Random photos of favorites

I've been telling myself for months that I need to get back to blogging.  This food blog combines two of my very favorite past-times -- food and photography.  There's no reason why I shouldn't be posting several times a week. Heavens knows I'm consuming enough food that I could be blogging about it for countless hours each day.

In my quest to get my food blog going again, I've decided just to go through some of my old food photos and share with you some of my favorites in hopes of garnering some inspiration.  Interestingly enough, almost all my favorite food photos also include an interesting event, family activity, or friends.  Food and folks really do go hand-in-hand.  I've been thinking more and more about that relationship and may just have to do some ethnographic work around my family and food traditions...but that's a blog post for another time.

On to the good stuff...

These are Craigo's breadsticks, specifically from Craigo's Pizziaria in Rexburg, ID. I lived for these things while I was going to Ricks. And in the past few years when I went up to Rexburg to visit my sister I would drag her over there to order them. Cheezy goodness.

This is my Thanksgiving plate this past year. I have no problem with my food touching. All that matters is that it tastes good going down. This was the Thanksgiving that I was introduced to Aunt Char's TO DIE FOR dip. And I'm not exaggerating, I ended up putting it on everything - vegetables, turkey, my roll, jello -- you name it and it tasted better with the dip. Someday I'll get around to sharing the recipe.

Did you hear the choir of angels singing when you looked at this Butterscotch Christmas wreath? Cuz let me tell you, this Christmas dessert is DIVINE! I'm not kidding...my Christmas is not complete with out Judy Thompson's Butterscotch Christmas wreath. I hover near the front door starting about Dec. 10th waiting for the knock that heralds its arrival.

Ok, this little confection combines two of my favorite food items - peanut butter and my mom's homemade jam (doesn't really matter what flavor because I LOVE them all), in this case homemade blueberry jam. I came up with a peanut butter cupcake topped with blueberry jam and a delicious peanut butter frosting. Turned out FABULOUS! I'll have to post the recipe for that sometime too.


OK - the next two are both from Italy...what I, in my limited knowledge, believe to be the culinary mecca of the universe. I LOVE Italy and not just because of the beautiful art and architecture. I love Italy because the Italians invented the Caprese Salad and Gelato.

And for tonight, last, but not least is Hawaiian fried rice. This was a Sunday night staple in my house growing up. This particular batch was made by my Grandma Johnson in a good ol' electric fry pan. What makes it Hawaiian as opposed to Chinese is the SPAM. I LOVE SPAM. It's in my blood and good fried rice must have SPAM.

OK...now I'm inspired and hungry. :)

Strawberry season is coming

I may be a little anxious, but I know strawberry season is coming. Ok so it's like 4 months away, but soon is all relative.

In anticipation of strawberry season I wanted to share with you my very favorite way to eat, consume, dispatch, devour,and otherwise partake of this luscious red berry.

I don't think this "recipe" actually has a name. If it does I'm not aware of it. There are only 3 ingredients - no measuring required.

• strawberries
• sour cream (if you're feeling "good", you can even use the no-fat kind)
• brown sugar

Now please note that you may be tempted to use something sweet, like yogurt, instead of sour cream - resist the temptation.  Sour cream is very important in this recipe.

I told you that there is no measuring required in this recipe but there are a few steps.
1. make sure your strawberries are washed and DRIED

2. dip your strawberry in the sour cream

3. press the sour cream covered strawberry in brown sugar

4. enjoy

It really is absolutely amazing how fantastic this tastes.  I've surprised so many people with this when I use it for dessert.  It's so unassuming, fresh, and perfectly delicious.

I bet you can't wait for strawberry season now, can ya!?!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

So my sister-in-law brought over some cookies a few months ago for a family dinner. This unassuming cookies looked like every other chocolate chip cookie I had ever eaten and so I casually helped myself to one after dinner. OH MY GOSH!! There was something absolutely unequivocally different about these cookies. There was nothing run-of-the-mill about these chocolate chip cookies.

"How can there possibly be anything that different about a chocolate chip cookie?" You ask.

"They're all pretty much the same." You Say.

I say, Nay, Nay.

These are not like any chocolate chip cookie you have ever eaten. They are warm and carmely tasting. The cookie itself actually stands out as the star, almost over-shadowing the chocolate.

I made a batch again today and decide that I just couldn't keep this recipe to myself any longer. The recipe actually comes from America's Test Kitchen. You may have seen this show on your local PBS station. It's a pretty darn good show.

Anyways, here's the pictures to entice you to try the recipe. Please note, these take more time to make and involve many more steps than your traditional c.c. cookie recipe. But it's worth it in the end.

I made small little cookies this time around, because I had to feed a bunch of people. However, I think these would be even better in the form of GIANT cookies.

These delicious bits of golden goodness bring back my conviction that chocolate chip cookies may be the best thing that ever happened to my mouth.


The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever by America's Test Kitchen - Recipe

The Best Darn Pie Crust In The Whole World

I saw Jamie Oliver make this quick pie crust during one of his fabulous tv episodes (Jamie at Home). If you want to watch any of his episodes, come on over, I've got most of his shows on DVR. It looked pretty simple so I decided to give it a try. And it had me at "hello". I've never liked anything other than graham cracker crusts on my dessert, but this stuff is so amazing that I could probably eat it baked in a pie shell with a little whipped cream. :)
The great things about this crust is that it can be both savory and sweet, it really is easy to make, and it tastes better than any crust I've ever had.

Here you go, try it for yourself.

Pie Crust
(based on Jamie Oliver's recipe)

• 2C flour
• 1/2C powdered sugar
• 1C butter, cut into small cubes
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 large free-range or organic eggs, beaten
• a splash of milk
• flour, for dusting

• Sieve the flour from a height on to a clean work surface and sieve the icing sugar over the top. I was making this pie crust for a chicken pot pie so I omitted the powdered sugar because I wanted a savory pie crust, and I did add about an extra 1/4 C. of flour instead.
• Using your hands, work the cubes of butter into the flour and sugar by rubbing your thumbs against your fingers until you end up with a fine, crumbly mixture.
• This is the point where you can spike the mixture with interesting flavors, so mix in your lemon zest. Again, because it was a savory pie crust I decided to spike it with rosemary and garlic powder. I added about 1/2 tsp of garlic powder and 1 tsp of rosemary. I crushed the rosemary first so I wouldn't get chunks of "woody leaves" in my bite of pie.

Here's a shot of the "spike" from a pie crust I made for pocket apple pies. I spiked it with the lemon zest and a little powdered ginger. This crust also has the powdered sugar in it.• Add the eggs and milk to the mixture and gently work it together till you have a ball of dough. Flour it lightly. Don’t work the pastry too much at this stage or it will become elastic and chewy, not crumbly and short.• Flour your work surface and place the dough on top. Pat it into a flat round, flour it lightly, wrap it in clingfilm (saranwrap) and put it into the fridge to rest for at least half an hour.

So here is the prep for the chicken pot pies I made. You can see the lovely flecks of herbs in the pie crust when I roll it out.
I had enough leftover stuffing (chicken and veges) and pie crust that I made an extra dish. And I assure you that it tasted as good as it looked.
Here's the sweet crust. I used it for mini apple pies.It really doesn't get much better than this perfect pie crust...hmmm the homemade pasta I made on Sunday was pretty darn good, but I'll save that for another post.

A Bunch of Yummy

OK - I haven't posted in ages, but it's not because I haven't been cooking. It's actually because I've been too busy to even sit down and upload the photos. It's about all I can do to remember to take pictures of the food. So tonights post is the down-and-dirty on what's been going on in my kitchen. I'm only going to post a few recipes, but if you want one in particular that I haven't posted, you're welcome to email me and I'll send it to you. So here we go...

My new favoritest way to eat broccoli. In fact, I don't know that I'll ever eat it any other way again. It's Ina Gartner recipe (Barefoot Contessa) and IT ROCKS!!!!

ROASTED BROCCOLI

• 4 to 5 pounds broccoli
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• Good olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons julienned fresh basil leaves (about 12 leaves)

Cut up the broccoli, toss with olive oil and garlic slices, put on baking sheet. Bake in 425 degree oven (yes, I know that's hot) for about 15 min, just until barely fork tender. Take out of oven and immediately squeeze lemon juice on the broccoli. Toss with pine nuts and put in serving bowl/platter/plate. Add parmesan and basil just before serving. YUM YUM YUM (BTW, just did some broccoli like this last night and added it to orzo pasta with tomatoes, yellow peppers, artichoke hearts, olives, and fresh parmesan...again, fabulous.)


Tropical Cupcakes -- I had to whip up a birthday treat for one of my bosses last week. In scavenging through my cupboard all I could find was an old box of coconut cake mix. "Coconut?", you ask. "Yes," Coconut. Don't ask me where I got it or how old it was. I was desperate. Fortunately I found a way to "kick-it-up" a notch. I added chopped pineapple to the cake mix and then made coconut cream cheese frosting and then toasted coconut to add to the top. Tada! Tropical Cupcakes.

Oh, yum, kitty litter! On April Fool's day I took this delicious "Kitty Litter Cake" in to work. It was a HUGE hit. Several people stood around it and dared each other to take the first bite. After waiting till the sacrificial lamb declared it, they all dug in. You can find the recipe all over the internet. I would also recommend making it the night before you serve it and allow it to sit in your fridge over night. I think it helped the cake meld together.


Several years ago while at BYU I started a tradition of making crepes on General Conference morning. This year I invited a few of my friends over to join me. And let me tell you...They were the BEST DARN CREPES I've ever made. The toppings were amazing.

Crepes
8 eggs
2 1/2 c. flour
3 1/3c. milk
2 2/3 TBS sugar
1 1/3 tsp salt
1 TBS oil

Wisk all together and cook in pan. Hint: Crepes are supposed to be VERY thin. I usually pour little less than 1/4 in a pan and then swirl the pan around until the crepe batter essentially stops running because it's baking up. If you get it thin enough in the pan you only have to cook it on one side, because it will cook all the way through.

Lemon Cream -- this lemon cream was truly what set all of these crepes apart from the others.

1 c. cream cheese
1 c. confectioners sugar
1 TBS lemon zest
1/2 c. lemon juice
1/4 ts. lemon extract

cream it all together. We spread a little down the center of the crepe and added fresh strawberries, rolled them up and then topped them with homemade chocolate sauce. Aggghhh!! They were fabulous!


And finally a delicious soup/stew, or as I like to call it a "stoup". I got the recipe from Better Homes And Garden magazine and it was the perfect stoup for the crockpot. I deviated from the recipe a little because I was too cheap to by pork shoulder, and I used healthy turkey sausage instead of polish sausage, but it was still DELICIOUS and tasted just a great the 2nd and 3rd day. If you want the recipe let me know and I'll email it to you.

Slow Cooker Holiday Pork Stew - Better Homes and Garden