Beer Cheese Fondue

Fondue is one of those foods that turns "cheese dip" into something much more fun. For some reason, dipping food into the little pot on your color-coded skewer is always fun. I had a couple blocks of cheese, half a loaf of bread, and some apples on hand the other night so I decided to throw this together. The pepper jack cheese is great with the beer. I recommend using a darker Mexican beer or similar style for added flavor. You can use a light beer but it just wont add as much depth of flavor to the recipe.



Beer Cheese Fondue

4 oz pepper jack cheese
4 oz sharp cheddar cheese
4 oz beer (I used Red Stripe)
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 T flour
Juice of half of 1 lime

Grate cheese on a coarse grater and toss with flour and cumin. Rub a stove-top safe fondue pot or small saucepan with peeled garlic clove all over the inside of the pot and discard. Pour in beer and lime juice and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low and add cheese a handful at a time, whisking constantly until melted. Add cheese slowly so that it doesn't clump up. Continue whisking until the mixture is smooth and cheese is well incorporated.

Transfer to fondue pot to keep warm and serve.

Dipping suggestions: warm bread cubes, apples, grapes, carrots, cubed potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds

You know that smell at the mall around Christmas time or in the concourse at a football game? The sweet, cinnamon smell of German Roasted Nuts... it is one of my favorite smells. Up until a couple of years ago I didn't eat nuts, didn't like them at all. Then I tried German Roasted Nuts at a football game. Then I read about some of the health benefits of nuts and started adding them into lots of things. Sure adding sugar to them negates some of the healthy stuff but as snacks go these are still a lot better for you than cookies or chips. And as a bonus your whole house will smell good when you make them.

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds
Recipe adapted from Melanie at The Sisters' Cafe

4 cups almonds
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg white
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 250 degrees and cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Combine the sugars, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Add egg white to a large bowl or stand mixer and beat with whisk attachment. Add vanilla and continue beating until very frothy and thick. Don't let the egg white form peaks. Add in the almonds and toss until well coated. Add the sugar mixture, stirring to coat the almonds well. Spread almonds onto prepared baking sheet. Try to get them into a single layer. Bake approximately 1 hour, tossing every 20 minutes. Cool and serve or store in an airtight storage container.

Spicy Crab Macaroni and Cheese

Inspired by the leftovers from my crab cake recipe that I had in the refrigerator, I decided to make some slightly fancier macaroni and cheese. Turned out to be fantastic. Since I'm assuming you won't have leftover crab cake mixture, the recipe below is from the beginning. Enjoy!


Spicy Crab Macaroni and Cheese

8 oz lump crab meat (you can use canned if you want)
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
1/2 white onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
3 T butter
2 T flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup pepper jack cheese
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
8 oz short cut pasta (I used a mix of whole wheat rotini and regular elbow pasta because that's what was in the pantry)
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat a large pot of water for pasta. When boiling, add a generous spoonful of salt and pasta. Cook to just al dente, strain and set aside.

Meanwhile, melt 1 T of butter in a large skillet over medium heat, add red pepper, onion and garlic and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and cool slightly. Roughly chop crab meat and add to pepper mixture. Beat egg, add Worcestershire sauce and add to mixture. In the same pan, melt the remaining butter and add flour. Whisk until foamy. Slowly add milk, whisking frequently. Stir in mustard and cayenne pepper. Cook until the mixture thickens slightly. Reduce heat to low and add in cheeses a handful at a time, stirring until melted. Add crab mixture and pasta. Stir everything together to mix well. Add thyme and salt and pepper to taste.


Pour mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and top with bread crumbs. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until bubbly.

Learn from my mistakes

In the interest of full disclosure... I'm going to tell you that I screwed this one up... definitely not a baking success here. But I learned something, and in the end, the cake was really good -- just not really what I was going for.

Dulce de leche is a thick, caramel-like sauce that is made from sweetened, condensed milk. It is supposed to be easy... buy a can of sweetened, condensed milk and cook it until it becomes dulce de leche. Supposedly this works in the oven, boiling on the stove, or even in the microwave. I should have known this would be a bad idea. But to do it on the stove or in the oven takes hours. I found a recipe here that claimed it would work in under 20 minutes in the microwave. That was perfect for me considering I decided to make it less than 4 hours prior to dinner and still had to make the cake.

So this process started out fine, empty the milk into a large bowl (it really does have to be at least 2.5 quarts as I quickly found out) and cover with plastic wrap. Figure out how to adjust the power settings on your microwave and reduce it to 50% power.

Cook the milk for 2 minutes, whisk and recover. Repeat for the next 10-15 minutes. Sounds easy enough. And at this point it actually was working quite well, getting thicker and thicker with each interval.

It all worked well, aside from the bowl screw-up, until I got to the part of the recipe that said - "let cool before packing into a glass jar" - well I left it alone for 20 minutes and when I came back it was a rock hard mess stuck to the bowl. I couldn't budge it with a spoon. I didn't have another can of sweetened, condensed milk and the cake was already in the oven so I had to try to save it.

My solution: add a little heavy cream, about a tablespoon full at a time and microwave for a few seconds to reheat it. As it re-melted a little bit, I was able to start incorporating the cream and it became a (slightly thinner) sauce again, however after I got tired of whisking there were still a few lumps. Oh well - it was still good, but it definitely wasn't the dulce de leche I was going for when I started. Next time, I'll go back to the old-fashioned method and bake it. So much for short cuts.

For the cake - I used this yellow cake recipe from Mark Bittman - just baked in 2 small oval pans to make a much smaller cake. I filled the cake with the dulce de leche and poured the extra over the top and then frosted the whole thing with a whipped cream frosting. Despite the troubles, the cake was delicious and I'll let you know next time how the dulce de leche in the oven comes out.

FYI - you can also buy prepared dulce de leche in some grocery stores and at Williams-Sonoma.

Smoked Mozzarella Risotto

Oh.My.God. Seriously, go make this risotto now. This was my favorite part of our Valentine's dinner. The crab cakes were good, the cake was good, but this risotto was fantastic. I have never made risotto, I'm not even sure I've ever ordered risotto... but I think its my new favorite side dish. This stuff is amazing. I'm already looking for other recipes and combinations to try so I can make more. I always thought this was a dish that was really finicky and took forever but it was actually extremely easy. Yes it takes a little while, but the wait is worth it. This probably took a little less than 30 minutes total.

This recipe is from Elly Says Opa and the only changes I made were using onion instead of shallot, slightly reducing the amount of sun-dried tomatoes and I left out the fresh basil since I didn't have any and used dried herbs. The recipe below reflects my changes. I also think that this serves 4 people as a side dish instead of 2 as we had leftovers for lunch the next day.



Smoked Mozzarella Risotto

1 T butter
1/2 small white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup arborio rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
2 oz smoked mozzarella cheese (chop into small pieces)
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste

In a sauce pan, heat the 3 cups of stock over medium heat.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. When melted, add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the rice and stir until well coated distributed. Toast the rice, stirring frequently for about 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook until reduced almost entirely.

Start adding broth, 1 ladle at a time, stirring the risotto frequently. Add another ladle of broth when the first addition is almost all absorbed. Continue this process until you've added all but the last of the broth. The rice should be creamy but still have a little bite to it. Add the sun-dried tomatoes with the last addition of broth and again cook until almost all absorbed.

Turn off the heat and add the cheese and all spices except the salt. Taste and add salt if necessary (I used low sodium chicken stock and between the stock and the cheese, didn't need anymore salt).

Make A Great Steak Without A Grill

Since the average temperature in February is around the freezing mark here, the grill is inaccessible. Which is really a shame, because you can make so many great foods on a grill. Steak was one of those things that I would have put in that category. So there was no steak unless it was from a restaurant at my house between November and March. I've tried the broiler route but it smokes and makes my house smell.

Lately, I've seen a few suggestions to sear the steak in an oven-safe pan, then finish cooking in the oven so I thought I would try it. This works best in a stainless steel or cast iron pan (not non-stick) and make sure the pan can go in the oven at a high temperature. You can use a grill pan if you want the grill marks but a regular pan works just as well and is much easier to clean up.

This method is not limited to just steak... it works well for many types of meat, especially thick cuts. I used a strip steak but use whatever you like best. I also added some caramelized onions and mushrooms to finish this off.

Make sure you let your steak sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes before cooking it so you are not putting cold meat into the hot pan which will make it tougher.


New York Strip Steak with Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms

2 steaks, 1 1/2 - 2" thick
Salt and pepper
1 T olive oil
1/2 onion
1/2 cup mushrooms
1 T butter
1/4 cup red wine

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat a large, oven safe skillet over medium-high heat until nice and hot. Rub steaks lightly with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. When pan is hot, add steaks. Do not move the steaks. Cook about 4 minutes on the first side until a nice crust develops, turn once. Cook an additional 4 minutes. Immediately transfer pan to the oven. Cook an additional 5-8 minutes to desired done-ness. (Mine took about 6 minutes to get to medium, pull it out just before its done as it will continue to cook a little as it rests.)

Transfer steaks to a plate and cover with foil. In the same pan over medium low heat, add butter, onions, and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and add red wine to deglaze the pan. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up some of the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Once the liquid is reduced and the onions are browned and softened, about 5 minutes, turn off the heat and pour over steaks.

Crab Cakes

Crab cakes are something that I used to be afraid of... seafood in general used to intimidate me. It always seems so delicate and I'm afraid I'll ruin it. A lot of seafood is relatively pricey so I didn't want to take a chance and waste a bunch of stuff. But I decided they couldn't be that difficult. After reading a comparison post on the blog Proceed with Caution, I had a little more insight into what my recipe would be. She highlighted recipes from Cooks Illustrated, Chronicles of a Fledgling Cook, Ellie Krieger, and Good Things Catered. Ultimately I sort of combined what I liked about each of the recipes and made up my own. I know most people would follow a recipe the first time they make something but I threw caution to the wind with this one.


I think they turned out great. I made about half of this filling into crab cakes and made 8 smallish (about 3" in diameter) crab cakes and the rest of the filling I think I'll turn into seafood enchiladas. Also, I used canned lump crab meat but if you've got fresh, by all means use it.

Crab Cakes

1 T butter
1 pound crab meat
1/2 red pepper, finely diced
1/2 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup Miracle Whip (I used Fat Free)
1 egg
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp dill
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
Canola oil for frying


Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and cool. Meanwhile, roughly chop crab meat. Add crab to cooled pepper mixture. Lightly beat egg and add with miracle whip, mustard and Worcestershire sauce, mixing gently. Mix bread crumbs with seasonings and gently stir about 1/2 of the crumbs into crab mixture.


Form mixture into small patties and dredge in remaining bread crumbs, pressing firmly to form patties. Transfer to a plate and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.



When ready to cook, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add approximately 4 T canola oil to coat the bottom of the pan well. When the oil is hot, add crab cakes in batches, leaving room to turn them in the pan. Don't overcrowd them. Cook approximately 5 minutes per side until crisp and golden brown.

Valentine's Day Menu

Todd and I celebrated Valentine's Day on Saturday because we were planning to be out of town this coming weekend with some friends. I wanted to cook us a nice dinner with some things that I don't normally make.

The Menu:

Appetizer:
Crab Cakes

Dinner:
Baby Spinach Salad with Feta, Walnuts and Dried Cranberries with Raspberry Vinaigrette
New York Strip Steak with caramelized onions and mushrooms
Smoked Mozzarella Risotto
Crusty Herb Bread

Dessert:
Yellow Cake with Dulce de Leche filling and Whipped Cream Icing

I used a bottled dressing and bread from Kroger bakery but other than that everything was homemade. Aside from the experiment with the dulce de leche, everything was extremely easy to put together and turned out great. I'll post the recipes over the next couple of days.

Superbowl Sunday

I decided to use this year's Superbowl logo to decorate a cake for the party we're going to tonight. I volunteered to make a dessert and then Todd said I should make a cake that looked like the logo. The lines were pretty clean and straight so I decided replicating it shouldn't be too hard. Using a few skills I picked up in my Wilton classes, I think I made a pretty decent logo cake.

For the cake itself, I used Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever recipe. This cake recipe is really quick and easy, you don't even need a mixer to make it. I made 1.5x the recipe and baked each layer in a 10x14 jellyroll pan.

For the filling, I used the chocolate frosting from the recipe, omitting the chopped pecans (since I didn't know if anyone at the party would have nut allergies) and increasing the powdered sugar by about 1 cup to make it a little thicker since it was going to have to hold together on its own and not just be served from the pan. The recipe below reflects my changes.

For the buttercream icing, I started with Magnolia Bakery's classic buttercream recipe but had to add a lot more powdered sugar to make it stiff enough to frost the cake.

Cake:
3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 heaping T cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 1/2 cups butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray pans with baking spray or butter and flour. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat. Add cocoa powder and stir together. Add boiling water and allow mixture to boil for about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and pour over the flour mixture. Gently stir the mixture until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.

In a measuring cup, measure the buttermilk and add beaten eggs. Add baking soda and vanilla and stir well. Add mixture to the cake batter and stir until well incorporated. Divide batter evenly between pans, smooth the tops with a rubber spatula and bake for approximately 20 minutes. Cool in pan for approximately 5 minutes and run a knife around the edges to loosen. Invert onto a wire rack and then using a second wire rack, flip right side up and cool completely.

Filling:
7/8 cup butter (1 3/4 sticks)
4 heaping T cocoa powder
6 T milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 - 1 1/4 pounds powdered sugar

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Add cocoa powder and stir to combine. Remove from heat and add the milk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Stir together until as smooth as possible. There will likely be some small chunks from the powdered sugar (you can sift the sugar to eliminate more if you want). Once cakes are cool, pour mixture over bottom layer and smooth with an offset spatula. Top with second cake layer and frost as desired.

Frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
2 - 2 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
Gel food coloring as desired

Beat softened butter in the bowl of a stand mixer for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add 4 cups powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Beat about 3-5 minutes until well incorporated. Scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Continue adding powdered sugar about 1-2 cups at a time until the frosting reaches the desired consistency. To frost the cake, the frosting should hold its shape on a spatula but fall off when you turn the spatula over, to do detail work, the frosting should be stiffer, when you turn the spatula over, it shouldn't fall off. Put a generous amount of frosting on top of the cake, smooth with an offset spatula and then go around the sides with the excess frosting.

Parmesan Panko Crusted Chicken

If you haven't discovered panko bread crumbs yet, find them. In my opinion, they are so much better than regular bread crumbs. Panko bread crumbs are commonly used in Japanese cooking and result in a crunchier coating. They are much lighter and airier than traditional bread crumbs.



When you want to make chicken quickly, butterfly your skinless boneless chicken breasts and pound them to a uniform thickness. By reducing the thickness of the chicken breasts, you can cook them very quickly whjch in general results in a much juicier chicken breast as they tend to dry out much easier with longer cooking times. To make them easier to coat and handle, I also cut these in half to make smaller pieces instead of one large butterflied breast.

I served this chicken with a roasted butternut squash and apple mixture, see the recipe here.

Parmesan Panko Crusted Chicken

3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 2 lbs)
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1 cup shredded/coarsely grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Trim any fat from chicken breasts, butterfly, cut in half, and pound to an even thickness, about 1/2" thick. Season both sides lightly with salt and pepper. In a shallow bowl, whisk together buttermilk and egg and add a little salt and pepper (about 1/2 tsp each). In another bowl or on a plate, combine bread crumbs, cheese, thyme, rosemary, and garlic.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil, enough to coat the bottom of the pan liberally. Bread the chicken cutlets by first dunking both sides in buttermilk mixture and then coating both sides with bread crumb mixture.

Add to hot pan. Don't overcrowd the pan, a 10" skillet will hold about 4 pieces so you may need to cook it in 2 batches.

Cook about 4-6 minutes on the first side, flipping when the breading is a deep golden brown crust. The second side will cook slightly faster. Line a large plate with paper towels and remove cooked chicken to plate. Cover with foil while you cook the second batch.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apples

Butternut squash has become my new favorite vegetable. It is so sweet and delicious. With its tough skin, it can be somewhat intimidating but get yourself a good strong vegetable peeler and a sharp knife and you'll be set. It's a also a versatile vegetable, you can play up the sweetness or mix it with Parmesan cheese and savory spices (especially cumin or smoky chili powder) and it works great. I like it better with sweet spices like cinnamon and nutmeg and it pairs perfectly with apples.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Apples

1 butternut squash
1 large or 2 small apples
1/4 cup golden raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 T olive oil (I used a citrus infused olive oil but you could also use regular olive oil and add a little orange zest if desired)
1 T brown sugar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Peel and chop squash. Start by cutting off the bulb part of the squash and slice off the end so it stands up easily. Peel both sections and then cut in half. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds (save them to be roasted later) and cut into large bite-size chunks. Peel and core apple and chop into large bite-size chunks.

Toss apple and squash chunks with olive oil on a large rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle on cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Toss and spread in a single layer on baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes, use a spatula to turn after about 15 minutes. After 30 minutes, squash should be fork tender. Sprinkle with brown sugar and add raisins. Stir again and bake an additional 5 minutes until raisins are soft.

I served this with Parmesan Panko Crusted Chicken... you can find the recipe here.

Perfect Party Cake

A friend asked me to bake a cake for a baby shower she was hosting last week. The mother-to-be is having a little girl so we decided on a simple pink trimmed cake. We didn't want to go to overboard with a theme since it was an office shower. When she asked for a cake, the first thing that came to mind was Dorie's Perfect Party Cake. The picture in her cookbook is just beautiful and I've been looking for an excuse to try the recipe. I wasn't at the shower so I don't have a picture of the inside of the cake but I did get a text message saying "The cake was loved by all. One woman said it was like crack, she could have eaten the whole thing." I'm so happy that the cake went over well and that the mom-to-be was happy!

Perfect Party Cake
Recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home To Yours

Cake:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 egg whites, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 8" round pans with baking spray (Dorie's recipe says 9" pans but I had 8" so I used them and it worked just fine). Cut parchment paper circles to fit into pans and spray with baking spray.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a 2 cup measuring cup, combine buttermilk and egg whites and whisk until well combined. Add sugar to bowl of a stand mixer. Add lemon zest and rub together with sugar until sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and beat with paddle attachment on medium speed for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add lemon extract. Add flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk mixture in 2 additions so you start and end with dry ingredients. Beat on medium speed after each addition until well incorporated. After all additions, beat an additional 2 minutes.

Divide the batter between pans and smooth tops with a spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool approximately 5 minutes and run a knife around the edge of the pan. Flip over on a wire rack to remove from pan and peel off parchment paper rounds. Flip right side up and cool completely on wire racks.

Icing:
1 cup sugar
4 egg whites
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a large heatproof bowl (I used the metal bowl for my stand mixer), combine egg whites and 1 cup sugar. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture is hot to the touch. It should take about 3 minutes and the sugar should be fully dissolved. Remove bowl from heat and using the whisk attachment of the mixer, beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment and add butter one stick at a time. Beat after each addition until the mixture is smooth. Once all the butter is added, beat an additional 6-10 minutes. The mixture will appear to curdle but just keep mixing. Finally add the lemon juice very slowly while the mixer is running, making sure it is all absorbed before adding more. Add vanilla and continue beating.

Filling:
2/3 cup raspberry preserves, room temperature
1 tsp lemon juice

Mix lemon juice and raspberry preserves together for filling and set aside until ready to assemble.

To assemble the cake:
Slice each layer in half and trim off any domed tops so the layers are flat. Put a small dollop of icing on cake plate and put down first layer, cut side down. Brush off any crumbs. Brush with simple syrup if desired. Divide icing into 2 parts. I colored half the icing pink for the filling and to trim the cake since it was for a baby shower. Spread 1/3 of the half the icing over the cake and smooth with an offset spatula. Spoon on 1/3 of the preserves and smooth out, stopping about 1/4" from the edge all the way around. Top with next layer of cake, cut side down. Repeat layering process for the next 2 layers. Spread remaining icing over the top and sides of the cake and decorate as desired. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Note: I had issues with the icing because I refrigerated it. Even though I let it come to room temperature, it curdled when I added the gel food coloring for the filling. I mixed in powdered sugar until the icing came together again (about 3 cups in total) plus a tablespoon or so of milk. However, after talking to several other people, I think the icing would have been fine if I had used it immediately and then refrigerated the whole cake.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

Here's a recipe for an easy weeknight dinner when you want something a little different than the usual pasta skillet meal or chicken/side dish combo. Stuffed peppers are often made with Italian flavors but I think they work really well with Mexican/southwestern flavors too.

Use a lean ground turkey or turkey breast in place of ground beef, brown instead of white rice, and 2% cheese to make this a healthier meal.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

1/2 pound ground turkey breast
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup black beans
1 cup corn
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1 can diced tomatoes with chiles (I use Ro-tel)
1/2 cup brown rice
4 bell peppers (I used green but any color will work)
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
1 lime

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan, cook rice with water as directed on package (I used Uncle Ben's quick brown rice and it takes 1 cup water per 1/2 cup rice and cooks in about 15 minutes). Meanwhile, brown turkey in a large skillet over medium high heat, crumbling as it cooks. Add 1/2 tsp cumin, cayenne, and half of chili powder. After about 5 minutes, add diced tomatoes and reduce heat to medium low. Add onions, black beans and corn and simmer until rice is cooked.

Meanwhile, prepare peppers by cutting in half through the top, remove stem, seeds and ribs. Rinse and set in a large baking dish. When liquid has cooked off rice, add remaining spices and fluff with a fork. Stir into turkey mixture. Squeeze juice of half of lime over the mixture and add half the cilantro. Spoon filling into pepper halves. Add a couple tablespoons of water to pan, cover the pan with foil and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Uncover, peppers should be softened. Sprinkle on cheese and return to oven for about another 5 minutes until cheese is melted. Top with remaining cilantro and sour cream, if desired.

I feel so official!

First a blog header... then Twitter... then a logo... now business cards! I'm moving right along on this path to actually doing something with this little business plan. Now I just need to work on the customer part.

All the work was done by Doodle Dog Advertising. Nikki is a great designer and will work with you on your marketing project. Doodle Dog also does invitations (they made my wedding invitations and have also done my save the dates, shower invites, and more for me) and they always, always do a great job! Check out their brand new blog or become a fan on Twitter.

New logo...

And my new business cards...

I absolutely love them... I'm so excited to start passing them out. For now, I'm going to focus primarily on desserts. Cupcakes, cakes, cookies, pies, cheesecakes, tarts... if you need them, let me know. I'd love to make something special for your next party!

Of course, if you need more than just desserts, I can do that too -- just ask.