S'mores

What could be better than snuggling with your honey in front of a nice cozy fire? S'mores and hot chocolate! And you know what's even better than that? Bailey's in that hot chocolate!

Ingredients:
- Graham crackers
- Marshmallows
- Chocolate

Directions:
1. Stick a marshmallow (or two) on a skewer and hold it a few inches above the tip of the fire. Don't let the marshmallow catch on fire and keep rotating the skewer every so often so that no one side burns. The goal is a lightly browned and crispy outside and ooey melty goodness all the way through. If you let it catch on fire or burn, the outside will be done before the inside is. This is important stuff here!
2. Place a piece of chocolate (or two) on the graham cracker.
3. Put the perfectly cooked marshmallow on the graham cracker and chocolate. Using another piece of graham cracker, smush the marshmallow down and slide the skewer out.
4. Take a bite into this heart-warming sandwich and repeat :)

Homemade french fries

I've always avoided deep frying things at all costs. It just seems scary and messy. I always try to bake things instead of frying, such as egg rolls, potato wedges, and carnitas.

The hubz was craving a good homemade burger, so while he made the burgers, I worked on the fries and decided to finally face my deep frying fears. And you know what? It really wasn't bad at all! I'm definitely going to be frying more often in the future (maybe not such a good thing for my waistline, but whatever).

The key to great homemade french fries is to fry them twice. As you can see, after the first fry, they're pasty white and a bit on the soggy side.

They remind me of In-N-Out fries, so if you like that style, stop after the first fry. But if you want them to be crispier and more golden brown, fry it a second time for these results -

Ingredients:
- Potatoes (as many as you'd like)
- Oil (one bottle 48 oz)
- Salt to taste

Method:
1. Cut the potatoes into strips.
2. Heat the oil in a cast iron pot until it reaches 325 degrees (The cast iron is important because it holds the heat and also brings the oil back up to temp quicker than regular pots). If you have an actual deep fryer, that works too.
3. Slide the potatoes slowly into the oil to avoid hot oil splattering onto your hands. Do them in batches of about one potato at a time. This will give the potatoes enough room to cook and not stick together. It will also limit how much the oil temperature drops per batch.
4. Turn up the heat to high to bring the oil back to temp.
5. Using a wire spider, stir the potatoes around gently. Then remove the potatoes onto a wire cooling rack after about 3 minutes.
6. Bring the oil back up to 325 and repeat steps 3-5 until all the potatoes have been fried once.
7. Bring the oil up to 375 degrees.
8. Slide the potatoes back into the oil in batches of about one potato at a time. Make sure the heat is on high so that the oil comes back up to 375 asap.
9. Stir the potatoes with your spider and remove when they are golden brown and crispy.
10. Sprinkle them with a bit of salt or whatever other seasonings you would like while the fries are still hot.
11. Repeat steps 8-10 until all the fries are beautifully golden brown and crispy. Serve while still hot!

Jerk Chicken

I can't believe it took me so long to try to make jerk chicken. The first time I tried jerk chicken, I instantly fell in love and was so upset that I hadn't discovered it earlier and was determined to learn to make it myself so that I could enjoy it whenever I wanted. That was almost 10 years ago!

When I saw that Kevin from Closet Cooking made his own and it looked sooo good, I knew I couldn't wait any longer, and boy am I glad I didn't. I absolutely LOVE this stuff! If you've never tried jerk chicken, I highly encourage you to do so. It's sweet, savory, fragrant, and best of all, spicy!

Don't let 10 years pass you by before you try this wonderful chicken...


Inspired by Closet Cooking

Ingredients:

1-3 scotch bonnet peppers (I couldn't find scotch bonnet, so I used 3 jalapenos and it was still plenty spicy)
1 onion (chopped)
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
3 green onions (chopped)
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dark rum
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup orange juice
1 lime (juice and zest)
Chicken (I used a dozen drumsticks but anything will work, even other meats like pork, etc)

Method:
- Puree everything except for the chicken.
- Place the chicken in the puree and let it marinate overnight.
- Heat up your grill (or oven) and grill until the chicken is cooked through.
- My personal favorite part of jerk chicken is the marinade and I always ask for extra gravy at restaurants. At home, I like to take the marinade and boil it down into a sauce and spoon it over the chicken, the rice, the veggies, everything!

BBQ Chicken Quesadillas

I promised my friends over at am i wrong? (to hunger) and seven by seven that I'd blog about these. Sorry it took so long guys!

We had a few friends over for what my hubz called Rocktoberfest. It was October and the intent was to play Rock Band 2. Get it? Rocktoberfest! He's so clever! Oh, and don't forget the beer! NEVER forget the beer :)

Along with the drinks and rock band 2, we also served a few simple snacks, and these BBQ Chicken Quesadillas were one of them! It's so easy to dress up something as simple as a quesadilla into something a bit fancier. And the nice thing about these is that it's so flavorful that it doesn't need salsa or any other toppings (though you're more than welcome to add them), so it makes great finger food without the mess.

Ingredients:

• Flour Tortilla
• Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
• BBQ Sauce
• Corn
• Black Beans
• Chicken Breast (grilled with salt and pepper and then cubed)
  

Method:

• Lay the tortilla out in a pan on medium heat. You'll have to move relatively quickly to keep things from burning, but quesadillas are not difficult to make, so it shouldn't be a problem.
• Spread a thin layer of bbq sauce on half of the tortilla.
  
• Sprinkle cheese on the entire tortilla.
  
• Sprinkle some corn kernels, black beans and the grilled chicken on the same half that you put the bbq sauce on.
• After the cheese has melted a bit, fold the quesadilla over and let everything melt together.
• When the first side is nicely browned and crispy, flip it over so the other side can get browned and crispy.
• Cut into wedges and serve!
  

Scallion Pancakes

The Chinese name for this dish is cong you bing which literally translates to onion oil pancake, and that's really all there is to it. Since the ingredient list is so short, it's perfect for this month's Weekend Cookbook Challenge which is run by Sara of I Like to Cook: 5 ingredients or less!

I love green onion pancakes (aka scallion pancakes). You can eat it alone as a snack, dipping it in a simple sauce if you'd like. You can eat it as a side instead of rice. You can wrap meat and veggies in it with some hoisin sauce - yum! Fry it up with scrambled eggs for a great breakfast. The list goes on and on. Plus it freezes really well, so you can make a ton and freeze them for convenient future usage! I even had a green onion pancake-off with a friend once. We both made them and fed them to our friends for judging, and I'm proud to say that I won :)

Another thing I love about green onion pancakes are the layers. Look at those gorgeous layers! As a kid, I loved peeling off the layers and eating them one by one, and I'm not ashamed to say that I still play with my food to this day!

Anyway, enough babbling, here's the recipe!

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour
• Hot, preferably boiling, water (approx 2:1 ratio of flour to water)
• Oil (I like to use a combo of vegetable and sesame and will elaborate below)
• Salt
• Green onions (diced)

Method:

• In a stand mixer, or by hand, mix the flour and water together and knead until a nice dough is formed. The ratio should be about 2:1 and should be a non-sticky but relatively soft dough. It's pretty forgiving, so this doesn't have to be perfect. Hot water is important however because that will give you the texture you want (or so I was told when I first learned to make it).
• Take a small piece of dough (however big you want your pancake to be) and roll it out as thin as possible. The shape doesn't matter (as you can see below). And it's even okay if you rolled it so thin that there are holes in it.

• Drizzle some oil and rub it in with your hands so that the entire surface is lightly covered, but there are no pools of oil in any one spot. I like to use a combo of vegetable oil and sesame oil. I find that all sesame oil is a bit too strong for my taste, but vegetable oil alone is a bit boring, but really, use what you have and what you like. In fact, lard is probably the best option if you're brave enough to use it! (I'm not)
• Sprinkle on the green onions. Again, it's up to your personal preference how much you like.

• Roll the dough into a long rope. It's okay if oil and onions squish out the sides.
• Next, coil that rope into a circle.

• Using your hands and/or rolling pin to flatten out the pancake to your desired thickness. Some people like super thick pancakes, others like thin ones. Both are perfectly acceptable. You may need to let the dough rest a bit if it's being difficult to work with.

• In a pan, heat up a bit of oil over medium/low heat. Plop your pancake down and let it cook until golden brown, and then flip to crisp the other side. Thicker pancakes will obviously take longer (you might want to put the lid on and turn down the heat so that it doesn't burn before it's cooked through) and thin ones will take less time. Deep frying these is another delicious alternative!

• Cut them into wedges and serve them however you like. My favorite is with a dipping sauce of half black vinegar and half soy sauce, but experiment away to find what you like!

The gummy bear experiment

Although this isn't really related to Thanksgiving, nor is it real cooking, this is a fun little tidbit that I learned on Thanksgiving.

Did you know that if you put a gummy bear in water and let it sit still for about 24 hours, it'll grow to be the size of a cinnamon bear? It's pretty cool!

Thanksgiving Roundup

Phew! I'm finally done with all the Thanksgiving posts! Sorry, it took me so long...

So here's a little review -

We set up our buffet as the appetizer station (sorry for the fuzzy picture)


with all sorts of goodies including:

hummus made with chicken stock instead of olive oil and served with carrot sticks and celery sticks as a healthy alternative for those who wanted it

bacon wrapped dates

ham and cheese stuffed baguettes

brie filled phyllo cups

peanut butter and banana cookies

and a cheese plate.

As you can see, I decorated the buffet table with a few colorful fall leaves. I did something similar with our fireplace mantle by just cutting some nice foliage from the yard including festive red berries and fragrant rosemary.

I even filled a vase with rosemary to add a bit of color to some other areas of the house.

In addition to the typical water, soda, juice, wine, etc, we also made some sangria.


For dinner, we had the turkey of course

mashed potatoes, gravy, sticky rice (aka chinese stuffing) that my mother-in-law made

simply roasted sweet potatoes

roasted butternut squash soup

cheesy biscuits

sauteed green beans

a spinach salad

and cranberry sauce.

And here it is all together


I hope you and yours had a great holiday season and have a very happy and healthy new year!