Quick! Grill something for dessert!

Hey all, just a quick, sweet, Sunday post for you all.  Now that it's starting to warm up here in Indiana (FINALLY!!), Hubby and I had the urge to start grilling.  We gave away our little Smokey Joe charcoal grill a year and a half ago when we moved away from Utah, because we didn't know if we'd be able to use it wherever we moved.  So, this last week, Hubby and I picked up a new little baby grill for our patio.  Here's hoping the apartment management doesn't notice...

So, after we had grilled chicken and asparagus for dinner (yum), as I was cleaning up, Hubby literally came running inside and said "Quick, the grill's still hot, what's something we can grill for dessert?!"  I'm not making this up.  SO, I looked in the pantry to see if there was anything, and this is what I came up with:

Grilled peaches and blackberries with vanilla ice cream.

Here's what I did:

Grab a can of peaches, some frozen berries if you have them, honey and/or brown sugar, and a square of aluminum foil.  Drain the peaches, and in the center of the foil, pile the peaches and berries, then drizzle with about 1 Tbsp honey and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp brown sugar.  Fold the foil into a packet, and cook on the grill until hot and bubbly - this took about 20 minutes with the dying coals in our little grill.

Here it is, just going onto the grill (I unfolded the foil for y'all to see):

And here's just after I pulled the packet from the heat and brought it inside:

This was DELICIOUS.  I'm pretty sure Hubby and I each ate our portions in about a minute and a half.  SO GOOD.  You can do this with just about any variety of fruit - I've done it with fresh nectarines before and that's always amazing.  And really, at least the fruit part is fairly healthy, right?  :)

Happy springtime grilling, everyone!

As Promised, HOMEMADE Spaghetti and Meatballs

Hey everyone, I meant to post this last week but things got a little bit busy.  I made spaghetti and meatballs for my birthday dinner and had some friends over, which was great, but we left town the next morning and this is my first chance to write since!

I have found that so many people don't bother to make their own spaghetti sauce, which to me is TRAGIC.  Spaghetti (Marinara) sauce is really not hard to make.  You basically add a bunch of ingredients and simmer, and it tastes SO MUCH BETTER than canned sauce.  I got my sauce recipe from a lasagna recipe that I found right after I got married almost 7 years ago, and after a few modifications, it's pretty much a go-to meal for us.  So, here we go.

Just so we're clear, this is your end goal:




Sauce:

This sauce can go two ways - meat-less, if you're making my Parmesan meatballs to go with, or you can add a pound of ground beef or Italian sausage (or a mixture of the two) if you don't have time (or willpower) to make meatballs.

1 lb. ground beef (omit and skip frying step if doing meatballs)
1 medium onion, diced
1Tbsp olive oil
2 (6 oz) cans tomato paste
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
2 C water
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp each: oregano, garlic powder, parsley, white sugar, brown sugar
2 tsp each: basil, salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

1) Cook the ground beef in a large, deep skillet (don't use cast iron, the acidity from the tomatoes combined with the metal will give it a weird flavor).  Remove the ground beef and drain the grease, and set aside.
2) In the same (now empty) skillet, cook the onion in the olive oil until translucent and tender, but not brown or carmelized.
3) When the onions are done, add EVERYTHING else (including the ground beef you set aside while you cooked the onion).
4) Simmer for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 hours.  The longer it simmers, the better it will taste!  Here's a pic, right after I added the herbs.  This batch was meat-free, because I was making meatballs, too.

Parmesan Meatballs:

(sorry, I was in a hurry and failed to photo-document this part...)

1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 lb. hot Italian sausage (I like hot because I like the meatballs to have some kick; if you don't like spicy food, then go with mild sausage).
1 C bread crumbs
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder (or more if you're like me and enjoy garlic A LOT)
1 beaten egg

1) Mix all ingredients together, being careful not to over-work the meat.
2) Using a disher, or if you don't have one, a spoon, measure and roll the meat into uniform, 1" meatballs.
3) {at this point, you can refrigerate until you're ready to use - in other words, you can make a day ahead}
4) Bake the meatballs in a 350 degree oven, on a rack over a sheet pan, for 15-20 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked most of the way through, then remove from the pan and add to you favorite sauce and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

NOTE: Alternatively, you can bake the meatballs ahead so they are completely cooked (30 min), and then refrigerate the meatballs and just re-heat with sauce the next day.  Because I was going to be feeding this meal to a crowd right after we got home from work, I put my meatless sauce in a crock pot on low all day (if your crock pot has a keep warm setting, that works great too so it doesn't get burned around the edges), then quickly reheated the meatballs when I got home by cranking the crock pot up to high and throwing them in with the sauce.

This meal was a huge hit with my friends, and I hope you'll love it too.  Let me know what you think in the comments!  Until next time... Enjoy!

Sweet Sunday

Hi everyone!  Today I'm going to share a recipe that is near and dear to my heart: my own favorite Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Here's the deal: I have a good friend here in law school who loves cookies much more than any grown man should.  These cookies are pretty much his favorite thing EVER (he asked for these, in lieu of cake, for his birthday).  Also, because he is a good Catholic, he really wanted to engage in a personal sacrifice for Lent and accordingly gave up sweets.  This is big, because this guy normally eats at least one cookie every day.  His daily cookie was the light in the dark place that is law school.  SO, I thought I'd be a really great friend and make him a batch of these for Easter, when he breaks his six week sweets-fast.  Also, I owe him big time because he agreed to compete with me in our class Moot Court competition even though he won't get anything out of it- so a thank you gift is in order.  (Thanks M!)

There's only one Problem: Hubby and I are going to Niagara Falls over Easter weekend to celebrate my Birthday. (WOOHOO!!)
Luckily, I have a Solution: Give my friend frozen dough to bake himself on Sunday.

Here's my recipe of choice.  At this point, I don't honestly remember where it came from:

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C softened butter (unsalted)
1/4 C softened margarine
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 C chocolate chip (use 1 part dark chocolate, 1 part semi-sweet chocolate, and 1 part milk chocolate)

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prep baking sheets (grease, or line with parchment paper or a Silpat/silicone baking mat).
2) Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3) In a stand mixer on medium speed, cream together butter, margarine, and sugars until very light and fluffy (3-5 minutes), then beat in vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy.
4) With the mixer on low, mix in the sifted dry ingredients until just combined, then stir in the chocolate chips.
5) Drop onto prepared sheets and bake approximately 14 minutes.  Cool slightly on the pan, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely.

And, as always, here are my "notes":

-I use the butter/margarine mix because I feel like the combination makes a cookie with better texture.  You can use entirely butter or entirely margarine; nothing bad will happen, but I prefer the mix (which I ironically discovered by accident, just using what I had thawed in the refrigerator).

-DON'T SKIP the mix of chocolate chips.  YES, it would be easier to just use one whole bag of semi-sweet chips.  BUT, if you want the best, gourmet-bakery tasting cookies, use the mix.  It gives the cookies a greater depth of chocolate flavor that's really delightful.  Also, buy the best quality chips you can afford.  As always, the best ingredients make the best final products.

-Lastly, if you want to freeze and share cookie dough, here's a neat trick: plop the dough on a Silpat that you've covered with Saran wrap.  Use the Silpat to form the dough into a log, then roll it up into the Saran wrap, like this:

Secure the ends of the roll by twisting tightly then cinching off with a rubber band (or a twist-tie would also work).  Viola!  Just like a tube of store bought dough.  The recipient of this bad boy just has to slice and bake.  I've seen people do this to give as a gift at Christmastime, making cute wrappings using scrapbooking paper.  For my purposes, I think the Saran wrapped roll is just fine.  My friend will probably find the dough itself just as aesthetically pleasing as some cute wrapping I could make.

So there it is, my favorite, go-to cookies.  I know everyone has their own favorite; I go back and forth between these and my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Craisin cookies (but I'll save those for another post).  I never have leftovers, so I guess that's a sign of a cookie well baked, right?  (Right).

Lastly, in other news, my birthday is coming this week!  Wednesday is the big 2-5, and I have decided to cook a big dinner for friends on Thursday.  I'm making homemade spaghetti and meatballs, with a cheesecake for dessert!  So I have to ask, which would you guys rather learn: my always-delicious spaghetti sauce/meatball recipe, or everything that you need to know to make an excellent cheesecake?  Let me know in the comments, and until next time... Happy Eating!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, folks!  Yes, that's right, it's March 17 once again.  There's green everywhere, shamrocks are scattered about, and my Birthday is fast approaching.  I love March.  We're also celebrating the Patron Saint of Ireland.  (Since I've come to Notre Dame, I've learned a lot about many different Catholic Saints.  In case you, like me, didn't actually know anything about Saint Patrick, click here to read all about him).

Unfortunately, due to poor planning on my part, our menu for today wasn't Irish at all: french toast for lunch and spaghetti for dinner.  Whoops.  So, as my husband was lamenting the fact that we can't properly celebrate Saint Patrick's day without Irish food, I did some quick Googling and found what is probably the easiest bread recipe I've ever made: TRADITIONAL Irish Soda Bread, courtesy of the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread.  No, I am not making this up.  If you take some time to explore their website you'll note that the friendly people there take Traditional Irish Soda Bread very seriously.  There's a whole list of items that, if present, mean your bread isn't traditional, which I found rather informative (about halfway down the page- but don't rush.  They have an interesting tale to tell.).  You'll note if you Google "Irish Soda Bread" yourself, you'll find recipes from reputable sources which are apparently NOT the real deal, if you take THE LIST at its word, which I, for one, opted to do.

SO, here it is.  A true Irish Soda Bread, I learned, has but four ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk.  If you're feeling extra adventurous, you may not get whacked for adding a little bit of butter.  The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread lists two varieties: Brown (wheat) and White bread; I opted for brown, but stayed true and omitted the butter.

Ingredients:
3 C Wheat Flour
1 C White Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
14 oz. Buttermilk

Instructions:
It's as easy as can be. If you don't have a dutch oven to use, you'll want to heavily grease and flour a 9" cake pan, and get a matching one ready to use as a "lid" to simulate dutch oven cooking.  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, and then:

1) Sift together the dry ingredients.

2) Add the buttermilk, and stir together to make a sticky dough.

 3) Turn out onto a heavily floured surface and lightly "knead."  I just turned it over a few times and formed it into a ball.  You don't want to over-work it, or all the gas from the baking soda will come out - which is bad - because that's the only leavening we've got.

4) Flatten the ball a bit into the floured pan, and cut a cross into the top of the bread.

5) Cover the bread with the other pan, and bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, then remove the cover and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove, and wrap in a lightly dampened tea towel to cool.

Right before it went in

Fresh from the oven

6) TA-DA!  TRADITIONAL, Irish Soda Bread.  It's a little plain, but in determining whether we liked it or not Hubby and I managed to eat half the loaf.  So, I think it's a keeper.  Especially with some butter and jam.  Yum.  Happy Saint Patrick's Day, and hooray for being IRISH! (Or at least pretending).

Easy Slow Cooker Potato Soup

Hello again, everyone!  I hope you've all had a pleasant week... and a half.  Mine was quite busy - but I successfully managed to make it through turning in a monster appellate brief and oral argument, all with a hideous head cold.  Success!  Surviving that means I made it to my glorious, lovely, wonderful spring break.  We kicked it off with a visit from my brother and his family this last weekend.  It was lots of fun, but holy cow, 3 year old's are EXHAUSTING.  I'm now in recovery mode, after the headcold has returned for round two: horrendous cough.

Given that it's 3.14, and I am a nerd, I should probably be posting about pie today.  Alas, I'm sick enough that I won't be making much of anything today.  But here's a picture of a lovely apple pie to tide you over:

MMMMMmmm, 3.1415926535897...

Instead, I'm talking about soup today.  Two nights ago, Hubby had to head off to a church activity immediately after work, so dinner needed to be ready to eat right when he walked in the door.  To complicate matters, we share a car, so it had to be ready when we both walked in the door from me picking him up.  No time for last minute flourishes while he was on his way home.  Ergo, I opted for a crock-pot meal.  I know with it being "spring" and everything, some of you may be putting your crock pots away for the season, but here in South Bend, IN, it's 33 degrees and trying to snow.  So, mine is still going strong.

I remember when I was a little kid, my dad would make a smooth potato soup by mashing potatoes then adding onions, milk, broth, etc.  I'm not sure exactly what he put in that stuff, but it was one of my FAVORITE meals in the winter.  I love a good potato soup, so that's what I'm sharing today.  It's a recipe that I adopted from Slow Cooker Creamy Potato Soup on Allrecipes.com.  I actually discovered this last fall, and it quickly became a winner for Saturday dinners, especially on Notre Dame Football Game days.  Hubby and I would freeze all afternoon in the bleachers, then come home to this soup to warm us up.

Ingredients:

6 Slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 onion, finely chopped
1 (32 oz) box of chicken broth or stock
1 (14 oz) can of vegetable broth
4-5 large potatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
2 cups half and half

Instructions:

1) Cook your bacon and remove from the pan, reserving the grease.  Or, if you're like me and buy pre-cooked bacon, you hold off on cooking it until near the end, then heat it in the microwave as usual.  You could also sub in "Real Bacon" bacon bits if you're in a hurry.

2) Use the bacon grease to fry your chopped onion just until it is tender - you don't want these to caramelize, unless you want brown,dirty looking soup (which I don't).  Once they are done, remove from heat and set aside.

Although I typically buy pre-cooked bacon, I do occasionally buy a few pounds of bacon to cook myself so I can save the grease.  I keep a mason jar of bacon grease in my fridge all the time - it keeps for a quite a while, as long as you let it cool to room temperature and solidify BEFORE you put it in the refrigerator, to avoid condensation.  If moisture mixes with the fat, it can go rancid.

These are DONE - just soft and translucent, not browning yet.

3) Next we turn to the potatoes, which are easily the most difficult/time consuming part of the recipe.  You'll need to peel and chop them into 1/4" to 1/2" cubes.  I like to give my potatoes a "rough peel," leaving some skin behind because I like a little bit in my soup.  Getting good cubes can be tricky.  I know many of you don't need a how-to on this front, but I would like to err on the safe side.  Here's how to get uniform cubes without chopping you fingers off:

Roughly peeled potatoes

Set the potato on its flattest side, and slice into discs between 1/4" and 1/2" thick.

Completely sliced

Separate the discs into two potato halves and lay on their flat side.

Slice through lengthwise, to create potato strips.  These are basically cut like french fries at this point.

Gather the strips into a stack you can hold onto.

Slice across one last time to create small cubes.

Ta Da!  Cubed.

4) Add the potatoes, onion, both broths, and the spices to the crock pot, and give it all a stir.  Then lid it, and cook on low approximately 5 hours or until the potatoes are cooked through.

Ready to cook.

5) About 30 minutes before you intend to eat, whisk together the flour and evaporated milk.  Stir the mixture into the crock pot, and add about half of the crumbled bacon, and as much of the half and half as the crock pot will hold.  (Sometimes mine gets a little too full with this recipe and I can't fit the full 2 cups).  Or, if the soup looks like it's getting too thick for your taste, only add about one cup of the half and half.  Cook for an additional 30 minutes on HIGH.  I did this step right before I left to go get Hubby, so it would be done when we returned.

6) When the soup is once again heated through, serve with a handful of bacon crumbles on top.  The soup will also need to be salted and peppered to taste, but I usually just let individuals season it in own bowls, because everyone's preferences are a little different.

That's all there is to it!  Give it a try, and let me know what you think.  It's nothing fancy, but I think it's a really nice, comforting, warms-you-through kind of meal.  Oh, and if you're feeling ambitious, go make a pie too!  Have a wonderful week, everyone.