Colie's Kitchen

Apr 16, 2011

Tartar Sauce

A few nights ago we had shrimp for dinner and I wanted to include a tartar sauce on the side. Typically the rule of thumb with a recipe like this is to allow the finished product to set over night to allow all the spices and flavors to mingle together thus creating the ultimate recipe. This tartar sauce recipe was no exception. I allow it to refrigerate overnight and the end results were fantastic! After trying this recipe out I could never imagine myself buying store bought tartar sauce again!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups mayonnaise or 1 1/4 cups Miracle Whip
1 medium dill pickles (or 1/4 cup dill relish)
2 sprigs parsley
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried onion flakes (or fresh)
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

Mix all together in the food processor and pulse for about 10 seconds until finely chopped, but not smooth.
Best if refrigerated for an hour before use.
Note: Can be made without the food processor, using dill relish or finely minced pickle.
Lasts quite a while in the refrigerator.

Original Recipe

Neely's Spicy Sweet Potato Fries (Chips)

One of my favorite cooking shows is Down Home with the Neely’s! I love this husband and wife dynamic duo! They have such amazing chemistry in the kitchen that I find watching their cooking show both educational and entertaining. I saw the Neely’s making spicy sweet potato chips that I later turned into fries and knew I had the try them because I love sweet potato fries and I love spicy. As always they delivered with an amazing recipe that I am in love with. The sweetness of the sweet potatoes paired with the spiciness of just the right spice combination makes these fries a sweet and spicy delight! The only thing I changed from the original recipe was changing them from chips to fries.

Ingredients:

Peanut oil, for frying
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 large sweet potatoes, well scrubbed

Directions:

In a deep-fryer or heavy-bottomed pot, heat enough oil to come halfway up the sides of the pot, to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, mix together salt, chili powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, and black pepper.

Using a mandoline or a sharp knife, thinly slice the sweet potatoes into 1/8-inch thick rounds. Add the sliced sweet potatoes to the hot oil and fry, in batches, until crisp and golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove to a paper towel lined sheet tray and immediately sprinkle with the seasoning mixture. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

Original Recipe

I love bacon, but I hate the mess that comes with frying bacon. I decided there had to be an easier way. I decided to figure out how to “fry” bacon in the oven, and now that’s the only way I do it. First off I don’t have to scrub down my kitchen after making bacon now, and I don’t smell like fried bacon after cooking it! That’s a huge plus! This is simple and fantastic!

What you need:

1 pound of bacon
1 jelly roll pan
Heavy foil
Optional oven safe cookie cooling racks

Line a baking sheet with heavy foil. This will make your cleanup much easier. I like to use the heavy foil to insure that the grease doesn't get on my pan. Yep it's called lazy.
Arrange your bacon on the foil. I put my bacon on cookie cooling racks in the middle of my foil lined pan. This helps the grease drip off your bacon.Place the baking sheet in a cold oven. Turn you oven on to 400°F.
Check your bacon within 15 to 20 minutes. This will vary based on the thickness of your bacon. Check back often you don't want burnt bacon. Let your nose be the guide. As soon as the bacon is golden brown, but not excessively crisp, it's done.
Remove pan from the oven and remove your bacon from the pan. Place bacon on paper towels to allow the excess grease to drip off.

I've Got the Need, the Need for Fried Cheese

I found this recipe while watching Guy Fieri’s “Guy’s Big Bites” on Television. He made this recipe look easy and in truth it really was. The flavor is fantastic, and these cheese sticks make great appetizers. I had fun making them, and loved eating them. No doubt you will too!

Ingredients:

4 cups canola oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
8 ounces mozzarella string cheese, individually wrapped
16 thin slices salami, 2 1/2-inches in diameter
8 egg roll/spring roll wrappers

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, add oil and heat to 325 degrees F.
In a medium shallow bowl, whisk eggs and milk thoroughly. In another medium bowl mix panko and Italian bread crumbs.
Dredge 1 entire side of egg roll wrapper into egg wash. Place 2 slices of salami in the center of wrapper, towards the edge closest to you. Place 1 stick of cheese on top of salami. Roll wrapper edge closest to you over the filling. Tuck ends and continue to roll until it forms an egg roll shape.
Dredge rolled wrapper in egg wash again, and then thoroughly coat in bread crumb mixture. (Wrappers can be frozen for future use at this point.)
Add 1 to 2 rolled wrappers to oil at a time, cooking 2 to 3 minutes, until golden brown. Be careful not to overcook, or cook on too high of a temperature as wraps may explode. Remove fried cheese to a paper-towel lined plate and serve immediately

Original Recipe Source

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Potato Cups

This is a fantastic recipe! It’s so simple to put together and then all you do is pop it into the oven and the potato cups are done. I waited until mine were crispy on the outside before I took then out of the oven and they came out perfect. I used a cheese grater to shred the potatoes and I also used it to for the onions. It was super easy and went quickly. I needed something last minute and this recipe came together perfectly. The potatoes have a great flavor and got rave reviews. Here is the original recipe, but I actually changed it up a lot from the original recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded potatoes (You could use frozen and thaw them before measuring)
2 tablespoons onions, minced
4 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated
salt to taste
pepper to taste
butter, to grease the muffin tins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° degrees F.
Mix together the potatoes, onion, Parmesan, salt and pepper. Generously butter 6 muffin tins, 2-1/2" size.
Press the potato mixture evenly into the muffin cups. Bake 45 minutes or until the edges are well browned.
Remove from the oven to a rack to cool slightly. Loosen and invert the potato cups onto a plate.

Wordless Wednesday - Cereal Runneth Over

I really was wordless or even speechless when I realized how many boxes of cereal we had in the pantry when I decided to organize the pantry this past weekend. Most of these boxes are not even open. In truth I believe only two boxes were open. These are the 13 I kept. The remaining boxes were just bits and pieces that I ended up throwing away. If all else fails we always have cereal!

Pull-Apart Peazer Bread

This is a really great recipe. Not only is is dirt cheap to make, but it's easy, requires very few ingredients, and tastes great. It also makes a great presentation. It's my version of a monkey bread. The great part about this concept is you can do just about anything with the recipe. Keep the margarine and lose everything else, add a little cinnamon and sugar then you have a great monkey bread. You could also make a great garlic pull apart bread too. So simple yet so diverse! Love it!!

Ingredients:

1 can Pillsbury Grand’s Biscuits
½ stick margarine
2 green onions (thinly sliced)
1 tbsp. bacon bits (not Bacos)
½ tsp. garlic powder

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
In a microwave safe bowl melt margarine.
To the melted margarine add garlic powder, bacon bits, and thinly sliced green onions and mix together. Set mixture aside.
Quarter each Pillsbury Grand’s Biscuit half the biscuit then half it again.
Take the quartered Pillsbury Grand’s Biscuits and add them to the margarine mixture and slowly mix the ingredients together.
Once everything is well combined spoon the biscuit mixture into a 3 quart baking dish. Pretty much any baking dish will work as long as the biscuits will stick together.
Cook on 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Test the middle biscuits to insure they are done before removing them completely from the oven.

4 Do-It-Yourself Hair Remedies

I have long hair, and I love having long hair, but there are many times my hair is in desperate need of help. I stumbled upon this article on Yahoo and love the tips. Check it out!

The secrets to rescuing your brittle, over-processed strands might just be in your refrigerator.Let's face it: Lustrous hair can take a lot of upkeep. Even if your stylist doesn't make house calls, fear not. "You can give your hair the TLC it needs to look its best by using items you have at home," notes Lorri Goddard Clark for the Privé Salon in Los Angeles, whose clients include Reese Witherspoon. Here, she dishes on her tried-and-true recipes for getting — and maintaining — healthy hair.

Feed Your Head
"You can’t have full, bouncy hair without a healthy scalp," says Goddard-Clark. To reduce excess oil, dampen a cotton ball with witch hazel, dab it along your hairline and part, and rinse hair with cool water. Fight flakes weekly by adding five drops of tea-tree oil to your favorite shampoo as a booster. Skip conditioner, though, and apply a detangler only to the ends of your hair — your scalp may be sensitive after this treatment.
Marie Claire Tip: Before any type of scalp treatment, check for burns from hot tools that could be easily irritated.

Add Volume
Lifeless strands got you down? in a bowl, mix one egg yolk, a half cup of honey, two tablespoons of olive oil, and two small, ripe avocados. Apply the concoction to the entire head and leave on for one to two hours, until hard. Shampoo and condition as usual. "This is a miracle cure," notes Goddard-Clark. "And for extra-bouncy, nonfrizzy curls, Drew Barrymore taught me to blot ringlets dry with paper towels."
Marie Claire Tip: Short on time? Apply this mask only to bangs or small pieces around your face. These areas are the most abused by heat styling.

Boost Shine"Dull, overstyled hair benefits from regular olive- or jojoba-oil masks," explains Goddard-Clark. Starting at the roots, brush a quarter cup of natural oil (synthetic oils don't work as well) through dry hair and leave it on for an hour. Blast the ends with a dryer for five minutes to help oil penetrate deeper. Skip the roots — the scalp emits enough warmth on its own, and applying extra heat could lead to greasy textures later.
Marie Claire Tip: Cut washing time and add shampoo to strands before they get wet to dissolve the oil faster.

Preserve ColorMinerals in the water system can cause brassiness for blondes and redheads. A quick fix? Mix a quarter cup of distilled white vinegar with a half cup of filtered water and pour it over hair before rinsing with cool water. Graying brunette beauties need to be careful, too. "Peroxide-based dyes give darker shades a reddish hue," warns Goddard-Clark. Use a toothbrush to paint boxed dye over individual strands.
Marie Claire Tip: to neutralize the scent of vinegar or harsh hair dyes, add a few drops of an oil essence, like lavender.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

From My Side of the Table: Starbucks Love Them or Hate Them?

I read an article yesterday about the Starbucks CEO and that got me to thinking about the whole concept of Starbucks and the relationship I have with them. I have a love hate relationship with Starbucks.

I love them because I love their frozen drinks. I love having them in my hands and slurping them down on a hot Houston summer day, or even having a nice hot coffee or hot chocolate on a cold wet winter day. They smell good, and taste great! My favorite drink at Starbucks is their Strawberry and Cream Frappuccino. It’s wonderful, and no matter how hard I try I can’t quite replicate it, but I am close!!

What I hate about Starbucks is their coffee really isn’t THAT good and when I say THAT good I mean $5’s of good! Of course when you think about it most “coffee houses” have over priced coffee. I even noticed that McDonald’s coffee is starting to reflect the Starbucks prices, or in some cases they are closing in on them. On the grand scheme of things in my opinion Starbucks coffee is watered down tasting, and it makes me choke each time they tell me how much I owe them. Maybe I have grown too cheap for Starbucks?

With all of that being said I don’t completely avoid Starbucks, but by no means am I their number one customer. I never thought a thing about paying their prices until I married my husband who is a BIG coffee snob. He doesn’t mind paying $25 a pound for a bag of good coffee (Seriously), but he will not pay $5 for Starbucks. They $25 a pound coffee is the best coffee I have ever had, but it’s still something we don’t have often. We have it in the house, but we don’t drink it daily.

What are your Starbucks feelings? Do you love them, hate them, or like me… both?

Baked Penne with Philadelphia Cooking Creme #LoveMyPhilly

This is a fantastic recipe! Not only is it simple to make, but it’s also very very good! Next time I would half the recipe because it’s double what we would normally eat. The great thing is I can freeze the left overs for another meal. I also think the next time I make this recipe I will make it with Italian sausage to give it some extra pizazz! I really like using the cooking with the cooking crème! In truth I could eat it with a spoon it’s so good!!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. extra-lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup green peppers
1 jar (24 oz.) spaghetti sauce ( I used Ragu)
1 tub(10 oz.)PHILADELPHIA Italian Cheese and Herb Cooking Creme, divided
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided
3 cups cooked penne pasta (I used rigatoni because I had it on hand)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F.
Brown meat with vegetables in large nonstick skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce, 3/4 cup cooking creme and 1/2 cup mozzarella: cook and stir 2 to 3 min. or until mozzarella is melted. Add pasta; mix lightly.
Spoon into 2-qt. casserole; top with remaining cooking creme and mozzarella. Cover.
Bake 20 min. or until heated through, uncovering after 15 min.