Bruschetta

This isn't so much Mom's bruschetta (which always makes people spill the food all over themselves in a rush to get it into their mouths), but something using some stuff left over in my fridge. I have to double check, but I think the main difference is just the cheese. Anyway, I think this is pretty good for you, and it's really easy and tasty (and if you eat enough, it transforms from an appetizer into an entree). And I may or may not have spilled some on myself in my rush to get it to my mouth...

Ingredients:

2-3 tomatoes (I used roma, but whatever you like) OR 1-2 bell peppers (for the non-tomato eaters, aka my boyfriend)
Goat cheese
Basil
A baguette!

1. Cut baguette into 1 inch slices, lay them down on a cookie sheet. Drizzle both sides of pieces with olive oil (brush it evenly across the surface).

2. Dice tomatoes (I cleaned out the inside of the tomatoes a little bit, cause I'm not a big fan of all of the seeds).

3. If you are making the peppers (instead of or in addition to the tomatoes) cut into long slices (fajita style!), heat 1 tbs of oil in a skillet, and sautee peppers until they have begun to soften. I like to sprinkle the peppers with some seasoning salt to give it more flavor, but up to you.

4. Clean and chop basil- mix the tomatoes, basil, and however much goat cheese you want together in a bowl. If you are making the peppers, just mix the softened peppers and the cheese together.

5. Turn oven on to broil- on top rack, broil baguette slices for a few minutes until it starts to brown, then turn slices over and toast that side. Take baguette slices out, pile your mixture on top of it, and then put it back in the oven for a few minutes until cheese starts to melt.

Munch on the food.

Pretzels!

Because it is exam time, I have slacked off and entered the world of frozen pizzas, delivery chinese food, and diner fare. We did have an amazing experience last night though- dinner at my professor's house with 4 different kinds of appetizers (like duck confit on toasted baguette with a bing cherry jam and a platter of cheese that made my heart smile), an awesome entree that included what appeared to be sauteed brussel sprouts (btw, YUM) and a fancy pants lemon dessert accompanied by biscotti and a variety of chocolates. The wine was amazing and the company was great, and in between worrying about damaging the crystal or knocking the server's hands, I enjoyed the amazing meal without an ounce of work. Something to strive for, I guess...

ANYWAY- digression and obsession with past meals aside, I made these pretzels a week or two ago, and forgot to share! The recipe comes from my friend Emily, a fellow chef who is much more adventurous than I am. Every time she makes these, they are gone in half a second (seriously, before you can blink). She gave me some tips, which I am passing along as well. Also, surprisingly enough, this is a really healthy recipe- great for snacking and guilt free!

Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels
Adapted from "Steph Chows"

Ingredients:
1 tsp active dry yeast (this is less than a packet of yeast, so if you don't have a jar of yeast like I do, check the packet information)
Pinch of sugar
1/3 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1/2 cup bread flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp splenda blend (2 Tbs white sugar)
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp baking soda
1 cup hot water (as hot as your tap can get)
Sea salt or whatever other toppings you want
1 tbsp canola oil (I didn't have canola oil, so I used olive oil instead. It turned out well, but I think canola oil is the healthiest in the oil family)

1. Dissolve yeast into water with a pinch of sugar, let stand 10 minutes until the mixture is creamy colored. Mix the yeast mixture with flour, sugar, salt and canola oil, and knead until combined (this will take only a few minutes, not even 5).

Emily's tip: the dough will be a little dry this way, so you can dissolve the yeast in a little more than 1/3 cup of water, and you can let the oil overflow the tbs measurement a little.

2. Let the dough rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size, about 1 hour (my apartment is cold, so it took a little longer than this. I left it for a couple of hours while I did some studying, which worked out fine! You still won't have a ton of dough, so don't be scared if it doesn't look that big).

3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, pinch off a handful and roll it out into a long strand. Set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough, about 6 times. Once all the strands are rolled out, pick up the first one and stretch it out again (the gluten will have relaxed and it should stretch further now). Twist it into a pretzel shape and place it on a baking sheet lined with cooking spray. Repeat with the rest of the strands.

4. Dissolve baking soda into hot water and stir until dissolved. Quickly dip each rolled pretzel into the mixture and place it back on the baking sheet. Sprinkle all the pretzels with sea salt, to your preference. Bake for about 8 minutes, until pretzels have browned. (You can try baking them for 8 minutes and then dropping the temperature to 350 for an additional 4-5 minutes for better browning).

5. Emily's tip: to make them even more delicious but less healthy, brush them with melted butter once they've come out of the oven! I did this, and I didn't regret it for a second.


Serve with this honey mustard sauce, and it. is. AWESOME.

Honey Mustard Sauce:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper

1. Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper (this is obviously optional- I skipped it and didn't find it lacking at all!). The sauce can be held in the refrigerator for 1 week.

Note: for storage purposes, bread can be a little funny. DO NOT refrigerate these, and DO NOT store them in an air tight container. They'll get moist and gross and you don't want that. I wrapped them in foil and left them on the counter, and it was fine. If you are worried about Sparky getting into them though... eat them in one sitting.

Superbowl Appetizers

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Note: these are decidedly NOT healthy!

I made two appetizers for the Superbowl this weekend- both were big hits, both were very easy, neither were healthy (and, most importantly, neither looked like cat puke).

Buffalo Wings

Ingredients:
2-3 lbs chicken drumettes
1 12 oz bottle Frank's Hot Sauce
2 sticks butter
Canola Oil (err on the side of A LOT, i.e. a 48 oz bottle or so)
Tabasco Sauce

1. Pour the canola oil into a thick skillet or a dutch oven- the depth should be about 1.5-2 inches of oil (hence, erring on the side of a lot of oil). Heat the oil on medium to medium-high heat; keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't overheat, but you need to let it get pretty hot.

2. While the oil is heating, put the drummettes in a colander and rinse with cold water. I've read that this helps them fry... who knows if its true, but its fun!

3. Once oil is hot (it took about 10-15 minutes for mine to get hot), dump in your chicken drummettes, and immediately scrape the bottom with METAL tongs so as to make sure they don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Be careful (its not fun to have hot oil splashed on you). Cover with a splatter guard if you have one. Keep an eye on your chicken- it should take about 25 minutes for them to fry. You want them to be crispy and golden brown on the outside- if they aren't browned, keep them in a while longer. Just watch them to make sure they don't burn.


4. While your chicken is frying, make the buffalo sauce. Melt two sticks of butter in a medium saucepan, then stir in the entire bottle of Frank's. Remove from heat and stir it together with a fork, making sure it is well blended. Add in tabasco sauce to taste.

5. Once the drumettes are done frying, remove them (again, with METAL tongs. As much fun as it is to melt plastic stuff, I don't think that'd be an improvement on this recipe) to a paper towel lined dish. In batches, add the drummettes into your sauce, cover them entirely, then set them on your serving dish.

6. Serve with blue cheese (YOU'RE blue cheese!) or ranch sauce. The go-to celery sticks are a good side, but if you are trying to adhere to the whole not-healthy thing, I feel like that'd be going against that goal.



Jalapeno Treats

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:
About 20 jalapenos (try to find the smaller ones, about 1-2 inches long)
Two packages of cream cheese, softened to room temp
1 package of bacon
Toothpicks!

Note: NEVER, under any circumstances, bring your hands close to your eyes while working with jalapenos. In the interest of helping you out, I am imparting this hard learned wisdom. If you need to, scrub your hands like you are prepping for surgery, cause let me tell you- jalapenos in the eye is NOT a pleasant experience.

1. Slice the jalapenos in half, length-wise. Use a spoon to clean out the seeds and membrane (those are what makes the peppers spicy. If you want to retain some mouth-searing spice, leave a few seeds or some of the membrane in. This may or may not make you wish you were dead, but hey, its a personal choice).

2. Once the peppers are cleaned out, rinse them off to get rid of the extra seeds. Fill the peppers with the softened cream cheese, as full as you'd like. Something I noticed is that if you end up with larger peppers (which I did), if you fill the peppers up, that is a LOT of cream cheese. Again, personal choice.


3. Take the bacon out, and cut it in thirds to wrap around the peppers. If you have large peppers, you might not want to cut it into thirds (it may be too short to get all the way around the peppers). However, if you don't cut it into thirds, you may run into supply problems... it's a dilemma I solved by cutting into thirds, and occasionally doubling the bacon up on the large peppers


4. Heat your oven to 375. A trick for cooking these things- line a cookie tray with foil, and then place a metal cooling rack on top of the tray. Place the peppers on the cooling rack (you may need to cook them in 2 batches), so the bacon grease can drip to the tray below.


5. Cook for 20-25 minutes, and then serve! They go well with the buffalo wings because you can dip them in the blue cheese as well. Nummy.