A few weeks back, our recipe for Caramel Cashew Shortbread Squares was randomly picked up by Betty Crocker’s Facebook page. Huge spike in traffic, the most traffic we’ve ever received to our site. We were stoked. Of course, it all dropped off the next day, but for a thrilling moment it was cool to see so many people stopping by to check out something we’d done.

Up until then, I’d never really given Betty Crocker’s website much thought. Since we cook a lot from scratch and rarely bake and they make a lot of convenience products especially tailored to baking it never felt like there was much of a match to be made. But while searching it on a whim the other day before our camping trip, I came across their recipe for Kentucky Bourbon Bacon Chex Mix®. We never really leapt onto the bacon craze, but with an impending male-dominated camping trip, where could I possibly go wrong with a snack that contained both bacon AND booze?

Ingredients:

Adapted from Betty Crocker
7 ½ ounces Corn Chex® Cereal
7 ½ ounces Honey-nut Chex® Cereal
1 ½ cup pecan halves
½ pound bacon (6-8 slices), crisply cooked and chopped
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 cups pretzels (we used the sticks)
1 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
½ cup butter
¼ cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons bourbon
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 300°F. Line two 15x10x1-inch pans with foil. Spray foil with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix chex cereals, pretzels, peanuts, pecans and bacon. Set aside.
2. In 2-quart saucepan, heat brown sugar, butter and corn syrup over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbly around edges. Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally; remove from heat. Cool 2 minutes. Carefully stir in bourbon, chipotle chili powder and cinnamon. Pour over snack mixture; toss until evenly coated.
3. Spread snack mixture on pans. Bake 15-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, to caramelize mixture. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Break into pieces. Store covered in refrigerator.

Chex Mix® is always a staple on our overnight and weekend camping trips. It’s easy to make, it keeps well, and doesn’t require any preparation. However, this recipe is a little different than our others. First, it has meat in it. If that skeezes you out, I’d skip this recipe. However, if you don’t mind it, and you like your breakfast bacon served with a little pancake syrup, then this recipe is definitely for you. It seriously tastes like breakfast — if your breakfast includes a shot or two of bourbon. Typically, most of the flavoring in our Chex Mix® recipes comes from powdered seasonings. The flavor in this recipe however comes from caramelizing several ingredients. The consistency of the final product is therefore more of a coated, sticky brittle that you eat in clumps rather than individual pieces.

Each piece is a little salty and sweet piece of heaven, at least that is what I gathered from the few small hand-fulls I managed to get away from the guys.

It’s no secret that Neil loves to barbecue, but did you know he is nearly obsessed with finding “the good stuff?” Get Neil in a butcher shop and he could probably remain there for hours, admiring all the cuts, shapes and quality. So when his coworker recently told him about Mizzou Meat Market, a mere couple hundred feet from his office, Neil gave me a “brb” on instant messenger and had pork chops waiting in the backseat on Friday when he picked me up.

This past weekend was perfect barbecue weather. Warm, sunny and did I mention WARM? Plus, I had just finished my finals, a feeling which I can only compare to surfacing after a long dive underwater. I have been so ready to get outside, and back in the kitchen, so what better than a barbecue and Neil’s recipe for Sweet and Sticky Mustard Pork Chops?

Ingredients:

4 1- to 1 1/4-inch-thick center-cut bone-in pork chops
1/2 cup honey (or brown sugar)
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Combine brown sugar/honey, dijon mustard, lemon juice, soy sauce and garlic in a bowl. Stir until sugar dissolves.
2. Place pork chops in large resealable plastic container or bag. Pour marinade over pork chops; seal bag/container. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (we typically marinade overnight), shaking container or turning bag occasionally.
3. Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Sprinkle pork chops with fresh cracked pepper.
4. Grill pork chops until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of chops registers 145°F to 150°F, about 5-7 minutes per side, brushing with leftover marinade and moving chops to cooler part of rack if burning.
5. Transfer chops to platter; cover with foil, and let stand 5 minutes. Serve.

Stick and sweet, it doesn’t get much better than that. Neil is effortlessly amazing at barbecue. It has to be genetic, because I never knew love for barbecue like this until we started dating. I can say it single-handedly keeps me from being a vegetarian. I can’t help myself. I love the way the sharpness of the mustard mingles with the sweetness of the dark brown sugar we used. We started out trying to be well-mannered, using our forks and knives and carefully cutting bite-sized pieces and trying not to make a mess. By the end, our inner-cave couple emerged and we were using all our fingers and ferociously trying to get every last bite off the bones. Ahhhh spring, I think you’ve finally arrived…

For more information on Mizzou Meat Market, including hours, location and weekly specials, be sure to check out their website. Their specials are pretty phenomenal. We got four beautifully thick and high quality bone-in pork chops for $4.50. We also picked up a few boneless chops, so stay tuned for another recipe soon-ish!

I have this recurring dream every few weeks. It’s nearing the end of the semester, classes are wrapping up and I realize I’ve forgotten that I signed up for one and have not completed a single assignment. I have had this dream consistently since about middle school, and often, even when I have the dream now, it still takes place in that old crusty, asbestos-filled building. I always wake up in hot sweat, swearing that it was real and I have to figure out how to fix my plight.

It’s been a completely crazy few past weeks finishing up this semester. It’s been a particularly hard one, probably the hardest of my entire academic career. I’ve given up nearly everything to finish well: my schedule, my health, my sleep, and freelance work. I completely shut myself in. As you can probably guess, meals have been somewhat whim-ish, and at times, not completely satisfying. So as you can imagine, I’ve had a lot of late late night cravings. For the WORST things. And by worst I mean the BEST. Enter, the Emergency Peanut Butter Cookie.

Four ingredients and in and out of the oven in 10-12 minutes, perfect for the late night, last-minute cravings. These perfect little morsels got me through, and so I must play it forward and pass them along to you, for all the crazy times in your life.

Ingredients:

1 cup creamy peanut butter (I always add a little extra)
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg

Note: Feel free to add any chip accompaniment. I recommend butterscotch chips.

A quick shot I snapped just after midnight.

Directions:

1. In a medium or mixer bowl, mix all the ingredients until smooth. Cover and place in the refrigerator and cool for around 15 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden and solid. Let them stand on the cookie sheet for about 5-7 minutes. Carefully peel them off and eat them ferociously.

I gobbled these by the sheet. They were my sanity and the one thing I clung to, hoping for a silver lining. They are not the best peanut butter cookies you’ll ever eat, but they are still really good for how fast you can put them together. I highly recommend them in any time of desperate, prolonged crisis. On a positive note, I am finished for another semester and am looking forward to what I hope will be a long summer break. I will rejoin humanity and possibly read a book that has nothing to do with something I have to learn! First though, I’ll take a shower.

Oh the dilemma of a fixed lens. Just not enough focus area to show you all of this amazing plate at once. In retrospect I should have switched lenses, but I was just so excited to eat that I decided to limit myself to a few shots and then call it good. Little did I know that by the time I made it to the living room that Neil was already halfway through his bowl.

We’ve been curious to try our hand at Middle Eastern food for some time. It may just be me, but Middle Eastern food has always been rather elusive, particularly here in the Midwest. While there is no shortage of Asian and Indian food available in our bigger and more cultured cities, and even on the Web, people seem rather hesitant, even nervous to tackle Middle Eastern. Maybe it’s the overall socio-political climate of the past ten-ish years, or maybe it’s the fear of personal failure being interpreted as disrespect. In any sense, we decided to just throw ourselves into it. Dive first, ask questions later right?

Mujadarra was one of the first Middle Eastern recipes I ever came across. It’s so amazingly simple and I’ve never not had all the ingredients to make it in my pantry. Well, maybe in college. I’ve almost always just had it as my main dish, but it’s also great as a side. To accompany it, we made Baked Falafel, inspired by one of our favorite local lunch spots, Casablanca.

Ingredients:

For the Mujadarra:
3/4 cup long-grain brown rice
1 cup green lentils, rinsed
3 cups yellow onions, cut into quarter slices (or more)
1/3 cup olive oil (use high-quality olive oil with good flavor for this dish)
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

For the Baked Falafel
1 15 ounce can garbanzo beans
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, pressed
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cups mixed greens
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 cup Greek yogurt
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

For the Mujadarra:
1. Cook rice in water according to instructions. When completed, cover and keep warm.
2. Rinse lentils, then place in a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid (we used our Dutch oven). Add 1 quart of water, and let lentils simmer over very low heat uncovered until they are soft (about 20-30 minutes, depending on the freshness of the lentils). When lentils are cooked, cover and allow the to absorb any leftover water.
3. Chop onions. Heat oil in a heavy frying pan, add onions, then reduce heat to medium-low, stirring every few minutes until brown (between 20-30 minutes). Do not rush this process, as the onions will be bitter instead of lightly sweet. When complete, remove half to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain the oil and crisp them.
4. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of cumin into the remaining onions and saute for 1-2 additional minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked lentils to the pan with the onions, leaving any water left unabsorbed.
5. Season the cooked lentils and onions with salt and freshly ground black pepper and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Gently mix cooked rice into the lentils and carmelized onions, heating for a minute or two to reheat rice if it is no longer hot.
6. Top with crispy carmelized onions and serve hot or warm.

For the Baked Falafel:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans. Put in a medium sized bowl and smash. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
3. Form into small balls, about 1 1/2″ in diameter and slightly flatten. Place onto an oiled baking pan.
4. Bake for 15 minutes on each side, until nicely browned (since it’s baked, only the part actually touching the pan will be browned and crispy). Serve with mini pita pockets, fresh mixed greens, tomatoes, and Greek yogurt.

I liked them all so much, I couldn’t resist posting all of the “few shots” I took. I’m really getting into backdrops. They enhance the color, especially when the color palette of your meal is more than a little repetitive and by all appearances uninspiring. Despite not being photogenic, it is delicious–exotic even. And very fragrant. The smell permeates nearly everything it comes across, even in rooms on the other side of the house–for days. It’s also inexpensive to make, and great for weeks when you want to cook once and have enough for two days, a must for us as I race toward the end of the semester.

The key to the right flavor though is to get the onions just perfect. Don’t rush them. Also, this is one of those dishes that tastes amazing the second day. So much so that we recommend making it a day ahead.

We’re fortunate here in Columbia that we have a great Mediterranean/Middle Eastern Restaurant to glean inspiration from. Casablanca has been among my favorite restaurants since they opened their Peachtree location. Everything is good and it’s one of the few restaurants where I swear the food gets better every time I visit.

Don’t forget to join us for #Cookchat this evening at 8 pm CST!