Apologies- Capital B Busy!!

Hello everyone!

I'm so sorry for not posting in so long and for not getting around to even updating to tell you all I'm so sorry! I haven't forgotten my blog, I'm just too busy right now!

I had one job, then two, then one and started my own biz with my fiancé, and now I'm just starting my own biz with my fiancé while he holds down his 'real' job, so I'm super busy trying to make sure I'm making enough cookies and doing enough things to keep us going and see what we can do about a location for the new year and all kinds of things like that- I will keep updates going as things get official and perhaps I'll even get enough time to post some new recipes and food updates here- I want this hiatus to only be temporary!

Thank you all so much!!
love, rue

Creamed Spinach

Hey everyone!

We recently had a dearth of spinach, and I asked my fiancé whether he had ever had creamed spinach. Not having grown up in the south, he said no, but I encouraged him to make it and now he's made it almost 5 times. It's a fairly standard side in the south, and put those onions and bacon in it, and you're golden!

My fiancé just went off of this recipe here by Paula Deen on the Food Network website, but he then added some crispy bacon and has since modified it to frying the bacon first, then using some of the bacon fat for the onions, etc. Try either way- just depends how much you love bacon!

Here's your spinach after most of your pretty quick steps- just let it wilt down a bit and meanwhile...

If you didn't start by frying the bacon then using the grease for the onions, do that, but if you've got a vegetarian or something like that, just fry your bacon to serve on top.

This is super simple, and a great and delish way to get some greens- try it!
Savor it!
love, rue

Homemade Mozzarella Cheese

Hey guys!
     Today is a good one- my fiancé finally did all the pushing and made me buckle down and actually commit to making homemade mozzarella cheese. I thought it would be easy, but still time consuming and a little difficult, and I was worried about getting all the ingredients too. Let me tell you- I was wrong! It was pretty easy to get the ingredients- citric acid is available in stores (just google it in your area), and you can order rennet online anywhere (got mine on Amazon- used animal rennet, make sure to refrigerate after receiving!). It was SO easy to make the cheese, and it only took maybe 30 minutes all together.
I'm going to link to the recipe we used, but show you the process through our pictures too, because we (but mostly fiancé J have made it twice now). It is so easy, and so delicious.
Most recipes around are quite similar, and the one the we used is here from The Kitchn.

The ingredients and most of the tools- milk, distilled water, citric acid, and rennet. You'll also need salt and  that thermometer at the back of the pic :)

Warm milk to room temperature, then add in your citric acid and water.

Heat to 90 F, then add rennet and water mixture.

Remove from heat, and stir for 30 seconds.

Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.

Gently run knife through curds, cutting into rough squares. (We used a plastic knife because this is a non-stick pot)

Return to heat and gently stir curds until the temperature reaches 105 F and the curds start to gather away from the whey.

Remove from heat, mix together curds for 5 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon, and you have this!

Reserve the whey (on the left) for storing the cheese (among other uses) later. Put cheese in a microwave safe bowl and microwave until the cheese reaches 135 F, heating 30 seconds at a time. Strain off the whey.

Wearing rubber gloves (these were not quite thick enough for the heat), add the salt then gently knead the mozzarella and shape into balls, whatever size you like.

Here are the finished balls from the first batch of cheese. We made two larger balls from the second batch. Store the cheese in a bowl of the whey to keep it moist and fresh.

And here's the cheese over tomatoes and basil- just awaiting a little balsamic! yum! (The cheese from the first batch, kneaded a little more and stored not as submerged in whey, is on the left, and the more gently kneaded and stored totally submerged in whey, is on the right).

Savor it! (thanks again for all the help and work, J!)
love, rue

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Hey everyone!

I got an ice cream maker as a gift from my future in-laws quite a while ago, and could never get around to getting the core in the freezer and actually using it! So, finally, the other weekend, my fiancé J and I made this together- and it was killer. And so easy!! I don't have too much experience making homemade ice cream except lots of memories of endless cranking and ice and rock salt as a child! So this ice cream was easy to make, amazing to watch freeze up in the maker and change, and was so rich, creamy, and absolutely incredible. I can't share the exact recipe, but you might be able to find a copycat one somewhere- I used the first chocolate ice cream recipe in the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream & Desserts Recipe Book, so I can't just go writing it here. But I will also recommend the book- my fiancé's Aunt gave it to me as a gift after I got the maker and it has all the explanations and ideas and recipes, perfect to start with, easy to understand, and honestly a must-have in the end- Ben and Jerry's is among the best mass produced ice creams in the country. OK, enough babbling, let's get to some pictures!!

Melting some chocolate over a double boiler...

And making our dairy mixture in another bowl.

Once cooled, pour the chocolate mixture into the dairy mixture, and stir well...

Until it's nice and smooth like this. Chill several hours.

Right before making, take the ice cream mix out of the freezer, and add your peanut butter to  about 1 cup of the ice cream mix and mix well.

Then add the rest of your ice cream mix and blend together well.

The finished ice cream mix and the maker! (It's a Cuisinart, the kind with a core that you freeze and then it just turns automatically- no churning involved!)

The ice cream right after being poured in and turned on- pretty liquidy.

The ice cream starting to freeze up- you can see the ice crystals forming on the paddle there.

Then pretty quick you're dealing with some firm looking stuff!

And this is about what it looked like right before I turned it off.

The finished ice cream right out of the maker!

The ice cream an hour or two later- I set a timer for every 20 minutes and got it out of the freezer and stirred it well so it would freeze firmer but not get icy.

Our finished creating station- ice cream on the left, whipped cream on the right, and balls of PB cookie dough (J's idea!)  and chocolate chips in the middle.

So we made parfaits with layers of ice cream, cookie dough, chocolate chips, and whipped cream- YUM!

This stuff was out of this world good. Seriously, look for a good priced ice cream maker online or on craigslist and give it a whirl, or get yours out if you haven't used it in a while- it was so, so much easier than I thought. Hopefully soon I'll have recipes all my own of ice cream to share!


Savor it!
love, rue (and thanks for the help, J!)

Lemon Rosemary Syrup

Hello!

This one I just got completely lucky with- like, so lucky that I didn't do any of the work and I didn't even plan on taking pictures- I just walked into the kitchen at the right moment where the amazing J was creating this gem to use in drinks, and I snapped a few pics! Let me show you...

Just boil your ingredients together, then let cool...

And strain well into a vessel!

Lemon Rosemary Syrup
-3 lemons, cut into 1/8ths, squeeze juice into water, then add peel as well
-4 medium sprigs rosemary, leaves only
-1/2 cup sugar
-1(+ maybe a little more) cup water
Heat all ingredients together over medium, boil for 5-6 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for another 5-8 minutes, watching to make sure the water level does not get too low.
Cool slightly, then strain.
Just add water to make Rosemary Lemonade!

Then J used the syrup to make these drinks for him and his brother- alcoholic Rosemary Lemonade!!

So make some syrup, and see what you can make with it- it could flavor any number of things- this is all about getting creative! And it's super easy, to boot.

(thanks J!)
Savor it!
love, rue

Southwestern Chicken Mac and Cheese

Hello again!

I have another post inspired by the great and wonderful Fiance J, made from ingredients we had around after he got home from work one day. Let's go!!

The arsenal- the ranchero cheese turned out to be unusable for us, but the idea is to sprinkle that on top!

Cook your pasta most of the way in a pot of water. Make a beschamel and then add cheese in, stir.

Add in salsa to your cheese sauce for a southwestern flair.

The finished sauce and cheese.

Pour your sauce over your pasta, then bake!

Meanwhile, take whatever chicken your have on hand (we had some rotisserie that we shredded).

And don't forget to fry up a few onions and hashbrowns/matchstick potatoes.

And then put the browned chicken, onions, and potatoes on top once it's done!

Your finished product! Yumm!

Southwestern Chicken Mac and Cheese
-This is more of a process or idea than a recipe, so go with what you have and what you like!
-Make a beschamel, starting with equal parts flour and butter. Add milk, then cheese, to the consistency that you like it.
-Meanwhile, boil your pasta until just barely under done, so it can cook a tiny bit more in the oven.
-Add salsa to your cheese sauce, to your taste.
-Pour your sauce over your pasta in a pan that fits it, then bake at 350 F until browned.
-While cooking, brown up some chicken, onions, and hashbrowns to put on top. You can also put the chicken in the sauce if you do not want it crisp!
Have fun with this, experiment- it's hard to go wrong. Enjoy!

(thanks J!)
Savor it!
love, rue

Individual Pavlova

Hey everyone!

I have to share the credit for this one with my Fiance J again- I had the idea, and then he was the one who executed it- and the one who chose to make individual ones instead of a large layered one- they were perfect and delish both ways we made them!

All the parts to assemble- meringues in individual size, whipped cream, sliced peaches and nectarines, and a very nice balsamic vinegar for drizzling...

And here is the assembled peach-nectarine-balsamic pavlova- amazing and so simple!!

Later J and I had the idea to caramelize some apples and make a pavlova with that and one of the leftover meringues- it was amazing, so really use your imagination here!

Pavlova isn't all too complicated and J went off of this recipe here :)

-Whipped cream and fresh (or cooked) fruit for topping- your choice and use your imagination on this- so many options!

Savor it!
love, rue

Fried Battered Bacon

Hi again!

The other morning, my fiancé J made some pancakes and bacon for breakfast and then took his brilliance to a whole new level by battering some bacon in pancake batter and then frying it up. There's no real recipe, just use your favorite batter and bacon- Check it out!

Step one: fry up some bacon.

Step two: dunk cooked bacon in pancake batter to completely coat it.

Step three: return bacon to pan with some of the remaining bacon grease.

Flip it when it turns golden brown...

Step four: ENJOY!

Savor it!
love, rue (and J!)

Shortcake

Hi everyone,

This is a really quick post to share some Shortcake I (and my fiancé) have been making. We've been using the recipe from the Food Network website, and it is simple and easy- find it here! It's especially easy because you make it in one pan as opposed to cutting out rounds, as I had always done before. The other change we make is putting butter then sugar on top, which makes the shortcake sparkly in looks and taste!

But let's go make some shortcake!

Here's the dough being mixed- you just dump in the dry ingredients and either sift them together or just give them a good whisk- that's what I do! Then pour in your cream and mix until just all together.

Pat the shortcake out into an 8x8'' or 9x9'' pan.

Drizzle with approx. 1 tablespoon butter. (My fiancé J's contribution- not a step to miss!)

Brush butter on shortcake evenly.

Then sprinkle with approx. 1 tablespoon granulated sugar.

Bake 18-22 minutes or until just starting to brown and a tester comes out clean. Enjoy!

Savor it!
love, rue