Honey Rice Pudding

Rice pudding is one of the best desserts in my opinion.  It's rich and creamy, slightly sweet, and all around delectable. I'm a huge fan of sweetening it with honey, 1 because it makes a pretty drizzle over the finished product and 2 I like the taste of honey. Simple as that!

I'm pretty sure the recipe I use and am posting here is something I originally augmented from a Martha Stewart recipe a while back, if anyones interested :)

Recipe

3 1/2 c Whole Milk

1/2 c Arborio rice(or other short grain variety)

1 tbls sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

dash of salt

4 tbls honey(plus some for drizzling later on)

Cinnamon for dusting

Put the milk,rice,sugar,vanilla, and salt into a pot and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and let the pot simmer, stirring often, until the rice is plump and soft and all the liquid is absorbed. This should take about 30-35 minutes but then again everyone's stove top heats differently so just make sure to pay attention while you stir.

Take the pot off the heat and stir in the honey, until a evenly mixed in.

Serve up the pudding in wine glasses like I did or in small glass bowls, drizzle with extra honey and dust the top with cinnamon.

Steel Cut Oats Oatmeal

This steel cut oatmeal takes a while to make but it's totally worth it, it's all rich and browned buttery tasting. Toasting the oats in butter makes the entire mixture have this lovely nutty flavor and it comes out delectably thick and creamy.

 And by the way my favorite Steel Cut Oats come from Bob's Red Mill from right here in Portland, Oregon!

Recipe-

3 c water
1 c milk
1 tbls butter
1 c steel cut oats
1/4 tsp salt

Bring water and milk to a simmer in a large pot at medium heat.

In a large pan heat up the butter, just as the butter begins to foam pour in the oats and let them toast a while, constantly stirring with a wooden spoon until the oats are golden, 1 1/2-2 minutes.

Stir the toasted oats into the simmering liquid and reduce the pots heat to medium-low. Simmer gently until the mixture thickens and resembles gravy, about 20 minutes.

Now add the salt and stir with a wooden spoon handle(its suppose to chunk up better this way) continue to stir occasionally for the next 7-10 minutes as the whole mixture thickens into a proper oatmeal texture.

Take the pot off the heat and let the oatmeal cool uncovered for a few minutes before serving.

My Favorite Topping Combos:

1)
Frozen Blueberries
Honey
Cinnamon
Toasted Almonds

2)
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
Butter

3)
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Honey

German Pancakes

Sheesh! it has been a crazy couple of days for me! My houses floors were redone over the weekend which meant that for three days we lived in the basement because the fumes were unsafe in the upper-levels  This was of course a major pain in the butt, I'm pretty sure I had breakfast three of the four mornings at my favorite local coffee shop(but damn do they have good bagels+ you can get salmon cream cheese!) Then yesterday I started yet another new year of college with an easy one class day but getting there and home again was miserable because we are having a crazy bout of rain here in beautiful Portland as we get hit with the remnants of China's typhoon from last week. Now I know most of you are shaking your head and asking 'doesn't it rain in portland all the time?' Now you are partially right, late fall through spring it rains here A LOT, however normally it doesn't start until the end of October and most importantly we do not normally have such intense incredible deluges like we have been having for the past 4-5 days.

 So anyways today was the first day we were allowed back into the newly redone house, and it looks beautiful, so I decided to make a super yummy breakfast for just myself before running off to school all day and I decided on german Pancakes and Morning Star Farms veggie sausage links. I may not be a vegetarian but I love these sausage links, their just so good and in all honesty I cook them in bacon grease which probably just makes them that much better! ;)


My recipe for German Pancakes is a pretty basic one, but it works every time and my secret ingredient is a touch of cinnamon. As you will see i offer up two size options as far as quantity of food, in the pictures i made the smaller portion size which is written out at the bottom of the post.

In a bowl mix

1/2 c flour

1/2 c milk

3 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

a dash of salt

use a whisk to mix it all up, don't worry about the chunky bits of flour that float at the surface.

Just make sure you beat well and some chunkies are fine :)

put an 8x8' pan with 1 tsp butter in the oven as it preheats to 425 degrees. Take the pan out and swoosh around the butter to coat the pan before you pour in the pancake mix.

Bake the whole thing for 20 minutes and it will puff up perfectly on the sides and get a little crispy while the center stays thick and perfect.

Serve up piping hot with lemon juice and powdered sugar.

A smaller serving of this recipe can easily be made with:

1/3 c flour

1/3 c milk

2 eggs

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash of salt

Bake in a loaf pan instead of the 8x8 and voila!

Teriyaki Salmon with Siracha Cream Sauce

So teriyaki salmon is good and all but thats not why I put up this recipe, I put up the recipe for the siracha cream sauce which is AMAZING! its spicy and creamy and a little sweat and it's fabulous!
It's delicious with the teriyaki salmon but it's also really good as a dip for sweet potato fries, see my recipe for those here. And ENJOY!

Easy Teriyaki Salmon
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbls honey
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp garlic powder

mix the ingredients together and then heat- minute in the microwave or a couple on the stove is all you need. Pour marinade over already sliced chicken and let marinade for 20 minutes to 2 hours. Then grill!

Sriracha Cream Sauce
1/2 cup mayo
1 1/2 tbls sweetened condensed milk
2-3 tbls sriracha sauce

Just mix that all together and serve, beware it is rather hot with 3 tbls of sriracha so if you're not real into spice it's probably best if you take a taste at 2 tbls ;)

Now I know the Sriracha cream sauce is kinda nasty if you think about it so my advice is not to think about it! This recipe is literally the only thing that will induce me to ingest mayo so if you're like me and you don't like the stuff I'm telling you this sauce is awesome!
also don't worry so much about the calories and such because this recipe makes enough for 4 people to eat two whole meals with it so you won't be eating all that mayo yuckiness all on your own ;)

Salmon Rice Bowl Dinner

Last night it was just me and the boyfriend and I wanted to make something yummy but quick because the floors are being redone in my house right now so all of the furniture is in storage and everything is bare, and cooking is a bit difficult because everything is covered in towels to protect it from the sawdust.

So I made salmon rice bowls with grilled salmon and bell peppers, rice and my favorite sweet and spicy chili sauce.

The salmon I made is actually already posted on this blog, here.

And the sauce recipe is from my spring roll recipe that I posted a few days ago, here.

For the bell peppers I just sliced them thin in about 2 inch long slivers and through them on a greased grill to cook with the salmon. So very easy, then serve up all together and enjoy a simple one bowl meal!

So this is just a simple post for a meal suggestion using different recipes all ready available to you on this blog which I thought might be a fun idea! :)

Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake

This blueberry buttermilk breakfast cake is super soft and decadent. The sugary crust is fabulous and gives this cake the perfect edge with the softness of the cake and blueberries. This recipe calls for buttermilk, but if you're like me and don't keep buttermilk in the house all the time you can totally make the buttermilk the easy way with milk and vinegar and it will taste just as good!

Recipe-

Cream together: 1/2 c Butter
                             3/4 c + 2 tbls white sugar
                             1 tsp lemon juice

Then add in:       1 egg
                              2 tsp vanilla extract

In a separate bowl mix together:
                              2 c blueberries(frozen works best!)
                              1/4 c flour

In a second separate bowl mix together:
                              1 3/4 c flour
                              2 tsp baking powder
                              1 tsp kosher salt

Alternate adding the flour mixture with a 1/2 c buttermilk into the creamed butter bowl.

Then fold in blueberries and spread the whole lot of batter into a greased 11x7' baking pan.

Sprinkle the top of the batter with some sugar(this will bake into a lovely sugary crust in the oven)

All ready to go into the oven and you can see the boyfriend in the back ground happily licking the spoon clean ;)

Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees, let cool for a bit and serve up plain or with vanilla ice cream.

All done and smelling delicious!

Honey Ginger Carrots

These carrots are divine, they're sweet and soft and perfect!

Recipe-

1lbs sliced carrots

boil in a pot of water until mostly cooked.

In a frying pan melt together:

3 tbls butter(or coconut oil)
2 tbls honey
1 tbls grated ginger
1 tbls lemon juice

Pour in the mostly cooked carrots and let them simmer until the carrots are a little browned. 

Serve with Lemon-Oregano Chicken(recipe coming soon!)
 or Asian Inspired grilled Salmon
 or Honey Lime Chicken in a rice bowl. YUM!

Rosemary Lemon Salmon

I've been trying to make more salmon around my house lately because it's just so healthy for you and I love the taste! I was never big on fish as a child, and I still don't like shell fish at all, but when I was growing up my father made the best cedar plank salmon you will ever have, so I've always been fond of salmon. To make things a little easier on the purse strings and get to eat salmon more often we've started buying whole fish salmon fillets from Costco and then cutting them up in meal size portions and freezing them. In the end it usually averages out to about 4-5 bucks a meal for two people. YUM!

So heres and easy oven recipe for salmon-

Rosemary Lemon Salmon

Recipe:

(Dinner for 2)

Your portion of salmon

half a lemon for juice

salt & pepper(lemon pepper is good too!)

2+ tbsp butter

lots of fresh rosemary

Tin Foil and a cookie sheet

Preheat oven to 350

Spread out your tin foil on the cookie sheet and spread about half your butter all across the tinfoil, squeeze part of the lemon juice over the butter and lay half your rosemary sprigs down. Next place the salmon on top of that(skin side down if its skin on) juice the rest of the lemon on top of the salmon then salt and pepper generously. Divide your butter into smaller chunks and place on the salmon and finally top it all of with your remaining rosemary.

 Tent the foil around it all and place the cookie sheet with tent on top in the oven for 20 minutes(for fresh unfrozen salmon it should be done after this but if your using frozen depending on how thawed it was going in, it may take up to 30 minutes.)  

I like to serve it with white or wild rice and either green beans a salad or steamed and seasoned broccoli. 

Chicken Spring Rolls with Sweet and Spicy Chili Sauce

So Last night I made Spring Rolls and a sweet and spicy chili sauce.

Now these are not 'traditional' spring rolls, they're my take on spring rolls, but in a lot of ways taste very similar to the ones you get in a restaurant.

I make my spring rolls with chicken instead of pork because I'm not a big fan of pork(but if you like pork you can totally sub it into this recipe in place of chicken!) I also use shredded zucchini along with the carrots because its a nice simple add in to fill out the roll nicely.

Recipe:

Makes 5-6 rolls-can easily be multiplied!

1 lbs Chicken(or Pork) ground/minced(done easiest when partially frozen)

1 oz chopped ginger

1-2 minced garlic cloves

1/3 c chopped onion

2 tbls vegetable oil

Cook all these ingredients in a frying pan until the chicken is cooked through, then take the pan off the heat and add in:

1/2 c shredded carrot

1/2 c shredded zucchini

4 tbls soy sauce

1 tbls rice vinegar

Let all of this sit together in the pan to soak up the juices and cool a little while you make the sauce!

After the sauce is made, put the filling mix into a strainer to let the excess juices drain away, and then wrap the rolls up with the filling inside.

I like Blue Dragon spring roll wrappers personally but feel free to use whichever type you like-follow the instructions on the package for wrapping(usually involving some soaking of the wrappers in water to make them flexible.)  I highly suggest wrapping each roll in 2 wrappers for sturdiness AND make sure to wrap the rolls tightly so that they are easier to eat!

Sauce Recipe:

1/4 c rice vinegar

1/2 c sugar

3/4 c water

1 tsp salt

1 tbls cornstarch

3 tbls chili garlic sauce

put all the ingredients in a small pot  over medium heat. Whisk it together and let it come to a boil(maybe whisking a little bit here and there) Let the sauce boil for about a minute before pulling it off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes so it will thicken up a little.

Serve all the yummies up together individually or family style as a meal or as an appetizer.

I love my garden!

This isn't a recipe post really! It's just a yay! Fresh veggies! Post ;) I planted a rather large vegetable garden this past spring. It was my first serious attempt at a vegetable garden and its gone swimmingly! I seem to have a bit of a green thumb, if I do say so myself, which is funny because I've never had any interest in gardening. Flowers are pretty and many of then smell delicious but I've never felt a need to spend time cultivating them. Vegetables however are different because their useful! And I want them to survive and thrive so that I can eat them! 

I planted:

5 types of lettuce

Bush beans(sheesh these babies never quit!)

Carrots(so sweet!)

Dino kale(so many smoothies)

Tomatoes(heirloom and cherry) 

Cucumbers(sooooo many cucumbers!)

Orange bell peppers(still not ready)

Artichoke(so pretty!)

Dill

Cilantro

Chives

Thyme

Basil 

All of these things have been very successful for me with the exception of the cilantro, but I think that's because it's been far to hot and humid here! All of these veggies and herbs have been awesome to have around all summer for my cooking needs! The only thing I really regret not planting is zucchini because I love zucchini and it would have been really nice to have on hand whenever I wanted!

Right now I'm replanting fall/cool weather crops so I'm doing:

Kale

Lettuce

Cilantro

Carrots

And maybe some other goodies, haven't decided yet! 

My basic gardening wisdom is that steer manure is awesome for planting in, I mixed mine with a rich garden fertilizer and made sure to till it up really well before planting, and then I just made sure to weed and water daily while the little seeds grew and became giants!

Personal Chocolate Lava Cakes

Recently I made and then ate these delicious little cakes! I'm a huge fan of chocolate lava cakes, the best I ever had was in Savannah Georgia at a restaurant who's name I don't remember now but it was super expensive and a total splurge but the lave cake there was melt your socks off to die for good! This wasn't quite THAT good but it was pretty excellent especially with the coffee ice cream you see here! though serving it with vanilla ice cream or fresh berries would I'm sure be equally as good! I found the recipe Here. It looked so good that I had my boyfriend over for french food and these little yummies.

Ginger Garlic Green Beans

This green bean side is the perfect side or add on dish to go with the asian grilled salmon recipe I posted earlier. I've been very into coconut oil lately because it's so tasty and simple, and healthy. This recipe can totally be made with butter if you'd like but the coconut oil is a little mellower which is perfect with the garlic and ginger providing all the flavor.

Ginger Green Beans

2+ servings of green beans 

a minced knuckle of ginger 

2-3 cloves of minced garlic

~ 2 tsp coconut oil or butter

Just steam the green beans til their almost done then drain the pot, put the pot back on the burner and add the coconut oil, garlic, and the ginger. Stir the additions in til the beans are all nicely coated and then let sauté for about 5-7 minutes occasionally stirring until the beans begin to brown and even blacken a little. Easy peasy, the perfect extra to lots of meals!

Flourless Espresso Chocolate Cake

 This cake was mostly for my mom because it's naturally gluten-free but then thee whole family ended up loving it! It's a flourless espresso chocolate cake with a chocolate espresso frosting/sauce. I poured the sauce all over the cake then arranged all the strawberries on top and around the edges before pouring over another layer of sauce, then topped it all off with a good sprinkling on powdered sugar.

Cake-
3tbls butter
6oz bittersweet baking chocolate chopped
6 large eggs separated
1 cup sugar
3tbls instant espresso powder
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1tbls vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 butter a 9inch springform pan
Melt chocolate and butter in a medium size bowl
beat egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until thick and pale~3 minutes
Add espresso powder and salt mix well then add vanilla and chocolate til all included.
In a clean bowl beat egg whites until foamy, then slowly add remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form( I beat mine for forever and no peaks ever formed so after awhile I gave up and it worked out fine so dont be to worried if yours isn't working either)
Fold whites into the chocolate mixture in 3 additions-pour into pan and bake until set 40-45 minutes. 
Let cool in pan on a rack-can be placed in the fridge for up to a day. Remove pan sides and lift cake off the bottom with a spatula.

Sauce/Frosting
3 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped
1 1/2 tbls butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup heavy cream(half and half works too)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbls instant espresso powder
1/4 tsp coarse salt

Bring Cream, sugar, espresso powder, and salt to a boil. Pour hot mixture over the chocolate, butter, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth and serve in a bowl with the cake or poured over the top like I did here.

Hazelnut Crusted Salmon with Brown Butter and Balsamic Vinegar

This Hazelnut Crusted Salmon is the most fabulous dinner party meal! It's so easy to make, its done in the oven so you have plenty of time to socialize, and it tastes fabulous! Win, win, win! This recipe has enough going on to make it interesting and a viable meal idea when you're trying to impress friends and family. The beauty of this recipe is that it allows the fish to maintain all its flavor and body while also have a rich nuttiness from the hazelnuts and browned butter.


Recipe
Salmon Filets-however much you need for your guests
salt and pepper
Finely chopped Hazelnuts- enough to crust your desired amount of salmon

Bake at 375f for 15 minutes for 2-3 servings and up to 25 minutes depending on how much salmon your cooking.

Crazy easy right?

NOW the part that really gives the recipe deliciousness is that while you cook your salmon in the oven- brown a tablespoon per serving of butter in a small skillet. 

Make sure to brown the butter, and NOT burn it! So just be sure you pull the skillet off the heat when the butter has all just turned brown.

When the Salmon is done cooking, lay it out on your serving plate and drizzle the browned butter over the top, followed up with balsamic vinegar sprinkled on the fish. Now I know this may sound a bit odd, but trust me this recipe is rich, flavorful and, simple.

Asian Inspired Grilled Salmon

Here's my favorite super easy Grilled Salmon Recipe that I made for dinner last night along with some tasty tasty honey ginger carrots that I'll put up a recipe for later.

Grilled Salmon

Salmon Fillets (2-5 works)

3 tbls olive oil(or any good alternative)

3 tbls soy sauce

3 tbls brown sugar

1 tsp lemon pepper

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried thyme

pinch of salt and pepper

Marinade the salmon for about 10 minutes then flip and marinade for another 10.

turn on the grill and grease it, make sure its nice and hot before you put the salmon on.

Grill both sides of the salmon and serve with rice and veggies!

It's delicious with my carrot recipe and rice/noodles. Or what I did last week was grill some zucchini and barbecue some ears of corn to go with the salmon.
If you like you can boil the marinade after you put the fish on the grill and use the marinade as a sauce which is perfect if you're planning on tossing this salmon into a rice bowl.

YUM!

Seriously no joke, this recipe is gold!

Honey and Paprika Sweet Potato Fries!

I sure do love me some sweet potato fries! 

The other day I was in this pub that had honey and sea salt drizzled all over theirs and it tasted really good so I decided to try something similar at home. I added smokey paprika to mine and they turned out really well so her we go!

Either take out however much of the frozen ready to go sweet potato fries and toss them with just a wee bit of olive oil OR if you wanna do fresh ones cut them up to your desired size and put them in a bowl, toss them with a bit of olive oil and then toss in some corn starch(this will give them that hint of crispiness on the edges that makes fries so good)

then lay your fries out on a cookie sheet and;

generously sprinkle with Sea Salt

and Smokey Paprika

bake at 350 for about 10 minutes- then flip them over and go another 10.

(or if your using the frozen kind just follow their directions)

take them out and sprinkle with some more salt and paprika then lightly drizzle with some honey and serve them up in a basket with some sort of paper liner like paper towels or parchment paper.

They're delectable! 

French Omelette

So typically I don't love regular omelettes (scrambled eggs rapped around cheese, bacon, veggies etc.) Something about the flavor never comes off right for me, and honestly you can't really make a small omelette so you have to be really hungry in order to get through one. SO then I found a recipe for french omelettes which are much mellower! :)

Basically they are scrambled eggs with fresh herbs and butter that are cooked flat and rolled up plain, or with some sort of cheese (goat cheese, feta, mozzarella, cheddar...)


Recipe-

2-3 eggs
salt and pepper
1-2 tbls of milk or water

beat with a fork until the eggs run smoothly through the fork tongs.

then add in:

1 tbls diced butter
fresh herbs( i did basil, thyme and dried marjoram)

Heat the skillet up on medium/high with a little butter to grease it.

Pour the eggs into the hot skillet, let the eggs set just a tiny bit before you start to stir the eggs with a fork in order to constantly be incorporating the runny egg bits with the cooked bits making sure to let the eggs stay together and cook like a pancake. When everything is coked through, sprinkle on your cheese

So typically I don't love regular omelettes (scrambled eggs rapped around cheese, bacon, veggies etc.) Something about the flavor never comes off right for me, and honestly you can't really make a small omelette so you have to be really hungry in order to get through one. SO then I found a recipe for french omelettes which are much mellower! :)

Basically they are scrambled eggs with fresh herbs and butter that are cooked flat and rolled up plain, or with some sort of cheese (goat cheese, feta, mozzarella, cheddar...)


Recipe-

2-3 eggs
salt and pepper
1-2 tbls of milk or water

beat with a fork until the eggs run smoothly through the fork tongs.

then add in:

1 tbls diced butter
fresh herbs( i did basil, thyme and dried marjoram)

Heat the skillet up on medium/high with a little butter to grease it.

Pour the eggs into the hot skillet, let the eggs set just a tiny bit before you start to stir the eggs with a fork in order to constantly be incorporating the runny egg bits with the cooked bits making sure to let the eggs stay together and cook like a pancake. 

When everything is cooked through, sprinkle on your cheese in the pan and then using your fork as a helper roll the egg on itself like a crepe. 

Roll your omelette out onto a warm late(a warm plate is especially good if your making more then one because the first will stay warm while you cook the second) 

Garnish with a little sea salt or more fresh herbs if desired.

This type of omelette is definitely my favorite because the butter cooked in adds a depth and richness while the herbs are fresh and enjoyable and nothing gets to heavy!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup warm water
Mix it all up in a big bowl, spoon it into cupcake tins with paper liners. Set the oven to 350 and bake for 17-20 minutes

Buttercream Frosting
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon mint extract or 1/4 tsp rum flavoring and an extra 1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
green food coloring(3 drops for my color) or for the purple I did 2 drops blue and 4 drops red 

Chocolate Cupcakes with delicious buttercream frosting, what more really needs to be said?!
The green ones are mint buttercream and the purple are vanilla-rum butter cream.