Slow Cooker BBQ Brisket

Dinner is here! Finally!

And it was so worth the wait!

4 Recipes in one day?!

Wow this was a fun day off for me!

And hope you enjoyed them all with me as well!

 So let's bring this eventful day to a delicious close.

You Will Need:

2-3 lb Brisket

16 oz BBQ Sauce 
(I used my homemade one from my BBQ Ribs Post)
1 tsp Chili Powder
2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Cumin
2 tsp Onion Powder
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
Salt 
Pepper

Print Recipe Here

First start by sprinkling salt and pepper over your brisket.

Then combine Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, Cumin, Onion Powder and Brown Sugar. Rub meat with this and wrap with plastic wrap and leave in fridge overnight. You don't have to do this but it adds more flavor. Doing the rub right before you put it in the slow cooker is just fine.

Once the rub is all massaged in, place it in the slow cooker fat side up, and pour bbq sauce on top.

And there you have it folks. Cook it on LOW for 6-8 hours or until it easily falls apart.

I took an awesome of picture of the finished project, and then went ahead and ate dinner and when I went to upload it, it wouldn't upload, BOOOOO! :( So please believe me when I say it was so tender and fell apart with the slightest touch of the fork! Ha Ha.

But just for that, I will include a yummy tip for cooking artichokes!

When you cook artichoke season the water you boil them in with salt, dill and a few lemon slices!

I hope this some what makes up for my picture not uploading:)

Bon Appetit!

Xoxo

Megan-Noelle

Almond Pluot Tart (or any other stone fruit)

I got these gorgeous purple Pluots from my Talley Farms Box these past few weeks and i've been dying to make a tart out of them. I found a delicious recipe that I will be adapting from the Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller. So while I am waiting on dinner in the crock pot, let start on dessert.

You Will Need: 

Crust

2 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour

1/4 cup + 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

1/4 cup Almond Flour (Almond Meal)

1/2 cup Butter, Room Temperature

1 Egg

Almond Cream Filling

1/2 cup Almond Flour (Almond Meal)

1 TB All Purpose Flour

5 TB Butter, Room Temperature

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

1 Egg

4 medium sized Pluots (or any other stone fruit)

Print Recipe Here

(Or click the link above "Bouchon Bakery" for the original recipe)

For the crust, whisk together flour, almond flour and 1/4 cup powdered sugar. 

Cream butter in a separate bowl until smooth. Sift in the rest of the powdered sugar (1/2 cup) and mix until fluffy.

Add flour mixture from above in two additions. Then add egg and mix until combined. 

Knead the dough until it comes together, or mix on low in a stand mixer until it comes together.

Divide dough into 2 and form into disk. (This crust recipe is enough for 2 tarts but the rest of this recipe is enough for 1 tart. You can cut this in half but you would have to whisk your 1 egg and only use half of it). Wrap both halves in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 for 2 hours and freeze the other for later use.

 

In the meantime, let's make the filling. The almond cream. 

Whisk together almond flour and all purpose flour. 

Cream butter until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Add powdered sugar and again cream until fluffy. Add flour mixture until just combined and then add the egg and mix until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours, or until cold and stiff.

Roll out dough to about 11 inches round. 

Fill an 8 inch tart pan with the dough and cut off excess dough. Freeze for 30 mins or refrigerate for about an hour.

(I decided to use my extra dough and form them into tart shapes as well and froze them. Once frozen I removed them from the pans and put them in a ziploc and am keeping them in the freezer for later, ready-to-use, crusts for when I am in a rush)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Fill the chilled tart shell with the cold almond cream so that it fill a majority of the tart shell, if not all the way. 

 Cut your Pluots, or other stone fruit, into about 1/4-1/8 inch slices. 

(I bought a few of the speckled orange red- Crimson Dandy Pluots in addition to my Talley Farms one just to add color) :)

Arrange them however you please, but I formed them in a ring. One ring along the outer edge all facing the same direction and and inner ring. The inner ring forming in the opposite direction as the outer ring. 

Bake for 45-60 mins until crust is browned and center is set.

Let it cool completely before serving.

I like to add toasted almonds and powdered sugar on top of mine, but that is just preference, many just eat it as is. 

Serve and enjoy!

Stay tuned for dinner in a few hours :)

Until then,

Xoxo

Megan-Noelle

Caprese Salad (My little garden tour)

So here it is finally! I know it's not much, but I am so proud of my little front yard garden. 

I am sadly restricted to a container garden because I rent and there is no where to start a garden that my little pup won't get into! If anyone has any tips or tricks or what to grow or how to's on gardening, please please please, I beg of you, share!

So right now I have a half wine barrel that needs filling still. 

My favorite flowers are long stem daisies and when I spotted these at the nursery, I fell in love with them. Right now I only have two types of Echinacea but have my eye on this beautiful purplish pink bunch that I may have to bring home soon to finish off my Echinacea pot.

Now let's move on to my strawberry pot. (Which contains zero strawberries) I am using this pot as an herb garden, or salsa pot. Whatever you prefer to call it, is fine with me. On top I have cherry tomatoes growing.

In one side pocket is Flat Leaf Parsley (Coriander sprouting parsley).

In another pocket I have this beautiful Italian Large Leaf Basil that smells amazing every time I am near it. I love the way basil looks, it just seems so flawless to me ha ha.

Then in another pocket I have a salsa staple, Cilantro! Which also smells amazing as it grows.

And last but not least, in the last little pocket I have some green onions. 

The thing I like about my little strawberry pot plants are that, these plants grow year round! Amazing! How perfect is that?

My little cherry tomatoes will be ready for harvest very soon! (I hope). One thing about gardening is, you have to be patient, which is tough for me. Ha Ha.

Now I know this doesn't make sense but, yes, I am growing strawberries. Why not in my strawberry pot you may ask? Well, I bought the strawberries before getting that pot and they just could't wait any longer to be planted, so I caved and planted them here.

These have been slowly but surely producing strawberries and let me tell you, they are so juicy!!!!

On to my final pot. This more veggies:) What can I say, I love my veggies.

Here I am growing arugula! This is my absolute favorite for salads.

Next, we have some shallots. 

More Green Onions.

And… a BEAUTIFUL Heirloom Tomato Vine! I am so excited for these babies to harvest!

I have had this fellow since march and he is slowly growing, but I am a little worried he may not grow much:( This is a baby pomegranate tree. I so hope I get some fruit on this baby next fall! Everybody cross their fingers. 

Sorry if my garden isn't as exciting as you may have thought it would be. I am just so eager to use all of it in future recipes that I wanted to share my excitement with you!

Well since we are on the topic of gardens, lets make a garden to table salad, sort of.

This will be another salad from my June 2014 Food Network Magazine:) 

#35 from the insert, to be accurate.

To see the 50 Picnic Salads they have click here.

A Caprese Salad.

Aren't those Talley Farms Heirloom Tomatoes gorgeous?
I love the color! They look so unreal, I love it!

You Will Need:
2lbs assorted Tomatoes
(I used my heirloom tomatoes from the TALLEY FARMS BOX and the rest of my tomatoes from my boyfriends', grandpas', garden.)
8oz. Mozzarella, Cubed
1 cup Celery, Chopped
1 cup Basil, Chopped (Fresh from my garden)
1/3 cup Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Print Recipe Here

My garden fresh Basil makes me happy :) 

Up close and personal with my tomatoes!

Fresh mozzarella is so worth it!

Toss all your tomatoes, celery, basil and mozzarella together in a bowl. Combine Olive Oil, Red Wine Vinegar, salt and pepper together and drizzle over your salad!

Easy, right?! And oh so delicious!

Bon Apettit!

Xoxo

Megan-Noelle

Baked French Toast Bites

Good Morning Everyone!!!!

The morning dew is rolling in, the sun is starting to peek through, my garden is thriving and we are hungry!

Today is an exciting day because you will be having breakfast, lunch and dinner with me! And... A peek at my garden!

So, the rare days that my boyfriend and I both have the same day off, I like to make us breakfast. And he loves my French toast. So I thought I would take a spin on stove top and baked French toast!

I bought this delicious loaf of bread last Thursday at the farmers market:

Apple Cinnamon Swirl Bread from my local bread store: House of Bread. It has cubed apples and cinnamon sugar folder inside and roped with a icing drizzle. They have a delicious Cinnamon Swirl (I all it cinnamon roll because it's basically that just in bread form), Hallah, Brioche, Berry Crumble Bread, you name it they have it! 

Anyways, I only got through half of it in the past week. So it's perfect for our breakfast! And my boyfriend loves apple pie and this bread is pretty dang close to it. 

Let's get started shall we?!

You Will Need:

1/2 loaf of leftover bread, cut into cubes 

(brioche or French bread would be ideal for this but anything you have will do just fine)

1 1/4 cup milk

3 eggs

5 tsp sugar

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp maple syrup

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter, cubed

Print Recipe Here

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Lightly Butter a casserole dish and placed cubed bread inside of it.

Next, whisk together milk, eggs, vanilla, salt, 2 tsps of sugar and 1 tsp of brown sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Pour this mixture over your bread and press down on bread cubes to help soak up the milk mixture. Top with cubed butter. 

Mix together the remaining 3 tsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top and bake for 30-45 mins or until milk mixture is set. 

Portion out and sprinkle with powdered sugar, or a drizzle of maple syrup or just by itself! 

I hope this makes your morning a little bit sweeter! 

Stay tuned for the rest of my day in meals! 

Xoxo

Megan-Noelle

Roasted Radishes and Carrots (AND Flank Steak Marinade You'll Love)

 So I've been so excited to show you my garden I recently started this summer. BUT… I can't find the awesome pictures I took so I will have to take more tomorrow and try my best to post them ASAP!

In the meantime, you will have to settle for this picture of my first harvested strawberry! Isn't it adorable and so juicy looking?!

WELL LET ME TELL YOU! IT WAS DELICIOUS!

Anyways, these beauties have been sitting in my crisper patiently waiting to be used from Talley Farms Box 2 weeks ago! I'm so happy they made it that long! I love the rustic look of radishes and natural beauty that freshly picked carrots have. And I'm so sorry that I made them wait that long! I truly regret it. It's not fair to them and their jaw-dropping beauty. 

Okay, before you pucker your face about there being radishes in this recipe, DON'T!

I am not a fan of raw radishes on their own, while I will eat them in a salad, I will not just munch on them as a snack. However, when I was a little girl I loved to munch on radishes, odd right?! I don't know why, don't ask me. I remember being in kindergarten and having just learned about gardens and we got to plant a garden of our own, and guess what one of the plants we grew was? Radishes!! and I ate them fresh out of the ground, rinsed off first of course. And I loved them! That changed. Ha Ha. 

I loved roasted radishes, so I have faith that you will all love this recipe!

So for this pan of deliciousness,

You Will Need:

1 bunch of small to medium Radishes, quartered - about a dozen (Talley Farms Box)

Feel free to mix up your radishes with different type! I loved to do this around spring, so pretty!

1 bunch of Baby Carrots, peeled - about a dozen (Talley Farms Box)

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

1 teaspoon dried Rosemary

Salt

Pepper

1/2 Lemon

Print Recipe Here

(Please excuse my gigantic Sweet Tea from, yes, Mcdonalds. It was a rough day, and Sweet Tea hits the spot, the best!!!)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place carrots and radishes in a bowl and toss with olive oil, rosemary, salt and pepper.

Place on a baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes. 

Drizzle with lemon juice and serve!

So easy and so beautiful.

Bonus recipe!

I wan't to try and share a few of favorite marinades, so here is the first!

I love to use this for Flank steak or Skirt Steak.

1 teaspoon Cumin

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Pepper

4 teaspoons of Garlic Powder

(or 4 cloves minced or grated)

3 Green Onions, Sliced

1 tablespoon Cilantro, Chopped Fresh from my garden:)

2 Jalepeno Peppers, Minced and rinsed of seeds

1/3 cup Lime Juice

1/2 cup Olive Oil

This is enough for about 2 pounds of meat.  Mix all ingredients together in a ziploc bag. Marinate for 2 hours-Overnight. 

I prefer overnight.

Print Recipe Here

Bon Appetit!

XOXO

Megan-Noelle