justJENN recipes

This is more of a presentation how to, but if you don’t want to do the watermelon thing, just throw these skewers on a platter, they look nice and I have a thing about being able to pick up things individually. It makes for a nicer presentation at a party.

Ingredients:
1 watermelon
cantaloupe
pineapple
grapes
blueberries

Start by cutting the watermelon in half. Use a melon baller to get out the fruit that you will later use on the skewers.

Scrape out the rest of the melon, until you just have an empty shell. Let this dry out.

Once slightly dried, turn the shell over onto a platter. Using a paring knife, cut little ‘x’s or holes down the length of the outside of the melon. These will act as marks for the skewers to stick into.

You can use any kind of fruit you like, the grapes and blueberries act as cute little ’stoppers’ for the bigger fruits. Basically, just cut your fruit into bite sized chunks, then skewer.

Poke the skewers into the marked holes that you made on the outside of the watermelon shell.

Eventually it will look like this.

It makes for a nice presentation on a buffet table, and it’s easy to grab and put on your plate. If you’d rather, you can just put them on a serving platter and forget the melon altogether.

Another idea is to turn the shell over, and FILL it with the cut fruit, having people spoon it out themselves.

Both of these options can be seen in the picture below.

It’s a nicer presentation for fruit at parties and also uses the empty shell which is cute.

That, or put the empty shell on your head. It amuses your kids, trust me.

I know. The word Spam conjures up…well, pukey thoughts, really. But hey, it’s not that bad. Especially when you eat it like this. Spam musubi is a staple in Hawaii, and while I am not a fan of them normally, I think mine tastes the best. Props to me. Just think of it as a teriyaki sauce, it’s really really tasty.

Ingredients:
1 can Spam
3 cups cooked rice
soy sauce
sugar
furikake
5 big sheets of nori (seaweed) cut in half
acrylic musubi maker

Open a can of Spam. One can should be able to be cut into 9 slices, pretty evenly.

Place the cut slices in a pan on medium high heat. Drizzle with soy sauce, and sprinkle liberally with sugar. Turn over and do the same to the other side.

I like to cook it until the sugar gets good and caramelized and you get a nice sticky teriyaki color on the outside. Turn them to make sure the other side looks just as good. Take them out of the pan and let them drain on a paper towel covered plate.

Now the prep. Obviously, you need a musubi maker. Without one, well, ferggit I say. Put the top half of the maker in a bowl of water. This will keep the rice from sticking later. Fluff up your rice and let it ‘air’ out a little to get rid of the moisture.

Get the large sushi sheets of Nori and cut them in half. Lay the folded sheets down (I have two musubi makers for speeding up the process…) put the bottom half of the musubi maker on top of the sheet, somewhere in the middle.

The first layer is rice, then I sprinkle some furikake on top. This is my secret for adding way more taste than plain old Spam alone. Next layer, Spam…

Finally, more rice. I’d say about half a paddle for the top and the bottom. Take the top part of the maker and push down, squishing the rice, just so. Then pull the bottom part off, then remove the top.

Now fold the nori up, and to ’seal’ the top flap, dap some water along the edge.

Here they are all lined up pretty like. You can eat ‘em like this or cut them in half for parties. I like to cut them in half. Much easier to manage. Also if you dip them in some furikake it make it look kinda pretty. Believe me, even if you are afraid of spam, try these, you won’t regret it.

Just a simple vanilla base, where I added some chopped up TJ’s chocolate covered almonds. Insanely simple, but wow, the flavor and crunch, what a difference!

ingredients:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate covered almonds, chopped

Trader Joe’s is the greatest. They have all kinds of things you probably don’t need, but when you see it in the aisle, you feel compelled to grab it. I develop some of my best recipes, just shopping and picking up ingredients that make me say, ‘I wonder what I can do with this?’
I thought these tasty sweets would be great mixed into a vanilla base.

Start by combining the liquids in a bowl, whisking in the sugar. Stir in the vanilla.

I pour this directly into the frozen ice cream maker. Once you get near the end, about 2o mins in, pour in the chopped nuts. If you put it in with the milks in the beginning, they will sink a bit. This way they get more incorporated.

Scoop out the ice cream into a freezer safe container. Keep in the freezer until it gets a little more solid, then serve.

Secret Ingredient?? ROOT BEER. Most pulled pork recipes tell you to add bbq sauce after it’s made. This doesn’t need it, but it’s up to you. Made in a slow cooker, the root beer gives it a nice moist tenderizing texture.

ingredients:
1 boneless pork shoulder (or pork butt) 3.5-4lbs
8oz root beer (or use a full can, who cares)
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Put the pork shoulder in the crock pot. I am not a fan of browning, also I don’t give a damn, so I just throw it in. You can cut it in half if you are worried it won’t cook through. Pour the root beer over the meat.

In a small bowl combine all the ingredients. I know it sounds like a lot, but believe me, after 8 hours of cooking it will just seep into the meat, not overpower it, I promise. Now just rub the dry ingredients over the pork. The end. Could life be simpler?

I found what works best for me is to turn the crock pot on LOW for 5 hours, then HIGH for the last three. That has always worked for me, but you may know your crock pot better.

When you are ready to roll, carefully take the lid off - the steam will burn out your retinas - and using two forks or a pair of tongs, carefully shred the pork, mixing it in with the liquid and juices in the slow cooker. I just keep it in there rather than transferring it to another plate. I like to serve mine on King’s Hawaiian sweet rolls cause they are soft and deliciouuusss. But it’s up to you. This is a great recipe for a party, or a Sunday night dinner.

I have been toying with this recipe for some time. I wanted to get THE most root beer flavor possible. This is pretty root beer-y, from the cake to the frosting. But nothing beats a good old icy cold root beer. Yum.

ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup finely crushed root beer barrel candies
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup root beer

Frosting:
4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
4 Tablespoons root beer
1 teaspoon root beer flavoring
finely crushed root beer candy for the tops

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Line cupcake pan with liners.

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time until well incorporated. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, and add slowly to the butter mixture. Mix well.

Fill cupcake liners, and bake for 18-22 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

While they are cooling, start the frosting by mixing the butter and the powdered sugar. Add the root beer slowly, it will foam up quickly. Mix in the flavoring, until everything is combined and fluffy.

Frost the cupcakes and top with crushed root beer candies. Don’t do what I did, seeing as how I love those candies I made them TOO big, leaving giant boulder toothbreakers on top of the cakes. No, no, grind them up. Also don’t add them until you’re going to serve them, as they melt into the icing and do not look all that pleasant.

They look even cuter if you ‘dress them up’ with a small straw and spoon. Like little root beer floats. DELICIOUS.

…from the Ratatouille cookbook. Greatest cookbook evah. Good for kids and adults. This recipe is so simple but the taste is fantastic. Having a kid help you with this is especially easy, since the steps are simple. Also, I like them better as mini muffins, but that’s just me. I love the mini.

ingredients:
2 cups flour
2/3 cups sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 large egg
1 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
5 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla

cinnamon sugar topping:
2 Tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the cups of a mini muffin tin with liners - this should make about 30 mini muffins.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk the egg til frothy. Add the milk and the vanilla, finally whisking in the butter.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid. Mix until blended. Spoon into the mini muffin cups.

Bake for 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out dry. I immmediately take them out of the pan and let them cool on a wire rack. You do not want them to keep cooking.

Prepare the topping by stirring the cinnamon and sugar together in a bowl.

Working one muffin at a time, dip the tops in the butter, then the cinnamon sugar, rolling to cover the muffin top.

The mini-ness is too cute and just the perfect size.

This is a ‘how to’ but feel free to make your own variations! I just thought that pink and white cake would be cute, and the chocolate frosting was a nice way to cover up to the surprise.

Make some white cupcake batter, split it into two bowls. Dye one of half of the batter pink. I like to use gel dyes, since they are more colorful and don’t make the batter runny.

Gently spoon half the white and half the pink into a prepared cupcake tin. I found that white liners show off the pink/white if you like that, or if you want to keep it a real surprise, a dark liner is great for foolin’.

The two colors make for some pretty cupcakes, even unfrosted!

You can change this up by adding flavors, of course. I just wanted to keep the consistency of the batter the same, so I split a vanilla batter. Digging in and finding two colors is all the fun!