Hi all, I hope you are having a grand Wednesday. Before I start on today’s really fun post I just wanted to mention again that if you have not voted yet for my recipe on goodbite you can do so by going over here now.  You can only vote once per day but together I hope we can make a difference and donate a $1000 to Heifer International.

On to the Food

Who said chips had to be made with potatoes?  Not me that’s for sure.

Today I wanted to create something a little different and of course use one of my favorite kitchen products – my swissmar slicer.  If you have never tried this slicer – it is a must have in your kitchen.  You can pick one up at Opensky today.  Parsnips have a very unique flavor but there is something about them – that I just love.  For this recipe I thought I would kick them up and add a little cinnamon and honey.  They turned out almost candy like but were very yummy.

Let’s just say I probably should have peeled a few more parsnips into the mix but it was all I had left.  This is great for an appetizer or even a side dish with a nice piece of fish.

Ingredients

• 1 Large Parsnip
• 1 Tbsp. Honey
• 1 Tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
• Ground pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and peel the parsnip





2. Using your slicer, slice the parsnip into discs.
3. In a large bowl toss the parsnips slices with olive oil, pepper, cinnamon and honey







4. Arrange on a pre lined baking sheet and bake for about 25-30 minutes



5. Turn parsnips after 15 minutes and continue cooking
6. Remove when golden brown
7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Be careful not to burn this little chips.  Because of the high sugar content they will burn if left unattended.  I like to move them to the top rack after the first 15 minutes and turning once.  This will allow them to dry out and crisp up without burning.

Around the Blogsphere

• Janna over at Just Flourishing is having a fun Valentine’s giveaway.  You have to check this out and you may be just in time to be the lucky winner.
• Late last week Deb from smitten kitchen made one of my all time favorite dishes…. Ginger Fried Rice.  I would so eat the whole pot.

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How are ya?  That’s good!  Let’s just say I have been better.  I will take a few minutes to recap yesterday and all its glory.  Well in order for the full story you will need some background from the weekend.

On Saturday we had a lot of rain and high winds – which always concerns me as far as the new house – so I drove out Sunday morning to have a look.  Ran down the basement to check for water… all is clear.  I take a walk up stairs around the perimeter of the house just checking the floors to make sure the roof is not leaking… all is clear.  I wander around a little longer to the south  side of the house and I see wet marks on the floor next to the windows.  My heart beats faster and I say ” Oh Dear”.  I look to another window and see the same thing.  WINDOWS ARE LEAKING!

I call the builder on Monday morning and tell him and he says “ I know Cory… I was down on Sunday at 7:00am because I couldn’t sleep last night”. What are we too do?  Well the guys decided to do a water test yesterday and sure enough the windows are leaking - but how and where.  We call in the siding guys and they take some siding off and do a few more tests.  It turns out the window is leaking itself.  It is not an installation issue but even worse – a product issue.  Now I am upset and borderline cranky.  I got the call as we are waiting in a three hour line up for our H1N1 immunization.   So I immediately called the supplier of the windows and asked to have a rep sent out on site ASAP to get this fixed. As I type this I feel like I am pounding on the keys a little harder than normal so I am going to stop now and get to the good part of this post.

On to the Food

As promised from yesterday’s post I have the easiest tasty apple crisp ever for you today.  We had about 8-10 apples left over from the orchard pick so I thought I would use them up and make a sweet treat.  7 ingredients for a dessert is pretty easy so here goes.

Ingredients

• 8 Cups sliced apples
• 1/4 Cup White Sugar
• 2 Tbsp. Flour
• 1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 Cup flour
• 3/4 Cup brown sugar
• 1/2 Cup soft butter

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare baking dish by rubbing butter all over it
2. Combine apples, white sugar, 2 Tbsp. Flour and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix together.



3. Toss into baking dish and spread evenly



4. For the topping combine the final 3 ingredients and spread evenly over the top of the apple mixture.



5. Bake for 45-60 minutes depending on your oven.



6. Remove and let rest
7. Serve warm or cool



8. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: I like to make a thicker apple crisp in a smaller pan because as the apples cook they will begin to shrink and your crisp will fall.

This is a super fast dessert and goes great on a cool fall day.  I like to serve with homemade whip cream or my favorite… vanilla ice cream.  It can also be a great breakfast or even a nice mix into oatmeal.

Question of the day?

Does anybody like oatmeal?  What is your favorite oatmeal topping of all time!

Speaking of oatmeal, I need to try the new Autumn Medley recipe recommend by Chef David from the Quaker Challenge.  For those of you who haven’t already, please vote for me by giving my video a thumbs up!

Have a great day and just so you know – by the time I got to the end of this post, I think I feel better.  it must have been working with the apple crisp pictures.  Have an awesome Thursday.

Take care

zesty

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Who is up for a Cinnabun that will knock your socks off?  We had a family brunch a while back and I could not resist making these fresh out of the oven when the guests arrived.  Believe it or not I forgot to actually post these and when I was going through my pictures, I realized that I never shared these with you.

The pictures are not great cause these were made before I began researching and learning ” How to take amazing food pictures“.

These actually were not that difficult to make and they tasted delicious.  They literally disappeared minutes after being removed from the oven.

Follow along and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

• 1/4 Cup warm water
• 1/4 Cup butter, melted
• 1/2 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 Cup warm milk
• 1 Egg, room temperature
• 1 Tbsp. white sugar
• 1/2 Tsp. salt
• 4 Cups bread flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 Cup butter, softened
• 1 Cup brown sugar
• 4 Tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 Cup butter, softened
• 1 Cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 Tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 Tsp. milk

Method

1. In the pan of your bread machine, combine water, melted butter, vanilla pudding, warm milk, egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast. Set machine to Dough cycle; press Start.





2. When Dough cycle has finished, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 17×10 inch rectangle. Spread with softened butter. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over dough.





3. Roll up dough, beginning with long side. Slice into 16 one inch slices and place in 9×13 buttered pan.



4. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. While rolls bake, stir together cream cheese, softened butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and milk. Remove rolls from oven and top with frosting.



7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: When working with dough, have a well floured surface and be quick.  Do not over work the dough as it will become tough.

Well as you know the weekend is almost upon us.  The Jamaican excitement is winding down and I am coming home Saturday night.  Be sure to stay tuned for a Monday recap of the journey and hopefully some decent pics. Have a great weekend.

Take care

zesty

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We made it!  Friday is here and I am super excited.  Why you might ask?  I am so tired that I could sleep standing up!  I am looking forward to relaxing on the weekend as well as doing a little blogging.

However today, I bring you the final installment of zesty’s catering week.  I do though have a couple of other dishes that were served that I will likely fold into the mix next week.  So stay tuned for that.

What surprise do I have for you today?  A Brie Bake – my first time ever making this beauty!  I was thumbing through a magazine where someone was talking about a Brie Bake which got me so excited that I had to try it out.  This all comes back to the fact that I am a huge bread baby and I am always attracted to pastry.

For ease of time I opted to go for the puff pastry as I did with the Beef Mushroom Pastries from yesterday.  This bake might be the easiest show stopper appetizer I’ve ever made.  The look of this dish as it came out of the oven was pure bliss.  I could almost taste the warm jam melted with warm soft cheese.

Ingredients

• 1 Pkg. Puff Pastry
• 1 Brie Wheel (1lb)
• 1 Egg
• Sprinkle Sugar and Cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp.  Fruit Spread ( strawberry)

Method

1. Preheat Oven to 325°.
2. Thaw the pastry and put a couple of spoonfuls of the fruit spread in the middle.
3. Cut one side of the rind off the brie and put it face up in the fruit spread.
4. Wrap the fruit and brie with the pastry.
5. Cover with egg wash (egg and a bit of water) and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 325°. You’ll be able to tell when it’s done!



7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip:  For the filling, avoid the pastry from getting too wet from the spread by choosing what I call a tight spread (not too runny).

Before leaving for the weekend, I want to announce that the e-book will be ready for download early next week.  I am really excited to have put this together.  As well I am happy to have included some of the top food bloggers out there.  I cannot wait to share with you the list of foodies that are featured in the book.  Have a great weekend.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

Happy Friday everyone!  Another week is almost over… crazy isn’t it.  I thought I would share with you a simple muffin that you can make when you need something sweet in a hurry.  I made these a few weeks ago and they are actually pretty tasty.

These muffins are very flexible.  You can mix it up by switching the nuts to pecans as well as adding some of your favorite dried fruit in them as well.  Dates would also work really well.  This one is super easy and a great Sunday morning treat for the house to wake up too.

Ingredients

BOWL #1:

• 1 1/2 Cups flour
• 1/2 Cup sugar
• 2 Tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 Tsp. salt
• 1/4 Cup shortening
• 1 egg (well beaten)
• 1/2 Cup milk

BOWL #2:

• 1/4 Cup brown sugar
• 1/4 Cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. flour
• 1 Tsp. cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. butter, melted

Method

1. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in bowl.
2. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles crumbs.
3. Mix egg and milk together, add all at once.
4. Stir just until moistened.
5. Combine brown sugar, nuts, flour, cinnamon and melted butter.
6. Place 1/2 batter in greased muffin tins or liners (I opted for liners).
7. Sprinkle nut mixture over 1/2 batter, then top with remaining batter. (I save a little nut mixture to sprinkle on top too.)
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Zesty Tip: When baking any cake like batter – always keep an eye on the cooking process but try not to open the oven door during the allotted time.  If you feel you oven may be too hot – reduce the baking time by 2 minutes and be sure to check the batter with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.  If it does, you are good to go.

Let me know your favorite kind of muffin! I know I am going to hear a lot of pumpkin responses but let me hear them all – it will be fun!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Take Care

zesty

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Happy Tuesday everybody!  Quite a title for this post… isn’t it?  Well I am hoping to have an interactive post about toppings for your toast.  Now of course there is plain butter but I thought I would share with you some of my all-time favorite toppings for toast.  In return, I would love for each and every reader to post their favorite topping in the comments section.  I think this will be fun!

Let’s keep in mind that the options are endless and it’s very difficult to narrow it down to just ten.  It just so happens that I have a couple of different loaves of bread on hand so here are some of my favorites and a couple pictures.

Top Ten Toast Toppings

1. Apple Sauce (homemade), Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Dash of Brown Sugar – A simple dessert like toast that can be enjoyed anytime of the day.
2. Peanut Butter, Nutella (or any chocolate spread) and Banana – This stick to your ribs favorite will get you going in the morning.
3. Butter, Strawberry Jam, Sharp Cheddar Cheese - Possibly one of my all time favorite…. i love the combination of cheese and homemade jam from Mom.
4. Bacon, Tomato, Cheddar Cheese - A quick BLT without the lettuce… you can add lettuce if you want but I prefer without.
5. Almond Butter, Honey and Granola - The sweet goodness really fills you up in the morning. great combination of flavors here.
6. Butter, Garlic, Parmesan and Mozzarella Cheese - The old fashion garlic bread… can you really beat it. Serve this up with a big dish of Spaghetti
7. Tuna Salad, Celery, Havarti Cheese - A simple lunch that really fits the bill and is so delicious on a thick slice of multigrain bread in the toaster oven.
8. Butter and Poached Egg - The breakfast classic and oh so good with a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice or even a berry smoothie



9. Brie, Cranberry Sauce and Bacon – Killer snack and even great for parties on mini toasts.
10. Chicken Salad, Walnuts and Diced Granny Smith Apple - One of my favorite open faced sandwiches.

Zesty Tip: When cooking toast, always try and add the topping as soon as the toast is popped and at it’s hottest point.  Also if you are adding a fairly heavy topping, I like to brown the toast a little darker than normal to avoid the bread getting soggy.

So there you have it, my top ten toast toppings!  I am sure that there are hundreds of combinations out there, so let’s hear them.  This is a great opportunity for you to share your crazy toast toppings.  You just may realize that it is not that crazy after all.  Have a great Tuesday everybody.  Keep Smiling.

zesty

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