The Nifty Foodie

I can’t believe it’s a new year AND a new decade! Super exciting stuff, y’all! Of course, that means time to make some goals happen, too. In case you don’t read my life blog, a while back, I made a 101 goals in 1001 days list. This list of goals ends in May of this year! There are a good chunk that aren’t done yet, and some of those involve food and this blog! Check out some of these…YUM!

63. cook 4 times/week for 20 weeks (0/20)
68. successfully bake a loaf of crawfish bread
69. learn to make Memaw’s spaghetti and meatballs
72. make fresh pasta
75. update food blog 20 times in one month
76. make fruit roll-ups
77. make beef jerky
78. go to a Pampered Chef party
80. make a cookie bouquet
81. smoke and BBQ a piece of meat

It’s quite a list, but I’m looking forward to making these happen. I have a feeling a couple of these won’t get done on time, but hey, even if I miss a couple of goals out of 101, I think I’m doing pretty well!

What are your foodie goals for 2011?

What a year! I can’t believe that 2010 is almost over, but I have to say, it’s been a pretty great year! This year, I moved my food blog (and changed the name), made some amazing food blogger friends and tried some great recipes. I’m so excited to see what 2011 will bring.

A lot of food bloggers are doing their top 10 of 2010, and I personally love the idea. It’s great to look back on the year, and I know I’m starring a lot of posts for recipe ideas from posts like this. So, here’s the top 10 based on popularity of posts!

10. Iced Coffee - This recipe will make you wonder why you ever spent $4 on an iced coffee. This is delicious and very refreshing!

9. 4th of July Cupcakes - Basic white cupcakes with a basic vanilla buttercream. Can’t get more traditional than that!

8. Strawberry Cake - A light, summery dessert which is very easy to throw together!

7. Berry Mash Bruschetta - I made this recipe for a contest. These make wonderful little desserts and no utensils needed!

6. Garlic Lemon Chicken Kabobs - This is a quick dish to throw together. Very flavorful and healthy!

5. Louisiana Strawberry Jam - One of my canning adventures. I love Louisiana strawberries so much, so I knew I had to can them to keep them around all year!

4. Sloppy Joes - a very classic American recipe. Beats the pants off of Manwich!

3. Pumpkin Blondies - This is a new way to enjoy pumpkin in the Fall. Warning…these are very addictive!

2. Caramel Apple Pie A La Mode Bites - This was another recipe I made for a contest. No utensils needed for this one either and it’s SO easy to throw together!

1. Blueberry Scones - This was the most popular recipe of 2010, according to blog stats! These scones will knock your socks off. WAY better than coffee shop ones in my opinion, and the time you put into making them seems daunting, but it’s worth it!

Thanks so much for reading! I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year, and I’ll see you in 2011!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I’m no stranger to a challenge. One of my favorite shows on Food Network is Chopped, because I enjoy watching chefs come up with ideas for random ingredients. Lately, I find myself brainstorming ideas with the ingredients as well. It’s just so fun to think up ideas.

Check out this challenge:

When I got the email from Foodie Blogroll about an Iron Foodie challenge, I was intrigued. 25 bloggers will get chosen to compete to come up with a recipe using a few random ingredients sent from Marx Foods. The winner will get a $200 credit to Marx Foods.

So y’all, I need you to cross your fingers for me again. This blog post counts as my official entry for the Iron Foodie challenge. I’m really hoping to get chosen, because Marx Foods has some really interesting ingredients that they offer, and I’d love the opportunity to come up with a dish for this contest!

Here’s the blog interview questions:

1. Why do you want to compete in this challenge?
   Answered above
2. Limitations of time/space notwithstanding, whose kitchen would you like to spend the day in & why?
   I’d have to say Julia Child. She changed her career so late in life, and I find that so inspiring! She was very driven and her food is just AMAZING. She’s got a great sense of humor and I imagine we’d get along awesomely.
3. What morsel are you most likely to swipe from family & friends’ plates when they aren’t looking?
   Chocolate….don’t leave your chocolate sitting around unattended. I’m serious.
4. Sum your childhood up in one meal.
   Mom’s Beef Enchilada Casserole. I requested this meal every year for my birthday after my Mom discovered this recipe for a potluck in my Spanish class one year. It’s delicious.
5. The one mainstream food you can’t stand?
   Beans. It’s a texture thing. Totally gross to me. I might be from New Orleans, but you won’t see me eating a red beans and rice dish. Yuck!

::insert puppy picture just because::

You guys, my readers, are amazing. From the bottom of my heart, I really appreciate every comment, email and lately, votes for Project Food Blog. I made it to challenge 2, which was very surprising, because there are so many wonderful bloggers out there. I still think of myself as a blogger with 5 readers, and I was so overwhelmed with happiness when you guys pushed me through to round 2.

I appreciate it.

Unfortunately, the talents of other bloggers got the best of me. I didn’t make it to round 3. I will admit that I cried a little, because I’m a girl and girls are emotional . However, on the bright side of things, I can now fully support/cheer on my awesome blogger friends who are still in the running! I can’t believe one of them can possibly win $10,000! How life changing and amazing is that?!

So, instead of voting for me from now on, can you take a minute to vote for/support these spectacular bloggers? Round 3 was a Luxurious Dinner Party, and I sort of wish I crashed each party. The menus were spectacular and these gals are just so dang creative.

Amy of Sing for your Supper
Tara of Smells Like Home
Jessica of The Novice Chef
Serena of Big Apple Nosh
Erin of Milk & Honey

Again, thanks so much for y’all’s support during Project Food Blog! Making it as far as I did gives me warm fuzzies.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate y’alls support during Project Food Blog so far. You better believe I was jumping in my chair when I saw that I get to compete in round 2! So, thank you very much. You guys are the best!

Round 2′s challenge is called The Classics.
Ready to tackle a classic dish from another culture? Pick an ethnic classic that is outside your comfort zone or are not as familiar with. You should include how you arrived at this decision in your post. Do your research then try to pull off successfully creating this challenge. Try to keep the dish as authentic as the real deal, and document your experience through a compelling post.

So, with absolutely no clue what to do, I went to my local library and picked up 4 books. 3 of them were Asian inspired and the other one, which was a direct opposite, featured German cuisine. Not exactly sure why I picked that one up, but heck, why not? I flipped through pages and pages, bookmarking some recipes, but none of them felt like it should be the dish for this challenge. I walked away from the books for a while, feeling pretty bummed. What dish was I going to make?

I wanted to find a recipe that was different, featuring ingredients that normally make me turn the other way. I ended up finding this dessert recipe featuring couscous. Can you believe I’ve never tried couscous before? I was intimidated by it..completely.

This recipe also has sour cream, which is an ingredient that does not appeal to me at all. I rarely use it in recipes, because it’s a personal food aversion of mine. So, why not go all out with an ingredient I’ve never tried and an ingredient I really don’t like? Challenge enough, no?

I’m sure you want to know where this dish is from. Ultimately, I ended up going to a whole different continent for this challenge: Africa!

The dish is called Caakiri, which is a yogurt based couscous dessert, originating in Western Africa. The dish tastes a lot like rice pudding, but with a very different texture. I found the dish to be a little too tart for me, probably due to the high amounts of yogurt and sour cream. However, more sugar seemed to help that issue.

Couscous and yogurt mixture pictured.

The best thing about this dish was that the ingredients weren’t too hard to find, and it introduced me to couscous. I’m pretty sure I’m going to make this grain again really soon.

Note: this recipe is halved from the original source and it still made PLENTY!

Caakiri
Source: The Congo Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1 cup couscous
• 2 cups water
• pat of  butter
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup vanilla or plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/2 can of crushed pineapple, drained

Directions:

1. Bring water to boil in a medium pot. Add couscous, butter and salt. Stir, cover and remove from heat. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Then stir and let couscous cool.
2. Combine all of the other ingredients in a bowl.
3. Add couscous to yogurt mixture and add sugar to taste. Serve warm or cold.