Wash Your Hands, Dinner Is Ready

Healthy (by comparison) Banana Bread

2012-05-16T16:42:00.000-05:00

Recently, I've been on a banana bread bender. Eric, who usually eats a banana every morning, must be staging a silent protest because I keep ending up with overripe bananas. And what to do with overripe bananas other than make banana bread? Ideas welcome.

That being said, I love banana bread and have now tried a handful of recipes. A friend of mine recently said, "banana bread is fruit," and while I wholeheartedly believe this to be true, there are certainly a lot of butter, sugar, and sour cream-filled bread recipes out there!

This morning I found this recipe, which cuts the amount of butter and sugar in half (if not more) and still manages to taste delicious (I promise!).

As usual, I tweaked the recipe a little. First, the recipe called for "four very ripe bananas" with the instruction to put three into the batter and reserve one to slice on top. I had five overripe bananas (read: too ugly to slice). I put all five into the batter. I actually think this is the way to go. The extra bananas seemed to add the additional moisture the bread needed since there was less butter. I also added one secret ingredient...

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (do it!)

A super cool technique I learned for getting the perfect "squishy" consistency for the bananas. Put them in a large Ziploc bag, squish by hand, cut a corner off the bag and squeeeeeze.

Another use for Ziploc! Nut crushing! Come on, mind out of the gutter, please.

I used dark chocolate chips...so delicious!

I also decided to make mini muffins instead of a loaf. I adjusted the cooking temperature to 350 degrees and cooked the muffins for 15 minutes.

Here is another fun trick I've learned. If you don't have enough batter to fill a muffin pan, ensure everything cooks evenly by filling the empty spaces with water.

A sweet treat

2012-05-13T21:10:00.000-05:00

The next time you have a night when your sweet tooth is calling out and you're finding it difficult to silence it, give Glitter Grapes a try! Glitter Grapes or Sour Patch Grapes are an idea I borrowed from a blog called Pure Sugar.

What do you need?

1 bunch green grapes
1 package Jello

What do you do?

Wash grapes thoroughly.

Roll wet grapes around in Jello powder.

Return grapes to refrigerator to cool for at least 1 hour.

The recipe suggests the use of the Melon Fusion flavor of Jello, but I couldn't find it. Instead I used the Cherry Lemonade flavor. I think the trick is to find a flavor with some tang. Any tang will do!

This is a great idea for a sweet, refreshing, and satisfying treat. If you told your kids it was candy, they'd believe you!

Saturday Mornings

2012-05-05T10:36:00.000-05:00

On Saturday mornings, I make the coffee and Eric makes breakfast. It's tradition. After years of watching my dad make one of our breakfast favorites, Eric has put his own spin on the technique. He made this recently when our friend, Caitlin, visited. After she returned home, I received a text that said, "That bagel/egg/seasoning recipe is my new favorite breakfast!" So...I thought I should share it with you!

Breakfast Thing
Eric's variation on Ali's theme.
two bagels, toasted & coarsely chopped
5 eggs
milk, a splash
1 tablespoon fresh herbs, finely chopped (we like oregano & rosemary, but basil, thyme, cilantro, really anything would be good, "with the exception of parsley," said Eric, "because it looks pretty but doesn't taste like anything.")
1-2 tablespoons butter
salt
pepper
a little shake of Cajun seasoning (we like Tony Chachere's)

Crack eggs into small mixing bowl. Add a splash of milk, salt & pepper (about a 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper...you can always add...you can never subtract!).

Beat eggs, like you would for a scramble, until they're light & fluffy. Add finely chopped herbs.

Coarsely chop bagels (or bread of your choice, but you need a dense bread with some chew to it).

Melt butter into pan on medium heat, put bagel pieces into pan to soak up butter and continue toasting. Lightly salt & pepper bagels. Let bagels toast for a minute or two, then add egg mixture to pan. Turn heat to medium-low. Stir as needed to cook eggs through.

Serve and enjoy!

Oh, and I always shake cinnamon onto my coffee grounds in the coffee maker (a lovely trick I learned from my mom), but this morning, in a sleepy haze, I accidentally grabbed the chili powder instead...and shook. Vigorously. Good thing I'm not responsible for the big jobs on Saturday mornings!

Eric scooped most of it out with a spoon. And the stuff he couldn't get gave our coffee a little extra kick!

Happy weekend!

Kale Kreations

2012-05-04T14:11:00.001-05:00

Is it just me or has kale grown in popularity recently? Over the past couple of months, I've looked at a number of recipes that incorporate kale and have made three that were pretty big hits.

The first, Fettuccine with Sausage and Kale, was recommended to me by a friend. First of all, I am a sucker for any recipe that includes the words, "fettuccine" or "linguine," so I had a pretty good feeling that I'd love this dish before I even prepared it. And, as anticipated, it was stellar. Should you decide to make this in your own kitchen, my only recommendation would be to go easy on the oil.

The flavors of this dish were delicious, but I found the end product to be a bit too oily when I followed the recipe as written. It has been my experience that when I cook sausage in a skillet, it creates its own oil from the fat in the meat. I would suggest cooking the sausage without any oil and adding it only if it seems necessary (i.e., the meat is sticking to the bottom of the pan). Another option would be to cook the sausage in the oil, drain it, and return the meat to the skillet.

The next kale dish I made was Kale and Ricotta Stuffed Shells. It was Eric's and my turn to host our weekly family dinner and we were trying to come up with an idea...something different. Eric piped up that one of his favorite dishes is stuffed shells. I was game to attempt to make this both because I love Italian food and I had never tried to make them before. I had some kale sitting in my fridge and wondered whether it could be incorporated into the cheese mixture. Too timid to try it without direction, I turned to Google to see if it had been done before. Of course it had! I found several recipes, but this one looked the most appealing.

Something about adding kale to the cheese mixture give it a light, fresh, and airy taste. This was a welcome surprise because stuffed shells can often feel like a really heavy meal. The writer of this recipe suggested it is a great option for a "meatless Monday," but I didn't want to go vegetarian that particular night...I simply added

1 pound ground turkey

to my usual spaghetti sauce and served it on top of the shells. It was a hit! Everyone really liked it and they were surprised to hear I was able to sneak some kale in on them...tricky tricky!

Last night we hosted another dinner. Deployments are a part of military life and we are getting ready to see one of our buddies off to Afghanistan for a while. We wanted to get people together before he left so we had everyone over for food, drinks, and a good dose of healthy laughter. I asked our deploying friend what he wanted for dinner and the response was, "lasagna or something Italian."

Last winter I made the Pioneer Woman's "Best Lasagna. Ever." when Eric's parents were visiting and friends came over to watch a Ravens' playoff game. Consensus was it really was the best lasagna ever, even to my father-in-law who considers himself an expert in good lasagna. He told me the secret to a good lasagna is tomato paste, and this recipe calls for 12 whole ounces of it, so it must be good!

I decided I wanted to try the technique for adding kale that I learned in the stuffed shells recipe with the lasagna recipe. I used the blanching method and cooked the lasagna noodles in the same water. Then, I stirred the cooked, finely chopped kale into the cottage cheese mixture.

It turned out great and, again, the kale gave the dish that same light and fresh taste it gave the stuffed shells. I highly recommend sneaking kale into Italian dishes whenever possible!

Pre-baked lasagna...by the time it came out of the oven, guests were here and I was too distracted to take a picture...

Well, this was certainly one of my longer posts, but stay tuned for more kale recipes in the future. Next up: kale chips. I hear everyone talking about them and recently a friend sent along a recipe for me to try.

Eat more greens! Peace.

Tastes like fried chicken

2012-05-03T13:58:00.000-05:00

I've been a bad little food blogger lately. I looked back at my recipe archive the other day and was astonished by the level of neglect. While I haven't been writing, I have been cooking (I swear I made more than two dishes in March!). I've even been experimenting with my own recipes...only to learn that I never measure ingredients. The problem with failing to measure is that it makes it really difficult to share a recipe you've created with friends. A dash of this, a pinch of that, season to taste is hardly enough direction. I know from experience. When I first started getting into cooking, those types of directions would create a great deal of nervousness and apprehension for me. I've made a few meals that I will try again. And I will try to be conscious of what exactly it is that I am putting into them. That way I can start to share some of my own kitchen creations...how exciting!

But in the meantime, back to borrowing others' fabulous meal ideas! I need two hands to count the number of times I've pulled this recipe up for dinner only to, for some reason or another, tuck it away for another time. I'm not sure why, but this Crispy Yogurt Chicken just spoke to me. Maybe it was the simple list of ingredients? Maybe it was the flirtation with Mediterranean flavors? I have a feeling it definitely had a lot to do with the word, "crispy." My attraction to crunch is
hardly a secret.

Here is Annie's ingredient list:

Crispy Yogurt Chicken

Ingredients:

2 cups Panko bread crumbs

chicken legs (or thighs), bone-in

kosher salt

2 cups plain, unflavored yogurt

3 cloves garlic, minced

fresh parsley, finely chopped (to taste)

juice of one lemon

butter

Mine looked slightly different:

2 cups Panko bread crumbs

2 chicken breasts

salt

2 cups plain, unflavored Greek yogurt

3 cloves garlic, minced

fresh parsley, finely chopped (to taste)

1/2 tablespoon white vinegar (out of lemons? Cut the amount of lemon juice the recipe requires in half and substitute with white vinegar).

butter

I substituted chicken breasts for thighs because Eric is not a huge fan of dark meat. He will eat it IN food, but does not so much like having a hunk of it on his plate. Because breast meat is not bone-in, the cooking time changes a little...

I cut the chicken breasts in half and cooked them in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes with the foil on. Then, I removed the foil and cooked for 15 more minutes. The chicken came out very tender and the Panko bread crumbs were almost crispy enough. I would suggest turning on the broiler for the last five minutes of bake time to achieve the ultimate crisp!

The only other problem I encountered was that I had FAR to much Greek yogurt. Common sense probably should have told me that before experience did, but, alas, it did not.

1 cup plain Greek yogurt would definitely have been sufficient to coat the amount of meat I used. I could have reserved the other cup to make a nice cucumber yogurt sauce, but once I had dredged the raw chicken in the yogurt mix, that option was off the table...I hate wasting food.

This dinner was yum, yum, YUM! I hope you give it a try, too!

Imitation Chinese Takeout

2012-04-20T09:07:00.001-05:00

I am not going to name names, but suffice it to say I'm ~~never going~~ hesitant to order Chinese takeout from any establishment in my town. And because, on occasion, my husband and I are in the mood to watch a movie while eating our food out of cardboard containers with chopsticks, we've had to improvise.

Fortunately for us, it appears that Six Sisters love to improvise as well. I've now tried two of their homemade, healthy(er) Chinese food recipes and really thought both of them were super! One of them even allowed me to show my face again at Eric's office pot lucks (recall the banana episode).

The Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken was awesome. I made it once at home for dinner and then again for the most recent office pot luck because we liked it so much. By following the veeeery simple recipe, you'll get yourself some tender chicken bites with a delightful crisp.

Please forgive the awful picture...

The other recipe I tried was the Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken. Honey sesame chicken is one of my personal favorite takeout foods. I have to say that this rendition was good, but didn't imitate Chinese takeout quite as well as the Sweet & Sour chicken recipe did. This, of course, has a lot to do with the fact that the Honey Sesame Chicken recipe does not direct you to fry the chicken at all. Recipe pros: very tasty, very easy, and healthier because not fried; cons: doesn't quite satisfy the takeout craving as well. If you have a hankering to be bad (gasp, flash-fried foods) with honey sesame chicken, I'd suggest using the cooking technique from the sweet & sour chicken recipe with the (slightly adapted) sauce from the honey sesame chicken recipe.

1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or not, or more)
*sprinkle sesame seeds on chicken before serving

So, as for the Chinese takeout/movie date night checklist...

movie: check (thank you Netflix)
food: check (kudos to the Six Sisters for figuring out a way to make easy, gooey, Chinese takeout at home)
chopsticks: check
my date: check (note: the checklist does not indicate order of importance)
cardboard containers: work in progress
fortune cookies: to be continued...

Udon-awanna make this!

2012-04-12T10:03:00.000-05:00

And, if you love spicy food as much as I do, udon-awanna make this my way...

I found the recipe for Peanut Curry Noodles with Seared Shrimp & Scallops on one of my favorite food blogs, love & olive oil. I can't really speak for what the recipe would have tasted like had I followed it because I did some omitting and substituting. However, I can tell you that what I ultimately produced by following the "gist" of this recipe was exceptionally delicious...and spicy!

Note: if you prefer not to clear your sinuses during mealtime, disregard a lot of what I say and follow the recipe.

Fresh ginger, which I am happy to say I had thanks to a reader's suggestion to keep ginger root handy by freezing it

Ingredients I added:
1 large jalapeno, diced (not seeded)...duh

Add to the skilled with the garlic, ginger, red bell pepper, and pepper flakes.

When I made this dish, I made two errors on this step of the recipe. First, I forgot to add the ginger, which I didn't realize until I was getting ready to cook the shrimp. Naturally, per my modus operandi, this mistake resulted in a mini-meltdown. Eric, per his modus operandi, came to my rescue, sauteed the ginger in the shrimp-skillet before the shrimp, took it out of the pan, and added it to the sauce. Hooray for ridiculously awesome sous-chefs! My second error was adding the scallions at this point rather than at the end to finish the dish. Texturally, it would have been better to add them at the end rather than at the beginning, but it didn't hurt the flavor...

Ingredients I substituted:
2 heaping tablespoons fresh chili paste instead of 2 rounded tablespoons red curry paste.

I didn't have red curry paste so I just used what I did have. It just so happened that what I did have dramatically kicked up the spiciness of the sauce.

Ingredients I wish I substituted:
crunchy peanut butter for creamy peanut butter.

Why? Well, why not?

I fully admit this looks a little less-than-appetizing, but I assure you, it is delicious!

Whisk soy sauce into PB

Add coconut milk & brown sugar...mmm.

I'd also like to try grilling the shrimp instead of heating them in the skillet.

Pre-cooked shrimp rubbed with five spice powder, all we had to do was heat 'em up!

And add to sauce...

Ingredients I omitted:
Scallops

Didn't have any! Didn't miss 'em.

This was definitely one of those meals that I was sad to see end. If you have a taste for Thai food, peanut sauce, or anything made with coconut milk, I definitely suggest giving this recipe a whirl.

I am going to try to refrain from making it nightly.

Stuck in a rut

2012-04-05T12:15:00.004-05:00

Toward the end of one week, when the contents of my refrigerator were dwindling and the vegetables I still had were rapidly approaching their end of shelf-life, I found myself standing in the kitchen looking at a bag of shrimp, a pile of fresh basil, and a bundle of the largest asparagus I'd ever seen.

I can't be the only one who gets stuck in ruts with certain kinds of food. For example, I always either grill or roast asparagus with a little olive oil, some salt & pepper, and whatever other spices or herbs I feel like throwing on there. Don't get me wrong, I love eating asparagus that way, but on that particular night, I just didn't feel like it. I turned to Google, typed in, "shrimp, asparagus, and basil" and found Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp, Asparagus & Basil.

Well, why didn't I think of that? I skimmed the recipe and quickly realized it's an easy-to-make, mess-free dinner. And if it tasted as good as it sounded, it definitely had potential to join the ranks of go-to dinners for nights when I don't feel like cooking, but definitely feel like eating.

The recipe directs you to cook the asparagus stalks and tips separately as the stalks need a few more minutes to soften. However, I had monster asparagus and knew that those big wamma-jammas would need more cooking time all together. I cut off the asparagus tips and then cut the stalks into matchstick-sized chunks. Then, I halved the matchsticks. I added all of the asparagus to the skillet when I added the white wine, allowing it to cook for the duration of the time it took to prepare the dish. They were perfectly cooked in the end (go me).

You know it's a crowd pleaser when conversation from the peanut gallery (of one) ceases with the exception of lots of "mmm" and "yum." And just as the recipe's author promised, it was E-A-S-Y to make. From now on, this dish will most certainly be a regular at our dinner table.

Perhaps I will try on a new asparagus rut for a while...

First I roasted a chicken and then I did this

2012-04-04T16:39:00.002-05:00

Roasting a whole chicken is both an easy and economical way to go about cooking for your family. It's easy because basically all you have to do on night #1 is stuff it and throw it in the oven. It's economical because there is so much you can do with it once its roasted. From preparing multiple meals to making homemade chicken stock, one little chicken goes a long way! The other night, I used a recipe my mom sent me from Taste of the South Magazine for, well, easy roasted chicken.

I didn't have fresh sage or thyme, but I had a ton of fresh rosemary so I threw that in there instead. You can probably substitute just about any fresh herb for the herbs listed in the recipe. It all tastes good! Or an orange in place of lemon? I don't know, but I am sure I will be experimenting in the future because this dinner was such a piece of cake!

Oh, and I accidentally cut up a bunch of onions that were actually supposed to be used in the accompanying sweet potato recipe. Since I wasn't planning on making sweet potatoes as a side dish, I just stuffed as many onion wedges as I could into the bird and placed the others around the chicken in the roasting dish. They ended up being very tasty.

I served the roasted chicken on the first night with roasted potato coins and a side salad. It was a home run!

The recipe for roasted potato coins is pretty simple, too. Wash whatever kind of potato you'd like to use. I love potato skin so I rarely ever peel potatoes (unless I'm using Russets in mashed), but this means I have to scrub them well.

Slice your potatoes into half-inch coins. You can soak the slices to reduce the starch content or you can just sprinkle them with a little salt and pat dry with paper towels. Lay the potatoes out on a baking sheet- trying not to overcrowd. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over the potatoes (just a couple of tablespoons) and toss by hand until all potato coins are coated in oil. Spread them out in a single layer again and season with whatever you want. Another idea is to do this in a bag. Put your potato slices, olive oil, and seasoning in a bag and shake it up!

Bake in a 450-475 degree oven for around 30 minutes. Keep an eye on them though, because their cooking time depends on the thickness of the coins you cut. Flip them once and give them 5ish more minutes. They should get nice and crispy!

Naturally, we had quite a bit of chicken left over after dinner #1, which I love. Why do I love this? Well for starters, because of what I said earlier: a lot of recipes call for 1-2 cups rotisserie chicken. Having a bowl of leftover pulled-off-the-bone chicken opens up a world of possibilities for the rest of the week's dinners.

I also love it because it means I have to take some time out of my busy day to actually pick the meat off the bones (I hope no one reading this is squeamish- sounds quite grizzly). Why is this such great news? Well, because as far as I can tell, cleaning a chicken takes enough time to justify watching a movie in the afternoon. See how I did that?

Anyhoo, on to dinner #2 from the one little chicken: BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad. I love me some quinoa salads because quinoa salad = protein rich salad = filling and satisfying salad. Also, they are lettuce-less salads, and sometimes my salads need a break from lettuce...

I took my off-the-bone chicken, mixed it with some BBQ sauce, put it in a casserole dish and baked it in the oven on 350 degrees while I prepared the rest of the dish. You could also prepare chicken for this recipe in the crock pot days ahead of time. I think grilled BBQ chicken would have been pretty yummy, too!

The recipe didn't call for black beans, but they were in my fridge so in they went!

I cubed my cheese- didn't feel up to shredding...

And there you have it! Two great dinners form one little chicken! Thank you, little chicken.

Twist on the ol' taco

2012-03-29T14:09:00.001-05:00

On this particular night, I didn't document anything about my process. As a result, the only picture I have to share is one of the plated meal. I chose not to take any process pictures for two reasons.

The first, laziness. Unlike many of my food blogging heroes (who seem to love photography as much as they love cooking), on my best days I love the cooking parts and kind of like taking the pictures. Don't get me wrong, in general, I love taking pictures. My problem is that I am a novice chef and taking the appropriate "time out" to snap a photograph can, at times, be overwhelming. Especially if it means that in the meantime, my garlic burns or something boils over. Perhaps my food blogging idols do a lot more staging and a lot less real time picture taking of the cooking process...perhaps I shall never know!

The second, I was experimenting with an idea in my own head. I was not following a recipe and my brain can only be used for so many tasks at one time.

This turned out to be a delicious, easy and quick meal to make! You should try it some night. Some night when you're hungry, your husband (or wife) is hungry, your kids are hungry and time is not on your side.

Here's what you need:

1 fresh Poblano pepper, diced
2 fresh green chilies, diced
1/2 large onion, sliced
1 pound lean, ground turkey
1 pack taco seasoning
or the combination of spices below; measurements will vary depending on personal preference & freshness of spices
-ground cumin
-chili powder
-Cayenne pepper powder
-dried oregano
-salt
1/4 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
1 large flour tortilla
1/2 16 oz can refried beans
1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
1 jalapeno, sliced
1 avocado, sliced
some dollops of Daisy
a large handful of lettuce

Here's what you do:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Dice 1/2 a large onion, 1 Poblano pepper, and two green chilies. You can remove some of the seeds and pith (white stuff) to reduce the heat in the peppers if you want. I, obviously, left most of it in tact. Set cut vegetables aside.

Brown ground turkey in medium hot skillet. Once the meat is browned, add the diced onion, Poplano pepper, and green chilies. Cook for a few minutes, until the peppers have softened. Add one pack of taco seasoning or make your own, which is what I always do by combining the above ingredients to taste. Because the meat is so lean, it tends to start looking a little dry. Add chicken broth to skillet and allow meat mixture to simmer until the liquid is gone. Set meat mixture aside.

Place large flour tortilla on baking pan/pizza pan. The pan does not need to be greased or sprayed with cooking spray. Spoon refried beans onto tortilla, spreading a thing layer on the tortilla like tomato sauce on a pizza. Add meat mixture on top of beans like toppings on a pizza. Sprinkle cheese blend on top of meat.

Pop the whole thing into the oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Cut and serve topped with sliced, fresh jalapenos, sliced avocado, a few dollops of Daisy, and a heaping pile of lettuce.

You're probably going to need a knife and fork for this one.

A neighborly nudge

2012-03-29T12:35:00.000-05:00

Altus has issues. Water issues. About a year ago, we received notice in the mail informing us that long-term consumption of Altusian water can be dangerous to one's health. When we received that notice, we took steps to investigate our options for accessing clean drinking water. The absolute best choice is the instillation of a reverse-osmosis water system, which we are not interested in doing at this point. We opted to install a Brita water filter on our sink. Since that time, we've been informed that the filter really only reduces the strong smell of chlorine, but that the dangerous byproducts are still very much present in our drinking water. Back to the drawing board we went...

I recently realized that there is a reverse-osmosis water system on base where I can refill plastic bottles. Since that time, I've been making weekly trips to fill gallons of water from the watering hole on base and haul it home. This simple (albeit tedious when you grow up taking drinking water for granted) task reminds me of days past or of days present depending on your country of residence/socioeconomic status.

Anyway, I digress. I tell you that so I can tell you this story:

The other day as I filled my car with my empty water receptacles (I cant bring myself to write "jugs") in preparation for my weekly watering hole adventure, my neighbor across the street hollered,

"I knocked on your door, you didn't answer, I thought you were asleep! Come over here, I have something for you."

"For me? Golly, this is an exciting turn of events," I thought to myself as I crossed the street. I walked into her kitchen and was immediately taken aback by a delightful scene.

An entire sushi factory neatly sprawled across her counter top. Sushi ingredients and rolls at various stages of production. I felt like I'd stumbled upon heaven.

"Do you like it?" She asked me.

"Do I like it?! I love it! We love it! Oh my gosh, this is so exciting." I replied.

She placed two rolls on a plate, sliced them into pieces and sent me on my way.

"Have a great day!" she exclaimed as I walked back across the street. She had no idea how great our day had just gotten. Have I mentioned we love sushi?

Eric and I devoured a delicious lunch.

And because my momma taught me never to return an empty plate, I spent this morning baking!

Originally, I had planned on making a recipe for Butterfinger cookies that I'd come across on Pinterest. However, upon realizing I'd forgotten my shopping list when I got to Walmart, I turned to an oldie but goodie. You can always count on Nestle Toll House.

Shout out to another lovely neighbor who saved the day when I realized I didn't have vanilla extract!

Even though this entry is primarily about things other than sushi, it was my desire to celebrate sushi that inspired me to write. Thanks to our lovely neighbor for a delicious lunch, which also gave me the push I needed to get back in the blogging saddle.

More to come! Just because I haven't been writing doesn't mean I haven't been cooking!

Oh, Kale Yeah!

2012-02-29T12:44:00.001-06:00

On a whim, I bought a bunch of kale at the grocery store. It had been a long time since I'd eaten kale and I had no idea what to do with it. The only thing I know about kale is that for a period of a few months as a kid, we ate kale with just about every meal. This was because a family friend of ours had it growing rampant in their garden. They couldn't keep up with their harvest so they decided to gift about half of it to us.

My mom, never wanting anything to go to waste (I come by it naturally), tried to figure out ways to incorporate it into, well, everything.

So, I saw the kale in the store, thought to myself, "I think I'm ready to try this again," and threw it in the cart. I spent an hour or so doing some recipe research that afternoon and came across a lovely recipe for Lemony Kale Pasta. After skimming the ingredient list, I was relieved to find I had all the necessary ingredients, with the exception of the preferred variety of kale. We do not have variety of veggies. We have what we have and whatever kind of kale I had, called simply, "kale," was going to have to do the trick. Then I read the direction to remove the stems.

Now, I didn't know if this meant, cut below the part where the leaves start growing or cut the leaves completely away from the stem all the way up the stem. I decided to call the only person I could think of as a kale expert, mom.

She said she felt it meant to cut below the point at which the leaves grew. She then said, "think of kale like collards, they will cook for a while and soften up so the stem shouldn't be a problem higher up on the leaves."

I referenced my recipe.

"You eat the kale raw in this recipe," I said.
"Raw?" she said.

I could tell by the tone of her voice that raw was a form of kale she never tried.

"Hmm...well," she said, "why don't you just chew on a bit of the stem higher up on the leaf and see how firm it is?"
"Yeah, I guess I'll just see how it goes," I said. And we hung up.

Heeding her advice, I went to taste a bit of the raw kale. The stems looked too hard to eat raw so I opted just to taste the leaf. Wow, so bitter! I started to have doubts about my recipe and started expressing them aloud. Maybe the variety of kale did matter after all? After a few minutes of listening to my second guessing and rambling, I heard Eric say, "just give it a try, will you?"

Smush garlic into pulp with fork.

And so I did. I am still not sure what "stems removed" meant, but after looking at the stems, I interpreted it as the full removal of the stem all the way up the leaf. It worked out well because the leaves retained a rather course texture, anyway. Almost how you'd imagine fallen leaves in autumn feeling in your mouth.

Okay, maybe a little less crunchy...

But the acidity of the dressing really counteracted the bitterness of the kale and the end result was really quite tasty. I was very pleasantly surprised! I'm sure the meal was also packed full of nutrients and vitamins and all that good stuff that makes kale so fantastic.

I made some fish to eat with the pasta. I topped cod fillets and with a little butter, lemon juice, some dressing from the pasta recipe, and capers then broiled them for a few minutes. We ended up eating the fish on the pasta much like you would eat grilled chicken on a Caesar salad. It was really yummy, but the best part was discovering that capers are a beautiful addition to the Lemony Kale Pasta.

When we had leftovers for lunch the next day, we dumped some capers into the pasta and mixed it up. If you are looking to chew on some tasty ruffage, I absolutely suggest giving this recipe a try.

Add capers!

A "must try" for homemade pizza lovers

2012-02-28T10:26:00.000-06:00

Eric and I made our version of Supreme Pizza for dinner. If you love homemade pizza as much as we do, which I am not sure is possible, you've got to try this.

Sauceless Supreme Pizza
your choice of pizza crust
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 Campari tomatoes, sliced (but any tomato would do, you just wouldn't need three)
1/4 cup roasted red peppers, torn or chopped into smaller pieces
a couple hand fulls of mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 slices bacon (we used Applewood smoked), baked & crumbled
1 slice Prosciutto, sliced
1 jalapeno, sliced
1/4 large red onion, sliced
6-8 whole mushrooms, sliced
2 slices Provolone cheese, torn into squares
a very small amount of Pecorino Romano, grated
fresh rosemary
fresh basil
fresh oregano

We decided to make pizza before assessing our ingredient situation. We pre-baked our semi-homemade crust, prepared all of our ingredients and got ready to build the pizza. We intended to use marinara sauce as our base, but realized that we did not have any. Eric came to the rescue with an (I think brilliant) idea. He suggested we,

brush crust with one tablespoon olive oil
place sliced tomatoes on crust
place roasted red peppers on crust

We ended up going this route by accident, but I think it was the secret to making an incredibly delicious homemade Sauceless Supreme Pizza.

Cover the roasted red peppers and sliced tomatoes by sprinkling shredded mozzarella cheese on top.

Evenly distribute crumbled bacon and sliced Prosciutto over cheese.

Pile on sliced jalapenos and onions.

Load on the sliced mushrooms.

Cover with squares of Provolone cheese and grate Pecorino Romano on top.

Bake pie in oven at 350 degrees until toppings look cooked and cheese has melted. If you turn on the broiler to get the Provolone cheese brown and bubbly, the crust will look like this...oops!

That being said, if you don't love your crust extra crispy (like we do), proceed with caution. Remove pizza from oven and top with fresh rosemary, basil, and oregano.

Slice and enjoy, preferably with a cold beer.

Grilled Cajun Chicken Burgers

2012-02-27T12:51:00.001-06:00

While scratching my head trying to come up with an idea for dinner one night, I thought of the leftover Sriracha Mayo Dip I used in this recipe that was still sitting in my refrigerator. It occurred to me that it would be excellent on a sandwich, a chicken sandwich. I didn't have any chicken breasts, but I did have ground chicken. I starting mulling over the idea of chicken patties or chicken burgers. I turned to my trusty friend, Pinterest, for some inspiration. I found this and this, which gave me some ideas. Then, I just made up my own recipe. Let us call them,

Grilled Cajun Chicken Burgers
1 pound ground chicken (or grind your own)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup green onion, diced
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 teaspoon of dried parsley (but fresh would be better)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
a hand full of Panko breadcrumbs

Heat olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add green onions and garlic to oil and saute for five minutes or until onions have softened.

Place ground chicken in a large mixing bowl. Season with salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, parsley, and juice of 1/2 a lemon. Add Panko breadcrumbs to bowl. Add sauteed green onion, garlic, & olive oil mixture to chicken.

Mix by hand until all ingredients are incorporated into the chicken. Form chicken into four patties. Cook chicken burgers on hot grill (about 5-7 minutes per side) or until the center of the burger is firm to the touch.

Adding sauteed onions & garlic was a trick I learned from Cooking Light Magazine a few months ago. It was described as a remedy for the dry turkey burger. I figured it would also do the trick for ground chicken and it did!

Serve the burgers on multi-grain Ciabatta rolls with Sriracha Maynoaise, pickle, and lettuce. We did not add cheese the first night, but ate them as leftovers a few days later with the addition of a slice of Swiss cheese. Very yummy!

The grilled chicken patties from my inspiration recipes looked a bit more appetizing, but had been pan-fried. I thought I'd try grilling in an attempt to make them a little healthier. They tasted really good, but I am still tempted to try pan-frying to brown followed by baking to cook.

One of Mama's Specialities

2012-02-23T10:11:00.003-06:00

I finally made one of my mom's dishes that actually tasted like one of my mom's dishes! Since moving into my own home, I have tried (on a handful of occasions) to replicate some of my parents' famous dishes. The result? A complete and utter kabob & rice failure, an "I think this almost tastes like it" experience with tachine, and a near-hit with ghormeh sabzi. The results have been mixed, but underwhelming. I know what I need is practice, but when it smells like home, you want and expect it to taste like home, too. And sometimes, that just isn't the case.

Nevermind disappointment, I went back at it with a recipe for one of my old favorites that I received in the mail from my mom a few days back. Paprikas Csirke or, in English, Chicken Paprika.

I have always been one of those eaters who is chomping at the bit to get to that first bite. Not something I'm necessarily proud to admit, but its the truth. I remember this meal being a real treat, not a once-a-week deal because, as you will see, it is rather...rich. I have distinct memories of excitedly scooping steaming spoonfuls of this fragrant and creamy dish onto a pile of egg noodles, just dying to have my first taste. The aroma that filled the kitchen was unreal and it just looked comforting, inviting, and satisfying.

So I decided to try it. After all, it seemed perfect for a warm winter's night (it's been in the 70's here).

Chicken Paprika

2 large onions, minced (I sliced)

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons lard (I used butter)

3 lb chicken (I used 2 chicken breasts)

1.5 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika (I used paprika, we only have one kind here)

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 large tomato, peeled, seeded & chopped (I did not peel or seed)

1 large green pepper, cut into strips

1/4 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons sour cream

1 tablespoon flour
Source: Gourmet Magazine, 1980

In large saucepan, cook 2 large onions and one large garlic clove, all minced, in 2 tablespoons of lard over moderate heat. Stirring for 10 minutes, or until they are lightly golden. Add a 3- pound chicken, cut into serving pieces and sprinkled with salt, skin side down and cook the mixture, covered, over low heat for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the chicken with 1.5 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika, turning the pieces to coat them well, add 1/2 cup chicken stock or tinned chicken broth and 1 large tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped, and cook the mixture over moderately low heat for 15 minutes. Add 1 large green pepper cut into 1/4 inch strips, and cook mixture for 15 minutes, or until the chicken and pepper are tender. Transfer the chicken and the pepper with a slotted spoon into a dish and keep them warm, covered. Add 1/4 cup heavy cream to the saucepan and simmer the sauce for 3 minutes, or until it is thickened. Whisk in 3 tablespoons sour cream combined with 1 tablespoon flour and cook the mixture until it is thickened. Add the chicken and the pepper, combine the mixture well, and transfer it to a heated serving dish. Serve the dish with Spatzle or noodles. Serves 4.

An eager onion.

My peppers were frozen, that's why they look a little funny

I followed the recipe with the exception of the few substitutions mentioned in the ingredient list. The biggest difference was how I cooked my chicken since I wasn't using a whole chicken. After I cooked the onions & garlic, I placed two whole chicken breasts, salted and sprinkled with paprika on both sides, into the saucepan. I cooked for 7 minutes on each side. I removed the chicken from the saucepan and placed it on a cutting board where I let it rest for a few minutes before shredding it into bite-size pieces with a fork. I sprinkled the pieces again with salt & paprika and returned them to the pan after I added the green pepper. This kept the meat juicy and tender.

I also served the dish with Quinoa noodles. We didn't have egg noodles (how my mom served it) and these had just been sitting in the pantry, waiting to be tried. They were good and tasted a whole lot like regular noodles. The only weird thing was that they were elbow noodles. For some reason that just didn't sit right with me...

Thickening the sauce.

Okay, maybe it smells more inviting than it looks.

Setting out to make this dish, I obviously had some high expectations. Even after I made the few changes to the recipe based on what I had in the kitchen, it smelled like my mom's dish, but as you know, I've been deceived by this before. But this time, with the exception of needing a little bit of salt to taste, it tasted like mom's dish too! Hooray! Now, back to trying to get the Persian food right!

The Almost Homemade Pizza Queen

2012-02-22T15:19:00.000-06:00

I am the almost homemade pizza queen aspiring to be the homemade pizza queen. I'm queen because I want to be (and because pizza is a passion) and I'm almost homemade because, for now, I don't make my own crust and I don't made my own sauce. I'm getting there, but for now I use:

1 box of Jiffy pizza crust
1 cup (or more) marinara sauce (I like marinara sauce better than pizza sauce because it usually has chunks in it- we like chunks.)

Sometimes instead of using red sauce for the base, I will infuse garlic into olive oil and use that for the base instead. I put 3-5 cloves of garlic (depending on the size) into olive oil. I slowly bring up the temperature of the oil until it sizzles and the garlic begins to look toasty. At that point, I turn off the heat and paint the olive oil onto the crust. Some people just discard the garlic cloves, but I like them, so I smush them onto the crust.

As for crust, I prefer a store-bought mix that comes in a box to a pre-made crust. I prefer the mix because it gives me the opportunity to add spices. Before I add the water to the mix, I shake in some

oregano
basil
crushed red peppers

You can add any dried herbs or spices that make you think, "pizza," and it will give the crust a little extra spunk!

The pizza of the night was a grilled eggplant, turkey sausage, onion, and basil pie. Here is what you need:

1 large eggplant, peeled and sliced into coins
2 turkey, Italian sausage links
half of one red onion, sliced
fresh basil
mozzarella cheese, grated & sliced

I prepared the eggplant following this recipe, which I have now used several times. It. Is. Delicious. The marinade makes the eggplant taste so good I could be satisfied with just a plate of this eggplant for dinner. In fact, Eric and I were lucky we had enough eggplant left to make the pizza. We each kept sneaking pieces off the plate. Eric was counting to make sure I didn't sneak more bites than he did.

When I use this recipe to prepare eggplant as a pizza topping, the only thing I do differently is peel the eggplant and cut it into coins rather than cutting it lengthwise. You can do this part ahead of time and set it aside.

Next, prepare the sausage. Remove the casing and break up the meat in a hot skillet. Depending on how lean the meat is, you may need to add a drop of olive oil. To spice up the meat, you can add all your favorite spices, you know, those ones that make you think, "pizza." Completely cook the meat and set it aside.

Take your pre-baked pizza crust and dress it with the base of your choice (we used marinara sauce). Sprinkle a very small amount of grated mozzarella cheese onto the sauce. Place your grilled eggplant coins onto the pizza, add your red onion (which you can caramelize ahead of time if you like, but I like when it gets kinda crispy in the oven), add your sausage. Evenly place thin slices of mozzarella cheese on top of the pie. Bake for about 10 minutes or until cheese is sufficiently melty or bubbly. (Note: if you let your crust get too dark when you pre-bake it, you will not be able to leave the pizza in the oven for as long, be careful not to do that!)

Remove pie from oven and top with fresh basil chiffonade. I learned this term and technique from Eric. It is apparently a fancy word for basil strips, which are easily cut by rolling the basil leaves into a tight tube and slicing them. It makes these little basil ribbons and you don't have to chase the leaves around the cutting board or stand there tearing each individual leaf.

And no, Eric and I did not devour this whole pizza in one sitting. Okay, maybe we did...

French Fry Fix

2012-02-22T14:16:00.000-06:00

When Sunday night is Saturday night (thank you, President's Day) and you need a fry fix, but you don't want to be THAT bad, you can turn to your good old root tuber friend, the sweet potato. You can bake instead of fry. You can really enjoy yourself!

Earlier in the day, Eric and I had enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner, which Eric so eloquently refers to as, "dunch." Appetizing, I know. It was getting late, we were getting ready to watch a movie, and the munchies were setting in. We both love a good french fry so I decided to give one of the recipes I'd found a few weeks ago, which I had been saving for just such an occasion, a whirl.

I followed a recipe for guaranteed crispy sweet potato fries.

A disclaimer accompanied the recipe warning that there is "a bit of a learning curve" and that it may take a few tries to achieve optimal crispiness. There was also a recommendation to soak the sliced sweet potatoes from an hour to half a day's time. Because I hadn't planned ahead, we did not have the patience to wait a full hour- we soaked for thirty minutes.

As I carefully and precisely tried to achieve the perfect corn starch coating for the potatoes (note: you want them to look like they do in the pictures here, try not to get the coating too thick) Eric whipped up the Sriracha mayo dip. The dipping sauce was delicious, but the fries also tasted nice with ketchup and I'm certain they'd taste pretty darn good with the cinnamon butter sauce you sometimes get in restaurants, too. Healthier fries do not necessarily result in healthier dipping sauce...

The fries, as promised, were delicious and crispy (though not uniformly crispy). Turns out, the secret is in the soak. The day after we made the fries, my March issue of Cooking Light arrived in the mail. The Common Cooking Mistakes and How to Avoid Them section featured the Oven Fry Fizzle. According to the experts, the key to achieving crispy, uniformly cooked oven french fries is to presoak. Apparently, soaking the potatoes draws out the starch. Less starch = reduced water content. Reduced water content = less steam produced in the oven. Less steam = crispier fries. See? It's math.

And another tip, overcrowding fries on the baking sheet creates more of a sauna environment in the oven (lots of steam) and we are looking for tanning bed. Happy snacking!

Roux Hoo!

2012-02-16T16:43:00.002-06:00

Well folks, I can check another cooking basic off my list! I successfully made my first roux. The weird part was, it really wasn't that difficult. At all. In fact, I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out just how exactly I messed it up before...

The roux was the base of the sauce for the Asparagus-Goat Cheese Pasta I made for dinner last night. I had some asparagus from my Bountiful Basket and, in an attempt to hold onto any part of my Persian roots, I make it a rule to always have some goat cheese on hand. Am I the only one who gets excited when an additional trip to the store for specialty ingredients is not required?

I took only one creative liberty with this recipe and it was NOT to add jalapenos! Besides the asparagus, I also had some broccoli that was quickly approaching its "use by" date.

I blanched 1 head of broccoli (no stalks) with the asparagus.

If adding more green things to a dish is wrong, I don't think I want to be right!

I blanched the veggies and boiled the pasta a few hours before I even got started on the sauce. That being said, this is a great recipe to keep in your back pocket for nights when you know you won't have much cooking time. You can do the prep work when you have the time and throw it together a few minutes before you are ready to eat.

I think I would have to say the trick to a good roux-based sauce is patience (is it just me or is that word making repeat appearances in my writing?). I'm guessing that in the past, I rushed and therefore failed to fully incorporate the flour or got the roux too hot, too fast. Going about it at a more leisurely pace resulted in a much better consistency than anything I'd created in the past.

Starting the roux

The master of roux (okay, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself)

Looks pretty good, am I right?

Now, if there are two things Eric fears in this world they are spiders and stinky cheese. I could tell Eric was a little nervous about the final product. He kept coming into the kitchen to check out what was going on/mentally prepare for a potentially potent cheese flavor. In his defense, during the cooking process, it smelled pretty goat-cheesy in the kitchen. But fear not, fellow stinky cheese fearers! The taste was actually quite mild. It reminded both Eric and me of a lighter-tasting Alfredo sauce.

As for how it tasted, overall it was pretty delicious. But Eric and I both felt something was missing after we had our first bites. The recipe called for the pasta to be topped with grated Parmesan cheese. I had the shaky stuff. If you want to make this recipe, I suggest trying it with freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or something comparable). I think it would have added just the right amount of saltyness to the dish. If you don't have (or don't want to run to the store just for) fancy cheese, an extra pinch of salt did the trick for us last night. I just think better cheese would have been a lot more satisfying.

Corn Cakes & Couples Cooking

2012-02-15T16:15:00.002-06:00

Earlier this week, we picked up our basket of produce from Bountiful Baskets. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this group, it is a food co-op that distributes produce baskets nationwide on a weekly or bi-weekly basis depending on the site. To participate, you purchase a basket and what comes in the basket is always a surprise. It has been a great way for us to experiment with new ingredients. Aside from the benefit of exposure to potentially new ingredients, we've found that we save a decent amount of money buying our produce this way as well. A basket only costs $16.50 and I guarantee I would spend a lot more than that for the same amount of fruit & veggies at any other grocery store. I highly recommend checking to see if your area has a pick-up site. And if not, you may want to consider getting trained to become a site coordinator yourself. You can find information about all of that and more here.

Anyway, included in our basket this week were beautiful, golden ears of corn. Only a day or so before we got the corn, I had come across an intriguing recipe for Summer Corn Cakes with Chopped Tomato and Avocado Salsa that I was really looking forward to trying. You can imagine my excitement when I saw that we got corn this week!

I got to work preparing the batter for the the Corn Cakes by cutting the corn kernels off the cob. I had visions of sitting at the dinner table as a child and watching as my mom or dad gracefully sliced ribbons of corn onto my plate in one fell swoop. I lifted my knife, ran it down the side of the corn, and looked on in shock at the corn kernels flew off in all directions around the kitchen. "What am I doing wrong?" I asked myself. And Eric answered, "try a bigger knife."

He was right, the weight of the bigger knife worked a little better, but it was still a more stressful process than I had imagined. After I had finished prepping the batter, I left it to sit while Eric and I hit the gym for an evening run. When we got home, Eric joined me in the kitchen to help prepare the rest of our meal (because otherwise we would have been eating at 10pm).

The couple that cooks together stays together. Unless that couple is Eric and me. Each time we pair up to prepare a meal together, I have high expectations for a laid-back, enjoyable evening in the kitchen. Cracking jokes. Sipping wine. Exchanging smooches. For some reason, that is never our reality despite the fact that we are (I would say) an otherwise very loving couple.

To truly and fairly explain the dynamic, I think I'd have to admit a lot more about myself than I am willing to admit right now. Like the fact that I am too sensitive, or that I am too uptight, or that I am still trying to learn to enjoy the process of cooking as much as I enjoy the product. But let's not talk about that stuff today. Let's just say Eric and I are still trying to work out the dynamics of our kitchen relationship.

Getting nice & crisp!

I can think of a million other things this salsa would be good with. Including substituting a bacon vinaigrette for the dressing in this recipe (ooooh, so bad.)

Thankfully, Eric put up with my shenanigans long enough to help me by preparing the salsa and keeping me calm when I thought I'd ruined my Corn Cakes. And, as usual, we followed the recipe with the exception of adding:

(you guessed it!) 1 jalapeno, diced to the Corn Cakes.

My plating technique could certainly use some improvement.

The first thing we tasted when we sat down to eat were bites of the cakes. Delicious. Then we took bites of the salsa. Equally delicious. THEN we tried the two together (as I'm sure was intended by the deities of all things edible). The sweetness of the corn with the creaminess of the avocados with the spiciness of the jalapenos was truly heavenly. It was a satisfying, light, and delicious meal. A go-to delight for a meatless night.

Not your mama's stuffed peppers

2012-02-13T16:02:00.000-06:00

Actually, I only remember eating stuffed peppers a handful of times as a child. And my memories of those times neither strike me as amazing nor traumatic. I do remember the peppers that were stuffed were typically green. This recipe called for sweet red bell peppers, which makes them, in fact, not my mamma's stuffed peppers.

Eric, his coworkers (aka our friends), and I started a tradition that we fondly refer to as, "family dinner night." One night each week, one of us takes on the responsibility of preparing a meal and hosting dinner in our homes. It is a fun way to try different kinds of (usually healthy) food and to spend time together without having to eat at one of the greasy spoons or cantinas in town.

It was my turn last week so I decided to try out a recipe for Turkey Stuffed Peppers that I'd found on skinnytaste.com (one of my favorite recipe spots). It was a wonderfully simple recipe. The hardest part was hollowing out the peppers.

I followed the recipe except that I accidentally forgot the rice. It probably would have been tasty had I remembered it, but honestly I didn't really miss it. In fact, I didn't even realize I had forgotten it until days later when I starting thinking about what to include in this entry. If you are trying to reduce the amount of carbohydrates you consume, omitting the rice did not seem to compromise the flavor of the dish. However, the one reason I would choose to include the rice in the future would be to soak up some of the juices. The peppers and meat mixture were just a tad on the juicy side and therefore a little messy to eat (with the pepper a slippin' and a slidin' around the plate and whatnot). The rice probably would have helped with that...

And of course, it wouldn't be a meal in my house if I hadn't tried to spice it up. I augmented the recipe by adding:

1 jalapeno, diced
1 Serrano pepper, diced

I'm guessing the peppers I used were not too hot themselves. The addition of them to the dish gave the meat a little heat, but did not make it overwhelmingly spicy. Sometimes ya get a hot jalapeno, sometimes ya don't. Except when you are at Subway. The jalapenos at Subway are always hot. Without fail.

I served the stuffed peppers with a huge garden salad. We also shredded some lovely & creamy cheddar cheese (brought to us straight from cheese country, Wisconsin, by Sarah) to put on top of the peppers right after they came out of the oven. Unfortunately, our friend the cow had to meet his end in order for us to have it.

This picture is not for the faint of heart. Viewer discretion is advised.

And now for a note on impatience...

I am the type of person who will try to carry all of my grocery bags in on the first trip, despite evidence that points to this being neither an efficient nor effective way to conduct business. Just last week, I busted my lip on something that fell off the top of the pile I was trying to balance as I simultaneously fumbled with the keys in an attempt to unlock the door. The week before, I dropped my fruit, which is known to bruise easily, and it bruised.

And because it seems I was unable to learn from those experiences, I also decided to attempt to carry all of the recyclables (that I collect throughout the week) from the kitchen to the garage in one trip.

This is what happens when you try to cut corners:

Thank goodness cutting out that extra trip from the kitchen to the garage saved me the time I needed to clean up that mess!

Slow down, Ninoosh, slow down.

Cooking Isn't Baking

2012-02-10T16:19:00.000-06:00

These were the words spoken to me by Eric during the middle of the meltdown I had at the stove while making dinner the other night. Words by which, of course, I was immediately infuriated. I felt entitled to my meltdown. I had a plan and it was not panning out. Hence, meltdown.

It wasn't over anything big either. I was making lightened up creamy Cajun chicken pasta (you know you want to try it...). I was anxiously anticipating the first bite of this meal as the words "creamy" and "pasta" and "spicy" generally cause me to salivate like Pavlov's dog. I was sticking to the recipe with one, okay two exceptions.

Garlic. The first thing I do with most recipes is look at how much garlic it calls for and then add a clove; granted, sometimes a small one, but a clove nonetheless. No one has complained about my cooking and I can neither confirm nor deny complaints about my breath.

Spinach. I wanted to add a whole heap of fresh spinach. I pulled my bouquet of spinach out of the refrigerator, rinsed it, and thought twice. It sure looked like a lot of spinach...

Well, in came Eric, right at that moment, so I asked him, "Eric, do you think this seems like too much spinach?"

"No, it will cook down, " he replied.

And I knew he was right. I have been amazed by the serious reduction in volume of spinach that occurs when it is heated every time I've cooked with it. I stood aside as Eric plopped the spinach into the skillet. It completely overwhelmed the dish and my coping skills. (Note: I wish I had the wherewithal to take a picture of the spinach pouring out over our over-sized French skillet, but I was too distraught. I'm not saying it would have justified my behavior, but there was so much of it, Eric even looked a little concerned).

"Damn it! I knew it was too much spinach. There is more spinach that anything else now and it is never going to cook down enough! And do you see all that water it's adding to the sauce?" I ~~shouted~~ exclaimed.

"Ninoosh, cooking isn't baking, if you want things to be so precise, you should really consider being a baker," was his response.

Of course I got angry and responded with a few statements of my own. I paced and wrung my hands and tried to come to peace with the fact that my highly anticipated meal may be ruined AND that Eric might be right. Two realities which were just too much to bear.

A few minutes passed. I heard Eric say, "there." I looked over and the spinach had all but disappeared into the sauce. Small little leaves floating amongst the shallots and tomatoes."Wow, that looks great, but the sauce still looks watery," I said. And then I had a real, chef-like response to the predicament. "I know, I'll add a little more cream, tomatoes, and seasoning."

Harmless looking spinach.

Ding! It worked! Making more sauce is a great (albeit obvious) way to solve the problem of more volume than sauce. This is why cooking is not baking. And thank goodness it's not.

We put in an additional:

1 tablespoon of cream
2 tablespoons of diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning

We let the sauce simmer for a bit longer so that the water could cook off and the flavors could mingle and meld. We served. It was scrumptulescent.

Bon Appétit

Culinary Flop

2012-02-10T13:50:00.000-06:00

When I said I planned to share my culinary successes and failures with the world, I hoped to have a few more successes under the proverbial belt before having to talk about failure. Unfortunately, that was not meant to be. Today I experienced an epic and public banana treat failure.

This afternoon there was a pot-luck luncheon at Eric's office. I was invited to hang out with the JAGernauts and the rest of the crew to celebrate and and say thank you to one of Eric's coworkers who is leaving the legal office. An invitation to a pot luck used to be intimidating, but over the past couple of months, I've felt a little more confident about my ability to prepare decent eats. Thus, for this particular shin-dig, I decided to experiment.

I recently found a recipe for PB 'Nana Cream Bites, which are slices of banana with a schmear of peanut butter on top, dipped in chocolate AND THEN frozen. Delicious. I have indulged in frozen, chocolate-covered bananas in the past and loved them. The addition of peanut butter could do nothing less than elevate these treats from the delicious to the divine. The recipe sounded easy enough, which I was excited about. My plan was to assemble the bites after dinner and stick them in the freezer overnight. And maybe sneak a few chocolate chips along the way, too. I grabbed my ingredients and got to work. As I spread the little dollop of peanut butter onto each banana slice, a memory from childhood came to me.

When my sister and I were little, we had a Minnie & Me cookbook that we loved to experiment with (and I said I had no training). One morning, we really wanted to surprise our parents with breakfast, but we weren't allowed to make any of the recipes that required use of the oven without parent supervision. We thought we'd struck gold when we found the one breakfast-appropriate recipe that was no-bake, no-fry, no-boil. Peanut Butter Balls! Essentially, it was a recipe that called for peanut butter and raisins to be mixed together, formed into little balls, and rolled in dry oatmeal flakes (or at least that's how I remember it). Sounds delicious, right?

We worked hard and we worked fast and we completed our task before our parents woke up. When they walked downstairs into the kitchen, they were surprised to find the peanut butter.....smeared all over the cabinets, counter tops, sink, faucet, floor, our faces, the silverware, you name it. You name it, it had peanut butter on it. They were a good mom & dad, though, because they simply smiled and said, "Oh, thank you so much" and picked up the balls for a taste.

They even went on to rave about how delicious they were, which couldn't have possibly been true. And even if it was true, would you have been able to enjoy balls of peanut butter that you knew had been rolling around in the gooey, grubby hands of little children? Like I said, they were really good parents.

I chucked to myself as I thought about that day because by the time I finished dolloping the peanut butter on my bananas, my kitchen looked pretty peanut butter-coated itself. Either peanut butter is eternally messy or this kid never learned to be a tidy chef. My guess is its a combination of both.

Chocolate too thin on left; chocolate thickened on right, but not enough

I finished with the peanut butter and out came the chocolate...talk about mess! The recipe called for a half cup of chocolate chips to be mixed with a quarter cup of milk and then microwaved. I did just that, dipped two banana bites and could see (clearly) that the consistency wasn't right. I added more chips, which thickened it up, but it probably could and should have been even thicker. That stuff was dribbling and drizzling all over the place. AND it stuck to practically everything except the bananas! It took quite a bit of time and patience, but I am ~~willing~~ pleased to report that the 'nanners were nestled in the freezer less than two hours after the whole ordeal started (hey now, I made three bananas worth of treats even though the recipe only called for two...and that means I averaged 1.5 bananas and hour).

I had chocolate left over so I drizzled it on top hoping to thicken up the chocolate coating.

They sat in the freezer from about 11pm to 9am. How did they turn out? Well, the chocolate never completely froze. Even by morning, it was still gooey. I think next time (yes, there will be a next time) I will omit the milk all together (or use a higher fat milk). I've made chocolate bark from chocolate chips in the past and have never had a problem getting the melted chips to freeze. In a last-ditch effort to save the treats, I transferred the bites to a ceramic tray (hoping the chilled tray would help) and put them back in the freezer until it was time to leave for the pot luck.

At the beginning of the potluck, the bananas tasted great despite the fact they were a little melty, a little messy, and a lot ugly. However, within only about 10 minutes of being out of the freezer, the bananas started to turn from frozen to mush, too. Disaster. I ended up having to serve them with toothpicks. Even with toothpicks, it was hard to get the bites from the tray to the plate. Most people opted just to go straight from tray to mouth. Right there at the buffet table. The flavor was still pretty good, but the texture was one hundred percent wrong.

I was ever-so-slightly embarrassed and it may be a while before I experiment with new recipes for pot lucks again. But I will try this recipe again. Sans milk. I am determined to make this one work! Stay tuned.

And you know what? Perfection is overrated, anyway.

What's for dinner?

2012-02-09T14:10:00.000-06:00

The age old question that all house-persons ask themselves on a daily basis. I can recall my mom saying, "I don't mind cooking, I mind having to come up with the idea of what to cook every night." Now that dinner is primarily my responsibility, I can certainly relate to that sentiment. Though, I feel we modern chefs de cuisine of the home have an advantage over those of the past. We have the internet. And Pinterest. And did I mention Pinterest?

Pinterest has catapulted my blossoming interest in cooking into a full on love affair. Each day I discover new recipes and new fabulous food blogs, which I will keep a running list of here.

I've already tried and experimented with many of the recipes I've "pinned." It has been an awesome way to increase my cooking repertoire and a great resource for the times I've come across a new ingredient that I am not sure how to use. Oh, and Eric seems to be enjoying this new hobby of mine as well. Can you believe it? Someone actually excited to eat my cooking! Before recently, I had a little trouble imagining this possibility.

So, what's cooking? Well, last night it was Thai Pork & Noodle Soup. A Real Simple recipe that I found through another "pinner." It was a quick meal; perfect for a cold winter's night.

Few things smell better on the stove than these two. Except maybe bacon.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe with a few exceptions.

Ginger. I did not have fresh or ground ginger so I omitted.

Mushrooms. I did not have shiitake mushrooms, but I did have these dehydrated mushrooms that we had picked up at the local Thai store (be still my beating heart, Altus has a Thai store!). Now, do I know what to do with dehydrated mushrooms? Not really. Did I opt to turn to Google for advice? That would be a negative. I decided to re-hydrate them in the broth itself. Even after cooking for a good 30 minutes in the broth, they still had a chewy consistency. I didn't mind the consistency, but curiosity lead me to seek answers regarding the re-hydration of 'shrooms.

Dehydrated Shrooms, the package did not come with instructions (that I could read).

Oops! According to Mississippi Natural Products Association, a rural farmers' cooperative, you should first rinse mushrooms as thoroughly as possible and then let them soak for SIX HOURS in clean water. Oh well, you live (you hope), you learn.

Mushrooms taking a re-hydrating bath, turned out it was too much of a quickie!

Chili Peppers. Because Eric and I cannot truly enjoy a meal unless it is painfully spicy, I snipped Thai chilies into the boiling broth. We also garnished with sliced chili peppers of the Serrano variety.

Thai chilies. Most people use with caution, we use with reckless abandon.

Pho noodles. I used these in substitution of wonton wrappers; these should probably be added about three minutes before you are ready to serve.

Pho Noodles

How did it turn out? It was delicious! But it would be wrong to pretend the changes I made to the recipe didn't affect the final product. The substitution of the noodles (in the amount that I used) made the end-result more of a Ragu than a soup. I also probably let the noodles cook a tad too long as they were a little on the mushy side. And then there was the mushroom lesson...

Because of our personal preferences, next time I will also snip a few more Thai chilies into the mix. The "soup" had decent spice, but produced no tears. In that sense, it missed the mark. All that aside, I have to say it was quite delicious and very satisfying.

Looks healthy & fresh, but clearly not much soupage going on here!

If you are a fan of Asian flavors or if one night you just can't seem to find an answer to, "What's for dinner?" I'd definitely recommend giving this recipe a try! In fact, I plan to give it another try because I believe there is room for improvement and I know Eric won't mind going through a second (third, fourth, etc.) round of taste-testing.