Happy Anniversary Grill and Rib Eye Steak

Palm Sunday was our twenty-third wedding anniversary. Hubby agreed it was time for a new gas grill finally yeah! I have wanted a new gas grill for a number of years now. We decided were not going to go all out on the thing, nothing too fancy, a nice size standard gas grill and a steak dinner. Yeah right.

Red n Red, 4 hours & 3 trips later!

What an agitating day it started out to be. We got up late, missed church, and it was cloudy. Red and I went to pick out the grill. Hubby just did not have it together and I was too excited to wait for him. All the affordable grills seemed so cheesy. Because I did some review reading prior to shopping, I refused to buy the Brinkman four-burner grill that was on sale for $199.00. Weber, the top brand grill in my opinion, was out of the question expensive. After some more discussion, Red and I ended up choosing the Char-Broil Red series grill. Funny thing Red choosing Red....

Got the grill home hubby was impressed, too bad because it did not light.  After a conversation with the store, I found out the ignition switch was bad. Back to the store to swap the part, ok it is not too late for steaks yet. Install the thing only to find, no flame again! In order to shorten this four-hour long, aggravating story, the manager gave us a free upgrade to the tune of $200.00 and wished us a happy anniversary. Yes, we spent over our limit but received double the grill, with InfaRED technology, woo hoo!! From start to finish, the whole grill ordeal took four hours, however our anniversary steaks were great.

My first, (fast) grilled rib eye steaks, fiesta lime corn, and a big fresh garden salad yippee! Prepare a foil packet of hickory chips for the double burner side. Toss that in the grill while preheating. Season the steaks with Grill Mates Mesquite seasoning, smoked paprika, and a splash of ground Chipotle pepper, rub, and let rest for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, mix corn with pimentos, 2 tbsp butter, a sprinkle of Adobo, and a squeeze of a lime. Put the corn in a foil pan and onto the medium heat side. After the grill was hot, threw the steaks on, rotated each twice during the first five minutes, turned and continued to cook for two minutes more.

Hickory Smokin' Anniversary Steaks

Outcome, delicious steaks PDQ with a light smoky flavor; the best smoky fiesta corn I have tasted in quite some time. I am still excited and cannot wait to grill some vegetables, chicken, fajitas, pork… well probably everything will be grilled for a while, thank you dear hubby!

Have a favorite grill tip for me, 'cause I could sure use some experienced insight?

♥

Happy Anniversary Grill and Rib Eye Steak

2010-03-30T20:19:00-04:00

redkathy

beef|dinner|grilled|vegetables|

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Kinda Tropical Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This banana bread started out to be Tropical Banana Bread. I came across this grand post on Suite 101 for a classic banana bread recipe with four variations. I had been waiting for an opportune banana time. You know, when the bananas turn black more rapidly than expected. Additionally, several other things happened in the decision process; those being my love for chocolate, Red’s loathing for the texture of shredded coconut, and the lack of pineapples. This loaf was in response yet another late night sweets attack, hello time constraint, goodbye tropical fruits!

As always, the original ingredients not used are struck through and my additions in italics

Kinda Tropical Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1 1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose white flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup butter 5 ounces canned coconut milk
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped 1/2 cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips 

Directions:
1. Have all ingredients at room temperature (68-70F). Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 350F.
2. Grease at 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 (6 cup) loaf pan and set aside.
3. Whisk together thoroughly the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a small bowl.
4. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until lightened in color and texture.
5. Beat in the flour mixture until blended and the batter is the consistency of brown sugar.
6. Gradually beat in the eggs.
7. Fold in the mashed banana and chopped nuts until just combined.
8. Scrape the batter into the greased loaf pan and spread evenly. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Let cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before unmolding to cool completely on a wire rack.

The original Tropical Banana Bread recipe was written like this: Add 1/3 cup diced or crushed pineapple and/or diced mango in step seven. Sprinkle top of loaf with 2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut and bake as directed above.
http://breads-muffins.suite101.com/article.cfm/banana_bread_five_ways#ixzz0iUV5uzuO

Good golly, this bread was exceptionally moist; it was incredible! The coconut milk not only added to the moistness but also provided the perfect coconut intensity. The bread was barely warm when I cut it. By doing so, it allowed the still soft chocolate chips to spread just a bit. I know, the recipe says cool completely; not a chance I could hold out that long! I was a bit disappointed that the crown of the loaf had no chips. Maybe next time I will try mini chips. Outside of that, I think this is my favorite banana bread.

Are you hungry?

♥

Kinda Tropical Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

2010-03-24T23:23:00-04:00

redkathy

baking|bread|chocolate|dessert|fruit|snack|

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Brownies and more brownies, we love brownies!

Best Brownies, the title is accurate! These without doubt, are the finest moist and chewy brownies I have baked to date. The original recipe, found at allrecipes.com, called for frosting. I am a late night baker, often times with the munchies, as a result having no the patience for the frosting. In thinking about that declaration, I never really liked frosting of any kind; have always preferred cakes, cookies, and brownies bare. Other than the frosting, I followed the recipe exactly and was delighted with the results.

Best Brownies
By Angie
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Brownies/Detail.aspx

Yield 16 brownies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Frosting:

3 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan. (I floured only the bottom)
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook. (I baked for 25 minutes)

To make frosting: Combine 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Frost the brownies while they are still warm.

The brownies were nearly gone before the night ended. Taking into consideration they went into the oven just before 10pm, one 8-inch pan of brownies simply is not enough brownies for my family. In truth, only Red and I eat the sweets. he he he

The second pan had to be a 9 x 13 without a doubt. I doubled the recipe with one adjustment. Rather than simply doubling the butter and the fat, I used one third cup of mashed, ripe banana. They were a hit! The brownies were very moist and no one missed the butter.Red and I really enjoyed the chocolate and banana combination. In fact, Red requested the Banana Brownies from the beginning.


♥

Brownies and more brownies, we love brownies!

2010-03-19T22:59:00-04:00

redkathy

baking|chocolate|dessert|snack|

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Sweet and Savory: Chocolate Obsession - link your chocolate favorites

Love Chocolate? Check Chaya, she's got a chocolate link up going on. Share your favorite chocolate post, I added this chocolate post !

Sweet and Savory: Chocolate Obsession - link your chocolate favorites

Are you hungry?

♥

Sweet and Savory: Chocolate Obsession - link your chocolate favorites

2010-03-17T00:55:00-04:00

redkathy

chocolate|dessert|snack|

Comments

Creamy Four Cheese Spinach Stuffed Chicken Rosa

Bertolli Four Cheese Rosa Sauce, Part II made possible by the Food Buzz Taste-makers program. If you read Part I, then you know how exited I was to prepare and post the Chicken and Sausage Scarpiello Arrabbiata.

Part II, Creamy Spinach Stuffed Chicken, is one rich and delicious chicken recipe. I think any time you serve something stuffed with spinach and smothered with white sauce, it is impressive. Don't let the snapshot fool you, this dinner was impressive and Bertolli's sauce made it seemingly effortless.

Spinach Stuffing

1 10 oz box frozen spinach, thawed
1-2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 cup diced onion
6-8 fresh mushrooms, roughly chopped, about 1/2 cup
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese

First, prepare the spinach by squeezing out all the liquid; set aside. In a small to medium skillet, saute onion in olive oil over medium heat until translucent. Add mushrooms. Stir while cooking until mushrooms begin to soften. Add the minced garlic and cook for just about a minute. Add the spinach and stir to combine, allowing it to heat through, then add the grated Romano cheese. Continue to mix and stir for a minute or two, until the cheese begins to melt, holding the stuffing mixture together. Remove to a bowl and allow to cool enough to handle.

Chicken Breast

6 boneless skinless chicken breast
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 jar Bertolli Four Cheese Rosa Sauce
2 Tbsp chicken broth
1/2 cup milk

While the stuffing is cooling prepare the chicken breast. Make a two inch cut at the top of the breast along the side wall. Keeping the knife flat, push and slide the blade into the breast to create a pocket. By cutting a pocket inside, the initial opening remains small and is easy to close, not allowing too much stuffing to escape. The stuffing now should be cooled. Push about a teaspoon of stuffing at a time into the pocket until it is filled. Do not pack the stuffing when filling. Close with a tooth pick. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the olive oil into a large deep skillet and bring to a medium-low heat. Add stuffed chicken breasts and brown on both sides. Push breasts to the side and add chicken broth to deglaze the pan. Add sauce to the pan and stir. Add the milk to the jar, swoosh a bit and slowly add to sauce, stirring constantly. Re arrange chicken and spoon sauce over the top. Cover and cook for thirty- forty minutes or until chicken is done. Plate alongside your favorite pasta, I used tomato gnocchi, and top with sauce. (Don't forget to remove those tooth picks before topping with sauce!) I served a fresh Italian style garden salad and focaccia bread on the side.

The entire meal took just about one hour to prepare. The sauce was very rich and flavorful, with just the right thickness. The chicken was loaded with flavor from the stuffing. The combination of creamy sauce, spinach stuffing, and chicken was well, just like I said at the start of this post, impressive! A special thanks to Food Buzz and Bertolli for supplying me with this deletable sauce.

Are you hungry?

♥

Creamy Four Cheese Spinach Stuffed Chicken Rosa

2010-03-14T23:38:00-04:00

redkathy

chicken|dinner|italian|pasta|

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Scalloped Corn and Broccoli

I always disliked creamed corn. My father loved it; therefore mom served often, or several times a month at least. My hubby, he loathes cream corn. I never served it or even bought it until I ran across a really interesting corn bread recipe, calling for the despised corn. That corn bread never materialized... You know about hubby and that diet, so the can sat in the pantry. While browsing one of those old Oxmoore House cookbooks on Saturday, "For the Love of Cooking", I came across Elegant Scalloped Corn. This was an opportunity to use that can of corn that only Red would enjoy. How is he my kid, he likes creamed corn, huh? I said to myself, if I add my own twist to it, it won't taste like cream corn. Besides I need to use that can. Be brave, try it! Yep, I do talk to myself and happy to report that I have not made the answering myself stage as of yet!

As always my twist noted like this, with omitted ingredients like this

Elegant Scalloped Corn and Broccoli

1 17 oz can cream style corn
1 cup cracker crumbs (about 15 saltines, crushed)
1/2 cup celery
1/4 cup diced onion
3/4 cup pasteurized process American cheese, cut in small pieces (Velveeta cheese w/ peppers)
1 cup frozen broccoli, thawed
1 tsp salt (1/2 tsp)
2 eggs, well beaten
2 Tbsp melted butter or margarine
1 cup milk
Parsley
Paprika

Combine corn, cracker crumbs, celery, onion, broccoli, salt, eggs, melted butter, and milk. Mix well. Pour into greased 2 quart casserole and bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Garnish with parsley; sprinkle paprika on top. Yield 8 servings

I forgot to grease the casserole. Don't think it mattered much except for the edges being a bit too brown. I thought it was pretty good and a nice change but can't quite figure out where the elegant comes in. A good home-style and economical side dish, yes. Elegant, what do you think?


While I could taste the sweetness of creamed corn, the overall flavor was a bit different. The broccoli gave it some flavor, texture, and color while the hot peppers in the cheese added a bit of zing. Now Hubby, his first words were, does this have cream corn in it? Um, yes. Did I tell you he loathes creamed corn? No fooling him when it comes to corn I guess. He ate it though, sweet guy that he is :)

Since this is my first time preparing scalloped corn, or anything that called for creamed corn for that matter, I'm going to enter this in the side dish showdown.

♥

Scalloped Corn and Broccoli

2010-03-11T23:05:00-05:00

redkathy

casserole|side dish|vegetables|

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Sugar Cinnamon Donut Muffins

OH MY GOSH, when I saw these Sugar Donut Muffins on the Cinnamon Girl’s blog, I had to have them! Reeni adapted this recipe from Baking Bites, and used mini muffin pans, which I do not own. Except for that and using foil-baking cups, I followed the recipe to a tee. I’m a little nervous about baking from scratch and feeling like an amateur using those foil baking cups, let me tell you. First, my muffin pan is really, really old and looks very shallow. Add to that I didn’t use a cake mix base this time and um, I guess the feeling was correct, but the muffins were very good so one for me, right?

Sugar Cinnamon Donut Muffins

3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.

In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla extract.

Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl.

When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan, and roll in sugar-cinnamon mix. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 10 regular muffins.

*Cinnamon Sugar Mix - combine a 1/2 cup sugar with 1 tablespoon cinnamon.

The photo does these muffins or donut cakes, whatever you call them, no justice. They were just as described, “A soft and tender cake muffin with a crusty coating of sugar on the outside that will melt in your mouth like a little bite of heaven.” Reeni was so right to make them small, coating the entire muffin. Next time, I’ll be doing that exact thing.

♥

Sugar Cinnamon Donut Muffins

2010-03-07T23:11:00-05:00

redkathy

baking|dessert|snack|

Comments

Chicken and Sausage Scarpiello Arrabbiata

On Saturday, this beautiful tri-fold box arrived containing two jars of Bertolli’s newest pasta sauce, Four Cheese Rosa and Arrabbiata. Some time ago, Food Buzz offered an opportunity to test Bertolli sauces, through the Taste Maker program. Well, I had forgotten all about it... Now you know how excitable I am, so you can imagine my reaction. Hubby stood there smiling as I was reading aloud the included recipes, and checking the pantry. He and Red are so supportive. They know I really enjoy being part of Food Buzz and the taste maker program. I wonder sometimes if they think, Oh here we go, we're the guinea pigs again this weekend. Enough babbling, back to the food.
I decided the first jar used would be the red Arrabbiata sauce. Do you believe that I have never cooked with fresh fennel? The Chicken and Sausage Scarpiello Arrabbiata recipe, supplied by Bertolli, called for a fennel bulb, that decision was easy. (Notations in italic are my spin on the original recipe)

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces (chicken breast)
1 Lb hot or sweet Italian sausage, cut in 1" pieces ( sweet Italian sausage with cheese and parsley)
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 small fennel bulb, thinly slice (Hhmmm what is small? Checked out foodie blogs, determined fennel was large so I used half.)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 jar (7 oz) roasted red peppers; drained and thinly sliced ( fresh red bell pepper, roasted in the oven prior)
12 fresh mushrooms, sliced (my addition)
1 jar Bertolli Arrabbiata Sauce
2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley (1 Tbsp. dried)
1 lb all-purpose potatoes, peeled, cooked and cut into wedges, about 2 potatoes (4 small potatoes; cooked in the microwave, cooled, peeled, then cut.)

Method:

Heat oil and brown chicken and sausage in 12" deep non-stick skillet or 5-quart sauce pot over medium high heat; remove. In the same skillet cook onion and fennel over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, 6 minutes or until tender and starting to brown. (I added the mushrooms and red peppers just a few minutes after the onion/fennel.) Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds. Stir in the vinegar and jar of roasted red peppers and cook 1 minute. Stir in the Bertolli Arrabbiata Sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add back chicken and sausage. Simmer covered 30 minutes. Stir in potatoes and parsley and cook 5 minutes.

Thoughts:

A superb one dish meal for sure! I served this in pasta bowls accompanied by grated Romano cheese, some nice Italian bread, and crushed red pepper. The potatoes were still a bit firm in the center when I removed from micro. I did not want mashed potatoes. This method worked out well. The sauce cooked into the potatoes perfectly without them being too soft. My other concern was the dish was not going to be spicy enough, as in heat spicy, using the sweet sausage. The sauce was very flavorful and yes, it was spiced beautifully. The fennel was very subtle. Red didn't care for it at all; then again he dislikes licorice so that makes sense. As for heat, my concern was warranted; hot Italian sausage was the better choice. Not to worry, a shake of red pepper was plenty for me. Now Red, my youngest son, prefers a heat level that makes him sweat a bit; he definitely would have preferred the hot sausage. Hubby liked it as was, minus those potatoes. He loves potatoes, and bread... Oh but he is on a roll, lost forty pounds and still going; the carbs are a no go for him, poor dear.

So there it is friends, my version of Bertolli Chicken and Sausage Scarpiello Arrabbiata. Great sauce, great meal; thank you Bertolli and Food Buzz. Next test, Four Cheese Rosa Sauce.

Are you hungry?

♥

Chicken and Sausage Scarpiello Arrabbiata

2010-03-03T21:30:00-05:00

redkathy

chicken|dinner|italian|pork|spicy|

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