Beer Bread

Today I'm writing about another memorable recipe. In college a friend introduced me to beer bread. It is quick and simple to make, and it is delicious! I was a little skeptical at first because at the time I didn't like beer, but from the first bite I was hooked. Most of the time when we made beer bread there was a small group hanging out and was ate as snack. Now I prefer to eat it with some type of meal, like a beef stew or chili. I suggest you try this recipe at least once and try it a few times using different types of beer. Experiment! Find what you like best...or not at all! Happy baking!

Ingredients


3 c. self-rising flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
12 oz. beer
2-4 Tbsp. butter, melted

*Note: You can use all-purpose flour instead of self-rising, BUT you would need to add 4 Tbsp. active dry yeast.*




Directions


1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Stir together the flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Then add the beer and mix well.

2. Spray a bread loaf pan with cooking spray and pour the batter into the pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

3. Drizzle melted butter over top the warm bread. Cool loaf on a wire rack.

Homemade Calzone

The weekends seem to fly by so fast. One moment I'm relaxing and the next it's Monday morning. This past weekend was full of family time. Saturday brought a baby shower and dinner with my sister's family. Sunday was a day to relax and just hangout.

On Saturday I was looking for a quick, satisfying lunch before I went to the baby shower. The first thing that popped in my head was frozen pizza. I also wanted something low-cal because I knew there was going to be cake at the shower. But I really wanted pizza. My solution - Calzones! I know some of you maybe thinking that calzones are not low-cal, but these work out that way! I had everything in the fridge, it took less then 20 minutes, around 300 calories each, and I got my pizza fix. Win-win! Here's what I used:

Ingredients
refrigerated crescent roll dough
mozzarella cheese (string or shredded)
chopped onion
chopped peppers
bacon bits
pasta sauce (optional - either inside the calzone or as a dipping sauce)

*Filling Options: pepperoni, sausage, bacon, chicken, mushrooms, onion, green pepper, spinach, tomato, black olive


Basically you can fill your calzone with any topping you would put on a pizza!

Directions
1. Pre-heat the oven to 375-F. Separate the crescent roll dough into rectangles using two triangles. Place them on baking sheet and roll out flat.

2. On every rectangle spread on about 2-3 Tbsp. of pasta sauce, leaving the edges uncovered*. Place one stick of string cheese (or sprinkle with shredded cheese) in the middle of each dough rectangle. Sprinkle desired filling options evenly on top.

3. Fold the dough over (length-wise) and pinch the dough together. Bake calzones for 10-12 minutes or until golden-brown. Check to make sure the cheese is melted in the middle and ENJOY!

*Dipping sauce instead of in calzone: Place some pasta sauce in a bowl and warm up in the microwave.

Calzones are delicious and you have many options. Instead of making one calzone variety for the whole family, everyone can pick what they want inside. This recipe allows kids to get very involved. My nephews love to help in the kitchen. When making these, I let them fill their calzones with the toppings they choose, fold the dough, and pinch it close. These are not a lot of steps involved. Nor is it a complex recipe. Besides it's fun to have my nephews in the kitchen and getting them involved! It doesn't matter if you are cooking for family, with a group of friends, or just for yourself...this recipe is quick, easy, and delicious. Enjoy!

Sour Cream Cupcakes

Cupcakes - individual cakes one can serve to a group of people. Cupcakes eliminate the (sometimes messy) step of cutting a cake into smaller pieces to be served. The cake as a whole looks great, until you start chopping it up. Once you start serving the cake, it loses the beauty it once had when whole. Cupcakes keep their design until eaten. The cupcake left undisturbed still has its beauty to showcase, it just has fewer companions on the tray.  When I am serving cake, I always end up either dropping a piece or it flops upside down on the plate...it never fails. I hate serving cake, so if someone else wants to cut and serve it, I let them. From a decorating standpoint, cakes give you a bigger surface to work with, but I still like making cupcakes.

Sonny and I have been enjoying some delicious cupcakes from Cardinal Cupcakes & Coneys. This place helped spark my recent cupcake obsession. We finally got around to trying this place after knowing about it for some time. Our first trip last week was almost crushed. We arrived close to closing time and as we were walking up to the door they were putting up a sign, "Closed: Out of Cupcakes". NOOOO! Before I could become too sad, though, the owner opened the door and said, "We have four cupcakes left!" Hooray! We didn't have much to choose from, but we were able to purchase two cupcake flavors: Duck Pond (lemon) and Strawberry. We split the cupcakes. I found myself liking the lemon cupcake better than the strawberry, but both tasted good.

    Strawberry and Duck Pond                                     Top: French Toast and Raspberry Lemonade
                                                                             Bottom:  Cow Path and Nutty Buddy  

Our recent trip to Cardinal Cupcakes led to us buying four different cupcake flavors: Nutty Buddy, Cow Path, French Toast, and Raspberry Lemonade. I had Raspberry Lemonade (a lemon cupcake with raspberry frosting and raspberry filling) and Sonny had Nutty Buddy (a peanut butter cupcake with peanut butter icing). We didn't split them this time, but we did make sure we both got to sample both flavors. I really liked the Raspberry Lemonade. YUM! Later, we split the other two cupcakes: Cow Path (a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing and white chocolate chips on top) and French Toast (a cinnamon cupcake with maple syrup icing). Both were good cupcakes, but I like French Toast better. Of the half dozen cupcakes I've tried so far from Cardinal Cupcakes & Coneys, I like Raspberry Lemonade the best. I have not been disappointed in any cupcake I've tried. I'm looking forward to trying the other cupcake flavors this place has to offer.

After the cupcake adventure, the grocery store was our next stop. I finally picked up a mini-muffin pan. I have been wanting to purchase one for quite some time. I almost picked one up around Christmas time, but failed to do so. Mini-cupcakes make it even easier to share with a group a people. They're great to take to work, and leave in the break room for everyone to enjoy. Now equipped with my mini-muffin pan, I made some mini-cupcakes in time to share for Valentine's Day.

I decided to make chocolate sour cream cupcakes with sour cream icing and top them with a conversation heart. I was a little skeptical about using sour cream to make cupcakes, but Sonny reassured me that it would turn out fine. The cupcakes turned out better than fine...the turned out great! To add color to your icing, I suggest you first make up the icing, divide it up, and add food coloring.

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes

Ingredients

1/2 c. boiling water

1/4 c. shortening

1 c. sugar

1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. soda

1 egg

1/2 c. sour cream

                                                                          1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the boiling water, shortening, sugar and cocoa powder. Beat until the sugar is dissolved. Add in the dry ingredients a little at a time while alternating with the egg, sour cream and vanilla.

2. Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Fill lined mini-cupcake cups about half-way full. Bake for 10-12 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and frost.

Sour Cream Icing

Ingredients

1/4 c. butter, melted

1/2 c sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. salt

2 1/2 c. confectioners' sugar

Directions

Combine the melted butter, sour cream, vanilla and salt into a medium mixing bowl. Slowly mix in the confectioners' sugar until desire consistency is reached. Spread frosting onto desired dessert treat.

Murgh Makhani aka Butter Chicken

marinating chicken

I enjoy food. Thanks to Sonny, the variety of foods I consume has expanded. He introduced me to Thai food. Thai was a hit from the beginning. We've had it a few times and so far I have not been disappointed in the different dishes I've tried. He also introduced me to Indian food. Indian food started off a little rocky, but ended alright. I didn't like what I ordered the first time around. I ended up eating Sonny's dish, which I liked better. So we switched. I ordered Chicken Saag and he ordered Chicken Tikka Masala. I thought the saag tasted too earthy.

sauce simmering

I gave Indian food a second chance over the holiday break. I met up with some friends and was looking forward to a night out. I was a little unsure about going to an Indian restaurant. What if I didn't like what I ordered...again? I didn't want a repeat of last time. So I found something on the menu that was close to Chicken Tikka Masala and enjoyed my meal. Success! 

almost ready!

Tonight's dish: Murgh Makhani aka Butter Chicken. Brought to you by a post on Pinterest. The picture looked delicious. I could smell the familiar spices that fill an Indian restaurant. I knew I wanted to try making this meal.

The end result = DELICIOUS!

Looking at the ingredients list, there was not too much that I needed to pick up at the store. Ginger paste and garam masala were the two big items that were not in pantry already. I couldn't find a fresno chile at the store, so I substituted a jalapeno pepper in its place. It's an easy recipe with great results. It will feed a group of 4-6 people. We should have invited people over for dinner because we have a lot of leftovers! The meal was enjoyed over rice. I didn't think about making naan along side this dish. Pita was used instead and tasted just as good! I'm very happy with how everything turned out. It tasted great. The initial bite was not spicy, but there was a nice kick afterwards that lingered awhile. I'm looking forward to eating the leftovers tomorrow and enjoying this meal again.

Beard Hat

This past October a co-worker asked if I could knit him and beard hat. I had no idea what he was talking about, so he should me a picture. Sure enough it looked like it sounded....a knitted hat with an attached, knitted beard...a modern version of a ski mask. I agreed to this request knowing the hat part would be no sweat. I didn't know how I was going to go about knitting the beard and attaching it to the hat.  

For this project I used the following materials:

Needles
 - 16” US Size 8 Circular Needles
 - US Size 8 double point needles (you can use straight needles for the beard, if desired)
 - Tapestry needle

Yarn

 - Hat: 1-3 oz. ball of Lion Brand - Jiffy Yarn (Bulky) in desired color - I used Caffe
 - Beard: 1-3 oz. ball of Lion Brand - Jiffy Yarn (Bulky) in desired color - I used Dark Grey Heather

Hat - The hat is simple to make. *K1, P1* over and over and over. You can choose to knit any hat pattern you desire to go with your beard. This is my basic hat pattern that I knitted. 

CO 64 sts (using the circular needles)
      *For smaller sizes, subtract CO stitches in multiples of 8.
      *For larger sizes, add CO stitches in multiples of 8.

K1, P1 around for 7”

Divide stitches evenly onto dps to begin the crown decrease.

Hat

Descrease
·      Rnd 1: *K6, ssk* to end

·      Rnd 2: *K1, P1* to end

·      Rnd 3: *K5, ssk* to end

·      Rnd 4: *K1, P1* to end

·      Rnd 5: *K4, ssk* to end

·      Rnd 6: *K1, P1* to end

·      Rnd 7: *K3, ssk* to end

·      Rnd 8: *K1, P1* to end

·      Rnd 9: *K2, ssk* to end

·      Rnd 10: *K1, P1* to end

·      Rnd 11: *K1, ssk* to end

·      Rnd 12: *K1, P1* to end

·      Rnd 13: *ssk* to end – 8 sts remaining

Cut yarn leaving a long tail. With a tapestry needle, thread tail through the remaining stitches twice and pull firmly.

Beard - For the beard I had to do some searching online for guidance. I found this pattern via www.ravelry.com. (I love ravelry! It is a great resource if you are a knitter...and did I mention it's free to join?) I had a lot of fun knitting the beard. I couldn't help but show it off to my friends, family and co-workers while I was knitting. 

Beard

When done, I was faced with this question: How do I attach the beard to the hat? I decided to keep the hat and beard as two separate pieces. Then the hat (or beard) could be worn individually or the beard could be worn with another hat. To accomplish this, I simply used a tapestry needles and sewed the side flaps of the beard together. This allows the beard to be worn around the head like a reverse headband.

Beard Hat! 

When you put the two pieces together, this is what you get:

I am very please with the results. I haven't seen him wear the hat, but it's been a very mild winter here. One day it's in the 40's and the next day it's in the lower 20's with snow and ice....then two days later it's back in the upper 40's. If I make the beard again, I will try and not make the mouth opening so wide. I'm even thinking about making a smaller version of the beard for my nephews...that would look cute. 

Star Wars - R2-D2 Hat

Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi...I love these movies. Who doesn't like (some part of) Star Wars? I have since my childhood. I watched Star Wars for the first time at my aunt and uncle's house. I was sad when the movie was over and I had to go home. I wanted to watch more Star Wars! She let me borrow the other two episodes. After watching all three, I borrowed The Empire Strikes Back again and again and again.....after all it is my favorite. Then there are the new episodes: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith. I did see these movies and enjoyed (parts of) them, but I enjoy the original trilogy best.

R2-D2 Hat Finished!

A few month back Sonny found a picture of a R2-D2 hat and sweater for sale online. He showed me the picture and jokingly requested that I knit him these items. I was thinking, "Are you CRAZY?!" I laughed it off and joked right back saying, "Sure, I'll get right on it....." Well I did some digging online knowing I could attempt the hat...I'm not quite ready for sweaters. I found a pattern on another bloger's blog that was simple and I could make it in time for Sonny's birthday. My pattern research began in late November and knew I wouldn't have time to get it done for Christmas with everything else going on. His birthday, which is soon after Christmas, was a better goal. It didn't take long to make this hat...of course nothing was getting in the way of me and my knitting. I was off from school and didn't have to work. It was just me, my needles and the time to knit...it was nice and relaxing. (I can't wait for spring break! More knitting and relaxing!)

Sonny modeling his hat.

I learned two things from this pattern:

1) How to do a duplicate stitch.

Duplicate stitching is very simple, so don't get overwhelmed if you want to try this pattern. The Internet is wonderful resource, especially when I'm trying to learn something new and a seasoned knitter isn't around to help my knitting knowledge expand. The website I linked above was very helpful. The duplicate stitch is pretty cool. It will come in handy for a few ideas I have for future knitting projects.

2) I should try using circular needles.

After I finished the hat for Sonny I realized that the double point needles left a seam where I switched needles. I really like using double points, but I didn't like the look of the seam. With circular needles, I was always afraid of tangling the wire and having to start over again...not a big problem, but a minor and annoying set back. So I bought a pair of circular needles needed for the project and made another hat. No seams this time!

Let's talk yarn materials. I purchased Vanna's Choice Yarn by Lion Brand Yarn. I purchased 1 ball each of Silver Gray, Colonial Blue, Black, and Cranberry. If you have red and black already in your stash of scrap yarn and it's the same weight I suggest using that yarn instead of buying more of a color you're not going to use very much of those colors. *Side Note* One ball of the gray yarn will easily make two hats with some leftover and one ball of blue yarn will last for three hats.

I keep making this hat. First I made it for Sonny as a birthday present. Then I knitted another hat as a birthday present for my good friend. (She is a HUGE Star Wars fanatic...I like Stars Wars and so does Sonny....but she LOVES Star Wars). And I just finished a third for another birthday present. I'm glad I enjoy knitting this pattern! Fellow knitters, I hope you try this pattern for the Star Wars lover in your life....I know you have at least one!

My Little Break

The good news: I'm still cooking and knitting. The bad news: I haven't had time blog about it.

It's been a few weeks since I have posted about anything. Time is really flying...I can't believe it's February! Work has been keeping me very busy. I'm also trying to make it to the gym more than 1-2 times a week (usually just 1). So far this week I've been there 3 times...woohoo!

In spite of my lack of blogging about my cooking and knitting adventures, I have been knitting up and storm and doing my normal cooking. I've been working on more coffee cup cozies, hand warmers and two new hat patterns (which I'll be blogging about soon). I have TONS of new ideas to try in the kitchen, thanks to Pinterest. I also a few new ideas for my knitting needles. Now, thanks to Pinterest, I'm more interested in learning how to crochet. Perhaps a new project to tackle on this year's spring break.

The super bowl is coming up in a few days. Like most people, I plan on attending a get-together. (If you're wondering, I'll be cheering for the Giants). I don't know what I'll be making for the party, but I'm sure it will come to me....hopefully soon.