Homemade Lemonade

Now that my summer class if over, I'm going to try to post some of the recipes I've made over the past couple of months. Homemade Lemonade sounds like a great one to start with! Last weekend, I went to one of my best friend's weddings. Amber and I met back in 4th grade, and have been great friends ever since. She looked absolutely gorgeous! As did her decorations and bouquets (which I caught; get ready H ;) haha). Here is a picture of one of her center pieces for the reception tables:

There were probably 20 or more tables, so you can tell that they had more than enough lemons to give away. Ryan and I took home 17! We used the peels to make limoncello (if it turns out I'll post a recipe for it) and the juice to make Homemade Lemonade:

1 cup + 3 cups water, divided
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Combine 1 cup water and the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until dissolved to create a simple syrup. Cool the simple syrup. Pour the syrup, lemon juice, and 3 cups water into a pitchers. Stir well. Serve with ice, if desired.

Frittata

This was my first attempt at a frittata! After making it I realized how versatile they are. I kept seeing them in my recipe books, but I wasn't really sure what they were. They sounded good, but seemed a bit complicated. As it turns out, they're not. Ms. Betty Crocker helped me create this one. Sorry there's no picture. Maybe next time. :)


Frittata
4 or 5 eggs
1/4 c mozzarella cheese
1 T butter
1 c chopped peppers (red or green)
1/2 c chopped onions
1 small red potato, thinly sliced
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Garlic powder
Dried dill


Beat eggs, pepper, and salt in a bowl until well blended. Stir in the mozzarella cheese and set aside. Melt butter in a oven safe skillet (we used a cast iron skillet) over medium heat on the stove. Saute peppers, onions, and potato sliced in melted butter. Season with sea salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dill. Once the onions and potatoes are tender, pour egg and cheese mixture over vegetables. Cover the skillet, and cook for 8-10 minutes. Turn oven to broiler setting with the rack set in the top position. Place skillet on rack and cook for 2 minutes, or until the top of the frittata is golden brown. Flip the frittata out of the pan and cut into pie slices. Serve immediately with ketchup or salsa, if desired.

Parmesan Flat Bread

To start out the grilling season, Ryan and I made kabobs! Thank you to my sister and her husband for the awesome flat skewers! We had chicken, onions, cherry tomatoes, green bell peppers, zucchini, and pineapple (pictured right). The chicken, veggies, and tomatoes were spread with barbeque and grilled to perfection. For the pineapple, we marinated chunks in red wine for a few hours before grilling it. Then for some carbs to go with our kabobs, we made some Parmesan Flat Bread. Mmmm!

Parmesan Flat Bread

2-3 inch ball of Spent Grain Bread dough

Flour

3 garlic cloves, chopped

Salt and pepper

1/4 c shredded parmesan

Preheat a grill to medium heat. Sprinkle the ball of dough with flour. Spread out into a flat, round crust. Press chopped garlic cloves into the dough (alternatively you could mix the chopped garlic into the dough before spreading it out). Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill one side of the bread until golden brown. Flip the bread over and sprinkle with parmesan. Grill until this side is also golden brown and the parmesan cheese is melted.

                   Before                                                                                                         After

 

Baked Tilapia with Penne and Broccoli in White Sauce

This was a pretty easy meal to make. It was a fairly light meal, but an olive oil-based sauce would have made it even lighter. It paired well with a Chardonnay from The Naked Grape. I think an APA would have also been good. If you add some heat to the pasta, you could go with a wide range of wine/beer.

To make the tilapia:

- Preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit

- Drizzle tilapia filets with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with cajun seasoning (both sides)

- Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, or until it flakes easily, or until it seems done enough for your tastes

To make the pasta:

- Boil whole wheat penne according to package directions (9-10 minutes)

- While the pasta is boiling..

Make the broccoli + white sauce in a nonstick pan:

- Add a handful of fresh broccoli and a little bit of water. Cook over med-high heat for several minutes. As the water evaporates, add a little more. If you happen to have a steamer basket, that might work better. We don't have one, so I can't say for sure

- After the broccoli begins to soften, just go ahead and make the white sauce in the same pan:

- I like a medium thick sauce, so I used: 1 cup of milk, 2 tbsp. butter, 2 tbsp. flour, salt and pepper to taste

- If you've never made white sauce this way, it's pretty easy. Just add the butter and let it melt. Then add the flour and whisk to remove lumps. Gradually add the milk while whisking. As you whisk in the milk, the whole thing will thicken. Add a little more milk, whisk, repeat until it gets to your desired thickness.

Now that I think about it, I actually doubled the sauce recipe and cooked about half a package of penne, and it was a good ratio.

Anyway... serve the sauce/broccoli on the penne. I also like to put a little sauce on the tilapia.

Cheesy Chicken Skillet

One day I couldn't think of sometime to cook for dinner. I had to call three people to get an idea. One didn't answer. One said they were too busy at work to help me out. And then my sister said "make a cheesy chicken skillet." She's made it for me before, but I couldn't remember how to make it at all. It turns out that it is just chicken chunks and veggies sautéed in olive oil with a little cheese sprinkled on the top. Here was my version.

Cheesy Chicken Skillet
2 T olive oil
Two chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 cups broccoli
3/4 c shredded cheese
1/2 c dry bulgur

Season chicken if desired. Prepare bulgur according to package. Heat oil in a skillet. Saute chicken and veggies in the skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle with cheese and cook for another minute or two, or until cheese is melted. Serve chicken and veggies over bulgur.

Open-Faced CST

This creation was inspired by my coworker who eats tomato slices on toast almost every day.

Open-Faced CST
One tomato
One cheese slice (I used white cheddar)
Handful of spinach
One piece of bread (I used whole wheat)

Toast the bread. Slice the tomato. Layer the cheese, spinach, and tomato slices on the toast. Spinkle with salt and pepper, if desired.

Red Hook Porter clone

Okay, I was wrong. More about the Porter.

While brewing the Pinstripe Red Ale clone this past Saturday, I performed a little experiment with a bottle of the first batch of Porter we brewed. I poured the twelve ounce bottle into a glass, and added 2 ounces of room temp coffee (we make it pretty strong). The result was absolutely delicious. It reminded me a little of the Out of Sight Stout that Avery was serving a few months ago. In that case, Avery mixed their regular Out of Bounds Stout with cold-press coffee from a local roaster (the name escapes me). My little coffee porter experiment wasn't as good, but you can bet my next batch of porter will have coffee added.

Ska's Pinstripe Red Clone

I should probably snap some photos of the brewing process.

After a fast and furious start to home brewing, we took a break for about a month. Break time over. Last weekend we brewed another back of Red Hook Porter clone. The first batch of Porter was probably the best so far, so I have high hopes for this one. It ended up at the same original gravity as the first one, which is a good sign. The only thing we changed was the addition of a tiny (about 1 oz) amount of chocolate malt for the mini mash.

But enough about porter... this is about yesterday's near-disastrous attempt at brewing a clone of Ska's Pinstripe Red. This is the recipe of the month at The Brew Hut, so the ingredients were 10% off. However, there sure are a lot of ingredients, so it was still a relatively expensive batch. Recipe below.

The process started out just fine. Since the 30qt brew kettle doesn't fit well on the electric cooktop range, we brewed outside using the burner from a turkey fryer, which was borrowed from Chris's dad (thanks, Leo!). This has worked well for the previous five batches, all boiled during the severe Denver Drought.

Drought time came to an end last week when the sky opened up for days at a time. I thought we would have a break from the rain on Saturday, so I fired up the kettle and began the mini-mash. Just as we finished the mini-mash and added the LME, rain drops started falling. We turned off the heat and covered everything with umbrellas as we went inside to check the radar. It looked like it was only going to rain for awhile, so we figured we could pick it up later. A couple of hours passed and it looked like it was only going to get worse, so I made the call: bring the kettle inside and do the boil on the stove.

The kettle had been sitting outside in 40-degree temps for about 2 hours, and the wort had only cooled 20 or 30 degrees. It took awhile to get boiling on the stove, but the rest of the boil went fine. It smelled pretty good when it went into the fermenter, thanks to the flameout addition of Cascade and Tettnanger hops. As it turns out, I didn't read the recipe correctly, so instead of 1.5 oz of Liberty as First Wort Hops, I ended up just adding 3 oz in at the start of the boil.

Here's the recipe:

Ska's Pinstripe Red Ale Clone:

7 lbs Light Liquid Malt Extract

Grain:

- 12 oz Carapils

- 8 oz Crystal 80

- 4 oz Red Wheat Malt

- 2 oz Crystal 120

Hop schedule:

1.5 oz Liberty (First Wort Hop)

1.5 oz Liberty (60 min)

1 oz Cascade (0 min)

1 oz Tettnanger (0 min)

Yeast:

California Ale V, WLP051

American Ale II, WYeast 1272

Safale US-05

Note: First Wort Hop means adding directly after the mash, before brining the wort to a boil (see more at BeerSmith). The "0 min" hop additions are apparently also known as "flame-out" additions. Add the hops at the end of the 60 minute boil and leave them in there for 10-15 minutes as you cool the wort. These are two things I learned yesterday.

Pork Chops with Onion and Asparagus

I love a good pork chop, and Ryan has pretty much figured out the best way to make them! Season them with salt and pepper. Then sear them in a hot cast iron skillet on both sides. Finally, pop them in the oven for 10 or so minutes. Amazing! But since Ryan cooked this style for me last week, I thought I better change it up a bit this week. I went to delish.com to find a recipe, and I found Pork Chops with Onion Compote. I wanted to add some asparagus into the mix so below is my adjusted recipe.

Pork Chops with Onion and Asparagus 

4 T olive oil
1 medium onion (cut into 1/4 inch-thick rings)
2 pork chops (I used center-cut chops)
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/4 to 1/2 c. chardonnay
1/2 bunch asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces

Get out two skillets. I used the cast iron one for the pork chops and the non-stick one for the onions and asparagus. Heat two tablespoons oil in each pan on medium to medium-high heat. The non-stick skillet heats up faster than the cast iron; therefore, if using two non-stick skillets, start heating the one for the onions a couple minutes before starting the one for the pork chops.

After the oil has heated up in the non-stick skillet, add the onions to the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Saute for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Add them to the cast iron skillet. Sear both sides, about four minutes on each side (if using thicker pork chops, you will want to sear them for longer). Remove the pan from the burner and cover with foil to let the meat finish cooking. If using a non-stick skillet, keep the pan on the burner, but reduce the heat and cover with a lid.

After the onions have sauted for 10 minutes, add the asparagus. Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired. Cook for an additional 10 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until the liquid has almost evaporated, 2-3 minutes.

Place one pork chop on a plate and top with the onions and asparagus. Serve with the leftover chardonnay. Mmmm!

St. Patty's Cheese Pie

For St. Patrick's Day, Ryan and I had our friends, Liz and Jordan, over for dinner and green beer (light colored beer mixed with 1-2 drops of green food coloring). Ryan made some delicious club steak, and I made the following cheese pie for dessert. It was delicious and so beautiful. :)

St. Patty's Cheese Pie

1 (9") graham cracker crumb crust
1 (8oz) package Neufchatel 1/3 less fat cream cheese or regular cream cheese
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 c. lemon juice
1 t. vanilla extract
Green food coloring

In a large bowl, beat neufchatel cheese until fluffy. Beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Stir in lemon juice, vanilla extract and 2-4 drops green food coloring (to make a light green color). Pour into graham cracker crumb crust. Smooth top surface. Drip 3-4 drops of green food coloring on top. Swirl with a knife until desired pattern. Chill 4 hours or until set. Pie fully sets up over night.

Herb Roasted Whole Chicken

Mmmm! Chicken! Served with green beans, butter and garlic pasta, and salad. Delicious!

Herb Roasted Whole Chicken 

1 Whole Chicken
3 T Rosemary Infused Olive Oil
2 sprigs fresh oregano
2 springs fresh thyme
1 small onion
1 small lemon
5 garlic cloves
Salt
Pepper
Handful of cilantro

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Rub rosemary infused olive oil between flesh and skin. Stuff, onion, lemon, and garlic inside of the chicken cavity. Sprinkle chicken with oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees.

Chicken right before he oven-bathed :)

Julie & Julia

Ryan and I watched Julie & Julia last night. It reminded me that I had a food blog. :) Julie was way more dedicated to her blog than I am to this one. She probably also had 20 times more readers than me, but I realized how much I miss making new dishes. I really haven't made anything new in 2011; hopefully that will change. And hopefully I'll remember to take pictures and post the new dishes on here. Sorry to my five or so readers. :)

8 Layer Dip

It's Super Bowl time! Okay, I'm not a huge football person, but I do love to eat! So, I made a variation of this 7 Layer Dip. Here's mine:

8 Layer Dip

8 oz refried beans
1 c colby jack cheese
1 c pepper jack cheese
8 oz sour cream
2 avocados
salt
pepper
lemon juice
ground red pepper
1/2 c salsa
4 oz sliced black olives
2 roma tomatoes, diced
3 green onions, sliced

Mash avocados; add salt, pepper, lemon juice, and ground red pepper to taste. Spread refried beans in the bottom of a 9 inch round pan (or something close to that). Sprinkle 1/2 c colby jack and 1/2 c pepper jack cheese over beans. Spread sour cream over cheese. Spread mashed avocado over sour cream. Spread salsa over avocado. Sprinkle the rest of both cheeses over salsa. Top with black olives, tomatoes, and green onions. Serve with chips!