Thursday, January 10, 2013

Chocolate covered candied tangerines

Bonjour!

This was another thing I made for the menfolk I mentioned in the last post. Unfortunatley I didn't make more, my mom has been stealing some of my dad's. She has even gone as far as saying that these might even rival Fanny Mae's or Albanese chocolate covered orange peels. They were my opa's favorite and are my mom's favorite chocolate treat. These might have to make a recurrence in March for my mom's birthday. They were a little time consuming at first, but totally worth it. If you think you might have too many tangerines, add a couple more Yes you will have tons of slices, but trust me you will want tons of these. 


 The ingredients and recipe couldn't be easy enough. Tangerines, and equal parts sugar and water.
 Slice the tangerines into thin segments.
 Bring the water and sugar to a boil and add the tangerines.
 Boil the tangerines for 30 minutes and then remove from heat for 10 minutes. Return to the stove and simmer until the slices are translucent.

 Remove the slices from the syrup and place on racks to dry. An oven can be used on low heat to speed the process.
 SAVE THE LIQUID!! It is super yummy.

 Then I placed all of the slices in a bad and tossed them in sugar and then dipped half of the slice in melted semi-sweet chocolate.
 I put the chocolate covered slices in the garage to help harden the chocolate.

These make great gifts or just a fab desert by themselves. I strongly recommend you make these.


Any special goodies you make for the holidays?

Happy eatings,
Smashley








Spiced Nuts

Hide-ho their neighborino,

I always have a hard time coming up with things to make for the male people in my life, such as my dad, my uncle Tim, my boyfriend's dad, and my aunt's boyfriends. I tend to hand make a lot of things right now due to my limited funds being in grad school and all, and the things I make tend to be a little girly. So You can never go wrong with nuts....unless someone is allergic then you are just being a jerk.  I had made one recipe before and it turned out fabulous. This was a different recipe that was really good, but I had to add some extra of the heat because it was lacking in spicy department. The recipe for the nuts can be found here.


.
 I was lucky to get a 1lb bag of mixed nuts at Meijer for cheap instead of the pecans alone. I have 4 lbs here. I did not use as much salt as they said because I did not realize the nuts were pre-salted.
I also could have taken the nuts out a little sooner than they said. Some of the nuts got a little burnt. surprisingly the hazelnuts tasted really good with the savory seasoning. 
I got great reviews from this. I will admit I did steal a few also. They were pretty yummy, but I think I liked the other recipe I made for father's day better. 

Do you have a go to nut recipe?

Happy eatings,
Smashley

Christmas presents for the hounds

Hello y'all,

Okay, so I know I said I was gonna post a whole bunch a while ago..and honestly I have no excuse. I got lazy and then had to leave to go back to school. Now I am back in the normal routine. I still have a few posts to do from all of my holiday cooking. This one was a definite hit with canine and human kind alike. Don't judge me, I had to try one...or a few. They are made with people food and taste like cheese-its. If you didn't tell anyone they were made for dogs you would think they were cheese crackers. I got the recipe here

 So the ingredients required were oats, cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, EVOO, unsweeted apple sauce, and water. I needed much more water that they said because mine was not forming a dough. I also used all purpose flour because there were some recipients who are basically allergic to everything under the sun.  Note my special little helper...don't let her looks food you...she is EVIL!

I mixed everything and rolled out the dough. Because of the holiday spirit I used a cute little snowflake cookie cutter.
 
 Baked for about 30mins and left in the oven while the oven cooled. Bagged and delivered. Quite a hit with the canines. They loved them (so I am told)
Do you make presents for your pets?

Happy eatings,
Smashley

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Basil shrimp pasta

Hello once again,

I had to get creative for this dinner because during finals week no one wants to waste time that could be used for studying (or other forms of procrastinating) and finals marks going home. I don't want to haul home more food than I have too. My roommate had brought home a ton of basil that needed to be using and I had a bunch of shrimp left from the crab boil a few posts ago. Turned out really good, but really rich. I could only eat so much. Sorry for the lack of pictures. Sometimes I forget to take pictures.
 
I boiled the pasta and let it sit. In another pan I sauteed the shrimp with olive oil, white wine, garlic and old bay spice. When the shrimp was just about cooked I added the Parmesan cheese and basil. I then decided I needed some veggies and added some frozen veggies to add some color. To finish the dish, I added some flour mixed in milk to thicken it up a bit. Ta da!

What is your quick pasta fix when you are hungry?

Happy eatings,

Smashley

Pork Roast

Hello again!

I am not sure if I have made a mention to this before or not, but I have a love of all things pig. Bacon, pork rinds, chicharones, ham, and any other pork product. So I was quite excited when my mom gave me a nice pork tenderloin. It turned out well, however there are times when I am already sick of the food I cooked by the time it is done cooking. I really hate it when that happens. I can't remember exactly where I got the recipe from. It was either from punchfork or pintrest. 

 So I started by slicing the garlic nice and thin. I cut little thin slits in the meet to insert said garlic slivers.
 Then put the meat into the pan lined with foil..why foil you ask? Because I am a lazy grad student who doesn't want to do more dishes than I have to ;)
 All of the non vegetable ingredients were then mixed to form the sauce/marinade/basting liquid and poured over the meet.
 Then I added some carrots and potatoes just for good sake.
 Baked at temperature and time I do not remember...I think 350 for about 2 hours but don't quote me on that.
 Added a fresh salad and presto dinner.
By the way, I have decided that I will no longer be using store bought salad dressings. It is so easy to make yummy dressings with good olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice. It costs the same or less and is so much healthier. No preservatives, added salt, or any other nastiest. 

With that said, happy eatings,
Smashley

Happy New Years

Hello All!

I want to start by saying HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013! Today I am going to be posting a few different posts. I have stock piled a few postings from the past couple of weeks dues to the holidays. Hope everyone is had a great holiday season and made it to the new year happy and healthy.

Happy eatings,
Smashley :)