Bife à Cavalo AKA Horseback Riding Steak

Sounds weird right? Well its not. In fact, you may have had this before and either didnt know it's name or called it something else.  It is REALLY good. Also, I suggest melting a layer of pepper jack cheese over the egg and steak before serving. The egg tends to slide around.

Horse back riding steak orginally comes from France, but it is more popular in South America and goes by a handful of other similar names there and in France.

Also, to make this, you only use flank or ribeye steaks - the best cuts for grilling or frying. And if you haven't noticed, I am NOT a professional photographer (though I think this is a good thing- I'm seting realistic expectations!), but the steak pictured is a ribeye.

To make this juicy, tender meal you need:

 15-ounce  ribeye steaks, ¾-inch thick
1 teaspoon salt, divided
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 fried eggs (also known as sunny-side up eggs)
¼ cup small diced yellow onion
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro.

Slices of pepper jack cheese - optional.

Let steaks come to room temp before doing ANYTHING. I remove them from the fridge and set them out for an hour or so before I touch them. Then take olive oil, pepper, and salt, and season both sides of each steak. Let sit for 30 minutes.

Heat a large, non-stick frying pan over high heat. Melt the butter and stir in the oil. Cook  steaks for about 3-4 minutes per side  for a medium-rare to medium steak  or 5-6 minutes per side  for a medium-well to well done steak. Place them on a plate and let rest for ten minutes. 

Cook your eggs, sunny side up.  While they are cooking, toss the onion and mushrooms into the pan you fried the steaks in. Cook the onions and mushrooms until the onions are carmelized. Spoon them onto the steak. Top with fried egg and parsley or the cilantro. Personally, I use parsley.

Now, at this point you can take pepperjack cheese (or any cheese you like) and place it over the egg and steak to melt a bit. You can serve it with fries, put it all on bread for a sandwich, or even make it with rice. I used basmati rice, but I have made it with fries. Either way, this is good. It will become your favorite! My husband is a food lover and wanted two eggs on his steak, which is why you can't really see the onions or mushrooms as this is his plate. His steak is also done medium.

Upside Down Banana Bread

Note: The following recipe uses homemade caramel or dolce de leche. It must be made ahead of time! To do this, take a small can (or roughly 5 or 6) of sweetened condensed milk and remove the labels. Place them in the crockpot and fill the crockpot with water. Cook on low for 12-18hrs. Remove cans from the water and LET THEM COOL COMPLETELY BEFORE YOU OPEN THEM. Generally a day or so is considered safe.

This is a twist on regular banana bread. It is SO good! I've made it a handful of times now and my entire family eats it all up the same day!!  Now I'm going to share the recipe with all of you.




You will need:

½ cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into several pieces
About 2 bananas, sliced in ¼ inch rounds
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1½ cup whole wheat flour
¾ cup white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking power
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup mashed overripe bananas
2 large eggs
⅓ cup vegetable oil
⅓ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 can of dolce de leche

Butter or spray your pan with non stick spray. Then sprinkle a coat of brown sugar on the bottom of your pan. Slice one banans and line the slices up in the pan on top of the brown sugar.  In a seperate bowl, add all the dry ingredients first. Then add all the wet ones and mix it all together, just until it is combined!! Don't over mix your batter or this won't turn out right at all! Pour it into the pan. Cover the top in foil. Bake at 325 for 1 hour.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert it onto a plate. 

Once the loaf is completely cooled, open 1 can of the condensed milk, now known as Dolce de Leche. Drizzle it over the entire top and sides of the bread  with a spoon as desired. Doesn't it look soooooooooo good? 

Now, go make it! :) 

Chocolate Chip Cherry Cheesecake Cookies

I was looking for a new twist on the cheese cake cookies we see every year, especially around the holiday, mainly because I was invited to a cookie exchange! So, I came up with these. They are sssssssssssssssssssoooooooooooooooooo good. They didn't even last 24hrs in my house!! And I made a lot of these!! Try them and let me know what you think!

Recipe:


Cookie Bowl:
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2tsp Vanilla
2 eggs
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup UNSALTED butter, softened
2 &1/4 cups flour
1tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
2 cups chocolate chips

Cream vanilla, sugars, eggs and butter untill creamy. Add baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1 cup flour. Mix well. Add remaining flour, mix. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll into mini balls and place in mini cupcake pan. Bak at 350 for 12-14 minutes. When still warm, use a spoon to make an indent/well in the middle of each cookie. Let cool 3 minutes, then gently remove from pan to cool completely.

Filling:

2 packages cream cheese, softened
2 & 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1tsp vanilla
1 can of cherry pie filling (or homemade filling)

Combine everything but pie filling and mix well, until creamy. Fill each cooled cookie bowl with filling, making even with the rim of cookie. Place one cherry on top of each. Chill until set, roughly 30 minutes.

Store covered in fridge.

                                                               YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flag Cookies

For Veteran's Day, or any other American holiday,  I make these.

Now, if you're like me, you have a problem with most sugar cookie dough. It NEVER keeps it's shape, no matter what tricks or alterations you've tried. They get too big, loose their shape, or keep the shape but get burned...etc. Don't you hate that? I know I do! I've even tried store bought dough to see if that made a difference. It didn't. At least not for me when it comes to cut-out shapes.

I discovered this recipe when I was making cookies to help my now 2yr old daughter potty train. She was 18 months at the time, so cookies helped. I made a batch of these every week for 3wks for her in december of 2012. She was potty trained before she hit 19 months! :)

Anyway, these are not a "sweet" sort of sugar cookie (though feel free to add more sugar if you want - up to 3 cups). I decorate these with Royal Icing to make up for the lack of sweet in the cookie. These are also not crispy sugar cookies (though you can make them that way, just roll them out thinner). They are a soft sugar cookie. I can't promise you'll like them because of that. I CAN promise that they hold their shape. It's also the most basic recipe you will probably ever see. You need:

2 Eggs
1& 1/4 cup sugar
1& 1/4 cup of butter at room temp ( aka - 2 1/2 sticks of butter)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 &1/4 cup flour - plus more. You will have to add more. Keep this handy!
1 cup whole milk


First, put the sugar and eggs in the bowl. USE A SPOON - this is important. Mixers will over work the batter and dough. Make sure the eggs and sugar are mixed well.Once you have this mixed, add the butter and milk. Mix until the milk is incorporated and the butter is lumpy - it does not have to be smooth. The butter will not dissolve all the way and thats okay.

Now, add the flour and the baking powder. Mix and mix and mix............

You want to keep adding flour and mixing it - with the spoon- until the dough starts to get lumpy looking and stick together by lightly pulling away from the sides of the bowl. You can add up to 6 cups of flour, but only add 2 cups at a time and mix well after each addition. I only needed 4 1/2 cups. It should be sticky and holding itself together for the most part.

Flour your counter and dump the dough onto the counter. Flour your hands and sprinkle some on top of the dough and form it into a smooth ball, so its not lumpy at all. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour. You can leave it in there longer, but it needs to be in there about an hour to chill and become more firm. After that, you can take it out, and roll it to 1/8 inch thick. Make sure you flour the counter and the rolling pin before you start to roll out the dough or it WILL stick! Use the flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the pin. You can even sprinkle the dough and roll it that way if you want to.

I'm using star cookie cutters here, but you obviously can use any type you want - hearts, flowers, stockings, snowmen, clovers... whatever. :) Cut the cookies out and make sure you put them 2 inchs apart on a cookie sheet. They plump when baked.

This recipe makes a LOT of cookies. I made 5 1/2 dozen ( I was using a medium sized cookie cutter). If you use smaller or bigger cutters you'll obviously get more or less cookies.

Bake at 350 for 8 -10 minutes for soft cookies. If you want slightly harder/crisper cookies, do 10-12 minutes. Just watch they don't burn!!  I made a batch of Royal Icing and tinted it two colors. Left 1/3 white, and did 1/3 red, and 1/3 blue. Covered the cookies in the white first, then once that set (about 20 minutes), I dipped them in the blue and reds. I made 1/4 of them blue/white, 1/4 red/white, 1/4 plain white and the last 1/4 were, of course, red, white and blue. Let the frosting dry completely, about 20 minutes, before storing or eating.

Mini Key Lime Pies

Today, I'm going to tell you how to make itty bitty cute looking Key Lime Pies!!! But first, we're going to get a few things straight about Key Limes and the Key Lime Pie because I HATE the knock off versions.

1.) Limes and Key Limes are DIFFERENT. Key Limes are more acidic, have more of a tart taste, and have more of fragrance to them than regular limes. They are also called Mexican Limes and they are, as suggested, either imported from Mexico or from Florida.

2.) True Key Lime Pie is NOT GREEN! It is yellow. It is this way because of the egg yolks in the recipe. Also, the filling is NOT jello like or creamy or fluffy.... etc. It is a FIRM type of custard... firmer than even pudding if done correctly.

3.) Time for a histroy lesson.... This pie was made originally way before anyone ever heard of having a fridge, or a freezer!! And since it originated in Florida where there was no cattle or way for them to use fresh milk, they used canned milk that was brought in by trains or, before trains, ships! Also, back then, they relied on the reaction between the lime juice and the eggs to "firm up" the pudding.

But we aren't going to be doing that. Why? Well.. raw eggs..... you know....yuck!

Here is what you'll need to bake these:

 Homemade OR Premade round pie crusts - NOT the frozen ones in the freezer section.
15 KEY LIMES - must be Key Limes or it won't turn out right.
1 regular Lime
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
4 egg YOLKS. It's best to seperate these when cold, then allow to come to room temp.
Optional - cool whip.

You will also need a round cookie cutter, pizza cutter or something to give you a "round" shape and mini muffin pans.

Get out a whisk!

Spray the mini muffin pans with non stick spray!! Then, take the COLD round pie crusts and roll them out one at a time. Cut out small circles, with the cookie cutter or whatever you're using, one at a time and then gently press with TWO FINGERS, the dough down into the little hole and around the sides so it looks like this...

It's time to mix the custard!!! First, we're going to get the key limes and juice them!!! I recommend a juicer, but if you don't have one of those, you can cut and squeeze them with your hand - just pick out all the seeds after. Make sure to squeeze the limes until you have 1/2 a cup of juice from all of them. Set it aside.

Take the egg yolks and whisk them slowly as well as gently. They'll turn a light yellow in color. This is important! Dont whisk too little and dont whisk them too much or they won't react with the acid like they should!! Just whisk enough to break the yolks up into a completely liquid state. Open the condensed sweet milk and dump it in, like my son did above. Then whisk it until its well mixed. It will be a white-ish looking color once the milk is fully incorporated.  

Add 1/4 cup of the freshly squeezed key lime juice into your mixing bowl. Whisk until it is well incorporated, meaning no juice sitting on top of the milk/egg mix. It should all be one huge whiteish looking mix!!! Add the last 1/4 of the juice, repeating the process above.

'Memeber that 1 regular lime you have??

If you have a zester, pull it out! If not, a grater - hand or otherwise- will work just fine.
Grate the peel into the mix. JUST THE GREEN. You don't want any white part of the lime skin in there. Stir with spoon to incorporate it.  Fill the mini pie crusts with the spoon.


*** DO NOT fill them more than half full. They puff up while baking. Trust me. These aren't like cup cakes where you can fill them 3/4 full. Do half or slightly less than half.


Bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes or until the top edges of the crusts are light brown or golden in color. Then take them out of the oven! Allow to cool for about 5 minutes in the pan. Now, here's the slightly tricky part.

Take a butter knife and GENTLY loosen the edges of the crust from around the pan. Then, stick the knife easily and gently - DONT FORCE IT - under one edge of the cup. Lift with the knife and use your other hand to help pull it out of the pan. Set on a platter or plate to finish cooling. Once cool, place in the fridge until you are about to use them. When you're ready to serve, decorate with a small slice of lime and cool whip. 

I had to run,  so I did one of mine while it was still warm. Hence the bubbles on the cool whip. Wait till they're completely cool before decorating. They're served best cold anyway. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cupcakes

I made these for a Scooby Doo themed birthday. Don't they look great??

To make the cupcakes you need:

1& 1/2 cups Flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1tsp coffee
1& 1/2 cups Sugar
1 stick unsalted Butter
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Baking powder
2 Eggs
1 cup Buttermilk
1/2 cup hot water

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a bowl, add the flour, sugar, butter, cocoa, coffee, baking soda and baking powder. Mix with a spoon just until its all lightly blended together. Now, get the mixer out. Mix the powered mixture for about 1 minute. Powdered mix will go EVERYWHERE if your bowl is not deep enough. Now, with your mixer still running, add the hot water. Mix until it is all clumpy lumpy looking. You'll see it start to get dark and wet and thats a good thing!! Now, take those two eggs and add one. Mix it well - there should be NO yellow from the egg anywhere in the batter. You want this egg and the next to be fully absorbed into the batter. Add the second egg. Mix well again - each egg should take about a minute or two to be fully  absorbed. After both eggs, you'll notice that the batter is a thick lumpy mess, not yet a liquid. There will still be some lumps after it turns to liquid, but don't worry. Add the buttermilk and MIX! Don't forget to scrape down the sides of your bowl to get all the excess stuff clinging to the sides! Mix for about two minutes on low speed. I made 24 cupcakes. But you can also make 1 9x13 or 2 round 9 inch cakes. up to you. If you're making the cakes, slide them in the oven for about 25 minutes. Check with a knife in the center of the pan(s) at 25 minutes. If it comes out clean, they're done. They shouldn't have to cook for more than 30 minutes MAX. 

Since I made cupcakes, that's how we'll go on. I'm lame and totally did not and do not have liners in the house. I forget those little things ALL THE TIME!  Spray your pan with cooking spray so its greased. If you have liners, no worries. To fill the cupcakes and get even cupcakes the same height, I take a 1/4 cup measuring cup and use it to fill my pan. I get the same amount each time and it ensures all the cupcakes come out the same height. No mess, less hassle and no second guessing how much is "too much" for each little hole. :) Look at that post baked uniformity !! Perfect.

Don't judge the pan.

Fill the pans. If you have left over, don't worry. IF you don't have any left over batter, no biggie there either. Put them in the oven for 15 minutes. Check the middle cupcake in the center of each pan after 18 minutes. If the knife comes out clean, they're done. They shouldn't need more than 22 minutes to cook.  Cool the cupcakes for 5 minutes, then remove from pans to finish cooling completely.
Once cooled, decorate any way you want!!!

Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies

Today, I'm going to give you a recipe for Chocolate Chip Almond cookies. They're super yummy!!!
As always, gather everything you need FIRST!

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 sticks unsalted butter (if you need to use salted butter, omitt the salt below)
1/2tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
2tsp PURE ALMOND extract
2 1/4 cup flour
3 cups sliced almonds, TOASTED
2 cups chocolate chips
1/8tsp salt 

First thing you do is toast your almonds. Turn the oven on to 350. Place the almonds on a baking sheet in a single layer- or as close to it as you can get. Place them in the oven for 10 minutes, no more than 15. They should be a golden brown color. Let cool. 

Up the oven temp to 375.

In a bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and almond extract. Beat with a mixer until fluffy, like below. Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing so each egg is full absorbed. After you add the eggs, the batter will be a creamy looking liquid.Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour to the mix. Mix again until there is no flour to be seen. Finally!! It's time to add in the almonds and chocolate chips! STIR those into the batter, until they're mixed in.

Doesnt the batter look yummy??? :D It tastes pretty good too!! Go on and sneak a taste. I won't tell!!

Take a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon, and use it to make your cookies all the same size. Drop the batter by the tablespoon full onto UNGREASED cookie sheets. Bake in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes and the edges are golden brown. If you want a crispier cookie, bake them for about 12-15 minutes but watch they don't burn. Let cool on the pan for two mintues, then remove to completely cool off.

All done!