MMMMMM FOOD.....

WAKE UP! Breakfast

2010-09-22T19:00:00.000-04:00

My breakfast tomorrow morning compliments of the sample of Ellie's Krieger's cookbook "So Easy:Luscious Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week" that I just downloaded onto my new Kindle. :)

Mocha Java Smoothie

1 Tbl sugar
2 tsp instant espresso
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/4 c boiling water
2 c milk
2 frozen bananas
1 c ice

Combine sugar, espresso, water and cocoa powder.
Combine coffee mixture with everything else and blend in blender on high until smooth.

I bet this will wake me up! :)

An applicance-heavy meal

2010-08-18T19:00:00.000-04:00

We had tacos last night, and I couldn't believe how many kitchen appliances/gadgets I used to make one meal.

Pressure Cooker
I wanted to make refried beans. The recipe I use calls for 9 cups of pinto beans and takes about 3 hours. I didn't get home until 6:30pm. I couldn't wait 3 hours. In the pressure cooker, it took about 1 hour. I suppose this also includes the use of my stove, but that's a given.

Hand Blender
Once the refried beans were finished cooking, I used my hand blender to create the pureed with chunks texture it needs without transferring batches to the blender...or using a potato masher (that, funny enough, I don't even own).

Blender
I made Alton Brown's chili powder for use in the refried beans and to season the chopped beef. His recipe calls for chilies toasted with cumin, mixed with other spices, and powered in a blender. Also, I needed 1/8 c salt for my refried beans and only had corse sea salt on hand, so I used my blender to make my corse salt not corse.

Food Processor
I made Pioneer Woman's resturant style salsa to go with the tacos. I calls for dumping things in the food process and turning it on. It's easy and awesome! I haven't bought canned salsa since I first tried this recipe....for our LOST season finale party, I think.

I wish I could say that I used my salad spinner to wash the lettace, but I got it out of a bag....prewashed. :)

Ice Cream Maker
We had raspberry, vanilla ice cream with dark chocolate chips for dessert.

This applicance use seems to be a little much for one meal. But at least they aren't going to waste. And now I have 5 quarts of refried beans in my freezer for the next taco extraveganza (which, coincidentally, we don't have very often).

Do you have any kitchen appliances you just can't do without? Or any you really, really want?

Food

2010-08-16T18:30:00.000-04:00

I self medicate with food. When I'm bored at work and I can't bear to work on another mindless/overwhelming/difficult project, it's hot chocolate to the rescue. When I'm having a bad day it's lunch out. When Mark is gone for the weekend or the evening, it's my favorite food that he doesn't like. It's not always unhealthy food...but it's always food.

No wonder I can run 14 miles but can't seem to lose a single pound.

Shrimp Scampi

2010-06-27T19:00:00.000-04:00

My mother-in-law was recently diagnosed gluten intolerant. Whenever she gets down about the things she can't eat, Mark reminds her that now she's forced to eat steak and crab legs instead of some lame pasta with a few specks of crab-like substance in it. :)

And he's right. This week I needed to make something for Mark's parents last minute. The two meals I had planned and had on hand were pizza with peppers, onions, and sausages and shrimp scampi. Shrimp scampi it is! :)

The recipe I used is another from Ellie Krieger. Her recipe doesn't use any butter (olive oil instead), and it includes artichoke hearts. It's not a classic shrimp scampi, but it was really good. And my mother-in-law who LOVES butter said she didn't miss it at all. Ellie, you are a genius.

(Not that I have anything against butter. But, you know, recipes that include whole sticks of butter should just maybe be a special treat rather than an every-day occurance.)

Buying this healthier food cookbook is growing on Mark (not that I need his permission). So far he's really liked everything....which is awesome cause he loves his comfort food. :)

Blueberry coffee cake

2010-06-25T19:00:00.001-04:00

I've been eating cottage cheese with canned diced peaches for breakfast as much as possible. I know, shockingly healthy. But I love it, and I look forward to it every day. The problem is that it always leaves me a little bit unsatisfied and hungry again at approximately 10:15.

In an effort to fill the void, I tried Ellie Krieger's much healthier version of a blueberry coffee cake. She uses a little butter (2 Tbsp) and the same amount of canola oil instead of sticks and sticks of butter and yogurt instead of sour cream. She also swaps out half of the white flour for whole wheat flour.

I had pretty high expectations of this coffee cake since all the reviews said it was amazing and since Ellie grinned so much in the video (I haven't gotten over how annoying that grin can be. she's so....happy all the time!). And it did not disappoint. It was so good! I cut it into 16 pieces like she recommended, and one little square really does fill by breakfast void. Plus, even on day 3 (today), it is still moist. I'm not really sure how that happens without all of the fat/oil...but it happened.

Oh! And Mark, who complains when I put whole wheat flour in anything, though it tasted great and not "healthy." :) Bonus!

I highly recommend this coffee cake. It's part of a healthy breakfast that you can look forward to. Ellie comes through again!

P.S. After day 3 I froze the rest of the coffee cake in individually wrapped squares. I've been eating them out of the freezer ever since. I just thaw them for 20 sec in the microwave after I get to work. They defrost very nicely.

Curry Chicken Salad

2010-06-24T19:00:00.000-04:00

I've been trying Ellie Krieger's recipes this week to determine if I should buy her cookbook. If you think that kind of thorough research sounds very unlike me, you'd be right. You can thank my patient and thorough husband or my lack of desire to go to the store for the fact that I don't have it yet.

Anyway, the first recipe I tried was her curried chicken salad, and I enjoyed it immensely. It does taste "lighter"...as in not as heavy...thanks to the yogurt (I'm thinking greek yogurt would make a big difference) and it had a great flavor. Even Mark really liked it (yeah, I'm ditching the lame sexy husband thing...you all know how he is). Even though I usually don't make changes to a recipe the first time I try it...or really ever...I did make 2 changes. First, I used walnuts instead of almonds because Mark doesn't prefer to eat almonds. Second, I used craisins instead of grapes because Giant Eagle seemed to be out of grapes.

If you're like me and you totally love chicken salad but can't justify all of that mayo on a regular basis, I highly recommend that you give this recipe a try.

Was it the best thing, or even the best chicken salad, I've ever eaten? No. But I really did like it a lot.

Ice cream update

2010-06-15T18:30:00.000-04:00

So I tried the ice cream, and I'm back to give you the update.

Sweetened condensed milk does make fantastic ice cream, but not the way I posted previously. If you use the previous recipe, which includes only 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup whipping cream, and 1 tsp vanilla, your ice cream will be incredibly rich and creamy....and way too sweet for us. After having tried that recipe for vanilla and mint chocolate chip with andies mints, I did a little more research. I discovered that most online recipes recommend something closer to a 3-1 or 4-1 ratio of whipping cream/milk to sweetened condensed milk. Unfortuately, the increased whipping cream/milk requires an ice cream maker, so I went down to the basement and dug mine out.

I have now made ice cream twice with this new ratio in mind. I use a 4 cup pyrex bowl, start with the sweetened condensed milk, and then add my other ingredients...whatever whipping cream I have on hand topped off with milk or, as was the case last night, pureed stawberries. Adding 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of salt also keeps the ice cream from freezing into a solid block.

It's still a super-easy process that doesn't require cooking or eggs. But, alas, you'll have to invest in an ice cream maker to give it a try......

And I highly recommend giving it a try.

Homemade powdered vegetable stock

2010-06-09T18:00:00.000-04:00

Could it really be this easy?

Please try and let me know. :)

A second new food crush

2010-06-04T19:30:00.001-04:00

My second new food celebrity crush is Ellie Krieger. She's a registered dietition who specializes in nutrition and health communications, and she has a show on the foodnetwork.

Truthfully, I haven't tried many of her recipes either, but I went through a brief spell where I was obsessed with watching her little videos online. Her approach to food seems really balanced. She doesn't use anything artificial to lower the fat and calories in her food. Rather, she uses whole-food tricks to moderate the amount of high fat/calorie ingredients like butter (moderate, not remove). She also uses whole wheat flour most of the time but includes white flour when it really is necessary. Like I said, I haven't made many of her recipes, but her online videos make me believe that she really knows what she's doing when she makes these substitutions, that she doesn't substitute when flavor/texture of the food would suffer from the substitution, and that her food tastes at least almost as great as the original.

Ellie also does a lot of advocating for portion control....which I can't really get on board with (which is precisely why most of my college clothes don't really fit). However, cutting fat and calories and increasing the nutritional value of my food seems like a good idea even if I do continue to fill my plate....twice. ;)

So far I've made both of her energy bars. Excellent. I keep them in the freezer and eat one for breakfast and one for a mid afternoon snack.

Up next....rustic apple pie with dried cherries and dark chocolate brownies.

...and maybe her cookbook. We'll see.

A new food-crush

2010-06-01T18:11:00.000-04:00

I have several new food "celebrity" crushes.

The first I'd like to share with you is Ree Drummond, aka the pioneer woman. She is a fascinating woman with a really fun, random voice. And, by all appearances, she makes really, really good food. Not pretentious food, but good, tasty food.

I've tried two of her recipes so far. Both were fantastic.

The first was cinnamon toast. Amazing. Gooey and caramelized and wonderful. Definitely the right way to make cinnamon toast.

The second was restaurant style salsa. I loved this recipe. It uses canned tomatoes. It requires no chopping (the food processor does all the work), and yet it tastes fresh and bright. Ree is right, I may never buy jarred salsa again (well...I won't want to anyway). I highly recommend trying it.

I think my next step may be buying her cookbook.

I have to warn you though, Ree's recipes feed a crowd, and they don't really shoot for "healthy" or "low fat." Her family must get really hungry working on the ranch. :)

Sweetened Condensed Milk and Homemade Ice Cream

2010-05-27T18:00:00.001-04:00

I go through these phases. Sometimes I really want to write about food and share exciting recipes with someone, anyone. Sometimes writing feels like work...especially when it involves a computer screen and a keyboard and requires uploading pictures from my camera.

But right now I have so many recipes and ideas swimming through my head that I simply must share them....even if I'm only doing it for myself.

So...as long as this phases lasts, I'm back.

A while ago I read this article in the New York Times about sweetened condensed milk. For some perhaps odd reason I found the article inspiring. I really like the idea of using lowly ingredients to make really, really good food.

Take that, food snobs! (Nevermind that the idea came from the New York Times.)

Anyway, apparently you can use it to make homemade ice cream without a ice cream maker. Even though I have an ice cream maker, I really, really want to try it. It just seems like it would be incredibly rich and creamy and not at all grainy and thin.

What do you think? Are you up for it? It is, after all, like 90 degrees outside.

When the refrigerator is nearly empty

2009-11-24T18:51:00.000-05:00

We ate hot dogs last night. That's right. We bought them by request for a tailgate party this weekend (I'm pretty sure it was the first and only time I've bought hot dogs...wait...maybe there was one other time...). There was so much better food at the tailgate that we didn't even put them on the grill. When we got home, I froze three packages and left one out.

I haven't been general grocery shopping in three weeks...so hot dogs were a good solution for last night's dinner. But what to make for a vegetable? Frozen? Nope. I don't have any. Carrots. Nope. Gone. The only veggies I had were 3/4 of a red cabbage, some tomatoes, and half an onion.

Using some, but not all, of those ingredients and some other stuff I happened to have on hand, I made a totally awesome slaw that I highly recommend. Thanks, Rachel Ray.

In a medium bowl, combine the juice of 2 limes, 1/4 c honey, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 2 tablespoons hot sauce. I know it sounds like a crazy amount of hot sauce, but I promise, it won't even be spicy. Whisk to combine. Add 1 small head red cabbage, shredded, and half of a red onion, sliced. Toss to coat. Enjoy tremendously!

Again, a cell phone picture. I hope I'm getting a camera for Christmas. :(

Now...what to make tonight....

The view

2009-11-24T18:07:00.001-05:00

The view from my office window...one of the best things about coming to work, outside of the people here. I love Columbus.

Yarn on the cheap and green

2009-11-20T18:36:00.000-05:00

Reclaiming yarn from thrift shore sweaters is a fantastic idea!

I already bought my Goodwill sweater, and I'm ready to go! I even have the pattern for the sweater I'm going to make with it. Now I just need some time.

I'm a cooking fiend

2009-11-20T18:00:00.000-05:00

Last night I got home from work at 6:15pm.

Around 7:15 a friend came over, and I made dinner. Lamb meatballs over rosemary-honey polenta with caramelized onion tomato sauce. It was quite spectacular. This picture is from my new phone...which has 3 mega pixel camera...and um...I need to work on the pictures....but I guess you sorta get the idea.

After dinner I cleaned up, made a shopping list, and went to the grocery store. I had to buy a bunch of stuff for our tailgate party in Ann Arbor this weekend. I got to the store around 8:45 pm. By 11:30 pm, I had finished my shopping and made 4 dips (white bean cilantro dip, caramelized onion dip, fresh chipotle salsa, and the makings of guacamole minus the avocados...which I will add later), 21 large cornbread muffins, and 48 tiny cornbread muffins.

I'm thinking that I'm pretty amazing. Hopefully I can get my camera to work better this weekend. Then I can share pictures of all the wonderful tailgate food!

Game-day food is the best part of football season!

Beads

2009-11-19T18:30:00.000-05:00

Check out the detail on these homemade lampwork beads. They are amazing!

Slippers

2009-10-31T12:23:00.001-04:00

These slippers are just too irresistible.

I'm going to buy the pattern as soon as I have money. :) I'll have to buy a camera too so I can post pictures of them when I finish them. ;)

Does anyone know how to make the rubbery sole lines in the picture?

Butternut squash

2009-10-30T18:00:00.002-04:00

This soup made me realize how butternut squash got it's name. The recipe uses the squash as a thin-ish pureed base for rice, corn and sausage. It's amazing, so buttery and warm and hearty without being thick. It's a butternut squash revelation.

I only wish I didn't take it to my sexy husband's family's house for dinner. Of course they loved it, but there were no leftovers. :(

(The picture is from the recipe at foodnetwork.com. My camera is still lost.)

Pumpkin everything

2009-10-29T18:00:00.002-04:00

Our fall office bake sale was today.

Fall bake sales are the best.

I got a pumpkin cream cheese cupcake, "frosted" with nutmeg cool whip (a revelation) and a piece of cranberry coffee cake and a piece of pumpkin cheesecake.

...A good morning...with a fantastic "breakfast." :)

P.S. The pumpkin cupcake was particularly wonderful....and I got the recipe!

Is there a category for the most awful food idea ever?

2009-10-06T19:14:00.001-04:00

Paula Dean's "brunch burger." This is real, guys. The recipe is available on foodnetwork.com. In case you don't want to take the time to look it up yourself, I provided a link. :) AND it's just a variation on the also-real luther burger.

Does this even look good to anyone?

It just might work again

2009-10-05T18:55:00.000-04:00

I seem to remember that I was in a cooking slump last year about this time, and winter squash and sausage brought me out of my stupor.

I'm thinking that just might work again this year. :)

We went apple picking yesterday. I bought a HUGE amount of apples. So this week I'm going to be making apple pies and crisps and muffins and cakes and sauce for freezing and using throughout the year.

Mmmm....apple pie.

Sweet Potato Salad

2009-09-30T18:51:00.000-04:00

Oh man. This looks awesome...and I'm going to make it this week, but I won't be able to take a picture of my creation (I lost my camera a couple of months ago...can't find it anywhere). So this is the best you'll get.

I highly recommend that you try it too. Sweet potatoes go so well with black beans and southwestern flavors.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad With Black Beans and Chili Dressing
Mark Bittman, New York Times.
Check out the video here.

4 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large onion, preferably red, chopped
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons minced fresh hot chili, like jalapeño
1 clove garlic, peeled
Juice of 2 limes
2 cups cooked black beans, drained (canned are fine)
1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro.

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put sweet potatoes and onions on a large baking sheet, drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil, toss to coat and spread out in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast, turning occasionally, until potatoes begin to brown on corners and are just tender inside, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven; keep on pan until ready to mix with dressing.
2. Put chilies in a blender or mini food processor along with garlic, lime juice, remaining olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Process until blended.
3. Put warm vegetables in a large bowl with beans and bell pepper; toss with dressing and cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve warm or at room temperature, or refrigerate for up to a day.

Yield: 4 servings.

Bento boxes

2009-09-09T06:54:00.000-04:00

I'm so tempted to start packing lunches in Bento boxes.

Check out this NY Times article.

Earrings

2009-09-08T19:28:00.000-04:00

This etsy shop is incredible!

I love every last pair of earrings she makes...and the necklaces too.

I'm going to start wearing earrings, and I'm going to make them.

The stuff that inspires me.

2009-08-27T18:00:00.000-04:00

Here's the problem. I'm totally fickle. Sometimes I'm totally inspired by food. But not always. Sometimes I'm inspired by other things like my new running program, or knitting, or sewing, or decorating, or entertaining, or whatever the next new thing happens to be. I just like to be excited about something. :)

If this blog is going to work, it has to be about all of the stuff that inspires me. So I'm changing the concept. It's still a break from the dailyness...it's just all of them...

Enjoy.

101 Salads

2009-07-23T19:29:00.000-04:00

This listing of salad ideas really could provide variety for the rest of the summer.

101 Simple Salads for the Season

Thanks, Mark Bittman. You are my hero.

Leaf lettace salads

2009-07-16T21:45:00.003-04:00

What are your favorite toppings for a basic, leaf lettace salad?

Here are some of mine:

Red cabbage
Peas
Tomatoes
Beans
Nuts (walnuts, sunflower seeds, etc.)
Raisins
Homemade Croutons
Homemade pita chips
Interesting cheese (like asiago, blue, feta, or goats cheese)
Mixed fresh herbs
Red or green onions

The best snack ever.

2009-07-14T20:36:00.004-04:00

Relatively healthy.

Cheap.

Delicious.

Popcorn.

And not that nasty microwave stuff...or the cardboard ubber-healthy air popped stuff.

Real popcorn.

1/3 c popcorn

3 Tbsp oil or melted butter

Salt to taste.

In your largest pot (unless you have stock pot, don't use that) combine butter/oil with popcorn and place on medium high heat (if you're using butter keep it closer to medium). Cover loosely and shake periodically. Once the popcorn starts popping (a couple of minutes), shake more often. When the popping slows, quickly transfer to popcorn bowl and salt as desired (keeping in mind that the last half of the popcorn is always more salty than the first).

Devour.

I admit it.

2009-07-13T18:57:00.005-04:00

Okay, I admit it.

It isn't really my eating habits that have gotten me to this place. My eating habits aren't really that bad, and a 30 day raw food challenge won't help them or whip me into shape. Last time I did the 30 day raw food challenge, I lost 8 pounds in one month (my true motivation) and promptly gained it back because I was so sick of salads.

No, I need a much longer challenge than that...and it needs to involve some form of fitness.

So...today I completed my first run on this training schedule that will culminate in my completion of a 5k October 24. The goal is to then start this training schedule that will culminate in my completion of the Columbus Marathon in August of next year.

A full year challenge. That's what I need.

______________________________________________

By the way, if you've ever even considered tackling a challenge like this one I highly recommend giving Jeff Galloway's walk-break theory a read. Combined with his totally doable marathon training schedule which has only one long run per week (the other two runs are only 30 min), his walk-break theory has me believing that I can do this...and so can you...and pretty much anyone else who is healthy and willing to commit to it.

I'm excited. And surprisingly, my first run did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm.

So yeah, salads are good. I should eat more of them and post more of them on here. But fitness is the not-so-quick fix I really need.

Summer

2009-06-28T18:00:00.000-04:00

I haven't written in a long time. I have no good excuse this time. I just didn't want to.
________________________________________

It's time to whip myself into shape.

For the month January of 2008 I put myself on a modified raw food diet...a 30 day challenge of sorts. Everything I ate for 30 days (minus 5 cheating meals I allowed up front) was raw with the exception of hummus. My diet consisted of raw fruits and veggies, fresh carrot juice, and raw nuts. It was a really good experience. I ate as much as I wanted (I'm not good at moderation). My appetite decreased. I felt really good. And I lost 8 pounds.

It's time to try that again. Based upon my experience last time, I'm going to make a couple of changes to my modified raw food diet.

First, for dinner I'm going to allow myself to eat any salad, within reason, that doesn't have a creamy dressing. That will include salads with beans, hard-boiled eggs, and even wheat products like bulgar and noodles (though I might draw the line at bread salads...we'll see). This should dramatically increase the variety in my diet and make it easier for my sexy husband to eat with me. (Last time I actually cooked him full separate meals. This time I'll just grill him a supplemental piece of chicken or make him some mac and cheese or something.)

And second, I'm not going to be quite as legalistic this time. The purists of the raw food community would scoff and say that I'm ruining the whole thing, but I'm not going to worry about whether my nuts have been roasted or not. I like roasted nuts.

Anyone up for the challenge? Mine will start Sunday, July 5.

Oh! And since I'm going to be eating a lot of salads, I'd appreciate any suggestions you wish to share.

Ribolita

2009-05-18T21:58:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite soups, Ribollita, served with homemade croutons and asiago cheese.

Homemade croutons are a great way to use stale homemade bread. Just cut the bread in cubes drizzle with olive oil (I like to warm the oil on the stovetop with a garlic clove first) and dust with salt. Then broil until nicely browned. Mmmm.

You can add herbs, but I didn't want the flavor of the croutons to compete with the flavor of the soup.

Light wheat bread

2009-05-12T19:00:00.002-04:00

This week...or really last week...I mixed up some light whole wheat bread from Artisan Breads in 5 min a Day. I had every intention of starting with bread, just regular bread, but I never got around to it.

I made pizza twice (once for us and once for the fam). I like to leave the classic pizza to the pizza places. I can't recreate that experience. So I make interesting pizza. This is my own special bruschetta pizza with Ricotta cheese (the cheese serves as a sauce of sorts), and it is definitely worth a try. It's hearty because of the bread, but the toppings (which you don't cook) are light and full of fresh flavor...SO GOOD! The perfect summer balance.

Then, last night, I tried to make pita bread. According to the directions, the light wheat, rolled out really thin, should puff like a pita. Mine didn't (I'm going to have to try that again). But it made really yummy flat bread with random puffs, a crunchy crust, and a soft top.

I used the flat bread as a bun of sorts for kidney bean burgers, my favorite of the bean burgers. To make kidney bean burgers just give all of the following ingredients a whirl in the food processor: a can of kidney beans (drained), an egg, a small onion, whatever spices you want (I used fresh parsley, worchestershire sauce, chilli powder, and garlic powder), and enough binder to make the mixture the consistancy of a burger. You can use whatever binder you want: oatmeal, corn meal, bread crumbs, or whatever else you have on hand (I used matzo meal this time). Wala! Bean burgers.

....on still warm, fresh from the oven, flat bread.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread with Friends

2009-05-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

The book review--amended

2009-05-05T19:00:00.002-04:00

Last week I wanted to make bread to take to a friend's house. I made two loaves: the original NY times no knead bread and a cinnamon raisin swirl bread from Kneadlessly Simple (you know, the book I just recommended). And I have to tell you. I found them to be a pain.

The night before I wanted to bake I mixed up the cinnamon raisin bread and stuck it in the frig. The author recommends chilling the dough for 3-10 hours before you start the "first rise." In the morning, before work, I took it out of the frig and mixed up the other no knead bread. I left both out on the counter while I was at work. They needed to rise for at least 12 hours, so they weren't ready for the "second rise" until 8 pm. My sexy husband and I like to go to a coffee shop/open mic/charity thing every Thursday night, and waiting until 8 pm made us late (besides the fact that to ready the cinnamon bread for the second rise I had to mix in a bunch more ingredients and roll it out and roll it up...which took about 15-20 min). After arriving late, I had to leave early because I had bread on the counter rising, and the second rise was only 2 hours. Unfortunately, the two breads didn't bake at the same temperature. So I had to bake the cinnamon bread first and then wait for the oven to get hotter to bake the no knead bread. I think Nancy Baggett, the author if Kneadlessly Simple, is a big fan of steps because she made me bake the bread for 20-25 covered, 20-25 min uncovered, check to see if it's done...if you think it's done, bake 10 more minutes (because it probably wasn't really done). Geez! By the time I finished baking both breads it was midnight, and I still had to let them cool.

So....I really thought it would take me a while to determine which book I liked better: Artisan Breads in 5 min a day or Kneadlessly Simple. But although I still reserve the right to change my mind based upon flavor, Artisan Breads in 5 Min a Day has taken the early lead, a very big early lead, an almost insurmountable early lead. The bread recipes in both books are easy. However, the recipes in Artisan Breads are just so convenient.

With Artisan Breads I just mix, wait 2 hours and refrigerate. Then the bread dough is practically ready whenever I need it, no worries about changing my mind or having something come up. Besides that, last night I mixed up the light wheat bread (even mixing has less steps in this book), ate dinner, watched a little TV, and stuck it in the frig. Now, with that one recipe, I can make a round loaf, a pan loaf, a baguette, pizza, pita, and probably more stuff I can't think of right now....calzones? I don't even have to decide with any confidence what I want to eat for the next 2 weeks!

Easy is one thing. But for those of us who don't live on schedules, don't have a lot of time, or need to be flexible, you can't beat easy and convenient.

Bread--the book review

2009-04-30T06:00:00.002-04:00

So, if you've liked what you've read so far, I want to recommend 2 books:

Artisan Bread in 5 Min a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois is the source for the second kneadless bread method I recommended. This book is totally awesome!!! Not only does it offer a bunch of other uses for the master recipe published in the NY Times (white loaf bread, pizza, chiabatta bread, and even pita bread), but it also provides many other base recipes. Hertzberg and Francois offer a few of what I would call "comfort breads" like Soft American-style white bread, cinnamon-raisin bread, and pecan Carmel rolls. However, the focus of this book, as promised, is artisan breads. Wheat...white...shaped...sweet...I can't wait to try them all!

Kneadlessly simple by Nancy Baggett basically follows the first kneadless method I recommended. Baggett's method is a little different than the one published in the NY Times, but the idea is essentially the same. Her book has an extensive artisan section, but spends at least equal time on more homey breads like loaf pan loaves of oatmeal honey bread, English muffin loaves, "county fair" white bread, pull-apart butter-top rolls, cinnamon pinwheel raisin bread, and nutty or seedy wheat loaves. You should see this picture of her double chocolate-honey bread. She even has a few gluten-free loaves.

If I could only buy one of these books, which would it be? I'm not sure I can answer that question yet. I like both methods and both books. From where I sit now, I think that, for my lifestyle, the 5 min bread method might work out better for me because it's so incredibly flexible. I have some of the master recipe in my refrigerator now. I was supposed to bake bread Sunday and ended up eating fast food for lunch and dinner to fit a spontaneously busy schedule. Because the dough was safely in the refrigerator, I could easily postpone by bread-baking until Monday and then until Tuesday (because I had to work really late). The bread is ready when I am. That said, Baggett's recipes don't exactly require a lot of attention...just a little bit of reliable pre-planning. I might have to save my final word until after I try a few more recipes.

Maybe you could help me? Let me know if you buy the books. We can work together!

Bread--no knead method #2

2009-04-27T06:00:00.001-04:00

What can I say about this second method of kneadless bread making? I'm just so excited about it. Perhaps the writers among you will accept this analogy: There is always danger in talking about a paper or a story you're about to write. The danger is that in expressing it orally, you will lose the desire to express it in written form. And that's my problem. I'm so INCREDIBLY excited about this recipe that I've talked about nothing else for about 3 days straight. Now I'm not sure if I can write about it. I just want to make it and eat it and love it...oh, and I'm not tired of talking about it yet. :)

So I'll leave it to the NY Times to give you the specific recipe and I'll simply describe the method.

I'm so excited, I don't know where to begin....

Here's the idea: you mix up a lot of wet dough (enough to make approximately 4 small loaves...6 cups of flour's worth, if that gives you any idea) using a spoon or your hands or whatever. Then you leave it out to rise for 4 hours or so. Then you put it in the refrigerator. It will store for up to 2 weeks. Whenever you want AWESOME homemade bread (and I do mean awesome) you cut off a grapefruit sized piece, let it set for about 40 min and bake it. Perfection! That's it.

How does it compare to the other no knead recipe? I'm glad you asked. The crust is the same...very...crusty (though I learned that a "crackling crust" refers to the sound it makes when it comes out of the oven...like rice crispies only louder). The texture of the "crumb" is also the same (I also learned that the name for this texture is a "custard crumb"). The only real difference is that the flavor resembles sour dough a little bit more than the first recipe. When my sexy husband tried it, the first words out of his mouth were "oh, wow" --in a good way. Though, when pressed, he said he likes the first bread better because he doesn't prefer sour dough bread. I LOVE sour dough bread with an extra crusty crust. So this was all me.

Oh! And for those of you who, like my sexy husband, don't prefer sour dough bread: this was a REALLY mild sour dough taste that was almost neutralized by some butter or sandwich ingredients.

At the expense of the skin on one of his thumbs my sexy husband cut the top off the little loaf, then sliced it lenghwise for our sprout sandwiches on still-warm-from-the-oven homemade bread...with crusty crust on the whole bottom!

"Oh, wow!"

If you're at all interested in trying bread making, I HIGHLY recommend this method. It doesn't even require a covered pot this time. :)

Bread-- whole wheat

2009-04-22T18:00:00.003-04:00

Alright. Mrs. W. asked the question. And I knew she would ask. :) "Do you think this recipe would work with Whole Wheat flour?"

Every time I try to add whole wheat flour to bread or crackers or anything else, my sexy husband always wants to know why I want to mess with a good thing. However, if you're interested in making whole wheat no knead bread, I have 3 recommendations.

1) You could just try substituting some or all of the flour for whole wheat flour and let me know what you think. :) ...or check out the many blogs of other people who tried.

2) You could play around with Bittman's faster whole wheat no knead bread which makes a loaf instead of a round...or his regular whole wheat no knead bread.

3) Or if you are really into this concept, you could buy the following book, which should arrive at my door from Amazon.com on Saturday: Kneadlessly simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Breads. The author makes tons of different kinds of bread, including whole wheat, using this no-knead and lots of time formula.

Or...I suppose...you could wait around until I get my book, try a whole wheat bread, and recommend it to you...which might happen soon. :)

Bread--where it all began

2009-04-20T06:00:00.004-04:00

I'm no good at finding deals at the grocery store. I decide what I want to eat, make my list, and buy everything on it. I don't check to see what's on sale. And although I do look for the best price on a particular item, I don't track the prices between stores or remember how much it cost last week. But even I have noticed the incredible jump in the price of bread. When my sexy husband and I got married just 3 1/2 years ago, I could buy baguettes at Mejiers or Kroger for 99 cents. Shortly thereafter, the price went up, but I could still find them on sale for 99 cents routinely. I'm not sure when it happened, but those same baguettes are $2.50 or more now...and they aren't even THAT good.

So...I've decided to do a short (or maybe long...we'll see where this takes us) series on homemade bread. And I'm starting where it all began for me...No knead bread. Truthfully, I'm not really sure it can get better from here.

Let's face it. Bread is scary, but this bread is completely fool-proof. It doesn't even require special equipment. All you'll need is some flour, rapid rise yeast, salt, water, a bowl, and an oven-proof pot with a lid that can withstand temperatures of 450 degrees (and an oven, if you want to get technical). The pot doesn't have to be anything in particular. I've used my Corningware stoneware (similar to their current creations line) 3 quart covered casserole dish, and I've used my enamelled cast iron dutch oven (6 quart, I think).

The basic idea of this bread is that you are using very little yeast, a lot of time, and a lot of water to create a wonderful, crusty, soft, moist loaf.

I start my bread the night before I'm going to want to eat it. You may want to start it two nights before (that's the only draw back of the bread). In a large bowl, mix 3 c all-purpose flour, 1/4 tsp instant yeast, and 1 1/4 tsp salt. Then add 1 5/8 c water and mix thoroughly. Your dough will be very wet. It will not form the nice ball that you would expect if you have made bread before. Mine looked like this:

And then you wait. The recipe says to wait 12-18 hours. I just mix the bread up before I got to bed, and it's more than ready when I get home from work the next day. It should be covered with small bubbles like this:

Then lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Don't worry, mine wasn't pretty either. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. After it has "rested" the recipe says to use just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers and gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Mine did not shape into a ball...just a different blob. I'm not sure the towel is necessary, but the recipe then says to generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side (what seam?) down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. According to the recipe, when it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. I didn't check.

30 min before you're going to want to bake this shaggy loaf, heat oven to 450 degrees with your pot already in it. (The recipe recommends a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot...cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic.) "When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned." Cool on a rack.

And this is what you get: a crusty (they call it a "shattering crust") bread with a fantastic "crumb" that you can use for almost anything.

If I made it seem hard, check out the original recipe from the NY Times. I think they even have a video. Trust me, anyone can do this....and it's going to be the best loaf of bread you've ever had.

Easter weekend

2009-04-13T18:52:00.002-04:00

Even a kichen disaster couldn't ruin this weekend. The chance of having to work (maybe even on Easter Sunday) killed the plans we had to go out of town. And my sexy husband and I spent the whole weekend by ourselves. It was really nice.

Saturday night we watched a movie and ate smoked salmon pizza on a wonderful homemade crust.

And on Sunday we decided to go all out with our own fondue dinner. We had a cheese Fondue with Chorizo, homemade Foccacia bread, and blanched broccoli and asparagus.

And we had a regular hot oil fondue with bay scallops, lamb, and beer battered mushrooms and onions.

For dessert, we each picked a beautiful single serving dessert from Whole Foods (enter the coffee-making kitchen disaster). And, yes, we did have coffee with them.

The worst kitchen disaster ever!

2009-04-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, okay. It wasn't the worst kitchen disaster ever. There was no fire and no trip to the emergency room. I'll admit that no band-aids were needed either. I'll let you decide how bad it was the kitchen disaster scale, but I still can't laugh about it if that means anything....

Last night my sexy husband and I signed up for a Netflix account so we could watch a movie instantly over his xbox. The plan was to watch the movie while we ate these awesome desserts we got from Whole Foods the day before. I thought the desserts would go well with coffee, so I put some water on to boil while we searched for a decent movie to watch. It seemed like water was taking forever to boil (and I smelled hot metal...new stove?), so after a while I went to check on the water. I figured I'd grind the coffee beans while I waited for the water to finish up. In the kitchen, the hot metal smell was really strong, and the kettle on the back burner wasn't even steaming. Instead the front burner underneath my empty dutch oven was red-hot. "Crap!" Fearing that the pot would be fused to the burner, I picked it up immediately. It lifted easily. "Whew!" I tilted my head to look at the bottom of the pot, expecting to see some back char markings. Instead I saw a weak spot. "I ruined my pot!"...the pot in my hands ....that was getting hotter!

I called for my sexy husband to come...quickly. I had no place to set it down. He came, grabbed some pot holders, and took the pot from me. Disaster averted. I was distraught. I ruined my pot. I told him that the bottom was ruined. He tilted the pot to see....

...and hot, molten, liquid metal started pouring out of the bottom of the pot!

I have no idea how it happened...or how the liquid metal didn't land on one of us. But it didn't. It landed on the stove top, the handle of my new, beautiful oven, and all over the floor before we got the pot outside. When we came back in to survey the damage, we noticed that metal had been pouring into the stove before I even lifted the pot. There was a golf-ball sided piece of metal in the tray under the burner and a larger piece of metal under the tray.

The metal on this step stool is permanent.

The metal on the floor came off, leaving permanent black scorch-marks.

My sexy husband kept trying to tell me that this is just a little mark on my beautiful, new stove. "Maybe I could just put a towel over it."
That didn't really help.

The piece of metal under the drip tray.

This should give you a sense of scale.

Should this story have a moral? Don't leave empty pots on the stovetop? Don't turn on the wrong burner? Don't buy cheap sets of pots and pans from Target? I mean, who knew that you could liquefy your pots on a burner in less than the time that it takes in boil water?

I had nightmares last night. I dreamed that I liquefied my pot. Each time I woke up, I told myself that it was just a dream. It couldn't possibly happen. But it wasn't. And it did.

The best really bad steaks ever

2009-04-08T21:24:00.002-04:00

Last week I made the best really bad steaks ever. And they were really bad steaks. I bought them a while ago, buy-one-get-one-free at Giant Eagle. Then I froze them. The steaks had so much water in them that when I broiled them, my grill pan filled up with water. Um. boiled steaks. Besides that, they were so thin (and of questionable quality) that I couldn't cook them properly...with at least a little pink left inside.

These were not steaks that could stand on their own. Instead, I sliced them thin against the grain and served them with piles of caramelized onions and Gorgonzola sauce. Oh man. They were good.

For the caramelized onions, I used one softball sized onion (I could have used more) with a couple of tablespoons of butter and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, dried thyme, and a bay leaf. Then I cooked them on med-high heat until nicely browned and on medium heat until totally cooked down. It took about 20-30 min.

The Gorgonzola sauce was 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour to make a roue. Then I added 1/2 c chicken stock and 1/2 c milk (I used soy milk). After the mixture came to a boil and thickened up nicely, I added a bunch of Gorgonzola cheese. A bit of salt and a bit more pepper, and you're done.

Mmm...wonderful, nasty steaks.

Whew!

2009-04-01T18:00:00.000-04:00

It's been several weeks since I last posted in this blog, and I'm sure you're all wondering at least 3 things:

1. Where have I been?

I was sick for a whole week. When I returned to work I was totally overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to do and had to work many long days including a Sunday. When I was home I was either too tired to do anything (still recovering from my illness) or busy getting caught up on laundry and cleaning and all of those other wonderful household responsibilities.

2. What have I been cooking?

Nothing. When I was sick, I subsisted on Vitamin Water. When I got better I didn't have time to go shopping, let alone cook. In fact, I went out to eat 3 days in a row last week. That never happens.

3. How did my March breakfast challenge go?

Um...not so great. I found that, even for me, overly flavorful savory foods didn't really work in the morning. I ended up eating oatmeal or just a grapefruit (which, while healthy, is not a whole grain). With the exception of the days when my work did not allow any time for eating and the days when I was sick, I did eat breakfast almost every day...it just wasn't the breakfast I challenged myself to eat.

I guess that about catches you up. Stay tuned for some cool bloggings about bread. :)

Meatball soup

2009-03-14T11:24:00.003-04:00

Hungarian ish mini-dumpling and egg noodle soup

Another of my favorite interesting soups. My sexy husband liked this one so much that he remembered to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day...I guess that's a bad thing. Less for me.

Risotto

2009-03-10T18:00:00.004-04:00

I made risotto for the first time last night. I think I was avoiding it because it seems so trendy and over-done (and maybe difficult) for a simple dish like rice. Besides, I find most rice dishes boring.

Boy, was I wrong. It was wonderful, creamy, delicious, and not difficult at at all.

I followed the recipe on the back of the arborio rice package. It went something like this:

Heat 7 c chicken stock over medium heat.
Meanwhile dice 1 small onion and one clove of garlic. Saute over medium heat in about 2 Tbs of butter. Once softened, add 2 c of arborio rice and stir for a couple of min (do not brown rice). Add one ladle of stock at a time. Once the stock has been absorbed, add another. Stir frequently. The rice should take about 17-20 min to cook. Add a hand full of hard cheese (I used Romano).

We had our risotto with asparagus (I recommend Trader Joe's frozen asparagus spears. They are great for the winter when the fresh asparagus is expensive and woody) and bay scallops.

Mmmmm.

Finishing the list

2009-03-09T18:00:00.001-04:00

4. Any one of probably thousands of different kinds of risotto. For winter, I like the idea idea of the butternut squash risotto. If you've never tried fresh beets, I'd also recommend trying a beet risotto.

5. Nicoise noodle cake (or a million other kinds of noodles). This recipe is the best use of Ramen that I've ever seen.

6. Pasta with Pears and Walnuts...an impressive use of flavors.

7. Falafel. Ethic food always seems special to me...even when it's mostly just ground beans.

8. Smoked salmon pizza. Okay, smoked salmon isn't incredibly cheap, but this pizza doesn't use very much of it. It provides the wow factor but won't bankrupt you.

Once I got into the mindset, I could think of tons of cheap recipes that include bread (bread salad, pizza, sandwiches) or pasta or rice. And then there are ethic dishes like Thai and Mexican that are very inexpensive if you have the basic ingredients. The New York Times columnists are fools. Just because I don't have the cash to eat steak and lobster every night doesn't mean I can't enjoy interesting, unique, and impressive food.

2009-03-06T18:00:00.001-05:00

This article recently published in the New York Times caught my eye:

Eating Well on a Downsided Food Budget

The article begins: "Now may be a good time to bring back the basics — the nutritious and affordable foods that have been all but forgotten by many affluent families since the Great Depression. I’m not going to suggest a nightly diet of stone soup or the cheap fat- and sugar-rich menus of the urban poor. But many people who once gave little thought to dining on steak, lobster, asparagus, baby spinach or crème brûlée are now having to spend less on just about everything, including food."

So I'm thinking, "Sweet! Interesting recipes published by the foodies at the New York Times that aren't unbelievably expensive, maybe even thrifty." As it turns out, the foodies at the New York Times have no idea how to cook interesting food with a tight budget. Their suggestions? Instead of eating lobster and steak, eat one of these 8 dishes:

Pork and Potato Chowder

Lentil Soup with Collards

Turkey Cabbage Soup

Simple Tuna Salad

Black Bean Burritos

Potato Salmon Croquettes (with canned Salmon)

Baked Apples

Unstuffed Cabbage (what amounts to cabbage soup with meatballs)

Thanks, but I didn't need the New York Times to tell me that soup is cheap. Now, you know that I love soup, but how about giving us some recipes for interesting food? ...Something I might not have thought of on my own.

Just to prove my point I'll give you 8 fun and economic dishes over the next week. Here are the first three off the top of my head....

1. Homemade sushi (super cheap!)

2. Black Bean and Plantain Empanadas

3. Jamaican Black Beans and Rice

Do you have any go-to inexpensive recipes?

Bring on the breakfast and lunch

2009-02-20T18:00:00.002-05:00

I am so inspired about food right now. This week I made Two Sauce Weeknight Lasagna with Beans and Greens Salad and Chinese Spaghetti and Meatballs. Both meals were fantastic. My sexy husband especially loved the lasagna bowls. Oh man, they were good....

But, you know? Right now I'm inspired about breakfast and lunch. As you know, starting next month I'm going to be eating a whole grain breakfast every weekday (mostly savory, but probably not always). So I need some ideas. This is what I have so far:

Cheesy Polenta (Mmmmm)
Wild Rice and Quinoa breakfast stuffing
Wheat Berries with Sesame, soy sauce, and scallions
Whole wheat muffins
Cream of Wheat
Oatmeal
Granola

Any more ideas to help me out?

I've also been doing some thinking about my lunch. If I'm eating that much wheat/grains at breakfast, my lunch probably shouldn't be bread or cracker-based. Here are my ideas:

Hard cooked eggs
Veggies and humus
Soup (tomato, veggie, or bean)
Refried beans
Tuna/salmon packets
Carrot and Lentil Salad
Tabouli
Veggies and peanut butter

Have anything to add?

a REAL break from the dailyness

2009-02-18T18:00:00.001-05:00

I can't tell you how happy this makes me. It's like we're kindred spirits sometimes...me and Mark Bittman.

I know that many of you love breakfast foods...pancakes, eggs, bacon, cereal. I don't. Can I be honest? I think plain pancakes are the world's most boring food. Even waffles don't strike my fancy unless I top them with tons of stuff that usually transforms them into a once-in-a-while, calorie-packed dessert. French toast is better, but, once again, mine is more like custard pie or bread pudding. Who decided that this is what we have to eat for breakfast?

And, really, it gets worse. I'm not a huge fan of fruit. My mother-in-law tells me that you're always supposed to start your day with fruit...something about kick-starting your metabolism or something. But if fruit is my only choice, I usually just refrain from eating. And if I don't, and I eat the blasted fruit, I'm insatiably hungry in like 10 minutes! I want a hardy, interesting breakfast. If I'm going to allot a good deal of calories from my daily dose toward breakfast, I want to eat something I enjoy. Yes, I know eating breakfast is good for me and will help me stop the regression into larger and larger pants...but I LOVE food. And when I make something super-great for dinner, I want to be able to eat a lot of it...seconds, at least. Giving up some of my dinner appetite for measly little, boring, daily breakfast is not a good deal for me...

.....Unless...breakfast can be something more....

So here it is. I vow before all of you to eat breakfast every weekday for the entire month of March (I like month-long goals...my current one is to exercise before work 4 days a week for the month of February. It's going well. I think March will be breakfast AND exercise). Who is with me?

Sometimes flavors are surprising

2009-02-17T18:00:00.001-05:00

I went to some real hipsters' house near Campus a couple of months ago. You know the kind. They don't flush their toilets to save water (in the midwest where water is more than plentiful and their water is included in their rent). They shop at Goodwill and on Craigslist only. They seem to believe that having nice things and caring for your things is too worldly. Their idea of composting is throwing leftovers out the back door into the yard. The girls have medium-short hair that's pulled up into itty-bitty "ponytails" with hair falling out everywhere. The guys have shaggy (but not long) hair and boyishly thin, but long beards. One person declared, during their throwback party that consisted of eating kids sugar-cereals and watching the Mighty Ducks, that irony (unlike "cool") is not relative.

Anyway, dinner at the hipsters' commune was sweet potato and black bean enchiladas. Besides the fact that the sweet potatoes were really quite hard, they were excellent. (Someone needs to tell this girl that the oven doesn't really work when it's open, so it's probably not a good idea to leave it open for 3 and 4 minutes at a time so you can watch the food cook. Maybe I'd work better just to clean the window and watch through there.) It was really quite surprising, actually. The flavors went together really well.

Unfortunately, I don't have that recipe (if any of you use a Mennonite cookbook that is organized according to season, you might just have it). But when I saw this recipe on the FoodNetwork's website a couple of weeks ago I knew I had to try it. And it was excellent...different than the enchiladas, which were flavored with cinnamon and cumin...but still very good...and hardy. One sweet potato each with some salad was plenty enough for my sexy husband and I. If you don't have really big appetites, I would recommend splitting one. And for you meat eaters, my sexy husband thought this would be great with a nice steak.

Itty-bitty picture, complements of the FoodNetwork.:

Oh! And I forgot to buy tomatoes...so I can't comment on the tomatoes.

Oh! And when I tasted the "bean salad" without the sweet potato, I thought it was WAY too salty, but the potato needed the extra salt, so it worked out...just so you know.

O-N-E-L-E-S-S

2009-02-11T22:27:00.002-05:00

Last week I eagerly scoured the New York Times' dining and wine selection in search of Mark Bittman's column--the minimalist. And it was one of the few weeks in recent history when I was actually happy with what I found: crackers.

That night my sexy husband was gone for the evening, so I got to enjoy a food network marathon. And what do you know? Alton Brown's show (Good Eats) that evening was all about making your own crackers...how they're incredibly easy, but no one thinks to make them...how they're incredibly cheap, but no one thinks to make them.

That night I vowed to be one less. O-N-E-L-E-S-S. One less person who forgets that at some point in history, people used to make crackers at home.

Bittman's crackers were buttery and cheesy and decadent. Alton Brown made three varieties including graham crackers. I wanted to start with the most basic.

I got this recipe from Bittman's "How to Cook Everything." It's most similar to a water-cracker. It tastes like crispy dough. One batch makes a one pan (equivalent to about one box of water crackers). I'm pretty sure the ingredients cost less than a quarter. Bittman says that it will take about 15 min to make these. I'm not great at rolling stuff out, so they probably took me 10-15 min to prepare...then 10 min to cook.

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter

About 1/4 c water, plus more as needed.

Place flour, salt, and butter in food processor. Pulse until combined. Stream in water until the mixture forms a ball but is not sticky. (Of course, you could easily do this by hand.)

Roll out 1/8 thick. Score with knife. Bake in 400 degree oven for 10 min.

Cool.

Bittman claims that after batch number one, I'll have no problem figuring out how to create all of my favorite crackers. I could sprinkle them with salt or sesame seeds, or poppy seeds. I could work a tiny bit of garlic or herbs into the dough. I could substitute whole wheat or rye flour for some or all of the white flour. He's probably right. The problem is, my sexy husband loved them so much just the way they were. :)

You really have to try this (not that I would presume to tell you what to do).

And check it out! My new oven window is so beautiful and clean, that I could tell when the cracker's started browning without even opening the door. Ah...

The things we miss.

2009-02-09T20:15:00.002-05:00

Before this dinner, I'd never had Shepard's pie before. But I couldn't resist the idea of beef and mushrooms and onions topped with mashed potatoes and blue cheese. I can't know empirically how this one compares with your mom or grandma or local tavern's Shepherd's pie...but I'm guessing it could stand up to anybody's. Check out the recipe here.

This masterpiece was paired with tomato and shrimp salad with horseradish dressing. Okay now, the ingredients for the shrimp and tomato salad are beefsteak tomatoes, shrimp, finely chopped celery, sour cream, juice of 1/2 lemon, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and prepared horseradish. What does that sound like to you? I'll give you another hint...

If you're still at a loss, I'm with you. I didn't get it either, but my sexy husband took one look at it and said, "Oh, shrimp cocktail as a salad!" Oh yeah! When I was making the dressing, I was thinking, "you know, this dressing has all of the ingredients of cocktail sauce minus the ketchup." And that's why it's served on shrimp WITH TOMATOES, you numb-skull. Geez.

Oh well. The salad was really good...and the shepherd's pie was really good...but they were definitely not better together than they were apart. The shrimp salad overpowered the shepherd's pie and left it kinda...well...washed out. If you're going to make these dishes (and I recommend that you do), I'd make them as separate meals. The shrimp salad would make a great salad meal in the summer when you don't want to use the stove or oven.

Goodbye, old friend

2009-02-08T22:06:00.009-05:00

Goodbye Old Friend. You served me well...until you didn't.

Besides, you were a bit dirty.

My new friend is so much prettier than you.

I can see through her window.

Mmmmm fish sandwiches

2009-02-06T18:23:00.001-05:00

For some reason, I was really in the mood for a good sandwich. This was was really good. I didn't think it was inspired. My sexy husband disagreed.

Also from Rachel Ray's Big Orange Book:

Talapia Sammies with Citrus Honey Slaw

For fish:

4 talapia filets

3 limes, 1 of them zested

salt and pepper

Flour for dredging

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 sleeve of saltine crackers ground up

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 Tbsp seafood seasoning

2 Tbsp olive oil

For slaw:

2 tsp hot sauce

3 Tbsp honey

Juice of 2 limes

1/4 c olive oil

salt and pepper

1 (16 oz) bag of slaw salad mix (I confess. I used the mix.)

To serve fish:

4 buns

1 c sour cream

1 chipotle in adobo sauce, finely chopped plus 1 tsp of the sauce

lettace, tomatoes, avocado, red onion, and pickles to build sandwiches.

I'll make this quick...

Season fish with salt, pepper, and lime zest. Dredge the fish in flour, then eggs, then saltines mixed with paprika and seafood seasoning. Then fry them in 2 Tbps of olive oil for about 3-4 min per side. Immediately douse with the juice of half a lime. Serve them on buns with sour cream mixed with chipotles and adobo sauce and the works.

To make the salad...combine juice of two limes with hot sauce and honey. Whisk in 1/4 c olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix with slaw mix.

A really nice pat on the back

2009-02-05T18:00:00.003-05:00

It feels really nice when people try stuff I recommend.

Last year...or even before that?...Bittman introduced me to this awesome technique for broiling (check out the link for a video). Basically, you put a cast iron skillet in the oven and heat it up until it's screaming-hot, as hot as your oven will get (mine was 500 degrees...I wonder if this is why my oven broke?). Once it has reached that temperature, you put whatever meat or veggie you are broiling in the screaming-hot skillet and turn the broiler on high. The skillet side sears really nicely because it's screaming hot; the broiler side sears really nicely because it's screaming hot; and the middle actually cooks (but doesn't overcook) because the whole oven is screaming-hot. It works fantastically and produces a lot less smoke then searing steaks on the stove-top. Plus, the actual broiling only takes about 6 minutes for a nice steak, less for fish.

Anyway, just this morning, a good friend from Chicago sent me this picture to tell me that he tried the technique and it worked wonderfully for him as well.

If you have a cast iron skillet or any skillet that can stand 450 or 500 degrees in the oven, you should try it too!:)

My friend from Chicago: "I made a feta-crusted steak for dinner a week or so ago and I used the cast iron skillet in the oven method you told me about a while back. It worked wonderfully. We had a feta feast because it was buy-one-get-one at the store; feta-crusted steak, feta and chedda' mashed potatoes, and a spinach salad with red onions and of course, feta. Anyway, I thought you'd appreciate it."

If only my sexy husband liked feta....

My oven saga continues...and hopefully ends

2009-02-04T18:30:00.001-05:00

I decided to get a new oven.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know a little bit about my oven woes. Less than a week after my sexy husband and his dad fixed it (which was already after 6 months without its use at all), it started working very sporadically and totally unreliably again. Sometimes I turn it on, and it magically works. Sometimes it won't turn on. Sometimes it turns on, heats up, and calls it quits as soon as I put the food in it. Sometimes, when it decides not to work, my sexy husband can coax it into working by restarting it (via the braker) and jiggling the temperature sensor. Sometimes no amount of coaxing will help. That's what happened Sunday. My wonderful oven, which I will miss, decided that it didn't want to bake during our Superbowl party immediately after it heated up to 400 degrees and I put the wings in it. Thankfully it would broil (broiling but not baking has never happened before), so the wings turned out fine. But I couldn't broil the cupcakes I was craving.

My sexy husband's dad says that the problem is the circuitry and is not worth fixing. (He would know. He can fix anything.) So my new oven/stove (I think it's actually called a range) comes tomorrow. I'm very happy about it. It's exactly what I wanted (minus the stainless steel part and my pie-in-the sky dreams of a induction stove.), and I got a really good deal on a discontinued model via GE discount outlet store online (I saved at least $300!).

I'll have to remember to post pictures.

Something seems strange about this

2009-02-04T18:22:00.002-05:00

You know, you can't love everything. I tried this recipe because my sexy husband loves pasta, lemon, asparagus, and white sauces. Besides, just because we are eating more meat now doesn't mean that we have to have meat in every meal. But this "Jaw-droppingly delicious asparagus penne" was really...weird. When I first tasted the sauce I thought that there must be something wrong/missing. The flavor did grow on me, but I don't think I really need to make it again.

If you feel like taking the plunge, I'll give you a head's up that I thought it would be better with some chicken....

Jaw droppingly delicious asparagus penne

1 lb thin asparagus, trimmed of woody ends

1lb whole wheat penne (I'm usually not a big fan of whole wheat pasta, but was good here)

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbps butter

2 large garlic cloves

2 Tbsp flour

3/4 c vegetable stock

3/4 c half and half

2 Tbsp dijon mustard (maybe this is where I went wrong, I used an apple cider vinegar mustard)

2 tps lemon zest

Black pepper

2 Tbsp fresh tarragon, finely chopped (I had never used tarragon before. it has a licorice-like flavor)

Juice of 1 lemon

Grated Parm Cheese (the real stuff)

Before you cook the pasta, when the water is at a boil, blanch the asparagus for 2 minutes and chop into 2 inch pieces. Then cook pasta to al dente (of course).

For sauce: melt butter and oil in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook gently for 2 min. You don't want to brown the garlic. Sprinkle flour into skillet and cook for 1 min, stirring. Whisk in stock, half and half, mustard, lemon zest, salt, pepper, and tarragon. Cook for 2-3 min until thickened. Add lemon juice and combine with asparagus and pasta. Top with cheese.

Was there any reason for me to type this recipe? With my overwhelming endorsement, is anyone going to try it?

Seeking balance

2009-02-02T18:20:00.004-05:00

The next recipe my sexy husband and I decided to try from Rachel Ray's cookbook was BBQ spiced chicken, salsa salad, and pumpkin-chipotle polenta. My sexy husband doesn't completely agree, but, to me, this dinner was the perfect balance. With lean chicken, fresh veggies, and pumpkin/corn this meal struck a classic nutritional balance. It also had the perfect balance of textures: meaty/chewy, mushy, and crunchy. Additionally, the flavors complimented really well. I thought that the three parts of the meat were better together than they would have been separately.

I totally loved this meal....everything about it...how the lime in the salad ran into the spicy chicken polenta...how the BBQ rub flavored the meat why better than any BBQ sauce. I just loved it.

Check out the recipes here: BBQ Spiced Chicken, Salsa Salad, and Pumpkin-Chipotle Polenta

The version in my cookbook didn't include the pineapple in the the salad. That's the only difference.

Oh! And, by the way, if I hurry I really can make everything in close to 30 min.

Here it goes

2009-01-29T18:25:00.007-05:00

With my sexy husband's help, I choose a few recipes from my new cookbook (Rachel Ray's Big Orange Book) to try this week. The first was "Creamy Chicken Dumping Stoup." The dumplings in this "stoup" (Rachel Ray's term for a main dish that is thicker than a soup and thinner than a stew) are Gnocchi. I had never had Gnocchi before, but my sexy husband loves them. Gnocchi are really thick, soft noodles. They can be made out of flour or bread crumbs or potatoes. I think the reason my sexy husband loves them so much is because they are basically balls of dough, and he LOVES dough.

Anyway this soup is made with chicken, a couple of leeks (they have a very mild onion flavor), celery, broth, and cream. Plus the starch from the gnocchi adds thickness. I know I say this more often than I probably should...but my sexy husband and I agreed that this was one of the best soups we had ever had. He wanted me to make it again the very next week (I didn't).

Creamy Chicken and Dumpling Stoup

3 leeks
4-5 small celery stalks
2 Tbsp olive oil (I'll spare you the "EVOO")
salt and pepper

1 bay leaf
4 c chicken broth
2 c heavy cream
1 lb chicken breasts or tenders, diced
2 (12 oz) packages gnocchi
A handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped (I forgot to buy some so I had to use dried)
1 tsp sweet paprika
3 Tbsp dry sherry (I used the nasty cooking sherry)

Trim off the top 3-4 inches of the leeks and the roots and the bottom. Halve them and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Rinse really well. Thinly slice the celery.

Saute leeks and celery in oil with salt, pepper, and bay leaf for about 5 min. Add stock and bring to boil. Stir in cream and reduce heat to simmer.

Rachel Ray says to add chicken and gnocchi "when the soup bubbles." I'm not really sure when that will be if you're decreasing from a boil to a simmer. I just waited a few minutes. Then you're supposed to cook the whole thing for another 5-6 min...which made me think that she forgot to tell me to cook the chicken ahead so I grilled it before I put it into the soup.

After the soup becomes creamy stew stir in parsley, paprika, and sherry.

Serve immediately. This is a REALLY filling soup. My sexy husband and I both have very big appetites, and we were full after one large bowl.

The soup reheats quite well. I just added a bit more water before microwaving or it's way too thick.

I really hope you try this soup. I'll want to run out and buy the cookbook after you do. :)

Crunchy and doughy and easy

2009-01-11T22:52:00.001-05:00

Making dough in my new food processor goes like this: dump flour, salt, and yeast in food processor (with dough blade); turn food processor on; pour water and oil into the food processor through the feed tube; allow the food processor to run for about 30 seconds; dump dough on counter top to rise for 1-2 hours; deflate; wait 20 more minutes; shape, top, and bake. I topped this one with onions, green peppers, and kielbasa. It was the best homemade pizza I've ever had. Mark Bittman says it's the olive oil that makes the crust crunchy on the outside and doughy on the inside. It works.

Bean washing

2008-12-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

For those of you who were wondering why you have to wash and sort through beans before cooking them...I found this in my beans today.

Merry cooking Christmas to me!

2008-12-28T19:03:00.001-05:00

Every Christmas and birthday I ask for stuff for my kitchen.

This Christmas I got cookbooks from my dad and brother:

This is my first and only Rachel Ray cookbook. Scoff if you must, but she makes really good, full flavored and fast food that my sexy husband loves.

I also got a couple of kitchen toys from Nana:

This thing will ensure that I don't over- and under-cook my meat.

No more guessing about how many potatoes equal two pounds. I hate that!

And the grand finale from my in-laws:

This is a machine! I wanted a new food processor because mine was making weird noises when I tried to make dough in it (the motor couldn't take it). This one has a 10 year warranty on the motor and comes with a special "blade" and setting for dough. I am so excited! This thing is going to last forever!

Consequently, if anyone is looking for a food processor to use for slicing, chopping, grating, and pureeing (but not making dough), let me know. This one needs a new home:

My best Christmas Entree

2008-12-28T18:23:00.001-05:00

My computer is working again. We're not sure why it quit working (though we got the "blue screen of death" for those of you who know computers) or why it's working now, but I'm not going to complain.

Rather than rehash all of the wonderful things we've been eating this Christmas season (someday you'll have to ask my about our annual Christmas fondue), I'm just going to share my favorite Christmas season entree with you: Salmon Fillets in Red Wine. As you know, I wanted to make salmon and veggie packets for my dad and his wife when they came to visit, but my oven quit (hm...) forcing me to find something else. I had already purchased the salmon so it had to include salmon. I chose this recipe from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" cookbook because although it's cooked on the stove top, the Salmon cooks in liquid. Bittman says that this is a great recipe to use less expensive chum salmon (Manager's special), since it allows the fish to retain its moisture (no danger of drying out here).

The salmon was spectacular. Our next dinner guests are definitley getting Salmon Fillets in Red Wine. I can't overstate it. Even the little bits of veggies were incredible. I serve it over potatoes mashed with white wine and caramelized onions.

2 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
4 salmon fillets, about 6 oz each with skin removed
Flour for dredging
salt and pepper to taste

1 med onion, diced
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 medium carrot, pealed and roughly chopped
1/2 c minced fresh parsley
1/4 c water
1 c dry, full-bodied red wine

1) Heat a large skillet over med-high heat for a couple of minutes. Add butter and oil, turn heat to high, and wait for foam to subside. Dredge each fillet in flour and shake off excess. Place them flesh side down in the skillet. Season with salt and pepper and brown them quickly on one side only. Remove from skillet and keep warm.

2) With heat on medium, add onion, garlic, and carrot to the pan and cook, stirring until the onion softens slightly, about 5 min. Add half of parsley and some salt and pepper. Stir. Add the water, raise heat to high, and reduce until it is almost completely evaporated.

3) Add the wine and reduce by about half. Return fillets to the pan, skin side down (uncooked side) and cook over medium heat until the fillets reach your desired doneness, about 5 min. Sprinkle with remaining parsley and serve immediately.

I'm not sure if you're supposed to serve the veggie bits or not, but they were awesome. That's the only thing I would change about this recipe. I'd double all of the veggies to produce more veggie bits.

when stuff goes wrong

2008-12-22T21:00:00.001-05:00

I apologize for my absence. I've had a lot to write about...a fantastic northern Italian cream spaghetti with beans I made a couple of days before my dad came (see the recipe here)...my dad's visit (and how my oven broke the night before while I was making the granola and I had to change my plan and make this awesome braised salmon on Saturday night)...some really good veggie enchiladas I made for my mother-in-law's birthday...and the awesome authentic Hawaiian menu I planned for my mother's-in-law's family gathering last weekend (they do a different ethnic theme every year and incorporate different traditions and menus). But I can't post any pictures because my home computer is broken. I promise to catch up someday...but it won't be soon. This is the Christmas season, after all. Merry Christmas!
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Oh...and to my aunt...Tyler Florance (of the food network) recommended this mini-menu for Christmas parties, and I immediately thought of you (I'm pretty sure you could use a good chicken stock with a little vinegar for the sauce instead of white wine if you want).

Center-cut tenderloin roast (fillet Mignon as a roast) with blender Bearnaise sauce
Bacon and brussels sprout hash

I'd add a soup of some kind...maybe a creamed winter squash soup (instead of the traditional sugared up yams)...some rolls...and a salad...and call it a feast.

I don't know if I can help you with the cookies...I have no patience for cookies...but I do really like baking refrigerator crescent rolls with a bit of dark chocolate in it for parties. That always goes over really well.

I hope that helps.

Alright, so here it is...the final menu

2008-12-11T21:16:00.000-05:00

I have to go shopping tonight and start cooking tonight or tomorrow (I like to cook as much ahead as possible when my dad comes so I can serve him good food and visit.) so I have to finalize the menu. I thought of some other stuff I wanted to make for him and his wife so I changed things around a bit. I also tried to make sure that everything is somewhat soft (especially the first day) for his sore mouth.

Saturday:

Breakfast- Fruit shake and apple and/or pumpkin muffins
Lunch- This butternut squash soup with a molasses quick bread
Dinner- Salmon packets (with potatoes, zucchini, carrots, and green onions) and a Japanese salad

Ice Cream

Sunday
Breakfast- Granola with yogurt and fruit
Lunch- Sprout sandwiches and potato soup
Dinner- Mac and cheese with mixed veggies or salad

Monday
Breakfast- Muffins or granola and juice (my dad and his wife are coming to work with me)
Lunch-out
Dinner- Fish chowder and portabella mushroom salad

Tuesday
Breakfast- Muffins or granola and juice (another work day)
Lunch-out

I asked my sexy husband if this is too much soup. He said "yes, but don't change it." He's not a soup guy. My dad loves my soup...and his mouth is sore. What else am I supposed to do?

My list

2008-12-09T21:00:00.000-05:00

Here's the list of stuff I want to make for my dad and his wife so far:

Bruchetta pizza with a chickpea salad
Humus and tabouli wraps
Fish chowder (I told you that my recipe reminds me of him.)
Vegetarian ruebens or BLTs
Pasta with Pear and Walnut Sauce
Mac and Cheese
Ice Cream
Fatush
Ribolita Soup
Cheesy Rice
Nut burgers
Homemade Granola
Fruit Shakes

I can't actually make him all of this food....so here are the working menus I've come up with:

Saturday
Breakfast- Fruit Shake and muffins (Maybe coffee cake mufins. Maybe something more healthy, but it is the holidays....)
Lunch- Bruchetta pizza and chickpea salad (I need to come up with a recipe. I just liked the idea of a chickpea salad with this.)
Dinner- Pasta with Pear and Walnut Sauce with some sort of cool greans salad. I could add chicken too...but that seems forced.
Dessert- Ice Cream (two kinds: peanut butter and egg nog)

Sunday
Breakfast- Homemade granola with fruit and yogurt
Lunch- BLT's and Ribolita Soup (an Italian tomato-based soup with a lot of the same flavors as the BLT's. It will compliment really well.)
Dinner- Mac and Cheese with a cool side or salad (though I'm not really happy that I'm doing two pasta dishes...I'm not sure how to get around it)

Monday
Breakfast- I'm hoping my sexy husband will make them pancakes or waffles (I'm not a big fan). I'll be at work.
Lunch- Some cool resturant downtown.
Dinner- Fish chowder with oyster crackers and some complementary side or salad that I'm having a hard time deciding about.

Tuesday
Breakfast- I have no idea
Lunch- Some cool resturant downtown.

What do you think?
Of course, this whole thing might get scrapped if my dad's tooth hurts to much to eat solid food. He just told me today that he got a wisdom tooth out yesterday. Hm.

Christmas time is here. Cooking is in the air.

2008-12-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

My Christmas starts next weekend when my dad and his wife come to visit. There are few things I look forward to more than my dad and his wife coming to visit, and there are few people who I enjoying cooking for more (I tried the "for whom" thing...it didn't work). Usually I start thinking of what to make for my dad and his wife about a month in advance, but I'm way behind my game this time. He's coming in 5 days, and I have only a few ideas.

When I serve meals for guests, I usually have three goals:
1) I want to serve impressive and flavorful meals that don't make my guests feel terrible and overstuffed when they leave. This goal becomes more difficult when my guests will be eating with me for multiple meals. I have to come up with a way to serve them three impressive meals that are light enough that they are hungry when its time for the next impressive meal. My dad is going to be here for 3 1/2 days....that's about 9 or 10 meals. I can't "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" on this one. I'll need to plan the days carefully.
2) I like to introduce new foods or new versions of traditional foods. In my humble option, the key to making people think that you are a really good cook is determining what kinds of foods your specific guests like and then carefully choosing something along the same lines that they haven't tried before. The reaction I want to get is, "Wow! I've never had this before, but I LOVE it!." (My unspoken response: "Well, of course, you do. it has all of your favorite things in it.")
3) I like to think of the day's meals as courses in the same meal. I don't want to flavors and styles to flow seamlessly, but I don't want to flavors or ingredients to be too redundant. For instance, if I were to serve two pastas in a row (even for two dinners in a row), the meals would start to feel redundant (and probably too filling) even if the flavors are totally different. And I wouldn't want to serve Mexican for lunch and Thai for dinner. The flavors would be too jarring.

My dad and his wife love to try new foods , so the sky is the limit. They aren't bound my traditions like having meat in every meal. I really think that they like challenging those traditions. I'll have to remember that both my dad and his wife have become more health conscious recently, so my rule about overfilling will be even more important.

So that's my assignment. Stay tuned for my menu ideas and feel free to give me ideas.

Oh! And my aunt gave me two other assignments: 1) post a good Christmas cookie recipe. Christmas cookies are a necessity on my dad's side of the family. 2) post a sample menu for Christmas that centers around beef (my dad's family's traditional main course). So I'll be working on that as well.

Lucky me

2008-12-05T21:50:00.001-05:00

My sexy husband made me dinner. Fried chicken with thyme, rosemary, and real Parmesan cheese served on top of pasta with a vodka cream sauce with asparagus covered a lemon mint cream sauce. Lucky me!

45 min turkey

2008-11-21T21:00:00.001-05:00

I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year...but if I was, and I was roasting a turkey, I would do it this way. Don't worry. It's not deep-fried. Oh please won't someone try it and tell me how it goes? Please?

Pantry pot pie

2008-11-19T18:55:00.001-05:00

There are a few things that I always, or at least almost always, have on hand: onions, potatoes, carrots, and frozen peas. Add some stuff I happened to have this time...turnips and cabbage...and you have yourself a really yummy vegetable pot pie.

I started with Mark Bittman's pie crust from "How to Cook Everything":

1 1/8 c flour
1 stick unsalted butter (since I only had salted butter on hand, I used that and nixed the salt)
1/8 t salt

Whirl in the food processor until the texture of corn meal (about 10-15 sec).

Dump out into a bowl and add 4 Tbsp cold water. Use a spatula to bring everything together the best you can and then dump onto plastic wrap. Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap, and put into a flat ball. It will be REALLY crumbly...it might not even hold together well. That's okay. It will be the most flaky pie crust you've ever had. Put into the freezer for 10 min and then roll out between the plastic wrap. Turn out into pie crust. If yours falls apart like mine always does, just patch it up. No big deal.

To make a double crust pie, do the above twice.

For the filling, I chopped up a medium onion, a hand full of baby carrots (that's what I had), a potato, a turnip, a bit of cabbage, and about a half handful of chopped herbs. I also included some thawed frozen peas. For the sauce, I sauteed about 1 1/2 T butter with 2 T flour and some red pepper flakes. Then I added 1 c chicken stock and somewhere between 1/2 and 1 c half and half and cooked the mixture until it thickened.

Of course, the sauce and filling goes in between the pie crusts. I vaguely remember that maybe I was supposed to cook one crust for a bit before I filled it, but I didn't. I cooked the whole thing for an 50 min at 350 degrees and then an additional 15 min at 425 degrees until the top was nicely browned (thank you, butter!).

Oh yeah. Flour with butter...with veggies with butter and flour and cream. :) I have a weakness for pot pie, and this was the best one I've ever had.

Just look at this flaky crust!

I served it with an extra portion of salad to make me feel better.

Out of control

2008-11-17T21:00:00.000-05:00

This is rediculous!

I hit the nail on the head....yes....

2008-11-15T21:00:00.001-05:00

Alright, alright. I know that bacon isn't exactly healthy: neither is white ciabatta bread. And a few tomato slices and a peice of lettace don't exactly equal a salad. But I when I was looking for recipes for this week, I found a recipe for BLT's with brie. Doesn't that sound fantastic? It is.

To salve my conscience, I served these BLT's with a basic broth soup: Matzo ball soup (I know, Matzo ball soup isn't a raw vegetable salad either, but it's better than...say...homemade mac and cheese). Come to find out, Matzo ball soup is one of my sexy husband's top 5 favorite soups ever. Couple that with the fact that BLT's are one of my sexy husband's top 5 favorite foods ever, and I think I hit the nail on the head...yes...yes, I did. +

Matzo ball soup

1/2 c matzo meal

2 eggs

1 t salt

2 T vegetable oil

1 T water

Combine all ingredients except water. Then add water until consitantly incorporated. Chill mixture for a least 15 minutes (I chilled it overnight). Form into 1 inch balls and drop into 1 1/2 quarts boiling water or broth. Reduce heat, cover, and cook for 40 minutes (will double in size and float). Serve in chicken broth. You can add veggies like peas and carrots if you want. I would have, but my sexy husband likes this soup plain (I only added a couple of bay leaves during cooking and some parsley).

Pasties revisited

2008-11-14T21:00:00.001-05:00

The recipe in my very first post on this blog was for pasties (savory hand pies). That time I used a recipe from Alton Brown for the dough and filled half of them with leftover corned beef and cabbage and half of them with potatoes, turnips, carrots, and onions. They were fantastic. I've been wanting to make them again ever since.

Spurred on by a Paula Dean recipe for apple handpies, I decided to take a shortcut this time. Instead of making the dough myself, I used refrigerated biscuit dough which I rolled very thin. I filled them with chopped butternut squash, turnips, onions, and potatoes (I didn't even use up 1 of each vegetable). Then I baked them for 30 minutes with foil on top for the last 10 minutes so they wouldn't get too brown. You know, they were okay...but they tasted like refrigerator biscuit dough. Next time I'll make them Alton Brown's way again. Sorry Paula.

At long last

2008-11-13T21:00:00.001-05:00

I've been feeling like we aren't eating well...too much comfort food and not enough salad. So I tried to plan some light meals that include raw vegetables this week. On Monday we had warm chickpea and arugula salad (for a picture see this blog dedicated to Mark Bittman). This salad comes from my mother-in-law's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian cookbook. The recipe came very highly recommended, and it didn't disappoint. I served it with a white bean soup from How to Cook Everything. The white bean soup was fabulous...just my style...really simple and cheap and good.

White Bean Soup

1/2 c dried white beans (navy or great northern), rinse and picked over

6 c water or broth

1 medium onion, chopped

chopped parsley for garnish (optional...I liked it better without the parsley)

salt and pepper

I have found that beans don't get really soft when you cook them with salt, and you need to them to be really soft in this recipe. So, I cooked the beans and onions in 6 c water for about an hour. Then I added a couple of teaspoons Better than Boulion chicken broth base. Better than Boulion is very saltly, so I didn't add extra salt. Once the beans are soft, puree the soup and serve. That's it! I love soup!

After dinner my father-in-law came over to watch Monday night football. Shortly after he arrived, he and my sexy husband went downstairs to grab a beer. They were gone for a long time, and I heard lots of banging around. I assumed that they were checking out my sexy husband's basement project. Wrong. I walked into the dining room to grab my checkbook so we could pay our condo fee, and I caught them with the oven pulled out and tools everywhere. An hour later, my oven was fixed!!!

Out of gratitude I made them apple crisp with homemade icecream.

I thought it might be fun to make little individual apple crisps. It wasn't worth it. We ate two individual crisps per serving anyway.:)

Oh yeah. Now the fun starts.

A good week and a better weekend

2008-11-03T20:40:00.001-05:00

This was a really good food week.

Wednesday: Braised mustard greens with black-eyed peas and Andouille sausage. I got the recipe from the New York Times and made obvious adjustments. You know, I had never tried mustard greens. They really taste like mustard. Crazy!

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Thursday: Amazon Bean Soup with Winter Squash and Greens. I used butternut squash instead of buttercup squash for no reason except Giant Eagle only had butternut. This was my favorite squash soup yet, and I love squash. It had a really nice squash flavor without being overpowering or sweet.

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I had an even better weekend because I love cooking for people. Saturday night we had a house full of people here to celebrate the first anniversary of some friends from out of town. I made two dips.

This dip is really simple, but it looks pretty and tastes amazing. It's a block of cream cheese with a mixture of raspberry preserves and jalapeno preserves (in approximately equal quantities) on top. That's it--berries with a tiny bit of bite. I serve it with Wheat Thins.

My second dip was a new recipe to me--Pan-Fried Onion Dip. This is the real stuff. No onion soup mixes. Just onions. Just amazingness. I'm definitely going to make this again.

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Sunday I brought brunch and dinner to the fam's (in-laws) house. We always have Sunday brunch with the fam, but I've been so desperate to cook for people that I volunteered to make the food this time.

We started with a basic fruit salad of sliced pears with grapes and walnuts.

The main event was Roasted Vegetables on English Muffins with Cheese Sauce. I got this recipe from "Cookshelf Vegetarian" published by Parragon Publishing. I only changed a few things. They wanted me to buy a bottle of "garlic vinegar" and vermouth just to use a couple of tablespoons in the vegetable marinade. Nope. Not going to do that. I doubled this recipe that is supposed to serve 4. We had leftovers.

1 red onion, cut into eights

1 small eggplant, halved and sliced

1 yellow pepper, sliced

1 zucchini, sliced

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 Tbsp chopped thyme

2 tsp maple syrup or light brown sugar

4 English muffins, halved

salt and pepper

Marinate veggies for an hour in the rest of the ingredients. Then roast for 20-25 min in a 400 degree oven until veggies are soft. Serve on top of English muffins with sauce.

To make sauce melt 2 Tbsp butter in a saucepan over med heat. Add 1 Tbsp flour and cook stirring for 1 min. Take off heat and add 2/3 c milk and 3 fl oz veg. stock. Put back on burner and bring to a boil, stirring until thickened. Add 3/4 c white cheddar cheese, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, and 3 Tbsp chopped mixed herbs (I used basil, oregano, chives, and parsley because that's what I had).

I served these open-faced sandwiches with a basic hard-cooked egg mashed with butter, salt, and pepper. If you haven't tried eggs this way, you should. They are light and fluffy and wonderful. My mom made them like this when I was going up, and it was always my favorite.

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For dinner, we converted the breakfast fruit salad into a savory salad by putting the pears, grapes and walnuts over mixed greens and dressing it with balsamic vinegar and oil. I actually liked it better this way.

And I made one of my favorite soups. When I was a kid and we went to Maine to visit my grandparents, my dad used to go down to the docks and get fish chowder from one of the fishermen. It was a really simple chowder--huge chunks of various kinds of fish and small bits of potatoes and onions in a really thin broth with no seasonings. They served it in clear plastic containers with packages of salt and pepper and some oyster crackers. The last time I very went to Maine with my dad, he let me have it with him. It's one of my best memories. This chowder is my approximation.

I made a large pot full with 6 chopped potatoes and 3 chopped onions boiled in water. After the potatoes and onions were soft, I added about 3 c of cubed fish (flounder and perch...next time I'll use more). The fish only needs to cook for a few minutes. Then I added about a cup of half and half. And that's it. Salt and Pepper and you're done. Simple and Wonderful and minimal. Just what I like.

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Man! It's been good.

My hero

2008-10-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

My hero on eating less meat.

If you have 20 minutes to listen to this brief lecture, I highly recommend it.

A Katie classic

2008-10-28T21:00:00.001-04:00

I'm back! I have no idea where my passion for cooking and excitement about new recipes went, but it was starting to worry me. I started this blog as an outlet for my uncontrollable urges to talk about food all of the time...and then poof! They were gone. Lucky for me and you, winter squash (flavors that I don't use year round) and sausage have brought excitement back. I'm going to be making some really good stuff this week!

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First, though, I had to go grocery shopping. I shop after work and usually don't get home until 7:00 pm or later. So dinner on grocery shopping night has to be fast. (To me, really fast means no cooking. When you have to chop and cook, it doubles the time.) But it should still be fun. I don't want to eat boring leftovers from the weeks before when I have all of this yummy, exciting new food! In that spirit, we had sprout sandwiches on chiabatta bread...mayo on both sides of the bread (plus Dijon mustard on mine) with layered cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, and alfalfa sprouts. I told you that my sexy husband is a meat man (though he grew up vegetarian). Well, he LOVES these sandwiches. I highly recommend trying them on your grocery shopping night. The meat-lover in your house might just love them too.

Last night was also Monday night football, and my father-in-law was coming over to enjoy the game with us. When I'm loving food, everything is about the food. Sporting events are no exception. Sporting events are my excuse for dip. So to go with our sprout sandwiches, I made a dip that is fast becoming one of my signature party dips. It's really a white bean dip, but I put so much cilantro in it that everyone seems to think that it's cilantro dip.:) Outside of the taste, which is fantastic, the best thing about this dip is that the whole thing is made in the food processor or blender. No chopping. No cooking. Just fast.

Katie's classic cilantro dip

Dump all of the following into the food processor or blender (I actually prefer the blender because this recipe makes a lot).

2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 or 1 whole bunch cilantro. I'll let you choose. Just cut off the thick ends.
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt. I've made it both ways. The taste is pretty consistent. The yogurt just makes the dip thin.
1 1/2 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 small to medium cloves garlic
2 green onions
1 Tbs cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Serve with Tortilla chips. Your friends will love you.

Sometimes the simplest combinations are wonderful

2008-10-23T21:00:00.001-04:00

Some friends of ours were nice enough to give us a huge bag of tomatoes from their garden about two weeks ago, and I'm having a hard time using them up. So I couldn't make dinner for one last night without including them. I also wanted to include Ricotta cheese because I've recently developed a love for Ricotta cheese and I knew I had some in the refrigerator. Additionally, I haven't been shopping in a bit (I don't even have onions right now), and I feel like I've been eating why too many carbs like bread and snack foods and not enough veggies. I really wanted my dinner to be light and healthy tasting...like a hearty salad.

I chopped up 2 small tomatoes and combined them with about a cup of peas (I always have peas on hand. They are the only vegetable that I buy frozen. They always taste so fresh and healthy even when I just grabbed them out of the freezer and ran them under cool water to dethaw), fresh basil and parsley, most of a can of chick peas, and two chopped green onions.

Then I added all of that stuff to about 2 1/2 cups cooked Acini di Pepe (very small pasta balls...the only pasta I had on hand besides egg noodles) that was still hot.

I was very happy with the results. My warm pasta salad tasted really great with a large dollop of Ricotta cheese on top (well, actually, it tasted great by itself too), and it made me very happy.:) Oh! And it looked really pretty!

(I took this picture with my cell phone because my sexy husband had the camera with him.)

For lunch today I combined the leftover chickpeas with two small tomatoes and the rest of the peas to make a salad of sorts. Then I sprinkled some leftover tomato basil feta on top. Tomatoes, chickpeas, and peas are a fantastic combination. You should try it.:)

New gadgets and goodness

2008-10-21T21:35:00.001-04:00

My sexy husband and I got a new desktop computer! It's a fortunate/unfortunate consequence of my sexy husband's lay-off. We were using his work laptop. Then he had to return it.

In honor of our new machine, I'm posting two recipes that you really can't make without a machine like this. I got one for my birthday last summer. Since then it has had a permanent place on my countertop along with my food processor, my toaster, and my aerogarden.

My favorite honey peanut-butter ice cream
This ice cream has a wonderful salty honey base that would be fantastic all by itself but really rounds out the peanut butter and chocolate very nicely. It definitely ranks up there among the best ice creams I've ever had...and I made it up all by myself!

1 cup whole milk (I buy organic because I don't want my sexy husband to get man-boobs from all of those hormones...could that happen?)
2 cup cream (heavy or half and half...you decide.)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
1/2-3/4 tsp sea salt (the added benefit of the salt is that it keeps the ice cream from freezing rock hard)
1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 c creamy peanut butter (Sorry, the natural stuff won't work. I used Jiffy.)
a handful of shaved chocolate (I'm still using up Easter bunnies from last year)
a handful of chopped peanuts

Add sugar and honey to milk and whisk until dissolved. Add cream, salt, and vanilla. Whisk to combine. Freeze in ice cream maker. When it's about 5 min from being finished, add the peanut butter by the spoonful and the chocolate and peanuts.

My sexy husband's favorite vanilla chocolate raspberry ice cream
The add-in's in this basic vanilla ice cream were all my sexy husband's idea.

1 cup whole milk
2 cups cream (same deal)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla (if you are using imitation, you might want to add more)

1 small container red raspberries, roughly broken up
1/2 bottle Smucker's chocolate magic shell ice cream topping

Add the sugar to the milk and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Add cream and vanilla. Pour into ice cream maker. About 5 min before the ice cream is done, add the red raspberries and magic shell.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, I highly recommend getting one. Put it on your Christmas list. Making ice cream is really fun, creative, cheap, and easy (and in a machine that doesn't require ice and salt...fast). Besides all that it's rewarding and tastes WAY better than the other stuff.

You have to go with what you want.

2008-10-17T21:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was seriously craving beans. Yes. Beans. Since I've begun to eat more meat, I think I've been eating less beans. That's the only explanation I can think of for my very weird, sudden, and overwhelming bean craving. Since I'm the cook and can make whatever I want, I had to go with my craving. And since I totally ran out of motivation to cook additional food, that was it...Pinto beans (what I had in my pantry) cooked with a couple of bay leaves, some carrots, some sprigs of rosemary, and water to cover. After they finished cooking, I added salt and some worchestershire sauce. That's it. It's what I wanted. Beans. I had a big bowl, and I was satisfied. Now, what to do with the leftovers?

What do you want to eat today?

My first day back

2008-10-16T21:04:00.000-04:00

I haven't cooked in a long time. Two weeks ago (October 2) my sexy husband and I went out of town for the weekend. Immediately following our return I got really sick. I was sick (the very unfun kind of sick where you're too tired to even lay on your side and watch TV) all week. Then we went out of town for the weekend again. After we got back we spent a few days with my in-laws and some visiting family. Then I took my sexy husband out to eat to thank him for taking such good care of me when I was sick.

Yesterday was my first day back to cooking. And what did I make? Cabbage and noodles with Kielbasa. Yup. Not very exciting. I also made a yummy impromptu fresh salsa (the world's most perfect food) to use up a bunch of Roma tomatoes someone gave us. That's what I had for lunch today. A fantastic lunch.

Chili

2008-10-01T21:00:00.001-04:00

Chili is one of those things I make semi-frequently. I'd say at least 4-5 times a year. It's perfect for fall parties, incredibly easy to make quickly and in large quantities, and really cheap. Normally, I make a version of my mother-in-law's chili (which I LOVE). It's not your typical forkable meaty fare. It has a much thinner "broth" with lots of beans and a ton of great flavor. I guess it's not your typical vegetarian version either because it doesn't include random veggies that do not belong in chili (like green beans and zucchini...like some sort of veggie stew with cumin and chili powder).

To make a version of my mother-in-law's chili, all you have to do is saute onions, garlic, and green peppers then dump in stewed tomatoes, beans (do not drain...just dump the whole thing in) and spices. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, and you're done!

Here's the ratio:

1 med onion

2 cloves garlic

1 green pepper (good...but, in a crunch, I've made it without the peppers)

1 large can stewed tomatoes

2 regular cans beans (For best results use a variety of beans...I usually use kidney beans, black beans, and chick peas.)

1 bay leaf, 1 Tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, and 1/2 tsp salt.

For kick, I like to add Cayenne pepper, hot sauce, or some dried chillies from my garden. Sometimes I add extra stuff like chili paste or liquid smoke.

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I've been wanting to make chili since August. Now that fall is finally here, I decided to make it last night. HOWEVER, in the spirit of conquering the food doldrums I wanted to try a different chili recipe. I used a recipe my aunt recently recommended to me that includes cashews and either raisins or molasses. I was expecting the flavor to be a lot different, but it really wasn't. It was good, don't get me wrong. It was really good. I think I'm going to use ideas from both of these chili recipes from now on.

Vegetarian Chili with Cashews

2 green peppers, chopped

4 medium onions, chopped

2 stalks celery, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large can whole pealed tomatoes

2 cans kidney beans (do not drain)

1 handful raisins or 1 Tbsp molasses (I used molasses)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano (I didn't include oregano because I didn't have any)

1 bay leaf

1 Tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 c red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

1/2-1 c cashews.

Saute veggies. Add cans, raisins or molasses, and spices. Simmer 20 min. Add vinegar and cashews. Simmer 10 more min. Serve (with corn cakes?).

I also added smoked paprika. My sexy husband thought the smoked paprika actually made the dish. I also liked the added bit of sweetness from the molasses. I could take or leave the cashews. I didn't think they added a lot. I couldn't taste the basil at all...probably not necessary. The vinegar...I think I actually liked it better before I added the vinegar.

The next time I make chili, I'll use the my mother-in-law's recipe but add molasses (or raisins) and smoked paprika.

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Do you have a favorite chili recipe?

Breaking the routine

2008-09-29T23:43:00.001-04:00

I hate routines. Some people fear change. I need change. Without enough recipe variety I get the food doldrums, and, for me, the food doldrums quickly turn into the real doldrums. After all, if I can't get excited about food, there probably isn't really much that I can get excited about, and what is life without a little excitment?

So, how, you may ask, does a person who repeats recipes more than a few times a year only in a handful of rare instances get the food doldrums? I don't know. But lately I feel like I'm recycling all of the same stuff over and over. Maybe it's not the exact same meal but it's the same flavors and cooking techniques (I would be a terrible ethnic cook. I have an Asian stir-fry a few times a year and think it's same-old, same-old).

In an effort to introduce a little excitement, I'm going to attempt to cook some new stuff--recipes I've never tried that (hopefully) introduce some new flavors. But I gotta tell you, when I looked through my cookbook almost every recipe that stood out to me required the use of my broken oven (which may be the true impetus for my food doldrums).

Recipe #1 was recommended to me by a co-worker: tomato-basil feta turkey burgers. The "recipe" is very simple. But (believe it or not) I don't make real meat burgers very often, and I'm not sure I've ever used ground turkey (I fear lean meat. I have this idea that lean meat is too easy to dry out).

So...here it is: tomato-basil feta turkey burgers with smoked paprika (you can read Mark Bittmans' column from last week for this idea) aoili.

Around 1 lb ground turkey
1/2 container tomato-basil feta (I got mine at Giant Eagle)

Mix. Cook like a burger. I didn't think the turkey would shrink up because it's really lean, but it actually did. My burgers lost so much water, I felt like I was simmering them (my friend warned me about this).

Serve with smoked paprika aoili (a generous 1/3-1/2 cup mayo with 1 grated clove of garlic, a splash of lemon juice, and a healthy dose of smoked paprika) and lettace.

These were really good. I highly recommend them. I would make them for company. My sexy husband loved them (even though he dislikes feta). But were they different enough, inspired enough, to get me out of my doldrums? Not really...but almost! However, even if you don't try the turkey burgers, try the smoked paprika in something... anything... just smell it. It smells inspired. Perhaps it will be enough to get you out of your food doldrums.

Our anniversary dinner

2008-09-28T21:00:00.000-04:00

For our anniversary on Wednesday, my sexy husband and I went to the Trattoria Roma. A friend of ours is an apprentice to the chef there (he always corrects me when I call him the chef), and because of his stories I've wanted to go there for a long time. In June, when my in-law's celebrated their 25th anniversary, we sent them to the Trattoria Roma, and they raved about it. It was, perhaps, the best restaurant experience they'd ever had. I've been waiting to go ever since, and I wasn't disappointed. My sexy husband and I agree that while it may have been the best meal we have ever had, it was far and away, without contest the best Italian meal we'd ever had.

We started off with a really great wine. When my in-laws went to the restaurant, the chef recommended this wine to best complement both of their dinners (and, incidentally, we were going to be ordering the same thing). It was quite full bodied for a white (very necessary to stand up to the appetizer and my meal which were very full in flavor) but it finished with a burst of fruit (wonderful and necessary for my sexy husband's meal which was more mild to accommodate scallops). Fantastic. One of the best wines I've had...and it BETTER have been for the price.:)

After the wine came our appetizer: POLENTA E GORGONZOLA AI FUNGHI, a rich porcini and mixed mushroom gorgonzola sauce over seared (or deep fried?) polenta. Because I didn't want to be rushed, I made our reservation for 7:30. By the time our appetizer came, we were incredibly hungry. I meant to take a picture. I remembered after I had already used the wonderful thinly sliced, subtly garlic bread to mop up the last of the sauce. And the sauce was incredible. I can't even describe it. Incredible.

After the appetizer, my sexy husband and I split the salad special, a spinach salad with crispy pancetta, roasted red peppers, and some other stuff I can't remember in a creamy balsamic dressing.

For dinner, my sexy husband ordered the PAGLIA E FIENO, Spinach and egg fettuccine (hand cut), tiger shrimp, scallops and fresh vegetables in a lemon-smoked salmon cream sauce (complete with pieces of salt-cured salmon). Is your mouth watering already or do I need to describe it further. It didn't disappoint.

As good as my sexy husband's dinner was, I feel that I made the right choice on mine: TORTELLI IN SALSA SALMONE, smoked salmon ravioli with mascarpone in a tomato-caper cream sauce with fresh spinach and [tons of] mushrooms. The ravioli was fantastic. The sauce was out of this world....just bursting with flavor (and yet still pared well with the wine). Perfection.

Unfortunately, my sexy husband and I could only eat a few bites of our dinner before we were full...but that didn't stop us from ordering dessert! I got creme brulee with mixed berries (strawberries and blueberries).

My sexy husband got black cherry gelato. He made the better choice this time.

This wasn't the fanciest restaurant I'd ever been to. And it didn't really have the best presentation (though it wasn't bad). But the flavors.....

The whole evening was fantastic.

2008-09-24T21:00:00.003-04:00

Last night we had white bean chili. It normally has chicken in it, but I was sick of chicken...so it was simply navy beans, chicken broth, roughly chopped onions, and peppers from my co-worker's garden (3 banana peppers, 2 jalepeno peppers, and one little, bitty cayanne pepper) seasoned with chili powder, cumin, paprika, black pepper, and salt. Satisfying.

BBQ chicken week

2008-09-24T21:00:00.002-04:00

This is one of those weeks...when nothing I make seems really that interesting. I may not be recycling lots of recipes, but I feel like I'm recycling flavors a lot. My budget make-up week is nearing an end, and what have I made? Well, let's see. Last Thursday, I made the gingery chicken and I rice for my grandparents with greenbean with carmelized onions. Friday I made the above pictured bbq chicken (the key to good bbq chicken, by the way, is wating until the chicken is half-cooked before you put the bbq sauce on it. That way, the sugary sauce doesn't burn up before the chicken is done. Then after, you put the sauce on, you turn and baste it frequently. I promise, it will taste like bbq even though you didn't marinate it.) with acorn squash and leftover chicken and rice. Saturday...oh my goodness!....we had bbq chicken again! No, wait. The chicken with acorn squash WAS Saturday. What was Friday? I don't even remember. Sunday, we ate at the fam's. Monday I went shopping until late, called my sexy husband to see what he wanted to eat...bbq chicken and mac and cheese. Yes. Really.
Man, oh, man. I had been craving bbq flavor, but I need to try something else. This is getting out of hand!

A visit from the long lost grandparents

2008-09-19T21:00:00.001-04:00

My grandparents came to visit me last night.

I love my grandparents, and I know they love me. But I don't see them/speak with time/hear from or about them very often. When I was a kid we would travel to Maine every summer and spend a month or so at my grandparents' very rustic and secluded cabin on a lake. Since I'm the only girl in my generation of family, I would set up a small dome tent on the porch in this sort of fenced off area. It was worth sleeping on wood. It was my own space. No one was allowed in without my permission. Every day I would sweep out my tent and tie the window flaps back like real curtains. Then I would have my cousins "over" to play cards, but they had to take their shoes off at the door. The cabin didn't have electricity or plumbing. It had an outhouse that my grandma called the "Patrick Henry." It also had a gas stove and an elaborate ice box with 3 doors that my grandma would fill with ice from the trading post down the road. Every day my grandma and I had toast for breakfast, toasted in the broiler with one side burned and the other side completely white. The last time I went to the cabin I was a looking forward to my senior year of high school.

As is likely true of most grandparents, mine haven't changed much over the years. My grandma still eats toast, fat free small curd cottage cheese, fruit, skim milk, and the same powdered drink mix for breakfast every day. My grandpa, though normally very quiet, still likes to tell stories and jokes in the evening.

My grandma has had food controlled diabetes for over 30 years, and she has been on the same extremely particular, and perhaps outdated, diabetic diet for every single day of those 30-some-odd-years. Cooking for her is a challenge (for someone like me who would feel slighted if my grandma had to whip out her own food to meet her needs). She is very particular. Peas, beans, corn, rice, potatoes= starch. Meat, nuts= protein. Thinking ahead, I was pretty sure she eats something from every food group at every meal, and I know she has to eat each meal during a particular window of time which means that I have to have the dinner ready fast. On top of all that, my grandparents eat very bland food (my grandma recently told me that a friend of hers made the best chili, and it was so easy! 1 can tomato soup, 1 lb ground beef, 1 can kidney beans, and 1 tsp chili powder- yuck!). At first I thought that a chicken/rice/veg. soup would be perfect. Good-- but not especially packed with bold flavors. Then I was worried that soup would make it impossible for my grandma to get the exact right ratios. Okay...so a roast? I could cook a roast in the crock pot insuring that dinner is ready during "the window" and allowing her to choose the ratio of protein to veg to starch. But grandma also has cholesterol problems, so I don't think she eats much red meat.

Perhaps not surprisingly to you... his timing was impeccable...a settled on Mark Bittman's recipe for this week. It's a whole chicken boiled in salted water with garlic and ginger. As described in the recipe, I then made rice with onions and ginger and the stock from the chicken and served the chicken, shredded, over the rice. After conferencing with my mom, I decided to serve it with green beans (grandma doesn't eat much salad). Meat--starch--veg. Mom said she might bring her own milk, cottage cheese, and bananas. If she needed something else, I'd have to go to the store.

I made the chicken the night before, so all I'd have to do is make the rice and green beans.

Success! The only thing I changed is I didn't make the dipping sauce. I put some grated ginger in the rice instead. I don't like my ginger too overpowering, so I only used about 1/4 t. (Oh! And grandma brought her own milk and cottage cheese. We had plain strawberries for "dessert" cause that's what they do.)

This served more than 4...that's for sure!

That explains it

2008-09-18T21:00:00.003-04:00

Maybe these fantastic desserts that my sexy husband and I got last week at Whole Foods play some part in my budget crisis. But it was SO worth it. My sexy husband choose this one...it had a raspberry cream/mousse and a vanilla cream/mousse between pastry layers with real barely sweetened whipped cream on top.

I chose this one. It had a small slice of chocolate cake on the bottom topped with espresso cream/mousse, dark chocolate cream/mousse, and chocolate cream/mousse. The whole whole thing was wrapped in chocolate and topped with chocolate "fingers", chocolate covered espresso beans, red raspberries, and real barely sweetened whipped cream. Oh man! It tasted even better than it looks or sounds. Coffee and chocolate play so well together.

I wish I knew the difference between cream and mousse.

Rice Salad

2008-09-18T21:00:00.002-04:00

Day 1 of my budget make-up, my sexy husband made a fantastic stir fry in his wok with peppers, zucchini, chicken, and noodles. He took pictures. They disappeared.:(

Day 2 I made this awesome rice salad with a cup of brown jasmine rice (brought to room temp), a banana pepper and a jalapeno pepper that I got from a friend's garden, a carrot, a stalk of celery, parsley from my garden, and 3 thin green onions. I "dressed" it with olive oil, white wine vinegar, spicy mustard, salt and pepper. It made about two servings (and since my sexy husband wasn't home last night, I get to have it for lunch today too). A great salad for those nights when salad is all you get...especially if you add beans (I think chickpeas would have been good if I had them). Should I say "yum-o?" I guess not...but it was really good...and different since I'd never had a rice salad before.

You should try it. With brown rice, it has a lot of really nice texture, and it's super economical. If you want more rice salad inspiration check out Mark Bittman's column from a few weeks ago. He has recipes for Indian-Style Rice Salad (with coconut milk), Pad Thai-Style Rice Salad, Citrus Rice Salad with Parmesan, and Japanese-Style Rice Salad.

When the budget crisis comes.

2008-09-16T21:00:00.000-04:00

For some reason I am almost completely unable to follow my food budget. I'll try, and then stuff comes up like "let's just pick up a few things to take over to the fam's house for Sunday brunch since they haven't been shopping and have no food," and "oops! I forgot to get everything I need for this recipe, and this one, and this one,"and "I rarely make it out to Trader Joes, I might as well get enough of their fantastic chips, mac and cheese, and inexpensive wine to last me a while." Before I know it, I'm more than a hundred dollars behind. What the heck?! So, every once in a while I'm forced to go a pay period (two weeks) without buying any/much food and creatively live off whatever we have in the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.

(Incidentally, when my food budget was $5 a day, I rarely went over. Now that I have a whole whopping $10 a day, I can't seem to make it work. )

If you haven't guessed, I'm over again. Plus my sexy husband is getting laid off at the end of the month through no fault of his own. It's time to get caught up.

So...I just got back from the Pearl Ally Farmer's Market downtown, and I spent the $8 cash that I had in my wallet (money that doesn't come out of my checking account isn't real money) on a large cantaloupe, 2 small sweet peppers, 2 acorn squash, and 4 zucchini squash. This, plus the stuff we already have, is going to have to last us until next Thursday.

I'm not too worried. These weeks can be fun. I'll assess my reserves tonight and keep you posted.

On Rachel Ray

2008-09-09T21:00:00.001-04:00

I know. She's annoying. But she actually does make really good food, and her show is on when I get home from work...besides that, the concept is quite cool. She makes a whole meal "from start to finish" including all of the chopping and baking and pulling things out of the cupboard and refrigerator during the 30 min show. So...if I were as good a multi-tasker as she is...I should be able to make the "delicious and healthy" meal in 30 min too (though it would probably take me a bit longer).

I started watching her show last year...in spite of her. Her use of the made-up terms like "yum-o" and "E.V.O.O" (extra virgin olive oil...watch out, Rachel Ray brand EVOO is available at Meijers) and her over-excitement drove me crazy. But I like food and making food, so I watched and made a few of the recipes.

I don't watch her show as much as I used to (I don't get home from work as early, and she uses a lot of reruns), but I've changed my mind about Rachel Ray. I think she's a lot like me. She really genuinely enjoys cooking and talking to people about food (even though she's an untrained cook). When she comes up with a recipe that really is great she gets a little too excited (maybe because she's still suprising herself), and she really wants you to try it and like it...so she lets words like "yum-o" and "D-lish" slip. Who can blame her? I mean, seriously, what untrained chef wouldn't be excited if she came up with a great meal like Indian Spiced Chick Pea and Fire-Roasted Tomato Soup, Spiced Lamb Chops with Peppers and Onions and Garlic-Mint Couscous that the average at-home cook could make in around 30 minutes?

My favorite meal from Rachel Ray:

Baked Fish Dugler-ini and Angel Hair Pasta

with Green Beans with (carmalized) Onion

Making my sexy husband happy with Mac and Cheese

2008-09-05T21:00:00.001-04:00

I can't say how grateful I am that my sexy husband enjoys good food...and that he never complains (I just found out this weekend that he's not a fan of mustard...this after I've been on a mustard kick for like a month! Poor guy.). While I'm certainly not a real food snob, I prefer meals that seem really creative (like the pasta in pear and walnut sauce I posted earlier). But I've learned a lot of people really just want the basics (like my sexy husband), so once in a while I try to hone some American classics like mac and cheese.

This time I wanted to use Mark Bittman's fast fresh pasta recipe I just found. He calls it "Fresh Pasta at Ferrari Speed," but Ferrari speed might be a bit of a stretch. It took me just under 45 min to make this dish...from start to finish (as Rachel Ray would say).

I had to triple the recipe for the pasta to make enough for the sauce (and it was still VERY saucy).

You'll need (I'm tripling it for you):

3 c flour

1 1/2 t salt

6 eggs (or maybe 5...mine was really sticky)

2 t olive oil

You can process this in the food processor....or sorta knead it together with your hands. As my food processor is slowing down, I did a little bit of both. Then I dropped small pieces of the dough into boiling water and cooked them for 2-3 minutes. I had to do it in two batches.

Then I drained the noodles and set them aside to make the sauce which I found watching "Down Home with the Neelys" on the Food Network. Once again, I don't have an oven. Ah! The pain! So I just didn't do the baking part. But...Oh man! This was the best sauce I've ever had (probably because of the mustard powder (sorry sexy husband) and the hot sauce!). Please, if you need a good stable to make your someone special happy...try this.

Macaroni and Cheese...compliments of the Neelys

6 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups milk, warm

1 teaspoon dry mustard (my sexy husband said he would have used less mustard)

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Dash salt and freshly ground black pepper

Dash hot sauce

Dash Worcestershire sauce

3 cups shredded Cheddar

1 pound cavatappi pasta, cooked al dente (of course, I used my weird looking pasta lumps)

1 cup crushed potato chips

5 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, for topping

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt 6 tablespoons butter in a large saucepot over medium heat. Add flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Whisk in the warmed milk and bring to a boil, continue to whisk constantly. The mixture will thicken as the heat increases. Continue to stir while adding the dry mustard, nutmeg, cayenne, salt, pepper, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Stir in the 3 cups of Cheddar until it melts.

Pour the cheese sauce over the noodles and add to a 3 quart casserole dish.

Sprinkle the chips, bacon and Parmesan on top and bake for 35 minutes.

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It's supposed to look like the picture above.

Mine looked like this:

It was perfect. My sexy husband was in bliss. He ate more than I did (that doesn't usually happen)!

Pasta

2008-09-04T21:00:00.001-04:00

Back to my meals from last week...I'm not digging this whole post a week late thing...so I'm not continuing it.

Yet another success and another recipe from the New York Times...not Mark Bittman, though. I'm making progress.

Pasta With Tomato Broth, Bacon, Peas and Ricotta

I'll not repeat the recipe. I don't change anything on this one. But I did have leftovers. Yay! finally a good lunch.:)

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And to finish off last week:

Jamacian red beans and rice. Picture black rice (yes, I use a mixture of wild rice that includes a lot of sweet Thai rice...which is black) in a purple sauce (created by the black rice) with kidney beans and green peppers. Yeah. That's it. Oh...and I didn't parboil the rice. Parboiling the rice is a farce Mark Bittman technique designed to save time the day you actually make the dish. I don't like cooking parts of my meal the day before. That doesn't save time. It creates more dishes.

Oh! And, as you know, my oven still isn't working. I make the whole thing on the stovetop in a heavy cast iron dutch oven. Got it?

In the ultimate father-in-law compliment, my father-in-law said "I'm going to have to ask Mom to get this recipe from you." Nice.

Soup for one

2008-09-03T21:53:00.001-04:00

My sexy husband is at band practice again tonight, and I'm making dinner for one. For me dinner for one needs to fulfil two requirements: it needs to be easy to make in small quantities (no leftovers) and it needs to allow room for creativity (being creative cheers me up). I suppose it's easy enough to make dinner for one in normal quantities and eat it for a few days or freeze the leftovers for later (sure beats TV dinners), but I don't like to eat leftovers. They just aren't nearly as exciting the next day. Besides I love cute little things...so small quantities are fun.

My all-time favorite dinner for one is soup...which is to be expected because my all-time favorite type of food is soup. I could almost eat soup every day, and I can't say that about anything else. Part of the reason I love soup so much is because it's incredibly versatile. Hardy. Brothy. Creamy. Italian. Japanese. Cajun. Indian. Soup can be everything.

Here's the concept. Soup almost always starts with broth (unless it starts with stewed tomatoes). Then you add a few veggies (and cooked meat if you want). One or more starch (potatoes, noodles, rice, barley, beans). And some spices. If it's a creamy soup, you throw the whole thing into the blender and add a splash of milk or cream. If it's chunky, you just leave it. Done. Simple.

Minestrone-style soup: canned diced tomatoes, other diced veggies (including potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery), garlic, beans (kidney or white), small pasta shapes, and Italian herbs. (you'll probably want to saute the veggies first, then add broth and beans. Then add pasta at the end.)

Totally workable vegetarian chili: The same as above minus the noodles and potatoes...heavy on the beans (multiple kinds is nice...and peppers are nice too)...and with chili powder, cumin, garlic, cayenne pepper (or hot sauce)...

Cream of potato soup: broth, diced potatoes (probably just one or two if you are making soup for one), herbs. Puree. Splash of milk and cheddar cheese (bacon is nice too).

Cream of anything else soup: Whatever veggie you want (broccoli, cauliflower, mixed veggies...) with onions and garlic (and whatever spices you want). Saute. Cook in broth. Puree. Add splash of milk and cheese if appropriate. (If you want your "cream of" soup to be thick without using a lot of dairy, you can add a potato or some rice to the veggies. Once pureed, the starch will make the soup seem thick and creamy).

Lentil soups: I am willing to add lentils to almost any veggie soup. But you can also make an Indian-style lentil soup by using red lentils (which break down themselves like split peas), curry powder, and coconut milk.

You get my point?...I didn't even get to bean soups....black bean (sort of Mexican)...white bean (definitely Italian)....the possibilities are endless. Soup is fun to play with because it's almost fool proof. It makes me feel like a real cook...you know, the kind that doesn't need to bother with recipes.

Last night I made an impromptu veggie noodle soup.

I chopped up 1 carrot, 1 celery spear, 1/5 of a large onion, and a clove of garlic (food is kinda scarce at my house right now. That's all I had). I sauteed these in olive oil until the onions were soft. Then I dumped them into what was probably 2 or 2 1/2 cups chicken stock (I use "better than bullion organic" which is very salty so I never add salt). To this I added a handful of a Trader Joe's mixture that had rice, orzo, mini garbanzo beans and some other stuff. I topped it off with a bit of fresh Italian herbs. Nice.

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Note: When my sexy husband got home from band practice I had to make another dinner for one. I forgot that he'd be hungry. He had a BT (we didn't have any Lettuce) cause he's a B kind of guy. And he was very happy.

Tacos

2008-09-02T21:00:00.001-04:00

Potato and poblano tacos. Another success. My father-in-law is having a great time eating at my house this week.:) (Or, I guess that was last week...this week delay thing is weird.)

I hesitate to tell you that this recipe comes from Mark Bittman yet again. You could probably just give up reading my blog right now and read his (I'm not going to give you the address...you're sneaking. You want to jump ship). You can read the article here, or you can just read the next few sentences. Mark Bittman discovered this recipe in the Yacatan, which is to Mexico as Hawaii is to the United States. Mexico and the Yucatan have very different cultures and culinary traditions. So don't expect ground up red meat or cumin in these tacos. They are totally different and simply fantastic (did you get my play on words?).

Taco Filling With Poblano Strips and Potatoes (Tacos de Rajas con Papas)

3 large poblano chilies (they are green and large like bell peppers, only they are thinner and mildly spicy. Even those these peppers don't taste incredibly spicy, their oils will still burn you. Be careful.)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large baking potatoes, peeled, cooked and cubed
1 cup cooked corn kernels (I forgot this ingredient last night...and I was sad)
Cilantro and sour cream to serve

Corn Tortillas (yes, they have to be corn)

1. You're supposed to char the skins of the chilies over a flame, in a broiler, on a grill or in a cast iron skillet on high heat, until completely black on all sides. Put in a paper or plastic bag to steam for 15 minutes. Remove, then peel or rinse away skin; remove seeds and veins and slice into strips 1/2 inch wide by 2 inches long. I skipped this step. I don't mind the skins.

2. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil and cook onions (and peppers, if you didn't char them), stirring occasionally, for 5 to 10 minutes, or until onions are translucent and tender. Add chili strips (if you did char them) and salt, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, another 3 to 4 minutes.

3. Add potatoes and corn, and continue cooking for a few minutes, until potatoes are heated through.

This will make about 15 tacos (I'd say this should serve about 4)

Place in warm corn tortillas and add a nice dollop of sour cream and some cilantro leaves.

Note: Mark Bittman suggests that you can make these non-vegetarian by cooking about 1/2 pound Mexican chorizo, squeezed from its skin, until its fat is rendered and then adding onions to pan. You would have to decrease the amount of lard or oil accordingly; you may need none if chorizo is very fatty. However, from a person who eats meat and vegetarian dishes, I'm telling you, no meat is necessary. These are great the way they are.

Fresh Pasta At Ferrari Speed

2008-08-29T21:00:00.002-04:00

And this is why I love Mark Bittman.

You'll have to be patient with me

2008-08-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

In an effort to post more pictures, I'm going to post my blogs with a one week delay. Apart from my absence for the rest of this week, you won't know the difference...but there will be pictures. So hold on tight. They're coming.

A light, fresh, and creamy pizza

2008-08-27T21:00:00.002-04:00

First the inspiration, then the recipe (I totally forgot to take a picture...and it looked so lovely!).

Last week I spent one day in New York City. I apologize to all of you who have lived in New York City and to all of you who love New York City. I do not. This trip was just further confirmation for my sexy husband and I that New York City is just too much. Give me Chicago or, best of all, Vancouver any day. I do not want New York City. It may very well be the culinary capital of the world, but who can eat at all of those restaurants? How can this one or that one be the jewel? There are approximately 50 million "jewels" in New York City. I find it all very overwhelming. Still, on my last two trips to New York City the highlight has been restaurants. Last year we found this awesome wine bar that was an oasis. It didn't belong in New York City at all. It made me feel like I was somewhere else, somewhere relaxing and peaceful, and that's probably why I liked it so much.

Last week we went to this wonderful pizza place off of Broadway near Times Square (I don't remember the name...but no matter, you can't recreate an experience in New York City anyway). It was spacious, unhurried, and uncrowded (and a welcome relief since we'd been standing in line at the Empire State Building for over 2 hours). They had two coal fired ovens in which they made New York style thin crust pizza. My sexy husband and I got a bruschetta pizza. The pizza had no sauce. The mozzarella cheese was directly on the crust with grilled chicken and tomatoes marinated in basil and olive oil on top. It was fantastic. The restaurant also had a white sauceless pizza with both ricotta and mozzarella. Unfortunately at $22 a pizza, I didn't get to try that one.

These pizzas were my inspiration.

My pizza (which my sexy husband declared to be even better than the $22 version) was pan fried. As I suggested when I first succeeded at pan frying a pizza (see my directions here), it is much easier to pan fry a pizza if you don't have to worry about cooking/melting the toppings. So, if you haven't already guessed, I topped my pizza with ricotta cheese (no moz) and bruschetta topping.

Bruschetta topping:

3 large tomatoes, diced (try to squeeze out some of the liquid or use a firmer Roma tomato)
2 green onions, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
a small handful of fresh herbs, chopped (I used basil, savory, mint, and thyme because I had them available. You can just use basil if you want. That should be your predominant flavor)
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

I made the bruschetta topping about an hour ahead so the flavors of the herbs would start coming out into the juices.

Pan fry (in some olive oil) or grill pizza dough until it's nicely browned and crispy on one side. Flip. Top with ricotta cheese and bruschetta topping. Continue frying or grilling until second side is nicely browned and crisp. If your dough is burning before it cooks through, the pan/grill is too hot.

For me, the key to this pizza is the dough (crispy on the outside and wonderful, doughy goodness inside) and the ricotta cheese. The ricotta makes the pizza both creamy and light while allowing the tomatoes and basil to dominate.

My father-in-law told me to tell all of you that it was a great success. He loved it.:)

A week of fun

2008-08-25T21:00:00.000-04:00

So...I'm back from vacation and looking forward to cooking again. This week is going to be fun because my father-in-law will be eating with us almost every night. He is going to be stranded at home while my mother-in-law and the kidos attend to a few things in the north. My father-in-law has a really big appetite (and he's mostly vegeterian). That means I can make something different every night, and I won't have to deal with lingering leftovers. Even though my in-laws live less than 2 miles away, and I cook for them pretty frequently, I still have a long list of meals I've made that I know they would love but haven't tried.

So here goes... 4 days of fun food for the father-in-law....
(I'll try to post pictures and recipes as I go.)

Tuesday- Bruschetta and ricotta pan-fried pizza

Wednesday- Tacos with poblanos and potatoes

Thursday- Pasta with tomato broth, bacon, peas and ricotta

Friday- Jamaican red beans and rice

Update #3- Disaster!

2008-08-15T21:00:00.001-04:00

In the almost 3 years that my sexy husband and I have been married and in the many previous years of occasional cooking I've NEVER had to throw food away because it was unpalatable (I almost had to throw away some delicious meatballs that I made for a high school boyfriend because I left the plastic wrap on them in the oven...but that was different)...until last night. Please, I beg of you...do NOT try the eggs poached in red wine.

I must confess that I've never poached eggs before. Once, the summer between seventh and eighth grade, I ate poached eggs. But I've never actually made them. So I can't guarantee that I poached the eggs correctly. Nasty purplish, shrivelled up eggs whites were floating everywhere. That doesn't seem right to me. But it doesn't matter because both my sexy husband and I agreed that it was no good and that under no circumstances could eggs poached in red wine be good.

Good thing the night wasn't totally lost. In addition to the eggs, I made Spaghetti with Pear and Walnut Sauce. Last time I made this dish I followed the recipe as closely as possible (without using blue cheese...which my sexy husband hates). Although it tasted very good, the presentation was off. I changed the recipe a bit this time (somewhat out of necessity as I was missing a few ingredients that turned out to be unnecessary), and it both tasted better and looked more beautiful. I'll give you my version, but the original comes from "Cookshelf Vegetarian" by Jenny Stacey.
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Spaghetti with pears and walnuts (I don't really make a sauce)

8 oz angel hair pasta

2 small ripe pears, peeled and sliced thinly

2/3 white wine...something light and fruity but not sweet (I used Target's Pinot Grigio wine cube)

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, quartered and sliced

1 garlic clove

1/2 c fontina cheese, cut into small cubes

Fontina cheese is a specialty cheese, so it could be a bit expensive. It's semi-soft with a really smooth texture and flavor that finishes with a slight tangyness. If you want to substitute, I'd probably go with a soft swiss...but as I indicated earlier, the recipe originally called for blue cheese so something stronger would probably work as well.

1/2 c walnut halves, approximately

chopped fresh oregano to generously garnish

Put the water for the pasta on to boil.
Meanwine gently cook the pear slices in the white wine (Keep the heat pretty low. You don't want them to turn into mushy pear-wine sauce) and saute the onions and garlic in butter and
oil (you want the onions to get really soft and sweet).

When the pears and onion mixture are almost finished cook the angel hair pasta (it should only take 3- 4 minutes).

When the pasta is done, you can build the dish in layers...first a handful of hot pasta, then cheese cubes, then onion mixture, then pears (removed from wine with a slotted spoon), then walnuts
and oregano...with salt, black pepper and a few teaspoons (per plate) of the
wine from the pears over the top to finish it off.
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Should I say "yumm-o?" Probably not, but it's good...and quick...and impressive.:) I'd serve it to you if you came to my house, just not paired with eggs poached in red wine.

Update #2

2008-08-14T21:00:00.002-04:00

Okay, okay. I'm getting feedback that I need more pictures. So here you go, complements of the New York Times dining and wine page, buttery polenta with olive oil fried onion and garlicy swiss chard. Mine did not look like this. I served it on a plate instead of a bowl (the polenta is think enough to stay in a mashed potato-like glop), and I couldn't find swiss chard, so I used kale (which wilted down but kept it's shape like thick dark peices of lettace). My sexy husband liked the polenta and eggs. Neither of us really understood the kale/green stuff. It didn't go at all. My sexy husband said he'd rather have this served with bacon. Of course. Maybe the green foliage was supposed to make you feel like this was dinner. It wasn't. Not for me, at least. This was brunch at best, but it really reminded me of savory grits with eggs. This was breakfast, and, you know, interesting or not, I don't really like having breakfast for dinner. So it was good...my sexy husband wants to have it again sometime, but I won't serve it to company for dinner (maybe for breakfast with bacon but not for dinner).

So far my egg challenge has been disappointing. I'd make the shrimp devilled eggs for a party. That's it so far. If you're looking for a recipe to make, you have to try the carrot and lentil salad I posted earlier...even if you've never tried lentils. I let a few people from my office try it last week, and they all asked for the recipe (one person went out a bought the ingredients that night). Trust me, and try it.

Will you try it if I post a picture?