I owe you all a huge apology. It is with a heavy heart that I must let you know that I kept this savory, tangy, and unbelievably tasty cast iron home fries recipe from you all for two years. I legitimately have no excuse and won’t even try to make one up, so I am sorry. But now that I’ve apologized we can all move on and focus on how these Cast Iron Home Fries with Creamy Garlic Dressing need to be at your next brunch. Or weekend breakfast. Or breakfast for lunch, because who says brunch food has to be either breakfast or “breakfast for dinner”?!

When my brother-in-law gave me the Brunch at Bobby’s cookbook I immediately gravitated towards this recipe in the side dish section. Something about the colors of the dish and the crispiness of the potatoes made me want to make (and eat) it ASAP. I’ve had a lot of home fries over the years, but never one with a dressing. Genius! The dressing allows the potatoes to have so much more flavor and really pack a punch.

This side dish could easily be made into the star of brunch by serving it with poached or fried eggs. The thought of the runny yolks mixing with the creamy dressing is causing my brain to overload with excitement right now. Deep breaths. Phew.

I originally made these potatoes to go with the Eggs Benedict over Cheddar Scallion Waffles with Crispy Chorizo, Smashed Avocado, and Green Chile Hollandaise I made for a Southwestern themed brunch. The boldness of these potatoes held up to the outrageous-ness of the eggs Benedict perfectly. I adjusted a few things from the original recipe to save some time and fit my personal preferences, including roasting the garlic for the dressing to add a more mild and caramelized flavor. Enjoy!

Cast Iron Home Fries with Creamy Garlic Dressing

 

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Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

for the garlic dressing

• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 4 cloves of roasted garlic (see note)

for the home fries

• 3 pounds russet potatoes, about 3 large potatoes
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more as needed
• 1 bell pepper, I used ½ red & ½ orange for some variety
• 1 small head radicchio
• 3 scallions

Directions

for the dressing

1. In a small bowl, mash the roasted garlic. Add the mayonnaise, vinegar, and mustard then whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper then let sit for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to settle. If you will be letting it sit for more than 30 minutes, cover the bowl and place in the fridge until ready to serve.

for the home fries

1. Scrub then clean the potatoes. Pierce them each 5-6 times with a fork then place the potatoes on a microwave safe baking dish and cook in the microwave for 5 minutes. Carefully flip the potatoes over then microwave for another 5 minutes. You should be able to poke a fork or paring knife into the potato with no resistance. Add more cooking time if needed, or alternatively use the “potato” setting on your microwave. Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle cut them into a 1-inch dice.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, prep the rest of the vegetables. Removing the seeds, cut the bell pepper into a thick dice. Halve the radicchio then thinly slice. Thinly slice the scallions, discarding the dark green parts.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the diced bell pepper and cook until the pepper starts to soften. Add the remaining oil then the diced potatoes. Spread the potatoes so they are in a single layer and cook until they have begun to get crispy on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Carefully toss them and continue to cook until crispy, about 5 more minutes. Add more oil or increase the heat of the stove if needed. Remove the skillet from the heat.
4. Move the potatoes and bell pepper to a large bowl or serving dish. Add the sliced radicchio, dressing, and scallions then carefully stir to combine. Feel free to not use all the dressing depending on your personal preference. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve while warm or at room temperature.

Notes

- To roast garlic: preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Leaving the skin on the garlic bulb, cut the top off the head of garlic so that almost all the tops of the cloves are exposed. Take a small piece of tinfoil big enough to wrap the garlic in. Place the garlic in the center and partially fold up the sides. Drizzle the exposed garlic with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Seal the foil to make a little packet of the garlic and roast for 35 minutes. Once it’s cool enough to handle, you can squeeze out the roasted cloves.
- To prep ahead: roast the garlic, make the dressing, microwave the potatoes, and prep the vegetables. Then in the morning you will only have to deal with the cast iron skillet portion of the recipe.
- Cooking the potatoes: the original recipe from Bobby Flay called for the potatoes to be boiled whole for about 25 minutes, or until cooked through. I went with the microwave method to save time, but feel free to boil the potatoes if you prefer.

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Normally when I think of muffins my mind goes to sweet baked goods. Cinnamon-crumbed, definitely chocolatey, maybe even citrus-infused, but definitely not savory. Until March. Now I am fully on-board the savory muffin train, even if it’s just to make these Irish Cheddar, Bacon, and Potato Muffins over and over again. Yes, these muffins are that amazing.

The smell when they came out of the oven was so hypnotizing that Matt and I each ate one as soon as we could get the muffin paper liners off without burning ourselves (or at least until it was just minor pain). Then, the flavor was so outrageous that we were each forced to have a second one. It wasn’t our fault; we were hypnotized!

When I first saw the March muffins in the Food Network Magazine’s Muffin of the Month article, I thought they sounded heavy, but instead they are light and fluffy, while still being loaded with gooey cheese and bacon. Bacon doesn’t need a descriptor; everyone knows how bacony delicious bacon is.

In addition to the cooked bacon, there is a very small amount of bacon grease in the actual muffin batter so it helps bring that bacon flavor to every bite. I cooked a package of bacon on the griddle on a Sunday, which gave Matt and I some bacon for breakfast (a treat since we don’t cook bacon that often!), the three slices of bacon and one tablespoon of bacon grease I needed for this recipe, as well as cooked bacon for sandwiches and salads for lunches throughout the week.

Perfect as a grab and go breakfast, these Irish Cheddar, Bacon and Potato Muffins are even better after being warmed briefly in the microwave. Please do yourself a favor and make these muffins! Then do me a favor and bring them to my house so I can eat them with you! Enjoy!

Irish Cheddar, Bacon & Potato Muffins

 

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Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 large Yukon Gold potato (8 ounces)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1¼ cups buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 3 slices bacon, cooked with 1 tablespoon bacon grease reserved
• 4 ounces Irish cheddar cheese, diced
• ¼ cup chopped fresh chives (about ½ a bunch)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with paper liners and set aside.
2. Cook the potato in the microwave. Poke the potato 5-6 times with a fork and wrap in a damp paper towel. Cook until the potato is just cooked through, about 4-5 minutes, being sure to turn it once during cooking. Let the potato cool. Once you can handle it carefully peel off the skin and grate the potato. Lightly season the grated potato with salt and pepper; toss to combine.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, egg, and tablespoon of bacon drippings. Pour the mixture into the well of the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Carefully fold in the grated potato, bacon, cheese, and chives.
5. Evenly divide the batter among the prepared paper liners. The batter should fill each to the top. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until the top of the muffin is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to completely cool.

Notes

Every time a recipe calls for buttermilk, I use this trick instead: Put a tablespoon of lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup. Add milk until the desired amount of buttermilk is reached (in this case 1¼ cups). Let sit 5 minutes. You can use whatever kind of milk you have in your fridge - I use nonfat milk. If the recipe calls for more than 1¼ cups buttermilk, you will need to use a little more lemon juice.
I used Kerrygold Dubliner cheese.
I had a hard time getting the paper liners off of these muffins. It was definitely worse when they were hot, so let them cool completely before eating. I plan to experiment during future baking of these muffins to see if I can adjust the recipe to get them to stick less or if it would be better to bake them directly in the pan with cooking spray. I will keep you all posted!
To fully savor these muffins, reheat them in the microwave for 15-30 seconds before eating.

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Recipe from January/February 2018 issue of Food Network Magazine.

Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

When I was deciding what to bake up for Valentine’s Day I immediately thought of these Chocolate Cherry Crinkle Cookies I made over Christmas. I initially made these more for Matt since he loves cherry, but they ended up being one of my favorite cookies.

These soft and chewy cookies are loaded with cherry preserves, dried cherries, and chocolate chips. The flavor of the cherry preserves is subtle because the dried cherries and the chocolate chips take center stage. The combination of the two, especially baked into a chewy cookie, is habit-forming.

One of my favorite things about these Chocolate Cherry Crinkle Cookies though was that they stayed fresh in an airtight container for so long! Not that they will last that long in your house, unless you’re a crazy normal person like me and made 10 bazillion different kinds of cookies by the hundreds for Christmas. Then you’ll be happy to know that the dried cherries keep them tasting like you just made them the other day.

You will need red food coloring to get that perfect color for Valentine’s Day. Between these and the Red Velvet Oreo Truffle Chocolate Crunch Brownies I have a whole bunch of boxes of food coloring lying around with the red missing so I either need to invest in just red food coloring or come up with something for my green, yellow, and blue!

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and enjoy these Chocolate Cherry Crinkle Cookies!

Chocolate Cherry Crinkle Cookies

 

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Yield: about 30 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• ⅓ cup cherry jam or preserves
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon red food coloring
• ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
• ⅓ cup sweetened dried cherries, roughly chopped
• ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tablespoon red sanding sugar

Directions

1. In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl beat the butter, ½ cup of the granulated sugar, and the brown sugar with a mixer on medium high speed for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the egg, beat to combine, then add the jam, both extracts, and the food coloring. Beat until combined, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the flour mixture on low speed and mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate and dried cherries. Tightly cover the dough and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. The dough needs to be firm; I left my dough overnight both times.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set side.
4. In a small bowl combine the confectioners’ sugar and sanding sugar. Roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into a ball and roll in the confectioners’ sugar mixture to coat completely. Repeat with the rest of the dough and space about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
5. Bake for 18 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden and the cookies are cracked on top, making sure not to overcook. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

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 Recipe from December 2017 issue of Food Network Magazine.

Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

Valentine’s Day gives me all those sappy love feels, not just because of all the hearts and pink covered chocolates in the stores, but because that was the day Matt and I had our first official date ten years ago. The two weeks after we met we had our little dinner dates in the dining hall and lunches on the quad, but this was our first real date.

When Matt asked me to go out to dinner on “Thursday” I didn’t even realize it was Valentine’s Day at first. As we walked through Boston we held hands in the pocket of Matt’s coat since neither of us brought gloves on the cold night. Matt wanted to surprise me and show me this hidden sneaker store. It is fronted by a convenience store and you have to walk through the Snapple machine in the back so he said he needed deodorant to get me to go over there (not sure why he picked something so unromantic and didn’t go with shampoo or something 😂 but sappy and goofy sums us up pretty well). Then we went and had burgers, fries, and milkshakes; I can still feel the energy of that night like it was just last week.

Since I was especially feeling like celebrating love this year I wanted to make something that looked cute while tasting next-level delicious. Enter these Chocolate-Dipped Browned Butter Rice Krispie Treats.

I find normal krispie treats bland so I started brainstorming on how to make them into a treat I would want a second and a third of. My first thought was to cover it in semisweet chocolate since chocolate makes everything better and it would also let me use the adorable heart sprinkles I bought.

Then I looked at the recipe on the back of the Rice Krispies box and thought that if we were bothering to melt the butter we might as well keep melting to brown it to create a richer, toasted flavor, similar to my Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Lastly, adding some extra mini marshmallows at the end gives you little pockets of gooey marshmallow. These amped up krispie treats are so quick to make, but when you’re done they look (and taste!) like they just came out of a bakery. Time to express your sappy love feels this Valentine’s Day with these Chocolate-Dipped Browned Butter Rice Krispie Treats!

Chocolate Dipped Browned Butter Rice Krispie Treats

 

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Yield: 12 regular or 9 jumbo krispie treats

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 4¾ cups mini marshmallows
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus more as needed
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, plus more as needed
• Sprinkles

Directions

1. Line a 13x9 pan or a 9x9 pan (see note) with nonstick aluminum foil and set aside.
2. In a large pot big enough to fit all the cereal, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, making sure to continuously swirl the pan, until the butter is golden brown in color, about 4 minutes. Lower the heat then add 4 cups of the marshmallows, stirring until melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt.
3. Add the cereal to the pot and gently stir until coated. Gently stir in the remaining ¾ cup of mini marshmallows. Pour the contents of the pot into the prepared pan and spread evenly. I used a small piece of wax paper to lightly press on the krispie treats in the pan to create an even-ish surface without pressing too hard (you don’t want the krispie treats to be dense). Let cool completely.
4. Once cooled, remove the foil from the pan and cut the krispie treats with a sharp knife. Line a small baking pan or sturdy cutting board that will fit in your fridge with wax paper and set aside.
5. Add the chocolate chips and the vegetable oil to a microwave-safe measuring cup or bowl. I used a 2 cup measuring cup since it is deep and narrow - ideal for chocolate dipping. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, then continue microwaving and stirring at 15-second intervals until the chocolate is completely melted. Dip half the krispie treat into the melted chocolate and let the excess drip off. Coat with sprinkles and set on the wax paper to cool. Continue with the remaining krispie treats, melted more chocolate as needed, then place in the fridge to allow the chocolate to harden. Remove from the fridge as soon as the chocolate has hardened then store at room temperature in an airtight container.

Notes

For 12 normal-sized krispie treats use a 13x9 pan. For 9 jumbo-sized krispie treats use a 9x9 pan.
The krispie treats stay for a few days, but they taste best the same day.

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Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

Happy February! If you missed the last post, I am baking, photographing, eating, and posting each of the Food Network Magazine’s 12 Months of Muffins. February’s muffin does not disappoint: Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Muffins. Yup, you read that correctly. Chocolate and caramel – life is so sweet.

Chocolate muffins are basically cupcakes disguised as acceptable breakfast food so I was ecstatic to see some chocolate muffins in the monthly muffin list. Not that I don’t consider cupcakes acceptable breakfast food, but I need to keep up appearances. The cupcake, I mean muffin, batter is chocolate with chocolate chips in it, hence the “double chocolate.” The muffin is moist with little pockets of gooey melted chocolate chips.

What takes these muffins over the top is the dulce de leche in the center. The recipe name says “Salted Caramel” because I wanted to stay true to the original Food Network wording, but what we really have here is some smooth and heavenly dulce de leche. Dulce de leche is sweetened milk that has been slowly cooked until it caramelizes. In my opinion it tastes much creamier than regular caramel sauce because of the milk. You can buy or make your own for this recipe. I made my own because I didn’t want to go to the store and I already had a can of sweetened condensed milk, which is all you need to make some!

The dulce de leche is dolloped right in the center of the half baked muffins. My muffins developed a little air pocket in the center, which was from some of the dulce de leche getting absorbed into the muffin after it was done baking aka making it super moist and decadent. I hope you enjoy these muffins for breakfast, dessert, and everything in between!

Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Muffins

 

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Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup thick dulce de leche
• Flaked sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with paper liners and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate chips (leaving 3 chips aside) and stir to combine.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the milk and vegetable oil then whisk until smooth. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
4. Evenly pour the batter into the prepared paper liners. Each muffin cup should be filled ⅔ to the top. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges of the muffins have started to set, but the center of each muffin is still liquidy. Remove the muffin pan from the oven and working quickly, dollop 1 heaping teaspoon of dulce de leche into the center of each muffin. Return the pan to the oven. Continue to bake for 10-15 more minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean. Make sure to insert the toothpick into the muffin itself and not the dulce de leche.
5. As soon as the muffins are out of the oven, use a grater or microplane to grate the chocolate chips you set aside over the tops of the muffins. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with the flaked sea salt. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes then move the muffins to a cooling rack until completely cooled.

Notes

The batter is supposed to rise and bake over the dulce de leche. Some of my dulce de leche stayed on the top of my muffins because I probably let them cook too long before dolloping on the dulce de leche. They taste delicious either way so don’t worry too much about it.

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 Recipe from January/February 2018 issue of Food Network Magazine.

Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments