Roasted Peanuts

Source: thekitchn.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Michelle, here.

This week I held raw peanuts in my hand for the first time ever. It was less of a magical moment and more of a "OMG. Raw peanuts exist? Now what?" Thankfully, roasting peanuts is very easy. You don't even have to shuck them, if you prefer.

My husband said that, if you like your shelled roasted peanuts salted, you can soak them in salt water overnight. But, see, that requires that he tell me this the night before instead of when the peanuts are in the oven. Bah! Sounds like work.

Here is what I did:

1. Spread shelled peanuts on baking pans.

2. Set oven to 350*

3. Roast for 25 minutes.

4. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Tada! Really, that's it.

Tips:

1. Do one pan at a time. I tried to do two pans and the pan closer to the heating element was overdone. Thus my burnt first attempt. Peanuts seem to quickly go from perfect to What Have You Done!

2. If you have a gas oven, like me, roast them for only 20 minutes.

3. If the peanuts are a tad overdone, remove them from the pan right away so that they will cool off faster.

Left to right: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd attempts. :)

Pita Bread!

Pita Bread Recipe

Last week was Spring Break at my college.  I decided that I'd visit my brother and his family who live 5 hours away with my time off.  So on Wednesday I packed up the car and my son and I hit the road!  We had a great time being lazy and hanging out and as we were leaving, my brother and wife decided to gift me with their old Kitchenaid Stand Mixer as an early birthday present!  Seeing as a Kitchenaid was the only thing I've been wanting for years, I was totally stoked. 

And the angels rejoiced!

Unfortunately, life took over as usual so I wasn't able to bust this bad boy out until an entire week after I got home!  But today was the day. I cleaned the kitchen, wiped down this glorious machine, and scanned my Pinterest boards for something to create.  Since I had also brought home a cold from my brother's house along with the mixer, I decided to make something simple so I wouldn't be overtaxed.  I settled upon this pita bread recipe from Under the High Chair which I had pinned a few months back.  

The recipe is as follows:

1 tablespoon yeast

1 ¼ cup warm water

1 teaspoon salt

3- 3 ½ cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water for about 5 minutes in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add salt and 1 ½ cups flour and with the dough hook, beat to make a batter. Add additional flour until a rough, shaggy mass is formed. Knead 8 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Add more flour if it is too sticky.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into six pieces for large pitas or ten for smaller. I make all sorts of sizes to suit different snacks and meals. Form dough into balls, then flatten with a rolling pin into ¼ inch thick discs. Try and keep an even thickness as this is what helps them ‘puff’. Let rest on the floured surface 30-40 minutes until slightly puffed.

Preheat oven to 425F.

With a large spatula, flip the rounds of dough upside down on to a baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes until light golden. Stick around for the first five minutes of baking when the pitas perform their magic and puff up from flat pancakes to proud, four inch high pitas.

After 5 minutes

After 15 minutes

Unfortunately, I did not achieve actual pita breads here.  While I did get some delicious rolls, they were not hollow in the middle.  I am not quite sure what I did wrong.  It's possible I used too much flour (I added an extra cup because it was so sticky) or I kneaded it too long.  I think maybe my dough balls were too thick.  My son sure liked it, though!

A special shoutout to Homeland for the tutorial on how to align pictures in HTML!

Crispy Sweet Potato Fries

Source: theartofdoingstuff.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I was very pleased with how these turned out! They weren't quite as crispy as in the original post, but the original poster also does a good job of setting your expectations. Basically, baked fries are hard and sweet potato fries are the hardest.

But I love sweet potatoes!

I also love the sirachi sauce recipe she has on the same page. WOW.

You'll need:

• Sweet potatoes
• A bowl of water
• Corn starch
• Olive Oil

The process:

1. Slice the sweet potatoes and slice the slices to get fry shapes. Mine were a little thick so aim for closer to a centimeter than 1/2 inch.

2. Soak them in water for at least an hour. Several hours is better.

3. Preheat oven to 425*F

4. Place the fries in a bag with about a tablespoon of cornstarch and shake, shake, shake! Too much cornstarch is a bad idea.

5. Place in a single layer on a lined cookie sheet. If they don't crisp up well you WILL regret leaving off the liner.

6. Drizzle with olive oil and toss them around in it.

7. Stick the fries in the oven and check after 15 minutes. If they're not too floppy or sticky, turn them. 30 minutes total should do it depending on the thickness of your fries.

And now, the amazing dipping sauce:

• 1/2 cup of mayonaise 
• 1 teaspoon of Sriracha sauce 
• 1/4 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper. 

Adjust to taste. OMG.

Banana Coconut Bread

Source: aspicyperspective.com via Amy on Pinterest

Banana... coconut bread? Yes, it is as amazing as it sounds, even without the chopped nuts, which I leave out for allergy concerns. My Dad doesn't even like coconut and he liked this bread.


Ingredients:

What your bananas should look like.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick of softened butter
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 2 large or 3 small very ripe bananas, smashed
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¾ cup shredded coconut

Directions:


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a 9X5 loaf pan. (1.5 quart capacity)

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Then add the applesauce, eggs and bananas. Mix until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dried ingredients. Slowly beat the dry mixture into the wet.

4. Add the coconut. Mix well.

5. Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 325 degrees F and bake another 40+ minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

6. Allow the bread to cool for 10 minute in the pan, then flip it out onto a cooling rack.

Nom nom nom!

"Starbucks" Lemon Loaf

Source: familycampingchat.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I'm going to make this again. Like, today. I love the simplicity of this loaf and the quick icing makes it even better.

I made one small change that I'm going to keep for future loaves. Instead of lemon extract, I used orange extract, and for the frosting I used lemon juice. YUM.

Ingredients:
Loaf

• 1 1/2 cups FLOUR
• 1/2 teaspoon BAKING SODA
• 1/2 teaspoon BAKING POWDER
• 1/2 teaspoon SALT
• 3 EGGS
• 1 cup SUGAR
• 2 tablespoon BsUTTER; Softened.
• 1 teaspoon VANILLA
• 1 teaspoon Orange EXTRACT
• 1/3 cup LEMON JUICE
• 1/2 cup OIL

Lemon Icing:

• 1 cup POWDERED SUGAR; Plus 1 Tablespoon.
• 2 tablespoons WHOLE MILK; I Used 2%.
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

_____

1. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

2. Use a mixer to blend together the eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, lemon extract and lemon juice in a medium bowl.

3. Pour wet ingredient into the dry ingredients and blend until smooth.

4. Add oil and mix well.

5. Pour batter into a well greased 9x5-inch loaf pan.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into center of the cake comes out clean.

7. Make the lemon icing by combining all the icing ingredients in a small bowl with an electric mixer on low speed.

8. When the loaf is cool, remove it from pan and frost the top with the icing.

9. Let the icing set up before slicing.

Parmesan Potato Bread

Source: partial-ingredients.com via Max on Pinterest

Mine may not be quite as pretty as the above but it was delicious! The original recipe makes two small loaves, so I froze half of the dough before the second rise. I've cooked the frozen one off since and it also turned out well. Don't forget to let it thaw AND do the second rise, though!

I didn't get a lot of good pictures of the process, so let's get straight to the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized russet potatoes (about 8 oz.)
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour or all purpose flour
• Olive oil
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 egg, lightly beaten + 2 tbsp water

Directions:

1. I used instant mashed potatoes by preparing them according to the package. I'm a big fan of not going to the store for a single ingredient and going with a substitution instead. One potato is about one serving of instant mashed potatoes, maybe a little more. Go figure. So, you'll need 2-3 servings of instant mashed potato.
2. Add the dry yeast and sugar and let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Add the salt, water and 3 cups of flour. Mix until smooth, adding more water if necessary.
4. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and gradually add in the rest of the flour by ¼ cup increments. I didn't have the full amount of Parmesan cheese but the bread turned out fine any how.
5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5-7 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. Add more water if necessary.
6. Drizzle some olive oil in the empty bowl and place the dough back into it. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 60 minutes, or until doubled in size.
7. Place the dough on a floured surface and deflate. Divide the loaves and freeze one.
8. Place the loaf on lightly oiled parchment paper,
9. Cover with a dish towel and let rise for 45 minutes.
10. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
11. Stir together the egg and water and brush the wash over the loaf.
12. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until bread is a dark golden brown (internal temperature should read 195-200F).
13. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Here you can see how well the parchment paper works for a clean removal from the pan:

Becomes:

Delicious!

Crockpot Pineapple Chicken

Crockpot Pineapple Chicken


Last night I went on a Pinterest pinning spree. I spent maybe an hour pinning anything that looked delicious or fabulous. In my endeavors, I came across this crockpot pineapple chicken recipe. The picture looked fabulous so I pinned it to my Foods board.

This morning afternoon when I got up I said to myself, "Self, you have all the ingredients to make this dish. Why don't you try it?" So I pulled myself out of bed and got my Kindle Fire and Pinterest App fired up. I clicked on the pin to go to the source website and that was when I learned that the pin doesn't actually lead anywhere! All the directions that you're ever going to get are contained in the pin text itself. Those ingredients are as follows verbatim:

"Crockpot! 1 cup pineapple juice 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/3 cup light soy sauce 2 pounds chicken breast tenderloins. Cook on low 6-8 hrs and they should just fall apart."

Simple enough. I whisked all my ingredients together, put my chickens in the crockpot, and poured my homemade marinade over the chicken. I set my crockpot to high because I'm inpatient and I proceeded to wait. I did flip my chickens at the halfway point since I had put them in frozen and I wanted to get maximum marinade coverage. 

This is what I had after approximately 5 hours on high:

It looked more like barbecue than the lovely glistening pieces of chicken presented in the pin. I was dubious. I cut myself off a piece and tasted it. Delicious! I scooped some rice in my bowl and nommed it in record time. 

It is my opinion that the chicken pictured in the pin is from chicken that was grilled or cooked on a stove top. It's possible you can get a similar look if you do cook it on low in the crockpot, but I highly doubt it. Either way, this was a pretty good meal and fairly easy to prepare. This is also a good replacement for any store bought pineapple teriyaki marinade.