Recipes from the Blog

Designer Pancakes:  No recipe but a few tips


  • Whatever recipe you use for pancakes, or if you use a mix like Aunt Jemima, when it calls for water swap it with some milk. Example, if it calls for 1cup of water, put in 3/4cup of water & 1/4cup milk. This will give you thicker, fluffier and more filling pancakes. 
  • I have used the drop food coloring and all though it works, using the gel's give you brighter, deeper, just all around better colors. Plus you don't have to use as much so you don't really spend more money then using the cheaper drops. 
  • Buy some squeeze bottles from the baking department. They are clear so you can see how much mix you have & what colors there are. I also have bought a couple extra so I could cut the tips off a bit, for a larger hole & quicker pouring for those pancakes that have large fill in area's.
  • If you have a very intricate pancake lower the temperature and cook it longer, otherwise the edging will curl up before you are able to fill it all in.
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Meatball Cupcakes:

Ingredients: 
  • Ground beef (73%, 9%)
  • 1/3 cup of oats (per lb of beef)
  • 4 tbsp. of Garlic powder
  • 5 tbsp. of Italian Seasoning (without garlic)
  • 1 egg (for 1-2 lbs of meat)
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (freshly grated is best)
  • 1 tbsp. of onion powder
  • 2 tsp. of ground cumin seed
  • Spaghetti Sauce (25.6 oz can)
  • Tomato Paste (12 oz can)
  • Mozzarella cheese
  • Parmesan cheese (freshly grated)
  • Garlic bread (either bought, or use some Italian seasoning w/garlic & butter to make your own garlic butter)
Directions:
     Meatballs
  • Combine Ground beef, egg, 1/2 cup parmesan Italian seasoning (w/o garlic), oats, garlic powder, onion powder and combine. 
  • Measure out 4 oz of meat and make into balls.
  • Put into cupcake pans (I like to use the disposable foil pans)*
  • Bake for 25 minutes and rotate pans, baking for another 20 minutes**
  • Take out from oven and using a corer, put a hole in the middle of the cupcake (insert corer slowly to prevent breaking) 
  • Stuff mozzarella cheese into hole
  • Return to oven for a minute or two (just to make sure the cheese is melted, do not worry about checking)
     Icing
  • Combine spaghetti sauce tomato paste & season to taste with same ingredients as the meat ball
  • Add 1/4-1/2 cup parmesan cheese
  • Cook Angel hair pasta
  • Combine some of the spaghetti sauce with the cooked pasta and set aside (only use enough sauce to coat all noodles but not drench them)
I plated this with a bit of sauce on the bottom, then the meat ball cupcake with some of the noodles as icing. Then I sprinkled some freshly grated mozzarella & parmesan cheese onto and around the cupcake. For a little coloring I garnished with some freshly chopped parsley leaf & some garlic bread.


Naturally if you have a meatball recipe you like, use it. The beauty of cooking is you can adapt any recipe to make it your own. 

*poke some holes towards the bottom of the tins for the juices to drain out
**place a larger pan (oven safe) onto a rack underneath where the cupcake pans are to catch any dripping juices.


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Teriyaki Sauce:


Ingredients 


  • 1/4 cup Soy Sauce
  • 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 cup Water
  • 1 tbsp corn starch
  • 1-2 tbsp Oil (veg, olive, canola, peanut whatever)
  • 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
Directions:
  • In a small pan combine brown sugar & water. over medium heat, stir until fully dissolved, then set aside
  • Take your saucier pan at medium/high heat and add oil, garlic powder and corn starch to make your rue
  • After rue is ready put in soy sauce & the brown sugar water. Heat over high heat stirring constantly until it comes to a boil (about 2 minutes). lower heat to medium high and let it reduce by about 1/3 stirring every now and then so the sugar does not crystallize (takes about 5 minutes or so). 
  • Set aside and let cool and thicken a little bit more as it cools slightly then serve.

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Garlic Steak Sauce

Ingredients
  • 2 tbsp of Flour
  • 1 tbsp of Garlic Powder
  • 1/2 tsp of Onion Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Fresh Ground Pepper
  • 1/2 cup of Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1/2 cup of Water
  • 1/2 tsp of Honey
  • Oil


Directions
  • In a saucier add oil, flour, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper & salt to make your rue
  • Add water, worcestershire sauce & honey. Stir to combine on high heat.
  • Reduce on high heat, stirring often, until sauce thickens to your desire & serve
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Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients for nuggets before breading
  • Chicken (how much depends on how many you plan on making) Preferably breast with rib meat
  • Chicken bullion (powder form not cubes)
  • 1 tsp Italian Herbs
  • Pinch of salt
  • Water
Directions
  • Cube chicken up into about 1-2 inch size pieces
  • Combine water, chicken bullion, herbs & salt by stirring
  • Add chicken to brine and soak at least 2 hours (if you can soak for 6-12 hours in the fridge would be best)
  • Drain chicken thoroughly and grind up fine with a meat grinder. I love using my kitchen aid mixer for this because it has a meat grinder attachment. A great investment for any kitchen.
  • with a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper place the chicken & spread until evenly covered, then place in freezer for 1-2 hours or until hard (does not have to be fully frozen)
  • With cookie cutters of choice cut out shapes, coat with breading, fry & ENJOY! 
Ingredients for breading
  • About 1 to 1 1/2 cups of Flour or Pancake Mix
  • 3/4 cup of Bread Crumbs
  • 3 tbsp of Red Robin Seasoning
  • 2-3 tbsp of Italian Herbs (dried or fresh)
  • 2 tsp of white pepper
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
Directions
  • Mix eggs and milk for an egg wash and place in bowl
  • Mix together flour, bread crumbs, Red Robin Seasoning, Herbs & White Pepper together into a separate bowl (I like to use pancake mix because it adds a ever so slight sweet flavor to the breading)
  • take 3/4 cup of breading mixture into another separate bowl
  • Dip frozen nuggets into breading mix (3/4 cup bowl). Coat thoroughly let sit for 10 minutes. Discard breading after use for health safety reasons
  • After the 10 minute rest, dip coated nuggets into egg wash & then coat again in breading mixture
  • Fry in pan or fryer until golden brown and chicken is cooked. Usually about 4-5 minutes for several nuggets.
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Honey Mead Batter Cod

Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
  • 2 tsp White Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
  • 1/2 tsp Ground Thyme
  • Pancake Mix*
  • 1/4 Cup of Honey Mead**
  • Water
Directions
  • Mix all ingredients together to form your batter
  • Dip fish into bater & deep or pan fry until fish is done, and breading is a golden to brown color
*Can be swapped out with flour, fish batter mixes, bread crumbs etc...
**Can be swapped out for mead/beer of choice
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Meat Balls

Ingredients
  • 2 lbs ground beef
  • 1lb ground pork or sausage
  • 1/2 cups of oats
  • 1 egg
  • salt n pepper to taste
  • 1-2 tbsp Italian Herbs
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder (or half an onion finely chopped)
  • 1-2 tbsp of garlic powder (or 1-2 cloves of garlic minces)
Directions
  • Combine all ingredients and mix well
  • form into meatballs
  • sear in pan
  • cook either in oven at 375 for 15 minutes or in sauce of choice on stove. 
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Spicy Asian Sauce

Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp corn starch
  • 3 tbsp Sambal Oelek
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
Directions
  • In a sauce pan heat up oil and corn starch. Mix until well combined
  • Add in Sambal Oelek chili paste, water and soy sauce, stirring until well combined and sauce is formed. It only took about 3 minutes to thicken up
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Turkey Burger

Ingredients
  • 1 lb of ground turkey
  • 1/4 cup oats
  • 3 tbsp red robin seasoning (or seasonings of your choice)
  • 1/2 tsp of black or white pepper (ground)
  • 1 egg
Directions
  • Mix all ingredients together
  • Cook either on BBQ grill, George foreman, oven or method of your choice
I loved the compliment of using both muenster and cheddar cheese for these burgers. It turned out great, but of course this is only a suggestion.
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Sirloin Bacon Burger

Ingredients
  • 3 parts sirloin roast
  • 1 part bacon (I used thick cut bacon, but I don't think it would matter)
  • Oats (I use about 1/4 cup per lb of meat)
  • Red Robing seasons (or seasonings of your choice) 
Directions:
  • Cube up sirloin into about 2" cubes, & season lightly
  • Cut up bacon into about 2 inch slices 
  • Grind sirloin with the course grind bit, then do the same with the bacon
  • Mix in oats & run through the meat grinder again with the fine grind bit
  • Form into patties and cook in frying pan, indoor grill, or bbq grill (however your heart desires) I usually finish off the seasoning by adding the final touches at this step to both sides of the burger
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Oreo Delight

Ingredients:
  • 1 package of chocolate pudding (I used the 6 1/2 cup servings size box)
  • 1-2 packages of Double Stuffed Oreo's (1 package per 4 servings)
  • 1/2 cup powedered sugar
  • 1 pint heavy cream (whipping cream)
Directions:
  • Seperate the creamy goodness from the cookie (do not worry if the cookies break, but try to keep the circle of cream intact. After move the cream into the fridge to harden up by cooling)
  • Mix the pudding per packages instructions
  • Put a layer of cookies onto the bottom of the dish, followed by a layer of pudding, creamy goodness, cookies again & one last layer of pudding.
  • Let set in fridge for an hour
  • Just before serving, take the powdered sugar and whipping cream and mix until your whip cream is formed.
  • Top off the oreo delight with whipped cream & garnish with a cookie then Serve!
Note: You will have left over cookies. I took some of these and crushed up finely with my magic bullet blender. Using a metal tea ball as a small hand sifter I sprinkled this on top of the whip cream.
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New York Style Cheesecake

Crust

Ingredients: 
  • 2 cups of crushed graham crackers
  • 1/4 cup melted butter, or half stick (I prefer the unsalted butter.)
Directions:
  • Melt the butter and mix in the crushed graham crackers
  • Once combined transfer to the bottom of your pan for the cheesecake and spread out with your fingers
  • Compact crust with your hands
  • Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes
  • set aside and let cool while making the cheese cake batter
Cheesecake

Ingredients:
  • 5 8oz packages of full fat cream cheese
  • 1 1/4 cup sugar
  • 3 tbsp of flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 5 large eggs (gently beaten)
  • 2 tbsp of whole milk
  • 1/2 cup of white chocolate chunks (about 1/4 inch in size & frozen)
Directions:
  • wrap outside of pan with tin foil
  • Take another pan that is larger than the one for cheesecake and pour in about 2" of water (after the cheesecake is in it's pan put it in the second pan & make sure the water is about halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan. If need be add more water)
  • Soften cream cheese to room temp & mix with flour, salt & sugar.
  • add vanilla and eggs on slow speed until mixture is lump free. 
  • Stir in frozen white chocolate chunks & pour into pan
  • Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes or until the middle is set but still jiggles slightly
  • Turn oven off and let sit & cool down with the oven for 30 minutes. 
  • Remove cheesecake from oven and water bath, take a knife and run along the outside edge of the cheesecake, then let it cool on the counter (on a rack) for another 30 minutes
  • Transfer cheesecake to the fridge and let cool for 6 hours (I like to let mine sit over night)
  • Cut and serve
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Syrup*

Ingredients:
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups water**
  • 2 tbsp corn syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups of cocoa powder***, raspberry, strawberry puree* etc...
Directions:
  • In a sauce pan (I prefer a saucier) combine sugar water and corn syrup bring to a boil
  • Remove from heat add vanilla, salt and flavor ingredient
  • Whisk to combine
  • Transfer into a bottle and let sit on the counter for a couple of hours to cool down, without the top on
  • Put the top on and put in fridge to finish cooling down
The syrup will keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge.

*This recipe was used from Alton Brown's Good Eats cooking show for the purpose of chocolate syrup, but was adapted for other uses.
**If using raspberry or blackberry decrease the amount of water by 1/2 cup or your syrup will be too thin. Make sure to puree the fruit well. Small tiny little seeds are ok, but we do not want any fruit chunks
***add the cocoa powder in stages to combine. It takes a lot of stirring to get them to combine so be aware your arm will hurt after.
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