Jessie's Baby Shower

Today my mom and I gave a baby shower for my beautiful cousin Jessica. She is having a baby girl in September. They are naming her Hanalei Lee. We are all so excited a for Jessie and Mike. I know they will be such great parents.

The menu for the shower was extensive...as are all menus for parties we usually throw. Its so hard to decided on what to serve and what not to serve. We had fruit salad, pasta salad, goat cheese and watercress tea sandwiches, roast beef and horsey sauce tea sandwiches, ham and pickle roll ups, Caprese salad, and of course chocolate ganache cake and ice cream. I was in charge of making the goat cheese and watercress sandwiches, and the cake.

I first made these goat cheese and watercress sandwiches for another shower I did for my niece, Kristi. Its a crazy combo, goat cheese on cinnamon raisin bread, but it works so well! I love these! The recipe comes from epicurious. The chocolate ganache cake recipe comes from Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade Desserts cook book and is so easy and extremely elegant and rich.


Goat Cheese and Watercress Tea Sandwiches

2 5 1/2-ounce logs soft fresh goat cheese (such as Montrachet), room temperature
1/2 cup chopped watercress leaves
16 thin slices cinnamon-raisin, date or whole wheat sandwich bread, crusts trimmed
5 tablespoons (about) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup finely chopped toasted pecans Watercress sprigs (for garnish)

Mix cheese and chopped watercress in medium bowl. Season with salt. Spread mixture evenly over 8 bread slices. Top with remaining bread. Butter edges of sandwiches. Cut sandwiches diagonally in half. Place pecans on plate. Dip buttered edges of sandwiches into pecans. Arrange sandwiches on platter. Garnish with watercress sprigs. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover sandwiches tightly; chill.)


Chocolate Ganache Cake

Cake
1 box Swiss chocolate cake mix
1 box instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup water
4 eggs
1/3 veggie oil
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Ganache
1 cup heavy cream
1 package semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 12 cup bundt pan. Combine cake mix, pudding mix, water, eggs, and oil in large bowl. Beat for 2 minutes or until well blended. Stir in the 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Transfer batter to bundt pan. Bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted neat the center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool cake completely.

2. Heat cream in a small sauce pan over low heat until small bubbles appear. Remove from heat. Add the 12 ounces of chocolate chips to the cream and stir until smooth. Cool ganache just until slightly warm. Pour ganache over cooled cake. Transfer to a serving platter. Garnish with additional chocolate chips if you like.

My first attempt at No Knead Bread

I just celebrated my Birthday this week and my mom got me 2 cast iron skillets, and a cast iron Dutch oven. I was super excited about this because Ive really been wanting to try out a No Knead bread recipe, but you need the Dutch oven. Well, now I'm in business!

I was skeptical when I mixed up this dough because it was so wet! More like a batter than a dough, I was barely able to shape it into a ball. Ive since read a ton of blogs about this bread that say to use 1 1/2 cups water, not 1 5/8 cups like the original recipe calls for. Even though the dough was so wet, it still turned out great. Next time I will do it with a bit less water though.

I just have to say that this is the best loaf of bread that I have EVER baked! Sure Ive done plenty of quick breads, but I'm always so afraid to try out yeast breads. My last batch wasn't like what Id hoped for, so I went into this as a skeptic. Well, I am forever changed. This is the kind of bread that Id be proud to serve at any dinner party. Its the crusty, holey texture of the Artisan breads I always see in bakeries, but have never figured out how to duplicate at home. This loaf of bread took me about 5 minutes of prep time then it just rested for 18 hrs! Easy!

I added a bit of whole wheat flour as well as some flax meal, since I'm always trying to sneak something good into recipes. It is still so yummy! Usually I am bummed I tried to make it more healthy. Not this time. I am definitely going to try it out again with just white flour, just to see if its really so much better, but I doubt it.

I cant wait to make this bread again and again! Definitely my favorite bread recipe Ive ever come across.

This recipe is adapted from Jim Lahey, of the Sullivan Street Bakery, in NY.

No-Knead Bread
Yields one 1 1/2 pound loaf

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Well, I am on a Sweet Baby Ray's kick this week, I guess. I decided to make some pulled pork today and I am so glad I did. It is really easy and quick and tastes SOoooooo good! I had this in the crock pot this morning, and the kitchen cleaned up and then dinner was a breeze!

2 lbs boneless pork loin chops (any thickness works)
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce
salt and pepper

Salt and pepper both sides of the chops. Brown in a little oil on both sides. Put chops into crock pot and pour 1/2 bottle of BBQ sauce over it. Turn the chops over to coat both sides. Cover and cook on low about 5 hrs. Take the chops out of the crock pot and let them sit for a bit until they are cool enough to handle, then shred them with a fork. They should fall apart really easily. Return the shredded meat back to the crock pot and stir with the sauce and juices that are there. Then add the rest of the bottle of sauce and stir. Cook on low or warm setting another couple hrs, or until ready to eat. Serve on soft buns.

Grilled BBQ Pork Chops

I don't usually like pork chops very much because they always turn out dry for me. Well, today I used a little different method of cooking them on the grill and these turned out so good. They are the juiciest chops Ive ever made on the grill. Its also the first time I tried out Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and it is fabulous! I think its the best BBQ sauce Ive ever had! Honest. I saw that Albertson's had the sauce on sale for $1 a bottle, so I grabbed one and I think I will go back tomorrow and grab a couple more! This was so quick and easy. I am definitely going to try out some other grilled pork chop recipes, now that I know how to cook them so they don't lose all their juice. I also cant wait to try out a BBQ pulled pork recipe with this sauce. YUMMY!

1-2 lbs of boneless pork loin chops, trimmed and 1 1/2 inches thick
salt and pepper
1 cup Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce

Let your chops sit out at room temp for 30 minutes or so, to warm up a bit. This helps them to cook faster and more evenly. Heat up a gas grill on medium high heat. Salt and pepper both sides of the chops, then brush with some BBQ sauce...all over. Just slather it on. When the grill is hot, put the chops onto the hottest part of the grill and let some great grilling marks sear onto both sides, about 2 minutes per side, with the grill open. Move the chops to the coolest part of the grill and slather with some more sauce then cover, turning once. 3-4 minutes per side, or till done.

Test with a meat thermometer and when the chops are at 145 degrees internally, they are perfectly cooked. Once done grilling, immediately put them on a plate and cover them with tin foil and let them rest for 10 minutes. This gets all those yummy pork chop juices to redistribute....making a delicious tender chop! Enjoy.

Creamy Cucumber Salad

I had a cucumber sitting in my fridge and I didnt really know what I wanted to do with it. After looking at a lot of blogs and websites, I decided that what I was craving was more like tzatziki than an actual cucumber salad. So I decided to kind of make a tzatziki cucumber salad, if you will. The only difference really is that the cucumbers are chopped up pretty big. I definitely wanted it to be a cucumber side dish, not a dip. It was crisp and cold and healthy. Very refreshing. Its been really hot and humid here and this was exactly what I needed. This made just enough for 2 servings. If you want more double it.

1 English cucumber, sliced in half length wise, then chopped into 1/2 inch thickness
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp dried dill, or to taste (fresh would have been so much better)
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Cut up the cucumber and set aside in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix the yogurt, dill, and lemon juice until combined. Pour over cucumbers. Mix to coat all the cucumbers, then salt and pepper to taste. Refridgerate for awhile before serving. I only had about an hour and they turned out fine.

Pasta Alla Vodka

This is a yummy recipe that my awesome sister in law, Audrey, gave to me. Its supposed to be Penne alla Vodka, but I wanted to use the mini bow ties because my kids love them. And I also added some fresh basil to sweeten it up a bit. This is a super easy meal for week nights. I almost followed the recipe exactly, so I will put the original recipe here. Oh and you could probably leave out the vodka if you are opposed to cooking with it, and it would just be a tomato cream sauce, but why would you want to leave out the very best part??

3 Tbsp butter
2 Cloves garlic, chopped (I used 2 cubes frozen garlic)
1/4 cup chopped prosciutto
1 large can diced tomatoes (I used 1 can then 1 cup tomato sauce)
1/4 cup vodka
1 cup cream (I used Half&Half)
1 lb penne pasta

In a large skillet, melt butter, saute garlic and prosciutto for a minute, then add tomatoes and vodka. Let simmer a few minutes until it starts to reduce. Add cream and cook a few minutes more. Season with salt and pepper and some basil if desired. Serve over your favorite pasta.

Meaty Lasagna

1/2 box lasagna pasta, cooked and drained
1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup red wine
1 container ricotta cheese
2 tsp dried basil
1 egg
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
3 cups prepared marinara sauce (or any leftover red pasta sauce)
2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Start by browning the meat. When it is cooked through ,drain off the fat and add the wine. Cook a few minutes to cook off the alcohol. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder to season it up, set aside. In a medium bowl, mix ricotta cheese, egg and Parmesan cheese, basil. Add salt and pepper to taste, set aside.

In the bottom of a greased 9x13 baking dish, spread 1/2 cup marinara sauce on bottom then lay 3-4 lasagna noodles on bottom, slightly overlapping them. Spread with 1/2 the ricotta mixture, then top with half the meat mixture then 1 cup marinara sauce. Repeat layers. Cover 2nd layer with 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Top with remaining noodles and marinara sauce, then top with remaining 1 cup cheese. Bake covered in 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 10 more minutes. Let set for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.