6/26/15

0 Pressure Cooked Lipton Onion Soup Potatoes

May contain affiliate links.  Please refer to my disclosure policy.

Summer is the time to bust out the pressure cooker!  A pressure cooker is great for fast and easy meals, especially when you don't want to heat up your house with an oven.

One of our favorite side dishes is the Lipton Onion Soup roasted potatoes.  We love the roasted onion flavor, but didn't want to heat up the oven.  The recipe is on the box, but in my opinion, it uses way too much oil.  


What to do? I love roasting the potatoes using the recipe that came with my Cuisinart electric pressure cooker and thought, "Why not make a Lipton Onion version?"


Roasting potatoes is very easy using the electric Cuisinart on the "browning" setting. I used 3 T. oil and once browning started, I stirred the potatoes every so often to give the other pieces a chance to brown. This took about 5-10 minutes.


I opened an envelope of Lipton Onion Soup mix and added 1/3 c. of water. Most recipes using this pressure cooker call for at least 1/2 c. of water, to prevent scorching.  Mixed the seasoning, water, and poured it directly on top of the potatoes.

Closed the cooker and set it on HIGH for 5 minutes. This pressure cooker has a GREAT safety feature: If there is very little liquid or TOO much liquid, it will automatically SHUT OFF.  You gotta love that!

The result? Awesome "roasted" potatoes full of the Lipton Onion flavor with none of the extra oil, fuss, and muss. If you don't have a pressure cooker, isn't it about time? 


Print Friendly and PDF Pressure Cooked Lipton Onion Potatoes


Ingredients
3 T. vegetable oil
2 lbs. medium red potatoes, halved
1 envelop Lipton Onion Soup mix
1/3 cup water
Instructions
Put 3 T. butter into cooking pot of pressure cooker.  Select BROWNING. Stir in potatoes.  
Stir occasionally so the oil coats all potatoes and begins to brown, about 5-10 minutes.
Add water to soup mix and stir.  Pour mixture over potatoes.
Lock lid.  Select HIGH pressure, set timer for 5 minutes.  
When you hear the beep, use QUICK release method to release pressure. 
Remove lid carefully, and serve. 

6/15/15

0 Roll Up Cafe

 
Disclosure: I was invited to review the new menu and provide my opinion. No other compensation was provided. 

As a bread/carb lover, the name "Roll Up Cafe" conjured images in my mind of cinnamon rolls, sticky buns, danishes and buttery dinner rolls. I was invited to #Taste Life at the Roll Up Cafe as a blogger and invited my husband to come along.

To my surprise, this cafe is all about crepes. Morning, Noon and night. 
Breakfast is served on Saturday mornings with stuffed French Toast and crepes filled with eggs, mushrooms, spinach, tomato, goat cheese or the more tradition filling of egg, bacon and cheese. 
In addition to sweet and savory crepes, the menu includes soups, salads, paninis, and Nutella milkshakes.

Yep. Nutella. A must have condiment in my house.


The Roll Up Cafe is located at 1605 South State Street in Orem, Utah and is not hard to find if you look for the Owl right on the corner.


Located near Utah Valley University, this place is sure to be a crowded place during the school year.

We came on a Tuesday night and saw people of all ages and even a few kids. What caught my eye was this cool tree "planted" right in the middle of the cafe. The atmosphere is small, casual and intimate.


It was a little warm inside, but the windows and door were open and we were assured that the AC would be fixed soon. To our delight, we were immediately served an ice cold Nutella Milkshake...


Not your super-thick over the top milkshake, but plenty rich with fresh whipped cream and streaks of Nutella painted on the side of the cup, I was busy scraping Nutella with every spoonful.

For our first course hubby choose the Summer Garden Gazpacho soup... a cool, refreshing combination of watermelon, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, mint, basil and spices. He picked up the lime wedge, gave it a squeeze and ate every bite. He enjoyed the savory/sweet combination. This menu item is seasonal and offered for a limited time. Good to know that the menu changes with the season, offering only the best fruits and veggies available locally!


I picked the Tomato Bisque, a warm, creamy soup with shaved Parmesan. I loved the fresh creamy texture, but felt it was a little too salty. Gave hubby a taste and he didn't think it was too salty at all. It wasn't too overwhelming and could taste the fresh tomatoes in every spoonful. I enjoyed the entire bowl...


For our entree, I choose the Heartthrob: a savory crepe filled with roasted turkey breast, apple wood smoked bacon, mozzarella cheese, and drizzled with their house Cilantro Lime Dressing. 


This is a great flavor combination on a classic turkey sandwich. No skimping here on portion size and the ratio of REAL turkey to REAL bacon was perfect. I ate half to save room for dessert, which was a good thing...

Hubby chose the Hot Mess: a savory crepe stuffed with Jasmine rice, curried chicken and smothered in their Thai Pineaple Coconut Curry, garnished with julienned snow peas and roasted peanuts. 


This dish was rated "medium" on the heat scale, but once I tasted hubby's entree, I made him trade plates....it was SO good! It was an incredible tropical blend of sweet and savory and was not spicy at all....when we go again, this is what I am going to order and keep every bite to myself...

I was beginning to feel like I was eating gourmet food, but not in a fancy schmancy restaurant.  The chef, a recent graduate of culinary school, has revamped the menu to include these dishes alongside family favorites.  The Hot Mess, she described as a seven year project to bring all the flavors to a perfect balance. So, so worth it!

Drum roll, please....here comes dessert. 


Both of us chose to try the Single with Vanilla Ice Cream. Oh. My. 

This is a treat to share and savor.  A savory crepe is served warm, cinnamon-roll style, filled with sweet cream cheese, drizzled with salted caramel sauce and sprinkled generously with crunchy granola and cinnamon sugar.

I really, really, wanted to lick the plate clean. Seriously. Right then and there. Instead, I scraped off as much of the delicious salted caramel sauce I could with a plastic spoon. 

O.K., now you're wondering.  With such gourmet food, it's got to come with a high price tag, right? What if I told you that the soups are $4.95, the savory crepes are $6.95 and this gorgeous cinnamon-roll crepe with ice cream is $4.95?  The portions are generous, making these prices so affordable. You'll want to come back for the taste AND for the price. 

Follow the Roll Up Cafe on their:

 
**HINT** Follow Roll Up Cafe on IG or FB, share their promotional post with 2 friends on IG in the comment. Show the cashier and get 15% off the Single! Yep, that mound of deliciousness you see above...Do it. Now.

Enjoy!


6/2/15

14 Crystalized Honey? Don't Throw it Out!


Does your honey look like this? All chunky and crystallized?

No, this doesn't mean it has gone bad ~ do NOT throw it out! You can revive honey to it's natural state.

Crystallization is the natural process by which liquid honey becomes solid. Heating honey is the only way to dissolve the crystals.  Three things cause honey to crystallize:

Temperature: crystallization starts below 50º F.
Ratio of glucose and fructose in the honey: some types of honey are more prone to crystallization. Alfalfa and Clover honey are two examples.
Pollen: Fresh, raw honey naturally has pollen, which crystallization builds upon. Store bought honey is filtered to remove pollen, creating a more shelf stable honey.

DO NOT MICROWAVE THE HONEY!

Microwaving over heats the honey, doesn't heat it evenly, and most likely, you will melt your plastic container... yuck. Microwaving also destroys all of the beneficial enzymes and properties of the honey.


1. Find a large pot with a heavy bottom, and if you can, put a trivet on the bottom of the pot.
2. Place the container of honey into the pot and fill it with hot tap water.

3. Unscrew the honey lid slightly to allow any steam to escape.


 4. Place the pot onto your stove and turn the temp to medium low. At temps above 100ºF, you risk melting the plastic and destroying all the beneficial enzymes and antioxidants honey provides.


Keep an eye on the honey and pick it up every so often, gently shaking the honey container to loosen any honey crystals.

5. When the crystals have dissolved, turn OFF the stove and let the honey in the pot COOL down completely.  This entire process can take several hours, depending on the size of your honey container and how crystallized your honey is.

When your honey is cooled to room temperature, pour it into clean, glass jars. Plastic is more porous than glass, so canning jars are perfect. The pint size works great for our family.


Label and store in a cool (but NOT cold) place.

Enjoy!





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