Crabby English Muffins

Crabby English Muffins
From Tera's Grandma Arlene

For the first 15 or 20 years of my life, virtually every Easter and Thanksgiving was spent at my Grandma's house.  According to family lore, if you wanted to chat with young me, your best chance was to find me at the appetizer table, which was really the pool table in my Grandma's basement.  Thank goodness we used something as big as a pool table, because our family knows how to rock appetizers.  These are a family classic, and although my Grandma isn't responsible for cooking the whole meal these days, we can always count on her famous crab English muffins.

This year, with our big NYE party just around the corner, I finally thought to ask for the recipe.  I called up my Grandma requesting that she email it to me, and to my surprise she said she has it memorized and can just tell me over the phone.  Well, now that I know what's in this mystical delight, I can see what she meant.  It's pretty much equal parts butter, Velveeta, and fake crab meat.  It might not sound gourmet, but boy oh boy do they fly off the platter, and what more can you ask for in an appetizer!


Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 lb Velveeta
• 8 oz imitation crab meat, also known as surimi (it's in the refrigerated case, probably near sausages - it's a compilation of white fish, flavored and dyed to look like crab, and while that description sounds gross, just go with it)
• 6 English muffins

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place butter and Velveeta in a microwave safe bowl and microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted.
3. Pull crab meat apart into smaller shreds, using forks or your hands (hands is way faster).
4. Mix crab meat into butter and Velveeta.
5. Split English muffins into 12 halves.
6. Divide crab mixture across muffin halves.  If you want to make them in advance, you can put them in the fridge at this point and bake when you need them.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until brown on top.
8. Cut each muffin into 4 pieces.

Makes 48 pieces which will be quickly devoured, even after you admit that the only ingredients are butter, Velveeta, and fake crab.

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Bacon Wrapped Dates

Bacon Wrapped Dates
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

How good are bacon wrapped dates?  I'll be the first to admit they've become slightly overdone, but I'm still not sick of them.  We order them at tapas restaurants, gobble them down at other people's parties, and serve them at quite a few of our own.  And the other night, we made them for dinner.  Yes, you read that correctly.  They were our dinner.  As in the entree.  As I mentioned the other day, we received a plethora of olive oils as Christmas gifts, and decided to replace our dinner one night with an elaborate olive oil tasting.  But since even we couldn't justify bread and oil as dinner, we added an appetizer to make ourselves feel better...yes, we have our own brand of logic in the HMK.  Which is precisely what I love about it!


Ingredients

• 12 Medjool dates (I know they're expensive, but they really should be Medjool - they're super meaty and sweet and perfect for this dish)
• 12 whole, unsalted almonds
• 6 slices bacon
• 1 jar red pepper jelly (probably available near all the other jelly flavors)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Use a paring knife to slice a slit in each date.
3. Reach into the date, being careful not to tear it open more than necessary, and pull out the pit.
4. Replace each pit with an almond, and squeeze the date shut.
5. Cut bacon slices in half to form 12 shorter slices.
6. Wrap each date with a half slice of bacon and place on a baking sheet, seam down.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until bacon appears crispy.
8. While dates are cooking, warm the jelly in a small sauce pan over low heat until thin enough to pour onto a platter.
9. To serve, pour jelly onto a platter and place dates on top of jelly.

Makes 12 pieces.

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Breakfast Souffle

Breakfast Souffle
From John's Grandma ABC (Rosemary)

Actual conversation:

John: Geez, this is easy to make, I don't know why my mom only makes it Christmas morning.
Tera: Well it makes so much food, it's not like you can just whip it together for 4 people or something.
Pause.
Tera: Wait, that's how many we're making it for.
John: Yeah.....

So yes, this is John's family's official Christmas morning breakfast casserole, and it most certainly serves their family of 6 and then some.  But it's also really delicious and super easy to make, and since it calls for 9 eggs we decided it just couldn't be cut in half.  In retrospect, all the ingredients are pretty simple multiples of 3, so it could actually be cut down quite easily, but there's no Monday morning quaterbacking allowed in the HMK.

Frankly, it's probably for the best that we made so much of it since we enjoyed it while drinking Bloody Marys and screwdrivers at 9am before the Bears game this past weekend.  Considering the amount of cocktails that we ultimately consumed on Sunday, I'm sure we needed all the food we could get to soak up some of the alcohol.  (As you probably noticed, I'm breaking my perfect record of 7am Monday posts thanks to the ensuing hangover...what's that?  you didn't notice...oh, well, sad but true).  In the end the Bears may not have won, but at least this casserole didn't let us down!


Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs bulk breakfast sausage (the stuff that comes in a big log 'o meat)
• 9 eggs
• 3 cups milk
• 1 Tbsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 slices white bread, cut into 1/4" cubes
• 1.5 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Preparation

1. Brown sausage in a large skillet over medium-high, using a wooden spoon to crumble it up.
2. Whisk eggs, milk, mustard and salt in a large bowl.
3. Stir bread, cheese, and sausage into egg mixture.
4. Pour egg mixture into a greased 13x9 pan.
5. Refrigerate overnight, covered.
6. Uncover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Serves a lot more than 4...probably closer to 8-10.

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Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
From John's Family

The month of December is special for a number of reasons, not the least of which is my sudden willingness to make batch after batch of cookies.  Don't get me wrong, I have a desire to make cookies year-round.  But in the interest of my waistline, I generally only cave to this desire when I can use "'tis the season!" as my excuse for all culinary indiscretions.  Sure, I have space in my diet for the occasional year-round cookie, but in the honeymoon kitchen, a whole batch of cookies for the household = a whole batch of cookies minus two for Tera.  For example, this is how last Saturday played out:

Tera and John bake Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies together.  Tera offers John one of the mixer whisks with cookie dough on it.  John proclaims he doesn't like raw cookie dough.  Tera licks both whisks.  And the bowl.  Batch one of three comes out.  Tera tests a cookie, you know, just to check.  John takes a bite of one and sets it back on the rack.  The minute he turns his back Tera eats the remainder.  He doesn't even notice.  Batch two comes out.  Tera tests it to check for "discrepancies between the two different cookie sheets used."  They taste the same.  Aka still really good.  John is bored so he leaves the kitchen to do other stuff.  Tera sticks around to "supervise the oven"...eats 3 more cookies out of boredom.  Final batch comes out, taste test says all three cookie sheets worked marvolously.  John's mom and sister stop by.  Tera shoves as many cookies as she can fit into some tupperware and begs them to take it away.  About 2 dozen cookies remain on the counter.  You get the picture.  (Speaking of, I obviously had to take a bite of another one for the sake of the above picture...and then eat the rest to reward myself for getting a good shot.)

So in the name of all things merry, enjoy the first of a few Christmas cookie recipes this season, and then don't expect any more until next year!  Happy December!


Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 10 oz bag mint chocolate morsels (here's the deal, back in the day when John's family made this recipe a Christmas tradition, Nestle made these wonderful mint chocolate chips...in the past year or two they discontinued them and now sell a bag that's a mix of chocolate chips and minty chips...not nearly as good...this year I found bags of Andes mint crumbles and it turns out they work really well) (UPDATE: apparently Ghiradelli makes a good option too, so be on the lookout people, and don't be afraid to stock up!)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl combine vegetable oil and 1 cup sugar.  Mix well.
4. Beat eggs and vanilla extract into oil mixture.
5. Gradually beat in flour mixture.
6. Stir in mint chocolate chip morsels.
7. Shape into small balls (a little smaller than a ping pong ball).  Roll each ball in remaining sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cool completely on wire racks.

Makes 4-5 dozen, depending on how big you rolled them.

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Chilaquiles

Chilaquiles
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

Probably one of the biggest things John and I have going for us as a couple is a mutual non-pickiness when it comes to food.  I mean, we both prefer good food, but as ingredients go, we're not opposed to much.  We use this to our advantage regularly in our quest to sample as much good food as possible.  For example, we almost always split food at restaurants, allowing us each to eat two entrees.  This strategy makes me happy ALMOST all the time.  Brunch at Feast, a restaurant we've been frequenting for years, is the exception.

Feast has, hands down, the best chilaquiles I have ever had.  We've tried them at countless other venues and nothing compares.  The only problem is that we can't find a single other half decent item on the brunch menu.  As a result, the same scene plays itself out time and time again.  We sit down, order chilaquiles and XYZ mediocre second dish, relax until the food comes, and then engage in an all out battle for more face time with the chilaquiles, alternating choking down the crappier dish and scarfing the as much chiliaquiles as possible before the other person demands a switch-back.  In theory we could just get two orders of chilaquiles, but it just feels too defeatist.

In an attempt to reduce our trips to Feast, and thus our morning stress, we've resorted to making our own version of chilaquiles at home.  While it's certainly no Feast, the version is pretty delicious and definitely satisfies our craving...at least for a little while!


Ingredients

• 4 oz Mexican chorizo (the tube of raw, crumbly stuff)
• ¼ of a white onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
• 2 dried chilis
• 1 cup of your favorite jarred salsa (something saucy like most jarred varieties, a pico de gallo won’t really work here)
• 1 Tbsp heavy cream
• ¼ tsp salt
• 30 Tostitos rounds tortilla chips (I guess they don't HAVE to be Tostitos, but I find that they perform best when baked)
• ¼ of a white onion, sliced
• ½ cup shredded chihuahua cheese, or a Mexican shredded cheese blend
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 green onion, sliced, for garnish

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place chorizo in a cold skillet and cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes, until cooked and fat is released.
3. Remove chorizo and drain over paper towels.  Leave drippings in pan.
4. Add onion, garlic, and whole dried chilis to drippings and turn heat up to medium-high.  Saute until translucent, about 5 minutes.
5. Add salsa, cream and salt to pan.  Turn heat down to low and simmer 10 minutes.
6. Remove both chilis and set aside.  Taste the sauce and decide if you want it hotter.  Chop up the reserved chilis and add back in the amount needed to reach desired level of heat.  We added one back in and tossed the other.
7. Spread 15 tortilla chips across the bottom of an ungreased baking dish.  Sprinkle the chips with ½ of the onion slices, ½ of the cooked chorizo, ½ of the sauce, and ½ of the cheese.
8. Add another layer of 15 tortilla chips, the remaining onion slices, chorizo, sauce and cheese.
9. Bake for 25 minutes.
10. When the chiliquilas are almost done baking heat butter in a small skillet over low heat.
11. Whisk the eggs in a bowl and then pour them into the skillet.
12. Cook over low heat, stirring gently but constantly for about 5 minutes, until eggs are soft scrambled.
13. Remove chiliquilas from oven and top with eggs and green onions.

Serves 2-3.

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Baked Mac and Cheese

Baked Mac and Cheese
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

The vegetarian portion of our new-baby feast is one of the greatest comfort foods of all time.  And let me tell you, this puppy was a labor of love.

Last year we received a very exciting directive from the family - bring a dish to Christmas!  As two people working our way up to hosting a real live holiday (Easter 2012, we've got our eye on you!) this was the audition opportunity we'd been waiting for.  We were assigned a starch that could sub in as an entree for John's vegetarian cousin.  Macaroni and cheese seemed like the obvious choice, but what recipe to use was not.  So we did the logical thing: tested out 4 different recipes and ate mac and cheese for no fewer than 10 meals in the month of December.

What's that?  Most people wouldn't call that logical?  Huh.

In the end we decided to use elements from all of the recipes, resulting in the very first recipe written by us!  Not gonna lie, we're pretty proud of it.

Ingredients

• 8 oz (about 2 1/2 cups) cavatappi pasta, uncooked
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (if you are fantasizing about truffle mac served in many restaurants, this is where you can sub in truffle oil, or any other flavored oil)
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice
• 3 Tbsp butter, divided
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp Cholula hot sauce (or other hot sauce, if you can't find Cholula)
• 1 packed cup (5 oz) Gruyere cheese, shredded, divided
• 1 packed cup (5 oz) white cheddar cheese, shredded, divided
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup panko

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions, until just tender.
3. Drain pasta and toss with olive oil and lemon juice.  Set aside.
4. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes.
5. Gradually whisk in cream, half and half, and sour cream.
6. Stir in onion, garlic, bay leaf, sugar, and Cholula.
7. Simmer gently, stirring often, 15 minutes.
8. Remove from heat.  Stir in 3/4 cup Gruyere cheese, 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, and dry mustard.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
9. Remove bay leaf.
10. Stir cavatappi into cheese sauce.*
11. Pour half of cavatappi mixture into a greased, high sided 1 1/2 quart baking dish.  Sprinkle with 1/8 cup Gruyere and 1/8 cup cheddar.  Top with remaining cavatappi mixture and remaining cheese.
12. Melt 1 tablespoon butter.  Add panko to butter and toss to coat.  Sprinkle panko mixture over macaroni.
13. Bake for 25 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

*If you want to add mix-ins such as bacon, mushrooms, chicken, spinach, etc, this is the time to do it (step 10).  They should be pre-sauteed and well-drained from any water or cooking fat.

Serves 4 as an entree or 8 as a side dish.

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Mix and Match Breakfast Sandwich

Mix and Match Breakfast Sandwich
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

First and foremost, I have to give a shout out to my FABULOUS new sister in law, Mary, for changing the entire course of Honeymoon Kitchen's future.  Ok, well maybe it's not that drastic, but it's pretty awesome.  She gave lent us her amazing Nikon digital SLR camera for use in the Honeymoon Kitchen!!  AND she's been showing us some nifty Tumblr tricks, so hopefully we'll have some cool new features pretty soon.  She's also our one-woman PR team, and thanks to her we've got a following of like 5 people.  Sure, they're all related to us, but still!

Now, back to the lovely mix and match breakfast sandwiches at hand.  We are those people who get up 6/7 mornings a week and make a real breakfast.  What can I say, I wake up hungry!  Sometimes we get creative, but most days we fall back on some sort of breakfast sandwich.  The beauty of this thing is its ability to clean out your fridge.  Today's version was pretty classic, with ham, egg, and cheese, but there are SO many alternatives out there.  Basically, if you've got it in your fridge, heat it, salt it, stack it, and you're golden!

Ingredients

• BREAD: Today we used sandwich rolls that doubled as sausage buns the night before.  Other great options include English muffins, baguettes, ciabatta, bagels, or just regular sandwich bread.
• EGGS: Our favorite is to fry them up over-easy.  However, in our morning haze we often break the yolk or just forget to pay attention and they end up over-medium or just scrambled.  It's all good.
• MEAT: You don't need meat, since eggs are pretty filling, but if you've got some on hand, go for it.  This morning we used deli ham, but bacon, other deli meats, and even crazier things like summer sausage have all made appearances.
• CHEESE: This one has provolone, but of course any cheese will do.  Don't be afraid to think outside the box with something like a goat cheese.
• VEGGIES: Today's version skipped this section of the ole' food pyramid.  However, we do often include any left over roasted veggies from the night before, such as asparagus, zucchini, peppers, and onions.
• SAUCES & CONDIMENTS: Our number one condiment is giardiniera.  We LOVE it.  A lot.  Other than that, John is a devoted honey mustard guy, and I like to add a light layer of fruit jam if the mood strikes me.

Preparation

1. Toast your bread product so that it can handle any condiments or soft cheeses you'll be spreading on it without tearing or becoming soggy.
2. Add condiments to bread.
3. Cook or heat your meat in a skillet.  Even deli meats - the get a little crispy on the edges and release some of their oils - it should only take a minute.  Remove meat and place on bottom half of bread.
4. Add a little cooking spray or oil to the skillet.  If your meat was something like bacon and gave off a lot of grease, you can skip this step.
5. If your veggies need to be cooked or reheated, you can do this in the skillet now.  Remove veggies and place on top of meat.
6. Add more cooking spray or oil to pan if needed, and cook your eggs however you like.
7. Place cheese on sandwich, followed by egg and top half of bread.  Squish everything together, helping the hot eggs to melt the cheese and allowing beautiful runny egg yolk to run out if you went with over-easy.
8. Eat immediately and enjoy being full all morning at work/school!

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