Super Gooey Oreo Brownies

After a long 6 months of dieting for our wedding, I have been more than ready gorge myself on some sweets. So, ever since we got back from the honeymoon, I have been baking up a storm! These amaaah-zing Oreo brownies were some of my favorites of the many creations. I discovered it on Pinterest of course, courtesy of Kevin and Amanda's Recipes

Here is what you are going to need:

1 box of brownie mix (I went with Ghirardelli, mmm)

eggs and oil (follow the directions on the brownie box)

1 scoop of cookies and cream ice cream

1/4 cup hot fudge topping

Here is what you do:

1. Preheat oven, following the brownie box directions and spray an 8x8 pan. 

2. In a mixing bowl (I used my KitchenAid) combine brownie mix, eggs, and oil (but not the water). 

3. Add the ice cream and hot fudge to the brownie mix and stir. *NOTE* I would like to try this recipe without the ice cream mixed into the batter, because it made it VERY gooey, so it all depends on your affinity for gooey-ness.

4. Pour half of the brownie batter into the dish and smooth down into a layer.

5. Layer with Oreos.

6. Pour the rest of the batter on top of the Oreos.

7. Bake for about 50-60 minutes (I baked it for longer than it said on the box, again, depending on your love of gooey-ness).

This is what it will look like:

Can I get a "MMMMMmm"?

Mmm Mmm Malaysia

Malaysia was the last stop on our trip and the most relaxing. Malaysia's cuisine is interesting because it is very diverse - we enjoyed amazing curries, dim sum, seafood, thai food, and great tropical fruit. 

I know this isn't particularly Malaysian... or Asian, but you know there is nothing I love more than a limey margarita, and you give me one by a gorgeous pool and I am a happy girl. 

A Malaysian seafood buffet. They gave us cards that said "steamed," "fried," and "grilled." You choose your seafood, and how you would like it to be cooked, then put that card with your table number and your cooking style in the bowl and they bring it to your table. So fun, interactive, and delicious - the grilled prawns were my favorite.

The next few pictures were from a fruit market we visited after hiking in the rainforest near Mount Kinabalu. I wish I knew what they all were!

Of course limes, my favorite!

My new favorite snack: dim sum  sweet pork buns. Mmm I wish I knew how to make these!

Savory Singapore

In Singapore, we had to go to the Raffles Hotel and have the obligatory Singapore Sling at the bar where it was invented (even though Anthony Bourdain said it was too touristy). I had this on my to-do list before we went to the Long Bar and discovered that they charge $35 AMERICAN dollars for one drink. In order to not have anything unchecked on my list, we decided to split one. Not really worth it... I think I agree with Bourdain. 

 More lychee at a market. Not my favorite, but they sure are photogenic.

I had been in search of a wet market to discover the weird, crazy chinese meat and fruit. In Chinatown, we were not disappointed! Crocodile, live frogs, live squirming eels, what more could a traveler ask for??

In the Chinatown market, there was also an amazing food court. These men are making the best dim sum I have ever tasted!! So cool!

He is making my sugar cane juice. A little too sweet for my taste, but definitely worth a try.

 This was the appetizer sampler at Jumbo's, an awesome seafood restaurant on the water. My favorite was the melt-in-your-mouth scallops.

I have to try to make this at home - sweet chili stew with crab. I could have drank this with a straw. Mmmm...

Tasty Thailand

After taking the last couple months off from blogging to get married and go on a spectacular honeymoon, I am back to regale everyone of my favorite meals from Southeast Asia. This trip made me want to learn how to cook a lot of this amazing food.


Our first night in Phuket, Erik and I had a romantic dinner at a restaurant overlooking the beach.

Mini spring rolls with peanut sauce. So crunchy, but light.

This is my favorite soup - not just Thai soup, but of all time. Tom yum soup is so flavorful with coconut, lime, lemongrass, and chicken. But, I have never enjoyed my favorite soup out of a COCONUT! How cool!

 I decided I wanted to try as much Pad Thai as I could and become and Pad Thai connoisseur. I had anticipated that this dish was just an American idea of Thai food and wasn't actually popular in Thailand, and if it was, I thought it would taste vastly different than our version. WRONG. At almost every restaurant we would ask the servers what they recommended and almost everyone recommended pad thai. They were delicious.

One of the greatest parts of our honeymoon, was getting to sample and learn about beautiful, new tropical fruit.  I had heard of lychee, but I definitely had never seen it before:

You have to peel this Dr. Seuss looking outside to get to the fruit on the inside, which kind of reminded me of a hard grape. 

I also was not a huge coconut fan before this trip. I obviously had never had fresh coconut water. On a kayaking trip, our guide found a new coconut that had fallen on the ground. The water inside was so sweet and delicious and the meat of the coconut was so buttery - I am a coconut convert!

That night we had dinner right on the beach and had hands-down the best pad thai I have ever tasted (and the least expensive, also! I believe it would have been 4 American dollars).

Raspberry Thumbprint cookies

Mmmm mmmm it was a baking weekend at the Navin/Andersen (soon to be just Andersen) house this weekend. I have always wanted to make thumbprint cookies because I love me some shortbread, but I disappointed Erik by making raspberry, rather than chocolate (however, it would be very easy to substitute the jam with Hershey's kisses).

I looked at a bunch of recipes, and what I ended up doing is most similar to the recipe at Two-Tarts.

It only took about 10 minutes of prep and about 10 minutes of baking time!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of butter (softened in the microwave)
1 cup of sugar
3 egg yolks
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
raspberry jam

They will yield from 3 dozen to probably 5 dozen, depending on how large you make them.

Steps:
1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2. I will take any excuse to break out my KitchenAid, so I would use the mixer to cream together the butter and sugar.

3. Add the egg yolks, flour, and vanilla to the mixer and blend. Make sure you have enough flour to be able to roll the dough into balls easily.

4. Roll the dough into balls (this is where you will have to decide whether you want to the cookies to be little or big - I opted for medium sized).

5. As you roll the dough into balls, place them onto an ungreased baking sheet, and make a thumb print into each dough ball.

6. Spoon jam into the thumbprint of each dough ball.

7. Bake for about 10 minutes.  Watch them kind of carefully, I burnt some of mine the first time!

8. Serve to your friends and wait about 20 minutes... they will all be gone.

Avocado Chicken Lime Salad

I know most people dislike eating reheated meals, but not me. I love leftovers! It is my favorite thing to do to cook an enormous amount of food and then eat it for lunch (and dinner) all week. This avocado chicken lime salad is a super easy quick meal that could be made huge and then continue to eat for lunch (it would probably be a good idea to add the avocado later for leftovers so it doesn't brown). I got this from Oh She Glows but decided to add chicken to make it more of a meal. 

Ingredients: 

2 avocados

2 chicken breasts

1 can of black beans

1 tablespoon cilantro

Juice from 1 lime

Salt

Steps:

1. Grill the chicken.

2. Chop the cilantro.

3. Dice the chicken and avocados.

4.  Add the black beans, avocados, chicken, cilantro, lime juice,  and salt to a large bowl. 

5. Toss and serve cold. 

So easy, right??

Asian Turkey Meatballs (with lime, of course)

These are definitely going into my rotation of dinner go-to's! Dang, these are yummm. Of course, because they have some of my favorite ingredients: cilantro and lime

I found this recipe at The Girl Who Ate Everything (thank you!) Soooo flavorful!

Ingredients:
20 ounces (1 package) ground turkey
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 egg
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Panko bread crumbs

Soy Sauce and lime dipping sauce: Mix together...
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
water

Peanut Dipping Sauce: Mix together...
2 tablespoons Thai kitchen peanut satay sauce (which comes in a little jar at the grocery store)
soy sauce
lime juice
garlic
olive oil (or sesame oil)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

2. Put ground turkey, cilantro, egg, bread crumbs, soy sauce, ginger, and lime juice in a bowl.




3. Spray a baking pan before your hands get messy.

4. Mix together with your hands.

5. Form the meatballs and place on the baking pan.  It should make about a dozen.



6.  Bake for 15 minutes.

7. Dip in the different sauces and DIG IN!!!!

Kale Chips!

I have been hearing so much lately about how delicious and healthy kale chips are. So, I decided to try them out tonight for dinner (courtesy of the Smitten Kitchen)... and I think I'm gonna be hooked! They were so easy and surprisingly yummy, but not too filling, sadly. The only hard part of the experience was finding kale at the store (I ended up finding it only in the organic section).

They were so much more flavorful and munch-able than I was expecting.

Here are the easy steps I took:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Chop up the kale and put it in a bowl.

3. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, garlic powder, and a sprinkle of cayenne (if you like a little spice).

4. Toss!

5. Spread out on a baking sheet.

6. Bake for about 25 minutes.

7. Let cool, then enjoy!

California Casserole

I am surprised how yummy this casserole turned out. It was so easy, with really only 4 ingredients. But, I was a little cautious about my idea of adding avocados to something baked... but Erik confessed that this was his favorite breakfast invention of mine in a long time! Success!

I started off with just 4 ingredients: onions, mushrooms, avocados, and eggs

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion

1 package of mushrooms

2 avocados (I realized after taking this picture that 3 was a little too many avocados!)

1 dozen eggs

salt and pepper

Steps: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray an 8x11 pan

Dice the onion and layer on the bottom of the pan

Dice the mushrooms and layer on top of the onions

Dice the avocados and layer on top

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then pour on top of the veggie mixture in the pan

Add salt and pepper to your liking

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes

So easy, right??

I think it would be really yummy with salsa on top. I will let you know after I try it out!

Yummy Chicken Chili

There is nothing like a bowl of chili on a cold night. My mom made chili all the time growing up, so a big bowl of chili is incredibly comforting food to me. It was 90 degrees in Denver this weekend, so of course, it was in the 30's and rainy today. I decided to experiment with my go-to chili recipe and came up with this mushroom and chicken chili concoction. I think it turned out deliciously! Plus I got to use my new Le Creuset that we got as a wedding present for the first time (thanks Aunt Rosalind!)

Ingredients: 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound ground chicken

1 yellow onion

1 package of mushrooms

2 garlic cloves

1 can of black beans (or white beans or pinto beans)

1 can of corn

3 tomatoes (or about a can of diced tomatoes)

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

3 teaspoons chili powder

Mozzarella cheese (optional)

Steps:

1. Heat half the olive oil in a big chili pot

2. Heat the other half of the olive oil on  a pan and saute the ground chicken

3. Dice the onion and garlic and saute in the chili pot

4. Cook the onions and garlic for about 4 minutes until they are translucent

5. Dice the mushrooms and add to the onions

6. Add the seasonings to both the chicken and the mushrooms/onions

7. Dice the tomatoes and add to the onions

8. Open and drain the can of corn and add to the vegetable mix

9. Open the black beans and add to the pot without draining

*This would also be great with other kids of beans, like white beans or pinto beans!

10. Add the chicken and stir

11. Cover the pot and let simmer for about 30 minutes (the long it sits and simmers, the better it will taste!)

You can serve with mozzarella cheese, if you please! Delicious!

Right before digging in...

Cinco de Mayo and Skinny Margaritas

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo right. Of all the purely drinking holidays, the Fifth of May is my favorite (probably because most Mexican drinks have lime in them). I love discovering new restaurants, especially new taco joints. I try to find restaurants before they get extremely popular and then act like I am the first person to ever hear of it. Then, when the crowds start pouring in and the waits start getting long, I can pretend like I discovered it before everyone else. I anticipate that will happen with Machete in Cherry Creek. The vibe is fun and laid back, and the menu is extremely diverse.
Erik and I sampled a variety of tacos, including chicken mole, slow roasted pork, and smoked chicken. I will have to come back another time to try the sesos (brains) and the tripa (intestines).

But my favorite thing I had was the skinny margarita - delicious! I will have to try to make this one at home... only tequila, lime juice, and agave nectar.

My name is Susan and I love food. I love eating food, cooking it, smelling it, taking pictures of it, and daydreaming about it. But, let me be clear: I am not an expert. I am not a chef, I have not been to culinary school (although I would love to!) nor am I a food writer. I am but a humble food-worshipper hoping to share my craving and discoveries. I grew up in a family of amazing cooks and restaurant hoppers who have taught me to appreciate the value that cooking can bring to a home. My soon-to-be-husband, Erik, and I love to cook together, and I know that our love of cooking brings us closer every day.  I also became addicted to traveling at a young age and by far my favorite part of a trip is discovering new food. I hope to simply share with you what I am cooking, what I'm eating, and what I'm craving... in my kitchen and around the world. 

Chili Lime Shredded Chicken Tacos

Easy peasy lemon squeezy! (as my 1st graders would say). Erik and I made the easiest crock-pot chili lime chicken tacos... and they were INCREDIBLE. In general, I enjoy putting a lot of time into a meal, however, on a busy evening, being able to prepare a meal in less than 5 minutes is a definite plus. 

The finished product: Not-Too-Shabby!

Confession: I am a lime-a-holic. I love lime so much that occasionally I feel immune to its strength. When others pucker, I may barely be able to detect the lime juice. So, beware, my food might be a little heavy on the lime for your taste. Adjust accordingly. 

Ingredients:

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 tablespoons lime juice (or more if you are a lime addict like me)

1 tablespoon chili powder

Frozen corn

Salsa (of your choice)

Possible toppings:

Shredded lettuce

Sour cream

Guacamole (see recipe below)

Pickled red onions (see recipe below)

Directions:

Place the chicken, lime juice, and chili powder in the crock-pot. Let it cook on low for about 6 hours. Add the corn and salsa and let it cook on low for another 30 minutes to an hour. Then, shred the chicken using 2 forks (you will be amazed how easily it will shred!)

Super Fresh Guacamole

Super Fresh Guacamole

Is there anything better than fresh guacamole? The answer is no. I could eat guac with a spoon like chunky avocado soup. I happen to think I make a pretty mean guacamole, but of course, the key is the perfect avocados. 

Ingredients: 

3 avocados

1 diced tomato

1/2 onion (red or yellow. Both are great.)

Lime juice to your taste

Pinch of salt

*If you like creamy guacamole, you can also add a tablespoon of mayo or sour cream)

In a bowl, mash the avocados with a potato masher or a fork. I like my guac a little chunky, so the smoothness is up to you. Add the diced tomatoes, diced onions, lime juice, salt, and stir. Grab a spoon and dig in!

Pickled Red Onions

Pickled Red Onions:

Thank you to the amazing David Lebovitz who I borrowed this recipe from (who I borrow many recipes from). 

This was my first attempt at pickling onions... at pickling anything actually, and while it was definitely worthwhile, boy, somebody should warn you about the smell! The mixture of boiling vinegar and onions shot straight up my nose, filled up my kitchen, and burned my eyes, however, the result was delicious! They do not taste anything like they smell. The onions add a scrumptious sweetness to the tacos. I love when restaurants garnish a gourmet taco with pickled red onions and I gotta pat myself on the back for the extra oomph they added to our tacos!

Ingredients: 

1 red onion

3/4 cup white vinegar

3 Tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

5 whole allspice cloves

A few shakes of cayenne pepper

Directions: 

Cut the red onion into slivers. In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, sugar, and spices. Bring to a boil. Add the onions and stir for 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool down. Transfer the onions and the juice to a container and place in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.