Southern, Eh?

So Lost

2009-09-19T23:45:00.008-07:00

I feel completely lost on how to make up for not posting for SO long. It's been an interesting few months, and I'm still trying to get into the routine of cooking, taking pictures, cleaning, working and everything else. I realize that the last few posts have been apologies for not posting regularly and this one is no different.

To make up for it, I offer a picture of my pup gazing at a taco burger... along with a life update, pictures and recipes from Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks.

First of all, I think I've mentioned before that I managed to get a full-time job right after I graduated from university in June. It was a front desk reception/admin assistant position in a health care facility, which was great. Well, towards the middle of July, I was offered a promotion to administrator... of course I jumped at the chance. So from mid-August on, I've been learning new reports and protocol for my new position. Not that I'm making excuses for falling behind, but after not working for five years, I'm having a rough transition period to the "real world". lol I've been interviewing people this week as my replacement for front desk, and most people are shocked at the rapid movement you can have! :)

Now, on to what you're actually here for, the FOOD! Admittedly I have lacked the ambition to do the Daring Bakers' challenges for August and September (although I might attempt the September challenge next weekend). The last challenge I did were the Milan cookies from July, which were absolutely amazing, especially with coffee. I have no need to buy cookies anymore. lol Seriously, these were SO good, SO easy and inexpensive to make. One warning: when the recipe says to space the cookies apart because they spread... booooy do they SPREAD! My first "batch" made one gigantic cookie that I was too stunned to even photograph! A giant cookie thanks to Nicole from Sweet Tooth for picking these as part of the challenge. Mallow cookies were the other half, but I'm slightly intimidated by making homemade marshmallow. :-x

Daring Cooks' challenge for August was Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish and Artichokes... at least, that was the original recipe. lol If you've visited before, you know the Hubs abhors seafood... and mushrooms... and artichokes. Needless to say, I got a little creative with ingredients. Another curveball I had to deal with was the fact that Hubs was told to cut back on his intake of more acidic ingredients, like tomato. So, there's a tomato-based version with green bell peppers, mushrooms and chicken for myself and the mother-in-law, and a white wine-based version with potatoes and chicken for the Hubs. If I'd thought about it, I probably would have written down what I did with the white version... if I make it again, I'll write it down and share with the class! :) Thank you a million times over to Olga of Las Cosas de Olga for giving such a great challenge that was so easily adaptable!

It's with a heavy bloggers' heart that I share this: I may have to politely step away from my beloved monthly groups, as I can't seem to keep up the way I'd like to. Hopefully I can come back once my daily routine is set more solidly. I plan to keep cooking and baking and posting as often as I can but I don't like feeling like I've let down a group of people by not following through with a previous commitment. :( Daring Bakers, Daring Cooks and Barefoot Bloggers have been such gracious and wonderful groups that I've learned so many things from and hope to learn more from in the future. Thank you to everyone for accepting me with my punctuality faults and for teaching me loads of invaluable information.

Rules for Blogging

2009-07-12T20:33:00.003-07:00

So I've learned something very valuable in the last 2 weeks, and food bloggers will appreciate my hard-learned lesson.

What am I babbling about? Photography and timing are what I'm talking about...

I said at the end of my last post that I was making cake balls and potstickers for a work pot luck. And I absolutely promise that I made them, but lesson #1 was learned- NEVER plan to "finish the last batch" of something the morning of whatever it's for. I had one more batch of cake balls to dip and one more batch of potstickers to cook, and it was pretty late at night, so I said "Hey, I don't go to work till 11, I have time in the morning!"

WRONG. lol

The Hubs ended up going into to work late that morning because of health issues he was dealing with, causing me to be behind. So I ended up taking one batch of naked cake balls and fewer potstickers in to work.

Lesson #2 was learned at work... anyone who's ever had a cake ball knows how delicious they are. Considering my coworkers had never had cake balls before, they devoured them like the world was going to implode that night! So I wasn't able to get photos of anything that day.

This all leads into the Barefoot Bloggers first Thursday recipe, Pasta with Sun-dried Tomatoes. Like other bloggers I've seen, I also omitted the olives because I felt the brine flavour of the capers and the vinegar flavor was enough vinegar-y flavor and Hubs isn't a huge fan of olives. I was actually expecting him to really hate this because there wasn't any meat, it uses sun-dried tomatoes (which he tends to turn his nose up at), and the only cooking to it was cooking the pasta! My saving grace?

Four-cheese tortellini!

Instead of using a mix of simple pastas, I bought a pound of fresh four-cheese tortellini and tossed those in the "dressing". Heavens to Betsy was this delicious... I will absolutely be making it again. And even better is that the Hubs LOVED it! :-O I actually may try it with more dressing, simple pasta, and cut up cooked chicken breast for more of a meal next time.

But I digress... Once again, I was unable to get a picture of this lovely concoction, because my timing sucks. I made it after coming home from work, so there was no good lighting. I went to take a picture in the morning sun, and found the bowl empty! Mother-in-law and Hubs had taken all of it for their lunches! lol

Moral of the food blogger story: Time your recipes carefully, not only for the sake of completedness, but also for the sake of photographic integrity.

*slinks away sheepishly* I promise I will get more on the ball this month!

Playing Catch Up

2009-06-28T15:01:00.001-07:00

Like always, I've slacked off in keeping up with my poor little blog, but for good reason! My university graduation was 3 weeks ago, followed by starting a new job, so life has been off track and unscheduled for too long... Being that my weekends are the time I'll have to test out my recipes, hopefully I can catch up on everything I need to!

One major difference that I hope you guys will notice is a change in the quality of pictures-- my lovely Hubs surprised me on my graduation day with a Canon XSi digital SLR camera! Needless to say, we've taken a MILLION pictures with it but none of food yet. LOVE. If I could fit it my pocket and take it everywhere, I would. It's definitely pulled out my creative side, and I hope to explore my old hobby a bit more now. :-D

Another major change is that my blog layout is going to change slightly in the next little while. I may or may not be getting a domain just for this little space but we'll see about that yet. :)

On to the missed recipes, I made half recipes of the BB recipes to avoid having to worry about whether Hubs would like it, because I knew my mother-in-law and I would enjoy all of them! So first up is June's DB challenge- a Bakewell Tart... or Pudding (it's apparently a debated name!) The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

This tart was definitely a bit difficult for me. The recipe warned of how curdled the frangipane would look but it still made me quite nervous. lol The frangipane layer had a definite egg-y flavor to it, but balanced with the triple berry jam that I chose and the shortbread crust, this tart would be ah-MAZING with tea on a late fall afternoon. Even the Hubs enjoyed it, after picking off the flaked almonds on top. :-D I may have to try this with Nutella and maybe orange curd... mmm or maybe Nutella WITH orange curd...

Next up, Barefoot Bloggers' June challenges- Gazpacho and Curried Couscous.

Honestly, I've never had gazpacho before so I really have nothing to compare it to. The closest comparable food I've had is pico de gallo and that's only for texture! The white wine vinegar was a great mellow flavor in the background, but I found the red onion a teeny bit overpowering, and that's coming from someone who LOVES red onion. If I were to make it again, I'd probably cut down on the onion and add some zucchini and more red pepper... maybe some orange bell pepper? This would probably also taste fantastic if you used roasted red pepper and fire-roasted tomatoes. YUM!

The curried couscous wasn't entirely my cup of tea. I omitted the almonds and raisins because a- my mother-in-law isn't a fan of sweet & savoury together and b- I wasn't keen on going to the grocery store just for those two items. So essentially, I'm lazy. lol

I plan to make the Daring Cooks' June challenge of Chinese dumplings and dark chocolate cake balls for a pot luck at work in the last week of June, so watch for that in the coming week and also go check out the other Daring Bakers and Barefoot Bloggers for their posts about these recipes! YAY! :-D

Birthdays, graduations, and parents- Oh my!

2009-05-29T07:22:00.002-07:00

So life has been pretty crazy lately. Between Hubs' birthday today (Yay!) and getting my house ready for my family to visit next week (double yay!), I've also somehow managed to reserve my cap and gown for graduation next week AND find a new job! It's a part-time thing for now, so I'll still be able to cook.

But there are a few housekeeping things first...

So, obviously, you already know that I am completely unprepared to post about Daring Bakers or Barefoot Bloggers at this point. I *did* make Ina's Outrageous Brownies, but made a few key boo-boos; when Ina says butter and flour a pan, she doesn't mean butter and cocoa powder. I thought I'd be sneaky and use that little tip I saw a long time ago, where a chocolate cake recipe called for a buttered and floured pan and the chef used cocoa powder so the edges weren't covered in white powder.

That was mistake #1.

Mistake #2 was that I forgot to "rap" the pan on the stove shelf halfway through baking. I was in a bit of a rush to meet with a couple of friends for a super light dinner, and was completely distracted. Listen to Ina when she says to do something. She's not just a crazy lady who loves food- she knows what she's talking about.

Mistake #3 was using a 9"x13" Pyrex dish instead of a half-sheet pan. I didn't have a big ole half sheet pan that wasn't grody-looking, so I thought it'd be alright and I'd get FAT brownies instead.

Nope. lol What I ended up with was a pan of insanely rich delicious brownies that I have to eat out of the dish with a fork. That's fine with me, since I could eat the entire thing on my own. They are so rich, so chocolate-y... the inside is almost fudge-like instead of cake-y, brownie-like. *drool*

Now, on to Daring Bakers... This recipe is somewhat involved and I intend to do it over Sunday/Monday, as a "welcome" for my mom, who is visiting me here for the first time! It will be a bit of a culture-shock for her, I think, but I hope DB's streudel recipe will impress her and make her feel a bit more comfortable. :) Plus, she had mentioned cooking for me, so my gumbo post may be a guest post by my own mommy! Yay!

So, again, I apologize for being a total slacker. I hope having a job will make me more organized and focused, since I won't be a depressed lump sitting around my house anymore. :) So, thanks to all of you who visit and comment and leave me encouraging words. I really do appreciate it!

Because I'm just that crazy...

2009-05-20T16:07:00.004-07:00

I feel the need to share with you some revolutionary items that will change your daily routine. I have to thank Baking Bites for pointing me in the direction of the first item but the others have slowly snuck into my growing basket of "Things I Intend to Buy With My First Paycheck". :-D

All the photos are courtesy of Amazon.com, as are the ridiculous Christmas wishlists I've started to accumulate.

First, having the strongest sweet tooth known to man, I have to introduce Cupcake Dental Floss. How much more incentive do you need to floss twice a day! lol I'd floss every HOUR with this stuff...
Plus you can keep your breath "cupcake-ified" with Cupcake Mints! Between flavored dental floss and cupcake mints, you'll want to make out with yourself! Or pull your own teeth out to save on dentistry.... whichever works for you. :-D
Somewhat related, if you're not much of a cupcake person, there's also Breakfast Dental Floss for that added oomph to your morning routines. You can go for Waffles, Bacon or even coffee!! Or for a full-blown morning pick-me-up, use all three.
And one last thing, just because I'm a huge fan of food-shaped things that are something else entirely. I present to you Meatball Bubble Gum. Looks like an authentic, delicious Italian meatball, but is actually a little brown ball of gum! lol You might think it's weird but I think it's awesomely fun.

Enough of these odds and ends... I'll be back to posting recipes soon. The sun is finally coming out again which will make it easier to take proper pictures. :)

Time for a little culture

2009-05-17T14:20:00.008-07:00

First I have to say, I'll be posting the first Daring Cooks' challenge soon. I completely forgot the date of this new group's posting, so I feel like a goober that I haven't gotten to it yet. Next, I don't plan to make the BB Tuna Salad recipe for this past week, because I'm the only one in our house who eats tuna and, with our purse-strings getting tighter, I can't justify buying ingredients to make the recipe just for myself. Sorry. :(

So I promised a post with Persian stew, called "khoresht" in Farsi, and this one is one of our favorites. It was one of the first Persian dishes that I ever tried, and it's one that I begged my mother-in-law to teach me. It's called Ghormeh Sabzi and is so amazingly delicious but time-consuming so I'd suggest it for special occasions. lol There are tons of variations on it, like with any "traditional" food, and there are also some shortcuts you can use.

If you like red beans and rice, you'll LOVE this. Heck... even if you don't like red beans and rice, you'll love it. :)

Now is when I remind you that I am writing this recipe from experience and memory, and if the measurements seem odd, that's because they are. lol My "handful" may differ from your "handful" so I'll try to give rough approximations of the meausrements.

If you're more apt to try a formally written recipe by a cookbook author, check out New Food of Life by Najmieh Batmanglij. It's such a fantastic book, full of amazing recipes and stories about Persian traditions and ceremonies, and it's peppered with images of traditional Persian art. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an introduction to the Persian kitchen. :)

Ghormeh Sabzi

1 bunch each- curly parsley, cilantro, green onions, minced VERY finely
1/2 bunch of fresh spinach, minced VERY finely
2 Tbsp. dried fenugreek
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil (I wouldn't substitute olive oil here- the flavor will be too strong)
2-3 handfuls of dried kidney beans, either red or striped (roughly 1 c.), soaked overnight
1 yellow onion, diced
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. stewing beef, 1 in. cubes
2 Tbsp. mild curry powder
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
7 c. water
1/4 c. lemon juice, fresh is best!

3 c. white basmati rice, soaked at least 3 hours in salted water
1 Tbsp. salt
1/4 c. butter
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 whole wheat pita rounds, split in half and ripped into big pieces

1. Before anything else, fry the herbs, green onions and spinach in the vegetable oil, until very very very dark. They will look almost black, and it's ok... really! :)
2. In a pressure cooker, heat the olive oil over medium heat and brown up the chopped onion. Add the meat, and brown on each side. Add curry, salt and pepper. Cook for a minute or so.
3. Add water and put on lid. After the pressure cooker goes off once, set a timer for 45 minutes and let cook.
4. After 45 minutes, release the pressure. Drain and rinse the soaked beans and add to the pot. Add the cooked herbs too. Stir well. Let simmer over medium heat until beans are cooked, maybe 25-30 minutes? (I'm terrible at watching the clock, because I'm usually watching a TV show while I cook this.)
5. Add lemon juice and turn off heat. You can add more salt and pepper to taste.

The following "recipe" for rice is the standard sort of rice that you'd have with most Persian stews. Some people like making the "tadiq" (a crunchy layer at the bottom of the pot) with rice, but I much prefer either pita bread or very thinly sliced potato. :-D

1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. When the water is boiling, salt liberally. Rinse the soaked basmati rice 2-3 times until the water runs mostly clear.
2. Add rice to boiling water and stir once. Let it come back up to a rolling boil, and cook for 8-10 minutes (again, keep an eye on it because this is a pure guess-- if you want to test its "doneness", taste a couple of grains. The rice should be very slightly undercooked.) Drain into a colander.
3. Put the same pot back over medium heat. Melt butter and oil together. Swirl the fat around to coat the bottom, then pour it into a coffee mug. There should be a very thin layer left in the bottom.
4. Layer your pita bread pieces, overlapping, in the pot. I tend to pour a tablespoon of the melted fat back over top, just to make sure they get crispy.
5. Pour rice back on top of pita, and use a spoon to make it a mountain-like shape- take care to NOT press the rice down. Pour remaining melted fat over the rice.
6. Cover the inner part of the pot's lid with a towel, and cover rice. Reduce heat to low and set a timer for 25-27 minutes.
7. When the timer goes off, turn the heat off and remove the lid. Let sit for another 10-15 minutes.

Before serving, it's best to pull the tadiq out of the bottom or it will get soggy. Ick. Soggy tadiq is no fun.

Like I've said, this is purely from memory, and it's how my mother-in-law taught me. Other families may have other variations, just like any other food. :)

One Year Gone

2009-05-04T19:33:00.005-07:00

Well, yesterday was my blog's first birthday! I can honestly say this is one hobby that has turned into a serious passion for me- I love talking to other bloggers and learning new photography techniques and presentation tips... this past year has been a great learning experience and I can't wait to learn more!

I know I did a poll on what I should make for Southern Eh?'s birthday, but I've decided I'm going to use the poll results a bit differently. Cupcakes got the most votes, for obvious delicious sweet-tooth-killing reasons, followed by Thai curry, Persian stew and Gumbo. So rather than only doing cupcakes as the winner, I thought I'd work from the items that got less votes up to the winner...

First up- Thai curry!!

This is my first time making a Thai curry at home, so I was admittedly a bit timid. I've only ever had Pad Thai and another chicken & veggie curry that I can't even begin to spell properly. lol I wandered the Asian foods aisle of my favorite grocery store for a good 20 minutes, reading the labels of almost every single jar of red curry paste. I'd done a bit of online research about "authentic" flavors and wanted to make sure I found something that had everything in it- Kaffir lime, galangal, etc.

I make no claims as to how authentic the flavors of this curry are, but it was just spicy enough for me (meaning the spice isn't all over your mouth and on your tongue), and was absolutely delicious. I'm always open to any suggestions and constructive criticisms, so please drop a line and say hi! :)

Red Thai Shrimp Curry

1 lb. jumbo shrimp (or jumbo prawns), cleaned, deveined & shells removed
3 Tbsp. red curry paste
1 can coconut milk, shaken (I used just shy of 1 can, but it thickened considerably, so you may want to use the whole can)
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
1/2 orange bell pepper, sliced
1 Tbsp. lime juice
Handful of clean cilantro leaves
1 c. brown rice
2 c. water (or a combination of chicken or vegetable stock with water)

For the curry:
1. "Melt" the curry paste in a medium-sized pan over medium heat, stirring around to loosen. Add coconut milk and bring to a simmer.
2. Add peppers and simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally., until peppers soften slightly
3. Add shrimp and cook for 2-3 minutes per side, stirring gently
4. Add lime juice, and stir. Turn off heat. Stir in some of the cilantro.

For the rice:
1. Toast rice in a pot over medium-high heat, for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.
2. Add liquid and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low to bring it to a simmer. Cover and cook for 45 minutes.
3. Remove lid and fluff rice with a fork.

Spoon the curry over the rice and garnish with remaining cilantro leaves. Try your hardest not to eat the entire pot on your own. :-D

Next up... Persian stew!!

A little Mexican flair

2009-05-02T10:27:00.007-07:00

I'm a huge huge huge Mexican food fan. HUGE. Anything smothered in melted cheese with chili powder, cilantro or lime will make me almost as happy as anything covered in dark chocolate sauce. lol Although there's no melted cheese the simple fajitas I made for dinner last night had all of my favorite Mexican flavors going on.

I'm sure Rick Bayless would choke if he saw my bastard child of a fajita and enchilada, so I hope this makes up for that delicious insanity.

Simpler was the key motivation. But like every other part of my life, I had to complicate matters. I had WAY too many chicken breasts defrosted so I ended up making fajitas AND a Thai-inspired curry (that will probably be posted on Monday). :-D I still have some left, and plan to make yogurt-marinated kabobs and a Persian chicken salad called Salad-e Olivieh.

Like most things I make, I didn't think to measure anything as I went, so all the ingredient quantities are approximate.

Fajitas!

3 chicken breasts, sliced into 1/2" strips
1 green bell pepper, sliced into 1/2" slices
1 red bell pepper, sliced into 1/2" slices
1 orange bell pepper, sliced into 1/2" slices
1 red onion, sliced
Juice of 1 lime, divided in half
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. ground cumin
4 Tbsp. olive oil, divided in half
8 corn tortillas (or small whole wheat tortillas)

To garnish:
Shredded cheese (Monterey Jack or sharp Cheddar)
Sour cream
Cilantro, chopped
Salsa

1. Heat half the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Toss in chicken "tenders", and cook for 2-3 minutes per side. (It's ok if they stick a tiny bit, because those bits will be picked up by the peppers and onions.) Add cumin, salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Turn off heat and add one half of the lime juice. Remove chicken to bowl or plate.

2. Add the other half of the oil to the pan, turn up the heat to medium-high heat. Throw in the peppers and onions, and let them soften and caramelize slightly.

3. Heat 2 tortillas in the microwave by putting them on a plate between 2 paper towels for 30 seconds.

4. Place 2-3 chicken strips in the middle of a warm tortilla, top with pepper/onion mixture, and garnish with any of the condiments listed above!

One of my new favorite side dishes for any type of Mexican or Mexican-inspired dinner is black bean and corn "salad". Besides being insanely simple and cheap, it's filling, delicious, and you can customize it to your family's tastes! Even Hubs eats it, and he's beyond picky, so you know it has to be good. :)

Black Bean & Corn "Salad"

1 can (19 oz/540 mL) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (19 oz/540 mL) whole niblet corn, drained and rinsed
1/2 red onion, diced (similar size to beans & corn if you can)
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 c. chopped cilantro
Other half of the lime juice
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2-3 garlic cloves, grated (optional)
1-2 medium tomatoes, diced (optional)
1/2 jalapeño, diced very tiny (optional)

1. Mix everything in a big bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the fridge until ready to eat. The longer it sits, the tastier it is!

Barefoot Bloggers travel to France!

2009-04-27T19:10:00.002-07:00

So the second recipe for Barefoot Bloggers this month was Ina's take on the Croque Monsieur. Being the relatively uncultured, I had no idea what this would involve. I knew it was a sandwich that I had to use copious amounts of cheese.

Holy. Wow. If you ever get a cheese craving, this will squash that in a heartbeat. Thank you a million times over, Kathy from All Food Considered, because this was ah-mazing.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but (like the Brownie Pudding) this was the second attempt at taking a picture before they were inhaled! Who knew that my mother-in-law, who is not a fan of dijon or Gruyere, would love them so much?!

My only cheat? They are entirely vegetarian! Instead of ham, I used another Yves Veggie Cuisine item, called "Veggie Ham", and it was actually really good. The Hubs was completely fooled. :-D

To try and make up for all of the cheese, I added some fresh veggies and dip (which isn't pictured). Of course, Hubs passed on the vegetables, but I just couldn't let those cute little asparagus and broccoli spears and red pepper pieces go to waste, so that was my lunch plate for the afternoon.

Like always, check out the other BB members for their ridiculously gorgeous pictures.

April Daring Bakers- O.M.G.

2009-04-27T15:42:00.008-07:00

Ok, I'll admit it- I'm wasn't a HUGE cheesecake fan. I'd eat it if I was in a certain mood, but I didn't go out of my way to order it for dessert if we were out at dinner. This makes it a bit funny when my family makes special requests for my double-layer pumpkin pie cheesecake at Thanksgiving, because they always look at me funny when I say I don't want any. lol

Thanks to our brilliant host, my entire outlook on cheesecake has changed. The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. And boy what a choice it was.

Creamy. Sweet. Slightly tangy. Perfectly smooth on top. This recipe has completely converted me to the "dark side". It took massive amounts of will power to not eat half of the pan for breakfast.

Although, we did enjoy a generous portion for breakfast anyway. :-D

The texture was amazing. I chose simple flavors, since I wasn't feeling particularly creative and I wasn't a cheesecake person. I used an extra tsp. of vanilla extract and Kahlua for my liquer choice, and the slight coffee flavor blended well with my chocolate cookie crust.

As a side note, I tried to "wing it" and make an Oreo crust, which I've never done before. Too many cookies with not enough butter quickly turned into too much butter with not enough cookie crumbs. I now have a container with roughly 3 cups of Oreo/butter/cocoa powder liquid sitting on my counter until I can figure out something to do with it.

Make sure to check out other Daring Bakers' blogs for wildly creative twists, both savoury and sweet, on this incredible recipe. And definitely visit Jenny Bakes for the recipe. You won't regret it!

Again...

2009-04-25T20:04:00.003-07:00

I SWEAR I'm going to post the 2nd Barefoot Bloggers' recipe tomorrow... I've been a complete slacker this month, but I think I deserve it since I took my last final EVER last Wednesday! YAY for finally having a Bachelor's degree! lol

In the next week, there will be Barefoot Bloggers, Daring Bakers, AND I have a couple of new recipes I can't wait to try. :-D So please keep visiting because I promise you won't be disappointed.

Quick n' Easy

2009-04-15T10:31:00.002-07:00

So, I've sort of been slacking off in the kitchen lately... not that I don't cook dinner anymore, but I've fallen into that rut of making the same family-approved dinners over and over again. Instead of wallowing in my laziness, I thought I'd share some of it.

Lazy, crazy, messy dinner ahoy!

My mother-in-law brought home a can of sloppy joe mix a while back (a very well-known brand who shall remain nameless), and made it for Hubs for the first time ever! Who knew you could make it 27 years on this planet and never have sloppy joes?! My mind was thoroughly boggled.

However, I was curious and wanted to check out the ingredient list. I wasn't thrilled to see high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient, so I wanted to try and make my own sauce. After many, many tries, this recipe is now my stand-by.

A bonus: it's super fast, and takes the same amount of time as opening a can. Plus you can adjust each ingredient to suit your own tastes, AND you can add other chopped veggies to up the nutritional value. Just soften them with the onions in the beginning, and you're sneaking veggies into your diet! :)

Homemade Sloppy Joes

1 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion, minced
1/2 green bell pepper, minced
2-3 garlic cloves
2 tsp. prepared yellow mustard
3/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. Worchestershire sauce
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste

1. In a medium skillet over medium heat, soften the onions in olive oil. Add the garlic & ground beef, and brown. Drain off liquids.

2. Toss in bell pepper and cook for a couple of minutes to soften them.Stir in mustard, ketchup, worchestershire and brown sugar; mix thoroughly. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

You can make it as sloppy as you like... If I have it, sometimes I add 1/4-1/3 c. of BBQ sauce too. All the measurements above are approximate because they've been adjusted to my family's taste. :)

Quarter of a Century Gone...

2009-04-09T20:16:00.004-07:00

Wow. I cannot believe that I'm 25 today. Yes, I know most people would scoff, but I'm not where I thought I would be at 25, so it's been a weird day. However, any and all birthday wishes are welcome. :-D

Another great thing about today is that it's the first Barefoot Bloggers' recipe for April!! The wonderful Kenzie of Kenzie's Kitchen chose Ina's Chinese Chicken Salad, and I cannot sing enough praises for it. I've made it TWICE in the past week and it's disappeared before sunset each time!

Although, as it was being devoured today by other people in the research lab I volunteer in, the flavors are more Thai-influenced rather than Chinese. Regardless of where the flavor profile comes from, it is delicious, super easy, and can feed a crowd. I made a 1/2 recipe the first time, for my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and myself and we each had a couple of servings. I made the full recipe this morning for my lab-mates, and it served 8 people, who each had at least 2 small bowls.

The first time I made this recipe, I was feeling adventurous and had a craving for Asian-inspired recipes, so I made Garlic Scallion Noodles from Steamy Kitchen to go with the chicken salad.

O. M. G. The combination of flavors between these two recipes is out of this world. My only deviation was to add some soy sauce to the noodles, since they were a bit too sweet for a savoury dish (in my humble opinion). Once the soy was added though, it took all the will power I had not to eat the entire pan. I kept performing "quality control tests", just to make sure they were good and I wasn't just blinded by hunger goggles.

Chinese Chicken Salad (by Ina Garten)

4 split chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on)
Good olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound asparagus, ends removed, and cut in thirds diagonally
1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded
2 scallions (white and green parts), sliced diagonally
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, toasted

For the dressing:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup good apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon peeled, grated fresh ginger
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub with the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and shred the chicken in large bite-sized pieces.

2. Blanch the asparagus in a pot of boiling salted water for 3 to 5 minutes until crisp-tender. Plunge into ice water to stop the cooking. Drain.

3. Cut the peppers in strips about the size of the asparagus pieces. Combine the cut chicken, asparagus, and peppers in a large bowl.

4. Whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing and pour over the chicken and vegetables.

5. Add the scallions and sesame seeds and season to taste. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Check out the other BB members for their take on Ina's recipe, since other people's experiences may have been different! :)

Post Bonanza!

2009-04-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

I feel like a complete dolt for not posting sooner, but life has just taken over at the moment. Between getting over being sick, dealing with the last paper and tests of my undergraduate college career (WOOHOO!), and finally having something of a social life, my poor little corner of the web has gone neglected. NO MORE! lol I have a post with a couple of Barefoot Blogger recipes I did on the deadline but didn't get to post about, plus a little extra about Persian New Year (Norooz) that should have been put up 2 weeks ago!

So a belated Norooz Mobarak... from my sad little haft sin.

As I've talked about before, Hubs and his family are Persian while I'm about as white as you can get. We have a very interesting mix of traditions and one of them includes celebrating Norooz, the Persian New Year which happens on the first day of spring. The major element of celebrating is having a proper "haft sin", which is a table covered in a sofreh (Farsi for "tablecloth") topped with seven items starting with sin, S in the Farsi alphabet. Typical items include:

Sabzeh, green wheat grass, on the left of the table, which signifies rebirth
Sekkeh, usually coins, the Persian money sticking out the glass towards the front, representing wealth, which we could always use more of, right? lol
Sir, garlic, to the left of the apple, which symbolizes medicine
Sumac/Somaq, dried ground sumac berries, in the glass in front of the apple, which signifies the color of the sunrise
Sib, apple, behind the sumac, representing health and beauty
Samanu, sweet dark pudding made from wheat berries, in the glass to the right of the apple, which stands for affluence and power
Serkeh, white vinegar, in the glass in front of the fruit, which symbolizes patience and age
Sonbol, hyacinth plant, on the right of the table
Senjed, dried oleaster fruit, which represents love

A mirror is placed in the center to represent cleanliness and honesty, with candles on either side for enlightenment and happiness (there is usually 1 candle for each young person in the family). The Qur'an is placed there to show spirituality.

There were supposed to be a goldfish in a bowl and decorated eggs (similar to Easter eggs!), but they symbolize life and fertility, and I don't think we need to "promote" fertility any time soon. lol Hubs and I have been married for 4 years, and we still aren't quite ready for kids. :-D

Tomorrow is Sizdeh Bedar, Farsi for "thirteen to out"- it is the 13th day of the New Year festival, and everyone is supposed to be outside (out of the house at least) from sunrise to sunset. At the end of the day, the sabzeh is taken from the haft sin and thrown into a body of water to throw "demons" out of the household. Maybe this year, my sister-in-law will tie some of the strands together, since young unmarried women are supposed to do this to show that they want to be married before the next Sizdeh Bedar! Hehehehehe... Or maybe I just want to be a bridesmaid. lol

The food for Norooz wasn't entirely exciting, plus it was inhaled quickly, so I didn't get any pictures of it. The traditional foods are white fish with sabzi polo, which is white basmati rice cooked with green herbs, but we also had ghormeh sabzi, which is a meat stew with red kidney beans and cooked greens (cilantro, parsley, onion, spinach, fenugreek, etc.), and various vegetables.

If you want to know more about Norooz, visit Wikipedia and read about it! :) Even President Obama had a Norooz greeting, which I thought was pretty nifty.

Now, on to the Barefoot Bloggers recipes that I've gotten so behind on... I already posted about the Sauteed Broccolini, but admittedly I made it with baby broccoli. Broccolini is incredibly hard to come by, so baby broccoli was the next best thing!

I can't wait to use this recipe over and over again, and it's such simple flavors that can be easily translated to other veggies! Thanks to Mary of Meet Me in the Kitchen for picking it as the other March BRC.

The March BRC that I picked has been more elusive than the broccolini... I've made the Brownie Pudding THREE times, and every time it disappears before I can get a picture. I even made it on Monday, in hopes of getting a picture of it, and it's already gone! lol If that's not a testament of how good it is, I don't know what is. The top is meringue-like, the underneath is like brownie batter- thick, rich, gooey, sweet. If you have PMS, make this, and just eat it straight from the pan. Trust me.

The last Barefoot Bloggers recipe for March was chosen by Anne of Anne Strawberry, and she lovingly chose Tomato & Goat Cheese Tarts.

Oh. My. God.

These were so delicious. I was tempted to make a short cut and just cut my puff pastry into squares, but I followed instructions and made 6 in. circles. I can't tell you how many people the next day said my "little pizza" looked amazing, and they were gobsmacked that I made it myself! lol The only substitutions I made was that I used Asiago instead of Parm on the bottom (still used shaved Parm on top) and I used roma tomatoes, which means I used 4 slices of tomato per tart. I think it really added to the complexity and made it a teeny bit more substantial. Or maybe I'm just hungry while I remember how tasty these were... Heh.

So after this ridiculously long post, if you're still reading, I swear I will post more often. My birthday is next week, so I've got lots of stuff to make! :-D

A Brief Intermission

2009-03-19T19:19:00.005-07:00

I fully intend to post about BB's Bonus Recipes, Sauteed Broccolini chosen by Mary at Meet Me in the Kitchen and Brownie Pudding chosen by me!, but I've got a pretty busy couple of days. Persian New Year is at 4:44 am, and we're trying to get everything together. Not to mention, my sister-in-law's birthday was Tuesday and we're going out for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate.

I also have plans to post all about Norooz/Nowrooz/Norouz (Persian New Year) tomorrow, so I can explain a lot of the traditions we go through- from the haft sin, a gorgeous table set with various meaningful items, to sabzi polo with white fish, white fish with dill-flavored basmati rice as a traditional dish for the evening...

Sorry for the delay but I promise I will post about everything as soon as I possibly can! :)

Brown nanners

2009-03-17T20:00:00.003-07:00

Repeat after me- Brown bananas are NOT a bad thing. Sure, they make the entire kitchen smell like banana... sure, they magically produce fruit flies, the most annoying insect known to man. But trust me, banana bread makes those worth it. Too bad my grandmother kept her promise and never wrote down that recipe.

However, The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book rescued me once again! This recipe is such a baking staple, and the Baking Book gave me a recipe that is going to be used in our household for a loooong time.

The end result is so soft, and not too banana-y, not too sweet. I can't even imagine how it would taste with chocolate chips mixed in. Oh oh, or toasted and then slathered with butter then topped with cinnamon & sugar.

Oh my... I think I may have to make this again tonight. I'm drooling like a goober. If you want to try it for yourself, check out the book or see the recipe below! :)

Banana Bread (from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book)

2 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 large, overripe bananas, mashed well (roughly 1.5 cups)
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted & cooled
2 large eggs
1/4 c. whole or low-fat plain yogurt (this would probably be tasty with vanilla yogurt!)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped (optional)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Adjust a rack to the lower-middle position in the oven. Grease an 8.5" x 4.5" loaf pan.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt (and cinnamon, if using). In another bowl, whisk together mashed bananas, melted butter, eggs, yogurt and vanilla. Fold wet into dry with a rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in walnuts (after tossing with a 1/2 tbsp. of flour, if using).
3. Scrape into loaf pan and smooth out the top. Bake until golden brown, rotating halfway through baking, about 55 minutes (I found that it actually took closer to 1 hour and 15 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs attached.
4. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out on to wire rack and cool for an hour before cutting and serving.

Chicken & Veggies- Barefoot style!

2009-03-12T20:38:00.008-07:00

Well it's the 2nd Thursday of March, which means it's time for the first March Barefoot Bloggers recipe! The Chicken Picatta recipe was chosen by the lovely Lindsey of Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings... and what better to go with it than the February Bonus Recipe Challenge recipe of Sauteed Broccolini, chosen by the amazing Mary of Meet Me in the Kitchen. I don't think two recipes were ever so perfectly matched!!

I had a couple of issues though...

One? I just made a version of chicken piccata last week!! Therefore, I had no white wine left. :( *plays tiny violin* So I had to substitute with low-sodium chicken stock. However, I think this may have cut down on an issue some of the other BB members had with the sauce being too lemon-y... the chicken stock (and the sweet Persian lemons I used) kept the acidity low, so I didn't find it too tart.

Which is amazing because I am NOT a tart person... me + lemon= love/hate relationship

The other issues I had were really minor. I love Ina but chicken piccata is supposed to have capers. So I had to add capers to keep from throwing a fit. :-D I also had the hardest time finding broccolini!! I went to 2 produce markets and 2 grocery stores in search of it before I finally found wildly pricey "baby broccoli". Needless to say, 1 bunch of "baby broccoli" only amounts to six servings if you only serve one or two stalks per person. I ate more than half of the bunch just after I finished cooking them, so at least 3 theoretical dinner guests would have been left veggie-side-less.

Check out the other Barefoot Bloggers to see what others thought! If you want to try the recipe for yourself, they're both available on Food Network here and here here. :)

Being an adult ROCKS

2009-03-11T21:08:00.005-07:00

When I was little, "growing up" meant being able to buy a pony, living in my own place, and being able to eat cookies and other sweets for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Well, I may not have a pony, but I do live in my own house (with Hubs and my mother-in-law of course) and I do indulge in cookies for breakfast. So two out of three isn't bad, right? :-D

This cookie bar was born out of a recipe for "breakfast cookies" given to me from Hubs's coworker... well the ingredient list came from her, but I was too lazy to do drop cookies, so I just mushed the dough into a greased baking dish and baked the heck out of it. Besides, I'd already made orange-blueberry muffins (with this recipe), banana bread (which I will definitely be posting about this week), and had cooked dinner, so my eagerness had dwindled considerably by the time I yanked the dough out of the fridge.

Hey, I'm an unemployed college student, I need something to do when I'm home alone all day. lol Hopefully both of those statuses will change soon, as I am supposed to graduate in June and I hope to have a full-time job by then!

Breakfast Cookie Bars

1 c. butter, softened (if you use salted butter, omit the 1/2 tsp. salt obviously!)
2 c. packed brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. all-purpose flour (a good way to add a little "health" to these is to use 1 c. whole wheat flour and 1 c. all-purpose flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. shredded coconut
1 c. walnuts
1/2 c. dried cranberries
3 c. Special K cereal

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease the bottom & sides of a 9"x13" glass baking dish.
2. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder & baking soda.
3. Cream together butter & sugar. Add eggs 1 @ a time, scraping sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in vanilla.
4. Mix in dry ingredients, pulsing the mixer slowly to keep from coating you and your kitchen in flour.
5. Stir in coconut, nuts, cranberries & cereal by hand.
6. Press into baking dish, trying to make it as even as possible.
7. Bake in the center of the oven for 30-35 minutes (I actually don't have an exact measure of how long this took to bake, since I would set the timer for 6-8 minutes and then check on the "doneness" of the center).
8. Remove from oven and let cool. Turn out on to cutting board. Cut into 4's and cut each quarter into 6 pieces.

Sorry for the inaccurate timing, but if you decide to do the drop cookie version, drop tablespoon-sized bits of dough 2" apart on a greased or parchment-covered cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

My heart belongs to Daring Bakers

2009-02-28T00:00:00.001-08:00

... and my Hubs of course. At least that's what I told him when I served this for Valentine's Day. lol

The Daring Bakers challenge this month could not have been more perfect for me. As I've said over and over again, I'm an unapologetic choco-holic, and not just at "that time" where Hubs throws the box of chocolate at me and runs. :-D When I saw "flourless chocolate cake" was picked, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. The challenge for me? Not inhaling the batter would typically be the right answer...

The challenge this time was to make ice cream to go WITH the cake! An ice cream maker is one piece of equipment I still don't own! Boy did I have fun with this...

For the required bit to reaffirm my love and devotion for Daring Bakers : The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The reason I joined Daring Bakers was to try new things in the kitchen. Well, this certainly put me in a new realm- I learned that egg whites are ridiculously tempermental, and that even I, a professed choco-holic, have a limit as to how much chocolate I can take. lol Because I chose super dark chocolate for the cake, I don't think I could have eaten it without the accompanying ice cream! The cake was super rich and bitter (but the good kind of bitter), and I couldn't even finish a whole piece!

For the ice cream, I used Dharm's recipe, and it turned out so creamy and rich, even without an ice cream maker! It turned out so well that I want to start experimenting with different flavors for summer!

So I guess the take home messages for today- don't overwhip your egg whites, and MAKE THE ICE CREAM. Trust me.

Check out the other DB-ers' photos and thoughts on this month's challenge...

And just to provide a bit of entertainment, my pup decided he wanted to be shipped to China in the box that our new blender came in. He got comfy by curling up in it.

Laissez Le Bon Temps Roulet!

2009-02-24T20:19:00.003-08:00

Or as my friends and family back in Louisiana are saying, "Let the good times roll!"

I'm sure most people know that today is Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, a celebration of indulgence before the beginning of Lent. While I may not be in the warmer climate and I may not be able to partake in the festivities on Bourbon and Canal Street, but I celebrated in my own way... with a homemade King Cake!

A displaced Louisianian friend tried out this recipe yesterday and told me about the success she had with it, after having had King Cake disasters in the past. Trying to repress memories of the only other King Cake I've ever tried to make (which was the driest, hardest ring of baked dough ever, and made me wildly upset), I set out to make this brioche ring.

Let me remind you of how dedicated I am to keeping with authenticity- I walked in the rain, 30 minutes there and back, just to get the coloured sugars. I know I could have made my own, but I'm not that talented. lol

My only tweaks were that I used orange zest instead of lemon, and I had no pecans on hand, so I just made double the filling from the second link. A tip: if you can't find cane syrup, my suggestion would be to use 1/2 corn syrup and 1/2 honey. I suppose you could use all honey but I don't know if the viscosity would be the same. Oh, and I used less liquid for the glaze that what was called for, because I like thicker glaze, and the original version was a little thin for my tastes.

For the cake and glaze, Emeril's recipes are absolutely fantastic (I'm sure his cream cheese filling is just as tasty, I just wasn't in the mood for cream cheese today). For a simple filling, NOLA Cuisine has a fantastic one, and it tastes exactly how I remember King Cake filling tastes like.

Mediterranean-inspired Chicken

2009-02-14T00:00:00.003-08:00

Last summer, I was feeling inspired after watching quite a few TV chefs make homemade vinaigrettes. Being a newbie cook with little creativity, I thought this was the perfect chance to play a bit. I had just discovered dried fenugreek, which is one of my favorite dried herbs, and was trying to put it into everything I possibly could.

Not to mention, Hubs and I were dying to try out our new barbecue and the grilled version of this chicken is just amazing. If you have nice enough weather right now, try making this into kabobs with red onion, peppers, and mushrooms, basted with leftover dressing.

Mediterranean-inspired Dressing:
4 tsp. dijon mustard
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. dried oregano
4 tsp. dried fenugreek
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
4 tsp. honey
1/2 c. olive oil

For the marinade:
1/2 red onion, rough chop
3 garlic cloves, smashed
2-3 lemons, sliced 1/4" thick
1 lb. chicken breasts

For chickpea salad:
1 (28 oz) can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
3 roma tomatoes, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped

1.) Mix the dressing ingredients together. Place 1/3 into a medium sized bowl and mix in the garlic and onion. Place chicken breasts into marinade, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
2.) In another bowl, mix the chickpeas, tomatoes and celery with another 1/3 of the dressing. Refrigerate until chicken is cooked. (The longer it sits, the more the chickpeas will soak up the dressing.)
3.) When you're ready to cook the chicken, preheat your oven to 425°F. In the bottom of an 8x8" baking dish, drizzle a small bit of olive oil. Remove the chicken breasts from the marinade, and arrange in dish. Layer each breast with a single, overlapping layer of lemon slices.
4.) Bake for 50-55 minutes, uncovered (you can poke into the edge of one of the breasts, and the juices should run clear). Remove from oven and let cool.
5.) Serve with chickpea salad and mixed greens salad dressed with remainder of dressing.

Sorry for not getting a picture of the chickpea salad, but it didn't last long enough for me to get any! lol Everyone devoured it!

Barefoot Bloggers- 'Sketti & Meatballs time!

2009-02-12T00:00:00.004-08:00

Just as a reference, I was singing "It's spa-ghetti and meatballs time, it's spa-ghetti and meatballs time!" the entire time I was making this dish. :-D If you've ever heard "It's Peanut Butter-Jelly Time", think of that tune.

Because my life isn't exciting enough, I decided I'd join this amazing group dedicated to making recipes from Ina Garten, aka "Barefoot Contessa". The Barefoot Bloggers, are very similar to The Daring Bakers, because the recipes are picked by different people each time, but there's 2 recipes a month, posted on every other Thursday!

Lucky for me, I was fortunate enough to ask for membership at the right time- the very first recipe of February is Spaghetti and Meatballs! Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a ridiculously irrational love for pasta. And this particular meatball recipe... there are no words to describe how wildly delicious they were- juicy, full of flavor, and so easy to make!

My only alteration to this recipe was that I used only pork and ground beef- veal is not exactly appealing to me, even when mixed with other meats. Other than that, I followed everything and the entire pot of pasta and meatballs was inhaled by the end of the night! However, if I were to make this again, I'd likely bake the meatballs to cut down on the amount of oil used when making the meatballs. I'm curious if Ina really knows how deep 1/4" actually is... lol

Check out the other Barefoot Bloggers to see what others thought! If you want to try the recipe for yourself, it's available on Food Network, and it's posted below! :)

For the meatballs:

1/2 pound ground veal
1/2 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 cup fresh white bread crumbs (4 slices, crusts removed)
1/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 extra-large egg, beaten
Vegetable oil
Olive oil

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup good red wine, such as Chianti
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For serving:
1 1/2 pounds spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
Freshly grated Parmesan

Place the ground meats, both bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 14 to 16 meatballs.

Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan.

For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.

Carb lover's heaven

2009-02-03T11:00:00.001-08:00

As promised, I'm dedicating this entire post to two of my favorite sides- roasted vegetables and cheesy roasted potatoes. I mean really, how can you go wrong when smothering anything in cheese? :-D

See that plate? That was my dinner and lunch for two days. I had some protein on the side (because to be entirely honest, I make roast chicken and I'll eat it but it's not my favorite), but look at that plate... just makes your mouth water!

Roasted vegetables, like the chicken, are entirely personalized and not really "recipe", in my opinion. You can change the vegetables, the spices, the fat they roast in, the ratios... The vegetables used this time around are just what I happened to have hanging around in the fridge at the time. I used dried fenugreek in these too, so the flavor from the chicken was carried over to these sweet little gems.

I'll bet some of you are asking what fenugreek is. Well, if you've ever smelled curry powder, fenugreek is the dominant note (at least, it is to me). I use it when making marinated Mediterranean chicken or lamb, and in the fantastic Persian dish Ghormeh Sabzi. I will absolutely post that unphotogenic meal eventually, only because it is one of my absolute favorite foods- it's made of tons of chopped parsley, spinach, green onions, cilantro, and dried fenugreek with red beans, cubes of beef or lamb, and then spruced up with a bit of lemon juice, then served over hot basmati rice. *drool*

But I digress... Here's the vegetables I used in my roasted vegetables, as I try to find something to wipe my chin with.

Roasted Vegetables (everything is cut into similar sizes- about 1" cubes)

1 large parsnip, peeled & cut
3 carrots, peeled & cut
1 red onion, peeled & cut
3 turnips, peeled & cut
1 green bell pepper, cored & cut
1 red bell pepper, cored & cut
3 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled (but NOT minced or grated- it'll burn and be bitter)
2-3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. dried fenugreek

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Toss cut veggies with olive oil and spices. Arrange in a roughly even layer in the bottom of a large roasting pan.
3. If cooking with a roast chicken, place into the oven with the chicken when there's 30 minutes left.
4. After 15 minutes, toss the veggies around to keep from burning (and setting off the smoke alarm, like I did).
5. After 30 minutes, remove veggies (and chicken if you're doing both) and let cool for 5 minutes or so before devouring.

Now, about one of my all-time absolute favorite side dishes that has become a staple. The original recipe is called "Darth Tater", but I call them "Cheesy Roasted Potatoes" so I don't have to repeat myself 1000 times when Hubs ask "We're having WHAT?" lol I've declared my adoration for Janet and Greta Podleski's Eat, Shrink & Be Merry! before, and this cheese-covered monster is a big reason why. Do NOT run away when you see the ingredients. I'll include their nutritional information at the end, just as an extra selling point.

But, trust me. If you make these, you'll want to make them ALL the time. Heck, you may want to stock up on ingredients for the cheese sauce-- it could probably be used on tons of vegetables and your kids would inhale them! :-O

Darth Tater (from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry! by Janet & Greta Podleski)

2 1/2 lbs (1.1 kg) red or white potatoes, cleaned with the skin left on!
1 c. chopped onions
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. garlic, minced or grated
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper, paprika, and dried thyme (I've omitted the thyme and it's perfectly fine without it!)
1 can (10 oz) condensed cheddar cheese soup, undiluted (COME BACK! lol Just trust me...)
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. fresh dill or parsley, chopped (Parsley is my favorite here.)
1/2 c. packed shredded light old (or sharp) cheddar cheese
1 green onion, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. **See note at the end! Cut potatoes into 1" chunks and place into 9x13" baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
2. Add onions, garlic, olive oil and spices. Toss until potatoes are thoroughly coated.
3. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Reduce oven to 375°F.
4. In a medium bowl, mix soup with Parmesan cheese and herbs. Pour over potatoes and stir around to coat well. Sprinkle grated cheese on top, followed by green onion.
5. Bake for another 25 minutes, uncovered, until cheese is bubbly and potatoes are golden brown around edges.
6. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

**Note: I made these at the same time and temperature as the chicken and vegetables (450°F), but cut down each cooking time by 8-10 minutes. The second time in the oven was also done at the higher temp for only 12-15 minutes instead of 25. They turned out perfectly fine, and mighty tasty if I do say so myself...

And I do. :-D

Mediocre vs. Killer

2009-02-02T11:00:00.002-08:00

One thing that I was told early in my cooking adventures was that it's always better to master a handful of great basic recipes than to be able to make lots of mediocre dishes. This has stuck with me, and it has definitely influenced how I cook everyday. It's also part of the reason why my posts aren't always regularly spaced- most of the dishes showcased are those that are tried-and-true or ones that recieved rave reviews from the family. :)

One of the best basic dinners to master is a good roasted chicken with roasted vegetables, cheesy roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli and a good risotto. I realize this sounds like a HUGE meal, so I won't babble on about it in one post. For now, roasted chicken and a revisit to risotto; next cheesy roasted potatoes and roasted vegetables will be in the spotlight.

To make a really juicy, flavorful chicken, brining is a fantastic method. For those who don't know (which I'm sure most of you do), brining is simply "soaking" meat (usually turkey or chicken) in a solution of salt water. It's similar to marinating, but it adds more subtle flavors than marinades, in my humble opinion. For my brines, I tend use equal parts of salt and sugar, lemon juice (and the lemon halves), lime juice (and the lime halves), fresh orange juice (I think you know what goes here), garlic, fresh herbs like thyme or oregano and white wine if I have them, and some fresh black pepper.

The actual cooking method I've learned to love is something of a combination of Thomas Keller's simplistic approach and Ina Garten's Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken.

Roasted Chicken

1 12-13 lb. chicken, brined for at least 2 hours
1 lemon, sliced
Fresh thyme or oregano (optional)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. dried fenugreek

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Line roasting tray with lemon slices. (Top slices with the fresh herbs- if you're using them.) Place chicken on top of lemons, sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and pour on the olive oil
3. Tie the chickens legs together and roast the bird in the oven for 50-60 minutes.
4. Sprinkle dried fenugreek over chicken and baste the skin with the juices in the bottom of the pan. Let the chicken rest for 20 minutes.

The risotto this time around is slightly different from the risotto I posted ages ago. Instead of white wine and chicken stock, I chose to use a mix of chicken and vegetable stock, parmesan cheese, herbed goat cheese leftover from a tart I had made, and mixed in chopped fresh parsley. No fancy asiago, no asparagus, just pure unadulterated cheesy goodness.

Have I mentioned we like cheese in this house? Just wait until you see the cheesy roasted potatoes!!

Versatility is always an asset

2009-01-31T21:01:00.001-08:00

I've recently started a love affair that Hubs is only beginning to understand. It started in the freezer aisle of the grocery store, and continues into my kitchen... What am I talking about, you ask? lol Frozen puff pastry! Not only is it fairly cheap (compared to the price of butter and flour here), it's super easy to work with and tasty to boot! I decided to do a post to show the versatility of this kitchen wonder, using another recipe from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book, as well as a simple and delicious dessert that is fantastic with tea.

May I humbly present: a Tomato & Goat Cheese tart and a Blueberry Whipped Cream tart.

Tomato & Goat Cheese Tart (This recipe makes 2 tarts, the size of the one pictured- since I only made one savoury, I'll list the scaled quantities I used.)

1 (9.5x9") sheet of dethawed frozen puff pastry
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 c. cherry tomatoes
1.5 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1 shallot, sliced thin (I used 1/4 of a white onion)
1 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1/2 tsp. sugar
salt
pepper
3/4 c. goat cheese, softened (herbed goat cheese is great in this)
1/4 c. cream cheese softened (The mix of goat and cream cheese is great for people who don't like the strong flavor of goat cheese!)
1 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped (I omitted this)

Blueberry & Vanilla Whipped Cream Tart

1 c. fresh blueberries (or whatever berry you'd like)
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 c. powdered sugar

For both tart bases:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or use the paper that the puff pastry comes wrapped in!).
2. Cut the puff pastry into 2 9.5x4.5" rectangles. Brush each piece lightly with egg wash, and poke them each thoroughly with a fork.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350°F. Continue to bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the pastry shells are golden brown. Remove from oven and let pastry cool for 20-30 minutes. Leave the oven on for the tomatoes!
4. With a paring knife, cut a 1/2" border around the edges of the cooled pastries. Lightly press down on the center piece until it rests 1/4" or so from the top edge.

For the tomato tart:
1. Toss the tomatoes with the 1 Tbsp. of the oil, shallot, garlic, vinegar, sugar, salt & pepper. Spread the tomatoes in a baking dish, and roast the tomatoes without stirring for 30 minutes. Their skins should be slightly shriveled, but they should still be cute round little buggers.
2. Increase the oven back to 425°F. Mix the goat cheese, cream cheese & remaining 2 Tbsp. of oil until smooth.
3. Smooth the cheese mix evenly over the center piece you pushed down. Spoon the roasted tomatoes on top of the cheese.
4. Brush the edges with egg wash and bake again for 10-15 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet halfway through baking.
5. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then cool for longer on a serving platter.

For the blueberry whipped cream tart:
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with your hand mixer), whisk the cream until soft peaks form.
2. Gradually add in the powdered sugar a few tablespoons at a time. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl after each addition. Add in vanilla and whisk until slightly stiffer peaks form.
3. Evenly spread the whipped cream over the center piece that has been pushed down.
4. Arrange blueberries on top of whipped cream. You can either enjoy as is, or top with more powdered sugar.

A Tuile for me, a tuile for you

2009-01-29T00:00:00.007-08:00

Usually when I say "It's that time of the month", Hubs throws massive amounts of dark chocolate in my direction and heads for the hills. However, he's started to understand that there is a mighty tasty "time of the month", and it's all thanks to The Daring Bakers!

The fantastic hosts, Karen and Zorra, chose Tuiles, a seemingly easy recipe. And not only did they pick an easy recipe, they provided us with SO many options, it was hard not to participate this month!

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.
I chose to make the sweet version of tuiles for now. The requisite sweet tuiles I made were paired with a pear and apple "salad" dressed with lime and orange juice and coconut. Because I'm not good with molds, I chose to pipe out some designs instead. Make sure to visit the other Daring Bakers on the blogroll to check out everyone else's amazingly creative tuiles. If you'd like to try the recipe, head on over to Karen's blog to check out the recipe! :)

Another Vegetarian Delight

2009-01-24T18:01:00.025-08:00

"Vegetarian" is not a word that is part of my household's lexicon. Between Hubs's and his mom's Persian background and my Southern background, red meat is pretty much a staple for every meal. After taking a class about heart-smart eating last fall, we've made the effort to eat more chicken, less white carbs (which is fantastic for me, since I LOVE brown rice more than any normal person should), and more vegetables (also, great for me, since I've always had an irrational attraction to perfectly shaped peppers and tomatoes, etc).

I've offered a recipe before from a Cooking Light cookbook (see: Skillet Chicken), and there are a couple particularly tasty and easy recipes that have made their way into normal rotation for my growing list of "go-to" dinners. One that I felt was worthy of sharing is the Italian Vegetable Pie. While it is a totally vegetarian dish, there's one ingredient you can add to fool any meat lover...

I tried something new this time. Allow me to present my attempt at a Mise en Place. I don't typically have everything chopped and ready to go, because most of my recipes don't involve much cutting (my poor nails and fingertips have been through enough!). This time, I felt it was necessary. Besides, aren't those bowls adorable?! Mother-in-law bought them at the Asian market 2 nights ago, along with a ton of sushi and sesame crackers. What better way to use such lovely little bowls than for a Mise en Place. :)

Italian Vegetable Pie (adapted from Cooking Light)

2 tsp. olive oil
1 c. chopped green bell pepper (roughly one medium-sized pepper)
1 c. chopped onion (I just use one medium yellow onion)
1 c. chopped mushrooms
1/2 c. chopped carrot
1/2 c. chopped celery
3 garlic cloves, chopped or grated
3 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
1 tsp. fennel seeds (I omitted these and used 2 tsp. curry powder for a different flavor)
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 package (12.3 oz) firm tofu, drained and crumbled (**see note at the end!!)
1 bottle (25.5 oz) fat-free marinara sauce
6 cooked lasagna noodles, cut in half (I used whole wheat noodles)
Cooking spray
1 1/2 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray 9" deep dish pie plate.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, celery, carrot and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes or so, until vegetables are softened.
3. Stir in tomato paste, spices, tofu, and marinara sauce. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
4. Arrange the lasagna noodles in a "spoke-like" pattern in the bottom and up the sides of the sprayed pie dish. Spread 3 cups of the tofu-sauce mixture over the noodles. Folds end over the top and cover with remaining sauce.
5. Sprinkle cheese on top and bake on a tin-foil covered baking sheet for 20 minutes.
6. Let cool for 5 minutes or so. Cut into pizza-like slices, and serve with salad on the side!

**NOTE: So, I said that this is a dish that would appeal to meat-lovers and vegetarians. I know that most meat-lovers will shudder at the mention of "tofu" but look in the produce section of your grocery store for a "veggie meat" substitute. I personally recommend Yves Veggie Cuisine "Ground Round"-- I fooled my meat-eating Hubs THREE times before I told him that it wasn't actually meat. :-D It's a great way to cut down on your meat intake and still get the protein you need in a meal.

Time for another Royal Foodie Joust!

2009-01-14T21:48:00.016-08:00

Last month's winner of the RFJ was delicious-looking recipe for Banana's Foster cupcakes that used rice flour, presented by the lovely Elle at Elle's New England Kitchen. Congratulations to her and everyone else who participated in the January Joust!

When Jenn from Leftover Queen posted that the ingredients for the February Joust were mushrooms, cauliflower and noodles, I got very very excited. Why you ask? Because I'm totally, utterly, inexplicably addicted to carbs. The amount of carbs and chocolate I consume in a month could possibly feed a small village for a year. Hehehe. But really, what better way to utilize these fantastic ingredients than with a fantastic vegetarian dish: roasted cauliflower and mushrooms mac'n'cheese!!

Roasted Cauliflower and Mushrooms Mac'n'Cheese

1 head of cauliflower (any colour), cleaned and cut into small-ish florets
2 c. mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 box/1 lb. rotini pasta (I use Catelli Smart- it has the nutritional value of whole wheat pasta but tastes like white carb pasta!)
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. butter (or more olive oil, whatever your preference is)
3 Tbsp. flour
3 c. vegetable stock (or chicken stock if you're not vegetarian)
1 c. milk
1/2 c. Oka cheese, grated
1/2 c. Fontina cheese, grated
1/3 c. Gruyere cheese, grated
1/3 c. Mozzarella cheese, grated
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese, grated (NOT the stuff in the green can, please! It doesn't melt the same.)
2 tsp. dijon (or grainy) mustard
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2-3/4 c. breadcrumbs

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Toss cauliflower with 1 Tbsp. of olive oil, 1/2 of the red pepper flakes, 1/2 of the salt and pepper. Roast for 10-12 minutes, stirring/shaking occasionally to make sure nothing sticks or burns.
2. Toss mushrooms with remaining olive oil and seasonings, and add to cauliflower in the oven. Roast everything together for an additional 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. 3. Put a big pot of water on to boil. This will be for your pasta, so when it boils, add about 1 Tbsp. of salt and the box of pasta. Undercook it slightly, since it will be baked with the cauliflower, mushrooms and sauce. (If the box says 8 minutes, cook it for 6.) Drain pasta and set aside.
4. To make the mac'n'cheese: In a medium saucepan, soften onions and garlic in 1 Tbsp. of olive oil. Melt butter into onions and garlic. Sprinkle in flour and let the raw flour taste cook out- this usually takes 2 minutes. Stir constantly to keep it from burning. (Yay! You just made a "roux"! A roux is also the basis for bechamel sauce.)
5. Add vegetable stock and stir until thickened. Add milk, and keep stirring until slightly thickened and bubbling but not boiling.
6. Turn off heat and add cheeses and mustard. Stir until the cheese is melted. Mix in cauliflower and mushrooms and cooked pasta.
7. Spread pasta into 9x13" baking dish and top with bread crumbs. (You can drizzle olive oil over the breadcrumbs to encourage browning.) Bake for 15-20 minutes, until sauce is bubbly and breadcrumbs are browned.

Garnish with fresh Enoki mushrooms (or just snack on these while you're cooking... which is what I did. They were supposed to be used in the dish, but I got distracted with munching on them. Oops.)

Muffins made with... Yogurt?

2009-01-13T10:48:00.001-08:00

Hubs got me The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book for Christmas this past year, and I've finally gotten around to testing some of the recipes in it. I tried out their "Blue Ribbon Apple Cake" a few nights ago and wasn't entirely thrilled with the combination of pre-cooked Granny Smith apples and cooked brown sugar. I plan to make it again, but I want to tweak the recipe slightly to suit my family's tastebuds.

Since the apple cake didn't quite live up to my expectations, I've been craving something baked with apples. I bought a ridiculous amount of Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji, and Pink Lady (my FAVORITE!) apples yesterday, for the sole purpose of baking muffins and another cake. So the basic muffin recipe from the cookbook, with my own additions, were on the breakfast menu this morning!

Big Beautiful Muffins- Apple Cinnamon variation

3 c. all purpose flour
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. yogurt (low-fat, whole, whatever you have on hand)
2 whole eggs
1/2 c. (8 Tbsp./1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
2 apples, peeled, cored, and diced in 1/2" cubes
1 Tbsp. all purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract/vanilla bean paste

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F, with the rack placed in the middle. Spray your muffin tins with cooking spray and set aside. (Cupcake/muffin liners are okay, but these guys slide out very easily, and you won't have any muffin wasted by pulling off the paper if you just grease your tin!)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder & soda, cinnamon and salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk together yogurt, eggs and vanilla.
3. Fold the yogurt mixture into the flour, until *just* combined (it's okay if there are still some streaks of flour). Fold the melted butter into the batter.
4. In a small bowl, toss together the apples and the 1 Tbsp. of flour until the apples are well coated. Fold the apples into the batter.
5. Scoop 1/3 c. of batter into each pregreased muffin cup. Bake for 25-30 minutes. A toothpick poked into the middle will come out with a few crumbs clinging to it for dear life.
6. Remove the tin from the oven, and let your muffins cool IN THE TIN for about 5 minutes. After that 5 minutes, you can either turn the muffins out on to a rack or carefully pull each one out and place them right-side-up on your rack. (If you let the muffins cool in the tin before messing with them, it'll be much easier to get them out because they'll have rested and won't be as delicate as they are straight out of the oven!)

There are so many possibilities with this basic muffin recipe... You can do blueberry instead of apples; omit the cinnamon and apples, and use orange zest and chocolate chips; you can use dried cranberries, nuts, etc. As long as you have this basic muffin recipe, the breakfast/snack muffin "world" is your oyster! :)

Homemade Larabars- Easier Than You Think

2009-01-10T19:11:00.010-08:00

So I'm super excited that so many people voted in my impromptu poll, asking which flavor of Larabar I should attempt to make. The first time I checked it, all three flavors were in a dead heat! I panicked for a bit and then more people voted... And the people have spoken!

Pecan Pie is what you asked for, and Pecan Pie is what you're gonna get!

I got ridiculously addicted to Larabars a couple of months ago. I was out grocery shopping and got hit by the hunger bug. If there's one thing I've learned, it's do NOT shop on an empty stomach, or you'll be explaining to your hubby why 2 opened boxes of cookies, a half-eaten bag of Sour Cream & Onion potato chips, and a case of soda missing one can came home with you. And trust me. He won't believe you if you say they just followed your car.

But I digress... I decided to buy a Larabar at the checkout of my favorite organic store before heading to Costco. That little bar changed my life. Seriously. I got the Pecan Pie flavor and, after one bite, had to check the ingredient list. Imagine my amazement at the shockingly short list of ingredients that had no sugar, no preservatives, no extra bells and whistles. Dates, Pecans, Almonds. That's it!! I've since tried almost every flavor they make, including the Jocolat bars. If you haven't tried these yet, and you're not keen on spending almost $2 for a small bar, try this recipe first. I'd even encourage you to do a "side-by-side" taste test of sorts! :)

Homemade Larabars: Pecan Pie Flavor

1 1/2- 2 c. pitted dates (**See note at bottom about this!**)
1/4 c. pecan halves
1/4 c. whole almonds
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (Entirely optional- This was my own little variation)

1. In your food processor, roughly chop the dates. It won't become a paste, but it will look a little chunky (the closest texture I can think of is after you cut butter into really small pieces in the flour when you make pie crust).
2. Remove the dates from the food processor and put them into a bowl. Add the nuts and cinnamon into the food processor and pulse until ground up.
3. Pour nuts into bowl with dates. Wash your hands, remove all of your rings, and get your mitts into it. Smush all of the nuts into the dates, until distributed fairly evenly throughout.
4. Line a bread baking pan with plastic wrap and mush the date & nuts mixture into an even layer. Wrap the plastic wrap around the mix and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes. This will make it easier to cut.

If you use a typical rectangular baking pan, you should be able to cut it into roughly 6-2" bars.

**Side note: I had to approximate the amount of dates used, because I used a mix of regular pitted dates from the bulk bin at the grocery store, and a pitted date "block" that I bought at the local Persian store. If you have a Meditarranean store near you, don't hesitate to visit and ask about dates! :)

Fajitas + Enchiladas = Fajiladas?

2009-01-03T10:00:00.003-08:00

I realize that "fajilada" may or may not be a real word, so please forgive me if it means something bad or dirty. Mmkay? I just thought that this was an appropriate name for the Mexican-inspired concoction I made for dinner last night!

Fajita-type filling baked in an enchilada-type sauce, then covered with cheeeeeese... authentic or not, it was certaintly delicious, and Hubs-approved!

**I have to warn you guys- this is a recipe you attempt when you have the time to spend on each element!**

I usually make a recipe at least twice before I post it but this is the second time I've made this one, and Hubs insisted that I need to post these with a picture before they disappeared like the first batch! I guess that means this meal is a winner, and has earned a spot in the ever-growing book of Husband-approved foods. :)

Shredded Chicken Fajiladas (Fajita filling baked like Enchiladas)

Chicken Filling:
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, coated in chili powder
1 Tbsp. olive oil
½ c. low-sodium chicken stock
½ packet low-sodium taco seasoning
juice from roasting pan
¼ c. low-sodium chicken stock (optional)
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Peppers & Onions:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
½ red onion, sliced
1 green bell pepper, seeded & sliced
2 tsp. lime juice

Black Bean Spread:
½ red onion, diced
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
2 tsp. ground cumin
¼ packet low-sodium taco seasoning
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. lime juice

"Enchilada" sauce:
½ yellow onion, diced
½ can tomato paste
1 can chili
¼ packet low-sodium taco seasoning
1/3 c. hot water

1 ½ c. shredded Cheddar cheese

1 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese

6 large whole wheat tortillas

For chicken filling:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Sear chili-coated chicken breasts on both sides. Remove chicken breasts to greased baking dish.
2. Pour ½ c. chicken stock into pan, and scrape up blackened bits on bottom of pan. Pour stock over chicken breasts, cover with foil and bake in oven for 20 minutes or so. (If you want to check, use tongs to pull one out, and cut it in half—you don’t need to worry about these staying whole, since they’ll be shredded in a minute!)
3. Remove chicken from oven and let cool.
4. Using 2 forks, shred each chicken breasts. Add shredded chicken and juices from baking dish to skillet.
5. Add taco seasoning. You can add additional liquid if you’d like (this is where I added the extra chicken stock). Heat chicken and let “simmer” for 10 minutes or so, until liquid is almost all gone. Stir in cilantro, if you choose to use it.

For pepper & onion filling:
1. Heat olive oil in skillet (you can use the same one that you did the chicken in, but make sure it’s big enough to hold the shredded chicken later.
2. Dump in peppers and onions. Soften slightly, then add lime juice. Remove to a plate and let cool.

For black bean spread:
1. In a small-skillet, heat olive oil. Soften diced onion.
2. In a food processor, pulse beans until smooth (you will still see some black bean skins). Add onions, lime juice and spices and puree into beans. (You can do this without a food processor too- I used to mash these with a potato masher before I got my wonderful Kitchenaid food processor for Christmas!)

For enchilada sauce:
1. Heat olive oil in small saucepan. Soften diced onion. Add taco seasoning and water.
2. Add tomato paste and chili. Heat until just bubbling.

To assemble:
1. Spoon a small amount of sauce into bottom of greased 9”x13” baking dish. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. To make one “fajilada”: Spread about 1 Tbsp. of the black bean spread down the middle of a tortilla. Spoon about 2-4 Tbsp. of shredded chicken over spread. Arrange a few pieces of peppers and onions on top of chicken. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. of cheddar cheese as the last layer before rolling.
3. Arrange rolls snugly into baking dish (you can tuck the ends if you’d like). I can typically only fit 6 of these into a 9”x13”, with a bit of each filling leftover.
4. Pour sauce over rolls. Use a spoon (or spatula) to spread to edges, covering every bit.
5. Cover the dish with foil. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. Remove foil. Spread remaining cheddar over top. Sprinkle Monterey Jack over cheddar.
7. Bake for another 10 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes.
9. Serve warm with sour cream on the side.

Breaking in New Equipment

2009-01-02T22:44:00.007-08:00

So, this blog has certainly influenced how my family treats me and how they buy gifts. My Christmas this year consisted of cookbooks and cooking equipment-- in particular, my other kitchen "baby", a 7-cup Kitchenaid food processor. (I only say "other" because the Kitchenaid standmixer is still the #1. Heh.)

My first thought when I ripped open the wrapping paper on the little beauty? "SOUP!!!" The simplest, cheapest soup I could think to make was roasted red pepper soup.

Little did I know, recipes for red pepper soup vary more than hair colour boxes in the drugstore! So my variation is something of a mash-up of those various recipes. It was wildly simple, delicious, and oh-so-creamy without having any dairy!

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

4 red peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded, and sliced
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 medium Russet potato, peeled and cubed
3 c. low-sodium chicken stock
1 c. water
1 can navy beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil

1. Heat olive oil in medium-sized saucepan/pot. Add onions and potato, and stir around for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add red pepper slivers and chicken stock. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, uncovered, stirring often.
3. Test "doneness" of potatoes with a knife- if the tip of the knife slips in with no resistance, then they're ready! When potatoes are cooked through, add the beans and let them warm through. This takes only a minute or two.
4. Remove pot from heat, and let cool for 10 minutes.
5. When veggies are cooled, add in small batches to food processor (or blender). Blend until smooth.
6. Pour soup into bowl/serving dish. Stir in salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm! (I topped my little bowl with a dash of Tony Cachere's and a teeny bit of olive oil.)

This soup was perfect-- the potato added just enough thickness to keep it from being runny, and the beans add enough creaminess that no dairy is needed! It's a good soup for watching snow... which is what I did this morning... :)

December Daring Bakers- A French Yule Log

2008-12-28T00:00:00.008-08:00

Eighteen pages. EIGHTEEN pages. That's how long the Word .doc of this recipe was. Of course, most of those pages were filled with variations and specific layering directions... This challenge definitely pushed me to try things I'd never done before. There were only 2 elements that I didn't make numerous times. lol
This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. From what I understand, the recipe was originally written in French and had to be translated to English.

My only issue with this was the measurement conversions. Being a novice baker, I'm used to volume measurements of 1 cup or 3 teaspoons. Weight measurements are not part of my knowledge base. In making the recipe, I found that certain elements would list a weight and a volume for an ingredient, and the next element would list the same weight but a different volume or vice versa. Since I don't own a kitchen scale, I was forced to use the volume measurements.

*shrug* The icing/glaze turned out rubbery (used a bit too much gelatin in the recipe), but we just peeled it off and inhaled the inside. Hubs LOVED the cake and declared the ganache and creme brulee layers his favorites.

I think if I were to make this again, I'd use a different glaze for the outside, and I'd probably venture away from the standard dark chocolate mousse and ganache, and vanilla creme brulee. I think this recipe would work really nicely with cherry, raspberry or orange flavors mixed in with the chocolate.

The only deviation I made from the original recipe was that I used homemade hazelnut meal in the dacquoise/biscuit layers. Let me tell you- if you can't find hazelnut meal, only make it if you're absolutely insane. It took forever to get those little filberts toasted then peeled, then ground up.

Sorry for not getting any pictures of the inner layers, but between peeling off the rubbery glaze and fighting with my lighting issues, I cannot manage to get a decent picture of anything lately. Hopefully, once Christmas has been paid off lol, I'll be building a lightbox and playing around with my camera some more. :)

Check out the Daring Bakers' Blogroll for some much nicer-looking, more artistic yule logs!

More Christmas Cookies... a few days late...

2008-12-27T11:42:00.011-08:00

So now that the craziness of Christmas is over, there's tons of leftovers... in our house, there's not usually leftovers of Christmas dinner or anything like that. Our leftovers? Cookies, cookies and more cookies.

Like I said before, I'm not a Christmas person. I try really hard to stay cheery, but really I'm not a fan. After I made the chocolate chip cookies a couple of weeks ago, I started to feel a bit more chipper, and decided my neighbours could use a bit of a sugar rush. There are a couple of neighbours that I'm particularly friendly with, so I decided to make a small box of cookies for each family.

All of them got the same cookies, but the boxes were somewhat different. One family has an adorable little boy, who's maybe 2 1/2 years old, so I gave them extra chocolate chip cookies. Another family has a golden labrador that my pup loves to sniff through the fence, so I gave them a baggy with some of the homemade doggy treats that my pup loves. The last neighbour couple got extra of each kind of cookie, because they share fresh-picked fruit with us and I share my fresh-picked tomatoes with them. Being the youngest couple in our neighbourhood, I look up to some of the other couples and feel grateful for the good neighbours we have.

So I did some fairly standard cookies this year, and only 2 of the recipes were family recipes. (Most of my family's recipes would have taken me the whole week to make, and I only decided on Christmas Eve to give cookies. That's the procrastinator coming out again.) Aside from the chocolate chip cookies, I also made my grandmother's recipe snickerdoodles, which was supposed to be made with all vegetable shortening. Despite trying to stay true to my grandmother, I had to deviate and use butter for half of the fat. These cookies are perfectly soft and tasty, but do NOT overcook them or they turn crispy. Snickerdoodles shouldn't be crispy!

Snickerdoodles:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. vegetable shortening
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3-4 Tbsp. sugar
3-4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Cream together butter, shortening and first amount of sugar. Scrape down bowl and add eggs one at a time, scraping in between each addition. Add vanilla, mix in well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, and salt. Add slowly to butter-shortening mixture.
4. In a small baggie, mix together 3-4 Tbsp. sugar and 3-4 tsp. cinnamon. Roll rounded tablespoons of cookie dough in mixture. Place on baking sheet, 2 in. apart.
5. Bake 8 minutes exactly. Remove from pan and place on wire cooling rack immediately.

Another fairly standard Christmas cookie in my house whipped shortbread. I make it every year and try a different method every year, because this recipe makes such a soft cookie, I can't pick it up without it literally melting in my fingertips. If that softness alone doesn't sell you, just try these subtly sweet little gems with a cup of hot tea. They are absolute heaven!

Whipped Shortbread (adapted from Chow Times):

1 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. icing sugar
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste (or 1/2 of a scraped vanilla bean)
2 Tbsp. cornstarch

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix together butter, sugar, salt, cornstarch and flour. Pulse your mixer or handmixer, to keep from being covered in flour (aka "the flour monster"). Mix until smooth. Add extract and vanilla and mix well.
3. Whip batter for 10 minutes, until it looks like fresh whipped cream.
4. Place batter in either a pastry bag or a plastic baggie with the corner snipped off. Pipe batter into 2 inch disks, 2 in. apart. (Chow Times has an excellent visual of how these look when piped.)
5. Wet your finger and gently press down the points of the cookie (if these are left sticking up, they'll burn). OR you can place a piece of candy over the point before baking.
6. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, until very lightly golden brown. Remove and let cool on the sheet. (I have a hard time getting these to cool on a wire rack without falling apart.)

And last but not least, I had to make the ever popular gingerbread cookie. I've used a different version every year, and I'm still on the fence about this particular recipe. It's tasty, but it doesn't taste quite the same as others I've had. I'm wondering if it's the type of molasses I used... wasn't blackstrap but the acidity is a bit much.

One part of these cookies I loved was that I got to use Royal Icing for the first time! I have so much Royal Icing left over, I've been tempted to just eat it by the spoonful. *shifty eyes* Yes... only tempted...

I got the RecipeZaar.com link to this recipe from Em, The Repressed Pastry Chef. Her little people are obviously much nicer, but I happen to like my psychadelic coloured man, the abstract tree and my version of a 70's gingerbread man. :-D The Royal Icing recipe is from Williams Sonoma, and the only deviation I made was to use Wilton Clear Vanilla Extract and Gel colors.

Sorry for being so late with jumping on the Christmas cookie bandwagon, but at least it happened! lol Hope everyone had a great holiday season!

Don't forget your four-legged friends!

2008-12-22T19:14:00.005-08:00

Since it's getting closer to Christmas, I've been thinking of what to do for my pup. Hubs is easy to buy for, in-laws are a bit harder, but the pup? He's pickier than a teenage girl on a budget! He won't eat certain foods if they're not chicken-flavored... he refuses to chew things if they're "too" hard.

Well, I stumbled upon Sugarlaws' blog a couple of months ago. Lo and behold, she's also a dog owner... after reading her entry about homemade dog treats , I knew exactly what I wanted to do for my little guy.

Homemade Peanut Butter and Cheddar Puppy Treats! (adapted from Sugarlaws)

2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. peanut butter
1 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 c. skim milk
1 Tbsp. baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In one bowl, mix together peanut butter and milk until blended. Mix in cheese.
3. Mix in flour and baking powder. Pulse slowly, or you'll have flour all over your face, your arms and your kitchen cabinets.
4. On a floured smooth, clean surface, pull together dough and roll out to 1/4"-1/3" thickness (I made mine a litle thicker so they wouldn't be too hard). Cut out with cookie cutters or a small glass, or even just cut into cute shapes with a sharp knife.
5. Place treats on parchment lined baking sheet (or greased cookie sheet).
6. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

The recipe is so insanely easy, and I'll say it- I wanted to try them. And I did. I mean, come on! The ingredients are things most people devour in heinous amounts anyway.

Besides, if I think they're ok, then obviously the pup will snarfle them down. If you don't believe me, just try a half batch and tell me they aren't a decent little snack for your pup... or yourself. And hey, if your little guy sees you eating it and then you share, he'll feel extra special, right? :)

First Ever Royal Foodie Joust

2008-12-19T09:00:00.002-08:00

So I recently joined the Foodie Blogroll, which is an amazing network of tons of food bloggers from around the world. If you peek at my sidebar, you'll see the cute red and orange box with all sorts of fun Foodie links. :)

Can I tell you how excited I was to find out that the forum associated with the Blogroll does a monthly cooking challenge? I love The Daring Bakers, but I love cooking too, so finding the "Royal Foodie Joust" had me hopping like a crazed bunny! The winner from the previous month picks three ingredients, then the people cooking have to come up with (or re-make) a recipe using those items. However, this month was pre-picked, to honour a "My Caribbean Cookbook: Tastes Like Home" from Cynthia at Tastes Like Home.

What did I have to work with, you ask? Coconut (or coconut milk), rice, and bananas! Simple enough right? HA! While my recipe turned out wildly delicious, it was not the prettiest dish in the world. You've been warned... lol

Coconut milk risotto with candied brown sugar bananas

2/3 c. arborio rice
1/2 Tbsp. butter
1 can coconut milk + 2/3 can of water (heated together in a small saucepan)
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. clear vanilla extract

1 banana, peeled and sliced diagonally
2 Tbsp. butter
1/4 c. brown sugar

For the risotto:

1. Melt butter in skillet. Toast arborio rice in the butter for about 2 minutes.
2. Add coconut milk+water 1 ladle full at a time. Stir after each addition, until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid and a line remains when a spoon is drawn through it. Never ever ever ever leave the stove or stop stirring. Not only is risotto tempermental to begin with, coconut milk adds the extra concern of scorching.
3. Once all of the liquid is added, add in the sugar and vanilla.
4. Take off heat and let cool. You can add in another 1/2 Tbsp. of butter if you want to.

For the bananas:

1. Melt butter in a small skillet. Stir in brown sugar, and let bubble slightly.
2. Toss in banana coins and toss lightly until coated. Cook over low for 1-2 minutes.
3. Let cool, until the sugar has rehardened slightly.
4. Top risotto with sugared bananas.

I know he's not the most attractive thing to look at, but he's got personality, right?! That's what my mom always said mattered most... :)

Hip-hating breakfast

2008-12-18T08:15:00.008-08:00

So I'm not really a health nut. Sure, I don't typically have chips or store-bought cookies or soda/pop hanging around my house. I'd just rather eat an apple, pomegranate or tortilla chips instead. I've already gotten enough grief from my girlfriends for being a "healthy eater". :-P You know who you are. *points menacingly*

Little do they know, breakfast in our house consists of some pretty fattening, but oh-so-delicious baked goods. From homemade cookies to cupcakes to leftover cheesecake to my current obsession- sour cream coffee cake. I'd had this tasty cake in several coffee shops before, and my grandmother used to make a fantastic lemon blueberry version. (Sadly, that was one recipe she failed to write down and no one can remember her measurements, so it went with her to the big kitchen in the sky.)

While the recipe I used this time around resulted in a magnificent cake, it will never measure up to my Maw-Maw's. But dang if it doesn't try...

This particular attempt is using a recipe from AllRecipes.com. Most of the coffee cake recipes I've looked at seem to follow a trend, so if you have one you love, I'd love for you to share it! :)

Because I can never leave well enough alone, I tweaked the recipe slightly. In the batter, I used 1 1/4 c. of low-fat sour cream. Low-fat sour cream is a little sour for me to eat, so it's perfect in a baked recipe like this one!

For the middle layer and topping, I was feeling too lazy to chop up the walnuts (because I never buy chopped walnuts- I always buy whole since we just eat them as snacks anyway). Instead, I used 3 Tbsp. brown sugar mixed with 2 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon- half was sprinkled in the center, the other half was spread out over top.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

For batter:
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened (I have a tip for you at the end!)
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. sour cream
2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

For middle layer and topping:
6 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350%deg;F. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9" x 9" cake pan (I use a square Pyrex dish that gets used more than it probably should.)
2. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until "fluffy". It'll look like a very light creamy, grainy paste.
3. Add eggs 1 at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition. Add vanilla extract.
4. Add sour cream, again scraping down sides and bottom of the bowl.
5. Dump the flour, baking powder and baking soda on top of the liquid mixture. Stir the dry ingredients lightly with a fork before letting the mixer incorporate it into the liquid.
6. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon with a fork to completely incorporate.
7. Spread half of the cake batter into the bottom of the prepped dish. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar mix over the batter. Spread the other half of the batter on top, and sprinkle the remaining mix all over. If you don't use nuts, it will cover the entire middle and top in a pretty even, thick layer.
8. Bake in the center of the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a long toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (no batter on the bottom).
9. Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to a dish/cake plate.

If you wanted to use chopped nuts in the cinnamon-sugar mix, I would highly recommend either walnuts (high in Omega-3 remember!) or pecans. And so help me, if you say "pee-can", I'll reach through the monitor and smack ya. This Southern girl insists you call them "pi-kahns". Thank you.

Now I said I had a tip for you about the butter. If you're like me, and you get bitten by the baking bug with no warning, that means your butter is cold as heck. The way I've gotten around this is by cutting the butter into fairly small cubes before placing into my mixing bowl and then beating it for a minute or so. Since the majority of recipes call for you to cream the butter and sugar together first, you're getting a headstart by creaming the butter on its own, before adding the sugar.

And as a side note, today is Hubs's and my 4th anniversary! Hard to grasp how quickly time flies... we've had our share of good and bad times, but who hasn't, right? So, here's to you and putting up with my craziness for this long, Hubs. This post is for you. :)

Let's do the Twist!

2008-12-16T22:43:00.013-08:00

Well, twist on a classic salad recipe that is. Everyone knows the Caesar salad. Courtesy of Wikipedia, a "true" Caesar salad:

A) was created for Julius Caesar.
B) always has some form of protein (i.e. grilled chicken or shrimp).
C) was created by Caesar Cardini, a Mexican man born in Italy.

(You can't tell I've got multiple choice tests on the brain, right? I finally finished my exams for the semester, and it's been rough getting out of the routine of reading like a mad person every night.) But I digress...

Feeling inspired by all of my new-found spare time, I decided to play with the idea of a caesar salad with chicken. I'm a rabid crouton eater, and could easily polish off a bag of sourdough croutons on my own, sans salad. Then a light bulb went on over my head- what about a chicken caesar salad meatball?!

Now, I have no idea if anyone else has ever done this, but I felt pretty pleased with how they turned out. And when Hubs inhales 5 of them, you know they must be pretty tasty, considering how picky he is.

As if the glowing review from Hubs wasn't enough, these came together super fast. Depending on the size you make your meatballs, you could have a relatively healthy dinner on the table in less than an hour! And if you shaped the meat into patties, you could slice them up and have a ground chicken strip caesar salad.

Besides... smashing the daylights out of the delicious little croutons is mighty cathartic when you're PMSing or had a rough day at work. Or if you just have an inner 15-year-old boy that likes to smash things (like me). :-D

Chicken Caesar Meatballs

1 1/2 lbs. lean ground chicken
1 1/3 c. sourdough croutons, smashed up finely (you can whiz them in a food processor if you really want a fine crumb, but larger chunks give a better crunch)-- reserve 1 c. for coating
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 green onions, chopped (white & green parts)- will roughly be 1/8 c.?
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 tsp. salt (you don't need much- the croutons and the Parm are plenty salty)
1/4 tsp. pepper
Cooking spray

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil, and spray the tin foil lightly with the cooking spray.
2. Mix ground chicken, the 1/3 c. of crushed croutons, Parmesan, onions, olive oil, salt and pepper. Don't overmix, but mix thoroughly.
3. Roll slightly less than 1/4 c. of meat mixture into ball shapes. Roll meatballs in the reserved 1 c. of croutons. Place on greased cookie sheet. Drizzle with tiny bit of olive oil (optional).
4. Bake for 15-18 minutes, then flip meatballs. Bake for another 15-18 minutes.
5. While the meatballs are baking, clean and prep your Romaine lettuce and Parmesan cheese. (If you're like me, you have a bottle of Caesar salad dressing in your fridge at all times. No worries if you want to make your own!)
6. Remove meatballs from oven. Let them cool for at least 6-8 minutes before placing on top of the lettuce.
7. Enjoy!

This made roughly 12 meatballs for me (one was slightly smaller than the rest, but I'm sure you could get much more precise, even meatballs if you were to weigh each one).

Maybe I won't post the answer to my little quiz just yet. I want to know what everyone else thinks! Add a comment with what you think the answer is. :)

Christmas Cookies- Part One

2008-12-11T16:14:00.015-08:00

Although I'm not quite finished with my finals yet, I'm trying to get myself into the Christmas spirit. This time of year is always quite hard for me- I've never been much of a "Christmas" person, but getting homesick makes this season that much harder. I love my Hubs, my in-laws and my incredible friends, and I'm grateful that they've kept me sane (or insane, depending on who you ask...), but I miss my mom, dad, stepmom, siblings, etc.

So my attempt at getting in the Christmas mood is by following a tradition that my grandmother did, although not entirely unique. I have most of her cookie recipes (that I had to hand-copy from her handwritten notes 2 years ago after her funeral), and I try to make some of her recipes, with my own twist on a few. My neighbours and friends usually have to loosen their belts a notch this time of year. :-D My first Christmas cookie for the year? The old reliable chocolate chip cookie...

The recipe for these beauties gives you a crisp edge, soft center, and darn tasty cookie, if I do say so myself. :) There are 2 keys to getting a perfectly soft cookie:
1) An extra egg yolk. The added fat keeps the cookies "hydrated" (I absolutely hate the word "moist", so I say "hydrated" instead lol).
2) A low oven temp. Most cookie recipes call for 350°F, and some call for 325°F. However, this particular recipe calls for a 300°F oven. It helps. Really. Trust me!
Soft-Center Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from grandmother's recipe- which she said was her adaptation from a Mrs. Field's recipe)

1 c. salted butter, softened (yes, salted. Seriously, trust me!)
1 c. (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 c. white granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. molasses
2 whole eggs + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt (optional, depending on how salty your butter is)
1 bag (300-350 g.) of chocolate chips (roughly 2 c.??)

1. Preheat your oven to 300°F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer (or large bowl, if you're going to do it by hand), cream together the butter, molasses and sugars to form a grainy paste.
4. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl, then add eggs one at a time. Mix well between each addition, and scrape down the bowl after mixing. Mix in vanilla.
5. Add flour and chocolate chips to butter mixture. If you're doing this in a stand mixer, pulse the beater to keep the flour from flying all over your kitchen... unless you like looking like the Abominable Snowman. Whatever Double-Stufs your Oreo. :-D
6. Place rounded tablespoons of dough 2 in. apart on the parchment-lined baking sheets.
7. Bake for 18 minutes, if you have a single sheet in the oven, 20 minutes for 2 sheets. The cookies will look slightly undercooked, but very lightly browned at the edges. Transfer from the cookie sheet as soon as they come out of the oven, or they'll overcook.

If these cookies aren't soft, then I'm... well... the Abominable Snowman! :-P Hopefully, once my finals are over, I'll be baking and cooking like crazy, so I'll have tons to post about soon!

Recharging for Finals

2008-12-07T10:21:00.026-08:00

**Please bear with me, as I'm trying out a new html code for expandable links! :)
I had one of the hardest finals I've ever had in my entire college career yesterday. I studied so hard for it, my brain felt like it was ready to just quit, and let me live the rest of my life in a padded room with a coloring book and crayons.

So, naturally, the morning after such a huge exam, there's no rest. There's still work to be done, in the form of a paper and 2 more exams. I decided a good, Christmas-y themed breakfast was in order. First I have to introduce you to one of my favorite fruits in the world, the wee little sugar mandarin. They're so small and miniature, and have such a concentrated mandarin-orange flavor, but they're insanely sweet at the same time. Note, the sugar mandarin has wondered out of its native habitat of my local Persian store and found its way to my pale, always-cold hand.

Isn't that the cutest little fruit you've ever seen?! I almost can't eat it... Almost...

But this poor lost fellow went quite well with my Christmas-themed french toast and a handful of walnuts for breakfast. The french toast is a recipe that my mother has always used, and I know it's not exactly original but I love to do my own twists on it sometimes. This morning I decided I wanted to use mostly eggnog instead of milk! I don't usually use syrup or powdered sugar on my french toast, and you'll see why when you read the recipe. :)

French Toast: Christmas season-style

9 slices of whole wheat bread (Texas toast size thickness- or you can use whatever your favorite bread for french toast is)
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
4 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 c. milk
1/3 c. eggnog
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
dash of salt

1. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-low heat.
2. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in the bottom of a wide, shallow bowl. Add the eggs, and whisk together with cinnamon and sugar
3. Whisk in the vanilla, eggnog, milk and salt.
4. Dredge each slice of bread in the batter- I tend to like the middle of my french toast soft with the outside crisp, so I let each side soak the batter in for about 10-15 seconds.
5. Place coated bread in skillet and cook on each side for roughly 2 minutes.
6. Remove from skillet and inhale like the hungry morning monster you know you are. Or maybe that's just me.

You might be thinking, why sugar mandarins and walnuts with a Christmas-y type french toast? Well, mandarins always seem to be in abundance in December, and I'm always lucky enough to find these wee little sugar mandarins in my local Persian stores at the same time. And really, I can't be the only one who used to get a gigantic mandarin in the bottom of my Christmas stocking (aka my dad's clean tube sock because our stockings were only for decoration).

And walnuts... well protein is how you stay full longer, right? And what better way than with walnuts, that also have a wildly high amount of Omega-3 fatty acids? I can use all the Omega-3's I can get, considering the amount of information I have to try to cram into my brain for this week. Besides, Hubs is not a fan of fish at all, and walnuts are the only way I can get him to have protein in the morning, and Omega-3's at all. :)

Oops.

2008-11-30T16:41:00.002-08:00

Apparently, I can't read recipes correctly anymore. I just realized that the previous DB challenge called for browned butter for the frosting... which I didn't do. I just melted the butter down, cooled it slightly then went ahead with the recipe as written. Oopsie.

I've made the cake recipe again, and decided to follow the brown butter recipe more closely. Have to be entirely honest, the "brown" flavor seems a touch overwhelming to me. I made the caramel syrup using brown sugar this time and that changed the flavor of the cake and the frosting, but the butter is so overwhelming, it's hard to pick up the caramel flavor this time. :(

So ultimately, it's up to you. Oh, and the less icing sugar you use, the more glaze-like consistency you will have, which I think is fantastic for this kind of cake.

Just thought I'd throw an extra $.02 in. :-D

Daring Bakers' November Challenge- Caramel Cake

2008-11-29T00:00:00.004-08:00

Admittedly, I was hesitant about doing this challenge. I'm not a huge caramel fan and neither is Hubs. I debated sitting this one out, and then thought, "That's not the spirit of Daring Bakers. I joined to be challenged, and I will make this work." So I made the recipe into ever-familiar and much-loved cupcakes and hoped they would be eaten with minimal questioning from Hubs. (He's learned to ask what's in my cooking and baking ever since I snuck roasted butternut squash into his macaroni and cheese. lol)

To be completely honest, he wasn't given much of a chance. Between my mother-in-law eating them drenched in leftover caramel syrup, and me eating a cupcake every 20 minutes... they didn't last long.

Since the basis of this recipe is essentially sugar, I had to cut back on the sugar in the cake itself. I only used 1 cup, rather than 1 1/4 c. the recipe calls for. Another way to cut the sweetness overall was to add salt to the icing (well, mine turned out more like a glaze)- I added almost a full teaspoon. The difference between the icing without salt and with salt is so vast, my teeth are going to go on strike soon.

As you can probably tell, I got impatient during my attempt to photograph these little beauties. Such is the life of a delicious cupcake.

The recipe this month was courtesy of Shuna Fish Lyndon via Bay Area Bites, and was picked by our gracious hosts, Dolores, Alex of Blondie and Brownie, and Jenny. For tips on how to make this into a gluten-free treat, head to Natalie's blog to check out what she has to say. :) And I highly highly recommend checking out Shuna's tips on how to make the cake turn out nicely and not like a caramel brownie texture... which may actually not be a bad ideas now that I think about it...

Falling... into Fall

2008-11-24T19:44:00.005-08:00

So I went a little post crazy with trying out some new recipes in the last week or so, and I have a back up of delicious things to share. My procrastination has finally caught up with me- I have quite a bit of schoolwork that I've put off for as long as possible, and can't put off any longer! Boo... :( The only consolation is that the semester is almost over and I'll have more time to play in the kitchen in the new year! YAY!

So the recipe that I wanted to share this time is one that I altered from Eat, Shrink and Be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski- if you have the book, the recipe is titled "Chicken Pandemoniyum". Like I said before, I'm a sucker for word play and this recipe was too cute and tasty-looking to pass up. I'm sure you can alter it further to use your own wild rice blend or a flavored wild rice or even just plain brown rice. My little twist on this particular recipe (well, I make it differently every time, and this one was one of my favorites, plus it's fall appropriate) was to serve the rice and chicken mix in a roasted butternut squash!

Chicken Pandemoniyum (Eat, Shrink & Be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski)

3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lb)
2 tsp olive oil
3 c. sliced mushrooms (or 1 8 oz. package of pre-sliced mushrooms)
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 package (6.3 oz/180 g) packaged Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice blend (I usually add 1/4 c. brown rice to the mix)
1 1/4 low-fat, low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Cut the chicken breasts into large chunks . Heat oil in a large, non-stick skillet with a tight fitting lid. Add the chicken pieces and cook over medium heat for about 4 minutes, stirring often, until the chicken is lightly browned all over. Remove from skillet and set aside.

2. Add the mushrooms & onions to the same skillet. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables begin to soften (about 3 minutes). If the vegetables start to stick add a small amount of water or broth. Add garlic and cook for another minute or so.

3 Add the rice and seasoning pouch which comes with the rice. Mix well and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in the broth and the wine. Return the chicken to the skillet. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes (or until the rice is soft and the liquid absorbed). Remove from heat. Let stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the cheese and serve immediately.

To roast a small butternut squash, preheat your oven to 350°. Clean off any obvious dirt from the exterior. Cut the squash in half (VERY VERY carefully- I nearly sliced my finger off doing this)- the easiest way is to put the tip of the knife in the center of the squash and cut through the half closest to you. Then turn the cut end away and repeat with the other end. I find it's easier to cut the squash's butt first, then the neck. Yes, I call the fat end of a butternut squash "the butt." Sue me. :-P Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds and the stringy bits in that little hole. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper on the cut side of each half. Place cut-side down on a cookie sheet, and roast for 45 minutes. The only way I know of to check the done-ness of roasted butternut squash is to pierce the outside with a knife- if it slips in and out easily, then it's done. Remove from the oven, and let cool to the touch.

You can scoop out the flesh and mash with a little bit of butter, more salt and pepper and a little extra Parmesan cheese, and serve on the side. Fill up the empty squash "carcass" with the chicken and rice and top with more shaved Parmesan and a little salad on the side.

Happy eating!! :)

Procrastinating with Homemade Oreos

2008-11-23T06:50:00.003-08:00

I stumbled across this adorable blog through Tastespotting recently, and the cookies that led me there intrigued me. They resembled my one of my favorite childhood treats- Oreos! I have fond memories of being a little pig with these cookies. We would have a package of Double Stuf Oreos sitting between my dad and me, and he would twist the cookies open so the filling was all on one side. He would hand me that side, I'd devour the filling, then hand the naked cookie half back to him. lol In my defense, I was pretty small. I have since come to love the cookies but only when made almost mush-like with ice cold milk. Yum!

But I digress... back to the recipe!

So I borrowed the recipe for the cookies from Julia at Crazy about Bretzels, but admittedly, I didn't quite follow her directions. It's been a while since I've made cookies, since they're more time-consuming than cupcakes for me, but I still followed my instincts. With her ingredients, I creamed the butter and sugar together, then added the egg and a tiny bit of vanilla. After scraping down the ball and beating the egg in, I added the dry ingredients a little at a time until a brown mass of dough formed.

I baked them the same way she states in her recipe, but, as you can see, my cookies have a crackle appearance. I learned a long time ago that this is due to rolling the cookies into balls. I don't quite remember the science behind it, but something about the dough being in contact with your hands creates a layer of something along the outside that causes the dough to crackle as it bakes and spreads. Oh well. I'm an equal opportunity eater- they are much loved no matter how ugly they are.

Now, the best part of any sandwich cookie- THE FILLING! I've been on the hunt for an Oreo filling recipe for quite some time. No offense to my Canadian friends, but Canadian Oreos just do not have the same flavor in the filling as American Oreos. I refuse to buy Canadian Oreos, because I always end up disappointed. I have to admit- when I tasted the filling for my homemade sandwich cookies, my knees buckled a bit. The secret to the proper texture and flavor? Granulated sugar. Not much, but just enough. I'm a very texture-oriented person (Hubs often asks if I'm regressing to a place in my childhood because I unconsciously begin petting his fleece sweaters when he wears them lol), so trust me when I say 1 Tbsp. of granulated sugar makes a WORLD of difference.

Homemade Oreo Filling

1/2 c. unsalted butter
1/2 c. vegetable shortening
1 1/3 c. icing/confectioners/powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. clear vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. white granulated sugar

1. Beat butter and shortening together.

2. Add sugar 1/3 c. at a time. Scrape down the bowl after each addition.

3. Add in vanilla and granulated sugar.

Now that I think about it, you might actually be able to add a pinch of salt to cut the sweetness just a bit, but really... it's a treat, so indulge in whatever makes you happy! :)

When the cat's away

2008-11-13T19:56:00.007-08:00

... the mouse eats shrimp! (Well, unless that mouse is me- in which case, the mouse inhales everything in sight.) Hubs doesn't eat seafood, so the shrimp is solely for myself and my mother-in-law.

While Hubs was at work today, I was home, instead of in the lab at school for once. So I decided it would be fun to play around with the bag of frozen shrimp I bought 2 weeks ago and shoved in the back of the freezer. As much as I love shrimp, I never know what to do with it! So I looked around at some of my favorite blogs and got inspired by tomato and cream based sauce recipes.

Knowing what flavors I wanted and knowing what ingredients were in my dwindling pantry, lunch was definitely an adventure. Hubs came home for lunch for once, and proceeded to pick on how my lunches are so much nicer and more creative (he usually gets stuck with leftovers lol).

I humbly present Home Alone Shrimp with Pasta. Be warned- the recipe may sound odd, but I was cooking "by the seat of my pants". The proportions are smaller, but the recipe should make 2 servings.

Home Alone Shrimp

2 dozen frozen shrimp (deveined but still in shell is good, & mine were 31-40 size)
2 Tbsp. butter
1 ½ Tbsp. olive oil
1 c. diced tomatoes
¾ c. chopped onions
3 grated garlic cloves
2 tsp. steak seasoning
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ c. chopped green & red bell peppers
1/3 c. light cream cheese (light garden veggie) OR ¼ c. thick plain yogurt
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

½ box spaghetti (250-300 grams)
1 tsp. salt
Enough water to cook your pasta :)

1. Melt butter and 1 ½ Tbsp. olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Place defrosted, deveined shrimp in skillet and cook for 1-2 minutes on one side. Flip and cook on the other side for 1 minute, until just pink. Remove shrimp to a plate and let cool. Bring pot of water to boil and add 1 tsp. of salt.

2. Soften onions and garlic same skillet, until translucent. Add tomatoes and cook over medium-low for 2-3 minutes. Add seasonings to taste, then add bell peppers. When water in pot is boiling, add pasta to pot and cook to just before al dente (it’ll finish cooking in the sauce).

3. Peel shrimp. (To remove tail and keep meat in shell, pinch at the very end and twist slightly.) Cut each shrimp into small pieces. Place shrimp back into skillet with tomato mix. Add cream cheese, remaining tbsp. of olive oil and lemon juice. Mix together and turn heat to low.

4. Remove pasta from water and place in skillet with sauce. It’s ok if some of the water makes it in, because the starch in the water will help the sauce stick to the noodles, and it’ll thin the sauce out a bit more.

5. Turn off heat, plate ‘er up and devour like it’s your last meal on earth.

Hope someone else enjoys this as much as I did! Drop me a note and let me know if it works out or if there's a typo or anything. :) Happy cooking and eating!

P.S. I know I use parsley as a garnish like Southerner's use butter- TOO MUCH. I'm still working on my accenting of dishes, so bear with me as I learn. :-D

Almost forgot...

2008-11-11T20:42:00.005-08:00

Gratuitous cute puppy pictures for the day! The pup decided to inspect one of my reusable grocery bags.

Apparently, the bag passed his inspection. (Ignore the Hubs's "scrubby pants"- he wears them whenever we're home, despite owning a million other pairs of sweatpants. lol)

Chicken Rice Bake Experiment

2008-11-11T19:46:00.003-08:00

I've never had the day off for Veteran's Day before, so I was at a loss for what to do all day. I mean, sure I could work on one of the 3 papers I have due by the beginning of December. Sure, I could catch up on the reading for my classes. Sure, I could clean and do laundry.

But in the spirit of a true last year undergrad, what did I do? None of the above.

I chose to browse through my cookbooks for inspiration, something I haven't done in a while. I stumbled upon a recipe I hadn't seen before. It involved chopped chicken breast, cooked brown rice, cream of mushroom soup, and mixed veggies. I was relatively intrigued, and felt I could make a similar "idea" but tastier and with fresh ingredients instead. So I ended up with...

The Chicken Rice Bake Experiment!

3 c. cooked brown rice (I did 1/2 water, 1/2 chicken stock, and undercooked it by about 10 minutes- it will finish in the oven)
2 c. chopped chicken breast
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 c. chopped celery (the size is totally up to you for the celery and carrots)
1 c. chopped carrots
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. mild curry powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 Tbsp. butter (or olive oil or margarine)
3 Tbsp. flour
about 1 1/2 c. low sodium chicken stock
2 c. shredded sharp cheddar
slices of tomato (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.

2. Heat 1 Tbsp. of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Sauteé the veggies for 2-3 minutes, until onions are just translucent and the carrots & celery are barely softened. Add the Italian seasoning and curry powder, along with salt and pepper.

3. Add 3 Tbsp. of butter to the veggies. Once melted, sprinkle the 3 Tbsp. of flour over and stir so there are no clumps of flour. Cook for 2 minutes (to get rid of the flour-y taste). Stir in the chicken stock and let thicken. The mixture will resemble the filling of a vegetable pot pie.

4. In a large bowl, mix the brown rice rice, veggies, 1 1/2 c. of cheese and chopped chicken. Spread in evenly in a 9x13 dish, and sprinkle the top with the remaining 1/2 c. of cheese. (If you choose to top with the tomatoes, layer the tomatoes before adding the cheese.

5. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes, until the cheese is melted, and the rice is bubbly.

For the chicken, I've found searing chicken breasts in a pan and then baking in the oven cooks them without drying out. After searing, place a pat of butter on top of each breast and stick the pan in a 400°F oven(if it's not oven-safe, you can wrap tin-foil around the handle, and it magically becomes ok to go in the oven lol). Bake for 35-40 minutes. I have a bad habit of grabbing one of the chicken booobs out of the oven and cutting it in half to check if it's done. :-D What can I say? I'm not a chef. lol

This is such an adaptable recipe and is so easily suited to individual tastes. You could probably do shrimp or pork or beef and play with the seasonings and veggies.

Staying true to Southern roots

2008-11-08T21:33:00.007-08:00

Like the name of the blog says, I'm a Southern girl living in the Great White North, aka Canada. Aside from culture and climate shock, culinary shock has recently set in. I can deal with snow... I can deal with streets being shut down for cultural celebrations I can't even pronounce... one thing I've had the hardest time dealing with is the apparent lack of andouille sausage and crawfish. *collective gasping* Yes, I know. These 2 staples are crucial in maintaining my Southern sanity... or insanity. Normality is in the eye of the beholder. :-D

A few months ago, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and I heard the song of angels. I had finally found my precious andouille at a small, local meat shop near my university. I bought a ridiculous amount of it that day, and made even more ridiculous amounts of red beans and rice and jamabalaya for 2 weeks. My stomach is protesting at the mere thought of how much I ate. lol

Today, in honour of my absolute favorite football team ever, the Louisiana State University Tigers, playing #1 Alabama (and the evil, lying Nick Saban), I decided it was time to make a proper red beans and rice again. So I drive to the meat shop only to find empty windowcases and a "FOR LEASE" sign hanging on the door. It took every once of strength not to cry out "WHY?!" Instead, with the fortitude that only comes from a resourceful, and damn hungry, Southern girl, I drove over 45 minutes in the opposite direction to their other location, only to find out they decided to stop carrying it completely.

During the 45 minute drive back (in the rain, as per typical West Coast weather), I decided on whim to stop at a British meat shop that is roughly 5 minutes from my home. Lo and behold, the angels were singing again, as I found packages of FRESH andouille in a case in the back of the store, along with beautiful smoked ham hocks. I'm sure the man who helped me thought I was a total nutjob... not because I started piling these sausages into my arms, but because I was humming to myself "Ode to Joy", I was so happy. lol The gorgeous lady who rang up my asinine amount of pork and beef product made my day THAT much brighter by telling me that they actually make the andouille at their other location.

The end result of my day of (surprisingly relaxing) driving is something that reminded me of being in the kitchen with my grandmother, with her lifting me up so I could stir the massive pot she would make of this wonderful Southern dish. I like to think I made her proud with this batch. :)

Louisiana Red Beans & Rice

1 smoked ham hock
3 andouille sausage (roughly 3/4 lb.), cut in 1/2 in. diagonal coins
3 1/2 c. dried red kidney beans (you can soak these if you want, but I didn't)
Tony Cachere's Creole Seasoning
1 large bay leaf (preferably fresh, but 2 dried will work)
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 large yellow onion, diced pretty small
3 celery stalks, diced same size as onion
1 green bell pepper, diced small
3 garlic cloves, minced finely (or grated)
8-9 c. water
1-2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil (I would not advise using olive oil, but that's more of a tradition thing for me)

1. In a LARGE pot, heat the vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Place the ham hock in the pot and "cook" for 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove ham hock from pot, and place on the side (you'll need it again later). Do the same with the sausage "coins"- these only need 1 minute or so on each side. This is just to render a bit of fat and flavor from the ham and sausages for the veggies.

2. Dump all of your chopped veggies in, and cook in the oil/fat until soft. Add everything back into the pot (ham hock, sausage, seasonings, beans, etc.) and cover with 7-8 cups of water. (I found that starting with 9 was too much liquid at the end. Like everyone says, you can always add more later, but you can never take away too much.)

3. Boil the whole she-bang for 2 1/2-3 hours, uncovered, stirring frequently to keep beans from scorching the bottom of the pot. Remove the ham hock after 1 hr. of cooking. This can be used again to make soup later, so wrap it up tightly and stash that baby in the fridge.

*(You could probably do a short cut and use canned red beans, but I've found beans don't absorb as much of the smoky flavor from the ham and sausage since they're already cooked.)

4. When the beans are cooked (not mushy but not crunchy), mash about 1/3 c. of them with the back of your spoon, on the side of pot. This adds substance to it, and makes it creamy instead of watery.

Red beans and rice is typically served over plain, long-grain white rice, but I've apparently lapsed in my ability to make it, since I ended up with a gigantic clump of rice instead of individual grains. lol So I ended up eating mine over basmati rice. I imagine you could eat this over brown rice as well, to make you feel better about the ridiculous amount of delicious fatness in this dish, but really... why not just go all the way with good 'ole white rice? :-D

Attempt at an earlier DB challenge

2008-10-30T21:13:00.004-07:00

Like I said before, I've stalked... er... followed the Daring Bakers' challenges for quite some time. One in particular caught my eye. The June challenge was quite a doozy (or is it doozie?)- Danish Bread. When I saw the bloggers that did this, I was in absolute AWE. I re-thought whether I wanted to join Daring Bakers or not. lol Between the French words "detrempe" for dough and "beurrage" for a butter & flour mix used in the recipe and the amount of TIME this took, I thought I may have gotten in over my head in testing my DB qualifications.

Lo and behold, I made it through all 4 turns... and I made it through the overnight chilling... and I made it through the bazillion rollings... and I made it through the 2 hours of proofing. Both braids were devoured in less than 45 minutes. :-O I made them both savory, so I played with the recipe just a bit. Instead of orange zest and juice, I used lemon for both, since I LOVE lemon with sweet and savory dishes; also scaled the amount of sugar down to about 2 tablespoons and omitted the vanilla flavors completely.

For the fillings, I used some of the roma tomatoes from my last harvest (my poor little tomato plants are finally done), mozzarella, parmesan and Italian seasoning. For the other, garden veggie cream cheese, red bell pepper, arugula and turkey bacon. The only sounds I heard for the 45 minutes while we ate were "Mmmmm....". lol I was instructed to use "Mmmmm" as my only caption.

So for anyone hesitant about joining Daring Bakers or nervous about jumping into a new idea, I suggest just going in head first. If you're feeling as adventurous as I was, check out the DB blogroll, Em's blog or one of my new favorites, Fo-ne-tic-lee Speaking. What can I say? I'm a linguistics minor and a HUGE nerd for anything related to linguistics, so the name tickles me. :-D Both of these wonderful ladies have great photo tutorials and helpful tips.

Fun fact about me: I bake as a procrastination/avoidance mechanism. I've had midterms for the last 2 weeks, plus a paper due, and a presentation next week. Where have I had the time to bake these things? There's a reason I'm just an okay student and not an A+ student like I was in high school. Back then, I just didn't know that I could actually MAKE the things that I'm so addicted to. :-D

In keeping with my procrastination...

2008-10-30T10:19:00.010-07:00

So I know I said I had some news... before anyone starts buying baby toys and clothes, no I'm not pregnant. lol My big news is that I was graciously allowed to join The Daring Bakers group! For those not familiar with DB, they are a fantastic group of bakers, both bloggers and non-bloggers, who are given a hosted baking challenge every month (and are asked to post by a specific date- but, in true Tia fashion, I'm late. I'm always late. Always. Ask anyone.). I've been following their challenges for several months now, since one of my favorite bloggers, Em, started. Lucky for me, the challenge for October is a Paul Reinhardt pizza dough recipe!

Courtesy of the host, Rosa, the recipe provided called for a chilled, overnight rising of the yeast-based dough and tossing the dough like "a real pizzaiola" which was completely new to me. I was so excited to be doing my first ever DB challenge, that I kept opening the fridge to look at my little dough balls, just to make sure I wasn't imagining it. :-D

One requirement set by our host was that we had get a photo of ourselves tossing... every picture resulted in a pizza-sized donut. The dough was so tender, I managed to put my fist through the dough every single time. lol However, the resulting crust was declared "the best crust EVER" and "no other pizza will ever cross the threshold into my house" by Hubs. He loved it that much- I've already had requests to make it into calzones and dessert pizzas. I tried making breadsticks from one of the dough balls and it was simply incredible.

Because Hubs isn't as much of an adventurous eater as I am (i.e. he's the pickiest eater known to man), I made a small pizza all for myself, with a blue cheese bechamel base, topped with ham and green onions. As an after thought I tossed some mozzarella and asiago in the last 2 minutes of baking. This was hands-down one of the best pizzas I've ever had, and the crust was just perfect. You can totally control whether you want a super-thin crust or a super thick crust.

See that little drip of cheese? It was attached to some slightly browned cheese that had dripped on to the baking sheet. I gobbled that right up. I can't be the only person who appreciates slightly overcooked... ok, burned... cheese. I'm not, right? :-D

For Hubs, I made a slightly more traditional pizza, with a little thicker crust, topped with green onions, red peppers, pepperoni, fresh garden tomatoes and mozzarella .
Let's just say there weren't any leftovers for lunch the next day. :-D
If you want to try this pizza recipe (and I *insist* you do- you will not regret it), you can check it out on Rosa's blog blog. Since I'm still a novice, you should also check out other DB's on the blogroll for some great topping ideas and much nicer pictures. :-D

I'm still working on Thanksgiving pictures, and I'm also attempting an old DB challenge (the Danish Braid!), so hopefully, with midterms behind me, these will be posted soon. This is such an addicting habit the only things on my Christmas wishlist are plates, a photobox, proper lighting and a new camera for taking nicer pictures. lol Can you tell I'm very ready to be done with school and doing things that have no relation whatsoever? :-D

The Life of a Student

2008-10-25T22:44:00.004-07:00

I apologize again for falling so behind in my posting. Because this is my last semester, midterms seem to be wildly harder. But no complaints here... I do enough whining to my fantastic friends. The next few posts will probably come in all at once, since I don't want to make one HUGE post. (If anyone knows how to do a "jump" post, I would GREATLY appreciate the script or a tutorial.)

For now, I'll just say, I *will* be back to posting soon, and will have quite a few new pictures and recipes. :)

Skillet Chicken, Apple Tart, and New Things to Come

2008-10-05T19:30:00.004-07:00

This is going to be a big month for me, but I can't say why yet. Well, I *could* but I'd rather wait until I can share all of the details first. :-D Trust me, it will be great, though!

So I used a super simple recipe from Cooking Light (again). I'm here to say, if you haven't tried anything from these recipe books, you're missing out. Beyond the fact that they're are super delicious, the recipes are easy, adaptable for all tastes, and offers a great nutritional breakdown. I haven't gotten pictures of it, but I've made a lot of their baked goods too, and those are sensational! Jam-filled brown sugar muffins, monkey bread, breadsticks... Mmmmmmm... now my sweet tooth is kicking in.

But I digress... Skillet-Roasted Lemon Chicken with Potatoes is insanely easy, tasty, and is a great one-dish meal, especially for single guys & gals, or people who live in dorms that can access a stove. I made a few modifications to the recipe: I used lemon and lime slices under the chickene; used a package of chicken tenders instead of thighs because I just do NOT like dark meat poultry; omitted the olives; and more veggies than it called for because I knew that I would inhale the tomates and the potatoes were going to be a BIG hit, especially with Hubs. If your grocery store has them, there are these nifty little bags of baby red, white and purple potatoes in the produce section-- I used a good bit of one of those bags (probably half?). Like I said, this recipe is easy to mold to your personal tastes. I'd suggest playing around with the spices, the juice/zest, and the meat. I think it'd work fantastically (is that a word?) with fish, like tilapia or halibut.

Skillet-Roasted Lemon Chicken with Potatoes (from Cooking Light)
(makes 4 servings)

1 large lemon, sliced (along with 1 lime, sliced)
2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
6 garlic cloves, minced (I used maybe 3, because 6 seemed over-the-top)
1 tsp. chopped fresh or 1/4 tsp. dried, rosemary
8 (3-oz) skinned, boned chicken thighs (or 1 medium, 1 lb? package of chicken tenders)
10 cherry tomatoes
10 kalamata olives
8 small red potatoes, quartered (about 1 1/4 lb.)

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Arrange lemon (and lime) slices in a single layer in bottom of a 1o-in. cast iron skillet.
3. Combine oil and next 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken, tomatoes, olives, and potatoes; toss to coat. Arrange chicken in a single layer on slices. Arrange vegetables over chicken. Bake at 450 for 55 minutes or until chicken is done.

(1 serving= 1 thigh and 1 c. vegetable mixture)

Nutritional Info:
Calories..... 374
Fat..... 10.4 g
Saturated Fat..... 2.3 g
Monounsaturated Fat..... 4.6 g
Polyunsaturated Fat..... 2.2 g
Protein..... 37.5 g
Carbohydrates..... 34.2 g
Fiber..... 3.4 g
Cholesterol..... 141 mg
Iron..... 3.7 mg
Sodium..... 541 mg
Calcium..... 65 mg

I got a little antsy and creative with some left over puff pastry I had sitting around too. I've seen all of these gorgeous apple tarts and apple tatins before, and always got intimidated because they were gorgeous and my apple things always leak out of the pastry. Always. Without fail. Well, this one was no different, but I didn't take a picture of the massacre-looking parchment paper this was baked on. I didn't really follow a recipe. Mixed 3 or 4 sliced, peeled pink lady apples with around 2 tsp. of ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. of nutmeg, 2 Tbsp. of sugar. Unrolled one roll of puff pastry. Spread apple mixture on the pastry, leaving about a 1" edge. Roll the edge up, folding over while attempting to make it somewhat circular. Brushed the whole she-bang with an egg wash, and then sprinkled the edges with sugar. I think it was baked at 375F for about 20-25 minutes? This is why I need to write things down when I decide to experiment with no recipe. lol

Oh, and might I add, mango gelato with apple anything is absolutely phenomenal. It made sound odd, but really... It's no stranger than eating cranberries with stuffing at Thanksgiving. Mango gelato can change your world. Yes. Yes, it will.

Speaking of which, Canadian Thanksgiving dinner will probably be my next post! It's my turn to do dinner, and thankfully, there's not many people coming, so it will be Thanksgiving on a slightly smaller scale. :)

On a blogging note, I'm undecided on whether to start taking process picures again. What says the awesome visitors to my little cobweb-covered corner of the internet? Yay or Nay?

Apologies

2008-09-28T11:22:00.005-07:00

I am truly sorry it took me so long to post another recipe. In an attempt to avoid writing the research paper I have due in 2 days, I thought I would share one of my favorite recipes I've tried in the last few weeks, and one of the few I've been able to get a picture of before it was inhaled by the vacuum that is Hubs. lol

Like I commented in Ugly Dude's blog, Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski is a fantastic cookbook. Not only are there great recipes, they offer Canadian and American measurements for lots of things, and every single page has extra information on everything from cholesterol to exercise to factoids about the history of certain food-related items. Anyone who's ever seen their cooking show will adore this book... even if you haven't seen it, you'll still love it because it's not pretentious and it doesn't pretend to be anything other than plain-old good food.

Or maybe I'm just easily amused by the cute names they give things- "Ponderoasta", "Darth Tater", "Pea Diddy"? Heeheehee. Admit it. Those are pretty damn cute. :-P

Well one of the first recipes I tried was called "I'm Dreaming of a White Chili", and admittedly, I was hesitant to try it. The ingredients include evaporated milk and canned chilies. Only ever having had red, carnivorous chili, a white chili with chicken was intriguing. The texture as it's cooking looks almost curdled, but it truly is amazingly tasty. The monterey jack and cilantro "garnish" are NOT optional... these add so much flavor and make everything balanced, flavor-wise.

I'm Dreaming of a White Chili (from Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry by Janet & Greta Podleski)
(makes 8 servings)

2 tsp. olive oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken boobs (roughly 1.5 lbs) cut into 1" cubes
1 1/2 c. chopped onions
1 c. diced celery
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. each ground cumin & dried oregano
1/2 tsp. ground coriander (I left this out because apparently everyone in my area decided they needed to buy every container of ground coriander in a 20 mile radius)
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3 c. chicken broth
1 can (14 oz./385 mL) evaporated 2% milk
2 cans (19 oz./540 mL) navy beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (4.5 oz./127 mL) chopped green chilies
1/2 tsp. each salt and ground white or black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 c. light sour cream
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese and chopped green onions for garnish (optional- but not really, and I actually used the cilantro as garnish first... then realized I had to stir it in and made another bowl with cilantro in it and green onions as garnish. Oops.)

1. Heat olive oil in a large, non-stick soup pot over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring/flipping constantly, until no longer pink. Add onions, celery, and garlic. Cook and stir for another 4-5 minutes, until vegetables begin to soften.

2. Add chili powder, cumin, oregano, and coriander. Mix well and cook for 1 more minute. Add flour and stir until chicken is well coated. Stir in broth and evaporated milk. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

3. Add navy beans, green chilies, salt, pepper and cayenne to chicken mixture. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream and cilantro. Ladle chili into serving bowls and top with cheese and green onions, if desired (which you will desire... trust me).

I imagine a jalapeño cornbread or plain cornbread with jalapeño butter would have been incredibly tasty with this, but I was starving and lazy and had tons of homework... shocker, right?

Oh oh, and the Podleski sisters also provide Nutritional Info! These ladies are awesome!

Nutritional Info:
Calories..... 309
Total Fat... 4.1 g
Saturated Fat..... 1.2 g
Protein...... 34 g
Carbohydrates... 34 g
Fiber......... 9.3 g
Cholesterol.... 64 mg
Sodium..... 846 mg

And to prove that I *am* human and make mistakes, allow me to share what happens when you add 1 oz. of melted bittersweet chocolate to a cupcake recipe that does not call for 1 oz. of melted bittersweet chocolate. Besides the fact that these were a huge cupcake FAIL, they were still pretty tasty. Hubs said he actually kinda liked the almost cookie-like texture. Go figure. lol

Procrastination coupled with computer issues....

2008-09-18T08:56:00.003-07:00

I promise I have not forgotten about this blog! I've tried and managed to photograph several new recipes, but the Hubs and I encountered some computer issues several days ago, and some of the photo files were damaged. :( We're working through which of the remaining ones are worthy of posting and sharing with the web, so it may be Friday night or Saturday before I post.

But when I do finally post... there will probably be at least 4 recipes. :-O When I say they were all hits, I mean they were ALL hits. Even Hubs liked these recipes, and he's a pretty picky guy. If you have the opportunity to check out "Eat, Shrink and Be Merry" by Janet and Greta Podleski or The Cooking Light cookbooks, I HIGHLY recommend these 2. I've had them out from the library for 3 weeks, and plan to renew, so I can have them for three more weeks. lol They're just that great. Even the desserts.

And just to show I'm not really procrastinating as much as just busy, maybe I'll take a picture of all of my textbooks. :-D Being in my second to last semester as an undergraduate, my classes are intense, and require more concentration than I'm used to. So, if there's anyone who checks my poor little space often, rest assured, I will post again soon. :)

Entirely random

2008-09-09T21:10:00.003-07:00

I thought I'd share my first "harvest" of those overgrown tomato plants that are taking over the area under my kitchen window... They're all slowly going from green to orange to red, and I'm getting antsy.

So without any more meaningless chatter, I present my poor anatomically correct male roma tomato.

Cute little bugger, isn't he? :-D

Still alive... mostly...

2008-09-09T09:27:00.002-07:00

Having survived my first week of classes and my first volunteer day (which was a blast- I get to play with kids and not get funny looks, which is always nice), I hope to get back into the swing of taking pictures of my dinners again. I've tried a ton of new recipes but most were devoured so fast, I didn't get the chance to even have any! lol

I've checked out Eat, Shrink and Be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski and The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook (from 2000- there's a newer version, but my teensy weensy town library isn't exactly up-to-date), and every recipe tried so far has been a huge hit. I promise I'll stop procrastinating and start updating more, because these recipes are fantabulous. Yes, I said fantabulous... you know something's good when you make up new words for it. :-D

On a non-food related note, I'm involved in a student union this semester (go figure- I'm essentially done with my BA and I pick now to get involved with anything). I need some relatively cheap, easy ideas for club/group centered activities. We've come up with bowling, movie and games nights... however, the department the union is in is probably one of the smallest in the entire university. Woot- yay for linguistics not getting enough funding! But I digress... we need to have some enticing activities to talk about to draw more people into the group so it can keep going after our group graduates in summer! Any ideas are more than welcome!

Ok, I'm a food person, who am I kidding? I have to share this blog I stumbled upon via Em's. The name is not only clever, it is downright funny. If Hubs cooked or baked, that would be the name of his food... well, except he's not ugly... but you get the idea, right? lol Anyhow, the name of the blog is Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude, and not only are his posts hilarious, he's a great cook! Highly recommend checking it out! :)

A Persian Interlude

2008-08-27T08:57:00.003-07:00

As promised, I made loobia (or lubia) polo, a really easy Persian dish with ground beef, tomatoes, green beans and rice. On the side we enjoyed mastospinach, which is yogurt with cooked spinach mixed in, and my first ever homemade hummus! I even made the tahini... and killed my blender in the process. RIP Oster Blender. lol

Now, just as a warning, my mother-in-law taught me how to make her version of loobia polo, and she doesn't "do" recipes. She's very much like Rachael Ray-- everything is "just a touch" or "a couple of spoons"... So in the spirit of sharing this with everyone, I actually had to write down what I was doing. If there's any confusing part or something that doesn't sound quite right, please let me know. I'm not a recipe writer and I'm sure it'll be completely obvious when reading my directions. :-D

And not only do you get a loobia polo recipe, you get to learn how to make Persian-style rice with tadiq (said "TAH-deek")! Make sure you have a large enough pot, with a fairly tight fitting lid... if you can, use a non-stick pot. Stainless steel is a pain in the rump to do this in.

Loobia Polo c/o my mother-in-law

For the tomato meat layer:
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef (you could use ground lamb too)
1 Tbsp. mild curry powder
2/3 can of tomato paste (or a whole can if you really like tomato flavor)
1/2 c. chopped tomatoes (fresh is always best, but canned is just as tasty)
1 c. green beans, cooked (either fresh, frozen or canned-all are ok)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4-1/2 tsp. salt
Pepper

For the rice:
3 c. basmati rice
TONS of water
3-4 tsp. salt

For the tadiq:
2 Tbsp. butter/margarine
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 whole wheat pita bread round

To get the rice ready, place the 3 cups in a bowl. Rinse and drain twice with lukewarm warm. Soak in lukewarm water, add salt, stir and then let sit for at least two hours. (Yes, I hear the groaning now, but honestly, if you do this in the morning, when you get home from work or school, the rest of it is insanely easy and fast to do!)

1. In a medium sized pot, heat the olive oil. Toss in the chopped onion and cook them until they're golden (this makes a HUGE difference- if the onions are just translucent, with no color, the flavor will NOT be the same. I've heard this so much from my mother-in-law, it is now my onion cooking mantra.)

This is usually when I put a HUGE wide pot on the stove, filled with water. Turn the heat on high, cover, and let it come to a crazy rolling boil.

2. Once onions are browned, add 1/2 Tbsp. of curry powder and let it toast slightly. Add the ground beef and brown thoroughly. If you want to make this slightly less fattening, you can pour of whatever extra fat is in the bottom of the pot.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes to the meat mixture, and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste, and cook for 5 minutes. Add the last 1/2 Tbsp. of curry powder.

Right about now is when the water starts to boil. So I drain and rinse the rice one more time, then add about 1 Tbsp. of salt and the rice to the boiling water. The rice takes about 8 or 9 minutes to cook to the point where you need it (not totally cooked through, but with the tiniest bite to it).

4. Add the green beans to the meat mixture, and cook for 6-8 minutes. Add the salt, pepper and curry powder. Cook for another 2 minutes or so.

Drain the rice in a colander over the sink. Put the pot back on the stove, turn the heat back on medium. Melt the butter/margarine with the olive oil in the bottom of the pot. While this is melting, pull apart the pita bread, and tear it into large chunks (one side will be smooth, and the other will be rough.)

When the fats are melted, swirl in the bottom of the pot to completely coat. Pour the extra fat into a cup (do not pour this down the drain- you will use it in a minute!). Place the chunks of pita bread, rough side down, in the bottom of the pot- it's ok if they overlap as long as the whole bottom is covered. Pour about 1 Tbsp. of the fat back over the bread (it should sizzle).

Scoop 1/2 of the rice in an even layer over the bread. Spread all of the tomato meat mixture over the rice, then top with the other 1/2 of the rice. Pour the remaining fat in swirly circles over the top.

This is absolutely integral- take a clean kitchen towel, and wrap it around the bottom of the lid of the pot. Place on top of the pot, and turn the heat to low. Let it cook for 20 minutes and DO NOT LIFT THE LID BEFORE THE 20 MINUTES IS UP. You will regret it. :-P

I like to mix the rice and meat together before plating, but you don't want to mess with the rice too much, so you can also put it on the plate still layered, without mixing.

And like I promised... one of my favorite ways to eat yogurt... with fresh cooked spinach! Talk about getting tons of vitamins and nutrients in one place. :-D

Mastospinach

1 c. fresh spinach, cooked & drained
4 c. low-fat Greek-style, thick yogurt

1. Mix.

2. Shove face in bowl and inhale. lol No, really, just put in a little bowl, and have a bite or 2 with each bite of loobia polo. NOM.

And for my first venture into making something ENTIRELY from scratch... I give you my simple little hummus...

I used this recipe but made my own tahini... toasted a ton of sesame seeds very lightly, and then pureed to heck with a bit of vegetable oil. It takes a bit of work, but it makes it worth it. :)

Please let me know if you try any of these... Especially the loobia polo, since I have no idea if those instructions make sense. lol

As a side note, classes start again on Tuesday, and I'm more excited than I probably should be. This will be my last fall semester as an undergrad, I have friends in every single class, even the online one, and I'll be volunteering with a speech pathologist every week! My degree will actually be done at the end of this semester, but I will still take a couple of classes in spring, just to improve my GPA, and to keep my brain fresh for applying to grad school! *gulp* If anyone has any tips on how to improve my grad school applications, they would be GREATLY appreciated! :-D

For my next trick... err... My next post will have some cupcakes and baked honey mustard chicken! YUM!

Mmmm Baked Goods

2008-08-21T21:38:00.006-07:00

So I decided to try the whole wheat blueberry muffin recipe again. Obviously, the outcome was MUCH better. Soft, slightly sweet with a hint of orange from the zest and tart from the blueberries... It helps when you don't follow recipes to a T. :-D

The recipe for these little beauties is here. You will NOT regret it.

And to stick with the baked goods theme, I made a chocolate zucchini loaf. I've wanted to try this for the longest time, so I bought two HUGE zucchini over the weekend, since I had no idea how many it would take to get 2 cups, grated. lol Poor Hubs thought the recipe was from one of the low-fat books I've been using, and he devoured quite a few pieces before actually asking if that's where it came from...

The look on his face was priceless, when I said there was zucchini in it. Didn't stop him from finishing off another piece though, so I guess it receives the stamp of approval. :-D

The recipe I used made 2 and we've almost completely polished off the second loaf, and it's still moist, and chocolatey, and soooo good. I highly recommend it to moms, dads, wives or husbands who want to sneak some more veggies into someone else's diet.

I used this recipe from All Recipes, and I highly recommend it. My only alteration was I used far less cinnamon. I don't like the combination of chocolate and cinnamon that much, so I used maybe 1/2 of what the recipe calls for.

In other life news, the job turned into a volunteer position, which is just fine with me... it's working with preschool aged children, provided aid to speech therapists and speech therapist assistants. Not only is this a fantastic opportunity for experience, exposure and networking, I will have the third reference letter I need to apply for speech pathology graduate Masters' programs in the coming spring. My fall semester is pretty light in comparison to previous semesters, so it'll be much easier to manage everything.

Next time I post, I'll share a Persian dish called Loobia (or Lubia) Polo- a tomato-based rice dish with meat and green beans, Mastospinach- thick yogurt with cooked fresh spinach and pepper, and homemade hummus. (When I say homemade, I mean homemade. I made the tahini and everything. It wasn't as difficult as I thought, but would have been MUCH easier if I had a normal-sized food processor instead of the Smurf-sized one we have now.)

Memory is the first to go with age...

2008-08-18T19:01:00.004-07:00

I cannot believe I actually forgot to post the dessert that went with the dinner from the last post! It is inherently low-fat (according to some guidelines, "fat free" although there is still 0.1 g. of Saturated fat, but when you consider the size of the piece you can eat to get that 0.1, I can live with it. lol)

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you angel food cake, with strawberries mascerated with sugar and vanilla extract, and then dusted with cocoa powder.

Ok, I admit I bought the angel food cake from the grocery store, because I'm too chicken to make one on my own (plus I was super busy). Roughly 1 1/2 c. of strawberries were cleaned and quartered before being tossed with about 2 Tbsp. of granulated sugar, plain white sugar and 2 tsp. vanilla extract. I imagine using vanilla bean would be just as nice, and would give the strawberry juice those neat little brown specks that make sweets look so nice. :-D

As you can tell, I'm a unable to suppress my choco-holic side, because I had to dust it with cocoa powder instead of powdered sugar. Besides, strawberries and chocolate are a heavenly combination... heck any berry with chocolate is delicious!

Dessert gods, please forgive me for forgetting to post this with the meal. I will make a great sacrifice to thee and eat my weight in sweets later this week. :-D

You're Hired!

2008-08-17T19:29:00.008-07:00

Well, that's what I told Hubs after I saw this latest batch of pictures. lol Incidentally, I also hope to hear that from a potential employer-- I have a possible job interview on Monday. I won't divulge too many details so I don't jinx myself or get too hopeful, because it is such a longshot. Let's just say, it is the most perfect opportunity I've ever been presented with and I don't want to blow it. Every finger and toe in this house is crossed. :-D

But back to the foooood... I highly recommend each of the recipes I've tried in the last couple of days. Not only are they low-fat and low-cholesterol, they are wickedly delicious. (I've picked up the word "wicked" recently, and it's driving me nuts. lol I feel like Cartman on South Park when he adds "hella" to everything.)

While this would have obviously been even healthier with whole wheat or tri-color pasta, I'm hoping to use up all of our white carbs and starches before replacing all of them with whole wheat or less processed ones. Either way, this pasta sauce would probably work with most shapes of pasta-- spaghettini, rotini, penne... Dagnabit, now I'm hungry again. lol

Favorite Spaghetti (from Lighthearted Everyday Cooking by Anne Lindsay)

6 servings

1 lb. lean ground beef
2 onions, chopped
1 large clove of garlic, minced (or grated if you're super lazy like me)
1 can (5.5 oz./156 mL) tomato paste
1 can (28 oz./796 mL) tomatoes (I used diced because that's what we had)
1 c. water
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. pepper
**Side note: I was too lazy to pull out all of these spices, as my cabinet is overflowing with stuff right now, so I just used 2 1/2 tsp. of no-salt Italian Seasoning. In my humble opinion, I thought it turned out better.)
1 lb. spaghetti (obviously you can use any shape you want- and for the Metric among us, a 500 g. bag of dried pasta is just a tiny bit over 1 lb., so I just use the whole bag)
2 Tbsp. fresh grated Parmesan

1. In a large heavy skillet, brown the beef over medium heat. Pour off all fat (you'd be surprised at how much fat there still is in lean ground beef!).

2. Stir in onions and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally until softened.

3. Stir in tomato paste, tomatoes (I drained mine just a bit, because the water in the can is just a touch too sweet for the sauce- if you use whole tomatoes, break them up with the back of a spoon), water, and spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add more water if too thick. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

4. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling water, cook pasta until al dente, i.e. tender but firm. Drain and arrange on plates. Spoon sauce over each serving. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Nutritional info per serving:
484 Calories
10 g. Total Fat
4 g. Saturated fat
5 g. Fibre
27 g. Protein
71 g. Carbohydrates
39 mg. Cholesterol
314 mg. Sodium
962 mg. Potassium

According to Ms. Lindsay, it's also a good source of Vitamin A, and an excellent source of Vitamin C, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin and Iron. Hmm... maybe I should start lifting weights then, because this pasta was really tasty, and I plan to make it several times.

Now, because we're trying to do the whole "balance" thing, I figured I actually need to start making breakfast instead of just letting Hubs and I live off of coffee for a couple of hours before having food. Hubs has never been a real breakfast-food person, so it's going to be a bit of a challenge to find things that he'll eat. We started this morning off with Gingerbread Pancakes with Apple-Berry topping. When reading the ingredient list, I heard the sound of squealing brakes in my head and thought "WHAT? How on earth can Apple pie filling possibly fit into something low-fat?" You'll see...

Regardless of how accurate the American Heart Association was in their assessment of this, it was sooooooooooooo tasty. The texture of the pancakes wasn't like normal fluffy pancakes- they were more dense, and had more flavor without being too sweet. Gingerbread Pancakes With Apple-Berry Topping (from Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook, Second Edition by the American Heart Association)

4 servings

1 c. all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
3/4 c. fat-free milk
Egg substitute equivalent to 1 egg, or 1 egg
2 Tbsp. molasses
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
8 oz. light apple pie filling
1/2 c. berry syrup (I used blueberry, but boysenberry or strawberry would be good too!)
4 Tbsp. dried cranberries (optional)

1. Preheat non-stick griddle over medium heat.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, combine milk, egg substitute, molasses and vegetable oil. **A little tip- If you use the same tablespoon measure for the oil and the molasses, pour the oil first. Measure the molasses immediately after- the oil has coated the spoon just enough to make the molasses slide out easily!)

4. Pour wet mixture into dry and stir until just combined. Do NOT overmix or the pancakes will be tough.

5. Test griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If they evaporate quickly, the griddle is ready. Pour 1/4 c. of the batter onto the griddle. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until bubbles appear all over the surface. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Repeat until all of the batter is used up.

6. While the pancakes are cooking, heat the pie filling in a small saucepan over low heat for 2-3 minutes, or until thoroughly warmed through. Set aside. (Or do what I did, and forget to read ALL of the instructions first. I just mixed the blueberry syrup with the pie filling in the saucepan. D'oh. Tasted delicious regardless.)

7. To serve, place 2 pancakes on a plate. Spoon about 2 Tbsp. of syrup on pancakes. Spread 1/4 c. of pie filling on top and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. dried cranberries. Repeat with remaining pancakes.

Nutritional Info per serving:
394 Calories
6 g. Protein
87 g. Carbohydrates
4 g. Total Fat... YES, only 4!
1 g. Saturated fat
2 g. Polyunsaturated fat
1 g. Monounsaturated fat
1 mg. Cholesterol
342 mg. Sodium

Isn't that shocking?! I would have thought the fat content would be higher! lol

For dinner last night, I decided to venture back to Ms. Lindsay's book for my main course. The picture of this particular chicken dish caught my eye, because it was so simple and looked so easy to do. After reading the recipe, I realized it was something so easy and simple, anyone can do it and look like a star! :-D Of course, Hubs's taste buds still crave salt, so it wasn't his favorite but the potatoes were a HUGE hit, and the sabzi was inhaled.

I suppose I should explain what "sabzi" is for those who don't know. Sabzi is a Persian "side" that is usually eaten with hearty meat based stews. It is simply the combination of bright green herbs, green onion, and radishes. The typical herbs for it are curly parsley, cilantro, and mint. There is your world-cuisine lesson for the day. :-D

But back to the dinner! Aside from the grilled lemon rosemary chicken, I made home-fried potatoes and sesame broccoli. NOM NOM NOM. Of course, Hubs equates anything potato as being a french fry, so he ate them with ketchup. Odd ball. Grilled Lemon Chicken with Rosemary (from Lighthearted Everyday Cooking with Anne Lindsay)

4 servings

4 boneless skinless chicken boooooooooooobs
1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary or 1 Tbsp. dried
Pepper

1. In a shallow dish, arrange chicken in a single layer. Pour lemon juice over chicken and turn to coat both sides. Separate rosemary needles from stem, sprinkle over chicken. Season with pepper and set aside-- either leave at room temperature for 20 minutes or refrigerate for up to 6 hours.

2. Spray grill with nonstick vegetable spray. Grill chicken over hot coals or on medium-high for 4-5 minutes on each side, until meat is no longer pink in the middle. (I found that closing the BBQ gave the grill marks a bit more colour.)

Nutritional information per serving:
149 Calories
3 g. Total Fat
1 g. Saturated fat
0 g. fiber
27 g. Protein
2 g. Carbohydrates
73 mg. Cholesterol
64 mg. Sodium
247 mg. Potassium

Sesame Broccoli (from the same cookbook as the chicken recipe)

5 servings

1 Tbsp. sesame seeds
1 bunch broccoli (1 lb./500 g.)
2 Tbsp. orange juice
2 tsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger

1. In a small pan, cook sesame seeds until toasted, roughly 3 minutes, shaking pan constantly. Set aside.

2. Cut broccoli into florets; peel stalks and cut diagonally. Boil for 5-6 minutes, or steam until tender-crisp. Drain and place in serving dish.

3. Combine orange juice, sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger; toss with broccoli. Top with sesame seeds.

Nutritional information per serving:
56 Calories
3 g. Total Fat
trace Saturated fat
2 g. Fiber
3 g. Protein
6 g. Carbohydrates
0 mg. Cholesterol
74 mg. Sodium
171 mg. Potassium
**Also an excellent source of Vitamin C!

Home-Fried Potatoes (from the Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol cookbook)

6 servings

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil (or olive oil)
1 1/2 lbs. small red potatoes, unpeeled, cooked and quartered
2 medium shallots, chopped
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. salt (optional)
Pepper to taste

1. In a large non-stick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Saute potatoes on one side for 2-3 minutes (recipe originally called for 3-4 minutes, but that almost burned them!).

2. Turn potatoes and add shallots. Saute for another 2-3 minutes.

3. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook for another minute or so.

Nutritional information per serving:
122 Calories
2 g. Protein
24 g. Carbohydrates
2 g. Total Fat
0 g. Saturated fat
1 g. Polyunsaturated fat
1 g. Monounsaturated fat
0 mg. Cholesterol
8 mg. Sodium

Obviously I'm enamored with these cookbooks, so I highly recommend everyone check them out. :-D I'll have an Amazon widget on the side sometime soon, so all of the titles will be in one place for everyone to check out!

A Healthy Start...

2008-08-13T22:32:00.006-07:00

So, like I said, we're starting to try low-fat, low-cholesterol recipes... Within an hour of our cholesterol class, I was in the library, studying American Heart Association cookbooks like I was cramming for a final. GAH An unintentional reference to the elevated hell that is my university. I came home with a few of them, and promptly realized that they were all more than 10 years old. YIKES! Oh well, I plan to actually buy the more recent versions of them very soon. :)

So we tried the first recipe on Saturday night! However, it wasn't anything spectacular to share (chicken fajitas). I wasn't thrilled with the outcome, so I chose not to ask Hubs to take pictures. It's all about trial and error, right?

However, after a quick trip to farmer's market, and $7 later, we were the proud owners of this ginormous container of local blueberries.
Of course, blueberry muffins were in order! Much to Hubs's surprise, baked goods ARE allowed in low-fat, low-cholesterol diets, but the recipes are widely different from the ones we're used to... Meaning, no shortening, using margarine instead of butter (I know I know, I have yet to try any of the ones that call for using this sacrilege that is margarine, if that eases any fears)...

Although, I adore whole grain and whole wheat breads, this recipe was my first trip in the world of whole wheat flour. And boy what an odd world it is. Part of the instructions is to "Sift the white and wheat flours..." Little did I know, whole wheat flour has flakes in it. Duh. That's the "whole wheat" part, goober. So I sifted. And then pondered why I had this mound of brown flakes in my sifter.

The moral of the story is: When it says to sift whole wheat flour, don't. Just add it. The texture of these muffins wasn't quite what I expected. Next time, I will definitely NOT sift. lol However, this won't be any time soon, as ALL of those blueberries have since been devoured by ravenous wild Amazon people. At least, that's what it feels like with all of the fruits and veggies in the house disappearing like crazy.

Blueberry Muffins (from 100% Pleasure by Nancy Baggett & Ruth Glick)

12 servings

1 1/4 c. all-purpose or unbleached white flour
3/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour or whole wheat flour
2 3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. granulated sugar
3/4 c. skim milk
1 large egg white (I used the egg whites from a carton, since I HATE wasting egg yolks)
3 Tbsp. honey
3 Tbsp. canola or safflower oil (I used canola)
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. orange zest
1 c. fresh (or partially thawed frozen) blueberries **See note.**

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Either coat 12 standard muffin tin cups (i.e. one muffin pan) with nonstick spray. (Or do what I did and just use liners. So much easier...)

2. Sift together the white and wheat flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar until evenly distributed.

3. In a small bowl, beat together the milk, egg white, honey, oil, vanilla, and orange zest with a fork until well mixed.

4. Gently stir blueberries into the flour mixture until evenly incorporated (as I've learned with making cupcakes, this helps to keep the blueberries suspended in the batter, rather than all sinking to the bottom!) Add the milk mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are just moistened; do NOT overmix.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups. Bake on the center oven rack for 13 to 16 minutes, or until the muffins are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly. (This is when my inner teenage boy wants to chuckle and say "That's what SHE said." Har.) Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let stand for 5 minutes. If you didn't use cupcake liners, run a knife around the muffins to loosen them before removing from the pan.

**Note: If using partially thawed frozen berries, rinse and drain them well, the pat away excess moisture with paper towels before adding to dry ingredients.

And here's a new bit: the nutritional information as provided by the cookbook!! YAY for knowledge! These values are obviously per single muffin:

152 Calories
3.7 g. Fat (Total)-- 22% of calories
0.3 g Saturated Fat
0 mg. Cholesterol

The next recipe is one that Hubs picked out-- chicken boooooobs stuffed with ricotta and goat cheese. Which brings me to a secret I have to share. Hubs HATES goat cheese. He will refuse to eat anything if goat cheese has even been in the same room. I, however, do not discriminate. I'm an equal opportunity cheese eater. (Come to think of it, I'll try almost everything once, as long as minimal pain and blood are involved.) But I digress...

My modification to this recipe was to replace the goat cheese with feta, which he loves. While I did add feta to the filling of the chicken, I subbed only half of the goat cheese it called for. Meaning, I used ricotta, feta, AND goat cheese. Hubs was none the wiser, and INHALED dinner. The dietician instructed us that 1/2 of your plate should always be veggies, 1/4 should be a protein, and 1/4 should be a grain. I think this looks like a pretty well-balanced plate...
Mine looked wildly better, only because of the asparagus resting on top of the wilted kale. I could eat asparagus until I turn into the Jolly Green Giant. Well, the Jolly Small Giant, but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

And because Hubs is the photographer and has a better "eye" for this, he felt compelled to provide a close up of the wilted kale and spinach salad (yay cheese!). No real "recipe" for kale, but I heated up some olive oil and tossed some red pepper flakes in to add some spice. Once that was heated up, the kale was tossed in , and then I stepped WAY back because it was still wet and sent oil flying through the air straight for my eye. Awesome. While it was still sizzling, I added some pepper and about 1/4 c. of low-sodium chicken stock (for you ratio whizzes, I only used one bunch of organic kale). Stuck a lid on the pan and let it cook over medium heat for about 5? minutes. It didn't take long and was so delicious despite the lack of salt!

As for the spinach salad, same idea- sliced red onion, organic local tomato cut into wedges, dressed with fresh lemon juice and then topped with low-fat sharp/old cheddar cheese. Parmesan would have worked really well, to complement the flavors of the chicken.

And the asparagus was done in my absolute favorite way... well, my 2nd favorite, next to grilling. Poured some olive oil over the cleaned and trimmed spears, ground some black pepper on top, tossed coat, and then put in the oven on a foil-covered baking sheet. After roasting at roughly 350F for about 10 minutes, I took the asparagus out and squirted some more fresh lemon juice on top. Holy moly, are lemon and asparagus a match made in foody heaven or what?

Gee, this is turning into quite a lengthy post! lol Hope someone tries this and likes it too. :)

Chicken Breasts Stuffed With Ricotta and Goat Cheese (from Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook, Second Edition by the American Heart Association)

4 servings

Stuffing/Filling:
7 oz. non-fat or low-fat ricotta cheese (roughly 1 cup)
2 oz. goat cheese
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley, or 2 tsp. dried crumbled parsley
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives, or 1 tsp. dried

Sauce:
8 oz. can no-salt-added tomato sauce
2 tsp. salt-free Italian Herb Seasoning
1 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh oregano, or 1/2 tsp. dried, crumbled
1 clove garlic, minced, or 1/2 tsp. bottled minced garlic
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 4 oz. each), visible fat removed

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 1-qt. casserole dish lightly with vegetable oil spray. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, combine the stuffing ingredients. Set aside.

3. In another small bowl, combine the sauce ingredients and set aside. (Yes, this uses lots of small bowls you're forced to set aside. lol)

4. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Place boooobies smooth side up between 2 sheets of plastic wrap (or wax paper). Using the smooth side of a meat mallet (or a huge heavy cast iron skillet your grandmother used to chase you with, which is what I have), lightly flatten the boooobies, being careful not to tear the meat.

5. Spoon about one quarter of the stuffing lengthwise dow the middle of each breast. Starting with the short end, roll up the boooooobie jelly roll style. Place it in the prepared casserole dish, seam side down (no need to secure with toothpicks). Repeat with other boooobies.

6. Spoon sauce over booooobies. Bake, covered, for 40-45 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

Nutritional Info per serving:
235 Calories
35 g. Protein
9 g. Carbohydrates
6 g. Total Fat
3 g. Saturated
1 g. Polyunsaturated
2 g. Monounsaturated
75 mg. Cholesterol
382 mg. Sodium

Just a heads-up, the recipe either makes more stuffing than can fit into the chicken, or I just am inept at beating the crap out of my chicken. I thought I was going to make a hole in my kitchen counter with how hard I was hitting it.

Rice Pilaf (from American Heart Association Cookbook, Fifth Edition: New and Revised by the American Heart Association)

6 servings

2 Tbsp. acceptable margarine (I just used olive oil)
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped bell pepper, red or green
1/4 c. chopped celery
2 c. low-sodium chicken stock
1 c. uncooked long-grain rice (as you can tell from the pictures, I used brown rice)
1/2 c. sliced fresh mushrooms (or you can use 1/4. chopped small- Hubs doesn't like mushrooms either but if they're small enough, he doesn't complain as much)
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
Pepper to taste

1. In a small skillet over medium-high heat, melt margarine (or warm oil). Add onion, celery and bell pepper and saute for 3 minutes. Set aside. (Starting the loathe that phrase as much as I do?)

2. Place broth and rice in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion mixture and mushrooms. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 30-4o minutes (took mine closer to 50, since it was brown rice), or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. Add parsley and black pepper. Fluff before serving.

Nutritional Info per serving:
153 Calories
3 g. Protein
25 g. Carbohydrate
0 mg. Cholesterol
68 mg. Sodium
4 g. Total Fat
1 g. Saturated fat
1 g. Polyunsaturated fat
2 g. Monounsaturated fat

And as a side note, my oven temp sensor is apparently on the fritz. The oven turned off several times while the chicken was cooking, and when I researched the error message, it said my oven is not sensing how hot it is, and therefore keeps on heating itself up. This may also be the culprit behind our completely ridiculous gas bill.

Like always, let me know if you try any of the recipes I post! I love feedback. :)

A Change of Pace

2008-08-08T21:07:00.002-07:00

So now that my summer classes are over, I hope to have a bit more time to spend updating my blog and really doing this the "right" way. :)

A little update on life that will be affecting posts in the upcoming weeks and months... Hubs had a blood test done last week that he got the results back on this week. Apparently, he has high cholesterol for his age, and will be changing his diet (which will obviously change my diet, even though I tend to eat healthier than him anyway- I love fruits & veggies, and he has a limited taste for anything not out of a box/package lol).

So Saturday morning, we have been enrolled in a "Cholesterol Class" at a local hospital, where we'll be learning what's good and bad and what to limit and what to cut out completely. So I plan to share all the information I can possibly find with anyone who stumbles upon my little internet cubbyhole. Keep your eyes peeled and please feel free to comment and share any links or information! :)

End of summer...

2008-08-02T22:43:00.005-07:00

I really dislike the end of summer and I really really dislike fall. Being hot during the day and then freezing like a nake polar bear at night drives me insane. Oh well... Hopefully this means I get to start layering clothes again soon. lol

After doing a heinous amount of grocery shopping today, I felt inspired to make something for dinner that was an "inspired-by" dish (I was aiming for a lemon chicken of some sort, and landed on chicken piccata recipes that inspired me), and has no real recipe. I don't do this often, as most things I make have a fairly small range of variations. However, anything that involves chicken is like an open invitation for me to do something off the wall.
(As a side note: I'm a complete goober- every time we shop at Costco, we get chicken breasts and a 2-dozen egg carton. When we put the eggs in the cart, on top of the chicken, I am ALWAYS compelled to say "Say hi to Mommy!". I'm certainly an oddball, I know.)

Along with the weird version of chicken piccata, the sauce included softened onion, white wine, lemon juice, cream and capers. I also made lemon asparagus asiago risotto and a mixed romaine and baby arugula salad. YAY! The risotto is made like a normal risotto (which takes forever), but at thebeginning, white wine is used as the first addition of liquid, and at the end, asiago, lemon zest, and 1/2 in. asparagus pieces are stirred in.

For the salad, romaine, baby arugula, red onion and tomato with some grated asiago cheese make the meal feel a bit "healthier". Ha. We have a bottle of honey dijon dressing (I know how to make some, I was just too lazy and sloshed to do so tonight), and it went really well with the rest of the flavors.
This is what the whole group looked like together!

Note the glass of wine in the background-- Hubs and I bought a brand-new bottle of local Reisling today, and when we got home, I noticed a HUGE crack running down the side of the bottle. I knew I wanted to use it for both dishes anyway, but I figured I could make the bottle last at least 2 days, with my mother-in-law and I both being lushes. Oh well. At least this makes for a more interesting Saturday evening. (You may also notice the picture of the chicken is slightly blurry... now you know why. lol)

Hopefully I'll have some more interesting stuff to talk about once my finals are done, because I'm completely consumed by studying and reading right now. But for now, I hope you enjoy my procrastination in food terms. :)

Life is a gift...

2008-07-30T17:30:00.003-07:00

... so live in the present. Randy Pausch did this, and he accomplished many of his childhood dreams. I urge anyone who happens to stumble on to my blog to watch this clip of his Last Lecture, which spawned the book "The Last Lecture". It's about an hour long, but it's well worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Appreciate the people you have and have had in your life. Without them and the experiences you have, life is nothing more than a mere existence.

'Maters, chicken and muffins

2008-07-27T13:59:00.006-07:00

Not a very tasty sounding combination but that's what this post is all about! lol While I have been cooking and baking, I haven't really done any "new" recipes that I got too excited about... so I'll share some of my tried-and-true favorites. Anytime I make these, they vanish pretty fast. :-D I didn't think to take any process pictures but maybe next time.

Chicken meatloaf- based on a Rachael Ray recipe. I know some people think she's not gourmet or whatnot, but ya know, I adore her. Not only are her recipes simple, fast and absolutely delicious, she doesn't try to present herself as gourmet. I love Food Network and I love the more classically trained chefs too, but RR uses ingredients that are far more accessible and more reasonably priced than most. So two thumbs WAY up to Rachael Ray. ;)

Chicken Meatloaf c/o Rachael Ray

2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. butter
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped

1 box Reduced Sodium Stove-Top Stuffing

1 1/2 cups of Reduced Sodium chicken stock

1 tsp. poultry seasoning

1 bay leaf

3 lbs. lean ground chicken (or turkey)

salt & pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Place ground chicken in large bowl.

2. Melt butter with olive oil in a pan. Sautee the onion and celery with the bay leaf until the veggies are softened.

3. Add the box of stuffing mix to the pan and stir around to get the fresh veggies mixed through. Add poultry seasoning and chicken stock and take off the heat to mix in. Let cool before adding to ground chicken. Note: I don't usually need the entire pan of stuffing- I typically have about 1/2 c. of it leftover... which makes a dandy snack.

4. Mix stuffing and chicken together, and then you have the choice of how to bake it. I like the texture better when placed in a glass loaf baking dish and baked for about 2 hours. Alternatively, you could form it into a loaf and place it on a baking sheet- I believe this only needs to bake for 90 minutes, but the texture is slightly different/drier.

Part of dinner last night was "Let's use up all of the veggies in the fridge before they go bad." lol I had some fresh local green beans and a couple of small local zucchini.

For the green beans, I trimmed the ends and cut most of them in half, blanched in salted water, then "shocked" in an ice bath. While they were in the ice water, I heated up about 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp of butter in a skillet and then tossed the green beans in there (after draining, of course). Not knowing what else to do, I added a touch of poultry seasoning, salt and pepper, and cooked for about 5 minutes. Then realized I had some whole grain dijon mustard leftover. So I squirted *snort* about 3 tbsp onto the beans and tossed them around for another minute or two. Not too bad if I do say so myself.
The zucchini were a bit troublesome. I love zucchini and I always tend to do the same thing with them (zucchini, tomato and curry powder), so I thought I'd try a different approach this time. I softened up 1/2 a HUGE white onion, chopped pretty roughly, in some olive oil over super high heat. Cut the zucchini into 1 in. medallions, then cut the circles in 1/2. Tossed those in with the onion and let those cook a bit- I look for at least one side of most of the pieces to turn brown. Then I open ALL the windows and turn on the fan, and add 1 & 1/2 whole chopped fresh tomatoes. Yep, whole fresh tomatoes. NOM NOM NOM. After those cook together for about 2 minutes, I added salt, pepper, and tons of fresh lemon juice (instead of curry powder this time!).

This is what the whole spread looked like- the copious amount of bread was for the Hubs. He is physically incapable of eating food without bread. He doesn't even need a fork most of the time. lol

This morning, I decided it was time to make my favorite banana chocolate chip muffins, which is actually a rip-off of Barefoot Contessa's Banana Crunch muffins. These disappear almost as quickly as chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes in this house.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

3 c. flour
2 c. sugar (I do 1 c. white granulated sugar, 1 c. demerara sugar- my love)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 lb. (or 1 c.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs
3/4 c. milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract (1 tsp. maple extract optional)

2 overripe bananas, mashed

1 ripe banana, chunked

1 1/4 c. chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the sugars.

3. In a separate bowl, mash bananas and mix in milk, extract and eggs.

4. On low speed (or by hand), mix in melted butter to dry ingredients.

5. Still on low (or by hand), mix in banana mixture. Make sure to mix thoroughly, and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to incorporate all ingredients.

6. Toss banana and chocolate chips with roughly 2 tbsp. of flour (this keeps them from sinking to the bottom of the batter as the muffins bake). Mix banana and chocolate chips in by hand.

7. Using ice cream scoop, fill baking cups place in muffin tins- I tend to get 16-18 out of this recipe, but I got 23 this morning!

8. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes.

9. Cool muffins in pan for 5 minutes, then remove carefully and let cool on rack.

These are so incredibly soft and tasty. I like to play around with the sugars and the extracts sometimes- I've used maple syrup, instead of white sugar, in combination with the demerara sometimes, and those were great too!

And now for the finale, I posted a picture of my baby tomato plants when I first planted them a few months ago. Remember?

This is what they look like now:

I counted no less than 50 of these little guys:

And there's STILL more little flowers waiting turn into them.

On a life note, summer semester is allllmost finished, thankfully. And surprisingly, I'm doing better in both classes than I expected. I hope to have a job by the time fall semester starts, as I've started to apply to some jobs that have to do with the fields I want to get into (audiology and speech pathology- one job is working with adults that have acquired brain injuries). So here's hoping something good happens in that area of my life. Other than that, things are looking better-- Hubs and I are good, my friends are the best people I could ever ask for and if I could, I would adopt them all, and my family are all good.

Life is short. Drink good wine, eat something chocolate and just enjoy the ride. :)

A Small Emo Departure

2008-07-09T21:28:00.002-07:00

When I need to escape the world
I turn to solitude for help
For he and I, we talk for hours
Of love, life and loneliness
Some may say I'm crazy
But solitude doesn't judge
Instead he will sit and listen
To all my thoughts and dreams
Though solitude can only stay a while
I make the best of our time
When solitude does leave me
Then it is time to meet reality

--© By Gianluca F. Ortwerth

There are several other poems that capture my mood as well, but this one seemed to sum it up the best.

CUPCAKE!!

2008-06-17T18:38:00.003-07:00

Allow me to introduce to you... the chocolate cupcake. It is my love. It is my nemesis. It is my world. It is the bain of my existence.

In case that confuses you... I'm a chocoholic. A stark-raving MAD chocoholic. I got it from my dad. I'm lucky that my teeth haven't totally fallen out of my head yet. I have something chocolate no less than twice a day, no lie. And the fact that I love to bake and try new recipes ensures that I will be a walrus on the day my metabolism catches up with my eating habits. :-D

Now that you have a small insight, I have to pass the kudos on to Em, The Repressed Pastry Chef. Not only is she one of the sweetest people in the world, she supplied the recipes for the cupcake AND the buttercream, as well as loads of encouragement. I'm not even kidding when I say, the recipe made 15 cupcakes (probably would have made 18 if I'd portioned them properly lol), and I have 4 left. They were made at 11 am! If that's not a testament to their fantastic flavor and texture, I don't know what is... well, other than the fact that they'll be completely gone by tonight. :-D

And why the purple icing? Well, the main reason for purple is because it was one of my best friend's birthday yesterday and her favorite color is purple. When I say she loves purple, I mean she loves purple. So I went to Michaels and for the first time, actually bought a Wilton gel color. Since I've never worked with them before, I only got one for this specific purpose (and future baking for her *love my friend more than words!*). I have to say... I plan to own every color possible by the end of the year. The pigment that shows up is so much stronger than the pictures could ever show (the one below is closer, but the purple is so rich in real life), and I'm truly impressed.

And for your daily dose of unabashed, shameless cute promotion....

I'm on a chicken kick

2008-06-15T21:11:00.002-07:00

What can I say? Chicken is probably one of my favorite things in the kitchen- it can handle so many flavors and almost every cuisine in the world has at least one chicken dish. This one is my twist on an allrecipes.com recipe... I've made it enough times that I've made some substitutions and changed the "format" a bit. I'll post my version at the end, if anyone wants to try it. :)

I may not post for a couple of days, since I have an insane midterm on Tuesday in a class that I'm completely lost in, and need to cram as much information into my head as possible. I have plans to make something tomorrow, but I won't be able to post it until *after* the midterm due to scheduling reasons. *cough*Gorgeousfriend'sbirthday*cough* I promise, your patience will be greatly rewarded!

Take no notice of the messy kitchen counter and stovetop in the background. See that chicken breast at the edge of the bowl? That's the one lonely breast that didn't make the cut. *tiny violin plays for the lonely chicken*

Those chunks of chicken in the mixing bowl are the three chicken boobs ...er... I mean breasts that did make the cut. :-D

*giggling like a crazy person* I cannot tell you how much I love my Kitchenaid mixer. I don't know what I would do without it. Well, of course I'd mix things by hand, but that would require actual manual labour. :-O

About 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture spread across good ole crescent rolls. Ya know how they come in tubes of 8 rolls? This is 2 rolls, pressed together at the seams. If you've ever used them, you know what I mean. If not, you're missing out on a wonderfully tasty side to every single meal. Crescent rolls are a staple in this house.

After my sad attempt at decorative edging by sealing the edges with a fork, I brushed the top with olive oil and then cut slits in the top to let steam escape. The top is another 2 crescents with the seams pressed together, in case Captain Obvious hadn't already come by and deposited that little nugget of useless information into your brain. :-P

So after baking in a 375F oven for about 12 minutes, I couldn't stand it any longer and had to take them out. I was so hungry smelling these throughout the house... plus I had some leftover filling that I snacked on and that made me want MORE! If you can exercise some will power, wait a bit before cutting into and devouring like a hungry beast.

And if for some reason this made you drool as much as it made me drool, then here's the recipe with my little modifications. :) If you do happen to try it out, please feel free to leave a comment and let me know if you liked it, if you changed it, etc.! Enjoy!

Chicken Crescent Packages:
1. 1 (8 oz.) package light cream cheese, softened
2. 1 ¼ c. thick yogurt, drained in cheesecloth
3. 2 Tbsp. green onions, chopped
4. ½ tsp. salt
5. ¼ tsp. pepper
6. 1 tsp. Curry powder
7. 1 Tbsp. chopped (or dried) parsley (Optional)
8. 1 Tbsp. dried fenugreek (Optional)
9. 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
10. 4 c. cubed cooked chicken breast (approx. 3 whole boneless skinless chicken breasts)
11. 2 (8 oz.) cans refrigerated crescent rolls
12. Olive oil or butter to brush top with

Directions:
1. To cook chicken breasts: Heat olive oil over med-high heat in oven safe pan. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper (and curry powder, if desired). Sear breasts for approx. 3 minutes on both sides. Finish baking in 350F oven for 25 minutes, flipping after 12. Let breasts cool before cubing.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, yogurt, green onions, curry, herbs, Dijon, salt and pepper until smooth. Stir in the chicken.

3. Unroll crescent roll dough and separate into two large rectangles. Press perforations together.
Spoon about 1/2 cup chicken mixture onto the center of each rectangle. Place 2nd rectangle on top, seal edges with fork, brush top with olive oil or butter, and cut slits to allow steam to escape.

4. Transfer to ungreased (foil-lined or parchment-lined) baking sheets.

5. Bake squares at 375 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to rack immediately to cool.

Experimental Chicken Bundles

2008-06-09T20:41:00.003-07:00

So I felt creative tonight... I was avoiding a transcription assignment that's due tomorrow. :-D May I present to the internet my take on proscuitto wrapped chicken breasts.

So I knew I wanted some really cheesy filling, but knew that parmesan and gruyere were not wet enough to hold everything together. I could have used ricotta... or even mascarpone... but I had some leftover cream cheese from the taco salad. (Yes, we like cream cheese in this house.)

Here's my hyperextended, hot pink glittery fingers attempted to demonstrate how to roll fresh basil leaves for a chiffonade (is that even how you spell that word?). I shall take the Rachael Ray route and call it basil confetti. :-D

Weeeeeeeeeeeee confetti!! Now it's a party!

So along with the basil, cheeses, salt and pepper, I added some chopped fresh spinach, chopped sundried tomatoes, and some of the olive oil that the tomatoes came in. I realize now that this is the ONLY dish I've EVER made with no onions OR garlic. I'll have to try that next time. lol

Obviously, Hubs took this one. He told me "Model your hands touching that slimy gross chicken boob." I had a blast pounding the crap out of the chicken. I apparently have more rage inside than I thought. :-D

Here's the little bundles, all snug in their Pyrex dish. I wrapped most of the pieces in proscuitto, but I made smaller bundles with the chicken tenders and decided those would be ok naked. They were brave little nudists.

So while the chicken bundles sat in the oven (I put it on 350 and I would guess they were in the for about 20 minutes at 350, but more on that in a minute), I added some olive oil to a screaming hot pan.

To the oil, I added about 2.5 tbsp of butter. Ignore the 4 year old stainless steel pan that I use almost daily. Why am I heating all of this delicious fat, you ask?

For these little beauties... A handful of sliced button and cremini mushrooms. Only a few because only my mother-in-law and I enjoy mushrooms like this. Hubs will only eat mushrooms if they're chopped beyond recognition and put into pasta sauces.

So after all of the liquid was out of those beautiful little fungii, I added some delicious port, a bit of chicken stock, cream and then stirred in some parmesan at the last minute. Oh, and a bit of onion salt and pepper. I figured I'd try to get a bit of onion flavor in this meal somewhere.

While the mushrooms were simmering and the chicken was cooking, I chopped up some veggies for a salad-- there's carrot and celery underneath the romaine, I promise. I tend to do the hard veggies first, and the softer veggies last. Maybe I'm slightly obsessive.

This is my homemade vinaigrette. To be honest, I made this a couple of weeks ago (I make a ton when I make my Mediterranean-inspired marinated chicken), so I couldn't tell you what is in it or in what ratios. I know there's honey, olive oil, lemon juice, fenugreek, oregano... um... dijon mustard maybe? lol I'll have to write it down next time.

Mmmm... warm puffy crescent rolls. Hubs can eat a whole package of these on his own, in one sitting.

Oh, who am I fooling? So can I.

So I put these in the oven with the chicken. I turned the oven up to 375, and baked both for 10 minutes (remember the chicken had already been in for 20 at 350- I'm paranoid about cooking chicken thoroughly enough).

And TA DA! The finished experiment! I turned the broiler on for a couple of minutes... and promptly forgot I had. So the cheese in the middle got a bit brown, but hey, brown cheese never hurt anything. :-D

Obviously, I'm still working on the photography skills. lol If anyone has any tips on what I could have done differently to the dish or some way to get pictures better, please let me know. :)

P.S. I apologize for the wonky spacing issues. I'm still figuring out how to get the pictures to post from Photobucket without messing up the paragraph spacing between. Any helpful tips on that would help too!

I am the President of Procrastination... when I get around to it...

2008-06-08T21:17:00.003-07:00

Sooo I realize it's been quite a while since I've posted, but to be honest, my life has been fairly uneventful. Aside from buying the car, and Hubs being on vacation, the weather has been icky. My youngest stepsister had prom Friday night, the older one got married yesterday, and if I get the OK, I'll post pictures when I get them. :)

On the food side of life, I haven't really tried too many *new* recipes, but even the new ones I've tried I was too lazy to take pictures of. lol Oops. I did finally manage to get pictures of the taco salad I made for dinner, but not any "process" pictures like with the brownies, and no where near the professional look of Hubs's pictures unfortunately. I have yet to figure out how to take process pictures without dropping the camera into the screaming hot pan. I'm entirely too accident-prone.

But I digress...

I got one process picture- showing my secret ingredient for a killer taco filling, either for taco salad, tacos or beef enchiladas (I haven't try this with chicken yet, but I imagine it would work.)

I add about 1 tbsp. of plain cream cheese (this just happens to be low-fat, because for some reason, it tastes tangier to Hubs and I, but we may just be crazy. Who really knows? lol) After mixing the cream cheese in, I usually toss in about 3 tbsp. chopped cilantro, if I have it, and this week I just happen to have fresh growing on my back steps. :-D Yay!

Before adding cheese... This has a layer of plain refried beans (I mix in a bit of hot water, salt and pepper, just for kicks), a layer of crushed Multigrain Tostitos, a layer of the above meat mixture, chopped romaine lettuce, and chopped tomatoes.

And my lame attempy at an "artsy" picture like Hubs does....

After that goober-looking picture, I added a ton of shredded old/aged cheddar. Most normal humans would probably stop here...

However...

We are not normal.I added some leftover Monterey Jack cheese. YUM. Between Hubs and I, we could probably single-handedly support the Canadian cheese industry. :-D

And finally, the only decent picture of the finished salad.

Now for the shameless puppy picture... This is why I usually take forever to cook. I have a furry vacuum that stands literally right under me. The. Entire. Time.

So now, it's time for me to go eat that delicious taco salad, and snuggle my vacuum... er... pup. :) I promise I'll keep up with this blog more, once I get a hang of taking pictures as I go, and can start baking more (my favorite thing to do). G'night!

Oops...

2008-05-18T20:33:00.007-07:00

Well, it's been over a week, so I guess it's time for me to update! Hubs and I got a gorgeous new car- a black 2008 Honda Civic DX-G. Her name is Bella. lol (What can I say? Our last car's name was Nona.) Got a great deal through a family friend, and we're really grateful for that since we decided to finance this time instead of lease, and he made it affordable for us. :)

And on the food front, I have a fairly decent picture of my first attempt at risotto that I can share, AND a couple of pictures of tonight's dinner-- vegetarian and pepperoni pizzas. Oh, and I figured I'd share a picture of my little tomato patch, and the cute "landscaping" Hubs did to make the patch look nicer and more contained.

This is my very first attempt EVER at making risotto; I didn't have any fresh basil on hand, so I sprinkled a little dried basil on top in a lame attempt to garnish. I've made it three times in the last week, since the first time. lol I've tried various flavorings, and oddly enough, adding a tiny touch of curry powder to the onions before starting with the rice and chicken stock, then adding chopped button mushrooms at the end with the parm and butter is my absolute favorite. Mmmmmm...

**All of the pizza pictures were taken by Hubs, because he's a much better photographer than I am. I don't like our camera and never bothered to play with it enough to learn its settings. lol

Pre-made crust (yea I know, I should really learn how to make my own), tomato paste with marjoram, oregano, basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper, homegrown spinach, red peppers, red onions, mushrooms and tomatoes... All before being covered with mounds of mozzarella cheese...
I don't think that's too much cheese, do you? :-D Good source of dairy after all...
See that pretty full sugar canister in the background? It won't be quite so full later-- I hope to make some cupcakes this week. YUM.

No need to rub your eyes- there's 2 pizzas in the oven. One is the gorgeous vegetarian Hubs photographed for me, and the other is a pepperoni with mushrooms, onions and red peppers, since Hubs philosophy is "It isn't a pizza if it doesn't have meat." lol

Annnnd my wee tomato patch under the kitchen window. 2 champion, 1 roma, and 4 cherry tomato plants... I really should be outside watering them, now that the sun is down. But I digress. I just had to show off the great job Hubs did of putting in edging and the adorable little fence to keep our neighbourhood's landscapers from chopping off my tomatoes like they did with my leeks and beets. :-/ I was not happy when I saw that...

Well, that's about all I can think of that was exciting for this week. I'll try to be more lively so I have more to post about. Har.

T.G.I.F.!!

2008-05-09T21:26:00.003-07:00

YAY IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT! The week has been full of low points (particularly not getting the job I wanted so badly) but definitely more high points (starting summer semester classes, seeing my friends, spending more time with my Hubs... I could go on and on). So, obviously, I'm grateful for it being the end of the week and being happy. :)

I had another interview this morning, with a staffing agency, and I have an interview with the actual company on Monday at 11 am. WOOT. lol Since it was with an agency, I had to do the requisite computer testing, except this time I got to do it from the comfort of my own home. Hope this opportunity works out!

In anticipatory celebration, I made a pretty tasty dinner, that was unintentionally meatless! On the menu: "Chicken" cordon bleu with roasted asparagus, spinach salad with spinach from my mini garden, french fries (for Hubs lol), and my first ever attempt at risotto... apparently, I did a damn fine job, because even Hubs ate it and he's not a fan of savoury, creamy things. I'd post the recipe, but to be honest, I didn't keep track of how much rice or chicken stock I used. I just know I sweated down a bit of white onion and garlic in olive oil and butter before adding the rice, and letting it toast a bit... then I started in with adding a ladle of chicken broth, and stirring until absorbed. My arm is super sore, but it was worth it. I was tempted to add peas or asparagus or mushrooms or something like that, but I wanted Hubs to try it first (he loathes asparagus and mushrooms he can see). I took a poorly lit picture of the risotto in its serving bowl, and I may post it at some point, but it's such a poor picture, I doubt you'd be able to tell it's risotto and not something like oatmeal. lol

This is why I like cooking-- sometimes, you just cook by sight and taste, and less by measurement. I've done this a couple of times with baking cookies and cupcakes, but only with recipes I know are fairly flexible and can withstand my additions. Heh.

I hope to post pictures of tomorrow night's dinner- Loobia Polo. One of the first and easiest Persian dishes I've ever learned to make, and soooo good. I've already got meat defrosting and basmati rice soaking in warm salted water in preparation. :-D Not only will there be pictures of the food, the pots being used will be my mother-in-law's pots that she got as a wedding gift over 20 years ago. They are fantastic pots, and so insanely beaten to hell and back, but I love those things. Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and recipe tomorrow!!

NOM NOM Brownies!

2008-05-06T21:01:00.005-07:00

Like I promised last night, I attempted to do some photography while I baked brownies this morning. I tried to model it after one of my favorite blogs (Pioneer Woman- http://www.pioneerwomancooks.com/), but as you'll surely see, I'm amateur... completely and totally amateur. lol Here we go!

This would be "The Cast of Characters": All Purpose flour, Cocoa Powder, Eggs, Vanilla Extract, and Sugar (which should be white, but I didn't have nearly enough, so I used my favorite demerara sugar!)

Oh yea, and there was some butter... ok, it's actually margarine because I was out of butter too, but I wanted brownies dang it!

So you start with 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 tsp. of vanilla. I tend to add a bit more than that, but I'm a nut job like that...

Looks like someone else wanted to join in the fun!! I found a bottle of coffee flavored liquer I had stashed in the fridge, and decided it might make things a bit interesting. I think I added 1 tablespoon or so? :-D

Mmmmmm... melted salty goodness. Meet sugar-y sweet goodness. You will be the BEST of friends.

Like I said, I'm an amateur. I use little plastic bowls for Ikea to crack my eggs into sometimes. I then washed out that bowl, and put my apple in it. lol

Plop... plop... plop...

Like I said... amateur. But oh so delicious.

So this was supposed to be 1/2 cup of cocoa powder. I'm a chocolate fanatic, and don't know when to stop, so that's probably closer to 2/3 cup. So sue me. :-P

3/4 cup of all purpose flour, sifted in only because I already had the sifter/strainer out and figured it couldn't hurt.

That little bit of rich dark brown peeking out makes my heart flutter.

This just sends me into full-on drooling idiot mode.

My lame attempt at a semi-artistic shot of the whole mess poured into a greased Pyrex baking dish.

Hmm... looks like it's time to clean the back of the oven again. That poor little dish sat in that dark lonely place all alone for about 40 minutes, at 350F.

In the mean time, looks like I have some cleaning up to do...

Ahh that's better. Salmonella who? lol

And the finished, uncut, burned-my-finger-because-I-forgot-it's-hot fresh brownies!

I apologize for my heinously horrible pictures. lol If anyone has any constructive tips on how to do better, feel free to let me know! :) Hope it hasn't been too painful to read all of this non-sense...

Mmmm... Brownies
1 1/2 c. sugar (white or brown)
3/4 c. butter, melted
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. coffee liqueur (optional)
3 eggs
1/2 c. cocoa powder
3/4 c. all purpose flour

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Grease whatever baking dish you'll be using and set aside.
2. While the butter is melting in the microwave, mix together the sugar, extract and liqueur in a large bowl. When the butter is melted and cooled, mix into sugar mixture. Then add eggs one at a time.
3. Sift in cocoa powder and flour. Mix until just blended. Pour into baking dish.
4. Bake in the center of the oven for 40-45 minutes. (40 minutes will give a fudge-like texture, 42 will be between fudge and dense cake, 45 will be like dense). Wait at least 30 minutes before slicing into it.

Back to school... without a job again...

2008-05-05T21:07:00.003-07:00

*sigh* So I've spent the last week, stressing about a job I interviewed for last Monday- a fantastic admin assistant job with a great boss. Fast forward to today... Considering I haven't heard from him and was told that he make his decision tonight, it's safe to say that I didn't get the job... again. I'm not surprised, to be completely honest. Not working for several years combined with only one reliable reference and nerves do not make a desirable combination.

But enough whining... tried out Ayurvedic yoga tonight, with my friend Anita. The instructor was the most hilarious 64 yr. old Hungarian woman who talked the whole time and was making us laugh SO hard. lol For $3.75 a session, I think we'll do it every Monday night. :) Maybe it will make me as flexible as I used to be... *wink wink nudge nudge*

Tomorrow is the first day of summer classes-- one day a week for about 6 weeks, then FOUR days a week. ACK. Oh well, I have my four girls in one class, and one in the other class. :-D We're going to tear the summer semester up. I'm going to be baking brownies tomorrow morning to take to them, so this blog will see my first lame attempt at food photography, and I'll try my best to take process pictures as well.

First Blogging Attempt

2008-05-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

So you've stumbled on my humble corner of the web... whether you've been gently nudged here by me or accidentally found me somehow, I offer a warm Southern, Vancouver granola-laden "Howdy, eh!"

There really isn't any particular theme to this right now, but I will probably ramble about various topics related to whatever is going on in my simple yet somehow complicated and hectic life.

I guess a little introduction is in order... My name's Tia, and I'm a university student in Vancouver, BC. As you can tell by the title and first paragraph, I'm not Canadian-- I was born and raised in Louisiana and moved to Canada in 2003, after meeting my dear husband on the internet (If eyebrow raises could be converted to money, I'd go around announcing this ALL the time. lol) I'm studying Psychology, and doing an extended minor in Linguistics, all in a vain attempt to get accepted to a good speech-language pathology grad school next year. I'm currently unemployed but hope to change that very soon.

Hmmm... Oh, I like to cook and especially bake. It's a wonder I still have all of my teeth- I have a sweet tooth that amazingly strikes all day, every day. So, I adopted baking as a habit, and I tend to bake a lot when I'm especially stressed about something. Let's just say, my friends are very well fed during midterms and finals. lol I have tons of other interests that include gardening, reading, dance/music, and animals. My husband and I have a pup named Toby, and I will probably talk about him tons on here-- I'm one of those crazy animal people, where I talk and treat my pet like he's my child. And if and until hubs and I have kids, he IS my child. :-P

So I think that's a pretty rambling and ADD style introduction. It's randomly ADD because I'm cooking dinner, which I may post the recipe for at some point... So thanks for taking a peek at my blog, and I hope my odd ball style hasn't scared you away permanently! Toodles for now!