SAE: Sticky Buns and Ham-n-Cheese Spirals

I am sad to say my time as SAE sweetheart is coming to an end. I only have 45 days until I graduate... And less time than that as sweetheart :'(. So I thought I would try some new recipes, as I only have a couple more weeks to make them snacks!

I found both of these recipes when I was watching the food network while I got ready this morning. Sandra Lee made them for a bake sale... And I'm making them for meeting! All the originally recipes, posted below, yield about 12 each, which is usually perfect when cooking/ baking. But since I have a lot more boys to feed. I quadrupled each recipe!

Apple Walnut Sticky Buns

Growing up, my dad always made us cinnamon rolls on Sunday. They were always very delicious, so I immediately thought of him when I saw these sticky buns with walnuts (another one of his favorites). And since he was an SAE not too long ago at SMU, I thought I would try them out for meeting. I might make them again for my family this summer one Sunday morning!

Ingredients:

• 1 Granny Smith apple
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 5 Tbl unsalted butter, softened
• 2 (8-count) tubes refrigerated cinnamon rolls
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 to 2 tsp water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Generously butter a 12-count muffin tin.

Peel, core and dice the apples into 1/2-inch cubes. In a medium bowl stir together the diced apples with the walnuts and brown sugar.

Divide the apple mixture evenly into the muffin tin. Put 12 cinnamon buns, cinnamon side, on top of the apple mixture. Put the muffin tin on a baking sheet and bake until the tops are golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. 

Remove the muffin tin from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Put a clean baking sheet on top of the muffin tin and flip to remove the sticky buns.

In a small bowl, combine 1 container of the vanilla frosting with the pumpkin pie spice and 1 to 2 teaspoons of water. Mix until very thick and of pourable consistency. Drizzle over buns and serve.

They taste just like an apple strudel yum!

Ham-n-Cheese Spirals

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbl olive oil
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• Flour, for work surface
• 1 pound refrigerated pizza dough, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar
• 1/2 lb deli sliced ham
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbl water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, garlic, and Italian seasoning.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pizza dough into a 12-inch square. Brush the entire surface with the seasoned olive oil. Top with 1 cup of shredded cheese and an even layer of ham. 

Starting from the bottom edge, tightly roll up the dough to form a log (make sure its tight or it will come unraveled). Using a sharp serrated knife, slice the roll at a slight diagonal into 1-inch thick pieces (you should get 12 spirals out of each roll).

Arrange the rolls on their side on a nonstick or lightly oiled baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to proof.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg with 2 tablespoons of water. Brush the tops and sides of the rolls with the egg wash. Bake until golden brown, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Remove from the oven, transfer to a serving platter and serve.

I found that if you put the rolls in the freezer 30 minutes- 1 hour before you start making them, they set a lot easier, otherwise they might fall apart. Enjoy!

Salmon Burgers and Rosemary Fries

This weekend was a lot of fun, but full of driving. We drove to Houston to see the Bears in the Sweet Sixteen! Then we drove to Dallas for Stephanie and David's wedding, and on Sunday we woke up and drove back to Houston to see Baylor play, for the first time ever, in the Elite Eight! It was such a fun weekend!

Since it is Lent, I've been making meat free meals on Friday. This Friday I made delicious Salmon Burgers with Rosemary fries. They were so good, they literally made my mouth water as I was making them! I couldn't find a particular salmon burger recipe I really liked... So I combined all my favorite parts of about 4 different recipes and came up with this recipe! The recipe will make 4 burgers.

Salmon Burgers with Scallion Sour Cream Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 (6-oz) skinless salmon fillets, cut into large chunks
• 1 Tbl grill seasoning (I used Montreal Seasoning by McCormick)
• 1 Tbl poppy seeds
• 1 Tbl sesame seeds
• 2 Tbl chopped fresh dill
• 3/4 cup ranch style or Italian style bread crumbs (thanks for the tip Dr. Tanner!)
• 2 egg yolks (to help everything hold together)
• extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
• Fresh spinach leaves or any kind of green lettuce, for topping
• Sliced tomato, for topping
• Sliced red onion, for topping
• Burger buns, split and toasted

Sauce:

• 1/2 cup softened cream cheese
• 3 scallions, white and greens, chopped
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Place salmon in a food processor and pulse to coarse grind meat (or if you are like me and don't own a food processor, I just chopped the salmon up as finely as I could, probably not as efficient as a food processor, but it got the job done).

 Transfer fish to a mixing bowl and season with grill seasoning, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dill, egg yolks, and bread crumbs. Mix and form 4 patties, Drizzle burgers with evoo. If you have time,  store in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to help all the flavors come together.

Cook burgers 4-5 minutes on each side for fully cooked fish.

While burgers cook, combine in a bowl the cream cheese and the scallions and fold in sour cream and lemon juice.

Top the burgers with lettuce, tomato, onion and sauce on crusty, toasted buns. Enjoy!

Rosemary Fries

Ingredients:

• 4 large Idaho potatoes, scrubbed (or 1 potato per person)
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 4 to 5 sprigs fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, divided (optional)
• 4-5 cloves of garlic

Directions:

Heat oven to 500 degrees F.

Cut 10 wedges from each potato and place on a baking sheet. Drizzle a couple tablespoon of oil over the potatoes to coat them lightly then season with rosemary, salt and pepper and 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes. Throw a couple of cloves of cracked garlic on the sheet with potatoes. 

Roast 25 minutes, turning once. Make sure you don't open the oven except to turn the fries half way through, so the oven will stay hot!

Chicken with Spinach and Pine Nut Pesto

I just got back from Spring Break! I spent the week with Cameron and my roomies in sunny Cozumel. Sooo now that I'm back, I'm back to cooking.

Tonight Ryan is taking the G-MAT so Annie, Lis, and I are going to welcome her home and celebrate her finally finishing! We decorated the house with streamers, balloons, and even a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game. We got her cupcakes and champagne and I'm excited for her to get back so we can celebrate!

I cooked dinner tonight. A really good chicken with a spinach and pine nut pesto... I learned from this recipe that a food processor is key!

Chicken with Spinach and Pine Nut Pesto

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• 2 cups lightly packed baby spinach leaves (about 2 ounces)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 to 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Garlic Salt (optional)
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions:

Heat a grill pan on medium high heat. Lightly oil the grill pan. Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Grill the chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

For a pan seared chicken, heat a skillet on medium-high and light oil the pan. Sear chicken until there is no pink showing. 

This is where I had my first road block. I decided to cook the thickest chicken breast I've ever seen. I should have butterflied the chicken, because it was so thick and would cook more evenly, but I didn't... So I ended up having to cut the chicken into little pieces so I wouldn't die from salmonella. 

 Combine the spinach, pine nuts, lemon juice, and lemon peel in a processor. Lightly pulse. With the machine running, gradually add 1/3 cup of the oil, blending until the mixture is creamy. Add salt and pulse. Put half of the pesto into ice cube trays and store in the freezer for future use.

Transfer the rest of the spinach mixture to a medium bowl. Stir in the Parmesan. Season the pesto with salt and pepper, to taste.

Making the pesto was where I hit my second, third, and fourth road blocks. The first was that I did not have a food processor, so I thought I would improvise and everything would be the same. So I pulled out my Magic Bullet and poured all the ingredients for the pesto in...

But only the bottom part was pureed, and as hard as I tried, I could not get the rest to blend together. My second idea was to add it to a blender. Sooo I pulled out our blender with little to no change. After that my last idea was to whip the pesto with my hand mixer. 

This method worked better than all of my other ideas, but most of the pines nuts stayed whole. The next time I make this... I will have a food processor. 

Even though The pesto wasn't pureed, it was still delicious!

Spread the pesto over each piece of chicken and serve.

Egg Casserole

My family came to Waco this weekend! It was so great to all be together again. They came to watch Sing, which is really good this year (SAE's year for Pigskin?). One of the traditions that we've started every time my family comes in is doing a Sunday Brunch before they head back home.

This time Cameron, Ryan, Deboard, Annie, Jeff, Kenci, and my family all got together to eat with my family. We had kolaches from West (maybe the best kolaches I've ever had!), pumpkin muffins that my mom made, danishes, fruit juice, and the recipe for this blog... Egg Casserole!

Egg Casserole 
 
I think my favorite meal of the day is breakfast. I could eat breakfast from every meal of the day... Or maybe sushi, or ice cream... Well anyway, breakfast food is one of my favorites!

My mom used to make this egg casserole all the time for us growing up. I remember one time she added the chives and parsley too early and it turned into a green-egg casserole.

Ingredients:

• 12 eggs
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp chives, chopped
• 1 tsp parsley, chopped
• 12 strips of bacon, crumbled
• 5 tsp milk (5 tsp for every 12 eggs)
• 1 pkg Jimmy Dean sausage, cooked and crumbled (hot, medium, whatever)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Additional Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms 
• 1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 cup thin-sliced green onions 
• 2-3 jalapenos
• If it seems like too make ingredients, add more eggs!

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Scramble the 12 eggs, 5 tsp of milk, salt, and pepper together. You want the eggs soft, but not runny. At the very end, fold in the chives and parsley. Mix in cooked sausage and any other extra ingredient.

Evenly butter a baking pan and distribute the egg/sausage evenly in the pan. Combine the cheese and sour cream and top the egg mixture and sprinkle the bacon on top. Tent with foil on top of egg casserole and bake for 20-30 minutes.

My favorite Valentine's dinner

Cameron and I had a great Valentine's Day. I hope everyone else did too! It snowed almost 6 inches... which is crazy for Dallas. We drove around his neighborhood and looked at all the different snowmen people made. I guess since Dallas doesn't get that much snow, everyone took advantage of it and made tons of snowmen. 

Oklahoma has been getting a ton of snow. My mom sent me a picture of my parent's backyard covered in snow!

So Mary Ilene has gotten a ton of school off this month, Ford got class canceled on Friday, Cameron got work off.... And I have gotten NO class canceled... This does not seem fair.

Anyway, my Valentine's weekend was cold, but so fun. I spent all weekend cooking (which was amazing). My Valentine's dinner was the best. Cameron and I went to Central Market on Friday and spent about two hours looking at all of the food, and it was during their Chocolate Festival, so I ate a lot of samples.

For dinner I used my cookbook Reata for all the recipes. While we were at Central Market they were having a 'Valentine's Sale' on their filets. So we got two really nice filets for a great price!

On the menu:

• Pan-seared pepper-crusted tenderloin with port wine glaze
• Garlic and jalapeno mashed potatoes (Cameron loves jalapenos... So I try to put them into a lot of dished we make together)
• BERRY CREME BRULEE (I was SO excited to make this, and it's so easy!) 

 

Pan-Seared Pepper-Crusted Tenderloin With Port Wine Glaze

This is a must that you have to try! In the cookbook it says that this recipe is Reata's best selling dish and once you've tried it, nothing else will do. I am going to have to agree. I literally covered my meat in this glaze. At first, I just had a little bit on my plate, but it brings out all the flavors of the meat and I will definitely make this one again, and soon!

Ingredients:

• 2 (8-10 oz) beef tenderloins, well trimmed
• 4 Tbl cracked black pepper, or coarsley gound
• Kosher salt
• 203 Tbl oil, for sauteing
• Port Wine Glaze (recipe listed below)

(The recipe was for 6 servings, so since it was just the two of us, we divided all the portions by 3, and got what is listed above.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Generously coat both sides of each tenderloin with the cracked pepper. Season each side with salt. Heat a dry saute pan to smoking hot. Add the oil 1-2 Tbl at a time. When the oil is hot, add the crusted tenderloin and sear for about 3 minutes. This is really important, because a good, hot sear holds in the juices. Turn the steak and sear 3 minutes more on the other side. Repeat for all the steaks.

Reserve the seared steaks in a baking dish. Finish the steaks in the preheated oven for 9-11 minutes (for medium rare). Serve immediately on a bed of about 1/3 cup of the Port Wine Glaze.

For the Port Wine Glaze:

Ingredients:

(I halved the glaze, so times it by 2 if you are making it for a larger crowd)

• 1/4 (750-milliliter) bottle port wine (because the sauce reduces so much, an inexpensive bottle is fine. Although, don't go to Central Market if you are looking for inexpensive wine!)
• 1/6 cup honey
• 1 quart Veal Stock (This is another recipe in this book, but it takes a really long time to make, so just combine half chicken and half beef stock and it works out perfectly!)

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in a large stockpot. Cook over high heat for about 1 hour, until the liquid has reduced by about 75 percent and is the consistency of syrup.

Mashed Potatoes

For some reason I thought I already put this recipe up here. I've made it before, but it never made it on the blog. I didn't take a ton of pictures of the process. So you'll just have to make it yourself and see it! This whole recipe serves about 6, but you'll be surprised how much of this you'll eat, plus it's good the next day too!

Ingredients:

• 5 Idaho Potatoes (skins optional)
• Water
• 8 Tbl unsalted butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper

And this is one of those recipes that you pick and add the other flavors. You can add one, two, or as many different combinations as you can think of. (I used jalapenos and garlic)

• 1/2 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
• 5-6 garlic cloves. minced (and roasted if you'd like)
• 2-3 roasted shallots
• 3 jalapenos, seeded and minced
• 1/4 cup horseradish
• 2 cups asaigo cheese
• 1-3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup goat cheese
• etc etc etc!

Directions:

Cut the potatoes in half, the cut each half into quarters. In a large stockpot, bring the water to boil, add the potatoes, and continue boiling over high heat for about 20-25 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain.

The sauce: While the potatoes are boiling, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Lower the heat, slowly add the heavy cream, and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. If you are going to make a flavored potato, this is when you would add the extra seasoning, spice, or sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Continue simmering the cream until it has reduced by about 25 percent, and remove from heat.

Mash the boiled potatoes in the stockpot they were cooked in (saves another dish to clean after). While the potatoes are still warm (this is important for the flavor of the cream to be absorbed), add the hot cream sauce. Thoroughly combine the cream sauce with the potatoes to finish mashing. Serve immediately.

Berry Creme Brulee
 
And now... For the Berry Creme Brulee, one of my favorite desserts! This recipes serves about 6 as well.

Ingredients:

• 1 pint of blackberries (variation: raspberries, blueberries, 1/4 chocolate ganache... we did a combination of blackberries and raspberries)
• 11 egg yolks
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 quart heavy cream
• 1 Tbl vanilla
• 1/2 cups granulated sugar, for topping

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Place 3-5 berried in the bottom of each of the 6 individual brulee bowls, or small oven safe serving bowls., and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Ina saucepan, combine the cream and the vanilla, and heat to approximately 160 degrees, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Slowly temper the warm vanilla cream into the egg and sugar mixture, stirring constantly. Make sure you add it gradually and stirring constantly so you don't accidentally scramble your eggs!

Ladle about 1 cup of the mixture into each serving bowl. Place all the bowls into a baking dish that is deep enough to hold the bowls and the water. Fill the baking dish with water halfway up the serving bowls.

 

Bake for about 80 minutes. The custard is done when the an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and the water bath, and let cool slightly.

Sprinkle each serving with sugar. Using a butane torch, slowly and evenly brown the sugar topping, taking care to only caramelize and not scorch. If you're like me, and you don't have a torch (or you bought one and found out that there was no lighter fluid in it) place the sugar-topped custards under the broiler briefly. Watch very closely, because the sugar will turn dark very quickly.

 

And that was my very favorite Valentine's dinner. With the perfect finish to the meal. I'll put up more recipes of our weekend later, but I thought this was enough recipes for one post!

I thought I would end my post with my gorgeous dozen lilies Cameron gave me for Valentine's Day!