DIY: Orange Julius!

I have met a lot of people who don't know what an Orange Julius is. Well, go GOOGLE it right now. I'll wait....until right now. Ok, now that you know what it is, you can exclaim to yourself and those around you that you feel enlightened upon discovering this nectar of the Gods. Well, there is a food business by that exact name out there where you pay a few bucks for a cup of the stuff. Well, I found many recipes online on how to make your own at home. This was with my breakfast this morning, so enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 can Orange Juice Concentrate
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
12 Ice Cubes
Water

Yes it's that simple and all done in a blender. I know, it's so tasty that you should use more ingredients but alas this is the case. Sort of. It's a basic recipe. You can add regular Orange Juice to it as well as Milk. If you want to make it very healthy, you can always add powdered anything to it such as Metamucil or one of those Protein Powder Drink things.

Once you get your stuff together, throw in 12 Ice Cubes or so.

Then the Orange Juice Concentrate and Vanilla Extract.

I did not put an amount of water on it because it's up to you. It really is. It all depends on how dense you want it. You can have it with the consistency of regular Orange Juice if you want, or all the way to almost like Ice Cream. I like it in the middle, so I filled the Orange Juice Concentrate container about 3/4 of the way up and poured that in.

Then blend it like crazy. I mean....cover it and let it blend until pureed.

Then just serve! Enjoy!

Sorry for only 4 pictures! It was 5:10am when I made this and I am not exactly completely coherent at that hour!

Appetizer: Mushroom Mania

Today after a long week at work, I decided to try some fun cooking. That thought process ended with a decision upon the Mushrooms I had in the fridge. Well, if you have not noticed I cook them a lot. A whole lot. This time I varied it up a little bit by cooking them in 3 different ways for one plate. Boom.








Ingredients:
1 lb Button Mushrooms

Asian Spiced:
1/3 cup Port
1/3 cup Sherry
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Lime Juice
Sweet Paprika
Fennel Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Ancho Chili Powder
Garlic Salt

Local Herbed:
2 sprig Rosemary
1/4 cup Oregano
3 sprig Thyme
1/3 cup Olive Oil

Decadent Dessert
1/4 stick Butter
1/3 cup Lime Juice
1/4 cup Orange Liquor
1/2 cup Cilantro Leaves

PART 1:
Alright, so I will take you through this recipe one part at a time to avoid confusion. Note, the Mushrooms I sliced up into one big bowl and took out about 1/3 for each recipe.

I'll start with the Asian Spiced Mushrooms. I began by gathering the materials.

Turn the heat to medium. Then use a small sauce pot and poured in the Port, Sherry, Soy Sauce, and Lime Juice. I added in the spices mixed together. I used like a spoonful of each, maybe 2 of the Garlic Salt. Stir together.

Once the liquid starts to steam a little bit, add the Mushrooms and make sure they get coated by the mixture.

Now, they should take about 7 minutes to get properly cooked/spongey feeling.

I chose to take them out and place them in a ramekin but a small bowl should also suffice. I then put in the microwave so it stayed warm until all 3 were done.

PART 2:
The second one is the Local Herbed Mushrooms. I call it this because the herbs I used were from my personal garden. I began like usual, gathering my ingredients.

Now I stripped the leaved off the Rosemary and Oregano, while the Thyme I just cut up into smaller pieces. I then put a small saucepan on the stove, turned the heat to medium, and poured in the Olive Oil.

I then added the herbs.

Once that began to simmer, I added in the Mushrooms.

This recipe should take about 7 minutes as well, make sure to stir.

Do the same as Part 1 in keeping them warm once you take them off the stovetop.

Part 3:
This last part is the Decadent Dessert Mushroom portion. I call it this because when it was sampled, a comment about how it tastes like a dessert stuck with me. Sounds fitting.

I began by gathering the ingredients.

Now, using a small saucepan I added the Butter and turned the heat to medium.

Quickly after the Butter began to melt, I added the Lime Juice, Orange Liquor, and Cilantro Leaves. It looks amazing to me, maybe I should make a drink with all but the Butter?

This should take about 8 or 9 minutes since it took me a little longer than the other 2 parts. Make sure to mix it around.

Now, once this is done just turn the heat off and move to an unused burner.

The end part here is where you plate all 3 Mushroom Recipes. I went in the order listed above, however I overlapped their cooking times using different burners as well. Enjoy.

Maple & Orange Syrup with Oranges

A few days ago I put it out there to my coworkers and friends that I wanted their input on what I should cook up on this blog. Well, I did not get much feedback and I think that was due to me asking for them to either give me an ingredient or something broad so I could still decide the end product. Well, a certain person said I should try throwing a dessert dish together since I have not done that before. Here we go...


Ingredients:
3 md Oranges
4 tsp Butter
2 tbsp Maple Syrup
2 tpsp Orange Liqueur
2 tbsp Orange Juice

Get all of your stuff together.

I started by making sure my oven was empty and then turned the temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I then made sure I had Tinfoil cut into squares large enough to form a bowl around the Orange slices in the next step.

I grabbed the Oranges and cut them into slices. I discarded the ends since they did not really help out at all. I then trimmed the peel and white membrane away from the edges of the slices. I placed the slices in the tinfoil and made sure the tinfoil formed a bowl/cup around them.

Here I created the mixture used. I grabbed my glass measuring cup and put in 4 tsp Butter. I placed this in the microwave for about 1 minute to melt the butter completely. To this I added the 2 tbsp of Maple Syrup, Orange Liqueur, and Orange Juice. Then stirred to make sure it all mixed together properly.

I then poured this mixture into the tinfoil bowls/cups where the Orange slices were waiting. About this time your oven should be ready as well. I closed the bowls up using the tinfoil, and placed them on a cooking sheet. Into the oven they went for 10 to 12 minutes.

Take out, be careful since it's very hot! Take out and serve. The recipe I roughly followed also called for them to be served with fresh cream or cheese, however I just served them as is. Enjoy.