Hammered-Aluminum Champagne Bucket

Well OF COURSE this isn't a recipe, but part of cooking for me is hosting. Thus, I'm always have my eye out for awesome tools that I can use for hosting events. This afternoon, I was at the mall shopping for clothes. I was done with my clothing shopping, but I could feel Williams-Sonoma tugging me towards their heavenly store. Problem is, it was on the other side of the mall. No problem, I headed over there anyway.

I knew I had to resist going into the store, but as I passed by, I saw this beautiful champagne bucket in the window. It was like a huge diamond sitting among a so-so table setting. I just couldn't believe how gorgeous it was! I'm not made of money therefore I do not serve champagne much less have a gorgeous bucket to serve it in... but if I did...this would be the bucket that would be serving my champagne. Fortunately, it's on sale now at Williams-Sonoma!

Sale. Sale? Sale!

Hunny.....!

Bob Greene's No-Cheese Vegetable Lasagna

Once again, Mrs. Courtney Mayfield contributes her expertise to Krista Kooks!

"The second recipe - No Cheese Vegetable Lasagna, I can give you only my opinion on. Apparently a lasagna without cheese and meat wasn't so appealing to Will, so he decided to hit up Wendy's with a friend instead. I would call this a "health nut" recipe in my house - very well since it is from Oprah's personal trainer, Bob Greene when he made a guest appearance on the show.

It surprised me that though it was all veggie, it was still extremely satisfying. The flavor was great and I did eat a larger looking serving because it doesn't stack more than two layers, but it was really yummy. On the serving note: I wouldn't plan on having more than three servings unless you had a couple of filling sides to accompany. Since it was just me eating, I stopped with the lasagna and said forget the sides.

If you can buy just the amounts of the ingredients that you need, I think this recipe is pretty cost friendly. I was able to buy the nuts, spinach and basil this way and if you plan another marinara meal in the near future, you can split it between two meals as this one only calls for half a jar. I also have enough lasagna noodles left over to make one more dish as well - such as the Broken Florentine Lasagna Bake that Krista posted recently =)"

Grilled Chicken Salad with Caesar Dressing

Last night, we had our friends Kevin and Melissa over for dinner, and I decided to make some salad. Yea, it was pretty simple. A year ago, when I really started cooking out of Rachel Ray's cookbooks, I began making salad dressings from scratch (per the recipes), and they've always been so much better than Kraft or anything else.

So, I browsed through http://www.foodnetwork.com/ for one of her dressings, and I found this one. Now, I only used the dressing in this recipe. Henry bought some great lettuce mixes at HEB, and I tossed those with this dressing, Parmesan cheese, and croutons. I top the salad with grilled chicken. I used a meat tenderizer to flatten out some boneless skinless chicken breasts, seasoned them with salt, pepper, and a dash of Pampered Chef Chipotle Rub.

I will say that fresh lemon juice in these types of salad dressing really makes a difference. Spring for the lemons!

I know this sounds really healthy and all, and no doubt it was tasty, but don't worry. We followed it with the remainder of the top layer of Henry and I's red velvet wedding cake!

Creole Meatloaves with Trinity Gravy and Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Krista Kooks is proud to bring you...

drum roll please...

Mrs. Courtney Mayfield!

This wonderful young lady is bringing you a new realm to Krista Kooks with pork and sweet potatoes, which is something you will NEVER see me cook. That's why I was so excited she made this recipe because I told her I wanted a well rounded blog! Her hubby loved this recipe, so, without further ado...

"After many complaints by my husband of the "same ol' stuff," I decided to try this "real" cooking thing - starting with Krista's blog and her Fake Bake Rigatoni post. After surprising success with it, I started watching Rachael Ray's talk show and have tried a few of her fab recipes as well. These are both recipes that I will definitely be keeping around and making again.

For the first recipe - Creole Meatloves with Trinitiy Gravy, I have to honestly say I didn't know there was even a such thing as ground pork - beef and turkey of course and then bison if you were a little out there, but pork??? Turns out it's actually already in the prepackaged section at Central Market, so maybe I'm just naive.

We really really liked this recipe. To quote my husband Will, "This is on the verge of being not just good, but great." It was a very easy recipe, but still a nice change. I don't eat traditional meatloaf either, so the absence of the ketchup taste was quite nice for me too.

I do think I'll make a few tweaks to the recipe in the future: add salt and pepper to the meatloaf mixture and cut down on the veggies in the "gravy" - probably to one onion, maybe one and a half, and leave out a little celery and bell pepper. As you will see, our gravy was more just wet chunks of veggies and I would have preferred it a little more saucy.Rachael Ray suggested Mashed Sweet Potatoes to accompany the meal and I thought they were a very nice compliment and actually tasted great with the gravy on them. And since I already had the buttermilk for those, I made up a quick batch of buttermilk cornbread too.

As someone looking for good, but not too pricey dinner ideas, I hope these help you the same way Krista's posts help me - I can't wait to try the Golden Onion Baked Chicken this weekend!"

Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

So many of us have no time when we come home to make a big meal. For me, it's a hobby, so I definitely don't care, but I know a ton of people that love meals in the Crock-pot. As I mentioned before, I'm trying out Lipton Secrets, and this was the second recipe on my list to try.

Sorry, I don't have pictures because we had our friends Kevin and Melissa over to share it with us :) However, all four of us can definitely attest that this is a great meal! The meat was incredibly tender and juicy. It was also fun for me because I was able to use our crockpot.

If you have a look at the recipe, you can tell that there isn't much to do to prepare. The grocery list for this recipe is pretty short as well. For the tomato paste, I highly suggest searching for the tubes of tomato paste in your grocery store, like this one. This is what we have at our HEB, and I love that I don't have to waste a whole can of tomato paste just for the amount that I need.

Good luck smelling this one! It's going to permeate your home with an amazing smell!

Golden Onion-Baked Chicken

My mother has been very successful in the past with her oven baked potatoes that are based from Lipton Onion Secrets mix. Well, as our pantry clears out of a few things, I find new things back in the pantry; one of those was a box with Lipton Golden Onion Secrets mix. I took the box, sat down at my computer, and started looking for recipes. I had no idea there was an entire website from Lipton with hundreds of recipes! This post is the first of a few that I've tried, and not one of them has been bad.

This chicken that I made, well...it's not just chicken. It was one of the tastier meals that we've eaten in a while. I just couldn't believe how good it was! If you click on the link, you'll see that there is only 3 ingredients; the chicken, bread crumbs, and Lipton Golden Onion Secrets mix. How much easier can it get?

It was also exciting to make because I was able to use my Rectangular Baker from my Pampered Chef stoneware collection! I'm 100% positive that this baker had something to do with the tastiness of this recipe.

You can tell my taste tester was all about this recipe!

We both highly recommend this chicken, so add this to your grocery list!

Coriander-Dusted Roast Beef

From Food & Wine magazine, this recipe is absolutely great for all types of families, be it 2 people or a family of 6. Yes, surprisingly I receive this magazine, and I don't know how I started receiving. I'm not paying for it, so I'm not concerned.

As the magazine suggests, this roast can definitely be used for leftovers. The ideas it suggests are beef stroganoff, ginger-beef salad, or fajitas. It provides directions on ways to prepare those leftovers as well. My taste tester/sous chef just decided to make sandwiches out of those left overs.

Prep: 15 minutes

8 to 10 servings

One 3.75 lb. beef eye of round roast

2 tablespoons EVOO

1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds, coarsely ground

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

Kosher Sat and freshly ground pepper

1.5 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 cups beef stock, preferably homemade

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Rub the roast with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. In a small bowl, combine the ground coriander seeds and paprika with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Rub the spice blend all over the roast.

In a medium roasting pan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the roast and brown it well on all sides over moderate heat, turning with tongs, about 5 minutes. Turn the roast fat side up. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast the meat for 35 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thinner end registers 120 degrees for medium-rare meat. Transfer roast to a cutting board and let rest for 20 minutes.

Set the roasting pan on the stove over high heat. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Add the stock and boil, whisking, until the gravy has thickened, 2 minutes, Season with salt and pepper. Slice the roast 1/4 inch thick and serve with the gravy.

As you can probably tell, I forgot to grind my coriander seeds, so there are little seeds all over our roast. Yea, those things went all over the kitchen, but I chased them down. Regardless, this was still an amazing roast. The gravy tastes really well with it, too. The picture at the top of this post shows the sliced roast with a small serving of gravy on top. This was also another great way for me to use my cast-iron skillet! We highly suggest making this roast. It was very easy to make and great as leftovers.

Jumbo Shrimp with Basil and Mint Pesto

Maybe you are like me and never thought that mint could be part of pesto. I definitely always thought it was basil, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese. Well, apparently you can use other things and it can still taste great! This recipe was a tad more expensive than any other night, but to be able to have seafood with your family for probably under $15 is really cool!

I had purchased WAY too much basil at the store and was desperate to find a recipe that used a good amount of basil. Pesto is usually very good about using up a good portion of basil!

Sorry, no pictures of this recipe since I had left my camera in the car and was to lazy to go get it. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was really yummy! I also cooked a half box of rigatoni to accompany the shrimp. Enjoy!

Broken Florentine Lasagna Bake

This is definitely one of the easier recipes that I've provided as it even uses no-boil lasagna noodles! I honestly didn't even know that existed. This recipe is fairly easy in regards to it's ingredients...except for the green chard. I actually was never able to find this produce ingredient, so I just substituted more spinach.

Now, when you purchase the ingredients for this recipe, it might seem a little crazy when you go to get 2 lbs. of spinach, but I can assure you that really do need that much spinach. Don't doubt yourself.

If you are cooking this as a meal for two, I would highly suggest halving the recipe. This really creates A LOT of food. We had this for leftovers, and it's one of those recipes that tastes fantastic as leftovers.

This recipe makes great use of your cast-iron skillet. There's not a lot of mess with this recipe, and easy cleanup. Eat up and enjoy!

Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I've tried to make garlic mashed potatoes from several different recipes, but I'm never successful with those recipes...UNTIL THIS ONE! This is the best recipe for garlic mashed potatoes, in my opinion.

Don't worry, those are green onion slices on the potatoes as a garnish.

I think this recipe is super easy as well because it only requires, potatoes, half-and-half, garlic cloves, salt, and Parmesan cheese.

Add these ingredients to your list and make this side soon :) You will love it!

Greek Beef Tenderloin in Togas with Mediterranean Orzo

Alright, I know it's been a REALLY long time since I provided a recipe and a good one at that. However, I think...eer, I hope...this will make up for my slackerness. It has definitely been a busy time at work with so many bridal shows going on. I'm hoping to get back into my cooking groove.
I have again ventured into Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book, and this recipe is very fun to make and eat. It's like steak all wrapped up in a present! You can find the recipe on Rachel Ray's website as she made it on her daytime show on April 11, 2008. I honestly didn't even know that; I just saw this recipe in the cookbook and decided to make it. Now, if you decide to make this (and you definitely should!) I must warn you that you will have some trouble searching for some of the things in the grocery store. I'm here to help though! :) You don't have to go at this alone. First of all, it calls for beef tenderloin medallions. Um, I don't know about you, but I don't find that next to the ground beef and chuck steak in my grocery store (I love you HEB!). So...Henry and I decided to buy the big T-bones! No, not those teeny flimsy ones; we bought the big thick ones that are over 1" thick. Now, I'm not a meat educated person like my Dad, but here's how I'll explain how to work with this T-bone.

Cut off the small part from the bone and freeze the big part.

How does that work for ya? Haha! Anyway, you also may struggle to find the phyllo dough. It's in the frozen section, I promise. However, it's going to be pretty hard to find. We found it in our grocery store all the way at the end of the aisle and at the bottom of the case. Additionally, we did not make the Greek Salad portion of this recipe. I am not a fan of cucumbers, and Henry doesn't prefer kalamata olives. That said, I know a lot of people that love this Greek Salad combination, so I would make it if you like those ingredients. It would add great flavor to the orzo. Last thing you should know before this post is concluded is that this recipe is yet another one that made use of my ever so terrific Magic Bullet. People always ask me if this thing really works or is worth it, and I can assure you that it is! I used it for this recipe to create the cheese sauce that goes on the tenderloin.

Ok, so, get your list ready, and head to the grocery store. You will definitely have fun making this one, and it's really fun to eat, too!

Jaw-Droppingly Delicious Asparagus Penne

Tonight, I decided to head back to the The Big Orange Book from Rachael Ray.

After grocery shopping yesterday, I was ready to make Jaw-Droppingly Delicious Asparagus Penne. This really isn't so bad or expensive to make. I will admit; I can pick some recipes that are not so nice to the wallet. I think the most expensive thing in this recipe is the cheese, but it can be used for other recipes, too!
Recipe (Serves 4)

Salt
1 pound thin asparagus, trimmed of ends
1 pound whole wheat penne pasta
1 tablespoon EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil)
2 tablespoons butter
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup vegetable stock
3/4 cup half-and-half
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons lemon zest
Black Pepper
2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, fine chopped, a couple of sprigs
Juice of 1 lemon
Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water. Drop the asparagus in for 2 minutes, then remove, drain, and chop into 2-inch pieces. Add the pasta to the water and cook to al dente.

To a skillet placed over medium heat, add the EVOO and butter. When the butter melts into the oil, add the garlic and gently cook for 2 to 3 minutes, then sprinkle the flour into the pan and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Whisk in the stock, half-and-half, mustard, and lemon zest. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, and tarragon, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes to thicken. Add the lemon juice, and gently toss the asparagus and pasta with the sauce to coat. Turn off the heat and adjust the salt and pepper to taste, then top with grated cheese and serve.
This was really quick to make because there was a lot of time where parts would be cooking, so you could prepare other things while something was cooking. We were able to have one serving and have plenty for leftovers to take for lunch!

I will say this recipe was somewhat...well, not bitter, but tangy I suppose. As you can tell from the recipe, there's a decent amount of lemon zest as well as the juice. Now, tangy doesn't mean bad, I just don't think it was the taste that best fits Henry and I. I know there are people that this would probably suit very well. So try it! I'm not sure that we'll make this recipe again, partly because I try not to make things over and over, but this wasn't one of our ultimate favorites.

Graduation Cupcakes

Henry's sister, Emily, graduated this December, and I knew there had to be some sort of celebratory goodie! Since I can't get enough of the red velvet cake recipe, I decided to make her some cupcakes using the same recipe. Though they weren't exactly the hit I had hoped, the idea behind them was pretty cool.

The cupcakes and the icing are the same as the previous red velvet cake recipe, but I added a few things on top! As you can probably tell from the picture above, I added graduation hats on top. These hats are 100% edible and really yummy! I got the chocolate squares from Ghirardelli using the dark chocolate mint and milk chocolate squares.
Underneath those chocolate squares are Reese's peanut butter cups that are turned upside down.

As you can see, I used a dollop of icing to secure the chocolate square to the peanut butter cup. On top of the chocolate square, I used a Dr. Pepper Jelly Belly since that jelly belly was the most maroon looking jelly belly to match Texas A&M! I also used a small amount of icing and died it yellow to create the tassle on each of the chocolate squares.

The result came out better than I thought, and it was a lot of fun to make them!

Cake Pops

I can't stop making this yummy red velvet cake! After discovering a very exciting baking blog, Bakerella, I decided I had to try making her Cake Pops. I followed her directions on how she makes her Cake Pops. A co-worker at work was having a birthday, so I thought this would be a fun treat in the office.


Basically, your taking a baked cake, crumbling it up, adding icing, and forming the mixture into cake balls that are added to skewers or some type of stick to create the pop. It's funny when you decide to make it with red velvet cake; the mixture ends up looking like ground meat!
After they are made, they look like the picture below. I didn't exactly use the right type of chocolate as I should have, but if you look through the Bakerella blog, you can see how wonderful these guys can look! My picture isn't all that fantastic either.

General Tsao's Chicken

CHINESE FOOD! I've never really ventured into this realm of cooking except for the measly chicken fried rice recipe I've already given you. I was very nervous to try this, but Henry was very impressed after it was all said and done. Now, I won't lie to you. If you've never made chinese food, you'll probably find this a tedious and time consuming process. I'm sure part of this time consuming process was probably due to the amount of chicken we cooked, too. I'd suggest halfing this recipe or perhaps even fourthing it if you are making this meal for two. I discovered this recipe on Allrecipes.com, though it is possible that it can be found elsewhere. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/General-Tsaos-Chicken/Detail.aspx

It does ask for fresh ginger root, and fresh ingredients do make a difference. However, because I do not regularly cook or bake with ginger, I did take some help from McCormick's on this one. Additionally, I left out the MSG. I can't take it at Pei Wei, so I wasn't ready to use it at home. Otherwise, I made this recipe as it states, even the white pepper! This chicken was so fresh, moist, and tasty. Together with the chicken fried rice recipe, Henry and I had a WONDERFUL meal. I'd suggest making this for sure!

Eggplant Steaks Parmigiana Alla Ringo

I've tried once before making Eggplant of some sort, but, clearly, it wasn't very exciting or tasty if I can't even remember how I cooked it. As I already mentioned before, Henry and I bought a new cookbook, and my sous chef helped me make our third meal from this new cookbook.

Our sweet friend Kristen came over to bring us our Christmas present (THANKS!), so she joined us for dinner. I'm glad I was already planning on making a pretty cool meal!

So this meal was really not hard, especially if you've made Chicken Fried Steak before. Haha! I know that sounds bizarre, but that's really the hardest part is the prep work in the breading station. In the end, the cool thing about this dinner is that you'll end up with a stacked main dish. You end up with Eggplant topped with tomato pesto sauce topped with another eggplant topped with more tomato pesto sauce finished off with melted provolone cheese. It's absolutely delicious!

Have a look at the recipe here.

Red Velvet Cake

For as long as I have been cooking, I've always wanted to make a red velvet cake that was actually good! I tried once before...a loooong time ago...but I remember not having enough red dye to make the cake RED velvet.

Well, several weeks ago, I was browsing the food net work site and found a great Red Velvet Cake recipe that I thought would be great to try. I figured if it was on their website, it had to be delicious! As I started making this cake, I had to get my taste tester/helper to run to the store for a few more ingredients :) Thanks hubby! I knew I had not used my little tube of red food coloring that comes in the pack with the four colors, but I also knew that the tube wouldn't be enough for the 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons that the recipe requires. I mean, that's a lot of red dye! Smart guy that he is, he found the bottle of red food coloring that Adam's makes which is large for red food coloring. The big bottle did the trick, and you can see that the batter is REALLY RED! My favorite color :) There was so much batter than what I expected, so the extra batter was made into cupcakes. These were the first out of the even. They look so pretty and RED! Finally I got to frost the cupcakes. I love the way the way finishes off the red! If only I had say..a black dot to put on top?!  The cake finally came out of the oven and got a thick bit of frosting as well! We haven't cut into that yet, but I'm sure it's the same as the cupcakes.  Oh wow! The inside looks so moist and delicious. I'm curious if it tastes good? I guess so!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes/cake:

15 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
13 ounces granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red food coloring
1 1/4 teaspoons vinegar (white or apple cider can both work)
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 cup water

For the cream cheese frosting:

1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound butter, room temperature
2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

For the cupcakes/cake:

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a bowl and set aside.
In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix oil, sugar, and buttermilk until combined. Add eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix on low, scraping down sides occasionally, and mix until just combined. Be sure not to over mix, or the batter will come out tough.
Line a 16-cup cupcake pan with paper liners, or prepare cake pan with baking spray, scoop the batter into the liners/pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

For the cream cheese frosting:

Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until creamed. Gradually add powdered sugar to the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
The frosting can be used right away, or stored in the refrigerator up to a week.
Frost cooled cupcakes/cake with the cream cheese frosting.

Sausage and Rigatoni Fake-Bake

Yet another recipe from our new Big Orange Book! I didn't get a picture of this one, but it looks really great. We actually went to Maggiano's Little Italy the night after I made this, and we ordered the exact same thing pretty much. My taste tester says he likes the version I made best. What a great tester!

Sausage and Rigatoni Fake-Bake

Salt
1/4 lb. rigatoni or whole grain rigatoni
1 tablespoon EVOO
1 link of sweet Italian sausage
1 link of hot Italian sausage
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped or grated
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
A handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Salt the water, add the rigatoni, and cook to al dente. Preheat the broiler.

Heat the EVOO in a small or medium ovenproof skillet. Remove the sausage from its casing and add to the skillet, breaking it up with a spoon as it browns, 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for a minute or two more, then stir in the tomato sauce and cook just to heat through. Fold the basil into the sauce and stir in the cream. Simmer the sauce over low heat for 5 minutes. Add the drained pasta to the skillet and toss to coat with the sauce. Sprinkle the pasta with the cheese and place under the broiler until browned, 3 to 4 minutes.

I used our iron skillet to make this in, and I actually doubled the recipe. This recipe is created for one person, although it can feed two people as is. When doubling the recipe, it allows you to have leftovers for both people. This is a quick and easy recipe, and it tastes absolutely great! This makes great "guy food." :)

Red and Green Winter Stoup

I'm not really one for soups or stews, but, for some reason, when I saw this recipe, I just had to make it!

I was getting pretty tired of looking through the recipes in the cookbooks I have, so I was begging Henry for a new cookbook. We were going to get the Biggest Loser cookbook, but there just were not enough recipes in that book. It was a pretty cool book though.

Nonetheless, we ended up getting Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book.

I just love that it is chunked FULL of recipes that, for the most part, look really good! We went straight to the store and bought food for the first few recipes, and this stoup was the first thing that I made. This is really good! I did half the recipe though, and there was enough for leftovers the next day for lunch.

You can find the recipe here: http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/30-minute-meals/red-and-green-winter-stoup-recipe/article.html

A few notes on the recipe that I can help with follow. Now, I'm sure homemade roasted red peppers would be better for this recipe, but I just buy the jar of roasted red peppers. You can eyeball about how much would equal what you need. Also, we ended up using Parmesan cheese on the bread because we couldn't find the Asiago in the grocery store that day. I know they have it somewhere; perhaps they were out.
Hurry up! Head to the store and get the ingredients. You will love this stoup :)