Kitchen Idea: Celery Seed Salad Dressing

This recipe is the reason I choose to eat salads.  It is especially good on spinach salads or maybe I just like spinach better than lettuce because it is better for me and if I'm going to have a salad, I might as well go for the healthy stuff. 

This is from my mom's kitchen with a few minor variations that I have added.

Celery Seed Dressing

1 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup white sugar

¼ cup white vinegar

¼ cup cider vinegar

3 tablespoons chopped onion

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon celery seed

1 ½ teaspoon garlic salt

1 ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon dry mustard

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Store in jar and refrigerate.

I believe the instructions originally called for the ingredients to be blended using a food processor, since I don't have one of those I go the old fashion route of stirring by hand (my arm still is sore from when I hand churned the muffin batter last year).  I also have come to double the recipe because I find that I eat more salads when the dressing is already made, one less excuse.  Also, the red pepper flakes are just my alteration to give it a tiny bit of spice, I've also used fresh ground black pepper but didn't like it as much.

Kitchen Idea: Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos - UPDATE

I had posted this recipe back in the day and recently I was making these for a gathering of people and decided to switch things up a bit.  I used goat cheese instead of cream cheese and I believe they got even better!
 

Kitchen Ideas: Jars of Pickled Peppers

Kitchen Ideas: Pickled Peppers

I have recently been pointed towards a website that has changed my life. It is instrucatbles.com and is essentially a DIY website. It has all sorts of projects that people have done and included step-by-step instructions on how to succeed on your project. The projects range from simple to, well let's say out of my league.

As I have found this website, I am now trying to make homemade things and my first project I decided should be an easy one and one that I’ve actually already blogged about: jarring foods from pickles to salsa or nuts to BBQ sauce. Well instructables gave me another idea…hot peppers.

I love spicy foods and one of my favorite meals is an Italian Beef Sandwich with hot peppers (a.k.a Giardiniera) from Portillos. So if I were to ever make some Italian Beef these peppers would be perfect for the sandwich.

I used a pound of jalapenos, banana peppers, and 1 habanero pepper. I also included some carrots and I wish I had used some celery and/or cauliflower. The pickling ingredients are white vinegar, water, garlic, and salt, and of course you need some jars.

Here is the exact directions I used:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pickled-Hot-Pepper-Rings/

And after you are done with these instructions you should browse around the website for anything that strikes your fancy.

Kitchen Ideas: Buckeyes

Kitchen Ideas: Buckeyes

Growing up, my mom always would make an assortment of Christmas cookies during the month of December. She would literally make 6-10 different cookies or desserts and we would be able to snack on them whenever we wanted. My all-time favorite was the buckeye. Partly because I grew up a fan of my mom’s alma mater, Ohio State, but mainly because of how amazingly delicious the cookies are.

This year I decided I would try to make my own batch of buckeyes because I will not be making it to my parents’ house this Christmas (a real buckeye is a nut but the cookies are essentially peanut butter covered in chocolate.) This weekend I gathered all the ingredients and got working.

The recipe I used is as follows (from my sisters Blog: This American Wife)

Buckeyes

1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 cups powdered sugar
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. The dough will look dry. Roll into 1-inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.

Press a toothpick into the top of each ball (to be used later as the handle for dipping) and chill in the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until smooth.

Dip frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like Buckeyes. Put back on the cookie sheet and refrigerate (or freeze) until serving.

And this is how they turned out looking (and they tasted delicious!)

Kitchen Ideas: Crab Cakes and Mango Salsa

Kitchen Ideas: Crab Cakes and Mango Salsa

Crab Cakes

From: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

¾ Pound Crabmeat

1 Cup Plain Bread Crumbs

¾ Cup Mayo

1 Egg – Beaten

2 Green Onions – Minced

½ Lemon – Juiced

Sriracha – To Taste

Salt and Pepper – To Taste

2 Tablespoons of Oil

Directions:

Drain crabmeat. In a large bowl, mix crab, bread crumbs, mayo, egg, green onions, lemon, Sriracha, salt and pepper until combined. Shape mixture into small cakes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook crab cake patties until crisp and golden brown on both sides.

Mango Salsa

From: Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

1 Mango – Peeled, Pitted and Diced

1 Red Onion – Diced

3 Tablespoons Chopped Basil

3 Tablespoons Chopped Cilantro

1 Lime – Juiced

Jalapeno – Minced to Taste

Salt and Pepper – To Taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I am not a fan of tomatoes and will use this salsa instead of tomato based salsa with chips as well. It also works very well with fish or shrimp tacos, like I did with some grilled shrimp tacos and the mango salsa from this summer.

Kitchen Ideas: Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

Kitchen Ideas:

My Award Winning Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

Ingredients:

Jalapenos

Cream Cheese

Bacon

Toothpicks

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the stems off of the jalapenos, slice them once long ways to leaving 2 pieces in the shape of little boats. Carefully remove the seeds but keep them to add back in later to taste.

Spoon cream cheese into the jalapenos, scrape off any excess. I like to now add some of the seeds back in as they stick well to the cream cheese and you can better control the spiciness this way.

Wrap the stuffed jalapenos in bacon. I usually cut the uncooked bacon in half. Stick a toothpick through the bacon and pepper and place on a baking sheet.

Cook for 20 minutes or until bacon is fully cooked.

Also:

I like to trying to make a sweet sauce to go with these as they can be quite spicy and hot. I’ve used a bourbon and lemon glaze but I can never get the taste to stick.