Food Follies – Page 17 – Cooking, Baking, Recipes, Food, Desserts

Best Chicken Noodle Soup Ever!

We made chicken soup from scratch the other day – first time ever – and it was, if I may say so, fantastic!! We already had leftover cooked chicken and chicken stock. We shredded the chicken and put that in the crock pot with the broth. Then, we chopped onions, carrots, and celery and saute’d them in a frying pan. I took a picture of the raw carrots and celery because it looked so neat…

Then, we added the veggies to the crock pot and set that to cooking. A few hours before we were going to eat, I made some homemade noodles with our hand-crank pasta machine and the wavy wheel cutter. Here’s a photo of the noodles drying out a bit on a rack.

About an hour or so before we were going to eat I added the noodles. Not surprisingly, the noodles plumped up a LOT more than I expected – LOL – and so we had a LOT of noodle content in there. Just before we were going to eat, we chopped some green onions and added them to the soup and WAH-LAH! Best homemade chicken noodle soup ever!!

[Tags: food, soup, chicken noodle soup, homemade]

Cheesy Puffs!

We were just sitting around, eating Trader Joe’s cheese puffs and I joked about making a cheese puffs t-shirt design. Before I knew it, I’d opened photoshop and bam!

You can get your cheesy puffs design on all kinds of t-shirts and sweatshirts, even kid’s sizes! (They may not be the ones officially endorsed by Cartman on South Park, but they’re just as orange!)

After I did that, I realized I needed to make a ‘powered by’ version of the design too….

… available on all kinds of apparel too, plus bumper stickers and buttons, etc.

“I like cheesy puffs!” If you know someone who’s always got their hand in a bag, or has perpetually orange fingertips, they probably love cheesy puffs too – heh.
[Tags: food, cheese, cheese puffs, cheese doodles, t-shirt, humor, funny]

Beam Me Up White Zinfandel

On his way home from work John often stops at the store for extra groceries, and sometimes shows up home with a little something extra. This time it was a bottle of “Beam Me Up” brand Zinfandel.

I know the ‘wine elite’ usually turn up their noses at white zinfandel, but 1.) sometimes you just want a mild, light wine experience and 2.) how could you NOT buy a wine with that wacky name? and 3.) look at the picture on the label! Look at it! LOL. (Those, of course, being the three things most wine professionals look for in a fine vintage.) Anyway, it was just the right wine for the evening – nice, easy, and tasty… and obviously appealing to the geeky target demographic.
[Tags: wine, zinfandel, food]

Happy Halloween Popcorn Balls

John and I live WAY out in the country, and down a private road behind a locked cattle gate so the only Trick-or-Treaters we’d get out this way would be the raccoons, what with their masks and all. Anyway, since we aren’t do anything particularly interesting this year for Halloween, I thought I’d pass along a recipe and photos from a friend of mine, Jen Goode

In her own words…

A fun project for any age. My preschooler had a great time molding the balls, it’s much like playing with play dough.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls

What You’ll Need:
2 standard pouches of microwave popcorn (approx 6-8 cups popped)
1 package chocolate marshmallows
1/4 butter or margarine
1/2 package chocolate chips
1/2 package peanut butter chips
1 large cooking pot
Standard (non zipper) sandwich bags or plastic wrap

note: no chocolate marshmallows? replace with 1 package regular marshmallows and 1/2 package chocolate chips – melted together

How to make it:

Over medium heat, melt butter. While the butter is melting, pop popcorn andset aside. Stir in marshmallows and continue stirring until thoroughly melted. Remove from heat. Stir in popcorn until thoroughly mixed.

Pour into a big mixing bowl so the mix will cool quicker. Let cool for 5-10 minutes. Gently stir in chocolate and peanut butter chips.

Mold handfuls of mix into ball shapes. Make sure to compact the balls gently but firmly so that they stick together well. It’s ok to “squish” them a little.

Tip: Use plastic wrap or plastic sandwich bags to prevent too much sticking to your hands.

Place each ball in a plastic sandwich bag and tie with a bow. Enjoy!

Halloween deliciousness brought to you by Jen Goode.

[Tags: food, halloween, recipe, popcorn, popcorn balls]

Spider Eggs for Halloween

Check out these Spider Eggs for Halloween – they look completely creepy. And that’s not even counting the fact that I don’t like olives! But that tidbit aside, I thought this was a really creative use of everyday food. Happy Halloween!
[Tags: halloween, appetizer, food, spider, spooky]

Phil’s Frittata

When we go to Flap Jack’s Cafe we always leave filled to the gills with amazing food. And our last venture out was no exception, but since we’ve already done a few reviews of Flap Jack’s we thought we’d just post a photo of the humungous and delicious sausage and veggie frittata that John ordered, and almost completely finished – heh – complete with home fries and fresh orange slices.

Hungry yet?

[Tags: food, eggs, diner, frittata, breakfast]

White Chocolate Recall

Kraft Recalls White Chocolate Baking Squares: ” WEDNESDAY October 3, 2007 (Foodconsumer.org) — Kraft Foods is reportedly recalling Baker’s Premium White Chocolate Baking Squares distributed across the United States due to possible contamination of Salmonella, Reuters reported today. The affected product is sold in 6-ounce packages with UPC code 004300025200. “Test when used by” dates printed on package include 31 MAR 2008 XCZ, 01 APR 2008 XCZ, 02 APR2008 XCZ, or 03 APR 2008 XCZ. The recall affects 24,000 cases of the chocolate, but there have been no reports of illness associated with consumption of the product, Kraft spokeswoman Cathy Pernu was cited as saying. The recall was issued after the Food and Drug Administration tested and found salmonella in some 6-oz. packages.”

With all the recalls lately, I wonder if it’s just a matter of companies being more hygenic or perhaps improving the salmonella test itself? Not that I don’t think erring on the side of caution is a good thing, of course.

And Topps, the company that just recalled all that beef, is now going out of business because of the recall – 30 people got sick, and 2 law suits are pending. It’s all just a really bizarre trend, that I hope has a limited shelf life, so to speak.
[Tags: recall, food, chocolate, kraft, baking, salmonella]

Homemade Brownies

A number of months ago we bought some fair trade, unsweetened cocoa from Sweet Earth Chocolates…

…and I just recently found an excellent ‘from scratch’ brownie recipe on the web (all over the web, actually, it seems to be a very popular recipe!) that just begged to make use of this cocoa stash of ours!

The recipe (below) is very simple and easy to put together. All of the ingredients dissolved into a wonderfully deep chocolate brown goo, to which I also added a cup of chocolate chips just to be excessive. The brownies turned out to be, hands down, the richest, most delicious brownies we’ve ever eaten!

I know the photo’s a little dark, but I realy wanted to convey the richness of these brownies! All but the center cut brownies had that nice flaky top, and the center cut ones were just a little moister, but didn’t collapse after being taken out of the oven. I don’t think I could ever go back to box mixes after having these.

Homemade Brownies

3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup melted butter, divided
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts or dark chocolate chips (optional)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350Â° F. Lightly coat a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking pan with cooking spray or vegetable oil.

2. In the mixing bowl, combine cocoa and baking soda. Add 1/3 cup melted butter and the boiling water and stir on low until the mixture thickens.

3. Stir in sugar, eggs, and remaining 1/3 cup melter butter. Mix until smooth.

4. Add the flour, vanilla, and salt, and mix completely. Stir in nuts or chips, if desired.

5. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until brownies pull away from the sides of the pan, but watch them carefully after 30 minutes to make sure they donâ€™t over bake. Cool completely in the pan. Cut into bars.

M&M/Mars Not Going to Cheat on Their Chocolate!

YAY! In this article, Mars (makers of M&Ms, Milky Way, etc.) says, “it will continue to use 100 percent cocoa butter in its U.S. chocolate products, bucking an industry campaign to allow cheaper vegetable oils to be substituted.” Woo Hoo! Now if we could just get them to use fair trade chocolate too – I’d pay extra for a fair trade version of a Milky Way Midnight – you betcha!

[Tags: chocolate, fda, food, candy, cocoa butter]

Burgers at Scramblz

Scramblz Diner in Morgan Hill, CA is an interesting place. It used to be a Lyon’s restaurant that was bought by, I believe, an independent owner. The new owners gave the place a new look, as much as they could on a smaller budget – at least that’s my impression. They didn’t redo the mauve and seafoam green vinyl on the booths or the matching tiles on the walls near the kitchen, but they managed to overwhelm these subtle design elements with elements that make you completely forget the muted senior-focused diner it used to be. How? By hanging bicycles and airplanes from the ceiling, of course, as well as repeating a black and white checkerboard theme, and adding a ton of novelty items like oversized chess pieces. Oh, and they painted all the chairs electric yellow….

It’s a little overwhelming until you get used to it. A couple of great points about this place is 1. they serve RC (Royal Crown) cola, which is a nice change from either Coke or Pepsi. It’s still the kind with high-fructose corn syrup instead of cane sugar, but still. and 2. their basic burger and fries are excellent, and the least expensive we’ve found anywhere in the area (excluding fast food, but those burgers don’t really count). I think the Scramblz burger is at least 1/3 pound and looks like they made it in one of those burger presses as it’s a perfect hockey puck shape, but doesn’t seem like a pre-frozen patty. Quite filling too.

Another quirk that also adds a bit of rustic charm (and might also be less expensive) is the roll of paper towels on each table, but that might also have something to do with the barbequed items they sell. (And in the mid-afternoon the decor is loud, but the restaurant is pleasantly quiet – LOL.)

Another thing that sets this restaurant apart are the chickens – not on the menu, the ones that arrived one day and decided this was the place to be!

The waiter told us the story of the chickens last time we were there. The wife of the owner is apparently their champion and insisted on putting up a little protective wire fence and a few choice signs as well…

The chickens that showed up have now reproduced and there are little chickens running around now too. Every so often, as you bite into your burger, you hear a rooster crow and wonder if the sound is outside or inside (outside, of course), or part of some quirky sound ambiance being piped into the dining room. Amazingly, although the chickens are obvious once you know they’re there, they’re out of the way enough (usually) so that you can also miss them completely, if you don’t feel like watching free range chickens while you’re in the mood for chicken fingers. 😉

[Tags: restaurant, review, california, morgan hill, hamburgers]