Recipes
Mocha Steak and Vanilla Mashed Potatoes
Oct 26th
One time my mom was making mashed potatoes for dinner with my stepfather and discovered that she didn’t have any milk. Instead, she grabbed a bottle of Silk Very Vanilla soy milk and used that as a substitute. The result: creamy potato goodness that both she and my stepfather loved. She raved about it when she came to visit this summer and I decided to try it out for myself. I’ve also been reading from many sources lately about using coffee to bring bigger, bolder flavor to grilled steak. I took it a step further and added some cocoa powder to the spice rub to enhance the flavor even more. The end result was this fun dish of Mocha Steak and Vanilla Mashed Potatoes.
Turtle Cheesecake
Oct 23rd
Ladies and gentlemen, this is my famous Turtle Cheesecake. What makes it so famous, you ask? Not much really, but it’s absolutely delicious. The only negative comment I get when I serve it is that it’s too rich. It’s a standard cheesecake with a solo chocolate layer that is topped with chocolate ganache, caramel, and pecans. The cheesecake recipe I refined myself, by doing tons of research on cream cheese based cakes and through trial and error. I almost don’t want to share the recipe, but there is a lot of finesse and familiarity on my part to get it to come out just perfect. Keep on reading past the break for more information on this delicious Turtle Cheesecake.
Sweet and Tangy Grilled Eggplant
Oct 19th
I’m not going to lie, I’ve really missed blogging about our culinary adventures. My puppy Kinley, who is now nearly a year old, managed to take up all of the free time I had set aside to keep this page updated. However, I’ve been inspired recently to jump back into the food-o-sphere. Katrina is thinking about switching from library science to culinary school, and it’s very exciting to think about how much delicious food I might be eating in the future. I’ve also started doing the Beach Body P90x workout program, so you guys will be able to see how you can still eat delicious foods while maintaining a healthy weight. I’ve had a few recipes sitting around on my computer for awhile. One of them is this fantastic Sweet and Tangy Grilled Eggplant which is a great side for a big juicy steak.
Brown Sugar Meatloaf and Fingerling Potatoes with Shallots and Garlic
Apr 29th
I come from a very meat-and-potatoes family. My mom still has Fried Chicken Mondays and makes mashed potatoes just about every night with dinner. She also buys a side of beef (that’s half a cow!) every year for just the four people still living in the house. When I was a vegetarian in high school, I ate a salad for every meal because my mom didn’t know what else to make without meat in it. Moral of the story: We eat a lot of meat. And we eat a lot of potatoes. With Mothers’ Day coming up, what better way to celebrate my mom and the childhood she gave me than to make my wonderful boyfriend a Brown Sugar Meatloaf and Fingerling Potatoes with Shallots and Garlic?
Smoked Baby Back Ribs and Barbecue Sauce
Apr 4th
The weather in Chicago was amazing this past week. We were hit by several 80 degree plus days and people started swarming outside to eat and play. The first thing that came to my mind was barbecue. We’ve already used the Weber a few times this season to cook steaks, but I wanted to go all out and smoke a few racks of baby back ribs, and it was finally warm enough to set up the charcoal grill for it. Katrina loves ribs (I sometimes make fun of her rib cravings) and it gave her the opportunity to make a batch of homemade barbecue sauce. The ribs were already fantastic after being smoked with a dry rub, but the messy barbecue sauce brought them up to perfection.
Ancho Chili Lemonade
Mar 10th
Katrina and I can’t quite remember how this drink came to be. We had talked about making this Chipotle Cream Sauce, and somehow leftover peas led to our leftover lemons which led to the creation of this sweet and spicy lemonade. We couldn’t find dried chipotle, so we ended up using ancho chiles. I think we really lucked out from this last minute decision at a local grocer, and created an Ancho Chili Lemonade which starts sweet and earthy, lightens up with some sour citrus notes, and then finishes with a mild heat that creeps up on the palette.
Fettucini with Chipotle Cream Sauce and Bacon Wrapped Shrimp
Mar 10th
There’s a Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood called Fiesta Mexicana that Katrina and I like to go to whenever we are craving good food and cheap margaritas. No seriously… the half-pitchers of margaritas and sangria average $15, and hold enough drink for six to eight full glasses, enough to make two adults feel pretty good. To top it all off, they give you free after dinner shots with the check. Anyways, recently they added a supplemental menu of specials to the regular menu. One of these is a creamy chipotle pasta topped with bacon wrapped shrimp, with some tomatoes and a rainbow of bell peppers mixed in. Katrina hates bell peppers, so without ever seeing or trying the dish we decided to make our own version at home. Read on to see how you can make your own Fettucini with Chipotle Cream Sauce and Bacon Wrapped Shrimp.
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