Favorite Food Blogs

Yo.
Since lately I haven't been very good at posting...ever....I decided I should share some of my favorite food blogs with you! Half of my recipes come from them. The other half comes from my cravings and google searches. For instance, one time I decided that I wanted to have raspberry chicken for dinner, so I searched and found *this* amazing recipe, along with several others that I have not yet tried.

First on the list: Pioneer Woman.
This lady is incredible. She does everything - writes books, blogs, homeschools four kids, has a television show...You get the picture. Her recipes generally include wonderful things like heavy cream and copious amounts of butter. She cooks for a cowboy, so her meals are generally very thick, rich, and filling. However, she also has "chick food" on there - some of her favorite meals, many of them from her vegetarian days.

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Next: Food Coma Blog.
This blog is run by Emma Flannigan, sister of Elsie Larson. On her blog, she reviews recent reads and shares recipes she's made up or found elsewhere. She's pretty honest about how things turn out, and definitely goofy. I think she's pretty funny and adorable, so I like to read her corny jokes. Her recipe box is also very neatly organized, so you can look at the pictures to find what recipe you want. At least, I think it's easier to look at the pictures for exactly what I'm thinking of than trying to dig through the ingredients or title of each recipe.

Lastly, Smitten Kitchen.
I. Like. This. Chick. She's funny. Now, I don't use her recipes very often because I don't always have the required ingredients. I almost always want to make them, though. Her photography is beautiful. This is the recipe I'm attempting today:

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Glorified tomato soup. I mean, who doesn't find tomato soup comforting? And with all the grey, gloomy days we've had of late, it's the perfect time for comfort food. Her version of tomato soup requires fresh tomatoes and hot peppers. Fantastic. Anyway. Smitten Kitchen is fantastic because the recipes sound and look amazing, she takes pictures of everything, makes you laugh, and clearly explains the steps to the recipe.

So there you have it - my three favorite food blogs. If I remember any more, I'll be sure to share them with you later. I hope you enjoy them!

Peace out,
Scout

Pecan Pie [Tarts]

Boy, do I owe y'all some posts.

Last night I made pecan pie tart type deals. I randomly decided that I desperately wanted pecan pie tarts, so I made them. That's generally how I come upon all of my recipes.
[Note: If I already have random cravings for foods, I'm going to be very fun someday when I'm pregnant...]

I used this recipe for the crust - I wanted something spiced and flavorful, rather than just plain white crust. Instead of using a whole cinnamon stick or nutmeg...thing...I used about two teaspoons of cinnamon and one teaspoon of nutmeg. Let me tell you, the crust is amazing. Use it for all of your pies!

I used this recipe for the filling. Of course, when it said 1 3/4 cups of chopped pecans, I grabbed 3/4 cup of chopped pecans...and tossed them in a chopper and ground them finely. Why? Because my brain is like a flickering lightbulb - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. After grinding them into a fine powder, I looked at it and said, I'm not supposed to be doing this. So then I continued making the filling, this time using 1 3/4 cups chopped pecans. I ended up tossing in the finely chopped pecans, too, because what else was I going to use them for? I figured it would just add extra flavor, anyway.

Because I wanted tiny pies, I put the crust in cupcake pans. I sprayed them with some sort of Pam substitute to keep them from sticking, but that didn't work to well. Instead, they stuck and I had to kind of dig them out. They were fudgy and crumbly, but delicious. I had one for brunch this morning.

The recipe was fairly easy. Your assignment: Go make them now! You'll thank me.

Bon apetit!
Scout

Bruschetta and a Reference to Poltergeist.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
Didya miss me? No? Well...I'm back anyway.
I haven't posted in so long because a) we've had a ton of company so I haven't been doing very much cooking, b) I didn't have access to even my super crappy camera when I did cook, c) I haven't been experimenting much, just following recipes, most of them from Pioneer Woman, and...I think there were more reasons, but I forget them now.

Tonight we're making bruschetta! I still don't have pictures, but it was really good so I'm going to tell you what I did anyway.
First, I looked up recipes online. I wanted to try to make the kind made in the movie Julie & Julia. I found this recipe: click me! I read it and promptly decided I wanted to make up my own recipe.

Ingredients:
1 loaf italian bread - I only used half because I wasn't making that much
butter
some olive oil
one half onion, chopped
garlic, chopped - I used two cloves
tomatoes, chopped - I used four
fresh basil
fresh thyme
salt
pepper

 First, I sliced up my bread, buttered both sides, and placed it in the oven to keep it from the flies that always find their way into our house. Stupid flies.
Second, cut up the tomatoes. The recipe I read said to de-seed the tomatoes, so I chopped them up and placed them in a strainer and stirred them around some, trying to squeeze out some extra juice. Then I chopped up the fresh herbs and placed them in a bowl with the tomatoes. Add salt and pepper. 
Third, chop up the onion and garlic and toss them in a pan with some olive oil. Put a lid on them and let them steam some so they get soft. Once they get soft, toss them in with the tomato mix.
Note: Fresh garlic is so much stronger than not fresh garlic. This is pretty obvious, but keep this in mind if you don't want a lot of garlic-y taste. I was surprised by how strong the garlic was because we never use fresh garlic, but I also really liked how strong it was.
Fourth, place the buttered bread in the pan and brown it. I read in a different recipe that they fried the bread in olive oil and I think that I might have liked that better.
Finally, scoop tomato mixture on your toast and enjoy.

You might consider sprinkling parmesan cheese on top of your bruschetta.
If you don't like the idea of vegetarian, fry up some bacon and crumble it into your tomato mixture. I'm pretty stoked to try that one.


Hope you enjoy! I'll be back later with some miscellaneous cooking tips.

Scout

Low Sodium: Take Seven

Welcome back to Made Up Recipes with Scout! Today's meal: Lemon parmesan chicken, fried/steamed veggies, and buttered noodles.

Lemon Parmesan Chicken ingredients:
Chicken
Almost every time I make chicken, I use boneless skinless chicken breasts, so when I put "chicken" in the ingredients list, that's probably the kind I mean.
Chopped onions
Garlic
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Pepper
Fresh thyme
Parmesan 

Place chopped onions, olive oil, and garlic in a pan. Place chicken in next, pouring lemon juice on top of each piece. Toss in pepper and chopped thyme. Cover the pan and let the chicken steam. This will allow the chicken to absorb the flavors and the onions to sautee. When chicken is thoroughly cooked, take off the lid to let the moisture out and allow the chicken to brown. When the chicken is browned to your liking, place it on (or in) a serving dish and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. You'll want to be fast with this so it will get a little gooey. You could sprinkle the parmesan on the chicken before you place it in (on) the serving dish, but that might make for particularly unpleasant cleanup.

 The next thing I made was fried/steamed veggies. I cut up bell peppers, onions, and squash, and placed them in a pan with olive oil, garlic, and pepper. I covered it and let it cook on low to help soften the squash. Then, when I got impatient, I turned up the heat so it would go faster and also brown the veggies some.

I served the meal with buttered noodles. Everything else was very flavorful and I thought a simple side would go nicely with the rest. The only sodium in the meal came from the parmesan. I used half a cup for our dinner and it was more than enough (for 3 chicken breasts), but my family usually likes extra flavor, so it worked for us. The total sodium for all of the chicken I made was 900 something, making each serving only 240 mg.
Note: If you are using a low sodium diet, remember that there is sodium in meat, as well. Check the packaging to make sure you aren't getting something that was soaked in salt.

Peace out!
Scout

Some Favorite Music

You might already know, but I pretty much love the 60s and 70s, especially their music. Not disco type, though. Anyway, I'm playing hippie today so I'm listening to some of my favorite oldies all day, including the Beatles (duh) and this playlist, which I've shared before.

Peace!
Scout

Oh, Beatles.

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Peace!

Scout

Cookies!

Homemade Thin Mints

This is a low sodium recipe - a regular recipe that happens to not have lots of salt or need any adjusting to be a semi-heart healthy meal, at least concerning salt levels.

I've never been much of a cookie person. When it comes to desserts, I almost always want ice cream. Or my dad's homemade apple pie. Best. Ever.
But cookies have never really been my thing. When I'm throwing a pity party I like Oreos and peanut butter because it's such a huge indulgence. Maybe it makes me feel kind of rebellious - like i'm sticking it to "the man" (you know - the one that says I should eat healthy and not eat lots of cookies or throw pity parties. You know that's not a woman speaking). I mean, really. Do you even know how terrible Oreos and peanut butter are for you? But they are just so. darn. good.
But cookies have never been my favorite.
However, since there has always been a special place in my heart for mint anything, these cookies have definitely made it into my "Favorite Desserts" list. That list doesn't really exist yet, but...I'm a list person, so it probably will soon.
[For some reason I have this need to decide my favorite things - like it's absolutely necessary that I know my favorite (books/movies/television shows/desserts) at any given time.]

Moving on.
I found this recipe for homemade Thin Mint cookies. I made the batter and it came out perfectly. I froze it in two logs (that, to be honest, just didn't look too good). I made the first log later that day and - surprise! - I followed the recipe exactly. I didn't really like it. But I ate the cookies. I know, I'm a trooper. But they weren't great. They weren't very minty and I didn't like the dark chocolate too much.
So when I made the second cookie log yesterday, I changed it up a bit. I used milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet, and I added a teaspoon of mint extract to the chocolate.
I. Loved. Them. I can hardly stop eating them.

Make some. Right now.


Peace!
Scout