Jam & Cheese Loaf For some reason I had a little extra time on the day before Thanksgiving, so I decided to make a Jam & Cheese Loaf for breakfast the next day. It's essentially a biscuit base, cream cheese filling, topped with the jam of your choice. Really easy and really tasty, and it looks pretty neat too, since you braid the dough over the filling:
I basically halfed this recipe since the full recipe makes a pretty large loaf. We finished it off in no time!
[Tags: dessert, recipe, cheese, biscuit, jam]
Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix  I picked up the complimentary 'Something Extra' magazine from our local Nob Hill Foods supermarket the other day. While I was wandering through the pages, my attention caught on the recipe for homemade hot chocolate mix. I was excited because over the last year we'd been looking at the ingredients in all the standard single serving packets of hot chocolate on the market, and it seems that (excluding the more expensive or gourmet brands) there was a lot of unnecessary ingredients in them, including sucralose, which tends to give us both slight headaches. The one with the fewest ingredients was Swiss Miss (sans marshmallows), so we'd been using that.
Anyway, the recipe was pretty good, but we felt it needed a touch more sugar, so here's our tweaked version of their recipe:
Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix
3 cups instant dry milk
1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar (to taste)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. cinnamon (optional, but recommended)
Just mix all of the ingredients together in a sealable plastic ziplock bag and store it in a container with a tight fitting lid. To make a cup of hot chocolate, add 1/3 cup of the mixture to a mug with 8 oz. steaming hot water and stir well. (Makes about 15 mugs.)
We're very happy with the way it came out! (And here is the full recipe in our archives - click there to find a printable version too.)
[Tags: food, recipe, hot chocolate, homemade, hot cocoa mix]
Spanish Sausages and Nun Cookies Some other exotic foods our previously mentioned globetrotting friend bestowed upon us involved specialties from Spain, including Spanish sausages, and breadsticks:
And these delicate square cookies made by nuns:
The sausage had a fantastic flavor and texture, the bread sticks were excellently crunchy, and the 'nun cookies' finished things off with a sort of fig-newtony type flair, but with a fruit that was lighter in color and taste. We ate them all like a snack, and washed them down with a bottle of fruity white wine, which complimented things well. All around it was a night of fantastic food tastery!
[Tags: food, Spain, sausage, cookies]
Sweet Potato Bisque with Tortellini As some of the regular readers might have realized, we've become enamored of the selection of soups and soup-bases at Trader Joe's. So on our last store trip (an hour each way, but still worth it) we picked up a container of their sweet potato bisque.
I emptied it into our small crock pot, thinned it with water a bit (it was still quite thick), added a few spices, and let it cook while I started making the homemade tortellini. I just wanted to make the noodles, no filling. (Sorry no 'in progress' photos - I was covered in flour and very focused - LOL!). I let the soup 'crock' for a number of hours. About two hours before we were going to eat, I tossed in the small tortellinis - it took them a while to cook, but they did fine. When we served it, we added a dollup (I've always wanted to use the word dollup) of sour cream in the middle, and a sprinkling of nutmeg.
It came out very tasty! And although the bisque has a lovely flavor, it IS rather mild - the sour cream sort of finished it out with a nice tang.
[Tags: food, soup, bisque, cooking, sweet potato]
Mini Apple Pies A long time ago we'd found these terrific little individual serving glass pyrex dishes at the Dollar Store of all places, and the other day I got to use them for the first time when making a couple of mini apple pies! (I would have made a regular pie, but we only had three apples in the fridge - besides - what a good ready-made excuse.)
I cut our apple pie recipe in half, and also cut our pie crust recipe in half. I also have to admit that this is the first time I've actually made a pie crust from scratch! John's made them from scratch, but I've grabbed the pre-made crusts in the past. But after doing this and seeing how easy it is, I'll probably hardly EVER use the pre-made crusts again.
The final pies came out really cute, and just like a regular apple pie, although the 'individual' portions were pretty big, but we got over it.
One more point: as you can see in the photo, I sealed the edges of the pie like normal, but tucked the edges back in a bit since I didn't want them to get dried out or burned. Wallah!
[Tags: food, dessert, apple pie recipe, thanksgiving, baking]
Baobab Fruit SpreadA globetrotting friend of ours recently presented us with a jar of genuine baobab jam (I think it's jam - or fruit spread - either way) from Africa (Senegal, to be specific)! It's got a luscious taste - almost like a marmelade or honey, and we just dove into it and started eating it on crackers:
We ate half the jar in one sitting - I wonder if it's addictive? Just kidding! I don't think this is something you can readily get in the United States, if at all, so we were excited to be able to try something that seems to exotic.
Our friend also gave us some other exotic goodies, but you'll have to wait for another post for those.
[Tags: baobab fruit, Africa, jam, food, photos] Grilled Turkey Reuben Every so often I remember that I love Grilled Turkey Reubens and that I haven't had one in a LONG time!
They're REALLY easy to make - sliced deli turkey, lots of good saurkraut (we used Hebrew National), and a Thousand Islands dressing on your choice of rye bread - we chose a Jewish Rye. (In our area of California, the only kind of ryes available are pre-packaged, made by Orowheat, but they work just fine!)
So assemble the sandwich as you like, butter the outsides of the bread, and then grill until golden brown!
That's not the most exciting picture, and you can see that it's browned a bit unevenly, but I was in more of a hurry to EAT the sandwich than to spend time on a pretty presentation - hah! It tasted even better than it looks here, if that helps. :D
[Tags: food, recipe, sandwich, reuben, food follies]
Spare Ribs with Country Bob Sauce We hit a great sale on pork spare ribs the other day and decided to do a little barbeque with Country Bob's Sauce.
It was a success! We could have actually used MORE of the sauce as it came out a bit more subtle than anticipated, but dipping is good too.
The interesting part of this is that when I was growing up, my mother never used BBQ sauce on her pork roasts or ribs - she only rubbed it with salt, pepper, onion, and garlic powder, which is delicious, but I've had to get more accustomed to BBQ sauce over the years. The best thing about using the Country Bobs is that it didn't overwhelm the flavor of the pork, which is always my biggest complaint about BBQ. It complimented it nicely with a subtle sweet flavor, which always does well on pork.
[Tags: food, pork, bbq, barbeque, cooking]
Blueberry PieWhen I saw the 2.5 lb container of fresh blueberries for 5.99 I looked at it sort of lovingly and thought, "I could make a blueberry pie." I've never actually made a homemade pie. Kristen usually is in charge of pies, while I'm normally in charge of grilling and making omelettes. When I worked as a cook, our pies were made with canned fillings, so there was no help there. I did go the easy route and went with the pre-made pie crust. I've actually made my own pie crust before, for Shepherd's Pie, but since I was starting this pie in the evening, I wanted to move things along.  It took all of thirty seconds for us to find some basic blueberry pie recipes on the web and tweak our own variation. Putting the ingredients together was a snap, and we have enough blueberries leftover for sprinkling on breakfast cereals, mixing in yogurts and possibly sharing with the local wildlife. Kristen guided me through the proper method of sealing the two pie crust halves. When I made my Shepherd's Pie, the edge was a bit on the crusty side. The baking took longer than we expected, about an extra half hour, but the results were delicious. This is the first homemade blueberry pie I've ever had and it beat every store or restaurant pie I've had hands down.  Hopefully, we can catch the other berry families on sale and live on pie for the rest of the summer. Oh, and click here for the blueberry pie recipe we used.
[Tags: food, baking, blueberry, pie, dessert]Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce
When Al Malekovic from Country Bob's contacted us and offered us a free sample of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce, I was dubious. I had pretty much given up on commercial barbecue sauces and marinades because they all contain MSG and/or High Fructose Corn Syrup. Al assured me that the sauce had neither of these ingredients, so I agreed to give it a try. I was pleased to see that the ingredients were very basic, Tomato puree, vinegar, molasses etc... there were no ingredients that I couldn't pronounce.
On first taste, I liked the sauce right away. It's somewhere between a barbecue sauce and a steak sauce, and as it's name implies it will work well for both. Of course, we decided to be more creative with our first outing, and used it as a marinade for some boneless pork chops along with a little crushed garlic. We coated the chops in flour, onion powder, salt and pepper, and naturally tossed them into a pan of hot vegetable oil.
The finished chops held the flavor of the sauce nicely. They added a bit of sweetness under the coating which really complimented the flavor of the pork chops nicely.
Not to be outdone though, the following week we were having chicken burritos. The salsa we had bought lacked zing, even though it was a medium. Kristen suggested we put some Country Bob's on them, which gave them a whole new flavor, more Tex than Mex I guess but they tasted great!
[Tags: food, sauce, pork chops, Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce, cooking]Hot Weather Pasta Salad A little while ago the temperature was 110 degrees for many days in a row. When we actually had appetites, we had to come up with something else to eat besides cold sandwiches and fruit, so we put together a cold pasta salad!
We used a lot of stuff we had around the house - rotelli pasta (tri-color would have been nicer, but we only had regular), organic Tuscan Italian dressing, tuna fish, diced tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. And we sprinkled on some sliced, fresh mozzarella just before we ate it.
We have nothing against mayo-based salads, but even that can seem heavy when it's so hot outside, so the Italian dressing version worked nicely for us.
[Tags: food, pasta salad, recipe, tuna, italian dressing]
John's New Blackberry! Everyone's so busy talking about their new iPhones and all the cool things they can do with them, so I thought I'd post a photo of John's new Blackberry!
What - you were expecting something with batteries, buttons, and a screen? ;-)
[Tags: blackberry, blackberries, joke, funny, food]
Joey & Eddie's Italian Restaurant in San Francisco Recently, I was up in San Francisco for a day of meetings with a bunch of compadres and we had the pleasure of being treated to a night out in the private upstairs dining room at a fantastic Italian restaurant called "Joey & Eddie's".
(Pardon the photo - I forgot to take a picture until the very end when we were getting back on the bus that was rented for us - but you get the idea.)
It was one of those amazing multi-course, choice of wines type events. We had terrific bread with butter or olive oil, fantastic salad with all kinds of greens, crab bisque (or white bean soup), spaghetti topped with a cherry tomato concoction, white fish, chicken cacciatore, and then a big finish with a fabulous chocolate and hazelnut torte with pannecota served in these fancy dishes that looked like hubcaps - LOL! I wanted to eat so much more of each course, but knew I'd regret it later, so I managed to space out my samplings.
So if you're ever in San Francisco and have a hankering for some tasty tasty Italian, check out Joey and Eddie's. And as an additional bonus, on the way out we walked through the front room and saw Sammy Hagar sitting there at the bar enjoying a meal - he seemed to be with a tall blond, so no one bothered him - LOL.
[Tags: food, Italian, California, San Francisco, restaurant]
Just This OnceI just have to share this one from icanhascheezburger - it's a food joke though, sort of, and in any case it just cracked me up....
[Tags: bread, cat, lolcat, funny, humor] Food Critics Don't Need To Be AnonymousGet the best seats in the house and maybe even a complimentary drink or two when you walk into a restaurant with our "Restaurant Reviewer" or "Food Blogger" t-shirts and sweatshirts! Even if you aren't an official food critic or have a food blog of your own, most restaurants know the power that word of mouth holds in this business, so give them a chance to show you how good they can be.
 
Each design is available on many different styles of t-shirts and sweatshirts (and bumper stickers and mugs as well) - just click on the sample t-shirt above to see the entire selection.
[Tags: food, funny, humor, food blog, restaurant] Snapea Crisps 
I was in Trader Joe's one day (my favorite grocery store) and they had these Snapea Crisps hanging off of one of the shelves. Feeling bold, I bought them secretly dreading that they might end up tasting like freeze dried peas.
When I opened them I was delighted to discover that they were light and tasty (not like peas at all) with a texture that reminded me of Funyons. They have their own flavor which is hard to describe but is well worth the two dollar investment.
They work ok on a salad (as suggested), but actually work really well as a snack food by themselves. They compliment a trail mix nicely, going well with dried fruit or nuts.
[Tags: Snapea Crisps, peas, snacks, food, review]
Spinach & Artichoke Chips I was in the chip aisle last week searching among the plethora of MSG coated chips looking for something with genuine flavor. There were a few standard entries which I liked but was tired of, but then I noticed this bag of Spinach & Artichoke Chips by Jensen's Orchard.
Spinach & Artichoke? I wondered, it made me think of some of the weird flavors that Jones Soda tries. I hoped that they wouldn't end up being fancy dog biscuits and gave them a try.
The spinach flavor is quite pronounced, as pronounced as the green color of the chips themselves. The artichoke however often remains hidden, only peeking out once in a while. I wasn't sure if I liked them for at least the first ten chips, until my taste buds became accustomed to the flavor. My brain needed to make a new category. This was not in the salty,BBQ, cheesy or spicy category, but a new deeper sort of flavor which I find unique among potato chips.
The ingredients were a refreshing surprise too. Spinach is actually the third ingredient, artichokes were further down, and spices like parsley and turmeric were listed as well.
Overall I would highly recommend them particularly if you are looking for something different or if you're having company and want to add a new dimension to the same old fare.
[Tags: food, review, potato chips, snack, spinach]
Baconated T-shirts Attention all bacon lovers! Due to our own recent re-appreciation of bacon (particularly the no-extra nitrites/nitrates added apple smoked bacon we've discovered) we've created another way to celebrate bacon - our "Powered By Bacon" design on t-shirts and buttons and magnets and bumper stickers and yadda yadda! Here's one sample product:
Click the tee above to see the whole range of baconated t-shirts and stuff available!
[Tags: food, humor, funny, t-shirt, bacon]
CalzonesWe made calzones again the other day - this time stuffed with ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and some fresh (pan fried) italian sausage coins - yum! If you want to play with a little yeast and dough, here's the recipe to make your own calzones.
And this isn't the best photo, in fact, it's a little TOO golden, but you get the general idea:
[Tags: food, recipe, italian, calzone, cheese] Italian Chicken SandwichThis is a really easy recipe for a very tasty sandwich! Marinate boneless chicken breasts in Italian Dressing overnight. Shake off excess dressing and grill the chicken. Open ciabatta rolls and dress with mayo, lettuce, and thinly sliced tomatoes, then chicken, then top with a slice of jalapeno jack cheese and wah-lah!
Serve with a side of potato chips or potato salad if you like.
[Tags: chicken, sandwich, cooking, grilling, food] An Explosion of Soda and CandyMany of you might know what happens when you drop a mentos candy into a bottle of soda. Now, can you imagine what happens when 1,500 students all do it at the same time? Click here for photos of the resulting simultaneous explosions - science at its funnest!
[Tags: mentos, science, soda, belgium, food] Jello Cut Out CookiesThis is another one of those food photos that I took a while ago and haven't blogged until now, as you might be able to tell, since these are CHRISTMAS cookies - hah!
Anyway... my mom never made normal sugar cookies, we always made Jello Cookie cutouts instead, which always had great flavor AND color. And these are the (raspberry flavored) Jello cookies we had over the holidays:
And here is the Jello Cookies recipe so you can play along at home! Oh, and I used a little extra jello powder instead of colored sugar on top of the cookies to give them a bit of darker accent color.
[Tags: food, recipe, cookies, photo] Macaroni and Cheese Just for variety, I made macaroni and cheese in a different way than usual, by making a creamy cheese sauce first.
Used half pound of elbow macaroni and doubled this cheese sauce recipe, pouring it over the cooked macaroni, in a large casserole dish. Mix in about 1/2 to 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese for extra kick, then bake for a half hour on 350.
Next time I'll use ALL extra sharp cheese, no Monterey Jack, as the extra amount of milk really made it a bit milder than it needed to be.
Still, it's always fun to try something new! And it's macaroni and cheese, can't go wrong with mac and cheese!
[Tags: macaroni and cheese, recipe, food, photo]
Orange Cake Again Because it's one of his favorites, I made another orange cake for John. This time though I changed the recipe a WEE bit - used orange extract instead of lemon extract and vanilla pudding instead of lemon pudding, and the orange flavor popped out MUCH more. (The updated recipe is here, FYI.)
And here's a photo - it's a bit rough, but very tasty - LOL:
[Tags: food, cake, dessert, orange, photo]
Eggs Benedict We had breakfast for dinner today - first time making Eggs Benedict for ourselves. First I have to fess up that we did NOT make our own Hollandaise sauce, which, I know, is the key to good Eggs Benedict. But we were more interested, at the moment, in HAVING Eggs Benedict, than spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to make it from scratch for the first time. Maybe at some future time, but this time we used Trader Joe's Hollandaise warmed and scooped over poached eggs on ham on english muffins, with a side of baked potato cubes....
It was all excellent, with the one surprise being that the cayenne pepper in the sauce was very... present. I've had Eggs Benedict in a number of restaurants and it never had such an affect on my sinuses as this did - LOL - but it was still very tasty!
[Tags: food, eggs, eggs benedict, trader joes, breakfast]
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