{recipe} Creme Brulee French Toast

Test Recipes Week 17! (Can you believe we're already 1/3 of the way through 2010??)

Last week I was in the mood for some good breakfast food, so I did a trusty Allrecipes.com search.  Coincidently, French bread had also been the freebie item at the grocery store, so I decided french toast was the way to go.  I wanted something a little special, not regular egg/milk dipped french toast.  Here's what I decided on:

CREME BRULEE FRENCH TOAST (allrecipes.com)

1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 c. packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. corn syrup
1 loaf French bread, sliced 1/2" to 1" thick
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. half-and-half (I used milk)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. brandy-based orange liqueur (such as Grand Marnier®) (I used 1 tsp triple sec and 1 tsp OJ instead)
1/4 tsp. salt

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix in brown sugar and corn syrup, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a 9x13 inch greased baking dish. Arrange bread in the baking dish in a single layer. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, half and half, vanilla extract, orange liqueur, and salt. Pour over the bread.  (At this point, I spooned a bunch of the milk mixture over each slice to make sure they were nice and soggy.  All the liquid had been soaked up in the morning, so this probably wouldn't have been necessary.) Cover and chill overnight. Remove the dish from the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature. Bake uncovered 35 to 40 minutes in the 350* oven, until puffed and lightly browned. (Can place under broiler for a couple minutes too at the end.  Some people in the comments mentioned flipping the slices halfway through baking...your call, I did not.)

This recipe was very sweet, very caramel-ly, very sticky, and VERY yummy!!  I rated it EXCELLENT.  Actually, the taste was pretty much just like a caramel roll/sticky bun, just a little less dense.  Although this french toast was really yummy, I probably will not make it very often because of the richness.  Honestly, I think I like regular plain french toast with maple syrup just as much, but this was a great change of pace.  It also reheated very well in the toaster oven, which made it an easy breakfast throughout the work week.  Do you ever eat Brinner (breakfast for dinner)?  I love brinner - especially pancakes and eggs - and the leftover french toast made excellent brinner a couple days later!

{recipe} Peach & Orange Milkshake

ANNOUNCEMENT: 
A couple months ago I bought a blender.  And since then I have become a smoothie connoisseur. I recently bought a new cookbook: 100 Best Smoothies and Juices because of this fact.  When I buy a cookbook or get a new magazine in the mail, the first thing I do is look through everything and bookmark all the recipes I think I'd like to try.  So I hereby announce that I will be doing a Smoothie of the Week feature each week here on Crafteroonie!  I'm very excited :)  Hopefully I'll be adventurous enough to test some new fruits or interesting combinations.

Unfortunately, the first smoothie I tried from the book was a flop.  Read about it HERE.  This week's smoothie was much more successful:

PEACH & ORANGE MILKSHAKE (Smoothie book)

scant 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. peach yogurt
scant 1/2 c. orange juice
1 c. canned peach slices, drained (or use fresh)
6 ice cubes, crushed

Pour the milk, yogurt, and orange juice into a blender and blend gently until combined.  Add the peach slices and ice cubes, and blend until smooth.  Pour into chilled glasses and serve.  Makes 2 servings.

I think peaches are my favorite fruit.  It's rare to come across a bad one.  When they make an appearance at the grocery stores during those later summer months, they are hard to pass up!  (Watermelon is a close second favorite of mine, but it lost out of first place due to the fact that it's too easy to find a flavorless one.  And those darn seeds!) So this smoothie/milkshake was right up my alley.  It's hard to consider it a milkshake without the ice cream...am I the only one who thinks this way??  This was pretty GOOD.  Nice strooong peach flavor.  Very refreshing!

{recipe} Snickerdoodles

Test Recipes Week 16! (the finale)

Here's the last of the recipes I tested out this week.  Maybe it's because the other three recipes were actually pretty healthy, but for some reason I got a craving to bake some cookies mid-week.  All the ingredients for these cookies were in my kitchen, so I decided on Snickerdoodles. 

SNICKERDOODLES (SmittenKitchen)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (I only had salted, so I left out the additional salt in the recipe)
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 large eggs

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In mixing bowl, combine butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, and mix to combine. Mix in dry ingredients until combined.  Chill for 30-60 minutes.  In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cinnamon. Use cookie scoop, or large soup spoons to make balls of the dough (I rolled the dough between my hands), and then roll in cinnamon sugar until completely covered. Place about two inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400* until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after five minutes. Let cool on cookie sheets about five minutes before transferring to a wire rack.  Makes approximately 3 dozen.

I had never even tasted Snickerdoodles until a couple of years ago, and had never attempted to make them myself.  After tasting these, especially immediately after they cooled, they are now near the top of my favorite cookies list :)  Soooo easy to make, and the simplicity of the taste makes it really enjoyable to eat.  Rated EXCELLENT!  Go ahead, eat 3 or 4!  (They were also a hit at work!)

{recipe failure} Apple Celery Smoothie

Test Recipes Week 16! (continued)

When I made the PW's Chicken Salad this week, I needed a way to use up the leftover celery.  I'm not a huge fan, other than the crunch it adds to salads (chicken salad, tuna ring-noodle salad, etc.)  And I really can't stand it when it's mushy (like in soup...bleh).  A couple weeks ago I bought a new recipe book - 100 Best Smoothies & Juices, and while looking through it I came across a recipe with celery as one of the ingredients.  I decided to test it out:

APPLE & CELERY REVITALIZER (Smoothie Book)

1 sweet apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1 c. chopped celery
1 1/4 c. milk
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

Place apple, celery, and milk in food processor or blender and blend away until smooth.  Add a pinch of salt and sugar if desired.  Pour into chilled glasses and serve.  Makes 2 servings.

Bleh.  Bleh, bleh, bleh.  My dislike for celery was not cured with this drink - I could not even finish it.  Thank goodness I only made half a recipe.  Maybe I just hoped too much that the milk and apple would sweeten things up and mask the taste of the celery a bit.  Not so, I could barely taste anything other than celery.  I'll just have to eat Ants on a Log to use the rest up.  I will never make this again.  Sorry celery-lovers out there, I rated this BAD.

{recipe} Chicken Salad

Test Recipes week 16! (continued)

Chicken Salad is one of my favorite sandwich fillings.  Since I moved to South Texas, I have discovered that chicken salad here usually consists of ground up chicken.  Good, but a little too much 'mush' for my taste...This week I had a craving for good chunky chicken salad, so I decided to try out the recipe from Pioneer Woman that I've had bookmarked for a long time.

CHICKEN SALAD (Pioneer Woman)

3 large cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts (or 1 grocery store rotisserie chicken), shredded/chopped into bite-size pieces

3 stalks celery, chopped

3 green onions, minced

2 c. grapes, quartered

1/2 c. mayonnaise

1/2 c. sour cream

small handful fresh dill, minced (I used ~ 1 Tbsp. dill weed)
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
Kosher salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
*I also added a couple teaspoons mustard and a few shakes of cayenne pepper*

Prepare cooked chicken into bite size pieces or shred.  Place chicken, grapes, celery, and onions into medium bowl.  Place remaining ingredients in smaller bowl and whisk until combined and smooth.  Taste test and adjust until you like the taste.  Combine dressing with chicken mixture.  Serve as sandwiches, wraps, lettuce wraps, or straight salad mixture on a plate.  Makes 6 servings.

I rated it GOOD, not great.  I think it's a good starter recipe that can be tweaked according to your own tastes.  Next time I'm going to add pine nuts for even more crunch.  I'm not a huge celery fan (hate it in soup!), but I love the crunch it adds to this salad.  Stay tuned to see what I did with the leftover celery!

{recipe} Broccoli Slaw

Test Recipes week 16!

This week I went wild.  I tested out FOUR different recipes! :)  I don't know what came over me, but I guess it was just indecisiveness when it came to picking the recipes I wanted to test.  So here is the first of FOUR recipes for this test week:

BROCCOLI SLAW (scaled down from Erin'sFoodFiles)

1 crown broccoli, chopped
1/2 c. cherry flavored Craisins (Or any dried cherries you prefer.  These are what were available to me.)
1/4 c. minced red onion
1/2 c. sliced almonds
1/8 c. mayonaisse
1/8 c. light sour cream
1/8 c. Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
black pepper

Combine broccoli, Craisins, onion, and almonds in a serving bowl.  In smaller bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients until smooth and creamy.  Pour over broccoli mixture and stir well.  Make the night before so that flavors have a chance to combine.  Although, I could only wait about an hour before digging in ;)

Sooooooooo good and refreshing. I really love the occasional hints of sweetness that come through when you bite into a cherry. And the broccoli and almonds make things nice and crunchy. This is another one you really need to try.  I rated this recipe EXCELLENT, and I'm going to go ahead and actually say it's my favorite recipe that I've tested in all of 2010!

{recipe} Texas-Style Egg Rolls

Test Recipes Week 15!

I like to check allrecipes.com daily just to see the photos of the day. I have bookmarked sooo many recipes just from doing that. The most recent bookmarked recipe being Southwestern Egg Rolls. I think it was the yummy-looking picture/mostly healthy ingredients that drew me to check it out. I'm going to go ahead and say this recipe was adapted from allrecipes because I actually changed it quite a bit - a few ingredient changes, baked not fried, proportions doubled, and a name change ;) Below is the recipe as I made it:

TEXAS-STYLE EGG ROLLS (adapted from allrecipes.com)

2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 can (12.5 oz.) canned chicken (can also use chx breast or grocery store rotisserie)
1/4 cup minced green onion
generous 1/4 cup minced red bell pepper
2/3 cup frozen corn kernels
1/2 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (I used fresh - steamed, cooled, and drained)
1/4 cup diced green chiles
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 pinches ground cayenne pepper
1 cup shredded Pepper Jack cheese
12 egg roll wrappers

Next time, I am going to use jalapenos instead of the chiles because I wish these were a little more 'pica' (spicy).

Doesn't that look YUMMY?!

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in green onion and red pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes until tender. Dice chicken and mix into the pan with onion and red pepper. Mix in corn, black beans, spinach, chiles, cilantro, cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until well blended and tender. Remove from heat and stir in cheese so that it melts. Spoon even amounts of the mixture onto each egg roll. Roll tightly around mixture (*see below*). Arrange on cookie/pizza sheet and bake 350* for 10 minutes; turn over and bake 10 more minutes.

 How to Roll an Egg Roll

(based on a quick internet search...please comment if you know better)

place filling in bottom half

dampen all edges with water and roll bottom corner tightly around filling

fold in sides

and roll the rest of the way up!

after first 10 minutes, before flipping

Look at the yumminess!!

These are definitely rated EXCELLENT!  I would rate them double-excellent if I could :)  This would also be yummy with Margaritas!  Based on some of the recipe comments, I decided to serve with this dipping sauce. So glad I did!

CILANTRO LIME CREAM SAUCE (allrecipes.com)

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon sour cream

1 (7 ounce) can tomatillo salsa (I used leftover diced green chiles from the egg rolls)

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon celery salt (I skipped this b/c I didn't have any, and it still tasted great)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth and creamy. Place in a serving bowl. Makes 2 cups. I made 1/4 of the above recipe and it was twice as much as I needed for a dozen Texas-Style Egg Rolls. The website says this makes a great dip or can be used as a sauce for chicken/fish. This one's going in the favorites file!  It definitely earns an EXCELLENT rating.

not very healthy, but dang good