Jun11

Egg Salad Sandwiches

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This was the first recipe that I ever tried for egg salad and Scott loved it. I’d planned to add relish to it because my mom always used it but I didn’t have any. When I told Scott he was happy because he likes it without relish anyway! So, this was a good recipe for him. He’s been asking me to make it again for a while now… I finally got around to it! When I remember, I also add a few sprinkles of Old Bay seasoning in the salad and/or Paprika over the top.

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Ingredients

  • 8 hard-cooked eggs, diced
  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup dried onion flakes (I use about an 1/8 of a cup)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon mustard powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dill weed
  • 8 slices white bread

Directions

In a bowl, gently mix the eggs, mayonnaise, onion flakes, salt, mustard powder, garlic powder, pepper, and dill. Cover, and refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight. To serve, spread equal amounts on 4 slices bread; top with remaining bread slices to make sandwiches.

Note

If using promptly, begin by placing onion flakes in a small bowl and adding 1/4 cup hot water. Let sit 10 minutes, or until soft. Drain and discard the water, then add the rest of the ingredients to the onion, blending well.

From: www.allrecipes.com, submitted by Sara Slade
Jun3

Alton Brown’s Baked Potatoes

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This is a really easy but good way to bake potatoes.

 
1 large russet potato
Canola oil to coat
Kosher salt 

Heat oven to 350 degrees and position racks in top and bottom thirds. Wash potato (or potatoes) thoroughly with a stiff brush and cold running water. Dry, then using a standard fork poke 8 to 12 deep holes all over the spud so that moisture can escape during cooking. Place in a bowl and coat lightly with oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt and place potato directly on rack in middle of oven. Place a baking sheet on the lower rack to catch any drippings.Bake 1 hour or until skin feels crisp but flesh beneath feels soft. Serve by creating a dotted line from end to end with your fork, then crack the spud open by squeezing the ends towards one another. It will pop right open. But watch out, there will be some steam.

NOTE: If you’re cooking more than 4 potatoes, you’ll need to extend the cooking time by up to 15 minutes.

From: www.foodnetwork.com

 
Jun2

Taco Seasoning

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INGREDIENTS:

  • 1/4 cup instant minced onion
  • 3 tablespoons chili powder
  • 2 tablespoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper, to taste
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 teaspoons oregano, crushed

PREPARATION:

Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Use generously to season meat or poultry, or use in recipes.
Makes about 2/3 cup Taco Seasoning Blend.
Jun1

Cajun Shrimp Sauce

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This sauce was part of a recipe for grilled shrimp kabobs.  I used it on a pound of shrimp that I sauteed on the stove.  Combine all ingredients over medium heat.  Toss desired amount with cooked shrimp.

Sauce Ingredients

1/4   cup Butter
2   tablespoons ketchup
1   teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1   teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2   teaspoon pepper
1/2   teaspoon finely chopped fresh garlic
1/8 to 1/4   teaspoon ground red pepper

Sauce recipe from www.landolakes.com

May31

Wilton’s “Just Cupcakes” Course

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I’ve wanted to take a cake decorating class for a long time and never got around to it.  In the meantime, I’ve decorated a few cakes over the past couple of years and ended up teaching myself a few things.  One day, I bought some pastry bags and decorator tips and played around to see what I could do.  Today, I finally attended a class.  I chose the cupcakes class because, well- I love cupcakes!  I also wanted to learn how to make cupcake cakes. I did not get to actually make one though.  I just watched the instructor make one.  It was pretty cool- she made a butterfly in about 15 minutes! I know the same cake would have taken me two hours.  I can’t wait to make my own.  Shania wants one for her birthday (which is in July) so I’ll get to make one soon.  Actually, I’ll probably make a practice one mostly because I don’t want to wait that long!

Anyway…. back to the class.  It was one of the fast track courses which takes place all in one day.  It was three hours long.  This was great in terms of fitting it into my schedule but it ended up feeling very rushed.  The instructor demonstrated a few techniques and then told us to practice them on our cupcakes.  We weren’t required to do anything specific.  I mostly did what she had shown us but I had to throw the baseball one in there in honor of Austin’s recent themed baseball birthday party. 🙂 I got bored with the pink frosting (the blue, yellow and purple cupcakes were airbrushed) but I didn’t have time to mix other colors, except for a small amount of the red.  I didn’t finish decorating all of the cupcakes I had and the ones I did were done in a bit of a hurry so I wasn’t entirely pleased with them. But, since I was just bringing them home to eat them, I guess I won’t lose sleep over it.   

Overall, I didn’t learn anything too groundbreaking in terms of decorating but I learned a few basic tips and it was a lot of fun!  It was nice to have a reason to practice and play around with different tips.  I liked the cupcake cake demo and it motivated and excited me to try my own soon.  I also came home with a new icing recipe and some decorator tips, bags, etc.  The store where the class was held (Cake Art Party Store in Tucker, Georgia) was awesome- they had so much great stuff! I’ve been missing out by just going to Michael’s.    

There was one major problem with the class- I had a hard time not eating all of the cupcakes! Especially after the first couple ones were frosted.  I had to talk myself out of eating one in the car on the way home. 🙂

May30

Buttermilk Pound Cake

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Yesterday, I made one of Scott’s favorite desserts-buttermilk pie (recipe at ThatSweetAng). I’ve been on a mission to find new recipes that call for buttermilk so that I can use up what’s left after making the pie.  I found this pound cake recipe on All Recipes and had all of the ingredients so I decided to give it a try. 

This cake smelled wonderful while it was baking and tastes great. It did not take 90 minutes to bake- I took it out of the oven after 75 minutes and it might have actually been done at 70 minutes.

This is an easy and good pound cake recipe.  It is very moist and the meringue powder that I added made it perfectly high.  I think I could actually take this home to my mom and she is the queen of pound cakes!

Buttermilk Pound Cake

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • I added 2 tablespoons meringue powder
  • 1 cup butter
  • 3 cups white sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon lemon extract
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup buttermilk

    • Directions

    1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease one 9 or 10 inch tube pan. Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and meringue powder. Set aside.
    2. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar. Mix in the eggs, one at time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the lemon and the vanilla extracts. Gently mix in flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
    3. Bake in preheated oven for 90 minutes. Do not open oven door until after one hour. When cake begins to pull away from the side of the pan it is done. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

     From: All Recipes

    May29

    Asian Zing Wings

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    I recently tried Asian Zing wings at Buffalo Wild Wings.  I really liked them and decided to try to make a similar wing sauce at home so we don’t have to wait until $0.40 wing nights to have it. These were really good. Scott and I both liked them so much that I made them two nights in a row. 

    I broiled some wings so that they would get crispy on the outside and then tossed them in this sauce, which had been heated on the stove.  This was enough to coat 12 wing sections.

    Asian Zing Wing Sauce

    Ingredients

    1/2 cup sweet chili sauce

    1/8 cup low sodium soy sauce

    1 teaspoon crushed ginger

    1 garlic clove, crushed or minced

    1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

    Directions

    Combine all ingredients and mix well. Heat and toss with cooked wings.

    May25

    Cherry Limeade Martini

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    Last week, I had a cherry limeade martini at Bluefin and this was my attempt to recreate it. After trying 3 or 4 different combinations of ingredients, this is the recipe that tasted the most like what I had at the restaurant. There was a cherry in my drink as well as a lime garnish so I did the same at home but you can’t see the cherry in the picture. 🙂

    Cherry Limeade Martini

    Ingredients

    2 oz vodka

    2 oz maraschino cherry flavored syrup

    juice of half a lime

    splash of sweet and sour

    splash of lemon lime soda

    lime slice and cherry with stem for garnish

    Directions

    Pour ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake well. Drain into martini glass. Garnish with cherry and lime.

    May22

    Bluefin- Atlanta

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    Scott and I went to Bluefin to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. I chose it because it was on three Atlanta Top 10 lists: Best Overall Restaurants, Best Ambiance and Best Food.

    The website description: Bluefin is an upscale casual Japanese Fusion restaurant featuring a lounge of impressive proportions. The menu is an exciting blend of modern Japanese cuisine with a pinch of American & European taste. The extensive menu features from unique Classic Caesar & special Japanese seaweed salad to exclusive Filet Mignon and fashionable Sashimi & Sushi platters. Bluefin is famous for a wide variety of Wines & Premium sakes as well.

    Everything I expected based on what I read ahead of time was completely true. The ambiance was very nice- it was very modern and upscale but felt very comfortable at the same time. Our hostess (who was kind enough to take a few pictures of us) and waitress were very friendly and professional. The food was wonderful and presented so nicely that I didn’t want to eat anything right away because it looked so pretty! By going on a weeknight, we avoided the weekend crowds and had a very quiet and romantic anniversary dinner.

    We ordered a lot of food! Scott ate calamari, soft shell crab, buffalo oysters and onion rings. I ate shrimp tempura, maui grilled chicken, grilled asparagus, grilled pineapple and yukon gold potatoes.  Scott did not like the soft shell crab very much but everything else was good. We were also pleasantly surprised by the food portions. Needless to say, we were stuffed by the end! Neither of us could finish our food. I had a really good cherry limeade martini which I plan to try to recreate as soon as possible! 🙂

    Bluefin is a restaurant we will definitely go back to.

    Website: http://www.bluefinatlanta.com

    We booked our table through www.opentable.com.