Kitchen Aid

Easy Shepherd's Pie for Quick Comfort

2008-01-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

**Picture to follow**

It doesn't get better than Shepherd's Pie, except for EASY Shepherd's Pie. My favorite, mostly from scratch recipe is as follows:

Preheat Oven 350 degrees
1 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, diced
2 baking potatoes worth of your favorite mashed potatoes

Make it even quicker option: use the pre-made mashed potatoes

3 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon AP flour
1/2 c. frozen peas and carrots (I really like the frozen variety, but these can be fresh, too)
1/2 c. shredded mozzarella

Cook onion and ground beef together till ground beef browned in a medium sized skillet. Add flour and let it cook for another 4 minutes. Add Worcestershire Sauce and make sure all the ground beef is coated with the sauce. Add peas and carrots. Move mixture to a small casserole dish. Top with mashed potatoes then mozzarella cheese. Put in oven until cheese browned. Tada!

Other variations:

Use another type of cheese
Replace ground beef with diced beef
Use mixed veggies instead of peas and carrots
Don't use any veggies in the beef mix, but put creamed corn over the beef
Top the beef mix with Parmesan cheese before adding the potatoes
Don't add cheese at all

Three sites worth viewing

2008-01-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

These three sites are obsessive worthy. They each hold a special place in my google reader, and I encourage everyone to take a look and add it to your daily list.

Cupcake Blog: She will turn anything dessert-worthy into a beautiful mini-masterpiece. I haven't sampled the recipes yet, but I have made it a January '08 resolution to try this recipe first. By the way, this was the very first foodie blog I ever subscribed to. It has NEVER disappointed.
Burnt Lumpia serves flavorful filipino dishes. What I enjoy most is Mr. Lumpia's love of food and honest look into his culture, which just so happens to be my own. Other than lumpia, adobo and sub-par pancit, I've never ventured into authentic food from the homeland, but his posts make me want to. What I love most on this site, though, is his relationship with "kal", a sweet (and tart) kalamansi tree that I am willing to babysit if ever given a chance. Here's a link to Kamansi Granata, which I will try the next time I get a hold of that precious citrus. In the meantime, I'll stock up on Kalamansi soda at the local Asian market - yum!
Steamy Kitchen: After maybe 2-3 years of reading food blogs, it wasn't until July of 2007 till I cracked and HAD to try a recipe. It was the already mentioned german pancakes over at the steamy kitchen and let me tell you, it is m FAVORITE breakfast item of all time. I did more than just try the recipe, I also adopted her tradition of making it on Sunday mornings. I took a break when school got out of hand, but I'm making it up already by having it twice in the past week. This chicken is next.

Happy New Years!

2008-01-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a great night. I relaxed at home and made a bunch of apps that required the KA mixer. I made:

The KA recipe for cheeseballs
An altered version of the KA recipe for Meatballs

After making the meatballs, I made a meatball sauce using about two spoonfuls of strawberry jam, the same amount of ketchup and then about a half a cup of BBQ sauce. Then kept it warm in my new crock pot. Not too bad.

Eagle Brand Magic Bars

I did something wrong when I made these bars. Not sure what, but I will have to try it again sometime.

Deviled Eggs

My own recipe of mayo and yellow mustard until it was the right shade of yellow and creamy enough.

So, that's how I stuffed my face. One of my new years resolutions was to eat healthier, so I decided to let 2007 end with a bang. Happy 2008!

German Oven Pancakes

2007-12-29T15:51:00.000-08:00

So for breakfast this morning I made German Oven Pancakes. I got the recipe over at Jaden's Steamy Kitchen. I forgot to take a picture, but I do cook this quite often, so a picture will come up again soon. I adjust the recipe by either adding vanilla extract or german vanilla sugar. So good. This morning I made it with a mixture of apricots, asian pears, peaches and bananas. It's a good combination that I will definitely try again.

I also made homemade whipped cream. I used to make it with one of those handheld mixers which was good because I can sense when it was good and whipped. It's too hard to tell when you don't control it and I was so scared it was going to turn to butter. It didn't, but I can't wait till I get to know the mixer a little better.

Nestle Toll House Cookies

2007-12-27T17:33:00.000-08:00

I got a Kitchen Aid Mixer for Christmas and I decided to christen it by making "Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies"Soooo good...
Here's the recipe:

*I made some alterations, I used less salt and less chocolate chips. I don't like them too chocolaty.

Rating: 10

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

PAN COOKIE VARIATION: Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.

SLICE AND BAKE COOKIE VARIATION:
PREPARE dough as above. Divide in half; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Shape each half into 15-inch log; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.* Preheat oven to 375° F. Cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices; place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

* May be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer for up to 8 weeks.

FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING (5,200 feet): Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. Add 2 teaspoons water with flour and reduce both granulated sugar and brown sugar to 2/3 cup each. Bake drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookie for 17 to 19 minutes.