Radio Lollipop Miami Improv Comedy Show

We did it! We raised 10,000 bucks all for Radio Lollipop! We held this great Comedy Show at the Miami Improv and had such a great time! We had some spinach dip and some cosmos! Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Take In Night

Sex and the City meets Take out meets Amy and Ashley's Place!
Girls night in with General Tso's Chicken, Pad Thai, Veggie Egg Rolls, Mexican Corn Salad, Pesto Pizzas, and Chocolate Yogurt Minis, and a lot of wine! Oh, and the aprons on the beautiful models are made by Ashley!!!
I'll just post those pictures so you can see!!



Here are the Recipes!

Shrimp Pad Thai --
1/2 lime
1 egg
4 tsp fish sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground dried chili pepper
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 shallot, minced
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp tamarind
1/2 pkg thai rice noodles
2 tbsp veggie oil
1/2 lb shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1 c chives
1 1/3 c bean sprouts
Directions:
Soak the dry noodles in lukewarm water while preparing the other ingredients, for 5-10 minutes.
Cut up the chives into 1 inch long pieces. Set aside a few chives for garnish.
Rinse the bean sprouts, and save half for serving fresh.
Mince shallot and garlic together.
Use a wok. If you don't have a wok, go to IKEA and get one, they are amazing. If you dont have time to go to IKEA, any big pot will do. Heat it up to a high heat and pour oil into it. Fry the peanuts until toasted, and remove them from the wok. Add shallot, garlic, and shrimp and stir until they start to cook all the way through.
The noodles should be flexible at this point, but not expanded. Drain the noodles, and add to the wok. Stir quickly to keep things from sticking.
Add tamarind, sugar, fish sauce, and chili pepper. Stir. The heat should remain high. If your wok is not hot enough, you will see a lot of juice in the wok. Turn up the heat if this is the case.
Make room for the egg by pushing all noodles to the side of the wok. Crack the egg onto the wok and scramble it until it is almost cooked. Fold the egg into the noodles. Add bean sprouts and chives. Stir a few more times. The noodles should be very soft and tangled.
Pour into a serving plate and spinkle with peanuts.

General Tso's Chicken- This was amazing!! Better than the real thing!
3 lbs boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 c green onion, sliced
8 small dried chilis, seeds removed
CORNSTARCH SLURRY
1/4 c soy sauce, low sodium
1 egg, beaten
1 c cornstarch
SAUCE
1/2 c cornstarch
1/4 c water
1 1/2 tsp garlic, minced
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c soy sauce, low sodium
1/4 c white vinegar
1/4 c sherry or white wine
14 1/2 ounces chicken broth
Directions:
Place sauce ingredients in a quart jar with a lid and shake to mix. If you make this ahead of time refrigerate until needed, shaking again when ready to use.
Mix cornstarch slurry in a large bowl--this is the wierdest mixture i have ever seen...hard glue that turns into gooey liquid, but it works wonders! The directions said to add chicken pieces to the slurry, but we found it easier to put all the chicken in a large bowl, dump the slurry on top, and mix together. Either way is fine.
Add the chicken to hot (350 degree) oil, and fry until crispy. Drain on paper towels.
In a separate wok or large skillet, add a small amount of oil and heat to 400 degrees (if you want you can fry all the chicken, drain some of the oil and use the same pan). Add green onions and hot peppers to the hot oil. Stir fry for about 30 seconds. Stir sauce mix, and then add to pan with peppers and onions. Cook until thick. Add chicken and cook until bubbly. Serve over rice.

Vegetable Egg Roll
1 c carrots, unpeeled and shredded
1 c cabbage, shredded
1 c pea pods, cut diagonally in thin strips
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, finely diced
8 green onions, sliced thin
1/2 c diced mushroom
1/2 c water chesnuts, diced
1/2 c broccoli and cauliflower florets, julianned
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce/fish sauce
1/2 c white wine
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cornstarch
25-30 egg roll wrappers
Directions:
Heat a wok, and drizzle oil down the sides. Brown the garlic. Add the onion, and saute until transparent. Add the worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, mixing well. Add the white wine, and bring to a simmer. Add the remaining vegetables. Stir constantly until the vegetables are tender. Mix teh cornstarch with two tbsp water and stir into the mixture. Stir until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and let cool!!
Fill the egg roll wrappers (2-3 tbsp of mix) and roll. Fry in 400 degree deep fryer until brown.

Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes (thanks to Smitten Kitchen and Jessica!)
7 oz bittersweet/semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 c veggie oil
1/2 c plain, whole milk yogurt
1 c sugar
3 large eggs, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse salt
Directions:
Preaheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper cupcake liners or lightly butter the pan.
In a heatproof bowl, set over simmering water, melt the chocolate with the 1/4 c oil. Once smooth, remove from heat.
In another bowl, mix the remaining 1/4 c oil, yogurt, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of hte flour mixture and pour the yogurt ingredients. Stir lightly a couple of times, then add the melted chocolate and stir until just smooth.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Banana Bread
3 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 c sugar
1 c veggie oil
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 bananas, smashed
Directions:
The easiest instructions ever. Mix all ingredients, pour into bread pan or muffin cups, cook at 325 for 30-40 minutes (depending on the pan), until toothpick comes out clean. So delicious!

Brain Food

So since Ash is outta here soon to be a brilliant doctor, Jorge and Amy decided we needed to get ready for higher education. It was a Sunday, and we were taking a practice GRE. While Ashley watched her inspiration at work, she decided to make us some brain food. She made us a Bacon and Egg Pie and Delicious Raspberry/Peach/Orange Smoothies!!


Impossible Bacon Pie
12 Slices of Bacon, crisply fried and crumbled
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 c chopped onion
2 c milk
1 c baking mix
4 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 pie crust
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all other ingredients and pour into pie crust. Cook for 35-40 minutes, until a knife comes out clean. Cool and garnish with bacon if desired.

Jorge and Ash Cruise

So this is a bit out of the scope of the blog, but we figured we needed to post some of the delicious food! There was foooooood everywhere. Honestly, I think that is why people go on cruises…to eat. As they said…the largest all you can eat buffet just happens to be on a boat! The food was delicious, but even though the desserts looked beautiful…eh, I have made better in my puny apartment kitchen! The entrees however were AMAZING! I think the chef spent his time perfecting the meat and poultry items, and just made everything else on the boat. We had a great time, and enjoy some of the fun photos that we snapped of the cruise cuisine.
We found this awesome sweet tea vodka!! MMM They mixed it with lemonade it was super good. We won some free champagne (cheap and awful, but FREE). Two yummy desserts worth mentioning...amaretto chocolate cake and strawberry cheesecake(as you can see the camera came to this party too late). In Key West-Conch Island there were some Great Conch fritters at one of the little places along Duval street.
You can see the cool dessert bar, there was also a fish and chips bar and sushi bar and alcohol everywhere!

Cincinnati Chili and Cheese biscuits

Skyline Chili is another staple from Cincy-town. We wanted to try to make some chili, and decided to try to master the delicious cocoa and cinnamon infused hometown favorite. We paired the great chili with biscuits inspired by the Red Lobster Staple.

Cincinnati Style Chili:
1 onion, minced
1 lb ground beef
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cumin
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 chipotle pepper in adobe, diced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cider vinegar
15 oz tomato sauce
1 c beef broth
1/2 c water
Heat large pot with a tbsp or so of olive oil over medium high heat and when hot, add beef, minced onion, garlic, and chili powder. Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes. Cook for about eight minutes or until the meat is browned.



In a separate bowl, combine cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.

Add to the meat and stir in for another couple of minutes until fragrant. Add the bay leaves, chipotle pepper, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, tomato sauce, broth, and water. Turn heat to low and simmer for an hour or until thickened.

Red Lobster Style Biscuits:

2 1/2 c bisquick baking mix
2 tbsp melting butter
3/4 c cold whole milk
1/4 tsp dried parsley flakes
4 tbsp cold butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Pinch of salt
1 heaping cup of shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a fork. You want to mix loosely so there are still small chunks of butter in the mix about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk, and garlic powder. Mix by hand until combined but do not over mix. Drop 1/4 c portions of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-17 minutes. When you take the biscuits out of the oven, melt 2 tbsp. in a small bowl. Stir in parsley and garlic powder. Brush the butter on top of all the biscuits

It tasted more like Gold Star, but it was still so good. We had it the next morning on our eggs as a chili, egg, and cheese biscuit! It is one of our favorite things to use leftovers to create fun new things. You need to try it. Great for a cold winter night, or a fun late summer party!

Buffalo Wild Wings In Miami!

So, if you know us, you know how much BW's has been a part of our lives over the years. When we moved to Miami, we were so sad because there was no BW's. Finally one opened here!!! Here are some pics of my b-day dinner! Short blog...but I was so busy eating! Yummy!