Southwestern Pulled Brisket

Pretty much what the slow cooker was invented for.  This is AMAZING on either soft tacos (with spicy slaw and avocados) or as barbecue-style sandwiches on soft buns.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Derby Pie

Continuing the bourbon baked goods theme.  I got this recipe from a friend of a friend; she's from Kentucky, so we'll go with the theory that it's an old Southern family recipe.  For all I know, it could be off the side of a box or something.

Good at any time, but particularly appropriate for the running of the Kentucky Derby.

Bourbon Blondies

I have this terrible backlog of things I've made but haven't posted.  So, in honor of the Kentucky Derby last weekend (not that I actually managed to catch it on TV), baked goods with bourbon!

Completely spectacular with butter pecan ice cream.  Adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book.

Biscuits and Bacon Gravy

This post was of course originally going to be about both the biscuits and the bacon gravy, but I botched my biscuits.  Bacon gravy, on the other hand.... mmm... bacon...

This is from my sister's college roommate, a native South Carolinian... this breakfast makes up for the entire existence of grits. 

Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Cream of Tomato Soup

Possibly the perfect meal when it's been raining all weekend.

A childhood favorite, but made with cheddar and asiago cheese on homemade bread instead of Kraft Singles on Wonder Bread.  Also:  my new favorite tomato soup.  Of all time. 

New header

 

Still tweaking it.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffle Cupcakes

These are wonderfully decadent...


This recipe is from the Well-Fed Newlyweds, who adapted it from the Cooking Club of America.

Simple Tomato Sauce

I hadn't heard of this recipe before it appeared on Smitten Kitchen, but it's apparently kind of a big deal in the food blogosphere.

This is incredibly simple, and you probably have the ingredients sitting in your pantry already.  They are:  tomatoes, butter, and an onion.  That's it.  No chopping (although I ended up cheating and using a blender at the end.)  It makes a wonderfully rich, mellow sauce that reminded me a bit of vodka sauce, but without the bite. 

Cupcakes!

I decided to make some treats for Fat Tuesday... these fit the bill nicely.

I went back to my favorite cupcake recipe (adapted from the Magnolia Bakery Cupcake recipe).  This time, I made vanilla cupcakes with almond buttercream and a layer of jam between cake and icing.  

Roasted Broccoli

Surprisingly delicious.  Roasting gives broccoli a nutty flavor, and with the salt reminded me a little bit of the flavor of wasabi peas or some other bar snack.

Very simple; makes a great side dish for pretty much anything.

From the Well-Fed Newlyweds.

Ingredients:
5 c. broccoli florets (2 medium heads), rinsed and dried
2 T olive oil
1/4-1/2 tsp. kosher (or other coarse) salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 400.  Toss everything in a bowl to combine.

2.  Spread broccoli out on a cookie sheet or pan in a single layer; roast for 5 minues, then flip and continue roasting for another 10.

That's it!  Try not to finish off until you actually can get it onto plates. 

Split Pea Soup

Alas, there is no way to make split pea soup appetizing looking:

On the other hand, it has everything else in the world going for it:  it's delicious, low-calorie, satisfying, easy, and cheap (unless, like me, you purchase a 10-lb. ham just to have a leftover ham bone.)

Raspberry Seven Minute Frosting

First of all, this takes more than seven minutes.  If you're in a hurry, make buttercream.  However, this is an amazingly fluffy alternative, plus it's fat-free!  Though it's loaded with sugar and goes on cake, so I wouldn't make any health claims. 

This frosting is wonderfully fluffy, with a kind of marshmallow-y or meringue-y texture.  Plus, it's pink!  (It would be pinker if I'd used redder jam... next time I'm using Smuckers instead of Polaner.)

Yellow Cake

This tastes so much better than using a mix, and not that much more difficult.  It was somewhat similar to the vanilla cupcake recipe I posted ages ago; I think I may like that one slightly better, but it may have been the buttercream. 

This recipe is from How to Cook Everything.  It makes 2 layers (at least 10 servings); in the picture above, I halved the recipe, made one layer, and made a half-layer cake. 

Sardines sandwich

Yes, sardines.  I'm trying to get more seafood into my diet, and sardines are a low-mercury source of those Omega-3's so beloved of nutritionists.  I figured it was worth at least trying.  

This was my first experience eating sardines; although I found the smell off-putting when I opened the can, they were really tasty.  However, if you don't like fishy-tasting fish, don't bother. 

Chicken Parmesan

This is probably not a weight-watchers approved recipe (chicken! breaded! and fried! with cheese!), but is a delicious week-night treat.  If you pound out the chicken cutlets beforehand, this takes about a half hour start to finish but tastes like it required hours in the kitchen.   

Adapted from How to Cook Everything.  Full disclosure:  I did not make my own bread crumbs or sauce.  It was still awesome. 

Bosco's Biscotti

This year, I decided to make cookies for the four-legged members of my family.  They inevitably prefer treats to, say, grooming tools.

I wanted to do something that looked like chocolate chip biscotti, but with dog-friendly ingredients.  I was kind of making it up as I went along, but used a ideas from recipes here and here.  Happily, my taste-tester approved.

Molasses Spice Cookies

Finally back to blogging! Sadly, I didn't write my 'I'm going on vacation' post because we left a day early to avoid this.  The 'largest one-day snow in 70 years.'   Washington doesn't handle a couple of inches of snow very well; we weren't about to stick around and try to leave when there was TWO FEET of it.

Anyway, I made these for Christmas and brought them to my in-laws.  These are now my husband's favorite cookies of all time (I still prefer these). Not to oversell them or anything.  They have a sort of festive feel, a la gingerbread, but without the cardboard texture.