Chocolate covered pretzel sticks for Valentine's day

Ingredients:
1 bag of Semi sweet chocolate morsels
1 bar of Lindt white chocolate
1 bag of valentines M&M candy
1 jar of Hershey caramel
Pretzel sticks

Directions:
Make a double boiler by placing a clear glass bowl on top of a pan of slightly boiling water.
Place the chocolate morsels in bowl and stir with a rubber spatula until melted.
Dip pretzel sticks in the melted chocolate and set on a sheet of parchment paper.
Place M&M on chocolate before they harden on the pretzel sticks.
In a separate bowl, melt the white chocolate and drizzle it with a spatula on the chocolate pretzels.
Then drizzle caramel.
Chill in the fridge for about 20 mins before serving.

Moist Banana Bread

It has been awhile since my last update, and I'm long overdue for a new post. This is the best banana bread recipe I know of and have successfully recreated many times, so I figure I must share it.

Ingredients:

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1/4 cup of broken walnuts

1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups of self-rising flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°F

With a spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla.

Sprinkle walnuts and salt over the mixture and mix in.

Add the flour last, mix.

Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan.

Bake for 45 mins

Bacon Mac'n Cheese

This morning I was craving for something salty, so I went out to buy some bacon. I love mac'n cheese and I decided to top it with bacon I just bought (hmmm  gooey good). This is very easy to make and great for pot lucks. I'm going to be very happy at dinner tonight.


Ingredients:

• Cheddar, Mexican mix and Parmesan cheese.
• Macaroni elbows
• Italian seasoning
• Seasoning salt
• Bacon
• 3/4 cup whole milk

Directions:

1. Boil the macaroni elbows in a pot of water for about 15 mins.
2. Tare the bacon strips in pieces and bake in oven until crisp and brown.
3. Drain the macaroni elbows and pour them into the pan with the bacon drips.
4. Mix Italian seasoning, seasoning salt and all the cheese.  I sprinkle everything on until it covered the pan. (9x12"). 
5. Bake at 375 for 30 mins. Or until you feel like it ready.

Buttered Blue Crabs

I learned this recipe from my grandmother. She makes it perfectly spicy and finger lick'n good. Although, the preparation part is quite inhumane-crustacean (inhumane but for shell fish), especially when I have to stab the crabs to death and rip their bodies in half. As I detach their limbs, a nerve would stimulate a twitch or two. Sighs, the cruelty I go through to have some protein in my diet. Eh, whatever, the smell of butter and onion is heavenly enough to forget about the sin. 

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 stick of butter
• 8 blue crabs
• 2 Tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 white bulb onion

Directions:

1. Stab the crabs in the center, when they rest, peel the back body and discard, clean and rinse with water, half the bodies then set aside.
2. Dice the bulb onion.
3. Melt the butter in a deep fry pan. Wait for an orange color, then add the onion.
4. When the onion is translucent, add the cleaned crabs in the pan.
5. Add the rest of the ingredients.
6. Stir fry for 40 mins at a little over med heat.
7. Eat with rice.

Favorite Oven Grilled Drumsticks

Every time I cooked drumsticks on an actually grill, they were always under-cooked inside but burnt on the outside. I hated the slimy taste after biting into it. (gagging) Therefore to evenly cook chicken drumsticks, I have to pop them in the oven. I also like the skin crispy, so broiling it for a few minutes usually does the trick. That's how I like my drumsticks.


Ingredients:
(serving 3 drums)

• 1/3 cup soy sauce 
• 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
• 1 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp. seasoning salt
• 3 tsp. honey
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 squeeze of lime

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix all the above seasonings. 
2. Marinade the drumsticks in the fridge for 40 mins. (save the marinade)
3. Remove drumsticks from the bowl into a glass baking pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees in oven for 50 mins.
5. At 44 mins, set the oven to broil and let each side of the legs crisp for 3 mins.
6. For the extra marinade, boil in a sauce pan. 
7. Slice some bell peppers and brush the sauce on top and broil for 7 mins.
8. Slice some bread and toast in oven along with the peppers. Remove the bread at 4 mins.

Shrimp Spring Rolls

Like every other roll, prepping the ingredients is most of the cooking. The rolling part is easy, but some might not say so with spring rolls. The rice wrap is very temperamental, too wet or too dry will make your roll look crappy, or worse, break apart.  However, I still enjoy making and eating them, especially on a nice sunny day. =) 


Ingredients:

• Rice wrapper
• Vermicelli
• Shrimp
• Raw peanuts
• Hoisin sauce
• Lime, salt, pepper, garlic
• Chili sauce (optional)
• Mints
• Cilantro
• Iceberg lettuce

Directions: 

1. Place a half full of water pot on the stove top. Set to high until the water boils.
2. Add the dry vermicelli in the pot. Cook until soften. Then set aside.
3. In another pot add about 1/2 cup of water and cook the shrimp until they're pink/orange.
4. In a small sauce pan, toast the peanuts.
5. In another small sauce pan, add olive oil and garlic, once there's a burnt garlic smell, add the hoisin sauce, squeeze of lime juice, salt, pepper, and chili sauce if you like it spicy.
6. Crush the peanuts with something heavy, then sprinkle it on the sauce.
7. For the veggies, wash and slice them how you want it, I just peel them and place it in the roll.
8. Now you're ready for wrapping, wet a sheet of rice paper, completely, let it sit on a plate for about 30 seconds before rolling.
9. In the center of the rice paper, place the vermicelli then the veggies on top, above it lay down the shrimps. Fold the right and left flap of rice paper in towards the center, then roll from the bottom up. Voila, there's your spring roll.  Dip in sauce then omm nom nomm =)

Comfort Baked Ziti

Have you ever been asked if good food makes you orgasmic? Well, I have and it reminds me of a line from Nigella Bites..."food is the new pornography, it's stared at and lusted for". The presence of food brings us together and makes us happy, which more convincingly pronounces it as a kind of pleasure. And I guess that is a yes. =)

So, today's rainy weather calls for some comfort food. The kind of food that fulfills you without effort. Yup I want to be a couch potato, thus I'm making bake Ziti with three kinds of gooey cheese. Normally people just bake it with one cheese and a meaty tomato sauce, but I want to try something different. Well, my fridge still has some spinach from last week that I don't want to waste.

Ingredients:

• Mozzarella, cheddar, and pepper jack cheese
• A handful of spinach leaves
• Half box of Penne pasta
• Tomato sauce (half jar of prego sauce)
• Italian seasoning
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• Salt and pepper

Directions: 

1. Cook the penne pasta in a pot of boiling water for about 10 mins.
2. Remove and set aside.
3. In another pan, pour some olive oil and slighty cook the beef (approx. 5 mins, then add the tomato sauce .
4. Sprinkle some Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper on the meat sauce.
5. Set out a baking pan, pour half of the meat sauce on the bottom of the pan, then top with the penne pasta, then break the spinach leaves with your hands and layer it.
6. Add slices of the cheese onto of the spinach, then layer it again wit meat sauce, pasta and cheese.
7. Bake in oven for 25 mins at 375, then set to broil for 5 mins to brown the top.