Cocktail Hour — Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

February 26, 2010 By 2 Comments
MexicanHotChocolate-bubble

My love affair with tequila started years ago when I was hang­ing out at our week­end spot, Annies, and one of my friends Albee took me under his wing to teach me about tequila.  I made the com­mon mis­take of order­ing Albee’s brand of choice, Jose Cuervo with the lemon & salt.  Albee looked at me with a face of shock and dis­be­lief and quickly taught me that the proper way to enjoy Cuervo is to take it straight.  Now when the crav­ing for tequila hits, I pre­fer a good shot of Cuervo straight.  I never really got into the Patron hype. 

I dis­cov­ered the Par­tida Tequila brand of tequila by chance and received some lovely sam­ples to test drive.  Can I say, while I adore Cuervo, my new tequila of choice is Par­tida Tequila.  If you are a tequila fan like this gal here and are sick of the Patron over­load, check out Par­tida Tequila Brand.  It is out of this world.

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MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE, COCKTAIL STYLE

Adapted from Tyler Flo­rence, Food Network

Ingre­di­ents:

  • 3 ounces (tablet or cone) Mex­i­can choco­late or bit­ter­sweet chocolate
  • 3 cups milk
  • 2 table­spoons sugar
  • Tequila (to taste) [I used Par­tida Tequila Blanco]
  • Pinch salt
  • Whipped Cream
  • Cin­na­mon Sticks For Serving/Stirring

Direc­tions:

  1. Break up the choco­late into smaller pieces using a sharp knife.
  2. In a saucepan, com­bine the chopped choco­late, milk, sugar, and salt over medium-low flame.
  3. Heat and stir until the choco­late is com­pletely melted and milk is very hot, but not boil­ing, about 10 minutes.
  4. Remove from the heat and froth the choco­late milk with a mini whisk or molinillo.
  5. Pour into mugs.
  6. Add tequila to taste (heavy hand is not always best here) and stir.
  7. Add a dol­lop of whipped cream and gar­nish with a cin­na­mon stick.

First Up, Select Your Tequila of Choice.  I chose the Par­tida Tequila Blanco for this recipe

Tequila thumb Cocktail Hour Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

Gather Your Ingredients

MexicanHotChocolateIngredients thumb Cocktail Hour Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

This small disk of choco­late is not  for snack­ing but for cooking. 

MexicanHotChocolateChocolate1 thumb Cocktail Hour Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

Chop the Choco­late Into Smaller Pieces

MexicanHotChocolateChocolate3 thumb Cocktail Hour Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

Add the Milk

MexicanHotChocolateMilk thumb Cocktail Hour Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

Let the hot choco­late sim­mer away happily

MexicanHotChocolatebubble thumb Cocktail Hour Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

This is the molin­illo but you can use a wisk too.

Molinillo thumb Cocktail Hour Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

Time to add the Tequila

MexicanHotChocolateTequila thumb Cocktail Hour Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

The Final Result – Cock­tail Hour Has Commenced

MexicanHotChocolateFinal thumb Cocktail Hour Mexican Hot Chocolate With A Kick

*FTC Dis­claimer:  Tequila Sam­ples were pro­vided by representative.

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Filed Under: Cocktail Hour, Drink, Food Network, Recipe, Tried and True, Tyler Florence, Wine Beer & Spirits Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tried and True: Chicken Parmesan Made Lighter

February 26, 2010 By 4 Comments
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In this month’s issue of Clean Eat­ing Mag­a­zine, Food Network’s Robin Miller made a Guilt­less Chicken Parme­san and I have to admit, this way of mak­ing Chicken Parm is a tried and true.  I will never go back to the tra­di­tional way of mak­ing this. The fla­vor added by the Dijon Mus­tard was fab­u­lous.  And, at under 500 calo­ries, well that is an added plus.

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GUILTLESS CHICKEN PARMESAN WITH PASTA

Recipe cour­tesy of Robin Miller & Clean Eating

Ingre­di­ents:

  • Olive Oil Cook­ing Spray
  • 2 tsp. olive oil
  • 1./2 cup onion, divided
  • 1 green bell pep­per, seeded and diced
  • 2–3 cloves gar­lic, minced
  • 2 tsp. dried oregano, divided
  • 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp. tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1 tbsp. reduced fat Parme­san cheese, grated
  • 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1/4 tsp. sea salt
  • 1/4  tsp. ground pepper
  • 4 4oz bone­less, skin­less chicken breasts, pounded to 1-inch thickness
  • 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 cup part-skim moz­zarella cheese, shredded
  • 8 oz. cooked penne (or your favorite pasta)
  • 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

Direc­tions:

  1. Pre­heat oven to 400 degrees F.  Coat a large bak­ing sheet with cook­ing spray.
  2. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add onion, bell pep­per and gar­lic and sauté 3 to 5 min­utes, until veg­eta­bles are soft. 
  3. Add 1 tsp. oregano and stir to coat.  Cook 30 sec­onds, until oregano is fragrant. 
  4. Add toma­toes and tomato paste and bring to a sim­mer.  Reduce heat to low, par­tially cover and sim­mer 20 to 30 minutes.
  5. Mean­while, in a shal­low dish, com­bine panko, Parme­san, remain­ing 1 tsp. oregano, thyme, salt and black pep­per.  Mix with a fork to combine. 
  6. Brush both sides of each chicken breast with the Dijon mus­tard.  Trans­fer each breast to panko mix­ture and turn to coat both sides. 
  7. Arrange chicken on pre­pared bak­ing sheet.  Coat sur­face of chicken with cook­ing spray. 
  8. Bake 20 minutes.
  9. Top each chicken breast with 2 to 3 tbsp. of tomato sauce and 2 tbsp. mozzarella. 
  10. Return chicken to oven and bake 10 min­utes more, until crush is golden brown and cheese is melted and bubbly.
  11. Arrange pasta on a serv­ing plate and top with remain­ing tomato sauce.  Serve chicken with pasta on the side, gar­nish­ing both with basil. 

Gather The Ingredients

ChickenParmesanIngredients thumb Tried and True: Chicken Parmesan Made Lighter

Sim­mer­ing The Sauce

ChickenParmesanSauce thumb Tried and True: Chicken Parmesan Made Lighter

Panko Bread­ing

ChickenParmesanPanko thumb Tried and True: Chicken Parmesan Made Lighter

Mus­tard – So Much More Fla­vor­ful Than Egg

ChickenParmesanMustard thumb Tried and True: Chicken Parmesan Made Lighter

Moz­zarella and Home­made Sauce – Yes please…

ChickenParmesanBakeable thumb Tried and True: Chicken Parmesan Made Lighter

The End Result…

ChickenParmesanFinal thumb Tried and True: Chicken Parmesan Made Lighter

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Filed Under: Food Network, Healthy, Recipe, Robin Miller, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , ,

Not Your Ordinary Grilled Cheese…

February 24, 2010 By 1 Comment
AppleBriePaniniIngredients.jpg

Some­times it is the sim­plest recipes that need to be changed up.  The other day I had the worst crav­ing for a grilled cheese and some sliced apples.  How­ever, I didn’t have any pro­volone in the cheese drawer.  That led to a trip to the fridge and the star­ing end­lessly at its con­tents won­der­ing what now I could cook since my orig­i­nal idea was out of the ques­tion.  Then, a small box caught my eye in the cor­ner next to the cojita and queso fresco cheeses – that being a small wheel of brie.  I quickly gath­ered my other ingre­di­ents and headed over to the panini press.

The panini press in my house clearly doesn’t get enough love.  How­ever, as I assem­bled the ingre­di­ents and fought off the hun­gry advances of an angry sous chef/pug, I fig­ured that I would make an Apple and Brie Panini.

Next time you want to make some­thing that is just a lit­tle dif­fer­ent, give this a shot.  The con­trast between the creamy brie and the crisp apple is some­thing to be experienced.

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APPLE AND BRIE PANINI

Ingre­di­ents:

  • Brie Cheese
  • 1 Apple, sliced into small wedges
  • 4 slices of potato or sour­dough bread
  • Olive Oil

Direc­tions:

  1. Lightly brush the bread with olive oil and lay on the panini press to briefly toast
  2. Slice the brie into small thin slices.  (I removed the rind but it’s your discretion)
  3. On the toasted bread, lay a layer of brie and top with a layer of sliced apples
  4. Grill on the panini press until golden brown and its a pool of melty deliciousness.
  5. Enjoy!

Gather The Ingredients

AppleBriePaniniIngredients thumb Not Your Ordinary Grilled Cheese…

Time to slice the Brie

AppleBriePaniniBrie thumb Not Your Ordinary Grilled Cheese…

Its all about layering

AppleBriePaniniSetUp thumb Not Your Ordinary Grilled Cheese…

Check out that cheese pool­ing out of the sides

AppleBriePaniniPostPress thumb Not Your Ordinary Grilled Cheese…

Lunch is served

AppleBriePaniniFinal thumb Not Your Ordinary Grilled Cheese…

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Filed Under: Recipe, Sandwiches Tagged With: ,

Obsessed With: Nest With Chocolate Truffled Eggs

February 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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I have to say I don’t go crazy dec­o­rat­ing for the hol­i­days – but when I saw this Nest With Choco­late Truf­fled Eggs from Williams Sonoma, I thought how gor­geous it was and how per­fect it would look as a din­ing room table cen­ter­piece.  I’m afraid to see what other Easter good­ies that the Williams Sonoma cat­a­log will fea­ture. Thank­fully, for my wallet’s sake, it hasn’t arrived in the mail­box just yet.

I know, I know – behave Lys.

WSNestwithChocolateTruffleFilledEggs thumb Obsessed With: Nest With Chocolate Truffled Eggs

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Filed Under: Chocolate, Decorating, Obsessed With, Williams-Sonoma Tagged With: , , ,

Question To The Readers: Grocery Savings

February 22, 2010 By 1 Comment
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questionmark thumb1 Question To The Readers: Grocery Savings One of the things with cook­ing so much is that it is so easy to spend a for­tune at the local Whole Pay­chex or Gen­uardis.  I’m always on the hunt for “good” ingre­di­ents and it’s so easy to get inspired by a gor­geous piece of salmon or a fab cheese I’ve never worked with before.  Pretty much the wal­let that once would scream in hor­ror at the Nordy’s shoe depart­ment now runs for life sup­port when I head to Whole Foods. 

I have been read­ing a great book, COUPON MOM, and I have come to real­ize that there HAS to be coupons for many of the pantry sta­ples that every­one uses.  So, I have vowed to get my coupon game back in gear.  For a gal who is so deter­mined to save a for­tune when it comes to online shop­ping and waxes on end­lessly about all things cash back, for me to NOT save while I am gro­cery shop­ping is just not right.

I have to ask – in this time of reces­sion and a focus on one’s per­sonal finances – how do you save when you go food shop­ping?

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Decadence On A Spoon — Super Simple Caramel Sauce

February 21, 2010 By 3 Comments
CaramelSauceIngredients.jpg

This has been one of the posts that have caused me to make repeat kitchen exper­i­ments.  I have been crav­ing caramel sauce to top var­i­ous con­fec­tions and the option of buy­ing store bot­tled stuff is not an option.  I have been highly con­cerned about the addi­tives and preser­v­a­tives in var­i­ous processed foods.  I’ve heard way too many hor­ror sto­ries lately and if I can make it myself, why not try.

The first time I tried the tra­di­tional white sugar, water, vanilla and cream recipe and, you guessed it – BURNT beyond belief.  It said to look for a wal­nut col­ored mix­ture of bub­bling sugar.  Mine was not wal­nut and by the time it looked wal­nut or so, can we say the kitchen smelled like cot­ton candy gone hor­ri­bly bad.  I’m sur­prised my neigh­bors didn’t smell it down­stairs because I could smell it the next day in the air.  It was hor­ri­bly sick­en­ingly sweet – like when my Aquolina Pink Sugar per­fume bot­tle shat­tered in the bathroom.

So, back to the kitchen I went as I scoured cook­book after cook­book for the best caramel sauce recipe.  It took a bit of research and much Google action but I finally found one that works.  Put this in your dessert arse­nal – it will take your recipes from “good” to “amazing”!

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SUPER SIMPLE CARAMEL SAUCE

Recipe adapted from Lynda’s Recipe Box

Ingre­di­ents:

  • 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 1/2 cup of but­ter (or one stick)
  • 1/2 cup of heavy cream
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • dash of salt

Direc­tions:

  1. In a heavy bot­tomed sauce pan with high sides melt the butter.
  2. When it melts, add the brown sugar and salt, stir­ring con­stantly, until the mix­ture comes to a rolling boil.
  3. Slowly add the heavy cream and it will bub­ble furi­ously.  Whisk con­stantly until the heavy cream is incorporated.
  4. Bring to a boil again and, while still stir­ring, add the vanilla.
  5. Stir and remove from the heat.
  6. Let the sauce cool and pour into a stor­age jar.
  7. Store in the fridge for about 2 weeks.

Gather the ingredients

CaramelSauceIngredients thumb Decadence On A Spoon Super Simple Caramel Sauce

Some advice – pre­mea­sure the cream, sugar and have the vanilla and mea­sur­ing spoon ready because this recipe moves super fast!

CaramelSauceSetUp thumb Decadence On A Spoon Super Simple Caramel Sauce

Melt the but­ter – back away Paula Deen!

CaramelSauceButter thumb Decadence On A Spoon Super Simple Caramel Sauce

Stir the sugar con­stantly.  Who­ever invented the sil­i­cone whisk deserves a scooby snack!

CaramelSauceSugarStir thumb Decadence On A Spoon Super Simple Caramel Sauce

Add the cream – see the bub­ble action starting?

CaramelSauceCream thumb Decadence On A Spoon Super Simple Caramel Sauce

Ahhh – caramel comfort…

CaramelSauceFinal thumb Decadence On A Spoon Super Simple Caramel Sauce

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Filed Under: Cooking In Stilettos, Desserts, How To, Recipe, Sauces, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , , ,

Stir It 28: Bloggers Align For Haitian Relief

February 20, 2010 By 2 Comments

If you haven’t heard about Stir It 28, you need to check this out.  Fab­u­lous food blog­gers and com­pa­nies have aligned to make a 4 city culi­nary event.  This is sched­uled to take place on Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 21, 2010 in Los Ange­les, Atlanta, Chicago and New York City.

From the offi­cial press release: 

Food blog­gers from coast to coast have join forces to raise a tar­geted $50k to aid in the Haiti relief effort. STIR IT 28: Food Blog­gers Align for Haiti Relief is a culi­nary event tak­ing place simul­ta­ne­ously in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Ange­les, New York City and Wash­ing­ton, D.C., on Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 21st from 4:00pm to 7:00pm EST and 4:00pm to 7:00pm PST in Los Ange­les. , One hun­dred per­cent of the pro­ceeds from the cam­paign will ben­e­fit Share Our Strength and Yéle Haiti.  Par­tic­i­pat­ing chefs, food blog­gers, restau­ra­teurs and home cooks from each city will pre­pare incred­i­ble and diverse dishes and lus­cious cock­tails for guests to enjoy.

As part of the cam­paign, dona­tions are being accepted dur­ing the entire month of Feb­ru­ary for those who are unable to attend one of the nation-wide events.  Dona­tions can be made via Pay­Pal and advanced tick­ets to any of the 5 events can be pur­chased by vis­it­ing flanboyanteats.com or cococooks.blogspot.com. Tick­ets are $30 in advance, with lim­ited door sales in each city.

“We are so grate­ful to Flan­boy­ant Eats, The Duo Dishes, Coco Cooks and all those food enthu­si­asts, cooks, chefs and blog­gers who have come together for STIR IT 28 to raise funds for Haiti Relief.  We know that long after the atten­tion wanes and the media is no longer focused on this dis­as­ter that the peo­ple of Haiti will need food, water, med­ical care and sup­plies.  And they need to know that peo­ple care.  Thank you for car­ing and shar­ing your strength!,”  says Deb­bie Shore, Co-founder of Share Our Strength.

Orga­nized by food blog­gers Bren Her­rera, chef and author of Flan­boy­ant Eats, Chrys­tal Baker of The Duo Dishes, and Court­ney Nzeribe of Coco Cooks lead the effort to bring increased aware­ness to Haiti’s dev­as­ta­tion, fol­low­ing the Jan­u­ary 12th earth­quake that brought down the city of Port-au-Prince. 

“It’s a day of sol­i­dar­ity and a way for the culi­nary com­mu­nity to cel­e­brate life, hope and restora­tion to the island through food,” saysBren Her­rera, a Cuban native whom is famil­iar with the plights of third world islands suf­fer­ing from poverty and hunger.

The Atlanta event will be hosted by Bren Her­rera in his­toric West End at SPACE Atlanta, with live enter­tain­ment and a DJ, two cash bars serv­ing a sig­na­ture cock­tail called “Stir it Up.” Ser­pas True Food (GQ mag­a­zine top 10 new U.S Restau­rants) is a fea­tured par­tic­i­pat­ing restau­rant offer­ing Cre­ole cui­sine, among other notable restau­rants and chefs. Mon­taluce Win­ery is donat­ing wine for the event, as well. The Los Ange­les event will be hosted by Chrys­tal Baker and held at the pri­vate home of Greg at SippitySup.com in the Hol­ly­wood Hills. Grey Goose vodka and LA brand attaché Christophe Namer part­ner with Natalie Bovis-Nelsen of TheLiquidMuse.com to cre­ate sig­na­ture cock­tails, as well as spe­cialty san­grias from Fre Alcohol-Removed Wine and Sut­ter Home Wine. Chicago will be hosted by Court­ney Nzeribe at Three Peas Art Lounge, while NYC will be held at the NYU Depart­ment of Nutri­tion & Food Stud­ies. D.C. details to come.

STIR IT 28 com­mu­nity spon­sors include SPACE Atlanta, Mon­taluce Win­ery, The Liq­uid Muse, Three Peas Lounge, The Peo­ple Bro­kers Pub­lic Rela­tions, Word of Mouth Atlanta,  Son­nyNite Audio, Party City, Graphic Mail, T-3 True Graph­ics, RH Media Group, Trader Joe’s and G-PAN.

For more infor­ma­tion, please visit flanboyanteats.com, cococooks.blogspot.com, theduodishes.com and the Offi­cial Face­book Event Page

 

 

I am so happy to see these great peo­ple align for such a good cause.  If you are in any of the 4 cities, please try to attend or give what you can if you are unable to make it.

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