Jalapeno Poppers

I might get smacked for this, but I always feel like Jalapeno Poppers are a little too greasy, and. . . I don't know.  Just somehow wrong.  I've never been a huge fan.
But this last Super Bowl Sunday (no, we didn't watch any of the Super Bowl), seemed like a fantastic time to try this recipe out.  I had seen it the weekend before and thought, "OMFGthoselookgood."  And you know what?  OMFGtheyAREgood.
I really like that Aarti writes her recipes with a similar voice to me - with lots of editorial.  :)

1 8 oz container of lowfat/light cream cheese, at room temp
1 large Granny Smith apple, diced (cored too, duh)
3 green peppers, roots and tips sliced off and sliced thinly
salt
10 jalapenos
10 slices of bacon, sliced in half
20 toothpicks
** this makes 20 jalapenos with a little bit of the cream cheese mixture left over - oddly enough it is delicious on banana chips (I know, but my boyfriend used to be a stoner and he gets these weird ideas about things I'm cooking and other items in the kitchen for snacking and from time to time I humor him and he frequently finds some new delicious combination that makes me scrunch up my face and say no way), but I imagine on a bagel or toast or crackers or whatever, it's also delightful.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment.

In a large bowl, stir the cream cheese until smooth. Add the apples and scallions, plus as much salt as you like.

Slice each jalapeno in half lengthwise, and then scoop out the membranes and seeds.


Using that same spoon, fill each jalapeno half with the cream cheese mixture; fill until just over the rim of the jalapeno. Wrap each pepper with a bacon half and secure with a toothpick.
Line then up on the baking sheet and pop into the oven until bacon has browned on the bottom, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes so you don't burn off the inside of your mouth.  Trust me.

Mushroom smothered pork

No photo because quite honestly, this meal is kind of ugly looking.  It's DELICIOUS though, and pretty easy.  I was inspired by this recipe over at All Recipes.
1/2 - 1 lb mushrooms - cleaned and sliced (I had one of those bags of ready to go sliced mushrooms, so however much that is)
1 can (or box) of condensed cream of mushroom soup
garlic - a couple of cloves, minced
1 small onion or a couple of shallots, minced
4 pork chops
salt & pepper
white wine

Season the chops with salt and pepper.  Saute the onions and garlic in a pan over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms and allow to get a little bit browned.  Season with salt and pepper.
While the mushies are doing their thing, sear the chops over medium-high on both sides in a nice big skillet.  Once they're browned, add the mushie mixture, the soup, and a glug or two of white wine to the skillet with them.  Cover, and allow to cook away over lowish for about half an hour or so until the pork hits 160.
Serve with mashed spicy sweet potatoes and Aylene's green beans.  I swear nearly everything we make is served with these two sides.  It's warm, and comforting, and perfect for an early spring evening when you're ready for things to start heating up but the rain hasn't quite given up on you for the season yet.

** Updated to mention that it MUST be good if I'm posting it twice - with the same freaking sides.  I am so predictable.  **

Pasta with sausage and peas

I know I've had delicious pastas before that featured crumbled sausage and peas.  I had some chicken (uh, jalapeno chicken actually) sausages in the fridge, and my roommate had some cream and frozen peas that looked stealable.  This could've gone horribly wrong, but actually turned into a pretty tasty Scavenged Dinner.
I sliced up the sausage (it had no casing, and is pre cooked or something so I couldn't crumble it) and set it aside.
I heated two minced garlic cloves in some olive oil til fragrant, then added the sausage.  Once I felt like things were probably pretty close to heated through, I added the frozen peas, the last of my 1% milk, some cream, salt and pepper, and 1 tbsp or so of butter.  I wanted to add lots of romano or parmesan, but only had like, 2 tbsp, boo.  I let it thicken up and added a little bit of the pasta water to make it nice and saucy.  :)
It actually turned out really well - the sauce was super flavorful and I will totally make it again.

Here is a really close recipe, though I did not use anywhere NEAR the amount of cream or butter it calls for!

Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Onions

Pr0n tenderloin is more like it - this stuff  is disgustingly delicious.  Thanks Epicurious - for blowing my recent pork tenderloin with onion and apple relish right out of the water.

1 large pork tenderloin (about 14 ounces)
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 large onion, sliced
2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup dry white wine or apple cider

Preheat oven to 450°F. Season pork with salt and pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large nonstick ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and sear until all sides are brown, turning occasionally, about 5 minutes. Transfer pork to plate. Cool slightly. Spread mustard over top and sides of pork. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet. Add onion slices and apples; sauté over medium heat until golden, about 5 minutes. Spread evenly in skillet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place pork atop apple-onion mixture.

Transfer skillet to oven and roast until apple-onion mixture is soft and brown and meat thermometer inserted into center of pork registers 150°F, about 15 minutes. Transfer pork to platter and tent with foil. Let stand 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour apple cider over apple-onion mixture in skillet. Stir mixture over high heat until slightly reduced, about 2 minutes. Cut pork on diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Spoon apple-onion mixture onto plates. Top with pork and serve.

Donuts!

Mini and regular sized baked donuts - oh boy!!  The chocolate ones are regular sized, the pastels are mini.  They turned out pretty freaking chewy (boo), but the taste was good.  The ones with chocolate glaze were AH-MAZING.  I can't wait to try other flavors and frostings and stuff.  You can pick up the pans (below) online or even at Mollie Stones, which is where I found my mini pan and saved myself the shipping (and waiting, which I hate).

See the difference between the top of the donut (pale) and the bottom (super bronzed)?  Also, you can see that the one mini guy over on the lower left looks a bit like a little bundt - that's him upside down, and that's his brother right side up, above him.

I followed the recipe that comes on the pan (though of course there are others, even by King Arthur!) - the one on the larger sized pan was perfect to make one batch of large (6) and two batches of tinys (24).  They're a bit tricky though.  The big ones looked great, but were BROWN on the bottom and white on top.  If I wasn't frosting with chocolate that may have looked odd.  And the little guys puff up like little round topped muffins with holes in the middle or get weird ridges around the side if you're not careful.
I used nonstick on one batch of my tiny guys, and I thought those ones actually turned out worse than when I didn't use the spray.  On the non-sprayed pans, I just used a couple of toothpicks to pluck the donuts out of the pans while they were still warm - worked perfectly for me.

Donuts
2 cups of cake flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used vanilla sugar, but don't know that the flavor really showed up in the finished product)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
3/4 c buttermilk (I was out and had to do the milk + lemon juice trick)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter

Preaheat oven to 425.  Spray pan with nonstick cooking spray (if you want).
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.  Add buttermilk, eggs and butter.  Beat until just combined.  Fill each large cup about 2/3 full.  Fill the minis about half full.
Bake the bigguns for 7-9 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched.  Bake the littleuns for 4-6 minutes or til the same.
Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes, or just go for it as I did.  If your donuts are sticking, let them cool a bit.

You can sub out the nutmeg for some grated lemon zest, and I imagine about a jillion other options to flavor the donuts as you like.  Once these were cooled, they did taste just like the good old cake donuts we know and love, if a bit chewy.

Variations and Frostings
Cinnamon Sugar:
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp melted butter
In a shallow bowl or plate, stir together cinnamon and sugar.  Dip the donuts in the melted butter and roll in the cinnamon/sugar mix to coat.

Chocolate Glaze:
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 tbsp corn syrup (I only had honey and it worked a treat, though I'm guessing it didn't solidify quite as it would've had I used corn syrup)
1 tsp hot water
In a medium bowl, nuke the chips, butter & corn syrup on 50% power at 30 second increments, stirring in between until everything is completely melted.  Stir in 1 tsp hot water til the glaze is thick and smooth - add another tsp if it's too thick.  Use immediately.

Powdered Sugar:
Put 2/3 cup of powdered/confectioner's sugar in a resealable plastic bag.  Add a donut to the bag and shake the heck out of it to coat.  Don't breathe in or sneeze while eating.

Vanilla Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk (I needed to add more)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or whatever flavor you want - almond, rum, imitation banana. . . have at it)
In a small bowl, stir together sugar, milk & vanilla (or other flavor) until sugar is dissolved.  Use immediately.

And as if that wasn't all bad enough, you can make your own custom colored sprinkles!  I can see myself getting WAY too carried away with this. . . . 

    

 

South Beach Hot Chocolate

Tired of buying the little packets of Swiss Miss Sugar Free hot chocolate, I figured it was high time I make my own.  Aside from being simple, (I mean what - cocoa, Splenda, and nonfat milk powder right?), it has the added bonus of no weird ingredients I can't pronounce (for the most part).  How hard can it be?  I started here and was off and running.
Now, this is a giant batch because I have a big old container and really, what else am I going to do with powdered milk?
This can easily be made non South Beach by using regular sugar.

6 cups nonfat dry milk
1 3/4 c Splenda (go for the full 2 cups if you have a sweet tooth)
1 cup*  of unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Ghirardelli)
1 (2.1 ounce - the big one) package of fat free/sugar free instant chocolate pudding mix

Combine all ingredients in a container and shake well until combined - it takes a while, keep shaking.  It's better than stirring though, unless you wanted to breathe this stuff in.

Add 3 tablespoons to a mug and fill with hot water.  Stir until combined.

Add a pinch of salt for salted chocolate; a pinch of cinnamon for Mexican hot chocolate; or a shot of Sugar Free Peppermint Syrup for a Snuggler without the buzzy feel good feelings.  Top with Sugar Free Cool Whip (or marshmallows if you're not going South Beach and you used regular sugar instead of Splenda - lucky).

* I tasted it with 1 cup of cocoa powder and wanted more chocolate oomph.  I added another 1/2-3/4 cup or so.  I think it's great, but the boy roommates are politely letting me know without actually saying so, that it is very chocolatey.  Maybe TOO chocolatey.  Pshaw.  As if.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

After seeing a recipe for Peppermint Bark Chocolate Cookies, and eyeballing the LOADS of peppermint bark in my kitchen leftover from Christmas indulgences, I knew what had to be done.
I'll keep some of these in the freezer to see how they bake after being frozen, and bake the rest today and deliver them to two darling families that I know will love them.  Temptation gone, creative urges sated, and friends made happy.  Win-win-win.

1 cup of butter
3/4 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cup of white granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract
1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder\
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
Pinch of salt
1+ cup of peppermint bark, broken into little chip size pieces

  

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Cream the butter and sugars together on medium speed until well incorporated and light in color.  Add the egg and the extracts until well incorporated, about a minute. Be sure to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl halfway through.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Add to the butter mixture cup by cup at medium speed, stopping once all of it is incorporated (do not overmix).  This batter is very dry - do not be alarmed.  It'll form into balls nicely.
Fold in the peppermint bark chips.
Take small spoonfuls of the dough and roll into one inch sized balls and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 2 1/2 - 3 dozen cookies.

While these were okay, I think I'd prefer to find a better chocolate cookie recipe and alter that, or stick to my beloved peppermint brownies. I found these cookies to be a little greasy and not as chewy as I'd hoped.