Nicole Tries Blaak Onion Jam

First off yes, I know tomatoes are out of season. And secondly, yes, I know I used crescent rolls. And thirdly, I really can't wait till summer starts hitting, so I can go looking around for farmers markets.

I know there is some variation of this on the beekman1802 website, but this was based off the little tart thing that Josh made in S2 Ep. 5 at the cooking demonstration.

I wanted something to easily throw together and make.

So:

My weapons of choice.

I should also note, I don't want to say I dislike onions, because I'm sure I don't, it's just growing up in a family with a parent allergic to onions and garlic, they are flavors I have to grow into and realize that now that I don't live at home, I can make all the recipes in the world that call for onions and garlic.

But for tonights simplicities sake, I wanted to "recreate" the tart.

I opened the crescent rolls, and laid each one out and put a little onion jam in and half a tomato. Then rolled them up.

I put them into the oven and baked. So they came out like this:

So they look all nice and done on the outside. The inside was one gooey mess. :/  Next time I'll try using my oven instead of the toaster oven, or even moving the rack around in the toaster oven. I never had trouble when I made pigs in a blanket in my toaster, but who knows. I seem to be losing my magic cooking touch here, just when I want to keep trying new things.

So I know this is what you've all been waiting for my verdict on the Onion Jam.

*drum roll*

I like it. I don't love it, but I definitely don't hate it. I love the flavors of the ingredients and am surprised at how well they go together (actually I shouldn't be because it's a beekman 1802 product, and they strive for perfection).

As someone who doesn't love onions, I think next time I want to try and pair it with something, like pork. It says pork on the jar, so I figure I'll give that a shot sometime.

So in all, I just need to experiment with it.

Nicole Tries Crackers again

So I was a fan of the cinnamon sugar ones I made last time. So I tried to make it again. This time I'm back at my apartment.

First thing I noticed this time around the dough wasn't as sticky. Which is good I guess, but I'm not so sure. The only difference was I didn't have sea salt, so I used regular salt.

I coated my crackers with the cinnamon sugar and placed in the oven.

Half of them came out burnt. It seems the ones that were in the middle of the cookie sheet came out fine and the rows on the ends were burnt beyond belief. At least I had the fan on and didn't set off my smoke detector.

Here's a shot of the decent ones.

I will say this time they are Crispy.

Now I also did a batch of plain ones. Again most came out, but a few on the ends burnt to a crisp. I'm thinking maybe not to keep the oven at 450 since it seems it burns a bit more. But at least I have some of each so I can have a snack of  crackers, and with the plain ones honey.

Here's a shot of the plain crackers:

Also, while you are at it, go to beekman1802.com and go buy their original cajeta. It's amazing with ice cream, apples, and off the spoon.

Cajeta Picture

Nicole Makes Crackers

Short story, first off, I'm recovering from some surgery, which has required my diet to be light with food, and pretty much non fatty. So I was looking for something else to add to my limited diet on the Beekman website, when I came across the Cracker Recipe.

In looking at it, I realized this was very similar to the pasta dough my dad and I make all the time, so I figured, I can give this a try and see how it turned out.

First I mixed the ingredients together, and to note, you really don't need a mixer for this. Because if you are like me, and you don't own one (I know the horrors), but your hands work just fine. The dough is a bit sticky, but it mixes into something like this:

Then the dough rests for about a half hour.

After it has rested, it is now ready to be rolled out. (Ironically, I do have a rolling pin, go figure).

I rolled it out, and since my dad likes to make pasta and I'm recovering at my parents place, I had access to a ravioli maker. I also used a pizza cutter to cut the dough, but any sharp object will do just be careful when cutting the dough so you don't cut yourself.  But after I rolled out the dough and cut out some squares, I used the ravioli thing (yes a technical name there :) ) and pressed through the dough to cut out some squares, which turned into rectangles.

The first batch I had put Romano cheese, and just left some sea salt on them.  Once I filled up the cookie sheet, I placed them in the oven.

They baked for about 12 minutes like the recipe said, but every oven is different, and I think the next time I make them, I will keep them on for a couple minutes longer.

For the second batch, I decided to try something different, my dad put some Old Bay spices on some, and my mom and I put cinnamon sugar on a couple more, we also did the plain and the Romano cheese.

After both batches had cooled a bit, the real test, were they any good?

Yes, yes they were.

Lessons learned: Roll the dough a bit thinner. They got a bit chewy after a day, still very good but chewy. Next time I also want to make a couple just plain, no added salt to the top. For breakfast, I'd been eating them with some honey, which my mom found at a store that sells local goods. So the honey is from a couple towns over.

Will I try this recipe again?- Yes, it was easy to make and who doesn't like crackers?