Roasted Tomato Salsa

My husband and I planned on doing a Superbowl Mexican feast (for 2), so I was searching for salsa recipes. I happened to come across this recipe on Delish Blog, and was intrigued. Roasted vegetables are always awesome, so roasted salsa had to be all sorts of amazing.

Roasting all of the vegetables made the house smell so yummy, and I just couldn’t wait to dig into this! It had amazing flavor, but my husband and I agreed that our tomatoes probably weren’t ripe enough. We were craving a more rich tomato flavor in the salsa. I can’t wait to try this again in the summer with fresh local tomatoes!

Roasted Tomato Salsa
Source: Delish Blog

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• 1/2 large white onion
• 4-6 cloves roasted garlic
• 2-3 large jalapenos, deseeded & deveined, cut in half lengthwise
• freshly ground black pepper & kosher salt
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400°F . Gently toss the tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapenos with the olive oil in a large bowl. Alternatively, use spray oil to gently coat the veggies (You just don’t want it to burn). Season with a little freshly ground black pepper. After they are nicely coated arrange in a single layer, tomatoes cut-side facing up, across a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet, roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes, (depending upon the size of your tomatoes). You’ll know they’re ready to come out when they start to get a nice color and the tomatoes start to collapse. Remove from the oven and cool.
2. Puree cooled tomatoes, onion, garlic, and jalapenos. Alternatively, puree half of the veggies and hand chop the remainder and combine. Season with salt and stir in the cilantro. Refrigerate.

PW’s Beef Brisket

Sorry, this picture sucks. Taken on the iPhone since we just got our pup and well, finding the camera was not a necessity at the time!

I’ve been wanting to make this recipe for quite some time. You see, we don’t have really good BBQ out here in Baton Rouge, in my opinion. I miss Luther’s BBQ, which was in NOLA before Katrina hit. That stuff was the bomb-diggity, and sadly, I haven’t found a place in Baton Rouge that is anywhere close to it! Plus, BBQ out here is ridiculously overpriced for what you get…ugh!

So, when I saw this on Pioneer Woman’s blog, I thought that I had to try it! My biggest problem was finding a slab of brisket that was less than 10 lbs. It seems like Baton Rouge has some SERIOUS brisket lovers! I finally found this 3 lb. piece at one of the grocery stores out here, and knew what I’d make with it!

Let me tell you, this brisket is AMAZING!! It kicks our local BBQ’s butt in my opinion! I’m definitely making it again sometime soon.

PW’s Beef Brisket
Source: Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

• 2 cans Beef Consomme
• ½ cups Lemon Juice
• 1-½ cup Soy Sauce
• 5 cloves Chopped Garlic
• 2 Tablespoons Liquid Smoke
• 10 pounds Beef Brisket (we used 3 lbs. and this worked just fine!)

Directions:

1. Combine first five ingredients in large roasting pan (a disposable is just fine). Place brisket in the marinade, fat side up. Cover tightly with foil. Marinate in refrigerator for 24-48 hours. When ready to cook, place pan covered in foil into a 300-degree oven. Cook brisket for approximately 40 minutes per pound.
2. When fork-tender, transfer whole brisket to a cutting board. Slice against the grain and place slices back into the cooking liquid. Serve immediately, spooning juice over the slices. Barbeque sauce may be used, if preferred.
3. You may store pan in fridge for up to two days or freeze for use at a later date. If fat collects and hardens at the top, remove and discard.

Herb Roasted Chicken Breast

Since my husband and I are trying to eat healthier, I thought a simple roasted chicken would work well for dinner. I didn’t really follow a recipe at all this time, so I guess you could say this is an original. It does involve butter, but hey, it’s not that much really. The skin does come out super crispy, but I opted not to eat mine. This is for two people, but this can easily be doubled, tripled, whatever. It’s a really flexible recipe and easy to do!

Herb Roasted Chicken Breast

Ingredients:

• 2 bone-in chicken breasts
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 3 tbsp. freshly chopped basil
• 3 tbsp. freshly chopped parsley
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. garlic powder

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wash and dry chicken in the sink. Add salt/pepper under and over the skin of the chicken.
3. Knead the butter in your hands until it is fairly soft. Add in the basil, parsley, onion powder and garlic powder. Mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Add herbed butter to the chicken under and over the skin of the chicken
5. Bake for 1 hr or until juices run clear on the chicken.

The Skinny (with skin/no skin) – per serving, serves 2:
Calories: 262.9/191.3
Fat: 19.7 g/12.5 g
Fiber 0.5 g/ 0.5 g

Bacon does make everything better..

Happy New Years everyone! I hope you had a great 2009, and here’s to a truly awesome new year and decade!

After looking through the archives, I’ve found the primary reason for my weight gain since the wedding in May: this blog doesn’t have much “skinny” food anymore! So, I’m really going to strive to bring back the “skinny” recipes to this blog, since this blog’s title, after all, is Skinny Food by Amy. While I’m gonna miss the cheesecake and candy, I think I need to go back to the reason that I started this blog: to lose weight and still enjoy food. I hope you all enjoy the journey!

Now, here comes a not-so-skinny recipe…sorry folks!

My husband and I have enjoyed the Cooking Light recipe for pot roast for a while now. I was curious to see what else is out there, though. So, I found this pot roast recipe on Epicurious that involves the ever-so-famous bacon! I was pretty excited to get away from turkey bacon for a day, so I bought some thick cut smoked bacon at the store  for this recipe. I totally forgot how much grease is in real bacon…whoa. Needless to say, this recipe won’t be a regular in our diets, but it was a yummy indulgence. Bacon really does make everything better, trust me!

Pot Roast
Source: adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
• 2 teaspoons Hungarian sweet paprika
• 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1 3-pound boneless rump roast
• 6 ounces thick cut bacon, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 cups dry red wine
• 1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 12 small shallots, peeled
• 12 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 large carrots (about 1 pound), peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch cubes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix first 6 ingredients in small bowl. Rub spice blend all over beef. Cut 6 slits in beef and insert a clove of garlic in each slit.
2. Cook bacon in a dutch oven over medium heat until browned and lightly crisp. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons drippings from pot. Increase heat to medium-high. Add beef and cook until browned on all sides, about 12 minutes total. Transfer beef to plate. Add red wine to pot; bring to boil, scraping up browned bits. Boil until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Add broth and bacon. Place beef atop bacon. Scatter onions, shallots, remainder of garlic, and bay leaves around beef.
3. Cover pot, transfer to oven, and roast 1 hour. Turn beef over; stir onions. Cover and roast 1 hour longer, adding water by 1/4 cupfuls if dry. Transfer beef to plate. Add carrots and potatoes to pot; stir to coat. Place beef atop vegetables, cover, and roast until beef and vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes longer. Transfer beef to platter. Spoon off fat from surface of sauce and remove bay leaves. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over beef and serve.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

I might be a week late with these, but here’s proof that I did make Christmas cookies!

I excitedly drew up plans (which I did deviate from a bit) on my lunch break one day, and went to work the week before Christmas on these bad boys!

I was so excited to use pearl dust for the tree trunks. I mixed a little bit with some vodka, and just painted it on after the flood icing dried. It leaves a really pretty shimmery finish!

If you’re curious about the recipes and techniques that I use to make these happen, check out my tutorial here.

Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

I’m pretty much a novice when it comes to cheesecake making. The first cheesecake I made was about a month ago for a potluck, and since then, I’ve been wanting to do this again! When the opportunity came up, I definitely knew which recipe to try. This time around I made this cheesecake, because I had heard so many raving reviews about Dorie Greenspan’s cheesecake recipe in Baking From My Home to Yours.

So, I made this cheesecake, simply plain and brought it to the potluck. People LOVED it, as did I. Unfortunately, this was my first water bath experience and somehow water got in there, so the crust was a little soggy. I did, however, make this again Christmas Day, wrapping more layers of foil very carefully, and the crust was perfect!

Tall and Creamy Cheesecake
Source: Baking From My Home to Yours

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake:
2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two (I used heavy cream)

Directions:

To make the crust:

1. Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high (if the sides are lower, you will have cheesecake batter leftover)—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil; put the pan on a baking sheet.
2. Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist.  Turn the ingredients into the buttered springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides (I like to use a round glass to make it flat.). Don’t worry if the sides are not perfectly even or if the crumbs reach above or below the midway mark on the sides—this doesn’t have to be a precision job. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.
3. Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

To make the cheesecake:

1. Put a kettle of water on to boil (or microwave water in a bowl).
2. Working in a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and lives up to the creamy part of its name, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.
3. Put the foil-wrapped springform pan in the roaster pan.
4. Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the springform pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan. (If you have a pan with lower sides and have leftover batter, you can bake the batter in a buttered ramekin or small soufflé mold.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
5. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven’s heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.
6. After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup out of the oven, lift the springform pan out of the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.
7. When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and chill the cake for at least 4 hours, although overnight would be better.

Scotcharoos

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a local nestie GTG to meet up with some gals that I “talk” to on the forums. There was so much food to be had there, and I made sure to try a little bit of everything. One of the nesties brought these little bars, and WOW are these bars just amazing! She insisted that they were super easy to make, and boy, were they! I made a batch of these to include in the family holiday tins, and of course, snuck a few bars for me as well.

Scotcharoos
Source: MrsSpell of the Baton Rouge Nestie Boards

Ingredients:

• 1 c. sugar
• 1c. light corn syrup
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1 c. peanut butter
• 6 c. rice krispies cereal
• 1 – 12 oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 – 12 oz package butterscotch chips
• 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil

Directions:

1. In a large pot cook sugar, corn syrup, and butter over med heat. Stir until completely dissolved and mixture comes to a low boil.
2. Remove from heat and add peanut butter. Stir until melted together. Add cereal and stir until coated.
3. Spread mixture evenly into a greased 9 x 13 pan and pat down using slightly wet hands.
4. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips with the oil together in the microwave approx. 2 minutes stopping to stir every 30 seconds. Pour over the top of cereal treats and allow to cool for min. of one hour. Cut into squares and enjoy!

Peppermint Marshmallows

Ever since I found out that you could make your own marshmallows, I wanted to make them. The problem? I had a cheap hand mixer before our KA mixer. Now that we had the KA mixer, I had nothing holding me back from making these.

These are delicious, light and have a subtle peppermint flavor. I’m definitely putting the leftover ones from the gift tins in some hot chocolate ASAP.

Peppermint Marshmallows
Adapted from: Alton Brown

Ingredients:

• 3 packages unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup ice cold water, divided
• 12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon mint extract
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• non-stick spray

Directions:

1. Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.
2. In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.
3. Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows.
4. Combine the confectioners’ sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.
5. When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan. To get red striping, add drops of red food coloring to the mixture in the pan and quickly swirl the coloring in. Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
6. Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners’ sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

Rolled Gingerbread Cookies

Gingerbread is one of those cookies that is just a standard to have during the holidays. They are spicy, chewy and can be cut in cute holiday shapes! My siblings and I used to get the Little Debbie gingerbreads and fight over them at the house.

I decided to include these in my coworker’s baked goodies tins because they looked easy and it was something new to bake. Being that I’ve never worked with molasses, I have to admit, I thought it was going to smell like brown sugar or something similar. No way folks…this has a very different smell than imagined. In fact, I thought I had a batch of bad molasses, but I kept going with the recipe and it turns out that molasses do indeed smell unpleasant normally.

This recipe is easy to work with and yields a delicious gingerbread cookie. You will not be disappointed at all.

Rolled Gingerbread Cookies
Source: Cookie Craft

Ingredients:

• 5 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda (if using this recipe to make a gingerbread house, omit the baking soda)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• zest of one orange
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup molasses

Directions:

1. Cream together the butter and sugar for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the egg and molasses and mix until blended.
2. Put the flour, spices, baking soda, salt and orange zest in a medium bowl and whisk mixture together.
3. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture until the two are well blended.
4. Put the dough in 3 even portions, formed into a rough disk and chill the dough in the fridge for a few hours.
5. When you are ready to bake the dough, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Cut the dough into desired shapes and place on a parchment/Silpat lined cookie sheet. ( I dipped one side of the cookie in sprinkles before placing on the cookie sheet.)
7. Bake in the middle rack of your oven for 12-16 minutes for larger cookies; 7-9 minutes for smaller cookies or until the dough darkens a little along the edges.
8. Cool cookies completely for decorating.

Makes about 36 3″ sized cookies, which equates to almost one double batch of sugar cookies.

Baking Gifts Part 1

Coworkers are typically difficult to buy for. In college, I would really only buy for fellow female student coworkers. It was easy…Starbucks gift cards, bath stuff, etc. When I graduated and got thrown into the real world, I was introduced to working in a primarily male field. I can’t shop for males, at all. I have enough trouble shopping for  my husband, father and brother! So, I started making edible gifts.

Last year, I bought cute Christmas chinese take-out boxes and put decorated sugar cookies, oreo truffles and chocolate covered pretzels in them. This year, I branched out from those ideas just a little bit.

I had my first adventures of making homemade peppermint marshmallows. The KA definitely was put to use here! I couldn’t have even fathomed making these last year with a $10 hand mixer.

Another recipe from Cookie Craft that I’ve been wanting to try is her rolled gingerbread cookies. These did not disappoint.

Of course, the oreo truffles made an appearance, and this time, instead of putting a bunch in one bag, I bought cutesy Christmas foils to wrap them in!

Adorable right? I love you Hobby Lobby.

Of course, here is a small picture of the packaging in action. I will say my kitchen was a big ol’ mess after this, but it was worth it! My coworkers seemed to love the goodies, and of course, the easiest recipe, oreo truffles, became the hit of the gifts!

In case you are curious as to the “part 1″ in the title, well, we have to bake for family too next week and those will be a bit different, since they have favorites!

Stay tuned for the recipes, my first experience with painting on cookies and heck, more pictures!