Yummy Grilled Cheese

It's about time we posted a recipe on this food blog!

Yesterday I auditioned to teach an ACT class for Kaplan. We had to prepare a 5 minute presentation on some non-academic topic--I chose to present on how to make the best grilled cheese sandwich in the entire world! (Thanks Tyler Florence for letting me use your recipe)

So, I figured I would just put my notes on the presentation on here. You can imagine me at the front of a classroom explaining how to make it, if you would like.

Ingredients:
*8 slices country style white bread
*12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, sliced
*3 tablespoons unsalted butter
*12 slices of bacon
*1 green apple


My name is Stephanie, and today I want to go over how to make the best grilled cheese in the entire world!

So, imagine this scene. It's, say, Wednesday night. You are just sitting at home, all alone, and you have nothing to do. You're just sitting watching TV, and all of the sudden your stomach starts rumbling! You're so hungry! So you walk into your kitchen, flip on the light, and look in the fridge. What do you see? There's nothing to eat! You are in the mood for something warm, crunchy, tasty and satisfying, but there is nothing in your fridge, heck-nothing in your kitchen that could possibly satisfy you, right?

(This is the audience participation part of the presentation, just so you know...)
-How many have you have ever eaten a grilled cheese sandwich?

-How many of you would say that grilled cheese is your favorite food? (I didn't expect anyone to raise their hand for this part...)

*Okay, that's because you haven't tried this grilled cheese sandwich!

When making this sandwich, there are 3 Steps that you need to keep in mind:
(write on the board)

1. Preparation
2. Cooking
3. Serving

1. Preparation:
-The things that you will need to make this delicious, delectable dinner are all in your kitchen: bread, mustard, cheese, bacon, apples
*In a pan, fry the bacon over medium-high heat (if you want to be healthy you can cook the bacon on a rack in the oven, but this way is much faster. Plus, bacon wasn't meant to be healthy, right?)
*Cut your apple into thin slices—you want the slices to be thin enough that they are not bulky on the sandwich, but thick enough that you can still get a nice crunch from them
*butter one side of each of your bread slices
*put your pan on the stove, and turn the burner on medium high heat

2. Cooking:
*Place the bread, buttered side down, on the pan. Then squirt a little mustard on it, followed by a slice of sharp cheddar cheese. After this, you'll want to place a layer of bacon, followed by a layer of apples. Then you will want to place another slice of cheese over this.
*This second slice of cheese is very important because it helps to seal all of the layers together, and bind the second slice of bread to the rest of the sandwich. Then cover all of this with a second slice of bread, buttered side up.
*Now, this next part of the cooking step is key! You will need something flat and heavy—if you don't have a panini press, you can use a second, smaller pan. Once you flip your sandwich over, you will want to put that second pan on top of your sandwich, and then put a can of soup or something on top of the pan. This step smooshes (and that is a technical term—you can use it!) all of the layers together, and helps to crunch the crust of the bread. It also pushes some of the cheese outside of the sandwich and down the crust, so that it will fry on the pan and get a nice, crunchy, toasted flavor.
*Watch your sandwich carefully, so that you can get the bread a nice golden brown color on both sides.
*After you have cooked both sides, take the sandwich out of pan.

3. Presentation:
*You may think that this step isn't important, but a good presentation can really help amp up the taste factor—especially if you are making this grilled cheese for you and someone else!
*Cut the sandwich at a 45 degree angle (draw on the board), right through the corners. Then put one sandwich slice flat down, and angle the other slice so that it is on top of the first slice. Then you can put a small bowl of soup or a couple of chips down on the blank space on the plate.

And voila! You have a delicious, tasty dinner in under 20 minutes that will be fully satisfying! I hope you will go out and try the tastiest grilled cheese in the entire world!

It's been a while

But we have an excuse...


And that excuse is that we are poor. And have no food, as you can see. Pretty sad.

Bloomin Onion

So, Jeff and I were watching the food network the other night and watched an episode of Unwrapped that looked at how the Bloomin Onion is made. Mmm...we started craving it like crazy.

So, the next night we decided to go to Outback to get us a little onion treat of our own. TASTY!



The reason I am writing this, is because it was a pretty cheap dinner date for us. We just got an Bloomin Onion (which was only like $5.something. I expected it to be more) and a salad. Sadly, the salad was more expensive than it was worth. It was like $10.50 and by the amount of salad that we got it should have been like $3.50.

BUT, there maybe something there that costs a little bit less, and will function just as well. It was plenty of food, and we even ended up taking some of the onion back home and had it with our steak dinner the next night.

Oooh, remind me to blog about that one. Or, better yet, I will just let Chef Ramsey tell you about how to cook the ribeye steaks we had.


This recipe is a winner...highly recommend it.

Fiesta Lime Chicken

Oh my goodness it has been a long time since we posted anything. Bad us.

Well, to make up for our slothfulness, I'll post one of the BEST recipes I have found. This is a recipe for Applebee's Fiesta Lime Chicken that I found on topsecretrecipes.com. It is truly delicious!!

First, a short disclaimer. The amounts of each ingredient that go into the mexi-ranch dressing seem really minuscule, but they are right! At first I thought that because the amounts were so small, that I wouldn't be able to taste anything! But I have made this recipe three times and each time it has been delicious! So, without further ado:

Applebee’s Fiesta Lime Chicken:

Serves 4.

Tips:

*Just be sure not to marinate the chicken for longer than 3 to 4 hours or the citric acid in the lime juice may toughen the chicken.

*I like to pound the chicken so that it is relatively flat. This helps the chicken cook a little faster and more evenly!

Marinade:

1 cup water

1/3 cup teriyaki sauce

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon mesquite liquid smoke flavoring

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

4 chicken breast fillets

Mexi-Ranch Dressing:

¼ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup sour cream

1 tablespoon milk

2 teaspoons minced tomato

1 ½ teaspoons white vinegar

1 teaspoon minced canned jalapeño slices (nacho slices)

1 teaspoon minced onion

¼ teaspoon dried parsley

¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon dried dill weed

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon cumin

1/8 chili powder

Dash garlic powder

Dash ground pepper

1 cup shredded cheddar/Monterey jack cheese blend

2 cups crumbled corn chips or fried tortilla strips

1. Prepare marinade by combining marinade ingredients in a medium bowl. Add the chicken to the bowl, cover and chill for 2 to 3 hours.
2. Make the mexi-ranch dressing by combining all of the ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix well until smooth, then cover dressing and chill until needed.
3. When you are ready to prepare the entrée, preheat the oven to high broil. Also, preheat your barbeque or indoor grill to high heat. When grill is hot, cook the marinated chicken breasts for 3 to 5 minutes per side or until they are done.
4. Arrange the cooked chicken in a baking pan. Spread a layer of the mexi-ranch dressing over each piece of chicken (you’ll have plenty left over), followed by a ¼ cup of the shredded cheese blend. Broil the chicken for 2 to 3 minutes, or just until cheese has melted.
5. Spread a bed of ½ cup tortilla strips or crumbled corn chips on each of four plates. Slide a chicken breast onto the chips on each plate and serve with your choice of rice, and pico de gallo or salsa.

what's better than actually cooking? watching other people do it, of course

So I hope you all have the amazing opportunity of having the food network channel. Jeff and I LOVE watching cooking shows. He has already made some amazing recipes after watching some of his favorite shows: minestrone soup, grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon and apple, and just last night made delicious breaded chicken and caesar salad. Mmm we will definitely be putting those recipes on the blog.

But for now, I just want to comment on a few of my favorite shows from this wonderful, delicious channel. First and foremost this man is my hero:


He makes cooking so interesting, and his food, although complicated, always looks pretty good. I confess that I haven't tried anything that he has made yet, but one of these days I will get around to making his pop-overs.

Mmm, don't they just look perfect to spread a little butter and jam on--and have with some hot chocolate for breakfast? Or maybe serve with a hot bowl of soup for these cold, SPRING days in Provo? I'll let you know how it goes.

Secondly, this show is just plain amazing. LOVE IT!!

And, luckily enough for me, they have full episodes of Ace of Cakes available on foodnetwork.com--so I can watch it whenever I want! Yahoo!

I also really like Ellie Krieger, who is a nutritionist on the foodnetwork. We have actually had a lot of success with any of her recipes that we have tried, and they are usually quite good for you too! And, probably best of all, they are usually really easy to make. I'm definitely a fan.


Sometimes she can be kind of annoying when she talks, or how she is always smiling, but I think her food definitely makes up for it.

Okay, well it isn't all fun food and dandy...I am afraid we must look at the dark side of foodnetwork as well. One of the scariest people to grace TV =


Duh duh duh....Paula Deen. She is likely to kill you in one of three ways:
1. she will drive you insane with her ridiculous accent
2. if you make any of her recipes you will die from all of the butter that instantly clogs your arteries
3. she will eat you

But is she the worst? Oh no, no it gets much more dreadful, dreary, and downright horrendous. Meet the Barefoot Contessa.


Honestly, I cannot stand to watch more than one full minute of this show. Firstly, she is so pretentiously snobby. "Oh, today we will be making blahblahblah so that we can share it with my designer friends who are coming from the gallery today. We will then dine on this lovely meal in my terrace garden, where the fresh herbs will compliment the taste of my red wine very nicely... (meant to be said with a snobbishly disgusting tone)" Secondly, her food really doesn't even look that good.

ANYWAY, just thought that I would share my thoughts about cooking shows, on the cooking blog. What do you guys think? Do you have any favorite shows? Are you a religious watcher like us? Seen any good recipes lately?

Strawberry Crepes

(I would like to apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures. They are terrible, but the food was good--promise!)


Well, let's start off the blog with something delicious and very easy to make. Crepes are one of my most favorite dessert dishes because they are the perfect vehicle to any craving I might have--strawberries, chocolate, peaches, berries, ice cream, pudding...basically anything you can think of! Anything goes.

But your crepe fever doesn't have to stop there! Crepes can be used to make delicious dinners with left over chicken, ham or turkey. One delicious crepe I had in Paris was like a grilled ham and cheese, only, on a crepe. Tasty.

Here is my grandma's recipe, which makes about 35 crepes in all. I usually half the recipe, since we definitely don't need 35 crepes all to ourselves!

4 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup melted butter

For dessert crepes add:
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar

Combine all ingredients in a blender jar; blend for about 1 minute. Scrape down sides with a rubber spatula and blend for another 15 seconds or until smooth. Refrigerate batter for at least 1 hour (this allows flour to expand).

(When I made the crepes this time I used whole wheat flour for half of the recipe. It was pretty good, but I think I would recommend sticking with all purpose flour for the entire recipe.)

Cook on crepe griddle or traditional pan. Here is an example of a crepe pan. This one was a present, but I am sure that you can find them at any store that sells kitchen supplies, and they should be pretty cheap. Otherwise, I am sure that you can just use a flat bottomed skillet--it would probably work just as well. (PS--Ignore the dirty stove. It is stained from when Jeff cooked carne asada...I need to get some bleach scrub, but until then...)

Tips for cooking:
*It isn't necessary to grease pans that have a non-stick coating. Other pans should be brushed with oil or butter.

*Heat pan over medium-high heat. With one hand pour in 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter (I just usually use a 1/4 measuring cup and fill it up half way). At the same time, lift pan about heating unit with your other hand. Immediately tilt pan in all directions, swirling the batter so it covers the bottom of the pan in a very thin layer. Work quickly before batter cooks too much to swirl.

*Return to heating unit and cook over medium-high heat. Cook crepe until bottom is slightly golden brown, then carefully turn with spatula. Brown the other side for a few seconds, and then remove from the pan. Repeat!

So, lets talk fillings. You can use anything you want--fresh or frozen. Since it is the beginning of strawberry season and since Costco has some amazingly tasty strawberries, I went with the fresh. I just slice them up, sprinkle them with a little sugar, then refrigerate until the crepes are ready.

Then I add a little vanilla ice cream--vanilla bean is our favorite, but I suppose that you could use another kind--and top with a few strawberries. Roll it up, then top with your choice of whipped cream, additional strawberries and chocolate! Delish!

Our journey into the world of food

We would like to welcome ourselves to the world of food-blogging. Yum yum yum!!

Hope you enjoy this blog as much as we will!