Pretzel Bites and Beer Cheese Dip

I'm still trying to like football.  I can make it through about half a game before my mind wanders to other things that I could be doing instead of watching football.  

I do like making food for football games though.  Pulled pork sandwiches, potato skins, nachos have all been part of my menu before, but I've never baked anything for a football party.  Since Thursday was the start of football and the Packers (my husband's favorite team) were playing, I decided to start the season off with these fun little pretzels and beer cheese dip.

I found them on the Sunny Side Up in San Diego Blog, which I seem to have an obsession with lately.  I followed a combination of her recipe and the allrecipes.com recipe though because I only dipped them in the water and the baking soda.

Soft Pretzel Bites

Adapted from Allrecipes.com and Sunny Side Up in San Diego 
Ingredients
4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp white sugar
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
5 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter, melted

1/2 cup baking soda
4 cups hot water

Directions
1) In a bowl dissolve the yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Set aside. (Mixture should become foamy, if it doesn't your yeast may be bad or your water too hot)

2)In the bowl of a standing mixture fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour, sugars, and salt on low speed. Turn off the mixer and pour the yeast mixture and melted butter into the bowl. Turn the mixer on and knead for 8 minutes or until the dough is smooth. If the dough is too dry, add extra water, a tablespoon at a time.

3) Lightly oil a large bowl. Remove the dough from the mixer and shape into a ball. Place the dough ball in the bowl, cover with a clean towel, and allow to rise for one hour (*or until double in size).

4) Towards the end of rising, preheat oven to 450 degrees and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper and cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine the hot water and baking soda.

5) After the dough has risen, punch down the dough and then knead with hands for one minute. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and divide dough into 12 even portions. Roll each portion into a snake then cut the snake into bite size pieces, about 1 1/2 inches in width.

6) Dip the pieces in the baking soda water and place on the baking sheet (dab the pretzels with a paper towel if they seem too wet) then sprinkle with kosher salt.

7)Bake for 7-8 minutes, until browned.


Beer Cheese Dip Directions
Sunny Side Up in San Diego 
Ingredients 

6 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup good quality beer
1 Tbsp horseradish
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2-3/4 cups cheddar cheese, grated

Directions
1) Microwave cream cheese for 30-45 seconds until very soft. Stir in the beer, horseradish, and garlic powder. Microwave again for 30-45 seconds. Add the grated cheese and stir until smooth, microwaving again if necessary.



While they were cooking, I thought this was going to be a massive fail.  The bites looked and smelled like little biscuits which I thought meant that they weren't going to taste preztel-like.  When I pulled them out of the oven, I grabbed one off the pan and popped it into my mouth and thought they were amazing.  I don't usually like pretzels.  But these were great. 

We used Easy Street beer, a great wheat beer made close to us.  The beer was very prominent in the cheese, and I thought it tasted amazing.  It was too bad that these finished after dinner, so they were more dessert.  We were too full to eat all of them.  Any normal game they would have disappeared.

Creamy Chicken and Asparagus on Toast

I love asparagus.  It is one of those vegetables that I would eat several times a week and be a happy camper.  I've never made it in a dish though, it has always just been served as a side.

So I thought I would try something new.  This recipe reminded me of Chicken A La King, which is a dish that I used to love as a child, so I thought I would turn this recipe into a modified version of what my mom used to make.


Creamy Chicken and Asparagus on Toast
adapted from 365: No Repeats

Ingredients

4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large red onion
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
3 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
6 tablespoons butter
2 chicken breasts
4 pieces of toast
1 cup fresh leaf parsley leaves
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup half and half
1 bunch of pencil thin asparagus ends
1 cup parmesean cheese

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2) Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat with 2 tablespoons olive oil and add onions, thyme, and garlic, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently until nice and brown about 5 to 8 minutes.
3) Remove the onions and add the remaining two tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter, add the chicken, season with salt and pepper and cook until lightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. 
4) While chicken is cooking, combine the 5 tablespoons of  butter and the parsley to create a parsley butter.  Toast bread and then spread the butter on the bread.
5) Add the browned onions back to the skillet with the chicken, dust with the flour, and continue to cook for 1 minute.  Whisk in the wine, stock, and half and half and bring up to a simmer. 
6) Add the asparagus and cook for  two to three minutes or until the aspargus is tender and the sauce is thick. 
7) Place the chicken (I cut it into pieces instead of leaving it whole, I also think shredding it might work really well), asparagus, and the creamy sauce on top of the bread and top with cheese.  Put in the oven and cook until the cheese is melted.

I thought the dish turned out well.  I didn't particularly think that the parsley butter added much to the dish except maybe a bunch of unneeded calories.  I did like the asparagus and chicken combination and thought the red onion was a much better addition than a yellow onion like the recipe called for. 

Also as much as I wanted this to be Chicken A La King, it was much different.  It may be because I didn't use a ton of sauce on each piece of toast, but it didn't have that gravy comfort feel.  But, it was a good dinner that may come out again in the future if I run across it in the cookbook again.

Spicy Creamed Corn

It seems like there are only a few side dishes in my cooking arsenal that go with Mexican food: refried beans, rice, and chips and salsa (or guacamole). 

I ran across this recipe (which goes really well with the Cumin and Lime Roasted Pork Tenderloin) in my Rachel Ray recipe book.  It sounded amazing to me…probably because the same old side-standbys are getting old.  Plus this dish has a lot of color and brightness to it that screams summer.

Spicy Creamed Corn

Adapted from Rachel Ray’s 365:No Repeats

Ingredients

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 large yellow onion

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 orange bell pepper

10-oz box frozen corn kernels or 2 fresh ears

1 teaspoon flour

3/4 cup of chicken broth

1/4 cup heavy cream

Salt and Pepper

Directions

1)      Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat with the olive oil and the butter.  Add the onion, jalapeno, bell pepper, chopped garlic, corn kernels, and salt and pepper.  Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until the onions are tender. 

2)      Sprinkle with the flour and continue to cook for one minute. 

3)      Whisk in the chicken stock and heavy cream.  Bring the corn up to a simmer and then lower the heat to medium low and cook until it is thick and creamy, about five minutes.  Finish with salt and pepper.

I loved this dish.  It was much better than what I was expecting.  The onions still had kind of a crunch to them, which worked really well with this dish.  I was scared of the heat and so I didn’t add the entire jalapeno pepper, but found that by doing that, the dish didn’t really live up to the “spicy” creamed corn that was advertised in the title.  I think the cream balances out the spicy aspect, so if you like a lot of heat, you may want to double the amount.  I thought this was a really fun twist on a so-so canned staple in many people’s houses.  Definitely didn’t seem as heavy as canned cream corn. 

Cumin and Lime Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Rachel Ray makes putting dinner on your table in 30 minutes seem so achievable.  She is always so calm and in control during those thirty minutes too.  Every movement on her show seems to have purpose and she makes everything look so easy.  Whereas I always seem to be running around trying to find the right whisk or figure out where a spice is hiding in the cabinet.  Basically I am the complete opposite of Rachel Ray.

Her recipes have so many ingredients yet everything seems to magically come together in the allotted time frame for her show.  I really wish that I could make 30 minute meals within 30 minutes, that would be amazing.  Besides marinating the meat for two hours before putting it into the oven, this recipe really did come really close to the thirty minutes.  Plus it was amazing!

Cumin and Lime Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Adapted from Rachel Ray’s 365:No Repeats

Ingredients

2.25 lbs pork tenderloin

1 can of orange juice concentrate, made into juice

2 limes, juiced

3 tablespoons cumin, divided

2 tablespoon ground coriander, divided

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 jalapeno, chopped and seeded

6 garlic cloves

Directions

1)      I marinated the pork tenderloins in orange juice, the spices, and the jalapenos for two hours.  I put the pork in a gallon sized zip lock bag and put enough orange juice to cover the pork in the bag.  I used one lime, took a tablespoon of pepper, a tablespoon of the coriander, and one jalapeno and threw it in with the orange juice.

2)      Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

3)      Place the pork tenderloins on a baking sheet and drizzle a little of the marinade liquid onto them. Try to dig all the jalapeno pieces out of the liquid and put them on the pork as well.  Cut 3 or 4 slits in the pork (depending on the length) and stuff the slits with garlic.  Rub the remaining lime juice and spices on onto the tenderloin.

4)      Place into the oven for about 25 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.  (I am finding that living at altitude is messing up my cooking times quite a bit).

5)      Take out and let rest for a few minutes before cutting.

The meat was so juicy from marinating it for 2 hours that the medallions could be cut with a fork.  When I first plated it, Jacob asked if there was a sauce, and I realized I hadn’t even thought of making a sauce.  I told him to try it first before worrying about it, and after his first bite he declared that it didn’t need a sauce.

I really thought the spices would be overwhelming.  The whole house smelled like cumin and coriander, and the tenderloin looked like it was coated in seasoning.  However, all the flavors worked and the pork didn’t taste over-seasoned at all.  I thought the seasoning was actually spot on.

This recipe made me start to flip through my 365: No Repeats cookbook some more and find some more recipes that I want to mark to make later.  The handy thing about this cookbook is that there are little checkboxes up at the top that say “Try this again” or “Put off til later”.    We checked the “Try this again.”  I definitely recommend this recipe.

Parmesean Quinoa

Our town opened up a Natural Grocers awhile back but it is on the other side of town from where we grocery shop.  One day I asked Jacob if we could stop in there just to see what we could find.

I love visiting new grocery stores.  I think it is fun to see what they have to offer that the other grocery stores have.  Throughout the entire store, I'd yell, "Jacob, look at what they have!" and I'd get a semi-enthusiastic "That's awesome." or "That's nice." in return. 

Even though I found so many exciting things that I wanted to try, the only thing we walked out with that day was quinoa.  Which I was more than fine with, because I didn't think any place in our town carried quinoa, so I was excited to try something new.

I decided to pair it with the Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon that I made just because it felt like a proper fit.

Parmesean Quinoa
followed recipe from the back of the bag it came in
Ingredients
2 cups of vegetable stock
1 cup quinoa
2 pinches of shaved parmesean

Directions
1) Bring vegetable stock to a boil.  Reduce to low heat, and add quinoa.  Let simmer about 20 minutes.
2) Add parmesean and stir to mix thoroughly.

I have to admit, I thought it looked amazing when it was done.  I thought the beads looked really awesome, but Jacob said they looked like brains. 

I didn't really taste the parmesean shavings in there, but I still loved the taste, especially with the salmon.  If you want it really cheesy, just add and taste until the cheese level meets your expectations.
I will definitely eat this as a side again, and am now happy that I know where I can purchase it.

Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon

I am trying to use up the items that we have in our freezer and we always have a bag of frozen salmon in there, so when I ran across this recipe on Sunny Side Up in San Diego, I thought it would be the perfect thing to make since I had everything to make this in my house already.  I call that super smart meal planning. :)

I haven't ever made salmon.  My husband usually takes on the task of making it, so I decided it was my turn to take it on (with him on standby of course...haha).

Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon
adapted from Sunny Side Up in San Diego
Ingredients
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp Teriyaki sauce
1 tsp fresh orange zest
3 ounces pineapple juice
3 ounces orange juice (from the orange)
1/2 tsp kosher salt, divided
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
1/4 tsp black pepper
Directions

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2) In a small sauce pan, over high heat, combine the brown sugar, teriyaki sauce, orange zest, pineapple juice, orange juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool and thicken a bit.

3) Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Salt and pepper both sides of the salmon and set in the skillet. Cook for 3 minutes without moving. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Carefully remove the salmon from the pan and place with the cooked side up in the baking dish.

4) Bake for 4 minutes (*I found at high altitude this is more like 6 minutes). Remove from the oven and generously brush glaze over the tops of the salmon. Return to oven and cook until internal temperature reaches 145 degrees (about 4 minutes).

We served our salmon over quinoa (which I had never made before either). 

The "glaze" turned out to be more of a sauce for my salmon since it didn't reduce like it  was supposed to.  I wonder if it is because I didn't follow the ingredients in the recipe (even though I substituted measurements).   Also at 145, which our meat thermometer claims should be the internal temperature of fish, our salmon seemed just slightly overdone.  I would take it out at 140 and let it rest.

The fish tasted great though, it turned out better than I thought it would.  I'm not a huge fan of teriyaki sauce, but the orange juice and pineapple juice made it not as dominant of a flavor.  I think we'll definitely make this again, but maybe make a few more tweaks.

Chicken Hoagies

Hot sandwiches are always an easy weeknight meal.  Plus they are usually substantial enough to fill up my husband so that he doesn't need seconds.

I found this Chicken Philly Hoagy sandwich on the Sunny Side Up in San Diego and decided to give it a try.

Chicken Hoagies
adapted from Sunny Side Up in San Diego

2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1/2 onion cut into thin strips
5  button mushrooms
1 red bell pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Mayonnaise
Sliced cheese
Deli rolls

Directions
1) I cooked the chicken in the crock pot.  I threw it in at lunch with a bunch of Italian Seasonings and some chicken broth and they were ready to go when I got home from work.
2) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2) In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, add your olive oil. When the pan is hot drop in the onions, mushrooms and peppers. Reduce the heat to low-medium. Cook until the onions start to turn gold brown about 10 minutes. Stir often. Half way through add the salt and pepper. *I added some of the cooking liquid from my crockpot which added more flavor as well*
3) Prepare the rolls by spreading mayonaisse on it and then putting the cheese on each roll.  One night we put swiss and on leftover night I used up some pepper jack.  I liked the spiciness of the pepper jack but both cheese were equally as good.  Layer the chicken and then the onion/mushroom/pepper mix.
4) Place in the oven for about 10 minutes to get a nice baked crunch into the bread and melt the cheese over the sandwich fillings.

I loved these sandwiches.  I loved the flavor of all the veggies and the chicken tasted amazing after simmering in the crock pot all day.  I love fresh bakery rolls and these definitely hit the spot.  We served these with a hearty side salad and were stuffed by the time dinner was over.  I definitely recommend these sandwiches and the Sunny Side Up in San Diego blog.  I got many meal inspirations from her and am excited to try her Pineapple Teriyaki Glazed Salmon this weekend.