Journey Undefined

This week we made date night into an appetizer affair. We had a few options, but of course in honor of Brenden's big day, went with the most carb filled one we could find. We made cheese stuffed garlic bread. Yum! Cheese, garlic, and bread, do I really need to say anything else to convince you to make this. Negative. But in case, for some crazy reason you are still not convinced, I will tell you a little bit more about this amazing concoction.


This bread was pretty simple to make, the hardest part was getting all of the ingredients stuffed into the cuts we made in the loaf of bread. But the whole thing is baked, which means everything melts, so even if you can't stuff the cheese and garlic onion filling into the bread as much as you want, it will inevitably drip down to fill ever crevice with gooey goodness. Thus, every bite has garlic and cheese and goodness. There is no bad piece of this bread, honestly. I could have eaten the whole loaf as my dinner. But, be warned, this bread is very gluttonous, and while I want to make it again, it should probably only be prepared on special occasions…I need to limit myself somehow.


Fortunately I knew there was a feast coming so I was able to control my intake of bread and butter (did I mention the recipe called for caramelized onions, that makes it healthy right?!). So, with our belly's happily filled with a not so fancy but totally indulgent appetizer we headed off to watch the jousting and eat chicken with our hands.

Ingredients

• 1 unsliced loaf of sour dough bread
• 6 Tbsp butter
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 oz sharp cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
• 6 oz monterey jack cheese, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cut the bread lengthwise and then widthwise about 3/4 of the way down. Make sure not to cut through the bottom of the crust.
3. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the butter and add the onion and garlic.
4. Stir occasionally until onions are caramelized, about 20 minutes.
5. Place the bread on a very large sheet of foil on a baking tray.
6. Insert cheese slices between each cut.
7. Drizzle butter and onion mixture over the bread and into each cut. It may help to pour this mixture into the slices with a small spoon.
8. Wrap excess foil completely around stuffed bread.
9. Bake for 15 minutes.
10. Unwrap the brad and back for 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted.
11. Remove from oven, pull off a piece of bread and enjoy.

      A. Egg wash:

Yumm, what is better then a good, old fashioned grilled cheese? Umm, a dolled up one! And that is exactly what Brenden and I went with for date night dinner this week. 

One of the episodes involved a grilled cheese making competition. Now Brenden and I make grilled cheese all the time, but like I said we were inspired. As we watched Bobby and Anne teach the contestants how to pull mozzarella and explain to them the different components to make a perfect grilled cheese, our mouths started to water. So we decided fancy grilled cheeses were on the menu for the week - I mean if a chick with five inch nails and a dude who thinks peanut butter should be added to chili could do it, so could we.

We used some of Anne and Bobby's techniques, combined them with some ideas from the internet and finally tailored them to our taste buds. We each made our own "perfect," jazzed up grilled cheese. I used three types of cheese for mine, caramelized onions and apples. Brenden used two types of cheese and the onions but skipped the apple. We sandwiched the ingredients between two slices of sourdough bread. Mmm, my mouth is beginning to water again. They both turned out really well!

I was a little worried that my chosen toppings wouldn't mesh well so I used them sparingly. Well, they meshed excellently! Next time I will definitely add a bit more apple and onion slices. I might even use a more tart apple (getting crazy) to balance out the sweetness of the caramelization from the onions. I used gala this time I believe. Brenden was also a happy camper with his sammich. He used blue cheese for his base. It is a fairly strong cheese and he said he would use a bit less of it next time since it overpowered the other flavors. But for the most part, as I said, the sandwiches were fantastic. We will definitely be making these again and trying some new combinations (when we can afford the fancy cheese). Oh the possibilities!

Brenden and I have been wanting to make this soup for a while now but we were always too intimidated by it. I don't know why, maybe it was the complex ingredients including onions and broth or the thought of crying while we cut up the abundance of onions. Who knows. But when we saw this recipe the was nothing to be intimidated by. It is so simple, fairly quick, and definitely the best soup we have made from "scratch." It was pretty much three simple steps: sauteing up some onion slices, adding broth, and broiling. No joke. I think the hardest part of the entire dish was separating the thyme leaves from their sprigs. You barley need any spices, the onion does wonders for the flavor, it tastes much more complex then it is. And even though this recipe is not vegetarian it would be easy to swap out the beef broth for veggie broth. I don't think it would effect the flavor at all because the thyme and onions are so vibrant.

Usually our soups taste better the next day, after all of the spices have had a chance to set and come together, truly bringing out the flavor. Well not this crock. It was perfect and bursting with flavor from the first big slurp we took. The warm soup; the soaked but still crusty bites of bread; the melted cheese trailing from your spoon back to the bowl. All of the components are delicious and blend from the start. In fact, it was so good, there was hardly any soup left to try the next day. Luckily our satisfied taste buds convinced our overly full stomachs that it was worth it. Just try not to burn your mouth because your anticipation won't allow for the cooling time - Brenden knows, he has the burnt tongue to prove it. Again, so worth it.

French Onion Soup

Ingredients

Part 1. Cheesy Quinoa

Recipe adapted from pinchofyum.com, Creamy Cauliflower Garlic Rice

Recipe adapted from whitelightsonwednesday.com, Shrimp Garlic Rice Stuffed Pepper

Ingredients

• 1/2 batch of cheesy quinoa (see above)
• 1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 large red bell peppers, halved and cleaned out
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat.
3. Add garlic and shrimp.
4. Saute until shrimp are fully cooked, and 5-7 minutes (should be fully pink, but make sure not to cook too long or the shrimp will get rubbery).
5. Once thoroughly cooked, remove shrimp from skillet to cool.
6. When the shrimp are cool enough to handle, chop roughly in to bite sized pieces.
7. Return shrimp to skillet with the cheesy quinoa.
8. Add mozzarella, salt and pepper until melted and well incorporated.
9. Set aside.
10. Spray a baking tray with cooking spray.
11. Line peppers onto the baking tray, hollow side up.
12. Fill each pepper half with the quinoa and shrimp mixture, dividing evenly amongst the peppers.
13. Place tray in oven and cook for 15 minutes.
14. Remove tray and sprinkle cheddar cheese on top of the peppers.
15. Place tray in the oven for another ten minutes, until the peppers are soft and the cheddar cheese has melted.
16. Remove, serve, and enjoy.

Garlic Caprese Toast

Recipe adapted from twopeasandtheirpod.com, Caprese Garlic Bread

Ingredients

• 1 loaf ciabatta bread, cut in half horizontally
• 4 Tbsp salted butter, softened (or melted, Brenden didn't realize 2 minutes was to long for just softened butter, but it still worked out fine)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• 1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Directions

Recipe adapted from www.cravebyrandomhouse.ca, Winter Minestrone

Note: We did not use the pancetta. We used only 6 cups of broth and the entire bag of (elbow) noodles. The flavor was still decious, but the altered proportions caused it to become more of a slightly liquidy pasta then a soup. So if you are wanting a true soup, stick to the original proportions and keep in mind that the pasta may absorb some of the liquid you do have. We also used water instead of wine and omitted the spinach, bay leaf, and thyme. Even with the omissions, there was still plenty of flavor in the soup/pasta, and like almost all homemade soups, it was even better and more flavorful the next day (and even more pasta like).