White bean soup shooters with sage

The ProStart competition is always second semester, so when the kids come back from break, we start hitting the recipes pretty hard trying to find something that will work. We spend days making just appetizers, just veggie sides, just steaks, just desserts, and just starches (in various orders) until we decide what we like and what goes together. After that, we make those recipes again (or create our own based on an idea from a recipe or from a student) until they have something they are completely happy to present to the chef judges. There are often debates over which idea is better and what goes together, but this was one of those recipes that there was no debate--as soon as they tasted it, they all decided it was their favorite, and all the appetizers weren't even ready to try yet! They tried everything else and kept coming back to this one, and I'm glad they did, because it's excellent. They are serving it as a shooter, but a bowl of it would be perfect for dinner with a piece of crusty bread. Plus, it's pretty easy and just requires one burner!

White bean soup shooters with sage

makes 6 double shot glasses of soup

1/2 strip bacon, diced
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp chopped shallots
8 oz cannelinni or great northern beans, drained and rinsed
2 leaves fresh sage
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup low sodium chicken broth
~3 tbsp heavy cream
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
crusty bread, toasted
goat cheese for garnish

Fry bacon until halfway done, then add shallots, garlic, olive oil, and butter. Saute until soft. Add beans, sage, garlic, and broth and simmer for eight minutes. Mash (they can't use electrical eqiupment, or you could puree with immersion blender) until nearly pureed. Add cream and cayenne pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning and consistency as desired. Put a couple of crumbles of goat cheese in bottom of shot glass (so the "shot" finishes with soup as if it's on top), then pour hot soup into glass. Top with crusty bread crouton and sage leaf and serve warm. (don't serve piping hot so you don't burn your guests!)

from Food Network magazine, recipe written by Ted Allen



Jalapeno corn cakes with roasted tomatoes

It's ProStart week!! Competition time is finally here! I am bringing more kids than ever this week--two culinary teams of four plus one alternate each and two edible centerpiece competitors. That means there have been a LOT of trips to the grocery store lately and I have my list pretty much memorized over the last two weeks because they practice the same dishes they're taking to competition in the final days. We'll spend Tuesday putting finishing touches on any dishes, doing a little knife skills practice, packing up all of our food and totes, then they go check their food in and bounce around in a playhouse for a few hours to shake off some nerves! On Wednesday, we have competitors pretty much all day, so there will always be something to watch. One of the students on team 2 was just recognized as the district's Culinary Arts student of the year, which was a pretty great honor. I'm excited to see what some of these kids do with their careers in the culinary world after high school.
Last week, they had their menus all set when they decided they needed to add something to their appetizer. I was thinking the same thing, but it's a STUDENT run competition, so I try to just give nudges in the right direction while letting them have the decision rights, which is sometimes difficult for me to do, but makes it really a student competition instead of the teacher's best dishes going up against each other. They were thinking something crunchy to go with their soup shooters (more on those another day) and they came across this recipe idea from Paula Deen. I get really nervous when they randomly search the internet for ideas, because although there are many good ones, anyone can post anything (yep, this blog is no exception, although I only post things I would want to make again) and I don't want to waste money on ingredients. Thankfully, these were delicious! We had to adapt them some since okra wasn't available in the store. After finding them from Paula, they searched the internet for other people who had made them and Annie from Annie's Eats had a beautiful picture. After combining ideas from both women, they're the perfect accompaniment to the soup and I'm proud of them for adding them to their menu!

Jalapeno cornmeal cakes with roasted tomatoes

makes 10 small cakes

roasted tomatoes:
~1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved and seeded (just give 'em a squeeze)
salt and pepper, to taste

cakes:
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher or sea salt
1/4 egg (beat a whole egg, then just use 1/4 of it)
~1/2  cup water
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
oil for frying

cotija or goat cheese for serving

To roast tomatoes (since the kids can only use two butane burners and no ovens), heat small saute pan over medium heat and toss tomatoes on. Cook for about four minutes, or until skin is blistered and slightly blackened, stirring occasionally.

For the cakes, combine the cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the egg and water. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until combined. Fold in jalapeno and garlic. Let stand while oil heats. Cornmeal will soak up water. Adjust water/cornmeal as needed for a consistency you can form into a shape to drop in skillet.

Heat 1/2 inch oil in small saute pan. Drop cakes in desired shapes into oil and cook for about 1 minute on each side, until golden brown. Remove to paper towel lined plate.

Top with cheese and roasted tomatoes and serve.

Adapted from Paula Deen and Annie's Eats



Pink Lemonade Cookies

Spring is clearly here--it's soccer season and our first tornado watches were this week. We'll have a few more days of cold weather (and maybe even some snow, who knows), but it seems as though we escaped a bitterly cold, snowy winter this year. Signs of spring and summer are also popping up in stores--swimsuits and Easter treats are out and I spotted this NEW product last week while walking the baking aisle! I normally like to make cookies from scratch, but I was so pumped to see pink lemonade cookies that I had to have the mix. They were selling lemonade frosting in cans to go with, but I already had leftover canned frosting from cake balls, so I made my own. These were so good! Mom, since our grocery store always has all the good flavors, I'll have to get you this here if you want it:) (she never can find the good flavors of marshmallows I'm always telling her about!)

I just followed the instructions for the box of cookie mix, except I used 75% of the butter it called for and they turned out just fine. Underbake them a little--you want them to be soft!
For the icing, I took a 1/2 can of vanilla icing and added the zest and juice of a lemon (depending on the size of your lemon, you may use less. start with half and adjust to your taste preferences). Perfect pair!


In cute dog news, this is the way they rode back from Topeka last weekend. Always have to be touching each other!! (they're at my feet right now sleeping and, of course, are touching each other)

Jello Punch Slush

For the baby shower, we went with a Jello punch recipe from allrecipes. My friend remembered having it at a retirement celebration last fall, and if it's good enough to remember for the next shower, it must be good! We just cut the sugar drastically and it was plenty sweet. This was good stuff, and fun because you can make it whatever color you want! Keep the pineapple and orange juice in mind--we didn't think about that and turned out with green punch when we intended to have blue. It turned out perfect because it matched our green cupcakes, but keep the color combos in mind:)

Jello Punch Slush (Luscious Slush)
1 cup sugar
6 cups water
2 (3 oz) packages jello (whatever flavor you like)
46 oz pineapple juice
juice of 4 lemons
1 quart orange juice
2 (2 liter) bottles lemon lime soda (diet works great)

Bring sugar, water, and jello to a boil for three minutes. Remove from heat and stir in juice. Place in ziploc bags or containers and freeze overnight. About thirty minutes before serving, place slush mix in punch bowls. Pour the soda over the slush mix about five minutes before serving and break up any big chunks.

slightly adapted from allrecipes

Little Slugger's Baby Shower (and cream cheese icing)

My friend/coworker is having a baby within the next few weeks and our department was honored to host a shower for her. They are doing the nursery in baseball/Yankees theme, so we went with it for our party. Another friend/coworker made some cute invitations with a baseball theme and then we got together to make the sweet treats for the shower. It was right after lunch on inservice, so we just served dessert. The shower turned out great and the mom and dad to be both enjoyed it!

We used scrapbook paper in baseball themes to decorate the table. The punch was supposed to be blue, but once we mixed in the flavorings, it was green, so we went with it. We decided it tied in the green of the grass on the cupcakes:) We rimmed the punch cups with a little corn syrup (hard to get sugar to stick to plastic) and blue sugar. To make blue sugar, I just put 1/2 cup of sugar in a mason jar along with about 5 drops of blue food coloring and shook it up. It looked like our department was serving margaritas at a school baby shower:)

For the treats, we made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing and devil's food cupcakes with buttercream. The friend I decorated with had the great idea to make grass as the icing and then put our baseball picks in them. I found the baseball picks at Hobby Lobby for a great price and the monogram picks in the clearance section! We were planning on making them, so I was a little relieved to find them already made at a great price.

Cream Cheese Icing

8 oz cream cheese, softened
4 tbsp butter, softened
~4 cups powdered sugar
~3 tbsp milk
splash of almond or vanilla extract

Cream together cream cheese and butter for about two minutes with electric mixer. Add in powdered sugar about 1/2 cup at a time, then milk. You may need more milk depending on the consistency you're going for. Add in the flavoring. Whip icing for about two minutes to incorporate more air. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.

Salt & Vinegar Roasted Potatoes

After smashing the first potato, I thought I was destined to be the next entry on craftfail. (If you have ever heard of Pinterest, or even if you haven't, you have to check out that site. hilarious!!) The directions specifically say that you should smash them but leave them in one piece. I am not a very gentle person, so smashing something to me means you should really smash it. It burst and spewed out all sides of the towel. I started using the side of my bench scraper and just slowly pressing down on that and it worked beautifully. Now don't get worried--this is not a difficult recipe!! In fact, I like that it is broken up into three fifteen minute chunks because I had time to do other stuff in between, like respond to a few emails, work on homework, and walk Bear around the block(not a long attention span for the first two items on that list!).
I LOVE vinegar. I used to think salt and vinegar chips and anyone who ate them were disgusting. Now I'm one of those disgusting people who loves them. My roommate in college (hi, Gma!) would tell me that they're so gross, they're good. Well they're totally not gross, but I can finally understand where she's coming from!
Good tip from Ms. Stewart herself (doubt she learned this in prison): you can boil and smash these, then refrigerate them until you're close to service time and bake them off when you're ready. Great for dinner parties or just planning ahead!
Well, enough dialogue about potatoes. I served them with some steamed peas and thyme roasted chicken drumsticks. And a couple thin mints for dessert:)

Salt & Vinegar Roasted Potatoes

serves 4

12 red, fingerling, or golden sweet yellow baby potatoes

Olive oil cooking spray or olive oil (time to get a Misto!!)

Sea or kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Malt vinegar, to taste (~1/4 cup)

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes, then reduce heat to a "rapid simmer" and cook potatoes in water for 15-20 minutes, or until fork tender. Drain potatoes.

While potatoes cook, preheat oven to 450 F.

Lay a dish towel or paper towel flat and place a few potatoes on it. Lay a paper towel over the top. Carefully (ha!) smash the potato with the heel of your hand or the side of a bench scraper. It should be kind of flat but all in one piece. Do this to all of the potatoes, then carefully place on a lined baking sheet. Spray the potatoes with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Roast for 15-20 minutes on each side, then sprinkle with malt vinegar, to taste.

found on Pinterest and traced back to Martha


Had a great time at the Martina McBride/George Strait concert this weekend! We had really good seats and as soon as I figured out the flash, I got some better pictures. Martina is so awesome in person. No zoom on that pic of George walking in...but yes, there was some zoom used on the singing shot! Great concert!



Mushroom Rigatoni Bake

My Valentine loves mushrooms, so I put this on our menu for the 14th. He got me a beautiful orchid and some of my favorite treats, and he got mushrooms in return:) The only thing I'd change for next time is to add mustard into the sauce to add to the flavor, so I'm adding that in to the recipe here. If you love mushrooms and pasta, this is one of the many I have here suited perfectly for you!

Mushroom Rigatoni Bake

serves 4
8 oz uncooked whole wheat pasta

2 tsp butter

1/4 cup diced onion
12 oz sliced mushrooms
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup flour

2 cups skim milk

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 cup grated Italian blend cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 375 F. Cook pasta according to package directions and set aside.

Spray 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.

Melt butter in saute pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook for about two minutes, until soft. Add mushrooms, thyme, s&p, garlic, and W sauce. Cook until mushrooms are tender, about five minutes. Remove mushroom mixture from pan.

Add the flour to the pan and start whisking. Whisk in 1/2 cup of the milk and whisk to form a ball, then slowly pour the remaining milk in, whisking constantly. Stir in the mustard and simmer for about five minutes or until sauce thickens. Stir in 3/4 cup of the cheese. Taste and adjust seasonings (can add your favorite seasonings here...nutmeg, cayenne, whatever you like).

Remove sauce from heat and stir in the mushroom mixture. Pour into baking dish, top with remaining cheese, and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is golden and bubbly. Remove from oven, let stand for five minutes, then serve.

adapted from Cooking Light

The "octagon of doom" packed with purple for the K-State/KU game! We put up a decent fight, but left without the W. We had fun and totally paid for it the next day after getting home from Manhattan at around 1 AM!