Tomato and (random) Cheese Tarts

It's time for another installment by the Barefoot Bloggers! This week, Anne chose an AMAZING Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart recipe. This was so fabulous!



Don't get me wrong, I love goat cheese. But since I had a variety of other cheeses on hand, I decided it would be a better idea to use those up first. Well, it just so happens that I had FOUR cheeses and FOUR tarts to make. Let's do a sampler!

The original recipe can be found here, but below you can see my changes:

Ingredients:

• 1 package (17.3 ounces/2 sheets) puff pastry, defrosted
  Good olive oil
• 4 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 large onions) I used 1 and half onions because that's all I had!
• 3 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons dry white wine
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
• 4 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan, plus 2 ounces shaved with a vegetable peeler Yeah, I actually just used shredded parm... the kind you use to top a pizza :)
• 4 ounces garlic-and-herb goat cheese I used four cheeses! Check it out below to see what kinds
• 1 large tomato, cut into 4 (1/4-inch-thick) slices
• 3 tablespoons julienned basil leaves I ommitted because I didn't have any. I used a few shakes of Italian seasoning at the end instead

Directions:

• Unfold a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll it lightly to an 11 by 11-inch square. Using a 6-inch wide saucer or other round object as a guide, cut 2 circles from the sheet of puff pastry, discarding the scraps. Repeat with the second pastry sheet to make 4 circles in all. Place the pastry circles on 2 sheet pans lined with parchment paper and refrigerate until ready to use.
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
• Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium to low heat and add the onions and garlic. Saute for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are limp and there is almost no moisture remaining in the skillet. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, the wine, and thyme and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, until the onions are lightly browned. Remove from the heat.
• Using a sharp paring knife, score a 1/4-inch-wide border around each pastry circle. Prick the pastry inside the score lines with the tines of a fork and sprinkle a tablespoon of grated Parmesan (I used shredded, bagged parm) on each round, staying inside the scored border.
• Place 1/4 of the onion mixture on each circle, again staying within the scored edge. Crumble 1 ounce of goat cheese (or a fun variety!) on top of the onions.
• 

Okay from top left working around in a clockwise motion we have just more shredded parmesan, bleu cheese, light french onion Laughing Cow cheese, light garlic and herb Laughing Cow cheese!

• Place a slice of tomato in the center of each tart. Brush the tomato lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with basil (I sprinkled Italian seasoning), salt, and pepper. Finally, scatter 4 or 5 shards of Parmesan on each tart (I ommitted this step).
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Serve hot or warm.

And for the results?

The shredded parm seemed to burn quickly, just like the pizza in my blog header. The bleu cheese looked a little greasy as the cheese bubbled but both of the Laughing Cow cheeses looked great!

The verdict? Laughing Cow garlic and herb tart was the winner! Although the bleu cheese and french onion were also fabulous. As for the parmesan, well, I was just too full after picking at the other three to even give it a try!

CHOMP.

Wilton Course One, Class Four

Ahhh, the final class. This is where I get to pool all of my knowledge from the past few classes and create a fabulous looking cake, right? WRONG! Man oh man that Wilton rose is tricky! And I have to admit, I had BY FAR the ugliest cake in the class. I mean these gals were cranking out roses and designs like they had done this before. Oh well, I certainly learned a lot and had a great time. I even signed up for the next course so hopefully I improve!

For my final class I made a white cake (yay box mix!) with a mixed berry filling. I won't bore you with the details of the cake making, but you might want the recipe for the berry mixture!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups frozen berries. I used this bag of mixed berries:


• 


• 1/4 cup sugar


• 1 and 1/2 tsp cornstarch


• 1 TBSP cold water


• 1 TBSP lemon juice

Directions:

• In a saucepan, heat the berries and sugar until the berries begin to release their juices.


• 


• Mix the cornstarch with the cold water and lemon juice until lump free, then stir the slurry into the berries.


• Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat.


• Let cool and then fill your cake!

Now, for the decorating...

I put my BEST rose on top... which quickly got squished on the ride home before I took a picture of it. Oh well!

My coworkers seemed to enjoy it...

Simple BBQ Chicken

Nothing says summer like grilled BBQ chicken. So while we pulled the grill out and whipped up one of my favorite (and easiest) dinners!

Ingredients:

• Boneless skinless chicken breasts
• BBQ seasoning/rub (optional)
• BBQ sauce of your choice

Directions:

• If you like, add some BBQ Seasoning/Rub to your chicken breast. I used this rub only on mine because I had it and wanted to give it a whirl. It was sent to me as part of a promotion for the Outdoor Channel. See?
• 
• Now throw your chicken breasts on the grill. Top with just a little bbq sauce and spread to cover. Close your grill lid and let the sauce carmelize on top. After a few minutes, flip and add more bbq.
• 
• Once chicken breasts are done, serve with these fabulous vegetables!

This really hit the spot and was the perfect dish to give us both the taste of summer we were looking for. Heres to many more evenings outside with the grill!

Tin-foil Vegetables

Hmmm, perhaps that's not the most appetizing name. But don't worry, they don't taste like tin-foil.

The weather has been BEAUTIFUL lately. And I'm not talking beautiful for Mid-March... I'm talking beautiful for ANY time of year! Sunny and 70, this weekend seemed like a perfect time to grill.

In the refridgerator I found two yummy veggies that needed to be used up: zucchini and red peppers. So I sliced them up (the zucchini got the fancy treatment using this guy) and added a little sliced onion too. I made a small tin-foil boat and placed them all in it.



Then I drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil on top and pressed one garlic clove into the mix. On top I gave a few shakes of Italian seasoning for additonal flavor. I added another piece of tin foil over top and crunched the edges so that it was sealed tightly.

Now turn on your grill and time with out with whatever else you have cooking. The vegetables only took about 5-7 minutes to cook through so plan accordingly. But look at how fabulous they are when they're done!



Drew walked into the kitchen and wanted to know what smelled so good. I've never seen him that excited about vegetables before! Did I mention he cleaned his plate?? ;)

Herb-Onion Dinner Rolls

I'm getting a lot more comfortable using yeast and attempting new bread recipes. The only reason I don't do it more often is because it's quite the long process! Not difficult, just a labor of love as you wait for your dough to rise.

I busted out my monster-sized Better Homes and Garden Cookbook (thanks Mom!) and browsed the bread recipes. I found one that looked tasty so I decided to give it a whirl. I was not disappointed!

Ingredients:

• 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup margarine
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 TBSP dried minced onion
• 1/2 tsp italian seasoning

Directions:

• Stir together 1 1/4 cups of flour and the yeast.
• In a saucepan, heat milk, sugar, butter, minced onion, italian seasoning and a pinch of salt until warm and add to the flour mixture along with the egg
• Beat with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds then beat on high for 3 minutes.
• Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (takes about 6 minutes of kneading)
• Place dough in a greased bow and cover. Let rise until doubled.
• Punch dough down and turn dough out again onto a lightly floured surface.
• Divide dough in half and cover. Let rest for another 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, spray down your muffin pan with Pam.
• Seperate dough into little balls (you will fit three in each muffin space). Refer to the picture below. It will give you an idea of what I mean. Or think about three little donut holes nestled in together, side by side. :)
• Once you've filled your entire muffin pan, cover again and let rise until doubled in size (30 minutes)
• Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes.
• Remove and cool on an iron rack
• Brush with butter and enjoy!

This recipe sounds long but it's really easy. It's just a waiting game! And the herb-onion flavor is subtle but delicious. You can omit that from the milk mixture if it doesn't appeal to you.

Mexi-Fries

Mmmm french fries! Ever since I made THESE my husband asks for them almost every night. Well, it was time for a change but heaven forbid we don't make some type of fry! So Drew suggested spicy mexi-fries. (Please note that there is nothing really Mexican inspired about these fries. But that's what my husband refers to them as so I guess it sticks!)

There isn't much of a recipe here, but if you have the right seasoning on hand then it's just silly not to test them out.

Again, like the link above, it's pretty simple. But they're healthy and flavorful so give 'em a try!

Ingredients:

• 3 potatoes, washed and scrubbed (but leave the skin on this time!)
• SPICY Montreal Steak Seasoning
• Cajun seasoning
• Extra virign live oil

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 450
• Wash and scrub your potatoes. Slice them however you want to make your fries.
• Place fries in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Use your hands to toss the fries around in the bowl to ensure that each fry is covered.
• Place fries on a cookie sheet in one layer
• Sprinkle with both seasonings
• Bake for about 15 minutes and turn over. Sprinkle with seasonings again and continue to bake. Bake until you get your desired french fry crunch!

These little puppies packed a punch and were DELICIOUS on their own or when dunked into a cold pile of ketchup. We've made these a few times now!

Wilton Course One, Class Three

For this weeks Wilton class we were told to either A) bring in another frosted cake or B) bring in 8 frosted cupcakes. I opted for the cupcakes because I wanted to try something different! The cupcakes were red velvet cake frosted (again) with the buttercream. The cupcakes tasted awesome, but the decorating didn't go quite so well.



It's not that decorating them was hard, just time consuming. But then again, that's the same scenario with the cakes. The most time consuming part is filling your bags, switching tips, etc. That takes up the bulk of your effort! So unfortunately, I only was able to make a few cupcakes. But I did learn a lot of great new techniques that I will try next week in class for our final cake.

Okay so not the most pretty, but definitely learning the flower trick:



And the token, weird Wilton clown... this thing is a sugar coma waiting to happen:



So that's that. Just one more class and I will have 'graduated' from course one!

You could win $1000 in Wear-Ever cookware!

This is one heck of a giveaway so keep reading!

As a way to introduce people to their newly expanded collection of professional cookware, Food Service Warehouse is giving away a 19-piece Wear-Ever cookware at a value of $1000! This set is commercial quality and is actually used by professional chefs. It is perfect for the serious home cook.

From the website:

Lincoln manufacturers over 300 commercial and institutional foodservice products such as pots, pans, bakeware, trays and other kitchen utensils under the Wear-Ever® name. Wear-Ever® also offers many exclusive features like indentions for even heat distribution and warp-resistance, as well as spot-welded handles for leakproof performance.

The contest just began and runs until April 30th. You can click the banner below or the one on the left side of my blog. Either one will take you to the Food Service Warehouse website where you can enter for your chance to win!




Good luck!

Chicken Piccata

I recently joined a group called Barefoot Bloggers. It is a bunch of wonderful cooking bloggers who make recipes from the Barefoot Contessa show (Ina Garten) on Food Network. The concept is simple... Each month, two different members from BB chose one of Ina's recipes. Then the entire group makes it and posts about it! If you're looking for more information, visit the BB Blog. The first recipe for March (and my first BB recipe ever!) is Chicken Piccata.

The original, full recipe can be found HERE.

I only made a few changes but I do think they were important ones for our tastes:

• Only using HALF of ONE lemon for the lemon juice. A lot of the reviews I saw said that the dish was far too lemon flavored. I couldn't agree more.
• Adding 1/2 clove pressed garlic to the lemon/wine/butter sauce while it was boiling. This helped take out some of the intense lemon flavor and added that garlic taste that my husband and I love.
• I also added a few shakes of dried parsley to the lemon/wine/butter sauce instead of adding it at the end.
  

This was a great dish though! My husband said it was "homerun" so I was very happy. Thanks to the Barefoot Bloggers for letting me join in on the fun :) I'm looking forward to the next recipe!

I served this with healthy fries and artisan bread. Oh yeah baby, double carb night!

Rainbow Cake Squared

There is rainbow cake and then there is RAINBOW cake. This is definitely the latter!



So let me explain that I recently enrolled in Wilton cake decorating course 1. Each course is broken out into four 2-hour classes. You meet one day a week for a month. During the first night of class we learned how to make buttercream frosting and beginning tips (I was really suprised with all of the great tips I learned!). We were asked to bring a frosted cake to the second class and we would actually begin the decorating process during that class.

I didn't want to have a boring old cake, so I went with a wild rainbow cake!



Ingredients:

• 1 box white cake mix (or make your own, but after you've made four batches of buttercream you're not in the mood to whip up a cake from scratch!)
  
• Whatever the ingredients are for the mix (usually egg whites, oil and water)


• Food coloring

Directions:

• Mix up the cake mix as directed. Then seperate the cake batter into multiple different bowls (depending on how many colors you want your rainbow cake to have).


• Add food coloring to each bowl:



• 


• Now mix it up so your colors are bright and vibrant!


• 



• In a lightly greased cake pan, start dropping random blobs of the different cake colors. Don't worry about having a plan, just go color crazy!
  
  
• 


• Bake cake as directed

And there you have it! Rainbow cake. After my cake cooled I prepared it for class by adding a lemon curd filling and then frosting the outside with my homemade buttercream. After my class was over, my masterpiece looked like this:

Definitely not as easy as I thought it would be! But it was a lot of fun and I was really happy with the outcome. Oh, but the BEST part in my opinion was the inside... here is what the rainbow cake looked like after my coworkers got ahold of it the next morning:

I'm excited to see what we learn in the next class. Hopefully my frosting skills improve ;)

Kung Pow Chicken and Scallops

Drew and I love ordering takeout from Dragon House. I almost ALWAYS get kung pow (extra spicy and no peanuts please). Drew is more the mongolian beef fan though. After attempting that dish and finding it to be a success, I thought it was time to try my hand at my favorite takeout meal!

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless chicken breasts
• Vegetables of your choice (I used frozen Birds Eye broccoli stir fry mix)
• 2 TBSP vegetable oil
• Scallops (I had frozen baby scallops in the freezer I needed to use up!)
• FOR THE MARINATING SAUCE -
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 clove of garlic, pressed
• 1 TBSP corn starch
• FOR THE SEASONING SAUCE -
• 4 TBSP Chili Puree with Garlic (Found this at the grocery store. YUM!)
• 2 TBSP white rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Directions:

• Cut chicken into cubes
• Mix all of the ingredients for the marinating sauce and add chicken. Let chicken remain in the sauce for about an hour.
• Heat oil in saute pan and add chicken. Once cooked, remove chicken and set aside.
• In a small saute pan, cook scallops. Once cooked, set them aside also
• Add vegetables to saute pan and cook using remaining oil in pan
• Mix all ingredients for the seasoning sauce
• Slowly add a little bit of the sauce and stir to coat
• Add chicken and scallops to the vegetable/sauce mixture. Continue to stir and keep adding sauce until it is gone and everything is well coated.

I kept mine over low heat for a bit longer so that the sauce would thicken up. This was DELICIOUS! Spicy but not overpowering. The marinating sauce really gave the chicken a good flavor that added to the total taste of this meal. I really suggest trying this! And you can make it make it with any meat (or tofu) that you enjoy!

Adapted from the label off of my Chili Puree with Garlic :)

Thai Curry Chicken

I have a bit of a "bum knee" if you will. The doctor thinks I tore my meniscus so I went in for an MRI but unfortunately I won't know the results of this test until Tuesday. I'm hoping it's a minor tear and won't require surgery or anything too invasive. With that being said, I'm getting a little spoiled. A few nights ago my husband made me dinner and just the other evening my brother came over to cook! I like it when my brother stops over to cook because it gives us a good chance to talk and catch up. I also like it because I don't have to do anything ;)

My brother knew that I wasn't really up for a marathon cooking event so he brought over some simple ingredients and whipped together some Thai Curry Chicken for us.

Ingredients:

• 
• Chicken
• Mushrooms
• Coconut milk
• Red curry paste, to taste
• Jasmine rice
• That's it! So easy!

Directions:

• Cut chicken into cubes and cook in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil
• Remove and place chicken on plate while you work on the sauce
• Add mushrooms to the skillet and saute until tender
• In a seperate skillet, pour in coconut milk and add as much or as little curry paste as you like. Smooth out the lumps and heat over medium
• Once mixed, add the chicken back into the sauce and heat through
• Cook jasmine rice according to package

I'm not kidding! That is ALL there was too it! It was perfect. It was simple enough that we had plenty of time to chat but totally filling so that I didn't have to worry about dinner that night. I couldn't stop picking at my plate. Everything time I would tell my brother I was full, I went in for a few more bites. Bad bad bad ;)

On a side note, the curry paste smelled really hot but was very tame. Next time I would add crushed red pepper flakes for some added heat.

P.S. We forgot about the mushrooms until after we had already started digging in. I just threw mine on top and kept chowing down!

Jalepeno Corn Chowder

Brrr... baby it's cold outside! What's better than warming up with some hot (both temperature and spicy) soup?! Besides, I needed an excuse to get the blender out and play :)

Ingredients:

• 2 packages of frozen corn
• 1 can reduced sodium chicken broth
• 2/3 cup small pasta (I used tiny shells)
• 1 cup skim milk
• Roasted red peppers, I used about 1/3 of a small bottle
• Handful of jalepenos, chopped
• 

Directions:

• Put 1 package of corn and chicken broth in the blender. Cover and blend until almost smooth
• In a saucepan combine the broth mixture, the remaining corn and bring to a boil.
• Add in the pasta and reduce heat. Simmer uncovered until pasta is tender
• Roughly chop up your red peppers and jalepenos
• Stir in the rest of your ingredients (milk, red peppers, and jalepenos)
• Stir until heated through
• Garnish with peppers, cheese or even tortilla chips!

This really hit the spot. It was just the right about of heat with the peppers and the temperature took the edge off on a cold, windy night!

Drew's Dinner

I love my husband. He's smart, funny and insanely romantic. But even the best of intentions can sometimes end up a little... off.

During the middle of the day last week I was told that he was going to make dinner. I had two thoughts that immediately popped into my head - 1) How sweet! and 2) Yikes!

So Drew came home with a HUGE bag of fresh ingredients from the market. Beautiful meat, tomato focaccia, chardonay vinegar, 'special' olive oil.... I mean the list goes on! This guy is really going all out! Speaking of going all out. What is it that makes men want to use EVERY dish in the kitchen and EVERY utensil? It's okay though, he did the dishes that night too ;)



The menu:

• Sirloin topped with bernaise sauce
• Blanched asparagus
• Camping potatoes (weird name, but this is my FAVORITE thing he makes... and obviously we eat a lot of it when we're camping and hiking!)

Everything was going quite well from what I could tell although I "wasn't allowed in the kitchen" ;)

I can hear a few mutters and grunts coming from the kitchen and I ask how it's going. "Oh fine, fine..." Hmmm.

Well, it's time for dinner and Drew pours me a glass of wine. Then he says, "Well, I'm going to put the sauce on the side I think. Somethings not quite right."

Let's take a look:

(did you notice our classy 'napkins' that night? Oh yeah baby... my husband gets out the paper towels when it's his turn to clean up. haha)

No no... Let's take a CLOSER look:

Somehow during the process the bernaise sauce turned into this gelantinus goo. And within a few minutes, it had completely hardened into a strange looking jello mold. We both had a good laugh and everything else was FABULOUS!

The steak was cooked perfectly, the asparagus was amazing and the camping potatoes really hit the spot! Regardless, Drew was a little disappointed in his effort. See? Poor guy, he swears he followed the recipe ;)

Shepherd's Pie

You know, I don't think I've ever made Shepherd's Pie before. But I've decided it's the PERFECT meal to make when you need to clean out your refridgerator and/or freezer. It's also a great meal when it's cold and nasty during an Iowa winter. You can bundle up next to your sweetie and stuff your face full of this dish. And then you immediately go into a food coma. But it's worth it :)

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• Veggies of choice (I had a frozen bag of mixed veggies)
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• Seasoning (I used Lawry's and a bit of crushed red pepper)
• Mashed potatoes (Well hello there handsome bag of Steam N Mash)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup

Directions:

• Brown ground beef in a skillet and season to taste. Add pressed garlic.
• Add in vegetables and cream of mushroom soup.
• Stir and fold to combine
• Place beef/veggie mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and preheat the over to 400 degrees.
• Make mashed potatoes (or if you're me, make your Steam N Mash version!)
• Top beef mixture with mashed potatoes and bake until mashed potatoes are crispy on top

Laughing Cow Chicken

If you haven't tried Laughing Cow cheese, you should. It's delicious. When you're at the grocery store, go over by the 'fancy cheese' area. It comes in a few different varieties and all are wonderful! It's good on a cracker, in a sandwich , with veggies, or just by itself. But for this recipe, it's going inside chicken!

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts
• Breadcrumbs
• 2 wedges Laughing Cow cheese (I used their light french onion cheese for this dish)
• 2 scoops of pesto
• A little olive oil

Directions:

• Wash and dry thawed chicken
• Spread 1 wedge of Laughing Cow cheese on each chicken breast
• Now spread 1 scoop (however much you like) of pesto onto each chicken breast
• Roll up the chicken breast (it should be rolled similar to THIS)
• Secure with a toothpick so that it doesn't unroll
• Drizzle a little olive oil on the chicken and rub to completely cover
• Place breadcrumbs in a bowl. Roll your chicken around in the breadcrumbs so that the chicken is completely covered
• Place rolled chicken breasts in a lightly greased baking pan and bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes

Yum! The french onion cheese was a great match with the pesto and the breadcrumbs gave it a nice crunch!