![A girl can rarely say no to her favorite cake. She especially can’t say no to it in ice cream form!
Funfetti Milkshakes (3-4 servings)Needed: 1 box of Funfetti cake mix, additional ingredients the box directions call for (except eggs), 4-5 cups milk and 4-5 scoops of vanilla ice-cream. Serve with extra sprinkles if you like!
For more flavors, check out the recipes at A Beautiful Mess!
[ via: A Beautiful Mess ]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1fdenACz81qzys99o1_500.jpg)
A girl can rarely say no to her favorite cake. She especially can’t say no to it in ice cream form!
Funfetti Milkshakes (3-4 servings)
Needed: 1 box of Funfetti cake mix, additional ingredients the box directions call for (except eggs), 4-5 cups milk and 4-5 scoops of vanilla ice-cream. Serve with extra sprinkles if you like!
For more flavors, check out the recipes at A Beautiful Mess!
[ via: A Beautiful Mess ]
A beautiful white queso dip with monterey jack & american cheese! Courtesy of Annie’s Eats.
Yield: about 2 cups
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. canola or vegetable oil
¼ cup onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
12 oz. white American cheese, shredded*
4 oz. Monterey jack cheese, shredded
¼-2/3 cup milk
1 tomato, seeded and finely diced
2 tbsp. cilantro, minced
*White American cheese can be found at the deli counter in most grocery stores.
Directions:
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and jalapeño to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add both of the shredded cheeses and ¼ cup of the milk. Whisk or stir until completely melted. Mix in the tomato and cilantro, and add additional milk gradually as necessary to achieve desired consistency. Transfer to a warmed serving bowl and serve immediately.
Source: Confections of a Foodie Bride
Ingredients:
1 lb. small or medium pasta shells
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz. Fontina cheese, shredded
Salt
Pinch of grated nutmeg
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400˚ F. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta according to the package directions just until 1-2 minutes shy of al dente.
Meanwhile, dice 4 tablespoons of the butter and place in a large mixing bowl. Warm the cream in a small saucepan or the microwave. Cover to keep warm.
Once the pasta is cooked, add to the bowl with the butter and toss to coat well. Stir in the warm cream and the Fontina until the cheese starts to melt. Mix in salt to taste, and add the nutmeg.
Pour the mixture into a buttered 2-quart casserole dish. In a small bowl, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Mix in the panko breadcrumbs and shredded Parmesan. Toss with a fork to coat evenly with the butter. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture evenly over the pasta in the baking dish.
Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the topping turns golden brown, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.
Source: found on Annie’s Eats, adapted from Ezra Pound Cake, originally from The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook by Jack Bishop
This is going in the recipe book. num.
So, realizing as I went back that the previous posts were nothing short of twitter-like blurbs in their brevity, here is a post to make up for it. I’ve been working so much lately that I’m losing time to even think, let alone write a proper eye-catching post! So this time I decided that sleepless or not, this will be the one to get the ball rolling, this will be my post on comfort food!
Granted, I know that it’s about as hot outside as it is in my oven, but one of the few pleasures I have in my life is cooking. I read recipes like passengers read the paper on the train.
Keiko and I have been trying to find great ideas of things to cook for some time now and it was a difficult feat! I’d done quite a few dishes that were typical-turned-fancy-pants, but they were all from creative use of whatever I had lying about in my fridge. Then finally! She had found a truly inspiring blogger who took pictures that were beautiful and made me hungry, followed by witty entries that made me literally laugh out loud. Smitten Kitchen! Keiko thinks that there is something going on between us, but let’s be honest, we’ve got a real thing going here.
This is serious! Her blog is so perfectly organized that it’s divided into seasonal dishes and then whatever else you could possibly want to look at - which is pretty much everything on the website. Nearly four years of recipes have been documented, all of which she credits the sources from other cookbooks, magazines or recipes elsewhere.
Which brings me to my post on comfort food.
I present Potato Gratin, an old friend.
I have been working to the bone, and taking hours to cook a meal just puts me in a place that makes me whole. My brows furrow and lock for the duration of time, while I focus on everything I’m preparing. Making sure my butter is browning properly, making sure my roux doesn’t suck, “Wait, is that a burning smell or a cooking smell?”
When I’m starting a dish, I usually know what I expect it to taste like. I’ve become decent enough at seasoning by sight and feeling, but I begin to taste it all when I imagine what the dish should be like. This came out much prettier than I had seen in my head and it tasted a hell of a lot better, too - touchdown, Bobby!
Keiko took all of the photos, using her new flash adaptor for her camera. She edited them for me, uploaded them for me and even did the HTML to get them on here because I am completely inept, when it comes to anything on a computer. I look at this photo and cringe because of how terrible my haircut looked. But after spending a day at Privé salon yesterday, all is well again.
Starting out with this recipe, I simply went back to my roots: I used what I had in my fridge. You’d be really surprised with what you can come up with from the leftover produce and products that you didn’t use from another dish.
Cherry Tomatoes. Asparagus. Gruyere Cheese. Fresh Spinach. Baby Confetti Potatoes. These were the bulk of the dish.
I like to get all of my prep work out of the way. I started roasting my tomatoes and then thinly sliced my confetti potatoes and soaked them in brined water, to keep them from oxidizing and getting discolored (which seasons them a bit more evenly, too). Aside from the tomatoes, this was the first thing I did, so they had a good 30 minutes to an hour to absorb that beautiful flavor of rosemary and Kosher salt, while I made the roux, steamed the asparagus, grated my cheese and finished the roasting on the tomatoes.
Seasoning is everything with a dish, and I’ve found that even the most subtle seasonings and additions of herbs can make a dish incredible. Always take that creative leap forward and ask, what can I add? If in doubt, rosemary and thyme are practically perfect with everything! I once added cinnamon to a quesadilla, just to try it - Keiko won’t let me forget it to this day, even though I kind of liked it.
In a more formalized method, here is the recipe, inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin.
What you need:
2 cups of thinly sliced potato (Yukon Gold, Red Potato and Blue Potatoes used)
Large bundle of fresh spinach (or about 1 cup frozen)
Bundle of fresh Asparagus
1.5 cups of Gruyere cheese (but I recommend much, much more. It’s so good!)
1 cup of halved cherry or baby Roma tomatoes
Fresh thyme and rosemary branches
Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
Extra virgin olive oil to season and to taste for garnish
1/2 stick of butter
1 small onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced finely
2 cups of milk
2 Tablespoons of flourAs mentioned above, do yourself a favor and get your prep-work done first. Mise en place: Everything in place! Pre-heat your oven to 250-300 degrees. Halve your tomatoes and toss them in a bowl with olive oil and with a pinch of Kosher salt and pepper. Place them face-up on a foil-lined cookie sheet and stick ‘em in the oven, where they will sit and roast for nearly an hour. This process is important to get the best quality out of your tomatoes. The lower the temperature and the longer the wait, the greater the reward for these red rubies of juicy goodness.
While those are roasting, slice the potatoes about 1/8 of an inch thick and drop ‘em in a large bowl with about a half cup of Kosher salt, filled with water. You can add a branch of rosemary and/or thyme or anything you’d like to quietly infuse the water. Let ‘em soak for the duration of the roasting and move on to the asparagus. Crop off about a knuckles length off the ends of the asparagus branches and steam until fork tender.
Saute your spinach down and hold it on the side until the tomatoes are done; then mix the two together.
Grate your cheese and pick your thyme, placing the herbs on the side or mixing with the cheese.
Get your sauce started by combining your milk, garlic and onion in a medium saucepan and bring it to a simmer, keeping it warm. In another medium-large saucepan melt the butter in a medium heat and add the flour as it begins to get a slight brown color. By whisking constantly, cook the roux for about a minute or so, then slowly add the warm milk/garlic/onion to the roux, bringing it to a boil and cooking for a minute more. You can then take it off the heat, when it’s thick enough, and transfer it to a glass measuring cup with a spout, or something similar to pour from.
Get your dish and spray it with Pam or line with butter and begin to tile the potato slices across until one layer has been made. Top that with about 1/3 of the cheese and then with about 1/2 the spinach/roasted tomato mixture. Pour about 1/2 the sauce over evenly and line with a second layer of potatoes. Cover with second third of the cheese and finish the spinach/tomatoes off, as well as the sauce. You can add some picked thyme, which should really bring out a nice taste. Add the final layer of the cheese and then take the asparagus and (optionally!) begin to make a lattice-like weaving on the top of the dish. Season the dish simply with salt and pepper. Each layer could use a light sprinkle of each. Then, finally, add on top of the dish the fresh rosemary branches and thyme branches. They can be whole (this will make it easier to take them off when it’s finished).Throw this sucka in the oven at about 350-400 for about 45 minutes, or until the potatoes crisp and brown a bit. You want the dish to lose some of the moisture while baking.
This is going to be a repeat recipe for me. Keep in mind that you can switch anything up; use kale rather than spinach; add the asparagus to the spinach/tomato mixture, rather than lattice it; switch the type of cheese or just add cinnamon.
-Bobby-
tonight’s dinner menu: mac n cheese! (meaning i really need to go grocery shopping. eek!)
what are you having for dinner?
My favorite Holiday treat! mmmm
*Turkish Delight Recipe*
Ingredients Makes about 500g (18 oz)
Procedure
