Recipes

Pickled Tomatoes

28 · May 29, 2014 · 10 Comments

This post brought to you by Pompeian Red Wine Vinegar // I’m a pickle girl… Honestly, I don’t think I’ve met a pickle that I didn’t like. I love all kinds of pickles not just pickled cucumbers. Have you every tried pickled okra, cauliflower, carrots… they are amazing! We have a restaurant here in Lincoln called Granite City and they have a steak salad that I ADORE and they have a pickled tomato relish on the salad and it’s divine. The whole idea intrigued me, so I thought I would try and come up with some pickled tomatoes of my own…

I love that I will have tomatoes along with some red onions that are pickled and ready in my fridge at any time. I was one of the kiddos that when my mom made salad or tacos I wouldn’t eat them if they didn’t have tomatoes, it just didn’t seem complete to me. This way I always have tomatoes on hand even when I haven’t made it to the market for a few days. This whole idea is super simple and only takes about 45 minutes to pull together. I used my favorite Pompeian Red Wine vinegar for these pickled tomatoes. You need to check out their whole line of vinegars, they have some amazing flavors!

First, I prepared my four 1 quart wide mouth Ball canning jars, by sterilizing them in the dishwasher.

I gathered my simple ingredients, tomatoes, salt, sugar, garlic, Pompeian Red Wine Vinegar, red onion, dill and pepper corns…

I prepared my pickle brine from the recipe below and while it cooled I prepped my veggies. I cut my tomatoes into large pieces, sliced my onions and peeled the garlic. I layered my veggies in the sterilized jars…

Now, this is a cold pickle so I wanted the brine to be cool, so that it wouldn’t cook the tomatoes. This also means that I just put the pickled tomatoes into the fridge and I don’t go through the whole preserving process. This means that I will have to keep the pickles in the fridge because they have not been officially preserved by the full canning process which kills all the possible bacteria.

The tomatoes will become rather soft, so you may want to use a small grape or cherry type tomato and not cut them for a firmer pickled tomato.

Once the brine is cool, pour it into the jar, seal the jar with the lid and place in the refrigerator. Let the tomatoes “pickle” for a few days and then serve with your favorite salad, cottage cheese, use as a burger topping… the skies the limit! I will be sharing my copy cat Steak Salad from Granite City in a bit and share how I like to eat my pickled tomatoes.

Pickled Tomatoes

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

20 mins

These pickled tomatoes are a sure fire way to impress your family and friends this summer!

Author: Heather // WhipperBerry

Recipe type: condiment

Cuisine: American

Serves: 25

Ingredients

3 cups Pompeian Red Wine Vinegar
3 cups water
3 tablespoons salt
⅓ cup sugar
8 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons peppercorns
25-30 medium sized tomatoes
2 red onions
1 bunch of dill

Instructions

Prepare your brine by placing the vinegar, water, salt and sugar into a sauce pan over medium high heat. Heat the brine mixture until the salt and sugar have dissolved about 4 minutes over medium heat stirring occasionally. Let brine cool.
Prepare your veggies by cutting the tomatoes into large pieces and slicing the red onion in onion rings and peeling the garlic. Layer the veggies in your sterilized 1 quart wide mouth Ball canning jars. Pour cooled brine into the jars and place the lid on the jars. Place in the refrigerator.

Disclaimer // This post is sponsored by Pompeian. I received product and payment for my recipe. However, as always… All thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own!

German Ham and Cheese Garlic Toast // GIVEAWAY

16 · May 27, 2014 · 6 Comments

This post brought to you by the Panasonic FlashXpress™ Toaster Oven// A few years ago, our family traveled to Germany and one of the first meals I had there was a simple ham & cheese toast from one of the local bakeries. We had stopped at the Rhine Neckar Zentrum (Mall) in Viernhiem for dinner, my husband and the girls decided to eat at KFC and I just couldn’t swallow the idea of eating American food while in Germany. I mean really?

I set out on a hunt for a more “German” quick bite to eat while the family was eating their “American” chicken. I found a little bakery inside the mall there and had the most interesting, simple meal. It was a loaf a good German bread cut in half with some type of garlic spread, diced ham and lots of sharp melted cheese. It was simple and boy was it tasty!

Recently, the folks at Panasonic asked it I would be interested in trying out their FlashXpress™ Toaster Oven and to develop a quick, in a flash meal with the FlashXpress™ and I immediately thought of my first German meal. It would be perfect in a toaster oven! Of course I said yes, and set out to recreate one of my favorite quick German meals.

Once I found a good garlic spread it was super simple to recreate. I used Mezzetta’s Savory Garlic Everything Spread which is SUPER tasty. I spread that on some good bread that I found in the bakery at Super Target, topped that with some diced ham that I sautéed in a little bit of butter, shredded sharp cheddar cheese and a little parmesan cheese.

Popped it into the Panasonic FlashXpress™ Toaster oven and within 10 minutes I had a perfect quick meal for the family, in a flash!

The nice thing… I didn’t have to heat up my oven and my kitchen at all and the ham and cheese garlic toast turned out perfect!

I will have to admit, when I was approached by Panasonic to do this post I was going to turn it down. I didn’t want one more thing cluttering up my counter tops. I mentioned it to my husband and he flipped… He’s been wanted to get a toaster oven for some time and I just wouldn’t jump on board. I have never had a toaster oven and I just didn’t understand the magic that you can create in this little toasting machine.

This one especially is compact, it doesn’t take up much space, you can get it in white or silver and it has some of the best infrared technology around. I especially love that the rack is designed to pull out when you open the door, making retrieving your food easier and safer. It has several presets or you can just use the temperature and time controls. It’s super easy to use and clean and I will have to admit… I use it ALL THE TIME now! I hardly ever use my microwave anymore. I’ve been making homemade croutons, baking cookies and of course making toast of all kinds. I have been TOTALLY converted!

The folks at Panasonic would love to giveaway a FlashXpress™ to one of YOU!!

All you have to do is follow the direction in the Rafflecopter box below…

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Disclaimer // This is a sponsored post. I received a Panasonic FlashXpress™ Toaster oven to review along with funds to create a recipe. All thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own.

5 Ingredient Barbecue Chicken Pizza

0 · May 20, 2014 ·

This post brought to you by KC Masterpiece® // I am a BBQ girl through and through. As a kid, I could not wait for grilling season to start! I’ve been known to grill through all kinds of weather, snow be darned (my mom reads this, gotta keep it PG.)

Even as a kiddo, I remember how important the sauce was. For years my Dad (he’s the primary griller in the house) would ALWAYS use KC Masterpiece®, always. My mom would stock-up and buy like 15,000 of them at a time (ok, maybe 6) and the panic button would be activated when we opened the last bottle. Yes, the sauce was that important in our house.

The same holds true for my house. I would have to say that there are very few products that I can claim brand loyalty for three decades and barbecue sauce is one of them, the other being my ketchup, but that another story. KC Masterpiece® has always been our go-to. Did you know that KC Masterpiece® was created by Dr. Rich Davis from Kansas City back in 1978. He created it for the first ever American Royal Barbecue Sauce Competition and won. The folks at KC Masterpiece® are celebrating a big anniversary this year… 35 years!!

To celebrate they have released a limited edition 35th Anniversary Sauce that is reminiscent of the original competition recipe from 1978. It’s lovely!

When the folks at KC Masterpiece® asked me to come up with a recipe for the special sauce, I knew instantly what I had to share. Our family’s favorite go-to dinner… Barbecue Chicken Pizza.

This recipe is so easy, it only has FIVE ingredients and it takes about FIVE minutes to pull together.

It’s one of those meals that I pull out several times a month on those busy nights when you need something quick, but still tasty. It’s also my go-to meal when I’m taking a meal to a family who is in need of a dinner. You know when Mom just had a baby or is sick. I make up a couple of these beauties in a snap, I take them over assembled but not baked. They can bake them when they are ready, they can even toss them in the freezer if they aren’t in immediate need. It’s PERFECT!

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

2 store bought already baked pizza crust

1 1/4 cups of KC Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce

1 store bought rotisserie chicken

1/2 of a large red onion sliced thin

3 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese

Yep, I told you it’s embarrassingly easy. I don’t even prepare the chicken. The secret is in the sauce. Seriously, I’ve made this meal at least 100 times and I have experimented with different sauces and it truly is the KC Masterpiece® sauce that makes it amazing.

I place the store bought pizza crust on a baking sheet. Side note... You can use store bought crust, make your own crust, use pita bread, biscuit dough, really anything for the crust. Our family likes thin crust pizza, so I buy the super thin store bought crust. Then I pour about 3/4 a cup of sauce on the crust and spread it all over.

Then I shred the chicken and place a heavy layer of chicken all over the crust. Another side note… On those nights when I’m not in that big of a rush, I make my own chicken by either roasting my own, boiling a couple of chicken breasts or even grilling them. It’s really whatever you like. I would have to say that 75% of the time I use the tasty store bought rotisserie chicken.

Then I add a layer of red onion… This is also a very important layer. Don’t skimp on the onion. This is what makes this pizza aaaamazing!

Next comes the cheese…

That’s it… Place it in a 400˚ oven for 12-15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and has lightly browned. You could even toss it on a grill if you don’t want to heat up your kitchen.

Serve with some grilled corn or a nice tossed salad and you have a wonderful easy to prepare dinner that literally took minutes to make and is a real crowd pleaser thanks to KC Masterpiece® and their amazing sauce! For more recipe ideas, you can visit KC Masterpiece® on Facebook or Twitter for all kinds of BBQ inspiration.

KC Masterpiece® barbecue sauce has been delivering authentic barbecue taste and creating culinary masterpieces for 35 years. For more recipe ideas, tips and tricks visit www.KCMasterpiece.com.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of KC Masterpiece®. The opinions and text are all mine.

Vanilla Almond Panna Cotta Recipe

11 · May 2, 2014 · 2 Comments

I LOVE Panna Cotta! Have you ever tried this simple yet scrumptious dessert? When it comes to dessert I LOVE smooth and creamy desserts that just melt on your tongue and panna cotta is one of those desserts that I just crave. It’s origins are from Italy and it translates to cooked cream.

That’s basically what it is, cream or milk simmered with sugar and vanilla, you then add gelatin and let it cool to create this decadent dessert. The nice thing about this dessert is that it’s kind of a blank slate, you can make it with what ever kind of milk you like and then top it with what ever you want. A few years ago I made a lovely Peaches and Cream Panna Cotta that was divine and today I have a fun new twist… I used Silk Almond Milk for part of the cream base!!

It turned out soooo good!! For this recipe, I used half Silk Almond Milk and half cream so it isn’t dairy-free but I’m sure you could play around with the recipe and create a dairy-free panna cotta with Silk.

Why did I add silk? Well… Adding the Silk Almond Milk added to the flavor of the panna cotta with a subtle almond flavor, plus It helps to cut the fat and calories of a normally high in saturated fat dessert. It also lowered the cholesterol in the dessert because Silk Almond Milk doesn’t have cholesterol! Now, keep in mind… I still use cream because I want that nice creamy texture, but by using Silk Almond Milk I cut some of the bad stuff in half!!

Did you know that Silk products are GMO free? What is a GMO? GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organisms and it’s a huge issue in the food industry today. Silk is leading the charge to eradicate GMO’s from our foods. You can learn more about there mission here. You can also visit the Silk Facebook page for even more facts about this fabulous product, plus you’ll be the first to hear about special deals on Silk products!!

That’s why I decided to use Silk Almond Milk in my favorite Panna Cotta! Here is how you make it…

Vanilla Almond Panna Cotta Recipe

3 cups Silk Almond Milk vanilla flavored

3 cups of heavy cream

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups crème fraîche

3 packets of gelatin

In a large sauce pan, add the Silk Almond Milk, cream, and sugar. Stir occasionally and bring to a simmer. Once it has started to simmer, remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract and crème fraîche and combine well. Once the mixture is nice and smooth, slowly whisk in the powdered gelatin.

Pour mixture into serving dishes and place in the refrigerator for three hours or until set. You can serve with berries and a berry sauce of some kind. I used Smucker’s PlateScapers for the berry sauce adding small circles to the top of the panna cotta for a stylish presentation.

Do you have a recipe that you want to try with a Silk Product? Head on over to Silk for some special deals that you don’t want to pass up! Then come on back and tell me what you are going to make!!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

Recipes

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Vanilla Almond Panna Cotta Recipe

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