Rosemary Focaccia Bread

There might not be a smell I love in the world more than fresh rosemary!

I started my own little herb garden and the first herb I bought was rosemary, not even for its culinary use but merely so I could go outside every morning and smell it!

Fortunately on Saturday I was able to use it for both purposes in this amazing freshly baked bread!

Ingredients (makes 2 loaves)

• 1/4 oz active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp fresh rosemary (chopped)
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp italian seasoning
• 2 tbsp olive oil

(Ignore the baking powder in the picture, that little Clabber Girl just jumped right in there, little camera hog )

Start by combing the yeast, sugar and water and wait 10 minutes until bubbly.

Then add in the flour and butter.

Next, add in the salt, pepper, italian seasoning and 2 tbsp of rosemary.

Form the mixture into a ball and place on floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.

Next, spread olive oil on the inside of a bowl and place the kneaded dough into the bowl and cover.

Allow the dough to rise for an hour and a half or until doubled in size.

Next, split the dough in half and form into two oval shapes on a baking stone. Use your finger to press indentations into the bread (fun!)

Bake at 400º for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and brush with the remaining olive oil.

Next, top with the remaining rosemary and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Now the bread should be brown on top and your house should smell amazing!

And oh yes… it does!

This bread is delicious at brunch with a  Spinach, Bacon and Goat Cheese Frittata!

Or sliced and made into a panini!

I made a steak sandwich with leftover Coffee Crusted Tri Tip and this delicious bread… Oh wow, talk about one delicious panini!

♣ Vegetarian Option: This recipe is vegetarian.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

Red Velvet Kiss Cookies

This recipe is just in time for Valentines Day!

These cookies are both beautiful and delicious! Check out how to make the recipe in my cooking segment below!

Ingredients (makes 12 cookies)

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp red food coloring
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 12 Hershey’s Hugs or Kisses

Pre-heat the oven to 325°. Combine the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda in a small mixing bowl and set aside. In a large bowl mix together the melted butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until smooth and creamy. Combine the egg with the other ingredients. Add in the food coloring, vanilla and vinegar. After the ingredients are combined well, add in the dry ingredients and combine well.

After the dough is ready roll a heaping tablespoon into a ball then roll in the powdered sugar and place on a baking stone or parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes.

After the cookies come out of the oven place a Hershey hug or kiss in the middle of the cookie and allow it to melt in.

These cookies are perfect for Valentine’s Day parties or treats for your sweet <3

If you love it, don’t forget to pin it!

Now let’s take a closer look at that chewy, red chocolate goodness!

Bake some today and share with the ones you love!  (This single girl shared them with her roommates )

♣ Vegetarian Option: This recipe is vegetarian.

♦ Gluten Free Option: Substitute gluten-free baking flour for traditional flour to make this recipe gluten-free.

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

Grilled Jalapeño Poppers

These little morsels were meant to be a part of my Superbowl Party menu, but with so little time and so much over-ambition they did not make it on to the smorgasbord of hor d’oeuvres last Sunday. Never fear, two days later these little poppers made the perfect side for my Mexican Meatloaf!

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 10-12 Jalapeño Peppers
• 4 oz goat cheese
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese
• 1 small tomato (chopped)
• 2 tbsp green onions (chopped)
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients except the Jalapeños in a small bowl. Slice the jalapeños lengthwise and remove the seeds.

Stuff the cheese mixture into the jalapeños.

Place the stuffed jalapeños on a pre-heated grill covered in cooking spray.

Grill the peppers 5-7 minutes or until cheese is melted and voila! These poppers make a great side dish for Mexican food or a fun Gameday Grub snack!

*All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

Chicken and Sweet Corn Tamales with Green Chili Avocado Salsa

After having the best sweet corn tamales of my life in Malibu last week, I was inspired to make my own.  Let me start by giving you two bits of advice people:

1. There’s a reason making tamales is a family event.
2. There’s a reason they sell packaged tamale corn husks.

For these two reasons, my tamales took about 5 hours to make the first time I prepared them! I attempted to use the corn husks from actual ears of corn and they are far too small.  Therefore I ended up making 60 baby tamales instead of 12 normal size tamales!  Since each tamale must be filled, wrapped and tied, the time to make 60 vs 12, no matter the size, makes a huge difference!  On the upside I filled each with a different assortment of ingredients so they were kind of like the fortune cookie of tamales, you opened each one not knowing what you were going to get!

Round two of making tamales: I’ve since wised up and purchased large tamale corn husks at the grocery store!

Ingredients (serves 6)

• 6 ears of corn (app 6 cups kernels)
• 2 cups harina de maiz
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 oz unsalted butter (softened)
• 1 egg

“Optionally Awesome” Filling Ingredients:

• Cooked Chicken Breasts (Shredded)
• Jalapeños (diced)
• Serrano chili peppers (diced)
• Mexican cheeses (shredded)
• Diced green chilies
• Fresh Cilantro

Begin the recipe by deconstructing the ears of corn. If you are not able to find packaged corn husks in the grocery store or you want to use the actual corn husk to construct the tamales, carefully remove the husks from the corn ears and reserve.  If not, just rip those puppies off and get to the kernels!

Next, begin removing the kernels from the ears of corn. Use a sharp knife and they should slice right off the cob. Reserve the cobs for a cool little trick I learned from the Cooking Channel.

Next, add the corn kernels to a blender or food processor.

Blend until creamy.

Next, begin soaking the corn husks so they’ll be ready to fill. A little 10 minute bath should do the trick!

While the husks are soaking prepare the corn masa mixture.

Using an electric hand mixer, blend together the harina de maize, water, sugar, salt, baking powder, egg and butter in a large mixing bowl.

Next, hand mix in the blended corn kernels.

Now for my fun Cooking Channel trick. Start with a large pot (I used my dutch oven) and if you are like me and you don’t have a steam basket that fits, use the trick of lining the bottom of the pot with corn ears.

Next, fill the bottom of the pot with about 1-2 inches of water, then place a small steam basket on top of the cobs to make sure that the tamales do not touch the water.

Turn the stove on and bring the water to a boil. Now all that’s left to do is put these tamales together!

I constructed a tamale making station on my counter top with my accouterment of different filling ingredients.

Start assembling the tamales by opening a corn husk and filling with the sweet corn mixture, then add some of those “optionally awesome fillings”. The little guy got some shredded chicken and diced green chilies, Yum!

Then, fold one side of the tamale over the mixture.

Then the other side…

Then fold the other two sides over the middle…

Now it’s time to do a little gift wrapping of deliciousness!

After all of the tamales are assembled, place them standing up in the steamer basket or atop the corn ears, just make sure they do not touch the boiling water.

Now cover and allow to steam for 45 minutes. Remove one tamale from the steamer after 45 minutes, if the filling is firm and pulls away easily from the husk then they are ready to be gobbled up! If not, steam for an additional 10-15 minutes. Be sure to check the water level every 10-15 minutes and re-fill if necessary.

While the tamales were steaming I prepared the Green Chili Avocado Salsa, then served the delicious dinner with chips and salsa, Chili Lime Garlic Grilled Shrimp and White Peach Sangria!

Mmmm look at that plate of scrumptious tamales! In the words of Forest Gump “Life is like a box of LLB tamales, you never know what you’re gonna get!”  Ok, so maybe that was not the exact quote, but close enough!

I prepared half of the tamales with chicken and half with a combination of chilies and peppers for my guest who was a vegetarian!

Both versions were delectably awesome!

The harina de maiz is corn based, therefore gluten-free!

Buen apetito amigos!

♣ Vegetarian Option: Omit the chicken, replace with extra chilies and peppers.

♦ Gluten Free Option: Using the ingredients pictured above this recipe is gluten-free! Yay!

♥ All pottery seen on the littleleopardbook can be purchased by visiting www.longaberger.com/muffetbond or e-mailing keepsakebl@sbcglobal.net.

Mexican Meatloaf

My refrigerator is in a current state of “Superbowl Hangover”, a random mishmash of leftover ingredients lingering in my fridge following one huge party on Sunday. These ingredients include things like ground beef, jalapeños, bell peppers, celery, carrots and assorted cheeses, so I began to ponder what I could make out of these ingredients.

That is when the idea for Mexican Meatloaf came to me!

Just when I thought I had come up with the next new food craze, I googled Mexican Meatloaf to find I was not the first to come up with such a brilliant idea (dang it!) but either way I threw together my random assortment of ingredients into what may not be the first, but may very well be the best Mexican Meatloaf ever!

Yeah I said it, THE BEST, it was that good!

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 Jalapeños (roasted, peeled, seeded and diced)
• 1 small onion (diced)
• 1/2 red bell pepper (diced)
• 1/2 green bell pepper (diced)
• 2 celery ribs (diced)
• 2 carrot sticks (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup Mary’s Gone Crackers Gluten-Free Breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Topping:

• 6 oz tomato paste
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp chili powder

Start by pre-heating the oven to 375°.

Next, roast the jalapeños on the grill. (If you don’t have a grill you can roast them in the oven)

Let the peppers roast for app 5-7 minutes per side, or until black and bubbling.  While the peppers are roasting sauté the diced bell peppers, onions, carrots and celery together for 5 minutes.

Next, add the minced garlic to the vegetables and sauté for an additional minute.

After the vegetables are sautéed, remove them from the heat to cool.

Remove the jalapeños from the grill. After the peppers have cooled, remove the skin, then slice into the pepper and remove the seeds. Next, chop the roasted pepper and add to the vegetable mixture.

Now combine the cumin, chili powder, cayenne, salt, pepper and bread crumbs in a small mixing bowl.

Add to the mixture the eggs, sour cream, ketchup and cheese, stir to combine.

Next, add this mixture to the ground beef and vegetables.

Now it’s time to get your hands dirty and mix it all together. Next, place the mixture into a loaf pan coated with cooking spray.

Cook in the oven for 25 minutes.

While the meatloaf is cooking combine the tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, water and chili powder in a small bowl for the topping.

After 25 minutes remove the meatloaf from the oven, drain any juices and spread the tomato topping onto the meatloaf.

Cook for another 15 minutes then remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

I served mine with Jalapeño poppers… part of that whole  Superbowl Hangover thing I mentioned (AKA: party hor d’oeuvre’s that didn’t get made due to over-ambition and lack of time!) They turned out to complement each other very well and I would definitely recommend it!

♣ Vegetarian Option: Substitute a sleeve of veggie crumbles and 3/4  can of semi mashed black beans for the ground beef.  This was made by my good friend Katie and she gave me the recommendation, thanks girl!

♦ Gluten Free Option:  Use the “Mary’s Gone Crackers” gluten-free breadcrumbs pictured above to make this dish gluten-free.  Also make sure that you purchase organic ketchup or make sure whatever ketchup you purchase is gluten free!