Robin's Random Recipes

(I have no idea why I only have a picture pre-roasting. Imagine it like this, but golden brown and delicious!)

1 lb. brussels sprouts
1 1/2 lbs. potatoes, yukon gold
6 shallots
3 slices bacon
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions

Trim the brussels sprouts by cutting off the base and removing any damaged outer leaves (also checking for bugs).
Wash potatoes and cut out bad spots.
Trim and peel shallots.
Cut potatoes into 1-inch cubes and set in large bowl.
Slice the brussels sprouts in half and toss into bowl with potatoes.
Slice the shallots and add to bowl.
Slice the bacon and add to bowl.
Add olive oil, salt, and pepper to the bowl. Mix well until everything is coated.
Pour contents into a large baking dish so that a shallow layer of ingredients covers the dish. If the vegetables stack too high, use a second baking dish. Roast in a 450 degree oven turning the vegetables every 15 minutes for a total of 40 minutes.
When vegetables are done, remove pan from oven and add butter to the ingredients. Toss until melted. Add lemon juice and toss.

This is from a forum I frequent. I've modified the recipe (mostly the amounts) just a bit. This makes a lot, feel free to scale back the recipe.

5 lbs chicken wings (separated at both joints, discard tips) or drummettes only
1/4 cup (11/2 stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup Frank's Hot Sauce (not the "sauce for wings")
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vinegar
salt & pepper

Combine hot sauce, lemon juice, and vinegar and set aside.

Deep fry your wings (a turkey frier is perfect, otherwise you'll have to fry in batches) at 350 for 10 minutes or until desired crispness is achieved. You can tell they are done on the inside when they float, then just make sure the outside meets your crispness standards.

Remove wings to a paper towel-lined cookie sheet, blot dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Put the wings in a large lidded bowl or tupperware container. Pour the melted butter over them, put on the lid and shake. Take off the lid and pour the sauce in and shake again.

Serve with Blue Cheese dressing and celery stalks.

This is my most-coveted Christmas cookie. Amounts following ingredients are for a double batch, which is all I make.

1.75 cups (8 3/4 oz) flour (1 lb 1 1/2 oz)
.25 cups (1 3/8 oz) rice flour (2 5/8 oz)
.67 cups (4 3/4 oz) superfine sugar (9 1/2 oz)
.25 t. salt (1/5 tsp)
16 Tbs (8 oz) cold, unsalted butter (16 oz)

1 tsp sugar for sprinkling (2 tsp)

Preheat oven to 425F. Line ungreased 9-inch round cake pan with parchment of wax paper; set aside

In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix flours, sugar, and salt at low speed until combined, about 5 seconds. Cut butter into .5" cubes with .25 cup flour mixture on a sheet of parchment paper. Add butter and any remaining flour on parchment to bowl with dry ingredients. Mix on low speed until dough is pale yellow and resembles damp crumbs, about 4 minutes.

Press dough into pan. (With my pans, a single batch is 2 lb 3 oz--useful info for splitting the double batch.) Unmold onto cookie sheet, use 2" cookie cutter to remove center and set aside on cookie sheet. Replace cookie cutter. Place shortbread in oven, immediately reducing temperature to 300F.

Bake 20 minutes, remove from oven, score into 16 wedges and poke design with skewer. Bake an additional 40 minutes until pale golden. Cut on score marks, slide shortbread onto rack and cool thoroughly.

From Fine Cooking

These have been a Christmas staple for several years running and are a snap to make.

9 oz (2 cups) flour
1 tsp baking soda
.25 tsp salt
2.5 tsp ginger
1.25 tsp cloves
6.5 oz (13 Tbs) unsalted butter, softened
10.5 oz (1.33 cups) sugar
2 oz (2.5 Tbs) molasses
1.5 oz (4.5 tsp) honey
2 eggs
confectioners' sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350F, lightly grease a 9x13 cake pan.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.

Beat the butter, sugar, molasses, and honey until creamy and well blended, about 4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beat until blended. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until just blended. Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly.

Bake until the edges just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean, 23 to 25 minutes.

Cut into bars, dust lightly with confectioners' sugar.

My mom sent me this recipe and it is SO good. And I don't even like Heath bars! I'm still monkeying with the refrigerator time to get the spread just right. I also cut the size of the cookies back so my baking & cooling times aren't 100%

2.5 oz (½ cup) flour
1 teas. Baking powder
¼ teas. Salt
1 lb. Bittersweet chocolate, I use Ghiradelli
2 oz (¼ cup) unsalted butter
13 oz. (1 ¾ cup) light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
1 tbl. Vanilla
5 (1.4 oz) heath bars (or similar)
4.25 oz (1 cup) walnuts or pecans, toasted

Combine flour, baking powder and salt and set aside

Microwave chocolate and butter until almost melted, 1-3 minutes. Stir to melt fully, cool to lukewarm

With electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs in a large bowl until thick, about five minutes. Beat in the chocolate mixture, vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture (don't overmix) then the toffee and nuts.
Chill until firm, at least 45 minutes. If you let it chill too long it will be very difficult to scoop and you'll have to let it sit at room temperature for a while.

To speed things up you can scoop the dough onto cookie sheets then freeze for 20 minutes or so, then bake.

Heat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment. Portion out golfball size lumps of dough, I use a #24 disher. Bake until dry and cracked on top but soft to the touch in the center, about 10-12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 min, then remove to a wire rack.

This is one of the winning recipes from a pie contest I saw on the Food Network and was a huge hit at thanksgiving. For some reason I managed to take a picture of the unbaked pie, but not the finished product. It looks even better baked!

Unbaked pie shell
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
3 TBS melted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
2 cups pecans, toasted, chop 1 cup
½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

Toast pecans on cookie sheet.

In a large bowl lightly beat eggs. Stir in sugar, corn syrup, melted chocolate, butter, vanilla and salt.

Into prepared crust layer chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped pecans, then carefully arrange 2nd cup of pecans in pan. Slowly pour egg mixture over pecans, deflecting with a spoon to prevent moving pecans.

Bake for 15 min at 350. Cover edge with foil or pie shield. Bake for another 40 min. until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Adapted from Good Eats to use rosemary instead of thyme, since I don't like thyme. I prefer dark meat and hate cutting up chickens, so I use all thighs instead of a whole chicken. The original recipe says to bake for 1.5h but that came out a little dry for my taste.

1 10-12 chicken thighs, bone-in, skin on.
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 sprigs rosemary
40 peeled cloves garlic
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Toss with a 2 tablespoons olive oil and brown on both sides in a wide fry pan or skillet over high heat. Remove from heat, add oil, rosemary, and garlic cloves. Cover and bake for 1 hour.

Remove chicken from the oven, let rest for 5 to 10 minutes, carve, and serve.

From Good Eats

3 pounds stew meat (beef, pork, and/or lamb)
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 (12-ounce) bottle of beer, preferably a medium ale
1 (16-ounce) container salsa
30 tortilla chips
2 chipotle peppers canned in adobo sauce, chopped
1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from the chipotle peppers in adobo)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Place the meat in a large mixing bowl and toss with the peanut oil and salt. Set aside.

Heat a 6-quart heavy-bottomed pressure cooker over high heat until hot. Add the meat in 3 or 4 batches and brown on all sides, approximately 2 minutes per batch. Once each batch is browned, place the meat in a clean large bowl.

Once all of the meat is browned, add the beer to the cooker to deglaze the pot.
Scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the meat back to the pressure cooker along with the salsa, tortilla chips, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, tomato paste, chili powder, and ground cumin and stir to combine. Lock the lid in place according to the manufacturer's instructions. When the steam begins to hiss out of the cooker, reduce the heat to low, just enough to maintain a very weak whistle. Cook for 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully release the steam. Serve immediately with grated cheese and sour cream.

From an old usenet post.

4 bacon slices, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tbs unsalted butter
2 tsp ground cumin
3 tbs all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken broth
1 lg boiling potato, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 cup heavy cream
10-oz package frozen corn kernals
1/2 lb sharp Cheddar, grated

Cook bacon in 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until
crisp and transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.

Add onion and butter to fat in pan and cook, stirring, until onion is
softened. Add cumin and cook, stirring, one minute. Add flour and cook,
stirring, 1 minute. Whisk in broth and bring to a boil, whisking
occaisionally. Add potato and simmer, covered, stirring occaisionally,
until just tender, 8 minutes. Stir in cream and corn and return to a
simmer. Add Cheddar, stirring just until cheese is melted (do not let
boil), and season generously with pepper.

Serve topped with bacon.

(Soup keeps 2 days, covered and chilled).

This is especially good in bread bowls. I make a batch of daily bread and form two round loaves.

I have no idea where this recipe came from, my mom started making in 10+ years ago and it's been a family favorite ever since. Even now that I'm no longer a vegetarian! I accidentally made it with non-fat ricotta recently, and it was fine. The texture was really weird raw (and had me worried!) but unnoticeable once cooked. The recipe can be doubled and made in four 8x8 pans, freezing three for later use. I like the Glad Ovenware pans, they're cheap and go directly from freezer to oven.

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
1 16 oz. can tomatoes, diced, undrained
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1.5 T. Chili powder
.5 t. oregano
.5 t. cumin
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
12 oz corn, drained
.5 c. sliced black California olives
1 c. ricotta
4 oz. chopped green chilies, drained
2 c. shredded cheddar (8 oz.)
10 6" corn tortillas.

Sauté onion and garlic in oil.

Add tomatoes & next 4 ingredients, bring to a boil. Reduce, simmer uncovered for 25 min.

Place 1 c. sauce into greased 9 x 13 cake pan.

Add black beans, corn, olives to remaining sauce.

Combine ricotta, chilies, & .75 c. cheddar.

Fry tortillas in .25 c. oil, 5 seconds per side. Put 2 T. cheese mixture in each tortilla, roll, place in pan. Spoon remaining sauce over them, bake at 350 (F) covered for 20 minutes. Uncover, add the rest of the cheese, and bake uncovered for 5 minutes.

Posted with reservations. This came highly recommended on an internet forum recently and with so many fans I had to give it a try. Eric & A love it, but it's a little too rich for me--and that's saying something. I've I'm going to have that much butter in something I also want it iced in chocolate!

2 packages Jiffy Cornbread mix
16oz sour cream
4 eggs
2 sticks melted butter or margarine

Mix all ingredients together, pour into ungreased 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 for 30-45 mins until lightly browned on top and sides pull away from the pan.

I've adapted from Cook's Illustrated to use a bread machine for the dough. I'd love to make these up and have them available in the freezer but they never last that long!

When you bake the crescent rolls, make sure the light in the oven is switched off. If it's on the steam may crack the bulb. You can make the dough up to 4 days ahead of time or even partially bake the rolls and freeze them for longer storage. To do this, begin baking the rolls as instructed, but let them bake at 350F for only 4 minutes, or until the tops and bottoms brown slightly. Remove them from the oven and let cool. Place the partially baked rolls in a single layer inside a zip-loc and freeze. When you're ready to serve them, defrost at room temperature and place in a preheated 350F oven for 12 to 16 minutes.

Dough
3/4 c skim milk
16 Tbs (2 sticks/8 oz) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
1/4 c sugar
3 eggs
3.5 c (17.5 oz) flour
1 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp salt

Egg wash
1 egg white beaten w/ 1 tsp water

1. Microwave milk, butter, and sugar in 4c measuring cup until butter is mostly melted and mixture is warm (about 110F.) Whisk to disolve and blend in sugar. Let cool slightly.

2. Place dough ingredients, including milk/butter/sugar mixture in bread machine, following the manufacturer's direction. Process on the "dough" setting.

3. Line rimmed baking sheet with plastic wrap. Sprinkle dough with flour to prevent sticking, and punch down. Turn dough onto floured work surface and form into rough rectanagle shape. Transfer rectangle to lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

4. Turn dough rectangle onto lightly floured work surface. Roll to a 20x13" rectangle, use a pizza wheel to trim edges. Cut dough in half lengthwise, then cut 16 triangles. Elongate each triangle of dough, then starting at wide end, gently roll ending with pointed tip on bottom. Arrange crescents in four rows on parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet; wrap baking sheet with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.

5. Remove baking sheet with chilled rolls from refrigerator, unwrap, and cover. Let rise until crescents feel slightly tacky and soft and have lost their chill, 45 to 60 minutes. Meanwhile, turn oven light off, place rimmed baking sheet on lowest rack, adjust second rack to lower middle position, and heat oven to 425F.

6. With pastry brush, lightly dab risen crescent rolls with egg wash. Transfer baking sheet with rolls to lower-middle rack and, working quickly, pour 1 c hot tap water into hot baking sheet on lowest rack. Close door immediately and bake 10 minutes; reduce oven temperature to 350F and continue baking until tops and bottoms of rolls are deep golden brown, 12 to 16 minutes longer. Transfer rolls to wire rack, cool for 5 minutes, and serve warm.

From The Joy of Cooking:

4 tsp coffee liquor
2 tsp instant espresso powder

2.5 c flour (12.5 oz)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt

8 oz softened butter
3/4 c brown sugar (7 oz)

Stir together liquor & espresso powder

Whisk dry ingredients together

Beat remaining ingredients until well blended. Add espresso mixture and beat until blended.

Gradually add flour mixture, beating on low speed until blended and beginning to form a dough. Place the dough on a large piece of plastic wrap. Using the wrap to help mold the dough, shape it into a 12x3x1" log. Wrap tightly and refrigerate at least six hours. Use immediately or wrap more and freeze for up to a month.

To bake, position a rack in the upper third of the oven, preheat to 350F. Unwrap log and slice into 1/4" slices. Transfer to parchment lined cookie sheets, 1" apart, back until the tops look dry and start to brown around the edges, about 10 minutes. Let sit on the cookie sheet about five minutes, then move to a cooling rack.

Big thanks to Stephanie to bringing this recipe, from Rustic European Breads From Your Bread Machine, to my attention. It's a big favorite around here.

3 cups (1 pound) bread flour
2.5 tsp yeast
.33 c sugar
2 Tbs dry milk
2 Tbs dry mashed potato flakes
2 oz. butter
.5 tsp salt
.5 tsp vanilla
3 eggs, divided
zest and juice of .5 lemon
.75 c water

Reserve one egg for the glaze, combine the rest of the ingredients in
the bread machine pan, process on dough setting.

Once the cycle is completed, remove the dough to a lightly floured
surface and punch it down, adding additional flour if it seems too
sticky to handle. Turn the bread pan on top of the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes, then form the loaf.

Make a coiled loaf by rolling the dough into a 30" rope. Spritz a pie
pan with cooking spray, then coil the dough into the pan, beginning at
the outside edge. Twist the rope as you lay it in the pan.

Sprinkle the top of the loaf with granulated sugar and set the loaf
aside to rise until nearly doubled in bulk about 40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350F. Beat the remaining egg and brush it over the loaf.
Sprinkle the top with more sugar (I used pearl) and bake until brown, 25 to 40 minutes.

Yanked from CI. Since our household is divided on the Nuts Issue I used half the nuts and added them after pouring the batter into the pan. I sprinkled them on top of half the pan and gentled stirred them in.

1 cup pecans or walnuts (4 ounces)
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter ( 1 1/2 sticks), melted
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar (10 1/2 ounces)
2 large eggs , lightly beaten
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 ounces chocolate chips (1 cup)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread nuts on large rimmed baking sheet and bake until deep golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer nuts to cutting board to cool; chop coarsely and set aside.

2. Spray 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray w/ flour.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside.

4. Whisk melted butter and brown sugar together in medium bowl until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Using rubber spatula, fold dry ingredients into egg mixture until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in chocolate and nuts and turn batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with rubber spatula.

5. Bake until top is shiny, cracked, and light golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes; do not overbake. Cool on wire rack to room temperature.