Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Cyber Tuesday! – 3/9/2010 – St. Patty’s Day FUN!!

March 9, 2010 by newinthekitchen

Happy Tuesday! We’re quickly approaching St. Patrick’s Day! My favorite color is green, I love beer, and I’m part Irish…so this holiday is really fun for me!! I actually have a book club meeting on St. Patty’s Day, so I’ll be making some delicious themed cupcakes. I’ll put the recipe below as well as some other great recipes that I found during my search. Hope you have a fun holiday! Remember to pinch anyone you see that isn’t wearing green!! :-)

1. Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey’s Buttercream Frosting - Yum! This recipe screams St. Patty’s Day! It is what I will be using for my book club meeting. I’m so excited to check it out!

2. Guinness Corned Beef - This recipe looks delicious! The meat is actually braised in Guinness beer which would make it unbelievably tender and moist.

3. Lucky Basil – This is such a fun idea for dressing up your St. Patty’s Day dinner plate!! Very clever. :-)

4. Irish Soda Bread – This bread is so traditional and so yummy! This is one of the easier recipes that I have seen for making it – a wonderful go-to recipe.

5. Steak and Guinness Pot Pies – There is almost nothing more delicious and comforting than a pot pie. This recipe looks fun to make and serve!

Posted in Cyber Tuesdays!, Entertaining, Holidays | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Throw a Beach Party!

March 9, 2010 by newinthekitchen

All the traditional fun and games of a beach party, without all the sand (unless you want it)!!
The Food: Depending on how elegant you want to be you could serve anything from fish tacos (see Meats & Fish section) for a casual beach party theme, to a delicious and formal Surf & Turf (see Meats & Fish section) meal for a fancier feel.  You may also want to accompany whichever you choose with a traditional and delicious salad, such as a Cobb or the All-Green All-Herb Salad (see Salads section).  For dessert try serving a brownie with a scoop of ice cream out of large store-bought, washed shells.
The Drinks: Try serving a Tropical Mojito or a North Shore Mai-Tai (see Cocktail section). Don’t forget to get those cute little drink umbrellas for the ultimate “beachy” touch!
The Décor: Shells, shells, shells!
- Try filling glass hurricanes with shells and placing a large candle in the center; or even add a little sand with shells on top, then the candle.
- Flowers such as orchids always bring on the tropical beach feel.
- Hang fishing  nets with shells strung on them in windows or various corners of the room.
The Fun:  As the sun goes down at a beach party, usually the bonfires light up.  Since not everybody has a ready-to-go bonfire at their disposal, try lighting up your fireplace or backyard fire-pit (or if all else fails, use your gas stove!) and make S’Mores!

BXP140478Today is “National Crabmeat Day”! Believe it or not, this is an actual food holiday.  Sounds fun and delicious to me!  In honor of this very special holiday I came up with this party idea.  It has all the traditional fun and games of a beach party, without all the sand (unless you want it)!!

The Food: Depending on how elegant you want to be you could serve anything from fish (or crab?) tacos for a casual beach party theme, to a delicious and formal Surf & Turf (steak and lobster or crab) meal for a fancier feel.  You may also want to accompany whichever you choose with a traditional and delicious salad, such as Eat Your Greens.  For dessert try serving a brownie with a scoop of ice cream out of large store-bought, washed shells.

The Drinks: Try serving a Tropical Mojito or some other fruity drink.  Don’t forget to get those cute little drink umbrellas for the ultimate “beachy” touch!

The Décor: Shells, shells, shells!
- Try filling glass hurricanes with shells and placing a large candle in the center; or even add a little sand with shells on top, then the candle.
-Flowers such as orchids always bring on the tropical beach feel.
-Hang fishing  nets with shells strung on them in windows or various corners of the room.

5326207

The Fun: If you have a lawn or even a space inside that you could clear out try setting up a scaled down bocce ball game.  This is one of our favorite things to do at the beach.  As the sun goes down at a beach party, usually the bonfires light up.  Since not everybody has a ready-to-go bonfire at their disposal, try lighting up your fireplace or backyard fire-pit (or if all else fails, use your gas stove!) and make S’Mores!

** Note: If it is the middle of winter and you feel like a beach party, GO FOR IT!!! There is nothing about this party that says that it has to be sunny and 85 degrees out.  Have fun!

Posted in Entertaining | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Happy Birthday Ang!!

March 7, 2010 by newinthekitchen

Happy Birthday Ang!! We love you so much! You are a wonderful friend and an amazing woman. I hope this is your best year yet!! :-)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

The Friday Cocktail: Aqua de Sandia with a TWIST

March 5, 2010 by newinthekitchen

Happy Friday! I’m so ready for the weekend! We’ll be celebrating a friend’s birthday and doing a whole lot of relaxing as well! It’ll be great! This is a drink that I watched Guy Fieri make on his show “Guy’s Big Bite”. His recipe can be found here: Grilled Watermelon and Jalapeno Bowla. I made it last weekend for my brother’s birthday party and it was a hit! I made just a few slight changes to the recipe. The drink has complex flavors and is really refreshing. I am not the biggest fan of tequila, but you can barely taste it in this – which can be a little scary! Be careful with this one. :-)

Ingredients:
2 small seedless watermelons, sliced in 1″ thick slices
Vegetable oil, for brushing on watermelon
Fine sea salt, for sprinkling on watermelon
2 cups water
3 cups blanco tequila (we used Cazadores)
½ cup Jalapeno Simple Syrup, recipe below
½ cup Sour Watermelon Schnapps
2 limes, sliced
1 lime, juiced

Directions:
1. Heat the grill to medium-high.

2. Brush watermelon slices with vegetable oil on each side and sprinkle with salt.

3. Put watermelon on the grill. Flip once you have grill marks, about 5-7 minutes on each side.

4. Remove watermelon from the grill and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. Then remove the rind and chop the grilled flesh into cubes.

5. Add to watermelon cubes to a blender or food processor, then pour in one cup of water.  Blend until very liquefied, adding more water if needed.

6. In a mesh strainer, strain the juice to remove the fruit pulp. You should have a simply watermelon juice remaining.

7. In a large glass pitcher, combine the tequila, simple syrup, lime juice, and watermelon schnapps. Add the grilled watermelon juice, and stir. Allow to chill in the refirgerator for 4-6 hours before serving.

To serve: Pour into serving glasses and garnish each with a slice of lime. You may choose to serve over ice.

Jalapeno Simple Syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 small jalapeno pepper, sliced in half (we removed the seeds, but it is your choice)

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add the water, sugar and the jalapeno pepper. Heat the mixture until the sugar is dissolved and syrup has thickened, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let steep until cool. Remove the jalapeno and reserve the simple syrup.

Posted in Drinks, Grilling, The Friday Cocktail! | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Cedar Wrapped Salmon

March 4, 2010 by newinthekitchen

Brady and I were watching the show “Iron Chef” on Food Network and we saw the challenging chef use pieces of cedar paper to bbq salmon.  We ended up picking some of this paper up in the barbecue section of our local home improvement store. Brady made salmon a few nights later and wrapped it in these papers.  Not only did it smell really good while it was on the bbq, but the fish also tasted like cedar when we ate it.  It was very, very tasty!

Ingredients:
2 Salmon filets
Several sprigs of fresh dill
2 lemons, sliced
Olive oil
Cedar bbq wrapping papers, prepared for use according to package directions

Directions:
1. Top each salmon filet with lemon slices and a sprig of dill.

2. Wrap each salmon filet (lemon and dill included) with a cedar grilling paper.  Tie closed with any bbq safe rope or a green onion.

3. Grill over medium heat until salmon is cooked through, about 12 – 15 minutes.

4. Unwrap the salmon and enjoy!

Posted in Meats & Fish | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Cyber Tuesday! – 3/2/2010 – SALADS!

March 2, 2010 by newinthekitchen

Well, obviously I haven’t been blogging as much as usual. Brady and I have been spending practically every free moment we have trying to get ready for an upcoming garage sale. It’s a lot of work! We also are working on a DIY kitchen pantry project…knocking out the old, useless shelves and installing a new, FABULOUS shelving system. :-) Anyway, now that my blogging absence has been explained I’ll move on to this week’s Cyber Tuesday! I’ve decided to look up some cool new salads. I got inspired by my brother’s girlfriend Crystal who made a delicious salad for his birthday celebration over last weekend. It was amazing! Here are a few recipes I found:

1. Ordinary to Extraordinary Salads – I wrote this article up quite awhile ago. I really love it and refer to it frequently when putting together a new salad. There are so many interesting ingredients that you can throw into a salad bowl. Delicious!

2. Broccoli Salad – Who ever said that salads had to be made of lettuce is lying! This salad uses a bunch of vitamin-packed broccoli to make sure it packed a nutritious punch. Then to add a little bit of mouth-watering goodness you toss in some crumbled bacon. Yumm!

3. Basil Caesar Salad Dressing – Brady and I love a good caesar salad! This recipe calls for a handful of ingredients and looks super easy to follow. And voila! You have your own homemade caesar dressing! It doesn’t get any better than that.

4. Hearts of Romaine Salad with Apples – Adding fruit into your salad is a wonderful way to add texture, depth of flavor, and variety. Apples are a fruit I have not used…not sure why. I have usually opted for strawberries, dried apricots, peaches, nectarines, blueberries, etc. But we’ll definitely give apples a try, they sound delicious!

5. Tortilla Salad Bowls – This recipe looks so fun!! Sort of like a tostada bowl I suppose, except not fried! You fill the tortilla bowl with any salad mix that you dream up. How neat!

Posted in Cyber Tuesdays!, Healthy Options, Side Dishes | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

MARCH: Recipe of the Month Contest!

March 1, 2010 by newinthekitchen

Happy March! St. Patrick's Day and beer! It's a great month!

Happy March! St. Patrick's Day and beer! It's a great month!

Brady and I want to see what you are cooking!  Each month we’ll do a call for recipes, try each of them and then post our favorite!  Part of the fun of cooking is being able to share your food with others.  We want this to be a community where we can all learn together, share tips and tricks, and most importantly try new recipes!  So go ahead, email us your favorite recipe between the first and the tenth of each month!  We’ll check them out and post our favorite recipe of those submitted.

newinthekitchen@gmail.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

Happy Birthday Char!

February 28, 2010 by newinthekitchen

iStock_000009426982XSmallToday is my younger brother Charlie’s birthday! Char – Cheers to your birthday!!  I hope you have a great time celebrating.  Hippo birdie two ewes, Hippo birdie two ewes, Hippo birdie two ewes, Hippo birdie two ewes. :-)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Cyber Tuesday! – 2/23/10 – SEAFOOD!

February 23, 2010 by newinthekitchen

Happy [Cyber] Tuesday! Here we meet again. I love to surf the web and bring us all great ideas, recipes, and tips. This week I decided to go for a seafood theme. Brady and I are fixing salmon with pesto tonight and that has spurred my curiosity in terms of other seafood dishes. Here we go:

1. Baked Crab – Yum! Brady and I love crab. The meat is so tender and sweet. As I type that I think “it’s not sweet!!”. Well it is sweet in a crab kind of way, not an ice cream sundae kind of way…if that makes any sense. This recipe looks easy and quick. Gotta love that!

2. Spicy Grilled Shrimp – I love, love, love the flavor that a grill gives to shrimp. So delicious and mouth-watering! I used to not be a huge fan of shrimp. However, you throw those little guys on the grill and I can eat a ton of them (literally…)!

3. Shellfish Roast – Oh. My. Goodness. This looks too good for words. Beautiful pictures alongside this easy-to-follow recipe. Plus, you can use whatever shellfish you like or have around! Shrimp, scallops, prawns, lobster, crab, etc. Yummy in my tummy!

4. Salmon with Black Sauce – The “Black Sauce” is actually an Indonesian “ketchup”. This recipe looks really fresh. Plus we are always looking for new ways to cook and serve salmon.

5. Grilled Halibut – If you have never tried halibut YOU MUST. It is a flaky, white fish that is tender and amazing almost any way you cook it. We have used it in tacos but we also grill it or bake it to eat it plain (or with a side sauce or salsa). This recipe has you apply a spice rub and then make a salsa to top it. Looks amazing!

Posted in Cyber Tuesdays!, Meats & Fish | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Friday Cocktail: Gold Medal Martini

February 19, 2010 by newinthekitchen

Happy Friday!! We are definitely happy that the weekend is here, although we are expected to get quite a bit of rain. I guess that just means we can have a nice, relaxing weekend and watch movies and the Olympics.  We are really enjoying the Olympics.  It was so neat to see Apolo Anton Ohno in the qualifying and medal races. He is amazing!! We’ve also been enjoying watching the men’s and women’s snowboarding, figure skating, and ski jumping. Very cool!! In honor of the Olympics I thought I’d try to find a drink recipe that had a little something to do with them for this week’s “Friday Cocktail”. I found the idea for this recipe on a site called “Drink of the Week” and I just changed a few ingredients and added a little extra love. I hope you enjoy! Go USA! :-)  Have a great Friday night and weekend!

** This recipe will make two martinis.

Ingredients:
3 ounces citrus vodka (or regular if that is what you have)
1 ounce Triple Sec
2 ounces freshly squeezed orange juice
2 ounces pineapple juice
Splash of club soda (or Sprite/7Up if you prefer the sweetness)
Lemon wedges, for garnish
Edible gold sprinkles (optional), for rim of glasses

Directions:
1. Rub a lemon wedge around the rim of both martini glasses. Then dip the rim of the glass into the gold sprinkles to create a sugared rim.

2. Combine vodka, triple sec, and juices in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until well combined and chilled.

3. Pour into martini glasses and add a small splash of club soda. Garnish each drink with a lemon wedge.

Enjoy!!

Posted in Drinks, The Friday Cocktail!, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Older Posts »