Iron Chef Pembroke Pines February 2011 - Strawberry Nutella Crepes

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 ¼ cups milk
¾ cup sifted flour
½ tsp. vanilla
Nutella cream
Chopped strawberries or strawberry freezer jam
Whipped cream
Beat eggs; stir in milk and vanilla. Sift in dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Drop batter onto hot buttered griddle to make thin cakes. Turn when underside is light brown. When finished cooking, spread with Nutella and sprinkle with cut strawberries or strawberry freezer jam and roll. Serve with whipped cream or powdered sugar, hot or cold.

 

courtesy Heather Wangeman

Iron Chef Pembroke Pines February 2011 - Strawberry Crumb Cake

Strawberry Crumb Coffee Cake

2 1/2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. sliced strawberries

Crumb Topping:

1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. pakced light-brown sugar
1/4 c. cold butter, cut in pieces
1/3 c. walnuts, chopped
1 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 8x2" square baking pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl mix egg, milk, oil and vanilla.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add egg mixture; beat with wooden spoon 1 minute until evenly moistened. Spoon into prepared pan. Top with strawberries.

Crumb Topping: In a small bowl mix flour adn sugar. Cut in butter with fork until blended and crumbly. Stir in nuts. Sprinkle topping over strawberries.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Let cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares, dust with powdered sugar.

courtesy Rachel Quinton

Iron Chef Pembroke Pines February 2011 - Parmesan-Stuffed Strawberry Chicken

Ingredients

3 cups fresh strawberries (halve or quarter if large berries)

2 Tbsp. White balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar

1/4 cup strawberry jam

Sea salt or salt and black pepper

6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 3 lb.)

3 oz. Parmesan or white cheddar cheese

6 large fresh basil leaves

1 Tbsp. Olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

Snipped fresh basil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a 3-quart baking dish combine strawberries, vinegar, and jam. Sprinkle salt and pepper; set aside.

2. Cut a horizontal pocket in each chicken breast half by cutting from one side almost, but not through, to the other side. Cut Parmesan cheese in six 3x1/2-inch pieces. Wrap a basil leaf around each piece of cheese; stuff into chicken breast pocket. Secure pockets closed with wooden toothpicks or skewers. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3. In 12-inch oven-safe skillet cook garlic in oil over medium heat for 30 seconds. Add chicken and cook 5 minutes or until golden brown, turning once. Transfer to oven. Bake, uncovered, 5 minutes. Add baking dish with the strawberry-jam mixture to oven. Bake 10 to 13 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink (170 degrees F) and the berries are softened and jam mixture has thickened. Serve chicken with melted strawberries. Sprinkle with basil. Makes 6 servings.

courtesy Sherie McKenna

Iron Chef Pembroke PInes February 2011 - Strawberry Tartlets

I made this yummy treat...the graham cracker crust is to DIE for...

Strawberry Tartlets

1 ½ cups hulled, quartered strawberries

3 TBS granulated sugar

Nonstick cooking spray

5 ounces graham crackers (about 10 whole crackers)

¼ cup packed dark brown sugar (may use finely chopped piloncillo for a decidedly Mexican flavor...it's that cake of dark maple sugar wrapped in plastic wrap)

½ cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

2 8-ounce pkgs. Cream cheese, softened

½ cup sour cream

½ cup granulated sugar

To Make:

1. In a small bowl, combine strawberries and 3 TBS granulated sugar. Let stand at room temp for one hour.

2. Preheat oven to 350. Place six 3 ½ x ¾ -inch tart pans with removeable bottoms on a baking sheet. Coat tart pans with cooking spray.

3. For tartlet shells, in a food processor, combine crackers and brown sugar; cover and process until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add butter; cover and process until the crumbs come together. Press the crumbs on bottoms and up the sides of prepared tart pans. Bake in a preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes or until tartlet shells are golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

4. For strawberry filling, in a large bowl, combine cream cheese and sour cream; beat with an electric mixture on medium speed until fluffy. Add the ½ cup granulated sugar; beat until well mixed. Drain strawberries, reserving 2 TBS of liquid. Fold strawberries and reserved liquid into the cream cheese mixture. Divide the strawberry filling evenly amoung the tartlet shells. If desired, cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.

5. Makes 6 tartlets…

courtesy BH&G Special Interest Mexican

February 2011 Iron Chef Pembroke Pines...Strawberry Extravaganza Shortcake

We've been doing Iron Chef since September...but I haven't been very good at compiling the recipes. I might be able to go back and enter my favorites...at least the winners!!!...from the past months...but I figure the best thing to do is just start fresh.

In February, Iron Chefs secret ingredient was "Strawberries". Jason has been coming to Iron Chef with me for over a year, but he only started competing last month.

This month he whipped out an amazing dessert, and he won!! Here it is:



Jasons Strawberry Extravaganza Shortcake

Cake:

2 box Strawberry Supreme Cake Mix
8 eggs
2 box (small) Strawberry Jello (gelatin dessert)
2 ½ cup water
½ cup oil

Filling:

2 cups heavy cream
6 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 quarts strawberries, hulled and sliced thickly
1 TBS Lemon juice
White sugar

Topping:

2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice

Make It:

1. Mix all cake ingredients and pour into 4 round cake pans pan greased with cooking spray.

2. Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes or until done.

3. Remove from oven and pierce with holes all over.

4. Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice from "Topping" and pour over the tops of each cake. Spread evenly.

5. When cool, remove from pans and chill until cold (a couple hours).

6. While cake is chilling, masterate strawberries in the 2 TBS sugar and a TBS lemon juice from "Filling" for at least one hour.

7. Make filling by combining cream, confectioners sugar, and vanilla and whipping at high speed with a blender until stiff peaks form.

8. Remove cake layers from fridge and alternate cake layers, cream filling, and masterated strawberries. Repeat.

9. Decorate top with more berries and additional cream filling, if desire.

10. Chill remaining cake until eaten.

courtesy Jason Johnson

Apple PIe

Apple Pie is the BEST pie.

Well...actually...my FAVORITE is Boysenberry Pie. And there was this one time, while visiting my Grandma Ewing in Washington, that I picked BOWLS of wild blackberries and she baked me TWO Blackberry Pies...which will live as one of the best days of my life in my memories FOREVER.

But Apple Pie is pretty much darn near the most perfect pie in existence. And much more easily attained than the two above mentioned variety's of pie...

I love apple pie, and wanted to share my very favorite, best EVER, Apple Pie recipe with you...

Now, you can make your own crust...and sometimes I do...but usually I just use Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust. It is easy and comes out great. So, the choice is yours...



Apple Pie

One pkg. Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust or enough pie dough to make a double-crust pie
8-10 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (about 1/4-inch or so)
1-2 TBS lemon juice
1 cup sugar
2 TBS all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
2 TBS butter (chopped into chunks)
1 egg
Additional cinnamon/sugar mix to sprinkle

1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray your pie dish with Pam. Roll out half of pie crust and arrange it in pie pan, pressing gently to curves and walls of dish. Allow generous hang-over from edge of dish.

2. Toss apples into a large bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. Add sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and stir until completely coated.

3. Transfer apple mixture to pastry-lined pie dish. Fill to HEAPING...apples should be spilling off. Try and get them all to stay put long enough for you to dot with butter and cover with second crust (which you may have to roll a bit thinner and wider to cover and overhang the apples.) If you can't fit all the apples in, that's okay...but make sure you get all the yummy cinnamon juice that has collected at the bottom of the bowl into your pie. If you have to, remove those excess apples and pour juice over what managed to stay put in pie. Pinch crusts together using thumb and fore and middle fingers to create "lace" at edge of pie. Trim excess, but save for later.

4. Cut vents in top of pie. Now...there are two ways you can glaze the crust...either using a WHOLE egg, or just the white. Depends on the look you're going for and the amount of golden-ness you want. So decide your look (I go back and forth...this year I used a whole egg), beat your egg in a cup, and with a pastry brush, GENEROUSLY glaze your top crust in an egg wash. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture.

5. If you desire...you can use extra pie crust to make leafy cut-outs to decorate the edge of your pie. OR...you can use those extras to individually wrap some of the apples that just WOULDN'T STAY PUT in your pie for mini tarts. My mom always had mini pie dishes and made jelly tarts with the extra dough for us to munch on while we waited for the Thanksgiving Feast. OR - just throw it away and say: "Hey...I made an apple pie today...and that was enough!".

6. Rip aluminum foil into strips and spray with Pam, and cover pie edges so they don't burn. Bake about 30 minutes, remove foil, and bake an additional 20 minutes or until top is golden (mine got a little dark on top because I got distracted with laundry...but it is still gorgeous).

7. Cool on a wire rack and serve with ice cream. YUM!!!

(It is normal for pie to "fall" a bit as it cools...DO NOT FREAK OUT!!)

courtesy me!!!

Thanksgiving Stuffing

I love Thanksgiving. I'm awfully protective of it, too...like, I get very upset when the retail stores go straight from Halloween to Christmas decorations without even a nod to Thanksgiving (and all in July, too).

There are two things that I love MOST OF ALL for Thanksgiving, and they are Stuffing and Apple Pie.

This year, we went to friends for Thanksgiving dinner, and my friend asked me to bring my favorite thing...so I brought....STUFFING AND APPLE PIE.

Seriously...I was that predictable.

So I thought I'd share these amazing recipes with you...and you can try them out and see if they aren't just the best dad gum Stuffing and Apple Pie recipes out there!!!

I ALWAYS make a double batch of this...because I want to eat for 3 solid square meals for AT LEAST two days after Thanksgiving...so double if you're like me or are expecting a lot of holiday guests...


Thanksgiving Stuffing

1 bag Pepperidge Farm Cubed and Seasoned Stuffing (in a bag with red title)
a good cup and a half of chopped celery
a good cup and a half of chopped onion
Chicken broth (however many cups it says to have on the back of the bag of stuffing...I think 3)
1 STICK of butter (get the good salted sweet cream stuff)
a cup of whole button mushrooms, drained (about two jars worth)
One pound ground sausage (I usually go for the maple flavored)
3 Granny Smith or Liberty apples, peeled, cored, and diced (optional)

1. You're pretty much preparing the stuffing according to package directions, with a few minor adjustments. You're adding MORE celery and onion than called for, for example...so get that all chopped up...

You're also using a WHOLE STICK of butter. I think the guidelines call for 6 TBS...but you're just going to use the whole 8. So put that on a skillet and melt it, and add the onion and celery, and saute until onion and celery are almost soft. If you're lucky enough that your family will let you use apples, you cook them with the onion and celery, too. My family doesn't like apples in their stuffing, so I don't always get to add them. The beauty of doubling this recipe is that you can make one batch WITH apples, and one WITHOUT.

2. Meanwhile, brown up that pound of sausage.MMMmmmm....smells good.

3. When onion and celery are soft, add mushrooms and heat through.

4. Add sausage and remove from heat, stirring to combine flavors.

5. Heat your chicken broth to boiling, remove from heat and add bag of stuffing AND onion/celery/sausage/mushroom/possibly apple mixture. Stir/Fluff gently until moist.

6. Now...stuff your bird, but save some to stick in the oven, covered at 350, for about 30 minutes. If you want that yummy crispy top to your stuffing, remove the covering for the last 5 to 10 minutes, or after its had it's 30 minutes, put it under the broiler for a couple minutes.

This is so good...you'll never embarrass yourself by making Stove Top again!!

courtesy me!!!