We Are The LiquorAngie C's week and her choice was food with alcohol.. I'm sure she meant cooking with it.. But just to be safe I had a glass of wine while making my dish. ;) Angie CNikitaGeorgiaAngie C and her boozy food. :) Actually I use wine in my cooking often. An extra layer of yumminess to any meal.. Of course having a nice glass of moscato to go with is also good. I never buy a wine for cooking that I'm not willing to drink myself. Chicken in Buttered White Wine Pan Sauce served over rice. Adding the butter to the wine sauce added a lovely layer of creaminess and yet still remained light. Tomatoes and fresh basil were all for me. The husband says they are the fruit of the devil. I say more for me.. Click below for recipe Chicken in Buttered White Wine Pan Sauce AmyBlame it on the al al alcohol! I have to say, a few of us appeared to be a bit too eager to get a jump on this one! The announcement that alcohol was chosen caused a very spirited relay of mass texts between us all. One member of Saturday Bites has a meme for everything. Either she's shy or can't spell? Maybe too drunk to text? Alcohol is pretty much my secret ingredient in every meal I make. By the way, y'all don't be fooled by Gigi acting as if she were appalled by the booze hound conversation. She had sent a photo my way of about 1/2 dozen bottles of wine that we're taking on our road trip next month. She's as much a whino as I! Back to the task at hand. Spiking a wholesome meal. I found a nice soup that's made in a slow cooker and substituted an ingredient with alcohol. This way I just throw everything in the slow cooker and as the soup slowly cooks I slowly get blitzed on the five remaining bottles of beer in the 6 pack that I purchased. Drunk doesn't mean stupid! White Bean Soup with Bacon (and beer!) Adapted from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger Click below for recipe White Bean Soup with Bacon (and beer!) Angie M & Annika I Am the Liquor So this week I got to use one of my favorite ingredients which is KentuckyYaki sauce. I get it from a local distillery that sells it (Dry Diggings Distillery). It's made with Kentucky Bourbon. They actually import it from Kentucky. This is one of the Distillery owners favorite products. Seriously one of the best marinades ever. Chicken and rice was such a great fit for this rainy California evening. God Bless!!! Angie M. and Annika Happy eating, Angie C, Nikita, Amy, Georgia Angie M & Annika
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NikitaBeets?! Who in the world would choose beets?! Unfortunately, me. I scavenged the internet looking for a recipe and almost ended up with roasted beets. But....cutting into those bloody bastards and tasting the earthiness changed my mind. I needed something sweet to cover up the mound-of-dirt taste. That's when I found Beets Brownies. When baked, they looked like brownies. When sliced, they stuck to the knife like brownies. And when officially taste-tested, they tasted like BROWNIES! I even took some to work to get feedback, and the people loved them. The beets balanced the richness of the chocolate and gave you a serving of vegetables. Lol! My final verdict is...I don't like beets unless covered in chocolate, sugar, and more chocolate. Btw...Matt definitely called it when I told him what I had done. He knows me all too well. 😊 If you dare, here's the recipe: Brownies AmyI shall begin by stating that this will possibly as long and wordy as most of my contributions to Saturday Bites. For most of us we allow our childhood experiences with food dictate our life long eating habits. Which may explain obesity and diabetes are at epic proportions. For Gigi, our brothers and I...let's just say Mom was no Julia Child (and neither are we). To this day one of our brother's wants nothing to do with blueberries. I pity him that. I was in my mid 20's when I finally embraced sweet potatoes. Nikita can understand this, as bad a cook our mother was Nikita's mother's taste buds seemed to gravitate towards bland. Bless your heart Nikita. As far as vegetables go or mother poured them from a can into a pot and heated them up. I'm not above canned food, I use it often. Keep a stock of them for winter in case we lose power. The difference here is that I soup them up a bit. Up to a point all I knew was canned beets heated up. As an end result, I didn't much care for beets. Same with spinach. About 15 years ago, I made a beet salad. This was my one and only attempt at beets until now. I think I liked it... I considered another salad cuz I like salads. And then a book arrived in the mail last week. I've been slowly collecting the Modern Library food series. Lo and behold! Wanda L. Frovlov's Katish:Our Russian Cook....timing is everything. And wouldn't you know, on page 68 is a recipe for Borscht. And why not? I would like to point out that by the third spoonful of the borscht, I was hooked! Click on the link below for the recipe Borscht GeorgiaI'm always about making good food easy. I made roasted root vegetables. Any will do. Carrots, potatoes, beets and onions. Coat with olive oil add fresh cracked pepper and fresh thyme. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Feel free to add salt. Angie C First off let me say I am sorry. I just realized my pictures didn't send earlier. I thought they had. I sent 2 pictures of my beets this week. I usually incorporate beets into several meals every week but since I am the only one who actively likes beets in my house I usually sneak them in. As a dish standing alone, this time I sauteed them in butter with salt and pepper as a side dish. I also used them in one of my family's favorite dishes called one pot wonder. I sneak them into that every time. They don't know and I don't tell them. One pot wonder is ground meat, this time I used turkey, browned with spices then 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of water, 1 can of tomato paste and 1 lb of noodles. Simmer until noodles are done and enjoy. I usually add sour cream and shredded cheese to mine Blessings, Nikita, Amy, Georgia & Angie C Angie & Anni I found this box of pumpkin bars and it looked amazing so I thought I would try this this week. They turned out just as good as they look on the box! But nothing beats my mom's pumpkin pie... Angie and Annika... Nikita Savory or sweet? How about both! I adore pumpkin and found so many recipes that I could not make them all. So I rested on Pumpkin Chili with cornbread and Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes for dessert. The whole family and our company said, "This chili is perfect!" It was warm and spicy and completely meatless. We topped it off with these magical pumpkin pie bites. The cupcakes held their shape but had the texture of a pumpkin pie. Soooooo yummy! Enjoy! Click below for recipes Nikita Pumpkin GeorgiaSo this week Angie M chose pumpkin.. mmmm pumpkin.. I like food. Most foods.. Some things.. Not so much.. But pumpkin.. mmm.. I love it.. When she said pumpkin I knew right away what I wanted to make. Pumpkin chocolate cookies. Follow the link below for the recipe Soft Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Angie C AmyPumpkin! I love pumpkin. Although they've gone too far with pumpkin spice thing. I had a hard time deciding on which pumpkin recipe I wanted to use for the food challenge. That was the challenge for me this week. So, my job decided for me...in a way. I work in a very small casino in a small community. Our cafe is just a shade above a fast food restaurant. I usually try to bring my lunch to work but more often than not I just get lazy and eat the food at work. A few weeks ago I realized that having fast food 5 days a week was really a bad idea. I'd feel sluggish, my stomach would get hateful, and I'm diabetic. I also gained weight. The weight part isn't a huge concern though I don't want to weigh more than I already do. That reason is because on an average week I walk roughly 15-20 miles. I keep active so I'm okay with being a big girl. But the other things I realized needing addressing. Me being me I decided to invest in a couple of cookbooks. I wanted easy, healthy, relative quick, and definitely delicious meals. I invested in two vegetarian cookbooks that meet the aforementioned requirements. I still eat meat but it's mainly at breakfast and on my days off when I can lovingly prepare my meals and sit and take my time and enjoy the food. And here's my contribution to this weeks food challenge Curried Pumpkin and Peanut Soup Click below for recipe Curried Pumpkin and Peanut Soup Happy fall ya'll Angie, Anni, Nikita, Georgia, Angie C and Amy AmyI'm not certain as to why I selected vegetarian for this weeks food challenge. Perhaps it's because last weeks food challenge wasn't remotely healthy. It could also be that there's still some late summer veggies to be had. Or...the holidays are coming up and we'll all enjoy the hell out of all the confectionary delights to be had. A plethora of possibilities! Either way, I went with vegetarian because I care about y'all. And you're welcome. Well and so, I realized that I had no idea of what I was going to make. So I thought I'll just make something off the fly. I was preparing my grocery list and remembered that Columbus day was coming up and I wanted to make a dish that was something of a tradition with my children and I. A pasta dish called Farewell to Friends Fettuccine. It's a recipe in a cookbook that I've mentioned before, Sarah Leah Chase's Cold Weather Cooking. As I was thumbing through the So Long, Summer portion of the cookbook I discovered a delicious meat-free recipe that sounded downright yummy. Must. Try. This. Admittedly, this dish does take a little time and ingredient wise it's a little busy. However, I do believe that it's well worth the effort and for me time in the kitchen is therapy. Some days I'll put music on and go to town. Other days, especially during Autumn and Winter I prefer only the sounds in the kitchen itself. Knife to cutting board. The mixer. The oven door closing. A friend who is about to become an ordained minister once said to an ex of mine, "Seek solace in solitude.". Last week was an unpleasant week for me and as Gigi knows, I work at a job that has so much noise going on and though I eventually managed to block out a good portion of it I still find it to be rather taxing. Today I urged Tremain to read from Psalm in the little bible he carries with. He was reluctant but opened to Psalm and read 5 verses to me. I then served the pasta. He could sense that I needed to seek solace in solitude and left shortly after we'd finished our meal. I found myself back in the kitchen diligently at work on the dish for this blog and found that I was able to relax and enjoy. Here's to a better week! Click below for Recipe Warm Tomato Pie NikitaSo this week was actually Nikita's week. But she and fam boarded a plane and headed to Prague. the photo above is of her son chilaxin in NY while waiting to board. Georgia I made a hearty vegetarian black bean soup and grilled swiss cheese sandwiches. Just recently we found out that Randy has high blood pressure. He was told he can control it with his diet and by walking at least a half hour every day. So we've changed the way we eat by reducing the sodium in our diet dramatically and we get up early every morning and take a walk before the sun has even risen. Change is never easy, but the results are well worth it All the ingredients are either low sodium or no sodium. Follow the link below for the recipe Hearty Spicy Black been Soup Nothing - Not a conversation, not a handshake or even a hug - establishes friendship so forcefully as eating together. Blessings, Amy, Nikita and Georgia GeorgiaThis week was my week. And with Balloon Fiesta starting today I thought it would be fun to celebrate with fair, festival, carnival, or circus food. If you've ever looked for recipes for fair food you'll find that 99.9% is fried.. Just look at the recipes below. Anyhow I decided on Fried Cinnamon Apple Rings. I convinced myself that because it had apples it was kinda healthy. Easy to make and oh so yummy. Click below for recipe. Fried Cinnamon Apple Rings NikitaFair food = Fried food. My experience at state fairs regarding food has usually been fried everything - oreos, corn dogs, funnel cakes, cheesecake and more. The fam and I started to talk about all of the weird foods you find at a fair, and that lead us to hotdogs. Not just any hotdog.... Vietnamese dogs. Side note: Shaggy is alive and well, guys. ;-) This dog is topped with Homemade Pickled Cukes, Carrots, & Daikon Radishes along with Cilantro, Mint, & Sriracha Mayo - a little sweet and a little spicy. I added in another dog topped with French Onion Dip, Salty Crushed Potato Chips, & Green Onions. All served in good ol' tin foil just like you would get at the fair. Recipe is pretty simple because you just top the dog. Here's how I pickled the veggies: click below for recipe Pickled Veggies AmyA day in which everything goes wrong. That sums up my experience with this weeks food challenge. I do not feel compelled to share the details with. However, I'd like to point out that I didn't give up. I suppose that says SOMETHING about me. But I digress. My sis picked out fair food instead of Fall food. That's because Fall really hasn't begun in my fair (get it) state of Oklahoma. This week temps will drop into the 40's and 50's at night. Woo hoo! Again, I digress. Over the Summer I almost went with fair food as a challenge but felt the time wasn't right. The Oklahoma State Fair did kick off last week...so...perfect timing. And I had almost suggested fair food several weeks back because I apparently own a cookbook entitled Country Fair Cookbook. It was published in 1975 by the editors of Farm Journal. Who knew? This isn't a collection of recipes for cotton candy or corn dogs. It's blue ribbon winning recipes from across the country. I scanned the cookbook and found a recipe that I believe not only fits the fair food bill but the Fall food bill as well. As I said, the book was published in 1975 but I decided to give this recipe a bit of a 2016 makeover. Fair food is not healthy in the least and I see no reason to attempt a healthy recipe. It's supposed to be fun and a treat not a staple in any diet. So I don't feel guilty for amping this up with bacon! As I said, all hell broke loose in my kitchen today. These may not look ascetically pleasing but they are tasty! Without further ado.... Maple Frosted Doughnuts (The text informs us that an Oregon woman developed this recipe with her husband.) Click the link below for recipe Maple Frosted Donuts Angie & AnniSooo..... I just want to say thank you to whoever it was that picked the circus food this week!!!! We made deep-fried Oreos, and it is a little hard to put into words the amazing feelings that we felt eating these things... They are definitely what my mom would call fat pills... Once you start eating them you cannot stop it is like crack cocaine for people with eating disorders..... And I loved every second of it.. We actually had to stop because we felt like it was getting dangerous... They were super easy to make we used 2 cups of pancake batter mix two eggs a cup and a half of milk and about 3 tablespoons of oil. we heated up a pan halfway full of oil until it was ready to start deep frying... Then dipped the Oreos in the batter and fried them. And we created these magical...amazing... addictive.... delicious....yummy.... did I already say amazing? I'll say it again... amazing.... little bits of heaven... Have a blessed week everyone and good luck on vegetarian week!!!! Angie M. and Annika ❤️❤️❤️ Angie CI was doing nachos but when I made them, my family dug into them before I could photograph them. Corn dogs Heat oil in fryer. I use a frydaddy but you can use a deep skillet also. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix 1 box of jiffy corn muffin mix (using a fork, break up lumps so everything is very fine), 1 egg, 1/3 cup of milk or buttermilk and about 2 tsp of honey. Make sure the batter is smooth. Adding more milk if needed. Using 1 whole package of hot dogs dry hot dogs with a paper towel cut each hot dog into 3 pieces. (I have also used little smokies). Dunk each piece into batter and drop into hot oil and rotate until golden brown. (I use a wooden kabob skewer stuck in the end of the meat to fry them and they rotate so much more smoothly) Drain on paper towels and when all the corn dogs are cooked, put them in a 400 degree oven for about 7 min. They turn out pretty good. You can also do this with smoked sausage or sausage links and dip into pancake batter. Just remember the pancake batter and the jiffy corn mix have sugar in them so they will brown pretty quick in the oil. Thats why I finish them off in the oven. So that they arent raw in the middle. I also cook them one at a time so they dont over cook Enjoy your weekend, Georgia, Nikita, Amy, Anni & Angie M and Angie C |
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