Creamy Cauliflower Goodness

In honor of the FRIGID temperatures in TN this week, I decided to make a big pot of soup. Tres domestique, non? Plus, this way I could give my new knives that Santa brought me a test run. (Note to self: these knives are inifinitely sharper than previous sets. Meaning that merely brushing the side of a finger against the edge can/will result in blood loss. Lesson learned).

One of my goals for this new year is to make a new dish at least once a month. Not just any dish, but something I never have come close to making in the past. Cauliflower soup certainly falls into that category.

Here's the recipe, from my beloved Pioneer Woman, who I got to meet last month. Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal.
I don't feel like typing the whole process out, since I should be working at the moment, but for the most part I stuck to the recipe. I wound up using one rather large head of cauliflower and it was perfectly chunky (sounds extremely unappetizing to phrase it that way). I used a little more salt, a little less chicken broth, and threw some freshly ground nutmeg in there for good measure. I think I have unresolved issues with authority that make me incapable of sticking to a recipe completely. Oh well. I can make good soup!

Roasted Sausages and Tomatoes with Balsamic

I crave this dish, possibly because I have a deep love for balsamic vinegar. It's beautiful, delicious, and most importantly, so incredibly easy. I like easy.
Here's the original recipe: Kayotic Kitchen

Roasted Sausages and Tomatoes with Balsamic

6 beef sausages (or 2 big links)
2 small onions (I use one red and one sweet yellow)
1 pound cherry tomatoes
5 tbsp good quality balsamic vinegar
6 garlic cloves
2 tbsp oil
fresh basil
pepper
salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Cut each onion into about 8 wedges. Place the sausages in a large roasting pan with olive oil, onions, and garlic. Season well with salt and pepper, then toss it all around. Bake for about 15 minutes, then add the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Place back in the oven and bake til the tomatoes burst and starting falling apart. This typically takes at least 30 minutes for me, but I don't have a great oven. Once it looks done, take it out and rip the basil all over it. Serve with bread and be prepared to go back for seconds. Or thirds.

Brigadeiroooooooo

Sounds better if you picture a hot Brazilian saying it. 
This is one of those recipes that I keep seeing on various sites, and never have quite gotten around to making. Until today, that is. Luckily I had all of the ingredients on hand, so let the good (fattening) times roll!

Brigadeiro

1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp butter

Mix these ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Pour into another container and stick in the fridge to cool.
Then you can pretty much do whatever you want with it. Traditionally it's formed into balls and rolled in sprinkles as a candy. Or... eaten straight out of the container with a spoon. Which I'm pretty sure is what I'm going to be doing. It took every ounce of will power for me to not burn my mouth by eating it right off the stove. It also made my apartment smell delicious. WIN.

What's Better Than Bacon?

Obviously, I love bacon. Always have. Used to tell my mother that any recipe that she made would have been better if she had added bacon. While I love to put in in recipes, wrap things in it, whatever, I didn't think it really got much better than a simple piece of well cooked bacon.
WRONG.
This recipe, in all of its beautiful simplicity, caused so much groaning that I'm surprised our neighbors didn't bang on the wall.
This goes on the crack list, right under crack dressing. Yes, salad and sugared bacon. La and I believe in a well balanced diet.

Candied Salted Bacon

Center cut bacon
Brown sugar
Kosher salt

Lay bacon on whatever you have handy. I used a roasting pan so the fat could drain away a little, but a cookie sheet would work too. You might want to line it with some parchment paper to help with clean up. Anyway, lay the bacon out, making sure the pieces don't overlap, and sprinkle LIBERALLY with brown sugar. Seriously, lay it on. Stick the pan in a cold oven, then turn it on to 350 degrees. The original recipe said to start checking after 18 minutes. I found that with my oven it was more like 26 minutes. When it's cooked to your liking, pull it out, then sprinkle with kosher salt. That's it.
Try not to burn your fingers or your tongue too much whilst inhaling.

Liquid Summer

If our house wine is Bohemian (bought by the case. Yeah...), then our house drink is a lemon drop. Love them. This is the reason why we typically go through a bag of lemons a week.
Note: we like 'em tart. Very tart. If you have more of a sweet tooth, you might want to add some more sugar.

La's Lemon Drops
Makes 1 drink
Juice of 3 lemons
2 oz vodka
2 tbsp sugar

Shake it all together with ice, then strain into a sugar-rimmed martini glass. Garnish with mint leaves, though we rarely have any around.

Deliciously potent, so be careful.

Have Mercy

Mmm... lovely visual image of John Stamos there.
Moving on.
Knowing that I'd be staying in alone tonight (gotta love working from home over the holiday weekend), I decided to spoil myself and bought some organic beef filets at Publix yesterday.
They were on sale, I swear.
I had this recipe in mind to mess around with.  I loooooove Pioneer Woman. Ree, we'd be best friends. Pinky promise.
The result was quite possibly one of my favorite meals. Ever.

Oh Happy Day Steak
Steak (I used little filets, but almost anything would work)
1 large onion
Butter
Salt and pepper
3/4 c heavy cream
Red wine

Grab the steaks and throw them in some sort of container, along with some red wine, to marinate. I probably let them sit for about 5 hours, flipping occasionally. Pull it out of the fridge and let in chill out for a few minutes.
Slice the onion in half, then in pretty good sized slices. Throw it in a skillet with quite a few tbsp of butter, on high heat. Stir once every few minutes. While the onions are going, pull the steak out of the container, salt and pepper both sides, and throw it in a very hot skillet (I used my beloved cast iron) that has a tbsp of butter melted in it. This will produce a LOT of smoke. Proceed to open windows and laugh. Since my filets were small, and I like my steak medium rare, I only cooked them for about three minutes on each side. When the steak is ready, set it on a plate to rest. In the meantime, pour about 1/3 c red wine in the steak skillet to deglaze the pan, then pour all of that goodness in with the onions. Add another 1/4 c wine in there while you're at it and stir. Turn the heat down to medium. Once that's boiled down a little, add the cream, and mix it all together. Add salt and pepper to taste, and let thicken. Serve alongside steak, and be prepared for some serious groaning. This was SO GOOD.
Especially alongside some more wine.

Friday Night Improv

We (roommate (La) and I) had a slight change in plans for dinner tonight, involving mixed up addresses among other things. Long story short: I had to come up with some sort of dinner, without much to work with. The result was delicious, if I do say so myself, and more than enough for us and our friend Mimi.

Spicy Chicken Rotini
3 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 jar Bertolli tomato and basil sauce
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp sugar
1 lb rotini pasta

Pour half of the sauce into the bottom of a crockpot, then stir in the pepper flakes and sugar. Place the chicken breasts in, then pour the remaining sauce on top. I stirred it all around as much as I could, placed the cover on, and set it high for about 4-5 hours. When we were hungry, I shredded the chicken in the pot and mixed it together. Serve over rotini.

I also served creamed corn, which is called (creatively enough) Allyn's special corn.

1 package frozen corn
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp heavy cream
2 tsp salt
10 good shakes of Tony's, or to taste

Throw it all together in a saucepan with a lid, over medium low heat for about twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the corn is thoroughly heated, take the lid off and cook until the cream has thickened.

La's homemade lemon drops helped round the evening out.