Stuffed Red Peppers inspired by Paula Deen

I was looking for something a little more fun for dinner, and I stumbled on to one of Paula Deen's not so buttery recipes.  I had previously made stuffed jalapeño peppers, and I wanted to do something a bit milder.  I basically took Paula's recipe and tweaked it a bit to make it my own by removing a few ingredients and adding some more.  The beauty of stuffing food is that you can pretty much stuff anything with anything.  Technically, you could just put cheese in some peppers, pop them in the oven and call it a day, or you could roast a bunch of other things and invent something much more.  Well, I took Mrs. Deen's recipe and added my own flair, technically inventing something new.  Here goes!

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients

• 4 large red bell peppers
• 3/4 pound ground chuck
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
• 2 teaspoons House seasoning,(salt, pepper and garlic powder)
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped green onion tops
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 cup hot water
• lots of cheese (you choose)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Start by cutting the peppers in half lengthwise, leaving the stems intact, and halving them also. Remove the seeds and ribs inside the peppers.
2. Using a hot skillet, brown the ground beef, pork, onion, garlic, 2 teaspoons of bouillon granules, and house seasoning together. Saute until onions become translucent. 
3. Drain the fat off.
4.  Add the rice, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, green onion tops, and soy sauce. 
5. Mix well and stuff the mixture into the peppers. 
6. In a small bowl, mix the hot water and the remaining bouillon granules. 
7. Pour this mixture into a shallow casserole large enough to hold all of the peppers.
8.  Place the stuffed peppers in the dish, cover with foil and bake for 25 to 35 minutes.
9.  Remove the foil and spoon the juice from bottom of the casserole over the top of the peppers. Bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

OMG YUMM!!!! seriously, yum!

Filipino Style Mocha Cake

My mom was reminiscing about the motherland a few days before her birthday.  In the Philippines, there is a bakery franchise called Goldilocks, which every good Filipino should know about.  Their cakes are delicious, and really like no other.  Seriously, I had a hard time making the cake not only taste like a famous Goldilocks Mocha cake, but it had to be light and fluffy just like it.  I eventually came up with the idea of sifting EVERYTHING!! Oh, and lots of egg whisking. (I just had to make sure the eggs didn't come from Iowa or Illinois)  After the second attempt, I perfected my Mocha version of the famous Goldilocks Cake.  Here goes:

INGREDIENTS:
 for the cake:
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. fine iodized salt
1-1/2 cups white sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. instant coffee 
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup hot water
8 egg yolks
8 egg whites
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)


DIRECTIONS
for the cake

 Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Grease and flour 8 -inch round baking pans and 3 inch in height. For mocha roll, use 12 x 16 x 1.0 inches tray lined with parchment paper (lightly grease the bottom of pan before putting the liner).

1.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, 1 cup of the sugar, baking powder and coffee. Make a well in the center, amd pour in oil and hot water.
2. Beat the mixture at medium-low speed for 3 minutes.  Add the egg yolks one at a time. The set it aside
3. In another medium bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar medium high speed until frothy. Add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in small portions, beating until mixture is stiff and glossy, like meringues.
4. Gently fold one fourth of beaten egg whites into batter, scrapping the bottom of bowl, until lightly blended. Gently fold about 1 cup of batter into beaten egg white mixture. Repeat until all the batter has been blended into egg white mixture. Pour evenly into prepared pans.
5. Bake for 25 - 35  minutes, then remove from oven and cool on wire rack. Fill and frost with coffee cream frosting and refrigerate. 

Now for the icing!!! yuuuum!!!

 This is the easy part!

Coffee Cream Frosting
INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter, cut into big chunks
1 tbsp. instant coffee
1 cup whipping cream, chilled
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted


DIRECTIONS

1. In a small mixing bowl of the electric mixer, beat butter at low-medium speed until it's nice and fluffy
2. Add instant coffee and beat for 1 minute. 
3. Add cream, little by little, beating well after each addition, until mixture is light and fluffy. 
4. add the powdered sugar in small portions, beating well after each additions, until mixture is smooth.
5. that's it! slather that delicious cake with your buttery mocha icing!

Remember to keep the cake in the fridge!

Jalapeño Poppers

I spent a few days at the Keys with my family, and on the way home, we stopped by a farmer's market just as we got to Florida's mainland.  While I was there, I saw some enormous jalapeño peppers, and figured that jalapeño poppers could be a really tasty snack for tonight.  Well, these peppers were not only much larger, but they were MUCH spicier!!! Here's how I combated the spiciness and made them into a deliciously cheesy snack.

INGREDIENTS
jalapeños
cream cheese
cheddar cheese
any other kind of cheese
one egg
a handful of flour

DIRECTIONS
Pre heat the oven to 350 F and grease a baking sheet

1. cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds
2. boil the peppers in hot water for 5-10 minutes, then quickly blanch them (immediately immerse them in iced water after taking them out of the boiling water)
3. in a separate bowl, mix the egg and flour
4. fill the jalapeño halves with the cheese
5. cover them in the flour mixture
6. bake them for 20 minutes
7. let them cool and enjoy!!

Roasted Duck

As part of my brother's birthday meal, I roasted a whole duck.  It was the first time I'd ever roasted anything, let alone duck.  Well, according to my family, it came out succulent and delicious!  Even the young kids devoured it! (Always a good sign).  My only issue with the duck was having to reach into the cavity and pull out the giblets.  It was GROSS!  First off, I really wasn't sure what I was looking for, and when I found them, they felt rubbery and slippery.  It took a while for me to get through this step, but it was well worth it.  Along with removing the insides, I also had to trim the flap and surrounding fat from the cavity.  This wasn't as disgusting.  After I did that, I seasoned the bird, stuffed it, and stuck it in the oven.  It came out beautiful!!

Now there is one important part of this recipe that cannot be altered:  The bird needs to be thoroughly defrosted, taken out of it's plastic lining, removed of it's giblets AND SET IN THE FRIDGE FOR A FULL 24 HOURS BEFORE CONTINUING TO SEASON.

INGREDIENTS
5lb Peking duck
3-3" strips of orange peel
1 small onion or 1/2 a big one
salt and pepper

Glaze
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tbsp molasses
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 crushed cloves of garlic
3-3" strips of orange peel
half of that orange's juice
8 whole black peppercorns lightly crushed
1/4 tsp of coriander seeds lightly crushed
DIRECTIONS:

1. Remove the giblets from the bird, cut off the flap and remove any surrounding fat from the cavity. Rinse the bird well.
2. stick it in the fridge for 24 hours.  This process will help dry the bird.
3. The next day, season the bird with salt an pepper on the outside and inside the cavity. You may have to get your hands a little dirty.  PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 300F
4. Chop the onion into large pieces and stuff the bird with it, along with 3 strips of the orange peel.
5. Pierce the duck's skin all over the place (including the back)
6. Set the duck on a rack in the roasting pan.  Pour a cup of water into the pan.
7. Roast the bird for 3 hours, but remove it every hour to re-prick the skin.
8. Make the glaze:  Combine all glaze ingredients in a small sauce pan and stir it over medium high until it's nice and warm.  Remove it, set it to the side and let it sit there until the duck's done.
9. Remove the duck from the oven and pour out all the excess fat from the pan.  Raise the temp to 450F and stick the duck back in until it's crisp and brown. (about 30 mins more).
10. Take it out and let it rest for about 10 mins before carving.  Drizzle the glaze over it, and serve!!

YUM!

Happy Birthday Portal Cake

A few weeks ago, I asked my brother what kind of cake he would want me to make for his birthday.  I really wasn't expecting anything fancy from him because I know he's not that big on desserts, but when he gave me his reply, I had to laugh. "Portal Cake," he facebook instant messaged me.  Well, I went ahead and did a little research, and to my surprise, Portal Cake was a lot easier to make than I thought.

Portal Cake comes from a very nerdy video game called Portal, where you play as a part of an experiment. Throughout the experiment, the computer is supposed to entice you with "delicious cake".  Well, at the end of the game, you find out that the cake is actually not real, and you never get satisfied.  Well, I quenched my brother's thirst for cake, and I must say, it was delicious!

When I first saw the video game cake, I wasn't shown what flavor the cake was, so I just asked him what kind he wanted.  He wanted chocolate cherry.  Okay, easy!

INGREDIENTS

Cake:

Devil's food cake mix

16 ounce package of frozen cherries

everything needed for cake mix

I used regular vanilla icing between the two round cakes.

Icing:

8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips

5 tbsp butter

1/3 cup sugar

Garnish:

White icing and Maraschino cherries.

Chopped up bars of chocolate. (as many or as little as you want)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Blend cherries with about 1/4 cup of water.  Use that instead of just water for cake mix directions. (Make two 8 or 9" round cakes)
2. Make cake according to cake.

for icing

1. bring sugar and butter to a slow boil, and add the chocolate chips. Stir.
2. Pour this over the cakes that have been stacked on top of each other with white icing as a bonding agent in between.

After Icing:

1. chop your bars of chocolate (I used 2 big ones) and scatter them all over the cake.
2. Make 8 nice mounds of white icing around the cake and top them with the cherries.
3. Don't forget the candle!

Enjoy!

The Easiest Meatballs EVER!

So I was looking into my inventory of what little I had and this is what I saw:  ground beef, eggs, one Italian sausage, Italian bread crumbs and a bunch of spices.  I also noticed some spaghetti, so naturally, I thought good ole spaghetti and meatballs would do the trick.  Instead of frying them, I decided to bake them because they're so greasy, anyway.  I also found ingredients to make my own sauce!

Here's the Recipe

Meatballs
INGREDIENTS
tbsp olive oil
1 Italian Sausage
1 lb of ground beef
1 egg
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp (or more) cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1tbsp Italian seasoning

1.  Heat the oven to 350degrees, grease a baking sheet with the olive oil and stick it in the oven while the oven's preheating
2. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix! It's best to use your hands, really.
3. make little balls and place them on the heated baking dish.
4. flatten the top of the balls because you will need to turn them over.
5. bake them in the oven for 15 minutes
6. after fifteen minutes, take them out, turn them over, then stick them in the oven for another 5 minutes.
7. Presto! You have made deliciously spicy meatballs!

Pasta Sauce (red)

INGREDIENTS

1 14-16 ounce can tomato paste

1 can of milk (measure with the tomato paste can)

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp Italian Seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup of chopped chives

1. Heat a skillet on med high and add the tomato paste and milk
2. stir until everything's incorporated
3. add everything else
4. keep stirring until you have a nice simmer.
5. Done!!

Steak and homemade mashed potatoes! YUM!

Albert mentioned that he didn't really like eating mashed potatoes because no one could quite make it like his mother.  Well, today I think I just beat Mom at her son's favorite recipes! (Also one of the easiest)  In addition to that, I fried some steak with gravy and steamed some veggies. A yummy, hearty meal.

Mashed Potatoes


INGREDIENTS

4-5 yellow potatoes
dash of salt
pepper
1 lb of sharp cheddar
1/2 stick of butter
a hand full of chopped chives
3 big spoonfuls of sour cream
2 large cloves or garlic
1/2 cup of milk (whole) :)

1. Cut up the potatoes into quarters
2. boil the potatoes and garlic in salted water for 15 minutes
3. drain
4. mash!
5. add everything else!!
6. continue to mash
7. ENJOY!!!!

Steak and Gravy

INGREDIENTS

2 pieces of whatever steak you like

1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream (milk will do)

salt

pepper

any kind of steak seasoning, you like.  I marinated them in beer, then seasoned them with salt, pepper and normal steak seasoning I found at the store

1. marinate the steak
2. cook them in the pan for about 5 mins on each side on med high for well done, med for med rare
3. take them out, and add the whipping cream to the pan and scrape the bottom with a spatula
4. pour your gravy over your steak
5. enjoy!!