Every chef has their signature thing they love to cook with. It is that item that is most frequently bought when cooking. Mine and mom's favorite lady, Julia Child, was all about her butter and when we cook her recipes we understand why! However, every home and every kitchen is different. At our home we love OLIVE OIL!
We use olive oil in almost every dish every day. It is what I like to think of as the perfect basic. It can dress up and enhance every meal. You know how true that is, nothing is better than some baked chicken with olive oil salt and pepper. It is grand when we sautee vegetables in olive oil and make some delicious fajitas! Or a big thing around my house is to dip fresh bread that was heated up in the oven in olive oil with herbs. It is such a versatile object!
So what is your basic that your kitchen and home can't live without! Let us know and send some recipes for us to try!! We would even blog about our experience trying your recipe in our home!
Bon Appetit!!
Monday, January 26, 2015
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Merlot Beef Stew
From the daughter:
Now I know I am growing up because I could not have been happier to have received a crock pot for Christmas this year! And this is one of those super fancy ones where the heat goes to warm once the cook time is up so nothing gets overcooked! How awesome is that!!! Well being a girl who is constantly on the go I am looking forward to blogging about my adventures with my new crockpot. In the spirit of this blog the first recipe I tried is a beef stew with merlot!!
Merlot --> this is one of my favorite types of wine. I am not as big of a red wine drinker, I prefer Pinot Grigio but Merlot I adore!!
For this recipe I decided to combine two ones to make the stew accommodated to things I like! Everything was freestyled for me. I did not measure anything, I put as much as I thought I would like. That means I added extra mushrooms, extra wine, and extra potatoes!! I will admit I got a little overboard on the extras and had to get rid of some of them! After 10 hours of this stew slow cooking and a busy day for me I was excited to try my new recipe! THIS WAS SO AMAZING! I loved having the extra veggies and the merlot gave it such a great taste! The best part....I have leftovers!!! I am anxiously awaiting to eat this meal again!!
My Ingredients:
1-2 lbs of stewing meat
Merlot (I suggest not using your most expensive wine for cooking)
Beef Broth
Carrots
Onions
8 oz Mushrooms
Small bag of Red Potatoes
Garlic
Dryed Thyme
Flour
Bay Leaves
Fresh Parsley for serving
Bon Appetit!!!
Now I know I am growing up because I could not have been happier to have received a crock pot for Christmas this year! And this is one of those super fancy ones where the heat goes to warm once the cook time is up so nothing gets overcooked! How awesome is that!!! Well being a girl who is constantly on the go I am looking forward to blogging about my adventures with my new crockpot. In the spirit of this blog the first recipe I tried is a beef stew with merlot!!
Merlot --> this is one of my favorite types of wine. I am not as big of a red wine drinker, I prefer Pinot Grigio but Merlot I adore!!
For this recipe I decided to combine two ones to make the stew accommodated to things I like! Everything was freestyled for me. I did not measure anything, I put as much as I thought I would like. That means I added extra mushrooms, extra wine, and extra potatoes!! I will admit I got a little overboard on the extras and had to get rid of some of them! After 10 hours of this stew slow cooking and a busy day for me I was excited to try my new recipe! THIS WAS SO AMAZING! I loved having the extra veggies and the merlot gave it such a great taste! The best part....I have leftovers!!! I am anxiously awaiting to eat this meal again!!
My Ingredients:
1-2 lbs of stewing meat
Merlot (I suggest not using your most expensive wine for cooking)
Beef Broth
Carrots
Onions
8 oz Mushrooms
Small bag of Red Potatoes
Garlic
Dryed Thyme
Flour
Bay Leaves
Fresh Parsley for serving
Bon Appetit!!!
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Balsamic Glazed Asparagus
I love to eat vegetables!! There is no simpler way for me to state it! One of my favorites is a Balsamic Glazed Asparagus! It is so delicious! I had found a recipe on Pinterest but the other night just freestyled it by memory and although it was not exactly right it was pretty good! That is something I enjoy about the kitchen, there are so many ways to be creative and play with different recipes to your preference. This one is a huge hit in our house and tastes extra good with wine! In the recipe below I do not give exact measurements for how much olive oil and balsamic to use, use however much you want or prefer! The olive oil is just for roasting and balsamic is such a strong flavor that it doesn't take much to get that yummy taste included! Let me know how your version goes!
Sarah's Balsamic Glazed Asparagus
1 bushel of asparagus
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Sauce:
2 tbsp. butter
1 clove of minced garlic
Balsamic Vinegar
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Wash and cut ends off of asparagus
3. Lay asparagus on pan, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper
4. Roast for 15-20 minutes
5. Melt butter in a small saucepan on medium heat, stirring occasionally
6. Add garlic and balsamic
7. Allow sauce to simmer and absorb flavor
8. Once asparagus is done cooking put in a dish and add the sauce on top!
9. Serve and enjoy!!!
Word of Caution: Make sure to pay attention to the butter as it melts, if the heat is too high it will burn and you'll have to start over on it!
Bon Appetit!!
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Christmas Dinner
This is one day in out home where you can expect big and fabulous meals!! We love preparing these the food for Christmas!!
We got quite the treat this year! We got a beef tenderloin that was absolutely divine! It is impossible to not love this meat. However, this is not the usual cheap meat so we were extra cautious when it came to cooking this meat. For the recipe we found it said to season the meat 24 hours before cooking. Although we did not do 24 hours before we did give it a good chunk of time and it made quite the difference. We chose to cook it in the oven and it turned out beautifully and it was enjoyed by all! Mom even whipped up a sauce to go with it!
For today's desert we made a White Chocolate Russe from the Southern Living Holiday Cookbook we buy each year at Dillard's!! It is a tradition in our house that my mom gives one to me each holiday season and to make it extra special she always leaves a special note! I personally LOVE LOVE cooking from these cookbooks each year. They are filled with such delicious recipes that are always so festive! This one did not disappoint at all!! It was a simple desert that is primarily pudding with orange zest! The challenge we faced was with the ladyfingers that surround this desert! They were not wanting to stay in their place very well but we made it work and it was a huge hit! The fun comes with garnishing the desert. We chose to keep it simple with raspberries and powdered sugar but y'all can do whatever your family likes. It is always fun to decorate and change the recipes to your family's preferences. This is one recipe we want to share so see below for the recipe!
White Chocolate Russe
4 (3.4-oz) fat free white chocolate instant pudding mix (we used full calorie because Christmas calories DO NOT count!
3 1/2 cup whole milk
2 tsp. orange zest
1 tbsp. orange liqueur or orange juice (we used the liqueur and loved it)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
24 ladyfingers
Garnished with raspberries and powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Prepare pudding as instructed but use the whole milk instead.
2. Stir in orange zest, orange liqueur, and vanilla
3. Gently fold into whipped cream
4. Line bottoms and sides of a 9 inch springform pan with ladyfingers.
5. Spoon pudding mixture into pan.
6. Cover and chill until the desert is set or at least 4 hours
7. Garnish
8. Serve and enjoy!!!
Bon Appetit!!!
We got quite the treat this year! We got a beef tenderloin that was absolutely divine! It is impossible to not love this meat. However, this is not the usual cheap meat so we were extra cautious when it came to cooking this meat. For the recipe we found it said to season the meat 24 hours before cooking. Although we did not do 24 hours before we did give it a good chunk of time and it made quite the difference. We chose to cook it in the oven and it turned out beautifully and it was enjoyed by all! Mom even whipped up a sauce to go with it!
For today's desert we made a White Chocolate Russe from the Southern Living Holiday Cookbook we buy each year at Dillard's!! It is a tradition in our house that my mom gives one to me each holiday season and to make it extra special she always leaves a special note! I personally LOVE LOVE cooking from these cookbooks each year. They are filled with such delicious recipes that are always so festive! This one did not disappoint at all!! It was a simple desert that is primarily pudding with orange zest! The challenge we faced was with the ladyfingers that surround this desert! They were not wanting to stay in their place very well but we made it work and it was a huge hit! The fun comes with garnishing the desert. We chose to keep it simple with raspberries and powdered sugar but y'all can do whatever your family likes. It is always fun to decorate and change the recipes to your family's preferences. This is one recipe we want to share so see below for the recipe!
White Chocolate Russe
4 (3.4-oz) fat free white chocolate instant pudding mix (we used full calorie because Christmas calories DO NOT count!
3 1/2 cup whole milk
2 tsp. orange zest
1 tbsp. orange liqueur or orange juice (we used the liqueur and loved it)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
24 ladyfingers
Garnished with raspberries and powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Prepare pudding as instructed but use the whole milk instead.
2. Stir in orange zest, orange liqueur, and vanilla
3. Gently fold into whipped cream
4. Line bottoms and sides of a 9 inch springform pan with ladyfingers.
5. Spoon pudding mixture into pan.
6. Cover and chill until the desert is set or at least 4 hours
7. Garnish
8. Serve and enjoy!!!
Bon Appetit!!!
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