Fancy Water

On my detox quest this week, BTW and I made fancy water. It's a diuretic and really cleans out your system, just what we are needing! It's really easy, and you can make a big batch and drink it all day at work.

Fancy Water
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon grated ginger
12 mint leaves, torn
8 cups/2 liters water

Let sit overnight, and enjoy. It's totally refreshing and yummy! Try it, you'll be hooked and want to have some on hand all the time!

Spicy Nuts

This week at Publix, nuts are BOGO (buy one get one free!), so I got a pack to snack on at work. I decided to jazz them up a bit, and they turned out AMAZING. Unfortunately for you, I didn't exactly follow a recipe, but I'l give you the low down, and let you make your own spice mix! I used roasted almonds that were already salted, so I didn't use salt at all.

Spicy Nuts
ground cumin
cayenne pepper
hot chili powder
garlic powder
salt (but go easy if the nuts are already salted)
garam masala (not necessary, but adds a nice touch if you have it on hand)
dash of sugar
olive oil

In a small frying pan, warm the oil with the spices.

Honestly, whatever spices you use is totally up to you. If you like Indian flavors, use curry powder. You could make them for the holidays with cinnamon and nutmeg. Truly, the world is your oyster! Toss in your nuts.

Spread out in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil (I used a baking sheet with edges so my nuts didn't fall all over the oven).

Bake 10-15 minutes at 350. If the nuts are raw, you'll have to bake them longer.

These were so delicious I couldn't stop munching on them all day at work. Hope you enjoy!

Gazpacho & Veggie Pico de Gallo

Since the last time I blogged, I've had some big changes in my life! I got a new job. Woohoo employment! I also moved BACK to Orlando and in with my good friend Brett aka BTW.

Brett & I!

We are having a blast living together, but we are pretty bad influences on each other, and usually end up eating a lot of junk (for example, yesterday we had pizza & breadsticks from Papa John's). So for the next few weeks, we decided to do a semi-detox and eat veggies and lots of raw foods. Tonight, we made Gazpacho in BTW's fancy blender, the Vitamix. It'll basically blend ANYTHING. It came with a cookbook, so we just used the recipe and added a few of our own twists.

Gazpacho
3 cups tomato juice
2 tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled
1 green pepper, seeded
1 jalapeno (optional)
1 small onion
3-4 garlic cloves (or use to your taste if you like garlic!)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
salt & pepper to taste
hot sauce to taste

Basically, roughly chop all the veggies, put them all in the blender (or you can also use a food processor), blend until smooth and enjoy.

This took up our ENTIRE Vitamix, so you may have to do it in two batches if you have a smaller blender or food processor.

See how full it was?!

 You can blend it to as smooth or chunky as you'd like. And you can also let it set in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to let the flavors meld together. We also heated up some naan (Indian flatbread) in the oven to use to dip, but it's also delicious with crusty french bread. As a garnish, I whipped up a quick veggie pico de gallo.

Veggie Pico de Gallo
1 tomato, chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded &minced
1/3 cucumber, seeded & chopped
1/4 green pepper, seeded & chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
handful of cilantro
olive oil
lime juice
red wine vinegar
salt to taste

Basically, chop everything up, just the way you like it, sprinkle in some olive oil, red wine vinegar and lime juice and mix. Add a little salt to taste. You could also add in some mango, apple or avocado, which would both be delicious. Just use your imagination, it's hard to go wrong with fresh ingredients.

Put this on top of your gazpacho to add a little crunch. We also added a little more hot sauce to taste to our own bowls to spice it up.

This is especially good in summer when the tomatoes are super fresh. Hope you enjoy!

Cocktail Time: Chateau Gib

Hi my loves (the three of you that still read this practically defunct blog),

I'm always mixing up random cocktails, since my mom doesn't really ever have a ton of mixers. But what she does have is a lot of random booze. For example:

What the hell cocktail am I supposed to make with this?!?!

Anyhoodles, as a result, I usually just whip up whatever I can find. I used to do this a lot in college, especially for making shots (just ask my friends the crazy concoctions I put together!). Tonight, I made some banana cupcakes and made a random cocktail to have with. I posted it on my twitter, and one of my friends encouraged me to name it, so I deemed it the Chateau Gibb (although, don't be mad if I make something else that has that name too! I need a "house" cocktail for the Chateau). Here goes nothin... :)

• 2 parts citrus vodka
• 3 parts pomegranate-cranberry juice
• 1 part OJ

Mix it all in a shaker with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Enjoy!! And be adventurous, don't always go running to the store for your favorite mixers! Unless you go totally wackadoo, almost any booze and juice you mix together will taste at least decent. :) And topping almost anything with Sprite taste delish too!

On a side note, I will fervently try to write more for you three readers. I do have a lot of recipes to write up, I just never feel very inspired to write something witty and educational. But, it'll be my personal goal for August to blog more than once! And if you're lucky, maybe I'll come up with some wackadoo cocktail that uses that Hot Damn! cinnamon schnapps. (Wonder what the hell Jane B ever used that for??)

Friday Happy Hour: Pink Chateau

Gosh, it's been awhile since I posted a Friday Happy Hour! And lately at home I've just been making the usual Lemon Drops or Cosmos. But my mom bought this cran-pomegranate juice so I concocted a new cocktail using it--the Pink Chateau, in honor of Chateau Gibb, my home!

For this one I didn't really measure in terms of ounces, I just used the cap to my shaker, so just use the proportions and it should come out okay. :)

Pink Chateau
1 shaker cap lemon juice
1 1/2 shaker cap citrus vodka
2 shaker caps cranberry-pomegranate juice
a few drops of honey (I couldn't find the super fine sugar, so I just substituted honey)

Shake with ice and strain into a martini glass. You could even rim the glass with sugar if you wanted to.

Enjoy!

Disney's Wilderness Lodge's Cornbread

So I'm gonna be upfront with you guys. Yesterday, was one of those days. It started by my spilling an entire glass of Diet Coke all over my coffee table. More than the fact that I had to clean up the mess, a whole glass of Diet Coke went to waste!! Then, Jane B made pot roast in the crock pot, so I decided to whip up some cornbread to go with. Instead of taking my computer downstairs (I now am residing in the upstairs of our house... I got the whole place to myself!), like I usually do when cooking, I just wrote the recipe down on a post-it. I mixed everything together, and put it in the oven. 20 minutes in, it wasn't looking right. So I left it in for awhile longer. Eventually I took it out, and something just was not right. It was hard and dense and nothing like I remembered (I made this a few months ago when I was still living in Orlando). And what I remembered was GOOD. REAL GOOD. The main reason I decided to make it again! So after dinner, I came back upstairs and looked at the recipe again. I forgot the baking powder. DUH! So, when you make this, just double check to get ALL the ingredients, or else it'll turn out all funny.

So, without further ado....

Disney's Wilderness Lodge's Cornbread (stolen from The Daily Disney blog--they also have tons of other faboosh recipes from Disney World!!)
*This makes about 12 servings, so when I made it today, I halved it, since ya know, it's just me and Jane B.
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup milk

First, mix all the dry and all the wet ingredients separately (okay, so I cheated and just put everything together. But it's up to you if you want to do it the "proper" way). Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until everything has just come together.

Don't over-mix it, or it'll get tough when it's baked. Pour into a greased baking dish.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 F. Let me go on another small diatribe about the oven at Jane B's house. It takes FOREVER, and when I say forever, I mean FOREVER, to preheat. I need to get in the habit of setting the oven to preheat, then coming back 30 minutes later to make my cornbread/cookies/pizza/whatever. It looks pretty fancy, all silver and shiny, and it's a convection oven (which I hear is better for baking), but dang, it takes forever to preheat.

So, don't judge me on the look of this cornbread. Like I said, I forgot the baking powder (which causes things to rise and get fluffy and yummy) so it was like a thick brick. Probably the photo from the Disney blog paints a better picture of what it's supposed to look like :o)

But, the pot roast wasn't that great either, so it kind of went together. At least it looks nice!

And another thing... Cornbread is so versatile and you can add all sorts of things to jazz it up a bit. This recipe is great because it's a blank canvas. My favorite is jalapeno-cheddar cornbread. Just throw in some chopped jarred jalapenos and shredded cheddar (use your best judgment on the amounts, if you want it super spicy and cheesy--add more!) and voila--southwest cornbread. You can even throw some cheese on the top to make it even cheesier. Use your imagination and be creative. Worse case scenario, you have to feed it to the dog!

Hope yours turns out better than mine did--don't forget that baking powder!!

Chicken Skewers

I realize I've been delinquent in my blog posting, but Jane B (my mom) just isn't into adventurous eating, so we basically eat the same thing all the time. Which, unfortunately, doesn't really allow me any adventuresome cooking for this blog. But I did make some chicken skewers I found in People Magazine the other day. So, for today, you guys are lucky!

Chicken Skewers
1/3 cup molasses (I thought they turned out too molasses-y, so I would use less)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
5 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons hot sauce (I used Sriracha, but I'm guessing you can use regular hot sauce, or the recipe called for 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped. Also, these didn't turn out as spicy as I like, so add a little more if you like a little spice in your life!)
3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken (I used thighs, cuz I had them, but use whatever you have on hand)
wooden skewers (my 4 chicken thighs made about 20 skewers)

Mix everything but the chicken and skewers to make a marinade. Cut the chicken into strips, and place in marinade for a few hours.

After marinating, preheat over to 425 F (or I bet these would be super yummy grilled! But if you grill them, make sure to soak the skewers in water for an hour before). Thread the chicken strips onto the skewers, and place on aluminum foil-lined baking sheet (with sides). After making these once, I'd definitely put them on a rack on the baking sheet, so they get crispier. In the mean time, boil the remaining marinade for at least 3 minutes. I boiled mine for 3 minutes, but if I was making them again, I'd let it boil down until it got a little syrupy, so it makes a better basting sauce. Cook the chicken in the oven for 15 minutes, then turn over and baste using the marinade you boiled. Bake another 5 minutes, or until they are cooked through. Let cool before eating. (I tried to eat one fresh from the oven and my mouth regretted it.)

Ok, so I have another confession to make. In addition to my shameful addition to Kraft Mac'n'Cheese, I really like Rice-A-Roni. So I bought some at the store and made it while these were cooking. It was REAL yummy.