P is also for Popcorn

Perhaps I should just post about the food.

 Popcorned Chicken 

• 2 cups of popped popcorn
• 1/4 cup onions, minced
• 1t dried oregano
• 1/2t salt
• 1/2t pepper
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup water
• 2T mayonnaise
• 1T brown mustard
• 7 chicken tenderloins

Pop popcorn according to the package directions.** I used buttered popcorn, because it is what I had in the cabinet. The only thing worse than watching a bad movie is watching a bad movie with unbuttered popcorn.

**Don't burn the popcorn. The only thing worse than watching a movie with unbuttered popcorn is watching a movie with no popcorn and the stench and smoke of burnt popcorn lingering in the air.

Place your popcorn in a plastic bag with the minced onions, oregano, salt, and pepper. In a bowl combine the egg, water, mayonnaise, and mustard. Soak the chicken tenders in the egg wash mixture. Then roll the chicken in the bag of popcorn.


Preheat a large skillet with a little bit of olive oil to medium heat. Cook the popcorn coated chicken for about 7 minutes on each side.

This was the mine and the Mrs's lunch today. It was the perfect way to spend my day off. Tomorrow it is back to cupcake world.

My Plate Runneth Over

Hello readers, if you are still out there.

    I know that it has been a little while since my last post, but several things have happened since then. I have been so busy with all these things that I haven't had time to get in the kitchen and cook. Last week was a anomaly in the ALPHAbiteICAL household - The Mrs cooked dinner two nights last week! Even the pooch-o was confused by it all.
Let me fill you in.

Poultry Princess
    The Mrs has started a new job as the student recruiter for the Department of Poultry Science. She is in charge of planning and hosting events for the department, helping with the Poultry Science Club, traveling around the state to high schools to tell them all the things the department has to offer, and a whole host of other things that I am forgetting. Her first big event was this past weekend and it went very well, and the food there was very good too: smoked chicken (of course). 
    I am so proud of how well she is doing this job, however her jokes nowadays have become a bit fowl. I dont want to ruffle her feathers, and dont get me wrong some of her jokes have been some clucking funny, but others...not so egg-celent . If you know any good chicken jokes send them our way. To get you in the mood, watch this video courtesy of Lawrence Welk.

Poison precautions
    In the food business it is important to know how to not poison your patrons. The owners of the cupcakery I work at approached me to see if I would be willing to become ServSafe certified.The health department requires that at least one person on staff be certified to insure food safety. Well we had that one person, but they felt that it would be better if there were multiple people on staff were certified including themselves. They are in the process of expanding their business and opening a new location soon, and thought that the more people that they have with the certification the better for them.
    I have been studying my brains out and am happy to report that I passed. The tricky part about the studying and the test was I work at a bakery not a restaurant. Things like how to properly freeze fish for sushi and how to hold food at temperatures for hot service on a buffet and transporting cold food for catering isn't what I do at my job. We make cupcakes. Hundreds of cupcakes every day, that is it. It just wasn't practical for me, but to pass I had to learn it. And I passed, so there you go.

Promotion
    As I said before, the owners of the cupcakery are expanding their business. They are opening a new store location hopefully by the end of November/early December, and are also looking to open another store location ideally in the middle of next year. I really like my job baking cupcakes all day; it really is a lot of fun for me. However, I knew that I could not be a permanent part-time employee.
    With them expanding, I also knew there had to be something else for me with their company. After a few conversations and then an interview, I am now the manager of the cupcakery! They hired me to take care of the day to day things so that their efforts can be focused on opening the new store locations. I am very excited about the new job and extremely pleased to be full-time.


    All that to say I haven't gotten to cook in my kitchen much and I am having withdrawals. I need to whip up something fast or I am not going to know what to do with myself. Thank you to everyone that has shared recipes with me I am adding them to my list of things to try as we speak. If you have something that you think that I would like send it my way!

Just look at what some of my friends have sent me:

Homemade Pop Tarts with a sweet avocado filling found on scarlettabakes.com sent via from my good friend Jenn. 

She said, "Make these and invite me over to eat them." 

I will Jenn!

Pumpkin Pancakes found on tastykitchen.com sent via my cousins Blair and Chad. They tried this recipe and said it was perfect for the season. I cannot wait to try them too!

And, my parents' next door neighbor shared a family pecan cookie recipe with me. I think that I will make them for when our small group meets next.


I'm hungry, so I'm off to the kitchen. Stay tuned for what ever happens next.

-J

P is for Peach

Party over here, Party over there!

A Peach Pyramid

Perhaps you are one of those people that that have phriends. Perhaps you like to throw parties for your phriends. Well for "P", I wanted to take the opportunity to show you a few fun recipes that you can party down with.

First I want to show you a highly portable dessert for your party guests. Being bigger than the average bear, I find it difficult to maneuver around a crowded room at the best of times. Add a drink in one hand plus a plate of food in the other, that my phriend is a recipe for disaster. Why just the other day at a phriend's birthday party, I poured half a glass of lemonade on the floor trying to push my way up to the chip bowl. Talk about embarrassing.....  no let's not talk about it..

With that fresh on my mind, I thought we could use a grab-and-go food that is easy to eat. Also I didn't want a plate. No knife or pfork required please. (the k and p are silent respectively).

Pie with no knife or pfork? Bring it on!

With these Peach Pie Pops you quite literally grab, and go. Go mingle. Go socialize. Go pal around, if you will. Go do practically anything you want.
This will also help you be a better host. With this dessert you are free to move around you party and pop in and out of conversations. Phenomenal!

Peach Pie Pops

 For Dough*

•  2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1t salt
• 1/4 vegetable shortening
• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of ice water
• plus one more egg

For Filling

• 1 peach, small dice
• 3T butter
• 2T all purpose flour
• 2T sugar
• 2T brown sugar
• 1/4t ground cinnamon 
• pinch of nutmeg

makes 16 servings

*you can use frozen pie dough for this recipe if you wish.

Sift flour, salt, and sugar into a large bowl. Cut in the shortening, and then the butter. Combine the egg and water and stir into the flour mixture until dough forms. Split dough in half and warp in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

For the filling, melt butter in a skillet. Stir in flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg for 3 minutes. Add peaches and cook for another 3 minutes until thick.

Roll out dough very thin, 1/4"-1/8" thick. Cut small circles of dough and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Fill with pie filling, leaving a 1/4" boarder around the edge.

Press a 6" lolly-pop stick into the filling. With a little bit of egg wash, wet the rim of the exposed pie crust. Top with another piece of crust and crimp the edges with a pfork. Poke vent holes in the top of the pie with your pfork as well. Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in a 375 degree oven until the crust is golden brown.

Don't have phriends to throw a party for? No worries!  

Just look at the fun you can have with a Peach Pie Pop and a camera with a self timer.

and now I have glasses.

That was a party in itself. I hope that you enjoyed that as much as I did. Anyway more phantastic recipes to come! Stay tuned!

-J

O is for Olive

Orange you glad I'm back.

Once upon a time, the Mrs wouldn't eat olives. I am happy to announce to you all that today that all changed, with these. She says, "Even the non-olive eater would enjoy this one!" One point for me (but who is keeping score, right.)

Oh how I love olives. They are just so dang tasty. Not to mention that this is where we get olive oil from. Without olive oil, my kitchen wouldn't function.

I always think about olives when I eat fruit salad, and tomatoes too but that's not the point.. They say that you are smart if you know that olives and tomatoes are fruits. And you are even smarter if you know that olives and tomatoes do not belong in fruit salad.

Olive and Provolone Tart

• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 3t olive oil
• 1t salt
• 1/2t sugar
• 1/3 cup of sliced Kalamata Olives
• 1 sheet of puff-pastry dough
• 3 slices of Provolone cheese
• 2t light brown sugar

Heat a skillet on medium high heat with olive oil. Caramelize the shallots seasoned with salt and sugar, ~25 minutes.


Roll out puff-pastry dough over the tart pans, and press the dough into the sides. Place a slice of Provolone on the bottom of the tart, spread a layer of shallots evenly on top of the cheese, and arrange the yummy Kalamatas on top.

Sprinkle a little brown sugar over the olives and bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.

They are delicious, I mean what could be better than flaky buttery pastry with sweet caramelized shallots and the salty Kalamata Olives. To tell you the truth, the tarts didn't last long at our house. They were too good, but we did save you a bite.

-J

O is for Orange

Quick post:

On the off chance you made those Nutella cookies,

and you have the other half of the cookie dough to use.

Or if you just want some orange cookies. 

Roll out the dough, use what ever cookie cutter that you want, or don't use a cookie cutter. One could just roll a some dough balls in one's hand and press them into disks. Bake at 375 degrees for 7 minutes. Place cookies on a wire rack with a sheet pan underneath.

Then take 1 cup of powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of fresh squeezed orange juice. Whisk it. 

Spoon the orange glaze on top and let the cookies.

 Let them dry.

Eat 'um.

That's it and that's all. For now.

Off to another Other things O.

-J

N is for Nutella

Never in my life have I had a bite of Nutella.

Until now of course.

Not only do I have a new ingredient in the kitchen, I have a new island!! I cannot express to you how much I needed and wanted this. My kitchen is large in square footage, but the counter space is lacking.  I had to stack pans and plates on top of each other. There was nowhere to put nothin'. But with the island, my counter space is tripled.

This weekend, me and The Mrs. traveled to my uncle's house in West Alabama to pick up this masterpiece. Uncle Bill made the island in his spare time. It has a butcher-block top made out if red oak, yellow oak and accents of mahogany. The base is yellow oak, and it has casters so I can cart this around anywhere in the kitchen. And the best part - it is tall! Since I am 6'5", Uncle Bill wanted to make it at a comfortable working height for me. I Love It!

While we were there he gave us some of his homegrown goodies. Habanero peppers, a watermelon, and a jar of his homemade pickles were packed up in the truck and are just waiting to be devoured. 



Now, the food - Nutella. For those of you that like me until recently have never had Nutella, let me explain. Nutella is a chocolate-hazelnut spread almost the consistency of creamy peanut butter. It is made with no artificial preservatives, and has less grams of fat than peanut butter per serving size. For those of you that have had Nutella, back me up, it is delicious. On February 5th, you should all celebrate National Nutella Day with me by making these cookies.

Nutella Thumbprint Cookies

**Note you can use a premade cookie dough or follow the recipe below.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4t baking powder
• 1/4t salt
• 1lb butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar plus 1/4 cup for topping
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1t milk
• 1/2t vanilla

• 1/3 cup Nutella
• 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1/4 cup toasted almonds, chopped

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar together for ~2 minutes. Add the egg and mix until incorporated. Add the milk and vanilla. Turn the mixer down to a lower speed and slowly add the flour mixture. Stop the mixer once a dough ball forms. Scrap down the mixer and split the dough half. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Mix the Nutella and mascarpone cheese in a small bowl.


Roll out the dough to 3/4" thick and cut out cookies. Press you thumb in the center of the cookie and dip the cookie in sugar. This will rim the edges of your cookies in sugar, making them sparkle and shine.


Fill the center of the cookie with the Nutella mixture, and bake for 7-8 minutes. As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven sprinkle them with chopped toasted almonds.

 As always ALPHAbiteICAL readers, N-joy! I'm off to outline a plan for O.

-J

N is for Nectarines

Now that it is a good four days since my last post and promise I am pleased to bring you something new.

Nice to be back readers and non-readers alike. I know that there are some of you that are skipping over these words as I speak and notice nothing but the pictures that I post. No worries. There are some blogs that I look at only for the photos. Nobody judges you.

I realized a little too late that there are a limited number of 'N' ingredients, that I was stuck scrambling for a flavor to feature. When I struggle, have a few things that I do. First I brainstorm. If that doesn't work I call my family. We chat it out and usually that solves that, but if that doesn't work I go back to basics. I hop in the car and walk around the grocery store.

I've been wanting to do a dessert since the last dessert I left you with was maybe not the best. Even after my brainstorming and my family phone calls, I navigated to the store for a little N-spiration. I found these nectarines and another N-gredient that you will just have to wait for.

N case you were wondering, nectarines are similar to a peach, but not fussy and the fruit is firmer than a peach. I like to think of it as half way between a peach and an plum. A nectarine is not in the orange family, as my N-laws seem to think. (Love you all.)

Nectarine and Blueberry Crisps 

For filling:  

• 2 nectarines, pitted and sliced
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
• 3T sugar
• 3T all purpose flour
• 2T Amaretto liqueur*
• 1t light brown sugar

For topping:

• 1/4 cup Nilla wafers, crushed
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup toasted oats
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 4T butter, finely cubed

Combine all of the filling ingredients in a bowl and mix until a thin paste covers the fruit. Split the mixture into four ramekins.

Combine the topping ingredients, except the butter. Mix them together well. Add in the butter with your hands until you make large clumps of Nilla oatey goodness. Crumble the topping on all the ramekins** and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.



*If you don't have, or just don't want to use Amaretto, substitute with a little agave nectar or honey.

** At this point you can cover and refrigerate until you are ready to bake. This makes it ease if you are N-tertaining  for guests because you can make it ahead. You're welcome.

 N-joy!

The Next dessert is on it's way. I am excited about working with it because it is something that I have never had before. 

-J

N is for Nothing....

Nil...

Nada...


At least not right now.

I know, I know...shame on me and all that.There will be a post soon, around Noon tomorrow I am going to navigate my way into the kitchen 'N' cook up a storm. I promise.


While you wait, I wanted to announce the winner of the magnificent mustache.

 And the winner is:

Betty Martha, of Running With The Devil(ed)....Eggs That Is. As we read, that fun little corkscrew is on its way to Canada. I'm so excited that Betty Martha won. She told me,  
"I am a fan of the mustache - fake ones anyway."

Thank you all so much for entering! Betty Martha, Congratulations again and for those of you didn't win, hang N there. We just might have another giveaway someday soon.

See you back 'N a little while!

-J

M is for Mascarpone and Manicotti

Maybe you speak Italian and don't need a translation.

 

But for those that don't, and do the Master of this Mad-house (me) can help you out.

-Mascarpone is simply Italian cream cheese. It is lighter/thinner than the cream cheese, and it also has a much more mild flavor. Where cream cheese packs a punch, Mascarpone slightly slaps.

-Manicotti is just a GIANT pasta noodle. It looks like penne pasta on steroids.

Now, before we get to the recipe I wanted to make sure that you entered the giveaway. I'm giving, GIVING, away a hilariously magical mustache corkscrew/bottle opener. All you have to do is 1) Follow ALPHAbiteICAL by clicking on the right, "Join this blog" and 2) leave a comment on the giveaway post. That's it! Do both of those things and you are entered to win!

Movin' on to the food:

Three Cheese Manicotti

• 5 cooked Manicotti 
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 5T olive oil
• 1/2t salt
• 2T sugar
• 1 6oz. container of Mascarpone 
• 3 oz. goat cheese
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup diced sun dried tomatoes
• 1 1/2t Herbs de Provence 
• 1/2t black pepper

Coat a medium sized skillet with olive oil and heat to medium heat. Stir in onions, salt and sugar. Caramelize the onions by periodically stirring them on medium-low heat for about 30 minutes. Put a few onions to the side, and combine caramelized onions, Mascarpone, goat cheese, Parmesan cheese, sun dried tomatoes, pepper and Herbs de Provence in a large bowl. Stuff your Manicotti shell with your cheesy mixture carefully so you do not break the shell. Grate a little Parmesan cheese on top and spread your reserved onions and bake for 18 minutes at 350 degrees.  The cheese on top will be melted and the cheese inside the manicotti will be bubbly.

Make it for dinner Monday...after you win the mustache corkscrew of course.

-J

M is for.....GIVEAWAY!

Mesdames and Messieurs it is time for my first ever giveaway! 

 Reaching the middle of the ALPHAbite is a good enough reason for me. 

On a recent shopping trip, me and the Mrs. stumbled upon this merry little mustache corkscrew. We purchased one for ourselves and one for a magnificent follower of the blog.You can monkey around with your favorite bottle of merlot. Maybe you will earn a new nickname like we all did.

Master of this Mad-house

Mrs. Mischief Maker

Mysterious Mutt

If you prefer to monkey around with a micro-brew rather than merlot, the curl of the mustache is also a bottle top opener!

"Tell 'um how to enter!"

"I'm getting there. Mind your business."

How To Enter: 
1. Follow the blog.
(To follow click "join this site" under the Followers heading on the right-hand side of the page. If you are already a follower, and want to enter move to step 2.)
2. Leave a comment on this post.

The Rules:
To be eligible you must follow and comment. Entrees will be accepted up until Sunday, July 31st at 7:00 p.m. One winner will be chosen at random by random.org's random number generator. I will contact you via email informing you of your win. The giveaway is only open to residents of the US and Canada. This is due to by ability to ship the magical mustache corkscrew. :(Sorry Jamie):
**One entry per person. (Sorry Jordyn)

Alright I think that is it, good luck everyone I hope that you win! Now I'd love to stay and chat but I really mustache.

-J