I'm Back and I have Butterbeer!

"Why don't we go and have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, it's a bit cold, isn't it?" - Hermione Granger

So I've taken a hiatus but I'm back now and have a few recipes up my sleeve. I'm sorry to keep my small fan base waiting but never the less...

My mom came and stayed with me last week for one night. I love my hubby and wouldn't trade him for the world but I love a good girl's night. So... mom and I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 before going to see the second part the next day.

You know how there are Twi-mom's? My mom is a... um... well she loves Harry Potter. I'm not sure if there is a catchy name for that or not but I digress. Anyway, my step-dad surprised her this summer with a trip to Universal Studios to see Hogwarts (lucky...) and came back wanting to make her own Butterbeer. Which is the basis of today's (err... tonight's) culinary conquest.

For those of you who are not aware; here is a description of Butterbeer from the Harry Potter Wiki page. And yes... it does exist (http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page)

“Butterbeer is served cold in bottles and hot in "foaming tankards". In Hogsmeade, it's sold at the The Three Broomsticks and The Hog's Head, although the fact that the latter pub's stock was described as "very dusty" suggests that it was not sold there very often. In Diagon Alley, the drink has been known to be sold at the Leaky Cauldron.

At the Hog's Head, customers are charged two sickles per Butterbeer, but it is not certain whether this is a universal price for the drink, or if the price of the drink varies from location to location.

It has a very slight alcohol content, which could get house-elves fully drunk, but seemed to have a less pronounced effect on humans. In 1996, Harry Potter wondered what Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger might do at Professor Horace Slughorn's Christmas Party "under the influence of Butterbeer", indicating that it could lower inhibitions. Winky, a house-elf, took to getting drunk on Butterbeer after losing her job with the Crouch family — an addiction from which she never fully recovered.”

So there you have it. Butterbeer! But back to what I was saying. Mom and I made butterbeer in conclusion to our Girl's Night Out and I have documented the progress.

This is a very simple recipe. There are more in depths ones you can find through Google. This is also not Universal Studio’s version. That is probably hidden in the depths of Gringotts. :)

So here are the ingredients:

• Butter - 1 tablespoon
• Cream Soda - 1 1/4 cup
• Whip Cream - 1 cup
• Caramel Topping - 1/4 cup
  

1. Add butter and caramel together in a microwave safe class and heat for 30 - 45 seconds till the caramel bubbles and the butter is melted.

2. Place whip cream in a bowl.
3. Once caramel mixture is ready, pour a small amount into the whip cream and stir. This will create a caramel flavored whip cream.

4. Pour the rest of the caramel mixture into the cup and add cream soda and stir. It will foam up so be ready to catch it. Maybe do it by the sink.
5. Once the foam head is removed, add caramel whip cream as the piece de resistance and enjoy!

So there you go. I haven't tasted the original butterbeer but mom said it was pretty close. I've actually tweaked the recipe a bit. The first time we made it, there was too much caramel and not enough cream soda. So I've fixed that. (I think you'll like this version better, mom, so give it a try.)

So that is my latest culinary conquest and I think it was a success and I hope you think so. Until than... try something new, what have you got to lose?

Chopped Southwest Salad

As some of you may know, I am now a Pampered Chef Consultant. The ultimate benefit of this job is that I get to cook! Try new recipes, new products, make new friends, share the recipe, etc. So the recipe that I'm going to post right now is a Chopped Southwest Salad. It's a really great and easy salad that cost under 10 dollars to make. I forgot to take a picture of what I made, but the picture below uses the same ingredients. So here is the picture, followed by the recipe..

Ingredients:

• 1 Can Black Beans
• 4 Corn Tortillas
• Romaine Lettuce
• 1 Can Corn
• Tomato
• Avocado
• Lime
• Shredded Cheese
• Dressing
• Optional: Chicken
  

Directions:

1. Open, drain, and rinse the black beans. Put 1 cup of beans in a microwave safe dish, add 1 tablespoon of water and microwave for 1 min, 30 seconds. Let cool while preparing other ingredients.
2. Lay out the corn tortillas in 2 stacks of 2. Cut into thin strips with sharp knife or pizza cutter. Spray the strips with Pam, lightly salt, lay on cooking stone or a foil lined cookie sheet and bake 6 – 8 minutes, until crispy, in a 350 degree oven.
3. Slice and rinse a head of romaine lettuce. Pat dry or spin well. Put the lettuce into the bowl.
4. Measure ½ cup of corn rinse and add to bowl. Slice tomato and add to the bowl.
5. Slice the avocado and set aside into another bowl. Squeeze the juice from ½ a lime over the avocado. Toss avocado lightly in lime juice and add to the salad bowl.
6. Add black beans, shredded cheese and tortilla chips. Finish with ranch or favorite dressing.
7. *optional* You can add some grilled or drained canned chicken to the salad for a more hearty salad.

So there it is. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my husband and I did. Sorry this is short as well. But I hope it suffices until next time I try and new dish or a new recipe. Until than: Happy cooking! (lol, that's so cheesy)

2

Bangers and Mash

The English meal of Bangers and Mash has to be one of the weirdest names I have ever heard for Sausage and mashed potatoes. However, it is one of Ado's favorite meals so I made it. Not too much to say about this recipe, but I didn't like it. The recipe called for Dijon mustard in the mashed potatoes to give it a kick. I didn't like it, because I don't like mustard, but Ado did so that's all that counts. As for the sausage, I think I didn't like it because it had those little seeds in it that come in Italian Sausage. Which is the kind we got. I think this meal is worth a try if your a big sausage and mashed potato fan but I'd leave the mustard out of the potatoes unless you like mustard. So here's a picture and until my next update - have a great meal! (Get it? Instead of have a great day it's have a great meal.... because it's a food blog... get it? Anybody... Bueller?) Lol

The Dreaded Reuben

Ahh, the Reuben sandwich. The German's concoction that has 1000 Island Dressing, Corn Beef, Swiss Cheese, and Sauerkraut all on Rye Bread. I have to admit, I gagged a little when I typed Sauerkraut. I have mixed feelings about this sandwich. I love the Corn beef and Swiss Cheese but everything else can go out the window. And did you know how Sauerkraut is made? Well when I was buying it at the grocery store, my hubby informed me of how it is made. Apparently, it's pickled cabbage after it is pickled they bury it. BURY IT! For two months in the darkest, dirtiest environment they can find. Now... who wants Sauerkraut?

So, I told hubby I'd make him a Reuben and everything that entails but I wouldn't eat it. I made him a traditional Reuben and made myself something else. So here are two recipes; one for the Reuben lover and the other for the Corned Beef lover... so to speak. For the Corned Beef, Adam and I chose to buy a brisket and than cut it into slices. At the deli, it was $7 a pound for some sliced Corned Beef. In the meat section, the Corned Beef Brisket was only 3 something a pound so we got 2.5 pounds of corned beef for $7. So much better than at the deli. Sure it took some more time but it was way better in the end.

I cooked it in a crock pot for 10 hours. I just covered it with water and than put the season packet it came with over it. It drove the dog nuts, poor thing. There are lots of different recipes out there on the net. Some involved adding orange juice instead of water or onion soup packet instead of the season packet it comes with. It's really your choice but my advice is to make it from scratch instead of getting it from the deli. So much cheaper and better flavor.

And lots of leftovers! Mmmm...


Grilled Reuben Sandwich

Ingredients:
1000 Island Dressing
Corned Beef
Rye Bread
Swiss Cheese
Sauerkraut
Butter

1. Spread 1000 island dressing on one side of the bread and butter on the other. But the bread butter side down in a medium heated skillet. Than add the Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, corned beef, and than another slice of cheese. Finally add the second slice of bread with 1000 island dressing on one side and butter on the other.
2. Cook your Reuben just like you would a grilled cheese. Press down with a spatula until crispy and than flip over. Repeat with second side and than your done.

So there you have it, a little spin on a traditional Reuben. But like I said... that's not for me. I wanted to post a picture of the bread that we got, for both sandwiches so here they are. The Rye and then the white Italian Bread. The Rye is from Kroger and the white is from Super Walmart.



So here we go and a step-by-step procedure too. Adam couldn't come home for lunch today so I couldn't do one for the traditional Reuben but I promise, it's the exact same except for the ingredients.

Grilled Corn Beef Sandwich

Ingredients:
Italian Sliced Bread (or your sandwich bread of preference)
Corned Beef
Swiss cheese (from Krogers)

Butter

1. First I placed my bread butter side down in a medium heat pan. I chose medium because I meat was cold from last night so I wanted it to heat up. If it was on Medium-High the bread would have toasted quicker without heating the meat that well.
2. I placed a slice of Swiss Cheese, the corned beef, and than another slice of cheese onto my bread while in the pan. Finally top it off with another slice of bread with butter on the outside of it.




If I were to add 1000 Island dressing to this, I would put it after the slice of cheese so it doesn't effect the cheese holding the sandwich together.

3. Flip the sandwich when the side is crispy and light brown. Like this:
If you have been pressing the sandwich down with a spatula while it was cooking, you shouldn't have any problem flipping it over because the cheese will help hold it together. No cook the other side till it is also golden brown and than remove from pan.

The finished product? Well of course I took a picture of it.


Amazing right! Yea, it is. Adam wants me to make him another Reuben soon... maybe tonight or tomorrow. So I'll post a picture of that when I do. We are also make Bangers and Mash this week, Broccoli Casserole, and homemade pizza. Great food week. As a side note, I like to serve this with a tall glass of homemade Lemonade. If anyone wants the recipe for that, send me a message. :)

Look, a virtual glass just for you! Enjoy!

The Hobby List

So this has nothing to do with food but I feel that cooking is a hobby and this is my 'cooking' blog so I thought I'd post a few other hobbies. That, and I haven't had any new Culinary Conquest lately. So, I have another hobby and that is a collector. Which everyone is a collector of some sort. So there are two things that I collect and help make up my eclectic decor in my home. The first is I collect cameras. Old cameras that is. It started several years ago when I found an old pop-up Polaroid camera at a yard sale. From there it kind of just evolved when I went to yard sales or to the Bridgefest. I have a pretty nice collection right now that I'm proud of. Here are a few shots of the one's I have here in Dayton. There are a few more back at my parent's house in Brazil that I don't have room for yet.



The next item that I collect just started last year at the Bridgefest. I found an Alfred Tennyson poetry book that was over 100 years old and is worth about $180, and I only bought it for a dollar. Unfortunately, the book did not survive my Dee's puppy stage and tore it to shreds. She is still alive, but I am more careful about my books. I can laugh about it now but it took awhile at first. Here's a pic:



But anyway, on to my antique/vintage book collection.



What I love is that each book has a little memory for me about the place I got them from, who was with me, why I was there, etc. So I'll try and tell a little about the books as we go. :)


So this book I got from Trader's World in Fairfield, Ohio. It's basically just a big flea market all year round. At this table was two other books and I go all three for $3 dollars. Adam, my dad, my step-mom, little brother and sister were with me. That was a good weekend when they came up. We went around Cincinnati and Dayton. Great times. The second book I got on this trip was called Evil Come, Evil Go. I loved the title of the book. It's shown in the next picture. The third book was called The I Hate Housekeeping Book and is shown later on.



Here is the Evil Come, Evil Go book and two others. The other two books are also from Traders' World but from a different trip. They were five for a dollar so that's less than a quarter. (I know, my math skills are superior, lol) When I got these books, my family came up for my b-day and the day before we went to B.D. Mongolian Grill. We also went to Jungle Jim's and a few other awesome places. That was a really good b-day.






I really like this book because it's so old. The New Standard Webster Dictionary was published in 1925, making this beauty 86 years old. I love it, and the pictures inside are so pretty.









Ahh... The American Woman's Cook Book. This book is really kewl because it was written for the Chicago Culinary Arts Institute and was a serious consideration for me. I almost went there for a culinary degree instead of a marketing degree at ISU. So this book is 70 years old; published in 1941.





So here are two of my FAVORITE books. I have several but these are at the top. The math book I just got yesterday and love how there was papers found in there from the original owner; Dolores Nadine Nagle. This was an actual school book in 1929 at the Staunton School, where I went. Sort of, I went to the elementary. The second book was found at a yard sale along with the Cook Book in the last picture. It's my oldest book, published in 1902 and making it 109 years old. Love it :)



Here is the I Hate Housekeep that is lime green, but you can't tell from the picture. The second book I also got yesterday and I just love the name: I Capture The Castle. Finally is MASKS. I got this book from the Northview library my senior year. They were giving books away and I thought this was interesting. So oddly enough, it was the first piece of my collection, but I didn't know it yet.







The Balloon Man was the last book I got from Trader's World. The color match my living room and it's an awesome name. I looked it up and it is apparently a scary book turned into a movie, so that's neat.











This is my last book and also one that I got yesterday. A western love story with illustrated pictures. This book is also my second oldest book, written in 1908 making it 103 years old.








So that is my newest collection. I'm interested in finding out what your hobbies are or what it is that you collect. So what do you do for fun?

Pasta, pasta, pasta!

Hey yall! So I have two pasta dishes that I'm posting. One is from Olive Garden... mmm... and the other Adam and I made. First off is the Five Cheese Ziti al Forno from Olive Garden. This was really good. The zita was baked in a five cheese marinara sauce with more melted cheese on top. It was delicious but I got full easily and tired of it. So I had it a couple of days later and it was once again awesome. So my final verdict is... I'd get it again eventually but I'd like to have meat or something in it for more variety.



So second is a dish that Adam and I made Friday. We were watching the Food Network channel... well I was, he was humoring me. And the Barefoot Contessa came on which we don't like so much but she has some good food every once in awhile. When she made Lemon Pasta with Roasted Shrimp, we were in. Here is the link for the recipe if you'd like to print it, but I'll sum it up a bit on here too.

Ingredients:
* 2 pounds (17 to 21 count) shrimp, peeled and deveined


* good olive oil
* salt and pepper
* 1 pound angel hair pasta
* 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
* 2 lemons, zested and juiced



So just a side note, 2 lemons was too much for us. I'd rather just have 1 lemon but it's your choice.

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Place the shrimp on a sheet pan with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Toss well, spread them in 1 layer, and roast for 6 to 8 minutes, just until they're pink and cooked through.
3. Meanwhile, drizzle some olive oil in a large pot of boiling salted water.


4. Add the angel hair, and cook al dented, about 3 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.
5. Toss the angel hair with the melted butter, 1/4 cup olive oil, the lemon zest, lemon juice, 2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, about the 1/2 cup of reserved cooking liquid. Add the shrimp and serve hot.



So there it is, really simple. There was a lot of leftover pasta so we reheated it a couple of days later and ate it with chicken. So it's versatile. You could probably put it was Italian sausage too. Just something to thick about :) So the final result: A-MAZE-ING! Apart from too much lemon, which was remedied with more butter, it was delicious and super easy. I encourage you to try this recipe. The most expensive ingredient was the shrimp. We had everything else in our cabinets except for the pasta which was just a dollar. And the shrimp was six dollars. So an amazing meal (for more than one night) for under 10 dollars. Great deal to me :)

Steak and Shake Newbies

If you haven't been to Steak & Shake lately, you should. They have a new steakburger and a new milk shake. Both are amazing. The new steakburger is called The Royale Steakburger. It is a double cheeseburger with bacon, cheese, lettuce, mayonnaise, and tomato. Sounds amazing already, right? Well it's topped with a fried egg! It's is absolutely delicious. Believe me, I had my reserves about it but it was thrown to the wind as soon as I took a bite. Get one... trust me, you won't be disappointed.



Now on to the new milkshake. It is an M&M Milkshake. Amazing! A vanilla milkshake filled with m&m bits and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Looks good. Taste good. Mmm mm mm... get one :)