Recipe: Guinness Stout Brownie Bites

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One of my favorite party planning blogs is Hostess with the Mostess.  I recently browsing for fun party ideas and cam across this super fun blog for Guinness Stout Brownie Pretzel Bars.  I thought these were perfect for our Super Bowl party (and my husband’s beer themed birthday).  The recipe is by Esther Kang of Batch from Scratch.

Ingredients:

4 oz Bittersweet Chocolate
8 oz Butter
1 Egg
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Cocoa
1 1/4 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Guinness
8 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
3.5 oz Butterscotch
2.5 oz White Chocolate Chips
1.4 oz Heavy Cream

Place the bittersweet chocolate & butter in a bowl.

Melt in microwave or double boiler.

Using a mixer beat egg, sugar and brown sugar for 3 minutes.

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl cocoa, flour, salt.  Add the melted chocolate to egg mixture then mix in dry ingredients.  Last add vanilla and beer mixing until incorporated.  Pour into a 9×13 pan.

Sprinkle semi-sweet chocolate on top of the batter.  Then pop it in the over at 350 for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make the butterscotch ganache combine butterscotch, white chocolate and heavy cream in a small bowl.  Microwave in 30 second increments, stir until melted and smooth.  I heated mine for a little over a minute, however make sure not to over heat them or it will go ALL over you microwave and you will loose a lot of the ganache (can you tell this happened to me?? Hahaha). Spread the ganache over the cooked brownie.  Refrigerate until firm.  Then cut into small bites and serve.

The blog suggests topping with 1/3 cup Crushed Pretzels and Flakey Sea Salt  (maldon salt works well).  I should have put the pretzels on while the ganache was still a little warm because I couldn’t get the pretzels to stay on the brownie bits after they were totally cooled.

Here are the YUMMY Guinness Brownie Bits …

The brownies were a big hit and perfect for both the super bowl and birthday parties.

Happy Cooking & Party Planning!

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below :)

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Chicken Tikka Masala

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The husband and I go to this fantastic Indian place in Adams Morgan.  One time we really wanted Indian, but didn’t feel like venturing out of the house.  Enter the beautiful world of online recipes. I combined a few different recipes and came up with the following Chicken Tikka Masala recipe which is inspired by our favorite meal at the Indian restaurant.

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into bite sized pieces)

Marinade-

1 cup yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (or more, to taste)
2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh ginger (minced)
2 teaspoons salt (or less, to taste)

Sauce-

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 medium onion (chopped)
2 garlic clove (minced)
1/2 jalapeño pepper (finely chopped)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 tsp of coriander
2 tsp garam masala
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream (or I like to substitute fat free condenced milk)

In a large bowl mix yogurt, lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, black pepper, cayenne pepper, ginger, and salt. Add chicken bits and mix well, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.


Lightly oil and pre-heat the grill pan to high heat. Put chicken onto the grill and cook until juices run clear. Discard the extra marinade.

In a large skillet melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and jalapeño peppers and sauté for 3 minutes.

Add spices and mix well. Stir in tomato sauce and heavy cream  (or condensed milk). Bring to a boil while stirring reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

Add grilled chicken to the sauce and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve on top of white rice.

You can also serve this meal with naan bread, which can be find at any Indian Restaurant or sometimes places like Harris Teeter or Whole Foods carry it.

Happy Cooking!

Don’t forget to leave your tidbit by commenting below :)

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Recipe: Greek Yogurt Chicken with a Middle Eastern Flair

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Last up on my oh so yummy (the opinion of my guests and myself hehehe) middle eastern inspired meal is the Greek Yogurt Chicken.

I realized I neglected to remind you in the other posts to purchase pita bread from the store.  Right before you are ready to eat pop it in the toaster for a minute or two to warm it up.  Leave it in the toaster a little longer if you want the bread to be a little crunchy.

Okay, back to the chicken …

Ingredients:

1 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1 lemon juiced
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breasts

In a large bowl, mix yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, salt, black pepper, ground cardamom and cayenne. Add the chicken breasts and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Preheat your grill or grill pan. Remove excess marinade and place chicken in your grill pan. Grill the chicken breasts over moderate heat, until they are browned and cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Transfer the chicken breasts to a cutting board and slice the chicken into strips and serve.

So now you’ve got the chicken, tzatziki sauce, tabbouleh, hummus and pita bread  all prepared and you are ready to go.  Don’t forget to set the table, grab a bottle of wine and maybe light some candles…

Then the BEST part … dig in and enjoy the meal!!!

Happy cooking!!!

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Recipe: Tzatziki

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In case you missed it my middle eastern inspired meal started with hummus and tabbouleh!  Now we are ready to make some yummy tzatziki sauce!

Although tzatziki is technically Greek we decided to make the sauce anyways to go with our middle eastern themed dinner.  It complimented everything perfectly and didn’t seem out of place in the meal at all.  Even our guest who isn’t a cucumber lover enjoyed the sauce!!

Tzatziki is super easy to make.  The key part is extracting as much water as possible from the cucumbers so they don’t make the sauce runny or watery.

Ingredients:

2-3 cups of nonfat Greek yogurt
2 cucumbers
1 heaping tablespoons
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 lemon juiced
Salt and pepper to taste

Remove the seeds of the cucumber. Use a spoon (or if you are my husband your thumb apparently works) to scrape out seeds.  Cut the cucumbers into slices and place them in a colander in the sink. Let them for at least 1/2 and hour.

Tip:  Sprinkle a little salt on the cucumbers to help release water. 

Roughly chop the dill and garlic

Place dill, garlic, cucumbers, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in the Cuisinart and process.  Be careful taking the lid off … it is runny!!

Add the Greek yogurt into the Cuisinart and process for a few second until it’s fully blended.  This doesn’t take very long and you don’t want to over process it – so process just until it’s mixed well.  Pour the tzatziki into a serving bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to give the flavors a chance to develop.

**We only had 30-45 minutes before dinner so it didn’t sit for the full two hours and it was still DELICIOUS**

Last item to make for the middle eastern themed dinner party is the Greek Yogurt Chicken.  Stay tuned!! :)

Happy Cooking!

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Recipe: Tabbouleh

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My friend and I go to Skewers a lot and I LOVE, love, love their lighter side menu options. I was having friends over for dinner and craving middle eastern / mediterranean food. So this dinner menu was inspired by my lovely girly dinners at Skewers. 

My dinner party menu consisted of chicken, tabbouleh, hummus, tzatziki and pita bread.  I’ve already blogged about my hummus recipe, check it out and then come back to this recipe.  

The tabbouleh is a little more time intensive then the hummus, but it is super easy to make.  So without further ado here is how I make the tabbouleh.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup bulgur
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 bunch chopped parsley
1 medium tomato diced tomatoes
1/2 medium onion chopped
2-3 tablespoons of roughly chopped mint leaves
1/2 lemon juiced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

Soak the bulgur in boiling water, cover and let it stand for about 2 hours.  Drain the excess water using a colander and then squeeze out any remaining water from bulghur using your hands or paper towel.  (I am a bad blogger and forgot to take a picture. Sorry!)

Dice the tomato and onion.  Place them in a bowl.

Chop the curley parsley and mint.

Mix the bulgur, tomatoes, onion, parsley and mint in a bowl.  Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and mix well.  

Your tabbouleh is complete!!

Serve immediately or chill in refrigerator for 2 hours before serving.  I prefer to have it chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes so all the flavors can develop.

Coming up next for our middle eastern inspired meal is the tzatziki sauce and then the chicken.

Happy Cooking!

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