Kitchens and Catwalks : 2012

Not for Them Skinny Bitches: Pumpkin Bar Edition

Fall is upon us and everyone is handling it differently. Some are embracing the season by picking the biggest pumpkin they can find and some of us are preparing for winter hibernation by stuffing our faces with everything in sight. We here at Kitchens and Catwalks subscribe to the latter.

Last week we experimented with an especially unhealthy pumpkin bar recipe and it kept us warm all week long.Our good friend Jamie Durbin passed about this recipe... we think she's trying to make us look fat.

So put away your skinny jeans and throw on that oversized sweater- at least they're in this season!

Pumpkin Squares:

2 cups pumpkin ( a little over 1 16 oz can, use measuring cup)

1 cup vegetable oil (make sure you use this type of oil!)

2 cups of white sugar

4 eggs

2 cups white flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chopped nuts (optional, I left them out for mine)

1. Blend the pumpkin, oil, sugar & eggs.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and pour into a GREASED 9X13 pan or jelly roll pan

3. Bake 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees (It definitely took us 30 minutes, but check)

Frosting:

1/2 cup SOFTENED butter (don't microwave or it won't work) Lay this out right away!!

3 oz cream cheese SOFTENED

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Welcome to Fall, bitches.

4:11 PM
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The Consummate Curry

Hey everyone! It’s been a while but don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you. Nina and I have been busy creating tasty treats and we decided on one that we think is good enough for even your picky pallet: the Consummate Curry (consummate meaning ultimate or best, not to be confused with the verb to consummate meaning doing the deed. So basically, no matter how delicious you find it, DO NOT TRY TO GET IT ON WITH YOUR CURRY). We decided on a curry because we wanted to be all exotic and different. Of course, we have no idea where this recipe came from so we have no idea how exotic we’re being. But probably very.

It’s pretty simple but it takes a lot of time because the potatoes make the base for the curry so they essentially turn into a kind of mashed potato with a bunch of other stuff mixed in. They thicken the curry so it's not watery. Overall, really delicious and easy to make but a tad bit time consuming. It took us about an hour and a half.

The ingredients are as follows:

· Half an onion

· 3 cloves of garlic

· 2 chicken breasts

· 3 medium russet potatoes

· 20 or so baby carrots

· 1 chicken bouillon cube

· Yellow curry powder (shit tons)

· Salt and pepper to taste

· Enough water to cover all of the ingredients in the pot

To make it you start out by pouring about two tablespoons of oil into a medium sized pot and setting it to medium heat. You then slice half an onion into small pieces (no need to dice) and put them into the pot once the oil has warmed up a bit. Once the onions are translucent, put in about a teaspoon of curry powder. We used a basic yellow curry powder that we found in the supermarket (as you can tell, we’re real specialists when it comes to curry). Add about 2 or 3 cloves of diced garlic. Cut up the chicken into strips or cubes, however you like it. We chose strip cuz we like our chicken slutty. Let the chicken cook on both sides and toss in about another teaspoon of curry powder. The next step involves the potatoes. Here’s the thing about potatoes: they take a long time to cook all the way through. That’s why it is very important that you cut the potatoes into small(ish) pieces before adding them. It will take a significantly shorter amount of time to cook through when cut than a whole potato. After you cut the potatoes and baby carrots (we just cut them in half), put them in the pot and add enough water to cover the entire mixture. Add a cube of chicken bouillon, stir, and cover for about 20 minutes. Check in on it every 5 minutes or so. Are the potatoes turning into mashed potatoes? Take a taste. Is there enough curry powder? Enough chicken bouillon? Enough salt and pepper? The answer to these last three questions is all based on your taste so there is no right answer. Don’t you wish all questions in life were like that? The right answer is yes. Once everything has enough flavor and the potatoes have thickened up the mixture, it is ready to eat. I would wait about 5 minutes to dig in though because I was in a rush and burned my mouth a little. But I was still able to taste the curry so we're good. Also, I hope you made rice to go with it.

As always we’re waiting for your comments and questions. Don’t be shy now.

- K&C

2:54 PM
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Not for them skinny bitches Mac n' Cheese

Hello there pals! Our first recipe is a personal fave as it comes from the land of lard and goodness. It’s a mac n’ cheese recipe so rich and creamy, it’ll have you unbuttoning your pants after two bites but even then you won’t put your fork down. If you’re on a diet, you can’t eat this. If you’re not on a diet, you should be after you’re done. It’s so fattening and yummy, we just had to call it the “Not for them skinny bitches mac n’ cheese.”

We made a pretty enormous amount and not even four of us could finish it. So if you’re cooking for only one or two people I’d suggest scaling it back a lot. It’ll still taste just as good!

To conquer this culinary feat (aka to cook this decently simple dish) you will need the following:

· 16 ounces of pasta

· 1 pint of half and half or heavy cream

· 3 tablespoons of butter

· 1..5 tablespoons of flour

· 1/3 pound of gouda

· 1 cup of mozzarella

· ¼ pound of cheddar (we used white but if you want to use yellow, we won’t judge)

· ¼ pound of Havarti

· Salt and pepper to taste

· Panko breadcrumbs to taste

Start by boiling water for your pasta and setting your oven to 425 to preheat. While you’re waiting on those, you can start your sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Once it’s melted and starting to bubble a little, add the flower and mix it in. Congrats! You just made a roux.

How fancy and French of you. For those of you who aren’t savvy with haute kitchen terminology, a roux is a mixture of flour and fat and is a basis for a lot of sauces used in French cuisine because of its ability to thicken the sauce. Once you have stirred it up let the roux cook for about a minute before you add your cream. Mix and stir and wait! You’ll see the sauce thicken and hear your stomach rumble in anticipation.

You know what’s next. IT’S CHEESE TIME BITCHES! Toss all that cheese in. Turn down the heat to low because cheese won’t need a very high temp to melt. Salt and pepper to taste. One idea is to add paprika if you like that smoked flavor. I don’t so I didn’t but if you do, go nuts. Hopefully your pasta is done at this point (if not, don’t worry. Just turn off the sauce and finish the pasta). Strain it and pour it into a baking pan or a casserole dish. Something deep that can fit all of the pasta. Pour that saucy goodness all up in there and mix it in really nice. Yeah baby, just like that. Whoa sorry, that got a little weird.

Anyway, sprinkle some more cheese on top and then the breadcrumbs. Some people like to spray PAM on top so that the breadcrumbs get all golden and crunchy but to be honest, with all the fat oozing out of the cheese sauce the breadcrumbs will do that on their own. Pop it in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are golden. Take it out and wait for about 5 minutes because the cheese will be bubbling and will straight up burn the skin out of your mouth if you dig in immediately. Have patience. It will pay off.

Now eat it all!

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did. Post comments! We want to hear your variations.

Stay classy my friends.

K&C

2:20 PM
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Not for Them Skinny Bitches: Pumpkin Bar Edition

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