Easy Peasy Semi-Homemade Sweet and Sour Meatballs...

Just call me Sandra Lee! Haha. And I can actually thank my grandmother for finding this recipe. There are a few different ways you can do this but here in my house, we don't have a lot of patience when it comes to food so we do it the super easy, hardly any work and hardly any waiting time way.

You can make your own plain meatballs..I actually want to try it this way so once I do, I will let you know. Anyways...you take one jar of Heinz Chili Sauce and one can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce..the jelly kind. Put them together in a sauce pan..if you're putting the meatballs in the same pan, make sure it's large enough to accommodate a whole bag of frozen cocktail meatballs. Or two 16 count bags of frozen regular size meatballs. I like to melt the cranberry sauce into the chili sauce first before adding the meatballs. It's just easier. However, the way I've been making these lately because I'm always home alone when I do, is in my giant slow cooker. I still heat the sauce first though because again, who wants chunks of cranberry sauce? Not me. Plus, there's just something about slow cooked food. It takes anywhere between 3-4 hours on high. On the stovetop, it's just until the frozen meatballs are cooked through.


Enjoy!

Homemade Ice Cream

Hey all! I know, I know. Severely lacking in posts lately. Doing the best I can just to keep up with life right now. Same week I bought my ice cream maker, I had someone make a huge fraudulent charge to my bank account and I've honestly been putting up with taking care of that for the last three or four weeks. Not to mention, it's been a little too hot to do a whole lot of cooking so I really haven't been doing much more than heating up some leftovers. What I HAVE been doing is making ice cream.

For the longest time I always wanted an ice cream maker but just never bought one for myself. about a month or so ago, I purchased the new Cuisinart ICE-21 automatic frozen yogurt, ice cream and sorbet maker. Along with that, I purchased the Ben and Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. I'm so glad I bought the Ben and Jerry's book because they have three different recipes for sweet cream bases, two that don't include eggs and one that does. I've never tempered eggs and quite frankly, the thought of doing so makes me nervous. They do warn that ice cream made with the no egg sweet cream base doesn't store well so you need to be prepared to eat it all. I've made ice cream 3 times using this method and honestly, it stores pretty well for a couple days, at least. It really all depends on how comfortable you are with leaving it in the freezer and how much ice cream your family eats.

The sweet cream base I make consists of 2 cups heavy/whipping cream, 2/3 cup of half and half and 3/4 cup of sugar. So simple and easy peasy, I promise. It makes one quart of ice cream which is perfect because my Cuisinart only makes a quart and a half.

If you're new to making ice cream and you're like me, afraid to temper eggs...start out with the sweet cream base I mentioned. Just make sure that you chill it for an hour or so or even overnight while the freezer bowl freezes. I did that the first time I made ice cream..made the base the same night I stuck my freezer bowl in the freezer and put the base in the fridge to get nice and cold. That's the thing with making ice cream, all the ingredients need to be cold. The ice cream maker comes with an instruction booklet but I'll give you the basics myself. Note: I don't claim to be any expert on making ice cream, this is just what works the best for me and may work for you.

Freeze your freezer bowl anywhere from 16-24 hours. As long as you don't hear any of the cooling liquid sloshing around between the double insulated walls, you're good to go. Make sure all ingredients you're adding are chilled, I recommend putting together the base the day before or allow yourself an hour or two before you need to make the ice cream if it's for a party or event to chill the mixture in the fridge. If you're adding chunks of anything(cookies, candies, nuts etc), they should be added 2-5 minutes before the ice cream is done otherwise, they will just sink to the bottom and not be mixed in. Most ice cream makers taker 20-30 minutes and the ice cream will be soft. You need to freeze it for about two hours to make it a bit harder.

The three ice creams I've made are fresh strawberry, vanilla bean and pistachio. Fresh strawberry was fabulous and so pretty. I had to mash up the strawberries so they turned the sweet cream base a gorgeous pink color and all the chunks of strawberry floating around were fabulous. The second ice cream I made was the vanilla bean. This was my first experience working with actual vanilla beans so I was a little apprehensive but I wanted to get that gorgeous white ice cream with little flecks of vanilla bean throughout so I grabbed a pod, split it with my knife and used a large spoon to scrape the beans out. The smell is absolutely gorgeous and my fingertips smelled like vanilla for days! I loved it. And today I made the pistachio ice cream. The biggest pain in the butt for me was shelling the pistachios since I couldn't find a cheap bag of shelled nuts. Sorry, but I wasn't paying $15. It killed me just to pay $6!

The Ben and Jerry's book does not have a recipe for pistachio ice cream so I sort of followed the recipe in the booklet that comes with the machine, only I used the sweet cream base from B&J and then sort of made it up as I went along and it came out fabulous. It smells delicious and it tastes even better. Making your own ice cream allows you to control what goes into it and how much of a certain thing you add. Don't be afraid!

My grandmother has requested butter pecan ice cream next so I will have a post containing the recipe and pictures. :)

My only gripe with this ice cream maker is the noise is makes but y'know what? Who really cares! It churns out beautiful, delicious ice cream and for that, I can put up with a little racket.

Blue Tequila Mexican Restaurant and Bar

Heeeeeeey! I've been severely absent. Went on my vacation at the beginning of June and haven't gotten a whole lot of time off since being back at work. Not to mention we've been in a heat wave for a few weeks and it's too darn hot to do much cooking. I've been eating a lot of the same stuff for weeks because it's easy and doesn't require a lot of oven or stove use. In fact, I can't remember the last time I turned the oven on. I will be cooking again pretty soon, you can count on that. But for this post, I want to review the one restaurant we went to In Pennsylvania that isn't a chain.

The name of the restaurant is Blue Tequila and as you can guess, it is a Mexican joint. It was literally right down the street from Shawnee Village where our time share condo was located and why we waited to go until the last day is beyond me but I am so glad we went, even if there were only two out of the six of us left to enjoy the fab food. After a week of eating at Texas Roadhouse, Sonic Drive-In, Chilli's, Friendly's and paying FAR too much money on food at the racetrack, this place was definitely a welcome change.

After spending the morning seeing the last person to leave early off and enjoying the complex's indoor pool and sauna(it was a little chilly out and the outdoor pool was FREEZING), we showered and went to the Wal-Mart in town. We were bored and there wasn't much left to do that we hadn't already done. After our trip to Wal-Mart where we spent more money than we should have, we came back and had our dinner at Blue Tequila.

I was surprised when we arrived that there weren't more people in the restaurant considering it was attached to the Days Inn next door and the resort we were staying in was so close. Plus, Blue Tequila offers coupons to people staying at the resort for 10% off the entire meal. It doesn't sound like much but when one of the condos can house anywhere from 6-8 people, it helps a bit. I can't remember the exact time we showed up but it was definitely close to dinner time. We were seated right away and brought a basket of lovely multi colored nacho chips and the best salsa I have ever had before giving our drink order. I don't like chunky salsa..this one was perfectly smooth and not too runny. We were famished after a long morning and afternoon full of swimming, shopping, cleaning and packing so we polished those nachos off pretty quickly in between ordering our appetizer and entrees.

The appetizer was a combo of cheese quesadillas, chicken fingers, french fries and mozzarella sticks. You're probably saying to yourself fries and mozzarella sticks at a mexican restaurant? Well let me tell you, they make everything from scratch at this restaurant and those were the best fries and mozzarella sticks I've had in a long time. They were great! M- and I both got the same entree, the chicken burrito. I'll be honest and say that the only experience I've had with mexican food is Taco Bell or making my own tacos at home. The first time we went to San Diego, we stayed in Old Town where there is a mexican restaurant on every corner..we went to one, actually. And had burgers. But I digress.

The chicken burrito..what can I say. It was delicious. It comes with rice and beans as sides and both were equally delicious.

Chicken or Beef Burrito	$11.95
Flour tortilla filled with marinated shredded chicken or ground beef, refried beans, Oaxaca cheese, sour cream and red salsa.Served with mexican rice and refried beans.

That's from the restaurant's website and I think that the price is pretty reasonable for the size of the plate and that everything is made from scratch on site. The plate is even scorching hot to keep the food from getting cold too quickly. Neither of us finished our dinner because it's SO much food. The chicken is shredded but not so much that it's stringy. The cheese, beans and red sauce inside are the perfect compliment. 

I could go on all day about how much I loved eating here. The restaurant is family oriented with video games, pinball and darts to keep the little ones entertained while you wait for your food. I absolutely recommend making a stop here if you're ever visiting eastern Pennsylvania. 

Blue Tequila Mexican Restaurant & Bar
(located at the Days Inn East Stroudsburg)
150 Seven Bridges Road, Interstate 80 at Exit 309
East Stroudsburg, PA 18301 

Just a quick note...we did make a trip back to NYC to drop someone off at the airport. Our dinner and dessert that night was awesome as well. We had dessert first at Crumbs Bake Shop on Broadway located near the studio for David Letterman..I can't remember exactly where..it was raining and we spotted it merely by luck because it's a tiny shop. There are plenty more in New York and even some in other states which I wasn't aware of until just now. I think we need to go there if we make it back out to SoCal sometime in the near future! Best.Cupcakes.EVER! Our late-ish dinner was had at the Stage Deli. I've been to the knockoff in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas so this was a real treat for me. 

I got the S'mores cupcake on the right and the Cappuccino cupcake on the left. Out of the two, I enjoyed the cappuccino cupcake the best but they were both fabulous. My girls got a Cosmo and a Good Guy respectively and you can find these and many more of their deliciously spectacular cupcakes on their website Crumbs Bake Shop.

Part of my meal at Stage Deli. I got two foot long hotdogs and they came with a side of fries and baked beans. Those were the best baked beans I have ever experienced in my life. I'm from the home of baked beans, Boston, so when I have baked beans in another part of the country I don't expect them to be able to measure up. Well these beans far exceeded my expectations and I wish I had some right now!

Happy Eating!

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm a few weeks late and it's the wrong holiday but life is getting in the way of this blog again! After today, I will have at least 2 more posts before I leave on vacation. I'm merely going to Pennsylvania/New York/New Jersey/Delaware for a week while my soon-to-be graduating brother(go UMass Lowell Riverhawks!) is spending three and a half weeks abroad in places like France, England and Spain. I'm only slightly jealous but he got an awesome deal on the trip because he and his friends booked it when they were students. I don't think I'd ever find that great of a deal on almost a month long trip across the pond. But I digress. This post is for the monkey bread M- and I made on Easter. I finally have the pictures, so here goes!


Monkey Bread aka Pull-Apart Bread

1 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
Half cup chopped walnuts(optional)
3/4 cup margarine
4 small cans of buttermilk biscuits*
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350. In a large bowl or large ziploc bag, combine sugar and cinnamon. Quarter each biscuit and coat them with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Using a greased bundt pan or any 12 cup fluted tube pan, arrange biscuit pieces in the pan evenly, circling the pan until you've used up your last piece. If using the walnuts, sprinkle them around the bottom of the pan first. Bake 28-32 minutes or until no longer doughy in the center(this is where we went wrong although I'm pretty sure it's my oven and not user error). While bread is baking, combine brown sugar and butter in sauce pan until caramelized. Halfway through baking, pour over monkey bread and continue to bake. When it's done, you want to flip the pan and get it out as soon as possible. This dessert is best served warm. :)

*we used the wal-mart brand of biscuits, the four little cans were tied together with those plastic rings on a six pack of soda. if you cannot find the four small cans, you can use 2 large cans of biscuits.

You can probably do the steps anyway you please, but this was her aunt/mom's recipe for it so this is how we did it. I'm finding that my oven doesn't seem to be calibrated correctly(or whatever the term is) so things don't set right. My pumpkin pies last year had to be baked for an eternity before the center was set. Although to alleviate that issue, I just stuck them in the fridge for a while and that did the trick. And today, I made a quiche which I had to bake for an extra 25 minutes on top of the 45 it was in the oven for already because the center eggs were still running out when I cut into it. It really makes my baking life difficult. But I always manage to work around it!

Alright. This is all from me for now. I hope you enjoy this simple, delicious dessert and that your ovens cooperate more than mine does!

Enjoy!

Ashley

Nervousness, agony..delicious pizza

I keep promising different recipes but as far as the monkey bread goes, my friend still hasn't uploaded her pictures so once she gets on that, I will make that post. But for now...here is something completely different!


On Tuesday I had the grand idea to make pizza. From scratch. Mind you, I had never made dough of any kind. Never worked with yeast before. So I got home from work, rolled up my sleeves and got down to business.

I have to admit that patience isn't always my strong suit. Plus, I was starving and the possibility of a piping hot pizza was too good to wait for. I followed all the directions but I still had my doubts. What is it supposed to look like when yeast foams anyways? I had no idea. I just put it in the water and kneaded the dough, covered it and sat to wait an hour and a half. An agonizing, nail biting hour and a half. 

my well for the water, sugar and yeast

And after my hour and a half of questioning whether or not my dough doubled in size(sorry, no comparison pictures but you can use your imaginations):

Ta-da! I peeled the tinfoil back really slowly with eyes closed. I was that worried it didn't rise.

I got the recipe for the New York Style pizza dough from a booklet of 50 pizzas I got from one of my Food Network magazines. Every issue there's another booklet with 50 different ways to make something. And because I've never made pizza before, I didn't have all the stuff I needed. I made do and it worked. Mostly. Again, that's where the patience thing and me not having any comes in. Next time I will roll and stretch the dough more...and my brother gave me a tip from the restaurant. Use garlic butter instead of oil. Mmm. Next time, little brother. Next time. 

Pizza Dough

• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/3 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 packet dry active yeast
• 3 tablespoons olive oil and more for brushing

Whisk flour and salt. Make a well and add the water, sugar and yeast. When foamy, mix in olive oil and knead until smooth about five minutes. Brush with olive oil, cover in a bowl and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Divide into two 1lb balls. Use 1 pound per recipe unless otherwise noted. 

To make the New York style pizza, you want to press dough into an oiled 15 inch pizza pan. Drizzle with olive oil, then top with 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 2 cups shredded mozzarella. Bake, then garnish with pecorino, dried oregano and olive oil. 

You can add any toppings you want. I just used the mozzarella and some pepperoni. I did not buy the pecorino at the grocery store because it was just a lot of cheese that we were not going to go through fast enough. I did buy the oregano but forgot to use it. I think I was so worried about the dough rising that I put it away and just didn't even think about it until much later. 

There are a few things I would do differently next time. Have patience, don't stress over the dough rising because it will...and roll out the dough so it fits on the pan! I don't have a 15 inch pan, I have a 13 inch pan. Close enough. But I didn't even bother trying to get it to fit in the entire 13 inches. Big mistake! 

I used store bought pizza sauce instead of plain tomato sauce. I liked the taste better and it meant less doctoring up of the pizza on my part.

It looks so good! And we all thought it'd be fine.

It looks delicious here, too. But because I didn't roll it out enough, the middle was still kind of raw and I don't know about you, but I don't fancy eating raw dough. Yuck! 

So..I survived my first attempt at making pizza and the parts of it that were cooked all the way through were absolutely delicious. I want to try a bunch of different pizzas in this little booklet so there will be pizza updates coming when I get brave enough to give it another shot! 

Enjoy!

Ashley

Post Easter and back to work...

So..I know I promised Cadbury Creme Egg muffins in my last post but for whatever reason when we went food shopping at Wal-Mart, we completely forgot to buy the eggs. But! We did make something delicious. Monkey Bread. My friend has all the pictures so when she uploads them, I will make the post for this crazy delicious dessert that I had and made for the first time. Words honestly cannot describe this stuff..but I will say that I will most likely be making it again. Real soon.

Easter Weekend

I haven't been doing much cooking or baking lately. It's sad, I know. A week ago I made my chicken soup again and it kind of re-kindled the fire. Plus, I needed some inspiration! Well..inspiration hit me full force today! My best friend is coming up from New York tomorrow afternoon for the holiday. We're going to make the Cadbury Creme Egg Muffins I found on Baking Bites this morning. We'll also be dying eggs and having a great time! If we bake or cook anything else on Sunday, there will be a post for it. And plenty of pictures! So please, stay tuned!

Also, Monday April 5th marks exactly two months until I leave on my vacation to Pennsylvania..more specifically, the eastern part of the state: East Stroudsburg, Pocono and the surrounding areas. I can't be anymore excited than I am right now. We're a bunch of girls who LOVE to eat so look out for those posts coming in June! If I don't post during the week I'm gone, I'll try to organize everything for separate posts when I get home. The real countdown is on!