Honey Buttermilk Cornbread 5/5 Spoons

(Check out that chili. Gahhhh, so good.)

So, I've made an obscene amount of cornbread in the last few years. Today I made Whole Foods Vegetarian Chili (which is by far my favorite chili ever) and made my own cornbread to go with it. I feel confident enough to make cornbread and pizza dough without a recipe anymore. I've made cornbread before but this one is better, trust me. And this recipe is like really not that bad for you which is a bonus. Here is my recipe:

1 c. all-purpose flour (I might try bread flour next time, we shall see)
1. coarse cornmeal
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. kosher salt
1 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil (or any oil of your choosing)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 9-inch pie/cake pan or line a 12 cup muffin pan.

Add all dry ingredients (through salt) into a large bowl and whisk until combined. In another bowl or measuring cup combine all wet ingredients and whisk. Add wet to dry and mix until combined but not beyond that. It will be thick like a cake batter. Add batter to the pan and place in top 1/3 of your oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or when you press the top it is firm yet yielding. Let cool for a few minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack. This is great warm or cold. Wrap your leftovers in some aluminum foil/plastic wrap. It will only last 1 or 2 days before getting pretty dry.

(Yeah, I should have taken a picture of my cornbread, but this one from Hungry-Texan is pretty close to mine)

So, you could add tons of things to this. Green onions, cheddar cheese, cracked black pepper, soyrizo, corn kernels, jalapenos, etc. The world is yours! I'm going to try making this vegan so I will get back to you all on that soon. This is a incredibly tender but not wet cake that is wonderfully sweet and corn-y.

Enjoy! And I hope you are all looking forward to my Valentine's Day dinner/dessert post this week. It will be sickeningly cute, trust me. ; )

Vegan Chickpea Cutlets and Vegetarian Gravy (and other fixins!) 5/5 Spoons

IF I COULD GIVE THIS MORE THAN 5/5 SPOONS, I WOULD!!!! But it's my blog, so I can do it if I want, right? I actually equated this meal with making love to a beautiful stranger. And since I can't really say that I've done that (ahem, in the last few years), I imagine it is like eating this meal.

I've made the Chickpea Cutlets quite a few times before and they are kind of time consuming but totally taste like a cruelty-free Thanksgiving stuffing formed into a patty. And I can't really say that I was ever one for gravy but knowing I can easily make this recipe without any meat is amazing.

(Photo courtesy of Soundly Vegan)

And now the notes:

-- I always double the cutlet recipe. It gives you about 8 really big cutlets and I love having these leftover the next day for lunch or dinner. As long as you are making them, go all out. And as I'm typing this I realize that I should bake these instead of pan frying them and stick them in a sandwich. YUM!
-- You could bake these but I prefer to fry them to make them crazy crispy. A little oil never hurt anyone.
-- All I can say about the gravy is BE PATIENT. I have a lot of patience when it comes to food (sometimes) but even I kind of rushed the thickening process. I made a slurry as to not make my gravy lumpy. Next time I might try supplementing some cornstarch the same way to speed up the process.
-- This makes a lot of gravy. I doubled the recipe and had to freeze about 4 c. of it. And that's after I totally doused my food, so remember that when making it.
-- I used dried parsley instead of fresh. Whatever, I don't think it does all that much in general.
-- And you could easily make this vegan with some Earth Balance or your favorite vegan butter alternatives. All I had was unsalted butter in the house, so that's what I went for.

(Photo courtesy of Pham Fatale)

And since this was like my Sunday Night Dinner gone wild (and um, on a Monday) I made roasted asparagus and creamy mashed potatoes. I have no recipe for the potatoes because I always change it up depending on what I am feeling and what I have in the fridge. This time I used milk, butter, sour cream, fresh dill from my herb garden, salt and pepper. And I always use Yukon Gold potatoes because I think they are by far the creamiest for mashed spuds. This meal is just a melange of salty meatiness. And if that sounds gross to you, sorry. I love salty and meaty tasting foods just like the rest of America. I recommend you take a few hours out of a slow day and make this meal and take in the delicious flavors!

Up next, (if it works, since I'm baking it right now), Seitan Pepperoni!

Classic Buttermilk Cornbread 5/5 Spoons

Sometimes I love sides more than I love full "real" meals.

I love to go to a restaurant and order 3 sides and gobble them up with gusto. The thing is, they have to individually be so good and different from each other that it constitutes a meal (in my mind and in my belly). I need some sort of bread product (corn bread in this instance), some sort of protein (I made organic cumin-laced black refried beans to go along with this) and a veggie (homemade guacamole! I have my own recipe, if you want it, let me know!)

(Photo courtesy of Fine Cooking)

The problem with cornbread (which I admittedly don't have a lot of experience at making) is that it can be SO DRY. I mean you can put as much butter on a dry hunk of bread as you want but you still know it's not very good. I think using buttermilk (did you know it is actually low in fat?) really moistened the bread and it is even quite tender today. I wanted to make sure to find a recipe that a. was tender (check) b. not chock full of sugar (check) and c. doesn't contain an entire stick of butter (check). I think this recipe is my new winner! Here are my notes (there are barely any!):

-- Instead of table salt, I used kosher salt and bumped it up to 1 t. because kosher salt weighs less than table salt. Interesting, huh?
-- I used low-fat sour cream without any problem.
-- Because I had it, I added about 1 c. of frozen corn kernels. I feel like this part is totally necessary.

(I'm definitely not from Alabama, but I love cornbread!)

I of course couldn't wait. So I flipped this bread out of the pan and cut it into weird chunks and gobbled it up with some butter substitute. It was the perfect amount of sweetness and had a wonderful intense corn taste that a lot of cornbreads do not have. This is a great recipe because it uses so much cornmeal and very little all-purpose flour for a super authentic taste. This *technically* is not that bad for you. There is some butter yeah, but this bread will serve a lot of people. And I'm not always so worried about butter as I appear on here, I love me some sweet cream unsalted butter. This would go great with this Vegetarian Chili or Cincinnati Chili Mac.

Coming up soon......

Red Velvet Waffles with Cream Cheese Coconut Butter

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting


and other things I'm totally making up like BBQ Beefless Tips with Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus and a White Pizza. See you soon!

Full Breakfast! 3 Items Reviewed!

Wow, totally missing in action ONCE AGAIN. I find it hard to focus sometimes even when it comes to food which I realize sounds insane. I have been cooking and baking a lot but I've been trying to keep myself busy. When you are looking for work, it is important to keep busy otherwise you will go totally batty. So anyhow, this is one of the best recipes from the last 2 weeks or so.

(Photo courtesy of Post Punk Kitchen)

So, of course I love sweet things for dinner as much as I like them any other time of the day. I try not to make this a habit but sometimes a girl needs a buttery, crispy waffle oozing with warm maple syrup to finish off her day. Usually I go the waffle route because I like any reason to use my grandma's old iron. My friend Ethan pointed me in the direction of these sinfully decadent Vegan Carrot Cake Pancakes. These were made non-vegan with the addition of a Maple Cream Cheese Sauce but I thought it was necessary to go full tilt with the whole carrot cake idea. And to make this a full breakfast, I made my own vegan version of this Sausage and Potato Hash.

My notes and substitutions:

Pancakes

-- Instead of maple syrup as the sweetener, I just used granulated sugar.
-- Allspice isn't something I typically use, so I just added a dash more cinnamon to the mix.

Maple Cream Cheese Sauce

-- All I can say is make sure the cream cheese is FULLY at room temperature. I'm usually super anal about that but I let it slide this time and the sauce was lumpy. It was still good but would be more presentable for guests at room temp.

Sausage and Potato Hash

(Photo courtesy of Never Enough Thyme)

-- Instead of meat (of course), I used Lightlife Gimme Lean Sausage. This is my favorite sausage substitute and use it for meatballs, hash and put it on my pizza among other things.
-- I cut this recipe in half since it was only for two people but I could have easily demolished this all! It was so good and easy customizable.
-- If you are like me and love a good dark crust on your potatoes, crank up the heat. Once the heat is cranked, place a dish on top of the hash and weigh it down with a full tea kettle or a couple of cans to really get a crispy crust. Make sure to stir a few times and replace the weights again until it is to your desired crispiness. I believe this is essential to this meal, but if you are into limp potatoes, more power to you my loves.

Breakfast for dinner is like a pile of a thousand puppies playing. Basically what I'm trying to say it's awesome. Once I made the pancakes, I put them on a pan in a very low but warm oven (200 F) to maintain their heat but not continue to cook. And because it just makes me happy, I decided to toast some almonds to sprinkle on top. The pancakes had a really nice carrot cake flavor without being too sweet (unless you add the sauce, which just made them AMAZING). The salty crispiness of the hash and sweet warmth of the pancakes and sauce made this a perfect balanced meal. Well maybe not healthily balanced but certainly made my soul sing.

I give all the recipes:

5/5 Spoons!

I might not review another recipe for a little while again, but trust me I have notes and will be back. Take care all!

Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip 2/5 Spoons

So... did you guys know that the Green Bay Packers won the Superbowl? You didn't? Well where have you been? I grew up with my family watching football and me totally hating it. As I've aged, I've felt much more pride and excitement for my hometown football team. This encouraged me to actually watch several football games (all the way through!) and then the Superbowl. And to quell my excitement for the day I made this dip and Packer cupcakes (which I'll review later).

(Photo courtesy of Food Network.... this a terrible picture but I love Alton Brown)

So I really didn't like this dip that much. I hated the stringy spinach and wish I would have used fresh spinach instead. And as much as I love dairy products, this was too much even for me. I added the pepper flakes and some bites would be SUPER hot and others were totally bland, so I didn't really get the addition. I would probably use hot sauce instead so it would incorporate better.

I really don't plan on making this again. I'm sad that I made a crummy Alton Brown recipe but I will never lose faith in him! If anyone has better spinach artichoke dip recipes they would like to share with me, I'd love to see them!

(Photo courtesy of Link Music)

I give this recipe:

2/5 Spoons!

Creamy Dijon Dill Potato Salad 5/5 Spoons

Let's see if I can pound out a few recipe reviews here! I've been having knee trouble lately from shoveling like 2 hours this past weekend so I sit here waiting for my delivery food because I can't stand for a really long time to cook. But I've done quite a bit of cooking before this stupid injury.

So, I made this a few weeks ago but it's really the only potato salad I make anymore. I crave this which is unlike any other potato salad I've ever had. It is so smooth, creamy and full of flavor. The version I make has less fat than a normal potato salad and this is what makes me think I can eat like half of this bowl. This goes fast, so if you are making it for more than 3 people, you should double or triple it!



(Photo courtesy of Food Network)

Here are my notes and tweaks:

-- I have no idea how many potatoes I use. I use about 3 pounds (give or take) of Yukon Gold potatoes. I think Yukon Golds have a creaminess to them that other potatoes don't and that's why I like them. Oh and I don't peel them. I like the peel and that's where all the vitamins are!
-- I do indeed use the full cup of mayo BUT I use 1/2 c. Vegenaise (and I would use it all if I made this totally vegan) and 1/2 c. canola mayonnaise. It's what I always have on hand and the canola mayo gives it a creamier texture without all the cholesterol.
-- When using vinegar, I bounce between red wine and apple cider. It doesn't seem to matter much.

And can I just say how much I love dill? I will put it in just about anything. Lemons too. They go well in anything (well ya know, within reason.)

I made this as a side with Black Bean Burgers and it went so perfectly well. Let's be honest here. I want it to be summer and this reminded me of sitting outside in the grass, grilling and getting drunk at 5 pm on warm summer nights. A few more months and I can do just that!

I give this recipe:

5/5 Spoons!

Kentucky Biscuits Recipe 5/5 Spoons

So once again, I decided to make these at like midnight last night. I always have a hankering to bake in the middle of the night. I will say that when I wake up in the morning with fresh biscuits it really starts your day off right.



(photo courtesy of TheLitterbox101 at allrecipes.com)

I honestly don't have much to say about these biscuits besides praising them highly. The only thing I changed is putting 1/2 t. of kosher salt instead of a dash. At first I thought they weren't salty enough (I used unsalted butter) but this morning when they were at room temp, I thought they had the best flavor. So if you can stand letting them come to room temp, you won't be sorry. The biscuit is super easy to make (about 30 minutes total mixing and baking) and it is so tender on the inside and crispy on the outside.

You could easily make these vegan by using about 1/2 - 1 t. of vinegar or lemon juice and filling it up to 3/4 c. with soymilk and Earth Balance for a butter substitute. I haven't tried it because it is hard to find Earth Balance sticks here unless it is at Whole Foods. If any one of my vegan friends/readers make these, please let me know. I would be curious to know how they turn out.

I give this recipe:

5/5 Spoons!

You will hear from me soon with the Buttermilk Lemon Bars I mentioned in the previous post. Obviously at this point I'm trying to use up the rest of the buttermilk in my fridge, haha. I hope they are worth the wait!