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Arby's New Smokehouse Brisket Sandwich

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Arby's for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I love Arby's and find myself stopping by for a quick snack and sandwich fairly often.  So when I saw the commercials showing the new Smokehouse Brisket sandwich, I was all over it. It looked incredible and had all the elements I like in a sandwich; good meat, soft bread, cheese, barbecue sauce and onion rings. 

 

Only this isn't your typical sandwich... I think it's so much more. This is a delicious sandwich that starts with quality meat and is smoked low and slow for at least 13 hours and boy it sure tastes like it. We have a smoker at home and you can tell smoked meat vs. meat soaked with liquid smoke. This was for sure smoked for a long time and I love the flavor and aroma that I experienced. And the meat was flavorful and tender. No gristly fat on this sandwich! No way! The smoked gouda cheese adds an extra unique flavor to this sandwich and the barbecue sauce and mayo added was just enough that it did not leave the bread all soggy.  I was also pleasantly surprised that the bun wasn't your typical sesame seed or plain bun you find these days but a soft bakery style bun that was delicious and didn't take away from the smoky sandwich flavor.  Pair this with one of my Arby's favorites, curly fries, and I had a delicious and satisfying lunch on a chilly rainy day. 

 

Can I also just say how much I love Arby's spokesman Bo Dietl? He's a "real" guy and not some flashy model and that is refreshing to see these days.  I just had to throw that out there. 

Is your mouth watering yet? Find an Arby’s near you and grab your own brisket sandwich. It's available as a single sandwich or you can have it in a combo with those yummy curly fries and a drink.

Tell me..... why are you excited to try the new Smokehouse Brisket? Leave a comment below and tell me if you've tried it or why you're excited to try it. I'd love to hear from you. 

Peach Mango Sorbet

Hey everyone! Summer isn't over yet.... At least not for me. I purchased a KitchenAid ice cream maker attachement with my mixer last month and I'm not ready to put it back in the box. Hubby loves ice cream and sorbet and it's not just for the summer months in my house. Today I am sharing a recipe for some delicious Peach Mango Sorbet. This is perfectly refreshing for hot summer days and not so hot fall evenings. Using this combination of fruits yielded a wonderful sorbet that you can either devour for yourself or serve at your next barbecue.

Peach Mango Sorbet

2 cups frozen peach slices, thawed

1 fresh mango, cut into chunks

1/4 to 1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cups simple syrup (recipe below)

Simple Syrup

2 cups water
2 cups sugar

Directions

Put peaches, mango and water into a food processor and blend until very smooth. I used 1/4 cup water. If you wish, strain the liquid in a mesh strainer pressing into it to get all the liquid out and discard any solids. However, I like the texture of the solids in there so I left them. It's up to you. Chill this mix for 4-6 hours in the fridge.


Meanwhile, make the simple syrup. Place the ingredients into a saucepan and heat through until sugar is completely dissolved. Place this in the fridge and chill completely, about 2 hours.

Once everything is chilled, add the simple syrup to the peach mix. As you can see the recipe for the syrup makes more then you need for this, so save some for your next batch!!

Bring out your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturers directions. I have a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer with the ice cream attachment. I churned it on setting #1 for almost 10 minutes until the texture was the way I wanted. I chilled this mix in the freezer for about 4 hours or until Hubby couldn't wait any longer. If you like a softer sorbet, chill for a shorter amount of time.

Blueberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Blueberries and chocolate... sounds delicious doesn't it? Hubby had seen something on TV about blueberry white chocolate cookies and was determined to have some for himself. Being the good little wifey, I told him I'd bake him a batch. He loves white chocolate, I like dark chocolate. So I made a couple dozen cookies with 2/3 having white chocolate and 1/3 dark chocolate. My sweet tooth isn't nearly as "advanced" as his.

This recipe was adapted from The Pinterest Project and I substituted blueberries for raspberries and skipped the lemon. I also made the error of using Almond Extract instead of vanilla since I grabbed the wrong thing out of the pantry. But no worries, it turned out really great.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/2 sugar (or Xylitol)
1 egg
2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract (or Almond like my "error")
1 Tablespoon water
1-1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, add the butter, cream cheese and sugar and blend until creamy. Add the egg and blend together. Add the extract and the water and blend until smooth. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet. Blend together.

Since I was making this with two types of chocolate, I divided the mix into 1/3 and 2/3 dough mixes. In the large one, I added the white chocolate chips since hubby loves cookies more then me. I'm so nice to give him the 2/3 batch.

In the small batch (the 1/3), I added the dark chocolate chips. I then blended the blueberries into each batch, again dividing 1/3 & 2/3. If you are using frozen blueberries (thaw them first :-)), blend them in carefully as you don't want to squish them.

Roll the dough up into little balls and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. I made it easy on myself and used a melon baller to scoop them up and drop them on the cookie sheet.

Bake 11-13 minutes or until done.  One thing I did with my second round of baking was to flatten out the little balls so they cookies were less fluffy and more like a regular shaped cookie. This is up to you how you want to do them, but the baking time is about the same.

With the cream cheese, these came out more "cake like" then crunchy "cookie like." Don't get me wrong they were still very good and I love the mix of the tart dark chocolate with the blueberries. I think if I were to do these again (and I likely will), I would reduce the flour by about 1/8-1/4 cup to give them a bit more moisture, however these certainly were a winner in my household.

You can see the cake like texture in the center and boy were they fluffy!! Do you like yours crunchy or fluffy? Weigh in by commenting. 

Fresh Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

About a year ago I received a WonderMill flour mill for a product review. I had never milled my own flour before, but go used to it very quickly. It's nice to purchase whole grain then make flour as needed instead of having a bunch of processed white flour sitting in my pantry. The best part is when you mill your own flour, you are getting the most nutrients since flour loses it's nutrients the longer it sits on a shelf.  I milled 1 3/4 cups of whole wheat grain to make enough flour for this recipe then some extra for dusting the pizza stone.

With the flour mill, it's time to make a whole wheat from scratch pizza crust. There is a small pizza and sandwich place here in West Jordan, UT that I enjoy purchasing pizza from since they make a whole wheat crust. But now was time to make my own so out came the WonderMill and a crust was born.

This recipe is adapted from How Sweet Eats.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon dry active yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions
Combine flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add water, honey, oil, Italian seasoning and garlic powder, mixing with a spoon to form into a ball. Continue mixing with your hands and kneed for about 60 seconds. Lightly oil bowl and add dough back in. Cover and let rise for 2-3 hours.

After 2-3 hours, remove from bowl and punch down. Roll back into ball and let sit for 30 minutes.

Lay on lightly floured surface and roll very thin. Top with toppings and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

I just rolled out one pizza crust and it was a funky rectangular shape that reminded me of a map of the state of Illinois, lol. Hubby and I like different things on a pizza so we each topped our halves with something different. 

He had fresh spinach, cherry tomatoes, grilled chicken, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese with a drizzle of srirracha sauce. 

My half was vegetarian. I had fresh spinach, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, capers and goat cheese.

This was one delicious crust!! If you have a pizza stone, put it in the oven while you're pre-heating it so it's nice and hot. It will give you a nice crispy crust. This crust was so good and I love the honey that was added to it. Next time, I will use small chunks of fresh garlic in my crust so it has that burst of flavor in every bite. Hubby loved his toppings but I think mine were better.

What are your favorite toppings? Mine would be mushrooms, olives, spinach and goat cheese. I prefer a veggie pizza but a nice pepperoni works too!

Designer Inspired Handbag Giveaway!!!

Welcome to the Designer Inspired Handbag Giveaway event, sponsored by BagInc and hosted by Happy Mothering! During this event, Baginc.com will be giving away a handbag of the winner’s choice from their Hottest Collection (valued at up to a $190)!

 

Remotely operating from Paris with an office and warehouse in Hong Kong, Baginc.com is comprised of a team of energetic fashion aficionados with a passion for celebrity-inspired, designer handbags. Their international coverage gives Baginc a unique edge, one that allows them to deliver the hottest bags to clients all over the globe. They have a great selection of designer-inspired handbag styles at affordable prices. They don’t charge sales tax and provide free worldwide shipping for all orders over $100. They even offer a money-back guarantee for customers who are unsatisfied with their purchase.

Here are are some of the many bags you’ll be able to choose from if you win!

You can never have too many handbags right? I love the selection here and it would be tough to just pick one!! I'm so excited to be part of this giveaway!

 

Good luck to all who enter.

 

Entering is easy. Just complete as many options as you’d like from the Rafflecopter form below. The more entries you complete, the more chances you’ll have to win – good luck! This giveaway is open worldwide and runs through September 30, 2013.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lori's Culinary Creations was not compensated for this post and is not responsible for prize fulfillment.

Mom's Baked Hot Dogs with Beans

When I was a kid, my mom would make hot dogs for my sister and I. It wasn't just a dog in a bun, but it was cheesy baked dogs with pork and beans. My sister and I loved this and requested this often. She would cut the dogs down the middle and insert ooey gooey cheddar cheese which would melt and be so good when cooked. It's a traditional "mom dish" that we make when we grew up for our own kids, nieces and nephews. I loved it so much I wanted to share it with you so you can make this kid friendly delicious dish at home. I did modify mom's recipe a bit by adding bacon and brown sugar. 

Ingredients
1 large can of pork & beans or baked beans
4 strips of bacon cooked and chopped
3 Tablespoons dark brown sugar
4 all beef hot dogs
4 ounces of cheddar cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix the beans, bacon and brown sugar and place in a glass baking dish.

Slice each hot dog down the center, but not all the way through. 

Insert an equal amount of cheese in each dog

Place the dogs in the baking dish on top of the beans

Bake in the oven 25 minutes until the cheese is all nice and melty.

These are so good and your kids will love this cheesy new take on hot dogs. For the little ones, you can cut it into bite sized cheesy pieces they can easily pick up with their hands. Serve with your favorite side dish. We had some garlic bread and a side salad.  

I hope you enjoy my mom's baked hot dog recipe. It's been a hit in our family for years. Do you have an easy family recipe? Share below in the comments.