A Taste of Summer for Secret Recipe Club

This weekend we got our first glimpse of summer after a long, cold winter and a rainy, cool spring. Yes, this weekend it was warm and sunny, with highs in the mid-70s, puffy-white clouds and a beautiful breeze. As our friend J commented with a contented sigh, "This is San Diego weather." Indeed. Perfect for spending the evening on the front porch sipping a cocktail and enjoying a pre-dinner snack.

And it also happens to be Secret Recipe Club Reveal Day! As luck had it, this month we were assigned the blog Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom by Jamie, where we found some great recipe ideas for dinner, desserts, and breakfasts/sides/snacks. We were tempted to make "Creamy Chicken and Asparagus Pasta," or "Blackberry and Cream Cheese Mini-Turnovers" (and we still may!), but the porch swing beckoned, and we found the perfect pair of recipes to enjoy on it: Microwave Potato Chips and Brazilian Lime Cocktails. Our very own Taste of Summer, courtesy of Jamie! 

Jamie's "Microwave Potato Chips were salty and crunchy, and it was great knowing that they consisted of a mere three simple ingredients - potatoes, olive oil, and salt. We used Malted Vinegar Sea Salt for a little salt-n-vinegar chip flavor. And who would ever have thought to make homemade potato chips in the microwave? Jamie's recipe is brilliant, and perfect for an anytime snack. The Brazilian Lime Cocktail is one of several of Jamie's "Best Tropical Drinks." It's her version of a Caiporoska  - a Caipirinha made with vodka instead of Cachaca. It was tart and refreshing, and reminded us that summer is right around the corner. We added a topper of club soda to give it some fizz.

Microwave Potato Chips

minimally adapted from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom

Ingredients:

2 cups 1/8-inch potato slices

olive oil

Malt Vinegar Sea Salt

Toss potato slices in olive oil. Drizzle additional olive oil on a large microwave-safe plate and arrange the potato slices on the plate in one layer without any overlap. Sprinkle with salt. Microwave on high for 3 minutes, flip, sprinkle again with salt, then microwave on high for an additional 3 minutes, until starting to brown and crisp. Drain on paper towels, and allow to cool slightly as they will become crispier as they cool. 

Brazilian Lime Cocktail

mimimally adapted from Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom

Ingredients (per cocktail):

1 lime, cut into 6 wedges

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 ounce vodka

ice

1 ounce club soda

Place lime wedges and sugar into a large glass and muddle limes with sugar to release juice. Stir until sugar dissolves. Add vodka and ice, stir and top with club soda. 

Check out other recipes from today's Reveal Day below, including our black beans (and her own) on From Brazil to You. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Orange Chicken with Walnuts for Secret Recipe Club

This past week we were on Spring Vacation and it was glorious. The weather was a little cool for our taste - in fact, it snowed one night. But it sure seemed like the perfect time to break out the slow cooker for our Secret Recipe Club pick, Orange Chicken with Walnuts by Jamie of Our Eating Habits. 

Secret Recipe Club is a club of food bloggers who make each other's recipes (in secret) and then publish posts about them on the same day, known as Reveal Day (that's today!). When we got Our Eating Habits this month, we were excited because we remember Jamie making our Paprika Chicken and Potatoes back in February and she did such a lovely job.

This chicken recipe has everything you'd want in an "anytime" meal - it's made in a slow cooker so the prep is minimal and there's no standing over the stove, therefore it's super easy, but also it's so very tasty that you'll likely never order Chinese orange chicken for take-out ever again. The walnuts were a great touch, too - adding a nice crunch to the dish. Note: since there's only two of us, we only made four pieces of chicken but kept the remaining ingredients the same so we could have plenty of sauce to drizzle over our rice.

Orange Chicken with Walnuts

recipe from Our Eating Habits

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons corn starch

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1/4 cup teriyaki sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cup orange marmalade

4 chicken drums and/or thighs

4-6 spring chives, chopped

1/2 cup walnuts
orange segments (optional) 

In a slow cooker, stir together the corn starch, chicken stock, teriyaki sauce, garlic and marmalade. Add the chicken and half of the chives. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. Serve over hot cooked rice and top with the remaining chives, the walnuts, and some orange segments if desired.

Check out other SRC reveal posts below, including this one from Veronica's Cornucopia, who made Amy's mom's flour frosting in some gorgeous spring-y whoopie pies!

An InLinkz Link-up

Sausage Bread for Secret Recipe Club

Time sure does fly, doesn't it? It seems we just made some Cuban Pork in our slow cooker for February's Secret Recipe Club, and here we are already with Reveal Day upon us. By the way, participants in Secret Recipe Club are assigned another food blogger and choose one of their (always amazing) recipes to make and post. This month we were assigned Jamie who writes Cookin' with Moxie.

Jamie is Italian, and many (but certainly not all) of her recipes are as well. We love her "Random Recipe" tab which, when clicked, brings you to one of her recipes. Randomly. So very fun! We clicked on it, and voila! Sausage Bread appeared.

It may have seemed random, but in actuality, it was pure destiny. You see, Amy had just last weekend taken a cooking class featuring stuffed breads (we will be posting about it soon, promise), and Jamie's Sausage Bread version seemed both tasty and simple. Plus, Jamie calls this recipe a "family tradition." One of the things we love most about Secret Recipe Club is connecting with other food bloggers and sharing those food stories and traditions. And finally, this recipe that featured sausage as a main ingredient gave us a reason to use this beautiful Green Valley Farm Berkshire Pork Hot Italian Sausage we found at the final winter Ellington Farmers Market. 

We made the sausage bread according to Jamie's instructions and brought it to dinner at the neighbors to enjoy as an appetizer. Everyone pounced on it and not only was it gone very quickly, but all pronounced it tasty, delicious, and yummy. It just may become a tradition of our own! Next time, though, we will be more careful about shaping the bread. Ours got a little bulky in the middle. 

Sausage Bread

from Cookin' with Moxie

Ingredients:

1 lb. store-bought pizza dough

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 lb. ground Italian sausage (hot or sweet)

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, slightly beaten

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. spread a tablespoon of the olive oil onto a cookie sheet. Stretch out and form pizza dough to fit the size of the cookie sheet and set aside. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet and cook the sausage until crumbled and cooked through. Place sausage, both cheeses, egg and pepper in a large bowl and fold together. Top the center of the dough with the sausage mixture. Fold sides of dough to cover completely and overlap to form a seam. Turn the bread over so the seam side is down. Rub the dough with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, turning over halfway through cooking, until dough is golden brown. Cut into 1-inch slices and serve at room temperature (slightly cooled).

Take a look at our pizza sauce made by The Texan New Yorker and more Secret Recipe Club posts from Group C:

An InLinkz Link-up

Slow Cooker Cuban Pork for Secret Recipe Club

Every once in a while, a convergence of events makes you feel like the heavens are smiling upon you. Such a convergence has happened in the past couple of days and it sprang first from our February Secret Recipe Club assignment: The Savvy Kitchen.

To start, The Savvy Kitchen is written by a woman named Amy whose husband is named Chris. Quite a coincidence! Amy specializes in low-carb, low-calorie and gluten-free recipes, and there are plenty from which to choose. We've spent a few days browsing the blog and were particularly intrigued by the slow cooker section because of the weather.

So let's talk about the weather. You see, the school districts in which the two of us teach took away our beloved, much needed February vacations a couple of years back. But Mother Nature has taken it upon herself, in those couple of years, to give it back to us in the form of Snow Days. In 2012, it was Snowpocalypse in October. The year 2013 brought a blizzard that made our annual Mardi Gras party unforgettable. And this year, it has snowed much and often. We had two Snow Days in a row leading into this long weekend. Yes, we were two happy and relaxed people this weekend, and, just sayin', it's been perfect slow cooker weather. 

While we were lingering on The Savvy Kitchen's slow cooker section, the final element of the convergence of events occurred in the form of a text from neighbors D and J in which they were offering us half of an 11-pound pork shoulder in exchange for our participation with them in a pulled pork showdown. Minds. Blown.

Thus, it all came together. Secret Recipe Club assignment + lazy Snow Days + free pork + Pulled Pork Challenge = The Savvy Kitchen's Slow Cooker Cuban Pork.

The challenge was on and the house smelled delicious. With notes of cumin and citrus, our (literally) falling-off-the-bone pork reminded us that as much as we love Snow Days, we love summer more. D's spicy barbecue pulled pork sandwiches were amazing, so we called it a draw. To Amy of The Savvy Kitchen, thanks for a fabulous (and super easy) recipe that we are sure to make again, even without a convergence of Snow Days, free meat, and/or cooking challenges from the neighbors. And to the neighbors, thanks for the pork!

Slow Cooker Cuban Pork

(recipe from The Savvy Kitchen)

Ingredients:

1 onion, sliced

1 5-6 lb. pork shoulder 

kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

2 cups orange juice

1/2 cup lime juice

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons dried cilantro

4-5 garlic cloves, minced

Cooks' notes: we served ours in warm tortillas with shredded lettuce, cheese, salsa and sour cream, and if we had black beans in the house, probably would have had those on the side. Alas, we made some saffron rice instead. Also, while Amy suggests setting the slow cooker on low, we did ours on high, and doubled the ingredients (besides the onion) because our pork shoulder was larger. And because Chris likes to play with knives, he butchered the pork first.

Place the sliced onions in the bottom of a slow cooker set to high. Top with the pork, fat side up. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and pour over the pork. Cover and cook on high heat for 8-10 hours. Remove meat from slow cooker and shred using two forks. Remove all but two cups of liquid and return shredded pork to the slow cooker; cook additional half hour. Serve as desired.

Peruse this week's Secret Recipe Club posts below, including what Our Eating Habits did with our "Chicken, Sweet Onion and Potato Paprika"!

An InLinkz Link-up

Fritos Dessert Bars for Secret Recipe Club

It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day once again. Our group had the month of December off for the holidays but we are back in full force (albeit a little late...our apologies). This month we were assigned a blog filled with fun and creative ideas for families: Making Memories With Your Kids. The blog author is Erin, a single mom with two kids who loves to bake and craft with kids, and it shows. She has tons of wonderful recipes as well as craft and gift ideas, on this great blog.

But we went right for the desserts page and one of the first things we noticed was the Fritos Dessert Bars. Fritos are Amy's favorite snack chip, one of her guilty pleasures, and at first, we couldn't really imagine this recipe. It's a no-bake bar, so it's so easy to make. And when you bite into it, you get everything you could ever ask for in a dessert: crunchy, salty, sweet, and sticky plus a hint of chocolate and peanut butter. Good Lord! We've died and gone to dessert bar heaven.

Speaking of heaven, we brought these to our neighbor's baby's post-Baptism party and they were a huge hit! No one could believe they were made with Fritos or how easy they were, and everyone wanted the recipe. So we just said, "Check out the blog tomorrow morning!!!"

Thanks, Erin, for these magical dessert bars. Chris plans on cutting back the sugar and adding raisins or other dried fruits and making breakfast bars out of them. So good!!!

Fritos Dessert Bars

from Making Memories With Your Kids

Ingredients:

1 10.5-ounce bag Fritos corn chips

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Spray a 9X13 baking pan with cooking spray. Empty Fritos into a large bowl. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, bring sugar and corn syrup to a boil. Remove from heat and add peanut butter; stir until smooth. Pour mixture over Fritos and gently stir to coat. Pour into prepared pan and using wax paper, press down to spread evenly into the pan. Put chocolate chips in a small zip-lock bag. Microwave for 30 second spurts to melt. Cut off a corner of the bag and drizzle over the Fritos bars. Allow to set, then cut into squares.

Update: Alas, whoever was assigned our blog wasn't able to complete their assignment, so we were "orphaned" this month. One of our recipes will show up next Monday during Group D's reveal day. We will update again then!

Here is a link to the blogger who was assigned to us:  http://rebekahrose.blogspot.ca/2014/01/secret-recipe-club-candy-popcorn.html

(Personal) Best of 2013: Best Post

After some discussion, we decided that our "best" post of 2013 should be our most popular one. The logic behind it is that those who viewed it may want to view it again, and those who missed it might want to check it out. So there you have it. The thought process of A Couple in the Kitchen. We used Blogger Stats to determine the outcome, and therefore, our personal Best Post of 2013 is Golden Cinnamon Buns for Secret Recipe Club.

"Chili con Caffé" for Secret Recipe Club

When we received our assignment for this month's Secret Recipe Club, the blog from which we needed to choose and make a recipe, we were a little intimidated. You see, we have followed and admired Authentic Suburban Gourmet for some time, and you will understand why once you take a look at that blog, with its plethora of intriguing recipes, unique style, and gorgeous photographs. It's the kind of blog we strive for ours to become, and its author, Lisa, is the kind of fellow foodie we love to follow.

We spent hours going through Lisa's countless recipes trying to find just one. We especially love her series of "Friday Night Bites," a wide array of fabulous snacks and appetizers perfect for entertaining. And we have bookmarked plenty of those, we can tell you. But as we looked ahead to the busy, and according to the local weather report, "chilly" week ahead, we had to go with one of her "chili" recipes. But which one?

Having judged a couple of chili contests for the International Chili Society, the argument over the inclusion of beans, while it amuses us, doesn't deter us from throwing them into our chili pot. While they scoff at "chili con carne" (of course it has meat, they insist, but it absolutely should not have beans!), we add not one but four kinds of beans into ours. But what really drew us toward one of Lisa's chilis was the secret ingredient...one that has proven its worth in another of our SRC recipes. That's why we're naming this particular dish "Chili con Caffé." Yup...there's coffee in that there chili! 

After doubling the recipe, we had a vat o' chili to eat for Sunday night dinner and a few school lunches after that. Plus some to share, of course. It was truly delicious, and perfect for these dark and cozy late autumn days. With the blend of meats, variety of beans, slight chipotle/hot sauce heat, and intriguing dark coffee notes, its had plenty of heartiness and depth of flavor. Thank you to Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet for sharing the recipe. It's a keeper!

Chili con Caffé

adapted from "Coffee Chili" on Authentic Suburban Gourmet

Ingredients:

2 pounds "meat loaf mix" of ground beef, ground veal and ground pork

2 onions, diced

2 15-ounce cans red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 15-ounce cans black beans, undrained 

1 15-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

5-6 tablespoons chili powder

3-4 tablespoons tomato paste

2 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes

1 cup your favorite salsa

2 chipotle peppers, chopped

Hot sauce (we like Cholula), kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

2 cups brewed coffee

Brown the ground meat in a large pot, breaking up the meat as it cooks. Add the diced onions and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat for 30 minutes, then turn down heat and simmer for one hour. Serve with chips or cornbread with shredded cheese, chopped green onions, sour cream, cilantro, or any other of your favorite chili accoutrements.

UPDATE: Go HERE to see what Annie of Annie's Noms did with our recipe for Peppermint Bliss Bark.