July 4th Recipes Recipes – NYT Cooking.
You can cook all kinds of great things to celebrate the 4th of July, even if you are not grilling or don’t have a grill of your own. The New York Times Cooking has put together fantastic July 4th recipes for everything from beverages to grilling to sides to dessert and the best sauces you can use as well. you’ll find all you need to make a great day of your summer celebration. Check it out!
No-Bake Desserts for Lazy Days – NYT Cooking.
When the weather gets warm you may not feel much like doing any baking for desserts at home or to bring to parties. The NYT Cooking site has put together some great options for desserts that involve no baking at all so you can put some great things together even on the days when you might be feeling too hot, too tired or too lazy to bake. Check it out!
Dishes to Bring to an Outdoor Party.
My apologies for not posting as regularly as I would like lately. Work has gotten the better of me and I just have not had enough free time to get to everything. I am still cooking away and trying new recipes and accumulating them to put on, so I will be back to it when I get the time again. In the meantime, since it is coming up on that outdoor party and barbecue time of year where you may be going to different places, here are 36 recipes from Bon Appetit for great dishes that you can bring to any outdoor party as your contribution. You will find all kinds of great ideas listed here that can make a great addition to any buffet or party. Check it out!
it has been a very hectic week around here, which is why I haven’t had a chance to really post anything since a few days ago. I have been busy at work and with meetings at Sean’s school, Michelle was away on business and then came home, Sean has been busy at school and then sick and spring break is upon us with Easter right around the corner. It feels like we haven’t even had a chance to breather lately and the weather has been helping, with snow falling here on and off all day. Anyway,enough complaining about all of that stuff and let’s try to get down to some cooking! I had made this dessert last week as a nice Irish dessert that seemed perfect for right around St. Patrick’s Day and I got the recipe from The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook. It is for an apple cake that makes use of just a few ingredients and it does not take any time at all to put it together. In about an hour you can have a nice dessert so it is a good one to keep in mind anytime you have a few apples around and you want a dessert in a hurry.
Irish Apple Cake
2 large cooking apples, such as Granny Smith
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, plus extra for greasing
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
2 eggs
1-2 tablespoons milk
confectioner’s sugar, for dusting
For the Streusel Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup superfine sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round springform cake pan. To make the streusel topping, sift the flour into a medium bowl and rub in the butter with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs or bread crumbs. Stir in the superfine sugar and set the topping aside.
Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. To make the cake, sift the flour into a medium bowl with the baking powder, ground cinnamon and the salt. Place the butter and the superfine sugar in a separate large bowl and beat them together with an electric mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little bit of the flour mixture with the last addition of egg. Gently fold in half of the remaining flour mixture, then fold the rest of the flour mixture in with the milk.
Spoon the batter into the prepared springform pan and smooth the top of the batter. Cover the top with the sliced apples and then sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the top of the apples. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until the top is browned and firm to the touch. Let the cake cool in the pan before removing the sides of the springform pan. Dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar before serving.
This cake tastes great when it is a little bit warm and you can serve it with some ice cream or fresh whipped cream on the side. It rose more than I thought it would at first as I was a little concerned as I put the batter in the pan that it seemed to dry, but it all came out nicely in the end and the cake was moist and flavorful. If you do not have superfine sugar you can make your own simply by processing granulated sugar in the food processor for about 1 minute. This is a nice dessert to make since it uses things you typically have around the house so you can throw it together if you need something last-minute for home or to bring to someone else’s home.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Hopefully this week will be better than the last and I will have more time to get on here and share some recipes. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
As I noted yesterday, Mondays are a particularly hectic day around here because it is usually my busiest day of the week for work. Since I start working at 5:30 AM, sometimes Monday run until 5 PM, not leaving me much time to plan for dinner or anything else for that matter. That is why usually on Mondays I try to find a recipe I can put together rather easily and in under an hour, preferably even in under 30 or 40 minutes if possible. I am usually too tired by that point to go all out for a big meal so something simple often works well. This week I decided to take a turn out using some of the chicken thighs I had on and tried out this recipe I got from CafeDelites.com. The original recipe is for a lime and garlic barbecue chicken salad, but I decided to adopt it and make it my own and turn it into a chicken dish without the salad component.
Lime and Garlic Barbecue Chicken
7-8 tablespoons of your favorite barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (or 2 garlic cloves, minced)
1/2 lime, juiced
1 cup fresh or canned diced pineapple
4 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs
In a large bowl whisk together the barbecue sauce, olive oil, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and lime juice. Add the chicken thighs to the marinade and toss the chicken thighs to make sure they are coated well and evenly. Allow the chicken to marinade at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
Heat a large oven-safe skillet or cast-iron pan over medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil to the pan and heat until the oil is smoking. Add the marinated chicken thighs to the pan, along with any excess marinade, and cook the chicken until it is browned on each side, about 4 to 5 minutes per side. Add the pineapple to the pan, reduce the heat to low, and cover the pan, cooking the chicken until it is cooked through, about 15 to 20 minutes, turning the chicken about halfway through the cooking process, and the pineapple is nicely caramelized. remove the chicken and pineapple from the pan to a large platter and serve.
You get all kinds of great flavor to the chicken from the marinade, including the nice combination of the lime juice with the soy sauce, but I really liked what the pineapple brings to the dish most of all. You get the great sweetness of the pineapple throughout he dish and it seems to go very well overall with the chicken. I served this very simply with some rice and some fresh green beans and it made a great meal. You could use any chicken pieces that you like with the marinade – drumsticks, wings, breasts or boneless breasts – and I think it would turn out just as well, you would just have to adjust your cooking times accordingly for the pieces that you were using.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
Trying to find snacks to eat to appeal to kids and that provide something of a healthier alternative is not always an easy thing to do. Kids get turned off just by the name of something if it sounds healthier a lot the time and aren’t always willing to even give it a chance of tasting good, so it can be a challenge to find something that is better than the usual snack cakes, candy, chips, brownies, ice cream and the like. I saw this recipe recently in Bon Appetit for a banana-oat snack cake that provides a good alternative to a typical snack using some healthier choices like oats and bananas. This recipe only uses a few ingredients and can be done in under an hour to give you something quick and easy to offer as a dessert or snack after school.
Banana-Oat Snack Cake
6 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, melted, plus more for the baking dish
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups (packed) light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 bananas, chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat an 8 x 8 inch baking dish with butter and line the baking dish with parchment paper. Whisk the oats, all-purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl and set it aside. Whisk the brown sugar, eggs and vanilla in another large bowl until the mixture is smooth.
Slowly stream the butter into the brown sugar mixture, whisking constantly until the mixture is well blended. Add the bananas to the dry ingredients and toss the bananas to coat them well. Stir the banana mixture into the brown sugar mixture. The resulting batter will be quite thick. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish. Place the dish in the oven and bake until the cake is golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the dish, about 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and let it cool completely in the dish. Cut the cake into 12 servings and serve.
The resulting cake has great flavor from that oats and bananas with a nice hint of cinnamon throughout the cake. I think it is a great snack cake and it stayed quite moist for the few days we had it around the house, making it the perfect after school snack. it also goes really well with your coffee in the morning if you are looking for something a little different for your breakfast and it certainly is a great dish that you could add to any breakfast buffet or lunch or something you can throw together easily if you have some last-minute guests drop by and want something tasty to serve over coffee.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day (we have a snow day here in our area of New York today) and enjoy your meal!
Best New Year’s Eve Recipes : Food Network.
New Year’s Eve is just two days away and if you are planning a party, big or small, Food Network has some great recipe ideas for you for appetizers, snacks, main courses, cocktails and more so you can ring in the New Year. Check it out!
I will be back with more of my own recipes once the holidays are are all over with so stay tuned for some great, exciting new things to try for the New Year. Thanks for following!
Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.
Happily Ever After Lives Here
a little bit naughty a little bit nice
Letting Life Lead
Simple and delicious dinner inspiration
onedadskitchen 