Recipe - - Page 22

by BS

Salt Block Root Beer Steak

You’re probably wondering what a salt block root beer steak is, and you’d be right to, because well..until now, that has definitely not been a thing.

Here’s what happened: I had two exciting new products burning a whole in my kitchen, waiting to be used.

1) My still unused Christmas present: a Himalayan pink salt block from the Meadow. Salt blocks allow you to cook foods at 600-degree temperatures, while the salt rapidly sears proteins, caramelizes sugar, and yes, adds a wee bit of salty deliciousness. By the way, this is how beautiful it looks before you get into the nitty gritty of grilling on it:

2) A bottle of McCormick Root Beer Concentrate that came my way as part of McCormick’s Flavor of Together program, a yearlong initiative to share 1.25 million stories about how flavor both unites and defines people across the globe.

So, what exactly is root beer concentrate? Well, it’s kind of like vanilla extract, except instead of vanilla it adds a dash of root beer flavor to whatever you’re cooking.

In 1889, Willoughby M. McCormick went door to door selling one of McCormick & Company’s first products, Root Beer Extract. From there, the product quickly rose in popularity and led to a trending sensation of root beer floats and root beer home brewing in the early 1900s. In 2014, McCormick marks its 125^th anniversary by celebrating the role flavor plays in all of our lives, inspiring flavorful conversation, and giving back to communities around the world. They asked me to come up with my own Root Beer Concentrate recipe…and clearly I was not going to make a plain old root beer float.

I’ve glazed meat in coke before, so I figured, why not root beer meat?

by BS

Cocktail O'Clock: Breakfast Edition

With St. Patrick”s Day just around the corner, you”ll be seeing lots of green beer and Shamrock shakes this week, but here”s one that really takes the cake: IRISH CEREAL MILK. This drink comes from Lexington Brass in New York and combines the childhood glory of sugary online casinos leftover cereal milk with the adulthood glory of…Whiskey.

Irish Cereal Milk

2oz Jameson Whiskey
1/2 oz Simple syrup
2 oz. Cinnamon Toast Crunch milk

Make Cinnamon Toast Crunch milk (soaking the cereal in milk for 30 min. and then straining out the cereal).

Fill Rocks glass with ice, pour Jameson and simple syrup in. Fill glass with Cinnamon Toast Crunch milk.

Garnish with Cinnamon Toast Crunch Pieces (fresh crunchy ones, not soggy).

in Breakfast / Drinks / Holiday / Recipe 0 comments

by Emily

Sweet and Spicy Triple Red Quinoa Salad

Let’s talk about cabbage. I love cole slaw—like, really love, it’s one of my favorite sides/snacks. Sometimes I will eat a big bowl of slaw for dinner. Is that weird? Probably. Other than cole slaw, though, I don’t really do much with cabbage. So I had to get a little creative with the huge head of crisp, red cabbage that came in our Johnson’s Backyard Garden CSA box last week.

What’s my go-to when it comes to using up vegetables? Mixing them into some quinoa, of course. What’s my other go-to? Adding a runny egg to anything/everything. Using these two standby moves, I transformed a head of cabbage into a super flavorful, easy, and healthy dinner for the household. (Let me tell you, it’s fantastic living with a boyfriend and roommates who enjoy healthy cooking as much as I do.)

This warm salad is red on red on red on red! We’ve got red quinoa, red cabbage, and red onion mingling with kale, sour apple, rich tropical coconut oil, and sweet raisins. The addition of curry and red chile flakes kicks up the spice and keeps this combination from becoming too sugary. Make sure you don’t overcook your quinoa or produce—mushy quinoa is a bummer and you want to be able to savor the crispness of the cabbage, apples, and kale.

Sweet and Spicy Triple Red Quinoa Salad

in Eggs / Recipe / Veggie 0 comments

by Emily

CSA Cooking: Sweet Potato Rainbow Hash

Big news! We finally made the leap into signing up for our own CSA box! This is something my bf Rob has wanted to do for awhile, and the rest of the roommates and I quickly got on board.

The natural choice was Johnson’s Backyard Garden, an Austin favorite. If you’re not familiar with CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), here’s an explanation from JBG:

Community Supported Agriculture is much different than going to the local grocery and buying your vegetables. It is a direct partnership between you the consumer, and our farm. CSA members pay in advance for a share of the upcoming harvest and are ensured access to truly nourishing food, food that is grown locally, organically and is delivered when most nutritious and fresh. What’s more, the shareholder cultivates a relationship with their farmer, the land, and with other shareholders. CSA is an opportunity to use your money to support valuable causes: responsible land stewardship, a vibrant local food economy, a healthy community, and the success of local farmers.

Can’t argue with that. Especially considering the amount of vegetables I eat on a weekly basis. We’re getting a medium box every two weeks, plus a half-dozen farm fresh eggs. Our first box, which was delivered last Tuesday, held delights such as sweet potatoes, rainbow carrots (absolutely gorgeous!), kale, spinach, parsley, and even daikon. The fun thing about getting a CSA box is it’s kind of like being on Chopped, except for instead of crazy ingredients it’s a bunch of super fresh, organic produce. You still have to figure out ways to cook it at its peak before it starts going bad, though!

Last Saturday morning I wanted to use up some of our beautiful vegetables and, obviously, try out some of those eggs in our morning meal. I decided to go the hash route. I’ve never put carrots in a hash before, but their crisp sweetness was great with the sweet potatoes. I added some leftover chopped organic chicken breast to bulk up the protein, plus some leftover red and green onion (not from JBG, but duh, gotta have some onion). The result? A gorgeous rainbow of colors, flavors, and texture. Adding a runny-yolked egg was really just gilding the lily.

Sweet Potato + Carrot Rainbow Hash

in Breakfast / Eggs / Fowl / Recipe 0 comments

by snebbu

Endless Peeps: Vanilla Sugar-Peep Sandwich Cookies

When we say endless, we mean it. I know the day of love has past, but it is still dreary February and we could all use a pick-me-up. I made these for Valentine’s day for my fiance (she was stuck going to work to save lives as essential personnel while I enjoyed a snow day). Plus I had vanilla cream Peeps, and a sweet tooth. The result? Peep sandwich cookies.

Years ago, my mom found a sugar cookie recipe that was just delectable. They melt in your mouth, have just the right amount of sugar, and they have the perfect texture. With golden brown edges, they provide just the right crunch to be complemented by creamy vanilla marshmallow. PLUS, there is additional sweetness in the vanilla frosting that acts as a glue for the marshmallow.

These are good fresh out of the oven or a few days later. I’ve even dunked them in milk. I was concerned about the sandwiches becoming too sweet, but the peep has just enough of a flavor without being too overwhelming. Plus, the vanilla flavor in the peeps goes well with the icing and the cookie. The challenge is pushing the cookie down without breaking the cookie and popping the peep out of the sandwich. Once you mess up a couple, it’s smooth sailing and off to enjoying your Peep-Sandwich.

Vanilla Sugar-Peep Sandwich Cookies

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by snebbu

Endless Peeps: Peeps Popcorn

Yes, MORE Peeps! Really…there is no thing as too much Peeps. The opportunities are endless! So this time, I took a different route—a sweet and salty route: POPCORN. Popcorn is great. But let’s be honest, unless it’s drowning in greasy fake movie theater butter, it just isn’t that good. UNLESS you drown it in something sweet. This brings us to…Peeps Popcorn.

Yes, it’s sweet…and it’s also easy. So easy, a kid could do it (as long as they don’t touch the stove or burn the sugar, or touch the hot melted Peeps). I do have to tell you though; you have to be okay with killing innocent marshmallow bunnies and chicks. Their suffering was worth it (as it typically is) and ends in a tasty treat that is not loaded with calories and carbs.

I used the chocolate mousse Peeps and the raspberry Peeps, and did two separate batches. The nice thing about this is that it takes one package or less of the Peeps, and some fresh-popped popcorn. Other than some butter in the pan, there are no other ingredients. The chocolate mousse popcorn came out a little crispier than the raspberry. Must be something in their blood…

The chocolate flavor stands out on the popcorn, so I added some sea salt and it was tasty. The sweetness of the raspberry reminded me of cotton candy for some reason—no salt needed. Since Peeps offers so many different flavors now, I would definitely pick two flavors and make two different batches. This way, you can compare and contrast. Now consider this…what if you mixed two flavors? Hmmm…

Here’s the “recipe” (pay attention – it’s complicated)

Peeps Popcorn

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by Emily

Super Sweet Valentine’s: Strawberry Funfetti Melted Ice Cream Cake

Happy V-Day! Whether single, attached, or somewhere in the middle, there’s one unifying reason for everyone to celebrate the holiday of love: SUGAR. Valentine’s Day is a no-holds-barred marathon of sweets. Chocolates, strawberries, truffles, cupcakes, whipped cream…the sugary possibilities are endless. Personally, I’m a “red wine and dark chocolate” type of dessert lover, but I do have a couple vices when it comes to sweets, and here’s my most guilty one: funfetti. I’m powerless before funfetti. You know what I’m talking about, that boxed rainbow cake you see at birthday parties? I love it.

Anyway, this is a recipe that was sent to me by our friends at Arctic Zero, so it’s festive and sweet but definitely lower in cals/fat than your average dessert made with cream, butter, etc. Meaning you can still feel H-O-T in whatever seductive outfit you want to flaunt after sharing this dessert with your love (significant other, friend, family member, TV screen?) of choice.

The cake itself is cute and pink and rainbow-y, and super moist thanks to using Arctic Zero versus oil or something in the cake batter. It tastes like a homemade birthday cake with a scoop of melted ice cream mixed together. What could be better than that?

Strawberry Funfetti Melted Ice Cream Cake

in Desserts / Holiday / Recipe 0 comments