Sweet & Spicy Cornbread

I felt compelled to make a sweet cornbread today. I found a recipe, got out all the ingredients, and began my work! I then noticed that I could definitely throw in some pepper jack cheese and jalapenos that would make for a delicious spicy cornbread.

What to do but make a sweet AND spicy cornbread! I hoped for the best and threw in the cheese and pepper.

Ingredients:

1 cup wheat flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter
1/4 cup honey
dash of cinnamon
1/4 cup cheese
1/4 cup chopped jalapenos

 

Set oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt butter in saucepan until liquid.While the butter is cooling, combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet in another bowl (don’t add cheese or jalapenos yet). Mix the butter into the wet mixing bowl. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix. Now stir in the cheese and jalapenos, being careful not to stir too much. Poor into a greased tin and bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes*.

* I actually lost track of how long I baked this, but I believe it was 30-40 minutes.

Amsterdam + Bruges + Foreign Food = totaal koel week

For my job, I travel occasionally. I work in marketing but I work with lots of sales representatives, who mainly do the traveling. But for the big industry tradeshows, it’s important having the marketing team join them, to meet business partners, to be more connected to the industry, etc.

Which is amazing for myself. I never dreamed of having a job that brought me to The Netherlands! At least this early in my career! I never thought I’d even go to The Netherlands!

This was my second year going on this work trip. It’s great, because all our meals are expensed, and the restaurants we go to are vastly more expensive than what I’d pay for traveling on my own!

This is a journey of the food I ate: “Smakeleijk eet”, as they say in Dutch!

On the first night, a co-worker and I went out to eat, and when asked what I wanted to eat, I said “Something different and unique.” Somehow, I found myself eating pizza, though at an admittedly fancy Italian restaurant. But even the proscuitto on it didn’t liven up this relatively boring meal. AND I couldn’t take the left overs with me, which I love doing.

I love traditional Dutch breakfast. I love it more than North American breakfast. Even than English breakfast! I love meats and good cheeses and eggs with tomatoes and cucumbers, and of course the sweet jam or Appelstroop (apple syrup, a staple in Holland!). The hotel I stayed at this year even had smoked salmon in the breakfast buffet!

They also had this wrapped sausage thing, which I found tasty, but didn’t know what it was. I just found out that it’s raw beef sausage. Yum? But actually, it was seriously really great. I wonder if I can find it in the States?

The presentation of coffee and tea is way more impressive than in the States. At really nice places in the States, the presentation for these drinks can be nice, but in many places in Europe, any standard restaurant makes ordering coffee or tea a nice little experience, with a little Biscoff cookie or other treat! I miss that when return to the States!

Dutch Stroopwafels (syrup waffles): the simple placement of syrup inside thin slices of waffle – a food originally made for the poor – is quite likely the best gosh darn treat I’ve ever and will ever taste in my life. It’s fantastically delicious! (Fresh or packaged!) I ate so many of these while I was there!

Cadbury, and other chocolate companies sell what’s called “drinking chocolate” which I’m sure is beyond amazing. But that’s still just measly powdered chocolate. This, below, was a chunk of chocolate that you stir into a cup of hot milk. And you get extra chocolate treats on the side. It’s not, but it’s almost too much.

Below is a delicious “Dutch Coffee” which involves coffee, a Dutch liqueur and I think someone said something about egg?? I forget, but it was WONDERFUL. I tried looking it up, but Googling “Dutch coffee” brings up mainly “Dutch coffee shop” results.

Below is a delicious mint pea soup that I got at the restaurant connected to my hostel, St. Christopher’s in Bruges. (Stay there if you go to Bruges! It was great!)

When I bought this salami panini, I was regretting getting something so simple on my first night in Bruges, but it was quite literally melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I was also sure that I’d only eat half of it, but to my astonishment, I ate that gosh darn entire sandwich.

And after the sandwich, I still had room for this Belgian Waffle! I’m not huge on too much sweet, so I told him to put less chocolate on it than normal. He acted as if it was blasphemous, but obliged. “But it’s Belgian Chocolate!” I had pistachio ice cream, because I’d deluded myself into thinking it would be less sweet than other flavors, like chocolate.
It was quite good, but, as you might have guessed, very sweet for me. I only ate half and then, sadly, chucked it.

Presentation doesn’t matter – as long as it tastes good!

I whipped up a delicious meal for dinner today! I started with sauteed garlic and mushrooms, then I plopped two eggs on top and let them start frying. then I sprinkled chipotle gouda and smoked liverwurst on top and flipped that over for a most delicious over-easy concoction. 

It was all too big for the spatula, resulting in a dish that “flopped” (literally, but definitely not figuratively!)

Banana Nut Bread

 

I made a banana nut bread this morning. I wasn’t really in the mood for something sweet or actually all that creative (what?!). Really, I just wanted something to photograph, and I wanted something to do with the tons of ripe bananas we had. I found a recipe on 101 Cookbooks that baked the bananas (still in the skins) before adding it to the bread batter. So I tried baking the bananas first! (I didn’t follow the rest of that recipe, I made up my own). I really couldn’t tell a difference, to be honest, but they may have been the fault of the simplicity of the overall recipe that didn’t let the baked bananas shine.

Banana Nut Bread recipe

3 bananas

two handfuls of nuts

1/4 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup water

2 cups sifted flour

vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 eggs

Toast nuts on the stove at medium heat, stirring occasionally so they don’t burn. Bake bananas until the skins are dark and they start to ooze. Cool before mixing with the rest of the ingredients.

Combine flour, baking powder, a salt, and whatever seasoning you wish. Slide the baked bananas out of their skins and mash. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract (I also added banana flavoring too….), pumpkin and water. Add wet ingredients to dry, add water or milk if necessary. Fold in nuts

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes.

Hulk Brownies

I went into my mom’s office today to scope out the scene (I’m making some artwork for the currently empty gray sad walls!), and there happened to be a potluck – my lucky day! So I took this as an excuse to make some of those recipes you pin but never make. Check mark!

I’m actually planning on making these in a couple weekends anyway, but… can’t hurt to make ’em twice, right?

I’m not sure who named these Hulk Brownies. I think it was just the description of the Pinterest photo that I pinned. Either way, these were pretty good. The pictures at Buns in the Oven is by far a superior ooey gooey brownie photo than mine, but hey, I ran out of chocolate chips.

Hulk Brownies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×13 baking dish. Melt butter over low heat in a small saucepan, then add sugar and stir until combined. Don’t let the sugar boil.

Pour butter mixture into a large bowl. Beat in cocoa powder, eggs, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla extract until well combined.

Taste it, to make sure it’s deliciously good. If it’s amazingly good, BUT a little salty, that’s okay, it’s doesn’t taste too salty once baked.

Stir in the flour and chocolate chips until well combined.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes. I baked it for 30, and I thought it wouldn’t been better if it had been a little undercooked. BUT hours later, the brownies were fantastic! So if you’re eating them later, do the 30 minutes.

I ate mine with peanut butter.

Grapefruit Rosemary Quick Bread

Kim here.

My dad bought a lot of grapefruits a couple weeks ago, and although I like grapefruit, I guess I wasn’t wanting them every single day. So we still had about a half dozen this morning.

Today I woke up thinking, in this order, “It’s Sunday, it’s sunny, we have grapefruit, and I’d really like to combine it with rosemary.”

So I made this.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons coconut oil

2 cups whole wheat flour (sifted)

2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon rosemary

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon marjoram

2 eggs

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 grapefruits

Melt 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a 5X9 loaf pan in your preheated oven. Remove once melted and tilt pan until coated in oil. This will make a tasty crust.

Cut the skins off the grapefruits and squeeze out the juices, as much as you can. Use a food process to blend what’s leftover from squeezing out the juice. Keep 1 cup of the juice. You should probably drink the rest, because it tastes fantastic! Keep about 1/2 cup of the blended pulp.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and the three spices in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until frothy. Melt remaining coconut oil and set aside. Add grapefruit juice, pulp, and vanilla extract. Combine with flour and mix. Pour in melted coconut oil. Pour into prepared bread loaf pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Make sure to smell it occasionally while it’s baking because it smells awesome. I was surprised how good it smelled.

I did not use as much sugar as I have called for in the recipe. I only used 2 tablespoons, but it was not enough to cover the tartness of the grapefruit. Even though I generally like tartness, I would prefer this if it were sweeter. I used the paler grapefruit, but I think grapefruits with deeper color are sweeter. I ate mine with agave nectar, and it was delicious, but you could use a glaze as well.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Kim here!

At a local farmer’s market, my mom and sister bought frozen sweet potato gnocchi. It sat in the freezer for a while, not forgotten, but waiting for the perfect family meal to eat it. After a couple weeks of this, my mom pointed out to the ignorant Beth and I that the package was only two servings. I ate it the next day for lunch.

And it was amazing! I love gnocchi because of it’s truffle-like texture! Sometimes I feel like it doesn’t matter what something tastes like, as long as it’s the right texture! That’s how I managed to love the slightly under-baked quick breads Beth and I used to make that had barely any sugar or fats. The amazing texture! Under-baked brownies, gnocchi, dumplings, and the slightly tougher ends of microwaved sweet potatoes are some of my favorite foods because of this texture.

When I made the sweet potato gnocchi the first time, I wasn’t sure what it would taste like. I made the mushroom sauce because I had recently made it for an Austrian meal I cooked for Father’s Day and I had really liked it. I do think that the mushroom sauce didn’t go too well with the gnocchi, and I probably wouldn’t do it again. The gnocchi alone tasted as if it needed another flavor, but any sauce covered up the sweet potato taste!

What I ended up doing was licking the sauce off the precious gnocchi and then eating the gnocchi alone! Today I had it again for lunch and ate it sans sauce, but with roasted peanuts! It was delicious! I probably would have eaten it with peanut butter, but – alas- we are out of both crunchy and smooth.

I think the nutty taste really added to it, and do did the crunchiness. I’m very sorry it’s gone – I really want some more! I had to make due with yogurt mixed with pumpkin (also very delicious, I may as well point out).

Sweet Potato and Garbanzo Bean Stew with Cornbread Topping

(This is Kim)

This recipe is originally called Southwestern Pot Pie in a small vegetarian Betty Crocker cooking magazine titled Easy Vegetarian. I bought it at a estate sale for twenty-five cents, though it was name-your-own-price and I probably could have offered two pennies and he would have accepted. But even if I had spent $5, it would have been a $5 well spent after making the Southwestern Pot Pie, or as I’m calling it, the Sweet Potato and Garbanzo Bean Stew with Cornbread Topping (admittedly a long title, but arguably more accurate).

Of course it has sweet potatoes, so I had to make it. Plus Garbanzo beans and no meat. I didn’t eat a lot of meat while at school, but now that I live at home, family dinners mean a main dish of meat, sometimes fish, (unless we’re having bean enchiladas, a family favorite!). Plus, a conversation with a friend, Christina, sparked a further interest in consuming less meat. She has decided to give up meat during the weekdays because she disagrees with how the meat industry is run and, I assume, the low quality of mass-produced meat products in terms of health. And who can ignore the treatment of the animals at those places (oh yeah, mostly everyone).

I’ve looked through vegetarian cookbooks before. My college roommate, Satpreet, had an amazing one, although most of the recipes were incredibly high in fat. Which is fine, but I found ironic after reading the introduction to the book, which suggested vegetarianism to maintain weight due to the lack of fatty meats.

Most of the vegetarian recipes I have access to now in books are side dishes or not very filling even if they technically are meant as the main dish. This Betty Crocker recipe magazine, however, had only main dishes. Ones that are usually made with meat, but translated into a vegetarian dish. Perfect timing!

The magazine, along with the amazingly delicious Southwestern Pot Pie, holds the recipes for a hearty chili, burgers, Italian and Oriental noodle recipes, pizzas, etc. And it’s all pretty simple to make, as (believe it or not) I’m a little scared of recipes that have 14 steps and 150 ingredients. Haha!

The recipe calls for 16oz of salsa, but doesn’t specify what kind. I had no idea how the different ingredients would meld together. It has sweet potatoes, cinnamon, and corn, so it would be slightly sweet – how does salsa fit in with that? Should I get a sweeter salsa, or would that be too much? I decided it’s Betty Crocker, so I got a very generic salsa (but a good one), Pace medium salsa. It was a good choice!

Sweet Potato and Garbanzo Bean Stew with Cornbread Topping

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion
2 cups cubed sweet potatoes
16 oz salsa (a regular Tex-Mex spicy salsa would go very well, a sweet salsa might be too over powering)
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup whole kernal corn
2 cups garbonzo beans (I used dried, but you can use a 16 oz can. If so, drain and rinse the beans to get ride of the extra sodium)
Corn bread recipe with 4-8 servings.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Cook onion for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until tender. Stir in sweet potatoes, salsa, water, and cinnamon. Heat to boiling, and then reduce the heat. Cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, follow a cornbread recipe, either from scratch or from a bread mix. It should make between 4 to 8 servings of cornbread (I used 8!)

After the 20 or 25 minutes, stir in corn and (cooked or canned) beans. Then pour the cornbread batter over the top. The recipe calls them dumplings, but boy, did that not work out for me. It was not liquidy enough for the batter to fall into the stew, they drops just plopped on top. In the end I just poured the batter right over the top, so I would not call them dumplings, but it sure looked amazing. I still followed the rest of the recipe – I put a cover on and cooked it for 20 minutes, and when I inserted a toothpick into the bread, it came out clean.

Wow, was the recipe amazing! We all loved it! The medium salsa tasted great with the sweetness of the rest of the recipe! I think you can use either a sweet cornbread or a spicy one, as both the sweet and spicy flavors could be emphasized to good results. I will definitely make this recipe again!

Sweet Little Things: Honey Cornbread

I don’t know if my love of corn is due to my good taste or that all of humanity is, in a way, conditioned to crave corn, but I LOVE cornbread. Cornbread is another one of those things you can add things to to make it unique and fun. This time, while still keeping it safe (I was cooking for my entire family), I managed to make my dad, who doesn’t care for cornbread, like the muffin!

Photo by Back to the Cutting Board's Flickr stream via compfight.com

While Kim is a big fan of spicy cornbread, when I’m in the mood for cornbread, I want sweet honey cornbread! I added Pour Boy’s Honey, honey from Michigan, that’s somehow more natural (it’s not so liquidy, but I don’t really know why).

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup honey
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Bake 10 minutes or until toothpick comes out however you want it to come out (I like it a little underdone xP)

My review: Loved them! After 10 minutes, they weren’t too dry or too moist (is there such a thing as too moist? I eat the batter.) Kim made cornbread dumplings the other day and they were SOO moist, it was delicious. That recipe will come soon!

King Arthur No-Knead Bread

This year (or was it last year?) Beth and I started making our own bread at home. We don’t exclusively, but when we feel we have the time and are actually in the apartment long enough to let it rise and then bake. We own a bread maker, but it’s set on a 30 minute delay and we don’t know how to fix it. Rather than spend the time figuring it out, we decided to take the blessing in disguise – make homemade bread by hand!

This idea fell flat on it’s face on the first attempt. I ended staying up far too late into the night without having achieved anything except a dense flat crumbly loaf of bread. I was quite frustrated until I actually ate the bread. It was one of the most flavorful breads I have ever eaten! Very very dense. The farthest thing from Wonder bread you could get and still be used to make a sandwich (and even that was tricky). And it was wonderful.

After several similar attempts on my part, Beth took it into her own hands. She made the King Arthur No-Knead Bread on the back of the 100% Whole Wheat King Arthur flour bag.

AMAAAAAZING bread! It rose! (A little, but it rose!) And tasted fantastic and toasted beautifully and made wonderful sandwiches.

As I didn’t make the bread, and I don’t magically know everything Beth does, I’m not sure how closely she followed the recipe. I know that I have made the bread henceforth and have changed the recipe drastically. For instance, I make it half rye flour/half whole wheat flour, and I use honey rather than molasses. I rarely use as much oil as recipes call for, but I might use a little extra honey : D. I don’t actually measure the honey, anyway.

Actually, I rarely measure anything correctly. Maybe if I did, more baked goods would come out the way they’re supposed to.

Well, in the past week and  half, I have made this bread twice. I also haven’t been exercising (though I ride my bike to campus everyday). This is relevant, because they say marathon runners should eat a huge plate of carbs the night before a race to give them lots of energy. I definitely believe it. I have been eating quite a bit of this bread. And although my slices are small, the bread is pretty dense, so even though it doesn’t look like a lot of food, it acts like a lot of food. I’m usually hungry after eating my usual packed lunches. With this bread, I’m full before I even get to my apple! I’m still full hours later. It’s unbelievable! So everyday I’ve been eating this bread and it has thrown my eating schedule completely out of whack. Not only that, but lately I’ve been in a weird libbo-hunger state where I honestly can’t tell if I’m starving or not hungry at all. And today I was about to go to Meijer but on my way out I pulled a Jim Carrey in the beginning of Eternal Sunshine and just got on my bike and rode. But it wasn’t enough, so I came home, changed into workout clothes and ran on the treadmill to just release this energy.

The other day I wanted the bread for lunch, and was actually about to cut myself a piece when I stopped and wrapped the bread back up. I think my body was telling me that I’d had enough carbohydrates and simply didn’t need anymore that day.

So, if that doesn’t make you at least a little curious about this bread, then… okay, I actually have nothing to say here. That probably should be reworded…

Anyway, the recipe:

1 1/4 cup milk or water
1/4 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
3 tablespoons honey (the recipe calls for molasses, but the bread did not come out nearly as tasty, so I will probably use honey from now on)
2 teaspoons yeast (it calls for instant, but I have none. So I let my yeast sit in lukewarm water for a couple minutes before combining it)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups Rye flour

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. (CORRECTION BY BETH –> So apparently Kim doesn’t do this, but you’re supposed to let the yeast curdle [is that the right word?] in warm water before combining it with the other ingredients. This is what helps the bread rise.) Combine all the wet ingredients (including the yeast if not using instant). Pour the wet ingredients slowing into the dry and stir. Let rise in an oiled bowl for at least 30 minutes. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 30 to 35.

It’s a thick bread, but it’s so delicious. It’s not moist, but it’s somehow so tender. I want to eat it all the time, but it’s quite heavy and makes me feel strange if I eat too much at one time.