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Tag: recipe

Spiceology Contest!

In case you weren’t aware, I like to participate in food contests. My favorites are the ones hosted by Chefsroll (www.chefsroll.com). My first competition with them was over a year ago, where I came in the top 10 (out of 500) with my Southern Fried Chicken and Mac and Cheese Waffles.

I then competed again in their Callebaut Outside the Box Chocolate Contest and had two of my entries move on to the final rounds. That was a fun competition because I literally just had to use Callebaut chocolate in what I was making, and choose from one of the categories. My Chocolate Balsamic Lamb and my Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcake both made it.

So now, Chefsroll and Spiceology (go check out their site if you haven’t, they have such amazing spices!) are having a contest. So OF COURSE I am competing. And time permitting, in multiple categories. I’ve already finished and submitted one.

The first category I am competing in is the Best “Blend” Dish, using Spiceology Vadouvan. Vadouvan is an Indian Curry Blend with added aromatics like onion and shallots. It’s just such a warm and wonderful spice blend. I decided to use it to make a fried chicken dish. My Vadouvan Fried Chicken with Roasted Fennel and Pickled Carrots has already been submitted to Instagram and you can see it there @chefzoe.

Stay tuned for more of my submissions to the Spiceology contest!

July 6, 2019
Mac & Cheese Nest with Bacon Jam

As a fun snack, I occasionally make spaghetti nests with meatballs. They are small, highly personalized little muffin sized spaghetti nests that are very tasty.

Held together with eggs, Parmesan cheese and a touch of cream, these spaghetti nests are very fun and tasty and maybe one day we will give you the recipe for them, and my super delicious meatballs.

This giant mac & cheese nest is loosely based on that. Pasta nests are a million times easier to make with long and thin pasta types like spaghetti, but because we were making mac & cheese, it made more sense to use small shells. I did this knowing it would be a lot harder for the pasta to bake together in a cohesive way.

My gamble paid off. Using a cheese sauce with three cheeses (mozzarella, cheddar and provolone), I patted an entire box of small shells into a springform pan. After baking it at 350F for 15 minutes, I added a bacon and caramelized onion jam to center, and baked it again for another 15 minutes.

You can use any pasta and any mac & cheese recipe to make your own nest, and you can put anything you want in the middle of the nest! You can even make mini versions. Just bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes and then let cool for another 10 out of the oven.

June 4, 2019
Eggy in a Basket

I don’t want to bore you with a long story about how I got into this fantastic breakfast, but there is in fact a story. So I’ll keep it short, and sweet.

I saw V for Vendetta (my favorite movie btw) when I was young. It came out in 2005, and I was 13. What always stuck in my mind is when V made Evie an eggy in a basket. It was made for her again by another character later in the movie. Her joy at eating one, as well as the happiness V seemed to feel when she ate it made me curious.

However, I did not eat one until college. My partner, Ryan, saw V for Vendetta with me for the first time, and noticed how excited and happy I got when V made it. So he made one for me. Now, we have them regularly, for breakfast and dinner.

They’re pretty easy to make. All you need is bread, butter and a single egg. And maybe some salt and pepper as well.

The hardest part of making an Eggy in a Basket is flipping it and not breaking the yolk. The easiest part? Eating it.

Find the recipe here.

June 3, 2019
3 Day Croissants and Pain au Chocolat

Since culinary school, and even more specifically, since my Intro to Bread Making class, I have wanted to be good at making croissants. However, since they are time consuming and fairly difficult to make, I never really made the attempt. At least, until now.

I tackled the croissant this week, and I have to say that the results were very very good for a first attempt. For a good croissant or pain au chocolat, you need layers, lots of layers. The more layers the better in my opinion. They need to be buttery and flaky and have depth of flavor.

You can quite literally see the layer and layer of flaky croissant in these pain au chocolat that I made. Despite the amount of butter, these were light, flaky and absolutely delicious.

If you want to attempt your own croissants, and have the time to try them out, check out my recipe here.

May 13, 2019
Caramelized Onion Focaccia: Cookbook Review

Zoe’s Take:
6/10

Bread is fantastic, but this bread did not hit it out of the park for me. Using frozen bread dough did not work out really well for me, as the focaccia did not poof up like my focaccia have in the past. The topping is great though, as caramelized onions are amazing on bread.

Eric’s Take:
7/10

I found this recipe delicious. You can sign me up for caramelized onions and cheese any day! Like Zoe, I took issue with the frozen dough. Making dough yourself is daunting, but not that difficult. My bread just didn’t rise enough. To make it worse, the cheese and onions weighed the dough down and caused the bread to sink after it finished baking. I was disappointed by the visuals and textures, but flavor was A+!

April 24, 2019
Zoe’s Chocolaty Bacon Eclairs

Eclairs are an amazing dessert. When I was young I used cannoli and eclair interchangeably. Yes yes I know that’s basically sacrilege, but I’m really into desserts and I was too young to know the difference.

But these are all eclair. I won’t be providing you with the recipe because I will be doing a whole segment on desserts later this year, so if you’re really into it, stay tuned for that.

These eclairs are the perfect munchie. Rich chocolate mixes with espresso and a touch of chili pepper, a slightly crunchy pate au choux, and delicious bacon jam with caramelized onions. Sweet, savory and umani in all the best ways.

(and they’re really easy to make into an edible… )

It’s important to note that eclairs are incredibly time consuming to make if you’ve never made them before.

BUT! If you’re not about making your own, you could always buy some and add your own bacon mixture to the top of it!

April 16, 2019
Bacon and Guacamole Grilled Cheese

Nothing is better than a lovely grilled cheese sandwich. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, it doesn’t matter what time you have it.

Two days ago we reviewed what was basically a grilled cheese with a ton of roasted vegetables and not one, but two types of cheese. Before this, we’ve had tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons and even grilled cheese with pears in it. There are so many combinations it’s hard to fathom sometimes.

So we decided to shove some bacon and guacamole into a classic grilled cheese sandwich. First make some guacamole (you can find our recipe here). Make some bacon and toss them in.

I definitely recommend using a mixture of cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese with the guacamole and bacon. Oh, and if you can find a nice sourdough? Use that. Definitely, use that.

April 12, 2019
Zoe’s Cinnamon Rolls

I absolutely enjoy making cinnamon rolls. Although they can be time consuming to make if you’ve never made them before, they’re a breeze after making them a few times.

When we first started this blog, I posted a caramel pecan cinnamon roll recipe that you can find here. That recipe is simply decedent and sweet as hell. While I don’t eat any of these cinnamon rolls I make, I do get a lot of happiness giving them to other people. Also, if they look and taste amazing, that’s a plus too.

Well, these cinnamon rolls I made recently are my more basic recipe, more classic, with the added effect of bacon, both in the dough and sprinkled on top.

While I won’t be posting the recipe here, you can get the recipe by subscribing to our email list, where we send our exclusive recipes.

April 10, 2019
Ricotta, Pine Nut, and Honey Bread Pudding: Cookbook Review

Zoe’s Take:
6.5/10

As far as I am concerned, bread pudding is a pretty good dessert when made correctly. I have a fantastic bread pudding recipe that’s basically a dark chocolate dream. For me, this one was just okay. None of the flavors really came forward for me, and the pine nuts were really just a weird addition. I was hoping that the ricotta would have made more of an impact in this recipe, but it didn’t. I guess if you’re a really big pine nut and ricotta fan, this might be for you, but it’s not for me.

Eric’s Take:
8/10

I definitely enjoy a good bread pudding. The Challah I got from my local grocery store was a bit soft and I don’t believe it soaked up as much as it should have. The directions were also somewhat ambiguous. For the bread the instructions were 12 cups of cubed bread. That could vary greatly depending on how large the bread is cut. The pine nuts didn’t add in the crunch I was hoping they would. However, I love ricotta, pine nuts and honey. To Zoe’s point this was definitely for me…so maybe I’m a bit biased. The points were lost on ambiguous directions and taste. Not that this wasn’t really good, it just wasn’t stellar.

March 20, 2019
Spicy Fusilli with Zucchini, Leeks and Tomatoes

Pasta, pasta, pastaaaaa. My favorite food. I am always looking for ways to spice it up (pun definitely intended).

This fusilli is super hot, because red pepper flakes. I actually used way more than I showed on the recipe, and it was HOT. But guess what, I love hot. I love spicy, and if i can mix that with my favorite food, plus my current favorite vegetable (zucchini), even better.

Get the recipe here.

March 19, 2019