Fit For a Queen

Lemon Butter Salmon

queeninthekitchen — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 17:50:00 -0400

Yes, I know it’s September, but it’s still TECHNICALLY summer until Saturday, so salmon recipes for the grill are still perfectly acceptable. I did this recipe awhile ago, but I never posted it up.

If you’ve been on Pinterest the past few months, you’ve probably run across this recipe, but I decided to modify it slightly. The original recipe calls for baking it in an oven, but it’s summer. We don’t use the oven in the summer unless there’s rain. And we’re in South Carolina. There’s always a drought. So I adapted this for a grill, and it turned out delicious.

It’s a really light dish, and the flavor was a very subtle creamy lemon flavor, which I enjoyed. This is a great option if you’re trying to eat healthier since you could easily cut back the butter and use some salt substitute or herb seasoning mixes for the salt and pepper, and still have a flavorful fish.

Lemon-Butter Salmon

1 Lemon
4 Tbsp butter
Salt and Pepper
Two fresh salmon fillets
Foil

1. Tear off a big enough piece of foil to create a packet to completely encase the salmon and all the other goodies.

2. Slice the lemon and lay out the slices, creating a sort of bed for the salmon to sit on.

3. Rinse off the salmon under cold water, and pat dry with some paper towels (rinsing it reduces the fishy taste that often comes when you eat salmon). Set the fillets on top of the lemon slices.

4. Cut the butter into little pieces and dot the top of the fillets with the butter.

5. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste over the top of the salmon and butter.

6. Bring up the sides of the foil and fold over, making sure that the packet is completely sealed.

7. Place packet on the top shelf of the grill for about 15-20 minutes or until salmon flakes and is cooked through.

Enjoy!

I Did It!

queeninthekitchen — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:54:42 -0400

I passed my Master’s exit exam!!!! Whoo hoooo!!!! That being said, some changes will be occurring on my blog (new look? new title?) so don’t be shocked if you click on here and things are looking a little unfamiliar.

But yeeeeahhh!!!! I did it! Now for the last two weeks of finishing all kinds of projects.

Best Food Blogs

queeninthekitchen — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:23:34 -0400

Ironic that I would indeed post my article that got published today in The Tiger about the best food blogs on my personal food blog. However, these blogs are just some of the ones that inspired me to start my own blog. So high five to those clever people.

Updates Coming

queeninthekitchen — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:55:15 -0400

Hey all! I’m in the midst of making some really snazzy posts involving scalloped potatoes and snickerdoodles, so they are indeedy coming your way. I’m going to try to be keeping up with the blog as best as I can, but I’ve had some overwhelming amounts of classwork and then spring break was last week. That being said, just keep an eye out :)

Pumpkin Risotto with Prosciutto and Shallots

queeninthekitchen — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:56:00 -0500

As I’ve mentioned before, cleaning out my cabinet is going to result in some odd out-of-season recipes…such as this pumpkin risotto with prosciutto and shallots.

I have to say I am a huge fan of pumpkin during the fall, so having it in the middle of February was a really weird feeling. I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this recipe because I really love having cheese in my risotto. To me, every risotto should have three things: Arborio rice, wine, and cheese. However, this risotto really did have a creamy texture still, so you really didn’t need it.

And now that I think about it, I dare say that this is a fairly healthy recipe if you think about it. No cheese, limited amount of wine, an entire can of pumpkin, and no salt (unless you choose to add some). So maybe it is worth making at random times!

To me, the idea of a savory pumpkin while still using cinnamon was one that I wasn’t sure I’d be a fan of, but the combination of that with the cumin truly created a unique, hearty flavor that complemented the pumpkin well. I also recommend inviting two or three friends over to eat with you because this recipe made a LOT of risotto.

The recipe was originally posted here, but I have pictures and the recipe below:

Pumpkin Risotto with Prosciutto and Shallots

2 cups Arborio rice

3 Tbsp olive oil

3 oz. prosciutto

2 shallots

1 cup white wine (I used chardonnay)

6 cups chicken stock (I used chicken bouillon and water to make my own broth)

1-15oz. can of pumpkin (make sure it’s the plain pumpkin, NOT the filling)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cumin

First, slice the shallots and cut up the prosciutto, making sure to separate the prosciutto pieces (mine all stuck together and it backed up the entire cooking process). On one burner, get the chicken bouillon dissolving in the water over medium heat.

On another burner, use a LARGE skillet to heat up the olive oil on medium-high heat, and then sautee the shallots and cook the prosciutto until crispy. (I didn’t get the prosciutto crisp enough, and it definitely makes a difference in quality…so take the time to make it crispy.) When shallots are starting to brown and your prosciutto is done, remove both with a slotted spoon to another bowl.

Add the rice to the same skillet and stir it around to coat the rice with the remaining oil and start turning the rice white. Add the wine, and reduce to medium-low. Stir occasionally until the wine is almost absorbed. Add enough stock to cover the rice, and continue to stir occasionally; it should start to look like this:

Continue adding broth gradually and stirring until almost all the chicken broth from your first pan is absorbed. Add cinnamon and cumin, and stir until liquid is absorbed. Add in the can of pumpkin:

Return the prosciutto and shallots and reheat through. Ta-dah! Pumpkin Risotto! (Let sit for a little bit to cool slightly because it’s super hot initially.)

Below is a picture of the final product….enjoy!!!!! YUM!

Mid-Terms + Stress Eating = Cleaner Cabinet

queeninthekitchen — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:00:06 -0500

Sorry for the two week hold up, everyone! It’s midterm time here at school, so I was having to study like a crazy person, but I’m back now (even if I only got 3 hours of sleep a few nights).

Like many people, I can be a stress eater. I usually go for sweet stuff, but during this mid-term time, I was all over the place, which was lovely for my cabinet cleaning mission. Below is the evidence of this:

Yes, it’s still scary, but yes, there is progress….can you see it????

Next time, I’ll be posting up a lovely pumpkin risotto that I made last week…delish!

Until next time!

Sun-dried Tomato Dip

queeninthekitchen — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:35:00 -0500

For this past Christmas, my sister and I each got assigned the task of making an appetizer for the big dinner, since we’re all and big and adult-like and over 23 years old. For mine, I decided to make this sun-dried tomato dip because 1.) I love sundried tomatoes and 2.) It had cream cheese so it can’t be all that bad right? (Calories don’t count over holidays, by the way.)

I decided to spread a little olive oil on top slices of Italian bread and toast them. This dip could pair well with Club crackers as well, but it was Christmas, and I felt fancy, so bread it was. Plus, I think the crunchy bread paired well with the thick creaminess of this dip.

The original recipe is here, but I made just a few slight changes because I think my way was a tad easier to incorporate everything.

Also, this would be a great last minute dip to make for your Valentine (or just yourself on a random night because it really is just that good and you’ll want it all for yourself) if you’re staying in tonight :)

Sun-Dried Tomato Dip

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup dry white wine (I used Barefoot Chardonnay)

1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

8 oz. cream cheese

1/3 cup fresh chopped basil

3 Tbsp. shredded parmesan or Italian cheese blend

1.) Cook garlic in oil until it starts to brown.

2.) Add wine and tomatoes and simmer until the liquid is absorbed.

3.) Add cream cheese and parmesan and stir until melted.

4.) Add basil and stir to incorporate.

5.) Ta-dah! You have a delicious dip to share (or not!)

Tip: I found it easier to use a cheese spreader for the dip since it does get thick.

My Dirty Little Secret...

queeninthekitchen — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:26:45 -0500

Okay. I admit it. My food cabinet in my apartment is out of control. I wouldn’t call it necessarily “food hoarding” but I could feed myself for awhile in case of a nuclear attack. Below is my picture from the beginning of January:

I know, I know, I know! It’s awful! This is why it’s my project before I move out of my apartment in May. I don’t want to move an entire grocery store to wherever I go. That being said, every month, I’ll be updating a picture of my cabinet to be held semi-accountable that I’m actually clearing out stuff. This should also explain why I’m going to have some really awkward recipes (I found two cans of pumpkin. I’m down for pumpkin in February.)

I am not a food hoarder. I just really like having food. Lots of it.

Pasta with Sundried Tomato Cream Sauce

queeninthekitchen — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:00:05 -0500

Sundried tomatoes are probably one of my all time favorite ingredients. Along with cheese. And pasta. Hence, I knew I just had to make this recipe (Side note: I apologize for the poor lighting. I can only do so much with horrible apartment lighting at night.)

First of all, it was super quick and easy, which was great since I was making dinner after my class and needed to get back to studying in a reasonable time.

Second, this pasta is super delicious and warmed up really well the next day for lunch. I love how thick the sauce is, so it really coats each piece of pasta well.

Perfect for a cold winter’s night :)

DIY: Paper Curl Christmas Ornaments

queeninthekitchen — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:00:05 -0500

As per the trend for 2011, I was totally into making things I found on Pinterest. So when I saw these super cute ornaments stuffed with strips of invitations curled into swirls, I knew I had the perfect gift for my roomies.

For these ornaments, you’ll need:

Clear ornaments (I used frosted as all the clear ones were broken; find these in the glass section of Hobby Lobby or Michael’s)
12x12 sheets of festive scrapbook paper (or whatever color suits your fancy)
Paper cutter or scissors
A pencil or pen
Raffia (I LOVE RAFFIAAAA!)

Instructions:

Cut the scrapbook paper into 1/2 inch strips (I recommend a paper cutter unless you really want to bore yourself to tears)
Wrap each strip around a pen or pencil to create a curly Q like above (this is easy, but time consuming)
Remove the top of each ornament (be careful so you don’t break them)
Stuff each curl into an ornament, making sure to spread them out a little to get a better “swirl” effect
Put the tops back into their respective ornaments
Tie a bow and a loop to hang the ornament on the tree using two or three pieces of raffia.
Enjoy your lovely new addition to your tree :)

ACC Championship! (Slightly Belated, But Still Awesome)

queeninthekitchen — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:06:44 -0500

For my next adventure, I decided to go to the ACC Championship on December 4^th. I had gone back in 2009 when the game was in Tampa against Georgia Tech (fun roadtrip, awful outcome), so I thought, “Why not?” when this year’s was only two hours away in Charlotte in the Bank of America Stadium.

Long story short, we PUMMELED the VT Hokies! Not only that, but because Clemson won the ACC Championship, that gave us an automatic bid to the Orange Bowl (which, I will not be discussing that game’s outcome here….or ever) :)

Please enjoy the pictures:

And that is how we got to the Orange Bowl. Let’s alllll just pretend the story ends there. All happy and orange-y and oblivious to what was going to happen. No matter what, though, I still love my Tigers! :)

Creamy Crockpot Chicken

queeninthekitchen — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:12:00 -0500

For my next food mission, I chose to do a recipe using a Crockpot, again found on Pinterest (get used to this). It was a super simple recipe that didn’t require a lot of ingredients, plus it had a whole brick of cream cheese, so it seemed hard for it not to be a winner.

The original recipe recommended serving it over rice, which was okay since I had some brown rice to use up. However, I recommend serving it over a tortilla. I found that not only does that combo warm up better than the rice, it also just complements each other better.

I noticed that water was pooling in the crockpot because I used frozen chicken, so if you have a chance, spoon out some water every few hours, but if you’re going to be gone all day, I’d recommend using fresh chicken.

Creamy Crockpot Chicken

2.5-3lbs chicken

8 oz. cream cheese

1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can of corn, drained

1 can of Rotel

1.) Put chicken in crock pot. Top with cream cheese, and dump in the canned items.

2.) Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours (probably 4-6 if using fresh chicken)

3.) Stir a few times every few hours until chicken is done and cheese is melty.

4.) Enjoy on rice or a tortilla!

Seriously…one of the easiest recipes in the world. Plus, it’s super tasty :)

I'm Thankful for...Dutch Apple Pies

queeninthekitchen — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:38:00 -0500

Hey everyone! I am baaaack! Whoo whoo! Read: End of semester with school projects basically done and heading into Christmas break where I can be crafty and chef-y to my heart’s content and fill your feeds with lovely blog posts from me.

So I’m going to start with Thanksgiving and work my way forward (you know, like normal time progresses), so things might be a little delayed, but they will be just as delicious and exciting :)

For Thanksgiving or any major holiday celebrated en masse by my family, I am in charge of the sweet stuff. Dessert Diva, if you will. Usually, I go for a cheesecake or a regular cake, but this year, I had a hankering for good ol’ apple pie.

Back in the day, I was able to rock some fruit pies. They always made me nervous though because sometimes they can get too watery or not done enough based on the thickness and water content of the fruits. Nothing is worse than a soggy pie…except maybe an underdone pie.

I considered doing a traditional double crust pie, but I had never done a Dutch Apple Pie with the crumble on top…and how can adding butter and sugar to the top of a pie be bad?

When I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I knew I had to try it though! I felt a little more confident with a fruit pie since the filling is cooked separately and then added to a blind-baked crust. I had a frozen crust left over from a quiche I made, so I cheated a little bit, but the filling was EXTREMELY delicious!

I provided a link to the recipe I used and below are the changes I made because I found the original had too many apples (maybe my apples were exceptionally large?) so maybe have an extra on hand in case.

Dutch Apple Pie (used from Brown Eyed Baker, with a few changes)

Servings: 8

Filling:

4 large Granny Smith apples

3 large Fuji apples

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (I probably used a little more than this…I love cinnamon)

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup heavy cream

Streusel Topping:

1½ cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1.) For recipe and directions on the 9-inch pie crust, check Brown Eyed Baker….SUPER detailed instructions!

2.) Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

3.) Peel, quarter, and core apples into ¼ inch pieces. Toss apples, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl to mix (I used my hands). Heat the butter in a large pot over high heat until foaming subsides (keep an eye on this; it turns to burnt butter in a flash, and I burned the first few pieces of butter); add apples and toss to coat. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook covered, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender (about 10 minutes).

4.) Set a colander over a large bowl; transfer cooked apples to the colander. Shake the colander and toss the apples to drain off as much liquid as possible into the bowl. Bring the drained juice and the cream to a boil in the now-empty pot over high heat; cook, stirring occasionally until thickened, and a spoon leaves a trail in the mixture; this takes a few minutes. Transfer apples to the prebaked pie shell; pour the reduced juice and cream mixture over the top.

5.) For the streusel, combine the flour and sugars in a bowl; drizzle with the melted butter and use a fork to mix until evenly moist and large chunks are formed. Sprinkle the streusel over the top of the pie filling. Set the pie plate on a baking sheet and bake until the topping is deep golden brown, 10-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack until room temperature. Enjoy!

Holy Two Weeks, Batman!

queeninthekitchen — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:56:14 -0500

Holy cow! I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since I last wrote! Sorrryyyyy. Hazards of grad school.

BUT…I will leave you with this little tidbit until I can get back to writing consistently. And by writing consistently, I don’t mean the two research papers I need to write in two days. Yeah, I’m not kidding.

Until later, dear followers!

You know you’re from a good school when the SOPHOMORE...

queeninthekitchen — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:03:00 -0400

You know you’re from a good school when the SOPHOMORE starting quarterback comes out to thank fans and admit stumbling over an opponent (darn you, Yellow Jackets!).

But legit—let those nay-sayers be all negative and pouty. They’re the ones that will magically become the biggest “fans” when we turn it around against Wake Forest next week.

Furthermore, we’re still most likely going to the ACC Championship in Charlotte, we’re still on the cusp of the top 10 in the BCS (#11…holla!), and we still have the potential to end 11-1 and most likely in the top 10 at the end of the season.

Not bad for a team whose “magical year” is supposed to be 2012.

Now to attack those Deacons, the Wolfpack, and those flippin’ Gamecocks. Go Tigers!

The Day I Wore Legwarmers

queeninthekitchen — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:21:00 -0400

First of all, Happy Halloween! I’m not one for all the scary stuff, but I do like cute kids in costume, candy, and pumpkins, so it’s in the top three of my most favorite holidays.

That being said, this past weekend, my friend Kayla and I decided to run the Spinx Run Fest 5k on Saturday since Clemson was playing Georgia Tech (that will be my next blog post, but I need sufficient mourning time) so there wasn’t much tailgating to be had that morning.

Now when I first signed up, I saw something about costumes, but I was like, “What crazy people would dress up for a 5k?” and assumed that I’d be in some sort of orange shorts or something to look Halloweeny/Clemsony.

Then Kayla texted me something to the effect of

“Oh I have a great idea for our costumes!”

*Face to palm*

So I would be wearing a costume apparently.

Kayla had a great idea to do “Bringing Back the 80’s” and then give a nod to the 1981 National Championship that Clemson clenched back in the day. And thus, this was born:

Oh yeah. I am that cool.

We struggled a little since the past two weeks had been lacking in training between sickness and busyness and the weather took a sudden cold twist overnight. But aside from a few 30 second walk breaks and the occasionally feeling of a dagger in my lungs from the cold air, not bad overall. The first mile was a 9:40, which was nuts since I usually do about 11 min during races. We both finished in under 33 minutes, so that was really exciting, especially when we got our snazzy new bling:

They said that everybody who finished got a medal, but I like to think that it was because we were just extra awesome…legwarmers included.

Hello, World!

queeninthekitchen — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:31:46 -0400

I have four big loves in my life: Clemson, food, running, and football. This would be my blog about my experiences with all those things….with some random things thrown in here and there just to keep y’all on your toes ;)

I warn you in advance about my dry humor, and the very real possibility that I might make you smirk at some of my comments as I go. Stay along for the ride, because I plan to find all kinds of yummy recipes, run some pretty cool races, and turn your blood Clemson orange.

Until next time!