Saturday, July 28, 2012

Homemade EASY Granola

So there will be no pictures in this post, but if you like Granola, but hate paying out the wazoo for it, I have a simple recipe that makes good granola.  I found it on Pinterest but it's from Shape Magazine  I made 3 batches today.  The second/third batch I cut out some of the peanut butter......  I wanna try playing around with the recipe one day, but I can totally see myself eating a bowl of this for breakfast.

PB Granola
2 Tbsp Peanut Butter (creamy)
2 Tbsp Honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 cup Old Fashioned oats

Combine PB and honey in bowl and microwave for 20 second.  Mix well.  Then add the cinnamon and vanilla.  Stir in the oats until they are completely covered in the pb/honey mixture.  Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick spray. Spread the oats evenly and bake at 325 for 7-8 mins.  Allow to cool completely.  ENJOY

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Biscuits and Shrimp Gravy

So I have an unnatural love for biscuits ad sausage gravy.  However, I don't have any sausage so I wanted to change it up.   I've been playing around with finding a biscuit recipe and was looking for an opportunity to make biscuits......so VIOLA!


Biscuits and Shrimp Gravy (GRAVY RECIPE BELOW)

Biscuits: biscuit recipe
2 Cups AP flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 Tbsp salt
3/4 c milk or water
1/4 c oil


 Mix together dry ingredients.  I also added a healthy dose of pepper to go with the pepper that was the key to the meal.


To dry ingredients add the mixed together wet ingredients and stir til combined.



Then place onto an ungreased cookie sheet in desired amounts.  Bake at 400 for 22 minutes.



The biscuits were really dry.....I made them with water because I needed the milk for the gravy, but I would definately use milk next time.

While the biscuits baked I prepped my shrimp.  I used 10 FROZEN raw shrimp.   I thawed them in cold water. 


While the shrimp were thawing, I prepped the water to boil the shrimp in.  I filled a pot and seasoned the water with a little salt and a TON of fresh ground pepper.


Bring the water to a boil and cook shrimp for about 3 minutes. Remove and place the shrimp in an ice bath to stop the cooking.



I then butterflied the shrimp to maximize the shrimp to gravy ratio.



GRAVY:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp of flour
2 cups milk
Onions (to your pref)
salt and pepper to your taste

In a little butter saute your onions until they are soft.


Remove onions from pan.  Melt 2 tbsp of butter. 


Add the 2 tbsp of flour to make a roux. Whisk together constantly...


Then when well combined.  Then add the milk. Whisk together until combined, then you can switch to a spatula.


Over medium heat, add the shrimp, onions, salt and pepper and stir constantly.  This will take about 15-20 minutes to reduce and thicken.  Remember when you take the pan off the heat it will continue to thicken.




Serve over biscuits....I buttered mine. 



THIS WAS YUMMY!!!! I thought it was going to suck but it was good.  The worst part was the dry biscuits!!!!!

Monday, July 9, 2012

VIDEO.....Coconut Fried Chicken

It's been awhile since I posted a video......so viola....nothing snazzy or hysterically funny, just food.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

BBT dip

So the 4th of July is BBQ day in my life.  Every year I go to my Godmother's house and we have a blast.  I try and bring something different each year.


BBT Dip (Bacon, Blue Cheese and Tomato) I made a double recipe but won't again.
for a single recipe
4 oz softened Cream Cheese
1/2 c sour cream
4 oz crumbled blue cheese
5 slices crispy bacon crumbled
4-6 sundried tomatoes diced


First drain your sun dried tomatoes for about 10 minutes to get rid of the excess oils.


Then in a food processor (mine sucks) place all ingredients EXCEPT bacon and mix till combined.


Now if your food processor sucks as much as mine does,  switch it to your kitchen aid stand mixer.


Mix til creamy and fold in bacon crumbles.


Refrigerate for 2 hours then serve.  I used Ritz crackers.


I am still undecided on how I feel about this dip.  Taste testers at the BBQ liked it, but a few recommended that I add garlic and black pepper.  Will try if I ever make again, but just not sure how I feel about it.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Easy Dulce de Leche

So if you know me, you know that I tend to be obsessed with certain things......the top 3 are goat cheese, peanut butter in candy and caramel (all versions).  The last time I played with cooking sugar, I burnt the crap out of my finger, so I wanted an easier way.......Dulce de leche....

First, caramel is made with sugar and finished with a touch of milk and done stove top

Dulce de leche is made with sweetened condensed milk and can be made in a variety of ways......I chose the crockpot.

Ingredients
can of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz) Yields about a jar and a half when split.
canning jar or 2
time (at least 10 hours)


First, open your sweeten condensed milk and pour into canning jars.


Place in crockpot and fill with water at least an inch over the jars.




Cook on low for at least 10 hours or until the Dulce de Leche reaches desired color.

2 hours


5 hours

8 hours

10 hours


Allow to cool completely.  Store in fridge.

I did not let cool to room temp and it was still kinda solid.....it will soften as it cools....currently it's in my fridge




SIMPLEST thing ever........ and its YUMMY



Next time I am going to try adding some milk chocolate chips or peanut butter to make flavored dulce de leches