foodie friday – Page 3 – The Prose of an Electrate Mind

June 17, 2011

Foodie Friday: Chicken Marsala Penne

Last month my sister went to Italy and Greece and brought back a couple bottles of wine for me and Brian. I requested marsala and chianti — because marsala makes excellent dishes, and chianti’s an Italian classic. I was also inspired by Bitchin’ Kitchen’s creamy chicken marsala penne. It was perfect: bite-sized chunks of chicken served over pasta. I got to work searching for recipes to build my own, but I mostly adapted this recipe from Bitchin’ Kitchen and Emeril Lagasse.

Chicken Marsala
3 chicken breasts (or roughly 1.5-2lbs)
8-12oz sliced mushrooms (more or less, depending on your tastes — get creative with the varieties, too!)
Half of a diced vidalia onion (or just use what’s on sale and in season)
3/4 cup good Marsala wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 cup of AP flour
5 tbsps unsalted butter, divided
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Season flour with salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Chop chicken into bite-sized chunks. Dredge chicken in flour. Heat oil and one tbsp of butter in a pan. Cook the chicken through, then place on a plate in the oven to keep it warm. Add 3 tbsps butter into the pan, and saute the onions and mushrooms. Once golden, add marsala and bring to a boil. When reduced by half, add broth and remaining tbsp of butter. Lower heat and return chicken to the pan. Cook until sauce is thickened. Serve over penne pasta (or whatever pasta you’d like). Serves 4-6. I also added some green beans for some additional veggies.

February 18, 2011

Foodie Friday: Strawberry Cupcakes

Back in December, Annie of Annie’s Eats inspired me to make strawberry cupcakes for Valentine’s Day. In the past few years, I’ve been trying to cultivate a family tradition of eating lots of strawberries on Valentine’s Day. February marks the start of strawberry season in Florida, so they were readily available to me. In fact, Plant City was maybe a two hour drive south of Gainesville — and the labels usually indicated that’s about as far as they traveled to get to my home. So a recipe calling for lots of strawberries jumped right out at me. I love strawberries. Brian loves strawberries. Our children love strawberries. This was the perfect sweet treat for our “strawberry fest.”

I used Annie’s strawberry cupcake recipe from last December. Instead of milk, I used heavy cream because for some reason that’s what I thought her recipe called for while writing the shopping list. Also, I pureed the strawberries before mixing them into the batter. Finally, I added 5 drops of red food coloring to bring out that pink color I was looking for. For the frosting, I selected her original strawberry cupcake frosting recipe. Again, I tweaked it — I can’t help it, it’s in my nature to experiment in the kitchen! I increased the pureed strawberries to one whole cup, and I whipped in a cup of heavy cream to increase the volume. (Okay, and because I love fluffy whipped frosting!) Overall, these cupcakes have been a big hit. Thank you Annie for the recipes and the inspiration!

Strawberry Cupcake

October 29, 2010October 29, 2010

Foodie Friday: Happy Birthday

Using my chocolate cake recipe* and Annie’s pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting recipes**, I created a delicious birthday cake for myself this year. Because my birthday is the day before Halloween, I’ve always been a fan of Halloween and love incorporating it into my celebrations. A pumpkin (orange) layer and a chocolate (black) layer seemed to be quite festive indeed, and both flavors suit my tastes this year. I hear rough frosting looks rustic and homey, so I figure my not-so-great decorating skills are that much more endearing.

Yes, those are gummy worms adorning my cake. I’ve always been more about the taste and flavor — what’s inside — rather than looks. Still, it came out rather lovely if I do say so myself.

*Obviously, Hershey’s gets the credit for the original recipe, but I vary between chocolate milk and heavy cream depending on my mood. Also, I halved the recipe to yield one layer. The only reason I didn’t halve Annie’s recipe was because I figured the dozen cupcakes would be a fun treat for the baby, who cannot have any of the chocolate cake until he’s got the all-clear for cow juice.

**Annie uses 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar for her frosting. I’m not the biggest fan of super sweet frostings, so I only used 1/2 cup. Yes, I know, that probably sounds bizarre, but trust me when I say it fits my tastes.

October 8, 2010

Foodie Friday: Annie’s Eats Review

About a month ago a friend of mine shared a link to Annie’s Eats. I think it was a chocolate peanut butter cake or something along those lines. Anyway, the food photography is right up there with Smitten Kitchen and The Parsley Thief — basically the same enjoyable experience I expect when I’m looking for delicious, glorious pictures of food. Last week she posted a recipe for caramel apple cinnamon rolls. Let me tell you about my relationship with cinnamon rolls…

Growing up, I never really liked cinnamon rolls. It could very well be that most people dump entirely too much sugar into the icing, thereby rendering the final product a sickeningly sweet, unappetizing mess. Pillsbury, Cinnabon — nope, neither suited my tastes. It wasn’t until four years ago that I came around to the sweet confections that have so much potential. I blame it on pregnancy hormones. I was probably 4 months along with my daughter, and the doctor’s office was across the street from the mall. Being that I take the bus everywhere, I had to go through the mall and across the street to get there. I happened to be walking past Cinnabon that particular day, and they had free samples. I’m a sucker for free samples, and I don’t even care what you’re hawking. I’ve discovered some pretty great things through free samples. Anyway, I must have gotten the least iced piece of cinnamon roll they had on that tray, and it was life changing — absolutely life changing! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to buy stock in Cinnabon or load up on Pillsbury’s cinnamon rolls. However, I did warm up to the idea of making cinnamon rolls from scratch. A few months ago, Brian requested that I make this “clone of a Cinnabon” recipe he found, so I obliged with the hopes of creating an icing that fits my sweet-but-not-too-sweet criteria. I mean, who wants to feel like they just instantly gave themselves cavities? It was a success, even if the rolls still had that weird aftertaste that I can’t quite place.

Fast forward to last week. It’s autumn, and I associate this season with crisp air, colorful leaves, pumpkins, and apples. I think of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger permeating the air. I think of delicious childhood treats. Caramel, apples, and cinnamon all in the same recipe? Sign me up for that! So Monday night I had all the ingredients and a not-so-sleepy baby keeping me awake, and I prepared each separate part. I refrigerated everything overnight to bake on Tuesday morning. It’s been conveniently cool and crisp overnight, so it was the perfect way to start the day. Obviously, I tailored the icing recipe to suit my tastes, but it can’t be helped. I think I might try a different variety of apple next time simply because I’m not big on Granny Smith apples, but overall the end result was delicious. I didn’t bother with pictures — Annie’s got some great images of her own that will absolutely get you interested in baking them, too.

August 27, 2010

Schedule Deviation

Obviously, Thankful Thursday never happened. It just didn’t. To be honest, my day started with a time wasting orientation that served merely to give me a hint that I might get a little bit of job placement help, but basically it seems to receive unemployment you need to report back to Big Brother every so often. Good thing I’ve been keeping track of my job hunt just for my own personal use! So, I suppose we’ll see if it works out to my advantage or not — here’s hoping! Due to some sleep loss (one kid woke up crying thinking it was time to get up at 1am, had to get up early to go to previously said orientation), I was a bit cranky yesterday. Sure, I’ve got plenty of things to be grateful for — but it’s nothing I haven’t already rehashed here. Sometimes, my brain isn’t cooperative in terms of recycling material in a newer sounding fashion.

And you may have noticed that Foodie Friday’s not happening. Sorry, nothing good to share today. While I have found myself in the kitchen more often than I’d like to be in there, I haven’t really felt like staging things to take pictures. I haven’t felt like something was post worthy until well after the fact — when it’s just too late to go back and get pictures of the process.

Life can become a bit complicated when everyone wants a piece of Mommy/ Meredith’s time. I have a list of projects and some to-do lists scattered about my hard drive, and yet I find I have less and less time to really devote to them. Working on my own business? Nope, no time or motivation when I’m worried about following all the laws to the letter. I mean really, we live in a day and age when a grouchy neighbor can call the cops on little kids running a lemonade stand and get the law and their side! Without a food and beverage license, those kids are breaking the law — absolutely messed up, but absolutely, unfortunately true. So here I sit, wondering who’s watching what I do, just itching to report me the second I decide to take business before getting everything legit. It’s disheartening. I’d love to earn some extra money, but it’s true that you need to spend money to make money. Are my services taxable? I haven’t a clue — nothing concrete seems to exist within the realm of what I’d like to do. Some sources say yes; others say no. And if they’re taxable? I have the joys of estimating taxes. Are you kidding me? This is why Mom & Pop’s don’t work anymore. It’s truly a shame that the Land of Opportunity is no longer the land of opportunity.

I could sit here taking on the victim persona, whine and cry about how awful everything is, and generally wallow in misery. However, I know that it only serves to feed into that vicious cycle, and the best way to deal with it is to spin it into a positive. But sometimes? Sometimes it’s really hard to put a positive spin on a situation, especially when you stop, step back, view the bigger picture, piece together all the variables, and realize there’s a lot to be done in a short period of time. It’s hard to really stay upbeat and positive all of the time when times look bleak. Prospects are slim, standing out from the masses seems hopeless, and even networking appears to be falling just short of getting a foot in a door. The funny thing is that I can pretty much go back in time three years ago and apply most of these job hunting frustrations to that time period. Things did work out, I finally stood out of the crowd for the right position. It just takes time, determination, and perseverance.

Although I’m obligated to complete another round of sifting through job postings tomorrow, I think I might take a step back from the Internet over the weekend. I deserve a weekend away from it all. Sure, there won’t be any lovely beach excursions in my near future, but I certainly could use a little less electronic glow and a little more inner glow. Sunshine is optional — I’m not entirely certain the weather would cooperate with any outdoor plans.

August 21, 2010

Foodie Friday (August 20th)

So, I mentioned that last week I wanted to post pictures of the buns I made. Well, here they are.

Look how gloriously it browned up. They were quite beautiful, and I was extremely proud.

And inside, you can see more lovely specks of poppy seeds. My photo enhancements just don’t do justice to the finished product, but then again I’m working with a regular digital camera. Like I said at the start of this venture, I certain do not have the fancy equipment the typical food blogger does.

August 16, 2010

Mindful Monday: Super Late

I’m well aware of the fact that I missed my Foodie Friday post, even though I had essentially come up with a couple of ideas to use for that post on Wednesday. No, I wasn’t going to regale you with a recipe and oodles of pictures. Actually I had planned on discussing season six of the Next Food Network Star (because DirecTV would/ will be slapping me with hefty penalties if I cancel any time in the near future, so it’s best to think of this as a short-term unemployment). I was going to toss in a picture or two of the extra special buns I made for dinner — I added a pinch of garlic, some sesame seeds, and some poppy seeds to the dough. (I had the seeds on hand from better times.) But some times even thinking ahead doesn’t always result in meeting goals, especially when a severe sleep deficit takes over as baby teeth make their seemingly excruciating exit from the gum line. Especially when life’s circumstances overwhelm the mind and soul and shove you into a rut. Especially when sometimes the only free moments entail grabbing a cup of water, hitting the bathroom, and maybe compulsively checking email for any signs of a “bite.” I’m pretty sure the last straw for me has been the lack of response from my one “sure fire fall back.” It’s rather disheartening to say the least, and downright soul crushing to say the most. I have no hard feelings against them, though, it’s just changes plans a bit.

I’m well aware of the fact that it looks like I’m prattling on with excuses for not meeting my schedule guidelines. To be honest? The schedule, while the days seem fine, doesn’t seem to hold up in terms of the time of day I post. The number of twitter users who find their way to my blog generally stays at zero regardless of what time I schedule my posts. The time is irrelevant to when facebook picks up my feed — the regulars will go through their feed and click the link regardless of what time my post actually hit their feed. So while another blog claimed 10am to 2pm was “prime time” for posting, I don’t necessarily think that matters. For my own terms, as long as I get that post out before midnight, it’s on time. I know my regulars are going to find their way here every time I post no matter what.

I’ve recently become more mindful of a marked change in my perspective on things in life. I realized that some sudden, unexpected events in life have given my incite into how my perspective changed over time, how I had become hardened to a lot of things, and how I had seemingly lost that spark I once had several years back. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve come to realize that there were various factors contributing to that hardened mindset. While I can’t say that I’ve completely done a 180, I’d say having the epiphany was a big step in the right direction. Even my husband has made the observation that I’m recovering that more optimistic than not outlook I once had. That sense of hope and determination I once had. And while I doubt the shine has fully returned, I think he’d tell me I never lost that in the first place — but he’s a biased party whose opinion is painted by love.

For some people, it’s all about keeping your eyes on the prize, but I have to say I’ve learned that it’s not the necessarily the best way of living life. At the start of this year, I might have thought so, but not after realizing that keeping your eyes on the prize means you’re not stopping to look at the scenery along your path. You do need to think more about the journey and less about the destination at times. Really, I’ve found that planning too far in advance can result in disappointment — sometimes serious disappointment. It’s all well and good to have some guidelines, but you’ve got to be a little more flexible to go with the flow. Yes, planning is wonderful, but contingency planning is even better. Taking the time to become a better person to better handle whatever obstacles land in your path is prudent. It’s not about getting past obstacles, it’s about how you handle them. The way we handle different circumstances speaks leaps and bounds about our character. I for one never want to be that person blaming the waitress for the cook’s mistake or worse, my bad day. I don’t want to be that person who people perceive as an arrogant, condescending cad. In the same regard, I don’t want to be viewed as the doormat — I had enough of that in middle and high school.

I can’t say I’m changing, but I can say that I’m listening. I’m paying attention. I’m determining what move to make next, what changes to implement. I looking at the big picture, I’m absorbing my surroundings and the lessons, and hopefully I can learn to relinquish some desire for control and relax a little bit more. After all, in this moment life isn’t as bad as it might seem.

August 6, 2010

Foodie Friday: Delicious Cake!

So this week, I really don’t have a recipe for you. All I can say is that it’s been a little hectic, and nothing gets me into a better mood quite like chocolate. Luckily for me, Smitten Kitchen had a lovely recipe for a chocolate loaf cake early this week. I admit, I tweaked the recipe only slightly — I used plain milk with some raspberry vinegar since I can’t really justify buying buttermilk for one recipe. I also realize we just had cake last week and I’ve been whining about weight loss, but I have left over whipping cream, a bag of thawed strawberries, and a desire to enjoy something chocolaty. I actually mixed all of the dry ingredients together on Wednesday for fun and later convenience.

Anyway, here’s the finished product. Next week, I’ll probably try to come up with something a bit healthier to share.

The batter had a mousse-like texture to it, inviting me to enjoy some delicious raw batter. Because my oven is rather ridiculous, it only took about 43 minutes to bake the cake (the recipe originally called for 60-70 minutes — if I left it in there any longer, I’d have a charred, inedible brick). I served it with a drizzling of strawberry puree and a dollop of whipped cream. It was the perfect dessert to end this week on a sweet, chocolatey note.

July 30, 2010

Foodie Friday: Tiramisu Cake

Tomorrow we’ll be celebrating my husband’s birthday, and this year I’ve promised to bake him a tiramisu cake. Back in May, I decided to bake a tiramisu cake for our marriage anniversary because we both love tiramisu. I experimented with that cake again for Father’s Day, and now I’m confident I can get the exact results I’d like. Much of my inspiration came from Smitten Kitchen, which had the most detailed recipe out there — and the prettiest pictures, too! There are six specific parts to my version: espresso extract, espresso syrup, a genoise cake, a zabaione, the mascarpone mixture, and whipped cream. As you can tell, it’s very involved and very not conducive to a step-by-step picture post — never fear, pictures will be here, but not for each individual step and part. Let’s start with our ingredients for each part:

Espresso Extract
4 tablespoons of instant coffee or espresso powder
4 tablespoons of boiling water

Espresso Syrup
1 cup of water
2/3 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of espresso extract
2 tablespoons of Kahlua Mocha (or coffee liqueur of your choice)

Zabaione
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup of sugar
3/8 cup of Kahlua Mocha (or Moscato/ Marsala/ Brandy/ other spirit of your choosing)

Mascarpone Mixture
8oz tub of mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract (no imitation nonsense — the cost is the same, use the real thing!)
1 tablespoon of Kahlua Mocha (again, you can use a different spirit of your choosing — I go for a coffee flavor throughout my cake)

Whipped Cream
1 cup of cold heavy whipping cream

Coffee-flavored Genoise Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) of melted butter
4 large eggs
1 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (again, the pure way is the right way!)
2 tablespoons of Kahlua Mocha (or other coffee liqueur of your choosing)
1 tablespoon of espresso extract
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder (okay, not orthodox in a genoise cake, but I like the little extra lift)
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Pretty intense, I know. So, let’s get down to creating this lovely round piece of heaven.

To make your espresso extract, boil the water. In small container, measure the instant coffee/ espresso powder, then pour the boiling water over it. Stir to dissolve the granules. Cover loosely and set aside.

To make your espresso syrup, heat the water and sugar, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add the espresso extract and Kahlua, stirring to combine. Allow the syrup to simmer until the syrup begins to thicken. You should have over a cup of syrup reserved — of course, you could halve the recipe if you don’t enjoy the soggy, cake-y goodness that usually comes with tiramisu. We happen to love every coffee-flavored syrup-soaked bite in this house, though.

To make a zabaione, either get out your double boiler, find two pots that fit together, or get a metal bowl that will sit atop one of your pots. Put enough water into the bottom pot, but don’t put in so much that it touches the bottom of your top pot/ bowl. Heat the water. In your top part, mix the yolks and sugar until fluffy and yellow. An electric mixer really facilitates this process. Once your yolk mixture looks pale yellow and creamy, stir in the liqueur and place on top of your simmering water. Mix constantly for about 10 minutes, or until fluffy and thick like custard. Set aside to cool, then refrigerate.

To make the mascarpone mixture, whisk or use your electric mixer to combine the ingredients into a fluffy, creamy mixture. Refrigerate. Ignore the desire to eat it as is.

To make the whipped cream, pour the cold cream into a cold bowl (it’s recommended that you use a metal bowl, but I’ve had luck with plastic, too). Get your electric mixer, attach the whisk, and beat the cream until it’s about doubled in size and forms stiff peaks. Be careful not to over whip your cream, or else you will end up with butter.

To make the cake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. If you’re confident in your genoise baking skills, omit the baking powder. Set aside. Next, melt the butter and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat your eggs and sugar constantly. You’re going to want a very fluffy, airy cake batter with lots of wonderful little air pockets. Carefully pour in your flavoring ingredients while beating your egg and sugar mixture. Once your mixture looks like it’s about doubled in size, gently fold in the melted butter with a spatula. You don’t want to over mix it, or you will risk deflating all the air you’ve beaten into the batter. Then carefully fold in the dry ingredients, again being diligent not to over mix. Pour the batter into two grease cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes. I find that my oven bakes them in 20 minutes. Allow your cake layers to cool for a bit.

Still with me? We’re not finished yet. We still have to mix our filling and frosting, soak our cake layers, and assemble the beautiful thing. Get out your cocoa powder because you’re going to need that for garnishing. Here’s how we’ll do it:

Tiramisu Filling
Zabaione
Half the mascarpone mixture
Half the whipped cream

Gently fold together the zabaione and mascarpone mixture. Then gently fold in the whipped cream. Resistance is futile — you might as well lick the spatula. If it’s a little runny, you can whip the mixture a bit to help thicken it up.

Tiramisu Frosting
Half the mascarpone mixture
Half the whipped cream
A drizzling of espresso extract

Whip the frosting to fluffy perfection.

We’re finally ready to assemble our cake. Take the first cake layer and begin soaking it with half the espresso syrup. Be careful and patient about it — you want to have an evenly soaked cake, and you don’t want to make a sticky mess.

Once you have soaked the bottom layer, spread the filling evenly across the cake layer.

Place your top cake layer atop the tiramisu filling. Soak the top layer with the remaining syrup.

Then spread your frosting on top of your cake, careful smoothing it down the sides of the cake.

Finally, dust the top of your cake with cocoa powder. Voila! You are now ready to cut a slice and enjoy the Italian “pick-me-up!”

July 23, 2010July 30, 2010

Foodie Friday: Cornbread

For dinner tonight, I made some cornbread with breaded chicken and salad. Cornbread is so simple yet so delicious, and it goes so well with chicken dipped in barbecue sauce. I’m also a big fan of making it in muffin form — technically, my cornbread recipe is a muffin recipe. Despite the fact that it’s been blisteringly hot outside, a batch of cornbread definitely needed to be the star of the plate tonight.

Cornbread
1 cup of flour
1 cup of cornmeal
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of milk
1 large egg
1/4 cup of butter (or oil)
1/4 cup of sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Melt the butter (if you choose to use butter) and allow to cool. Grab a bowl and a whisk, crack open the egg, and beat it. Whisk in the cooled butter slowly or else you’ll end up with a scrambled egg in your bowl. Pour in the cup of milk while whisking. Add the sugar — it’s a wet ingredient in my book. Whisk in the cup of cornmeal until combine. Whisk in the rest of the dry ingredients until combined and smooth. See? Simple!

Pour the batter into whatever you’d like — an 8″x8″ pan, a 9″x9″ pan, a muffin pan, a mini-muffin pan, anything! You can have as much fun with this recipe as you’d like. Today I used my 9″x9″ baking pan because I was actually in the mood for nice square little pieces of cornbread. Once you’ve put the batter into the baking pan, put it into your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes for bread and 15-20 minutes for muffins. Prepare the rest of your dinner while you wait for the cornbread to bake. I cut chicken breast into small chunks, coated the chicken pieces with flour, dipped them in a barbecue sauce batter*, and covered them with bread crumbs. I fried the chicken in a mixture of olive oil and vegetable oil on medium heat, ensuring I cooked them thoroughly on both sides. My distraction patience was rewarded with a lovely cornbread.

Leave the cornbread to cool while you finish preparing the rest of your meal. Avoid the temptation to slice right into that golden brown top — it’s still too hot and needs to cool off before it can be properly cut into delicious golden squares of corny goodness. Usually about 5-10 minutes will do. Once it has cooled, go ahead and cut it into as many slices as you’d like. I chose to slice it into 12 pieces today, since I usually end up with 12 muffins. Serve up your cornbread with your desired meal, grab a glass of lemonade, and enjoy!

*As a quick aside, the barbecue sauce we used is a homemade recipe that Brian created. I couldn’t tell you exactly what’s in it, but I can tell you that it’s seriously delicious. To make a batter out of barbecue sauce, pour about 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of sauce into a bowl, beat in an egg, whisk in enough flour (about 1/2 cup) to make a batter, and voila! Barbecue sauce batter. I used some bread crumbs to help keep add a little extra crunch because I love crunchy chicken.