Blackberry Lime Sauce

We found the most beautiful blackberries at the farmer's market on Saturday. I love berries, but they don't last very long. We snacked on some but I wanted to use the rest of them up so they didn't go to waste. This sauce was really easy to whip up and was so good on ice cream!

Ingredients:
1 c blackberries
1/2-3/4 c sugar
1/2-3/4 c water (equal amount as sugar)
Zest and juice of 1 lime

Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pot. Heat over medium heat until berries burst and it's reduced to a syrupy consistency. Let cool slightly and blend in a blender to desired consistency.

New York Sirloin Steak

I love steak. There are few things I enjoy eating more than a really good quality steak cooked to perfection. But the really good cuts of steak can be so expensive! I try not to spend more than $2 a pound for meat with a couple exceptions. Ground turkey I usually buy at $2.50 a pound, but considering how much cheaper it is than ground beef, I figure it's a steal. Seafood is an exception to this as well because even tilapia never gets that cheap. My favourite cuts of steak are really hard to justify spending $10+/pound. Seafood is at least good for you. So I watch the ads and watch for beef to get to around $3/pound and try to make it as much like a great steak as I can. This last week, New York Sirloin steak was on sale for 2.99 a pound. I got really excited because New York Strip steak is one of my faves! After a little research, I found out they are completely different things but decided to try it anyway. When you have an excellent cut of beef, it's so easy to cook it. Season it really well with salt and pepper and sear it in butter at a really high temperature on both sides before finishing it in the oven to desired doneness. This cut was a little different. Unlike a NY strip or rib eye, the meat has muscle fibers thick enough to form a grain. In a strip steak or rib eye, the muscle fibers are thin and you will get a tender steak very easily. A steak that has a grain will be a lot tougher. Cooking it needs to be done differently and you need to cut it differently to get it as tender as you can. With a steak like this you want to cook it a little slower than a hard sear. I let the meat sit on the counter to come up to room temperature. Starting with the meat all the same temperature helps ensure even cooking. I put the oven on to high broil and put the bottom rack just above the bottom of the oven. I put a piece of aluminum foil on top of this rack and then put the top rack just one slot above the bottom rack. Having the foil there acts as a drip pan for the steak while allowing the heat to circulate all around it. I put the steak on the top rack and let it cook for about 5 minutes. I flipped it to the other side and did another 5 minutes. After that I moved the top rack to the very top and moved the bottom rack just under it again. I put the steak on the top rack again and did another 4 minutes per side. Turn the broiler off and let the meat rest on the counter for 5-10 minutes. After it's rested, you will want to cut against the grain. It's hard to explain that without showing it, so here's a YouTube video for how to cut against the grain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRdX4U6hNLY

Roasted Tomato Mashed Potatoes

Sun dried tomatoes are one of my favourite things. They are chewy and sweet and full of flavour. A few months ago I made a sun dried tomato pesto that was delicious. I got to thinking, wouldn't that be so good in potatoes? So I decided to try some mashed potatoes mixed with sun dried tomatoes. They turned out really well! They were thick and creamy and full of that sweet tomato flavour.

6 medium red potatoes
1/4 c sun dried tomatoes in oil
Fresh basil leaves, about 1/4 c loosely packed
1/4-3/4 c milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Scrub your potatoes well. Peel if you want, I never do. Why make more work? Cut them into quarters and put in a large pot. Cover the potatoes with cold water and add salt. You want the water to be about as salty as sea water. Cover and bring to a boil. Remove lid and let boil until potatoes are fork tender. While potatoes are cooking, get the tomatoes ready. In a food processor or blender put the sun dried tomatoes in with the oil they're packed in. Blend until they look pretty smooth. Add the basil leaves and blend to combine. When potatoes are fork tender, drain them and add the tomato mixture to the pot. Mash it all together adding the milk to help the process along. Start with 1/4 c and add more a little bit at a time until you get the consistency you want. Season with salt and pepper.

Grilled Lemon Chicken and Pasta Aglio e Olio

Aglio e olio just means garlic and oil but it sounds so fancy and since this is such a simple meal, I love that is has a fancy name. This is seriously one of the easiest dinners ever! 30 minutes to marinate the chicken and then 10 minutes to cook. It's clean, simple flavours and so good. You may be skeptical since it's so easy and simple, but it is delicious for real!

Lemon chicken:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 T olive oil
Juice from 1 lemon
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Pasta:
8 oz spaghetti
2-3 T olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, smashed

In a bag combine all the marinade ingredients except the chicken. Seal the bag and shake hard to combine. Add chicken and let marinate for about 30 minutes. Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Meanwhile, warm olive oil over low heat. Add smashed garlic and red pepper flakes. Let warm together for just a few minutes. Discard of the garlic. Toss pasta in oil as soon as pasta is drained. For the chicken, remove it from the marinade and grill or roast until cooked through.

Super Easy Bread

Greg and I watched a documentary on Netflix called Cooked a few months ago. I've mentioned it before but I will mention it again. Go watch it! It's so eye opening! In the documentary he talks about how bread doesn't need to be these complex recipes with all the kneading and all the ingredients and how back in the day, bread was 3-4 ingredients and that was it. I decided that when we moved I wanted to try and make my own bread and not buy any bread. I did a lot of research on Pinterest and found a lot of recipes for no knead artisan bread. They were all pretty similar, only the amount of salt, waiting time and cooking methods were different. I decided to just kind of combine recipes and see what I could come up with. The bread was so crusty on the outside and bubbly and soft inside. It was just what I was looking for. It was super easy too!

Ingredients:
3 c flour
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dry active yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water (not too hot or it will kill the yeast, just sort of lukewarm)

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combine with a wooden spoon. The dough will be pretty sticky but that's what you want. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit. I let mine sit for about 10 hours. From other recipes it looks like you can leave it as long as 24 hours, but I just did 10 hours. When I came back, it was puffy and bubbly. Heat oven to 500 degrees. Put some flour on the counter and cover your hands in flour. Turn the dough out onto the counter. Form into a ball and cover with plastic wrap to let rest. Take your enamel coated dutch oven and put it uncovered into the oven for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, lower heat to 450 degrees and carefully place the dough into the dutch oven. Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid after 30 minutes and bake for 15 more minutes.

Sweet and Smoky Bacon Waffles with Maple Whip Cream

Today is national waffle day! I'm not sure who comes up with this stuff, but who's going to argue? Almost whenever we do breakfast for dinner, I make bacon to go with pancakes or waffles or whatever it may be. And I make a brown sugar chili powder rub to go on the bacon to make it sticky and sweet and smoky. Then one night I thought, "Why not put the bacon IN the waffle?" So I did. And it was magic.

Ingredients:
1 1/12 c flour
2 T sugar
1/2 T + 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c milk
3 T butter, melted
2 egg whites (separated)
2 egg yolks
5-6 strips of bacon
1/4 c brown sugar
2 T chili powder

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together the brown sugar and chili powder. If it looks like not enough chili powder, add more. If it looks like too much, add more brown sugar. This is so easy to change to your tastes. Line the bacon on a baking sheet and rub the brown sugar mixture on it. Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes. If it doesn't look quite done, let it go for another minute or two. While that is baking, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Once it's well combined, whip the 2 egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add the milk, butter and egg yolks to the flour mixture. Mix well and then gently fold in the egg whites. When the bacon is done, let it cool slightly and then cut into bite size pieces. Heat up your waffle iron. Add the bacon pieces to the batter and gently and quickly mix it all together. Spray the waffle iron with cooking spray and start cooking your waffles! This makes somewhere between 6-8 waffles. For the maple whip cream, I just started whipping heavy cream. Once it got a little thicker, I just started drizzling in some maple syrup and kept whipping. I stopped after about 2 T and tasted it. It wasn't quite where I wanted so I added a little more syrup until it was the right amount of sweet. I beat the cream until stiff peaks formed. (Since we live on a newly wed/college student budget we use the sweet, syrupy syrup like Aunt Jemima's or Mrs. Butterworth's, no real maple syrup here!)

Stuffed French Toast

I am still going to be without my kitchen for a week and a half. To help me not miss cooking as much, I have been reading a ton of recipes and decided I would post some of my favourite recipes. This stuffed French Toast is definitely one of them. One Saturday morning I had some French bread on hand and had some cream cheese I had to use up too and so this recipe was born. It's a cinnamon-y custard and filled with a sweet and tart, creamy filling. Spread some Nutella on top and it's perfect.

Filling:
2 oz softened Neufchatel or regular cream cheese
1-2 T jam
Mix the two together well and set aside.

Custard:
3 eggs
1/4 c half and half
1 T brown sugar
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 T cinnamon
3-4 slices of day old French bread, cut into 1 1/2" thick slices

In a bowl, mix together all custard ingredients up to the bread. Mix very well. Take your bread slices and on the bottom crust side, cut a slit going almost all the way through. Don't cut through the sides or through to the other crust end, you just want a good opening in the middle to put your filling in. Use a spoon and gently spoon in the filling. You don't want to over fill it, just about a tablespoon or so in each slice. Gently put into the custard and cover. Cook over medium to medium-high heat to your liking.