DIY Lemon Blueberry Yogurt Loaf

Lemon blueberry yogurt loaf is what I'm making today. Originally I was going to make it for someone else- but the recipe looks so good I have to try it out for myself (maybe I'll give away a few slices!). I also get really nervous handing over a new recipe I've never tried out before and haven't tasted... :P

DIY Italian Pasta Salad (my signature recipe)

This has been my signature pasta salad, gosh... for almost a decade. It was one of the first dishes I sort of winged & made that came out consistently and everyone loved it. It has a few variations, but either way-- you're going to end up with a great pasta salad.

Pasta- right now I'm using rotini, but the original version used cheese tortellini- I have also used penne, choose your favorite & use it.
Fresh mozzarella (the original used pre-marinaded mozzarella balls, now I just use the regular fresh & cut it up)
Marinated artichoke hearts (get Italian & get it out of a jar, not can)
Red Roasted Peppers (also out of a jar) but today I just chopped up some fresh red bell peppers
(I have also used all different colored peppers, celery, different veggies)
Today I have shredded carrots
Tomatoes- you can use any kind you'd like, just cut them so the juices sort of blend in with everything else...
Balsamic Vinegar
If you DO NOT use marinated artichokes, peppers or mozzarella THEN use extra virgin olive oil.
Garlic
Oregano
Today it's fresh basil & cilantro (cilantro was NOT a part of the original recipe, but my husband & I like it... cilantro is totally optional)
Salt & Pepper

Now- I am NOT putting any kind of meat in it BUT I have used hard Italian sausage pieces or (our usual favorite- pre-cooked chicken breasts)

I am usually pretty heavy handed with the balsamic as I like the taste especially when it soaks into the mozzarella BUT all the spices should be blended ALL TOGETHER to taste. I frequently eye ball my spices mix everything, taste it and then adjust my spices until I'm happy.

This is a cold dish so pop it into the fridge when you're done. You can leave this over night and it will keep the next day. Often I make a large batch and we'll have pasta salad for dinner and leftovers the day after. It is a very hearty, complete sort of pasta salad so it could be substituted for a meal.

DIY Sushi Bowl

So, tonight's dinner is going to be a sushi bowl. I can thank Pinterest for finding this idea. I think it's fantastic. If you like sushi, but don't want to go through the trouble of the precision of rolling your own-- you can try this bowl recipe. I'm giving it a try tonight. The only substitution I'm going to make is that I have leftover grilled Asian bourbon chicken from last night and I'm going to chop that up and toss that into the sushi bowls. I think it's going to work. It's so hot here- I'm excited to be able to serve this cold! :) Oh & I'll be using sushi rice as well...

Slacker Sushi Bowls
Makes 4 servings
Prep time: 25 minutes
Ingredients
• 1 cup uncooked white rice
• 4 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large carrot, peeled, and cut into matchsticks
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into matchsticks
• 6 ounces imitation crab meat (Surimi Seafood Sticks), sliced or chopped
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and cubed
• 1 square sheet toasted Nori seaweed, crumbled into small pieces
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• soy sauce and/or wasabi (optional, but recommended)
Directions
Cook rice according to package directions. Let cool to room temperature.
In a small bowl, combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Microwave 30 seconds; stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour vinegar mixture on the rice and stir gently to combine. Mix in the carrots, cucumbers, and crab.
Serve in bowls and top with avocado, seaweed, and sesame seeds. (If you’d like, add soy sauce or wasabi, to taste.) Serve immediately.

I let you all know how it goes!!

DIY Red Velvet Pancakes!!!

So, I am in love with red velvet... I love red velvet cakes & cupcakes (and ice cream) and I'm always easily wooed by the promises of red velvet concoctions on Pinterest, Foodgawker, etc... So, I saw a red velvet pancake recipe in Food Network Magazine's 1000 Easy Recipes and I figured, I have the ingredients let me give this a shot. Now, let me say that I tried a red velvet crepes that I saw on Pinterest and the recipe FLOPPED AND I made it for some important holiday... I was so disappointed. So, I figured I'd give this recipe a try not knowing if it would come out well (yesterday's Thai Noodle salad didn't turn out to be a winner from the same book). Ok, so I made the recipe and it came out REALLY good! The balance of buttermilk and cocoa give it a really good flavor. I would highly recommend this for a special occasion, for red velvet nut jobs like me, if you ever make a cream cheese dip these would be great as another type of food for the dip to spread on (think cookie cutter shapes or just cutting them into triangle wedges)..

I just have to say that as these cooked up there was a faint aroma of red velvet and then when I put them in a bowl with lid and added the newly cooked pancakes- the aroma wafted up to my face & I swear I just wanted to bottle it. My kids had it plain- I'm going to pay for them having chocolate this early and we had it with maple syrup (but you could put cream cheese on them too). I highly recommend putting something on them because it enhances the flavor more and moistens them a little bit more.

1C- Flour
1/2C- Cocoa Powder
1/2C- Confectioner's Sugar
1 tea- B. Powder
1/2tea- B. Soda
1/2 tea- Salt
1 1/4C- Buttermilk
2 Eggs
Vanilla

and if you want to add red food coloring you can. I usually don't, but I had a small quantity in a bottle that I dumped in... They came out beautifully!

I hope you try & enjoy this recipe-- please email me with any success stories out there!!

PS- I can tell you that there is a lingering taste in my mouth that is so yummy- then again, I did say I'm a red velvet nut job, right?? :)

DIY Thai Noodle Salad

Ok, so in addition to some chicken drumsticks that I've been marinading in the "awesome chicken marinade (see April's posting)," That posting is actually an Asian bourbon chicken inspired recipe...  I stumbled on this in the Food Network Magazine's 1000 easy recipes book for a Thai Noodle Salad that I thought would go with it my marinading drumsticks

Soak (they recommend 8oz) Rice Vermicelli in hot water for 10 minutes then drain & rinse in cold water.
6T- Lime Juice
3T- soy sauce, peanut butter, brown sugar, veg oil

I'm going to toss in sliced red peppers, shredded carrots & fresh cilantro...

After we have it, I'll let you know if it was a winner or a loser....

It's BLUEBERRY SEASON! A great DIY blueberry pancake recipe!

Thanks to Food Network Magazine's 1000 Easy Recipes, I found a recipe for blueberry pancake. I usually stick to buttermilk pancakes because they come out gorgeous and are always a crowd pleaser... Having taken advantage of a lot of B1G1 Free Blueberries at the supermarket, I have at least 2 new recipes that I want to try out with them. This was the first one:

1 1/2C- Flour
3T- Sugar
1T- B. Powder
1/2tea- Salt
1 1/4C- Milk
1/2 stick- Butter, melted
2 Eggs
Vanilla

And of course, blueberries... I used about a pint.

I haven't made milk pancakes in a LONG time. For me, these cooked up really quickly- almost too quickly because you add the blueberries after the pancake batter is on the pan... I found when I added them whole- it helped if I pushed the blueberries down instead of letting them just fall and stick on to the pancake, when I flipped those I had rolling blueberries all over the place. I also tried pre-squishing the blueberries and that worked too. I drop my pancakes by the tablespoonful so it makes these little silver dollar size pancakes... I didn't even FINISH making all the pancake batter this yielded & I'm a family of 4. The pancake and blueberry was in perfect balance... it wasn't too sweet. This recipe was a definite winner & will be added to my repertoire-- especially when I don't have buttermilk on hand.

The Memorial Day weekend & I have a BUNCH of NEW DIY recipes to try out!

I have been on sort of a streak where I've been making a lot of the same old same old-- but had a lot of NEW Recipes in line for the weekend. As usual, I'll post the recipe & post feedback if it went well or not.... I recently borrowed The Food Network Magazine's 1000 Easy Recipes (which I am totally in love with--- and has an inspired another blog idea where I discuss this book's unique layout & why- at least for me--- it is a surprising winner) and I can start off the weekend with one of their recipes that I tried, with at least one more of theirs on deck for tonight's dinner.

I hope everyone out there is eating and cooking yummy things! Email me at diycookingnation@yahoo.com if you'd like to suggest any recipes to try out!!

What to make? Too many choices...

I always do this to myself. I love to research menus & get new ideas... the problem with that is I set a menu and I continue to flip through for more ideas and then I end up with a ton of stuff I want to try & have to whittle it down.
Memorial Day weekend will be big. We're definitely grilling a rack of ribs which we've never done before. I'm definitely making a pasta salad... I already am second guessing should I make my signature pasta salad or should I go on a limb and try a new recipe out?
For dessert- should I make a from scratch blueberry pie or should I make orange creamsicle ice pops...
What kind of appetizer should I make? I was going to do a cranberry brie bite which I've never made before--- but then I got side tracked with all these other really good sounding appetizers... Sigh. I guess I'll have to half commit while I'm walking through the super market aisles... and then definitely commit the day of...

I'm also thinking of grilling chicken in that really good Asian marinade and I found an Asian inspired pasta salad that looked really great to try...

Any suggestions??

DIY mango spritzer (a mini recipe)

Yesterday I wanted something sweeter than my usual blueberry seltzer drink. I had some leftover mango juice & I read that some people put lemon on their mangoes to bring out their flavor....

SO yesterday I tried mango juice + Lemon/Lime Seltzer over ice = A SUPER yummy drink!! :)

"Too Chicken Poop to Try" Part 1: Spaetzle

There are a bunch of things I don't try at home because I have a pre-conceived notion that it's going to be hard... beyond my reach in the kitchen... what I've realized is that I want to tap my inner kitchen Goddess and fear nothing & making everything! LOL! Thus, DIY Cooking Nation!! I was afraid to make homemade crepes- now I make them like an old pro... I was too nervous to make my own pasta & now I try to think of different variations to spruce up basic recipes.... Another one on my bucket list is spaetzle. I'm not even sure I've ever had spaetzle, but I've always felt like- gosh this is probably complicated to make, I shouldn't even try. HA not today!! Tonight's dinner is going to be veal cutlets, oven baked corn & spaetzle! I'll post a follow up to tell everyone how it went!

Hey- if anyone wants me to try out something they are too chicken poop to make in their own kitchen send the suggestion to me at diycookingnation@yahoo.com and I'll give it a try!!

Crossing fingers it comes out well....

DIY Chocolate Strawberry Ice Cream Float!

It is REALLY hot outside! I have been enjoying a few Chocolate Egg Creams the past few days (see the DIY soda blog) and I thought- I want a real treat. If I used milk, chocolate sauce and seltzer-- why not use strawberry ice cream, chocolate sauce and seltzer? Then I realized I was making a float-- and then I was stunned to realize- I NEVER HAD an ice cream float!! Unbelievable. Well, I made it, stirred it up and all I can say is YUM! SO! My suggestion is if you have any ice cream laying around and some seltzer- the world is your oyster.

Strawberry Ice Cream + Chocolate Sauce + Seltzer = one yummy cold treat.

DIY Cream Cheese- Banana- Pecan bread

I saw this recipe on Pinterest... I love Pinterest & FoodGawker... it reminds me visually that there are endless possibilities in cooking and inspires me to try new things. :)
Here is a recipe that I fell in love with the picture:

1/4C + 2T- Butter, soft
4oz- Cream Cheese, soft
1C- Sugar
1 egg
2 medium bananas
vanilla

Blend above until smooth

1 1/2C- Flour
1/4tea- B. Powder
1/4tea- B. Soda
1/4tea- Salt
about a 1/2C- Pecans (I used more)

mixed everything together

in a greased 8x4 pan I put the mix in.... @ 350 degrees for about 1 hour. They recommend to put aluminum foil over the pan for the last 15 minutes so it doesn't burn.
It should pass the toothpick in the center-- coming out clean test and the sides should be pulling away from the pan.

Leave the loaf in the pan for 10 minutes after baking and leave it on a wire rack for 30 minutes before slicing.

Right now we are having some pretty heavy rain- thunder & lightening outside. I'm crossing my fingers that my electricity holds up for the hour that it's in the oven... and since it's in the oven now- and I've never made it before, I'll have to write a mini follow up once we've tried it!!!

It's National Buttermilk Biscuit Day!

I seriously have THE BEST biscuit recipe, EVER. Once you trip on this one, you won't go back to whatever you were doing before. Promise. The reason this one is so great is you get that great buttery flavor without tons of work. You're not cutting in butter, you're not folding dough- it's a drop biscuit but it's amazing. The crumb is so soft, you'll want to make this every time you get the impulse to make biscuits.

2C- Flour
2tea- Baking Powder
1/2tea- Baking Soda
1 tea- Sugar
3/4 tea- Salt
1 Stick- Butter
1C- Buttermilk


- Melt the stick of butter, let it cool for 5 minutes
- Put all the dry ingredients together in a bowl
- Combine the melted butter and the buttermilk- stir until clumps form
-Combine the wet and dry & mix until dough pulls away from the bowl

(use either a silicone mat or parchment paper)

Drop 1/4C on the mat or paper


Oven is 475 bake about 14 minutes until the tops are golden brown.


PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE- if you don't try any other of my recipes, PLEASE try this one. This is a huge favorite around the house & with anyone I give the recipe to.

Email me if you love it (or hate it)!

XOXO

DiyCookingNation@yahoo.com

Happy Mother's Day!!!

To all the Moms out there... I wish you a day of appreciation, pampering & lots of good eats!!!

DIY Waffle House Pecan Waffles

1 1/2C- Flour
1tea- Salt
1/2 tea- B. Soda
1 egg
1/2C plus 1T- Sugar
2T- Butter, soften
2T- Shortening
1/2C- half & half
1/2C- milk
1/4C- Buttermilk
1/2tea- vanilla

add pecans! :)

Let the mix sit in the fridge overnight...

Makes about 6 waffles

DIY steak marinade

I'm marinading 2 steaks in:

A bottle of beer
Vegetable Oil
Cider Vinegar
Worchestire Sauce
Sea Salt
Fresh Cracked Pepper
Garlic Powder
Minced Onion

We'll grill these steaks tonight & the marinade is fabulous! YUM!

Mother's Day is quickly approaching!

I just wanted to share that my husband made his first- from scratch baked item that is something I totally love:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Maple-Pecan-Sticky-Bars-108648

It tasted like pecan pie-- sort of reminded me of pecan tassies... Very yummy, but definitly a more winter dessert- This would have been AWESOME with some maple whipped cream!!

DIY Maple Popcorn

I was going to make this next week- but I couldn't resist!

I popped popcorn in a little bit of vegetable oil.
First I drizzled Maple Grove Farms Pure Maple Syrup over the popcorn & mixed it well.. I added a second drizzle & mixed it well.
It tasted like maple, but I wasn't too thrilled.
I added a touch of salt. WOW did the maple flavor REALLY come out. I thought it would make a small difference, but this made a huge one!

I ended up eating it as is... but as I was munching I realized a drizzle of butter would make it better. Heck, bacon pieces in it would be great... Obviously my mind was thinking breakfast.

It was a good snack, it ended up getting pretty sticky towards the end... So far, I'm going to stick with my green tabasco sauce popcorn... That one is the front runner!

DIY semi homemade chicken riggies

I lived near Utica, NY for a while & the big regional dish is Chicken Riggies. Most people have never heard of it. It is rigationi with a marinara sauce AND an alfredo/cream sauce that makes a PINK sauce... and chicken, of course. So, last night I needed a really QUICK dinner & this is the semi homemade QUICK verison of it.

Cooked Rigationi
Cooked Chicken
Half a jar of premade marinara & alfredo
fresh basil
garlic powder

All mixed together and you have what my husband called "comfort food".

Now, I generally don't like to use store bought short cuts- this is called DIY Cooking for a reason. But, some days I don't have time-- I ran too many errands yesterday and wanted to do it the quick way. There are many beautiful ways to make this dish more homemade & different variations of it. Some people add cooked onions when they are cooking the chicken... I've also seen red roasted pepers added and SPICY Chicken Riggies (by adding red pepper flakes). 

This dish is very good & I highly recommend it...

DIY Maple Pork Tenderloin in Baked Sweet Potatoes

Here is my plan for tonight:

I'm going to toss tiny cubed sweet potatoes & some butter, brown sugar, cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice), and a pinch of salt. I'm going to throw this in a large pan.

In a large saute pan I'm going to cook some onions in butter.
I'm going to pre-season pork tenderloins with sage, salt and pepper.
I'll brown the pork tenderloins in the onions after the onions soften.
Once I brown the tenderloins I'm going to pour everything into my sweet potato mixture and nestle the tenderloins in the middle.

I'm going to take a combination of good maple syrup and apple cider vinegar and pour it over the browned tenderloin. If I have extra, I may drizzle a little over the sweet potatoes. I'll bake until it's done. I'll probably have to bake it covered as well..

Let's see how it comes out!!

DIY Ice Pops

I am pretty excited about getting a Zoku Popsicle maker for Mother's Day... I found a few recipes that I'm terribly anxious to make (definitely not flavor combinations that you can get at the grocery store!!).

Caramel Apple Pops
8oz- Apple Cider
4T- Caramel Sauce @ room temp
4T- Greek vanilla yogurt

(whisk & pour into molds)

Coconut Pineapple Pops
1 1/2C- Cold Milk (thinking of substituting coconut milk here)
8oz- Crushed pineapple
6oz- Pineapple Juice
1tea- Coconut Extract
1- (3.4oz)- instant vanilla pudding mix


Maple Mocha Pops
2C- Heavy Cream
1/2C- Half & Half
1/4C- Maple Syrup
1/4C- Chocolate Syrup
1T- Instant Coffee granules

Watermelon Pops
2 1/2C- Cubed seedless watermelon
1/4C- Sugar
Pinch of salt

Blend until Chunky-smooth.


I can't wait to try some of these recipes... I need to make room in my freezer first (I think I have 2 oven roaster chickens waiting for me before I have space for my pop maker :P) Will update once I've tried them if they were hits or misses (or if I ended up changing the recipe). If you try it or would like me to find other ice pop recipes, please feel free to email me diycookingnation@yahoo.com

Hasta La Vista Tacos, Nachos & Enchiladas for Cinco de Mayo!!

I just came up with THE BEST chicken and corn on the cob recipes. OK- here's the chicken.

I took a bunch of FRESH cilantro and put it in my food processor and chopped it up leaf to stem.
I grated 5 fresh limes for their zests and squeezed out their juices and pulled as much pulp as I could.
Then I added cumin.
Some sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.

I marinaded my chicken thighs in this mix and then we grilled them. OMG. All I can say was OMG. Very good.

Corn on the cob..

Pulled the husks off and I pre-buttered the corn. I added some of that cilantro, lime zest & lime juice to it and wrapped it up in foil. Grilled. Awesome.


You know, I always thought- OH! Mexican night or Cinco de Mayo... what am I going to do? Cheesy Enchiladas, Loaded Nachos, or Build your own tacos... BOR-RING! Seriously. This chicken marinade and corn on the cob knocked Mexican night... Cinco de Mayo night- OUT of the ballpark!

the day BEFORE Cinco De Mayo

So, here is the menu for tomorrow...

I'm going to marinade chicken thighs in fresh lime juice, cilantro & cumin. We'll grill those...
I'm going to season the corn on the cob with butter, lime juice & cilantro and we'll grill those too...
I'll make my signature black beans & rice...
I'll make a very quick guacamole & I have black corn chips...

And right before I hopped on here I realized I had tortillas so I'm thinking we could stuff all of these into a burrito sort of like chipotle does!

If my husband only picked up some Coronas we'll be in business!

Honey, I prefer homemade...

I always had honey out of a Teddy Bear or if I was really fancy- with a honeycomb still floating in the honey but I NEVER had homemade honey. My husband came home with a jar of homemade honey... apparently the man who makes it is local and dropped off a few bottles where my husband works for his co-workers. My husband brought it home. I decided to pour some on to a spoon to give it a try. IT WAS SUBLIME!! It was so addictive I just kept pouring out honey onto my spoon and almost couldn't stop! I ran to my cupboard and poured out my store bought honey onto a spoon. It was flat in taste. It didn't have the richness and body of this locally produced honey had. It was thin and although sweet- it was almost tasteless.
I couldn't ever keep my own beehive. I'm afraid of bees. The last time I got stung I was a little girl and a bee had landed on my head. I swiped it off with my hand and it stung me in between my fingers and my hand ballooned. So, even though I won't keep a beehive- I would DEFINITELY recommend buying locally produced honey. Buy it at a farmer's market or from someone you know, but definitely given the opportunity- buy a bottle! Whether it's fortunate or not, once you try a homemade honey you won't WANT to go back to the store bought!

DIY Steak Dinner

I decided it's been a while since I had a really good steak dinner, you know... Outdoor grilled steak & asparagus & some really nice mashed potatoes. Yum. You would think YUM at a restaurant and you would think YUM doing it at home. The marinade I came up was:

1- Bottle of beer
Worcestershire Sauce
Veg Oil
Apple Cider Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Minced Onion

Three steaks are taking a bath in this while I run my errands today. I'm still trying to perfect how to make fantastic grilled asparagus... I guess I'm still in the hunt for that.

DIY Sodas!

Soda is expensive and full of additives that aren't natural or good for you. I swore off buying soda a long time ago because it was an addiction I couldn't afford. Every once in a while we treat ourselves to a flavored seltzer and that's about it. I ran across this article about getting rid of sodas and making your own. I'm aware of the SodaStream product but I didn't want to get caught up in buying CO2 refills... the answer was in seltzer. Seltzer is dirt cheap and you can dress it up a million ways from Sunday! The next question was- what recipes am I going to feature? Well, as a kid I loved egg creams! My family & I would go to a Jewish delicatessen and I would get the same thing all the time: potato pancakes (with sour cream & applesauce), matzo ball soup & a chocolate egg cream. DELICIOUS!
The second recipe is actually the one retail soda I have a weakness for.... Cream Soda. I don't care if it's Jones Cream Soda or A&W's... Yum.
The third I thought was more practical for my family- a fruit soda. It's a simple preparation where you puree fruit, strain it to remove seeds, cook it down to form a concentrated syrup- simply add a small quantity to seltzer and some ice cubes and stir and you have a refreshing DIY fruit soda-- in a TON of different ways! Love Mangoes- well you don't need to go to some exotic store to buy a mango soda! Watermelon, strawberry-- the possibilities are endless.

Here are the 3 that I found! ENJOY!

http://www.marthastewart.com/348771/cream-soda-syrup

http://www.seltzersisters.com/recipes.html  (this one has the egg cream recipe & a few variations!)

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/mango-fizz.html?cm_src=RECIPESEARCH
http://www.foodinjars.com/2011/06/drink-week-day-one-black-raspberry-syrup/

If you want to see more DIY soda recipes- email me & I will research and post more!!