Homemade Goldfish-style Cheddar Crackers

Photo Courtesy of cupcakeproject.com

Sam’s niece loves goldfish. Every time she goes to Grandma’s house, she always asks for Grandma’s Goldfish. It’s not because Sam’s mom makes her own homemade Goldfish, it’s because Grandma gives the good stuff, Goldfish Flavor Blasted Xtra Cheddar! After a few run-ins with the parents on the unhealthiness, I decided to research some recipes for homemade Goldfish crackers that can be guaranteed healthier than the store bought kind.

After reading a few posts from Home Cooking in Montana and Cupcake Project, I decided to find the common elements and post a Cheddar Cracker recipe.


Homemade Cheddar Cracker Recipe


Ingredients
1 Cup – All-purpose flour
4 Tbsp – Cold Unsalted Butter, cut into small pieces
8 oz – Cheddar Cheese
3/4 tsp – Salt
1/2 tsp – Ground Pepper
3 to 4 Tbsp – Water

1. Pulse the flour, butter, cheese, salt, and pepper together using a food processor until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
2. Pulse in 3 to 4 tablespoons of water, one tablespoon at a time, and only enough so that the dough forms a ball and rides the blade.
3. Remove, wrap in plastic, and chill for 20 minutes or up to 24 hours.
4. Line 2 baking pans with parchment paper and set aside.
5. Roll the dough out to 1/8-inch thickness. (If you roll it thicker, it will still work, but the crackers won’t be quite as crunchy. This dough rolled out so easily; you’ll wish that you always worked with cheddar!)
6. Cut out as many crackers as possible.
7. Place them 1 inch apart on the prepared baking pans.
8. Bake at 350 F until golden and crisp – 15 to 20 minutes.

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Sam’s Kitchen – Toasted Oatmeal

K found this recipe from marthastewart.com for Toasted Oatmeal a while back and we’ve been wanting to try it. “Toasted oatmeal” just sounds good doesn’t it? I was really surprised at how this turned out. The flavors were unexpected. It tasted just like Japanese brown rice tea.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup Irish, Scottish, or any steel-cut oatmeal, or 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
Pinch coarse salt
Infused Honey
Stewed Fruit

Directions

Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat.

Toasted Oatmeal Butter

Add oatmeal, and toast, tossing and turning oats, until oatmeal is browned and fragrant, about 4 minutes.

Toasted Oatmeal Browned

Add 4 cups water and salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until most of the water has evaporated and the oatmeal is tender, about 30 minutes for the Irish oatmeal and 10 minutes for the old-fashioned rolled oats.

Toasted Oatmeal Add Water

Serve hot with the toppings of your choice.

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Movie Bites for March 18, 2010

We love watching movies.  Sometimes it’s really difficult to figure out what movies we might want to watch over the weekend.  That’s why I have decided to aggregate a few reviews for some interesting looking movies to figure out what new movies we should watch over the weekend.

Here are the top 3 anticipated movies of this week.

The Lincoln Lawyer

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery & Suspense

Synopsis: Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey) is a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney who operates out of the back of his Lincoln sedan. Haller has spent most of his career defending garden-variety criminals, until he lands the case of his career: defending Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe), a Beverly Hills playboy accused of rape and attempted murder. But the seemingly straightforward case suddenly develops into a deadly game of survival for Haller. Based on the best-selling novel by Michael Connelly.

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei and Ryan Phillippe

RottenTomatoes: 88
Metacritic: 59

Now that I’ve been reading “The Girl With the Dragon’s Tattoo”, I’m getting really into Mystery and Suspense again.  If there’s a new movie to watch this weekend, this is definitely it.

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Paul

Genre: Art House & International, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy

Synopsis: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite for the comedy adventure Paul as two sci-fi geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America’s UFO heartland. While there, they accidentally meet an alien who brings them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever. For the past 60 years, an alien named Paul (Seth Rogen) has been hanging out at a top-secret military base. For reasons unknown, the space-traveling smart ass decides to escape the compound and hop on the first vehicle out of town — a rented RV containing Earthlings Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost). Chased by federal agents and the fanatical father of a young woman that they accidentally kidnap, Graeme and Clive hatch a fumbling escape plan to return Paul to his mother ship. And as two nerds struggle to help, one little green man might just take his fellow outcasts from misfits to intergalactic heroes.

Cast: Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Simon Pegg

RottenTomatoes: 70
Metacritic: 57
IMDB: 75

Sam and I have been going to Comic-con for the past couple years, and at Comic-con 2010 we saw the trailer to this comedy.  I’m pretty sure you’ll love this movie if you loved Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, but you’ll also love it if you love Comic-con because it starts there.  This would be my bad movie, no-thinking comedy movie.  However, I’m most likely going to wait for DVD for this one.

Limitless

Genre: Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Synopsis: Aspiring author Eddie Morra (Cooper) is suffering from chronic writer’s block, but his life changes instantly when an old friend introduces him to NZT, a revolutionary new pharmaceutical that allows him to tap his full potential. With every synapse crackling, Eddie can recall everything he has ever read, seen or heard, learn any language in a day, comprehend complex equations and beguile anyone he meets as long as he keeps taking the untested drug. Soon Eddie takes Wall Street by storm, parlaying a small stake into millions. His accomplishments catch the eye of mega-mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro),who invites him to help broker the largest merger in corporate history. But they also bring Eddie to the attention of people willing to do anything to get their hands on his stash of NZT. With his life in jeopardy and the drug’s brutal side effects grinding him down, Eddie dodges mysterious stalkers, a vicious gangster and an intense police investigation as he attempts to hang on to his dwindling supply long enough to outwit his enemies.

Cast: Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel, Bradley Cooper

RottenTomatoes: 57
Metacritic: 58
IMDB: 74

This movie just sounds really interesting.  What if you were able to take a pill and use the rest of your brain?  That would be such a huge win!  Unless… of course there’s a lot you wished you could forget.

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Happy Pi Day!

Check out this sinfully delicious looking pie on The Kitchn. Nom nom nom. I want to eat this right now!

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Ad Hoc – Yountville

Ad Hoc Exterior

Rated: ♣♣♣♣

As I will never get into the famed French Laundry, I went for second best and dined at one of Thomas Keller’s other Yountville restaurants, Ad Hoc. This restaurant serves down home cookin’ family style and on a prix fixe menu. The restaurant is famous for its buttermilk fried chicken, which unfortunately, is only served on every other Monday. Good luck trying to get a res on fried chicken day because it’s always booked up! I came to Ad Hoc on a Monday evening thinking it was a fried chicken day, but was fooled when I realized they were serving BBQ. However, it did not disappoint!

The meal started with “The French Laundry Garden Celery Salad.” The tender greens were gently picked from French Laundry’s garden. The mixed greens were lightly tossed with walnuts, sweet apples, shaved celery and a very light creamy dressing. The salad sounds simple, but I could taste the care and thoughtfulness put into the dish.

Ad Hoc Celery Salad

Between a party of 4, we shared 1 order of fried calamari. Oh my gosh. This was hands-down the best calamari I’ve ever had. Lightly battered, perfectly tender. The spiced aioli was the perfect compliment to the crispy goodness.

Ad Hoc Calamari

The main course was the Santa Maria Style BBQ platter. We each got a half-rack of smoked pork spareribs and several slices of the Snake River Farm wagyu beef tri-tip. Let’s talk about the ribs first. These babies were smoked for thirty. six. hours. Unbelievably tender and smokey. The sauce they topped it with had the perfect combination of tangy and spicy. The wagyu beef also was to die for. If you’re not familiar with wagyu, this kind of beef is America’s equivalent to kobe beef. In my picture, you can see the beautiful marbling which made this succulent tri-tip so tender and juicy. To give visitors the courtesy of serving veggies so that you don’t feel completely guilty for what we’ve eaten, Ad Hoc served a savoy cabbage, broccolini and Yacon root slaw.

Ad Hoc BBQ Plate

The platter came with buttermilk biscuits with burnt ends gravy. That means the burnt ends from the BBQed meats were cooked into a creamy gravy and poured on top of fluffy biscuits. Oh my it was good.

Ad Hoc Buttermilk Biscuits

The pre-dessert dish was a platter of plumped prunes, a few slices of Central Coast Creamery’s Seascape and palladin toast. The cow and goat milk cheese was sharp, creamy and smooth – almost like a soft white cheddar. The combination of the sweet prunes and the buttery toast was like an explosion of flavors. Everything paired perfectly.

Ad Hoc Prune Jam Bread

It’s restaurants like these where I despise the custom of eating dessert last. I was way too full to eat the banana cupcakes, so I took only a tiny bite. Light in banana flavor, these cupcakes were topped with a rum buttercream and filled with a salted caramel center. So sinfully good. The frosting tasted like pure butter.

Ad Hoc Banana Cupcakes

For the blogs sake, here’s the inside of the cupcake.

Ad Hoc Banana Cupcake Inside

The only reason why I’m giving this 4 stars is because of the service from the hostess. I feel she intentionally put our party in the “Asian corner” of the restaurant, meaning us and 3 other Asian parties sat at the back of the restaurant. I quickly forgot once the food came. I can’t wait to come back here to try the fried chicken. It’s totally worth the 1.5 hour drive after work.

Ad Hoc
6476 Washington St
Yountville, CA 94599

To give visitors the courtesy of serving veggies so that you don’t feel completely guilty for what we’ve eaten, Ad Hoc served a savoy cabbage, broccolini and Yacon root slaw.

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