Good Food Corner: Food Network Challenge

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Apple Rhubarb Crumble

This is our final week of the Food Network Chef's Cooking Challenge -- crazy! I can't believe that I've cooked one recipe from every chef on the Food Network! Thanks for this great challenge, Sarah. It's been quite fun.

This week's chef is Warren Brown -- and, I was inspired by his recipe for Apple Cranberry Cobbler. However, I took my own creative liberties with the recipe... so much so that I don't even know if it's close enough to link up for this challenge.

The original recipe called for 3 CUPS of sugar. Wow.

I reduced that to 5 T white sugar and 1/3 C brown sugar.

It also called for 3/4 C butter, and I ended up using 1/4 C.

I used rhubarb rather than cranberries (they're both tart, right?!) and omitted the egg and vanilla entirely, because I didn't feel like rolling out little balls of dough just to flatten them and lay them over the top of the apples.

You can say it... I was just lazy.

But, I like the end result :)

It was tasty.
And, with the sweet apples, I didn't even miss the sugar.

Apple Rhubarb Crumble - Inspired by Warren Brown

8 medium apples (I used Ida Red)
1 C sliced rhubarb
5 T sugar
1 C + 1 T white wheat flour
1/3 C dark brown sugar, packed
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 C butter, softened
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
2 T old fashioned oatmeal

Mix together the sliced apples and rhubarb in a large bowl.

Toss with the 5 T sugar. Refrigerate while you prepare the topping.

Meanwhile, mix together the flour and salt. Then, cut in the butter until little balls form.

Then, add in the oats and brown sugar.

When you're ready to bake the crumble, remove the apple mix from the refrigerator and pour off the liquid that has formed. Then, mix the apples with the cinnamon, nutmeg and two T flour...

Then, place the apple mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 glass baking dish.

Sprinkle the topping over the apples.

Bake at 400 for 35-45 minutes. I ended up reducing the heat to 350 so that the topping didn't burn.

Enjoy!

Pizza Margherita

or, "the dinner that almost wasn't".

This week, the Food Network Chef's Cooking Challenge was Tyler Florence. I was eying his delicious homemade pasta (since I have a pasta maker on loan from a friend) and planning to stuff his homemade pasta with a chicken marsala ravioli mix!

The first step in the dinner that almost wasn't was opening the chicken (which was still "good" by the date on the package) to smell nasty, rotten eggs. Yuck.

Rotten chicken.

:(

Sadness.

No chicken marsala stuffed raviloi for us.
And, an extra trip back to the store.

Off I went to return the chicken... I was so disgusted I did not want to exchange it for another package. So, I picked up a package of mini bella mushrooms to make Tyler Florence's mushroom pizza dish.

Fail #2.

The mushrooms had a soft white non-edible mushroom fungus growing on them. And... they were dated "best if used by 05-09-10"... which was the day before I actually bought them!

Grrr...

Rotten, fungusy mushrooms did not make my day.

At this point, I almost went to our old standby recipe -- Rice Cooker Mac and Cheese. But, since we are having white cheddar mac and cheese for Frog Prince's birthday tomorrow, I pressed on looking for a Tyler Florence recipe I could make for dinner.

That's when I saw his Margherita Pizza. I didn't have enough time to make the dough associated with this recipe, so I used the dough from his Ultimate Pizza recipe which only required 30 minutes of rise time.

The result... for a meal that almost wasn't, it was very tasty!!

Pizza Margherita - Adapted from Tyler Florence

Dough Recipe
(Makes 2 medium pizzas)

1 1/2 T yeast
1 C warm water
1/2 T sea salt
1 T olive oil
1 T honey
1 C bread flour
2 C white wheat flour

Pizza Toppings
4 garlic cloves, minced

1 T olive oil

1 C tomato sauce/puree
1/4 C tomato paste
1 tsp. oregano
salt and pepper, to taste
8 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
2 C fresh spinach
1 tsp. basil
*turkey pepperoni (if desired)
*diced bell peppers (if desired)

Begin by making the dough in a large bowl/mixer. Combine the water and yeast together and allow it to sit for about 2 minutes.

Then, add in the oil, salt, honey and stir. (Remember to add the oil before the honey so the honey slides right off the spoon!) Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, measure out the flour.

Add the flour to the mixture and knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough begins to stick together.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover. Allow it to rest in a warm place for 30 minutes until the dough is doubled in size.

While the dough is rising, prepare the sauce.

Saute the garlic in a little olive oil until the garlic scent is strong. Stir in the oregano.

Add in the tomato sauce and tomato paste along with additional spices, as desired.

Heat through and then remove from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and place inside the preheating oven the pizza pans/cookie sheets you intend to bake the pizza on.

When the dough is ready, divide it in half. Stretch each half into a rectangle or circle for your pizza.

Remove the cookie sheets from the warm oven and transfer the dough onto the cookie sheet.

Top with pizza sauce.

Then, lay the spinach leaves over the sauce, and sprinkle with cheese. (Add additional toppings, if desired)

Return to the oven and bake at 450 for 12-14 minutes, or until cheese is lightly browned.

Slice and serve.

We really liked the pizza, and found the crust to have a good consistency... a bit chewy, crunchy in the right places and delightfully tasty.

For a dinner I almost gave up on, I'm glad I stuck it out -- it tasted great, and our house still smells lovely from all that garlic this morning! And... we found a winner in the pizza crust!

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Cheesy Mushroom and Broccoli Casserole

This week's Food Network Chef is Sunny Anderson. I chose her cheesy mushroom and broccoli casserole because I love cheese, mushrooms and broccoli.

I'm easy to please.

When it comes to food ;-)

Cheesy Mushroom and Broccoli Casserole - Adapted from Sunny Anderson
2 T white wheat flour
8oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 T minced onion
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 C whipping cream
1/2 C chicken stock
16 oz. broccoli (I used frozen)
1 C Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
1 C Extra Sharp Cheddar cheese
3 C cooked brown rice
salt and pepper, to taste

Cook the rice according to package directions; I used my rice cooker. Steam the broccoli over the top of the cooking rice, if you have that option. Otherwise, cook in a saucepan.

While rice is cooking, begin sauteing the mushrooms together with the garlic and onion.

Mix the 2 T flour together with the chicken stock. Add in the cream. Then, pour the flour/chicken stock/cream mixture into the skillet with the mushrooms and heat until the mixture thickens.

Season with salt and pepper.
Remove from the heat, and add in the cheeses.

Stir in the steamed broccoli.

YUM!

Stir in the rice.

Spread mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 glass baking dish.

Sprinkle the top with remaining cheese.

Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes until warm and cheese melts.

Feel free to make this dish ahead of time -- just increase the cooking time to about 30 minutes, or until the center of the casserole is warm. If you do bake it longer, I recommend covering it for at least half the cooking time so the dish doesn't dry out.

Sweet Potato Dark Chocolate Bars

My facebook status last week read: "making yummy sweet potato chocolate bars for Life Group!"

The prompted a few responses:

3 "likes" (one from a Life Group attender)
Two "recipe requests"

When I got to life group... the curious were more interested in what little goodies I had nestled on the plate than me actually being at Life Group. I was greeted by "are those the sweet potato bars?"

Some were a bit skeptical.

Others, excited.

The verdict? They were delicious!

So delicious that one guy in life group asked me if they were simple enough that he could make them himself.

Sure thing.

Simple. Easy. Delicious.

That's the way I like to cook!

Sweet Potato Dark Chocolate Bars - Inspired by this week's Food Network Chef - Sandra Lee

Crust
1 box, yellow cake mix*
4 T butter, room temperature
1 egg (I used the yolk)

Filling
2 C sweet potato puree**
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 egg (I used the white)
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Topping
1 C homemade granola
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C dark chocolate chips
1 T butter, melted

Begin by combining the cake mix, butter and egg together.

Mix until little balls of cake mix form....

Press into a lightly greased 9x13 cake pan.

Then, in a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, spices, egg, sugar and sweet potato puree. Of course, you can substitute pumpkin for the sweet potato puree -- we just use sweet potato because my husband is allergic to pumpkin. Yes, I know -- strange allergy. But, he spent every Halloween as a kid in the emergency room until they figured out what was causing his allergic reaction :(

Mix well.

Pour the sweet potato puree mix over the top of the crust.

In a medium bowl, mix the granola, cinnamon and dark chocolate chips together.

If necessary, add 1 T melted butter to help the ingredients stick together. {I omitted this extra butter... the topping was a little crumbly, but we enjoyed it nonetheless}

Sprinkle the topping over the sweet potato filling.

And, bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

I found that the cake mix layer (crust) was what needed to be "clean" during my toothpick check -- the sweet potato layer remains somewhat creamy and solidifies as it cools!

Did I mention these were good?

*You might be able to try this with a homemade cake mix...

**If you've never made sweet potato puree, simply boil the sweet potatoes for 20ish minutes, until tender when pricked with a fork. Allow them to cool slightly on the counter, then peel them and mash the potatoes. The mash may need 2-4 T water to make it thinner and more puree like. You can do this in a blender to eliminate any potato pieces. The puree can be kept in the freezer and used whenever you need it.

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