AllRecipes, Our Mother Ship

A few years ago, after being a lurker on AR I had become part of "The Buzz".  Then one day, I think it was a Saturday Oh no!!! OMG!!! no AR.  what could have happened.  No one knew.  All day we all tried and tried to get on and couldn't.  What on earth were we all going to do.  We had plans, we had dinners to make and nowhere to go for our recipes.  We started e-mailing to each other, What is happening? people were saying, Where is AR.  Literally dozens of AR peeps, from all over the country,  were in contact trying to find out what on earth could be keeping us from our very favorite addiction.  People were surfing the "net" It didn't matter, who you were, what you did, where you lived,  if you were part of the 1% or the 99%, we needed our AllRecipes.  Then one person finally found a story.  There had been a fire in AR's building.  It wasn't too bad as I remember, but had closed down the building.  We all vowed that from now on we would print all of our recipes just in case.  I wonder how many of us have done that.  I know that I haven't.  1467 recipes would make a pretty big book.   Just hope that nothing like that ever happens again.  I am waaay more addicted now than I was then.

Sausage!!!! Pork Or?

I love making my own sausage.  Some of you that have been with AllRecipes for a while will have seen some of the pictures of sausages that I have made (even the disasters). 

This is my Andouille sausage before smoking

For the most part I use pork, I have used some beef but usually it will be pork.  We were asked this month to try various chicken sausages from Al Fresco.  I have to say my hubby and I were very sceptical about chicken sausage, but were willing to give it a try.  We were so pleasantly surprised.

The first recipe that I made was  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-sweet-italian-chicken-sausage-with-tomato-cream-sauce-over-linguine/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=al%20fresco&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20Search%20Results

This was a delicious recipe and from the first bite my hubby asked what kind of sausage this was and that it was "yummy"  My second recipe also used the Italian chicken sausage but was a soup.  Here is the link.  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sweet-italian-chicken-sausage-and-tortellini-soup/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=al%20fresco&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20Search%20Results

This soup was so good that I had some for breakfast this morning.  I have to say that I did add a few more veggies to the recipe but I don't think that I hurt the recipe at all.

The final recipe that I tried was this
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-chipotle-chorizo-chicken-sausage--shrimp-kabobs/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=al%20fresco&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20Search%20Results

This was so good that my hubby had the leftovers of this for breakfast this morning. lol

I know that this month's activities have given me a whole new view on sausage and I may even try making my own now using chicken.  I will certainly be on the look out for more varieties of Al Fresco, so that I can try some of their other recipes posted on AR.  All in all we have had some great food this month.

I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador(a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertiser are only used for experienced-based reviews on AllRecipes.com - Thoughts from my Kitchen. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of me, pelicangal aka Jan Elton 

 

Butter or Shortening?

My first memory of making pastry is from when I was about 12 years old.  We had cooking class at school and we were making apple pie.  The recipe is the only one that I have used for shortcrust pastry since then,   well with one exception, which I will talk about in a minute.  The recipe is very simple.  2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup butter, a pinch of salt, and enough ice water to bring the pastry together. that's it.  Chill for an hour or so and voila, enough shortcrust pastry for a double crust pie.

The exception that I mentioned, happened just a couple of weeks ago.  I was making a recipe (which shall remain nameless) from this very site.  The recipe called for making pastry using half butter and half shortening.  I decided on a whim to actually follow the recipe lol.  Made the pastry according to directions.  Put it in the fridge to chill.  Rolled out the pastry and disaster.  Every time I tried to pick up the pastry to turn it or to continue with the next part of the recipe the pastry tore.  Didn't matter how much flour I used or whether I chilled it longer, no way was I going to be able to use this pastry.  I even put it back into the fridge overnight.  The disaster still tore  every time I tried to move it.    Luckily, I still had enough butter in the fridge to make my old standby. 

Apple Pie with All Butter Shortcrust Pastry.

This pastry can also be used for savory pies.  This is AllRecipes Steak and Irish Stout Pie

So as you can see, it is butter all the way from me. You can find some really good recipes using butter at this site:  http://goboldwithbutter.supranet.net/

 I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador(a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertiser are only used for experienced-based reviews on AllRecipes.com - Thoughts from my Kitchen. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of me, pelicangal aka Jan Elton 

 

Yay for Fiber (One that is)

So this months assignment for the AllRecipes Allstars Brand Ambassadors was to make Fiber One Chocolate Peanut Butter Haystacks.  These were so easy to make.  No bake, and you can involve your kids in this project.  They turned out really well.  I took them to work and everyone loved them.  I did put a twist on some of them and made them with white chocolate and Heath's Toffee Bits sprinkled on the top.  Hubby loved these and kept a few back for himself.  Here is the picture

 http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fiber-one-chocolate-peanut-butter-haystacks/detail.aspx

We were then challenged to create our own recipe using Fiber One.  I decided to make a savory recipe and here is my creation:

http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/63100879/spicy-shrimp/detail.aspx

This was surprisingly good.  A little sweet for me but then most things are.  I definitely do not have a sweet tooth.  I served them as an appetizer with some zesty ketchup.  They could easily be served as a main course with the addition of rice or pasta maybe.

Me being the person that I am, could not just stop there, could I.  No, I had to take it to the next step..  could not stop while I was ahead,  so, I decided to make some turnovers.  I had some fresh pineapple and oranges in the fridge, so I thought they would make a good filliing.  I make a quick puff pastry that is fairly easy thaat uses about 2 and 1/2 cups of AP flour.  I decided to replace one cup of the flour with Fiber One cereal crushed in my food processor.  Here is the result.

To be fair they did taste fine, it is just that the pastry did not "puff"  You won't find a link because I didn't post this recipe.  Had tons of fun cooking though and my hubby and friends had tons of fun eating the results.  I am looking forward to next month's assignments.  Will let you know the results.  Thanks for reading my blog

I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador(a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertiser are only used for experienced-based reviews on AllRecipes.com - Thoughts from my Kitchen. The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of me, pelicangal aka Jan Elton 

We Are The Super Bowl Winners

As part of our AllRecipes Allstar program, a bonus task for this month is to make 3 faceless recipes and photograph them.   As my BIL and SIL were coming over and a friend from California was coming up, that this would be a perfect time to do a Faceless Super Bowl buffet.  So Saturday, I scoured AR to find the perfect recipes.  I knew that I had to do chicken wings so looked for them first.  This is the recipe that I came up with.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jerrys-wings/detail.aspx


These were very good.  I did change it up a little however, only slightly.  I used Frank's Red Hot Thick Sauce rather than the regular thin sauce and found that with using that one I did not need to use the butter.  Everyone raved about them.  Perfect amount of heat.

My next recipe was a tough one for me to make as I cannot handle eating savory and fruity together,, but I had one lonely avocado sitting in the fruit bowl alongside a juicy fresh pineapple that I had just picked up.  I got lucky and spotted a recipe for Tropiguac.  Here it is

Needless to say I just could not take a bite so had to rely on the comments of my hubby and our guests.  They absolutely loved it.  Here is the link
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tropiguac-hawaiian-style-guacamole/detail.aspx
Onto my next faceless recipe.  Southwest Baked Chili Dip.  This is a super dip.  When I asked for ratings on this dish everyone gave it a 5 including me.  My SIL gave it 167 stars.   What more can I say.  Here it is

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/southwest-baked-chili-dip/detail.aspx

My final faceless recipe was also given 5 stars by everyone.  It is this one.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cheddar-jalapeno-shrimp/detail.aspx



I can honestly say that we were the winners at this Super Bowl.  Thanks to all the awesome cooks/members of AllRecipes that love to share their special meals with us all.  Great job everyone.
Thank you
I am an Allrecipes Allstar Brand Ambassador(a voluntary position) and I’m not compensated for my work with Allrecipes.com. Products received from advertiser are only used for experienced-based reviews on Thoughts From My Kitchen.   The reviews, content and opinions expressed in this blog are purely the sole opinions of pelicangal (Jan Elton)

Disaster in my kitchen

Today was a beautiful day with the sun shining temperature is about 65 degrees and we are drying out after a terrible few days of pounding rain.  I was looking for a recipe yesterday to put a face to for the Allrecipes Allstars challenge.  I found Liverwurst. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/liverwurst/detail.aspx
Went to the store bought all of the ingredients.  Already had sausage casings so that was a plus.  I have always enjoyed making sausage.  I got out the meat grinder and prepared all the ingredients.  I stuffed my sausage into casings

One reviewer had said that if you wanted a larger sausage you could just use Saran Wrap.  I decided to do this also.

I got out my big pot and put the sausage links into simmering water for the one hour required by the recipe.  After about 15 minutes there was a wonderful aroma throughout the house.  I thought AHH Success!!!!!.  though I also thought that I should maybe check on them.  DISASTER.  sorry for shouting.  Every single one of my sausages had burst.

DOGFOOD.!!!!
At least Jack had been waiting patiently for some of that wonderful smelling stuff that was in the kitchen.

At least I still had the two larger sausages to cook.  I immediately got them out of the fridge in order to re-wrap them and give them a lot more space to grow.  I also gave them an additional 30 minutes of cooking in order to be sure that the inside was properly cooked.
Finally success.

This recipe was okay.  Did not really taste like the liverwurst in the store.  It had a more firm and crumbly texture.  Could not really taste the liver either.  If I make this again, I will definitely tweak it.  Thanks for reading my blog

Southern Roundup

Well, here it is, my first blog.  What a wonderful one to start off with.  Our Allrecipes Southern Roundup.  Needless to say we had a wonderful time.  Meeting everyone was just like meeting family.  It felt so natural and comfortable.  It started with me leaving Oregon and flying to Atlanta.  Cindy Lepp picked me up and we drove 3 + hours to GDerr's house.    GDerr and Clare are the wonderful hosts.  After we were shown to beautiful bedrooms, Clare served us lunch which consisted of  a yummy salad and GDerr's special seafood gazpacho.

 

After sitting around for a while chatting and having a couple of cold beers, GDerr took us around the neighborhood. There are some beautiful houses in the area.  All brick.  (Unusual where I live.  We went to one of the best restaurants in Georgia.  We had the best catfish there, yum.