BBQ Buttermilk Onion Rings

Ok!  Back to Homemade Barbecue Buttermilk Onion Rings.  I came across this recipe on Joy the Baker's Blog (you may remember her from the Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake). 

These were actually started the same day my helper and I made Soup.  I mixed together all of the first ingredients and coated the rings of onion.

Next, poured the buttermilk over and let sit.  As they were sitting, we realized the soup was going to take longer than expected and we probably weren't going to have time to finish and fry the onion rings.  So they actually sat in my fridge in the barbecue-buttermilk mixture for over 24 hours.  I think it actually made them a little more awesome because the onion soaked up more of the flavors.  Joy's recipe says to heat them in a pan of oil, but I had a deep fryer, so we used that instead.  Just make sure that if you use a deep fryer it gets the oil hot enough (or at least close, I think were were up to 350 and the recipe says 360).  Dredge the onion in the flour mixture, and fry!

You can only do so many at once, so she says to line a pan with paper towel (to soak up the oil), and put it in an oven heated to 150 (or in my case, the "warm" setting).  We put some paper towel on plate to soak up the oil, then every so often when we had a small pile build up, we threw them on the pan in the oven.  There's also a great BBQ buttermilk dipping sauce in the recipe.  We ran into a little issue with it.  It calls for 1 teaspoon hot sauce.  Well, I grabbed what I thought was the teaspoon, but we later realized that on it was written "1 tsp" with "1 1/2 tsp" written underneath. I'm still not sure what that's supposed to mean, but when I looked at the rest of them there was one a little smaller that just said "1 tsp."  However, my helper thought it would have tasted too bland without the extra hot sauce.  Either way, they were delicious :)

Soup's On!

This blog is all about soup.  It was almost a blog about an insane amount of onions, but since we didn't finish the onion rings, it's just going to be about the 2 soups my helper and I made.  There were still something like 7lbs of onions in the French Onion Soup though!  Plus another onion in the Mushroom Soup.

First off, here's a helpful video we watched on how to slice onions:

The first soup we started was French Onion Soup.  I substituted vegetable broth for the beef/chicken stock and used dry sherry for the wine.  The first step is to caramelize the 6 large onions.   This is where I got lucky having a helper.  I probably would have just sauteed the onions and given up there.  Despite taking longer than the 30-40 minutes the recipe said (my helper kept stirring/flipping them so they took longer to cook), my helper made sure they were thoroughly caramelized.  We started with a large pot and a smaller pan because all of the onions wouldn't fit into my one big pot, them combined them once they cooked down enough.

The onions after they cooked down enough to fit in one pan

When the onions are fully caramelized, they should be brownish in color, and have cooked down a LOT!

After this we added the minced garlic and it smelled SOOOOO good! Then added the rest of the soup ingredients and let it simmer for a half hour.  Next, top it with the toasted French Bread and shredded Gruyere cheese.

Bake/broil until the cheese in melted and browned on top, and voilà!

It tasted like French Onion soup, but it was nothing amazing.  Just awesome knowing it was made from scratch, and it's vegetarian.  Now I can use some of the leftovers to made my dad's homemade spaghetti sauce!  The only thing we would possibly change with this is caramelizing the onions in butter rather than oil, which makes sense being a French dish.

While that one was simmering, we started the Mushroom Soup.  I was told I had to use the Anthony Bourdain Recipe.  It starts out looking a like a mushroom stew, but like the broccoli soup, it gets blended.

The finished product looks a little weird, and seems a little simple, but it's actually really good.  We both agreed it tasted a bit oily, but we think that's because I used margarine rather than real butter.  I've been told I need to start cooking with real butter in general.  My helper also thought more pepper.  I'd like to play around with different garnishing with the leftovers too.

Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, I'll have a blog about homemade barbeque buttermilk onion rings in the next couple of days.  My helper also thinks we should try making croissants sometime, so maybe more baking!  Yay!  :oD

Broccoli Soup

I don't like broccoli.  So someone told me I should make broccoli soup.  They also told me to follow Gordon Ramsay's recipe.  It's simple and only uses three ingredients; Broccoli, Water, and Salt.  Seriously.  That's it!  I was a little skeptical since it's obviously still going to taste like broccoli, but I gave it a try.

All you do to make this is boil the broccoli florets with salt, then blend them with a little of the broccoli water.  I added a little too much water the first time, but I put the rest of the soup back in the pan and let it simmer to boil off some of the excess water.  Even though it tastes like broccoli, I like it!  Ramsay garnished his with walnuts, goat cheese, and a drizzle of olive oil.  We tried it with a little feta I had in my fridge, and some olive oil.  Even though it's just a little bit of oil, we could definitely taste the difference with it.

Look how green it is!

A couple of updates:

Squash casserole - I mixed in more ricotta cheese and basil, and baked for another 15 minutes.  It was really good :)

Avocado Cupcakes - My guest taster took them to his Monday night class.  People ate them, but I guess they tasted a little more like avocado and weren't quite as good.  We assume it was because they sat out at room temperature.

Not sure what I'm going to make next.  I still want to make a chocolate beer cake, someone suggested mushroom soup, and I want to try making vegetarian french onion soup again.  So you'll just have to wait and see :)

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake

As I mentioned before, I came across a recipe for Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake, and it sounded so bizarre I had to try it (not to mention it looked delicious in the pictures).  So last night, when I probably should have been going to bed because I had to work this morning, I baked cupcakes!

The recipe and directions are all in the link.  The only difference is rather than putting the batter in cake pans, I put it into cupcake liners.  And yes, those are gingerbread men and candy canes on the liner.  Apparently I used all of my plain cupcake liners for my wolf cupcakes earlier this year, and these were all I had  :)  I baked them at the same temperature, and I believe I started with 15 minutes, checked them and cooked them another 2, then they were done after another 2.  So 19 minutes total with 2 pans of 12 side by side in the oven.  Yes, that's right, it made 2 dozen cupcakes!

The icing was really easy to make, it had the same consistency and texture as normal icing, and it turned out a really fun Ghostbusters slime green!  I was a little worried though because it tasted like avocado.

Overall the cupcakes were really good!  Me and a guest taster both agreed that they were a little better the next day.  For some reason the avocado taste in the icing wasn't as noticeable after sitting over night.  I brought some to work and made everyone try them.  They seemed to like them, and weren't too freaked out that it was avocado or vegan.  I made my guest taster take some to a class they go to on Monday night since there was no way I was going to be able to eat all 24 of them, so I'll let you know what the reaction to them there was.

Next baking experiment (after all of these are finally eaten and I'm no longer sick of chocolate cake) may be a cake made with the chocolate stout beer I have in my fridge.  I'm not sure what the next dinner will be.  I do have a butternut squash in my cupboard and some ricotta cheese.  If you read my squash blog, I mentioned I wanted to experiment with other flavors but keeping it along the same lines as the recipe I used.  So I may be doing that later this week.  Also, I'm still impressed with my vegetable Wellington.  Here's the piece I warmed up in the oven for dinner tonight:

It held it's shape, the crust was crisp and flaky after warming, and it still tasted great.  Nom nom nom!

Wellington Update

One of the guest tasters ended up coming over later last night. I warmed the wellington up in the oven for about 15 minutes on 325, then left it on “warm” until they got there. The crust was still crispy!

I let them try everything and give me their option before letting them know what I thought. They found the mashed parsnips a bit odd too, but they didn't think the goat cheese was too strong. Their piece was also less oily.

I had leftovers for lunch today. I just microwaved it because I was feeling lazy. The crust was soft, but it was still really good. It was once again less oily, and I didn't notice the goat cheese as much. I think it may have just kind of “built up” on the ends, and the pesto needed to sit and “dry up” (or be cut open and leak out). So over all, I'm really impressed with my Vegetables Wellington Redux :) Now, to figure out what to do with these leftover mashed parsnips...

Vegetables Wellington Redux and Mashed Parsnips

Tonight, I made Vegetables Wellington, with a side of Mashed Parsnips for something different.

I took pictures pretty much at each step, but they're boring, so I'll skip through a bit.  First, chop up some asparagus, red pepper and onion.  Sauté in oil, then add spinach.  Stir in pesto and set aside to cool.  Lay a piece of the puff pasty out on a piece of parchment paper, then tuck that into the pan.  Line the ends with pastry squares you cut from the other sheet.  Spread the goat cheese over the bottom of the pastry, and add the vegetable mixture.

Brush edges with beaten egg, then cut a piece of pastry to fit the top.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes (or overnight if you're me so it's ready to go when you get home from work the next day).  Brush the top with egg, and decorate all pretty like with extra pastry :)

It said leaves & stems, I also did a flower

Bake!  While that was going, I started my mashed parsnips.

Thumbs up if you're a dork!

I pretty much just made the parsnips like I would mashed potatoes.  Peeled, chopped, boiled and then mashed with milk, butter and salt & pepper to taste.  After baking, while the Wellington was cooling, I heated the tomato sauce.  Here's the spread:

And in true Melinda fashion, I did this all while wearing heels:

Once everything was done, I sliced the Wellington open, topped it with tomato sauce, and got my sides.  The finished plate:

Wellington, Mashed Parsnips & Salad!

The Review:  Good, not my favorite though.  As one of the reviews said on the site, the goat cheese is very strong.  If I ever made this again I could probably get away with only using one 4oz log.  The pesto was also very oily, if that makes sense.  I'm not sure how to get around that though, since it's oil based.  Maybe try a different kind next time and see how it comes out?  *shrugs*  As for the parsnips, they were kind of weird.  On the one hand, the butter and milk made them seem a little like mashed potatoes, but being closely related to carrots, they also tasted like carrots.  I don't know if I'd ever bother making them again.  Over all, a very yummy dinner and full tummy. Hopefully my guest tasters show later, because there are a LOT of leftovers!
Next blog may not be an entree, but a baked good!  I came across this recipe for Chocolate Avocado Cake that sounds interesting and I want to try it!

Bonus Blog - Random Deliciousness

Just a blog to show off some of the yumminess I've baked in the past.  Enjoy!  :)

Brownies with Raspberry Cream Cheese icing and fresh raspberries

A fruit tray I did work

Me, at my day job, with a cookie tray I did

Wolf cupcakes for the cast and crew of "After Visiting Hours"

Graveyard Brownies for Halloween

Baked brie for New Years, and a brie (before baking) for St. Patrick's Day

It sounds like Thursday I will be making Vegetable Wellington with a side of mashed parsnips for dinner.  I also may have some guests to enjoy it with me!