#4: Sliders with all the Fixins

Lunch on a sunday afternoon. I love eating mini so I jumped at the opportunity to make a mini lunch..and now I feel like having an hors d'oeuvres party! Today I made 2 kinds of sliders cooked on a panini grill.

1. Beef Sliders. Mini buns and mini beef patties with pepper jack cheese slices.
2. Chicken Sliders. Hawaiian style buns with chicken patties and pepper jack cheese slices.

Fixins': sauteed onions/mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, and guacamole.




The panini grill really makes a huge difference. It's easy to use, and it makes the bread nice and crispy. 3 of these little burgers is probably enough for a meal. Otherwise, try them out as snacks.

#3: Magic French Toast 3 Ways

I think the magic of this french toast really comes from the light coating of cinnamon/sugar on top of the crisp bread. i've made several variations of this french toast both with whole pieces of bread, and chopped up french toast sticks. this time, it's essentially the same recipe, but with 3 different types of bread.

it all starts out with a mixture of egg beaters, milk, and vanilla. coat the bread, and then drop on a warm oiled pan. flip the bread over once one side is crispy and then try this...flattening the bread - take a piece of foil and a heavy pot, then set the pot on top of the foil on top of the bread. i've seen great results with this cooking method, so i definitely recommend trying it out. after the french toast is off the pan, coat with a cinnamon/sugar mixture.

1st way:
Bread: 2 slices of whole wheat
Topped with cinnamon/sugar coated blueberries, and stuffed with banana custard pudding



2nd way:
Bread: Peasant bread (i.e. ciabatta bread)
Topped with blueberry compote, stuffed with banana custard pudding


(camera photo credit: fred chang)

3rd way:
Bread: leftover rolls from Sunrise Bistro (Walnut Creek)
Topped with blueberry compote

#2: Croissant Embellished with Banana Custard and Chocolate

this one should probably be on a show like 'semi home-made'. my friend scavenged a free croissant from work and brought it home, so we thought to ourselves, how can we jazz this up into something more exciting? while i'm sure the croissant by itself it tasty enough, there's nothing better than a stuffed croissant (either sweet or savory). we thought we'd fill it with some fruit, and the most promising we could find in my house was a banana. how about banana custard? with....chocolate!! banana and chocolate tend to make an excellent pair, so why not stuff it into a croissant.



we found a recipe on allrecipes.com for a banana custard pudding (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Custard-Pudding/Detail.aspx).

step 1. make custard. for the most part we followed the directions of the recipe, but then mashed up some banana and added it to the mixture (which in the end was a good call). we had with 3 full dishes of banana custard pudding, and then put the remaining inside our croissant. we then microwaved some semi-sweet chocolate and added a bit of milk to loosen the mixture. we probably overheated the chocolate because it was not smooth enough to drizzle. we ended up with clumpy chocolate on the top. but alas, chocolate is still chocolate, and chocolate is delicious.




we stuck the croissant into the fridge to cool and eat the next morning. baked in a toaster oven at 350˚ for about 5 minutes. the custard was warm and gooey, oozing out of the croissant. it was pure deliciousness, but pretty rich for the morning. warning: you may get food coma after eating this for breakfast.

i think next time we should try stuffing some ham and cheese inside for a more savory version. yum!

#1 Homemade Pop Tarts

it's about time. slight delay on the posting. but alas, here's the moment we've all been waiting for...the unveiling of homemade Pop Tarts!

In case you're unfamiliar with the 'real thing' (i suppose referring to Pop Tarts as 'real' can certainly be up for debate), here's what we're talking about (please see left).

so as a reminder, it all started off with a challenge to make my own pop tarts. after looking at a few recipes, and shying away from the one that called for 13 oz butter (i.e. more than 3 sticks...nearly 1 lb), i decided to go with this recipe: http://bakememore.com/2009/02/15/sorry-kelloggs-these-pop-tarts-will-make-you-crumble/ the picture looked good enough to me, and it seemed easy to do on a sunday night.

i got a chance to bring out the food processor to make the dough. after rolling out the dough, i decided to be a little more creative and make mostly circular pop tarts (i also made 1 normal shaped pop tart for good measure, and 1 triangle with the remaining dough). While I would have preferred a raspberry jam inside, I went with the Strawberry and Boysenberry in the fridge. After I sealed those suckers up with the fancy fork crimping, I put them into the oven to bake. The Pop Tarts came out nice and toasty. My advice: if you do let them cool completely, you should pop them back into the microwave for 10-15 seconds. They also seem to do okay after freezing them. it's also an option to put a glaze/frosting and sprinkles on top. However, if you happen to not be younger than 10 years old, i think the unfrosted Pop Tart will suffice, and maybe even impress.






Final Product:

interesting

After watching Julie and Julia yesterday...and reflecting on a conversation from Friday, I have been inspired to cook and bake. Let me give you the reader's digest version of my conversation. it went something like this.

me: i'm jealous of you. i have no hobbies. no interesting hobbies. i want to be more interesting. i'm boring.

we started brainstorming of how i could be more interesting.

what do you like to do?

me: i like looking at food. looking at pictures of food. walking around the grocery store and looking at food. taking pictures of food.

we decided that cooking and taking pictures of the food, would be my new hobby. it was quite timely that we watched julie and julia 2 days later. it made me want to copy julie and pick out a cookbook from the shelf, and set a deadline to make every recipe. i wondered, how many people were going to go start a blog and cook from a cookbook. i don't want to be a follower. but, i guess i kind of am. in any case, i'm taking my own twist on it. maybe.

here's what i'm envisioning. let me start with a story. yesterday i was at safeway, and i saw a box of Pop Tarts. oh boy, i haven't had pop tarts in ages. Instead of succumbing to my sweet craving, I was challenged to make my own homemade pop tarts. So how about making homemade versions of all these commercialized products? Oreos? Gummy fruit snacks?

i expect this venture won't last long. but in any case, i'm hoping to cook more...and share it with whomever is reading this. do you think i'll ever get enough readers to attract enough attention to inspire a movie? i guess probably not. it's already been done...

to officially kick off my new hobby, i made Pop Tarts tonight. I will share with you soon...