Tag: ingredients

eats

Alcoholic Orange Slush

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Melissa here. Tomorrow, Joey and I are posting about our recent trip to Tampa, Florida to visit my family! On that trip, we drank what I call, “My Mom’s Famous Slush.” But she’ll be quick to correct you that her friend, Margie, was actually the one to give her the recipe.

Either way, it’s famous to me, because my mom made it every year when we would go to the beach for a week on summer vacation. I was never allowed to drink it, because it was alcoholic. But I’ve finally gotten a taste, and I had to share it with you!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 9 cups water
  • (1) 12-ounce can frozen orange juice
  • (1) 12-ounce can frozen limeade
  • (1) 12-ounce can frozen lemonade
  • 2 cups vodka
  • 1 liter bottle of Squirt

Directions:

Boil water. Add sugar, Cool. Add all other ingredients EXCEPT Squirt. Freeze overnight. Remove from freezer 30 minutes prior to serving. Serve “slushy” by breaking into chunks and pouring 3/4 bottle of Squirt over the slush. Mix and serve.

This time around, my mom couldn’t find Squirt, so she added a lemon-lime soda and froze it into the mix. Additionally, I made the ultimate vacation decision to add a “floater” – an extra shot of vodka on top of the served cup of slush. This made for an even boozier frozen treat.

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This is what the slush would look like before adding a floater!

It’s hard to escape the heat of summer, but I promise this orange slush will get you close!

 

eats

Almond Coconut Banana Bread

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We know the recipe sounds weird. Why add anything to banana bread but chocolate chips? That’s our typical go-to. But we had sliced almonds and shredded coconut on hand, and it made for an incredibly sweet, rich, and textured banana bread. We’re excited to share it with you!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter room temperature
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup almond milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 bananas mashed
  • 1 cup sliced almonds (split)
  • 1 cup sweet coconut, shredded (split)
  • 2 loaf pans, greased

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep two large loaf pans by greasing.
  2. Beat butter and sugar until creamy.
  3. Add eggs, almond milk, and vanilla and stir until combined.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  5. Add dry ingredients to wet slowly.
  6. Follow immediately by adding mashed bananas.
  7. Mix just until combined.
  8. Add in 1/2 cup sliced almonds, and 1/2 cup shredded coconut.
  9. Pour into prepared pans.
  10. Sprinkle a layer of sliced almonds on top, and lightly sprinkle some shredded coconut on top. This adds extra texture and makes the bread very photogenic!
  11. Bake for 60 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
  12. Let cool in pans, remove, serve, and enjoy!

You’ll have to let us know if you end up baking this tasty treat!

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eats

BGE Italian Sausage Pizza

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One of our favorite things to make on the Big Green Egg is pizza – or as we like to pronounce it “preet-zah” when we’re being playful. This is probably our third time making pizza on the BGE, and this may be the best one we have made so far.

Let’s start with the dough…

Joey’s Dough Recipe

This was my first time making dough from scratch, and let me tell you, it is worth the effort.

Ingredients (makes two crusts):

  • 4 ¼ cups flour
  • 2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast (one packet)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 ¾ cups warm water

Directions:

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients together and run through a sifter to ensure there aren’t any lumps.
  2.  Turn your mixer on low and slowly add in the olive oil and then the warm water.  Turn the mixer off once the dough becomes sticky to the touch and all dry ingredients have been mixed-in.
  3. Let the dough rest for 2ish minutes while you coat two medium to large bowl with a light coat of olive oil.  This step is key so you don’t have a sticky mess later and adds a little extra flavor!
  4. Split the dough between the two bowls, cover with saran wrap and place in the fridge to rise until you’re ready to cook. *You can let it rise overnight but  might want to use larger bowls than the ones we used.*

 

Next, let’s talk toppings…

We Called It A “Pesto Italian Sausage Pizza”

On our preet-za, we put:
  • Classico pesto sauce to your liking
  • 1/2 tomato, sliced
  • 6 oz mozzarella cheese, sliced
  • 1/8 medium red onion, sliced
  • Garlic clove, minced
  • Grilled Italian sausage, sliced

Our pesto sauce came from a jar this time, because it was a busy week. (But we’re impressed with the pesto sauce Classico makes!) In hindsight, we only wished we would have drained the sauce a little bit, because it ended up being a little more oily on the pizza than we would have preferred. Either way, doesn’t Joey look great holding that ZA?

 

Cooking the “Preet-Za”:
  1. After you cook the sausage, set your BGE to 450 degrees indirect while you cut and prepare the toppings. We arrange the plate setter with the legs up and place the grilling grate on the legs to cook on.
  2.  Remove one of your dough crusts from the fridge and dust your rolling surface with flour. We found that it is much easier to roll the dough while it is still cold and if you dust the rolling pin with flour too.
  3. Once you have the dough to the size you want, sprinkle your pizza stone with corn meal and place the dough onto the stone. (Some people use parchment paper instead of corn meal but we prefer the extra texture the corn meal adds.)
  4. Lightly brush your dough with olive oil and add your toppings.
  5. When the BGE is up to temp, place your stone on the grate and close the dome.
  6. Melt some butter, and 15 minutes after putting the preet-za on, brush the crust with the melted butter and let the preet-za cook for about 15-20 more minutes.
  7. It’s up to you how done you want your crust, but we typically let the pizza cook 30-40 minutes.
  8. Cut it up and enjoy! Cheers!!

Here’s what the final product looked like:

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We will definitely make this one again!

eats

Cheese Scones (Gluten Free)

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Melissa here. I recently hosted Book Club! The main character of the book, “Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel” by Gail Honeymoon, lives life by a strict routine, and often eats and drinks the same things every day. Channeling Eleanor, I decided to create a themed evening. One of Eleanor’s favorite, repeated lunches is a cheese scone from a nearby Mediterranean restaurant. Despite the lack of cheese scone recipes in the American metric system, I converted a couple different UK recipes, and came up with these amazingly dense cheese and herb scones. With one of the Book Club members having to eat gluten free (She has Celiac Disease you guys, don’t judge.), I adjusted the recipe to use gluten free flour and baking powder.

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On left: Cheese scones.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups gluten free flour
  • 2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon mustard powder
  • 4 tablespoons butter, salted, softened, cubed
  • 2 teaspoon of dry herbs
  • 1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 1 cup milk, divided
  • Variety of additional seasonings to taste

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, and line baking pan with parchment.
  2. Sift flour, baking powder, and mustard powder and whisk together in medium bowl.
  3. Add softened and cubed butter to mixture and use hands to combine. Mix until mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
  4. Add dry herbs to mixture (I used oregano and parsley).
  5. Mix in 1 cup of cheese, reserving the rest to top scones with.
  6. Slowly mix in 3/4 cup of milk (1/4 cup at a time) until mixture becomes doughy. Reserve last 1/4 cup for brushing on top.
  7. Once you have a doughy mix, spread out on counter top. Cut into squares or circles OR spread out into a large 1/3 inch thick circle and cut into pizza-like slices (which is what I did).
  8. Lay on lined baking pan, brush with remaining milk, and top with remaining cheese.
  9. For additional flavor sprinkle with onion flakes, garlic powder, cracked pepper, and more dry herbs. (Or a variety of seasonings of your choosing!)
  10. Bake for 18-22 minutes until golden.
  11. Enjoy!

These were a huge hit at Book Club! Fortunately, there were plenty of leftovers, so Joey and I decided to take these Cheese Scones one step further. We made:

Cheese Scone B.L.A.T. Sandwiches

B.L.A.T. = Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, and Tomato

The picture below speaks for itself, and our tummies were quite happy! Especially since instead of using mayo, we used Thunderbird Whitebird Sauce from Wassi’s Meat Market, which you can and should put on everything. To make these delicious sandwiches, all you have to do is slice the scone in half, fry a little on the cast iron, and top with all the delicious B.L.A.T. ingredients. IT WAS SO GOOD!

img_3463So next time you want to impress your Book Club who has just finished reading “Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel” by Gail Honeymoon or want an excuse to make a delicious Cheese Scone B.L.AT., look no further than right here.