May 21 2013

Black ‘n’ Blue Cheese Burger Stuffed Baked Potato

Do you remember those divided plates you used to have when you were a kid? They had cartoons in each section like this one from Sesame Street…

I may have to buy this… I love it.

To this day, this is how I prefer to eat my food. Divided. Separated. Nothing touching.

What I’ve realized is that you are either the type of person who likes messy meals, the kind where you can smush all their food together, “it all goes down the same tube, of course”… OR … you like your food separated. You like to experience each flavor on its own before even considering mixing them together. If you’re that person, you know you’re looking at that Sesame Street plate and thinking about getting one just like I am.

With all of that being said, I believe I have one exception: I love a good stuffed baked potato. The baked potato is the perfect vessel for any type of food smush. It just tastes so good when you put loads of toppings on there and get it all mashed together with the insides.

It’s totally not like me, but for you, baked potato, I will make this exception.

My latest stuffed baked potato creation was inspired by one of my favorite burgers: the Black & Blue. Spicy Blackened seasoning combined with Creamy Blue Cheese is just heavenly.

Black ‘n’ Blue Cheese Burger Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Makes 2 Servings

Ingredients:

2 Russet or other Baking Potatoes

8 oz Lean Ground Beef (I used 90/10)

2 Tablespoons (divided) Blackened Seasoning*

1/2 Onion, sliced thin

1 Jalapeno, cut in half and then into thin slices

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1-2 oz or 1/2 cup Blue Cheese Crumbles

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil Mayo

1 Tablespoon Fat Free Sour Cream

1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder

Garnish: 2 Tablespoons Butter Substitute, Freeze Dried (or fresh) Chives

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Scrub your potatoes under cold water and then pat them dry. You can rub them with a little olive oil and sea salt if you’d like. Cut a line down the middle using a sharp knife so the potato doesn’t burst while it’s cooking. Place directly on the oven rack (you can place foil on the rack below to prevent mess) and cook for about 45 min. You can tell the potato is done when you squeeze the middle of the potato. It will give in very easily when it’s done cooking.

2. Meanwhile, caramelize your onions and jalapeno. Melt the 1T of butter and olive oil in a medium-sized pan over medium heat. Add the onions and jalapeno strips. Cook over medium or medium low, stirring occasionally until they become caramelized.

3. Take the ground beef and if it’s frozen, scrape into pieces with two forks in a large pan over medium heat. If it’s raw, chop while it’s cooking in the pan. Once the meat is chopped, add the blackened seasoning. Start with 1T and stir into the beef. Once the beef is cooked through (no longer pink), taste a piece and add more blackened seasoning to your liking.

4. Combine the Blue Cheese, Mayo, Sour Cream, Garlic Powder, and Onion Powder in a small bowl. Stir and set aside in the refrigerator.

5. Assemble the Stuffed Potato: Open the potato by squeezing on both ends (wearing an oven mit!) You can add a dab of butter or butter substitute onto the potato. Add half of the ground beef, then half the onion mixture, and a big dollop of the blue cheese sauce. Top with chives if you’d like.

*You can use store-bought or try this homemade recipe. I made it for another dish a month ago and put the rest in a ziplock which is what I used

Told ya it was smush! MMM!!

This is definitely one recipe I can get behind mixing everything together. It was so good and really messy. I served these colossal potatoes with some fresh broccoli to make me feel a little healthier. Adding green to something unhealthy totally erases calories. Duh.

Check out these other fab Stuffed Baked Potatoes too! … they’re kinda my thing.

May 20 2013

Happy 300th Post!

I just wanted to give you all a little shout-out today, as this marks post #300 on It’s Good to be the Cook!

300!!

I can’t believe it.

This whole thing just started as my way to remember and photograph some of the fun things my Mom and I were cooking up in our kitchen… and has turned into the most fun (and delicious) hobby!

Thank you for all you have done to support the blog and of course to help me along the way. Thank you for reading and sharing, cooking and commenting. I am a lucky girl to have so many wonderful followers

I have some very exciting news for you! I want announce that in the next two weeks, I’ll be having my very first give-away! Stay tuned ;-) But first… today, I wanted to share a few of our favorite recipes in honor of the big 300!

Here are your TOP 6 Recipes with the most hits of all time:

6. Eva Longoria’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

5. Italian Hoagie Dip

4. “Biggest Loser” Pancakes

3. Sriracha Chicken & Onions

2. Trader Joe’s Carne Asada

1. Ratatouille

These are my personal favorite TOP 6 Recipes:

6. Buffalo Chicken Soup

5. Crabcake Mac n Cheese

4. Peanut Butter Soba Noodles

3. Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Baked Potato

2. Red Lentil Dahl

1. Sriracha Tomato Jam

Thanks again for being such awesome readers!

Love,

Beth

May 17 2013

Cotton Candy Birthday Bars

If you haven’t realized this on your own yet… I don’t bake very often.

Today I’m baking for a special reason. It’s my sister’s birthday!! (well tomorrow)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA!

I decided to make her these colorful Cotton Candy Bars as an homage to our childhood. Mellie and I always chose the most ~~disgusting~~ outrageously sugary and colorful flavors everywhere we went. Whether it was ice cream, the soda syrup at Nifty Fifty’s, or the fluoride at the dentist office… you could put money on Mellie and I choosing the weirdest one. Cotton Candy was always the winner over Bubblegum.

When I saw this recipe on The Domestic Rebel (the most amazing blog about sweets), I immediately thought about Mel. I had to make these for her!

The best thing about The Domestic Rebel is that she does a ton of semi-homemade goodies. These bars were so easy to make which was perfect for my busy weekday schedule.

Cotton Candy Birthday Bars

Ingredients:

1 Box Funfetti cake mix
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Canola Oil
2 pkts Duncan Hines Cotton Candy Recipe Creations Flavor Mix
1 cup White Chocolate Chips
1 can Duncan Hines Frosting Starter kit
Sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 13×9 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, eggs, oil and ONE packet of the cotton candy mix with a rubber spatula until blended and combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Plop the mixture into the baking dish and using your hands, spread the dough evenly over the bottom. Bake for 10-14 minutes (Hayley suggested 14-16 but after checking around 11 minutes, mine was ready to come out… so keey an eye!) until edges are lightly golden and center is set. Allow to cool completely before frosting
4. Stir the remaining flavor packet into the can of icing. Spread the icing evenly onto the cooled bars and top with sprinkles. Refrigerate for about an hour before cutting into squares.

Recipe from: The Domestic Rebel

You know you’ve seen these in the baking section this year! I was super psyched to try them out.

BLUE!!!!!!!

I could eat this whole dough ball, I swear.

The mixture turns out pretty thick so I had to press down with my hands to spread it out as best as I could.

I had so much fun swirling the cotton candy flavoring into the icing

YUM! I just love how perfectly blue these babies turned out. It’s not often you get to eat blue food… unless you have an awesome Mom like we did who let us put food coloring in our mashed potatoes!

So give these sugary bars a shot and let your inner child have some fun! Happy Birthday Mellie!

May 16 2013

Marin Joe’s Special

Forever ago, I was watching one of my Food Network shows when Tyler Florence introduced me to one of the best things he’s ever eaten: The Marin Joe’s Special from Marin Joe’s in Corte Madera, CA.

He’s sexy and he knows it!

Seeing as I won’t be traveling to Corte Madera, CA anytime soon, I decided I had to try this one out myself. It sounded so easy… “Hamburger, Spinach, Eggs”. Three things I love to eat.

My grand idea of trying out my first recipe as seen on “Best Thing…” was spoiled when I told Dave the three simple starring ingredients. What I got back was a different simple three words, “That. Sounds. Disgusting.”, and put the recipe back in my book of hundreds. I forgot about good ole Marin Joe’s until one night during our “Lets not go food shopping and save money” week. I had ground beef… a huge bag of spinach… and we always have a plethora of eggs. Perfect.

And would you have guessed… Dave ended up loving it? We both did!

This is an awesome recipe packed with protein from the beef and eggs and it even includes your veggies too!

Before you’re turned off by the eggs just like Dave was, let me reassure you, this doesn’t turn out to be scrambled eggs on top of a hamburger. The eggs are mixed into the ground beef and turn into more of a thickener. Eggs combine all of the other ingredients together and make it just deliciously rich. Seriously, try it.

Marin Joe’s Special

Ingredients:

1lb Lean Ground Beef

1/2 Onion, thinly sliced

1 clove of Garlic, thinly sliced or crushed

1 Jalapeno, seeded and sliced

1 bag Baby Spinach (or more! I had a giant bag so I used a ton)

3 Eggs

1/4 cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

1. Add ground beef to a large saute pan. Chop into small pieces as it cooks. Add the onion, jalapeno, and garlic. Saute with the grease from the ground beef. Season with Salt and Pepper to taste.

2. Once the beef is cooked through, pile on the raw spinach. Mix into the meat and heat while stirring until the spinach becomes slightly wilted.

3. Stir the eggs together in a small bowl. Once the spinach is slightly wilted, add the eggs to the pan. Stir constantly until the eggs are completely mixed in and no longer runny. If you stir it constantly- it won’t turn into scrambled eggs

4. Serve in a bowl and top with Parmesan cheese.

Recipe slightly adapted from: Marin Joe’s Restaurant

Ground beef is sauteed and chopped up with the onion, garlic, jalapeno with salt and pepper.

I told you, I love spinach! This was during the time we had a giant 3lb bag from the Italian Market, so I def. used more than a normal 5oz bag.

Stir the spinach until it becomes slightly wilted, and then add the eggs.

In go the eggs! Don’t be afraid

Anything topped with fresh parm is okay in my book…

See how good this looks?! It was the perfect speedy dinner after a long run in the neighborhood. And I do have to say, I can very much appreciate a one-pan dinner every once in a while!

Take a bite!

Take a peek at these other recipes I’ve tried from the Food Network:

Blue Cheese n Spinach Orzo from Robert Irvine

BBQ Deviled Eggs from the Neely’s

Chicken in Peanut Sauce from Mexican Made Easy

May 14 2013

Seattle, WA

It has been so long that I’ve been able to write about one of our fabulous adventures because we HAVEN’T BEEN ON ONE IN OVER A YEAR! Dave and I finally saved up some time and money and went away together for the first time since LA last December. What a nice and much overdue treat.

Why Seattle for such a short trip? Dave’s new job has him traveling quite a bit in the next few months. His first business trip this season was scheduled for Seattle on a Friday morning. Friday morning… how perfect. We decided to make a vacation out of it, especially since Seattle is just a train ride away from his family in Vancouver.

My adventure started at 4:00 AM on Friday. EW. I had to catch a bus at 4:30 to catch another bus to the airport for my flight out of Philly at 7am. All went well and after a VERY LONG day on airplanes (I finished reading Paterno -loved- and started -and finished… and also loved) Gone Girl- I arrived in Seattle at 3pm. I met Dave who had already finished up working for the day at our amazing hotel, the Edgewater.

The Edgewater is a waterfront hotel that was made famous by this picture of the Beatles fishing outside their room in 1964…

“Fab Fishing” Photo Cred: BeatlesInterviews.org

…and more recently, was featured on “The Layover” with my all time favorite foodie Anthony Bourdain!

#OMGWeStayedAtTheSameHotel!!!??!?
Photo Cred: HotelChatter.com

Dave and I had a room with a balcony overlooking Elliott Bay, with a fancy bathroom, fireplace, and even this little guy to keep us company (they sell them in the store… I WANT ONE!! duh).

Loved our friend in our room! So cute

The view from the lobby. Just amazing.

We dropped off my luggage and got started with some sightseeing right away… we had to take advantage of what ended up being the clearest, nicest day during our time in Seattle!

We walked down the pier and took a ride on The Seattle Great Wheel which provided a beautiful view of the city.

Dave on the Ferris Wheel

Pretty view from the ferris wheel

Next, we decided we were going to walk through the city to the Space Needle. The quick ride in the elevator brought us up to the observation deck which gave us a 360 degree view of the city… 520 feet in the air. OMG! The scenery was beautiful and this was the only day we could see the towering snow-covered Mt. Rainier. I was awestruck by this mountain… I could not believe how big and gorgeous it was.

Space Needle!

GORGEOUS view of Mt. Rainier from the Space Needle.

After the space needle, we made a pit-stop at the Pike Place Market. You got it… the place where they throw the fish

We munched on some smoked cheeese “trail mix” (YUM) and walked around to check out all of the fresh fish. We ended up grabbing a small bite to eat at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese store… wow! We had a few samples, tried out a fancy grilled cheese, and munched on their famous Cheese Curds.

Lobster!

I wish I could have gone shopping at the market! Check out the size of that shrimp…

Smoked Cheese Sticks & “Trail Mix” … nom nom

Fiiiiish

Rows and rows of fresh flowers

As if our day wasn’t already jam-packed enough, we then headed over to Safeco Field to watch the Seattle Mariners get crushed by the Angels. We had such a fun time and tried some local favorites suggested by my friend Heather… Grounder’s Garlic Fries (OMG GARLICC!), Cheddar/Caramel Popcorn (I didn’t let Dave open this until we got back to the hotel for a midnight snack!), and later on, a Seattle Dog (Cream Cheese… whaaaaat?!). We didn’t realize until we left, but at the ballpark in Seattle unlike in Philadelphia, you can leave the stadium and come back in! I love it! They have lots of shops and food vendors lined up outside the stadium so I imagine this would have been really cool to do. Nice touch, Seattle.

Go Mariners!

Devoured this Cheddar-Caramel Corn … yum!

Pretty view from the ballpark.

YUM! Garlic fries! We both agreed that Philly’s Famous Crab Fries from Chickie and Pete’s is better though

Enjoying the baseball game

Next, we walked back to our hotel, stopping at a few bars along the way. We dropped by a place that looked pretty cool called 1000 Spirits. This would be the first of THREE times we’d visit this cocktail bar during our short stay in the city. Dave and I loved this place! With $5 martinis, two different happy hour times, a Happy Hour Wheel, and free drinks with a #1000Spirits tweet… we ended up having six delicious cocktails and an appetizer for only $24. WOW!

Cocktail bar! Got Dave into Dirty Martinis… mmm!

This is only about 1/3 of the bar! OMG.

Delicious cod cake. Only $5 during Happy Hr.

The next day, we had until our 6pm train to Vancouver to explore the city. It was a little bit on the chilly side this day, so we decided to hit up the EMP Museum. First, for breakfast, we stopped by The Five-Point Cafe as suggested by the Layover & Anthony Bourdain. I obviously super-stalked the menu and decided we had to go here. I mean, they have a “breakfast happy hour”… how could it be bad? Boy was I WRONG! BOO Anthony! Boo! Here’s the story:

We had an incredibly disappointing meal at Five-Point Cafe. The service was just horrible. I’m always the type of person to be super-sweet to servers, always understand, rarely complain, etc. The first bad sign was how long we had to wait for our food. It was maybe about twenty minutes before I started looking around for our food. I noticed a few plates up by the kitchen window just sitting there waiting to be delivered to their tables. Ten minutes passed. They were still there. Praying those plates weren’t ours, I asked another server (ours was nowhere to be found) to check on our orders. They weren’t ours. Whew! Another ten minutes passed before our food came out (it’s now been about 40 minutes since we ordered BREAKFAST… this should not take that long). I had ordered one of their famous Benedicts, the “Californian” with avocado and grilled tomato. I was STARVING at this point and could not wait to dig in. It looked delish. I cut into my benny only to see no runny egg. Whatttt? My dish had been sitting so long that the egg turned hard… a hard boiled egg smothered in hollandaise. I’m sorry, but this is just UNACCEPTABLE for a Benny, right?! I had to flag down our server only to have her roll her eyes at me. Great. They brought out another dish for me 10 minutes later, having only removed the hard eggs and replaced with runny eggs and MORE hollandaise sauce. Gross. It was covered to the point where I couldn’t taste any of the food except the sauce. Dave’s Corned Beef Hash (his version of my benedict… the “I don’t care about calories” breakfast-go-to) was served to him cold, which at this point was the least of our worries. BOO! What a disappointment.

What I thought would be a delicious benedict from 5-Point Cafe…

Ended up disgusting. I couldn’t eat anything under all of that gloopy sauce.

Ready for a GOOD TIME after our terrible breakfast, we headed over to the EMP Museum of Music, Sci-Fi, and Pop-Culture. This wasn’t only the coolest looking building ever… it was the coolest museum ever. We absolutely loved it.

The EMP Museum is one funky building! Photo Cred: Journeysinlightphotoblog.com

They had exhibits about Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Sci-Fi movies and TV, Video Games, Fantasy, Horror Movies, and even an entire area where you could play around with music. Dave was the happiest person ever being able to go into a sound proof room and play the drums for the first time in years. We also got to try out sound mixing too. This place isn’t just for kids, it’s for big kids like us!

Center of the EMP Museum… so cool

Dave’s replaced King Geoffrey in the Game of Thrones in the fantasy section of the EMP Museum.

Caught in the reflection of the funky EMP Museum building

My favorite picture of them all… the reflection of the space needle outside the EMP Museum

We stopped by a coffee shop for a pick-me-up and went back to the Space Needle. Our train at 6pm took us to Vancouver to visit with Dave’s family for a few days. I could not believe how much sightseeing we got done in just over 24 hours!

Our 3-Day, 3-Night visit to Vancouver was amazing. I have lots to tell you and tons of pictures to share of our amazing food adventure… so that will have to wait until later. We arrived back in Seattle for one last day on Tuesday morning.

After checking into our hotel, we took a nice long walk through the city, bringing us back to the Pike Place Market again. This time around, we were able to buy some souvenirs and iced coffees at the very first Starbucks! I was one happy, perfectly caffeinated girl. We satisfied our hunger and oyster craving at Emmett Watson’s Oyster Bar which was a tiny little hole in the wall place near the market. Oysters were slurped and a super-garlicky salmon soup was shared. Yum.

Watson’s Oyster Bar menus are printed on brown paper bags. Love.

Amazing soup at the Oyster Bar!

Happy to be in the very first Starbucks.

First Starbucks Store

Our last dinner in Seattle ended up bringing us back to 1000 Spirits (why not?!) for some more drinks and grub. Dave and I are absolutely going to miss this place!

I didn’t get my normal “OMG I want to move here” feelings when we were leaving Seattle. Maybe it’s because I’m just loving our new place in Philly? Or maybe it’s because we had a few days in Vancouver (the most beautiful city on earth) sandwiched in the middle? Regardless, I had such an amazing trip and would love to visit again! Who’s with me?

I woke up on the plane to this unbelievable view of Mt. Rainier… wow!

It's Good to be the Cook

Black ‘n’ Blue Cheese Burger Stuffed Baked Potato

Black ‘n’ Blue Cheese Burger Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Check out these other fab Stuffed Baked Potatoes too! … they’re kinda my thing.

Happy 300th Post!

300!!

Here are your TOP 6 Recipes with the most hits of all time:

6. Eva Longoria’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

5. Italian Hoagie Dip

4. “Biggest Loser” Pancakes

3. Sriracha Chicken & Onions

2. Trader Joe’s Carne Asada

1. Ratatouille

6. Buffalo Chicken Soup

5. Crabcake Mac n Cheese

4. Peanut Butter Soba Noodles

3. Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Baked Potato

2. Red Lentil Dahl

1. Sriracha Tomato Jam

Thanks again for being such awesome readers!

Love,

Beth

Cotton Candy Birthday Bars

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA!

Cotton Candy Birthday Bars

Marin Joe’s Special

Marin Joe’s Special

Take a peek at these other recipes I’ve tried from the Food Network:

Seattle, WA

Follow “It's Good to be the Cook”

Black ‘n’ Blue Cheese Burger Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Check out these other fab Stuffed Baked Potatoes too! … they’re kinda my thing.

You Like? Share!

Like this:

300!!

Here are your TOP 6 Recipes with the most hits of all time:

6. Eva Longoria’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

5. Italian Hoagie Dip

4. “Biggest Loser” Pancakes

3. Sriracha Chicken & Onions

2. Trader Joe’s Carne Asada

1. Ratatouille

Thanks again for being such awesome readers!

Love,

Beth

You Like? Share!

Like this:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELISSA!

Cotton Candy Birthday Bars

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Like this:

Marin Joe’s Special

Take a peek at these other recipes I’ve tried from the Food Network:

You Like? Share!

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You Like? Share!

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Follow “It's Good to be the Cook”