I Steal Great Recipes

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Slow Smoked Spareribs with Sweet-and-Sour BBQ Sauce

My husband is loving his grill. I am loving that he is liking to help with dinners!

He followed a recipe in his Weber's Way to Grill book but he used a different technique than slow smoking. He followed the directions for "stacking" the ribs, which took about 2 hours less time.

Lots going on with these ribs. There was a dry rub. There was a "mop" (like a baste?) There was a BBQ sauce. Good work, Jimmy!

We found this recipe in one of our grilling cookbooks but the recipe is online too-

Click here for the stolen recipe for Slow-Smoked Spareribs with Sweet-and-Sour Sauce.

Southwestern Pizza

I didn't make the crust. I could have. I just didn't. I was at Trader Joe's and having heard about their pizza crusts I decided to buy a few. This one is the Garlic Herb crust. Supposed to be low fat. I guess it is, but it's still more calories/fat than I would eat for one meal. I am dieting in case you don't know!

I had an itch to try something completely new. Southwestern Pizza stuck out in my mind. I found a recipe that looked easy enough and I had most of the ingredients already.

Jim said it was good! And that we should make it again. I added some shredded chicken for protein.

The funny looking green stuff is avocado cream. Mmmmmmm.

So this pizza has... smashed black beans, tomatoes, red onions, chicken, corn, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, Mexican blend cheese, and spices.

I'm glad the avocado cream was there. Without a traditional tomato sauce it would have been pretty dry otherwise!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Southwestern Pizza.

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

I have joined my husband in his love of GINGER. This soup also has a lot of the flavors that I like- soy sauce, lime, hot sauce, cilantro and ginger (I added extra). Mmmmmmmmmmm.

It was a pretty good soup. I think I would make it again without the noodles though. The flavors were great but I can do without the carbs/calories of the noodles. I'd much rather eat a healthier carb!

Look at my pretty Dragon bowl from Japan! (Thanks Kiki!)

I was cooking for one (Jim was out of town) so I portioned the rest of it out for future meals. I froze them in Ziploc bags.

Note: I couldn't really find "Chinese noodles" so I used rice vermicelli noodles from the Asian area of my grocery store.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Asian Chicken Noodle Soup.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

I made this cake for Easter. I've had this recipe bookmarked for a long, long time and I finally decided to try it.

There's a lot of frosting on this cake. Cream cheese frosting. Very sweet! I think this was okay because the cake wasn't overly sweet. It was almost pound cake-like.

Here's James' sighting of the CAKE. I missed the moment that he stuck his finger in the frosting and declared it "GOOD!"

The cake was made in a very deep cake pan. I couldn't find one locally so I used my springform (cheesecake) pan and it worked well. The batter was pretty thick so I crossed my fingers that it wouldn't leak through the bottom. To my great relief it was fine :) The cake was then sliced in half lengthwise for these layers.

A traditional strawberry/sugar mixture also was layered into this beauty.

And lots of frosting!

Good stuff! It was a heavier dessert than I had hoped for but delicious! I guess if I wanted lighter I should have gone with an angel food cake. Oh, that reminds me of the chocolate angel food cake I used to make. I need to find that recipe!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Cake.

Pumpkin Oatmeal

This is just a different version from the other crockpot steel cut oatmeal that I've been making. I think the only difference is that I used less apples, added two cups of canned pumpkin, and upped the amount of cinnamon. Delicious. I always top my bowl of oatmeal with 2 T of sliced almonds and 2 T of craisins.

Double recipe of this:

Click here for the stolen recipe for Overnight, Crockpot Steel Cut Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal.

Salted Mexican Chocolate Chile Caramels

Cinco de Mayo is coming up! I saw this recipe posted on one of my favorite blogs and decided to try it (immediately). Jim is out of town, I haven't baked/created for a while, and I needed a little chocolate something- all good reasons to try something new!

The recipe made way more than these- I took a picture about a third of the way in to wrapping these babies.

Mexican chocolate is a good memory. The sight of an Ibarra chocolate box reminds me of my Grandma Loreto.

The chile in these caramels is very, very subtle. I know it's there but you can't taste it much. I think next time I would throw in an extra chile for a kick!

Mmmmmmm Look at that salt. Salty and sweet. I'm quite certain that's my favorite kind of dessert now.

The caramels were quite soft. I'm glad. The other caramels I've made were quite firm and and after a few days they were too firm. I think these will stay melt-in-your-mouth soft for the month or so the recipe claims.

The real reason I made these? To test my willpower. I've only eaten one. I figured out the calories for the recipe, divided by 64 portions and figured out they are about 72 calories. One every other day is enough for me :)

Click here for the stolen recipe for Salted Mexican Chocolate Chile Caramels.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Peanut Butter Banana Bites

This is Pinterest inspired. I saw this idea quite a while ago and today was the day. I had some ripe bananas, some extra chocolate (from the chocolate fountain this month), and a desire for something sweet and small.
I was not disappointed that I needed to eat two of these PBBB to get a picture in focus. I put these in the freezer for the chocolate to set, and there they will remain for quick nibbles.

There is no recipe. I simply scooped a bit of peanut butter on banana slices, put them in the freezer while I melted the chocolate in my Wilton pot, and then spooned chocolate on top of each Bite. I let most of the chocolate drip off so the chocolate wouldn't pool around each Bite.

They taste just as you would imagine- simply addictive!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce

If you like mustard you'll like this sauce. It's also a tiny bit boozy from the full cup of brandy that gets cooked down in the sauce. This is a Pioneer Woman recipe so she doesn't scrimp on the butter and oil that the chicken gets pan fried in.

Overall, tasty. Especially if you like mustard. I think I already said that?

Click here for the stolen recipe for Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce.

Better Pie Crust (for Pot Pie)

I'm always looking for a better pie crust. I'm starting to think it's not the recipe but my technique that needs to improve. Well, here's a better crust recipe than the one I've been using. It was definitely flakier! I think baking it longer than usual also helped.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Perfect All-Butter Pie Crust.

Posted with Blogsy

Mexican Meatloaf

I know what you're thinking. Meatloaf?! Yes. If done right! This is no beef brick (Kiki :) This is moist (Ana!), flavorful, and comfort food.

Beef, salsa, Mexican blend cheeses, chopped green chiles, onion, etc. I've assembled the entire meatloaf the night before and then left it to my husband to put in the oven for dinner. The benefit of a work-at-home hubby! It's so nice to walk into the house with great smelling food in process!

All that salsa keeps it nice and MOIST.

I THINK this was a Cooking Light recipe. I have my own typed out recipe that I use so I don't remember the source any more. Here is the recipe-

Click here for the recipe.

Buca Pasta

We call this Buca Pasta. We didn't know it by the original name NOR did we ever eat it at the Buca restaurants. It's a copycat recipe that we're always thankful that I ran across quite a few years ago now. I'm shocked that I haven't blogged about it until now. It has been one of my hubby's favorites! It's creamy, flavorful and sinful tasting.

It's not terribly hard to put together but there's chopping and specific ingredients that you must have on hand. I usually have artichoke hearts and baby bottles of dry wine in my pantry though. Each of these baby bottles are about 1 1/2 cups- you only need less than a cup. I have been guilty of sucking on the rest of the bottle (:

A close up to tempt you...

Mmmmm red pepper flakes, cheese, and green onions...

This recipe is NOT for calorie counters.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Buca di Beppo Penne Cardinale.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Chocolate Fountain

When I can I join some of my teacher friends at 12:30 for lunch. We decided today would be the day to break in my chocolate fountain. I received it from my M-O-M for my birthday. Can you believe it took me this long to find an occasion for it??

So everyone brought dippables- we had quite the spread of strawberries, bananas, graham crackers, brownie bites, angel food cake, Oreos, rice krispy bars, and marshmallows. Oh yes. We totally got into this!

This is my friend Ann's plate before all the dippables got to the staff lounge. We are not ashamed to admit that we helped ourselves to second plates (:

Everyone has asked so I'll mention that the chocolate needs to be melted beforehand with a bit of cooking oil so that it remains fluid. It then gets poured into the preheated fountain and then it cascades beautifully in a sinful display of chocolate. I followed the directions that came with the fountain.

Thanks friends for a great festive treat- what a great way to end 2nd trimester!

And yes I am still giggling over the one picture I took of the fountain in action! I think middle schoolers are rubbing off on me!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches

OMG! I might be just in a really good cookie mood or these were just ridiculously good!

I am home on a snow day (!!!!!!!) and had the dough whipped up before 8:30am. How lovely to have all of these ingredients on hand (: The dough had to chill a bit before you roll it out, which makes it fussier than I like but I had the time today. And you're welcome to my husband for doing the dishes in all of my spare time too!

But the dough ripped apart easily when I tried to roll it out between waxed paper sheets, which is my preferred method, so I ended up making traditional peanut butter cookies with the criss cross pattern I'm top. I'm sure my cookies are thicker than the recipe's and it will make fewer cookie sandwiches but oh well.

I ended up baking the cookies for even less time than the recipe states (about 14 minutes) so I don't know what's up with that.

I posted on Facebook that there isn't much better than peanut butter cookie dough... But I might have been wrong- this peanut butter filling is the bomb diggety!

Can you believe my little son refuses to try even a bite or a lick of peanut butter "frosting"?! Crazy kid.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Super Bowl Munchies

My husband didn't have his usual crew over for the Super Bowl but I still thought he'd like some manly Munchies.

Buffalo Chicken Dip (a repeat recipe but it doesn't seem that I've ever blogged about it) & Jalapeño Popper Dip

I even had football plates leftover from a few years ago. Does anyone else have a collection of odds and ends paper plates?

The Buffalo dip ended up pretty spicy but oh so flavorful. Its very hearty since there is plenty of shredded chicken in it. We use this dip as an excuse to buy Fritos Scoops. We don't usually have chips lying around so what a treat!

The Jalapeño dip was a cream cheesy soft dip with chunks of jalapeños and green chiles. Panko crumbs and Parmesan cheese toasted nicely on top and reminded me of the traditional breading, but without the frying. I'd make it again, but probably not alongside the Buffalo dip because the strong spice kind of muted the Jalapeño dip.

I hope my husband enjoyed these. He's down in his Man Cave!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Jalapeño Popper Dip.

Cick here for the stolen recipe for Buffalo Chicken Dip.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Repeat for Lisa

I was telling my teacher friend Lisa (Lisa T's rock!) that we were having these pulled pork sandwiches tonight for dinner. I thought I'd make it easier for her to search for this recipe (:

Notes: I didn't buy a full 6-8 lb roast. I think mine was darn near 4 lbs. I still used the full amount of spices. Extra yumminess!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Crockpot Pulled Pork.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Key Lime Cupcakes with White Chocolate Coconut Frosting

Staff potluck. I signed up to bring cupcakes. I knew there would be tons of food so I figured mini cupcakes would be manageable on a buffet plate.

Oh and it was a tropical theme so I thought something fruity was in order. Key limes were available so I was on the search for a recipe that included key limes. I did find one and I was amused that it is a Paula Deen recipe.

The hardest part of the whole recipe was peeling the zest from these little %#@*$%&!!! I think I spent 25 minutes doing this. Oh and then squeezing the precious juice from them. Honestly, I think I just need a new zester.

The cake was light and fluffy, not too heavy on the lime flavor. The white chocolate frosting was very sweet. Too sweet? I don't know. I think I've shocked people before by saying this but I'm not really a frosting fan. I put a substantial amount on cupcakes for others (who do enjoy it) or to make the cupcakes look pretty but I'm never offended if someone is tempted to scrape off half the frosting. It's a personal preference, yo, and I want to do the same thing myself.

Toasted coconut makes it pretty too. It's really the only coconutty part of the cupcake. I was tempted to make coconut cupcakes originally but I know not everyone is a fan. I had a better chance with the key lime!

This isn't even all of them! Mini cupcakes are 1/3 the size of regulars, and this was a larger than normal cake mix so I ended up with darn near 100 minis. I guess the other time consuming part was the 4 batches of cupcakes to bake, piping the frosting on each mini, and then carefully arranging the coconut on top. I love to bake though (:

I didn't really get to see anyone enjoy a cupcake. I went home sick that day from work so I asked a few of my coworkers to replenish the smaller plate of cupcakes on the buffet table. Oh and to take home the extras. I did find the empty baking pans when I returned Monday so I'm hopeful they made it into some bellies!

I joke that I rarely repeat recipes unless they have salted caramel... But would I make these again? Yes, especially if someone requested something with key lime. Fruit cupcakes aren't a special favorite so maybe these are special occasion cupcakes!

Click here for the stolen recipe for Key Lime Cupcakes with White Chocolate Coconut Frosting.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Bacon

Did you know that you can BAKE bacon? Seems silly that I've never tried this. I ran across two different articles in the same day, about how this is how the pros and restaurants do it. It's low fuss, allows for you to make more at once, and the bacon bakes into long, perfect flat slices.

350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes on a rimmed cookie sheet, with an oven safe cooking rack placed inside if you have one. Mine took longer because I used thick sliced bacon. Oh, and the pieces should not overlap.

Results: chewy, flavorful and flat bacon! Definitely doing this more often!

I would imagine it'd crisp up the longer you bake them.

Click here for an interesting article (and manly website).

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Sick food

I wasn't feeling I'll when I made this Tortilla Soup but I was glad to have it the next day. I think it's colorful and tasty.

My stomach was in upheaval so I was thinking about the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce?, toast). I figured tortillas are Mexican bread so I toasted some up quickly in the oven (chips!) and mashed my leftover avocado with a bit of lime, salt, and salsa. I think after not eating all morning it was heaven-sent!

I feel better tonight. I don't think I got the major flu bug that's been going around...

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Salted Caramel Cheesecake

I tweaked this recipe quite a bit based on the comments/reviews from the original blogger.

My changes:

I used the crust recipe from the back of the graham cracker crumb box. The original recipe would have been way too hard (too much butter) and salty.
I didn't put any salt in the filling. I figured the salted caramel would be enough salt.
I decreased the sugar from 1 1/4 cups to about 3/4 cups. It seemed like way too much when you figure the dulce de leche is already sweet,
I used my trusty salted caramel sauce recipe. Why mess with a good thing?

The cheesecake was wonderful! Not too sweet but sweet enough with the sauce. Everything was PERFECT. Wouldn't change a thing!

So basically it's a caramel cheesecake. Jim said its the best cheesecake he's ever had! Better than the Cheesecake Factory. That's some high praise coming from him.

Now what to do with the rest of it?! Freeze it (: Save some for my foodie BFF's at work (:

Click here for the stolen recipe for Salted Caramel Cheesecake.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Corn Dogs and Fried Cheese on Sticks

I don't know if deep frying is my thing. It's not the healthiest but it was a worthwhile experiment and rare treat.

I made corn dogs and fried cheese on a stick! I followed a recipe from the Pioneer Woman. She knows what she's doing! I thought we had a Fry Daddy (from Jim's bachelor days) but it must have gone the way of the Goodwill (or Disabled Vets) some time ago. I don't have experience with deep oil so I looked up directions online and then saw all the fire warnings. Eeeeek! The fire extinguisher and baking soda (recommended) came out just in case!

Here are some of the corn dogs and pieces of pepper jack cheese and Colby jack. The PW suggested using chopsticks but wooden skewers did the trick too.

I was able to use my new cast iron pot! (Thanks Laura!)

He likes it! He likes it! (Shocking!)

The inside of the cheese balls. Some were balls, some were sticks.

So our final verdict? I think I'll stick to state fair and carnival corn dogs. These were good but a lot of worry.

Click here for the stolen recipe for Corn Dogs and Cheese on a Stick.