Hors d'oeuvres

While talking to my cousin the other day she asked if I had any recipes for hors d'oeuvres, and I said I was more a main course and dessert cook. However as I thought about it I realized, I like appetizers just not what people think of as hors d'oeuvres, little cheese cubes, pieces of fruit and Swedish meatballs are ok, but not my thing. So I decided to go with something I like.
Of course this could also work as something for lunch...

Ingredients:
1 package large tortillas
2 pounds Mexican ground beef (recipe to follow)
or
2 pounds Mexican chicken (recipe to follow)
Lots of Shredded Cheese (if you like spicy use pepper jack, if you like mild use Monterrey jack, if you like sharp use cheddar.)
Butter
Sour Cream
Salsa


Mexican Ground Beef
Brown 2 pounds of ground beef or chuck and drain it.
Stir in salsa, just enough to coat the meat and sit a little in the bottom of the pan, add some chili powder, taste and add more salsa or chili powder to taste.

Mexican Chicken
Slice 2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts on the bias about 1/2 inch thick.
place in a pan with salsa and cook till done.

Quesadilla
Place the flour tortilla on a large plate, place several strips of chicken, or several spoon fulls of beef, on half of the tortilla and spread it around. Place lots of cheese on the meat, fold the tortilla in half, spread butter on the tortilla and place cheese side down on hot griddle, over medium heat. Place butter on the face up side, once the bottom side is golden turn, and cook till golden and the cheese is completely melted. Repeat till all meat is used.
Place on the plate and slice into triangles with a pizza cutter or large knife. Organize on a platter around bowls of salsa and sour cream.

Pizza Carbonara

This is an awesome pizza, although it can take some time to make.





Start by pan frying or sauteing chicken breasts, set aside when done.

Next start the pizza crust:

Pizza Crust

2 cups warm water

1 Tablespoon Yeast

1 Tablespoon Sugar

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Bread Flour



In a large metal bowl combine the warm water, yeast and sugar, let stand till the yeast is ready, 10+ minutes. (It's hard to explain when yeast is done.)

Add the olive oil and start stirring in flour. Keep adding and stirring flour until the dough balls up as you stir and it doesn't seem to be taking flour.

Cover the bowl with a towel and let sit for 30 minutes or until the dough has approximately doubled in size.

While the dough is rising make the carbonara sauce and cut the cheese.


Toppings not in the rest of the recipe(s)
Fresh Mozzarella, although if you can't find it or don't want to spend that much on cheese the pre-shredded stuff will work too. Slice the fresh mozz. and place on a plate between two paper towels with another plate on top. Leave for about 20 min.




Easy Carbonara

6 bacon slices, diced
3 tbsp. chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 c. heavy cream

In large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon about 3 minutes or until limp. Add onion; cook 3-5 minutes longer or until bacon is browned, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, cook 30 seconds. Drain all but 1 tablespoon bacon fat from skillet, remove 1-2 strips worth of bacon. Stir in cream; bring just to boiling point. Reduce heat to low and simmer 3 minutes. Once the sauce is done set aside off heat to thicken.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Divide out and roll the pizza crust, as thin or thick as you like (I like thin) to fit your baking pans. Place the crust on the pans and cover with the carbonara, then fresh mozzarella, the bacon crumbles and the cooked chicken (diced).
Place in the 400 degree oven and cook till crust is brown around the edges and the cheese is bubbly in the middle.
Slice while still warm and serve.
Not the best Pizza cold, but still tasty.

William’s Ranch Dressing

William’s Ranch Dressing

½ cup Buttermilk

1 cup Mayo

½ cup Sour Cream

1 tsp. Garlic Powder

1 tbsp. parsley (I usually use dried)

Salt and pepper to taste (probably about a half teaspoon of each)

Garlic Salt to taste (probably about a teaspoon or one and a half teaspoons)



Combine all ingredients, mix thoroughly. Store in refrigerator.

William’s Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is based on a family recipe that I modified when I was about 16. It's one of my favorites...

1.5 cups brown sugar (packed)

.5 cups white sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1tsp baking soda

.5 tsp baking powder

2 cups quick oats

2 cup chocolate chips

NOTE: You can substitute other ingredients for chocolate chips, I personally like 2/3 of a cup of caramel bits, 2/3 of a cup of chopped cashews, and 2/3 of a cup of chocolate chips. (I call these Bear Claw Cookies)

Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla and eggs, stir well.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder.

Slowly mix sifted ingredients into batter.

Next slowly mix in quick oats.

Finally add the chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

Use a spoon or cookie scoop and place large spoonfuls on the sheet, spaced about .5-1 inch apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes (I’ve found 9 minutes to be the best time but this may vary from oven to oven.)

After removing from oven let them sit 2-4 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing them.

Best served with milk.

Cake Truffles

Level of Ease 3.5/5
Cake Truffles are a confectionery delight that consist of what is essentially cake, surrounded by a chocolate shell.
I discovered first discovered these at a cake shop in the Town of Mears, Michigan. They offered many different varieties, like Carrot Cake, German Chocolate, Marble and Lemon. After trying many of these little bits of awesome I decided to find a recipe and make my own.

Needed Items:
The makings of one cake, your choice of flavor. (You can use a box mix, but I don't)
2 1/2 - 3 cups of thinnish icing/frosting. (Once again you can use store bought, but I don't. I use about 2-3 tablespoons of butter, then I add powdered sugar and milk till I get the desired consistency and amount, if you're making chocolate mix coco powder in with the powdered sugar, tasting often to make sure it tastes chocolaty and not to bitter, or not chocolaty enough.)
1.5-2 pounds of melting/bakers chocolate. The type will depend upon what type of cake you make, I have made lemon and chocolate truffles and found that with lemon a milk chocolate works very well and brings out the lemony flavor of the cake, where as with chocolate cake a semi-sweet chocolate works best because it is not to sweet and balances very well, if you do another flavor cake and don't know or can't figure out what to use ask me and I'll try to come up with an answer.
1 metal spatula.
1 large mixing bowl.
1-3 Baking sheets lined with wax paper.
A silicone or rubber spatula.
Plastic Wrap
A decent amount of space in your refrigerator.
A double boiler.
Toothpicks

Instructions:
1)Bake the cake according to directions, except put it in a large rectangular pan, even if it is a bunt cake, just make sure to check the doneness of it.
2)While the cake is in the oven, prep your icing.
3) Once the cake is out of the over set it on the counter and let sit for 5 minutes.
4) Take the metal spatula and stab the cake like a psycho, chopping it up into small pieces/crumbs.
5) Add a portion of the cake pieces/crumbs to the bowl and put some of the icing on top. Stir it up with the silicon or rubber spatula, it should look like a fairly uniform mass. repeat until all crumbs are gone
6) Take a portion of the mixture in your hands and roll it into a ball of the desired size, then place it on the wax paper covered sheets. At this point you can place them fairly close together.
7) Cover well with plastic wrap and put in the fridge. (Make sure the plastic is on there good you don't want them drying out.
8) Leave them in the fridge for several hours, I've gone almost 24 before. I wouldn't go less than 4, you want them very cool for the next part.
9) Using the double boiler melt the chocolate. (I've found this goes better if you do it on an as needed basis.)
10) Prep another baking sheet with wax paper.
11) Drop one or two balls in the chocolate, roll them around with a toothpick until they are good and covered, remove by stabbing with the toothpick and place on the baking sheet. (Hint use another toothpick to remove from the stabbed one.)
12)Repeat until all are done. Then place in fridge for the chocolate to set, this will take at least 1 hr.
13) Enjoy
These will keep better in the fridge as the chocolate will stay a little firmer, although you can put them in a cookie tin and put wax paper in between the layers and it will keep fine.

Buffalo Mountain Grill

When I started this Blog I decided to do more than just give out recipes, see I love to eat out as well.
One of my favorite places is the Buffalo Mountain Grill, a wonderful little bar and grill located in Oak Ridge, TN. What makes this place so special is their burgers. In addition to their traditional hamburger they offer an excellent selection of wild game burgers, Buffalo, Boar, Elk, and Ostrich, as well as their super lean organic Piedmont Beef Burger (I mean super lean, only 3% fat, usually you get about 20% fat with traditional beef). The only burger meats I haven't tried are the Piedmont ond Ostrich. On top of that you can get these burgers with an astonishing array of toppings, BBQ, Bacon and Cheddar, being my favorite, although the Southwest Burger is good to. If you like mushrooms and bleu cheese you might try the Mushroom and Bleu burger, or for 'shrooms and sauteed onions try the Saute Burger.
Of course, there is no reason not to start you meal with some Fried Pepper Jack Cheese Cubes served with a side of marinara. The delicious little morsels of cheese lava have just enough kick to them to make you feel all happy in your mouth.
If you don't feel like having a burger they do have a large selection of other sandwiches and salads and other dishes that look very good, and my sister has assured me the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich is delicious, but I am more of a burger person myself.
They have a nice little bar area where you can sit and watch sports, or the news, as well as eat your food. While I am a non-drinker I do sit in the bar to watch ESPN or the news while eating, and have noticed that they seem to have a fairly good selection of alcohol, including Fat Tire's 1554 as well as many others on tap.
While not exactly cheap I feel you get your money's worth at Buffalo Mountain Grill, as I have never left hungry.

I give it a 4/5

Fudge Brownies

Level of ease 2.5/5

Preheat oven to 300 f
1 cup Butter
2 Cups Sugar
4 Eggs
3 teaspoons Vanilla
1 cup Flour
1/3 cups Cocoa powder
1 bag mini marshmallows
Chocolate Icing (homemade is best but canned works too)


Cream softened butter with sugar, stir in eggs and vanilla, sift together flour and cocoa powder, add the cocoa/flour in to the mix incrementally. (the longer you beat this stuff the better it gets, as it bakes, if you beat it long enough (15 to 30 minutes) it develops a very nice crust on top.
Pour into 9x7 baking dish bake for 55 min.
Remove from oven, cover with mini marshmallows.
Bake for 5 more min.
Remove from oven, let sit for 5 min.
Cover with chocolate icing.
Serve with Chocolate or Vanilla Ice-Cream.