Red Velvet Waffles

On a Sunday morning, making red velvet waffles for breakfast is probably as sinful as it gets! I love breakfast foods, and couldn't resist The Baker's Pantry Red Velvet Pancake and Waffle Mix I found at World Market yesterday. It is all natural, and there are also meyer lemon and pumpkin flavors. Thankfully, one batch only made three waffles (or perhaps four if I didn't waste some of the batter). One waffle was plenty ~ very filling. They were really pretty good, and had a cake-like consistency. I only wish we had fresh whipped cream to top them off!

This isn't something I would make every day, but definitely a great decadent splurge for a special occasion like Christmas or Valentine's Day. Though they were easy to make, I still managed to make a hot mess in the kitchen. In no time, there was bright red batter oozing out of the waffle maker. Enter aftermath here... 

Fortunately, the mess doesn't matter if it tastes good in the end!  

Tales of Pesto Making

On the first day of summer, I made fresh pesto using my very own basil plant (thanks to my mother's green thumb). I love pesto, and this recipe is especially good because it has lots of potent garlic! I also like the mix of walnuts and pine nuts.

However, tonight I used this Barefoot Contessa recipe again, but had no pine nuts. So I made a major faux pas and used walnuts with some pistachios thrown in. The taste was still really good, though I think the pine nuts are more ideal.  I drenched some grilled chicken breasts with the pesto, and it was delish. I think I could eat pesto on nearly anything.

Unfortunately, my herbs could use a little more TLC. I just learned I should be trimming the leaves from the top, and snipping the white buds off to help new growth. About a month later, the basil is still growing like crazy, along with the jalapeno pepper. However, my cilantro died from the brutal heat, and the rosemary is surviving.

I guess three out of four isn't bad. Clearly I need to work on my green thumb, but if all else fails I will have enough pesto to freeze and last us through the winter!

Orange Deliciousness

I really love breakfast foods. There's something very comforting about warm, tasty breakfast on a leisurely weekend morning. French toast is one of my favorite splurges. There are so many ways to make it, so I like trying new ways. When I discovered this Grand Marnier French Toast recipe from Bon Appetit on Epicurious.com, I could not resist!

The only thing that would have made this better is if it was stuffed, and if I used richer bread, like challah or brioche. Even with standard whole grain white bread I substituted for french, it hit the spot!  The flavor from the orange rind and orange liqueur really make this basic french toast DELISH. And, of course, the creaminess of the half-and-half doesn't hurt, either.

Surprisingly, I have yet to get syrup in my hair. Just this past week, I managed to get balsamic syrup all over my jeans. It's one thing if I'm wiping sticky hands on the front of my jeans while I cook. However, I managed getting this sticky syrup all over my rear, and subsequently, on one of our bar stools after I sat down. Fortunately, a little stain remover saved my jeans! But I digress...

While Bon App suggested serving this french toast with canadian bacon (yum), I had turkey bacon on hand and it was great. Perfect meal for an oh so rainy morning.

Tomatillo Time!

I adore tomatillos! Grilled or roasted, in salsa or enchiladas. I can't get enough of them. Tonight I made cheese enchiladas with a tomatillo sauce, all from Everyday Food.

I visited a gem in Pilsen to get my ingredients, La Casa del Pueblo. We first heard about this ethnic market from Rick Bayless. It is one of his go-to destinations in Pilsen. They even have a taqueria next door. The market is a dive, but offers amazing produce, prices and authentic ethnic foods. If it's good enough for Rick Bayless, it's good enough for me!

I've never bought queso fresco before, and was thrilled to find it here. They have a great selection of tortillas, all made in Chicago. Their produce is so inexpensive. Normally I pay about a dollar or so for one bunch of fresh cilantro, but La Casa has it for only 49 cents! They also have large tomatillos.  

La Casa is also a wonderful place to buy great spices, on the cheap. I scored a pound of cinnamon for the price of a small jar at a regular grocery store. I also discovered saffron for half the price we paid to make Scallopini a few weeks ago ($10 cheaper!). 

One of the other advantages of La Casa is the music. It is quite festive. Definitely not something you would ever hear at Jewel or Dominick's! To bad the aisles aren't big enough for dancing...

I first started making the Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce. Instead of boiling the tomatillos, I roasted them in the broiler to get a better flavor. Grilling would also add a great taste, but our grill is not working at the moment. I think it may still be defrosting from our insane winter! 

I also added about 5 tablespoons of light sour cream to the sauce. It reminds me of the Deluxe Tomatillo Sauce at Chuy's in Texas (one of my favorite places in the whole wide world). The sour cream also helped to thicken the sauce. I love the cilantro mixed in. It not only adds great flavor, but also makes the sauce a pretty light green color, along with the green tomatillos. 

I began assembling the Cheese Enchiladas. Though I followed the recipe instructions to dip the tortillas in the sauce before filling, we would not recommend this. It made the tortillas too soggy. Next time I would simply add sauce on top so they don't fall apart.

For the cheese, I filled each enchilada with half queso fresco and half Mexican cheese blend from the grocery store. The queso fresco really added a nice, creamy flavor. I'm a big fan of that stuff now!

I also filled each enchilada with white diced onions. 

I had lots of sauce left over, which is great. Next time I will add another jalapeno pepper and garlic clove to give it a bigger kick. I could drink this sauce straight up it's so good.

Bon Appetit!

BONE Appetit!

Our dog, Shaker, just had her 10th birthday. We don't usually celebrate her birthday, but 10 is definitely a benchmark year. Though I've never cooked for her, I thought she deserved something special. So today I made my first canine birthday cake. It's the least I can do for all the unconditional love she gives us!

After looking through recipes online, I arrived at a peanut butter cake. Shaker loves peanut butter. Some of the icing recipes seemed unappetizing, like pureed cottage cheese. I finally landed on a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Though you must be thinking the ingredients could make any human sick to their stomach, it's natural things we would normally eat like flour, honey, carrots and peanut butter. All in all, it's kind of like a carrot cake with traditional cream cheese icing (+ peanut butter).

Brian kept laughing, saying Shaker will eat ANYTHING, and it really doesn't matter how it tastes. While I recognize this, I wanted it to taste really good for her. Nothing but the best for this baby girl. Or senior citizen...

Fresh out of the oven, Shaker got her first whiff, 

and licked her chops. Lookin' pretty good so far!

After the icing was added, she's looking even more interested.

Perhaps not a good idea, but I let her sit at our table. 

This is when I learned she's not a fan of carrots.

I plated up a slice and moved her to the floor. She proceeded to pick up the entire piece in her mouth & take it to the living room, on the carpet. I moved her plate to the living room to minimize the crumb mess. However, I have no doubt she'll eat up the entire trail of crumbs. 

Peanut Butter Dog Cake

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup shredded carrots

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup honey

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together flour and baking soda, then add remaining ingredients. Mix well, and pour into 8-inch cake pan. Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool, then frost. Decorate to your delight!

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

12 ounces non-fat cream cheese (room temp)

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon honey

Scallopine with Saffron Cream Sauce

I've never had saffron before in my life (that I can remember), nor have I ever bought it. I watched Giada make a Chicken Scallopine with Saffron Cream Sauce on The Cooking Channel. She had me at cream sauce.

Brian went to the store to find saffron, among other things. I told him not to buy any if it was too expensive, so he naturally came home with saffron in hand. At least we were getting a true representation of this recipe! I thought perhaps it was over $12, maybe $15. To my surprise, the saffron was a whopping $20! 

It definitely added something to this dish, so I will now be searching for other recipes to use up these expensive threads. Overall, it was quite good, but I would have preferred a thicker sauce. There is lots of sauce left over, so this week I will work on thickening it. 

Brian suggested getting some dessert at 7-Eleven, a block from our house. He returned with two Hostess delights, a twinkie and a ho ho. Though they were both stuffed with cream, we put more homemade whipped cream on top. Since we had cream on hand from the saffron sauce, it seemed like the right thing to do.

The twinkie was better than the ho ho. We've definitely had our fill of cream for awhile, and need to run a marathon to burn this dinner off.

Brioche Breakfast Bust

I bought some brioche rolls at Trader Joe's awhile ago, because I thought they would make perfect french toast. I've heard brioche absorbs liquid really well, similar to Challah. Brioche is so buttery and wonderful, perhaps better than eating a croissant.

Instead of making a decadent brioche french toast breakfast, I did something horrible. I microwaved the roll, cut it in half, smothered a little butter and syrup on it. Then sprinkled it with a dash of cinnamon and powdered sugar. I know you must be wondering why I didn't just dump some heavy cream on it, but I resisted. Though this probably sounds very unappetizing, it was quite good (but not as good as actual french toast).

At the minimum, I probably could have stuck the brioche halves in the broiler to get them toasty, but today I had no patience. Completely and utterly lazy! Or, perhaps, one could say I was creative building my brioche bun breakfast. As I finished, my sticky, syrupy fingers accidentally touched my hair. I know better than to do this, but with syrup it just seems inevitable.

I am damn lucky my husband left early for work today and did not witness any of this. Here I am, a hot sticky mess, but my stomach is content. Now all I need is a long run to burn off the brioche!