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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Shrimp & Andouille Etouffee

Shrimp & Andouille Etouffee
From Cooking Light 

Happy New Year!  As with every year, it feels like 2011 went too fast and I won't remember to start saying 2012 until well into February.  But here we are, with the crazy holiday season behind us and months of beautifully unfilled calendars ahead.  Of course that can only mean one thing - New Year's Resolutions!  Truly one of the silliest concepts, seeing as how they're nearly always abandoned (I don't think I made it 3 days in 2010 when I resolved to stop nagging John to propose...).  Yet every year I seem to come up with something, and this year is no different.

First and foremost, I'd like to advertise the blog a little more.  Nothing major, just a little Facebook hype or perhaps a Twitter account.  I was hesitant to publicize it at first in case I didn't stick with it or it was a major flop, but being home for the holidays made me realize how many people are actually reading it!  And apparently enjoying it!  Our main PR team at the moment is our moms, and as it turns out their friends are big fans (thanks guys!).  In fact, we talked about the blog so much over the past week that I started to recognize a recurring theme which leads me to my second resolution: give more credit to the handsome half of the HMK.  Every time the blog came up, people complimented me and then John piped up to mention his involvement.  And it's true, he really does a lot both in the kitchen and behind the scenes.  So I thought I'd take this moment to produce a short list of his many contributions:

1. Cheese grating and nut shelling.
2. Most meat trimming.
3. Risotto stirring and other mundane and sweaty stove-top tasks.
4. Running out to the store mid-recipe to get the ingredient we (I) inevitably forgot.
5. Website editing and fixing.  (Please direct any comments/complaints to my one-man IT department).
6. Grilling.  I don't even know for sure how to work it.
7. Bacon frying and other dangerous tasks with grease-fire potential.  And in the event of a grease-fire, I'm pretty sure he'd do the fire extinguishing too.
8. Earning money to pay for grocery bills, which undoubtedly rival those of a family of 4.
9. Stove cleaning (I claimed not to be strong enough to scrub the grease off and he pretended to believe me).
10. All etouffee making.  Which brings us to today's recipe.

If we were playing the newlywed game and I had to pick a cuisine John most enjoys cooking and eating, I'd feel pretty good about saying Cajun.  He's made his fair share of gumbo and jambalaya, but this etouffee is by far his specialty.  It is truly one of the only dishes that I have nothing to do with.  It seems like he always makes it on nights when I have something keeping me busy until dinner time.  When we made it a few weeks ago I thought I'd finally have my chance to see the Cajun genius at work, but as luck would have it an out-of-town friend called to chat just as we were getting started and John got the kitchen to himself once again.  And so, it is with love and thanks (and only minor apprehension) that I turn the keyboard over to him for the first time so that the man who knows the recipe best can recite it for you.


Ingredients

• 4 cups less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/3 cup butter, divided
• 1/2 cup flour
• Cooking spray
• 1 1/2 cups white onion, chopped
• 2/3 cups celery, diced
• 1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped (between the onion, celery and peppers the mix is really up to you based on your preference - I seem to end up with about 4+ cups of chopped veggies)
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp Cajun seasoning
• 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
• 1/2 lb peeled and deveined shrimp
• 2/3 lb Andouille sausage cut into half-discs
• Louisiana Hot Sauce, to taste
• 4 cups long-grain rice, cooked and kept warm

Preparation

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer.  Cover and remove from heat.  I always underestimate how long it takes to bring 4 cups of chicken broth to a simmer, start this right away use this step as a good time to chop the veggies.
2. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level with a knife.  Add flour to pan, stirring constantly with a whisk.  Cook until the roux is somewhere between a milk chocolate and dark chocolate color (or lighter if that is your preference) and remove from heat.
3. Add 1 cup of broth mixture to pan, stirring constantly with whisk until smooth.  Add remaining 3 cups of broth mixture, stirring with a whisk until smooth, set aside.
4. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (I usually round up to 2 tbsps if i overdid it on the veggie chopping) in a large Dutch oven (and by large I mean large, I made this originally in our 4-qt Dutch oven and it nearly fills to the top.  With our new and improved 9-qt Dutch oven its the perfect amount of space [thank you wedding]) coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat.
5. Add veggies (onions, celery and bell peppers) to pan, cook 10 minutes or until veggies are tender and onion is golden brown, stirring occasionally.
6. Stir in 3/4 cup of water, scraping pan to loosen delicious browned bits from the pan.
7. Add tomato paste, Cajun seasoning, garlic, salt, black pepper and ground red pepper to onion mixture; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
8. Add reserved broth-flour mixture and Worcestershire sauce to pan, stirring well to combine.  Add Louisiana Hot Sauce to taste.  Bring to a simmer and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
9. Add green onions, shrimp and sausage; cook 3 minutes or until the shrimp are done.
10. Time to play find the bay leaf and remove from the pan.
11. Serve over rice.

Serves 6 generous portions.

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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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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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Chorizo Bean Dip

 

Chorizo Bean Dip
From Cooking Light 

 

We've got one last surprise entry from the book club extravaganza.  I call it a surprise because it was too busy getting its groove on in the oven to make the teaser picture I posted last week.  On top of that, the book club version was made following the Cooking Light recipe verbatim.  It was devoured at book club and we thought about posting it as is, but we had a hunch we could make it even better.

 

So we scrambled to find a reason to test out the improved recipe before I moved on from my series of book club posts.  Just as we were about to resign ourselves to a bean dip dinner for two on Friday night, opportunity came a knockin' in the form of a Bears game cook out.  The main change was swapping out Spanish chorizo for the raw, crumbled Mexican variety.  It makes for a much smoother texture and adds smokey chrorizo flavor to every bite.  Enjoy!

 

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 oz Mexican chorizo (it comes raw in a tube and you can squeeze it out and cook it kind of like ground beef)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 Serrano peppers, or any fun hot pepper you want to try out, chopped (we removed about half the seeds, this depends on your chili and your preference for heat)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
• 5 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
• 3/4 cup Mexican cheese blend (we used reduced fat)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.  Add chorizo crumbles, breaking up with a wooden spoon.  Saute for about 5-7 minutes or until cooked, stiring occasionally.  Remove chorizo from pan, set aside.
3. Using the same pan over medium-high heat, add onion and jalapeno to chorizo drippings.  Saute 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add salt, cumin, red pepper and garlic.  Saute 1 minute, stirring constantly.
5. Stir in broth and beans and bring to a boil.  Cook 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.
6. Mash beans using a potato masher.  Stir in reserved chorizo.
7. Spread bean mixture in an 8x8 baking dish, coated with cooking spray.  Top beans with tomatoes and cheese.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melty and starting to brown.

Serves 6 (1/2 cup servings).

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Pulled Pork Sandwiches

 

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
From Food.com 

 

My husband is a Man.  And as of 4 weeks ago, he's a Man with a CostCo card.  And on Labor Day weekend this resulted in me being a woman with 15 pounds of pork shoulder to deal with.  So naturally we whipped out our brand new, extra-large (thank God) crock pot and let it do most of the work for us.  We were able to cram about 9 pounds of meat into the thing, so you can expect the 6 remaining pounds currently in our freezer to make a blog appearance sooner or later.  Maybe later, since we're going to be eating leftover pulled pork for the next month.  (FYI, it makes a darn good breakfast sandwich meat!!)

 

Ingredients

• 2 onions, quartered
• 2 Tbsp light brown sugar, packed
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 4-6 lbs boneless pork shoulder
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• your favorite BBQ sauce
• buns
• coleslaw (optional)

Preparation

1. Place quartered onions on the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Combine brown sugar, paprika, salt and pepper.  Rub over the meat
3. Place meat on top of onions, in crock pot.
4. Combine vinegar, Worcestershire, red pepper, sugar, mustard, garlic powder, and cayenne.  Whisk to mix well.
5. Drizzle 1/2 of the vinegar mixture over the roast.  Refrigerate the remaining mixture.
6. Cook on low for 8-16 hours.  It really depends on your crock pot.  Ours is like a super turbo model or something, because we checked on it after 8 hours, and low and behold it was totally tender and cooked through (which resulted in a pork pulling frenzy at midnight...)
7. Remove meat from crock pot and allow to stand for 15 minutes or more.
8. Remove onions and finely chop.
9. Use to forks to pull meat apart.
10. Mix onions back into shredded meat, along with some of the juice from the crock pot, to moisten it.
11. Add just enough BBQ sauce to give it distinct BBQ flavor.  Provide additional sauce at the table or in the buffet line.
12. Serve on buns, topped with coleslaw!

Serves a bajillion people.  (Online recipe says 18-20).

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