Dining Alone

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:54:00 +0000

Here in the US it is a long weekend for most of us. Memorial Day is often celebrated by grilling up some good food and spending time with friends and family. I love a good hot dog and burger, but if you are looking for something a little different you might want to check out these recipes for grilled curry salmon and macaroni salad. As you can see below, it looks delicious and is a nice change from the regular cook out food.

I hope you all have an awesome long weekend!

Favorite Things #52 - Cooking Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:47:00 +0000

I cook a lot more than I actually blog about, and I love Sundays when I can do cooking for the week and make a meal that doesn't need to come together quickly.

This is what my kitchen usually looks like on a Sunday morning.

By the end of the day it is all cleaned up again and ready for the week. This Sunday I made some Thai Meatballs with noodles that Tom actually ate with me and really liked.

I will share the recipe soon because I know I want to have these again soon!

The Deen Brothers' Marinated Chicken Gyro Wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Sat, 18 May 2013 15:14:00 +0000

Have I mentioned that I have way too many cookbooks? My Mother In Law used to manage housewares at Dillards and they would get in a lot of celebrity chef cookbooks. She picked up a Deen Brothers cookbook and it has some really good recipes in it. The one I chose is a chicken gyro. I love all the flavors in a gyro and this just lightens it up by using chicken. Of course Tom would not eat this because of that vexing protein so this was cut in half.

This recipe is in two steps, the marinade and then the cooking.

For the marinade you need chicken, olive oil, garlic, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper.

Cut your chicken into 1 inch pieces.

Get it in a bowl and add your garlic, I just used my garlic press to mince it.

Add in the oregano, cumin, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Cover it and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

After it has marinated it is on to round 2, cooking and eating. Preheat your oven to broil and lets gather ingredients. You need pita bread, dill, onion, greek yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, tomato, cucumber and lettuce. I didn't have lettuce so it didn't make it on my gyro.

Chop your dill and onion.

Get the yogurt, dill, onion, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper into a bowl and stir to combine.

Get the chicken out on a tray, I used nonstick foil on mine for easy cleanup. Pop it under the broiler for about 6-8 minutes.

While the chicken cooks chop up your gyro toppings.

Smear your sauce on a warmed pita and you are almost ready to eat!

Get the chicken out of the oven and layer some on the pita with your veggies.

This was so good, and so easy to make. I made way too much sauce but Tom helped me take care of it by using it as a veggie dip for the leftover cucumber. If you don't make the whole sandwich I would definitely recommend making the sauce as a light and tangy dip.

The Person Behind The Plate #3

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Thu, 16 May 2013 01:03:00 +0000

One of the main reasons I started this blog is because I love to cook and Tom is definitely not into food. When I first met him he lived off of chips, subs, nachos and pizza. There might have been a hamburger thrown in every once in a while with lots of fries. He was basically eating the dream diet of most 12 year old boys.

According to his Mom he has been picky forever. Everyone loves the story that even before he could talk he could tell the difference between orange juice brands and would fling his sippy cup down if it was not Donald Duck OJ.

I imagine the caption of this picture as, "What do you mean you don't like chicken?!" That would be Tom surrounded by family members at the dinner table.

Fast forward 35 years...

Yep, still does NOT like chicken. I figured that it was breaded and deep fried, who doesn't love that?! Him.

Over the last 13 years I have been slowly getting this food hater to at least try some new things, and the blog is here to share all of the wonderful things that he still isn't ready to try.

Andrew Zimmern's Ramen Noodles from People Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Sat, 11 May 2013 18:01:00 +0000

I love magazines and have since I was a kid. Growing up the only magazine we got regularly was the TV Guide. When I was in junior high my sister got a job as a cashier in the local pharmacy and I would spend evenings there at a small card table reading all of the magazines in the store. I vowed that when I grew up and could afford it I would subscribe to every magazine I wanted. Well, one of the guilty pleasures from those days persists and I read People magazine every week. I was excited when they started including recipes and so far all that I have made turned out great. This recipe for Ramen Noodles is super easy and delicious, and guess what, Tom even ate it because I substituted beef broth for the chicken broth.

For this tasty soup you will need carrots, green onion, broth, soy sauce, ramen noodles (toss that nasty flavor packet), sesame oil, sriracha, ketchup, sugar, lime and an egg.

Juice your lime and whip up your egg.

Chop your green onion.

Get your water on to boil.

Measure out your broth.

Mix together soy sauce, ketchup, sriracha, sugar and sesame oil.

When your water is boiling drop in your ramen. I break mine up just so it is a bit easier to eat.

Ramen noodles only need to cook for a couple of minutes. Get them out and drain them and set them aside.

Put the broth into the pan.

When the broth is boiling, reduce the heat to medium and stir in the soy sauce mixture.

Add the carrots and cook for one minute.

Slowly stir in the egg.

Add the noodles back in and let those cook for about a minute.

Get the pan off the burner and add in the lime and green onion and you are ready to eat.

This was so good, and spicy! Tom liked it too but said it wasn't hot at all. Apparently I am still a wuss when it comes to hot food. Tom also added a handful of peanuts because he wanted a little crunch in his soup. He said it was a great addition.

I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Corn Casserole

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:48:00 +0000

I love old cookbooks, the older and funkier, the better. I also love when I get a cookbook from a thrift or antique store and there are recipes tucked in the pages. This cookbook is the best of both worlds. It is an old cookbook and in the front are envelopes filled with clipped and hand written recipes. I was so excited to go through them all.

Here is what the actual cookbook pages are like, it seems like this was a build it over time kind of book, where you would get mailed new sections.

I decided to try one of the more simple recipes and I love a good casserole, so this was my first pick from this book. I cut this recipe in half.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lets grab some ingredients.

You need some corn, ground meat - I used chicken to lighten it up from the original recipe, tomatoes, green pepper, shallot or onion, an egg, bread crumbs and butter.

Chop up your veggies and melt your butter. You can also see my favorite seasonings hanging out in the back, garlic and paprika. I added those guys to the chicken while it cooked for some more flavor.

Break your egg and whip it up.

Combine your breadcrumbs and some butter to make the topping.

Now lets start cooking! Melt your butter in the pan.

Add in your meat, onions and pepper. You can add some garlic or other seasoning here if you want also.

Cook the ground meat until it is all browned.

Stir in the egg.

Make a layer of corn, I had a lot less corn than I thought, but that is ok. I was just cooking for me so it didn't have to be perfect.

Layer half of the meat mixture on top of the corn.

Add half of the tomatoes.

Repeat the layers and top with the bread crumbs. You can season the bread crumbs if you'd like as well. I am all about adding in flavor where I can.

Bake this for an hour and you are ready to eat!

This was tasty and unlike a lot of the old school casserole recipes there were no cans of soup involved. I am looking forward to trying more recipes from this fun little cookbook.

The Person Behind the Plate # 2

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:57:00 +0000

I suppose I will start at the beginning and tell you about where I come from, and why I am interested in food and cooking. I grew up in Western PA in a pretty rural area. My Mom passed away when I was pretty young so I was raised by my Dad, Grandmas, and some Aunts helped out as well. Nobody in my family was all that adventurous with food. I ate a lot of meat and potatoes, casseroles, spaghetti and regional food like Pierogies and Kielbasa. My Dad rarely cooked for us, he would make only a few things like steak, ribs and chili. He was definitely the person that got me into food, though. He was always eating 'weird' things like herring and crabs. He was so excited when we finally got some bigger grocery stores that could order him seafood. I can still picture him sitting at our kitchen counter with a half dozen crabs in front of him spread out on newspaper. I never was brave enough to try them but I recognized how happy this food made him. At about that time I started watching Yan Can Cook and the Frugal Gourmet on TV and really wanted to start cooking. I then went to college and was living in dorms and eating dining hall food with no access to a kitchen. Finally after I moved to Arizona I got cable, and I got the Food Network. I was hooked, and that is when I really got a passion for food, ingredients, cooking and eating.

My Dad passed away many years ago, and as much as I have learned and branched out since I was a kid, my last meal would definitely be his oven baked BBQ ribs.

Finally here is a photo of me with my older brother and sister, I am the one in the middle looking totally thrilled. I can only imagine someone tried to slip some cilantro in my milk and that face is the result.

I hope you all have a great week!

Michael Symon's Grilled Salmon with Shaved Carrot and Peanut Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:31:00 +0000

The weather in AZ the last few weeks has been amazing, sunny and warm most every day. This weekend we might hit triple digits but I really don't mind the heat. I took advantage of the great weather and did a little grilling of my favorite fish, salmon!

This recipe is from The Chew cookbook. If you have not seen The Chew it is a cooking show that airs on ABC and the hosts are Mario Batali, Carla Hall, Daphne Oz, Clinton Kelly, and my favorite, Michael Symon. I have eaten at two of his restaurants and his food is really good so I knew this recipe would probably be a winner. Preheat your grill and lets get cooking.

I must have been so excited to make this that I did not take a picture of all of the ingredients. The first thing you need to do is chop the onion. I bought pre shredded carrots but if you cannot find those go ahead and follow the instructions to shave up some carrots.

Toast your cumin seeds. Anytime you are toasting spices or nuts, keep a close eye on them as they can go from toasty delicious to burnt in seconds.

Toast your peanuts and admire that my stove is actually clean!

Mix together the carrot salad dressing ingredients.

Mix the dressing with the carrots, nuts, cumin, and onion. You were supposed to add mint to this but I wanted Tom to taste it and there is no way he would try it with mint in it.

Season your salmon with salt and pepper and brush or spray with olive oil.

Get it on the grill! My grill might need a little cleaning. On the left you can see Tom's steak that he was having for dinner. He has only started eating steaks within the last year or so, before he would only eat ground beef or fajita style beef. Of course he likes it cooked all the way through, which I find totally a waste of a good steak, but at least he is eating it. Leave your salmon alone for about 2-3 minutes and then give it a flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes depending on how thick the salmon is.

Get it off the grill and you are ready to plate.

Top the salmon with the carrot salad and enjoy. Tom loved the carrot salad and even asked me to make it again. I might have to change the name of this blog soon. I really loved this whole dish, it was colorful, simple, and delicious. Michael Symon comes through again!

Favorite Things #51 - Horseradish

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:26:00 +0000

One of the blogs I read often is My Bizzy Kitchen and today she had a lot of horseradish going on in her post. I love horseradish and have since I can remember. Recently I discovered that my favorite chip company from back East, Herr's, can now be found in AZ. I seriously had a moment in the grocery store when I saw them and may have squealed a little.

Of course I snagged this flavor, sorry for the blur but I wanted to include my little stalker in the background. Here is the amazing part, Tom tried these and he LOVED them. I always knew he would like horseradish if he would just try it and these chips were the perfect vehicle.

Are you a fan of horseradish, if so what is your favorite way to eat it?

The Person Behind the Plate #1

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:08:00 +0000

As I was contemplating what I wanted to do for my next themed posts, I realized I needed to think about what it is that keeps me reading other people's blogs. Clearly, I love getting great recipe ideas, looking at gorgeous food photos, and sharing my thoughts in the comments. But the blogs that I really love to read are the ones where you feel like you know the person who is writing the posts. I realized I don't even think my first name is on my blog anywhere, so hello, my name is Rhonda.

When I started this blog a lot of my followers knew me through my other blogs but now I have a lot of new readers who may not really know anything about me except that I love chicken thighs and my husband is afraid of most food. So I thought I would start a series where I actually share a bit about me, my family, and my life here in Arizona.

I hope you like this series and I look forward to sharing lots more food as well. To start, here I am with Tom doing one of our favorite things, watching baseball.

America's Test Kitchen Roast Cornish Game Hen with Cous Cous Stuffing

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:05:00 +0000

Game hens are so perfect for people that dine alone. They are easy to work with, portioned perfectly, and often on sale at a lot of grocery stores. This recipe from America's Test Kitchen's Cooking for Two cookbook is perfect for dining alone or for sharing with someone. Tom finds these little hens quite frightening, so he won't even be in the area when I am making them. But trust me, they are absolutely delicious. That being said, I cut this recipe in half.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and lets gather our ingredients.

You will need a game hen, of course, some broth, balsamic vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, parsley, brown sugar, lemon, shallot or onion, cous cous, currants or cranberries, and pistachios or pine nuts.

The first thing to do is to toast the pine nuts or pistachios. Pay no attention to my dirty stove...

Chop up the onion or shallot.

Measure out your cinnamon and ginger.

Measure your broth, cranberries, and chop up your lemon. Prepping is the most important part of a successful meal. If you have everything ready you don't have to scramble.

Cook the shallots over medium with the cinnamon and ginger for about 3 minutes.

Stir in the cous cous and cook for about 2 minutes, this smells so good you won't believe it!

Stir in the broth and bring to a simmer, get it off the heat and cover it with a lid.

That is a lid in my house, Corelle has many functions.

Once that has hung out for about 5 minutes get it into a bowl and fluff with a fork.

Stir in the nuts, cranberries or currants, lemon juice, and parsley. Add some salt and pepper and you are ready to move on to your hen.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and place a rack on it. I am just using one of my cookie cooling racks.

Behold the little hen that terrifies my husband.

Stuff that bugger with your cous cous stuffing.

Cross the legs and tie them together. I have always just used embroidery thread to tie up my chickens and hens, I don't own butcher's twine. I am sure that there is some horrifying chemical in there but so far I have suffered no problems from doing this. Season the outside of your bird well and make sure it is breast side down on your rack. Put the hen in the oven for about 25 minutes.

While the hen is in the oven we can make the balsamic glaze. I made almost the full amount of this glaze because I knew I would love it. Measure out the ingredients.

Get the ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat and let them simmer for about 2 minutes. It will thicken and reduce down.

Reserve some glaze for serving.

After 25 minutes pull the hen out and brush with glaze. Flip the hen over.

Brush the other side with the glaze as well. Put them back in the oven for about 20 more minutes. Having an instant read thermometer is a really good idea if you are making whole birds like this.

Crank the oven up to 450 degrees and pull the hen back out and give it one more glaze. Put the hen back in for about 10 minutes or until your instant read thermometer says 160.

Get the bird on a cutting board and give him one more balsamic bath with the glaze you reserved. Don't be alarmed if the hen looks a little over cooked, it is just the darkness of the balsamic.

I served this up with some asparagus and it was absolutely delicious and not nearly as hard as I had thought it would be. It is all about timing and making sure you have everything prepped and ready to use when you need it.

Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:25:00 +0000

After this week I think we all could use a little comfort food. I don't really have much to say about what happened in Boston because it makes no sense to me at all. I will just try to provide some comfort through food instead. I always go to my slow cooker when I want something warm, simple, and delicious. I am sharing this recipe from Taste of Home for BBQ Chicken Sliders.

I cut this recipe in half.

This recipe has you brine the chicken first, which I have never done before. Here is what you need for the brine. Liquid smoke, thyme, water, salt, brown sugar and some garlic.

Mix it all together and stir to dissolve the salt and sugar.

Reserve some brine for later, put a lid on it and get it in the fridge.

Pour the brine over the chicken in a resealable bag. Put it in the fridge for about 18-24 hours.

When you are ready to put everything in the crock pot grab your reserved brine and your liquid smoke and add it with the chicken. Discard the brine the chicken was in. Put the crock pot on low for 3-4 hours.

Pull your chicken out, it should be falling apart at this point. I tasted the chicken and it was full of flavor even before adding the sauce.

Grab some buns and your favorite BBQ sauce.

Shred the chicken and get it back in the crock pot.

Stir in the sauce and let it heat through, about 20 minutes on high. While it heated I just made a quick side of some peas with salt and olive oil.

This is a great and easy comfort food dish that really has a lot of flavor. I will make this one again for sure, hopefully during a less crazy week.

Favorite Things #50 - Game of Thrones and Ommegang Brewery's Iron Throne Beer

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:51:00 +0000

This week I am combining two things into one post because they go hand in hand. Ommegang Brewery has brewed a special blonde ale called Iron Throne in honor of the book and TV series called Game of Thrones. I love this book series, I love the TV series and I love a good beer.

I am all ready with my sriracha popcorn, Iron Throne beer and Game of Thrones on the TV.

Are you watching this series or have you read the books?

Hungry Girl Fancy Fish Foil Packet

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 20:08:00 +0000

I am still loving the foil pack cooking method and several of you said you like to make fish this way. I gave it a try and it works perfectly, I can't wait to do more combos.

The recipe is again from Hungry Girl. Preheat your toaster oven or regular oven to 375 and grab some ingredients.

You don't need much for this meal, just some butter, parsley, garlic, salt, asparagus, a fish filet and some lemon.

Trim the woody ends off of your asparagus.

Slice up your lemon.

Mix the butter, parsley, garlic and salt in a bowl. I also added some paprika for flavor and a nice color enhancement.

Spray your foil with pam or grab a sheet of non-stick foil. Lay the asparagus out.

Top it with the fish.

Top the fish with the yummy butter mixture.

Cover with the lemon slices.

Fold up your foil packet and get it on a cookie sheet. Here is a quick youtube video I found of how to do the foil packets Click here for video. Put your packet in the oven for about 15 minutes for a thin piece of fish or about 20-25 for a thicker piece like the one I used.

Cut the foil packet to release the steam and then plate. This looks and tastes delicious with very little work and hardly any clean up.

I hope you all have a great week!

Best Thing I Ever Made - Guilty Pleasures

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:54:00 +0000

This is the last of the 'Best Thing I Ever Made' series, so I thought it better go out with a great recipe. The topic is Guilty Pleasures and mine is for sure cheesy pasta dishes. I love cheese and pasta and gooey casseroles so much, it is just perfect comfort food to me. This recipe is for Beef Noodle Casserole and it is so delicious. It came from Taste of Home magazine, which is always full of great comfort food meals.

It may not be the most gorgeous dish I have ever made, but it was absolutely delicious.

I hope you all enjoyed this series of posts. I am thinking for the next themed posts I do some retro recipes from some of my old cookbooks, does that sound fun to you guys?

Hungry Girl Buffalo Chicken Portabella Pack

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:06:00 +0000

It is starting to get hot here in Arizona, this week we will have temperatures in the mid 90's. When it is hot here I hate turning on my oven so I start using my toaster oven more often. I have recently discovered Hungry Girl's foil pack recipes and they are perfect for making in the toaster oven. Another reason I like the Hungry Girl recipes is that most of them are for one or two servings. Today I am sharing a simple but super tasty foil pack using portabella mushrooms, one of my favorite foods.

Preheat your oven or toaster oven and grab your ingredients. You need some mushrooms, hot sauce, parmesan cheese, laughing cow cheese, some onion or shallot and some cooked chicken. You also need aluminum foil that is non stick or regular and some nonstick cooking spray.

Chop up your chicken.

Chop your mushroom stem and the shallot.

The recipe didn't say to do this but I scraped out the gills from the under side of the mushroom cap.

Mix together the chicken, laughing cow cheese, shallot and the mushroom stems.

Put the chicken mixture in the mushroom cap.

Top with the parmesan cheese.

Hungry Girl says to lay another piece of foil on top to make your pack, I just fold down the top.

Then I fold up the sides. Easy! Pop it in your pre-heated oven for about a half an hour. The only thing I don't like about this cooking method is you can't really smell your food cooking.

When it is done be careful of escaping steam, you can cut it with scissors to open easily and avoid steam burns.

I served this with some salad and it was delicious! The foil packs are a great idea for solo meals and there is hardly anything to clean up afterwards.

Do you cook in foil packs, if so what do you usually make?

Favorite Things #49 - Blogging Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 01:09:00 +0000

Earlier this week I came home to a package at my door which is always an awesome surprise. When I opened it I found a Pyrex divided dish in perfect condition...

Isn't it adorable? This is the Daisy pattern and I only have one piece in that set and it is one of my favorites. The package was sent by a friend that I know through blogging. We have never met but she was kind enough to send me this dish out of the blue just because she knew I would use it and love it.

I just wanted to take the time to thank Phyllis for the great package and to thank all of you that read and comment on my posts, it is what makes blogging so much fun for me.

The Best Thing I Ever Made - Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 02:26:00 +0000

This chicken dish is one that really hit home for me that I can make food at home that tastes even better than food at a restaurant. Granted this is just a quick Chinese stir fry, but it still sticks out in my memory as a triumph over my fear of making anything but the easiest of recipes.

The recipe is for Rachael Ray's General Tso's Chicken and it was absolutely delicious.

Do you have a dish you never thought you could make at home and you pulled it off?

Crispy Onion Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 20:10:00 +0000

This recipe is brought to you by my husband's love for french fried onions. We always have a can in our pantry and I have never used them. Well one day at Sam's club he decided he needed the giant bag of fried deliciousness and I have been staring at them in the pantry ever since. I came across this recipe in Taste of Home and decided to give it a try.

You don't need much to make this dish, just some chicken, worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, ground mustard, butter and a GIANT bag of french fried onions. Ok, a 6 oz can will actually work. Preheat your oven to 350, grease up a baking dish and lets get cooking.

Melt your butter and add in the worcestershire sauce, garlic, mustard and salt and pepper.

Crunch up your onions and get the butter mix in a shallow dish.

Roll the chicken through the butter.

Roll the chicken through the onions.

Pop the chicken in your greased baking dish and pour the remaining butter mixture over the chicken. Bake this for about a half an hour and prepare a side while it cooks.

I tried these Trader Joes asparagus that are in their freezer section. They were ok, a little too mushy for my taste.

Get your chicken out of the oven and plate it up.

I just squeezed some lemon juice on the asparagus and I was ready to eat. The chicken turned out crispy and delicious and the leftovers made an awesome stir fry later in the week.

Best Thing I Ever Made - Spicy Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:17:00 +0000

When I saw the topic I knew I was going to have to post more than one recipe this week. While I have been trying for years to introduce new food to my husband, one thing he has definitely turned me on to is spicy food. I used to think I hated spicy food, but I just didn't have a tolerance for it. Now after years of 'practice' I find I really like a lot of spicy dishes. These are two that stick out in my memory as being totally amazing.

Cumin and Lime Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Cream Corn. I loved that corn so much. I loved the sweet, savory and spice. I only used jalapenos but a fresno would be awesome in that dish as well.

Doesn't it look delicious? I honestly can't say what I liked better, the corn or the pork.

This Korean Style Bulgogi sticks out in my memory because I used Sambal Oelek which is one of my now favorite recipe additions. This stuff is HOT but adds a great flavor. I have been using it a lot over the last 5 years since I posted this recipe.

This one is super simple and great for grilling season which is hopefully coming to the rest of you guys soon, it is definitely here in Arizona!

The Perfect Pickler

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 16:07:00 +0000

I am going to walk through just how easy it is to use the Perfect Pickler for making tasty preserved vegetables.

All you really need is sea salt, water, the veggie of your choice and a jar. I added in some pickling spice and red pepper flakes, but you don't even need those to make the vegetables taste good.

They recommend using sea salt, and the pickler comes with this small bag of a Celtic sea salt. Other books I have read also recommend sea salt but the most important thing is to not use table salt.

You need one tablespoon of salt for every 2 cups of water. This is all you need for the brine, but you can add other seasoning if you want.

I put the pickling spice and red pepper in the bottom of my jar.

I then put in as much asparagus as I could fit, if you are doing cauliflower or onion, really pack the veggies down as tight as you can.

Pour the brine in and leave about an inch or so at the top.

Put the cup in the top and press down and then pour more brine around to fill the jar leaving about 1/4 inch of space at the top. You do not pour brine into the metal cup.

Put the rubber gasket in the lid.

Put the lid on until it is just tight, don't over tighten.

Fill the airlock with water just to the max fill lines.

Put the airlock on and put the jar on a plate. I have never had anything bubble over, but better safe than sorry.

Note the date and give it a try in 4 days. If it is not sour enough, leave it for another day and just keep tasting it. Once it is done to your liking put a lid on it and put it in the fridge.

As you can see the asparagus looks even greener than when the process started and is infused with vitamins and minerals. I eat a few pieces everyday at lunch and it is delicious!

Favorite Things #48 - The Perfect Pickler

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:14:00 +0000

One of the blogs I read regularly is The Healthy Beehive written by a super creative woman named Jane. I saw on her blog that she liked to do her own pickling and fermenting and I had recently been reading about the health benefits of fermented food. I decided to pick up a Perfect Pickler to give it a try.

The first thing I made was cauliflower. I was scared I was going to end up with a jar full of disgusting smelly grossness so I didn't take too many photos or plan to blog about it.

This is what it looked like after I just set it up. The airlock on the top makes it so air cannot get down into the food but allows air to escape. This makes it less risky for some kind of food poisoning disaster.

When it was almost time to taste the cauliflower the brine had turned cloudy, which is expected, so I was pretty excited. When I finally tried it, I loved it! It was not overly sour like a pickled veggie, but if I had let it continue to ferment it would have become more sour. I have since made onions and asparagus and both turned out awesome.

I got the following book, Real Food Fermentation from Amazon and it has taught me a lot also. I will be posting a step by step later this week to show you just how easy it is to transform food into something you can keep around in your fridge for weeks. I bought this with my own money and I am not being compensated in any way for this, I am just excited about another way to think about and work with food!

Have you ever made your own fermented food or done brine pickling?

Four Step Lemon Onion Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:27:00 +0000

Once again I found a winning recipe in my Food Network magazine, this is definitely one that you can whip up on any weekday. I made this full recipe because I can always find uses for leftover chicken breasts.

All you need for this is some flour, thyme, lemon, onion, butter, wine, chicken stock (late to the photo shoot) and some spinach. I chopped my onions the night before so I could just start cooking.

I put my spinach in my steamer and set it aside.

I seasoned my chicken on a cute Corelle plate.

Getting everything measured out before you start cooking can seriously save you from kitchen disasters. Get your flour down on a plate so you have that ready as well.

Combine the wine, chicken broth (ok mine was veggie but it was what I had on hand) and the lemon juice and you are ready to cook!

Heat some oil in a pan. I recently retired my non-stick All Clad pan after 10 years of using it at least three times a week. Luckily I had another as back up in the garage. There are perks to having a Mother in Law that works at Dillards.

I have everything ready including the foil to cover my chicken. I hate being hurried in the kitchen and I usually have two dogs at my feet so it is dangerous to be running around.

Dredge your chicken in the flour.

Get it in the pan and cook for 3 minutes per side.

Looking yummy!

Get it out of the pan on to another cute Corelle plate and cover with foil. Ok, the Corelle plate is not required but it makes me happy.

Do you think we love our dogs in this house or what?

Onions in! If you were using fresh Thyme that would go in now too. Let this cook for about 5 minutes.

Pour in the liquid and crank up the heat, scrape any tasty chicken bits off the bottom of the pan. Let that cook for about 10 minutes.

While that is cooking steam your spinach for about 3-5 minutes depending on how much you are making.

Once the liquid reduced, remove it from the heat and stir in the butter. Everything is better with butter!

Plate the spinach and then put the chicken and onion sauce on the top. This is simple, tasty and another winner from Food Network Magazine.

What is your favorite cooking magazine?

Favorite Things #46 - Sweet and Savory Combos

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:56:00 +0000

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know that I love anything that combines sweet and savory food. I love a little fruit in with my chicken or even some ice cream and potato chips! As I had mentioned at the beginning of the year Tom and I are trying to go to some new restaurants and we finally made it to a place called Croque which specializes in sandwiches.

This is their Brie sandwich that has melty brie cheese, ham, tomato, lettuce, and cranberry sauce. The cranberry sauce pushed this sandwich right over the edge of perfection for me. I also had them add some of their specialty garlic sauce. I paired it with delicious potato salad and it was a wonderful post baseball game meal.

What is your favorite bizarre combo?

The Best Thing I Ever Made - Snack Food

noreply@blogger.com (Dining Alone) — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:15:00 +0000

My husband snacks on peanuts all the time but I am not a big fan of them. But if you pour delicious toffee over peanuts, I am all in! When I saw that the theme for this week was snack food, I knew I had to share this recipe. Working with sugar or candy kind of scares me but this recipe is so easy to make. Click here to learn how to make these super easy toffee peanuts.