7. Remove from oven, and transfer to a wire rack after 10 minutes to cool

8. For the glaze, add the powdered sugar to a bowl with the lime zest.

9. Cut the limes into quarters, and add the juice of the lime slices one at a time, stirring with a fork, until the glaze looks like this:

10. Once the cupcakes cool, invert them into the glaze, wait for about 2 seconds, and then slowly lift them out and put em on a plate. Easy peezy.

11. Garnish with the extra lime zest, if desired.

12. Try not to eat them all

You can probably sub out the lime with any sort of citrus fruit. Grapefruit cakes might be interesting...

By the way, we won the competition  ;)

I might post the other recipes

Quick and Easy Beef Tacos

Super easy recipe to make delicious beef tacos. Tangy and savory with just the right amount of cumin. Pretty mild but if you like it spicy, feel free to add more cayenne pepper to kick it up a notch.

Taco Seasoning:
1 1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder
3/4 teaspoon Cayenne
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
(borrowed heavily from Bill Echols on allrecipes.com)

Taco Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
tortillas (flour or corn, I prefer corn but you can be a gringo and use flour)

Suggested Toppings:
Shredded Lettuce
Diced tomatoes
Shredded Cheese
Salsa
Sour Cream

Directions:
1. Brown ground meat, breaking it into small chunks as it cooks. Drain off grease

2. Add spices to meat and stir carefully

3. Add taco meat and toppings to softened tortillas

4. Enjoy

Like I said before, very simple recipe that can be prepared in 15 minutes or less. Goes well with Spanish rice and beans. Next week I'll post some more of my favorite tex-mex recipes.

Cranberry Orange Scones

Hadn't made these in a while, but they are great for breakfast and freeze well!
Adapted from an allrecipes recipe, but I healthified things a bit:

Ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter (cold, or frozen)

3/4 cup of craisins
1/2 tsp of orange zest

1 egg
1/2 cup of yogurt (tart, lemon, or vanilla should work) - one of those 6 oz things is about a cup

Directions:
1. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (or in my case, dump them in a bowl and stir with a fork)
2. Cut the cold butter into small cubes, and add to the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, whisk, or fork. It should be grainy/sandy when it's well incorporated.
3. Add the craisins and orange zest.
4. Whisk the egg and yogurt together, and then add to the flour/butter mixture.
5. Mix with a fork until you can't anymore, and then work it with your hands until you have a nice ball.
6. Lightly flour a cutting board, and then place the ball on it. Flatten into a disk about 8-9 inches across (or 3/4 inch thick). Sprinkle a bit of sugar on top, and then cut into 8 pieces with a pizza cutter (or sharp knife).
7. Place the wedges on a greased and floured cookie sheet, and then bake at 400 for 16-18 minutes (the tops should be slightly golden.

Enjoy!

Pina Colada Sorbet

This is heavily borrowed from allrecipes.com, but that was a virgin recipe.

Ingredients for virgin recipe:

1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/2 cups of water

1 can of coconut milk (99 cents at Trader Joe's!)

2 limes

Ingredients:

1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1 1/4 cups of water

1 can of coconut milk

2 limes

2 shots of light rum

Directions (same for both recipes until the step 6)

1. Puree the drained pineapple in a blender or food processor.

2. Heat the sugar and water over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Remove the syrup from heat immediately once the sugar dissolves.

3. Juice the limes.

4. Stir the pineapple puree, syrup, and coconut milk, and lime juice together and refrigerate until chilled (I usually leave it in the fridge for a full day to be safe).

5. Process according to your ice cream maker's manufacturer's directions.

6. For the recipe with rum, add two shots at the end of the the freezing process (after approximately 25 minutes) and let it mix in for about a minute.

7. Transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze until set.

Note: Alcohol messes with the freezing process a bit, so it's best to add it at the end. Too much, and the recipe might not freeze properly. That might be disappointing for some of you. Remember, a shot is approximately 1/8 of a cup!

Quinoa Chicken Thing

I've slowly been reducing the amount of red meat in my diet and it feels pretty good. I rarely buy it now, but I usually cave and order something with it when I eat out, which is rare. In other words, make me a steak if you invite me over for dinner. I found out about quinoa (pronounced 'King-Wah') in a magazine - it's actually cool because it's not really a grain even though it looks like one. It's high in protein, low in fat, and for you poor people who are allergic to wheat, it's gluten free. I significantly modified an allrecipes recipe, and it turned out pretty bomb:

Ingredients:
Set 1:
1 1/2 cups of red quinoa (Trader Joes, near the pastas and rice)
3 cups of chicken stock
2 cloves of minced garlic

Set 2:
2 Costco chicken breasts, cubed or torn, whatever (or 2 chicken breasts cooked however you want - I used a lemon pepper garlic marinade and baked them at 400 for 45 minutes, covered for the first 30 and then open for the last 15)
1 purple onion, diced
2 small bell peppers, diced
1/2 cup of chopped olives (I used the canned kind)
1/4 cup of chopped parsley (substitute with basil, if you hate parsley)
1/3 cup of chopped green onions
1 can of whole corn kernels, drained
1 can of red kidney beans, drained
3/4 tsps of salt

Set 3:
Juice of 2 limes and 1 lemon
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Bring the chicken stock and minced garlic to a boil in a big sauce pan that has a cover.

2. Reduce heat to medium-low, add the quinoa, and cover. Let it simmer for about 20-22 minutes (this was the first time I cooked the stuff, so I opened the cover and tasted every 5 minutes or so after 15 to assess tenderness. Then I turned the heat up and boiled off excess water while stirring when the texture suited me). Or you can follow the general cooking directions on the box.

3. While the quinoa is cooking, cube the chicken, dice the veggies, open the cans, and juice the lemons and limes. Efficiency.

4. When the quinoa is cooked, remove the saucepan from the heat, and gently stir in the 'set 2' ingredients.

5. When the stuff above is well mixed, add the ingredients of 'set 3' and do one last quick stir.

This made and estimated 5 servings, about 1 cup each.

Honeydew Sorbert

Not quite a sorbet, and not quite a sherbert. This is mostly fruit, sugar, and corn syrup, but I added a little bit of milk (lactaid) because I had a little left in the carton. You could probably add more or less milk (or none at all) to turn this into whatever you want.

Ingredients:
1/2 honeydew melon, seeds removed
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of corn syrup
1 cup of water
3/4 cup of milk (or lactaid)

Directions:
1. Puree the honeydew after removing the rind (duh)
2. In a small pot heat the sugar, corn syrup, and water over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves
3. Once the syrup comes to a boil, let it boil for a minute without stirring
4. Turn off the heat and let it cool completely.
5. Stir it into the honeydew puree, and store the slurry in the fridge until you wanna make your sorbert.
6. Right before you freeze it, add the milk to the honeydew mixture and give it a quick stir.
7. Process according to your ice cream maker's directions.

Next up: Mango ice cream

Future idea - lychee sorbet?

Green Tea Ice Cream (lactose free/low fat!)

So I caved and bought this on Amazon. I had $30 in gift cards, so it wasn't that bad. I've been wanting one for a while because of my little problem with non-meat cow products.

It came today.

Normally I'm a clean person, but this was a nice surprise after a long day at work.

I whipped up some green tea batter(?) and poured it into the machine. What does one call ice cream before it's frozen, by the way? It's not melted ice cream because it's never been frozen yet. I'm going to stick with batter or slurry until I find a better word.

It had the texture of soft serve out of the machine (20 minutes), but I tried a bit and the flavor was awesome. It's in the freezer right now. Hard ice cream is better.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups reduced fat lactaid (or milk, for you lucky people)
2 tsps matcha green tea powder
1/2-3/4 cups of sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tub of fat free cool whip

Directions:
1. Heat the milk, sugar, and green tea powder on low-medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Stir constantly.
2. Slowly add part of the milk mixture to the egg yolks in a small bowl to temper them. Then slowly add the egg mixture to the rest of the milk mixture.
3. Cook this for about a minute longer on low heat.
4. Let the mixture completely cool in the fridge.
5. Right before you want to freeze the mixture, fold in the cool whip. It doesn't have to be completely mixed. You want to get it in the freezer bowl asap.
6. Freeze according to the directions of your ice cream maker.

It made a small batch, which is why I probably need to work on quantities a bit. Next time I'll share.

Things I want to test in the future:
Honeydew ice cream
Mojito Sorbet

(yes, they are all green so far)

Strawberry Banana French Toast

I've been wanting to eat this for weeks. Now that it's spring break, I have time to cook!

Ingredients:

1/8 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

pinch salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla or banana extract

5 slices of white bread (or 3 slices of texas toast)

Butter (to grease the pan)

Toppings:

1/2 banana

strawberry syrup* or fresh strawberries and maple syrup

confectioner's sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Put the flour in a shallow bowl (big enough for a piece of bread to lie flat in)

2. Stir in the milk (whisk or fork) gradually, until the lumps are gone

3. Stir in the egg, salt, cinnamon, sugar, and extract, until the mixture is frothy

4. Heat a frying pan to medium heat, and grease with a little butter

5. Dip each side of a bread slice in the batter, and cook in the heated pan until golden brown and delicious (stole that from you, Alton Brown)

6. Repeat 4 and 5 until there's no more batter (or bread)

7. Arrange on a plate, and top with sliced bananas, syrup, and a dust of confectioner's sugar

As always, experiment! I bet this would be awesome with some lemon curd, honey butter, and confectioner's sugar, or bananas and nutella, etc...

* They have this at Safeway and other grocery stores, but you can also just cook some strawberries over medium-low heat