Superbowl Sunday!

Well friends what did you think of the big game?!  Chris and I had a few friends over to watch and of course to eat!  Unfortunately this post is a little delayed, I ended up with the flu the first part of the week and have been catching up since, yuck!

For this get together I decided to do a chili bar!  It featured my Momma's homemade chili and Coney Sauce (my grandpa's recipe).  Thankfully my Momma is pretty much the most awesome mom a girl could have and she made a batch of her chili for the party so I wouldn't have to do it.  I did make the Coney though.  This was always one of my favorite recipes of my Grandpa's, now that he is no longer with us every time I make it I feel his spirit watching over me, "Be careful with that knife!  Now don't put the salt in yet, you don't want it to end up briney. " Insert the sounds of him jingling his change in his pocket as he oversaw the kitchen happenings.  I made this a couple nights ahead because the flavors get better after its in the fridge for a bit (Grandpa's cooking rules!).

The great thing about food bars is you can really go any way you want with it!  My chili bar included:
- hot dogs (chili or coney dogs)
- oyster crackers
- cheese
- sour cream
- pasta (for Skyline style)
- tortilla chips (for build your own nachos)

Chili bar, not the fanciest layout but it worked!

I always like to have some tags (themed, of course) telling people what's what, it makes it easier than explaining it a bunch of times.  I made a couple extra blank ones for people who brought dishes to fill theirs out too.

In addition to the chili and coney we had some yummy appetizers and for a sweet treat I made Nutella Rice Krispie Treats!  To go with the football theme I used a cookie cutter to shape them into footballs then used melted white chocolate for the laces.

Our yummy spread!  Threw in some football napkins, plates and  a Superbowl tablecloth

Nutella Rice Krispie Treats

Ingredients:
- 6 c. Rice Krispie cereal
- 3 Tbsp. butter or margarine
- 5 1/2 c. mini marshmallows
- 1 c. Nutella

Instructions:
-Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat.
-Add marshmallows and melt down.
-Add Nutella and stir until well combined, turn off heat.
-Add Rice Krispies (if your pot is large enough add them into the heated mixture, if not use a separate mixing bowl).
- Stir until cereal is well coated, spread out evenly on a greased sheet of wax paper or foil.
- Use a greased cookie cutter to cut into shapes if you'd like, or wait until cool and cut with a large knife.  With the scraps I just formed them into small balls and drizzled some of the white chocolate on them to make them look like truffles.

Hope you had a great Superbowl experience!  Up next, a Sunday soup and Mardi Gras!!

Cheers!
Steph

Soup's On!

Happy weekend friends!  Geez it seems like its been forever since I've posted, things have been busy!  Last weekend Chris and I went to look at wedding venues with our families, I think we left more confused than when we got there but we'll make a decision one of these days!  Anyways, who else is ready to say adios to this cold and snowy weather?!  Most definitely THIS GIRL!  Bring on sunshine and summertime!  Although I can wish winter away everyday it seems sucking it up and dealing is going to be the way it goes but at least I can make it better by sharing some yummy soup recipes with you!

Lately our Sundays have been pretty free, giving me plenty of time in the kitchen.  In an effort to keep on track with our eating I've been prepping some soups for us to take for lunches.  I also split it up so there's a dinner portions worth for us for an evening during the week I don't feel like doing much cooking.  So the past couple Sundays along with Sunday dinner I make a soup for the week.  So far I've made Beef and Stout Stew and Tomato Tortellini.

Beef and Stout Stew

Ingredients:
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 lb. diced stewing beef
- 2 c. Guinness or stout beer
- 2 sticks celery, chopped
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. flour
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 c. frozen peas (optional)
- 1 Tbsp. beef demi glace (optional)
- 1 Tbsp. tomato paste (optional)
- salt
- pepper

Instructions:
- Chop celery, onion and carrots (I just used two small baby carrots that Chris uses for lunches because I'm not a fan of the vegetable).  Fun fact for ya: this mix of veggies that's used as a cooking base is called mirepoix (pronouced: meer- PWAH), stick that in your fancy cooking terminology! :)
- In a large pot over medium heat olive oil (bottom of the pot's worth should be fine), put in vegetables and bay leaves and cook about 10 minutes.

- Add meat and flour.

- Add beer and tomatoes.

- Stir then season with salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for three hours.
- For the final half hour, uncover, add peas, demi glace, tomato paste and let it continue to simmer.

- Before serving remove bay leaves.
- Taste to see if you'd like any more seasoning to it.
- Serve and enjoy!

Tomato Tortellini

Ingredients:
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced 
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil 
- 1 pkg. (9 ounces) refrigerated cheese tortellini 
- 1 can tomato soup (I used Campbell's Harvest Tomoato with Basil, the original recipe calls for 2 cans of condensed tomato, I don't love condensed soups so I altered it) 
- 2 c. chicken broth
- 1 1/2 c. milk
- 2 c. half-and-half (I used fat free)  
- 2 Tbsp. tomato paste (the original recipe I found says to use sundried tomato paste, I didn't want to fuss with finding that so I used regular)  
- 2 tsp. Italian seasoning 
- 1/2 tsp. salt 
- 1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
- In a large saucepan, saute garlic in olive oil until golden brown.

- Add tomato soup, half and half, milk, chicken broth, tomato paste and spices.

- Bring to a simmer for 8 to 10 minutes making sure to stir occasionally.  
- In another saucepan cook tortellini according to package directions.  You can cook the tortellini in the soup if you'd like when it comes to a simmer but since I wasn't serving it right away I didn't want the tortellini to get mushy. 
- Combine tortellini and soup then serve with Parmesan sprinkled on top.

- If you aren't serving this right after cooking, let cool, package accordingly and store in the refrigerator.  When serving simply add tortellini when you heat up the soup so it won't get too mushy sitting in the soup.  I broke this down into one dinner portion and three lunch portions.  I put the tortellini in the lunch size because I didn't want either of us to have to fuss with putting tortellini in the soup before we left for work or whatever.
- I decided to thicken the soup when I warmed up the dinner portion because I didn't like it so runny, I used a "slurry" (a couple tablespoons cream cheese, flour and milk whisked together) and added that to thicken it up as well as simmered it for awhile.  Chris didn't mind it either way but I thought it was much more pleasing after it was thickened.


Chris and I both liked these soups.  I preferred the beef stew and thought the tomato tortellini could be simplified rather than adding all that milk and half and half.  Both recipes are incredibly simple so I highly recommend them for that aspect.  Hope you can warm up and enjoy these soon!  I've been really bad about blogging lately, too much STUFF going on!  But to my loyal readers I do promise to get better!  

Next up we've got Superbowl party!  Chris and I are BIG football fans so even though neither of our teams made it to the big game we still love to have a party and watch!  I'm also going to be trying Chicken Parmesan Soup for the week!  Stay tuned!

Cheers!
Steph

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Happy Monday everyone!  The Cirque show Chris and I went to with friends on Saturday was really fun!  The Cirque acrobats were very impressive!  We went to a nice dinner at Latitude 41 and then out to a piano bar after, talk about a fun packed Saturday night!  Quick local shoutout, if you are looking for a nice place in downtown Columbus that's moderately priced, farm to table menu I would definitely give Latitude 41 a look.  I had the mushroom risotto with a pear salad, both of which were delicious.  All parties at our table were incredibly pleased with our dishes as well as cocktails. 

Two weekends ago Chris and I didn't have a whole lot going on so we took advantage, got some R & R and tried some new recipes!  As Chris will attest I'm not the greatest at "do nothing weekends", I have a tendency to plan lots of stuff for our "do nothing" time.  This was no exception, I made two new wreaths for upcoming seasons, tried a new grilled pork tenderloin recipe, caught up on one of my favorite shows: Weeds, and prepped a stew for lunches.

My finished wreaths, one for Valentine's Day and one for Superbowl!

I got the pork recipe from watching Symon's Suppers on the Cooking Channel.  I'm a big fan of Michael Symon, Cleveland boy that promotes the city whenever he can and has great recipes, what's not to love!?  We wanted to give a new recipe a try and agreed this one sounded good (we decided to forgo the mustard fruit as that didn't quite appeal to us and seemed like more fuss than necessary).

Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:
- 1/2 c. chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 2 tsp. coriander seeds, toasted and ground
- 2 tsp. cumin seeds, toasted and ground
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. paprika
- zest and juice of 1 lime
- pork tenderloin, cleaned and silver skin removed (typically these come in a pack of two tenderloins, since we were only cooking for two we just made one and froze the other)

Instructions:
- Clean tenderloin, meaning cut off any excess fat and remove silver skin (this is a good demonstration of cleaning the tenderloin that I found if you need help).
- To toast and grind your coriander and cumin seeds you put them in a small pan on the stove on medium heat, once they get fragrant and warm you can grind them.  You can use a mortar and pestle but if you are like me and don't own a set then you can put the seeds onto aluminum foil, fold it into a little pocket and grind them with a rolling pin or other heavyish object.
- Whisk together cilantro, mustard, coriander, cumin, salt, paprika, lime juice and zest.

- Coat the tenderloin with the marinade, cover with plastic wrap or seal in a plastic bag and let sit for 30 minutes at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

- Preheat the grill to medium-high heat.
- Grill pork to your liking, Chris and I did as Symon's recipe said and went for just under medium, 3 to 4 minutes per side for about 20 minutes or more.

- Let rest for 7 to 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

- Slice, serve and enjoy!

You can add fresh arugula and a drizzle of olive oil on top if you'd like but we liked it just the way it was.  I paired it with salad on the side with a homemade honey mustard dressing and steamed asparagus.  We both had about three pieces and had enough leftovers for a couple lunches.  You could probably cube your leftovers and turn them into good BBQ pork sandwiches or use it to top a salad.

The picture makes it look very underdone but its actually cooked through, if pink makes you squeamish then cook for longer.

On the Chris rating scale (see previously explained scale here) this one got a "this is good, let's make it again" although we both agreed we'd like to cook it better.  It was very tastey we just haven't had much experience grilling a tenderloin.

Up next I cooked the other tenderloin in the two pack yesterday and made it into Balsamic Honey Pulled Pork Sliders with Broccoli Slaw so I'll share that with you.  I'll also be sharing some soup recipes that have been keeping our tummies warm during these frigid temps!  One great thing about chilly Sundays is turning up some good tunes in the kitchen (The Music of Nashville Soundtrack is currently my favorite) and churning out some good food!  

Cheers!
Steph

Limoncello!

Well friends I either have entirely too much time on my hands or this chilly weather has got me feeling too cooped up and itching for projects.  I decided to give making homemade limoncello a try!  My Daddy is a big fan of limoncello and coincidentally we celebrated his birthday this week!  He happened to be in Columbus for work so my Mom drove down and surprised him at dinner with us!

Like I said, big fan!

A little throwback to the younger years.  Still the best Daddy a girl could have!

So here's how this cocktail idea came about.  Last month I was at the liquor store I happened to have some limoncello in my basket for my Daddy (he loves Tessora), when the cashier told me one of their regular customers (pause, the fact that she didn't recognize me anymore as one of their "regulars" was downright offensive, I practically kept their business afloat during my kickball seasons!  Not to mention I felt like the owner's next of kin for awhile there!) anyways, one of their other regulars was telling her how he and his wife make their own limoncello as well as their own wine.  Now I wasn't as intrigued on the wine front, my aunt and uncle make it and I have no desire to try and tackle that beast just yet.  But the limoncello?  Hmmm my little cocktail loving brain started turning its gears!  I knew once I got back to the computer I had to look up a how to, of course Pinterest is where I landed!

I started doing my research, some recipes were calling for grain alcohol and vodka, some just called for just grain alcohol, some just called for vodka.  One thing that did remain consistent was try to use organic lemons if possible and avoid getting pith (the white stuff in between the peel and the lemon fruit) in it because that will make it bitter.  Some said to use a veggie peeler, some said use a microplane zester.  But the long and short of it was you use lemon peel, alcohol, and simple syrup to make this little concoction.  The catch is that its a lengthy process (up to 7 weeks!).

At first I set about my limoncello journey thinking I would have to use the vodka recipe as I was under the guise that Everclear could not be purchased in Ohio.  I went to Kroger (which also has a liquor store inside of it, hello awesome!) for my supplies (lemons and vodka).  As I was perusing the vodka I look up to a complete surprise on the top shelf: Everclear!  This shortened my original vodka process by 3 weeks!  I was just giddy, thinking of how I could package it up as gifts for the holidays!  But then I checked myself a little and decided I should just experiment first so before I give to others I'll have it mastered!

Limoncello

Ingredients:
- 10 organic lemons
- 1 bottle (750mL) high proof alcohol (Everclear or you can use a high proof vodka, try for anything higher than 100 proof)
- 3 c. water
- 2 c. sugar 
- you'll need a large sealable jar, as well as some bottles to put the finished product in!

So start by washing your lemons thoroughly.

Then take a microplane grater and zest all of the lemons, be mindful not to include any pith (the white stuff between the fruit and the skin).

With the leftover lemons you can slice them and freeze them, juice them and freeze it or put it in the fridge for cooking uses.  I juiced most of mine and froze the juice in ice cube trays then popped them out and put them in a freezer bag.  When I need fresh lemon juice for cooking I take a few cubes out and use those.

Put the lemon zest in your jar, then pour in your Everclear.

Seal the jar and let it sit for at least three weeks (if using vodka let sit for at least six weeks) in a cool, dark place. 

Three weeks later it should look like this.

You'll see the alcohol will have taken on the yellow color from the lemon.  The lemon zest will have turned white and brittle, leave it in the jar with the lemon infused alcohol.

Next, you make the simple syrup.  In a medium saucepan bring the water to a boil, pour in the sugar, when the sugar completely dissolves take pan off of heat and let cool.

Once simple syrup is cooled to room temperature pour in to lemon infused alcohol.  Stir it up, seal jar and put back away for at least a week.

After a week or more, strain limoncello with either a fine sieve or use cheesecloth over a strainer.

Then strain it again as you funnel it into bottles, you want to make sure you strain out all that zest so your finished product is clear.

There you have it, homemade limoncello!  Store it in the freezer or back in a cool, dark place.  Serve in chilled cordial glasses for a great after dinner drink!

It turns out it's a good thing I didn't give these as gifts.  It ended up being some pretty high test stuff!  Although the sweetness was spot on and the lemon flavor was great there was still too much of an after burn and not enough smoothness for my tastes.  Daddy and Chris said it was fine for sipping but I didn't much care for it.  I imagine it would be good in a lemon drop martini or limoncello lemonade.  So it's back to the test kitchen for me!

 Hope you enjoy this cocktail creation!  Tonight Chris and I are seeing a Cirque show with friends, this is a first for me so I'm very excited!  Next I'll share a great pork tenderloin recipe we tried last weekend along with some crafts I made!

Cheers!
Steph