Rosemary Cookies

These cookies are delicious. I first tried them at a delightful little bakery in Salt Lake. Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs, and I was so intrigued by the thought of using it in a cookie that I had to buy some. They are DELICIOUS!! Definitely in the top three of my favorite cookies. This is a modified recipe, since I wasn't sure how to find a good recipe for rosemary cookies. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
3 C flour
1 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 C butter, softened
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp heavy cream
Rosemary

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or fork. Stir in the egg, vanilla, and cream. Add in quite a bit of rosemary. This dough seems like it will never lump together. I find it works best if you knead it with your hands. You want there to be quite a bit of visible rosemary in your dough. (See picture below)
Don't rely on your sense of smell, as the rosemary flavor comes out AFTER it's been cooked. It won't smell like rosemary much at all. The dough will kind of pull apart funny, as seen here:
You can either roll out the dough (like sugar cookies, or just plop it on like any other cookies. I did the plop method myself.
Bake at 350 on a greased cookie sheet for 5-8 minutes. You want the bottoms to be just barely golden brown. The tops will still look white. If you roll out your cookies, I would make the bottoms even lighter.

German Chocolate Cake

This recipe is way up there on my list of favorite cakes. Like- top three for sure. What really makes it is the frosting. It is kindof caramelized and chewy, and absolutely divine. Hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients (Cake):
2 C sugar
3 eggs
1/2 C oil
3 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 C milk
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 C hot water

Beat together sugar, eggs, oil, and cocoa. Add milk, flour, soda, vanilla, and salt. Once that is mixed in, add the hot water. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and cook at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.

Ingredients (Frosting):

1/4 C milk
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C coconut
3/4 C butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 C nuts (traditionally pecans)

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Boil for a few minutes, then pour over a warm cake. It will be pretty runny. Just spread it out as evenly as you can. Broil it in the oven until it's starting to blacken on the tips. Delicious!

Chicken Scallopine

I got this recipe off thepioneerwoman.com. She has some amazing recipes. Check her out.
Linguine noodles cooked acording to package directions.
4-6 boneless chicken breasts
Flour
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 Tbsp butter
Fresh mushrooms
1 Cup chicken broth or stock
1/2 lemon
1/2 cup heavy cream (you can use 1/2 and 1/2)
1 tbsp capers (optional)
chopped fresh Italian parsley (optional)
Parmesan Cheese

Flatten chicken to uniform thickness. I put between waxed paper and used a can of beans to flatten. Salt and pepper both sides. Dredge in flour. Heat butter and olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Fry chicken until golden brown. Remove to plate and set aside.

Throw mushrooms in pan and stir. Add chicken broth and squeeze juice of lemon in. You can use less, or more, if you would like. Stir to deglaze pan, then cook vigorously for 1 min. to reduce sauce. I swore to Merlaine that I would never cook anything that had to be reduced, but it was very easy.

Pour in cream and stir, add capers and parsely and stir. Turn off heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Don't undersalt.

Place pasta and chicken on plate and top with sauce, it will be runny. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. This may not be a very kid friendly meal, but very adult friendly. Yummy.

Breakfast Scramble

So, yesterday I went to a Williams-Sonoma class on Breakfast, and it's got me thinking about breakfast. So, this morning, I made an incredible omelet. Seriously- amazing. I don't usually like omelets that much, but this one was really, REALLY good!

Ingredients:
Butter
Mushrooms
Onion
Bacon
Eggs
Milk
Swiss Cheese (or other type of cheese)

So, I used a little more than half of a carton of mushrooms. I used plain button mushrooms, but I think it would be even better with baby bellas or crimini. I sliced them up thinly. Then I took about 1/4 of a smallish onion, diced really small. I put 1 Tbsp butter on a saute pan at med high heat and cooked the mushrooms and the onion together, after doing the salt and pepper thing, of course. Once the mushrooms were starting to wilt up pretty good, I added 3 slices of chopped raw bacon. I did have to use a paper towel to drain some of the grease, but it's better if you cook them all together.
Once those were about done, I put 6 eggs and 1/4c milk in a bowl and beat it. Then I poured it into a DIFFERENT saute pan, and did the scrambled egg thing. Once the eggs were almost done, I added the mushroom mixture and about 1/4c cubed swiss cheese. It needs to be cubed so you get pockets of cheese. When you grate the cheese, it just kind of mixes in. I used swiss because it was what I had, and it was good, but swiss doesn't melt super great. I might try a white cheddar next time. I like white cheddar better than orange.
Serve just as the cheese starts to melt.

Pulled Pork....Low and Slow

First of all, let's get one thing straight-the word ‘barbeque’ is a highly stylized way of cooking meats that involves lots of time. Getting together with your friends for hot dogs and hamburgers is not a ‘barbeque.’ You can call your social gathering a number of things, such as a ‘cook-out,’ a ‘get-together-to-grill-shindig,’ or a wienie roast, but please people, for the love of slow-cooked meats-DON’T CALL IT A BARBEQUE!!!
Ok, now that I’ve removed that heavy burden from deep with in my Texan soul that I had no idea I possessed, and we are all still friends, let's talk about pulled pork.
This ‘recipe’ is really so easy and can be used in so many ways, once you try it, you’ll wonder why you’ve never done this before. The pictures are a little bit out of order, but we’ll get through this together.

The first step is to prepare the meat. I like to use pork butt or pork shoulder, (I think they may actually be the same thing), but this would probably work with beef as well. I prepare the meat by cutting off some of the fat. A majority of the fat will be marbled and difficult to remove completely, but there will usually be a large chunk of fat that should be easily removed with a sharp kitchen knife. Then you place the chunk’o’beast in a a bowl or anywhere that you will be able to work the meat to add the spices. If you are really good , you might complete this step the day before to give your spices a chance to work their way deeper into the meat. Spice rub- I like to use whatever is at hand. Today it was dried crushed thyme, kosher salt, fresh-ground black pepper, and garlic powder, but really, this is the place to experiment and try new things. Once you have thoroughly covered your meat with the spice rub and are ready for the sear, you will need to sprinkle some oil onto the meat, preferably an oil with a high smoke point, like grapeseed or pecan oil (olive oil will do just fine). You need just enough to get a sizzle on your pan when the meat hits the heat.

Speaking of your pan, cast iron is my personal favorite for searing meats. When you are searing something like a roast, cast iron does not lose heat like other pans might, and the more you cook on your cast iron pan, the better it will make your food taste. Anyways, when you are ready to seal the flavor in the meat by searing it, you should have your pan ready. I like to go at least at medium heat to ensure a quick sear of the meat.

Some prefer a dry roast, which involves placing the dry roast in an oven for long periods of time at very low temperatures, like 200 F for 24 hours. That requires way more skill than I have. In addition, you run the risk of drying out your meat, and let's face the facts, nobody likes dry meat. I place my seared roast (which I roasted on as many sides as possible to a slight ‘char’ as is well documented in the pictures) in a crock pot, add tons of pepper (see 1st picture above) and lots of garlic. I like to use chicken broth, but I usually add water afterwards because straight chicken broth would be waaaaaaay too salty. I like to fill my crock pot with as much water as it will hold, so I start with adding two cans of chicken broth and, once the meat is in, fill the crock pot to the brim with water. Remember, the secret definition of ‘barbeque’ is ‘low and slow’ so the longer you are able to cook this-the better. Having a party on Saturday? Start the roast cooking on Friday morning and let it cook on low till the party. Once you have cooked the pork to your level of satisfaction, drain the water, remove the bone, and mash-up the remaining cloves of garlic (I am indebted to my wife for this little garlic scene, she added this step and my what a difference it makes). Then, using two forks, tear that pork apart. It will be juicy like you would not believe and soooooooooo soft. At this point you will really be able to tell what spices you used, and you will be able to add you favorite barbeque sauce to taste. My current kick is Sweet Baby Rays. The results are incredible, and the sandwiches you can make are out-of-this world. I’d have some pictures……but we ate it all too soon. Enjoy! And remember kids,.....low and slow saves the day.

Rhubarb Cobbler

This is my all-time favorite cobbler. EVER!! Seriously, it is like 8 stars on a 5 star rating of cobblers. Nothing can compare. And this just happens to be the best recipe ever for rhubarb cobbler, so you are in luck! What makes this cobbler so amazing is the topping. It reminds me of coffee cake in consistency, so it's really good. Try it- you'll never eat peach cobbler again!

What the recipe says:

Filling:
1 C Sugar
3 1/2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1/4 tsp Ginger
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
8 C Rhubarb (in pieces, or you can use frozen)

Mix them all together in a saucepan with like 2 Tbsp of water. It will boil down into a gel-like substance, pretty similar to pie filling, if you've ever made that. It takes like 5-8 minutes or so. When it's done, put it in a 9x13.
This is before the rhubarb started to cook down. The chunks are pretty big.
This is after I stirred in the strawberries (see below). It's pretty much a gel.
You can see how thick it is.


Topping:
1 C Sugar
1/2 C Butter
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 C Whole Milk
1 C Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt

Cream the butter and the sugar. Add liquids. Add dry ingredients. Drop it over the rhubarb part. It doesn't matter if it's all covered, although it ends up pretty well covered anyway. Bake it in the oven at 350 degrees until the topping is golden brown. I'm not sure how long this takes at all. The recipe doesn't say (since I wrote it down) and I didn't keep track of the time. Maybe a half hour?
How the topping looks raw. As you can see, I have filling peeking through.
The finished product from the side, so you can see how thick the topping gets. It's delicious!


What I did differently....

Well, for starters, I made a boo-boo and added an extra cup of sugar to the rhubarb. Yeah, I wasn't paying attention. Luckily, I added some salt, so it doesn't taste too bad. My suggestion for that- DON'T DO IT!!
Then, I only had 5 C of rhubarb, as I bought mine fresh after going to way too many stores to find it, either fresh or frozen, and bought all they had. I thought it would make 8 C, but I was wrong. It takes a lot of rhubarb to make 8 C. So, I added some strawberries after I cooked the rhubarb down. Strawberries break down easily, and they turn brown if you cook them down, so I just added them fresh into the 9x13. They will break down some in the oven while the topping is cooking. As for this amendment, I would say, go for all rhubarb if you can. I just like it better. If I had been making it just for me, I would have halved the recipe, but I am taking it to a YW thing, so I have to have plenty.

Nutritional Facts:

Per serving (12 servings total)
Calories: 274
Calories from fat: 78
Total Fat: 8.6g
Saturated Fat: 5.2g
Cholesterol: 37 mg
Sodium: 116 mg
Total Carbs: 47.9g
Dietary Fiber: 1.8g (7%)
Sugars: 34.8g
Protein: 2.7g
Vitamin A: 7%
Vitamin C: 11%
Calcium: 11%
Iron: 4%

Blackened Pork

I go to a blog to get recipes all the time and I love how she always takes a picture of all the ingredients you will need to make the recipe. So I will be doing this for you. Notice that the pork that I used has a lot of marbling. This keeps the pork moist, even though it seems like you cook it to death.

Ingredients:
Boneless pork ribs
Olive Oil
Garlic Salt
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Onion, Mushrooms, Zuchini, Squash, and any other veggies you want to try. These are my favorite but they are all flexible.

Cut ribs into approximately 3oz portions. Wash pork. Coat with Montreal Steak Seasoning and Garlic Salt. I like to use the couse garlic salt, but you can use what ever you have. The Steak seasoning is what really gives it the good flavor. Pour olive oil in your skillet. I love my large skillet. I use it over 2 burners so I can cook everything at once. Heat up skillet. You will want to start the pork before you start the veggies. Raw pork and over cooked veggies, not a good combination. You will need to add more oil as you cook to keep things from sticking. Keep turning your meat till all sides are blackened, and the meat is done. Thick pieces may take a while. I use a sheet of tin foil to cover as everything cooks because you do get a lot of oil splatter, and it helps to keep everything moist. Add more seasoning if you need. Serve over rice.