Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Cheese, Beer, Garlic and Chive Bread


My husband was kind enough to bring me back some gorgeous Aged Gouda from his trip to Amsterdam, he loves his girl!  In an attempt to use up every ounce of it, I have been making cheese everything.  I had not made Cheese Beer Bread in years and this was a fantastic opportunity.

I looked at a few recipes online to get some ideas, then I went to town.  This bread is so tasty out of the oven, we could have finished it, but we didn't.  You don't want a heavy beef for this recipes, a light lager or IPA would be great.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp shipped chives
1 cup of grated Gouda
1 1⁄4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
12 ounces beer (1 bottle)

Mix all ingredients together, mixing in beer last. Batter should be the consistency of Bisquick.

Spoon into a well greased bread pan and bake at 350 degrees (f) for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Brush the bread with butter when it comes out of the oven (optional but tasty)

Let bread rest in it's pan for about 10 minutes then let it cool on a rack for another 10 minutes or so.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Blueberry Cream Cheese Gallette


We bought a bunch of Blueberries and I always have Cream Cheese and Pie Crusts on hand, so I decided to make a little dessert on a Sunday afternoon.  This was not an attractive Gallette by any means, but it did taste good.  If I make it again, I will use Palm Sugar instead of regular or Vanilla Sugar and maybe add a little Maple Syrup to the Cheesecake part of the filling.

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated pie crust ( at room temperature)
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (I used Vanilla Sugar because I have some)
1 tbl Vanilla
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pinch salt
8 ounces cream cheese (at room temperature)

2 beaten eggs ( for cheesecake filling)
1 pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 egg ( beaten, for crust)
Sugar in the Raw or Turbinado sugar

DIRECTIONS

Unroll the (room temperature) refrigerated pie crust and place it on a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate until ready to use.
While your pie crust is chilling, make your blueberry filling: in a medium bowl, toss together the blueberries, 1/3 cup sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch and salt.
In a separate bowl make your cheesecake filling: whisk together cream cheese, egg yolk, the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, and the nutmeg.
Spread half of the cheesecake mixture over the top of the unrolled pie crust, leaving a 1 ½ inch border.
Top with blueberries, and fold the edges of the crust over the filling.
Spread the rest of the cheesecake mixture over the top of the berries and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Place an inverted cookie sheet in the lower third of your oven and preheat oven to 425.
Brush the edges of the crust with a beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Place baking sheet with the galette on it directly on top of the inverted cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until crust is golden. Allow to cool slightly before slicing.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Baked Balsamic Chicken


It was a Wednesday afternoon and I had two chicken breasts to cook for dinner, I wanted to make something different so I searched Pinterest and found this wonderful recipe.  I had to change it up of course and I also streamlined the process.  It is easy and tasty.  I will show you the original recipe and as well as my streamlined process.

An easy dish that can be made with either boneless or bone-in meat! This baked balsamic chicken is just what you need after a hard day of work and the smell while it was cooking was amazing!

Ingredients

2  bone-in (or boneless) skinless chicken breasts
1 small onion, diced (1 tsp onion powder)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced (1/2 tsp garlic powder)
1 tbsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. dried rosemary
2 tsp. coarse whole grain mustard (optional but delicious!)
Salt and pepper

Instructions

*You can marinade the chicken overnight or make it as is*

Combine all the ingredients into a Ziploc bag and give it a good massage with your hands to coat the chicken.

Preheat oven to 350F. Place the chicken into a glass dish in a single layer and pour any excess marinade on top. Season with extra salt and pepper if desired. Place into oven, uncovered, and bake for 20 minutes, check the internal temperature, it should be 165 degrees.

Boneless Chicken Breasts
Start checking your internal temperature for boneless chicken at 20 minutes. They may need only 5-10 minutes more (depending on thickness of meat.)






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