I don’t know about you, but I always struggle to come up with snacks for my daughter and for me. Sometimes we go ultra-healthy, sometimes we go with cold-cut turkey, sometimes we do snack bar. And more often than not, we’re running out the door and need something portable….
Gluten-Free Traditional Teriyaki Sauce
Thick, rich, sweet and salty—it’s everything you’ll find in a teriyaki sauce. But it may not be the syrupy bottled sauce you’re used to. I’m using a traditional Japanese recipe for the sauce used to baste some type of meat, like chicken, as it is cooked over high heat to create a succulent, flavorful dish. This sauce, whether you use it for basting or as a sauce for a rice bowl, only uses four ingredients and requires very little prep, but produces a rich, deeply flavorful sauce full of both bright and salty notes. It’s really unlike anything you’ve tried from a bottle!…
Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches
I’m all about quick and easy here on Flurries of Flour, and this recipe for homemade ice cream sandwiches is a quick and easy recipe that gives you a fun, sweet and delightful dessert that belies its simplicity. It makes a perfect special treat for special occasions or holidays like Valentine’s Day, and you the best part is that you can make them any way you want! Just start with the basic recipe and go from there! Plus, you can make these gluten-free, dairy-free, paleo—it’s up to you!…
Creamy, Slow-Roasted Tomato Soup
I don’t know about you, but when it’s cold outside, all I want is soup to warm me up! Tomato soup is one of my favorites, but so many soups have either a lot of sodium, a lot of fat, other additives I’m not too happy about, and a lot of dairy, which I usually try to stay away from for personal health reasons. That’s why I love to make tomato soup at home! It’s simple, delicious, and I can put exactly what I want in it. And this creamy, slow-roasted tomato soup is full of layers of deep, mellow flavors from roasting the tomatoes, garlic, and basil, plus a little sweetness from a special ingredient! It’s healthy, gluten-free, dairy-free and the perfect soup to warm you up on a cold winter day, sandwich or no!…
4-Ingredient Pumpkin Dog Treats
This is the last of the homemade food gifts blog for this year (but fear not! The holiday blogs are not over!). And, as a dog lover, I thought what better way to end than with a treat for your furry canine friends? You only need four ingredients for these treats—they come together quickly, cook quickly, and our dogs go crazy over them! Plus, they’re full of good-for-them ingredients! Talk about a perfect gift for your dog (or dogs)!…
Pumpkin Spice Granola Bark
I’m not the biggest fan of all barks, especially if there’s brittle involved. They’re a little too sticky for me, a little too candy-like (I’m not a big candy person, either, although I will never say no to Chupa Chups…). But throw some chocolate in and I’m there (I love chocolate-peppermint bark)! And that’s why I adore this recipe! It takes the idea of brittle and adds some of my favorite things: chocolate, granola, salty and sweet, nuts and berries. It’s crispy, crunchy, and I love the contrast between the nut-based granola and sweet, but not too sweet, chocolate. It also makes a perfect, and uncommon, homemade holiday food gift!…
Homemade Roasted Garlic
I like garlic, but roasted garlic takes this basic kitchen staple to an entirely new level.
You might have had roasted garlic before, probably at a restaurant, maybe in a compound butter or in a dish (like the time, on a date, I bit into a piece of bread thinking it was cinnamon raisin bread and, wow, that was a surprise. Still tasty, but definitely not what I was expecting…). Thankfully, you don’t have to eat out just to have roasted garlic. It’s probably one of the simplest things to make at home—it just requires patience.
It so incredibly good in pretty much every savory dish—the roasted garlic compound butter I posted here a few weeks ago, in pasta dishes, egg dishes, mixed with roasted veggies, and even just spread over a piece of toasted bread.
If you haven’t had roasted garlic, don’t imagine the taste of raw garlic. Roasted garlic takes on a mild, sweet-yet-savory flavor with just a hint of that garlic bite. It really adds such a layer of flavor to any dish!
It’s kind of heavenly, just like the smell that fills your house while the garlic is roasting. I promise it will make your mouth water!
The process is, again, very simple. You take an entire bulb of garlic, but don’t peel it (although you can peel the very outer layers off if they’re already flaking). Instead, just cut the top off so the tops of the cloves are exposed. You’ll pour olive oil over the bulb, just enough to cover the top and seep into the cloves. Then, you’ll cover the bulb snugly in foil, stick it in the oven, and wait for the goodness!
Homemade Roasted Garlic
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Author: Samantha Gallegos
Serves: 15
Ingredients
- 1 full garlic bulb
- Enough olive oil to cover the top of the garlic bulb
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Alternately, you can heat your grill to medium heat.
- Cut off the top of the garlic bulb and pour enough olive oil to cover the top of the garlic bulb.
- Cover the bulb tightly in aluminum foil and place in the oven or on the grill.
- Let the garlic roast for an hour or more until the garlic bulbs are a deep caramel brown and soft (you can take the packet out of the oven and unwrap it to check).
- Remove garlic from its peel and use any way you wish!
It’s that simple! Really, all you need is patience as the garlic fills your kitchen with this rich, garlicky, savory-sweet smell. It’s hard to resist.
‘Till next time!
Compound Butter Two Ways
So, butter. I admit it, I love good butter. I love it on toast, I love it on buttered noodles, I love it in potatoes and sweet potatoes and over roasted veggies. I love a little bit in my oatmeal or my cream of wheat or on a piece of fresh-out-of-the-oven cornbread or melted over waffles and pancakes. It’s even great over a grilled steak. I also just adore European butter over a piece of really good crusty bread with a little bit of salt sprinkled on top—heaven!
What can make butter even better? If you add to it in the form of compound butter.
Compound butters are simple to make, but the results are so delicious! And you can make them either sweet or savory.
The two recipes I have today are for a berry-cinnamon-honey compound butter and a roasted garlic compound butter.
So what, you’re probably (not) asking, does this have to do with the summer ’16 dessert series? Imagine this: berry-cinnamon-honey butter melting into every little nook and cranny of a pound cake or angel food cake that’s been grilled (for more on grilling cake you can check out my recipe for grilled peaches and angel food cake). There may possibly be ice cream and berries involved. There you have a fusion of warm, cool, sweet, and tart with a touch of salt that is absolutely heavenly.
And because it’s summer, I’m including the roasted garlic compound butter recipe because it really is perfect over grilled meats, grilled veggies, and melted over rice.
Whether it’s dinner or dessert, these two recipes are the perfect addition to dining al fresco this summer!
Quick Note: I use salted butter for my compound butters, including the sweet butters, because I love the flavor dimensions a small bit of salt creates without overpowering any other flavor. Salt can really bring out the best in other ingredients. If you don’t want salt or can’t eat the salt, however, buy unsalted butter.
Compound Butter Two Ways
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Sweet and savory, these homemade compound butters are simple to make and perfect for summer dishes, from roasted meats to grilled cake!
Author: Samantha Gallegos
Recipe type: Homemade
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- Berry, Honey, and Cinnamon Compound Butter Recipe:
- 8 Tbsp. butter, softened
- ¼ cup fresh or frozen berries (thawed, if frozen)
- 1 to 2 tsps. honey
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- For the Roasted Garlic Compound Butter:
- 8 Tbsp. butter, softened
- 4 to 6 cloves of roasted garlic (to your taste preference), mashed
- 1/16 tsp. delicate finishing salt, like Himalayan pink salt, Maldon’s, or grey salt
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients for your particular butter in a bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
- If mixing by hand, use a spatula to stir and mix all ingredients together until thoroughly combined. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment at medium-high speed for a two until everything is well combined.
- At this point, you can taste the butter to see if it needs additional ingredients or seasoning.
- Scrape the butter onto the far end of a piece of wax paper and start rolling the wax paper tightly, shaping the butter into a roll as you go and pressing the ends in.
- Twist the ends of the wax paper tightly, giving the butter one last shaping, and place into the fridge for at least two hours.
- Slice into the butter and serve over whatever you wish!
Compound butters can be stored in the fridge for two weeks.
So there you have two recipes for compound butters, but you don’t have to stop here! There are so many different combinations you can try, such as dried or fresh herbs, roasted garlic with fresh or dried herbs, cinnamon and honey, maple butter, cilantro lime, pumpkin spice—it’s up to your imagination!
‘Till next time!
Homemade Horchata Popsicles
It’s (just about) officially summer, and I don’t know about you, but I definitely love my Popsicles when it’s so stinking hot outside. Heat and me? We don’t get along well, so anything that will cool me down is great in my book, but if it’s sweet? Just a bonus!
So, continuing on the New Mexican theme, these horchata Popsicles are absolutely perfect for really hot summer afternoons and evenings. The only issue is that there is a bit of a wait, first for the horchata (it needs to sit overnight if you’re making it from scratch) and then another wait for the Popsicles to freeze. It’s completely worth the wait, though!
If you’ve never had horchata, it’s a sweet, creamy Mexican (and New Mexican) treat made with rice milk, almonds, cinnamon, and some kind of sweetener. My husband grew up drinking it and it’s really so refreshing served ice cold. Which is why as a Popsicle it’s a creamy, dreamy summertime treat with a nice touch of cinnamon!
As far as molds go, you can really use anything. I bought the mold for these Popsicles at Williams Sonoma last year, but your manner of Popsicle is completely up to you! (By the way, did you know that Popsicle is actually supposed to be capitalized? It’s not a generic word—it’s actually trademarked word. Even as a writer, I had no idea…).
As for the recipe, I based it off of this recipe from Nosh On.It because I didn’t have one of my own. Also, full disclosure, I did not make the recipe completely from scratch. My spice grinder is broken and I just don’t have money to get another one. My solution was to buy rice milk. I also added some almond/coconut milk creamer to make the recipe thicker to help ensure the Popsicles wouldn’t be too watery. I also made the sweetener optional because, as I tested one batch, I realized I had completely forgotten to add the honey and yet, they were sweet enough without! However, I don’t like anything super sweet, so I’m not a great judge. Thus, honey is optional.
Finally, the recipe calls for straining the recipe through cheese cloth. I would really go for cheesecloth versus straining it through another type of strainer or even a fine-meshed tea strainer. I tried it both ways and the cheesecloth was the only way to get the really fine particles out of the mixture.
Homemade Horchata Popsicles
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These homemade horchata Popsicles are a creamy, dreamy summertime treat, perfect for cooling you down on hot summer days!
Author: Samantha Gallegos
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Mexican
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- 1 cup almonds, skin removed
- 1 cinnamon stick or 3 Tbsp. cinnamon
- 2 cups rice milk
- 1 cup of warm water
- ¼ C. almond milk/coconut milk creamer (or creamer of choice)
- 3 Tbsp. runny honey (optional)
- Blender
- Cheese Cloth
Instructions
- Blanch the almonds by blanching them in boiling water for a minute, then rinsing them immediately under cold water (you can also dump them into a bowl of prepared ice water). Pinch each almond between two fingers and they should slip right out of their skin (fun, huh?).
- Cook the almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat, moving them continuously, until they’re lightly toasted.
- Pour the almonds, the rice milk, the cinnamon, creamer, and 1 cup of hot water into a large jar or bowl. Let cool to room temperature and then put into the refrigerator to soak overnight (at least 10 hours).
- Pour all of the contents of the bowl into a blender and blend on high speed until it’s completely blended and smooth.
- Drape cheesecloth over a pitcher or large measuring cup and strain the mixture.
- Pour into Popsicle molds and freeze for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
- Enjoy!
‘Till next time!
Perfect Brunch Potatoes
As a child, my grandfather would sometimes take me to the country club where he and my grandmother played golf and we would share a special brunch. They had the shiny hotel pans filled with steaming eggs, bacon, pancakes, and waffles along with plates piled high with fruit, pastries, and desserts. But the one thing I would make sure to put on my plate every time were those savory breakfast potatoes with peppers and onions. For some reason, though, and even though they’re ubiquitous at hotels and brunch places almost everywhere, I never learned to make them myself.
Fast-forward twenty or so years and, thankfully, my husband makes perfect country club/hotel brunch potatoes, and that’s the recipe I’m sharing today (that he is so graciously allowing me to post—thanks, love!).
Savory little red potatoes are sautéed with spices, sweet red and green bell peppers, and onions. As with most recipes on this blog, it’s simple and quick to make and it’s perfect for breakfast and brunch. They also pair perfectly with next week’s recipe: New Mexican Breakfast Tacos!
Perfect Brunch Potatoes
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Author: Samantha Gallegos
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 5
Ingredients
- 5 red potatoes
- ¼ of a white or yellow onion, chopped
- ½ red bell pepper, chopped
- ½ green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. pepper
- 1 tsp. garlic salt or dehydrated garlic (optional)
- 1 tsp. paprika
- ½ tsp. cayenne (optional)
- 2 Tbsp. oil, like olive
Instructions
- Cut the potatoes into eights, chop the quarter onion and half bell peppers, and place all in a bowl. Add the seasonings and toss to combine.
- Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat to get it hot. You want a pan that will be big enough to fit everything in one layer so everything cooks evenly.
- Once the pan is hot, turn the heat down to medium-low and put all ingredients into the pan.
- Cover and cook for fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring frequently, until potatoes are soft and slightly browned.
And that’s it—potatoes just like you’d find at a hotel brunch buffet. And, thankfully, if you love them as much as I do, you can whip them up in less than half an hour with minimal effort and just a few dishes to clean!
Check back next week for a companion, and very New Mexican, recipe, those breakfast tacos I talked about above!
‘Till next time!
