Sweet Ending Sundays: Apple Crisp in Rum Cream Sauce

Well hello there!  I must say I am absolutely EXHAUSTED, but it is important to get some of these recipes out to you guys.

Today, coming straight off our savory meal, I thought how best could I round out this Sunday with dinner.  The only thing that came to mind was Apple Crisp.  And when I tell you Peach Cobbler and Apple Crisp run neck and neck as my fav dishes (clearly if you read my blog you know that Peach Cobbler wins), I mean it's WAAAAAAAYYYY close!

Either way, every time I try something out, I do my research and then I decide how best to bring the recipe to the world. This time around I decided to couple it with a rum cream sauce instead of the water that is typically used to create the sauce. With anything sometimes things work out the way they should and sometimes they don't.  And when any of my baking adventures goes wrong (which surely did) I call Aunt Gene!  Everyone needs an Aunt Gene, she is witty, sharped tongued, but when I tell you she knows her stuff, she knows her stuff.  The horror began when the topping of my Apple Crisp, didn't "crisp."  She told me to omit the flour going forward and potentially add in some type of nuts, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts anything.  So to save the day, I suggest pouring some melted butter on top of the mixture and that worked!  With that said I will give you the recipe as is, but I firmly believe that you should use at least 2x's the amount of butter suggested for the crumble on top.

-7 Granny Smith apples pilled, cored and sliced
-1 cup white sugar
-1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1 cup quick-cooking oats
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 cup packed brown sugar
-1/4 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 cup butter, melted

Rum Cream Sauce

 -1/4 cup heavy cream
-1 tablespoon Run Extract
-1 tablespoon sugar
-1 tablespoon butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease cast iron skillet with butter until completely coated.  In a bowl put the cup of sugar, cinnamon and a tablespoon of flour and toss the apples in the mixture until fully coated.  Then place apples in the cask iron skillet.  In a small pot, heat butter, heavy cream, sugar and rum extract.  Pour this over the apple mixture and stir to make sure it is worked all the way in. 

Combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes. (clearly mine cooked for about an hour to an hour 15 because of my crisis.)

Any questions or comments folks, leave it here!

Soulful Sundays: Cornish Hens Stuffed with Cornbread Dressing w/ Sauteed Green Beeans & Wild Rice

Wow is it Sunday again?  I've missed you.  Typically I try to decide early in the week what exactly it is that I want to be able to share with you guys.  I think very long and hard about the different recipes, what meats have I already used, what will be my techniques, how will I plate...long story short a lot of preparation goes into the planning of the posts.

Life happens to must of us, and for me I'm working full time as a Financial Analyst at a new company and I'm in a MBA program so yeah, PLANNING IS ESSENTIAL!  But I'm dedicated to this.  I am passionate about cooking and I've always just wanted an outlet to share it with the world.  And now I do! 

Comfort food or "Soul Food" is much more then just food.  Its a way for me to share my love with the people that I care about.  I take so much pride in the fact that after you have a meal that you are excited and you simply enjoyed it.  So for me this isn't like my Finance homework, I can be burnt out and I will ALWAYS make time for my post.

Ok, ok, enough on my Ode to food and Southerncrumbs blog lol.  Let's jump into this meal.   Now I have become known for my stuffed Cornish hens.  And not to toot my own horn but they are really delish!  I will be sharing all parts of the recipe BUT the stuffing...but I don't know maybe one day I will, you have to keep reading to find out.

Also for the wild rice, any brand can work, but I used Carolina.

With all this long windedness, let's go.

Cornish Hens Stuffed with Cornbread Dressing w/Sautéed Green Beans and Wild Rice

-2 Cornish hens
-a heap of minced garlic in jar
-vegetable oil
-awry's Seasoning Salt
-Garlic Powder
-Onion Powder
-Black Pepper
-Paprika
-Stuffing of Choice

Put a heap of the minded garlic in a bowl and then bowl a bit of vegetable oil into the same bowl.  In a glass or roasting dish take washed Cornish hens and rub with the garlic and oil mixture.  Then take all the above seasonings and open up the hens and season the inside.  Then seasoning hens on both sides.  After take stuffing and stuff inside of the Cornish hens.  Oven should be preheated to 350.  You should bake for about an hour and a half with the foil on to seal in moisture.  Then bake for an additional 20 -30 mins until the hens have a good color on it.

String Beans

-bag of fresh string beans
-salt
-pepper
-minced garlic
-olive oil
-water

After string bean ends are removed and the beans are washed, put in a large skillet with a bit of water to steam them down a bit.  Then add in a bit of olive oil and minced garlic.  Use above seasonings to taste.

Wise Choices: Watermelon Salad

Hello again!  So I tried something a little different today.  I decided to let Instragram decide if they wanted me to post the recipe for the Watermelon salad I made.  Basically it went, 15 likes gets the recipe posted, and I am please to say that I received more than that lol!

Either way, from time to time I will be doing these Wise Choice posts.  Today I've been in a bit of a mood and didn't really want anything heavy to eat.  Also, I have made a vow to use much fresher ingredients when cooking, and that's what I have been doing for my posts.  And although it is much more expensive to eat with fresh ingredients they are WAY TASTER! 

With that said here we go!

Watermelon Salad:

-Container of fresh cubed watermelon
-2 tablespoon fresh mint minced
-1/2 cup diced red onion
-1 cucumber cut into chunks
-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
-1/2 cup of feta cheese

Take all of the above ingredients, combine and ENJOY!

It's take simple, so there is no excuse to go to that drive through now!

Any questions or comments as usual, leave me one!

Late Post: Pear, Arugula & Endive Salad w/Spicy Caramelized Walnuts & Goat Cheese

Hello all!  I posted this picture last week to my Instagram account Southerncrumbs412, with the promise I would post the recipe for it later on.  And as PROMISED here I am about to give you want I know it is you want!

This is a rather short post, but I have TONS of new meals planned this week and I'm super excited about it.  As usual you will see my Soulful Sunday post, but I do plan to post quite a few other items so make sure you follow me on Instagram and check back.

With that said let's jump in.

Pear, Arugula & Endive Salad w/Spicy Caramelized Walnuts & Goat Cheese:

- 1 bag of Arugula
-2 rip pears
-2 endive
-1 container of goat cheese
-1/2 cup walnuts
-2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of cayenne
1 teaspoon olive oil (original recipe called for walnut oil, but I couldn't find it and it was fine)

Place arugula in bowl.  Separate the leaves of the endive wash and chop; put it in the bowl with the arugula.  In a sauce pan, heat oil and put walnuts in the pan with the brown sugar.  Cook on low to medium heat until the brown sugar completely coats the nuts.  Season with salt and cayenne.  Once done, put to the side and cool.  I then took the mixture and chopped more finely. When plating put a handful of the arugula and endive then place a bit of goat cheese on top of that.  After put a bit of the caramelized walnuts on top and slice pears.  Drizzle a bit of salad dressing on the top of your choice.  I would use a variant of balsamic for this, I can't remember however at the moment the exact one that I used.

And as always if you have any questions leave it here.  Enjoy!

Soulful Saturday: Crab & Lobster Ravioli in Vodka Sauce

Good Morning All.  As promised I am back with my second installment of the delicious meal that I cooked for my mother's birthday dinner party.  And if you recall we are doing this all in REVERSE ORDER. 

With that said next up is the entree: Crab & Lobster stuffed Ravioli in a Vodka Sauce.  This was a big deal guys.  Everything on this menu was COMPLETELY NEW MATERIAL so I made mistakes along the way (nothing too crazy) but mistakes nevertheless.  One example was after boiling the first batch of ravioli I realized perhaps they were too big, and I was being lazy ...i.e. I was going to just leave them big, but they weren't that pretty, so my cousin convinced me to cut them down and the picture above is the result of her prudent advice (shoot out Angie).  And that's what cooking is about.  I'm not a chef, but we all must learn to rely on best judgement, use our taste buds and get to work!

Now I made everything fresh EXCEPT for the ravioli.  I have read tons of material on it and I assure, I had no time to make them from scratch (but that doesn't mean that you won't see a post with me doing it lol).  What I did use however is dumpling wrappers found at a local Chinese grocery store.  The perks of living in a new area I am sure. One more shout out to my sister Ashley on her jumping in to make these Ravioli! With that said lets jump right in!

Crab & Lobster Ravioli in Vodka Sauce:

2 packages of dumpling wrappers (25 in each pack)
2 containers lobster meat
1/4 cup cognac
1 container jumbo lump crab meat
1 container of ricotta cheese (the smaller one)
1 small package of chives
1 28 - 30oz can crushed tomatoes
heavy cream
1 1/2 cups vodka (I used the cheapest one they had)
4 cloves of garlic minced
4 shallots
olive oil
1 stick of butter
onion powder
garlic powder
italian seasoning
fresh basil
crushed red pepper
black pepper
salt
1 egg for egg wash

Sauce:

Saute shallots and minced garlic with a little butter and oil.  Once fragrant, put in the vodka and the crushed tomatoes and basil.  Let this cook until it starts to come to a slight boil.  Then start to add your seasonings in.  Use your pallet it's the best indication of how much of this or that needs to be added.  I would start off adding a bit at a time and letting the seasonings have a chance to set in the sauce.  I cooked mine for an extended amount of time a low heat, let's say for about an hour.  Note, it was rather bitter before topping of with heavy cream, but the cream toned down that bitterness from the tomatoes and it came out perfect. 

Ravioli:

Saute shallots and minced garlic until fragrant in oil and butter. Add in the crab meat and the lobster meat. Season with the above seasoning to taste.  Add in cognac.  Once cooked, turn off heat and allow the mixture to cool.  Then add in chopped chives and ricotta cheese.  You can use as much as you want here.  I used almost the entire container.  Take your dumpling wrapper and add a gum ball size amount of filling , take your egg wash and line the dumpling, place another wrapper on top and then seal around the mixture first before crimping the dumpling close.  Boil a pot of salted water, and once the water comes a boil drop about 5 or 6 dumplings at  a time in the boiling water and when they float to the top take them out and add to the sauce.  Serve with fresh parley and grated Parmesan cheese.

*Note, my ravioli where initially too big so I just cut them down to size.

Sweet Ending Saturday: Bailey's Irish Cream Brownie

Before I even get into the post I'd just like to SCREAM HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!  This woman is absolutely amazing, and I just had to give her a shout out.

But let's talk about how parent's are crazy lol.  What started off as a intimate dinner, turned into a full on dinner party.  Rest assure, I rose to the occasion though.  What I'm going to do for this week, is slowly release the menu daily till we get to the end, STARTING WITH DESSERT!

So first up is going to be the Bailey's Irish Cream Brownie, served with vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and mint as a garnish.  I was inspired by a recipe that I stumbled across on Pinterest and I for the most part stayed true to the recipe, however I added a little more Bailey's and some vanilla extract to the cream cheese filling. (http://saorganics.com/baileys-irish-cream-brownies/)

This post is short, but trust me you will get more Southerncrumbs this week, so here it goes:

Bailey's Irish Cream Brownie:

Brownie batter
1 cup butter
4 semi sweet chocolate (couldn't find unsweetened but it came out just fine)
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Filling:
16 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
3 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream liqueur (I used way more let's say like 1/4 cup of Bailey's)

For the brownies:

 Place the butter and chocolate into a medium saucepan and melt gently over low heat while stirring frequently. Remove the mixture from the heat and allow to cool. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 13×9 inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Coat the foil lightly with non-stick cooking spray.
Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs together in a medium bowl until light and fluffy (this took about 3-4 minutes with my mixer). Sift the flour and salt together; add to the sugar mixture in three half-cup increments. Add in the chocolate mixture by folding it into the sugar mixture.

For the cream cheese filling:

In another medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and sugar and beat until creamy. Continue to beat while adding the egg and liqueur.

To assemble the brownies:

Pour half of the brownie batter into the pan. Spread all of the cream cheese layer over the brownie layer. Pour the remaining brownie batter over the cream cheese layer and using an offset spatula, smooth the batter. Bake for 40 minutes.

Serve warm with ice cream.

Enjoy folks! And as usual, if you have any questions or comments, leave me one!

Sweet Ending Sundays: Amaretto Peach Cobbler

 

This is rare I must admit.  I'm not a big dessert person, but I thought hey, what would I teach my reader about stepping out their comfort zone if I don't step outside of mine.

Following off my bread pudding from last week, I thought I'd take a crack at one of my favorite desserts, peach cobbler.  Now of course, it wouldn't be a challenge unless I tried to do a little something different.  So I decided to add some amaretto to the recipe and it was a hit (ask Ms. Raquel).  However, what I must admit is this recipe is a bit "cakey" something that I'd prefer for my peach cobbler not to be.

So you know what that means...more recipes to try out, but don't be confused this recipe is a great one worth sharing.  And here it is:



1/4 cup amaretto
2 cups sliced peaches (I used 1 1/2 large cans, liquid discarded)
1 cup milk
2 cups sugar
8 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
almond extract
vanilla extract
cinnamon
nutmeg

In a pot put peaches, 1 cups sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and the amaretto.  At the same time put the butter in a glass pan and in the oven at 375 and let it melt.  While the butter is melting, mix flour, milk and sugar with a bit of almond extract.  Mix slowly to avoid lumps.  After the butter is melted, pour the flour mixture over the melted butter.  Do not mix.  Then spoon fruit over the flour mixture and put in the oven.  The batter will rise to the top while cooking.  Cook until browned.  Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Any questions or comments leave one and ENJOY!