Christmas Eve.

Kristin here!
So.  At 11 o'clock yesterday morning I decided to make dessert for our immediate family's Christmas Eve dinner. And that dessert was: Smitten Kitchen's chocolate hazelnut crepe cake.  A stack of deliciously paper-thin crepes with a light hazelnut pastry cream between each one, all draped in chocolate ganache and showered with candied hazelnuts.
Perhaps a bit over-zealous... but alas. that's what I proceeded to do.  It was an insane amount of steps, separate recipes, and refrigerating.   Buut I like to think everything turned out as it should have. Except for the candied hazelnuts.  Something about candying sugar... that also involves nuts... just does not agree with me.  Pretty much ever.  I should take a class or something.  It's getting sad.
Also, I didn't have Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) on hand and since I couldn't just run to the store to pick some up, I just used the Amaretto (almond liqueur) we had. So there were some different/lacking flavors.
The recipe is from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman.  I couldn't find a digital copy online anywhere, so you'll have to go pick up a copy of her cookbook. Believe me, it is well worth it.  Full of some truly fantastic recipes.

Christmas "Dinner"

Hello Everyone! This is Amanda. Hope you are having a blessed holiday season. With our family, the holidays are always a time of giving fun presents, playing board games together, and consuming inordinate amounts of ridiculous and delicious food.
This year, for our Christmas dinner, we decided to go with a theme of appetizers, so our entire dinner was made up of little bites of yumminess.
The first course was a fancy salsa, served with tortilla chips. I got this recipe from a friend of mine, whose mom focuses on making healthy meals for her family, and my family loved it. It's easy and versatile, so feel free to mix in any other things you think sound good.

Fancy Salsa

2 jars salsa, whatever spiciness you like

1 can sweet corn, not creamed

1 can black beans, rinsed

2 chopped avocados

2 tsp lime juice

salt and pepper, to taste

Optional: chopped cilantro, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, anything else your heart desires

Tortilla chips, to serve

Mix together the salsa, sweet corn, and black beans. Add the chopped avocados, lime juice, and salt and pepper just before serving. Dish into a big bowl with plenty of chips and enjoy!

Next up, we had some basic bruschetta. I used a recipe on the Pioneer Woman's blog, and it was very good.

Basic Bruschetta
1/2 baguette or another crusty french bread, sliced
6 TB butter
3 medium tomatoes
1 TB basalmic vinegar
10 basil leaves
1 TB olive oil
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper, to taste
First, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat, and add the garlic, frying until lightly goldened. Set aside to cool.
Dice the tomatoes and stir in the basalmic. Chiffonade the basil leaves (just chop them up to manageable pieces) and add to the tomatoes. Stir in the garlic and the oil from the skillet, and add salt and pepper till it tastes right to you. Cover and let sit at least an hour for all the flavors to come through.
Heat a griddle over medium high heat and melt the butter on it. Toast the bread on both sides until golden. Top with a little of the tomato mixture and eat up!

The next course I served was a basic shrimp cocktail. I'll admit I didn't have to do any of the cooking on this one, as I just picked it up from the grocery store on a whim, but it was pretty good and fun to eat.

Following that, the sweet and sour meatballs were ready. I've never made meatballs before, but when we started planning our dinner my parents thought these would be a wonderful addition to the meal. My mom found the recipe on Allrecipes.com and I was glad she did!

Sweet and Sour Cocktail Meatballs
1 lb. ground beef
1/4 cup minced onion
2 slices bread, crusts removed and soaked in water
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz. canned jelled cranberry sauce
3/4 cup chili sauce
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 TB brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 350. Stir together the ground beef, onion, bread, and egg, mixing well till no chunks of bread remain. Shape into 1 1/2 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, stir together the cranberry sauce, chili sauce, lemon juice, and brown sugar in a crockpot over low heat. When the meatballs are done, add them to the sauce and stir to coat well. Heat, covered, for about an hour. Yum.

After the meatballs, what came out of our oven was stuffed mushrooms. I found this recipe on the Pioneer Woman site as well, though after years of my mom's stuffed mushrooms, I didn't like this recipe quite as much as hers. Of course, it might have been because we were all getting pretty full at this point.

Stuffed Mushrooms (I halved the original recipe, so that's why the amounts of everything are strange)
12 oz. button mushrooms, rinsed
3 oz. sweet Italian sausage
1/4 medium yellow onion, chopped finely
2 cloves minced garlic
3 TB dry white wine
2/3 package cream cheese
1/2 egg yolk (good luck with that.)
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper, to taste
Pop the stems out of the clean mushrooms, reserving both parts. Finely chop the stems and set aside.
Heat a skillet over medium high heat and add the sausage. Brown and crumble it, then spoon it onto a plate to cool. Don't clean the skillet.
Add the onion and garlic, and cook for a couple minutes over medium low heat. Add the wine and allow to cook until evaporated, another couple minutes. Add the mushrooms stems and cook until soft. Set aside to cool.
In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese with the egg yolk and the parmesan until creamy. Add the sausage and mushroom-onion mixture, stirring until combined. Place in the fridge to cool for a few minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350. Spoon a little of the cream cheese mixture into the open cavity of the mushroom, overfilling it so you get as much cheesy goodness as possible in each bite!
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top turns golden. Allow to cool a few minutes, otherwise your guests will burn their mouths on the deliciousness.

The next recipe isn't much of a recipe, just a fun appetizer that spices up any party, combining some of the most amazing ingredients into one fun bite.

Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalepeños Wrapped in Bacon (literally and linguistically, a mouthful)
makes 16 bites, enough for about 5 people
8 jalepeños
8 strips bacon
1 package cream cheese
First, because you'll be working with hot peppers, it's a good idea to wear gloves and make sure you don't rub your eyes during or after this procedure. Pretty painful experience.
Cut the stems off the jalepeños and cut them in half lengthwise. Remove and discard the seeds and membrane carefully. Cut the strips of bacon in half.
Spoon cream cheese into the open cavity of each jalepeño, getting them nice and full. You might not use all the cream cheese. Wrap a half-slice of bacon around each filled jalepeno, covering the cream cheese so it doesn't melt out in the oven.
Place in a baking dish, and preheat the oven to 350. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the bacon is crispy. If you did a good job removing the seeds, these will provide a punch of flavor to your party without killing your guests!

Finally, for the dessert course, we kept it simple and classic with chocolate dipped strawberries. These were fun to make with my mom, and so good fresh!

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
1 carton strawberries, rinsed well
1/2 package semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp shortening
Rinse and dry the strawberries well, pushing back the stems so they don't get in the chocolate later. Melt the chocolate chips and the shortening in the microwave, stirring every 30-45 seconds until smooth.
Dip the strawberries in the chocolate and set on a plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until hardened. When you eat them, savor the moment. Nothing says living in the lap of luxury like chocolate covered strawberries!

Well, you have probably stopped reading this post by now. If you haven't, I'd like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, and good eating! To a wonderful and blessed 2013.

the waffle experiment.

Kristin here!
This entire post is dedicated to putting any food [besides waffles] in a waffle maker and seeing what happens.  I'll give you a short story of how this came about:
A good friend of mine has to live for a few weeks at a time in a hotel room. He only has access to a mini fridge and a microwave and gets understandably sick of cold cuts and the like.  Someone suggested he get a waffle maker and experiment with what can be cooked inside aside from waffles. Then a few of us chipped in and got him an early Christmas gift offfff: a waffle maker!
So.  This is one big experiment to see what he could cook [mostly breakfast foods, but who's complaining about that? not me].  Nothing really turned out terribly... just sort of "meh."  The thing that was undoubtedly the best was the Crescent cinnamon rolls. [by the way, I'm not claiming originality on any of these ideas.  if they weren't already on the interweb, then another one of my friends dreamt them up.  just for the record].

First on the docket: eggs.  Whisked with a little milk/cream to make them fluffier.  This would be best made like an omelette with a bunch of yummy vegetables and some bacon/ham in it, but for time's sake I went very simple.  Don't forget salt + pepper.

#2: hashbrowns.  This one I like to think of as at least somewhat original.  You could do this with the frozen hashbrowns, but of course it would be better with fresh grated potatoes.  Again.  Tons of salt + pepper needed here.  And perhaps butter.  They have a greenish-tint because Idaho potatoes were all I had on hand.  Red or Yukon gold work best.

#3: Crescent cinnamon rolls.  So delicious.  So.  So.  So.  Awful for you.
Just bunch four rolls in the center and close the lid and wait for the built in timer.  Turned out peeerfect.  Better than waffle batter in my opinion.

#4: Grilled cheese!  Basically the idea of this is to use the waffle maker in lieu of a panini press.  Put the bread in first, one at a time, until it gets only slightly brown.  Then put your cheese and any other yumminess in the middle of your bread and squeeze it as tightly closed as you can until the cheese melts and everything is evenly heated.  If you cook it too long, the bread will get really weird, dense and generally unpleasant in certain places.  Watch out.

#5: Bacon.  We just decided to weave the bacon for no apparent reason.  It really did help hold it together and keep it from shriveling up into nothing... but it isn't totally necessary.  But weaving is always fun............. Until it gets stuck.

But it turned out fine.  Just be sure to leave your waffle maker on for long enough to cook any raw bacon bacteria off.  And be aware that the grease will make a massive mess.  Definitely a good choice to do this one last.

Just have fun with it and don't be afraid to look [and feel] absurd.
Thanks for readin', folks.  Happy waffling.

Take One [Blackberry Walnut Sour Cream Scones]

Amanda here! I thought I'd kick things off with a batch of scones I whipped up this morning when I was trying to write a paper. Somehow I think I get textbooks and cookbooks mixed up and the result isn't pretty. But it makes the kitchen smell nice!

I based these scones off a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen blog, but decided to make them with sour cream instead of heavy cream, and use blackberries and walnuts for a more unique flavor combination. They are pretty simple and turned out moist and flavorful, perfect for a cool fall morning.

Blackberry Walnut Sour Cream Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 TB baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

dash cloves

2 TB cold unsalted butter

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup heavy cream

zest of half an orange

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup blackberries, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

heavy cream, coarse sugar for baking

First, preheat the oven to 425. Take out a single baking sheet, and line it with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk or sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cloves.

In another small bowl, stir together sour cream, heavy cream, orange zest, and vanilla extract. Place in freezer for a few minutes to keep it cold.

Chop the butter into small cubes and add it to the flour mixture, rubbing it in to get it fully incorporated but with small pieces of butter distributed throughout. Add the sour cream mixture, and give it a few gentle stirs to begin stirring the two, careful not to overwork the dough. Add the blackberries and walnuts, and knead gently with your hands until all the dough sticks together and all the flour is incorporated. Turn the dough onto the parchment lined baking sheet and pat into an 8 inch wide circle. Cut into 8 equal wedges and spread them out on the parchment. Brush with a little heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool, only slightly, for maximum deliciousness!

Intro

Hello, cyberworld.  Kristin here.  I just wanted to do a post about Amanda and I.  Our adventures.  Our relationship.  Our backgrounds.  So here goes.. somethin'.  [hopefully].

First off, we are first cousins.  Our dads are both lifelong native Phoenicians and we have followed suit.  So far.  Our family has always been very tight-knit.  Just how we operate.  We have all attended the Apostolic Christian Church [hereby referred to as the AC church, or its attendants as AC's]  for our entire lives and know nothing else.  I love it to pieces and cannot picture myself anyplace else.  A huge tradition of ours is cooking and feeding the people we love.  If there is any sort of an AC event, you can expect food to be involved somehow.  Good food, to boot.  It's how we roll.  So naturally, cooking is very engrained in me and Amanda.  Truthfully, food is our love language.  It's our primary method of communicating love to the people in our lives.  The main reason we love to cook is watching the people we love enjoy the fruits [ha! punny!] of our labor.  It has always and will always mean a lot to us.

On to other things, namely the title of this blog.  Another AC tradition is singing a capella hymns as a church.  Full out, 4-harmony, old-fashioned hymns.  Not only do we do it as a church on a weekly basis, our family also sings together quite often.  So hymns are, and always have been, a huge part of our lives, a fact that I truly adore.  Back to my point, the title of this blog; Sweeter Than All.  That is the title of a hymn in one of our hymnals [#132 in the Hymns of Zion, for you AC's reading this].  My favorite verse goes like this:

"Though a vessel I may be, broken and small, broken and small;
Yet His blessings fall on me, sweeter than all, sweeter than all,
Jesus is now and ever will be sweeter than all the world to me;
Since I heard His loving call, sweeter than all, sweeter than all."

Such a remarkable message and a fantastic melody, as well. So now you know the reasoning behind our blog's name.  As to why this blog exists? Well, perhaps that one's for another time.  Hopefully this lengthy post helps you understand Amanda and I a little bit better.

Thanks for reading,
Kristin.