dulce de leche...

...over ice cream. is perfection.

tacos with spicy corn & black beans

sometimes, rather surprisingly, i'm in the mood for spice.

and tonight i wanted corn. more specifically, corn + spice. i found a bunch of "mexican corn" and "spicy corn" recipes online, but i didn't have everything called for in them, mostly i was missing the green pepper. and i was worried that the "jarred salsa" would taste soggy, mushy, and not quite right. but i improvised anyway. and it worked...



...and ditto for the beans. i wanted to change it up, spice it up, so i read the recipe on the back of the goya can. i had maybe half the ingredients for that one too. oh well. so i improvised that one too. it probably isn't as good as the original recipe, but it was definitely better than plain old black beans from a can. (and i had everything already in my pantry)

spicy corn

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 onion, diced
2 cups corn
kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 cup salsa
2 tablespoons cilantro

1. in a saute pan, melt the butter over medium heat. add the onion and saute until starting to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. add the corn, salt to your liking, and cumin. cover and cook about 10 minutes.
3. add salsa and cilantro, mix, remove from heat, and serve or cover to keep warm before serving.

spicy black beans

15 ounce can black beans, rinsed
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, diced
3 gloves of garlic, minced
3/4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt & pepper

1. in a saute pan, melt the butter over medium heat. add the onion and garlic and saute until starting to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. add the beans, water, oregano, and season with salt and pepper. bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes or until most of the water has been cooked out.

dr pepper cake

i needed cake. cookies. pastry. no, not pastry, i needed something quick, easy, and sickeningly sweet. so i found this dr. pepper cake.

but in our house, it was "dr w" cake - since we have wegmans dr w instead of dr pepper.

but i made some modifications -

the sugar seems like a lot - a full two cups, in addition to a full can of soda. so i reduced it to 1 1/4 cups. it was still pretty sweet.

and i only made a half batch of glaze. for the same reason - i didn't want it to be so sickeningly sweet i couldn't take it. and a half batch was perfect.



the cake is good, even though it was a bit more dense like a brownie, but the dr pepper taste wasn't very strong. you can taste it, at the end of a bite, as long as you know it's there and you're looking for it. so sometime i'm going to try concentrating the dr pep flavor by boiling it off a bit first. we'll see how that goes.

dr pepper chocolate cake
from she wears many hats

for the cake:
1 1/2 cup Dr. Pepper soda
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons)
4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk

1. preheat oven to 350F and grease a 13x9 baking pan.
2. combine the dr pepper, oil, butter, and cocoa powder in a saucepan over medium heat. bring to a simmer, mix well, and remove from heat.
3. add sugar, flour, and baking soda to the pan and mix well.
4. in a separate bowl, beat the eggs and buttermilk together. add a small amount of the hot batter to the egg mixture (a couple tablespoons) and mix well. then add the egg mixture to the batter and mix well.
5. pour into greased pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. while the cake is cooling, make the glaze.

for the glaze:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 tablespoons milk
2 cups powdered sugar

1. combine the butter, cocoa powder, and milk together in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. when the butter is melted and the mixture is combined, whisk in the sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, until fully incorporated and smooth.
3. pour over the warm cake.

2015.03.02 this was daily dish recipes' pick for the secret recipe club!

soft pretzels

i've waited all week for these. and the pretzel bite and pretzel roll recipes that showed up on other blogs this week didn't help the craving. so this morning i gave in.

the dough comes together quick and the boiling part isn't nearly as complicated as it first sounds. if you have pretzels that don't keep their shape while boiling - i had a couple turn back into long ropes - push the joints together before boiling or just reshape them after boiling, before they're baked. no biggie.

i like mine with lots of salt, jason likes his with a little salt...so i made them exactly how we like them...

...and i left a few unsalted just for this -



warm them up in the microwave, brush the top with melted butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. perfection.

you'll notice alton's recipe makes 8 pretzels and the first time we made them, we made 8. but you end up with 8 big pretzels, like food court at the mall sized pretzels. and really, they're too big when you just want a snack sized pretzel. so i cut the size in half and reduced the bake time since they aren't as thick. long story short - make them whatever size you want. you want them smaller? go for it, just check on them around 8 minutes. want them bigger? i'd still check at 9 minutes, but they'll probably take a little longer.

soft pretzels
based on alton brown's homemade soft pretzels

makes 16 4 inch pretzels in 1.5 hours (includes rise time)

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 packed active dry yeast
22 ounces all purpose flour (about 4.5 cups)
2 ounces melted unsalted butter (about 4 tablespoons)
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
nonstick cooking spray
pretzel or kosher salt to sprinkle on top

1. combine the water, sugar, and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. sprinkle the yeast on top and let sit about 5 minutes, until foaming.
2. add the melted butter and flour to the bowl. mix on low speed with a dough hook until combined. turn the mixer up to medium and mix about 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth, elastic, and pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. remove the dough from the bowl, spray the inside with cooking spray, and replace the dough back in the bowl. cover with plastic wrap and store in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
4. line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. preheat the oven to 450F.
5. bring 10 cups of water and baking soda to a boil.
6. while the water is heating up, turn the dough out onto a well oiled cutting board. using a pizza cutter or chef's knife, cut the dough into 16 equal pieces (i cut mine like a pie).
7. roll each piece of dough into a rope about 18 inches long. form into a pretzel shape and place on the baking sheet. roll and form all pieces.
8. drop pretzels, 2 at a time, into the boiling water. boil for 30 seconds, remove with a slotted spatula or wire spider, and place back on the baking sheet. repeat with all the pretzels.
9. brush the tops of the pretzels with the beaten egg and sprinkle with salt to your liking.
10. bake for 9-11 minutes, until golden brown on top.
11. let cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
12. these are best eaten within 10 minutes of coming out of the oven, but a quick 20 seconds in the microwave works well too.
13. do not store in a sealed bag or food storage container as they will become wet and lose some of their chewiness. consume within 3 days, if you can make it that long.

italian stuffed bread

don't try to make this during the week. unless you can get home earlier than 6.

or you don't mind eating at 9:30 at night. it's not that it's hard to make, it's the wait time that gets you.

regardless of the time, it was incredibly easy to put together. i started with a whole wheat bread dough and then used a classic italian combination - prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato, and basil - and layered them on the bread, rollled it up, and baked it.



feel free to change up the filling to your liking. i bet ham and cheese would be good. or artichokes and cheese. really, ___________ (you fill in the blank) and cheese would be excellent.

italian stuffed bread

1 pound of your favorite bread dough - i used whole wheat
2 ounces prosciutto
1/2 cup basil leaves
2 roma tomatoes, sliced thin
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced

1. make your bread according to the recipe directions.
2. when the bread is ready for baking, roll out into a sheet about 1/4 inch thick.
3. build your layer of filling starting with prosciutto, then cheese and tomatoes, and topped with the basil.
4. carefully roll the sheet into a log, starting at one end.
5. pinch the open ends of the log closed by pulling the top down to the bottom. pinch any openings in the bread, or the filling will ooze out while baking.
6. put the log on a sheet pan and place in a warm place for 30 minutes.
7. preheat the oven at 350. brush the top of the bread with water.
8. bake the bread on a sheet pan for 50-65 minutes, until browned on the outside.
9. cool on a wire rack and wait until almost completely cool to cut.