the honest kitchen dog food – a review by maya
With a little help from her owner, Maya will be showing off what she thought of the Honest Kitchen’s dog … Continue reading the honest kitchen dog food – a review by maya
Category: Products
purple sweet potato pie
Purple sweet potatoes. I’ve never seen these in the store before or really even knew of their existence until I got a bag full of them from Frieda’s Produce. With Thanksgiving on my horizon, I figured I’d try a twist on the classic sweet potato pie – replacing the normally orange colored sweet potatoes for the vibrant purple variety instead. Take my hand and let’s go on a pie-making journey!
You can see a hint of their purple color in the skins alone, but the purple color becomes a bit more pronounced once you cut and peel the sweet potatoes. It seems to be almost jewel-toned in color. These were treated the same as any other potato – wash, peel, and cover with water and set to boil.
I felt like I was a witch with a cauldron full a of bubbling boiling potion after seeing my pot of water turn purple! The whole sweet potatoes simmer and boil away for about 45 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and you can easily stick a fork through them.
Drain the freakishly festive purple water to reveal your bright purple sweet potatoes. Mash them with a masher, fork, or other implement of your choice until the sweet potatoes are nice and smooth. You’ll still see a few strings sticking up, but it should smooth out further as you weave the mixture into a magical pie filling.
Add the beautiful things – like butter, sugar, milk, vanilla and spices – to your sweet potatoes in the mixer and churn away. Let it whirl and be amazed by the color yet again.
In a partially baked pie crust, pour in your Barney-like filling and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes until the edges are a golden brown. There seems to be a lot of cooking time going around here for this one, but you’ll love the end result!
Eat a slice and hope that you don’t start singing Barney songs. Share with family and friends as they ooh and ahh over the color then pat yourself on the back for such a brilliant idea. Continue reading “purple sweet potato pie”
deep fried turkey and corn fritters for thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is coming up real fast – faster than I would like – and we’re getting heading into “you better decide what you’re doing now” territory for Thanksgivings planning. Until now our only turkey making options have been the bake-in-the-oven variety, but I recently got the opportunity to try out Masterbuilt’s Butterball Indoor Turkey Fryer to try frying a turkey for this Thanksgiving.
I did a test run of the turkey fryer this weekend to try it out before we cook a whole bird. I made fried turkey breast, undocumented french fries and corn fritters. Let’s go on a little adventure and see how this sucker works!
[Dad figuring out the plug with the turkey fryer set up on the stove]
This deep fryer is an electric turkey fryer and can be used indoors, creating a safer and easier option for turkey frying. No crazy outdoors setup with a propane tank with the risk of tipping it over and catching on fire!
[Masterbuilt Butterball Indoor Turkey Fryer]
This sucker is pretty big and can safely hold up to a 14lb. turkey. You use 2 gallons of oil for one turkey and it gets fully enclosed with a drop in basket and a lid to shut the fryer while the turkey is cooking. A thermostat on the front easily let you control the temperature and lets you know when the oil is ready. The timer counts down for you and beeps when ready. The instruction manual that comes with the fryer also has some handy preparation tips, suggestions and other recipes for this fryer (which can also be used as a steamer).
[Filling up the fryer with peanut oil]
Since I was only cooking a turkey breast for my first try, I didn’t need to fill it up to the max line. I went about halfway to max. I used peanut oil since it’s got a high smoking point and imparts a nice flavor to whatever you’re frying. The house totally smelled like peanuts while the oil was heating up!
It can take up to a half hour for a full 2 gallons to get up to temperature – since I used a little less, it took about 20 minutes to heat up the oil to 375 degrees.
[Turkey breast preparation for the fryer dry run]
When preparing your turkey, you must ensure that your turkey is completely defrosted. Ice and water will definitely not mix with your hot oil! I prepped my turkey breast by patting it completely dry and adding salt and pepper all over the outside.
When cooking your bird, you may want to brine it first before doing a deep-fry – and if this is the route you go, make extra sure your turkey is patted dry and free of any brining liquid.
You can also inject the turkey will extra seasonings but I was kind of a lazy pants and just did a plain old breast!
[This turkey breast is getting ready for a hot oil bath]
My 2 and 1/2 pound breast was placed into the fryer basket. There’s a little lip on the side where the basket is held up above the oil. It comes with a lifter to help you ease the basket in and out of the fryer. I recommend trying to lift the basket in and out before you even get to this step just to see how it works. I found that I had to move the basket forward for it to slide easily down and had to practice a few times catching the handle. Nothing too hard, but it’s good to practice before there’s hot oil bubbling angrily in your face.
[bubbles!]
I carefully lowered my turkey breast and watched the bubbling begin! Then I shut the lid and began the short wait until my turkey would be done.
[Turkey fryer’s control panel]
The green light comes on when the oil has reached the proper temperature and is ready to deep fry your treats to a golden brown.
The instruction manual recommended that for turkey breast only, the temperature be dropped to 325 while it’s cooking. This isn’t something you do with a full turkey though – just the breast! I set the timer and cooked the turkey breast for about 17 minutes (about 7 minutes a pound). A normal, full sized turkey will take about 4 minutes a pound to cook and the temperature stays at 375 degrees.
[Freshly fried turkey breast]
The turkey cooked up pretty quickly and when I lifted the basket up, this is what my eyes feasted on – golden, brown deliciousness!
I let the turkey breast rest for about 10 minutes while I also cooked up some french fries (mmm, french fries cooked in peanut oil!).
The first time I did this, I undercooked the turkey slightly (I cooked it for 14 minutes then added an extra 3 minutes of cooking time). I loved the golden, crispy outside skin on this sucker but I really wished I had brined, injected or seasoned the breast a bit more liberally. Salt and pepper alone didn’t quite do this thing justice and since I do prefer dark meat, it wasn’t my favorite turkey… but it was still pretty good. If they just sold dark turkey meat for frying this would have probably been more perfect, but I didn’t see any of that on the shelves. We’ll still be trying out frying a whole turkey for the big day and this dry run helped us to learn what else we needed to do for a flavorful turkey!
[John McLemore’s cookbook]
In addition to the turkey test, I also used the fryer to create a recipe from John McLemore and his cookbook, “Dadgum! That’s Good, Too!“. The cookbook is pretty much created to pair with the turkey fryer, providing a whole section of “fried foods”. A lot of the recipes have stories and photos of John and his family with them, sharing a story behind the recipes.
Flipping through the book for ideas, the corn fritters called to me and demand that I create them. They seemed like an easy side dish to create for a little BBQ we had over the weekend with Jake and his family.
[Corn fritter batter]
The corn fritter batter came together very easily. I kind of wished I had tried this with creamed corn … we’ll save that idea for next time!
[Floating corn batter]
Spoonfuls of corn fritter batter were dropped into the hot oil. At first I put them in the basket and lowered them, but it seemed more efficient to just drop them by the spoonful.
[Starting to get golden brown]
After a few minutes, the fritters need to be flipped over if they don’t flip on their own. I got Jake to do this part for me since I had to stand on my tiptoes just to peer down into this thing.
Curse my short height.
[Pulling the fritters out of the fryer]
It only takes about 6 minutes to get these lovelies to a golden brown. I fished them out with a slotted strainer while I finished up the batch.
[Corn fritters ready for hungry mouths]
A little extra dash of salt and these babies were ready to go! They had a nice, slight sweetness to them and puffed up really nicely.
I think a little extra seasonings would be a fun variation – maybe a little paprika, garlic salt, or cayenne for a spicy mix. Everyone really enjoyed the fritters as-is though, proving it to be a winner!
I also liked how easy and fast it was to fry them – though I don’t think I’d break out this big old fryer for only cooking fritters!
The turkey fryer has a drain valve to easily remove the used cooking oil once your done with all of your frying. Many of the elements of the fryer are also dishwasher safe (your manual will tell you which parts can go in the dishwasher) for easier cleanup.
The one downside I see to the fryer though is that this thing is HUGE. It’s not something we’ll keep on the counter and will probably need to store it in the garage once we’re done with it.
I did like that this unit can be used for more than just deep frying – there were recipes for a low country boil and steaming chicken and veggies – a nice option for large dinners and get togethers that don’t involve frying making it a multi-purpose product.
The Masterbuild Turkey Fryer is available at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Amazon and several other local retailers if you’re thinking of picking one up for your Thanksgiving dinner!
Recipe below for the Corn Fritters!
Continue reading “deep fried turkey and corn fritters for thanksgiving”
white bean and sweet chili coconut shrimp pizza
I’m a bit proud of this one, my second post for the WorldFoods challenge. And I got this idea from thinking about beans.
Beans are not usually something I ever think about. I tend to shun beans, not really enjoying their flavor or consistency. But I did have a bean dish this summer that I really enjoyed at Isola Pizza Bar – it was made with cannellini beans and had a great punch of garlic and rosemary and served as a dip. I started thinking… what if I put that dip on a pizza?
And then what if I added shrimp to it?
This led me to make this White Bean and Sweet Chili Coconut Shrimp Pizza.
Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
This is about all you need – and some onion, which I forgot to include in the photo. Silly.
The first thing you need to do is crank your oven to 500 degrees. Put your pizza pan in there, too. Trust me.
The next thing to do is prep the shrimp – clean and devein those suckers and then use this Sweet Chili Coconut sauce to marinate the shrimp.
Then just set it aside while you prep the rest of your food! You should also take out your pizza dough to let it rest and come up to room temperature while you are making the bean sauce.
These creamy looking beans need a drain after the lid is popped off, but save that “bean juice”! We’re going to need it again while making the bean sauce.
Chop up about half an onion and five cloves of garlic. It seems like a lot of garlic but I think it gives the bean sauce a great, simple flavor.
Cook the onions in olive oil with a sprinkle of salt and pepper until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, until fragrant.
Add your beans and a few tablespoons of the reserved bean liquid. Add another dash of salt and pepper and cook until heated through.
Put the whole thing into your blender with the rest of the reserved bean liquid and a few good tablespoons of olive oil.
Whirl this mixture around until perfectly smooth. Be sure to taste it and season to your liking! It might need a little more salt & pepper love, if your tongue tells you so.
Smooth, creamy, bean stuff!
Time to prep the pizza dough!
Sprinkle a little bit of flour on the dough and then you need to stretch and roll it out.
I like to let gravity do all of the work for me. I start to twist the dough around in the air to stretch it out. I don’t do that tossing thing – I’m afraid of dropping the whole thing on the floor. I work quickly enough to get the dough out to a good size – though not quite round… but that’s okay!
Once the dough is a good size and the oven’s ready, pull the pizza pan out of the oven and carefully place the dough on top. Once it’s on there it will not move until cooked through, so be mindful!
The heat from the pan will sear the bottom of the crust and start cooking it right away, helping you to create a nice, crispy bottom.
After the dough goes down, I always put olive oil, salt and pepper on the bottom. I’m a firm believer in seasoning every layer!
The dough is ready for that beautiful white bean sauce to be spooned on top of the crust.
Plop your shrimp across your misshaped pizza and then pop it back into your hot oven. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Yummy pizza goodness is now at your fingertips! Even if it’s not a traditional round shape. That just makes it more “rustic”.
For a little “oomph”, add prosciutto and chopped cilantro to your pizza after it comes out of the oven. Totally optional, but also another little layer of flavor for your slices.
This post contains: a product review, an easy peasy recipe, and asking for a little bit of help from you! I recently joined up with a team of 5 bloggers from California to compete in a little contest vs. other bloggers representing their own states. Our goal? To showcase our recipes and reviews of sauces from WorldFoods! We were each given a hamper full of various stir fry sauces, pastes and dipping sauces to use in whatever way we’d like. The nice thing about all of these sauces is that they’re good for a wide variety of diets since they have no artificial preservatives, no gluten, no trans fat and no dairy in their products and are suitable for vegetarians, vegans and those with allergy restrictions. Team California’s overall goal is to get the word out and obtain the most amount of feedback across all of our social networks! If you enjoy my post, please like this post on Facebook or share it on Twitter or pin a photo to Pinterest! Okay, spiel over. Onto the food! Out of the eight sauces I received, I decided to start with something easy: a little stir fry with WorldFoods Cambodian Pineapple Lemon Grass sauce. One of the neat things about this sauce? I can pronounce all of the items in the ingredients list! That’s always nice. To make things interesting, I paired this with some freshly made coconut rice. I don’t know about you, but I find plain old rice to be incredibly boring. Maybe it was my years of childhood being made to eat rice I didn’t really enjoy, but plain rice isn’t something I ever crave. But add a little flavor and seasoning to it – chicken stock, herbs, lemon – then I’m totally game. I created a simple coconut rice to pair with dinner – all I added to my pot of calrose rice was a big can of coconut water, a pinch of salt and a pinch of white sugar. The coconut rice I started first since it takes about 20 minutes to do. The calrose rice is my preferred go-to rice as well – but this will work with a different type, too. The pinch of sugar adds another slight bit of sweetness – nothing to outrageous – but gives it a nice little touch that I really enjoy. Fluffy, sticky, and slightly sweet – mmm. It’s not a really strong coconut flavor, either. It’s mild, a little nutty, and a little sweet. A nice base for a stir fry, if you ask me. For the stir-fry, I really kept things simple. For my first review of one of their sauces, I really wanted to keep things simple and see how it would stand up mostly on it’s own. I kept the veggies simple with some sliced up onions, mushrooms and snow peas. Fact: I love snow peas. I hate frozen green peas. I have no idea what’s wrong with me. For the meaty portion of this dinner, I sliced up a leftover New York steak that Jake had brought over and 1 piece of pork that had been marinating for a BBQ later in the week (I stole it for my dish!). I stuck the steak in the freezer for a few minutes while I prepped everything else, so it would be oh-so-slightly easier to cut into thin slices. Annnnnd – that was it for the prep work! Onto to the wok! Let the stir-frying begin! After heating my wok to HOLYHELLTHATISHOT temperatures, I added the onions and cooked those for about a minute. Then I tossed in the mushrooms and sprinkled in salt and pepper. Another minute. Then I added the snow peas – another little dash of salt and pepper – I believe in seasoning every layer! I recently received the opportunity to review one of Martha Stewart’s enameled cast iron pots. My dad helped me out with this one as he’s the one that made this really deliciously simply New England Style Clam Chowder. With just a few ingredients, this soup together comes together really easily and is super tasty. The cast iron pot helped to keep this chowder warm for hours after it was made, too. Impressive! I choose the smaller 3 quart enameled cast iron pot for its size and versatility. They also have 6 quart and 8 quarts pots and I can only imagine how hefty those suckers are. The smaller 3 quart is a perfect size – and not too heavy to lift. The enameled surface creates a beautiful rich color (if you know anything about me, you’d know that I would of course pick a green cast iron pot. “Hmm, what color should I get? Is green available? Hells yeah!”). The coating also prevents rusting and you don’t need to season the pot like you do with traditional cast iron. Besides the pretty green color, the cast iron pots are available in red, blue, orange, purple, white and yellow – all gorgeous colors! Okay, enough talk about the pot – onto the chowder! We’ve had this huge ass can of chopped sea clams for awhile now. It was high time that it get used. This is a 51 oz can of clams – you can get this at Costco (Dad says it comes in a two pack). You will need the whole can! You’ll also need a couple of bay leaves. If you’re like us, you’ll just go out to your backyard and get a couple from your bay leaf tree. What? You don’t have a bay leaf tree? You should get one. Continue reading “new england style clam chowder / cast iron pot review” I have a weird aversion to bananas. I think their texture is kind of weird. But I like them when they’re in stuff, so I’m not opposed to things like banana bread, or banana muffins or things like that. When I was contacted recently by a rep who offered me bananas, I thought, “Huh? Really? Bananas?” I accepted the offer though and was able to learn more about the company behind Organics Unlimited and their program called GROW (Giving Resources and Opportunities to Workers). GROW helps fund programs for farm workers and their families in the areas where Organics Unlimited bananas are grown (in Mexico and Ecuador). These programs include scholarships, study groups, dental programs and vision exams. A portion of each purchased GROW box is donated to the GROW fund to help support these programs to bring educational and health care programs to these underdeveloped banana growing regions. The bananas I received were from this GROW box – you can tell by the sticker placed on the bananas! GROW bananas are available at Jimbo’s Naturally stores and can sometimes be found in Sprouts, Ralphs, and OB People’s Food Store. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the bananas. So many ideas ran through my head; I got suggestions on Twitter and Facebook. Bread? Cookies? Pie? What? I decided on making a pie. A banana cream pie. With caramelized walnuts. Want a make a pie, too? Follow my instructions below. Take photos of bananas in the yard. Hope no one else is watching you take photos of bananas in the yard. Proceed to bake a pie shell without properly tucking it into the pan. Lament about how ugly your pie is going to look. Sigh dramatically. Notice that no one else is around to hear you sigh dramatically. Repeat. Make delicious vanilla custard stuff from scratch and feel slightly better about the ugly pie crust. Slice the bananas. Think to yourself, “Organic bananas look just like regular bananas!” Laugh at self. Decide to cut the bananas on a bias. Decide you should use the word “bias” more often. Continue reading “banana cream pie with caramelized walnuts and grow bananas” I recently got another product to review: baby potatoes from The Little Potato Company! I love potatoes and these little baby ones were so cute that I was pretty excited to get a batch of them to try out. I was given a bag of the “Terrific Trio” and the “Baby Boomer” potatoes for sampling. Featured here in my recipes are the Baby Boomer potatoes. How cute are these little baby potatoes?! I could just eat them right up… oh wait. I am! (Bad joke, I know.) The baby potatoes don’t need to be peeled and don’t really even need to be chopped up. They’re the perfect size for cooking “as is” – whether you decide to roast, boil, smash, grill or bake. I was feeling kind of lazy that day… so after a quick rinse, I threw this babies into a pot of salted water and set them to boil for some lightly smashed potatoes. Along with the potatoes I cut up some zucchini from my dad’s garden – we were overflowing in the zucchini this summer and I decided to grill these up. A quick drizzle of olive oil and a dusting of salt and pepper and these veggies were ready for the grill. Continue reading “dinner on the grill / grilled zucchini, kielbasa and the little potato company” Flatbreads, naan, pita breads, tortillas and more arrived at my doorstep in a big old box not too long ago. One look at it made me think, “Oh god, will I be able to use all of this before it goes bad? What am I going to make?!” I took a bunch of it over to Jake’s so his family could partake in the goodness from BonSavor. And then… something strange happened. The stars, the moon, the planets and the sun all aligned and Jake volunteered to cook and to make something with the flatbreads! Oh my stars. [BonSavor Pita Bread] Jake has cooked instead of me maybe a handful times in our whole five year relationship. Once he made sloppy joe with ground pork and well… let’s just say that I still rib him about it from time to time. Funny thing is that he was the first one of us to cook for the other. He made me a chicken dinner and I remember being impressed that he wanted to cook for me in the first place. I had never had a boy cook for me before! The other funny thing? The first thing I ever made for him was some awful pasta salad and I absolutely hated it. Was embarrassed by it. Was convinced he only ate it to make me feel better. I had never made the recipe before and the flavors came out all weird. To this day he still insists that it was good. Bless him. [BonSavor Naan] Imagine my surprise then when Jake not only wanted to cook but he didn’t want my help at all. He was getting all serious on me. It was so cute! He got the idea to use the pita bread as like an open faced “calzone”. He wanted to do something else with the naan, but at the last minute decided to use them to make mini pizzas since he couldn’t think of anything else. No problem with me! [mini meatball pizzas on naan flatbread] Jake made his own from scratch sauce and made little meatballs. He did a few variations – one with just cheese and meatballs (ricotta and mozzarella), one with both cheeses, sauce and meatballs, and one without ricotta. Continue reading ““calzone” pita bread and mini naan pizzas with bonsavor flatbreads” Hot summer days demand cool and refreshing treats. The frozen treats made at Viva Pops in Normal Heights is definitely a good option for any warm day with their mix of creative flavors. I don’t know of any other place that puts goat cheese into a frozen treat. That right there is reason enough to swing by and check this place out. Here’s their menu from the day that we visited. The menu changes and rotates and frequently, considering everything is made fresh at the store and depends on local produce to create their frozen treats. Some of the flavors that really caught my eye were the Lavender Lemonade, the Tri-Color Melon (which is made with three different types of melon) and the Key Lime Pie bars. I was also impressed to see that they make dog pops so your pup can also have a treat! The dog pops are sold by donations, which are donated to Second Chance Dog Rescue. Tugged at my heart strings a little to hear that. Sadly I didn’t have Maya with me that afternoon, otherwise she would gotten a dog viva pop! Continue reading “viva pops / normal heights – san diego, ca” I got the opportunity to try a handful of Honest Tea flavors this summer. Honest Tea makes its products with all organic products – focusing on the tea and the flavor. Among the flavors I got to try (from left to right): (Not Too) Sweet Tea, Half & Half, Pomegranate Blue , Orange Mango and Cranberry Lemonade. Regular sweet tea has always been too much for me – to me, it just tastes like really sweet sugar water. Honest Tea’s version of “sweet tea” is much better. It’s sweet without being overbearing. It’s sweet but still drinkable. Sweet, but you can still taste the tea! The Half & Half is organic tea with lemonade. This was one of my favorite flavors of the five I tried since I love the lemonade and tea combination. The lemonade adds just the right amount of lemon and sweetness to this flavor of tea. It’s not quite as strongly flavored as other teas, so this one is much better if the bottle is cold, rather than pouring it over ice. I was recently sent samples of gluten free baked goods from the Butterfly Bakery. No, no, I’m gluten free or anything. I had actually asked if I could try the sugar-free goods, but I guess that just wasn’t going to happen and a few weeks later I got these gluten free baked goods in the mail. I’m very skeptical of gluten free products and if they’ll taste good or not. Since I’m perfectly okay with eating up glutens, I really tend to shy away from gluten free stuff since well, I don’t really need or want to eat them. But hey, I’ll still try things. I was sent two products to try: The sliced plain vanilla creme cake and… banana walnut mini muffins. [Vanilla Creme Cake Facts & Ingredients] Both products are made with 100% teff flour – which is a very small grain, about the size of a poppy seed. [Banana Nut Muffin Facts] I’ll admit now that I know nothing about teff flour. Or about gluten free products. Let’s just consider this a taste test from a non-gluten person to you. I had a furry little helper with me while I was taking photos and taste testing the products. I guess this was a sniff test. Sniff test was approved and I was able to move on to the next step. Continue reading “gluten free baked goods from butterfly bakery”stir fry with pineapple lemon grass sauce and coconut rice
Continue reading “stir fry with pineapple lemon grass sauce and coconut rice”new england style clam chowder / cast iron pot review
banana cream pie with caramelized walnuts and grow bananas
dinner on the grill / grilled zucchini, kielbasa and the little potato company
“calzone” pita bread and mini naan pizzas with bonsavor flatbreads
viva pops / normal heights – san diego, ca
honest tea
gluten free baked goods from butterfly bakery
