Adventures of the Not-So Gourmet

In a recipe rut

2010-11-12T15:27:00.000-08:00

I've been in a bit of a rut lately. I've been working WAY too many 2nd shifts which throws a wrench into it all. So the diet has been suffering to say the least. I haven't gained any weight -- mostly because I'm staying active, but I'm no longer losing -- *insert :( .

After getting my hair done on Tuesday, my future sister in-law gave me the real simple magazine and perusing that was enough to spark some cooking energy! Thursday, the fiance and I went grocery shopping and filled our cart full of good food and things to make the bunch of new recipes I found!

Tonight's meal will be one from the magazine: Roasted Tilapia with potatoes and lemon

Upcoming recipes:

Wild Rice and Mushroom Pilaf with cranberries
Green Beans with Bacon Vinagrette
Roasted Leg of Lamb with Carrots and Honey Mint sauce
Not to mention countless ideas for sandwhiches and quick food....

I'm hungry! Hope my tilapia finishes soon!

What's for Dinner?

2010-10-14T17:43:00.000-07:00

Whoa! It's been a while!!! Where have I been?? Have I been cooking?

Well, I've been working a lot of 2nd shifts and watching my pantry food supply dwindle so cooking had definitely fallen by the wayside. But never fear, friends, I have returned. Because of the downgraded diet, I had definitely noticed the effects on my body. I haven't gained or lost much weight, but my energy and how I feel has suffered. So I'm newly returned from the grocery store, have a well stocked pantry and am ready to take on a cooking challenge!

Today's recipe is for Baked Walleye. I'm pairing it with salads and a Knorr Pasta side: Broccoli and Cheddar pasta. Nothing too highly gourmet but I'm cooking it and it's not pizza, so WIN!

I found the recipe by a google search: http://www.food.com/recipe/baked-walleye-69347

my modifications:

I cut down on the lemon juice to 2tsp instead of 1 T and added some dried tarragon to the mix. I omitted the mushrooms and also added some garlic to my piece of fish.

Initial taste is a bit bland actually. I may try seasoning it some more....

Seasoning didn't really do anything for this. It was just way too bland. Will not be making it again. Consider this link deleted from from my bookmarks!

soup!

2010-09-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

The weather has turned cooler. This instantly put me into a soup mood. I have big plans for fall and winter to try my hand at various soups. Today, I return to an old/new favorite: Wild Rice and Chicken soup.

I didn't grow up eating soup... well at least not real soup. IMHO, Campbell's Chicken noodle concentrated soup DOES NOT count. If it comes in a can and all you do is add water, Nope. Doesn't count. It's a meal, but real soup involves real work. Things like fall harvest veggies, hand pulled chicken, local wild rice. Is your mouth watering yet? I know mine is.

I first was exposed to a good wild rice soup at a local soup place called Eddingtons. After that, I had amazing soup at my fiance's parent's house and since then it definitely a comfort food. I've tried my hand at a couple other recipes but none really come close to the splendor that is this recipe. Will I share it? Only by request. I'm not sure where his dad got the recipe so it's not really mine to share with the public.

I can share that this fall's soup includes good late summer/fall veggies: carrots, peppers, celery. And of course, wild rice (although mine is from a bag so probably not a recent harvest by any means). There's a reason you crave soups like this during cool weather. I even double checked that these were in fact late summer/early fall produce items. I've been reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver so things like harvest times are of particular interest right now.

I sautee'd those veggies in butter. Pre-cooked the rice in chicken broth. Added some flour to the butter sautee'd veggies but did not create a roux and then added more chicken broth. The final touches were adding the cooked rice, the chicken and the cream. That's as much detail I feel I can go into.

For the diet concious: THIS IS NOT YOUR RECIPE! This is a treat indeed cooking with real butter and real half and half. No reduced fat in this recipe. It's one of those times when I feel you should indulge in the real stuff but enjoy in moderation!

I will, though, share some pictures of my comfort food:

Fiance's dad's recipe has mushrooms and onion in it as well. I omitted today because 1) I strongly dislike mushrooms 2) I forgot to buy an onion. The soup tastes just fine without those!

Ok... now time to feast upon my creation....

What's for Dinner?

2010-08-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

After a hiatus due to a very busy August, I cooked tonight.

Tonight's menu:

Homemade garlic mashed red potatoes
Tomato, Basil, Garlic marinaded steak on the grill

The mashed potatoes were way easier than I expected! I simply brought a bunch of water to a boil. Added a bunch of quartered red potatoes, about a tablespoon of diced garlic. Reduced heat and simmered 22 minutes covered. Then I added 1/2 cup of milk, 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, 2 T of butter. After the potatoes were done I strained them and added them to the milk/cheese/butter combo.

Because I lack a manual masher, I used my hand mixer to mix everything together.

And with that, they were ready to serve!

The verdict:

They were ok. Albeit on the blander side. I think I should have added a few more herbs and a bit more salt. For a first attempt, I'd give them a 6 on a scale of 10. Something to make again, but tweak.

What's for Dinner? 2nd post of the week!

2010-08-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

I think I just outdid myself....

Cooking 2 nights in a row! Whoa!

Granted tonight wasn't really all that hard as far as cooking went: Steak marinated in a balsamic garlic & peppercorn marinade and grilled, paired with Rosemary Garlic red potatoes (done from a McCormick Veggie Steamers packet in the microwave).

A great meal for a warm evening, no oven involved.

Prep time: 20 minutes (including marinating time and potato chopping)
Cook time: 15 minutes.

What's for Dinner?

2010-08-03T17:51:00.000-07:00

Sound the alarms.... I cooked.

I ended up having to run to the grocery store at 5pm (worst time EVER to visit Rainbow in EP, unless you love getting banged into by carts in clogged aisles and endless lines....) to accomplish this, but I'm happy I did.

Tonights menu:

Italian chicken (personal creation)
Garlic & Basil steamed green beans
instant mashed potatoes

The italian chicken is a personal little creation of mine. I brown chicken with garlic (sometimes onion too) in oil. Use chicken broth or extra italian dressing to deglaze the pan. Then put all of that and some more italian dressing in a shallow baking dish. I bake that covered for 20 minutes, uncovered for 10-15 (I use a convection oven so time is shorter).

The garlic and basil steamed green beans was made with a McCormick Veggie Steamers packet in the microwave. The instant potatoes were from Potato Buds instant potatoes.

Total meal cost was easily under $10 with the chicken taking about 1/2 the budget.

The garlic and basil green beans were fabulous! I didn't use the full amount of green beans so there was a lot of sauce with each bean but I would defiitely make these again! It was a super easy thing to make and it took me longer to chop the ends off the beans than any of the effort I put into making them. So if you're looking for a vegetable side for dinner this was an extremely flavorful option!

In a rut...

2010-08-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

I'm in a cooking rut. I feel like we've only been home enough to eat maybe 2 meals in the last week and a half. Hopefully I'll be able to change that soon. I'm really feeling the need to cook. I just don't know what to make.

Cross your fingers my rut ends soon....

CUPCAKES!

2010-07-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

I decided today was the perfect day to do some baking. I've been itching to use my kitchen aid mixer again and cupcakes sounded like a good excuse to use it, that an as an overdue birthday present to fiance.

The last time I baked cupcakes, I wasn't all that impressed with our cake recipe so I decided to give a new one a try, one from my Better Homes and Gardens baking book. I found a recipe for devils food cake that sounded like it may work.
I could post the recipe, but the way more exciting part is how they turned out, so here they are:

Pictures of my yummy cupcakes:

Coffee Flavored frosting, coffee bean garnish on chocolate cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes with either chocolate frosting or neon pink vanilla frosting, or some combination of them. Some garnished with fresh raspberries.

I've never tried making my own coffee flavored frosting. I just happened to have part of a cup of cold coffee on hand that needed to be put to use. I added it to some of my frosting and then added powdered sugar to get it back to the proper consistency. I chilled a test cupcake and then tried it. YUM! I think it's my new favorite cupcake. Too bad I'm the only one who'd eat them! For that reason, I only frosted 4 of them with the coffee frosting and will be taking 2 to work tomorrow.

On the neon pink cupcakes and the bedazzled ones, I used a plastic tip and my ghetto version of a pastry bag (ziploc bag, hole cut in the corner, plastic tip through hole) to achieve the fancier looking frosting.

YUMMY!

My morning feast

2010-07-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

Every so often I work a 8.5 hour day at the coffee shop. We do not have a microwave so my food options involve either sandwhiches, food from the coffee shop (which is good, but gets a little old) or snack type food. I'm no good at packing a lunch for these days. Luckily my coffee shop shares strip mall space with Trader Joes.

When I'm faced with my 1/2 hour break, I tend to wander over there to the produce section and pick up some nourishment. Prior feast included: whole wheat bread, gourmet chicken salad with currants and almonds, chili lime cashews and an organic banana (single handedly one of the BEST bananas I swear I've ever eaten). Today, given my greek food cravings, my feast was:

Mini Pita bread circles (not chips, actual pita bread)
Hummus
Organic Strawberries (OMG so sweet and flavorful, not as pretty as the non-organic ones, but taste was so much better!)
2 organic bananas.

From this post, one could infer that I'm an organic foodie/snob. But I'm actually not. I usually can't justify the extra cost. I wish I could afford/justify to go organic though because when I do, it usually tastes so much better! There is one area where I feel going organic is just a waste of money: Processed foods. Do you really need those Froot Loops in organic form? My guess is probably not.....

I will say that my feast (4 mini pitas, about 2 Tbsp hummus, 5 strawberries and 2 bananas) left me satiated for the whole day... well until now. Now I'm HUNGRY. So it's time to make some dinner....

Upcoming kitchen adventures

2010-07-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Homemade Pita bread
Homemade Tzatziki sauce
Homemade Hummus

In turn, I plan on making my own souvlaki chicken again only doing it on skewers on the grill with red pepper.
Hopefully this attempt will get dear fiance into Greek food.. or I'll have a very special treat for myself....

What's for dinner? Greek Lemon chicken breasts

2010-07-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late in making dinner tonight so I don't get to marinade these as long as I should but I found a recipe for Greek chicken souvlaki and I swiped the marinade recipe for my chicken breasts.

I added 1/2 cup of white wine to the marinade and a pinch of dried rosemary and marinaded it for 15 minutes. Baked in 400 degree convection oven for 30 minutes.

Recipe:

1 c. lemon juice
1/2 c. white wine
1/2 c. olive oil
1/3 sweet onion, diced
1T diced garlic -- I like garlic
1 tsp salt
pinch of pepper
a smattering of dried oregano
a pinch of rosemary.
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

I put the chicken breasts in a small baking dish and added the marinade to just below covering the chicken and put in the oven for 30 minutes. In the last 10 minutes, I threw in a 2 minute broiling session and finished off baking at 400 degrees.

I paired this with the very uninspiring: Knorr rice sides: Chicken and Broccoli. :-/ I really need to go grocery shopping so I have options!

Results:
Very tangy! The lemon-wine combination was a bit overwhelming/strong at first bite, but after that, I really enjoyed this dish. It seemed to get fiance approval. I'm almost glad I didn't marinade it too much longer than the 15 minutes I did.

I would love to try this skewered with peppers on the grill with some homemade tzatziki (sp?) sauce and pita bread. MMMM... greek food.

I will still continue my search for great chicken souvlaki recipes....

brightening up a blah day by baking...

2010-06-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

Today is a pot luck for my book club. A good person would have at least picked out the dessert she was going to make for today, yesterday. Did I do that? Nope. So this morning about 11am I remembered saying I was going to bake something.

Qualifications:

had to be fairly quick to make so it could cool in the appropriate amount of time
kid-friendly
I needed to have ingredients on hand

I would up deciding on chocolate cupcakes using my Hershey's perfectly chocolate cake recipe. I also had a spare cake mix in the cabinet that's been there since I lived in Rochester. Because I didn't know how it would turn out I decided to use it for a trifle. I also have been digging for an excuse to use my shiny new trifle bowl!

First, the chocolate cupcakes:

I used my standard recipe, but the first batch came out too flat on the top.

So I was reading one of my recipe books and I decided that maybe the 1 c of water the recipe calls for is a bit too much. That its creating too dense of cake to rise properly. Coupled with underfilling the cups and I wound up with flat dense cupcakes. I quickly added two heaping spoonfuls of flour to the mix and whisked it in. The 2nd batch of cupcakes turned out much better! See, a comparison:

Onward to the trifle:

I needed whippped cream, but my current was still frozen. Unwilling to buy a whole new tub, I decided to use my leftover heavy whipping cream and make my own. I did a quick search on cooks.com and found the following recipe:

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream

3T sugar-- i used ultra fine bakers sugar, but plain ol granulated will work just fine.

1T vanilla

Beat whipping cream til starting to thicken

add sugar and vanilla

beat until fluffy.

here's my whipping cream:

Another picture of it:

Now that I have the whipping cream. I need pudding. Jello makes a mean instant pudding but that would require a trip to the grocery store. So, I found a recipe for homemade pudding at cooks.com.

Just mix together 1 heaping T cocoa, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 hea ping T flour. Add 2 cups milk (I did 1 cup chocolate milk, 1 cup skim). Stir over low heat until thickened. Add 1 T butter and 1tsp vanilla. Voila, pudding!

*I'll stick to Jello. This recipe took forever to thicken and never really got to be the consistency I expected.

So now I needed to put the whole trifle together. I alternated cake, pudding and whipped cream layers. For the top, I was low on whipped cream-- and I wanted to make it look prettier, so I used redi-whip instead. Then I drizzled caramel and chocolate syrup over the top.

Tada: Trifle!

And instead of chocolate frosting, I went for vanilla frosting dyed pink/purple

What's for Dinner? 5-23-2010: Spicy oven fried Perch

2010-05-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight's adventure with fish involved my first time cooking perch. While its not too big of departure from the haddock and cod I grew up exposed to, I've mostly cooked salmon or tilapia.. I was looking for cod when I went to the fish counter at Rainbow, but perch was on sale, so perch became the fish for this dish. (tee hee that rhymed...)

My inspiration tonight was taken from the Pampered Chef Stoneware Inspirations cookbook that I received long before I was a consultant. I'd never made anything from it and decided it was time to dust it off and give a recipe a try. So all that talking and I haven't even said what I'm making.

Spicy Oven Fried Cod(Perch)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Sauce:

1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 c thousand island dressing
1 clove/tsp minced garlic
1 green onion (I omitted as I didn't have one, but added a touch of onion powder to the sauce to replace)
1 dash cayenne pepper

Mix ingredients together
Cover and refrigerate about 1 hour (to ensure flavors mix: especially if you use fresh garlic and onion)

Fish: -- about 4 small fillets

1/2 c seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chili powder
dash of cayenne pepper
dash of black pepper
1 egg

Beat egg in small bowl
Mix remaining ingredients in shallow dish
Dip fish in egg
Dip into bread crumb mixture covering both sides
Lightly spray pan with non stick cooking spray (I used Crisco Olive Oil Spray)
Lay breaded fish onto a stoneware baking sheet or nice quality baking sheet (cooking time may have to be adjusted)
Drizzle a couple drops lemon juice on each filet
Cook for approximately 15 minutes
Serve with chilled sauce on the side

VERDICT:

I was not overly impressed with this recipe, but I'm still sick so my taste may not be to full capacity. This recipe did get the fiance stamp of approval so I'll try to work it into the repertoire. It seemed to have subtle spice but may be lacking on other flavor. It was very reminiscent of my hometown fish fry with a spicier kick/twist.

The sides that I served with the fish did not fully complement the fish (a chicken flavored rice side and corn). A future suggestion would be roasted asparagus or roasted broccoli Parmesan and a salad may have done more to bring out the variety of flavor.

What's for Dinner 5/18/2010 Honey BBQ Chicken, salad

2010-05-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've posted a "What's for dinner" update. I have been in a bit of a cooking dead zone. Aside from a very beautiful chocolate cake I made on mother's day and a Strawberry Amaretto Pastry I've made for Pampered Chef events, my cooking has been largely uninspired.

Even my Mother's Day Feast (I somehow confused cooking for 5 with cooking for 15, I had THAT much food) was not very inspired: baked potatoes, roasted asparagus --although it was my first time ever cooking asparagus-- marinated steak and salads.

Anyway, back to todays meal:

Todays Menu will be: Honey BBQ Chicken, salads and potato wedges.

Potato wedges- courtesy of Oreida

Honey BBQ Sauce-- courtesy of www.cooks.com
I added about a tsp of Worcestershire sauce and extra garlic and chili powder to taste. I use 1/2 the sauce for the recipe and store the rest in a jar with lid (old pickle jars work great for this!) in the refrigerator.

I took the 1/2 of the homemade honey bbq sauce I intended to use and poured over 3 chicken breasts in a deep glass pyrex dish lined with foil and covered it with more foil.
I, then cooked it in a 425 oven for 30 minutes, basting it every 10 minutes.
At 30 minutes, I uncovered it to cook for another 10 minutes.

A very easy meal to throw together, once the inital BBQ sauce is made.

in the spirit of new frugality and reducing waste: Lettuce saving tips

2010-05-06T20:07:00.000-07:00

I found a fairly useful article on yahoo. Whoa! Shocker. Most of their articles prove to be useless but this one has some tips I may take away from it to prolong how long my romaine lasts.

When I first started buying lettuce, I'd buy the bagged stuff. I noticed it usually lasted for maybe a day before going past the point my finicky palate would put up with so I'd end up tossing 3/4 of a bag. Plus the mixture in the bags was predominantly the white harder part of the lettuce leaf that I absolutely could not stomach at that early point in my lettuce tolerance. So I moved onto the fancy pants world of clam case (the hard plastic case) of organic greens. And, oooo!, did I love those! They were so much better than that bagged stuff. But of course, being organic AND in a fancy container meant they cost around $5. Not to mention the decreased shelf life and tendency to throw out 1/2 of the container.

As frugality became my way of life, I started buying heads of romaine for 1.49-2.00$ at the grocery store. I figured, if I'm getting that and end up throwing 1/2 of it away, I'm still being more cost effective than the fancy pants organic stuff and probably even the bags. So that's how I roll now. :) But it still doesn't last excessively long so when I saw this article, I decided I must try some of these:

The best tip that I will try with my next lettuce purchase:

It’s worthwhile to rinse the greens, shake them to remove some of the moisture, and then roll them in a clean cotton dishtowel or a clean cotton pillowcase. The fabric will become damp, which is good. Put this rolled setup into the vegetable crisper for quick and easy, access to prepped greens. This will extend the freshness for many days.

Never thought to do that. I'll admit, I actually don't rinse my greens. *insert shock and awe here* I don't because rinsing the whole thing and putting it back in the fridge wet will just speed up the spoiling process and because... well I'm just too lazy. But maybe this towel trick will work and I'll be a changed girl, .... or not; but it's worth a try!

Doo doo dadoo doo. Banana Bread. doo doo doo doo....

2010-05-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

(*insert "Seasame Street's Mana Mana" replacing Mana Mana with banana bread)

My mom has an excellent recipe for banana bread in her Betty Crocker cookbook -- circa 1976. This bread is so good, I'm hesitant to try others. So I got the recipe from her and attempted my own loaf of banana bread today. I had 5 aging bananas just waiting for me to do this so I took advantage of a crummy day and did some rare baking. I was also looking for an excuse to test out my mom's new loaf pans from Pampered Chef that I ordered for her.

I did decide to throw in some chopped almonds I had and some nutmeg for something a little extra. I'm not sharing my recipe, so there *sticks tongue out*! But I will share pictures of my beautiful beautiful banana bread, its near textbook perfection in my opinion!

Just put into the oven

Part way through baking

Done!

Side View

Cross Section

Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom......

Taste verdict: The nutmeg I added really helped bring out the sweetness of the bread when combined with the mashed bananas. I think because I used 5 bananas instead of the 3-4 it requires, I wound up with slightly sweeter bread than I expected. But its still amazing! The almonds were a great addition too for a little crunch, but they're small enough you don't notice them too much like you would walnuts.

The pan: The pan cooked the bread so well! It had the nice even heat it promised so all edges of the bread are uniform in color, unlike thinner aluminum pans where the edges get really crispy/dark from uneven heat.

And as a bonus, my kitchen smells yummy!

Chai and more musings on Tea

2010-04-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

I've been in a major mood for an iced chai latte. So in my dear old Rainbow, I purchased some Chai concentrate from my dear old Rainbow foods. I bought the Oregon Chai, regular and brought it home to make my first at-home iced chai latte.

YUM! Definitely different than Caribou's chai but I can appreciate it for its difference. This one has more spice and vanilla to it.

I also purchased some new Jasmine tea. I have a love hate relationship with jasmine tea. For a bit I'll really like it but then I don't. But last friday, I discovered a really good one, Numi organic Jasmine tea. It was hands down the best one I've had. So I couldn't resist when I saw it on special at Rainbow.

I think it's about time to make myself a mug of it now!

What's for Dinner 4/11/10

2010-04-11T17:10:00.000-07:00

Post-Pampered Chef party, I was super inspired to do some cooking, so tonight we had coconut rice beef fajitas. I got the idea from TGI-Fridays, of all places. We had fajitas from there that were served with coconut jasmine rice and they were fabulous! I've also come to realize that minute rice is no longer cutting it for my rice consumption. So after some googling of coconut rice, I decided to undertake this myself using the following recipe:

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 cups jasmine rice or any other long-grain rice, washed
1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk
2 1/2 cups water, or as necessary
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large pot with a tightfitting lid, heat the oil over medium heat until it starts to shimmer. Add the onion and stir and cook until soft and translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the rice and stir to coat evenly with oil.
Stir the coconut milk and pour it into the pot, followed by the water, salt, and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil. Stir and reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 35 to 40 minutes or until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender.
Turn off the heat and let the rice rest on the stove, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes. When ready to serve, remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork or chopstick

this recipe came from www.Chow.com , specifically this link. They used shallots as well in their recipe which I omitted.

Observations from cooking:

My liquid cooked down much faster than the 35-40 minutes allotted for cooking. It actually only took mine about 25-30 minutes and I even added about 1/2 cup of water 1/2 way through cooking. So it's definitely something to watch over.
I also reduced the salt by half because 1T sounded like it could be too much.

Overall it was a pretty simple recipe. I encourage you to check out the link to the recipe and check out their suggestions. They had a good one for a rule of thumb for how much water to add. And I like to check out user comments for a recipe ahead of time too in order to help tweak it, or decide against making it.

After cooking, I served it on tortillas with steak fajitas, sour cream and cheese.

Homemade Cold Press Coffee

2010-04-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

Warmer temps are here.This means it's the time of year when I guzzle down Cold Press Coffee in mass quantities! With the help of my grinder and my handy dandy french press (which currently only collects dust), I decided it was high time I tried to make my own.

I measured out 8 scoops of coarsely ground beans. I used my Perennial Blend beans from Caribou for this.

After putting the grinds in the press, I filled it with cold filtered water from my refrigerator. I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight (approximately 16 hrs total).

This morning, I took it out of the refrigerator. Skimmed the grounds off the top with a spoon. I then put the strainer for the french press on and strained it.

Poured over ice and Voila! Cold Press Coffee at home.

Verdict: I think it turned out fabulous! I only wish I were set up to make this in jugs because my french press only will hold about 2 cups. Although, it's probably a good thing that I can't make it in a jug! I would definitely consider buying a strainer so that I could make this in a jug if I'm ever having a summer party.

A healthy lunch

2010-03-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

I believe I posted already about my asian sesame salad. Today I decided to try it in wrap form. I picked up some pre-grilled chicken for protein. Put it on a small tortilla. Added that to some lettuce, peppers, matchstick carrots. Topped with toasted sesame dressing.

Review:

SUPER YUM! except, 1 small tortilla wasn't quite enough to satiate my hunger, so I ended up supplementing it with a salad of the same ingredients. Maybe with a larger tortilla, my hunger would have been finished.

This could be a nice quick lunch kit if I had a full time job and such a thing as a lunch at work.....

What's for Dinner 3/23/2010

2010-03-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

Cheese Garlic Chicken with Rice with Herves de Provence

Quite a mouthful.

I decided to venture into the world of non-instant rice. I found a recipe for Rice with Herbes de Provence. I don't have that herb mix, but read the author's comment to use Rosemary, Thyme and Marjoram instead.

Tonight, I also decided to follow the directions for a cheesy garlic chicken from the back of the lipton soup mix

Results:

The rice cooked down way faster than the 20 minutes was supposed to take. I instead added the rice to cooking chicken and finished out the time.

The chicken did not cook in 20 minutes. I aimed for 35 (in a convection oven, no less). I thought it was done, so I covered it in cheese (mozzarella and parmesan), allowed the cheese to melt and served.

Well.... about 1/2 way through my piece of chicken, it changed in texture. Yeah. I'm thinking it wasn't completely done. *ARGH. So not only was the meal not that great, but now I'm worried about aforementioned possibly not fully cooked chicken.

FAIL.

Breakfast burrito

2010-03-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

I used to hate eggs. The texture, lack of taste, etc made me shy away. But as I've grown up, my tastes have changed. So now, I like eggs.

That said, I've always wanted to try a breakfast burrito, but never had the guts. Today I decided was that day.

How I made it:

I scrambled 2 eggs (2 eggs, a dash of milk, 1 piece kraft singles american cheese, pepper).
I put some of it in a small tortilla, added about 1T of salsa on top of it and a dash of cheese.

Ta-Da!

I could have scrambled only 1 egg for such a small tortilla. So I had a breakfast burrito and some scrambled eggs. :) It was an easy breakfast. Maybe in the future, I'd incorporate some peppers and other sources of protein instead of relying on the salsa. It wasn't extremely flavorful but was a good quick breakfast.

The best benefit: a good protein source from the egg should keep me fuller than defaulting to a cereal bar or a sugary snack. And it fits into my new effort to cut down on sugar!

Cutting down on sugar

2010-03-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

I consume WAY too much sugar through pop and other means. I've undertaken a 90 day challenge and decided cutting down on sugar intake is one of my sub-goals. This whole cutting down on sugar thing is difficult, but hopefully it'll encourage me to find better breakfasts and be more conscious of what's going into my body.

I'm starting by not adding sugar to my daily coffee. I've already started drinking black coffee at work because I don't have time to grab sugar and I need to be able to explain coffee unaltered by cream and sugar. It's actually not a very difficult switch for me because I already like things like plain espresso and more "bitter" drinks. So if its already not necessary AND I get good quality coffee from work, this is an easy switch that can stand to save me about 1-1.5 tablespoons of sugar per day! My only caveat is that if I go somewhere with bad coffee and I absolutely need coffee, I can add whatever it takes to make that swill drinkable. :-D

The rest of this goal should be helped by cutting down on my soda consumption. There is a lot of sugar in Sprite (my go-to beverage).So between the 1 T I'll save not adding sugar to my coffee, I should save another 3.5T of sugar per day not drinking pop.

Homemade Beef Stew

2010-03-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

2pm: Preparation, Cooking, Thoughts

Today it's a little rainy and dreary so I decided it'd be the PERFECT day to try out a new recipe I found for Beef Stew. I've never made it before, so I am looking forward to seeing how it'll turn out.

I tweaked a recipe that I found on allrecipes.com (Beef Stew) I set it up in the crock pot, and then started reading the bad reviews. I'm a little nervous now. Although, I'm always nervous in trying a new recipe that it'll fail and I'll have wasted money and time on a dud.

In reading the reviews, it sounded a little bland so I added more Worcestershire sauce and a couple drops of balsamic vinegar. I was also worried that 1.5 cups of broth/stock wasn't enough so I used more. I figured that I can always add corn starch or more flour to thicken it as dinner approaches. Pre-taste tests tell me that I may have too much salt in there. I also did not have celery to add, nor did I add bay leaves. Right now it's really watery. Hopefully 4 hours of cooking on high will thicken it and make it the right amount of flavorful.

I'm also worried about the vegetables cooking as they are supposed to. I do not have luck with potatoes cooking fully in recipes. I'm hoping the 15 minutes of boiling that I did in order to remove the skins (check out this neat way to remove potato skins) will help the potatoes be more cooked. *crosses fingers*. If I'm ever making this in a hurry, I may use canned carrots and potatoes.

7pm: The reviews are in

Ok for a first attempt. Branden felt it was a little too onion/carroty and not enough beef. I thought it was pretty flavorful but the meat I used was subpar.

Improvements:

use 2 lbs better quality meat, not 1lb stew meat (too fatty, blah for cooking)
sear meat first, deglaze with stock. could result in better flavor
chop vegetables better (smaller pieces of onion)

Will I make it again? Yes, with aforementioned changes.

Peeling Potatoes

2010-03-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, a friend sent me a link featuring Dawn Wells (from Gilligans Island) giving you instruction on an easy way to peel potatoes. I do not have the opportunity to make/peel potatoes very often so I filed it away for the future.

Today I am making beef stew (see next post) which would involve peeling potatoes, thus giving me that opportunity.

Impressions: Should be easy enough, right? Looks like it involves minimal mess and effort.

Reality: the skin was definitely easy to remove, but it didn't come off QUITE as easily as the video leads you to believe. Mine came off in shreds and I still used my knife to get sections of the skin off. My hands were defnitely covered in slimy, boiled potato and potato skin residue by the time I cleaned 3 potatoes.

What went wrong? Maybe I didn't boil them long enough, or maybe they needed longer in the ice bath? I'm just not sure.

It was still significantly less effort, so I will give it a whirl again someday. If you hate peeling potatoes, this is definitely worth a shot.

What's for dinner 3/11/10

2010-03-11T14:40:00.000-08:00

So I took a hiatus from this post, but I'm back!

Tonight's menu is......

Crock pot hot beef on wheat buns (see previous post)
Baked potatoes
salad

Crock Pot Hot Beef Sandwhiches

2010-03-10T18:42:00.000-08:00

Make ahead meals are great... when you have the forethought to actually plan ahead and make them. Crock pots are awesome for the make ahead meals. Not that it's a secret or anything. One of my favorite recipes to make in the crock pot is shredded beef.

Recipe:

1 can Campbells French Onion Soup
1 package Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix (dry)
1 beef chuck roast
1 soup can water

This is how I fit it into a working schedule:
PM: Mix all together
Cook on low overnight.

AM (before leaving): shred beef
put in fridge for finishing later

After Work: remove from fridge, cook for 2 hrs on high.

Serve on buns.

Homemade Pizza Dough

2010-02-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

My fiance and I love to make our own pizza. It's a lot of work to make the dough by hand, but the end result is worth it. We still haven't managed to make a good thicker crust pizza, but our thin crust rocks. So we stick to what we know. :)

Recently, I became the proud owner of a food processor. A food processor, I bought my mom for Christmas two years ago that she decided she doesn't actually use, so she gave it to me. So I guess in a way, I bought myself a food processor before I ever even knew I needed one.

One of the things I heard I could make in it is dough. So tonight I decided to give our fabulous pizza dough recipe a shot in the food processor. I have to say that I had my doubts that it would work.

It did! .... kind of. It wasn't a 100% success, but it did cut down on the time standing around with my hand on the mixer. It mixed things well, but my 7c food processor wasn't quite powerful enough to finish the job, so I had to remove the dough and finish with the hand mixer. Removing the dough from the food processor was a bit of a pain as it's quite sticky. I nicked a spatula on the blade and cut off a chunk of that. After pouring some oil on the remnants stuck in the bowl, I was able to extract them and finish the job with a hand mixer.

Another post as we actually bake the dough.....

Salad, What's for Lunch 2/10/2010

2010-02-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

I have a very love-hate relationship with salad. Up until about a year or two ago, I wouldn't even touch salad, mostly because of the lettuce. I grew only exposed to Iceberg lettuce. That stuff makes me vomit just thinking about it. Since then I've been more apt to try new things and I've given salad a shot. I'm still pretty picky about lettuce and even go as far as being picky about the appearance of my lettuce.

My must haves for lettuce:

Romaine or spring greens
Fresh as absolutely possible
a healthy green appearance (not wilted looking or fading)
Not too much of the white crunchy stalk area
Not too big of pieces.

Yes. I'm psychotic. I get that, which is why my fiance has given up trying to sort out the logic behind all my food issues It is also is why I don't partake in restaurant salad too often. I used to only like caesar salad loaded with super-bad-for-you caeser dressing and parmesan cheese. I rarely ate it because I knew just how bad it was calorie-wise. I mean, what's the point of getting a salad for the health benefits if you just slop it full of unhealthy dressing, right?

Somewhere along the way, I discovered I loved italian dressing, specifically a Roasted Red Pepper and Parmesan dressing. My favorite salad morphed from Caesar to:

Roasted Red Pepper and Parmesan salad:

Spring green mix or Romaine
Dressing
croutons
carrots
red cabbage

I have since tired of this salad and have discovered a new one that is my new lunch obsession:

Asian Toasted Sesame Salad:

Romaine
Dressing
croutons
carrots
red bell pepper
(Chow Mein noodles)-- didn't have any of these, but would like to get some for this salad

So this is a combo post as that and a Cara Cara orange were for lunch today. I feel so healthy!

Coffee Obsession

2010-01-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

Since starting to work in a coffee shop, my obsession with coffee has grown. Right now it's full blown obsession. I'm obviously partial to my store's coffee as that's what I get to drink and that's what I get to bring home with me. I do not have nearly as in depth tasting of other coffee shop coffee so this post is in no way meant to disparage any other coffee shop. It is not meant to declare superiority of one brand vs another. This post is also NOT intended to be an advertisement for my coffee shop. I'm not paid to blog. This is meant as a means for me to look back at the evolution of my coffee obsession and talk about some of my favorite coffees, specifically the ones I've encountered that give back to the local community.

I've gone through many phases with coffee, once I started actually drinking drip coffee.

I started out just drinking Maxwell House's master blend. At one point, I tried the Organic Coffee Company's zen blend and gorilla decaf and was in love. Then I got sick of paying $9.00/lb of coffee and returned to the days of Maxwell House.

Once again, I became sick of cheaping out on my coffee. So I found a local blend called CityKid Java, specifically the Sumatra Mandheling. My Cub foods didn't carry many varieties so that's kind of what I was stuck with anyway. I was in love with this coffee and still am. If you're willing to pay $8.99/lb per coffee and live in the Twin Cities metro, I'd recommend trying this brand out. I really like that they give their proceeds back to the community through the Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation.

Now, of course I'm a die hard Caribou Coffee fan. I love supporting a MN company and working there, I get my coffee for free. My top 3 are: Mocha Java, LaMinita, and Acacia. The Acacia blend is also organic so there isn't the pesticide exposure involved. After I go through my stockpile of Reindeer blend and Mocha Java beans, I will be getting some Acacia if we have it. Always being a fan of products that also give back to the community, I'm really starting to like their Pass the Goodness Blend. For each pound purchased, they donate 1 lb to food shelves (1/2 to a local one, 1/2 to a national one).

As I close this entry, I want to reiterate: This is not meant to be an advertisement. I am not a professional blogger. I was not paid to write about coffee or write this entry as a means to promote where I work. I just really like coffee.

Coffee is the top traded commodity in the world behind oil. Yet alot of it is grown in some of the poorest regions in the world. For an eye opening look at the coffee trade check out the movie Black Gold. This movie is what prompted my renewed desire to spend more for coffee that either gives back to my local community, is from a company that values responsibly raised product (either Rainforest Alliance or Organic), or is Fair Trade.

As I always say, Life is too short to drink bad coffee.

Oatmeal Adventures

2010-01-26T13:10:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up, my mom would try to make me eat oatmeal. It was usually of the instant variety and the overall soupy texture of it was completely unappetizing to my picky palette. So I swore off oatmeal and have often referred to it with extreme disdain since then.

Recently, at my part time job at Caribou Coffee, they started serving oatmeal. I begrudgingly tried some with many reminders to everyone that oatmeal is not my thing. Well, a combination of trying several of them and a more mature palette, has led me to change my mind about oatmeal. I don't think instant oatmeal has probably changed much so I'm trying to see how I can replicate the pretty good oatmeal I have access to at work, at home. So I will be trying to find my way through oatmeal land. Look for more entries.

Attempt 1:
1/2 c Quaker quick oats
1/2 c near boiling water
1 T hot milk
1 tsp brown sugar
sprinkle of salt

Mix together, covered 1 minute, stirred, added maple syrup and topped with more brown sugar

Results:
I think the caribou oats are bigger. Mine were really compact, more "paste" like. not quite as well rounded of flavor. I predominantly tasted the sweetness of the brown sugar, a bit of the maple and then the paste like nature of the oats.

Verdict: Caribou's is still way better

Ideas for improvement: try raw sugar, follow a different recipe

What's for dinner 1/19/2010

2010-01-19T16:23:00.000-08:00

Tonight's menu:

Maple Dill glazed salmon
Glazed carrots
Kraft Mac n Cheese

So a 1/2 glamorous meal for tonight.
I found the recipe for the salmon in a magazine. I've never tried it in the oven, just on the grill. It's too icky to go out and work the grill so I'm going to attempt to do this in the oven instead.

Recipe for Salmon:

Marinade:

1.5 t Dijon Mustard
1 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 c maple syrup
1/2 t minced garlic
1 t dill
1/2 t salt

Whisk ingredients together

2. Marinate salmon for 1 hour.
3. Bake for 13 minutes at 375
4. Broil approximately 2 minutes

Glazed Carrots:

Drain 1 can of pre-sliced carrots
Put in small saucepan along with 3 T butter or margarine
Bring to light boil
Add 1/4 c brown sugar
Reduce to simmer
Simmer approximately 5 minutes

Results: The salmon turned out PERFECT!!!! It had a nice sweetness to it from the maple syrup. I used dried dill so it didn't seem to be very "dill" flavored. I mostly tasted the syrup. Cooking in the oven resulted in a nice even done-ness. Aside from the hour of marinating, the prep time and cook times were relatively low. One could probably prep and marinade in the morning and have an extremely flavorful, yet quick dinner.

Tips I've found helpful with salmon:

1. It's worth paying the money for a quality piece of fish. We used to cheap out and get the individually frozen pieces when they were 10/$10.... Then we made the "mistake" of buying a good piece of fish. It's made all the difference. Exception to the fresh is best rule: No Name Salmon filets are quite good

Sometimes I really wish I lived on a coast where I could get really fresh salmon. But meat department of my local Cub foods will have to do....

2. Defrosting: I prefer to either leave in the fridge overnight or thaw in warm water as opposed to the microwave. I've found the microwave tends to start cooking the salmon

What's for lunch 1/15/2010

2010-01-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

Tri-Color Rotini and homemade Arrabiata Sauce. Nothing too exciting.

My arrabiatta sauce is a recipe that I took from Lakewinds Co-op. Since then, its one of those recipes that never quite tastes the same each time I make it. I used the Lakewinds recipe as a bouncing off point and each time I tweak it. It's great to make in large batches and freeze and then pull out for a quick meal.

I'm getting so used to my homemade arrabiata sauce and sprucing up my normal pasta sauce with extra herbs and garlic that I can no longer stand plain marinara sauce from a jar. I also tend to feel more like I'm "cooking" when I'm tweaking the off the shelf stuff too.

Another sauce I make myself: Pizza Sauce. I love continuing to play with that too. It tastes excellent on our homemade pizza crust too.... hmmm... must make homemade pizza soon...

Lemon Juice + sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) = FUN!

2010-01-10T15:30:00.000-08:00

My glass stove top was getting quite atrocious looking and I had long since run out of the cleaner I was supplied with when I bought my stove. I wanted it clean but didn't want to have to run to Home Depot just for over priced cleaner so I tried vinegar and baking soda. I got a lot of the gunk up, but still had a hard gunky ring where the pots sit. I tried copious more amounts of baking soda and vinegar and even picked up a razor blade to try to get the gunk off, but it still wasn't quite coming off.

I hypothesized that lemon juice is a stronger acid than vinegar so the combination of the stronger acid and the baking soda may be more effective on the gunk.

SUCCESS! I still had to scrape a lot with the razor blade, but I got the last of the gunk off. And working with the lemon juice smelled much better than the vinegar. After I was done with the scraping, I blotted up with excess liquid with paper towel. Then took a soapy rag and wiped down the stove top.

spoiled food

2010-01-08T15:38:00.000-08:00

I just found out what happens when Heavy whipping cream goes bad. I opened the carton and it was pink inside. Not just any pink, but an almost neon pink.

What was my first thought, aside from EEEW? "Huh, I wonder what bacteria caused that"

Once a lab geek, always a lab geek.

Cara Cara Oranges

2010-01-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

About a year ago, a friend and I went to the Midtown Global Market over near Abbott Norwestern Hospital in S. Minneapolis. While there, I rediscovered my love of Bubble Tea and enjoyed perusing the various offerings of each booth. I came home with a couple different fruit and vegetables, one of which was a Cara Cara orange.

It looks like a typical orange on the outside, but inside it has a pinker flesh.

From the Sunkist website:

Cara Cara Oranges
Cara Cara oranges, a type of navel grown in California's San Joaquin Valley, are available January through April. Their outward appearance is similar to other navels, but their interior is a distinctive pinkish red and has an exceptionally sweet flavor with a tangy cranberry-like zing. Cara Caras are a rich source of Vitamins A and C, fiber and Lycopene. A perfect snack served as wedges, they're also a colorful addition to beverages or squeezed into a vinaigrette salad dressing.

It's rare that I enjoy an orange as much as I enjoy a cara cara orange. So if you're ever in the mood for an orange, but not your typical navel orange, check out the cara cara orange.

French Press Coffee

2010-01-08T08:38:00.001-08:00

I've never tried french press coffee. I knew that it required a different grind than the pre-ground FAC stuff I used to buy. But now that I have a shiny new cuisinart burr grinder, I wanna try it out.

I followed the directions I found on ehow.

I ground about 4T of beans for a course grind. At the same time I used my electric tea pot to boil water for about 3 cups of coffee. I let the water cool a couple minutes while I put the course grounds into the french press. I brewed mine for 5 minutes.

Evaluation:

Ease (1 easy-10 hard): 3
It's pretty easy and actually not that much more difficult that setting up my drip coffee maker.

Practicality (1 extremely practical- 10 not all that useful): 5
Compared to my drip coffee maker which I can set up the night before and program to go off when i get up, this is less practical. Its good for making just a couple cups of coffee though. This would be a great thing for weekend coffee when i have more time to savor and set up for coffee.

Taste (vs Drip coffee)
I'm not quite sure I taste much of a difference, but I always put a little sugar to my coffee. I did try it before I added sugar and felt it was slightly less bitter than my drip coffee. Possibly slightly more flavor in the french press coffee than the drip coffee too.

What's for Lunch 1/6/2010

2010-01-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

My fiance despises asian food. I have a soft spot for it, especially when I make it at home. I recently found a recipe for a peanut sauce and rice stick noodles and set out to make it. I wasn't 100% about the peanut sauce because the recipe was peanut butter, soy sauce and vegetable broth mostly. That's a combo I'd never have come up with. I made the sauce per my Betty Crocker Cookbook. It made about a half a cup. I made the sauce ahead of time and stored in a jar in the fridge.

Today, upon returning from work, I warmed up some sauteed peppers (also sauteed ahead of time), sauteed a piece of cut up flank steak, and boiled some rice stick noodles. I heated up a couple dollups of sauce too. Mixed them together on a plate and feasted!

Recipe for Peanut Sauce:
1/2 c smooth peanut butter
2 T Soy Sauce
1t ginger
1/2t crushed red pepper
1/2 c vegetable or chicken broth

Rice Stick Noodles:
bring water to boil
boil rice stick noodles for 1 min

Evaluation of lunch:

Peanut Sauce: It didn't look like a lot of sauce when I put it on the steak,peppers and noodles, but it packed a very flavorful punch. I could definitely have halved the amount of sauce I gave myself and not lost any flavor. It had a definite peanut butter taste but with a surprise spiciness from the crushed red pepper.

The noodles : I didn't separate them well enough so some noodles weren't quite fully cooked. Overall they weren't too bad though.

I would definitely make this lunch for myself again. I thoroughly enjoyed my asian inspired lunch. The steak I added was an excellent addition for protein.

New kitchen gadgets

2010-01-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

I now have a food processer and a coffee grinder. Hope to post about learning to use them soon!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T10:54:00.000-08:00

Goals: 1x per week I will post a What's for dinner? post.

Any time I try a new recipe, I will blog it. And hopefully add a picture

Recently tried recipes I need to post about soon:
-- Lemon Angel Food bites
-- Crock pot hot beef
-- my own little chicken pasta casserole

What's for dinner 12/1/09

2009-12-01T16:43:00.000-08:00

Tonight I fell back on my go to quick meal: Cheesy Pork and Rice a Roni skillet.

Not the most exciting dinner ever, but it takes about 25 minutes to make and is a good way to get a quick dinner without a whole lot of work. One could also probably add their own veggies to the dish to make it more interesting.

Directions:
1) brown and season pork chops based on flavor of Rice A Roni used.
2) start preparing Rice A Roni according to directions on box.
3) when rice is at the simmering stage, add pork chops
4) simmer per directions
5) when there is about 1 minute left, cover with cheese (cheddar or cheddar/colby/mozz mix).
6) Let stand 1 minute or until cheese is melted.

What's for dinner 11/23/09

2009-11-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

Tonight's menu:

Wisconsin Walleye Au Gratin
Parmesan roasted Broccoli
Long Grain and Wild Rice Rice-a-Roni

2 easy recipes + 1 new recipe. I've never made walleye, let alone au gratin walleye....

Easy or hard? Scale 1 (easy)-10 (hard): 3.
I've never poached fish before. Lacking a scoop strainer, I used a large pot and a run of the mill colander. I heated the water, dropped in the colander, put the fish in there. After the 3-4 minutes per recipe of poaching, I simply lifted the strainer out. It worked perfectly!

Taste evaluation: Scale 1-10: 6. Good flavor where sauce collected. Thicker areas of just fish were on the bland side. But I'd definitely make it again. I've had walleye in restaurants and never really cared for it, but this made me ok with eating walleye.

I think the contrast of the fish + the Rice a Roni (v. little flavor) + the very flavorful broccoli was balanced. It was nice to see a plate with a variety of color on it!

What's for dinner? 11/16

2009-11-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

I think tonight I'm trying out twice baked potatoes. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com and I have the ingredients. First time I've ever made these, but the reviews are favorable....

Also trying out a breaded pork chop recipe from allrecipes.com.

Thoughts while cooking:
Impressions of twice baked potato recipe: I only did 2 baked potatoes so halving the ingredients should have worked, but i think the potato to creamy ratio may be off as a result.

Impressions of breaded pork chops: super easy-fast recipe. I need more fast recipes like this, especially when I go back to working.

Results:

Twice baked potatoes: I accidentally added the amount of salt for the full recipe. That coupled with the bacon bits I used instead of real bacon meant that they're a bit too salty. But after baking them for the 15 minutes, they turned out FABULOUS! I will definitely be making these again!!!! Not too salty, although next time i will try reducing the salt.

Pork Chops: Also quite good! Another winner for recipes!

Adventures in cooking

2009-11-14T10:19:00.001-08:00

I haven't been posting, obviously. Been cooking. Just not posting. But today I would like to start this blog up again.

Since the last post, a lot has changed.

I have a house with a real kitchen and quality appliances. It's been so long since I've used a nice smooth top stove and an oven that's not 25 degrees or more off!

I am no longer employed. This has been the biggest life change thus far. For the first time I'm not earning my keep and it sucks. It does allow me to cook more often though! Coming up with what to make though is still a daily battle.

I recently discovered The BareFoot Contessa shows on Food Network. I usually don't watch cooking shows because I never remember the recipes anyway, but one day I stumbled on it. I found a couple gems so far that have been added to my recipes.

I'm still working on good recipes for fish.

I'm still trying to figure out how to eat healthily and not eat out of the home so much.

Things I love to cook:
Roasted Broccoli Parmesan: from the Barefoot Contessa
Oven roasted chicken (my own recipe)
Arrabiata pasta sauce
homemade pizza
Wild Rice and Chicken soup
Potato wedges

Goals for this blog: write about the good and bad recipes I try, the things I learn as I develop my cooking skills. So until the next entreé.... oopps I mean entry!... eat well!

New beginnings, aka. My salmon is on fire!

2008-03-19T19:46:00.001-07:00

Ok, so it's been a little while. I finally have a new job, new schedule and I just may do some more cooking.

The other night I made salmon and discovered a valuable lesson: Don't overspray non-stick cooking spray and have it pool on one side of your cookie sheet AND then put it under the broiler. It WILL most likely catch on fire. That was exciting in a not so good way. Good news though, the salmon was NOT burned in the process, just the pool of oil. Guess I should have paid attention to the note on the can that says "FLAMMABLE!!!"... Whoops.

I made a lemon pepper salmon with marjoram butter. I had no tarragon, but all research listed marjoram as a good substitute. The marjoram lemon butter was a flavorable addition to the otherwise boring salmon. I'm still learning the intricacies of cooking fish so it was probably a bit overcooked.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/1589

I recovered some dignity in the kitchen tonight by making a recipe that I found on the Lakewinds co-op website. The recipe was for an arrabiata angel hair pasta. I ended up altering the recipe a little bit as I had no zucchini or eggplant (I now wish I had them) and I also added chicken that I had marinated in Italian dressing for an hour.

http://www.lakewinds.com/store/Arrabiata-Angel-Hair-W594C7711.aspx

The sauce definitely ended up spicy (I think I may have overdone the crushed red pepper a little bit, though), but it made more than enough to save a jar and a half in the freezer for a later date.

I will add pictures tomorrow of the pasta.

Apple Pork Chops with glazed carrots

2007-10-28T16:56:00.000-07:00

The prepared apples

After cookingOn the plate
Dinner!

PORK CHOPS WITH APPLES

2 tsp. butter
1 c. sliced apples
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 center cut pork chops, 1/2" thick, well trimmed
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Melt butter in a large nonstick frying pan; saute apples until tender but not mushy. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Push apples to one side or remove to serving plate. Fry pork chops in liquid from apples until almost cooked, turning to brown both sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until chops are done. Don't overcook as chops will become rubbery. Arrange a chop on each plate and serve apples over chops. Makes 2 servings. One serving: 1 chop plus 1/3 cup apples - calories 236. Low sodium diet: Omit salt.

Some things for this recipe:

After removing the apples, there wasn't a lot of liquid left to brown the meat, so I added a bit of apple juice and cinnamon and browned the pork in that.
It wasn't very specific about "cook until chops are done". I transferred the browned pork chops to a casserole dish, and cooked them covered for 10 minutes @ 400 degrees, and 10 minutes uncovered. Then I put the apples over the top of them and let them cook for 5 minutes more.

Source: Pork Chops with Apples

August Schell Brewery Tour

2007-10-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

August Schell brewery is located in New Ulm, MN about 1.75 hrs SW of the Twin Cities. It's the 2nd oldest family owned brewery in the U.S. For 2$/person you get about an hour long tour + 6 beer tastings + 1 glass of the beer or root beer of your choice.

When you get the the brewery, it's about 1/2 mile walk from your parking place but they also offer a shuttle. I'd recommend either walking there or walking back especially during the fall. It's a tree lined slightly uphill walk and very pretty. (see picture). The tour does not go into the actual brewery but is a very informative historical tour.

Other pictures from our tour:
An old boiler:
Antique bottling machine:
The Schells Old Time Band instruments:
Copper Stein:
Unfortunately my pictures of the beer wagon did not turn out and my batteries died (I had yet to put the good batteries in my camera and was just using standard AA batteries) so I don't have more pictures of the grounds, the resident peacocks and deer either. :(

This is the Schell mansion (built for $5000 back in the 1800's):

And this is the "copper kettle" also installed around the same time as the mansion was built, this though cost $25,000 in the 1800's!

My favorites of the ones we tried were the Caramel Bock and the Octoberfest. Maybe it's not that I don't like beer that much, it's that I don't like ales very much? I've also discovered I really really like Sam Adams Octoberfest beer and if ever in Vegas again, their Sin City Amber.

NEW CAMERA!

2007-09-09T17:09:00.000-07:00

YAY I finally picked out my new camera! Now I just need to learn to use it. This means I'll be taking a lot more pictures and most of them may be of food! As soon as I learn how to use it, I'll be posting food pics more regularly!

Apple Cinnamon Waffles

2007-08-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

By far my favorite breakfast food. I like making them myself too. I just have a cheap square waffle iron but it does the trick. They tend to come out a bit uneven unlike those nice ones we had in college but it works and that's all I need, but I digress.

I just buy a store brand waffle mix that doesn't require eggs as I never have them around.
To make them into apple cinnamon waffles:
2 c. mix
3/4 c. water
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 packet cinnamon flavored apple sauce (about 1/2 c.)
Apple pie spice or cinnamon to taste.

Prepare waffles as normal.

ENJOY!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

2007-08-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

This is quickly becoming a new favorite recipe for me because it's simple and doesn't require a lot of prep work. I found the recipe a couple years ago while perusing a magazine at work. It was a Hellman's mayo ad for Parmesan Crusted Chicken.

Preheat oven to 425.

In a bowl mix 1/2 c. mayo or Miracle Whip and 1/4 c. parmesan cheese (I just use the Kraft or store brand parmesan chese).. You can also add some italian seasoning and garlic to this mix. In a bag, mix 1 c. bread crumbs, a bit of italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper (I use crushed red pepper in as much as I can because I like the kick it provides). Coat defrosted boneless skinless chicken breasts in the mayo mixture, put into bag of bread crumbs, shake til covered and put on backing sheet. Repeat for remaining chicken breasts. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

The recipe says 20 minutes, but I've always found meat to need 10-20 more minutes than a recipe says.

Bon Appetit!

Once again, I wish I had a picture but alas, the camera is broke and I'm still researching what I want for a camera. This could take awhile as I go from wanting a nice DSLR to a cheaper option that still has DSLR features but doesn't cost a small fortune.... Someday I'll make up my mind.

Salmon

2007-07-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Today, for the first time ever I cooked fish. I think it turned out pretty ok.

Alas, my camera is broke so I have no pictures.

RECIPE:

Salmon fillets
Aluminium foil
garlic
thyme
salt
pepper
lemon juice
butter

I was also supposed to add parsley and onion powder.

Place individual salmon fillets on their own piece of aluminum foil (enough to make a packet). Add garlic or garlic powder, onion powder (if you have it), sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme and parsley (if you have it). Add a bit of lemon juice to each packet and butter. Cook in 350 degree oven in a baking pan with 1/2" of water in it for 20-25 minutes. Poof* done!

source of recipe: www.cooks.com
only I forgot to bookmark the recipe. Ooops.

Rating: kind of bland, but a good first attempt at cooking salmon.

Valentine's Day Cheesecake

2007-02-20T02:11:00.000-08:00

For Valentines Day, I made Branden a cheesecake, not just any cheesecake, though. I went all out for this one. First off, here is the marbled cheesecake....
Then I added a strawberry I had cut to look like a heart and surrounded the perimeter of the cheesecake with raspberries. I used frozen ones so as they thawed, they ran a bit on the cake but it still turned out quite nice. I then melted chocolate chips a mixed them with a tablespoon of butter to thin. I put that in a wax paper bag and cut a hole in a corner. I squeezed out chocolate hearts on another piece of wax paper and put them in the freezer to cool. I put the chocolate hearts on the cheesecake. The cheesecake was still a bit warm so the hearts melted and it turned out perfect! This picture is of the finished product chilling in my refrigerator.

This is me and my cheesecake, I'm so proud of it!!!!

oh yeah and that's my new red hair! :)

Cheesecake recipe
source: Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book

Prep: 30 minutes
Bake: 45 minutes
Cool: 1 3/4 hours
Chill: 4 hours

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups finely crushed graham crackers
1/4 c finely chopped walnuts (optional)... I omitted these
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 c butter, melted

3 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 c sugar
2 T all purpose flour
1 t vanilla
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/4 c milk

2 packages/envelopes Nestle Chocobake
approximately 1T sugar
approximately 1 T milk (I just kind of poured so I'm not sure on the exact measurement I used)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
CRUST: combine crushed crackers, walnuts, cinnamon. Stir in butter. Press mixture into bottom of springform pan
FILLING: beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla with electric mixer. Add eggs and egg yolk, beating on low until just combined. Stir in milk

For chocolate swirl, remove half of filling mixture and add 2 packages Nestle Chocobake (pre-melted unsweetened chocolate), more sugar for taste and milk to thin to same consistency as rest of filling

Pour chocolate filling in first, add plain filling on top of that
Use a knife or spatula to swirl
Bake 35-40 minutes for 9" springform pan, 40-45 minutes for the 8" springform pan, until center appears nearly set when gently shaken
Cool for at least 15 mintues before taking a knife and gently loosening edges
Cool for at least another 30 minutes before adding pretty effects on top (chocolate hearts, raspberries and strawberries)
Chill 4 hours
SAVOR!

*NOTES:

I am still learning the fine art of making a good graham cracker crust. I would probably try to use more butter to make the crust pack better.
Frozen berries just didn't work as well as fresh ones would have

Stuffed Shells

2007-02-20T01:59:00.000-08:00

The picture isn't much to look at, but these turned out FABULOUS! I am really pleased with how this recipe turned out. It's a bit tedious to stuff each of the shells but it's not so bad if you have someone helping.

Recipe:

STUFFED JUMBO PASTA SHELLS

Sauce and meat as with spaghetti

CHEESE FILLING:

2 lbs. ricotta or cottage cheese
1/2 lb. Mozzarella cheese, grated
2 eggs
1/2 c. Parmesan, grated
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pasta shells. Bring water to boil and then add pasta, boil pasta approximately 15 minutes.

Prepare cheese filling. Beat eggs; add ricotta, Mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese; mix in seasonings. Using a large casserole dish, layer sauce, meat, and pasta shells which are stuffed with the cheese filling. Bake 45 minutes.

NOTES:

To cook the ground beef: I added crushed red pepper, salt and pepper to the beef.
I used cottage cheese because I find ricotta to dry out the dish too much (prior experience with lasagne)
2lbs of cottage cheese would have been way too much. 1.5 lbs was too much when I made the recipe. (consider cutting cheese stuffing recipe in half)
To stuff the shells, lay out a piece of wax paper and put all the shells on them right after straining to prevent them from sticking together and ripping.
Instead of 45 minutes, I baked it for 45 minutes, covered, and then 10 minutes uncovered.

First Post

2007-02-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

mmmm......... cake! Double layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and rasperries to be specific. I made this awhile ago and thought it would only be appropriate to start my blog with a picture of food.

I've decided to make this a blog about all the yummy things that I attempt to cook, as well as the yummy things I eat at restaurants. But I do plan on this being more about what I make and will post recipes of things I make when I can.

My inspiration for this attempt at a food blog is E. She has had her food blog up for quite a while and I always stare at the delectible food she posts. I don't cook a lot, but when I do, I'm quite proud of it. So here we go, the inaugural post of my food blog.