Guinness Chocolate Cake

Cake

1 Egg

1 Cup White Sugar

7 oz Plain Greek Yogurt

¼ Cup Vegetable Oil

1 ½ tsp Vanilla

½ Cup Guinness Stout

½ Cup Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

½ tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Salt

Ganache

1 ½ Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

¾ Cup Buttermilk

1 tsp Vanilla

Combine egg, oil, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla stir until smooth.  Add beer and cocoa powder.  Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt – whisk until smooth. Bake in 9x9 square or round pan.  Bake for 25 minutes at 350 F.

Allow to cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan.

Ganache

Bring buttermilk to a light boil, pour over chocolate chips add vanilla whisk until smooth.  Allow to cool five minutes pour over cake.    

Squash Bisque

Soup

1 Medium Squash
½ White Onion
2 or 3 Large Carrots
¼ Cup Flour
¼ Cup Canola Oil
1 or 2 Boxes of Chicken Broth (depending on how thick you like your soup)
Bay Leaf
Turmeric
Cumin
Garlic
Old Bay Seasoning
Salt / Pepper to Taste
(Spicy Version add Siracha or Chipotle)


Topping

1 Container Plain Greek Yogurt, Spoonful of Roasted Garlic, Fresh Italian Parsley mixed together.


Add flour and oil to the pan cook until a nut brown color.  Add onion to flour and oil
mixture, sauté until tender.  Add Chicken broth and peel squash cubes.  Add turmeric,
cumin, garlic, old bay, bay leaf and salt and pepper.  Boil the soup until the squash is
tender, use a potato masher to break the squash apart until it is the desired texture.  Add
carrot and cook until tender. Serve with Greek yogurt topping.


I don’t have measurements for the spices I usually just add until I think it tastes good;
seasoning can vary depending on what you like.

Three Ring Salad

Three ring salad hold a special place in our hearts as it was so aptly named in honor of mother in law.  This creation was invented by my husband for his mom Deanna, after she called him three times just to make sure that he had time in his busy life to make salad.  This salad is probably by far my favorite noodle salad.  Kendra Drake beware you can't try this little gem because it is laced with peanut death.  I suppose if you come to visit I could attempt to substitute the peanut butter with tahini paste. 

2 Packages of Yakisoba Noodles
1/2 Thin Sliced Red Onion, you can also substitute for green onions if you like more color
1/2 Cup Fresh Green Peas
1 Large Carrot, thinly sliced 
5-10 Mini Bell Peppers Sliced, you can use regular bell pepper if you like
Handful of chopped cilantro
1/2 Cup Shelled Roasted Peanuts





 
Dressing
1/3 Cup Peanut Butter
2 tbsp Soy Sauce or Tamari (gluten free option) if you use the Tamari use 1/2 the amount it is much saltier
1 tsp Roasted Garlic
2  Generous squeezes of sriracha
couple of shakes of red pepper flakes

Kendra please note this dressing can be made in a peanut free version by replacing the peanut butter with tahini paste.

You can thin this dressing with peanut oil or water. 
Salt and Pepper to taste.  I prefer to have this a little thick it sticks to the noodles better.  Please see the image to the left.  If you prefer a thinner dressing add more water or oil until it is a smooth consistency.

Summer Salad Spectacular

There is not doubt that most of us tend to make the same dishes repeatedly.  There is nothing more fun then finding that perfect recipe that when you take it to a party people are in awe if it beautiful color, texture and taste.  One thing that can really change the way you eat, and it not super time-consuming, is to have a few great salad recipes that are sure to impress.  The three salads that I will share in this post are not only delicious, they vibrant on the plate and will leave your friends asking for the recipe.  Enjoy this light, healthy way to spruce up your work week.


Chickpea Grilled Corn Salad


3 cans of chickpeas (drained & rinsed)
3 ears of grilled corn cut off the cob
(if you are making this in the winter you can use frozen
corn rinsed and slightly chard under the broiler)
1/4 to 1/2 red onion
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley


Dressing

2 tbsp  olive oil
1 tsp roasted garlic
1/2 cup red wine vinegar


To make this salad, a whole meal add grilled chicken.  This is wonderful leftover.  I have also made it with added feta cheese.



Greek Salad


1 Large Cucumber
1 Container of Whole Cherry Tomatoes
1/2 Cup Chopped Kalamata Olives or 1 Whole Can Black Olives
1/2 Container of Feta Cheese
1/2 Red Onion


Dressing

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp roasted garlic
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 Fresh Lemon Squeezed in


To make this salad, a whole meal add cold brown rice and grilled chicken.  This is better if you make it the day before. 
It allows for the flavors from the dressing to soak in the rice.


Rice

1 Cup Brown Rice
2 Cups Water or Broth
If you use water add small scoop of chicken bullion


Beet - Blood Orange - Fennel Salad


1 Large Beet sliced on the mandolin
1 Blood Orange peeled and sliced thin against the grain
1 Fennel Bulb Sliced on the mandolin


Dress with

A drizzle of white wine vinegar - olive oil - lightly top with sea salt.

Another good way to dress this salad is to toss the fennel and oranges in the olive oil and vinegar and add the beets once it is plated.  Then salt and pepper to taste.


This salad should be dressed on the plate or in a bowl excluding the beets, to avoid the beet juice discoloring the salad.

This is excellent left over.

Fun Superbowl Food

One of the biggest weaknesses in Kris and my life is a cold beer and some delightful deep fat fried bar food.  Nothing goes with football like chicken wings, onion rings, jalapeno poppers and queso dip.  I had never eaten a chicken wing until I met my husband.  One of my closest friends husband, Dan, found this to be one of the most appalling things that he had ever heard in his life.  I have spent countless hours trying to remedy this short coming.  Since I met my husband eleven years ago, we have been on the quest to figure out what the perfect chicken wing is;  The wok, the crock, oven, BBQ or deep fried?  The sad reality is, as we get older we can't eat what ever the hell we feel like, when ever we feel like, without a care in the world of the dreaded pound (or in my case pounds).  Eight years ago, we embarked on the quest to perfect the healthier chicken wing.  After extensive trial and error, we discovered that if you steam the chicken wings before you bake them it brings the oil to the surface allowing you to actually achieve a crispy chicken wing right from the oven.  With this method, there is no need to spray the chicken with extra oil.  With that said, my favorite homemade chicken wing is on the rotisserie basket on the BBQ.  They (the wingy) cook evenly, resulting in a crisp and delicious end result.  I realize not everyone has access to this method thus steaming and baking the wings is very close.  Secondly, I move to the key to healthier bar food is the two P's, parchment and panko bread crumbs.  This is the sole key to replacing the deep fat fried crunch with a lighter healthier oven baked goodness.  This method brings me to the onion ring.  Kris has perfected the oven onion ring.  A lightly toasted, seasoned bread crumb that are crispy, delicious and oh-so satisfying without all the fat.  We also use these to make chicken strips and breaded fish.  I may not be able to make beer any healthier, but I can move us toward a level of eating satisfaction that will leave you satisfied and not feeling like you need to take a nap.

Chicken Wing:
Steam, bake on parchment paper or baking rack.

Panko:
Season to taste (we use garlic, pepper, cayenne, etc.)
Toast over medium heat and spray a little olive oil on it to make it golden brown

Onion Ring:
Slice and soak red onion in milk for 1/2 hour.  The milk removes the bitterness from the onion.
Pat onions dry to remove excess moisture.
Coat with flour (usually with sea salt and pepper)
Dip in beaten egg.
Coat with seasoned panko bread crumb.
Bake on parchment at 350 degrees until crisp.

Chicken Strip:
Cut chicken in strips, use above method.

The key to the parchment paper is it wicks away the excess moisture preventing what you are baking from becoming soggy.  The other great advantage to parchment is clean up.  Just pull out the paper ad get er done.

I would like to give a special thanks to my brother in law Tyler for introducing me to the panko bread crumb and to my friend Nick for teaching me that you have to toast the bread crumbs in a pan first so they stay crisp.

No matter how afraid keep on cooking and remember there is always room in the pizza budget.

Celeste Gets Dominated By The Bread Maker

Five years ago when my husband Kris and I got married we received a rather large package at our new house from Target.  Oh what could be the excitement that lie in such a large box?  Low and behold said box contained my arch nemesis: the bread maker.  For those of you that know me, I have long indulged in the art and stress relief of making artisan bread, with particular regard to focaccia.  As only my husband has know until now, I have continually been dominated and humiliated by the simplest white and wheat loaf bread.  For some reason or another my ability to make such a creation has been far beyond my grasp.  At  this time I embarked on the journey of the bread maker.  Three hours later, I was disappointed to discover what I had created was a rock hard mass of flour that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.  Being an accomplished cook and baker, I could not figure out what the hell had gone wrong.  My loving husband examined the recipe and pointed to the loaf asking "what are those green flakes in there?"  In my infinite wisdom I am for the most part incapable of following a recipe and felt that said bread needed onion and maybe a little garlic.  Epic fail.  The details may be fuzzy but I'm pretty sure that just a week or two later my husband used the bread maker to make delicious moist white bread.  So the life of the bread maker ended and it went to reside in a dark corner of our basement storage room for over five years.  After returning from Christmas holiday, I decided that I wanted to make bread.  Kris suggested to me that I use the bread maker.  One must remember that time heals all wounds.  In the new found world of Pinterest, I decided that there was no way I would mess this up armed with every bread recipe known to man.  I followed the recipe to a tee, with the exception of a honey substitute that the recipe declared was acceptable.  When I hit the section that called for two tsp of salt I felt a stab of pain as I have never been one for excessive salt consumption but I added it anyway.  Watching the dough I knew that something wasn't right but decided to let it play out.  Three hours later, I was faced with another rock hard atrocity that was so salty I would liken it to play dough.  Now you might ask yourself "how does she know what play dough tastes like?" but that's a story for another day.  However, I am convinced the problem with this bread was that the yeast was no good.  So I did a little experiment with the yeast, sugar and water in a bowl.  I stick to my guns that this is exactly what was wrong.  Inedible mass to the compost pile.  Upon returning from work today, after forcing my self not to go to the store and buy yeast, I grabbed the bread maker and was going to banish it back to its dark corner Kris says to me"Leave that up here. I think tomorrow I might buy yeast and give it a try."  Today he made a delightful fluffy herb bread and I quote him saying "Put that on your blog and smoke it."  At this time I am taking suggestions for other uses for this obviously defective bread make.