I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I can admit that. Seriously, who doesn't? Everyone has their favorite sweet thing whether it's sugar sweet, fruit sweet, or bittersweet. And we all know that sometimes, you just have to appease that sweet tooth craving.
About a year and a half ago, I satisfied one specific craving on an entirely different level - peanut brittle, and lots of it. I was living in a dinky apartment in Indiana and didn't have much in the ways of pots and pans. But I had a microwave, microwaveable dishes and a Christmas cookie exchange deadline to meet.
So, I went online and searched for something that I could make in my microwave without failing miserably. For those of you that don't know about AllRecipes, you should become familiar. It is an awesome recipe site! I searched for microwaveable sweets and found the perfect recipe of sweet, salty and ridiculously easy to make... and I made about 20 batches.
Microwave Peanut Brittle
INGREDIENTS
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup salted peanuts
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Makes 35 servings (but I guess that really depends on how big or small you make the pieces)
DIRECTIONS
1. Butter a cookie sheet (or pizza pan). Combine sugar and corn syrup in a 2 quart glass bowl and microwave on high 4 minutes. Stir in peanuts and microwave on high 3 1/2 minutes more, then stir in butter and vanilla and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.
2. Stir in baking soda until light and foamy. Pour onto cookie sheet and spread thin. Cool completely and break into pieces and serve.
VARIATIONS
You can certainly change up your nut preference. I made some AWESOME pecan brittle. You could also try almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, etc. Seriously, this was some incredible brittle. And I didn't botch a single batch. It was also quite enjoyed by my fellow Christmas cookie exchangers. Sometimes, you just don't want another cookie.
Another wonderful thing about the AllRecipes site is that you can put in different serving sizes and it will modify the ingredient amounts. Woot! No more guessing... and failing.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Stuffed pizza, by Em
It’s Friday and the word of the day is “comfort food” (AHHHHHH!!!). Life can be stressful and there are many ways to relieve stress, not the least of which is settling down at the end of the day with a yummy, filling dinner. I’m choosing to make my pizza crusts out of a box mix because it saves time, but there are tons of recipes, both in books and online, for pizza crust online.
If you plan to make your own crust just know that it take about half an hour prep time for the dough to rise. Here’s a website that has quite a variety of pizza dough recipes. To make a stuffed crust pizza you would need to triple everything.
Store bought crust mixes will cost more, but aren’t too expensive, especially if you buy in bulk. A case of 24 pizza crust mixes costs approximately 85 cents per crust (this is an average, you can get cheaper). Each mix is supposedly five servings, but because a stuffed pizza is more filling and I have trouble cutting a circle into five equal parts, I usually cut it into eight pieces and have a salad on the side. If you divide the pizza into eighths, this recipe will cost approximately $1 per piece.
Stuffed Crust Pizza
Ingredients:
3 twelve-inch pizza doughs (2 for the bottom, one for the top)
1 med. Zucchini, chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1 bag frozen spinach
8 oz shredded mozzarella
3 lg garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup tomato sauce
Recipe:
Preheat oven to 450-degrees.
Make sure you give the spinach time to thaw. Moving it from the freezer to the refrigerator at the beginning of the day should do it. The first thing is to do is to get the moisture out of the spinach. Put it in a colander and use a paper towel (or clean cloth towel that you don’t mind dirtying) to press out all the moisture. This is important to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Mix 1/2 cup of the mozzarella (this would be about a fourth of the shredded cheese) with the spinach and set aside. Chop up your fillings. Sauté the zucchini, onion, mushrooms, and garlic in a pan for about 5-6 minutes on med-high heat.
Combine two of the pizza doughs and press them into a 10-inch cast iron skillet. There should be enough dough to completely cover the bottom of the skillet and come up the sides with dough to spare. This extra dough is fine because you will have to pinch the crusts together.
Put the spinach mixture into the bottom of the pizza crust. Top with other fillings. Press out the remaining pizza dough on a flat surface then lay across the bottom crust and fillings, pinching the edges of the top and bottom crusts together. Cut several 1-inch slits in top crust to vent. Spread the tomato sauce evenly over the top then sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Cook on bottom rack of 450-degree oven for ten minutes to prevent a soggy bottom crust. Then reduce the heat to 400-degrees, move pizza to top rack, and cook for an additional 30 minutes. This recipe should take approximately 1 hr.
I’ve made suggestions, but you can also choose other pizza toppings that you like. If you don’t like mushrooms, leave them out. You could include a cup of sausage inside the pizza or top the upper crust with pepperoni. I have no idea how authentic any of this is, but it’s comfort food so I really don’t care.
Money savers:
If you plan to make your own crust just know that it take about half an hour prep time for the dough to rise. Here’s a website that has quite a variety of pizza dough recipes. To make a stuffed crust pizza you would need to triple everything.
Store bought crust mixes will cost more, but aren’t too expensive, especially if you buy in bulk. A case of 24 pizza crust mixes costs approximately 85 cents per crust (this is an average, you can get cheaper). Each mix is supposedly five servings, but because a stuffed pizza is more filling and I have trouble cutting a circle into five equal parts, I usually cut it into eight pieces and have a salad on the side. If you divide the pizza into eighths, this recipe will cost approximately $1 per piece.
Stuffed Crust Pizza
Ingredients:
3 twelve-inch pizza doughs (2 for the bottom, one for the top)
1 med. Zucchini, chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1 bag frozen spinach
8 oz shredded mozzarella
3 lg garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup tomato sauce
Recipe:
Preheat oven to 450-degrees.
Make sure you give the spinach time to thaw. Moving it from the freezer to the refrigerator at the beginning of the day should do it. The first thing is to do is to get the moisture out of the spinach. Put it in a colander and use a paper towel (or clean cloth towel that you don’t mind dirtying) to press out all the moisture. This is important to prevent the crust from getting soggy. Mix 1/2 cup of the mozzarella (this would be about a fourth of the shredded cheese) with the spinach and set aside. Chop up your fillings. Sauté the zucchini, onion, mushrooms, and garlic in a pan for about 5-6 minutes on med-high heat.
Combine two of the pizza doughs and press them into a 10-inch cast iron skillet. There should be enough dough to completely cover the bottom of the skillet and come up the sides with dough to spare. This extra dough is fine because you will have to pinch the crusts together.
Put the spinach mixture into the bottom of the pizza crust. Top with other fillings. Press out the remaining pizza dough on a flat surface then lay across the bottom crust and fillings, pinching the edges of the top and bottom crusts together. Cut several 1-inch slits in top crust to vent. Spread the tomato sauce evenly over the top then sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Cook on bottom rack of 450-degree oven for ten minutes to prevent a soggy bottom crust. Then reduce the heat to 400-degrees, move pizza to top rack, and cook for an additional 30 minutes. This recipe should take approximately 1 hr.
Variations:
I’ve made suggestions, but you can also choose other pizza toppings that you like. If you don’t like mushrooms, leave them out. You could include a cup of sausage inside the pizza or top the upper crust with pepperoni. I have no idea how authentic any of this is, but it’s comfort food so I really don’t care.
Money savers:
- Buy canned tomato sauce instead of pre-seasoned sauce. Add things like garlic salt and oregano to make it more flavorful. Make sure to cook in a sauce pan while chopping vegetables. This lets the flavors mix.
- Make your own crust. This take about 30 minutes, but at least some of that time could be spent chopping and cooking vegetables.
- Shred your own cheese. This actually makes measuring the cheese easier. Take an 8 oz block of cheese and cut off 1/4. This will be mixed with the spinach. Personally, I find it easier to mentally divide a block of cheese than a pile of shredded cheese.
- If you don't own a cast iron skillet you can purchase a disposable pizza pan for under a dollar. Make sure to grease it before you place the crust on. Though this may be less expensive now, in the long run cast iron pans are just too useful. You can cook anything in them and I highly recommend getting one (you could always ask for one as a present!).
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Cup-o-Joe, by Em
I told a friend that I was thinking of writing about coffee and she said that coffee was one place where she was not willing to economize. I understand and fully empathize with this. I am the kind of coffee addict who can have a couple cups in the morning (before work), seven shots of espresso in the early afternoon (at work), a cup in the afternoon (snack), and one after dinner (dessert) and still get to bed at a reasonable hour. I am a coffee addict’s coffee addict. With this in mind, I am going at least acknowledge the whole java spectrum.
Obviously, the “best” option, monetarily speaking, is not to drink coffee at all. It has no nutritional value to speak of and actually prevents calcium from being absorbed by your body. If you do drink coffee on a regular basis, it’s important that you make sure to compliment that with a calcium-rich diet. To be fair, it also contains practically no carbs and fats and it is a wonderful source of sweet, sweet caffeine. There are other benefits to coffee. Filling up on java means you aren’t filling up on other things, plus, drinking a hot beverage more slowly gives your stomach more time to realize that it’s getting full and coffee, at approximately 50 cents per serving (homebrewed), is not a huge drain on your wallet. Now, if I have convinced you to come over to the dark side we will proceed. How do you get the most out of your homebrewed java?
Learn from coffee’s evil twin, espresso:
Brew time
Though espresso has a much stronger taste than coffee, it actually contains less caffeine because the water comes in contact with the ground for a much shorter amount of time, which means that coffee made in a French press is going to have the most caffeine. Even if you don’t have a French press, drip brew coffee is a much slower brew than an espresso machine, so no worries!
Not counting Turkish coffee, which is an entirely different beast, there is one other brewing method that I am aware of, cold brew. Cold brewing coffee results in a coffee concentrate that you can then dilute with hot water, milk, etc. This brewing method results in a coffee that is less acidic and therefore much smother tasting. For more information here is an article about cold brew. Cold brew coffee makers cost about $30, but I also found an article that shows how to make your own cold brew setup for much, much less.
Roast
Somewhat counter-intuitively (at least in my mind) darker roasts contain less caffeine, so espresso beans (traditionally a much darker roast) have actually had quite a bit of the caffeine roasted out of them. When purchasing coffee at a store, decide exactly how powerfully you would like to be gripping the steering wheel on your way to work, and purchase accordingly.
There is another way to perfect your roast and that is to roast your own beans. You can purchase green coffee beans online from a number of companies online. This article from Wikipedia lists several different methods for roasting at home, including the simplest method of roasting them in a flat pan over high heat. Home roasting will allow you to buy in bulk and use a little at a time for maximum freshness. If you are roasting at home, you will need to purchase a coffee grinder. A cheap grinder costs around $15 and the more freshly ground the coffee, the fresher the taste, which brings me to the last topic…
Grind
The grind is meant to achieve the ideal flavor for each roast. Basically, the longer the roast time the coarser the grind. French press or cold brew would be the coarser grinds and espresso and Turkish-press are the finest grinds with drip brew landing solidly in the middle. Now here’s where I show my true colors. All of the experts say that it’s important to basically stick to the aforementioned formula, but my coffee-addled mind would just like for me to add this little tidbit – finer grind equals more caffeine. In order to get more caffeine out of my coffee, I often set the store grinder to Turkish grind. I have been told repeatedly that my coffee is ridiculously strong. Perhaps this is why.
Obviously, the “best” option, monetarily speaking, is not to drink coffee at all. It has no nutritional value to speak of and actually prevents calcium from being absorbed by your body. If you do drink coffee on a regular basis, it’s important that you make sure to compliment that with a calcium-rich diet. To be fair, it also contains practically no carbs and fats and it is a wonderful source of sweet, sweet caffeine. There are other benefits to coffee. Filling up on java means you aren’t filling up on other things, plus, drinking a hot beverage more slowly gives your stomach more time to realize that it’s getting full and coffee, at approximately 50 cents per serving (homebrewed), is not a huge drain on your wallet. Now, if I have convinced you to come over to the dark side we will proceed. How do you get the most out of your homebrewed java?
Learn from coffee’s evil twin, espresso:
Brew time
Though espresso has a much stronger taste than coffee, it actually contains less caffeine because the water comes in contact with the ground for a much shorter amount of time, which means that coffee made in a French press is going to have the most caffeine. Even if you don’t have a French press, drip brew coffee is a much slower brew than an espresso machine, so no worries!
Not counting Turkish coffee, which is an entirely different beast, there is one other brewing method that I am aware of, cold brew. Cold brewing coffee results in a coffee concentrate that you can then dilute with hot water, milk, etc. This brewing method results in a coffee that is less acidic and therefore much smother tasting. For more information here is an article about cold brew. Cold brew coffee makers cost about $30, but I also found an article that shows how to make your own cold brew setup for much, much less.
Roast
Somewhat counter-intuitively (at least in my mind) darker roasts contain less caffeine, so espresso beans (traditionally a much darker roast) have actually had quite a bit of the caffeine roasted out of them. When purchasing coffee at a store, decide exactly how powerfully you would like to be gripping the steering wheel on your way to work, and purchase accordingly.
There is another way to perfect your roast and that is to roast your own beans. You can purchase green coffee beans online from a number of companies online. This article from Wikipedia lists several different methods for roasting at home, including the simplest method of roasting them in a flat pan over high heat. Home roasting will allow you to buy in bulk and use a little at a time for maximum freshness. If you are roasting at home, you will need to purchase a coffee grinder. A cheap grinder costs around $15 and the more freshly ground the coffee, the fresher the taste, which brings me to the last topic…
Grind
The grind is meant to achieve the ideal flavor for each roast. Basically, the longer the roast time the coarser the grind. French press or cold brew would be the coarser grinds and espresso and Turkish-press are the finest grinds with drip brew landing solidly in the middle. Now here’s where I show my true colors. All of the experts say that it’s important to basically stick to the aforementioned formula, but my coffee-addled mind would just like for me to add this little tidbit – finer grind equals more caffeine. In order to get more caffeine out of my coffee, I often set the store grinder to Turkish grind. I have been told repeatedly that my coffee is ridiculously strong. Perhaps this is why.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Thai Curry, by Ang
You know the question that you’re always asked in those ridiculously addictive facebook and myspace surveys – “What food could you eat for two weeks straight and not get sick of?” My answer, without a second thought, is THAI FOOD.
The flavors of coconut and spice and tamarind and chili are like a symphony of sweet and spicy exhilaration in my mouth! I never really did any cooking of Thai food until I moved to Champaign, but that changed very quickly after wandering into AM-KO (where you can find almost all of these ingredients, I think sweet potato is the only one not there), an oriental food store on the corner of Springfield and First Street. I found these tubs of curry paste towards the back right of the store and bought one of each! There was a simple recipe on the back, so I took it and ran with it.
I love all of the curries, but I would have to say that massaman is my ultimate. So here is my improvised massaman curry recipe for your (hopefully) exhilarating pleasure.
Basic Ingredients:
2 cans of coconut milk
1 cup water
18 teaspoons massaman curry paste (more or less depending on your level of spice preference)
1 cup of meat (pan cooked in sesame or red chili oil if raw meat) or lightly fried tofu (or you can just toss in some shrimp or seafood mixture)
1 cup cubed sweet potato (skin on)
1 cup cubed zucchini
1 cup green beans or snow peas snapped into halves
1 small can sliced bamboo shoots
1 small can sliced water chestnuts
1 handful lightly salted or unsalted peanuts
This should feed anywhere from 4 to 6 people, depending on how hungry they are!
Basic Recipe:
Pull out a big pot (because it won’t fit in a small one!) and set your burner to medium or medium high. Pour in the two cans of coconut milk and the curry paste. Stir until all the paste is dissolved. If you are using meat or seafood, put it in at this time (make sure you’ve lightly cooked the raw meat first!). This way the meat soaks up more of the coconut flavor. Let simmer for about 15 minutes while you chop up your veggies. Once 15 minutes has passed, put in the cup of water, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, sweet potato and peanuts. These take a little extra time to soften (so I’ve learned) so it’s a good idea to put these in first and then add the beans/peas and zucchini about 10 minutes later. Stir occasionally throughout. After about 10 minutes of all the ingredients cooking together, start taste testing. Some people like softer sweet potatoes, some people like them a bit more firm. It’s all personal preference. So stir occasionally and taste it until it’s just right for you. Serve in soup bowls and enjoy!
Variations:
Sometimes I add black fungus mushrooms to the pot. I like mushrooms and I’m one of those people that LOVE weird textures, so this is a fun addition for me. You can add to and take away from the vegetable list. It’s all based on what you like. Some people add carrots, onions, white potato, or even a bit of peanut butter. That’s the beauty of making this dish at home! You really get what you want.
Curries are most commonly served over a bed of rice. When I use rice, I usually cook up some jasmine rice in my rice cooker. I’ve also used brown rice. But if you are trying to cut down on your carbs, just forget the rice. My recipe turns out almost like a curry stew because of the amount of veggies I put in. And believe me when I say, “make enough for leftovers!” because it is THE BEST leftovers you’ll ever have! All the flavors become even more infused and well, it’s just as exhilarating as the first time.
The flavors of coconut and spice and tamarind and chili are like a symphony of sweet and spicy exhilaration in my mouth! I never really did any cooking of Thai food until I moved to Champaign, but that changed very quickly after wandering into AM-KO (where you can find almost all of these ingredients, I think sweet potato is the only one not there), an oriental food store on the corner of Springfield and First Street. I found these tubs of curry paste towards the back right of the store and bought one of each! There was a simple recipe on the back, so I took it and ran with it.
I love all of the curries, but I would have to say that massaman is my ultimate. So here is my improvised massaman curry recipe for your (hopefully) exhilarating pleasure.
Basic Ingredients:
2 cans of coconut milk
1 cup water
18 teaspoons massaman curry paste (more or less depending on your level of spice preference)
1 cup of meat (pan cooked in sesame or red chili oil if raw meat) or lightly fried tofu (or you can just toss in some shrimp or seafood mixture)
1 cup cubed sweet potato (skin on)
1 cup cubed zucchini
1 cup green beans or snow peas snapped into halves
1 small can sliced bamboo shoots
1 small can sliced water chestnuts
1 handful lightly salted or unsalted peanuts
This should feed anywhere from 4 to 6 people, depending on how hungry they are!
Basic Recipe:
Pull out a big pot (because it won’t fit in a small one!) and set your burner to medium or medium high. Pour in the two cans of coconut milk and the curry paste. Stir until all the paste is dissolved. If you are using meat or seafood, put it in at this time (make sure you’ve lightly cooked the raw meat first!). This way the meat soaks up more of the coconut flavor. Let simmer for about 15 minutes while you chop up your veggies. Once 15 minutes has passed, put in the cup of water, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, sweet potato and peanuts. These take a little extra time to soften (so I’ve learned) so it’s a good idea to put these in first and then add the beans/peas and zucchini about 10 minutes later. Stir occasionally throughout. After about 10 minutes of all the ingredients cooking together, start taste testing. Some people like softer sweet potatoes, some people like them a bit more firm. It’s all personal preference. So stir occasionally and taste it until it’s just right for you. Serve in soup bowls and enjoy!
Variations:
Sometimes I add black fungus mushrooms to the pot. I like mushrooms and I’m one of those people that LOVE weird textures, so this is a fun addition for me. You can add to and take away from the vegetable list. It’s all based on what you like. Some people add carrots, onions, white potato, or even a bit of peanut butter. That’s the beauty of making this dish at home! You really get what you want.
Curries are most commonly served over a bed of rice. When I use rice, I usually cook up some jasmine rice in my rice cooker. I’ve also used brown rice. But if you are trying to cut down on your carbs, just forget the rice. My recipe turns out almost like a curry stew because of the amount of veggies I put in. And believe me when I say, “make enough for leftovers!” because it is THE BEST leftovers you’ll ever have! All the flavors become even more infused and well, it’s just as exhilarating as the first time.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Baked Oatmeal and Breakfast Casserole, by Em
Today's menu: Baked Oatmeal and Breakfast Casserole
I love breakfast foods I could pretty much eat them all day, every day. I'm cooking dinner today; I skipped breakfast today; we're having breakfast for dinner today. Yum!
Baked Oatmeal
When looking up baked oatmeal recipes I found a few variations, I've tried to distill these into their oat-y essence. If you've never had baked oatmeal, it is a delicious, slightly chewy alternative to oatmeal in a bowl. Baked oatmeal tastes kind of like an oatmeal cookie and is wonderful with a little milk poured over it.
Basic ingredients:
3 cups rolled oats/oatmeal/instant oatmeal
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 cup milk
Basic recipe:
Mix all ingredients together and bake at 375° in a 9x13 inch pan for 25 minutes. Serves eight.
Simplest thing ever, right?
Variations:
- You can also add vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and other similar flavors. I would probably start with no more than a teaspoon of each, then you can change it up as you see fit.
- Top the oatmeal with fruit and milk. Try raisins or bananas.
Money savers:
- Use powdered milk. Now I'm not a huge fan of drinking powdered milk, so my personal rule is this: I never use powdered milk when it will greatly influence the texture of a dish. This means it's fine for baking, because it will get baked into the final dish, but I don't use it in soups or sauces. Powdered milk should be stored in an airtight container as soon as it is opened and used ASAP. Reconstituted powdered milk costs less than $2 a gallon.
- If you don't have a set of measuring cups and spoons, don't rush out and buy some. You can measure ingredients using the silverware you have around the house. One standard-sized coffee mug is approximately 1 1/2 cups. In any full set of silverware, the smaller sized spoon (this would be the same size as a plastic spoon) is a teaspoon. The larger sized spoon is a tablespoon.
Time savers:
- Mix ingredients in the baking dish. This not only saves transferring from one dish to another, it saves time cleaning up afterwards. I made this recipe using a coffee mug, a teaspoon, and a baking pan.
Breakfast Casserole:
I got this recipe from my friend, K. I used TVP sausage, because I am a vegetarian, but she had originally made it with regular sausage.
Ingredients:
6 eggs
2 cups milk
1 squirt (Tbs) mustard
4 servings of sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces
6 thick slices bread, crumbled/torn
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar
4 oz chopped mushrooms
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
Recipe:
Beat eggs, milk, mustard, and salt. Stir in other ingredients. Bake at 350° in 9x13 inch pan for 45 minutes. Serves eight.
Money savers:
- This recipe could also use powder milk as it ends up being a part of the scrambled eggs anyways.
- Make your own bread. I used a loaf of frozen bread dough I happened to have lying around. This won't take too much time if you start thawing the dough the night before. It bakes for about 20 minutes and I had half a loaf left over which we used for toast. Making your own bread from scratch saves even more money, but takes more time.
- Use TVP (textured vegetable protein) for sausage. TVP costs approx. 45 cents per pound, rehydrated as compared to $1.50 for a pound of sausage. You can find recipes to make your own TVP sausage, then freeze it and save it for later.
- Shred your own cheese. I bought an 8 oz. (half a pound) block for almost half the price of a bag of pre-shredded cheese.
- Chop your own mushrooms.
Time savers:
- Once again, I mixed the ingredients in the baking dish.
- Using frozen bread dough was a quick, cheap alternative to buying bread at the store.
- 8 oz. cheese equals approximately 2 cups shredded cheese. This recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups, so you would use 3/4 an 8 oz. block of cheese. No measuring necessary!
Statement of Purpose
Cooking Without a Clue is my attempt to economize on time and money when I have less than I would like of both. I am not a professional chef; I am not even a good cook. I am an OK cook who now lives in a co-op and is therefore required to cook once a week. The recipes used on this page may or may not be original. If the recipe was obtained from another source, we will either provide a link to the original recipe or cite the source.
Cooking Without a Clue will also include other, cooking-related, time or money saving information. We are attempting to give equal consideration to saving time and money. It is up to you, the reader, to decide how important either one is to you and adjust the preparation accordingly. In all instances, the more effort you put into a dish, the more money you save.
Cooking Without a Clue is a family-friendly blog. Please keep comments clean!
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