Football, Fall and All the Weekend in Between!

Monday, we meet again!  Well it was a busy/hectic weekend so I didn't get around to blogging like I had wanted to.  Friday we went to Chris' high school's football game against their rival school.  Unfortunately they lost in triple overtime, but it was a beautiful night for football and I almost never pass up a high school football game!  Beforehand we did a cookout/happy hour at his parents where I made a new Pinterest recipe: Reese's Rice Krispie Treats!  (recipe and pictures below)  As promised I'll share a weekend cocktail too!  The RumChata shot, a perfect swig for these crisp cool fall evenings!  

Saturday I woke up VERY early to drive down to Miami for some alumni meetings.  The campus was looking as beautiful as ever with the leaves changing.  The weather was fantastic!  The fallen leaves were crunch, crunching under our feet on our campus tour and I couldn't have been happier walking around "the most beautiful campus there ever was", a quote from Robert Frost.  Unfortunately I didn't snap any good photos while there so I'll have to share some in two weeks when we go!

Sunday I stopped in at one of my favorite "college eats", Bagel & Deli before leaving campus.  B&D is a little shop uptown that serves steamed bagel sandwiches, loaded with all kinds of toppings.  The shop has bagel artwork along the wall rather than a menu board.  Most everyone from Miami can tell you their favorite bagel right away, mine are a tie between the Mr. Turkey (turkey, mayo, tomato, lettuce, and provolone on whatever bagel you choose)  and the Miami Bagel (blueberry bagel with cream cheese and cinnamon and sugar).  Pictured is my Mr. Turkey on everything and inside B&D (this one was actually taken when we visited this past summer but its the only one I have of the bagel artwork and the steamers)!

I said my goodbyes to my favorite campus and headed home to celebrate my 5th anniversary with Chris!  Time flies when you are having fun!  He is a football coach for our parish's 8th grade team so we went to his game then made dinner together.  Steak with wine sauce and sun dried tomato and basil goat cheese topping, garlic smashed potatoes and asparagus.  With cheesecake for Chris and cookies for me for dessert!  It was delicious and man were we stuffed!  Chris has been so excited to use his new grill (my parents got it for him as an early birthday gift) so he looked up tips and tricks to grilling "the perfect steak". He was super patient with my blogging photography that I deemed absolutely mandatory.  He even got into it and suggested what views I should have of our delicious feast!  He was particularly proud of our steak that he grilled, he made sure to get pretty grill marks and everything!

Ok so here are the recipes for all the yummy treats I just talked about!

Reese's Rice Krispie Treats

- 1 c. sugar
- 1 c. corn syrup
- 1 and 1/3 c. creamy peanut butter
- 4 and 1/4 c. Rice Krispies cereal
- 1 pinch of salt
- 4 Reese's cups, chopped
- 1 handful of chocolate chips

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.

In a large saucepan (remember to account for how much cereal you are going to put in to the pan) over medium heat, melt sugar, corn syrup and peanut butter till smooth, you will notice it will become easier to stir as it heats up and melts, mixture should easily run off your spoon.  Remove from heat and add salt and cereal.  Stir to combine.  Then add chocolate chips and stir.  Wait a minute or so and add the Reese's, fold the mixture so as not to mash up the Reese's.  Use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to scoop bite sized portions onto the lined baking sheet.  I scooped it into my hand and rolled it to make it look a little more uniform (if you do this, BE CAREFUL as the mixture is HOT) then placed on baking sheet to cool.

These were tasty but I think I'd rather make them with marshmallows next time.  The batch made A TON (well over 4 dozen) so I took some into work as well.  Everyone who tried them at work had good things to say as well as those who tried them throughout the weekend!

RumChata Shot

RumChata is a creamy, spiced rum liquor.  You can find it at most liquor stores as well as some grocery stores (I've seen it at Kroger, and fellow drinkers have found it at Costco).  We were introduced to this from Chris' parents' next door neighbor.  She had been in Put In Bay this summer and that was the new hot shot to order so we decided we HAD to recreate it.



There are scads of recipes online for shots with RumChata but this one we've kind of stuck to:

- 3ish parts RumChata
- 1 part vanilla or regular vodka
- sprinkle cinnamon on top for garnish

We don't always do the cinnamon on top, its cute for presentation but not much else.  These are just strong enough to warm you up but not too strong that you have to chase it with something.  They almost taste like the leftover milk after having a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal!

Steak with Goat Cheese Topping

 

I got this recipe from the show "Not My Momma's Meals" with Bobby Deen (Paula Deen's son).  He takes some of Paula's not so healthy recipes and lightens them up all while trying not to sacrifice flavor. Here is the original recipe from the show, last night I tweaked it a little based on our tastes and I what I had.  

 
Goat Cheese Topping:
- 2 to 3 oz. fresh goat cheese (I use closer to three oz. because I love goat cheese)
- 1/4 c. sun dried tomatoes (rehydrated in warm water), chopped
- 6 to 8 dried basil leaves, chopped
- pinch of salt and pepper
Mix together in a small bowl and set aside.

Wine sauce:
- 1 small shallot (or some regular onion is fine if you don't have shallots, I actually used less than a 1/4 c. of frozen yellow onion I had in the freezer that I keep on hand for easy sauce prep)
- 1 or 2 cloves garlic minced (I usually have a jar of minced already on hand that I throw in)
- 1/2 c. dry red wine (I used Merlot last night but have also used a mix of bourbon and sweet vermouth in the past)
- salt and pepper to taste
Sweat onions and garlic in some olive oil over medium heat, season with salt and pepper.  Once onion and garlic are roasted add wine and let simmer till liquid reduces by almost half.  Pour over finished steaks before serving.

Cook steaks per your tastes, Chris and I like medium to medium rare.  Plate finished steaks, drizzle wine sauce over top then top with goat cheese mixture, then plate other sides (we had steamed asparagus and garlic smashed potatoes).  This dish may seem like a lot of work but its very worth it!  The original recipe calls for cooking pancetta in the pan as a base for the wine sauce but I didn't pick it up at the store and neither Chris or I missed it much.

 

Look at those grill marks!

 

Chris was serious about his grilling!  Used his coaching stopwatch to time each side.

 The end result!  Chris was rather proud so he suggested this picture, like I said before we prefer our steaks a little more rare so if this much pink makes you squeamish cook each side longer.

So that was the weekend!  Coming up this week, Chris' birthday is today (along with one of my dear friends Coco who is an awesome pharmacy resident at Wake Forest), and then I'm hoping to get another recipe out before the weekend!

Cheers!
-Steph