Journey Into Deliciousness

Slow Cooker Roast Beef with Onion Gravy

Grade: B

Time it takes: 8 and a half hours

Yield: Serves 4

Source: Hezzi-D's books and cooks - a food blog (Roast Beef with Onion Gravy)

I'm excited to report that this is the first recipe I've ever successfully made in the crock-pot. So far that is a 50% success rate - I'll work on it. The only other dish I have tried in the crock-pot was a potato soup recipe that frustrated me to no end. I was a bit apprehensive about trying another crock-pot recipe, but happily this one turned out great.

It was also incredibly easy, which is always a plus. Just a few ingredients, let it cook up, then thicken up the gravy, bam, done, time for dinner y'all. Serve it with mashed potatoes and some veggies for a hearty dinner any day of the week.

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Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

Grade: B (for taste) A+ (for looks)

Time it takes: for-ev-er (5 hours or so, lots of hands off time while the dough chills)

Yield: about 36 cookies

Source: adapted from Our Italian Kitchen and Rara Bakes - I started with the dough from Our Italian Kitchen and I absolutely hated it, it was terrible to work with and tasted horrid. But, because I really liked the look I found a new dough recipe and it went much better. However, I used concepts from each so I decided to site each, although the original idea came from my friend Atty who made pinwheel cookies a few months back.

I have a love hate relationship with sugar cookie dough. To me it tastes boring and has a random sweetness to it, but if you want to make a decorative cookie it is a good dough to work with. Similar to royal icing - tastes horrible, but can be used to make prettiness. Maybe I am still too new to the cookie world and there is some other magical decorative cookie dough out there that tastes amazing and one day I will stumble upon it! Or maybe I just think sugar cookies taste like poo, and I am one of the few...along with Chris, and my grandma, and everybody else everywhere...

I send out goodies packages to friends and family at Christmas-time. I wanted a really festive fun looking cookie to send, and I really liked the idea of a green and red pinwheel cookie. A good bit of the recipes I found are the same exact dough recipe as the one I first tried from Our Italian Kitchen - which ended in miserable results. The dough was a pain in the ass to get to the right consistency, and then it wouldn't roll properly no matter how chilled and un-chilled I got the thing. I decided to just roll it and bake them for a taste test. I put them in for the 15 minutes recommended time, and when I went to check on them they were black - pink (from a red dye miscalculation) green and black. Ugh I was so annoyed. They tasted like crap anyway! So I just threw the whole thing away and started fresh.

The dough recipe from Rara Bakes (which will be listed below) was a dream to work with compared to the above mess. I was extra careful with my liquid dye to flour ratio, but it wasn't super necessary. The dough is suppose to be rather soft, but chills beautifully...angels were singing when I rolled this stuff out I swear! Make sure to use at least half a bottle of dye to get really vivid colours and go slowly when rolling the two doughs into a jellyroll. Also use different colours and extracts to really tailor it to your specific needs. Next time I will roll out the two doughs a bit thinner and wider to get a better swirl going on, but I still think they turned out very Christmas-y anyway.

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Biscuits and Gravy

Grade: B

Time it takes: 35-40 minutes

Yield: Serves 2-4, depending on your level of gravy intake because the gravy lasted 3 servings

Source: Pink Parsley - a food blog (biscuits and gravy)

Biscuits and gravy is not a dish I've had often, or really ever...maybe a bite once or twice...in my life. I'm not entirely sure why. They sound delicious, but I've just never ordered them or made them.

I have quiet a few food blogs bookmarked that I check in with about once a week, and this biscuits and gravy recipe popped up on Pink Parsley's blog. It instantly sounded like a great idea to make biscuits and gravy. I can't for the life of me think why it took so long for me to finally get around to making them. I dangled the prospect in front of Chris' nose and he was excited enough about it to remind me almost daily that I should make the recipe.

I've never made regular ol' biscuits before nor have I ever successfully made gravy. Maybe that is why it took me so long to make these, I was afraid of failing miserably at gravy making. Well, I started by accidentally leaving the biscuits in for a good 4 or 5 extra minutes because the oven timer beeped while I was man handling sausage and then I forgot about them completely, so the bottoms ended up being hard. The tops were delicious though, so not a total loss. It took me a super long time to get the gravy smooth as well, but it tasted fantastic. My only problem overall was that the dish was too light on the gravy for the amount of sausage. It was more like sausage and biscuits with a bit of gravy. So, next time more gravy and less sausage would be perfection...and also not leaving the biscuits in for an extra 5 minutes would probably help as well.

No complaints about the taste in this household. They were gone faster than the flashiest of flashes - hard biscuit bottoms and all.

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White Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

Grade: B

Time it takes: 40 minutes (20 minutes prep, 15-20 minutes baking)

Yield: About 15 biscuits

Source: The Curvy Carrot - a food blog (White Cheddar Garlic Biscuits)

I have seen these biscuits all over the food blog world. Who doesn't love those biscuits from that national seafood chain? You know that is the only reason you go! However, I didn't think these were as good. And, I thought they were very salty. Chris thought they rocked and ate just about all of them. I think that the melted butter and garlic salt mixture that I painted on top of the biscuits right out of the oven is the culprit behind the saltiness. Next time I will just use garlic powder.

Also I thought the bake time was a bit insane. I put them in at the recommended temperature and time and when I checked them about four minutes prior to the timer going off they were overly brown. The next batch I lowered the temperature and put them in for less time, and they turned out much better.

I'm not a big salt fan; my husband is. I think that without painting salt on the top they would taste much closer to the seafood chain's biscuits. But, they are not as soft, which really is a key factor for me in the deliciousness of the biscuits. All that being said, they are rather yummy when they didn't get too brown and probably even better with less salt. I would still recommend these when you are in the mood for biscuits.

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Noodles With Chicken In Peanut Sauce

Grade: B

Time it takes: 1 hour

Yield: Serves 4-6

Source: Mrs Sac's Purple Kitchen - a food blog (Peanut Butter - Rediscovered)

I have a mild fondness for peanut butter. It is good stuff, but I wouldn't say I love it. I don't go crazy for Reese's Peanut Butter cups or anything. However, when it turns into peanut butter sauce I swoon. That stuff is delicious. I like to make it when I have fondue and make teriyaki chicken - and then eat my weight in it. So good!

When I came upon this recipe, I thought I should definitely give it a try. I'd never had peanut noodles before, but I figured they would be yummy. The recipe was good, but it was very noodle-y. It was easy to make though and good for a week night dinner. The next time I make this I will add more veggies and chicken, less noodles, and up the peanut sauce amount by half. My favourite way to have peanut sauce is still with chicken teriyaki fondue and some rice - that will have to make an appearance on the menu really soon.

I'm writing out the recipe with the original amounts, and if you desire to make the veggies and chicken the star of the dish it is simple enough to just add more in place of pasta.

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Queso Blanco Dip

Grade: B

Time it takes: 25 minutes (10 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking)

Yield: about 2 cups

Source: Annie's Eats - a food blog (Queso Blanco Dip)

Queso dip is pretty much the best thing ever. I love cheese. I love melted cheese. And, dipping things in melted cheese...seriously delicious.

I think that this dip is really very good. As a matter of fact it was gone in under 24 hours. But, I think it needs a bit more oomph in the spice department. It had just a hint of warmth to it. Perhaps if the jalapeno wasn't completely seeded. I'm no expert at jalapeno peppers, but I know the seeds add heat! I just couldn't say how much heat 1 whole jalapeno pepper with seeds would bring to the table. The next time I make this I will play around with how many seeds to add - half? I'll get back to you!

***edited*** I made this dip again and I used the whole jalapeno seeds and all, and it was really good. Had a much better bite to it that way, but it wasn't too hot for my tastes. I'm not sure why you would seed the jalapeno at all because keeping the seeds in really didn't make it all that hot. It was definitely a mild gooey cheesy dip!

I also decided to make this without getting out all my ingredients and completely prepping ahead of time like I normally do. I was stirring the cheese and chopping up things and shredding more cheese. It got a little chaotic. So, save yourself the trouble and just chop up everything before hand - a little advice from me to you.

The next time you are feeling like Mexican for dinner, whip this up for an appetizer and make sure to take plenty of trips to the table for seconds.

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Cheeseburger Quesadillas

Grade: B

Time it takes: 20 minutes

Yield: 2 quesadillas

Source: adapted from Lauren's Kitchen - a food blog (superbowl snack throwdown: cheeseburger quesadillas)

I love reading through a food blog's entire archives. I found this recipe while doing so, and bookmarked it without reading through the ingredients. When I pulled it out of my favourites folder and took a look at it I thought um no. Really only because of frozen ground beef style soy crumbles. I don't like soy, Chris won't touch soy, so just no. But, I liked the idea so I went ahead and adapted it to my own tastes.

The one thing I forgot to do while making it though was to really drain off all the grease that the meat juices out. When I tossed it on the tortilla and started toasting the outside it got super greasy, which crisped up the tortilla rather nicely but was just a little too much grease in the end. They were tasty though, so the next time I make these I will remember to really dry off the cooked ground beef. Or, use soy crumbles if that suits your fancy...I assume those don't grease up.

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Mini Oreo Cheesecakes

Grade: B

Time it takes: 3 hours and 30 minutes (10 minutes prep, 20 minutes baking, 3 hours to chill)

Yield: 12 mini cheesecakes

Source: adapted from an allrecipes.com recipe

As I said in the previous post, my uncle was in town over his birthday. We had a dinner party to celebrate. His favourite birthday treat is cheesecake. So, I decided to do a bunch of mini cheesecakes in a variety of flavours. Along with oreo cheesecakes, I made triple chocolate cheesecakes and peanut butter cheesecakes - recipes to follow.

They were a hit! Super cute and tasty, and it was fun having a little bit of each flavour. I originally wanted to make six of each type, but it got complicated halving and third-ing the recipes. I also looked for super simple recipes because I was making so many different kinds. These mini oreo cheesecakes take no time at all.

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Red, White and Blue Stained Glass Jello Stars

Grade: B

Time it takes: 6 hours and 30 minutes (30 minutes of prep, 6 hours plus for chilling)

Yield: I got 10 stars from my 13x9, but there is a lot of leftover jello that is perfectly edible

Source: adapted from a recipe from brown eyed baker - a baking blog

Chris and I were invited over for a Fourth of July cookout. I volunteered to bring over these Jello stars. They are as simple as can be, super cute, and pretty tasty. I was a little unsure about how they would taste. I am not a huge jello fan, and the sweetened condensed milk gelatin sounded awfully weird. But, it just tasted like a bit sweeter jello. These stars are all about presentation, and you get that with minimal effort. Definitely a recipe to consider for any get together - change up the colours and the cookie cutter shapes and you have a fun themed-to-any-event jello.

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Shepherd's Pie

Grade: B

Time it takes: 3 hours and 10-20 minutes (50 minutes prep, 2 hours slow cooking, 20-30 minutes baking)

Yield: Serves 4-6

Source: adapted from a recipe at cooks.com

Another inspired recipe from our wedding. Chris ordered the shepherd's pie for lunch at Epcot's Rose & Crown pub. It was the best shepherd's pie either of us have ever tasted - it made me wish I had ordered it as well instead of fish and chips. I tried to find the recipe for it online somewhere, but alas I could not. I knew that it was made with lamb, which if it is called shepherd's pie it is suppose to be made with lamb while it turns into cottage pie if it is made with beef (the internet told me so), and I knew it had carrots. Not really that helpful of information, but I searched for recipes that were traditional English recipes with lamb and carrots.

It was a tad annoying searching for shepherd's pie and coming up with cottage pie 85% of the time - people, name your dishes correctly! Cooks.com is not the most helpful recipe site either, and especially not for the particular recipe I found. All the comments were just random discussion of shepherd's pie vs cottage pie and cheese usage in international cuisine. There were pages on pages of that crap, and I did not find one useful post about the recipe...was it good? did anybody make any changes? any tips? Nothing! It was the most promising recipe I had found though, so I decided to make it.

I wanted to make individual shepherd's pies for everybody - there were six to feed. Along with the scotch eggs, I brought this to the British themed feast. The recipe I used did not have a serving size, so I doubled it and hoped for the best. I used little disposable foil dishes, and doubling the recipe was not enough to fill each with the amount I had desired. Atty and I evenly distributed all of the meat mixture into each and it worked, but I really wished it had been thicker. Next time, I would use the doubled amount and put it into just four dishes.

The shepherd's pie turned out quite tasty, but not as good as the one from Rose & Crown pub at Epcot. If I hadn't had the one from Rose & Crown I am pretty sure I would have loved the one I made, but I know it can be better. I think I need to head over to Epcot and butter up the chef for the recipe!

I am going to post the recipe exactly as I made, in the doubled amount.

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