$6 Dip

Last Spring when I was home visiting family, I got the chance to have dinner with my good friend Maria. Not normally ones to order an appetizer (rather have a cocktail!), we couldn't pass up the leek dip they had on the menu that night. It came to us piping hot and to our surprise, the base of the dip was goat cheese. Now readers, I know I have mentioned my love of goat cheese in previous posts, but let me reiterate: I ♥ goat cheese!

I knew that I would have to try to recreate this dish at home. Here is what I came up with:

Leek and Goat Cheese Dip

8 oz. cream cheese
8 oz. goat cheese
1 stick butter
3 c. leeks, chopped
1 small head garlic, roasted
salt
pepper

Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add leeks and saute until tender. Stir in garlic and over low heat, fold in the cream cheese and goat cheese. Season with salt and pepper. We usually throw this in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, but you certainly don't have to. Our favorite way to serve this is with homemade bread, but crackers or pita chips will do in a pinch.

Cups and Cakes

Another busy weekend filled with sweets! First on the list was a double batch of Cupcake Pops for my friend Lindsey. Her parents are retiring this month and happen to be celebrating their 40th anniversary, as well. She originally wanted me to make cakes, but after I showed her Bakerella's handiwork, the pops were a done deal. I used red velvet cake mix with cream cheese frosting for the base and the Wilton candy melts for the dipping. Let me just say that my new Wilton Chocolate Pro Melting Pot is indispensable. I got lucky and had a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby, so the pot ended up being a "sweet" deal. I highly recommend investing in one if you are going to be doing a lot of pops or even for candy making at the holidays. It really makes the job so much easier!

Next up were some Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream. I originally was just going for yellow cake, but Matt spotted some ripe bananas that were on their way to the garbage and started reminiscing about his favorite cake from childhood. His mom used to make a banana cake with chocolate frosting and I must say it is delicious. I had a yellow cake mix on hand and did a little searching on the internet to come up with the following:

Banana Cake Mix Cake
adapted from Barbara Whiting
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. water
1/2 c. oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a hand mixer, combine all ingredients and beat on low for 30 seconds. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into cupcake liners and bake 18-21 minutes. Cool completely and frost with your favorite chocolate frosting.

I decided to use a chocolate buttercream for the frosting. Normally, I use cocoa powder, but today I thought I would give the melted chocolate a try. I think it improved the texture and the flavor had a deeper chocolate taste.

Chocolate Buttercream
1 c. butter, softened
3 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine butter and sugar until blended. Add vanilla and milk and beat for 4 minutes. Add chocolate and beat about 1 more minute, or until combined.

A Big Piece of Pig!

Let me introduce myself before I get going on the current post. I am Matt, Coco's husband, and I love to cook and eat just as much as my wife. Coco asked me to be the guest blogger on tonight's post, A Big Piece of Pig.
Occasionally, the wife needs a night off from the kitchen. This is where we usually decide to order Chinese or get a quick sandwich out somewhere, but last night I decided that I was going to make dinner. I stopped at our local market and perused the sale items. That is when I saw it. A large piece of pork loin, about 4lbs, that was on a crazy sale. I had no idea what I was going to do with it at this point, but when I see 4lbs of pork loin for $6.83, I will find something, believe me. After picking up some other items I cruised home to show Coco my find. I was as proud as a cat bringing its master a freshly killed bird. "Look Coco," I yelped. "4lbs of loin for $6.83! Don't you think that's a great find?!" Coco was happy with my pick, but reminded me that 4 lb's of pork for 2 people is a little much. Even though I have to agree, I was thinking of the leftover pork sandwiches, the diced pork in my salads, the ground pork for homemade sausage. I could harldy contain my glee.
I decided a simple rub of salt, pepper, and jerk seasoning would suffice for the pig. I rinsed it off, patted it dry, and sprinkled the seasoning on. I proceeded to throw this in the oven at 250 for an hour. After that hour, I added a 1/2 cup of Worcestshire and threw it back in to slowly bake in it's own juices for another 2 hours. In the meantime......
This is where my cooking can get downright dangerous. When I have a large piece of meat that is cooking slowly for multiple hours, my mind whirls like a dirvish thinking of all the glorious sides that can accompany the main meat course. I decided on a couple things. With about 3lbs of fresh asparagus in the fridge, this was a no brainer. Fresh asparagus is one of our all time favorites. The only problem is coming up with a new and refreshing way of preparing it. I decided to blanch the aparagus and then pan fry it with some bacon and jalapeno pepper. Not really a new and exciting method, but when you put bacon in anything, you are guaranteed a sure winner. Next I had a 3 lb sack of B size red taters. I chose to simply boil until about halfway cooked and then finish them under a skillet of onions and about a T. of the bacon grease I had from the asparagus dish.
I tossed together a green salad and I was thinking that I was done. Now, I could have easily grabbed a beer from the fridge, sat down on the couch and waited for all of this to come together. But the last time I opened the fridge, I saw last night's leftover sitting in a tupperware container. 1 large filet of Tilapia looked at me as if to say,"If you don't use me tonight, more than likely I will find my way to the garbage can. Please! Please! Please, find something to use me up in." That is when it came to me. Why not really surprise the wife with an appetizer?! I grabbed the tilapia out of the fridge and proceeded to grind it up with my stick blender. When the fish was ground up finely, I added a T. of mayonnaise, and a few pieces of crusty day old French bread, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and a small dash of Tabasco. I whipped this up and served it on pieces of crusty bread. Viola! Poor man's whitefish spread! Tasty indeed!
The wife enjoyed the meal and she was right when she told me that we would have tons of leftovers.

Fresh Fish!

We try to incorporate fish into our diet, but it is not always the pick of the litter when your only option is the grocery store seafood counter. We happened to luck out with some very firm tilapia that was on sale this week at our market. I had seen Giada prepare a lemon vinaigrette for whitefish and I thought it would be a light and simple accompaniment to the fish. We paired it with some roasted asparagus drizzled with a balsamic reduction and had a fast, healthy meal that you could certainly serve to company. I simply placed the tilapia on some oiled parchment paper, seasoned with salt, pepper, and a shot of fresh lemon juice. After I wrapped them up, they went on the grill for about 10 minutes while the asparagus roasted and the balsamic reduced. The vinaigrette came together in a flash and was spooned on while the fish was hot off the grill.

Lemon Vinaigrette

courtesy of: Giada De Laurentiis

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup lightly packed fresh Italian parsley leaves

2 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Blend the lemon juice, parsley, garlic, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in a blender. With the machine running, gradually blend in the oil. Season the vinaigrette, to taste, with more salt and pepper.

*Note: I did not feel the need to add any additional seasoning. I used the stick blender to whip this together and it worked like a dream.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

If there's one thing that my friend Timm knows how to do, it's making a creamy white sauce! Timm and Faith came down this weekend and Sunday morning we found ourselves wondering what to make for breakfast. Matt and Timm went to the store and when they came back, they had the makings of a delectable Sunday brunch. What started as the standard breakfast fare, turned in to being a hearty and delicious breakfast dish.
Timm told us the story of his aunt making creamed eggs on toast for her large family because it was delicious and economical at the same time. She was definitely onto something! Timm simply made his famous white sauce and then added some cheese, hard boiled eggs, ham, salt, and pepper. Meanwhile, Matt toasted some sourdough bread and Timm proceeded to ladle that creamy goodness right over the toast. He served this with fresh fruit and maple sausage. Now, my friends, we could have stopped there, but I had been dying to try PW's Monkey Bread and figured that a few more carbs couldn't hurt. The bread was easy to throw together and it gave me a chance to bring my bundt pan out of retirement after a traumatic baking experience back in the year 2000. It was time and much to my surprise the bread came out of the pan with no trouble. We were lucky to have another lovely meal with good friends and tasty food.

Graduation Cakes

OK, definitely not my best photography work here, but I wanted to get these pics up without having to move the cakes around a great deal. I made these for a friend whose son is graduating from high school and will be attending MSU this fall. I used the Sprinkles Vanilla Buttercream recipe and liked the taste much better than any other I have made to date. There is no Crisco, so it has a better texture and the clean up is a breeze. Maybe not the best to have outdoors on a blistering summer day, but certainly a winner in the taste category.

Briney Chicken

Usually Matt does the grilling around here, but I thought it was high time I tried my hand with some bone-in chicken. Although we do use boneless-skinless most of the time, we feel you just can't beat the flavor and moistness the bone-in variety offers.
I set out to find a good recipe for the chicken and had to look no further than Cooks Illustrated. They suggested a brine of salt and water to get the chicken started, and thinking back to the way my Dad cooks his Thanksgiving turkey, I knew it would be the way to go. The breasts were submerged in the mixture and rested in the fridge for an hour before I fired up the grill. Mainly, CI suggests that you hit the breasts with high heat and then cook them low-n-slow until you hit it with the glaze.
In the meantime, I was looking for a tasty glaze to add near the end of the grilling process. I happened to find a recipe for Amazing Jerked Honey Rum Glaze, and one airplane bottle of dark rum later, I was in business. I'm no expert, but I believe the honey really helped form a nice crust on the skin, while all the spices in the jerk seasoning provided the spiciness needed to counteract the sweetness of the honey and rum.
From now on, I will most certainly brine the meat to achieve a flavorful chicken with plenty of texture to boot.