Grillin' Sliders

I love sliders! I know, no surprise since I'm partial to small food, but these are fun to make plus you get the opportunity to try lots of flavors instead of one type when its a full size burger.

We grilled 4 types of sliders this weekend for some friends and I think it was a hit! The sliders included beef with tex-joy seasoning, southwestern turkey, pork/chorizo (adapted from here) and buffalo/blue cheese. We also had lots of toppings including cheddar and pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole with bacon, bacon, onions sauteed in bacon fat and others. (See a trend there?)



Other slider recipes:

chili bowl burger sliders (I'm still on the fence about the shaping of meat into a bowl form but I like the idea of chili-like spices in the meat itself)
meatball sliders
lamb sliders (on potato rounds instead of buns)
white castle style sliders
turkey sliders with feta and sun-dried tomatoes

Breakfast & Brunch Parties

I've seen several posts on breakfast parties in the recent/not so recent past. Whether it be an actual brunch, breakfast or just a party involving morning food, I'm all about it. I'm more of a morning person anyway so its no surprise that I love a good breakfast/brunch!

I also love having people over for these kinds of things. While doing this brings with it unwanted issues at times, which we won't get into here, its still something I really enjoy doing. Catching up with friends with good food has to be one of my ultimate favorite things to do.

Some lovely pictures of stuff I would love to do (for me or for someone else of course!) from Hostess with the Mostess and Eat Drink Pretty blogs.

coffee & donut tasting table


champagne bar

bubbly brunch

farmhouse brunch

Blackberry Champagne Cupcakes

For a second treat to take to Nibbe's cupcake party, enter the blackberry champagne cupcake from Darjeerling Dreams.

I tweaked the recipe just a bit... instead of cutting part of the cupcake out and filling the middle with blackberry jam, I just swirled it into the cake batter to get dark colored streaks through the cupcakes (plus I thought this would be much simpler). I also left the icing ingredients off my shopping list so I substituted with fluffy vanilla icing from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. (And topped with sugar I dyed purple!)

I also won the door prize at Rachel's! Banana cupcake mix. Yum!

Maple Bacon Cupcakes

I made mini maple bacon cupcakes (thanks to Vanilla Garlic's blog) to bring to Nibbe's afternoon cupcake party. I think they were a hit... definitely a surprise to all as they ate the salty and sweet cupcake. (I'm sure it goes without saying that Mike liked them... they are made with bacon after all.)

I think I would have liked a little more maple flavor... or maybe I'll add a dash of cinnamon next time! I have run out of icing but have a couple of cupcakes left that I think I'll dip into maple syrup... just to make sure they don't go to waste ;)

Housewarming & Crawfish Cornbread

We had some friends over this weekend so we could show off our house and eat some cajun food before Mardi Gras!

I made chicken & sausage gumbo and crawfish cornbread. I also brought back crawfish boudain and spicy pork boudain from my trip to Orange last weekend. Mike and I picked up Hurricanes & King Cake for the party as well. Friends brought lots of good stuff - pork tenderloin, jalapeno cheese grits, boudain dip, stuffed jalapenos, and some much needed salad after all the rich food!

Here's the recipe for Crawfish Cornbread - something you'll often find served at my grandparents house!

ingredients
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp Tony’s seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/2 stick butter, softened
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
3 eggs, slightly beaten
½ cup onion, chopped
½ cup bell pepper, chopped
½ cup green onion, chopped
3 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
1 15 ounce can of cream style corn
1 pound crawfish tails, chopped
1 8½ ounce box Jiffy Cornbread mix

directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9 x 12 pan with Pam. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until combined. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until golden brown on top and cooked through.

note
The ingredients listed on the Jiffy box are not needed as part of the recipe. The cornbread is very moist so it might look undercooked but if a toothpick comes out clean and the top is golden, its ready to eat.

Here are a couple of pics thrown through the "Shake It Photo" app:

crawfish cornbread

jalapeno cheese grits

flip cup

Sausage & Peppers Frittata

I adapted this recipe from my Giada at Home cookbook from the recipe "Baked Provolone and Sausage Frittata." Its super simple to put together and frittatas in general are very versatile. You can put one together with eggs, milk, some kind of cheese and add an whatever leftover veggies or protein suits you.

Ingredients:

Butter for the baking dish
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1/2 pound mild turkey sausage, casings removed
8 large eggs
1/3 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
3 cups shredded provolone cheese
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease 8x8 baking dish. Heat oil in medium skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and cook for about 3 minutes. Add sausage and cook until brown. Set aside to cool.

In large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and slat until smooth. Add bell pepper, 2 cups of the cheese and 1/4 cup parsley. Add turkey & onions. Pous mixture into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and the eggs are set.

Changes:
I decreased all of the add-ins just a little bit. I like to have a lot of egg to my frittata. I also did not sprinkle the top with any additional cheese... I thought the inside was cheesy enough. I also added a little Italian seasoning to my turkey sausage as it was cooking to make sure the frittata was full of flavor.

crispy parmesan biscuits on the left, frittata on the right

Crispy Parmesan Biscuits

I made these crispy parmesan biscuits by Giada last weekend for brunch with Mike, his mom, her boyfriend and Mike's sister Rachel. We had it with another Giada recipe - sausage and peppers frittata. The cooked biscuit picture will show up with the pictures for the frittata!

These biscuits are pretty great. We had them with brunch. Giada's recipe says to stack them with smoked salmon and arugula. I have also made them before to serve with chicken salad and chili.

Note - the thing I have the biscuits baking on is one of the things I use most often in the kitchen. Its a silpat mat you place on baking sheets. Its totally non-stick on its own and you just rinse and wipe clean after you are done with it. Love it! See them here , here and here!

New Year's Eve Mac & Cheese

For the second year in a row, we headed over to the Stanley's for dinner on NYE. Mike and I decided to stay in this year and relax instead of going to a party. Dinner + Dexter with the Hubs was a great end to 2010!

I brought mac & cheese and got some great comments on it! (Hearing people liked your food is such a great feeling!) I wasn't planning on putting the recipe up so I didn't take any photos... I have been really bad at taking photos the last week or so but here's the recipe -


Mac & Cheese

1 lb. favorite noodles (pick something that will hold the sauce... I used shells this time)
1 stick butter, unsalted
4 cups milk (I had 2 cups 2% and 2 cups whole on hand)
1 smashed garlic clove (optional)
1/2 cup flour
6 cups grated cheese (I had 3 cups sharp cheddar, 2 cup sharp white cheddar, and 1 cup of Romano at home)
Garlic bread or croutons

Boil noodles in salty water until just under al dente (they will continue cooking in the oven). Drain and set aside.

Pour milk into saucepan and warm over low heat. Melt the stick of butter over low heat with the smashed garlic clove. Increase heat to medium low, remove garlic and sprinkle flour over butter, stirring to incorporate. Cook flour & butter 2 to 4 minutes until the flour has been absorbed and the mixture is a golden color. Whisk in warmed milk and let sauce thicken (mine took 12 to 15 minutes). (Stir often during the thickening process.) Take pot off heat and add in grated cheeses. Salt & pepper to taste.

Pour noodles and cheese sauce into buttered 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes until bubbly. While baking, put garlic bread or croutons into food processor and pulse to desired consistency. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top of mac & cheese after baking. Put back into oven on top rack to brown the breadcrumbs, this should only take a few minutes. Pull out of the oven once the top is browned. Don't burn the roof of your mouth when you take a scoop right after you pull it out of the oven :)

*And yes, it sounds like a lot of milk and cheese... however, to get a thick and creamy sauce, they are both needed! Don't be scared. Just make a mental note to either hit the gym or not eat the whole dish yourself :)

12th Dish of Christmas 2010 - Crawfish Quiche

Again - sorry there are no pictures! Too busy setting up a fun brunch with some of my favorites to wrap up the Christmas holidays...

I had crawfish quiche during my bridal shower brunch in Orange at the Old Orange Cafe (if you are ever in Orange, go there for brunch on a Sunday!). Loved it. I wanted to do something that would remind Laura and I of home and something I could just put in the oven and not worry about for brunch.

Recipe

vegetable oil
3 oz. crawfish tails
1 oz. diced onion
1 oz. diced green bell pepper
1 tbs. minced jalapeno
1 tbs. minced chives
1/3 to 1/2 cup pepper jack cheese
splash of milk
5 large eggs
salt & pepper

Saute diced onion, bell pepper and crawfish tails in a small amount of vegetable oil (enough to cover the bottom of your pan) until vegetables are tender. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool.

Whisk together eggs, milk, cheese, jalapeno, chives and cooled crawfish, onion and bell pepper. Pour into a glass pie dish (I used a pyrex dish) sprayed well with cooking spray. Bake at 400 until cooked through. I think ours took 15-20 minutes but keep an eye on it. Cooking times will depend on how thick your quiche is. You want the quiche to be cooked through and a little golden on top.

11th Dish of Christmas 2010 - Black Pepper & Cheddar Popovers

I was not a good photographer while cooking for a post-Christmas brunch with Mike, my bestie and her boyfriend but I've got a couple of yummy recipes for you guys anyways!

Popovers are really versatile and easy to make. I made these black pepper & cheddar popovers to go with quiche (recipe tomorrow!) and salad with champagne vinaigrette.

Recipe
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the pan
2 large eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 450 and thoroughly grease pan. (Pan can be an actual popover pan or a muffin pan can be substituted although the popovers will not be tall and skinny.)

Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly.

Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk gently. Stir in flour, salt, milk, melted butter, pepper and cheese until blended, a few lumps are ok (better to not overbeat the batter).

Fill the 6 to 10 cups 2/3 to 3/4 full and bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Do not open the oven door! Opening the door will cause the popovers to collapse during baking. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 20 minutes until brown and crusty. Again, do not open the oven door. The first 20 minutes are crucial but the door can be opened close to the end of the baking process to check whether the popovers are brown and crusty.

Once removed from oven, cut a small slit in the popover to allow steam to escape.


If you are in Dallas, go to lunch at Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus. They serve delicious popovers with strawberry butter... YUM!

Mashed Potato Skins

I made this easy side dish for Labor Day BBQ at the Stanley's. Get the recipe from Rachael Ray here. This was such an easy dish... no need to even peel the potatoes! Another good thing about the recipe is that its pretty versatile. Want to use turkey bacon? Go ahead. Don't like green onions? Don't add them. Want to add roasted garlic? Throw some in. Make it exactly the way you like your potato skins or baked potato. (Just try to work with the basic ratios given in the recipe.) I happen to love white cheddar and green onions on my potato and Mike loves the bacon so I stuck to the recipe as written. Perfect to adapt to the menu for your next pot-luck, picnic or bbq!





And, I got to use the great casserole carrier that my mom MADE for me. It keeps the dish warm and helps prevent me from burning myself on it while getting it into the car. Love it and my crafty mom!

Girls Dinner - Gossip Girl Style

I'm so behind with this post but here we go anyway!

I have some great girlfriends here and we try to get together every so often to do girls dinner. In general, we cook, bake and pick out a movie or tv show to watch together. This time we based the food around a Gossip Girl themed shower menu we saw online and watched a few episodes of the first season of Gossip Girl. As always, we had a really good time and good food!

I didn't do a good job capturing everyone's dishes but we had the Plaza Hotel grilled cheese with truffle oil, mac & cheese, scones, french toast/giant donut holes, tomato-basil-mozzarella skewers, pea pesto crostini, deviled eggs, popovers and crab cake sliders. The last three dishes were mine. (The crab cake sliders were created from a crab cake recipe from Big Girls Small Kitchen and the popovers were created from a recipe on the Kitchn. Deviled eggs kind of evolved from different recipes from my mom and various websites.)