Ribs and garlic twist rolls

Memorial day we had spare ribs for dinner. My knowledge of ribs is diddly squat. I know that country ribs are meatier and don't come in a slab. That's it. Usually we buy the precooked Lloyds ribs, but they don't always carry them at the store. This time Mrblocko wanted to try grilling a real slab of ribs. The spare ribs were ridiculously on sale this week, so why not give it a go.

The original plan was to cook the ribs in the crock pot, then char them on the grill. We were going to visit family in the morning and in doing the math, we realized if we put them in the crock pot before we left, we'd be eating dinner way early and if we put them in when we got home, we'd be eating in the middle of the night. So we changed plans and cooked them for an hour and a half in the oven before slapping them on the grill. This worked out quite well as the day turned out to be a bit chilly and the oven warmed the kitchen nicely.

Since I don't know anything about ribs, I don't know if spare ribs are normally this huge. Compared to the Lloyd's ribs these guys looked like something on the Flintstones. Mrblocko only ate 3 ribs and he normally downs a full half slab.

Blockette was very excited that we were eating the ribs of a pig. You know there are lots of kids out there who get squeamish when they find out meat actually comes from a real live animal. Not this kid. We talked about bones and ribs and pigs all through the meal. There is a girl from Sunday school who's grandparents (who also go to our church) own a pig farm. We also talked about how they feed and care for the pigs so they can get big and fat so we can eat them. She thought that was fascinating.

Oh, the 2 round things on the plate are garlic cheese twists. Can't forget about them. They are made from crescent roll dough. Fun and super easy.

Garlic Butter Cheddar Cheese Twists from Liesl's Confection Dissection
1 package of reduced fat crescent rolls
1 tablespoon butter, melted
garlic salt
cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray a muffin pan with pam. Separate crescent rolls into 4 squares, which is 2 crescent rolls together. Press the part of the square that has the perforation (where you would separate them) together. You don't want to dough to come apart when you twist it. Cut each square into thirds longways. Then take one of the thirds and twist it up, tucking one end underneath so it doesn't come apart. Place into the greased muffin pan. Continue process until you have finished all the twists. Combine melted butter with a couple dashes of garlic salt. Brush the tops of the twists with the garlic butter mixture. Sprinkle tops of twists with cheddar cheese.Place in oven and bake 10-12 minutes til nice and golden.

Buffalo chicken dip

This weekend I made Buffalo chicken dip for a party. I've seen this recipe all over the blogosphere for quite some time with everyone and their brother claiming it is their own original recipe. Whoever it was that invented this concoction was a genius. It is good, made with crack good. I know I've talked about how I am not a fan of hot sauce or traditional buffalo wings, but there was enough cheese to counteract the spice and stink of the hot sauce. I think another thing I liked about this dip is that it tasted better with celery and carrots than it did with chips or crackers. You can almost feel like you are being heathy by eating veggies instead of chips...almost. There was so much food at the gathering that we wound up taking half of the dip back home with us. Darn!


Buffalo Chicken Dip from The Bitten Word
8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup ranch salad dressing
1/4 cup blue cheese salad dressing
1/2 cup buffalo sauce or buffalo style barbecue sauce
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (shredded mozzarella cheese can be substituted)
2 cups shredded meat from a fully cooked rotisserie chicken

Pre-heat oven to 350F. In a deep baking dish, mix cream cheese, salad dressing, buffalo sauce, and cheese. Stir until combined. Stir in chicken. Bake uncovered for 20-25 min, til dish is heated through. Serve with crackers, pita chips, sliced bread or vegetables.

NOTE: Depending on your tastes and the ingredients on hand, you can use 1/2 c ranch or blue cheese salad dressing rather than 1/4 c of each. Similarly, you can mix blue cheese and mozzarella, or use portions of each.

Is it a Monut or a Duffin?

I got this donut pan and this mini donut pan for Christmas and I finally got around to using them this weekend. See, I think muffins taste best when they are slightly warm from the oven, and I have this thing about sleeping as long as possible, which means no muffins in time for breakfast. Sunday morning I woke up early and was AWAKE. I attempted to will myself back to sleep but I guess these little buggers just wanted to be made. These are baked apple "donuts" from cooks.com. They were good, not "drool on the floor" good, but "I would make these again some day" good. I've made apple muffins before (different recipe that I have since thrown out) in a regular muffin tin before and the muffins were almost slimy in the middle the next day. The surface ratio of the donut shape seemed to work well with this recipe. I guess enough moisture from the apple was able to escape without drying out the cakey part. We had muffins again for breakfast this morning and they were almost as good the second day. (Only almost as good because, they weren't warm out of the oven.)

The donuts muffins didn't rise as much as I had anticipated so they didn't get that nice rounded shape on both sides. I don't know if it was a fault of the recipe or if my baking powder is losing its oomph or maybe I just didn't fill the pan enough. I have a few more donut muffin recipes I'd like to test someday. I should be able to solve the problem with more experimentation.

There is one distinct disadvantage to using the donut pans over the regular muffin tins...it is not a time saver to use the cookie scoops, at least not with a thick batter like the Baked apple donuts. I had to spread out the batter around the part of the pan that forms the hole. Because I had to do that, it was easier to just spoon the batter in. Oh well. Don't fret my little scoopers. I still love you!!!!


BAKED APPLE "DONUTS" from Cooks.com
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. finely diced apples

Sift first 5 ingredients. Add 1/3 c shortening; mix til mix is coarse. Set aside. In another bowl combine egg, milk and diced apples. Add to dry ingredients just until blended. Spoon into 12 greased muffin cups. Bake at 350 for 20-25 min. While donuts are baking, melt 1/2 c butter. Set aside. Combine 1/2 c sugar and 1 t cinnamon. When donuts are done, dip in butter and then in sugar.

Phyllo victory

Phyllo has been one of those things I've had zero success with. I think the curse is over! This attempt did not end in disaster. whohoo!!!

This weekend I made Turkish Sigara Boregi. They are sort of like a Mediterranean egg roll, only with Phyllo. I originally saw the recipe here for a chicken version. The step by step photos were so helpful. I don't think I could have made them successfully without the visual aid. This was a very fussy prep, but it was fun painting on the egg wash.
Mrblocko thought they would have been better with tatziki sauce, but improvised and used ranch dressing. Blockette was very reluctant to try but once she had ranch dressing and found out we were having ice cream for dessert she ate her dinner gladly.

If I ever get the urge to make this again, (ie I have plenty of time and feel like making a fussy dinner)I'll try the chicken version. I think if you used slightly more than 1/4 cup filling, a whole box of Phyllo would make both the chicken and the beef versions, esp if you only use one sheet for each "cigar". The recipe said to use one sheet but I found that it was way too fragile so I used 2. The ones I started off with 1 sheet I wrapped in another so the meat wouldn't fall out of the holes that were created when I rolled them up. If you make this, preserve your sanity and use 2 sheets.


Sigara Boregi With Minced Meat from Eating out Loud
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons pine nuts
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

1 egg
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons milk
1 lb phyllo sheets (about 18)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Heat olive oil in a large skillet and add the onion. Cook for 2-3 min til onion begins to soften, then add minced garlic and pine nuts. Saute for an additional 1-2 min til pine nuts begin to turn golden. Add ground beef to the skillet and cook for 3-4 min, then add cinnamon, oregano and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, then set aside to cool.

In  small bowl, whisk egg, olive oil and milk. Will be slightly thick and will be used to moisten  phyllo dough.

Take a sheet of phyllo dough and lay it out on a flat surface with longest side facing you. Keep  remaining phyllo covered with a moist towel until ready to use. Lightly brush left half of phyllo with the egg mix. Gently lift right side of phyllo and fold it over left side. The phyllo dough will now be half the size of when you started and you will now have the shortest side facing you.

Brush the top of the phyllo with the egg mixture. Take 1/4 c  beef mixture (make sure it has cooled) and place it 2" from the nearest edge of the phyllo and leave 2"  on either side of the meat. The meat mix is placed nearest to you as you will begin rolling it away from you. Don’t worry if some of the phyllo sheets have small tears in them.

Fold in each of the long sides by 2". Beginning at the edge closest to you, fold the narrow end over the meat mixture. Continue rolling the dough away from you as you form a cigarette shaped roll. When you are nearing the end, brush the final 2" with the egg mix. Fold the roll over this final bit of dough to seal it. Place seam side down on a baking sheet.

Before baking, brush the tops and sides of each roll with more of the egg mix. Sprinkle tops with sesame seeds. Bake at 350F for 20-25 min til golden brown.

Chicken Sate

This weekend we made Penzey's chicken sate. We used this exact recipe, plus the 2 dipping sauces. I've had Sate seasoning sitting in the spice cabinet for ages and finally got around to testing it out. We all thought it was great. We had rice, peapods and pineapple as sides and those flavors in combo with the dips were very refreshing on a warm spring night.

I of course did not like the spicy ginger dipping sauce as it was mostly made up of hot sauce. Mrblocko liked this the spicy ginger dipping sauce until he had it as leftovers today. He said "after he got done eating the sauce it felt like burning ash in his mouth." Who knows what was up with that. Could have been the brand of hot sauce or the fact that the chicken had been sitting in the hot sauce dip all day.

The first dipping sauce was delicious though. Blockette even liked it. She said, "Mommy, I love that black dip."

I'll make this again. When I do I think I'll try it with a peanut dipping sauce just to be different.


Penzeys Sate Chicken from the Penzeys Website
2-4 TB. SATÉ SEASONING
2 TB. water
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 TB. soy sauce
4 TB. peanut or vegetable oil
2 TB. rice vinegar
30 wooden skewers

Dipping Sauce 1:
1/4 Cup soy sauce
2 thinly sliced shallots (2 TB. minced dry SHALLOTS)
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. lime juice (the juice of 1/2 lime)
CRUSHED RED or JALAPENO PEPPER to taste


Dipping Sauce 2 (Spicy Ginger Dipping Sauce)
1/4 tsp. GINGER, powdered
1 tsp. GRANULATED GARLIC
1 TB. water
1 TB. soy sauce
3/4 Cup of your favorite hot sauce

Combine SATÉ SEASONING and water in medium bowl. Set aside to give flavors time to develop. Trim chicken of excess fat and cut into 3/4" cubes. Add chicken and remaining ingredients to bowl, mixing well. Cover and let marinate in fridge for 2 hrs. Before starting coals, place skewers in water to soak. Stack charcoal 2 deep across bottom of grill. After lighting the coals thread about 5-6 pieces of chicken loosely onto each skewer. Once the coals are very hot, grill the saté in batches, 3-5 min per side. The saté should be crispy brown on the first side before turning. High heat cooking is the key to producing the most delicious saté.

Dipping Sauce 1: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk.

Dipping Sauce 2: In a small bowl mix water, ginger and garlic, let stand 10 minutes so flavor can develop. Add soy sauce and hot sauce, mix.

"THE" King

Once upon a time, long long ago (the 1980's), in a land far far away (Minnesota), there was a fancy schmancy Chinese buffet. I mean a fancy one, where you dressed up to go eat there. Eventually, the owner made the restaurant into a fast food chain by the same name and you can dine there in your ugly grubbies. Sadly, I don't think there are any Leeann Chin's anywhere outside the Twin Cities. I keep asking myself why they don't branch out into other areas of the midwest...like say Chicagoland. That'd be nice.

My favorite dish at Leeann Chin's, aside from the potstickers, is their Peking chicken. It is the best Peking Chicken EVER. The sauce is tangy, sweet with just a hint of spiciness. (Back in the day I used to think it was fire-y hot, but that was when my Swedish tastebuds could barely tolerate mild salsa.) Now Leeann Chin's sells the Peking sauce by the bottle at their chain restaurants.

It's no coincidence the word Peking is composed of "Pe" and King". It's clearly the king of sauces and it's so good it makes you wanna pee. It would be better if they sold it by the gallon. I mean seriously folks, this stuff is made with crack--crack for people. I don't think there is a meat (or veggie) out there that this sauce doesn't taste good on. We bbq-ed some pork chops basted in Peking sauce and it was taste bud heaven.

Try this sauce if you can, but don't say I didn't warn you. One taste and you'll be hooked for life. Muhahahaha!

Have yourself a Merry little Monday

I made these little guys this weekend. Aren't they festive?

I saw the recipe for Peanut butter banana oatmeal cookies on Baking Bites and thought, why not. The great thing about the recipe is that it calls for only 1 banana. So, instead of freezing the black banana no one wanted to eat and waiting until I got another 1 or 2 over ripe bananas to make banana bread, I could have instant snacking gratification.

I was mixing this recipe up and I thought, "These cookies are going to be awfully bland if I don't add something else in." I checked the pantry....gasp...no chocolate chips!!!! How could this be? Aliens? Overlapping universes? Time shifts? I don't think we will ever know for certain. The lack of chips turned out to be a happy accident, instead I found a rogue bag of Xmas m&m's. Who knows how they remained hidden and unused all this time, perhaps that was also the result of Aliens/overlapping universes/time shifts.

I don't think these cookies would have been nearly as tasty without the M&M's. I definitely would make these cookies again when we have a lone black banana lurking about. Next time I think I'll try cinnamon chips instead of the M&M's, I think that would be a tasty combo as well.


Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies from Baking Bites
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup mashed banana (from 1 sm/med)
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk  flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, cream sugars and butter. Beat in egg til smooth, then mix in peanut butter and mashed banana. Working by hand or with a mixer on low speed, blend dry ingredients into the peanut butter mix. Stir in the oats. Shape dough into tablespoons and place on baking sheet, flattening each slightly with your fingers. Bake for 10-12 minutes, til cookies just begin to turn golden around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes approx 2 dozen.