It’s serious business.
Author Archive
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
March 22nd, 2010 | by Zahra | in Desserts, Pies | No CommentsOkay, okay. I know this post is much overdue. But I have a good excuse! I was getting ready for Norooz and couldn’t post this… for three months. Sorry!
Now that I’m here and posting and all, I will tell you that you will not be disappointed. This is a foolproof dessert, one that I have made over and over with a variety of cream cheeses and fruits… and all of which turned out splendidly. I can, in all confidence, guarantee that yours will too!
The above picture shows two batches of this “salad”. One with pomegranates in a 9″ x 13″ pan, and the other with mandarin oranges in a 9″ pie dish. I’ll list both the original recipe meant for the 9″ by 13″ with the adjusted recipe meant for the pie dish for your baking pleasures.
Fabulous Pretzel Salad
9″ x 13″ version:
1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
4 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) regular salted butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 (8 oz) container whipped topping, thawed
1 (6 oz) package flavored Jell-O (I like to match the flavor to the fruit I’m using)
2 cups boiling water
About 1 1/2 cups fruit of your choosing
9″ pie dish version:
1 cup crushed pretzels
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) regular salted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 (8 oz) packages cream cheese
2/3 of an 8 oz container whipped topping, thawed
1/2 of a 6 oz package flavored Jell-O (I just make a full package and just pour the leftovers into another bowl and eat it later)
1 cup boiling water
About 1 cup fruit of your choosing
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a good handful of pretzels into a ziplock baggy.
2. Crush ‘em. Crush ‘em good.
3. Now, take the pretzels you’ve so painstakingly crushed and throw ‘em in a bowl.
4. To the crushed pretzely goodness, add in your sugar and stir around to incorporate evenly. This is going to help caramelize the outsides of the pretzels and get that wonderfully toasty taste.
5. To your wonderful pretzel-sugar combo, add in your melted butter. Yes, all of it. Don’t be shy. You need every drop! Stir to coat all the pretzels evenly.
6. Now, dump the whole thing out into your dish. This time, I’m using my trusty 9″x13″. Who knows what I’ll do next time. I live on the edge like that.
7. Now, using your fingers or the bottom of a cup, press down the pretzel mixture firmly to form an even crust. This will ensure that your crust will be more crust-y and won’t fall apart as easily when you cut into it later.
Also, lose a diamond off your ring and have to send it in for repairs so that, for a month, you get to feel awesome in just your wedding band. Go ahead, all the cool kids are doing it.
8. ta-da! Your crust should be nice and smooth. Place that sucker into the oven for 10-15 minutes. I like to leave it in for 15 to get a nice toasty taste, but 10 minutes will do the trick in not having it fall apart.
Once you remove it from the oven, let it cool COMPLETELY. I stick it in the freezer because I’m impatient as I assemble the rest.
9. Take out your two softened packages of cream cheese and place them in a bowl.
10. To that, add in your sugar. I promise you, despite what you may be thinking, this dessert isn’t that sweet. I’ve used full fat cream cheese as well as the low fat stuff. It doesn’t make a difference in the end.
11. Mix those two until smooth.
12. To the cream cheese mixture, add in your whipped cream. I’ve used homemade whipped cream and regular whipped topping from a container and I can honestly say that the difference was negligible. Do what feels right.
13. Spread the cream cheese mixture over your totally cooled crust. Then place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour to set.
14. Prepare your Jell-O according to the package instructions. I know I wrote 2 cups of boiling water, but I always use 1/2 cup boiling and 1 1/2 cups cold water to make mine since the Jell-O sets a whole lot quicker that way. Place in the freezer to quicken the solidifying while you chop up your fruit.
15. Today, I am using strawberries to place on top of my pretzel salad. You could just as easily use any other fruit. Just cut them up to your desired thickness.
16. Take your Jell-O out of the freezer and drop in your fruit. You may need to set it back into the freezer to let it set a bit more. Just don’t let it set all the way. You want it cool but still runny for easy spreading.
17. Spread the Jell-O right over the cream cheese mixture and try to get them as evenly dispersed as possible. Put it in the fridge and let the gelatin set all the way and the instant that happens, remove and enjoy!
Happy eating!
Oven Chimichangas
March 18th, 2010 | by Zahra | in Dinner | 1 CommentHave you ever had a chimichanga?? It’s a fabulousity.
A chimichanga is a fried burrito. Duuude. Burrito’s are already awesome. Fry ‘em up and they become your one and only.
However, seeing how I have very clearly earned the reputation of cooking full-fat meals, I decided it was time to calm things down a bit. Give my hips and thighs a break for once. These lovely chimichangas are indeed baked and, get this, may actually be healthy!
Another disclaimer, we eat vegetarian normally in this household. So you will see that the recipe is vague for this reason. Replace my vegetable-y, non-meat-containing nonsense (aka “schmoosh”) with the meats of your choice my friends. You won’t hurt my feelings.
Let’s get started.
Oven-baked Chimichangas
1-½ cup cooked schmoosh of your choice (ground beef, cubed chicken, or in my case, leftover lentil “meat”balls and some mushrooms)
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoons black pepper
5 scallions, finely chopped (I love all things oniony so you can reduce the number if you’d like)
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
¾ cups salsa (see, this was my plan, but I was all out. So I substituted with a large tomato and a good dash of lemon juice)
1/2 cup (or more!) sharp cheddar cheese, grated
Flour tortillas
Oil for brushing
Optional: garlic salt and smoked paprika
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Start off by heating your pan with a drizzle of vegetable oil. Or, if you’re being snooty today, olive oil. It honestly doesn’t matter that much.
2. Toss in your “schmoosh” of choice and cook to desired done-ness.
For me, that included drowning my schmoosh in stock to redistribute the seasonings throughout. I added all my spices here because I felt like it.
3. When the schmoosh is ready, drop in your scallions and cilantro.
4. Next, add your salsa. Or, if you’re like me and constantly unprepared, your big ol’ tomato and a generous dash of lemon juice. Let it incorporate with the schmoosh for a minute or two. I left it in a bit longer since I wanted the tomatoes to soften up a bit.
5. Because you’re awesome, throw in your cheese, disperse them throughout your filling and turn off the heat. My grater was dirty so I diced up my cheese. Again, be more prepared than I am.
6. Now, take out your tortillas and add a good dollop of filling right in the center and fold ‘em up. I will microwave my tortillas for maybe 30 seconds next time. They’ll be less cracky. But hey, who’s judging!
7. Set out, seam side down, on a baking pan sprayed with your favorite oil sprayer.
8. Brush the tops of your chimichangas with olive oil or melted butter. I’m awesome and used melted butter.
9. If you want, you can sprinkle the tops with smoked paprika and a bit of garlic salt. It adds a little somethin’ somethin’ to the end outcome.
10. Set in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Yes, I take awful pictures when I don’t have natural light anymore. I promise I didn’t burn the tops of these. They were actually very delicious thank you.
Serve warm with guacamole!
New Year, New Stuff!
March 16th, 2010 | by Zahra | in Zahra Does | No CommentsOh dear, how delinquent I have been in posting on Zahra Does. I should just change the section to “Zahra Does Stuff Rarely”. But hey, it might be March but it’s also a new year! And with a new year comes new resolutions and awesomely grand plans to improve, most of which are never realized. It’s expected!
2010 has brought great changes for us: we both got new jobs, I have finally gotten a KitchenAid stand mixer and a Le Creuset dutch oven, and, two years later, I gave in and we bought a wedding band for me. Official married lady status: ACHIEVED.
Since it’s almost spring (hello Norooz in less than a week!!), lemme just tell you that it was an insanely snowy winter. And you know what else? My Texas-made boots are USELESS in the snow. I found this out the hard way.
Zahra Nourani in the snow. It happened.
They soak the melted snow right in and freeze my toes.
We had the awesome chance of being at the Grand Canyon when it snowed too. It was super beautimous. I apologize for the hugeness of the photos, but I thought they were way too pretty-ful not to share!
But you know, the best part of the winter was that we had about 2 months of down-time to enjoy everything. So hey, there are benefits to unemployment!
Pretty pretty benefits.
If you ever get the chance, do go see the Grand Canyon during the winter. It’s spectacular.
And then go eat a whole lot of broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl. It’s the right thing to do.
Now that it’s almost spring, I will *try* my utmost to at least post regularly on the goings-on. Random, mundane, everyday goings-on. Doesn’t that sound riveting??
Here’s to the spring! Hope there are more pictures to document it than there were for the winter!
Chocolate Walnut Biscotti
January 17th, 2010 | by Zahra | in Cookies, Desserts | 1 CommentI always thought biscotti was a super hard treat to make. It comes in those fancy schmancy packages at the store afterall. But when it was explained to me that it’s simply a twice baked cookie, the doors were opened for me to BiscottiLand.
It doesn’t get any easier than that now does it?
Chocolate Walnut Biscotti
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa (I used Hershey’s)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts
milk, dark, or white chocolate for drizzling. Or some combination of all of them.
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter with the sugar.
2. Add in the eggs and vanilla. Beat until combined.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add it to the wet ingredients.
4. Drop in all the walnuts and stir to combine.
The dough will be tough and sticky. And look something like this.
5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or this handy dandy silicon thing I have. Divide the dough into two batches and set them out on the baking sheet in log form. They don’t have to be perfect.
6. Set in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove, and let them cool for about 15 minutes.
7. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs on a diagonal.
8. Set the slices side-by-side back on the baking sheet and set in the oven for 8-9 minutes. Remove, flip them over and bake another 8-9 minutes.
9. Let the biscotti cool completely and then drizzle with some chocolate.
and because I couldn’t just leave it alone after one drizzle, I also drizzled them with white chocolate. That part is entirely up to you!