Sunday, November 17, 2013

So I HAD to try the Dorito bread.....

Those of you that know me, know I thrive on the unusual. Nothing is more fun to me than trying a new and unusual recipe or creating one of my own. So when I saw this How to make Dorito Bread , I knew I had to try it.   Almost everyone likes those...



I decided to use my favorite Ciabatta recipe as a base - have to put my own spin on this, ya know.

I made the starter on Friday night and let it do it's thing until Saturday evening.

Full of ferment-y goodness
Then I got down to business of making the bread. oh boy! I mixed up the milk and the yeast and let that sit , then added the rest of the items


Since I do not have a big powerful mixer, I only mixed in one cup of flour using my hand mixer


Then I kneaded in the rest



And then of course I missed taking pictures like a big dummy but I covered it and let it rise for a couple hours.


Then the fun part


I used the chopper attachment of my immersion blender worked great


Got 2 cups of Doritos, all ready to go


I realized the bread was pretty stiff and was trying to figure out the best way to get the chips in.  I divided the dough in halves and then sorta smooshed them flat. Smooshed is a highly technical term


Then I piled the Doritos on and kneaded them in

And tada... a finished Dorito bread.. ready for it's second

Once it rose for the second time, I baked it for 20-25 minutes at 350.

Then it was time to make the Dorito butter. I again used my immersion blender chopper attachment. Chopped up the Doritos fine, added in the butter. and blended


Blopped it onto some saran wrap


Then flinged it around to make a log - chilled


And here is the final product - Dorito Bread with Dorito butter





This tastes pretty good.  What would I do different? Well, the video shows using a stickier bread and I think that is easier to work with I've had good luck with this bread Tomato Pesto Batter Bread  so I would use this one, but leave out the basil and tomatoes and add the Doritos instead.




Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Taco Triumvirate


Tacos.... just the word brings back memories of dinners when I was a kid. Taco night was always a fun night at my house. Mom made tacos, rice and beans . always using the free Lawry's seasoning mixes we got from a friend who worked for them. Tacos were fun to make, fun to eat and I cannot ever remember anyone being in a bad mood on taco night. Even now when I have tacos, it make me smile... go figure.  Even my cat likes them

OK so this isn't really her but she likes them too
One of the neat things I get to do as a Brand Ambassador for Allrecipes is try some really delicious products. Not all are wonderful, but there have been some terrific finds. A month ago we got a chance to try bison from The Bison Council I had always wanted to try it and was excited to get the chance. I really wanted to try the ground bison but I got to the recipe list too late to get one of those recipes. 

The other day I was at the store and saw ground bison... on sale!  Oh boy I grabbed a package right away and came home to think about what I could make with it. I thought about some of the other brands we had gotten to work with that I had really liked and decided to try matching some of these brands up into a yummy meal.

So here is what I started with
Bison, Herdez and Sargento
I loved the Herdez Cooking Sauces when we tried them several months ago and also loved Sargento Cheese so Bison tacos wasn't a stretch at all.

I crumbled the bison up in a skillet, sauted until brown, added about half a jar of the Herdez Guajillo Cooking Sauce and let it simmer about 10 minutes. I used La Tortilla Factory hi fiber tortillas, shredded lettuce, tomatoes... and instead of sour cream I used greek yogurt.  A truly yummy satisfying dinner..

Gone.. very quickly!
I think these brands need to discuss a partnership because my dinner was awesome. I'll use all of the products again.. and make these tacos often.



Monday, November 4, 2013

And it was a Frenzy.......

This past weekend, I cooked my butt off. With a group of other Allrecipes Brand Ambassadors and site users, we gave more than 300 recipes on the Allrecipes site a picture.. It was an online mob scene.. a faceless frenzy!

How we all looked after slaving away in our kitchens

It began Friday morning at 12:01am and went until 11:59pm Sunday. This gave everyone a chance to participate in the fun.. and fun it was!

Here are the recipes I did:

Tasty interesting dish... It usually is steamed so has a sort of a firm custard texture


These had a very strong peppermint taste.. too strong for me so after I topped with a glaze, I sprinkled with some chopped up semi sweet chocolate. The texture is very cake-y so unless you like cake like cookies, add some nuts of something to change the texture. The thinner rolled ones were less cake like and I preferred those


Nope, nope, nope. Didn't like at all. The recipe, as written came out to nothing but a bowl of crumbs, I added eggs which gave a good dough, but these are really tasteless and boring. Skip them

I haven't tried these yet as the recipe directions state they need to sit for a week to allow flavors to blend. While I don't think I'll be able to let them sit that long, I am going to let them sit a few days. The black pepper was an interesting addition. I do admit cutting it back a bit as I added some, tasted the batter and found it spicy enough for me

I didn't want to make these into bars since little bites are easier for people to eat so I made them in a mini muffin tin. While these aren't spectacular as made per the recipe, this is a good base recipe for adding things.... which is really needed

I liked these. I did use real rum instead of extract. The flavor was nice and I do think some ground up hazelnuts would be awesome in the cookie dough.

These made a nice light crispy sugar cookie. Nothing superb, but tasty.

I must say I preferred the dough before it was baked. Afterwards, I think the nutmeg had mellowed too much and was not strong enough. If you make them, do not bake until brown as the texture is not as good and bump up the nutmeg

The BEST cookie of the day! The cornmeal gives these a really nice texture and taste. I liked these a lot.  Five stars!


Boy these were a pain in the ass!. I prepped the dough and let it chill for 24 hours. Took it out, and started to cut them... CRUMBLE!!  Argghh. I didn't have time to add anything and rechill so I added an egg and then put the dough in mini muffin cups. When it came out of he oven and was still hot, I made an indentation in the dough for the jam. The cookies are very tasty... not overly sweet. If you make these, add egg or eggs to the dough before you roll so they don't fall apart on you

I though this tasted nice. I think this is better served as a dip for a toasted baguette rather than a chip dip. It's more of a  "make your own mini sandwich" type of dip... but I liked it

Why these are called Canadian and Tea Biscuits was a topic of much discussion  lol. They really are a cheese biscuit and a very nice one too. I plan on serving this with soup.

And here is the soup that will get the tea biscuits.  Lots of nice veggies, a little chicken. I left out the barley since I cannot eat it and tossed in a little sweet potato. I haven't tried this one yet as I always make soup a day in advance to get flavors to marry. Dinner tonight!

I had seen this recipe many times and decided it looked too "boring" to make.  I needed a veggie soup this week so I decided to forge ahead and could always tweak it later. Wow Big surprise. This is delicious as is. I added more shredded zucchini and really enjoyed this soup a lot! Will make again as it is very easy and quick, as promised by the title. A food processor makes quick work of the shredding

I have been wanting to try TVP for quite awhile but never seemed to find the right recipe. I stumbled upon this one and it looked like it was a good way to give this a try. I used fresh spinach and added some red pepper flakes. The texture was good but it needs help in seasoning department. If you make this, add your seasoning and then cook up a tiny piece in a frying pan to check taste. Adjust as needed until you get it right. I made in small loaf pans to freeze leftovers

My last recipe and my dinner last night. I used the last of my bison pepperoni from a previous assignment and really enjoyed this. Quick, Easy and healthy... I used high fiber whole wheat tortillas. YUM. Will add some veggies next time.

So today I am resting and recuperating from the madness (and the fun). The dishes part sucks but the rest of it is terrific.  I have food for the week, my co-workers will be getting a lot of cookies, Allrecipes gets some new pictures to hopefully entice people to make new recipes and I got to spend some time with friends. A win-win situation.
We have a whole Pinterest board of the recipe made so if you are curious, take a peek November 2013 Faceless Frenzy  This is, I think, the fourth time I've participated and each time you learn something new and find a few jewels. I'll definitely do this again... but not tomorrow!