Homemade Parmesan & Cracked Peppercorn Dressing

I've told you all about my childhood.  Every Sunday we would visit my grandparents and every Sunday my Grandmother Mary would have a delicious Sunday meal where the adults sat in the dining room on the blue velvet covered dining chairs.  I'm happy to say I have that same dining table and chairs in my dining room (although I did recover the chairs) and I'm trying to continue her tradition of that Sunday meal.  It's kind of our day to splurge and have a hearty home-cooked meal, usually with dessert.  We're in love the the sous vide machine and this past Sunday, we made my spicy herb rubbed roast, only instead of using the oven we used the sous vide machine.  To say it was fabulous is an understatement.  A $12 roast tasted like the best prime rib.  Along with the roast we had some fingerling potatoes and a fresh salad with heirloom tomatoes and the creamiest, tastiest Homemade Parmesan & Cracked Peppercorn Dressing.  For dessert with had a peach pie inspired by my purchase of an antique pie bird.  (But that is a whole other blog post....)   Anyway, back to this delicious salad dressing.  It's super creamy, with the rich addition of Parmesan cheese and cracked peppercorns. I'm a fan of the Tellicherry peppercorns, they have a bold, slightly spicy flavor.  Freshly cracking the whole peppercorns gives the dressing the best flavor.  Complex, but not too peppery or pungent.  It's the perfect dressing to accompany those fresh summer greens and tomatoes!

Homemade Parmesan & Cracked Peppercorn Dressing
So good!

You can't beat this dressing on fresh greens and
some heirloom summer tomatoes and cucumbers!

Make it the night before so the flavors have plenty of
time to "bloom." 

Homemade Parmesan & Cracked Peppercorn Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise (we like Duke's)
1 cup whole milk
1/4 sour cream
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons cracked peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
salt to taste

In a bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, milk, sour cream, Parmesan cheese, peppercorns, garlic powder and onion powder.  Taste and season with salt as needed.  Refrigerate several hours or overnight. 

NOTE:  You can adjust the thickness of the dressing by adding more or less milk.  A great tip for the peppercorns (and other spices) is to purchase an inexpensive coffee grinder that you use only for grinding spices.  This will do a great job cracking the peppercorns and you'll be able to make your own meat rubs and spice blends too.  Just don't use your regular grinder or you'll have some funky tasting coffee!

Man Bars

Time flies!  It seems like just yesterday I was posting my Roasted Cabbage Wedge Salad for our Spring Edition of #FreakyFriday.  And here we are, summer already.  I'm sure we'll be getting ready for the Fall Edition before we know it.  If you aren't familiar with #FreakyFriday, each person in the group is assigned a blog to make a recipe from.  Only everything is a big secret.  And today is the day we reveal our recipes, not only with all of you but with each other.  It's always a lot of fun to see who had what blog and what recipe they chose to make.  Bonus for all of you, because you get to meet some new bloggers and see some great new recipes.  So, without further adieu....

This time around I was assigned the Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies blog, which is so fun because during the Spring Edition of #FreakyFriday, Kris was assigned my blog and she made my Creamy Corn Dip and her post was so flattering and wonderful.  I looked at all of the fabulous recipes on her blog and I was really torn between doing a dessert (since I love to bake I'm always looking for dessert recipes) and her Green Taco Roll Ups.  Because they use green chiles and you know how much I love green chiles!  Kris is from Wisconsin and I considered making Cheese Curd Stuffed Beef 'n Brat Burger, since that is truly a recipe from her part of the country.  We love bratwurst, and this burger just sounds amazing.  Cheese curds aren't too easy to find in Oklahoma though, so I settled on Man Bars.  The name totally intrigued me, and since Father's Day is in June I decided Man Bars were totally appropriate!

When I read Kris' post, she had made these bars for a Fill the Cookie Jar challenge that happened to be in June.  She also chose this recipe with Father's Day in mind.  That's how I knew I had selected the perfect recipe.  Great baking minds think alike!  Now I've told you before that my hubby likes sweets but he doesn't like anything super rich like fudge or flour-less chocolate cake.  When I looked at the ingredients, I was worried the bars might be too sweet since they call for a whole can of condensed milk, but I was wrong.  They have the perfect amount of sweetness.  They are chocolate-y, complimented with the crunch of graham cracker crumbs.  We all know how well chocolate and graham crackers pair together!  I actually might add some mini marshmallows next time.  Since we're already 2/3 of the way to a s'more.

The only change I made in the recipe is with the walnuts.  Kris' version called for 1/2 cup of finely chopped walnuts, but picky 'ol Mr. Devilish Dish does not like nuts so I left them out.  I definitely think they would be delicious edition though.  Or chopped pecans like we eat in everything down here in Oklahoma. 

As I mentioned earlier, the bars aren't terribly sweet.  Rolling them in powdered sugar not only makes an attractive treat, but it truly gives them the perfect level of sweetness.  Not too rich, but a totally satisfying dessert or snack.  You might want to cut them kind of small though.  I cut them fairly big so they would make a pretty picture.

I even added a hammer and tape measure to the photo shoot so my bars would be "extra manly."  Not only are these bars the ideal treat for Dad on Father's Day, they are a great treat any time of year.  Simple to make with only a handful of ingredients.  And they look pretty on a platter too.  Even though they are "manly."  Thank you to Kris at Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies for the terrific inspiration!

Man Bars

by: Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.  In a large bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, walnuts, condensed milk, and vanilla.  Press into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes.  Let cool.  Remove bars from pan and cut into small squares.  Place powdered sugar in a small bowl.  Roll bars in sugar before serving.

#FreakyFriday Participating Bloggers:

 An Affair from the Heart
A Dish of Daily Life
Aunt Bee's Recipes
LeMoine Family Kitchen
Cooking On A Budget
Take Two Tapas
Who Needs A Cape?
A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
Lisa's Dinnertime Dish
Tampa Cake Girl
Full Belly Sisters
Pic-Nic
Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies
The Devilish Dish
Platter Talk. A Culinary Blog. Food, Wine, Friends



I hope you'll give these fabulous bars a try.  Be sure to visit all of the blogs for some delicious new inspirations.  Hop on over and see Kris at Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies.  I know she would love to hear from you!






 

An InLinkz Link-up

Homemade Pizza Dough

Remember in the early 90's when Thursday night was "Must See TV Night?"  When you could park yourself on the couch and watch Friends, Seinfeld and E.R. without moving?  Well Mr. Devilish Dish and I were young newlyweds back then and ordering a pizza would have been a big splurge.  Rather than waste money we didn't have ordering pizza for TV night, we made our own.  I would make a big batch of dough, and we would make one pizza.  Then I would freeze the rest of the dough for the following Thursdays.  Now we're all grown up, and Little Devil is grown up.  There's not much sitting in front of the TV anymore.  Everyone has obligations and activities.  But every once in a while I still make homemade pizza dough.  Thankfully we can afford to order one if we want, but honestly it's much more tasty and satisfying to make your own.  This recipe makes approximately 4 medium-sized thin crust pizzas.  You can make them all at once, or freeze the dough for another night.  We usually have a pizza party and make them all!  Who even needs the TV for entertainment when you can gather the family in the kitchen for homemade pizza anyway?

Homemade Pizza Dough
Only 5 ingredients!

Makes 4 medium-sized thin crust pizzas!

Only needs to rise 30 minutes

Make your own pizza just like you like it.
This one has pepperoni, prosciutto and green chiles!

Homemade Pizza
Feeding poor newlyweds since 1994

Chip Chip Hooray It's Father's Day

I've been so busy I haven't even had the chance to blog about Mother's Day and now Father's Day is already here.  For Mother's Day we had a Popcorn Bar and it was such a hit.  (Pictures coming soon) I thought that something similar would be fun for Father's Day but I wanted to change it up a bit.  So we are having a Salsa Bar!  (I'll have to post pictures for that later too) Keeping with the Salsa theme, I decided to gift the dads with a jar of homemade salsa and a bag of tortilla chips.  Perfect for snacking in their recliners on their special day.  Of course I can't just give them a jar of salsa and a bag of chips.  It has to be "cuted up" somehow.  I came up with the silly saying, "Chip Chip Hooray, Happy Father's Day."  Of course it's corny.  But nothing goes better with salsa than corny corn chips.   I'm making a quadruple batch of my Chimayo Salsa.  We'll have some to eat at the Salsa Bar, and some is going into jars for the dads.  If you haven't made this before, now is your chance.  It's a simple recipe, but full of smoky chimayo pepper flavor.  It keeps great in the fridge and tastes even better when you make it the night before.  I'll do both a Mother's Day post with the Popcorn Bar and a Father's Day post with pictures from this weekend's Salsa Bar, but I wanted to share this one with you early in case you wanted to whip up a jar of salsa for dad.  I've included some free printable tags for you too.  That way you'll be saying "Chip Chip Hooray" too!

Here's what each Dad is getting.
A gift bag with the cute little
tag.  A bag of chips and a jar
of homemade Chimayo Salsa inside!

Coney Sauce for Hot Dogs

I love hot dogs.  I know, I know they are so gross and unhealthy.  But this is The Devilish Dish, not the health food police blog.  I really only like them at the ballpark or on the grill at home.  With chili and all the fixins on top.  Even better than a big dollop of chili is a ladle-full of this coney sauce.  It's thinner than chili and something about it just goes perfectly with a hot dog.  Last summer we had a 4th of July party and of course we grilled hot dogs.  I used my three-compartment slow cooker and served sauerkraut, roasted red pepper sauce and this coney sauce which was by far the most popular!  If you aren't a hot dog fan, then try it on a Frito Pie.  I'm sure it's equally delicious that way.  Or get one of those fancy quinoa tofu dogs and make it taste like a real hot dog with a big dollop of this sauce.  Whatever you choose to put it on, just make the sauce!

What's better than a plain hot dog?
A hot dog with Homemade Coney Sauce!

It's thinner than chili.

Perfect for topping a hot dog.

Just add mustard!

The best old fashioned style!

It's a Queen-O!