s’more popcorn

Posted on 14 May, 2013 by natalie

smore popcorn 9860

Summer has arrived in Arizona, with our highs consistently in the upper 90s and 100s I know that no-burn days a right around the corner. No burn days are these horrible things that were invented to prevent humans from enjoying delicious s’mores. They SAY it’s for air quality, but I’m pretty sure they just hate happiness.

And s’mores.

So every summer these terrible days stand between me and a delicious s’more… and trust me, you DO NOT want to be between me and my dessert. That is not a safe place for anyone to be.

So what can I do? Plan ahead.

A good contingency plan can be the difference between life and death, people. LIFE AND DEATH.

So how will I feed my s’more addiction when I can’t roast marshmallows? HOW!?

BF came to the rescue on this one, when he sent me this post from Buzzfeed. I was not surprised to see that I had all of the necessary ingredients on hand.

smore popcorn 1041

Thus I discovered what is one of the easiest and most delicious snacks of all time. The only thing that would have made it better is if I had Golden Grahams in the pantry. I think they would’ve actually worked better than just the crushed graham crackers, but then maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to make this again.

I used this “simply salted” popcorn which has just a hint of salt, leaving it like a blank canvas on which to paint my flavor brush. Sure popping popcorn isn’t rocket science, but when it means one less pan to clean, how can I resist?

I can’t.

S’more Popcorn

Makes about 10 cups s’more popcorn

Printable Recipe

1 3-oz. bag microwave popcorn, popped (or 10 cups popped popcorn)
4 Tbsp. butter
One 10-oz. bag mini marshmallows, divided
1 sleeve graham crackers (9 crackers) or a generous sprinkling of Golden Grahams cereal
½ cup mini chocolate chips
Salt to taste

1. Pop popcorn according to package directions – 2 minutes and 25 seconds is the magic time in case you were wondering. At least for our microwave it seems to be. You could also pop popcorn on the stovetop if you wanna be all old-fashioned-like. Spread popcorn on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with crumbled graham crackers.

2. Heat butter, half of the chocolate chips, and half of the marshmallows in the microwave until the butter is melted, stir to combine.

3. Drizzle marshmallow mixture evenly over the popcorn and toss to combine.

4. Once the popcorn is well-coated with the marshmallow mixture, add the unmelted marshmallows and chocolate chips and toss everything together. Sprinkle with additional salt to taste.

5. Let cool completely then transfer to a paper bag for storage (in the unlikely event that you have any left)

[ Adapted from BuzzFeed ]

easy cheesy twists

Posted on 22 January, 2013 by wee eats

I don’t know if I’m still tired from the holidays or if it’s just because hockey is back, but I’ve been fixated on fast and easy appetizers. I’m sure that this will wear off eventually, but for now I’m still trying to make things that I can throw together super fast without sacrificing flavor, like last week’s prosciutto flatbread. Given my past success with puff pastry shortcuts, that was naturally one of the first things I thought of.

These cheesy twists are the perfect, easy appetizer for your next get together. They require minimal effort AND you can make them in advance. Yep. That means you can spend like 30 minutes (if even) in the kitchen today, and freeze these and have them ready at the drop of a hat for the next time you have guests over. That easy.

I used parmesan cheese because I know it gets nice and crispy. I debated cheddar as well, but, ya know. That would have taken me twice as long. I’ve got another sheet of puff pastry on ice with cheddar written all over it. I would go with any sharp cheese, you want it to have lots of flavor, because the pastry itself isn’t super flavorful. If not parmesan, a good pecorino or asiago would certainly do the trick. I also added a sprinkle of garlic powder, a dash of smoked paprika, and a hint of cayenne for a little bit of kick, but the skies the limit here.

Easy Cheesy Twists

[ Printable Recipe ]

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed.
2 ½ ounces (a little over ⅓ cup) parmesan cheese, finely grated
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
pinch of cayenne
salt
Egg wash (1 egg, beaten with 1 Tablespoon of water)

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and line two baking sheets with parchment.

2. Roll puff pastry to smooth folds. Roll to about 12 inch by 10 inch rectangle.

3. In a small bowl, stir together the cheese and spices.

4. Rub surface of puff pastry with egg wash. Sprinkle cheese mixture over half of the puff pastry and fold the un-cheesed half over the cheesed half. Roll again to press the two sides together, you should now have a rectangle that is 6 or 7 inches by 10 inches.

5. Cut rectangle into ½-inch strips, you’ll end up with about 20 strips. Grab each end of a strip and twist until you have a spiral. Place on the baking sheet, and continue twisting each strip until they’re all twisted.

6. Now you have a choice – bake now or freeze for later

To bake now: Brush each strip with egg wash, sprinkle with salt, and bake for about 13 minutes until nice and golden.

To freeze: Place baking sheet in the freezer 40 minutes or until frozen. Move twists into a freezer-proof bag and freeze until you’re ready to make them. To bake from frozen, add an extra 2 – 3 minutes onto the baking time.

thursday things

Posted on 26 April, 2012 by wee eats

It’s Thursday!

Not quite Friday, but so close I can taste it.

We’ve had a lot going on at work, this is the time of year that we get super busy, so work like crazy all day long, go home, and crash super hard. It makes it hard to do things like, I don’t know, import all those food photos I’ve taken and type up a post. So hard.

As my time becomes more limited I turn to easier recipes, shorter posts, and less pictures. I made these surprisingly good raviolis with wonton wrappers of all things. I had just enough time for BF to snap a pic with his iPad before we devoured them for dinner… I know, I’m pitiful. I wasn’t really even planning on liking/posting the recipe so, whatever. Don’t judge.

Now, they aren’t like regular ravioli. The wonton wrapper is much thinner and more delicate than typical ravioli dough, but I actually enjoyed that. It was like a much lighter pasta that allowed the flavor of the filling to really shine through. I dunno, I liked them. A lot more than I expected to. Especially since I’m not a huge ravioli fan. Boyfriend enjoyed them too, and he is a fan of ravioli, so there must be something good going on there…

Oh, and Thursday’s Serious Eats Sweets lineup also featured my croissants – woot! A picture, by the way, that wasn’t good enough for stupid Tastespotting’s 100×100 pixels. If you have a lot of free time this weekend, you should probably make them. And by probably, I mean definitely. Definitely make them. So good.

Don’t they just look scrumptious?

I’m also dreaming about this cake recipe I saw on Food & Wine, but BFF told me I should probably give the chocolate cakes a rest and make something light and fruity… which I was totally considering until I saw that cake… I mean, it’s just so bizarre… a crunchy almond filling (that when I read, I realized was awful close to a macaron recipe) PLUS peanut butter PLUS rice krispies… I think I have to make it. At this point, I don’t think it’s even my choice anymore. It just has to be done. This is F&W’s picture, not mine. (Obviously, since I haven’t made it yet).

Without further ado, here is a quick ravioli recipe to make while your croissant dough is resting…. I filled mine with a plethora of cheese, only because I went on a recent cheese binge at Trader Joes and we have enough cheese to feed a small country for several weeks… feel free to fill yours with whatever you like. Boyfriend even recommended I fill them with my bolognese sauce or meatballs, but by then they were already closed up and ready to go so maybe next time, love.

My recipe only uses half the wonton wrappers, partly because I wanted to experiment with the rest, and partly because I got tired of making them. Feel free to double the recipe (but stick with one egg) if you want more ravioli. These are estimates, just shove whatever you want in there, it’ll be fine

Wonton Raviolis

[ Printable Recipe ]

1/2 package wonton wrappers
1/2 lb ricotta (use full fat, it has SO MUCH MORE flavor)
1/4 cup each parmesan, pecorino, fontina… whatever else you like.
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
generous sprinkle of salt
any other additions you want to add (cooked italian sausage, prosciutto, whatever)
1 egg, lightly beaten + additional egg for egg wash

1. Mix together ricotta, cheeses, herbs, salt, 1 egg, and any other fillings you may want to add.

2. Lay out wonton wrappers and place about 1 teaspoon of filling in each.

3. Make egg wash by beating your additional egg with one tablespoon of water. Rub egg wash around the outside of each wonton wrapper, folding each wrapper in half as you go. Make sure you press around the filling first, and then press the edges together. Get as much air out of the filling as possible to ensure your ravioli don’t burst while cooking.

4. Store in refrigerator up to one day or freeze** until you feel like having ravioli.

5. When ready to cook, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and reduce heat so that the water isn’t at a violent rolling boil, but more of a gentle simmer-y boil. Drop ravioli in a few at a time and cook for about 3 minutes each, until they float to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon into a separate pan with your warmed sauce as they finish, adding more as necessary until they are all cooked. Remember to be gentle, since the “shells” for these ravioli are so thin that they will tear or burst more easily than regular ravioli.

I boiled my ravioli, transferred them to a wide bottomed pan with warm sauce and spooned the sauce over them, then drizzled them with a tiny bit of oil, and garnished with fresh basil. It was delicious.

**To freeze ravioli, line a large plate or baking sheet with parchment and place sealed ravioli in a single layer. Freeze until firm and then transfer frozen ravioli into a freezer safe bag. To cook, bring water to a gently boil cook ravioli until they float to the surface.

lasagna for two

Posted on 29 November, 2011 by wee eats

I’ve been working longer days the past few weeks. This means I get out of work late, much later than BF would like, because it means I don’t have quite as much time to make dinner before he’s ready to chew his own leg off. In order to keep all of BF’s limbs attached, I’ve made an effort to pre-make at least one meal a week. Sometimes he’s even lucky enough for me to make one of his favorite things : Lasagna.

Who doesn’t love lasagna? The best part is, I can make it all the day before. I just refrigerate it overnight, and then BF pops it in the oven towards the end of my shift. Voila – dinner is ready by the time I get home. As an added bonus – BF gets to feel like he made dinner that night. :)

I almost didn’t post the recipe, since it uses a jar sauce, so I kinda feel like it isn’t REALLY a “recipe”. Then I figured, who doesn’t have days where they get home from work too exhausted or too late to make dinner? And who doesn’t resort to jarred sauces once in awhile? Especially if you can find one you like (for me – that’s Trader Joe’s Bolognese).

Since we’re a small family of two (sometimes three) people, I make mine in a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, and it’s still enough to feed us for a couple of meals. If you want to make more, just use a larger pan, or if you want to make some for later, just make an additional batch in one of those foil loaf pans and store it in the freezer until the mood strikes. (Or, in my case, to feed the boy if I have to leave town for work).

Just try to mangle yours slightly less when it’s time for your photo-op

Lasagna for Two – Makes one 9 x 5-inch loaf of lasagna

[ Printable Recipe ]

½ (1.25 lb) package Italian turkey sausage (sweet or hot)
½ lb lean ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
2 – 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 package no-boil lasagna noodles
1 package whole milk ricotta (trust me on this, please don’t use skim. If you’re going to use skim, just skip the ricotta altogether)
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (or a couple sprinkles each of basil and oregano)
Shredded Italian cheese
Salt and pepper

Remove sausage from casings and cook with ground beef in a sauté pan over medium-high until brown. Add onion and continue cooking until soft. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in your jar of sauce and lower heat to simmer.
While sauce is simmering, mix Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper into the ricotta. (If you have milk or cream on hand, you can add a splash or two to thin the ricotta just a little bit). Set aside.
Assemble the lasagna: Put just enough sauce to coat the bottom of the loaf pan, and place a lasagna noodle on top. Scoop meat sauce mixture into a layer over top.Spread ricotta mixture onto one side of another lasagna noodle, place ricotta side down into pan. Top with more meat sauce, and repeat until you’re out of room.Once you’ve reached your last noodle, add your remaining meat sauce and sprinkle with Italian cheese. Feel free to grate some parmesan over top, maybe sprinkle some Italian seasoning.
Now you can either – bake in a 375 degree oven until cheese is hot and bubbly (about 30 minutes) OR cool, cover, and refrigerate.

To bake from refrigerated, take out of the fridge while the oven preheats to 375. Once the oven is preheated, bake the lasagna, covered with foil, 40 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake additional 15 minutes or so until cheese is hot and bubbly

TIPS

- Grease your pan or, if you’re extra lazy like me, just line it with aluminum foil for easy cleanup.

- Adding fresh parmesan on top will encourage browning. If you think it’s ready but it just won’t get brown enough, feel free to pop the broiler on for a minute or so.

- Another trick – Keep a baguette in your freezer. Let the baguette sit, wrapped in foil, at room temperature while the lasagna bakes, then throw it into the oven for the last 15-20 minutes or so of baking and it will be just as good as new.

cheater cinnamon rolls

Posted on 27 July, 2011 by wee eats

I have a confession to make. Remember how last weekend I was really busy and didn’t have time for you guys? Remember how all I had was puff pastry and I couldn’t find my “try hard” pants, so you got a recipe for pesto-salami rolls? Well, I was holding out on you. I really wanted to talk about my weekend and our trip up to Flagstaff, with lots of nature pictures. So, in an attempt to not overwhelm you with a thousand pictures, I compromised. I gave you my puff pastry roll-up recipe, with pictures of outdoors, when I really had this amazing cheater cinnamon roll recipe that I made that very same day. That’s how easy this puff pastry thing is – 2 recipes, 10 minutes (not including baking time, of course), just spread with ingredients and roll up. SO EASY! And look how cute they were, just LOOK!

As I was trying to think of something to do with my puff pastry – I vaguely remembered watching an episode of Barefoot Contessa where she made cheater “sticky buns” using puff pastry. I didn’t want sticky buns. I know this may be considered sacrilege, but I really abhor nuts in my baked goods. (I know, try not to judge me too hard.)

However, since sticky buns are pretty much just fancy (and messy) cinnamon rolls – I decided that puff pastry would be delicious filled with cinnamon. You have no idea how right I was. The best part? The cinnamon sugar somehow leaked into the bottom of the muffin cup and caramelized on the bottom of the cinnamon roll – giving it this layer of delicious cinnamon-sugary goodness.

Just look at that goodness. Who could possibly say no to that? The only change I would make is to add more cinnamon filling to these, although I’m not completely convinced it wouldn’t just leak to the bottom of the roll. I’m also not completely convinced that leaking to the bottom would be a bad thing. Did I mention how fast and easy these are to make?

They lack the soft, sweet chew usually associated with a nice, fresh cinnamon roll. Instead they have a slight crunch to them (it is, after all, puff pastry). They really don’t keep all that well, either, not that they’d last past day two anyway. They’re so simple to make and come together so quickly, it’s a great alternative to a fussy, million hour cinnamon roll recipe for your next brunch. Just thaw the pastry dough overnight in the fridge, and assemble 30 minutes before your company arrives.

Puff Pastry Cinnamon Rolls

Print Me

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
2 Tbsp butter, softened or melted
1/4 C brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (more if desired)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Unfold puff pastry sheet and spread with softened or melted butter.

2. Sprinkle brown sugar over sheet of puff pastry (I just sprinkle enough to cover it evenly, I don’t really measure), then sprinkle with cinnamon, leaving about 1/2 inch along the side farthest from you.

3. Tightly roll pastry from the side closest to you. Press the “clean” edge into the roll to seal. Cut into 6 pieces and place in muffin cups, cut side up.

4. Bake 20 – 30 min @ 375F until golden brown. Cool on wire rack about 10 minutes before eating (just so they don’t burn you as you shovel them into your mouth).

**Your average puff pastry package will come with 2 sheets of pastry dough. Each sheet will give you 6 rolls, so one package will yield 12 rolls.

S’more Popcorn

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