Pantry Revisited

Recipe chosen by Julia of leave-room-for-dessert.blogspot.com Are you good at pretending?  You are?  GREAT!  Then let's pretend. First, pretend I slaved over a hot stove whipping up my creme anglaise.  Remember, I'm a virgin beignet maker so I went with pudding. Spent all my time trying to make the beignets look good.  Next, pretend you do not see the dark edges on the beignets that may them appear burned.  I think it might have just been the chocolate oozing out a bit while these fried.  They tasted incredibly delicious.  The burst of chocolate inside was like a surprise to your tongue.  You take a bite. . .. you are expecting the chewy doughnut and then, bam, the chocolate oozes in.  I love surprises, don't you?  And the pudding / anglaise took a slight edge off the richness of the chocolate.  Makes my mouth water just thinking about these.

This month's journey in My Kitchen, My World is the good ole USA. Check out the site to see what the other travelers made!  mykitchenmyworld.blogspot.com  When I thought of American food, the first thing that came to mind was hamburgers, then hot dogs, and then roast beef. I think I was hungry! Growing up, my mom made roast beef every Sunday for the after-church lunch. It was not a fancy roast, just meat and potatoes, carrots, and onions placed around it and oven baked for a long time. But it was really good. Today, I want to share my version of that with you all which is a little fancier than the one of my childhood. 1 (4 to 5-pound) prime boneless beef chuck roast Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper All-purpose flour Olive oil 4 cups carrots 2 onions chopped in quarters Four stalks celery cut into two inch pieces 2 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed 2 cups red wine, such as Cabernet or Burgundy 1 (28-ounce) can whole plum tomatoes in puree 1 cup chi...

One for me, one for Chandler! Recipe chosen this week by Leslie of lethallydelicious.blogspot.com Check out Leslie's blog.  She always has something wonderful cooking up in her kitchen.  I was so glad she chose this colorful, delicious drink for this week for our CEiMB group because it just hit the spot here in Alabama.  I made it Saturday afternoon as a treat for my DH because it was about 99 degrees outside here.  That is hot even for Alabama in the summer!  I love mangoes, but to me they are so messy to work with.  Anyone have any tips as to how to get that seed out without making a huge mess, please fill me in!  This was easy to make.  Tasted more like a smoothie than a drink, but we loved it.  Perfect afternoon snack.  Try it for yourself.  It really takes only seconds to mix up in your blender! As you can see, we did not have much left over! Ingredients 2 ripe, sweet mangos 1 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt 2 tablespoons ...

Nicole of cookiesonfriday.blogspot.com  chose these Chewy, Chunky Blondies for our TWD group this week.  A big thank you to Nicole since we heart blondies!!  Check out the recipe on Nicole's blog by clicking on the link next to her name. The batter was oooey, goooeeey, and good!!!  Just chunked FULL of deliciousness.  I love anything that is chunky.  These are loaded with pecans, coconut, chocolate chips, and heath toffee bits.  My photos do not do these justice.  I kept taking pictures on the wrong setting so the color is a bit off and I did not realize it because I could not load them for a few days because my computer was fried.  Then when I had a computer to work with, the brownies were all gone and my photos were what they were.  I shared half the batch with a friend thankfully or I would be seriously waddling down the halls today from overeating.  These reminded me of bar cookies my mom used to make that were like seven la...

Loved this.  So light and delicious.  And healthy.  And easy to prepare. I made one change and used regular tomatoes instead of the grape tomatoes it called for simply because I had regular ones from my garden.  And I grilled the chicken instead of pan frying. But all in all, it's a great dish for a weeknight dinner when you are running short on time.  I highly recommend it. Thanks to Danica of Danica's Daily for choosing this.  She has a fabulous blog.  Go check it out! INGREDIENTS: 1 1/4 lbs thin cut skinless boneless chicken breasts 2 Tbsp’s Cajun Seasoning Nonstick cooking spray 2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 4 scallions, minced, white and green separated 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 pints grape tomatoes, halved 2 c corn kernels (from 3-4 ears fresh uncooked corn or frozen) Sea Salt & Black Pepper to taste 1 ripe avocado, pitted, peeled, sliced 3 Tbsp’s fresh lime juice or 1 lime cut into wedges 3 Tbsp’s cilantro, roughly ...

So when Thursday rolls around, do you start thinking about what all you will do for the weekend like I do?  So it was Thursday and the question of the week was, what are we doing this weekend?  No response. Then came Friday and the same question.  We ended up dancing with our friends on Friday night and headed to the lake on Saturday.  I love to go if the weather is sunny and warm.  But if there is a hint of a storm, I would rather spend my time here at home.  We played lots of Phase Ten (Chandler's favorite) and I beat him as usual,  but he never stops trying.  :)  We grilled some corn, pork chops and asparagus.  Then the storm came.  Just as I had suspected it would.  So we drank some wine and watched Shutter Island with Leonardo Dicaprio.  I did not care for it.  Then we watched Remember Me with Robert Pattinson thinking it was a cute love story and would lift us up from Shutter and boy was I wr...

When you are in a food blogging group, one of the biggest rewards for the member is when your turn comes around to host the group.  Guess whose turn it was this week?  Not Jennifer Aniston, not Ina Garten, not Giada or Paula Deen. Okay, if you guessed me, you are correct! Ellie Krieger has so many wonderful recipes that are all healthy choices and that makes it difficult to choose just one.  With summer here, and vegetables plentiful in most areas of the country, farmer's markets here and there, I wanted to choose a recipe where we could incorporate the fresh goodness of those vegetables.  Ellie's Panzanella does just that.  Panzanella is simply bread and tomato salad.  It is simple and relaxing to make.  Pair it with a glass of wine and it becomes elegant as well. I hope everyone that cooked along with me this week enjoyed this light fare as much as Chandler and I did.  He had his doubts because he is strictly a meat...

Well, when I saw this week's recipe choice was BROWNIES, you did not have to ask me twice to make them!  Brownies of any kind rank up there with my number one favorite dessert item!  Got all my ingredients ready . . . I am not the greatest fan of mint mixed with my brownies.  And when I mentioned to Chandler what I would be making mixed with mint, he apparently shared my feelings and made an ugly face, so I substituted Reece's Peanut Butter Cups and "hoped" that they would turn out to Dorie's specifications. Just LOOK at that chocolate oozing with the rich peanut butter chunks.  I could not wait for them to bake! I thought they turned out really well.  The peanut butter cups did not melt entirely while the brownie baked which is just what I had hoped for.  We really enjoyed them.  Thank you Karen! I had my high school reunion last Saturday night and it was a lot of fun!  I usually hate those types of gatherings but this time I really enjo...

Wendy of Pink Stripes chose last week's Rum Drenched Vanilla Cakes.  I meant to make this cake all week long. I finally got around to it on Saturday, almost a week late.  Now I will be a week late on this week's pick because we have been out of town for the 4th of July and just returned today, with more housework than one woman can possibly handle in a day.  Anyway, my apologies to Wendy for being late with this post.  The cake tasted a bit Sara Lee to me.  I opted not to put rum in it and instead used a bit of almond flavoring.  While it was good, it was a tiny bit dry - wonder if I overcooked it.  If I had cooked as long as Dorie said, it definitely would have been overdone.  Maybe my oven cooks faster than hers.  I love pound cake of any kind, so thanks Wendy for a great pick!!  As you can see, I wrapped that baby in foil and took to the lake with us.  We had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!