The Adventure Bite

Pickled Banana Peppers

By Dani, on May 18th, 2012

Pickled banana peppers are one of life’s fine delicacies. Tangy and salty and sweet and vinegary all at the perfect levels are what sets a subpar recipe apart from a winner. And when your pepper plants are loaded down with fruit this brine is a quick and easy way to get them put up fast.

Pickled Banana Peppers

Recipe type: Canning

Author: The Adventure Bite

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Sweet banana peppers are offset with a lovely tangy brine that perfectly compliments them. Great on salads, sandwiches, pizza and more.

Ingredients

4 cups white vinegar
1 1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 lb banana pepper, seeded and sliced in rings (or around 4 cups)

Instructions

Sterilize 4- 1/2 pint jars by washing and then placing them in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes. Do not allow them to touch each other. If unable to assemble immediately, leave in oven to stay hot.
Sterilize lids and rings with hot water.
Bring the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed and celery seed to a rolling boil.
Place peppers in the 1/2 pint jars.
Pour on the pickling juice.
Bring brine to within 1/2″ of the top.
Be sure the edge of the jar has no juice on it.
Seal jar and tighten ring. Jars should seal themselves and audibly make a pop as they cool. Test by pressing down center of lid, it should be solid and not pop up and down.
Leave for 2 weeks or longer.
Enjoy!

Notes

Keep in fridge after opening. Stores indefinitely after opening.

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Applewood Smoked Shredded Beef Tacos

By Dani, on May 6th, 2012

Corn tortillas filled with applewood smoked shredded beef, garden fresh lettuce and cilantro, cheese, tomato, and fresh lime.

If you do nothing else this year but smoke something with Applewood and put it in your slow cooker your year will have been a smashing success. This dish is actually super easy to make and the results are truly entertaining worthy.

Applewood Smoked Shredded Beef Tacos

Recipe type: Entree

Author: The Adventure Bite

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 6 hours

Total time: 6 hours 30 mins

Serves: 15 tacos

Corn tortillas filled with applewood smoked shredded beef, garden fresh lettuce and cilantro, cheese, tomato, and fresh lime.

Ingredients

Meat:
Approx 2 lb chuck roast
Olive Oil
Lowry’s Seasoning
Black Pepper
Cumin
Broth:
Medium Onion, chopped
1 tb garlic, minced
Pinch of thyme
1-2 jalepeno with seeds, chopped
1 14-oz can beef broth
Toppings:
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Onion, chopped
Shredded Cheese
Lime wedges
Cilantro
Salsa/Hot Sauce
Applewood Wood Chips

Instructions

Light briquettes in barbecue on opposite side of grill you want to cook on. Soak 2 large handfuls of wood chips in water.
Rub chuck roast with olive oil and season liberally with Lowry’s, pepper and cumin.
Once fire is heated sear roast directly over coals 1-2 min each side.
Move to opposite side. Place 1 large handful of soaked wood chips on top of briquettes.
After 15 minutes add the second handful of wood chips to the coals.
Combine the onion, garlic, thyme, and can of beef broth in large Crock Pot.
After the meat has finished smoking, transfer to the Crock Pot.
Cook on High 2 hours, then turn to Low 2 hours OR on Low for 6-7 hours til meat shreds easily with a fork.
Once shredded turn down to Warm until ready to eat.
Assemble taco’s and enjoy. Excellent with a mexican beer with lime.

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Cheesecloth Substitute & How to Make Kefir Cheese

By Dani, on April 28th, 2012

Two days ago we realized that we had completely forgotten about our Kefir in the cupboard for mmm….four or five days. Eeek!

It was a solid gelatinous mass floating atop a good 2 inches of whey. Mmm.

We threw it in the fridge for a day to halt its production and I decided I was finally going to make Kefir cheese. It’s been on my do to list for ages.

Basically all you do is strain the kefir like normal and then strain it a second time through cheesecloth.

Easy peesy…..if you actually have cheesecloth. Which I don’t keep because its insanely expensive for something that gets thrown away.

But I did have a ton of these:

Cloth diapers? Are you nuts?

Nope. Turns out cloth diapers from Walmart are in fact the biggest joke in the world of cloth diapering. Quite seriously they would be soaked instantaneously if you actually tried to diaper with them. But they are awesome as burp cloths, dusting rags, chew toys, and as it turns out they make a great cheesecloth substitute!

Plus you can wash them after straining your cheese and they are as good as new. Way better than throwing money down the drain.

So toss one under your strainer between the strainer and bowl and strain away. Then once your grains are out and back in their jar again, gather up the sides of the cloth, loosely twist it and place the strainer underneath it. This will keep it up and out of the whey (there it is….the inevitable bad pun). You can do all kinds of spiffy things like tying the cloth around a spoon or hanging it from a myriad of apparatuses. Or you can be lazy like me and put it in the strainer.

Totally your choice.

24-48 hours later you end up with this:

Yum.

This stuff is heavenly. It’s like sweet marscapone cheese. We dipped strawberries in it plain and I swore there was sugar in it.

Be still my sweet loving heart.

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Pinterest Challenge

By Dani, on April 26th, 2012

Get to the choppa!!!!

Err….sorry.

I was just wondering how many hours have you ~~wasted~~ invested on Pinterest looking up amazing ideas and then being an unmotivated punk and not doing any of them?

I mean really we all love Pinterest….well at least all the cool people who have marginally addictive personalities love Pinterest.

Even my husband loves Pinterest! Really and quite seriously he has a Board just for cute baby animals (how did I not know this about his personality?!?!).

But this obsessive pinning and not doing must end!

I hearby initiate The Great Pinterest Challenge!

For the next month there will be a weekly Pinterest challenge.

Your task? Show us your motivating pin or pins and then take a totally sweet photo of your completed version.

How To Enter:

If you have a blog: write a post with photos and link to us. Then send us the link of your post.

If you don’t but have a Facebook/Twitter account: post your pictures. In the description tag/mention us by typing:
“This is my inspiration (or entry) for the Pinterest Challenge at @The Adventure Bite.” (@adventurebite for twitter)
Then your explanation of what it is.

If you don’t have any social media (or don’t want to mess with it) message us here.

Categories include new recipes, DIY projects, kids crafts, etc. Style and clothing stuff as well as traveling, etc won’t work for (hopefully) obvious reasons.

The spiffy thing? You can enter twice every week! One recipe and one of anything else.

At the end of the month we will pick our favorite project and send the winner a super duper awesome copy of:

Each week we will post some tips from things we are learning from Helene Dujardin’s book….which is technically a food photography book (with mouthwatering images) but has tons of awesome tips and tricks that relate to all kinds of photography!

I obviously can’t win the prize (dang it) but for this week my inspiration pins are as follows:

and

I’ve always wanted to make potstickers from scratch and I’ve got a giant head of homegrown cabbage in the fridge from our friends at Renew Farms begging to be eaten.

My DIY inspiration is a wee bit longer out than a week but I’ll be starting to lay the groundwork (snarf….I kill myself sometimes) for these this week.

I’ll be building them with pallets and then attaching bamboo poles to the sides. Umm glorious to say the least.

So! Tell us what project you are you going to do this week and show us your inspiration!

Then come back and post when you have finished

p.s. if we get good response on this we can get more sweet prizes for you guys so make sure to enter!!

p.p.s. there might just be some category prizes and/or weekly prizes…..not saying there are….just that there might be….and that you should definitely join us….just in case

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Kevin and Dani’s Eggcellent Adventure: Part 2

By Dani, on April 19th, 2012

Evening all!

I am here to share my recipe, as promised by Kevin….who by the way just did his FIRST blog post yesterday!!! I’m so excited and super proud to finally have him here with me officially

Side note: My glee at setting up his admin login yesterday was contained so he couldn’t see it but I was so happy I could have grabbed him and jumped up and down like a crazed person. He stares at me strange when I do that though…..so you’ll just have to imagine.

And a finalist in a recipe competition??

That’s almost too much for one day.

Anyhow a paragraph of side-trackedness later, the recipe!

This recipe was good. Not nearly as gourmet as Kevin’s but tasty. What started as a pizza on a stick idea turned into pizza bites on a stick which turned into mini calzones because I didn’t have any sticks haha.

p.s. don’t try to stick these on a stick….it would fail miserably.

With this digression they really didn’t fit the “Supreme Pizza with Eggs” requirement of the competition but we decided to send it in anyways. So pleased that Kevin’s was chosen…it has a much better likelihood of winning this competition (its REALLY good) and I get to go be the cheerleader instead of cooking in front of people

That being said. Make these soon. Make them for your kids….or your grandkids. Or when you are awake at 2 a.m. And unless you are a kid or really love ketchup…I wouldn’t dip them in ketchup.

Makes 16 Bites (4 adult servings)

2 packages crescent roll dough
6 eggs
4-6 slices bacon (or equivalent in sausage)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Pepper Gravy:
Grease from bacon or sausage
2 tablespoons flour
1-2 cups milk
Salt and Pepper to taste

Additional Dipping Sauce Suggestions:

Syrup ~ Ketchup ~ Hot Sauce

Variations:

Try different cheeses, meats, or veggies! Mushrooms, onions, pepperoni, spinach, etc are all delicious.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook bacon or sausage. Drain grease into small pot. Remove meat to plate.
Scramble eggs. While still runny cover with cheese and crumble the meat over top. Mix thoroughly. Cook until still somewhat wet….eggs will finish setting in oven.
Unroll crescent roll dough gently. Separate into rectangles….two triangles make a rectangle. Press the seam to combine the two sections together on each rectangle. Cut in half to make two square pieces of dough.
Make Pepper Gravy:
Heat grease over medium heat. When hot add flour and whisk. Allow to bubble for two minutes. Quickly add 1 cup milk while whisking briskly. Simmer to thicken, whisking occasionally. Add milk to thin to desired thickness. Season with salt and liberal amounts of pepper.
Assemble:
Place 1 tb gravy on each dough square. Add egg/meat filling.
Bring sides up and pinch closed.
Place pinched side down on cookie sheet.
Cook for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with choice of dipping sauces.