Naan

I love naan, it's so light and delicious. Anytime we go to an Indian restaurant, we always ask for more naan. I decided to make naan because it had to be simple, right? Guess what? Not only was it simple, it's delicious and we can now have fresh naan anytime we want! Perfect with a salad, turn it into a pita or just drizzle melted butter on it. You'll love it!

Ingredients:

1 (.25 ounce) package of active dry yeast

1 cup of warm water

1/4 cup of sugar

3 T of milk

1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons of salt

4 1/2 cups of bread flour

oil (I use olive oil)

Directions:

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand for about 10 minutes or until the top of the yeast turns frothy. Stir in the sugar, milk, egg, salt and flour. On a dry surface, add flour and knead dough for a few minutes. Place dough ball into a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth and set aside to rise. I've made this dough at noon, and let it rise until 7 p.m., or you can just let it rise for an hour, makes no difference really.

Once the dough has risen, punch down the dough to release air. Pinch off small handfuls of the dough, about the size of a tennis ball and place back into oiled bowl, repeat until you have used all your dough and turned into small balls. Place wet towel over the bowl and let rise for another 15-30 minutes.

You can either use your bbq grill to cook these or your oven (I use a natural stone pizza slab to cook these at 500 degrees). Cook for 3 minutes and then flip for another 1 minute. They will puff up a bit.

Because we like burn marks on ours, I place our naan over our gas fire indoor grill and toast them up a bit. If you use your outdoor bbq, you can get great grill marks that way too.

Yorkshire Pudding

I love watching Kitchen Nightmares on the BBC channel. Chef Ramsey has featured Yorkshire pudding way too many times for me not to at least try making it, after all, on t.v., these Yorkies looked AMAZING! So, yesterday, I made them and they are SO GOOD! Best part of it all, it's so easy! Airy, tasty and with a drizzle of brown gravy, you're set to go! (Will blog beef tips and gravy in a bit).

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour
1 cup of room temperature milk
3 eggs (room temperature)
butter

Preheat your oven to 375. In a large mixing bowl, add milk and eggs and whisk together. Add flour and whisk well. The batter will be a thin consistency. While your oven is warming up, take 1/2 teaspoon of butter and place into each tin cup. I can easily make 6 Yorkies with the batter, so put butter in at least 6 tin cups. Once your oven has reached 375, place tin into the oven for 2 minutes so that the butter melts. After the 2 minutes is up, remove the pan and add the batter to each 6 tin cups, all the way to the top of each cup. Drop the temp of the oven to 350 and place pan into the oven for 20-25 minutes until top is a light golden brown.

Once you remove the pan, let the Yorkies rest a bit before you add your gravy or butter.

Really, it's that easy and you have to at least try it once in your lifetime!

Roasted Garlic Bulb

I love garlic, period. I decided to roast a few garlic cloves for Chicken Shawarma (recipe to come soon). It adds so much flavor to any dish, especially on sandwiches or pita bread. Mash up the cloves, add a little olive oil for a garlic spread for garlic bread. Easy and delish. Kissing optional after eating.

2-3 bulbs of garlic
olive oil
foil

Set temp at 400 degrees. While oven is warming up, cut off the top of each bulb and drizzle with olive oil. Place on a baking sheet, cover with foil and cook for 40-45 minutes. The garlic clove will pull away from the sides and you can remove it using your finger or a small fork.

Enjoy!

Sandy's Yummy Mexican Appetizer

I really had no other name to call this. Sandy's Festive Dip....Sandy's Cream Cheese Avocado Dip...wait...what? It's not even a dip. I have no clue what IT is...I just know that it's super tasty!

My cute little friend Paula had us over for a pool party and she was making Street Tacos so a few of us brought over Mexican appetizers. I brought Jaime's To Die For Dip (which my cousin Jana seems to think it's called Jana's To Die For Dip, yeah right, she stole it from us), to be blogged later. And my other friend Sandy (who just moved to Canada :( I am so sad!), brought this appetizer. I had never had it before and I couldn't get enough of it. It has slices of cream cheese, who couldn't LOVE it, right??? Super easy to make.

All you do is slice cream cheese, then top with sliced avocados and then pour your favorite salsa over the top and OLE, it's party time.

Pasta with Prosciutto and Peas

Super yummy and super tasty. Best combo to have when you're cooking!

Bowtie Pasta with Prosciutto and Peas

12 ounces of pasta (whichever you like, I used Farfalle (bowtie)

1 T butter

1 large shallot finely chopped (sweet yellow onion will work too)

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 small package of peas, thawed (about 10 ounces)

8 slices of Prosciutto, cut in half and thinly sliced crosswise

1/2 C Parmesan Cheese, Grated

Kosher Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

1. Boil the pasta, Reserve 1 cup of the pasta to add to the sauce to thin it out

2. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium low heat, add the shallot and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the cream, peas, and prosciutto. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the peas are heated through, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the Parmesan cheese to the sauce. Add the pasta water to thin to your liking. I used about 1/4 a cup. Season with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over the pasta and sprinkle with additional Parm if desired. Serve immediately.

Delish! Enjoy!

How Much? How Many?

I am trying to make Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars and the recipe calls for 1 lb of Brown Sugar. Come again? 1 lb? That's not how I measure...I measure in cups. I did some googling and I'm getting varying answers on what constitutes a pound. Obviously liquids are different than solids but solids can be confusing too based on their texture...i.e. powdered sugar v. packed brown sugar. After a ton of research I think I found my answer. We shall see how they turn out. But in the meantime I found this handy chart for y'all to reference. My friend Lisa always tells me she doesn't understand measurements...after my measurement fiasco with my cookie bars, I feel her pain so this post is dedicated to her! Click HERE to find this handy dandy measurement guide. It has everything from how much liquid equals the juice of one lemon...2 TBS...who knew!...to how many mashed bananas in 1 cup. I love this guide. I'm going to print it out and laminate it and stick it on my fridge.

Again, click HERE to find the guide.

Peanut Butter Pancakes

I was so hungry Sunday morning when I woke up and I wanted something quick and easy to satisfy my craving and hopefully help get rid of this horrendous headache...think comfort food! I took a peek at my go to foodie blog Rookie Cookie and found this recipe. I never thought to put Peanut Butter IN pancakes. I really have never put peanut butter ON pancakes but Sydney's good friend Kaylee comes over and slathers the stuff all over her pancakes. I thought it was odd...until Sunday, that is. I don't even think I can make pancakes differently now. Not only were they ridiculously easy to make they were super tasty! It's like eating a peanut butter cookie with syrup on it. You HAVE to try these. Whitney at Rookie Cookie is seriously a cooking genius...she has some great recipes...go check her out...you are guaranteed to find something you will love!

Peanut Butter Pancakes

1 1/4 cups flour
3 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 egg
3 Tbsp melted butter

Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over medium heat.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine. In a large bowl, combine the milk, peanut butter and egg. Whisk until smooth. Combine the flour mixture with the milk mixture and gently stir until just combined. Fold in the melted butter.

Spray non-stick spray on the heated griddle. For each pancake, pour 1/2 cup batter onto griddle. Cooke until golden brown, turn when the edges are slightly dry. Yields 8 pancakes.

Crispy Bacon & Egg Fried Rice

My son loves fried rice - I hate spending $10 on a dinner size portion so I decided to make him some homemade fried rice with a tasty twist, BACON! Who doesn't love bacon? Two of my favorite things, rice and bacon.

This dish was a breeze and sooo good! Easy, tasty and back to basics!

Ingredients:

2-4 cups of cooked white rice (semi-cooled)

4 eggs

5 strips of diced bacon

2 T of veggie oil

soy sauce (I use the low sodium one)

sesame oil (you purchase this oil in the asian section of the grocery store)

black pepper

I also used a wok - of you don't have a wok, use a large frying pan

Directions:

Add oil and set heat on high, get the oil nice and hot and then add the bacon. Let the bacon cook in the oil until crispy. Add 4 eggs (make sure you scramble them before adding into the hot oil and bacon). Cook until all eggs are scrambled well. Add cooked rice and stir, make sure to blend up the bacon, egg and rice together. Now add soy sauce, sesame oil and black pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Fried Chocolate & Peanut Butter Wontons

This is such a tasty treat and so easy to make. I made two different wontons, one has just milk chocolate in it and the other wonton I added creamy peanut butter and milk chocolate. My boys love this little dessert that has so much flavor.

Ingredients:

wonton wrappers
milk chocolate pieces or morsels
oil
1 egg whipped


Optional:


peanut butter
powdered sugar


Place chocolate in the middle of the wonton wrapper and using your finger, wipe all 4 edges of the wonton with the egg wash. Pinch edges together and then take the 2 corners and match it in the middle, using more egg wash to keep it sealed. Fry in hot oil until golden. Serve warm & add powdered sugar on top.

Pierogi Casserole

Ingredients:


1 box of dried lasagna noodles
8 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large onion (diced finely in food processor)
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup of milk
1 tsp. of salt
1/2 tsp. of pepper
2 cups of shredded mild cheddar cheese


Full of flavor, this pierogi casserole is nothing short of rich & hearty goodness. My entire family loved it, including my 1 year old baby girl. I was able to make it during the day and quickly bake it before Bart got home for dinner. I served it with a sausage patty which complimented the dish nicely. Cost less than $10 to make and there is plenty of leftovers! If you love pierogis, you'll love this dish, total comfort food!



Directions:

1. Cook pasta accordingly to package. Set aside.


2. Cook potatoes in boiling water for about 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and place in a large mixing bowl. Mash well until it's creamy, I used a hand blender.


3. In a large skillet, add onions until tender. Add to mashed potatoes once onions are done.


4. Now add the butter, milk, salt and pepper and 1 1/2 cups of cheese together and stir together with a spoon. Make sure you taste, taste, taste, if you feel it needs more salt, add more, salt, more pepper, add more pepper.


5. Let mix sit for 15-20 minutes for the flavors to mix together.


6. In a casserole dish, spray with cooking spray, add a layer of pasta, potato mixture and then sprinkle with a little more cheese. Repeat this step until all the ingredients are used. Top off with remaining cheese, cover with foil and bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.