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Cook and Tell: Basic Belgian Waffles

19 Jul

Last week was an extremely busy week, and I am very happy that I am finally able to check back here. Last week was my birthday, but since I spent the entire day at work, it wasn’t much of a celebration. However, it was all made better when a couple of friends gave me a gift that will certainly keep on giving. And not just anything, it will keep on giving fabulous and delicious Belgian waffles. I couldn’t wait to take this puppy for a “spin”.

I started out simply by pulling out the manual, which doubles as a recipe book. For the first time I decided to keep it simple and try out a basic Belgian waffle recipe, nothing fancy. I didn’t really have that many ingredients to play with. I used my last two eggs for these puppies, just shows how prepared I was.

Basic Waffles
Ingredients
6 cups of unbleached all-purpose flower
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 cup baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/2 cups of reduced-fat milk
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preparation
Preheat the waffle maker. Mix all ingredients in the order they appear. Pour approximately 2 cups of batter on to the middle of the waffle griddle (this may vary based on the type of waffle maker you have). Close the waffle maker, cook until you hear a tone from the waffle maker (this may vary based on your waffle maker). Open waffle maker, remove waffles carefully with a heat proof spatula. The recipe makes approximately 16 waffles.

I halved the recipe, and used non-fat milk. I ended up with 8 delicious waffles. They may be over 300 calories per waffle, but do you really think about that when you’re enjoying this deliciousness with jam, maple syrup, or whatever else you put on your waffles?

Thank you L & L for this awesome gift!!! I can’t wait to try out all different types of waffles!

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Cook and Tell: Tuna Casserole

03 May

If you followed this blog for the last few posts (not counting the very last one), you’ll know that I’ve been on a carb craze. Well, this post is no different.

I came up with this dish when I was looking for something to make for dinner. It needed to be easy, fast, and filling. This Tuna Casserole meets all of the above mentioned criteria. It’s creamy and rich, and the perfect comfort food.

I won’t hold you in suspense any longer…

Tuna Casserole

Tuna Casserole
Ingredients
2 cups of Pasta (elbow, shells, rigatoni, or farfalle)
1 can of tuna in water, drained
1 can Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 – 1 cup of grated cheese (Mozzarella or any other you like)
Bread Crumbs to taste
Salt to taste

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.

Bring water to boil, add salt and pasta. Boil pasta until al dente. Drain the pasta and return back to the pot. Mix in Cream of Mushroom soup, drained tuna and cheese. Transfer the mixture into a casserole dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Serve while hot.

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Guest Post Friday: Life is like a box of chocolates…

01 Apr

I am really excited! Today for the very first time in the short history of DimpleArts blog I get to introduce a guest blogger. My very good friend Vicky from Shrimpaholic. To say that Vicky is a lover of shrimp, is not to saying anything at all. I think her post below will give you some insight into how big a fan Vicky really is. Definitely drop by Shrimpaholic for more of Vicky’s delicious cooking and witty tales.

I never saw it. *Gasp* That’s right, I, a self proclaimed shrimpaholic, am ashamed to admit that I have never actually seen Forrest Gump. Sure the acting is magnificent, and there is incredible heart warming story, but to think that I failed to see a movie that has inspired so much greatness is just humiliation of many proportions. This greatness of which I speak? Well I can only be referring to the happiest place on earth – ~~Disneyland~~ Bubba Gumps!

Can you imagine how elated I was when I discovered a restaurant all about you-know-what?! And then to find out that there’s actually a book full of recipes?! Well let me tell you, Christmas came early this year (think February). Thanks to Amazon.com, their ability to store my credit card information, and expedited shipping, I knew that within a few days I’ll be holding that beautiful brown cardboard box we all see way more frequently than we should. No? Just me again? Common people free shipping over $25! (Sorry, slight deviation)

Now, when I was kindly asked to babble on Julia’s blog (which may have been due to judgment error) I decided that a simple link to an online reference would not suffice. Nope, just not good enough. This would be the magical moment when I debut my culinary key to happiness (cue bright spotlight and angel music).

And with that I present Bubba’s Beer-Broiled Shrimp, from The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Cookbook

the stuff:

- 2 lbs unpeeled large fresh shrimp
- 3/4 cup beer
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbs plus 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/8 tsp hot sauce

what to do:

Peel and devein shrimp, leaving tails intact. Combine beer and remaining ingredients in a shallow dish. Add shrimp, stir to coat, and marinate in the fridge for 2-3 hrs.

Drain shrimp and discard marinade. Thread neck and tail of each shrimp onto six skewers. Place skewers on a lightly greased rack of a broiler pan. Broil 5 1/2 inches from heat for about 3 minutes. Turn and broil an addition 2 minutes, or until shrimp turn pink.

“Now, Bubba taught me everything he knew about shrimpin’, but you know what I found out? Shrimpin’ is tough”. -Forrest Gump

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Cook and Tell: Matzo Babka

29 Mar

I know that Passover isn’t for a couple of weeks. But why wait for a holiday to use matzo?

I tend to have random urges to cook (or more like realizations that something needs to be made for dinner), so I look for dishes that use ingredients that I can easily find at home. One of these dishes is a Matzo Babka. It’s easy to make, and it is one of those dishes that can last for a couple of days. The other positive is that this dish can be made to be savory or sweet, and you can get creative with the ingredients. My Mom makes this dish all the time around Passover time with different ingredients. Sometimes she makes it with chicken and dill, sometimes with raisins.

I usually try to make a sweet matzo babka (it’s not bad with maple syrup). However, this time around I decided to make a savory version. To make it my own, I decided to include some dried dill weed and some garlic powder.

Passover Matzo Babka

Matzo Babka

Ingredients:
3 sheets of regular egg matzo (this would make a thin babka, add more matzo for a thicker version)
1 egg
Dried dill weed (to taste)
Garlic powder (to taste)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
Pam cooking spray

Preparation:
Place matzo sheets in a large bowl and fill with water until matzo is covered. Let the matzo soak in the water. Drain the water once matzos are completely soft. In the same bowl, break up the matzo sheets with a wooden spoon. Mix in the egg, dried dill weed, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Coat a medium frying pan with cooking spray. Spread the matzo mixture in the frying pan to fill the pan completely, so that the matzo mixture takes on the shape of the pan. Cook in the pan until babka is golden and is lose in the pan. Gently remove the babka from the pan onto a cutting board, cooked side down. Flip the cutting board on to the pan, so that the uncooked side is on the bottom. Cook until the uncooked side is golden and is lose in the pan.

Cut babka into slices. Serve warm or cold.

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Cook and Tell: Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread with Walnuts

12 Mar

A while ago I found a recipe for zucchini bread with walnuts. The recipe looked intriguing and I decided to try it out. Everything went well, until I realized that I put too much dough mixture into the loaf pan. The result was a minor disaster, it consisted of an oven filled with overflowing dough, which rose outside the borders of the loaf pan. I was thoroughly disappointed that I made such a rookie mistake. Thankfully, what was left in the loaf pan was still salvageable, and surprisingly was pretty tasty.

Recently I decided to try the bread again. However, I couldn’t find the original recipe (hence, I am currently working on organizing all of my recipes). Therefore, I had to start my search from scratch.

In my new search, I came upon a different zucchini bread recipe. This one was from Paula Deen, her Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread recipe.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread I followed the recipe as is. Except, (there it is again), I used mostly walnuts as opposed to pecans. Not sure why, but I am more favorable to walnuts over pecans. The bread turned out fantastically. Although it took about an hour for it to bake through, as opposed to 50 minutes (at least in my oven). Hubby really enjoyed it.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread What type of sweet bread do you like to bake?

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Cook and Tell: Prosciutto Rolls with Pears and Arugula and a Call for Guest Posts

23 Feb

We often have last minute guests over. During these times I have to come up with quick appetizers to put on the table. Since often times our guests visit us in the later part of the day, it’s only a plus when these quick appetizers are light on the stomach.

Meet Prosciutto Rolls with Pears and Arugula…

Prosciutto rolls with Pears and Arugula

These appetizers are easy on the eyes and on the stomach. They are easy to make and require no cooking time. The Food Network has come through again. The combination of meat and fruit are very refreshing.

And now on to the second part of my post. I’ve been throwing some ideas around and thought it would be great to add a guest post to the blog. This is a call for guest bloggers! If anyone is interested in sharing an interesting recipe with a fabulous photo to go along with it, please let me know. I would love to share it with my readers.

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Cook and Tell – Goat Cheese Stuffed Eggs

20 Feb

As promised, I am on a roll and I have yet another meatless dish to share. As many of you aspiring chefs know, the Food Network has a wealth of information on everything food related. So it should come as no surprise that I found this dish on the Food Network as well, (my recipe box on that site is growing at a fast pace).

A while back I shared a recipe for basic deviled eggs. This dish is in the deviled eggs family but with a bit of a twist. I present to you Goat Cheese Stuffed Eggs. Oh goat cheese…how I’ve missed you…

Stuffed Eggs with Goat Cheese

Here is the recipe for this fabulous dish. As you know I tend to omit things (due to inability to find the ingredient, or due to pure laziness too leave the house). This dish is no different. If you happen not have chutney, celery, or parsley, these eggs will still taste great (dish is husband approved).

Stuffed eggs are a great party dish. You could stuff them with almost anything. How many different varieties of stuffed eggs can you make? Maybe a stuffed egg themed party?;)

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Cook and Tell: Meat in Puff Pastry

28 Dec

I’ve been a bit lazy about cooking lately. But when there is leftover meat, you gotta get creative and put it to use. After giving it some thought, and a look at the available ingredients in the kitchen, I cooked up some pretty damn good meat in puff pastry (and this isn’t just my opinion). I am proud to say that I cooked this up (literally and otherwise) all on my own.

Here is what my mystery dish includes:

Less than half a pound of ground beef
Less than half a package of italian sausage
3 pinches of Emeril’s essence (left over from the Stuffed Pepper Dish I shared earlier)
Salt to taste
Bread crumbs
Fresh chopped parsley
Shredded cheddar cheese
10 Puff pastry squares
One beaten egg (for brushing)

These are the steps to put my creation together:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the meats, Emeril’s essence, salt, bread crumbs, parsley and shredded cheese in a mixing bowl. From the mixture create 10 small meatballs and place each meatball on a heated frying pan coated with pam cooking spray. Slightly flatten each meatball into a small patty, and cook on the frying pan until the meat patties are browned.

Place each browned meat patty on a single puff pastry square. Fold the square around the meat tightly, creating a sort of baggy. Place each pastry baggy on a prepared baking sheet coated with pam cooking spray. Brush each pastry baggy with beaten egg.

Bake the pastries for approximately 30 minutes or until golden.

Meat in Puff Pastry

Hope you enjoy!

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Cook and Tell – Three Cheese Lasagna

15 Dec

If you are a busy body, chances are you are always looking for ideas for nightly dinners for the family. Most likely you want a lot of bang for the time you spend cooking. Meaning, you want to get as many nightly dinners covered as possible for the time you spend preparing the meal.

I am sure this is no grand discovery for many of you but the biggest bang for the time involved is….drum roll please…. lasagna. It takes a little bit of effort, but once it’s all done, you’ve got at least 4 days of dinners. This just means that you’ve carved out 4 evenings of free time to be taken up by some other errands.

Now for the recipe of this time-saver dish. The Three Cheese Lasagna recipe came to me courtesy of Epicurious.com. Knowing me, you’re probably wondering, “how did she alter this recipe?”. I do confess, for some odd reason I couldn’t find the right kind of carrots when I was shopping for the required ingredients. What does one do in this situation? Well, I don’t know what one does, but I just left them out. The taste is still amazing, and every time I serve it, the hubby gives praises.

I serve it with a leafy greens salad, either on the bed of or on the side. In case you are curious, I mix the leafy greens with tomatoes, cucumbers, a bit of red onions and walnuts, tossed with either fat free balsamic vinaigrette or salt, black pepper and a little bit of vegetable oil. Now I present you, with a square of Three Cheese Lasagna on the bed of leafy greens salad (tossed with vegetable oil).

Three Cheese Lasagna

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Cook and Tell: Stuffed Peppers

09 Dec

What do you do when you have a little bit of raw chicken breast left? Well, if you’re like me, you look through your existing Food Network and Food & Wine magazine copies for recipes that include chicken, and then you move on to foodnetwork.com .

So after a morning of searching for something that can include chicken, would impress the hubby, and doesn’t take a zillion ingredients and hours. I came upon a stuffed peppers recipe from Emeril Lagasse himself. Of course I couldn’t just accept the recipe as is. Especially since from the start the recipe called for pork sausage and I specifically wanted to use chicken. I also chose to ignore the celery that was supposed go into the mix (can you tell? not a big fan of celery).

Other than the above-mentioned deviations I stuck to the recipe. Check out how beautiful the pepper turned out (yes, tooting my own horn). And yes, to answer your question, the hubby was impressed.

Chicken Stuffed Pepper