Korean Beef Bowl-Secret Recipe Club

When I get my assigned blog for Secret Recipe Club, it is so much fun to go there and hang out for awhile.  I try to skim through all the posts back to the beginning of the bog when I can.  I found that I can find some hidden jewels in older posts.

This month my blog was Bitchin’ Kitchin'.  Ellie has been blogging since 2009 so she has posted many wonderful recipes.  One of her recent recipes that caught my eye was Mini Double Chocolate Cake Donuts.  They immediately went on my to make soon list, and I did consider them for my Secret Recipe Post.  However, in looking through the blog further, I found Korean Beef Bowl and knew that was the recipe I would make to post.  I was working on a Saturday that week and planned to pick up some Chinese food for dinner that night.  I like to stretch the purchased food with fried rice that I make at home and thought that the recipe would fit right in with dinner.  I am always on the look out for new recipse using ground beef, and this one was different from the ones I usually find.  Ellie has great step-by-step photos.

I decided to serve the beef in lettuce leaves as sort of a wrap, hence the lettuce in the photo.  Alas, I forgot to sprinkle the green onion over the meat in my photo.

Since I am a whimp when it comes to spicy food, I used only a pinch of red pepper flakes, and it was plenty spicy for me, so use your own judgment regarding how much red pepper you want to use.  Next time I make this, I think that I will add some onion and red pepper to the mix.  Thanks, Ellie for a great recipe that I will be making often.

A little note:  Ellie has recently moved her blog to The Hobo Kitchen.  You can access her recipes on either site.

Korean Beef Bowl from The Bitchin’  Kitchin.
1/3 c. brown sugar packed
1/4 c soy sauce (I used low-sodium)
1t. sesame oil (I used toasted)
1/2 t. crushed red-pepper flakes (you may want to start with just a pinch)
1/4 t. ginger
1 T. vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 green onions, thinly sliced

cooked rice for serving if desired or lettuce leaves to make wraps

In a small bowl combine brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and ginger.  Beat until combined with a whisk.  Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add ground beef and cook until well browned, breaking the beef up as it cooks.  Drain fat, if necessary.  Stir in the brown sugar/soy sauce mixture and heat through, about 2 minutes.  Turn in the serving dish and sprinkle with green onions.  Serve immediately over rice or in lettuce leaves.  Makes 3-4 servings.

If you would like to find out how to join in the fun of Secret Recipe Club, just visit the page here.

An InLinkz Link-up

Bumpy Rhubarb Coffee Cake-Saturday Sweets

Bumpy Rhubarb Coffee Cake is another recipe made with the Easy, Versatile Rhubarb Sauce that I posted a couple of weeks ago.  I call it Bumpy Rhubarb Coffee Cake because the top layer of the batter bakes up into little hills and valleys.

The recipe consists of a cake layer, a ribbon of rhubarb sauce, another cake layer and a topping of streusel.  There had to be streusel, of course.  The coffee cake is good a room temperature of just slightly warm.

I like to use nutmeg in this to give the cake a bit of a more sophisticated taste, but it can be omitted or cinnamon used instead.

Bumpy Rhubarb Coffee Cake
1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 T. butter or margarine
3/4 c. milk
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2 c. Easy, Versatile Rhubarb Sauce
3/4 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. quick oats
1/2 t. nutmeg
5 T. butter or margarine

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Cut in butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly.  Measure milk in a 2-cup glass measuring cup.  add eggs and beat together well.  Stir into dry ingredients along with the vanilla.  Mix until just blended.  Spread half of the batter in a greased 9x13-inch baking pan.  Spoon rhubarb sauce evenly over batter.  Drop remaining batter in spoonsful over the filling.  In a medium bowl combine brown sugar, flour, quick oats and nutmeg.  Cut in butter or margarine until the size of small peas.  Sprinkle mixture over the top of the cake.  Press topping gently into the batter with the palm of your hand.  Bake at 350 degrees 30 to 35 minutes or just until slightly brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Place pan on a wire rack to cool.  Makes 15 servings.  Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

Linking to:
Weekend Potluck
Party Junk
Weekend Bloggy Reading
Share Your Creativity
Strut Your Stuff
I'm Lovin' It
What'd You Do This Weekend

Lime Coconut Nut Bars

The ingredients that Sheryl at Lady Behind the Curtain picked for the May Dessert Challenge were coconut and lime.  Since I am not a fan of lime, I almost skipped this one.

However, I had managed to get my dates mixed up and missed last month’s challenge of pretzels and caramel, so I decided that I wanted to give it a go.  It is no secret that, given the chance, I will always elect to make a cookie, and the cookie is usually a bar cookie.  This time is no exception to that.  I looked through my favorite Farm Journal Homemade Cookies book for ideas, found a recipe that called for lemon juice and decided I could use lime juice instead.

I don’t usually have limes on hand, but I do keep a product called TrueLime in my pantry for those rare times that I use lime.  I opted to use that in my recipe, using 2 packets and 2 T. water.  Lime lovers could use the juice of a real lime, zest the lime and add it for more lime flavor.

I thought that almonds went well with the coconut, but any nut can be used.  Macadamia nuts would be good for a splurge, I think.

Since there is such a small amount of butter called for in the glaze, I place it in a medium, metal mixing bowl and put the bowl in the oven until the butter is melted.  Also please note that the recipe calls for sifted confectioners.  Measure a cup of confectioners sugar, sift it and measure again.  There will be more sugar than will fit into the cup.

A little confession here:  In a burst of ill-conceived creativity, I tinted the glaze green.  In retrospect, that was not such a good idea.  It did not look so good in the photos.  As usual, I was up against the fence and did not have time or ingredients to make another batch.  It certainly did not affect the taste, however.

Lime Coconut Nut Bars
adapted from Farm Journal Homemade Cookies

1 1/2 c. sifted flour
1/2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 c. butter or margarine
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c. flaked coconut
1 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 c. chopped nuts
2 T. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 c. sifted confectioners sugar
1 T. butter or margarine, melted
juice of 1 lime, about 2 T.

In a large mixing bowl combine flour and brown sugar.  Mix to combine.  Cut a cube of butter into several slices and add to flour/brown sugar mixture.  Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut butter into flour/brown sugar mixture until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.  Turn into a foil-lined 9x13-inch baking pan, patting down firmly and evenly.  Bate at 275 degrees 10 minutes.  Wipe out the mixing bowl, add eggs and beat.  Stir in brown sugar, coconut, nuts, flour, baking powder and salt.  Gently spread on top of baked crust.  Increase oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 20 minutes.  Measure a cup of confectioners sugar.  Sift and measure again.  In a small bowl, combine confectioners sugar, melted butter and lime juice.  Spread over the top of the warm cookies.  Cool slightly, cut into bars.  Cool completely in pan on a rack.  Makes about 36 bars.

Maple Mustard Pork Tenderloin

Hi all, I think that I have gotten my ISP and other life challenges worked out so will be posting more often.  Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.

I have said before that I fix quite a lot of pork tenderloin.  Hubby and I both like it, and it is frequently on sale.  The ones I purchase weigh 24 ozs.

Recently I prepared Maple Mustard Pork Tenderloin.  I seasoned the pork with a new seasoning from McCormick called Perfect Pinch.  I used the Roasted Garlic and Bell Pepper flavor.  McCormick doesn’t know I exist.  I am just sharing what I used.  Use seasonings of your choice.

I used Balsamic vinegar and spicy brown mustard in the Maple Mustard glaze.  Other vinegar or mustard flavors could be used which would result is slightly different flavors.

This is a very easy to do recipe.

Maple Mustard Pork Tenderloin
1 (24 oz.) pork tenderloin
seasoning of your choice to rub into the pork
1/2 c. pure maple syrup
1/4 c. vinegar (I used Balsamic)
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 T. mustard (I used Spicy Brown)

Remove tenderloin from refrigerator about 30 minutes to 1 hour before putting it in the oven.  Rub on all side with desired seasonings.  Set aside to allow meat to lose its chill.  In a 1 cup glass measuring cup measure maple syrup.  Add vinegar, brown sugar and mustard to maple syrup and blend with a wire whisk until mustard is well blended into other ingredients.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  When ready to put tenderloin into the oven, pour about 1/4 cup glaze over the meat.  Place in oven and roast 45 minutes to 1 hour, basting with additional glaze every 15 minutes until the temperature on a meat thermometer reads 155 to 160 degrees.  Let tenderloin rest 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.  Heat remaining glaze mixture in microwave for about 1 minute and serve with the pork.  Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Linking to these great parties:
Mealtime Monday
Busy Monday
Manic Monday
Mix It Up Monday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
What'd You Do This Weekend?
Make The Scene Monday
Mop It Up Monday
Marvelous Monday
Monday Funday
Made by You Monday
A-Peek-into-My-Paradise-TGIF-Link-Party
On the Menu Monday

Secret Recipe Club-Maple Pecan Brown Sugar Cake

My assignment for Secret Recipe Club this month was the blog, A Dusting of Sugar.   What a great find this was for this Great Big Sweet Tooth Dessert Lovin’ grandma.  The blog is filled with wonderful dessert and baking recipes from Rebecca, a college student who does most of her cooking in a dorm kitchen.  She is getting a bit better kitchen to cook in this year, I understand.

Looking through the blog, I found recipe after recipe that I wanted to try, but when I came across the post for Brown Sugar Cake I knew that was what I was going to make.  I also totally agree with sentiments she expresses in the post about eating sweets.  Just a couple of the other recipes that I want to try are Milk Muffins and Nutella Nanaimo Bars.

With fall coming, I have had the flavor of maple on my mind so decided that I would add maple flavor to the recipe and also some chopped, toasted pecans.

The cake is topped by a penuche type frosting to which I also added a bit of maple flavor.  This made the frosting taste similar to what is on bakery maple bars.  The cake is a sturdy cake which I actually cut into small enough  pieces to serve as a bar cookie.  No matter if you cut it into larger pieces to serve as cake or smaller ones to serve like bar cookies, it is  a delicious dessert well worth making.  Thanks for sharing a great recipe, Rebecca.

Maple Pecan Brown Sugar Cake
based on a recipe found at A Dusting of Sugar

1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1/2 c. shortening
2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
5 eggs at room temperature
1 t. maple flavoring
1 T. vanilla extract
3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 c. milk
1 c. chopped toasted pecans

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter, shortening, and brown sugar and beat until light and creamy.  Add eggs and mix until well blended.  Blend in maple flavoring and vanilla extract.  Combine flour and baking powder and stir well.  Add flour to creamed mixture and mix until well blended.  Add milk, mixing until batter is smooth.  Stir in pecans.  Pour batter into a well-greased 10x15-inch jelly roll pan.  The batter will fill pan very full.  Bake at 350 degrees 30-35 minutes or until top springs back when touched with a finger.  Let cool to room temperature.

Maple Frosting
1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar, tightly packed
1/4 c. milk
1/2 t. maple flavoring
2 1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar

Melt butter in a medium sized saucepan on the stove.  Add brown sugar, bring to a boil and boil over low heat for 2 minutes.  Add milk, cook and stir until mixture boils.  Remove from heat.  Stir in maple flavoring.  Add powdered sugar and mix in well.  Pour frosting over cake spread out quickly and evenly over the top.  Frosting will set up quickly.  Cool and cut as desired.  Makes 60 or more bar cookies or 15 servings as a cake.

 If you would like to join in the fun, just click on over to The Secret Recipe Club information page to find out all the details.

Ingredient Spotlight-Dessert Sauces-Butterscotch & Chocolate

If you try either of these easy dessert sauces, you will understand why I could not NOT link them up to Eat at Home's Ingredient Spotlight today.  They are so quick and easy, made with regular ingredients most of us have in our pantries all the time.  Either sauce is great over just about any dessert:  first and foremost, ice cream; but also pound cake, puddings and custards, bread pudding, apple or peach pie, etc., etc.  If no one is looking they are also perfect to just slurp off a spoon.  I sometimes add chopped, toasted nuts (walnuts to the chocolate, pecans to the butterscotch) just to make them a little more decadent.  Keep any leftovers in the fridge.  Cover and warm slowly in the microwave, 50% power about a minute at a time, stirring often.  I think the recipes came off the internet, but I don't remember from where.

Hot Butterscotch Sauce
1 cup (240 ml) packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) half-and-half
2 T (30 ml) butter or margarine
2 T (30 ml) light corn syrup

In 1-quart (1-liter) saucepan over medium heat, heat brown sugar, half-and-half, butter or margarine and corn syrup to boiling, stirring occasionally.  Serve over ice cream, pound cake slices, peach or apple pie, tapioca pudding or baked custard.  Makes 1 cup

Chocolate Dessert Sauce
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup half-and-half
1 T butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In 1-quart saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate with corn syrup, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients until mixed.  Serve warm over your favorite dessert.  Makes 1-1/3 cups.

You can make Mint Chocolate Sauce by using mint chocolate chips and omitting the vanilla.

Now I think that I will have to have a banana split for dessert tonight.  Enjoy.

I am linking to post to Eat at Home's Ingredient Spotlight and Whisking Wednesdays at a Pinch of This, That, and The Other.

Tomorrow I will be Skipping through Blogland and coincidentally stopping by Eat at Home


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