Friend-spiration Interview!

Take a peek at my friend and lovely co-worker Becky Helms’ interview with me on her blog at The Pink Samurai!  She’s a crochet queen and an incredibly talented lady! Don’t forget to take a look at her shop on Etsy! Her scarves are super cute and comfy, I have a few myself and LOVE them!! Thanks Becky for the chat! Can’t wait to see what you do next!

Honey Butter Beer Bread

Happy Monday all, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend.  I spent mine on my couch nursing a cold.  However I got too antsy after the 10th hour of the Food Network.  I decided I needed to bake something.  My love has been asking me to make beer bread for quite some time, so I finally decided to give it a go!  It was actually quite simple, and didn’t take a lot of time.  No waiting around for the dough to rise or any of that (I’m too impatient for all of that anyway).

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour or 2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of bread flour (if you have it)
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp honey
• 1 bottle of beer (12 oz) any kind — probably nothing with a lime or citrus flavoring though
• 4 Tbsp of unsalted butter – melted and cooled

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9×5 in baking loaf pan with butter or cooking spray.  
• In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  Add in honey and beer and mix until just combined.  The batter will be pretty thick.  Pour the batter into the greased bread pan evenly.  Pour melted butter over top evenly and place on middle rack of the oven.  You may want to put a baking sheet on rack below in case any of the butter spills over the sides of the loaf pan.
• Bake for about 50-60 min or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Honey Butter

Ingredients:

• 1 stick of unsalted butter (8 Tbsp) softened at room temp
• 1 Tbsp of honey
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients together until well blended, spread over slice of beer bread and enjoy! 

Citrus Marinated Grilled Swordfish

Happy weekend all! I’ve been curled up on my couch recovering from a cold, hopefully you’ve all been able to get out and enjoy some of this gorgeous Spring weather! I love when the weather gets nice, it’s finally an opportunity for us to use the grill! There is something so comforting about eating something off of the grill.  I love that charbroiled taste and seeing those grill marks on my food.  I love standing outside around the grill with friends and family cooking up some delicious food.  Today however, the cooking/grilling credit goes to my boyfriend, while I relaxed with a box of tissues next to me.  I did make the marinade though, and I have to say it was pretty on point! The orange and lemon citrus flavors combined with the swordfish and that wonderful grill mark taste was so good! My only adjustment would be to let the swordfish marinate a little bit longer to absorb some more flavors — the marinate time below should be better!

Ingredients:

• 2 swordfish steaks
  
• 1 tsp salt and pepper
• 3 navel oranges – zest and juice
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3 Tbsp olive oil

Directions:

• In a medium bowl add salt, pepper, olive oil and zest of 1 orange.  Juice the 3 oranges and lemon and add juice to the rest of the marinade mixture. Pour the marinade into a ziplock bag and add swordfish steaks.  Make sure to any air in the bag is squeezed out and flip the bag over a couple of times while it marinades to make sure both sides is covered.  Allow to marinate for 1 hour in the refrigerator. 
• Remove steaks from marinade and grill about 4-5 min on each side.  Careful not to over cook steaks, you don’t want to over cook them because they’ll be dried out.

Breakfast Egg Soufflé

Happy Friday everyone!

I’m so excited about this warm weather and being able to enjoy the daylight for a couple of hours after leaving work. Probably why I haven’t really posted anything yet this week.  But today I was a little more ambitious and got an early start on my day so I could bake a little breakfast soufflé!

Ingredients : 

• 2 ramekin dishes
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup of milk
• half of a red pepper diced
• 1 can of green chili peppers
• 4 tbsp cream cheese
• 2 slices of bread ( your choice)
• 1/4 cup of grated cheddar cheese (optional)
• Salt and pepper
• Butter
• Paprika

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease inside of 2 ramekins with olive oil.  Place red peppers and half of the can of green chili peppers on bottom of each ramekin.  Scoop 2 tbsp of cream cheese  into each ramekin and spread across the peppers.  Use a round cookie cutter to cut out a circle of bread for each ramekin.  Butter both sides of the bread and place bread slices on top of the cream cheese.  Beat eggs and milk together, season with salt and pepper.  Pour egg/milk mixture over the bread and top with grated cheese. Sprinkle paprika over top.  Place both ramekins on baking sheet and bake for 30 min.  The egg mixture will puff up in the ramekins when the cool it will sink a little. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving and then dig in!

If you’re a bacon lover like me you can add in chopped cooked bacon into the ramekins before placing the bread slices on top.  You can pretty much add any ingredients you want or have to these.  Chopped tomatoes are another alternative if you’re not a fan of peppers.

Carrot Cake with Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Monday!
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. For those that celebrate, hope you had a happy Easter filled with lots of time with your families.  I spent my weekend in my home state of New Jersey eating my body weight in cake and food for 3 days straight.  As my mother always says when I walk in the door “It’s an eating fest!” This weekend was just that! Full of pastas, cake and cream puffs galore. You’ll never hear me complain though. The smell of homemade pasta sauce filling the air so much that you can smell it in the driveway as you pull up to the house.  What more could an Italian Jersey girl ask for?! Mother, daughter time spent in the kitchen cooking is one of my favorite things to do.  Some of the best memories I have growing up were made sitting around the kitchen table at my parents house.  Good food, good company and good conversation. All the best things!

My mom and I spent Friday afternoon baking away to prep for the Easter eating fest that was to begin.  Carrot cake is one of my favorite Spring time desserts. This one in particular is delightfully wonderful. I hope you enjoy!

Pineapple Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 1/2 cups grated fresh carrots
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pineapple
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 (2.5-ounce) jars pureed carrot baby food

For the icing:

• 2 (8oz) blocks of cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup finely diced pineapple

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 (8in) round or square cake pans and line bottom of pans with parchment paper. Dust flour over inside of each pan.

In a small bowl toss the carrots, walnuts and 1/2 cup pineapple with 3/4 cup of the flour and set aside.

Whisk the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour, cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a separate medium bowl.

In another large bowl, beat together eggs and sugar with electric mixer for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Gradually add in vegetable oil while still beating the egg and sugar mixture.  Next beat in the pureed carrot baby food jars. Gently fold in the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients to make a loose batter. Gently fold in the nuts, carrots and pineapple mixture into the batter.

Pour batter evenly into both pans and make sure they are even. Bake cakes about 45 min (time will vary by oven) until firm to the touch and a tooth pick comes out clean.  Let cakes cool completely before covering with frosting.

For the icing:

Beat cream cheese and butter together in a large bowl until smooth and fluffy.  Gradually add in powdered sugar and continue beating until smooth, light and fluffy.  Add in vanilla extract. Fold in diced pineapple.

Cover one layer of cake with icing, making sure to spread it evenly. Place second cake on top of iced cake and spread remaining icing over the top and all sides of the cake. Make sure to spread it evenly and gently to make sure you don’t break the cake.   Refrigerate until ready to eat and then enjoy! You can leave out the pineapple if you aren’t a fan of fruit in your carrot cake but I think it adds a little something extra!