Little Bit o' honey

SO I heard recently that if you eat local honey then you'll have less problems when pollen season comes around, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Let's whirl the honey on an apple and brie sandwich shall we??

Here's what you'll need:

Whole Wheat English Muffin

ounce (or so) of brie

an apple of your choice in slices

2 tbsp of honey

Preheat to 350

Put your english muffins on your well loved pizza stone!

'

I love brie. It's soooo good to put on a crusty piece of bread along side some veggies and hummus for lunch...mmmm. Anywho, if you are unfamiliar with brie it's a very soft cheese. It spreads really easily! It comes with this white rind on it. If I'm just spreading some, I'll take the rind off (just slices right off). But, if I'm melting it for any reason I'll leave the rind on. Just slice the brie and put it on your english muffin. Then slice up your apple.



Put your brie and apple slices all pretty like on your english muffin. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Just until the cheese is all melty and delicious!

See the pretty shine? We don't want bubbly and gooey, it's gooey all on it's on. Just warm it up so that when you touch the cheese it leaves an indent.

Drizzle a tbsp of honey on each half. Eat immediately!

This is so good to me! Just the right amount of sweet. I love it with granny smith apples for that little bite of tart flavor. This is such a quick and healthy breakfast or lunch!

How YOU doin?!

Hey guys!
I am super sorry about being totally absent. I've been feeling a bit down and have not been in the kitchen at all. But I'm feeling a bit better now and being in the kitchen makes me feel better so I'm just feeding (tehehe) off of it all today.
Anywho, I've been trying to exercise and eat better lately so I have a few recipes that are low cal and maybe you can also replace your snacks with something more filling but with less calories.

I've already confessed my love for all things pinterest and this one is all over the place there.

Here's what you'll need for some kale chips:

bunch of kale

evoo

s&p

whatever flavoring you like* I used cheese, you can use any kind really. Or maybe you're feeling a bit sea worthy you could do old bay or maybe some italian or really anything. Your imagination's the limit.

Preheat to 350

I happen to love kale. It's so robust and filling. It has a great flavor and takes to alot of things. I love it in soup it does a great job of adding some substance to it

*Let me explain this picture. I was by myself but I wanted to be able to show you how to rip the kale off. It didn't work out too well for me.*

Despite the terrible picture, you hold the stalk. Start at the bottom of the leaves and pull upwards. The kale just pulls away from the stalk super easily, it's quick work. I then tore the pieces into bite sized/finger food sized pieces.

On a greased baking sheet drizzle the kale with a bit of EVOO. Just enough to lightly coat. Add your topping of choice. I had some outrageously delicious Jalepeno and Habanero Cheese. It is so great but it's insanely hot (obviously) so I can only eat about a rice sized piece at a time. I thought that maybe doing this could infuse that great flavor but ease off on the heat. Add your s&p. I choose coarse sea salt and I'm glad I did. You don't need a ton of it but it imparts great flavor.

Bake for 12-14 minutes.

The kale will be super crispy and light.

These are so good. You just pick at it like popcorn. The flavor is so fresh! I'm so glad that I picked that 8th dimension of hell cheese because it added just enough of everything to make it over the top. At 43 calories for a cup, you can eat this stuff all day long for about 97 calories. It satifies my salty craving!

I'm stealing this!

So, I totally stole this from Rachel. So I must give her the credit. It looked so delicious that I had to make it and show you! Rachel has a printable recipe on her page, so you can hop over there and print this out. *I'm still working on having a "Printable Recipe" page.

We're making Ginger Pork Potstickers a la Guy Fieri! I love his Diners, Drive-ins and Dives but this is my first Guy recipe.

Here's what you need:

1 lb ground pork

1/4 cup onion, finely diced

2 tbsp minced ginger

1 tbsp minced garlic (I use about 2 cloves)

1 tsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp sesame oil

wonton wrappers

Do all your chop choppin! I love to chop, I could chop all day. Alot of folks love those little gadgets that make the chopping faster and some even make it possible to chop something without ever touching it. I'm not a gadget girl, I personally love eau de gahhhlic :)

Brown everything to a lovely brown color :)

You could very easily sub ground turkey or beef or chicken here. The hubs is not a fan of pork so next time I'll probably go with turkey.

Remove from heat and add in your soy sauce, sesame oil and S&P. Sit aside to cool.

OK, get some water to boiling for later. I used a deep sauce pan. But you could use one of those lovely oval pasta pans too.

Now the hubs was starving so I was in a hurry *plus he offered to help* didn't wait as long as I probably should have for the filling to cool BUT I didn't have any problems at all.

You need a small bowl of water and a pastry brush. If you don't have a pastry brush just use your fingers.

You are going to brush the outside 1/2 inch of two perpendicular sides of your wrapper.

Fill your wrapper! I used a tsp and just messed around with how much I could use. Don't overfill!

Fold over and roughly line up the edges. It doesn't have to be perfect.

*The hubs did an excellent job of photo documenting this. You could flip through them and see me moving...lol. As a result you're getting a very thorough wonton wrapper tutorial*

 

Make sure you squeeze the edges together REALLY good. It's pretty easy for these little boogers to come apart in the boiling water. It really doesn't take long to do this. It seems more in depth than it really is. I set the cutting board up with four at a time and did them like that. *This next part is alot easier with two people. It runs smoother like that. I did the wonton's and the hubs did the boiling. (Yvette, I bet BJ would be an excellent wonton wrapper guy!)

Heat up a small pan with a little of that sesame oil you have. If not, EVOO or canola is fine.

Drop them (a few at a time) into boiling water. You want them to be able to move around so don't over fill your pot. But don't worry because they only stay in the water for one minute then you fish them out. So the process doesn't take long at all. *Remember how the hubs was starving and I was in a hurry? Well I skipped the next step.* You are supposed to let them sit on a cooling rack for a while to dry off a bit. I just let them drain a few seconds and them put them in the pan (I missed the photo!).

Drop them into the hot pan with the sesame oil and let them get a delicious browned color.

Serve with some soy sauce for dipping and you're in business!

I happen to think that if it involves ginger and soy sauce it could be a shoe and I'd love it. BUT, this was really great. The hubs would have liked it better if it wasn't pork but I'm a pork fan. This is pretty versatile too so you could add in some carrots or something and sneak it past the kids. PLUS, who doesn't like to eat with chopsticks?!?! And if you don't have chopsticks, who doesn't like to eat with their fingers?!?!

They are also good even if they aren't steaming hot so it would be a great recipe to take to a party. They warm up better than you would thing, but you could also just save (or freeze) the filling to use for later. This makes a ton of wonton's so ask a friend to come over too.

It was about time

for me to get a cold, so I have one...uggg.

This whole week has been a bit of a blur of congested ugginess. I've been so slack and I apologize!

This past weekend I did some serious cooking. It had been a while and I needed it. Maybe I'll feel more like it this weekend too.

I heart Pinterest. I hope you are on it because it's fantastic. If you are, find me!! I'm asb0521.

So I found this recipe on Pinterest and it's definately added to the plus pile. We're making Vegetable Tian!

Here's what you need:

1 yellow onion, sliced or chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 potatoes of your choice

1-2 zuchinni

1 yellow squash

3 tomatoes

1/2 cup grated cheese of choice

2 tbsp EVOO

Thyme

S&P to taste

Preheat to 375

Saute your onions with your EVOO until they are translucent then toss in your garlic and cook together for about 2 minutes.

So in your casserole dish put a layer of your onions. I choose a smaller dish and I should have put a bit less onions.

Slice all your veggies so that they are all about the same size.

Layer them all pretty like around the dish. I love love love the way this looks!

I did about 3 sprigs of Thyme, It's up to you really!

Drizzle about a tbsp or so of EVOO then top with your thyme and S&P to taste, then cover and cook for 35 minutes.

I added a few bread crumbs, optional little crunch. Sprinkle on the cheese, I picked Mozz.

Leave uncovered and put back in the oven for about 25 minutes.

It looks so great that the hubs couldn't keep his fingers off it!

I served Pot Stickers with it from over at The Traveling Spoon.

It was fantastic! All the flavors melted all together so great. The potatoes were my favorite!

The hubs loved this and it warms up really great. The thing I like most about this recipe is that you can really taste all the deliciousness that the veggies have to offer. Just going with a light seasoning makes all the flavors just do their thing.

This is so easy that it's silly but it tastes so great!

Outside the box

The hubs loves pop tarts. He doesn't care what flavor, he loves them all. I've never been able to eat them, the pop tarts and I don't get along.

He likes to take them in his cute little spider man very manly lunchbox for breakfast. I found some a while back on pinterest and ask him did he want me to try to make them, he resisted!

A week or so ago he came up with the idea all on his on remembered and asked if I'd try the homemade pop tarts. They were so good that I'm perturbed with him for resisting.

He decided he wanted the filling to be sweet potato so I just made a Sweet Potato Souffle to use for the filling. Just make it just like the recipe.

Now, let's make the dough. This dough is outrageous. It is so good and without a doubt the easiest dough that I've ever worked with. It's super pliable and does exactly what you tell it to.

Here's what you need:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

1tsp salt

1 cup butter, cut into pea(ish) size

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

Preheat to 350

Ok, normally I use the mixer for dough. That was until I got a processor. The food processor makes dough so much easier. Anywho, the flour

Sugar and salt. Get those combined well and then add your

butter. Mix well. The butter should make it look like a wee bit lumpy.

Beat the eggs and milk together just until mixed and then add to the flour mixture.

Then let the mixer or food processor do the work for you until you have a dough as beautiful as this

I'm telling you it's like working with something as easy as play-doh.

Take a little baseball(ish) size ball and roll it until it's flat. Not like rolled out like you would pastry, just enough to get it through the roller!

*Quick, very quick pasta roller tut*

Pass the dough through on level 1.

Fold it over itself

and pass back through on level 1. Do this several times until it goes through easily. The dough completely changes consistency. You'll be able to tell when it's ready to go up to level 2

Repeat the process of folding over and passing back through the machine on level 2. For this level 2 is as high as I went, then back to the cutting board.

I just did a tiny bit of rolling with the rolling pin to make it a bit wider.

Figure out the size you want and cut out your squares. Put a layer of your filling down leaving about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch empty around all four edges.

Lay a dough blanket

Cut the extra and press down the edges.

Using a fork go around the edges to seal it all in nice and tidy.

Bake for 15 minutes.

  

The glaze that I used (and am still working on) is a Marshmellow Creme Glaze. It's delicious. This is my first experience with Marshmellow Creme.

1/3 cup sugar + 3 tbsp of water in the microwave for about a minute (until it boils). Add in 2 tbsp of Marshmellow Creme and stir until it's all melty and delightful.

Add your glaze *and sprinkles if you see fit*

If you are eating these right away add your glaze and have at it.

If however you are going to be taking these in your spidey lunchbox we have another method.

You can put the glaze on before you bake them and it will bake into the poptart and be a little more travel friendly, or, if you are my hubs...you break out the kitchen torch!

*Sorry, I was in charge of this picture!*

It puts a lovely carmelization on the glaze and makes it less sticky than just leaving it.

Either way you get this

I really cannot explain to you how great this is. The dough is outstanding. Just a little sweet, it is substantial enough to be a one-hander. It has just a little crunch. The sweet potato was a great idea and I'm currently in love with marshmellow creme.

It's not too sweet, it stands on it's on and it blows those boxed pop tarts out of the water.

My plan is to make these and freeze the one's that he won't eat this week and take them out as needed!