Marching forward

Is it March already?!?! Where has the time gone?! Well for me, it has been insanely busy! Completing Fall Semester of college, Starting Spring Semester of College, traveling to Parris Island #IslandofMarines hehehehe OH and my home state of Florida!

Let's go Greek!

I am a carnivore beef lover!  I recently was selected to participate in a Beef. It's What's For Dinner. Campaign hosted by Allrecipes.com, and sponsored by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.

Crank up the heat!

Summer is the perfect time for grilling, and nothing beats a crisp, refreshing salad on a hot day!

A mouthful of mushrooms

This will be a relatively short blog, but sometimes it's the little things in life that are often the most memorable.  A couple of weeks ago I stumbled onto an incredibly simple mushroom recipe that has had me CRAVING mushrooms ever since.

I served the mushrooms on top of a filet mignon, along w/ a side of baked potato, and asparagus w/ roasted mushrooms and pronounced dinner done. I didn't think too much about it, but I submitted a picture of my dinner (mainly the mushrooms) to Allrecipes.com b/c the mushrooms didn't have a picture and were therefore a "faceless" recipe.

Imagine my surprise to see that people had voted my picture and it ended up being a top picture the following day!  It's like I said it's the little things in life.  That picture was the FIRST time I've ever had any picture I've taken show up as a "winner" :-)

Slàinte - so it's a little late

Slàinte (pronounced Slawn-cha) is a typical Irish toast which in translation means "good health".  For time sake this blog will not be so lengthy.   The month of March as an Allrecipes Brand Ambassador saw me taking a culinary adventure via the UK/Ireland Allrecipes page!  I not only had to obtain the products, but I had to figure out what some of the products were!  Fortunately I have a fabulous food market that assisted me in many of these items. 

First up Guinness bread!

 

This bread was very hearty, and very dense.  It tasted SO good fresh out of the oven, smeared w/ some butter and a drizzle of honey.  This is a bread you would want to eat warm - don't expect it will taste as good the day after.

What's for dinner? 

For the occasion I made Irish Steaks and Smoked Bacon and Irish Cheese Mash  I couldn't really detect the Jameson whiskey in the steaks at all.  I really wasn't overly impressed with this steak recipe and doubt I would make it again.  The mash -or as an American would call it mashed potatoes- were simply wonderful, my mouth is watering at the memory of the taste.  You can use camembert OR if you would prefer a milder cheese feel free to use a brie cheese. 

Ultimately when cooking via a non-US website there will be many ingredients that you will likely have to research - thankfully google is your friend.  You'll also have to learn your metric system -if you're not already familiar w/ it! 

Catching up

If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know I'm an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador (non paid) and I love it!  Each month we have various assignments.   This month my cooking has spotlighted on some recipes featuring Hidden Valley Ranch dressing - both the bottled dressings (regular and light) and the dry packets.  While some recipes I've used are directly from Hidden Valley Ranch, other recipes are not. 

One of my most recent non HVR recipe was for Slow-cooked buffalo chicken sandwiches OMG can I say that you NEED to make these sandwiches for your next at home football fest!  These were super yummy.  I added some white american cheese to my sandwiches and also topped the buffalo chicken w/ a drizzling of light ranch dressing -served on a toasted hoagie bun this sandwich packed some major grindage and a slow burn.  To the side I've got some roasted purple potatoes.  I seriously couldn't believe the entire potato was purple - come to momma b/c I LOVE purple!  Usually when I roast potatoes, I don't ever use recipes.  I just cut the potatoes into quarters, and then drizzle w/ grapeseed oil, and whatever seasonings I feel like.  This time around I used Lawry's seasoning salt, oregano, basil, granulated garlic, and thyme.  I roasted them at 375° for roughly 30 minutes.  Rounding out the meal I used an HVR recipe for Out-of-this-World Pasta Salad granted I couldn't find the romanesco broccoli, which is aka roman cauliflower.  I did the next best thing and improvised w/ regular broccoli.  Would I make it again?  I might, but think I'll play around w/ the ingredients first.

Side note:  You may have leftover buffalo chicken.  Relax, leftovers are a good thing, and there are SO many different ways to use the remainder buffalo chicken - you can make buffalo chicken pizza, buffalo chicken quesadillas, yeah I'm sort of sounding like a spin off of Bubba from Forrest Gump

Another bonus activity was to find a steak recipe. Well naturally I push the edge w/ my cooking and I made  Tequila Steak

I can just see mouths watering, or eyes squinting w/ wrinkles creasing the forehead.  YES!  I said Tequila Steak.   Granted I changed the recipe up - and having made this recipe twice (first the original way, second my way) I'm going to be a food snob and say mine was better.
You don't have to make it my way, but I'll challenge you and say Do It! The original recipe called for

1/3 cup tequila

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

2 cloves garlic

8 ounces London broil steak

Okay now that was entirely TOO much cayenne pepper, SO here's the fix.  Reduce the cayenne pepper to 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne.  NEXT add 2 1/2 teaspoons McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning.  Lets talk garlic.  I appreciate that garlic cloves can add depth to many recipes, this is not one of them.  I say that for the factor that you can't regulate the flavour w/ fresh garlic like you can w/ granulated garlic, meaning that 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic will taste the same each time.  You can't control the size of a garlic clove, thus I suggest using 1 teaspoon granulated garlic instead of the 2 cloves of garlic.  At this point, you marinate the steak overnight in a ziploc bag and let it get nice and happy.  Once it's marinated - crank up the grill and cook that bad boy!

Down South...Bourbon Street anyone?

Tonight I only used one Allrecipes recipe, and that was for the Southern comfort sweet potatoes the remainder of my meal was my own Brown sugar Bourbon Marinated Ribeye steaks, and then one of my "go to" side item freezer pleasers from Green Giant, and then a couple slices of 5 grain bread.

Okay let's talk about the sweet potatoes.  They were scrumptious!  These are what the marshmallow topped casseroles wanna be when they grow up!  These are very much adult oriented due to the Southern comfort in them, but it's quite safe to give to the kiddo's b/c the alcohol WILL evaporate out (sheesh lay down the paddle huh?).  The truth about this sweet potato casserole, it's more like a dessert so go ahead eat another serving b/c while it tastes like a dessert...it's not :)

Bourbon Brown Sugar marinade for steak:  This is MY creation - and feel free to snag for personal use but not personal gain...I don't want to read about someone winning a cook off unless they plan on splitting the winnings.  Okay good now that we've got an understanding off we go.

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup good quality bourbon
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp EACH chipotle chile powder, dalmation sage
1 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
2 Tbsp A-1 Thick & hearty steak sauce
1 tsp granulated garlic

Place marinade in a gallon size ziploc bag, and add your Ribeye steaks, allow to marinate for 8 hours or overnight...and one more thing..when you go to grill it, don't step away - c'mon fire hazard huh Alcohol, fire - yeah you wanna keep an eye on your steak so it doesn't burn!

The remainder of dinner was pretty simple - side of veggies, and sliced 5 grain bread.  Doesn't get any tastier!