Monday, September 27, 2010

Buffalo Chicken Drumsticks

16 chicken drumsticks (about 4 pounds), skinned, if desired
1 16-ounce bottle buffalo wing hot sauce (2 cups)
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tablespoons white or cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 8-ounce carton dairy sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (2 ounces)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or bottled hot pepper sauce
Celery sticks

Directions

1. Place drumsticks in a 4- or 5-quart slow cooker. In a medium bowl, combine hot sauce, tomato paste, vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over chicken in cooker.

2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 6 to 8 hours or on high-heat setting for 3 to 4 hours.

3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine sour cream, mayonnaise, blue cheese, and cayenne pepper. Reserve half of the blue cheese dip (3/4 cup); store as directed below. Cover and chill the remaining dip until ready to serve.

4. Using a slotted spoon, remove drumsticks from cooker. Skim fat from cooking juices. Reserve eight of the drumsticks and 1 cup of the cooking juices; store as directed below. Serve remaining drumsticks with some of the remaining cooking juices, the remaining blue cheese dip, and celery sticks. Makes 4 servings and reserves.

To store reserves: Place blue cheese dip in an airtight container. Remove skin and meat from drumsticks, discarding bones. Using two forks, shred chicken (2-1/2 to 3 cups). Place shredded chicken and the 1 cup cooking juices in a second airtight container. Seal and chill for up to 3 days.
Nutrition Facts

* Servings Per Recipe 4 servings plus reserves
* Calories 454

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Little Caesars Pizza Dough

http://savoryseasonings.blogspot.com/

1 1/4 cups (9.7 oz) warm water (appox. 120° F)
2 3/4 tsp. dry active yeast
2 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP Honey
1 TBSP Olive Oil
2 Tsp. Salt
1 1/2 cups (8 oz.) bread flour or all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups (8 oz.) whole wheat flour (optional, can use 100% bread flour or all purpose flour)

Mix water and yeast in mixing bowl and allow it to proof for 5 minutes. Mix in sugar, honey and oil. Then mix in 1 cup flour and the salt. Continue mixing in all the remaining flour until you get a nice, soft dough. Knead until dough is soft and smooth (approx. 10 minutes).

Finish kneading on a lightly floured surface and shape into a ball. Place in the refrigerator in a covered container coated with olive oil for overnight. For the perfect flavor, it is best to time making the dough 24 hours before baking the pizza's (for pizza Saturday at 5pm, make your dough Friday at 5pm). If you are short on time you can sacrifice some flavor and make this dough first thing in the morning and place it in the fridge until dinner that evening.

3 hours before baking: Remove from fridge and either divide dough in half for two 12” pizzas or leave whole for one somewhat thicker 16” pizza. Work each piece of dough into balls. Allow the dough to come back to room temperature (this process generally takes 3 hours).

45 minutes before baking: With your pizza stone on the bottom rack of your oven, preheat your oven to 475° F to allow the stone to get hot enough (this process generally takes 40-50 minutes).

15 minutes before baking: Shape dough into desired pizza crust, sprinkle pizza peel, wooden cutting board or upside down cookie sheet with corn meal, flour or rice flour. Place pizza crust on top, then add toppings. Gently slide pizza onto the hot pizza stone and bake for 9-11 minutes.

*****
I’ve spent some time on the Pizzamaking forum where there are several dozen amazing chef’s who have dedicated an extraordinary amount of time perfecting pizza making at home. Some of their doughs take up to 7 days to make with a huge focus on temperature control and top quality ingredients. They are inspiring!

This recipe is from their site but is simple to use, forgiving and only takes a day to make without sacrificing on the flavor. It was designed to mimic the flavor of Little Caesars pizza using the same processing time as the restaurant along with the same cornerstone ingredients.

After trying this recipe, we no longer crave takeout pizza- this is SO much better (at least we think so)! Yeah!!!

I think the two secrets to great homemade pizza are finding the right dough and baking it on a hot stone (Fibrament sells a great stone with an outstanding reputation and a 10 year warranty against cracking). The benefit of baking it on a hot stone is it duplicates the professional brick ovens. The ceramic stone creates a light crispy crust by absorbing excess moisture and distributing the heat evenly and efficiently. The results are night and day compared to baking a pizza on a cookie sheet or cold stone. Give it a try, you’ll love it!

Thanks to Randy at the Pizzamaking forum for providing this excellent recipe!

Monday, September 20, 2010

All-American Meatloaf



Ingredients
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup beef broth or dry red wine
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
3 slices sourdough bread, cubed (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
2 Tbsp. yellow mustard
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 lb. ground beef sirloin
1 lb. ground beef chuck
1 medium green sweet pepper, chopped
1/2 a medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
2 tsp. cider vinegar
Chopped fresh parsley, sliced green onions, and black pepper (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In large bowl combine eggs, broth, and Worcestershire sauce; stir in bread cubes. Let stand 15 minutes. With fork, mash bread cubes into small pieces. Stir in Parmesan cheese, mustard, garlic, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Add meat, sweet pepper, and onion. Using hands, mix ingredients together well (do not overmix.) Lightly pat meat mixture into 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.* With fingers lightly pull loaf away from sides of pan (see Shape and Bake, below).

2. Bake, uncovered, for 1-1/4 hours. For topping, in small bowl stir together ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar. Spoon on loaf. Bake 15 minutes more or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf reads 160 degrees F.

3. Let stand 10 minutes. To remove, use two large spatulas inserted along short edges to lift loaf from the pan to a platter. Sprinkle with parsley, green onions, and black pepper. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

4. *Or shape the meat mixture in a 9-inch loaf in a baking dish. Bake as directed.

Shape and Bake: When shaping meat loaf, as in above recipe, in a 9x5x3-inch pan, use a light touch. Packing it tightly will make the loaf dense and tough. For even browning and to prevent drippings from pooling on the loaf, use your fingers to round the top while pushing the sides away from the edges of the pan.
Nutrition Facts

* Calories312,
* Total Fat (g)15,
* Saturated Fat (g)6,
* Monounsaturated Fat (g)6,
* Polyunsaturated Fat (g)1,
* Cholesterol (mg)113,
* Sodium (mg)778,
* Carbohydrate (g)16,
* Total Sugar (g)9,
* Fiber (g)1,
* Protein (g)28,
* Vitamin C (DV%)27,
* Calcium (DV%)8,
* Iron (DV%)16,
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Non-toxic home care


All-Purpose Cleaner: Mix 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup baking soda (or 2 teaspoons borax) into 1/2 gallon (2 liters) water. Store and keep. Use for removal of water deposit stains on shower stall panels, bathroom chrome fixtures, windows, bathroom mirrors, etc.

For damp-mopping wood floors: mix equal amounts of white distilled vinegar and water. Add 15 drops of pure peppermint oil; shake to mix.

SOFT SCRUB CLEANSER RECIPE

You can use this cleaner really anywhere in your house. Common places include the tub, bathroom sink or on kitchen counters. It also works well on floors and garbage cans – basically on any surface that becomes greasy or grimy.

Ingredients:
1 clean Mason jar with lid
3 1/3 cups baking soda
1 cup of liquid soap
1 cup water
4 tablespoons vinegar

Instructions:
Mix baking soda and liquid soap in your jar. Dilute with the water and add the vinegar last. Stir until the lumps are gone. If it's too thick, add more water. Keep the lid on the jar because this mixture will dry out. Stir or shake well before using. For future uses, add more water if cleaner seems dry.

GLASS CLEANSER RECIPE

Ingredients:
2 cup white distilled vinegar
2 cup distilled water
6 drops essential oil of your choice

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together. Pick an oil you'd like, or just skip.

Non-toxic formulas here.

Cute label download here.

Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf)

From Womans's Day (June 2009) I make a big batch of dough on Saturday and pop it into a plastic container in my fridge. Whenever we need bread, I just dip into the container, pull out some dough, let it rest a bit and then bake a loaf, rolls or pizza. This method is simple--it creates authentic European-style fresh bread. For about 40 cents for a one-pound loaf!

Makes four 1-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or halved.
3 cups lukewarm water
1-1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
1-1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6-1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method
Cornmeal for pizza peel

Mixing and Storing the Dough

1. Warm the water slightly: It should feel just a little warmer than body temperature, about 100°F. Warm water will rise the dough to the right point for storage in about 2 hours. You can use cold tap water and get an identical final result; then the first rising will take 3 or even 4 hours. That won't be too great a difference, as you will only be doing this once per stored batch.

2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic food container or food-grade bucket. Don't worry about getting it all to dissolve.

Boule

3. Mix in the flour—kneading is unnecessary: Add all of the flour at once, measuring it in with dry-ingredient measuring cups, by gently scooping up flour, then sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula; don't press down into the flour as you scoop or you'll throw off the measurement by compressing. Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor (14 cups or larger) fitted with the dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook until the mixture is uniform. If you're hand-mixing and it becomes too difficult to incorporate all the flour with the spoon, you can reach into your mixing vessel with very wet hands and press the mixture together. Don't knead. It isn't necessary. You're finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches. This step is done in a matter of minutes, and will yield a dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.

Allow to rise: Cover with a lid (not airtight) that fits well to the container you're using. Do not use screw-topped bottles or Mason jars, which could explode from the trapped gases. Lidded plastic buckets designed for dough storage are readily available (see page 14 of the book). Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), approximately 2 hours, depending on the room's temperature and the initial water temperature. Longer rising times, up to about 5 hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature. So, the first time you try our method, it's best to refrigerate the dough overnight (or at least 3 hours), before shaping a loaf.

The scoop-and-sweep method gives consistent results without sifting or weighing. It's easier to scoop and sweep if you store your flour in a bin rather than the bag it's sold in; it can be hard to get the measuring cups in a bag without making a mess. Also: Don't use an extra-large 2-cup-capacity measuring cup, which allows the flour to overpack and measures too much flour.

You do not need to monitor doubling or tripling of volume as traditional recipes.

Boule-On Baking Day

5. The gluten cloak: don't knead, just "cloak" and shape a loaf in 30 to 60 seconds. First, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal (or whatever your recipe calls for) to prevent your loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven.

Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough, using a serrated knife. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won't stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it's not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 30 to 60 seconds.

6. Rest the loaf and let it rise on a pizza peel: Place the shaped ball on the cornmeal-covered pizza peel. Allow the loaf to rest on the peel for about 40 minutes (it doesn't need to be covered during the rest period). Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking ("oven spring").

7. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450°F, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising bread.

8. Dust and slash: Unless otherwise indicated in a specific recipe, dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1/4-inch-deep cross, "scallop," or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife (see photo).

Boule

9. Baking with steam: After a 20-minute preheat, you're ready to bake, even though your oven thermometer won't yet be up to full temperature. With a quick forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Because you've used wet dough, there is little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or "sing," when initially exposed to roomtemperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack, for best flavor, texture, and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.

10. Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 14 days: You'll find that even one day's storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the 14-day storage period. Refrigerate unused dough in a lidded storage container (again, not airtight). If you mixed your dough in this container, you've avoided some cleanup. Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them. We often have several types of dough storing in the refrigerator at once. The dough can also be frozen in 1 pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator prior to baking day.


VARIATION: HERB BREAD. This simple recipe shows off the versatility of our approach. Herb-scented breads are great favorites for appetizers and snacks.

Follow the directions for mixing the Boule dough and add 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves (2 teaspoons fresh) and 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves (1 teaspoon fresh) to the water mixture.

You can also use herbs with the other bread recipes in this chapter.

Boule

What's a "gluten-cloak"? Just imagine a warm blanket being pulled around you on a cold night. Or, for the more technically inclined: What you are trying to do here is to add enough flour to the surface so it can be handled and the protein strands in the surface can be aligned, creating a resilient "cloak" around the mass of wet, barely kneaded dough. Visualize a cloak being pulled around the dough, so that the entire ball is surrounded by a skin. Resist the temptation to get rid of all stickiness by adding too much flour. Adding large amounts of flour prevents the bread from achieving a finished crumb with the typical artisanal "custard" (page 19 of the book).


Lazy sourdough shortcut: When your dough bucket is finally empty, don't wash it! Immediately re-mix another batch in the same container. In addition to saving the cleanup step, the aged dough stuck to the sides of the container will give your new batch a head start on sourdough flavor. Just scrape it down and it will hydrate and incorporate into the new dough.

Amaze your friends with the "6-3-3-13" rule: If you want to store enough for eight one-pound loaves, here's a simple mnemonic for the recipe: 6, 3, 3, and 13. It's 6 cups water, 3 tablespoons salt, 3 tablespoons yeast, and then add 13 cups of flour. Store in a 10-quart lidded container. That's it. It will amaze your friends when you do this in their homes without a recipe—but tell them to buy this book anyway!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Cafe Annie's Southwestern Grilled Chicken With Lime Butter

Serves/Makes: 6
Ready In: 30-60 minutes

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 1/2 pounds bone-in chicken parts
***Lime Butter***
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 serrano chile, minced
2 tablespoons finely minced white onion
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 pinch ground black pepper

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine first 8 ingredients. With a spoon or a basting brush, spread the seasoning paste over the chicken.

Grill the chicken using medium heat for a gas grill or indirect heat for a charcoal grill. Close the lid and grill until chicken reaches 180 degrees F in the thighs and 170 degrees F in the breast, about 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine all lime butter ingredients. Drizzle over chicken just before serving or serve separately for dipping.

Recipe from Cafe Annie, Houston, Texas.

This recipe is from CDKitchen

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Panera Broccoli & Cheese Soup


Serves/Makes: 4

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups half-and-half
2 cups chicken stock or bouillon
1/2 pound fresh broccoli
1 cup carrots, julienned
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
8 ounces grated sharp cheddar


Directions:

Saute onion in butter. Set aside. Cook melted butter and flour using a whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly and slowly add the half-and-half (this is called making a roux). Add the chicken stock whisking all the time. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the broccoli, carrots and onions. Cook over low heat until the veggies are tender for 20-25 minutes. Add salt and pepper. The soup should be thickened by now. Pour in batches into blender and puree. Return to pot over low heat and add the grated cheese; stir until well blended. Stir in the nutmeg and serve.

found at cdkitchen