My forays into the world of backing have been… interesting to say the least. With the addition of a fantastic KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas, I’ve been looking for excuses to use it almost weekly! Thus, I’ve been trying every different recipe I can find. This recipe is another Cat Cora recipe though I deviated a touch. They were meant to be Black Cherry Chocolate but considering I had no access to anything cherry, they were just chocolate. Still delicious! Alas, I’m still learning the ins and outs of the baking world. While they tasted good, the cupcake itself got a touch dense. And my a touch, I mean a lot. They still seemed to go over well, though, given the lovely Kait’s expression! 

As I mentioned way back in my first post to this blog (over a year ago. Yipe!) I wanted to have a tips and trick section. Since then, I have made a whole two tips and tricks posts. This link provides excellent insight to the ins and outs of cooking, thus making tips and tricks post number 3. Enjoy the read! 

With this Cat Cora recipe, the mystery of the Blondie has been unraveled! These were so delicious and so easy to make. They really essentially worked like brownies only instead of cocoa powder, I used peanut butter. They were so delicious and a great hit with everyone who had one. 

I promise, as soon as I have access to the recipe again I will share it further with everyone. 

-Dannie

Hello faithful Followers! 

I would just like to take a moment to apologize for our absence. Ernie and I arrived home from London in December and it’s been nothing but work, rehearsal, and generic being busy since touching down. We’ve been cooking, I promise, we just haven’t had the time to document it all. 

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to work to get everything left from London posted and then start getting posting on my latest cooking endeavors. Bear with us the next few months- we’re both graduating in May and, thus, have to get everything all wrapped up before we cross that stage. 

Come summer, there will be weekly (at the very least) food posts, I promise. 

Thanks!

Dannie

A favorite Tapas dish of both Ernie and myself is that delicious Queso de Cabra- goats cheese. A big wheel of the cheese with a tomato sauce and a mountain of garlic bread with which to devour it? What could be better? 

One evening while in London, having a slight bout of homesickness and not wanting to spend copious amounts of money on Tapas from a restaurant, we turned this favorite small plate of ours into a main course for dinner! 

In place of the Garlic bread served on the side, we took some chicken breasts and put them into the bottom of the baking dish. After preparing some degree of tomato sauce (It was far too long ago…) we added this on top of the chicken and then layered slices of goats cheese on top of that. The whole dish went into the oven for twenty to thirty minutes at around 400 F and came out golden brown and delicious. 

It may have been ages ago that we made this- we’ve been back from London since December- but it’s one of the dishes I will never forget. 

-Dannie

This isn’t exactly a massive feat of cooking. I would more define it as fancy college student food. Gourmet Ramen at its finest. It is a combination of premade ingredients with a bit of creativity and flair to make something delicious on a tiny budget. 

It is amazing the power of a package of premade tortellini. The possibilities for it are endless when you think about sauces. It can be something as simple as “aglio ed olio” which is just garlic and olive oil or it can be as complex as an entirely homemade pasta sauce. So much is possible. And the fillings available for these delicious little pillows of pasta and goodness seem to get more and more creative the more I actively look for them. It should be noted, though, that without some sort of added flair, premade tortellini do have a tendency to taste like they came out of a package. Which, of course, they did but wouldn’t the point be to make it taste delicious rather than packaged? 

This tortellini in particular was a tomato and basic tortellini. Simple flavors that just required a little help to be made extraordinary. For their sauce, I did an upgraded take to aglio ed olio. I minced and browned two cloves of garlic in a pan with some olive oil. After they were toasty and smelling absolutely hevenly, I took another few turns around the pan with the olive oil to have something substantial to coat the pasta with. The juice of half a lemon brightened up the oil as well as added more liquid. Once the pasta was drained, I dumped it back into the pot and poured the garlic and olive oil on top. 

Here’s where it gets interesting. I’d heard previously that squid ink was great on pasta, had even seen it used on Food Network periodically. I have to admit, though, I did not know anything about it. The only reason I purchased it in the first place was because I saw it at Harrod’s for 50p a packet! I figured if Harrod’s thought it was good enough to sell (and recommend for serving on pasta) then it must be alright. Thus, one small packet of squid ink, probably about the size of your average soy sauce packet, was sliced open and squeezed onto the tortellini. 

The result? Delicious. The Squid ink did not really add any flavor beyond a mild salty taste but the flavors is brought out were marvelous! It accented every single flavor in the dish and tied them all together magnificently. Rather than bringing something new to the party already, it acted as a flavor binder. This lovely little ingredient has already been used time and time again in our quick pasta makings turning an ordinary evening into an extraordinary one with the simple addition of a glass of wine with the pasta. I highly recommend this as a basic pasta ingredient to anyone looking to impress someone without wanting to put forth much effort. I just hope it will be as readily available when I return home to the States… 

-Dannie

In Italian, the name if this dish translates to “fish soup.” While that’s not an accurate description of the dish, it is still delicious and fishy (in the best way possible.) 

Cooking Zuppa di Pesce is actually incredibly easy. I started the adventure with pasta, a jar of premade pasta sauce, a bag of baby spinach, and a container of mixed seafood which contained shrimp, mussels, calamari and scallops precooked and ready to go. 

Before anything else, I set a pot on a back burner with water to boil for the pasta. Then in a frying pan, I sauteed the baby spinach with some salt and garlic and a little bit of lemon to add some brightness to the greens. As soon as these were cooked, they made it into the sauce pot along with the premade pasta sauce which was warming up with the seafood mix. Along with the spinach, I mixed in some garlic powder, some Italian Seasoning, and a touch of chili powder for an added kick. Since the sauce contained seafood which needed to be heated, I simmered this and left it there for about 7 minutes both to heat the seafood through and to impart a delicious seafood flavor into the sauce.

Once the pasta was boiled up and drained, it ended up in the sauce pot, too. A few stirs and dinner was complete! 

This dish tantalized my taste buds. So simple and yet so delicious, Zuppa di Pesce certainly is a relatively healthy comfort food that will satisfy any appetite. 

So with an abundance of extra potatoes from the Bangers and Mash I thought that I would do a personal favorite of mine; Potato pancakes. These greasy little disks of fried potato certainly help fill and empty stomach, like the Bangers and Mash; these are another easy potato recipe that are great for just about anything, except maybe your waistline. (I do not advocate eating these day after day)

 Anyways, all you need are potatoes, onions, egg, oil, lots of oil, sour cream or applesauce (which ever you prefer) and salt and pepper. Grate the potatoes, scramble the eggs, chop the onions, and mix everything together, add salt and pepper for taste, and then fry the concoction. The result; potato pancakes, they aren’t the prettiest thing I have ever made, but they sure taste awesome!

-Ernie

Photo Credit: uk-louie 

One dish I am known for at home with my family is my macaroni and cheese recipe. I took a classic recipe from Giada DeLaurentis and adapted it, changing it in several places to make it my own recipe. It is a recipe I will never share with anyone (not even Ernie) but will happily make for people.

While here, there is a fair amount of homesickness within our group. One person in particular associated mac and cheese with home strongly enough that making it would make her feel much better. Thus, we ventured out into the streets of London to acquire ingredients for the spectacular dish. I won’t share all of the ingredients because that would be giving away too much of the recipe, but I will say that for the special occasion of making her dinner, I splurged on the cheeses. I replaced half of one of the usual cheeses in the dish for a delicious creamy Italian cheese that contained truffles. It took the dish to an entirely new level and made it even tastier. I don’t know that I’ll want to make the dish without that cheese again.

After putting the pasta and sauce into a baking dish, covering it in a crunchy topping, it went into the oven where it sat for nearly a half an hour before coming out melty, crunchy, and delicious. The final product tastes as good as it always does with a little extra something in there, a nice compliment provided by the truffles.

With a combination of cheesy, warm, crunchy, and comforting making this dish so spectacular, it’s no wonder everyone seemed to feel just a little bit better after dinner that night. The next time a bout of homesickness strikes, I’m going to immediately reach for the cheese and comfort everyone with my signature dish.

-Dannie 

The Food Halls at Harrods, perhaps among the most famous part of the department store, are a foodie’s wonderland. Divided into rooms of meats & poultry, produce & grocery, confections and ready-made foods, the halls have nearly every single type of food imaginable. It is known of Harrods that if they do not have something you want, they will procure it for you. They define the phrase “one stop shop” though on a much higher end than the average supermarket at home.

Their different types of seafood were spectacular ranging from prawns and common types of fish to their “seafood of the month” which was Monkfish when we were there. Sitting amid the beds of ice were whole monkfish waiting to be taken home staring at customers, as if trying to intimidate them into purchasing. Nearby the fish counter sat an Oyster Bar where you could order oysters and enjoy them in the middle of Harrod’s with a glad of wine or other beverage. While expensive, the thought of experiencing eating in the middle of a department store was incredibly exciting, indeed.

The next room, the produce and grocery room, had cases upon cases of fresh fruits and veggies both native to England and from around the world. There was an entire case dedicated to exotic fruits of the world including cactus fruit and dragon fruit. In the grocery section, rather than having simple or basic varieties of groceries, the basic ingredients ventured into gourmet levels. For example, they had a whole shelf of balsamic vinegars which included different flavors added into the vinegars including truffles and chilies.

In the confectionary, handmade chocolates and candies filled cases and boxes including delicious looking chocolate truffles and toffees. In one corner of the room stood a wall of teas from around the world as well as fancy teapots and other tea accessories.

The final food hall was the ready-made hall. The room contained sandwiches, take away Asian food, cheeses, and the bakery brimming with delicious crusty breads. There was a wall of prepackaged sandwiches, drinks, and snacks of fruit. Amid the drinks was a familiar face that I haven’t seen in a while- Naked juice! The juice can’t be found here except for at Harrod’s. While the price was incredibly inflated, up to twice the price of what the juice costs at home. Still, it was a pleasant taste of home.

The food halls truly were a spectacular foodie heaven that we have already managed to visit twice and intend to visit time and time again. Visiting the store and buying one high quality ingredient for dinner that night is an incredibly fun way to get food and dine at high quality while still keeping within the tiny budget we have to work with.