Spicy Sausage Bread

Got this idea from Pinterest as well but I decided to make my own bread dough and filling.

Here's what I did:

For the dough: 

2 cups flour

1 cup warm water (room temp)

1 packet yeast

1/2 tsp sugar 

1/2 tsp salt 

To make the dough: Mix all the dry ingredients + add water until sticky dough forms. Put this in a floured surface and knead until the dough comes together into a ball and no longer sticky. Put in a bowl + cover with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to rise. On the side of the stove while you cook the filling is an excellent place in the cold. 

A tip: Oil the bowl you put the dough to rise. I didn't and it was not easy to take out.

For the filling:

1 medium white onion

1 pepper (I used yellow)

Couple of small cherry tomatoes or 2 Romas or 1/4 canned

Garlic minced 

Chili oil (coz I had some) + some olive oil (chili oil can be skipped)

Thyme, oregano and either paprika, chili powder or chipotle powder (whatever you have in hand)

Spicy Sausage (I used linguisa but this can be skipped for veggie lovers)

Mushrooms (baby bella)

Cheese (parm and cheddar shredded) but you can use whatever you have

To make: 

Sauté the onions in chili oil and olive oil until translucent. Add tomatoes and cook until soft. Add garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant (a minute or two). Add pepper, paprika and chili pwd + sausage + mushroom and cook until dry. Add a little salt and tiny bit of sugar for taste. 

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 350F

Roll the dough in a floured surface, add the mixture in the middle + cheese on top and fold the dough from all four sides (use water, egg wash or buttermilk like I did coz I had some obviously!!) Brush the top with buttermilk + sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for 30 mins (which is what I did but it could be around 35 mins too depending on your oven..) Basically look for golden brown color or let your nose be the guide i.e. bread smells fragrant!!!!

Conga Bars or Blondies :)

Got the recipe from this months Yankee Magazine but use any chocolate chip recipe you like and add a cup of unsweetened shredded coconut to it. 

It's very good. I did not have coconut so I skipped it. Added almonds as my nut of choice then baked for about 25 mins until the stick inserted in the center came out clean! Must try!

Doro Wot and Berbere

I was actually feeling Moroccan but didn't quite want anything yellow. So I thought of Doro Wat and what a good decision it was!! This is an Ethiopian chicken stew and let me tell you it was fabulous. The spice mixture Berbere that is used in this a combo of a bunch of spices that well I happened to have. The recipe is on Savuer.com but obviously I modified (read skipped) it to suit me. 

For Berbere: Well... I never measure unless I am baking so all ingredients were eyeballed to abt 1tsp. I did skip fenugreek coz I didn't have any. I did add onion powder to the mix although I did find minced onion in the spice drawer! Used ground cloves and instead of whole chilies I used some paprika, chipotle powder and Indian Kashmiri chili powder (all approx 1 tsp or less if you like less spicy).

For Doro Wot: I actually followed the recipe except I only used half cup of ck stock and rest was water, added potatoes in with the chicken and at the last 10 minutes of cooking I added 1 can of drained, rinsed chick peas (remember was feeling Morroccan?!!)

For all the vegetarians out there, trust me, Try this recipe! Just chickpeas and potatoes will be fabulous but you can use  any veggies you like.   

For recipe: you can read the whole thing or just follow the pictures which is kinda cool - http://nomnompaleo.com/post/55432334180/doro-wat-spicy-ethiopian-chicken-stew 

German Apple Cake

I modified the original recipe according to my tastes. The taste testers (work peeps) agree that this was good. I double the recipe for work so had to bake for approximately 55-60 mins. Please refer to the bottom of the page for the original recipe

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
2 cups flour

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1tsp cinnamon +1 tsp apple pie spice (or 2 tsp ground cinnamon)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 cups apples (peeled and thinly sliced) - I do about 2-3

How to make: 

1. Preheat Oven to 350 F. Grease and flour the pan you are going to use. 
2. In a bowl, add flour + salt+ baking pwd + cinnamon and mix well to combine
3. Beat oil + sugar + eggs until smooth. Add vanilla + buttermilk and beat until combined
4. Add the flour to this mixture in 3 additions and use mix well using a spatula. The batter will be very thick and hard to stir. Build those muscles! 
5. Fold in the apples and build more arm muscles
6. Bake for 40 mins (I found this was enough) but go to 45 or until the stick inserted in the center comes out clean 

Original recipe:

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/7915/german-apple-cake-i

Chocolate Cupcake with Hazelnut frosting and Chocolate flowers!

Oh yeah! sometimes you find some good things on Pinterest. These flowers were one of them. I thought these would be the star of the show but the frosting was fabulous!

So here's what I did:

For the cupcake:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup Starbucks dark hot chocolate powder (or cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup hot water + instant coffee or 1 cup strong brewed coffee from early in the day

To make: 

Preheat oven to 350 F   

Heat water in micro for 2 mins and add instant coffee. Then add the 1/3 cup of cocoa or hot chocolate.

Mix all wet ingredients together + add the dry ingredients and beat until there are no lumps. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for about 30 mins. Makes about 24 cupcakes depending on how much you add in each!!!

Note: Bake 20 mins is making 2 9" cakes :)

For Hazelnut Frosting:

Ingredients: 

Half a jar of Jiff Hazelnut spread (you can also use nutella)

2 sticks butter (softened) - I like unsalted

1 tblsp vanilla 

Powdered sugar (eyeball it! Or taste as you go or judge by thickness.. maybe about 1 lb)

6-8 tblsp milk, heavy cream or half and half or milk (whatever you have at hand)

How to make: Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffly (it turns pale and kinda harder to stir), add half a jar of Jiff spread and vanilla (I found that Jiff has more hazelnut flavour than Nutella) and beat some more. Add milk 2 tblsp at a time until you reach the desired consistency. Transfer to piping bag with any wide tip you want.

For the Chocolate Flowers: 

Follow recipe here: http://sweetrevelations.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/dark-chocolate-roses/ 

My take on the flowers: Some Taste Testers (= work peeps) liked this while some thought it was too rich while others thought the consistency was fudgy! For me, I could still taste the Cornstarch and did not like it. For next time, hopefully I can find a way to mask that. 

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Aren't they cute? Yes they are! And thanks to my friend who got the idea from some lady on Pinterest. I didn't follow a recipe so sorry I cannot credit anyone. I made this all from scratch but I am adding short cut ones for everything. 

Here's what I did:

For the Filling:

1 pack chicken thighs (pre- boiled when I was making stock) or cooked rotisserie chicken

Fresh or frozen green beans

Frozen peas and carrots

Assorted peppers (what I had from my garden)

Onions

Garlic and ginger

White béchamel sauce or cream of chicken soup

Tiny bit of Dijon and hot sauce

Chicken stock

For crust: (basic biscuit) 

Pillsbury biscuit or the following:

2 cups flour

1 stick unsalted butter

1 tablespoon sugar and baking powder

1 tsp baking soda and salt

1/2 tsp white pepper (coz I had some but you can use black pepper) 

1 cup butter milk

Making the filling:

Sauté Onion, garlic and ginger. Add pepper and green beans and when beans are crisp (bright green) add frozen veggie and chicken. When veggies are done add béchamel or cream of chicken with a little Dijon and hit sauce. If its a little too salty add tiny bit of sugar. Cool. 

 

For quick mixture: add chicken, thawed veggies + cream of chicken with some sugar to balance out the salt. Add am little cheese with the mixture and use this for filling.

To make the crust:

Preheat oven to 400 F. 

Mix all the dry ingredients. Add butter and use pastry cutter to blend until it looks like corn meal. Add buttermilk and mix. Roll and cut into round pieces.

 

Assembly:

Put biscuit dough in a muffin pan, add filling in the middle and top with some Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 mins.

Tuna Kimbap

What is Kimbap you ask? It's Korean sushi rolls and they are yummalicious! 

Here is a basic recipe: 

What did I do:

Make the sushi rice according to package directions. When done add apple cider vinegar and let it cool. 

Prep veggies: Julienne carrots and cucumbers into thin strips. Pickled radishes is traditional but I didn't have any. So what's a girl to do? Pickle your own cucumbers. Apple cider vinegar+sugar and add julienne cucumbers to soak.

Prep the tuna: make tuna salad. TRUST ME!! Add little bit of mayo to canned drained tuna. If the tuna has no salt add salt and pepper to it. 

On sushi roller thigie (no idea what sushi rolling bamboo mat is called), put a sheet of sushi nori (seaweed - available in Asian markets). First add a thin layer of sushi rice (use cold water so that rice does mot stick to your hands), cukes, carrots, pickled cuke or radish, tuna salad and roll. Slice and enjoy with soy sauce!