Lemon-Chili Tilapia with Twice-Baked Squash

Glad it is my turn to try out a few recipes for food.music.wine.love! It is so fun being able to share my journey of  teaching myself how to cook with everyone! Hopefully there will only be success, though I will post the not so great turn outs as well!


 I tend to go to Betty Crocker, Kraft and Pillsbury recipe websites, as well as, other cooking blogs looking for quick and easy meals with a few ingredients... as I am slowly teaching myself to cook. I tend to leave my laptop out while cooking to not only have the recipe out but to also look up cooking terms I do not know and also to have Pandora on! Also checking out member reviews on these sites along with the recipes can help see how real life every day cooks did with a certain recipes and tricks that they found to bet  helpful.


It has been my experience that as I try each new recipe that it takes me slightly longer than it says it should take...do not get discouraged! While it takes me a little longer, practice makes perfect and the meals always turn out yummy!




Cooking Adventures on a cold Sunday February afternoon


Nothing is better than flipping on Pandora, jamming out to my Adele Pandora station on a Sunday afternoon trying out new recipes.  By the way...if you like Adele...check her out at Royal Oak Music Theatre Monday, May 23rd!

The recipes for this latest cooking adventure for food.music.wine.love are Betty Crocker's Lemon-Chili Tilapia and Pillsbury's Twice-Baked Squash. As usual, I use these recipes as guidelines and added my own..umm flair to them.


Here are the links for the full recipes:


Betty Crocker's Lemon-Chili Tilapia


Pillsbury's Twice-Baked Squash

My adventure through Betty Crocker's recipe: Lemon-Chili Tilapia

First off, I played with the ingredients a tad. It called for FiberOne Bran cereal..now since it calls only for one cup of it..I was going to buy a full box of bran cereal that we will actually eat afterwards! I ended up buying Aldi Brand's Cranbeery & Nut whole grain cereal .  Instead of using a rolling pin and sandwich bag to crush the cereal, I used the Magic Bullet..it worked GREAT! For the rub for the fish, I also added a few other spices like Jerk, Lemon Pepper and Paprika . I always say..spice to taste...if it taste good to you..go with it!! I also added a few more random ingredients  to the spicy mayo that is went along with the Tilapia recipe. Once again, spice to taste...I like spicy...Chris not as much...I may have added just a little too much spice for his liking to the fish rub. Ah...you live and you learn! ha! Still very yummy!! I would definitely make this again. It was a lot simpler than I thought it would be!

Lemon-Chili Tilapia with Spicy Mayo dipping sauce

My Adventure in Pillsbury's Twice Baked Squash
I was very excited to try out this recipe because I LOVE squash. The recipe called for buttercup squash but I used acorn squash instead. Acorn squash is similar in size and was also the only type available at the store! The only other change I made to the recipe was the brown sugar...well I should say I did not mean to change it but I misread the directions! Instead of using the brown sugar to sprinkle on top when the squash was done..I may have just put it all into the mixture that is put back into the squash to bake. OPPS! Though it was a great mistake...I enjoyed it better this way because the recipe called for more nutmeg than my liking. The brown sugar evened out the overwhelming nutmeg. The only other ingredient I added was a pinch of cinnamon. Next time I will either add more cinnamon or leave out some nutmeg but I will still add the brown sugar to the mixture. The squash also took about 15ish more minutes to fully cook than then the recipe called for but I was prepared of this after reading a few reviews of this recipe.

Twice Baked Goodness!

I would hands down make this recipe again..and plan to this week. The squash turned out heavenly and it was amazingly good!

Melt in your mouth wonderfulness!!

Wine Pairing

We paired this meal with  Traverse City's own Good Harbor Vineyards Trillium White Wine.

Traverse City's Good Harbor Trillium White Wine

Trillium has apricot, orange peel & floral  aromas with nectarine & grapefruit flavors . Simply..amazing not only in taste but in price, only $8.50 a bottle.

To check out more on Good Harbor Vineyards and Trillium Wine, check out their website:http://www.goodharbor.com/

Overall, this was a wonderful meal! We will definitely be making this again. The tilapia had a great tasting spice coating and the spicy mayo had just the right amount of kick to it, they were a great combo. The squash melted in our mouths! The Trillium wine washed the meal down wonderfully! The dinner was also completed by the addition of a tropical fruit salad in papaya juice ( a can of which I bought at Aldi grocery store!). This meal shows that you can have a great tasting meal paired with a great wine that is light on your wallet. Shopping at stores like Aldi and finding great local wine that are great with an even better price can make for a great night in! Enjoy!

Another food.music.wine.love success!!

Eat, Drink & Be Merry~ Jen Ziemann


*Photos courtesy of my talented husband Chris. Check out Ziemann Photo on Facebook for more of  his talented work!*

Snow Day Baking:)

To celebrate this Snowmageddon Day 2011, spent a fun filled day playing in the snow with the dogs and relaxing! 

Lotus and Maceday enjoying Snowmageddon 2011

We finished up the day by baking a double batch of yummy dog treats. Yes, our two dogs are more like children to us then pets. Lotus and Maceday give us so much love that I love making them all natural dog treats! Plus it is super fun. I found this recipe on Betty Crocker website and made them as Christmas presents for all our furry dog friends:)  Just note..when giving them out as presents...please note that they are dog treats on the package..many human friends found that out.....that and I should have made them in dog bone shapes instead of Christmas Trees! This time around they are dog bone shapes!

The treats are very simple and quick to make! It makes a lot, so they are great to share with other dog friends!

The dogs and I also paid honor to Detroit's own The White Stripes, who announced that they are breaking up today, by jamming out to them during the baking!! The band's official statement:

"The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong to you now and you can do with it whatever you want. The beauty of art and music is that it can last forever if people want it to. Thank you for sharing this experience. Your involvement will never be lost on us and we are truly grateful."

Thank you White Stripes for 13 years of amazing music!!!

I think Lotus & Maceday just know when I am baking them special treats ... they just lay under the table and wait for "droppings" as I bake!

Mommy's Little Helpers!

Here is the recipe for Betty Crocker's Pumpkin and Peanut Butter Dog Treats:

Ingredients

A few of the yummy & all natural ingredients

• 3 cups brown rice lour 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 cup peanut butter 
• 2 eggs 
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

Directions

1.  Heat oven to 350° F. In large bowl stir all ingredients until soft dough forms. 

2.  Divide dough in half. Using brown-rice-loured rolling pin, roll each dough half to 1/2 inch thickness on brown-rice-loured surface.

Cut with 3-inch cookie cutter. On ungreased cookie sheet, place cutouts about 1 inch apart. 

3.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until dry and golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely.

Dog Treats baking away!

.

4.  Store in dog treat jar at room temperature up to 1 week. For longer storage keep in refrigerator or freezer.

Finished product!!!!

Tip: To dress up your puppy treats, melt 1 cup yogurt chips (available at pet stores) and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil in microwavable bowl uncovered on High about 1 minute or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Drizzle over puppy treats. 

Prep Time: 15 Minutes     Start to Finish: 1 Hour 35 Minutes     Makes: 36 puppy treats 

*Brown Rice Flour can be found in your local grocery store in the natural/organic food section.

Special treats "L" for Lotus, "M" for Maceday and "D" for our good doggie friend Daisy:)

Official Pumpkin & Peanut Butter taste testers!

Happy Customers!!!

Though we did not get the "blizzard" that was expected..the Ziemann household was fully stocked for baking and a day of fun in the snow! Nothing beats being snowed in with the ones you love and making the ones you love so yummy treats!

Dreaming for another Snowmageddon day tomorrow!!!

*It is to be noted that all pictures came from our handy point / shot camera not one of Chris's fancy pro cameras*

eat, drink and be happy ~ Jen Ziemann

Ideas are a Brewing

Thanks to all of you that  have checked out our new adventure. We are both super excited about the launch of food.music.wine.love! Check back often to check out what's going on! Lots of ideas were brainstormed this weekend on what all to put into the blog. This month we will be working on spotlighting local Michigan Made on the music, wineries and love pages as we spotlight local artist, wineries & shops, making homemade vanilla extract project and my personal project of creating cupcake recipes after a few of my favorite people in life! Chris will also be charting his new venture in home brewing as he tests out a few home brew & cider kits! Of course there will also be the testing out of new recipes. Next weekend's recipe adventure will be Lemon-Chili Tilapia with a side of Twice Baked Squash and Slow Cooker Carmel-Maple Pears!

If you have any suggestions for recipes or ideas please email food.music.wine.love at foodmusicwinelove@gmail.com.

Help spread the word! Check us out on Facebook too! {http://www.facebook.com/pages/foodmusicwinelove/144214508967498}

-The Ziemann's

"Eat, Drink and Be Merry"

Tomato/Basil & BBQ Chicken Pizza

I decided that Pizza would be an easy and fun for the first blog posted meal. I wanted BBQ chicken and Jen was in the mood for tomato, basil. Instead of arguing over the 2 or trying to find a 3rd option, I just made both of them.

This is the first time that I have made Pizza and the pictures don't lie, it was very tasty! I took some advice from Dan Vaillancourt (Funktified Food) and used a cast iron pan to bake the pizza. The cast iron did a great job of giving the pizza a perfect crispy crust.

Pizza 1 Tomato & Basil

I coated the bottom of the crust with a small amount of pesto sauce.

Covered with Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Topped with fresh Basil and Roma Tomato slices.

Finished with a little more Parmesan cheese.

After the pizza was done baking, I added just a little more Pesto to the top.

Pizza 2 BBQ Chicken

Apply a light layer of BBQ sauce for the first layer.

Add 1 cup of Mozzarella cheese.

Add sliced Grilled Chicken, 1/2 cup diced Red Onions and bacon pieces. (I did not have bacon so I used some sliced up canadian bacon instead.)

Cover with some shredded Mozzarella, Sharp Cheddar and a few slices of Havarti.

The entire process of making the dough, preparing the toppings, building the pizzas and baking only took about an hour. Jen and I both decided that a cold beer was the proper beverage to go with Pizza. Check out the photos and leave some feedback.

The birth of food.music.wine.love!

Welcome! Happy day of birth food.music.wine.love! We are very excited for this new project and the adventure it will take us on. The journey to teach myself to cook more than just pasta has been super fun over the past few months. I am  excited to use this blog to chart my successes(and non successes) through cooking. There will also good music, great wine and amazing friends that will be thrown into the mix .


food.music.wine.love will evolve over the next days, weeks and months as we figure out this new world of blogging. With a husband who is a photographer, we will have great photos to go along to narrate this journey.


Check back often for updates on our adventure!


- The Ziemann's

"Eat, Drink and Be Merry"