Mushroom Cresents + Challenge + Update!

It's been, once again, so long since my last blog post. I kind of irritates me! >:O
I want to look back at my old recipes and post and think "HEHE, whatanerddd." My other dream is to be that one old grandma that kicks her grandchildren's butt at star wars and smacks unknown people with my purse.
So anyways, today in class we were having a total lazy day, gotta love those. My teacher popped in a movie and we watched the great "Julie&Julia", btw my favorite part of the whole movie is the beginning! When they're de-boning that fish? OHHH. It give me the gebbies! The whole movie also makes me want to grab a cook book and start racing through recipes, of course the moment I got home, my energy seemed to have decided to break up with me. On the bright side, I bought some yummy sushi from Publix. I really do wonder why some people don't like Publix sushi? It's really good.
A quick note: I don't celebrate Thanks Giving. I mean, I did last year, but only because a friend invited me ove,r no because I did. But that's beside the point, the point is, food has always been in my life. While I may not celebrate whatever this is, I am extremely thankful for the food that's always been with me. My friend dropped by today and gave me a whole bunch of groceries. I don't even have to pay for school lunch anymore because food is thrown at me. I never take it for granted, I mean dog-gon-it! I love food more than sleep. And makeup. And that's saying something!
Omg I think I'm getting very sick! Sneezing, stuffy nose, tummy aches. Fantastic. I'm still eating of course, my grandma always says "He who eats sick will not die" or something like that cause she says it in Spanish. :P
Anddd! While I was out buying my sushi, I finally came across Cream of Tartar and Nutmeg! Happy camper over here!
Ohhh, and my small challenge is just to simply try and post everyday. It's going to be hard, and forgive me if I fail miserably. I don't have my own computer anymore, so I'm constantly having to borrow, but ahh well.! :)

Enough about me, let's get cookin >:D

Mushroom Crescents

Filling
(*Note, I did not do this filling, I did one with Ricotta Cheese and something else, you could even bake them with jelly for a sweet snack!)
2 Tbsp Butter
1 Small Onion, Chopped
3 Cloves Garlic, Minced
3/4 tsp Dried Thyme
3/4 tsp Dried Sage
1/2 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 Cups Finely Chopped Portobello Mushrooms
1 1/2 Cups Finely Chopped Button Mushrooms
1/3 Cup White Wine

Pastry

4 oz (125g) Cream Cheese, Softened
1/3 Cup Butter, Softened
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 Egg, Beaten

Directions Filling

Set out large rimless baking sheet.

In large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; fry onion, garlic, thyme, sage, pepper, and salt, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, about 3 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high. Add mushrooms; fry, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in wine, scraping up brown bits from bottom of pan. Cook until liquid is evaporated, about 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.

Directions Pastry

In large bowl, beat cream cheese with butter untill fluffy. Stir in flour untill dough begins to form; knead in bowl until smooth. Divide dough in half; flatten into 2 discs. Wrape; refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.

On lightly floured surface, roll out each disc into 10 inch (25cm) circle. With 2 1/2 inch (6cm) round cookie cutter (Or whatever size ro type works for you.) cut out circles, rerolling scraps. Brush edges of circles lightly with egg. Place 1 tsp (5mL) of the filling in each center; fold dough over filling; pinch edges to seal. (I also used a fork to go around the edges.) Place 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on a baking sheet. Brush tops with remaining egg.

Bake in middle rack of a 400 F oven until light golden, 12-15 minutes.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

*I got this recipe from eat me; delicious! I get a lot of the things I make from her blog, other blogs, and books. I feel like his is reblogging! (I just recently got a tumblr, so I felt the urge to use that word.)
So basically saying, none of these recipes on this blog were thought up by me. I just like and enjoy sharing food with everyone. SPREAD THE HAPPINESS!
If I do happen to make one up (which I actually have...[milkshakes, Gallo pinto omelete... etc.]) then hopefully I was clear in stating so in the post!

The Process! (I hope you guys don't mind that I didn't bother with the little captions this time around...)

(^Only picture of filling. I did a Ricotta Cheese, mushroom type filling here. Just trying to use of ingredients I had around.)

(^WE FINALLY GOT A NEW TABLE! WO0T!)

(^ I hate how dirty this thing looks. I swear it's clean, it's just really freaking old. >.>)

Hoe to see you guys tomorrow. Hopefully.
have fun in da kitchen!
Bye Beautiful! (Or handsome?) :)

Di French Crepe! Vwualaaa! ;D

So this Friday, just before school let out, our teacher said that, of course you didn't have to do this if you didn't want to, but if we cooked something at home and took a picture of it, the person with the best food made thing would get a prize. Of course, that was just her secret way of saying "Here, Nathalie, make a blog post, and I'll even give you something for it!" Yeah, I was totally in my kitchen today.
What my moms been saying she's been kind of craving for a while are crepes, or as I saw one video the person kept calling them "craps" haha. xD
Well yeshh, after much searching of my own, I have molded my own recipe from theirs and here is what I have for you all today! Yippie! So let us beggin!

Crepe Butterfly!!~

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Milk (get ready to use more just in case!)
3 Large Eggs
4 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla
Pinch Of Salt
*Cinnamon

For Filling:

Nutella
Dulce De Leche

(This was all we had, but PLEASE if you have fresh fruit, caramel, whipping cream, pecans, etc., get that in there! The more the better!)

Directions:

If you have a proper filling, unlike me, start off by cutting your fruit, or setting it out. So you know where it is and it's ready for when you need it.
Next you want to grab a small pan and heat the milk and butter inside untill it's fully mixed together.
Whisk up all your dry ingredients. (Flour, sugar, salt, *cinnamon)
When your milk and butter have mixed, I like to just whisk the eggs up in the same pan. I do one egg at a time, and before adding the next one, make sure the one you're working on is fully incorporated! Don't forget to add your vanilla!
Now you want to add in your wet mixture into your dry ingredients, start off whisking slowly, then work on to your full on batter. If you're batter doesn't seem liquidy enough like mine, just grab some extra milk around here and whisk it until it's the desired consistency.
 Heat up your pan, here you can either use butter so your crepes don't stick, but egh, I'll stick with my trusty PAM!
Grab a nice spoon full of your mixture and place it in the middle, spreading it around by tilting the pan. Is what I'd like to say but I found out I like to start pouring my mixture with my pan already tilted, and not from the middle but from a side. I just feel that the batter coats the pan better this way. But choose whatever way fits you!
Now once you'll notice little bubbles when it's time to flip your crepe. There are three ways you can do this.:
1) If you're a pro, do that pan turning flippy thing and there you go!
2) If you're courageous, grab the crepe with your fingers around the edge, and flip it over.
3) If you're like me, just grab a good spatula and flip that baby.
Crepes cook very quickly, so you don't need to wait too long before it's ready. And don't worry, the first couple of ones you do will suck. It take some time to get the hang of it, just practice!
Lastly, just fill up your crepe with whatever you would like, fold in your desired way, and eat up!

Our lovely ingredients!

Butter and milk just added

After they have melted beautifully together!

Our dry ingredients!

Incorporating one egg at a time!

Don't forget to add your vanilla!

Whisking the wet with the dry

Hmmm a little too doughy, needs more milk.

Still a bit too thick, tinny bit more leche. :P

My nice hot and ready pan

Make sure you have a plate ready, and some cut up paper towels to put between your crepes, this way they stay warm and don't stick to each other!

Getting ready to pour into the pan

Ahh, the crappy first one! Don't worry it gets better.

It's time to flip!

I just love how it reminds me of the moon!

My oh so creative fillings~

You can either cover the whole crepe, or just half if it's too much for you. :)

Fold that in half

And in half again! Now you have a regular folded crepe at home! You can also just roll them up like I did for the butter fly picture! :D

I hope you guys enjoyed this, I know my stomach did!
Remember to have fun in the kitchen but be careful!
Have a great day and...

Bye Beautiful!

No-food-processor-needed Pear Tart! :D

Yippie! Okay, there is seriously something wrong with the pears at WalMart. Seriously. I always buy a couple, because besides apples, these are my go-to snack. But I've noticed that whenever I buy them at WalMart, the darn things are harder than a rock. And stay that way for over 2 weeks. But of course, the moment you stop caring for them and remember they exist, they're like darn mashed potatoes on the inside. So anyways, while I'd love to eat them fresh, I was watching a manga today where the main character likes to bake a lot. While they mostly showed cakes and such, there was one image of a tart. I ladies and gentlemen, aliens and squids, have never made a tart before. Okay-- scratch that. I DID make one oh so very long ago, but the crust was store bought graham cracker crumbs, and the chocolate insides never set. needless to say I ate a lot of raw egg that day, but contrary to what people say, I've never felt or gotten sick because of it. Am I resistant to raw eggs? Cool. But I still promise to be careful! And so should any kids or dinosaurs reading this blog post. Okay well, I think the dinos could pull it off if they wanted too.
Wow, I seriously need to cut down on the blabber huh? Or maybe add a lot of "enter" so it doesn't seem that long.
Like this?
Guess that's cool.
So unlike most people apparently, I don't own a big food processor, so I was very happy that I found a recipe for this tart without the use of a food processor. That by the way explains the "Yippie!" at the beginning of this post. Of course I must credit where I got this, even if it's their original recipe or not. And yes of course I did change it to fit my own needs, because I don't have some things that, that particular recipe calls for.
The one I found can be found by you by clicking on the following link right here...!
Turns out I happened to feel the urge to make this tart on the Costa Rican Mother's Day, so I guess everything worked out perfectly for her! Since I don't believe in coincidences! ;) *8.15.11*
Okay let's get to the recipe! :)

I need you guys to forgive me here! I was so caught up in making the tart, I completely forgot to take step-by-step photos! I'm sowie! :'(
BUT! I did take a couple, so I hope they're useful in some way! Anyways enjoy! :)

Before jumping in the oven!

Freshly Out! (Ignore the black edges, my oven is way hot haha.)

Cooled and sliced!

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup (or 1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Cup All-Purpose flour
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Sugar, + 1 1/2 Tbsp for on top of pears
1 Large Egg
2 Pears (Any kind) Peeled, Cored, &Sliced
1 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Cup Jam (I used Strawberry jam oddly enough! Hehe)

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degress F. Make sure to keep out your sugar and flour out just in case! The pan I used for the was a _____, it was the only thing I could work with! Butter it, and/or PAM it like mee! Combine the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and set aside. With an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar at a high speed in your mixing bowl. Lowering the speed add in your egg and make sure it is fully incorporated. Add the flour in three parts until that is fully incorporated, and don't worry, the dough has a very soft texture. Put your dough onto your pan and with floured fingers form the crust. If you don't want to get your fingers dirty, you could also use the back of a wet spoon, or a regular wooden spoon, whatever you prefer. Arrange the sliced pears however you would like, just make sure you cover up the tart yummishly! Sprinkle the cinnamon and the remaining sugar over your pears. Bake in your oven for about 40-45 minutes depending on how hot your oven is. Your tart will be ready when the crust turns a pretty golden brown color, after it's done, let it cool down for a couple minutes.
At this point I just heated up the strawberry jam and poured it over my tart! <3
As my inspirational recipe says, you could use the jam they used, add feel free to add whip cream if you wish!

Can I just say this is seriously one of my favorite batters/dough/etc, ever? I LOVED it!
And I will definitely be making it again, so I can update the process with the pictures!

I hope you guys have fun in the kitchen! And please try out the recipe if your in for something yummy! Have a great day guys and tah tah for now!

Bye Beautiful! :)

Orange Dessert Omelets

Hey guys! That wasn't a long wait at all huh?
One of these days my friend gave me these delicious oranges, so because that flavor got stuck in my taste buds, I ran out to WalMart a.s.a.p to buy me some oranges. Sadly, they were not as delicious as the one my friend had gotten, but good nonetheless. So every week I headed over to the fruits section and bought myself a couple oranges. Recently though, and I blame summer, I haven't really wanted to eat my oranges at all. And since I've been itching to make a cheesecake, I was looking through all my cook books when I stumbled upon this recipe Orange Dessert Omelets in Betty Crocker's New American Cooking. I happened to have exactly the amount of oranges this dessert called for, and I wanted to use them up before they spoiled. So this was perfect! It was calling for me, I swear!
(Btw, I just realized, but the time on these posts are way off! I'll mess around here and there to see if I can fix it!)
Also, my camera isn't the highest quality, so until I can save up enough money to buy me a new one, this is about as good as it's going to get. =)

Here's what my first mixture ended up looking like!

*I can NEVER find cream of tartar when I go out looking for it, so when the recipe calls for so little, I tend to skip it, and while I'm sure having it would increase the quality of the finished product, I tend to just get along just fine without it. ;)

I by mistake ended up with some egg white in the second mixture, but in the end, I don't think it affected the recipe badly.

This is after I slowly folded the two batters together.

After my 8 minute wait this is what I got!

Put everything together!~

I personally loved the texture of the omelet, it didn't have that nasty eggy feel regular omelets tend to give. It was light and fluffy!

Ingredients:

2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar (*)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 oranges, pared and sectioned
Powdered sugar for garnish

Directions:

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in large bowl until foamy. Gradually beat in 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; continue beating until soft and glossy. Do not over beat. Beat egg yolks and water until thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour. Fold egg yolk mixture into egg whites.
Heat over to 400 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 round pans, 9 x 1 1/2 inches. Divide egg mixture between pans. Bake until puffy and light brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove omelets from pans; spoon half of the oranges onto half of each omelet. Fold other half of each omelet over oranges; sprinkle with powdered sugar. Garnish with orange sections if desired.
6 servings (1/3 omelet); 100 calories each


Can you guys believe I actually hurt myself with such a simple recipe? BEWARE if your peeling your oranges with bare fingers, my nail slightly separated from my finger, not until the end did I notice. No bleeding or anything, just a slight owwie. =o
Just something I've noticed: my oven is a little hotter than other ovens, so I always tend to go a little tiny bit lower on the heat and for the minimum amount of time. Try to learn your ovens kinks, this has saved me from burning lots of things!
Oh, and of course, if you don't have oranges around, this is pretty basic, I'm sure it'd go great with straw berries, apricots, bananas, etc.! =)