Cairns Manor

It's like going from an apartment

2011-04-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

To your new 3 bedroom 2 bathroom 1500 square foot house, you know what I mean? I bought my domain name and am moving on up! Change your bookmarks and be on the look out for some exciting new stuff to be on the way! I have things in mind and can't wait to get started.

www.cairnsmanor.com

Better get over there before all the food is gone!

Oh gin, how you suit citrus so well.

2011-03-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

I hit a boon the other day. there is a market nearby me here called North Park Produce. Very cool place, lots of choices for your greek, middle eastern, etc. type of cuisine. I needed garbanzo beans to make hummus so I popped in to grab some. Given I can't just walk in, get the one thing I came for, check out and leave, I wandered through the produce section.

And there it was, a display of really reduced produce. Including several large bags of blood oranges...for only 99 cents each. I couldn't believe it. They didn't appear to be rotting, so I grabbed four big bags.

And I promptly came home and juiced them all. I was hoping they'd be ok for eating, but they were all a bit soft, not bad by any means, but if I was going to get any use out of them, I'd have to do it today. So about 45 minutes of juicing later, I had half a gallon of blood orange juice. And I decided to drink some.

Blood Orange Cocktail

1 cup blood orange juice

1-2 shots gin

2-3 teaspoons honey

Ice

Club soda or sparkling water

Combine the orange juice, gin and honey in a shaker with a handful of ice and shake well. Pour over additional ice into two tall, cooler type glasses. Top off with the club soda or sparkling water (I had Pelligrino on hand and used that).

This one is actually the virgin version, I added gin to the next one!

Yes, it's time for another soup!

2011-03-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Biggest pot I own, normally I use it for canning...

I enjoy making a good soup. Besides being delicious and what not, they are super for lunch at work the next day. Especially if you heat it up, have to run in and take care of a patient or two or three and then you come back, realize your soup is cold again, reheat it, and it amazingly still tastes great.

Not that I've ever had that happen to me at work. Not once.

Okay, it's happened a few times. Such is being a nurse and all.

While perusing recipes for Easter/Happy Birthday to me, I happened upon recipes for Passover as well, including a couple of recipes for Matzo ball soup. I love a good matzo ball, and it nothing to do with the fact my husband is nearly Jewish. No really, besides being born in New York (West Islip to be exact) and an accountant, his parents were Messianic Jews when he was born. They even kept kosher.
Anyway, back to the soup.

I was particularly intrigued by a recipe for a ginger and leek matzo ball with a lemon grass consommé. I heartily endorse all those ingredients together in one dish. Now, when it came down to making the consommé, I was lacking in lemon grass. Unfortunately, my local Asian market doesn't carry Matzo, so I skipped hitting the third store of the day for lemon grass and made due with extra lemon juice.

Here is my lovely chicken consommé reducing down. I wasn't a stickler about straining it too throughly. I did a lot of skimming though, both of "impurities," (read: that yucky scummy stuff that will float to the top f soups at times, ew) and of fat. The fat I saved and used in the matzo balls, just as the original recipe called for. But in terms of straining the consommé, I didn't stress over that. At some point, i want to make a true consommé in the French style, but today was just not that day. Especially since I ruin the idea of the consommé by adding some greens and chicken back in at the end.

This was a really good soup though. My brother reported that the consommé "really tastes like chicken." for such a light, clear broth, it had a ton of taste. I think between the two chickens used and the reduction, it really concentrated good flavor in the broth. And the matzo balls were delicious. Light, full of flavor and gone as quickly and I made them. My husband and I were lucky to get two each to put in our soup the next day for lunch! So if you happen to have a lazy weekend day to make a pot of soup and some matzo balls, give the recipe a go!

Leek and Ginger Matzo Balls with Lemon Chicken Consommé

Adapted from Epicurious

Consommé:
2 3 3/4- to 4-pound chickens, quartered (I was lazy and didn't bother)
2 celery stalks, cut into 3-inch pieces
2 garlic cloves, peeled, halved
1/2 large white onion
1 6- to 7-inch piece large leek (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise
1 1-inch-long piece fresh ginger, peeled, halved
Zest of 2 lemons, peeled in larger sized portions
1 tablespoon (or more) fresh lemon juice

Matzo balls:
4 large eggs
1/3 cup finely chopped leek (white and pale green parts only)
1/3 cup chicken fat (reserved from consommé or purchased), melted, cooled
2 tablespoons chicken broth or club soda
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 cup unsalted matzo meal

For consommé:
Place chicken in extra-large pot. Add next 6 ingredients, then enough cold water to cover (about 18 cups). Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer soup 2 hours, skimming impurities from surface. Let stand 30 minutes. Strain consommé into large saucepan. Boil until reduced to 8 cups, if necessary. Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice; season with salt and pepper.

For matzo balls:
Whisk 4 eggs in medium bowl. Mix in leek, chicken fat, broth, coarse salt, ginger, and pepper. Stir in matzo meal. Cover; chill at least 4 hours.
Using wet hands, shape generous 2 tablespoons matzo mixture into balls. Place on sheet of foil. Bring large pot of salted water to boil over high heat. Drop in matzo balls; cover pot. Reduce heat to low; simmer until matzo balls are cooked through and float to the top. Using slotted spoon, transfer matzo balls in single layer to shallow dish.

Rewarm consommé. Add more lemon juice by teaspoonfuls, if desired. Add matzo balls; simmer to reheat, 5 to 10 minutes. If desired, add back in some of the chicken used to make the consommé and any vegetables desired. I used some mustard greens myself. Serve broth with matzo balls and any ingredients you choose to add.

I've got another confession to make.

2011-03-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

Or two, or three. Actually, I'm not sure how much I'll be baring my soul today, but let's get started, shall we?

First, I'd like to acknowledge I have a thing for tablecloths:

I got these three at Target just last week. My husband rolled his eyes at me. He just doesn't understand. It's like buying a pretty dress for the dining room. The poor thing had some older, stained ones. It's Spring! Time for new dresses for the dining room!

Secondly, I don't know if anyone really noticed, but I dropped out of Weight Watchers. No more points around these parts. I'm not skipping my dieting by any means, I am still exercising, weighing in weekly and eating well, I'm just not paying WW to keep track of things for me. I am doing it all on my own now, so no more point values with recipes. Sorry if anyone really liked that part, it was actually a bit of a hassle for me, on top of tracking points, trying to convert recipes over, even ones from Cooking Light just added time to my cooking process.

Thirdly, I've given up sweets and desserts for Lent. This should help the weight loss process along too. I haven't had anything even resembling chocolate since March 8th. Have I mentioned I am excited we are almost into April? Lent ends on my birthday, this is a good thing!

And I think this is the last, I apologize for the late posting on this soup. It is a very tasty soup, and used up my St Patrick's Day leftovers. You know what happens when you invite a group of meat eaters over? They eat all the corned beef and leave you with potatoes and cabbage. And no one wants just the cabbage and potatoes, right?

Thankfully, Bon Appetit seemed to predict my predicament and had a soup recipe posted on Epicurious using cabbage and potatoes. Now, the recipe didn't call for leftovers, but I made it work, and the soup was surprisingly yummy. Even I, the one who loves brussel sprouts and cabbage, wasn't entirely too sure this soup would work, but it really does. Especially with the creamy lemon topper.

I am sorry if you had the same leftovers and needed some way to use them up. But at least the recipe is here for next year, see, in truth, I am early!

Potato, Cabbage and Leek Soup

Adapted from Epicurious

Notes: Because I was using leftovers, I skipped a few steps. Essentially, I only sauteed the fresh garlic and leeks, then added the cabbage, potatoes and a few carrots I had left over. I skipped the bay leaf because all my ingredients had been cooked and had great flavor already, including my beer braised cabbage.

1/2 cup crème fraîche, sour cream or greek yogurt

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, divided

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

6 cups diced green cabbage (1/2-inch dice; from about 1/2 medium head)

3 cups chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only; 3 to 4 large)

3 large garlic cloves, pressed

3 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds)

1 2 x 2-inch piece Parmesan cheese rind (optional)

1 Turkish bay leaf

6 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth

Whisk crème fraîche, lemon juice, and lemon peel in small bowl to blend. Cover and chill.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add cabbage; sprinkle lightly with salt and freshly ground black pepper and sauté until cabbage is almost tender but not brown, 6 to 8 minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon butter to pot with cabbage; add leeks and garlic. Sauté over medium heat until leeks soften slightly, about 3 minutes. Stir in potatoes, Parmesan rind, if desired, and bay leaf. Add 6 cups broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer until all vegetables are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Discard Parmesan rind, if using, and bay leaf. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return puree to pot. Simmer until heated through, adding more broth by 1/4 cupfuls to thin soup to desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle crème fraîche mixture over soup and serve.

I skipped chives for garnish, add more zest, it is awesome!

I need a vacation from my staycation.

2011-03-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

Child labor FTW, again!
Shredding radish for the slaw.

You know how it is, right? You go on vacation. You rest, relax, sight see, what not and end up still being tired at the end of it all once you get back home. I feel that way today, trouble is, I didn't go anywhere last week! Just spending a week running around town with my sister, niece and most times my brother in law on top of cooking dinner a few nights for the army of folks coming by to visit did me in. By Friday, I was done, with the cooking portion at least. We went to our local aquarium and then out to both lunch and dinner.

Truth be told, I started off on this busy kick before everyone arrived for the week. I've got plants coming for this year's first garden in just a few weeks, so I had to get the raised beds prepped and ready to go. I finished that up just this last Sunday when I assembled and filled raised bed #3. This year's garden will be epic, I can't wait to get everything planted and show it off here.

So, bringing this entry back on topic, this recipe for Caramel Pork came out of the most recent Cooking Light. It is one of the meals I cooked for an army of friends and family last week. It is one of those recipes you read and think, "Hmmm, that sounds like it could be really good." Or you happen to cut up 8 pounds of the pork needed to feed a small army and think, "This had better be good, this meat is cold and numerous and everyone else is playing Yahtzee without me." True story.

Then you taste it and are blown away.

Pork, like chicken, it one of those ingredients that always ends up tasting just like what you put on it. It's a mellow meat, so anything you do to it had better be good, otherwise the whole meal is a loss.

This simple sort of stir fry has a gingery, spicy, sweet sauce, it was just magic. I served it with the recommended Daikon radish coleslaw which the Pixie Child not only tried, but liked. I don't know where Picky Child went, but I will keep Pixie Child around. She had a blast using the food processor to shred the radish and carrots too, as you can see above. I miss my little Pixie Child sous chef already.

In the end, I got to play some Yahtzee and cutting the 8 pounds (yes, really) of pork up was completely worth it, this meal was excellent. I can't wait to make it again for a smaller group (say, me and my husband).

Caramel Pork with Daikon Radish Slaw

Found here

1 cup water
3/4 cup uncooked sushi or short-grain rice
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Cooking spray
1 pound pork tenderloin, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon lower-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon bottled ground fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 canned anchovy fillets, rinsed and minced
8 lime wedges

Combine 1 cup water, rice, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes; remove from heat. Let stand 10 minutes; gently stir in peas and vinegar.

Heat a medium skillet over high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork; sauté 5 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add onion and garlic; stir-fry 2 minutes. Stir in broth and next 5 ingredients (through anchovy); bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes or until slightly thick. If you would like the sauce thicker, make a slurry of 1 teaspoon corstarch and 1 tablespoon chicken broth. Add to the pork mixture and combine, allowing to cook until thicker. Serve with the rice and daikon slaw on the side.

Daikon Radish Slaw

Found here

2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon lower-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shredded carrot
3/4 cup shredded daikon radish
3 tablespoons cilantro leaves

Combine dark sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey, and salt in a medium bowl. Add carrot, daikon radish; toss. Top with cilantro leaves.

A pixie and her hummus.

2011-03-14T22:01:00.000-07:00

This is Eva:

Child labor to clean lemons!

She's one of my little nieces. Eva, her mom and dad (my sister and brother in law) arrived from Oregon for a visit on Saturday. She just got a haircut yesterday, she wanted to have a pixie cut to skip that pesky hair brushing step in the morning. Eva was super excited to be cooking with Auntie yesterday, we started with a dig-that-earth-day-hummus.

So Eva has a reputation of being a super-de-duper picky eater in the past. Most of the time, if it wasn't something plain jane, she wouldn't even take a taste of it. So I was really surprised when she pulled a little cookbook out of hers and picked out a hummus recipe. That had a secret ingredient:

Beets? Yup, beets!

I don't know who this kid is with her pixie cut and being excited for beets, but I'll take it! So we roasted the beets and then dropped everything in the food processor.

Since these were orange beets, the hummus didn't take on a very exciting color, it looked a bit more yellow, but still pretty much in line with what you would expect for hummus. I am sure with red beets the color is amazing.

And? Eva loved it. Carrots, pita chips and cucumber on the side made her a happy camper. She ate more of the sides than she did the hummus, but the rest of us loved it. It is really light in taste, the beets are great in it, and I may have to keep some on hand for quick and easy lunches on the regular.

I will have more Cooking with Eva this week, she's been super excited to help out in the kitchen, and you can't beat the child labor.

Dig-That-Earth-Day Hummus

Taken from the Green Princess Cookbook

2 cups canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2-3 medium sized beets, roasted, skinned and coarsely chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup water

3 tablespoons tahini

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

Olive oil and parsley for garnish

Combine chickpeas and beets in a food processor with the garlic, lemon juice and water, process for about a minute, adding more water if needed to get a smooth consistency. Add the tahini, cumin, paprika and salt and blend until combined.

Serve with your choice of veggies, flat bread or pita chips.

Did I mention she even ate a baby zucchini?

Greek for dinner

2011-03-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

I swear I've been cooking, I just haven't been here blogging, more is the pity. Between work and life over all, I just haven't stopped to write about any of the cooking I've been doing. Good news is the recipes have been really good and completely worth repeating.

Tuesday night was Greek night here. True, it was Fat Tuesday, and Greek isn't the first thing one thinks of on Fat Tuesday, but I've been craving it for about a week or so now. Unfortunately, my nearby options for Greek food are all Daphne's. Daphne's isn't bad, but it isn't great. I've never liked their tzatziki sauce all that much.

Thankfully, my Cooking Light subscription kicked in, finally, and there was a whole article on fast food at home. Lo and behold there was a recipe for Chicken Souvalaki with a tahini/tzatziki hybrid sort of sauce to go on top.

Souvlaki is usually skewered meat, lightly marinated and grilled. It's a fast meal to pull together and one where lamb could easily fill in for the chicken. Which is exactly what I plan to do the next time I make this.
The biggest change I made was not to skewer the chicken, just for ease of getting dinner done. But if I were to grill this outside, I'd likely use skewers just to keep the meat from falling through the grill.

Chicken Souvlaki with Yoghurt Tahini Sauce
From Cooking Light

6 tablespoons plain fat-free Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons shredded cucumber
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini (roasted sesame seed paste)
5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, divided
5 garlic cloves, minced (this made for a really garlicy sauce, cut back if you'd like)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into 1-inch pieces (I used chicken breast tenderloins left whole for ease)
4 (6-inch) pitas, cut in half
1 cup shredded lettuce
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
16 (1/4-inch-thick) slices cucumber
16 (1/4-inch-thick) slices plum tomato

Combine yogurt, shredded cucumber, tahini, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and garlic in a small bowl; set aside.

Combine remaining 2 teaspoons lemon juice, olive oil, and next 4 ingredients (through chicken) in a small bowl. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Coat grill pan with cooking spray. Add chicken to pan; cook 10 minutes or until done.

Serve with the pita, lettuce tomatoes, onions and yogurt sauce.

Planning and plotting.

2011-03-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

I have other food I've actually made to talk about, but stumbling around the internet I found this page: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/howtocook/dishes/cakerecipes

I do love a good cake. And it just so happens I have a birthday coming around next month and I will likely need a cake for the celebrating. I've picked a few out, want to offer your thoughts?

First up is this Lemon Curd Mousse Cake: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Curd-Mousse-Cake-231898
I love light, lemony cakes. This would likely be good with berries on the side, which are one of the highlights of having a Spring birthday.

Next we have this Mascarpone Lavender cake: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mascarpone-Filled-Cake-with-Sherried-Berries-242873
Delicious cheese and drunken berries? Sounds like a good idea to me.

Something a little different, a Chocolate cake with a vanilla cream filling: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Semisweet-Chocolate-Layer-Cake-with-Vanilla-Cream-Filling-233943
Chocolate is always a good choice and with a nice, light filling it would be really good.

Last one up is another berry cake, with an almond cream cheese frosting: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Mixed-Berry-Chiffon-Cake-with-Almond-Cream-Cheese-Frosting-106656
Again with berries, and what sounds like a really yummy frosting. A frosting my marzipan loving husband would likely approve of.

So, any opinions?

Rocket pesto

2011-02-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

I've got a lot of thing to talk about, I'll jump back to Tuesday though. I took the day to get some housework done and some cooking done before working the next two days. I whipped up another batch of broccoli soup to take for lunches and froze half of it for some dinner in the likely near future.

Arugula, also known as Rocket!

I also pulled a bag of arugula out of the fridge. It needed to be eaten, but we had a ton of lettuce cut up for salads for the week already, so I poked around for another way to use it up.

I decided on an arugula pesto, to be tossed with hot pasta, real stuff this time! Since I was in the middle of a cooking fest of sorts, I altered a recipe to fit what I had on hand and it came out really well. Really thick with a mild bite from the arugula, balanced out by the parmesan cheese.

I think the best thing about a pesto sauce is how easy it makes a meal. Take whatever vegetables or meat you want, or skip them. Saute them until they are done, then add your freshly cooked pasta with a little of the cooking water to thin the pesto out some and you've got a meal. I used some boneless chicken thighs and some delicata squash. The recipe makes a good amount of sauce, so I was able to freeze half of it for a future meal as well.

All in all a good day for fresh food and stocking up my freezer!

Rocket Pesto

Adapted from DigginFood

4 cups of packed arugula leaves

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup parsley

1/2 cup toasted pecans

1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to a boil and prepare a bowl of water with ice cubes. Very quickly drop the arugula in the boiling water, blanching it for about 15 seconds. Immediately remove it from the boiling water and place it in the ice water, cooling it completely. Drain the arugula and squeeze it as dry as you can.

In a food processor, blend the arugula, garlic, parsley, pecans, and Parmesan cheese into a smooth paste. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then, with the blade running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Process until the olive oil is thoroughly incorporated and the pesto is smooth. Give the pesto a taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

A public service announcement

2011-02-22T12:23:00.000-08:00

I would like to preface this by saying I am not a fan of Hungry Girl, I think her "techniques" for cutting calories out are for the most part ridiculous and take any of the joy out of eating.

How ever, I agree with her on one thing and one thing alone: Shirataki noodles are a good thing.

Really, look at that nutritional information there. 4 ounces of noodles for only 20 calories. These are made with a root, similar to a yam, so you will often also hear these called yam noodles. My sister actually turned me on to them. She'd made them at home and her husband even liked them. Given my love of pasta and desire to not be the size of a blimp, I gave them a try over the last couple of nights.

First I made a beef stir fry that I tossed with a fettuccine shaped shirataki noodle. It was delicious. The noodles held up to the sauce well, and really didn't taste like anything except the stir fry. And according to my husband the left overs the next day were also good, the noodles didn't get soggy.

And last night I made a pasta carbonara with a spaghetti shaped noodle. This was also really good. The yellow you see in there is spaghetti squash, both mixed together well and were a great sub for regular pasta. The only thing is that the squash released more water then I was expecting and watered down our sauce. No biggie though, still tasted good.

I highly recommend trying Shirataki noodles yourself. The prep was easy and they subbed right into a few of our favorite dishes really well. I found mine in the refrigerator case at my local health food type of grocery store. Mine were the version combined with tofu. My sister had the straight yam noodles (which have no calories at all) and she found hers at her local Asian market.

Soul waffles

2011-02-21T15:25:00.000-08:00

The other day, I emailed my husband at work, as we often do, asking if waffles sounded like a good idea for dinner. I am pretty sure I've mentioned before how much I like breakfast for dinner. My husband, slightly confused, asked if I wanted to go out or have homemade waffles. This somehow evolved further to me making waffles from my soul.

We have weird email conversations at times.

So ultimately, the next night, I made waffles for dinner. We have a really keen waffle iron, one of those wedding presents we don't use often. I should pull it out more though, it's not a huge one and it is easy to use. Plus, my husband loves waffles. Our favorite place to vacation is up in Big Sur, and the lodge we stay at has waffles every morning for breakfast, he eats waffles until he is stuffed.

These waffles have a bit of cornmeal in them, it added a nice bit of crunch and texture. Making them was easy, as was the syrup we topped them with. A couple of disclaimers, the original recipe makes 7 waffles, I got 8 out of the recipe. Obviously this is due to the size of my waffle iron, so your results may vary. Secondly, these were best when eaten fresh. I had part of one right off the iron and it was light and crispy, I kept them warm in a 200 degree oven when making them which did fine. Reheating them the next day, while still good, they weren't as good. So these wouldn't be one to freeze for later eating, unfortunately.

Corn Meal Waffles with Berry Syrup
For me, making 8 waffles, these came out to 5 WW points a waffle with 2 WW points for 1/3 cup of the syrup.
Egads! I forgot to add my sources, Cooking Light here and here.

Cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 large egg yolks
2 large egg whites

Syrup:
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries or blackberries (I used blackberries)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon vannila extract

Coat a waffle iron with cooking spray, and preheat.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, and level with a knife. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in center of mixture. Place buttermilk, maple syrup, oil, and egg yolks in a bowl, and stir well with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist.

Beat egg whites with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into cornmeal mixture.

Spoon about 1/2 cup batter onto hot waffle iron, spreading batter to edges. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until done; repeat procedure with remaining batter.

To prepare syrup, combine berries, maple syrup, and vanilla in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until thoroughly heated. Serve warm over waffles.

A very fall type of soup.

2011-02-18T12:59:00.000-08:00

Time for another soup! I am finding when I make soup that it makes the best lunch the next day. This one was no exception. I've been hoarding up a few squash, which really hasn't been too hard, planning on making this soup for a few weeks now. Bowing to my husband's request, this soup went to the back burner in honor of corn chowder and chicken tortilla soup. I didn't give him a choice this week, I was making the squash soup.

One thing that drew me to this recipe was that you roast the squash then add it to your soup base. It made this soup so much easier. I was using Delicata and Kabocha squash. The Delicata is a decently easy one to peel with a vegetable peeler, I've done it for sides with dinner a few times now. But the Kabocha? Nuh uh, forget about it. It is a tough one and I didn't want to even try and peel it while raw. Roasting then scooping the squash out was perfect.

The other thing that attracted me to this was the addition of curry powder. Squash is one of those foods that really takes to seasoning well. You want it sweet, no problem. Savory? Easily done. I had a feeling the curry powder would be a really good thing for this soup.

The only thing I wish I had for this soup was my own chicken stock. I had a batch ready to go that I had made over the weekend, unfortunately it took a tumble out of the fridge and was lost to the kitchen floor. Nothing could be done because not only did the lid pop off the container it was but, but the container cracked too! It just wasn't meant to be.

Enjoy!

Velvety Squash Soup

From Cooking Light
4 WW points per 1 cup serving

5 pounds winter squash (I used delicata and kabocha, butternut and acorn also work. Grab random squash at the store and give them a try.)

Cooking spray

2 cups coarsely chopped onion
2 teaspoons olive oil
5 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2/3 cup apple cider
2 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2/3 cup evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 425°.

Cut each squash in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place squash, cut sides down, on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray.

Combine onion and oil, tossing to coat. Spread onion mixture onto pan around squash. Bake at 425° for 45 minutes or until squash and onion are tender. Cool slightly. Scoop out squash pulp from skins; discard skins.

Place onion and squash pulp in a Dutch oven. Stir in broth and the next 5 ingredients (through pepper); bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes.

If you have an immersion blender, blend the soup to a smooth texture in the pan. If not, use a regular blender and puree it to a smooth texture in 3-4 small batches. With the soup back in the dutch oven, stir evaporated milk. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

I just noticed that I kinda ripped off the photo posted with the original recipe. Go me?

The Dayquil, it does nothing.

2011-02-15T12:06:00.000-08:00

I've got some..thing. Viral and cruddy. I made it through work yesterday, wasn't able to make it farther than the couch today. The Dayquil I've taken isn't doing much, but between that and Rupaul's Drag Race I think I will survive.
Especially since I still have a few sliders in the fridge.

Growing up on the out west, we didn't have White Castle. I think I had them once or twice, out of the freezer, nuked. Probably not the best way to eat them.

The good thing about them is they were small, little hamburgers. I love small, little hamburgers. And now I know the secret. Dried onion, seasoned salt, and a hot oven. Add some ground beef or turkey, toppings and small rolls and you've got a meal.

What makes these even better is how easy they are. No forming and cooking individual patties, so they are great to make for a group as well.

Sliders

Borrowed liberally from Noble Pig via Big Red Kitchen

Ground chuck (80/20) of Ground turkey (93/7) 2 pounds for a 9 x 13 pan, 2-1/2 pounds for a 10 x 15 pan
Dried, minced onion
Seasoning salt
Sliced Cheese
Sliced pickles (dill or bread and butter, I prefer B&B)
Dinner rolls, any brand (Hawaiian sweet rolls are awesome)

Liberally sprinkle dried minced onion on the bottom of a 9 x 13 or 10 x 15 pan.

Press ground meat into pan, on top of onions until it completely covers the bottom. Liberally sprinkle the meat with seasoning salt.

Place in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until done. The meat will shrink in the oven. Once cooked, remove and cover with slices of cheese. Place meat back in the oven for two minutes until the cheese is melted.

With a pizza cutter or a knife, slice the meat into as many square pieces as you have rolls.

Serve on dinner rolls with desired toppings.

Menage a trois.

2011-02-11T15:02:00.000-08:00

This chicken seems to like things in threes I found. I used three different sources to sort of cobble this recipe together. One was a Weight Watchers recipe, one was a Cooking Light recipe and the last source was my sister. None of the printed recipes remotely resemble my final product, so no links today, but I will thank my sister for the idea of using cornmeal for the crust on this oven baked chicken. It was one of those things I thought wouldn't work for some reason. I just figured the cornmeal wouldn't really cook all that well and stay too firm to be enjoyable.

Boy was I wrong about that.

The cornmeal gave the chicken a nice crunchy crust, enough I didn't miss real fried chicken at all. The breadcrumbs and almonds came in behind the cornmeal for another menage a trois. And the buttermilk marinade left the chicken so moist and juicy, my husband couldn't believe it. I think he brought it up a couple times as we ate last night.

Oven fried Menage a Trois Chicken

2 cups low fat buttermilk
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 chicken breasts and two leg quarters, with or without skin (I left the skin on for cooking purposes, and because I cut my own chicken up, there wasn't much skin on the breast pieces, lots though on the leg quarters. For the purposes of eating by WW, I am peeling the skin off as needed, but that takes the crust with it, just to keep in mind.)

1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 almonds, ground in food processor until fine
1/3 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1/2-1 teaspoon ancho chili powder, to taste

Combine the buttermilk, hot pepper sauce and onion powder in a container or ziploc bag. Add the chicken and allow to marinate at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the breads crumbs, corn meal, almonds salt and chili powder in a shallow dish. Remove each piece of chicken from the marinade, shake off the excess and dip in the crust mixture on all sides to coat. Place on a cookie sheet skin side up and repeat with the remaining pieces. Discard the marinade and any crust mixture you may have leftover (I had no crust mix left).

Bake for 40-50 minutes until juices from the chicken run clear and the crust is browned.

Based on an average of all the ingredients, for four folks, this is 8 points a serving. If using only one cut of chicken such has chicken thighs, this would be 4 points a piece. For chicken breasts, as long as it is half a whole breast, it also comes out to 4 points a serving.

Bigger than what you might expect.

2011-02-09T16:24:00.000-08:00

I pulled together a new side dish for dinner the other night using one of the many grains in my pantry. I have some cool stuff in there; quinoa, amaranth, barley, wheat and the star of this side: Israeli couscous. I've recently learned it is also called Ptitim. There you go, a new factoid to file away.

Essentially, these couscous are larger and rounder than your standard couscous, like small pearls. We love them, they make for a quick side dish. Often I mix them in with other grains out of the pantry, but this night, I left them on their own and threw in a few other ingredients I had either in the pantry or in the fridge. Thankfully, the result was delicious and not a fail.

Couscous with Carrots

1/3 teaspoon olive oil

1 cup uncooked israeli couscous

4 medium carrots, grated

2 1/2 cups chicken broth or stock

1/8 cup sliced, toasted almonds

1 tablespoon fresh parsely, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the couscous. Stirring frequently, lightly toast the coucous for 2 minutes. Add the carrot and stir to combine. Pour in the chicken broth and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to low, cover the saucepan and allow the couscous to cook until al dente, about 8-10 minutes.

Fluff with a fork and add the almonds and parsely, adding salt and pepper to taste.

Serves four (about 1 cup a serving) at 5 WW points each.

Don't look now, but I also made the Dijon Chicken again, this time with dill!

Insert title here, which I forgot to do.

2011-02-07T15:21:00.000-08:00

Hey, look at this onion that is not greens.

I haven't had to buy vegetables at the store for day to day use in weeks. Occasionally I grab onions, and other odd things I may need for a recipe and such, but our sides for dinner have almost all been from our CSA box. This is great! I love the veggies I am getting and we are eating so much more variety.

The only thing that gets me at times are all the greens we get. I tend to have a bunch or two of something like chard, kale or even dandelion greens. I've started to find the easiest thing to make with them is to make a pot of soup and dump them in.

I've noticed I've been averaging a soup a week, give or take a few days. So this weeks (made last Saturday) offering is a chicken tortilla soup. Pretty basic, I made the stock using my turkey stock technique. I love making stock this way, the roasting not only makes the house smell damn good, but makes a stock that is to die for. Don't make stock any other way anymore, ok?

The chicken was picked off a Costco chicken we had for dinner earlier in the week. We hadn't touched the majority of it after the one meal, so the soup was stuffed full of chicken. With some greens, corn, tomatoes and peppers it was delectable. And pretty low point wise.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
Serves 6 at 7 points a serving

1 tsp oil
1 medium onion, diced finely
1 jalapeno pepper, diced finely
2-3 poblano peppers, diced
3 cups of greens, either spinach, chard, kale, etc. chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
10 ounces frozen corn
14 1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 pounds chicken, cooked and cut into bite sized pieces
6 cups chicken stock
6 six inch corn tortillas, sliced thinly

Heat the oil in a heavy pan over medium heat, when shimmering slightly, add the onion and saute for 2-3 minutes until just softened. Add the jalapeno and poblano peppers and continue to cook until the onion and peppers are soft and frangrant, about 5 more minutes. Add the greens and oregano, mix together well and cover the pot, allowing the greens to cook for another 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, corn, chicken and stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow the soup to simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. If the heat from your peppers isn't enough (mine were a little weak) add Tabasco to taste as well. Mix in the tortilla strips and serve.

I have been remiss in my pizza blogging.

2011-02-05T20:28:00.000-08:00

I really thought I had posted this recipe before. I even came to my blog yesterday to pull it up. I was surprised I didn't have it posted, shocked even. It is likely I've made this dozens of times now.
This is likely the best homemade pizza dough recipe I've ever used. It stretches out well, giving you a nice thin crust if you so desire. It also does well as a thicker crust. It bakes up well in a nice hot oven or on your hot grill. It is a recipe I go to time and time again for making pizza, which is why I was so surprised hadn't blogged it before now.

Another good thing is after a day of cleaning the house, bathrooms, and kitchen and giving the dogs baths and taking their picture because by god, they are clean, the crust comes together really easy. You just have to allow time for the crust to rise and mixing it together. It takes well to any toppings as well, give it a try this next week and have a pizza night!

Homemade Pizza Crust

From Epicurious

1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 3/4 to 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus additional for kneading and dredging
3/4 cup warm water (105-115F)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Stir together yeast, 1 tablespoon flour, and 1/4 cup warm water in a measuring cup and let stand until mixture appears creamy on surface, about 5 minutes. (If it doesn't, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Stir together 1 1/4 cups flour and salt in a large bowl, then add yeast mixture, oil, and remaining 1/2 cup warm water and stir until smooth. Stir in enough of remaining flour (1/4 to 1/2 cup) for dough to come away from side of bowl. (This dough will be slightly wetter than other pizza doughs you may have made.)

Knead dough on a work surface with floured hands, reflouring work surface and hands when dough becomes too sticky, until dough is smooth, soft, and elastic, about 8 minutes. It's essential to knead the dough well to have a smoother, easier to work with dough after rising. You can divide dough in half and form into 2 balls for two smaller pizzas or leave whole for one large pizza. Generously coat ball(s) all over with olive oil and put in a medium bowl. Cover bowls with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm, non drafty area until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/4 hours.

Once risen, you can punch the dough down and stretch it to the desired size and thickness then top and bake. I tend to bake at 425 inside, or between 600-700 on my gas grill.

This is pre baking, it was so good I couldn't keep the hoards away to take a picture once it was baked. That good.

We ate what was described as "grass clippings."

2011-01-29T19:06:00.000-08:00

While at Costco today to pick up various needed things, I decided meat was in order for dinner. I picked up some New York steaks (my personal favorite) and realized I could try and hack one of my favorite steak house sides, creamed spinach.
I didn't have spinach though. I had kale, two bunches worth, and red frill, a mustard type of green. I've swapped greens for spinach before and figured this wouldn't be much different.

Next was to find a recipe that wasn't a cream filled one. I was ready to make substitutions if need be, but luckily, Cooking Light had a recipe that had good reviews and ingredients I mostly had on hand.

I rinsed, chopped up and steamed the greens. I rinsed them to cool them after they were cooked and squeezed they as dry as possible; no one wants watery creamed greens. The result was a ball of green that my husband felt looked like grass clippings he deals with every other week in our back yard. He still gave them a thumbs up though.

Good news is the greens didn't taste anything like grass. It was delicious! This was meant to be four servings, but we made it a two serving side tonight. It paired perfectly with our steaks.

Creamed Greens

Adapted from Cooking Light

3 points per 2/3 cup serving

2 (10-ounce) bags fresh spinach, greens or any combination of the above

Cooking spray

2 tablespoons minced shallots

2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup fat-free milk

1/2 cup tub-style light cream cheese, softened (I used 4 wedges of Laughing Cow Creamy Swiss style cheese and it worked well)

Remove large stems from greens, rinse with cold water and drain. Place a large Dutch oven over medium heat, and add greens. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until greens wilt; stirring occasionally. Place greens in a colander, and drain well, squeezing greens to remove as much moisture as possible.

Place pan coated with cooking spray over medium heat until hot. Add shallots; sauté 2 minutes. Combine flour, salt, and nutmeg; add to pan, stirring well. Cook 1 minute. Add milk and cheese, stirring with a whisk; cook 1 minute or until thick. Add greens, cook until heated through.

Late night dinner.

2011-01-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

I know this won't seem like the kind of dinner you'll want to make when coming home late, but after my last two shifts at work, some tasty, comforting food was truly in order.

So in the last hour of my work shift last night, I was checking Facebook. I am friends with Smitten Kitchen and there was her most recent update, Dijon Chicken. It sounded like exactly what my husband and I both needed for dinner. Trouble was, I only had frozen solid chicken. A trip to the store would be in order.

I booked it out of work and hit the Trader Joe's very near by for some chicken. I intended on skipping the butchering of my own whole chicken tonight, however, the price of the whole chicken wooed me in. Saving money beat my laziness out.

Purchases made, I headed home. I de-worked myself, got my comfy pants and slippers on, and got to it.

Oven preheated and potatoes go in.

Chicken unwrapped.

And hacked into eight pieces. If you've never done this before, it isn't hard, check out the Smitten Kitchen blog I am linking below for a great video tutorial.

Look at the size of those boobs.

Chicken browned, roasted, sauce made, potatoes hot and broccoli cooked. Husband made it home just as everything came together and we shared our first dinner together for the week. Sure it was 9 pm, but the meal was awesome and company even better.

Roasted Chicken with Dijon Sauce
Adapted from Gourmet, March 2008 via Smitten Kitchen with 2 small tweaks of my own. Sauce serves eight at 3 points a serving. Chicken without the skin varies on point value, I leave you to it.

3 pounds chicken parts (thighs, drumsticks, and/or breasts), with skin and bones
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 small shallots, thinly sliced
3/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup reduced-sodium or sodium-free chicken broth
1/4 cup evaporated milk
2 tablespoons smooth Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon

Preheat oven to 450°F with a rack in middle. Pat chicken dry and season generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat oil in an ovenproof 12-inch heavy skillet (if you’ve got a cast iron skillet, it is great here) over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Working in 2 batches, brown chicken, skin side down first and turning once, about 2-3 minutes a side.

Return all chicken, skin side up, to skillet and roast in oven until just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer chicken to a platter, then add shallots to pan juices and cook until softened for about 2 minutes over medium heat. Add the broth and wine to skillet and boil, scraping up any brown bits, until reduced by half, about 5-7 minutes. Add milk and boil until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Whisk in the mustard and tarragon until smooth.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve chicken with sauce. Drink the rest of the white wine you used with dinner.

Something a little different.

2011-01-25T22:24:00.000-08:00

We like Chinese food. Chinese food however isn't often the best choice for healthy eating, at least if you go to say, Panda Express. I have nothing against the Panda, in fact I'd kill for their orange chicken. But, in the interest of continuing our pattern of healthier eating, I will skip killing someone and try some Chinese meatballs.

We happened to catch an episode of Chinese Food Made Easy last night just before bed. The host is cute and the recipe for lion head meatballs sounded delicious. I figured with a few swaps, I could make them supa healthy besides being tasty.

And as luck would have it, I had some Napa cabbage and mushrooms in the fridge to be used.

The recipe came together really quickly, especially with the use of a food processor to finely chop all the garlic, green onion and ginger into nice, small bits for a nice meatball. I followed the recipe nearly exactly and would make a couple of changes: Less ginger and more salt.

I also drastically altered the cooking directions. If you read over the recipe as posted, it is a little unclear as to exactly how to cook this dish. I even saw the recipe made on TV and I was still a bit confused. Hopefully I made it a bit clearer.

Other wise the lion head meatballs were delicious.

Lion Head Meatballs

Makes 12 meatballs, serves 6 at 4 WW points a serving, not counting the rice.

Adapted from Chinese Food Made Easy

1 pound 2 ounces ground turkey
1/2 cup finely chopped spinach
2 ounces Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Pinch freshly cracked pepper

2 1/2 cups chicken stock
11 ounces napa cabbage, quartered lengthwise from leaf to stem end
6 ounces mushrooms. chopped
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch, blended with 2 tablespoons cold water
Sea salt and freshly cracked white pepper
2 large spring onions (green), sliced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Put the ground beef, rice wine, garlic, spring onions, egg, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch, salt, and white pepper into a large bowl to combine, stirring in the same direction.
Using wet hands, scoop a large mound of the ground meat mixture, and mold it into a ball. The size should be a little larger than a golf ball. Transfer the meatball to a cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining mixture.Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven.

For the assembly:

Combine the stock, mushrooms, and soy sauce in a small saucepan. Bring everything to a boil. Cover the pan, reduce its heat, and cook gently for 15 minutes. Add the blended cornstarch slurry and stir until the sauce thickens.
Remove the pan from the heat, and season with salt, and white pepper, to taste. Pour sauce over meatballs spreading evenly. Take the napa cabbage and seperate the leaves out, "wrapping" them around the meatballs to create a "mane" for you lion meatballs. Cover the cookie sheet tightly with foil and return to the oven for an additional 15 minutes of cooking.

Serve the meatballs, mushrooms and cabbage over a bed of rice.

Just beets.

2011-01-23T21:13:00.000-08:00

You know it's a good basalmic when it
comes to you corked.

As I have gotten older, been on my own, furthered my cooking abilities and skills, I've found myself going back to foods I once considered yucky.

Yes, that's a very mature word I used there. Yucky. I will be 32 in a few months and I still find the word appropriate in many circumstances.

Take beets for example. They weren't something my mom cooked much at home when I was younger, so my run ins with them involved cold, slimy specimens at salad bars. In that state of existence they taste like cold, oddly textured dirt. Not very appetizing. I'd skip over them and their staining capabilities for something safer like blueberry muffins.

Now though, at a much more mature age, I've found (via my CSA) that beets aren't always yucky. Fresh and prepared in a different way, beets can be sweet and not taste like a mouthful of dirt.

I had 2 varieties of beets to work with, a traditional red color and a lighter yellow/golden beet. The method takes a bit of time as the beets need plenty of time to cook through, cool, then be peeled and finished off very simply, but it is worth the work. Even my Husband proclaimed that they couldn't be "beet."

Yes he actually said that. Yes, he does things like that quite often. It is part of his charm. It's a good thing I love him.

Try some beets today.

Simply roasted Beets

6-8 small to medium sized beets, green tops trimmed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
3 tablespoons basalmic vinegar (the higher quality the better here)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Wrap the beets with aluminum foil creating two packets. Roast in preheated oven for 1-1.5 hours until tender. Allow to cool enough so they can be handled and removed the skins. Cut each beet into 6-8 slices.

Lightly coat a cookie sheet with the olive oil and place the beets on it. Sprinkle with the salt and basalmic vinegar, tossing to coat. Roast in the 400 degree oven again for 10-15 minutes until the beets are again hot and the edges aren't quite beginning to brown. Serve drizzled with additional vinegar if desired.

Broccoli Cheese Soup.

2011-01-19T14:40:00.000-08:00

I've had a lot of broccoli in the house as of late. It's been coming in my CSA box, it's been coming out of my garden. It's been delicious, I've discovered steamed with a bit of lemon juice on it is yummy. Thing is, I picked up my box last night and had more broccoli to add to last weeks broccoli we still had.

Time for soup!

Broccoli soup of any form is a great way to use up a larger amount of the green stuff, say two CSA boxes worth. Make it a cheesy soup and that is even better. Makes it a soup my husband will eat up too.

In looking for an easy, lower fat recipe for a cheesy broccoli soup, I didn't find one that outright sounded good and made logical sense. I pulled from three or four different sources and just created my own recipe. In truth, this is for dinner tomorrow night, but since I doubled the recipe, there was enough for me to have a bowl for lunch today and it was good. Perfectly cheese flavored without overwhelming the broccoli and creamy with no cream. Delicious, this one may be a permanent addition to our dinner rotation.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

4 cup(s) broccoli florets
2 1/2 cup(s) chicken broth
1 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
2/3 cup(s) evaporated whole milk
1/2 cup(s) reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, grated

In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the broccoli and the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow to cook until the broccoli is tender.

Transfer the broccoli and broth in small batches to a blender or food processor and process until smooth, set aside.

In the saucepan, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until softened. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in the evaporated milk and bring to a simmer, allowing the mixture to thicken. Add the cheese and stir until completely melted then add the broccoli mixture back in. Allow to come back up to a simmer, stiring occasionally. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Serves four at 4 points each if you care about Weight Watchers.

I like to think I am better than Rachael Ray.

2011-01-17T20:54:00.000-08:00

Periodically, when I sit down to write up a blog, I truly have little to no idea of what to say about it. Not even a title, which sometimes is the hardest part.

This is one of those nights.

But, given that I have broccoli to be eating in my fridge and a love of pasta, I recalled a time where Rachael Ray didn't drive me bonkers. I watched her 30 minutes meals quite a bit once upon a time. She made a stove top mac and cheese with chicken and broccoli mixed in that was pretty tasty. I made a few times, never under 30 minutes though. She lies.

So in recalling her recipe I recalled it not being calorie friendly. I dug around, found a recipe that seemed similar and forged on for a delicious, comforting dinner that met with the husband's approval as well. It took me about an hour. How RR can really claim under 30 minutes I still don't know, considering I like my pasta al dente and not crunchy...

Chicken and Broccoli Mac and Cheese

Adapted from Weight Watchers, 9 points for a heaping 1 cup serving.

12 oz uncooked pasta, elbow macaroni or other small shape (about 3 cups)
2 cups fat-free skim milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp table salt
3/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 cup low-fat shredded cheddar cheese, use shrap or extra sharp for best flavor
1/8 tsp hot pepper sauce, or more to taste
3 cups broccoli, cut into florets and steamed to desired doneness
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cooked and cut into bite sized pieces

Cook pasta in lightly salted boiling water according to package directions; drain and return to pot.

Meanwhile, while pasta cooks, in a large saucepan, whisk together milk, flour, salt, onion and garlic powder until blended. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking frequently; reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring often, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Whisk in cheese and hot sauce. Add broccoli and chicken, mixing to coat and allow to cook for another minute to heat through. Add sauce to pasta; toss to mix and coat. Yields about 1 cup per serving.

I too, have kitchen fails.

2011-01-14T19:39:00.000-08:00

Hello Miso.

When I planned out our meals for this week, I found a recipe that got me excited. It read like a take on fried rice with miso as a main ingredient. Awesome, I love fried rice and I love miso. Use it as a chicken marinade? Why not!

I picked up miso paste (why I hadn't before now I don't know) and eagerly looked forward to Thursday when I'd be whipping this up for dinner.

After two very delicious meals I've already blogged, Thursday rolled around and I got my chicken miso-ed up and in the fridge. I steamed the chicken, cooked the rice and got my other ingredients all set. I brought the whole dish together. My husband and I sat down to eat, excited for the miso chicken. And as we dug in and ate dinner, we both felt the same way: Meh.

The ingredients are all there. The cooking technique is sound. But something is missing. My husband feels it needs more of a salty component to balance it. I feel like it needs a sweet component. Either way, I was disappointed. To the point I couldn't eat it again as left overs tonight. Thankfully my husband isn't too firmly against it, so he will finish up the leftovers. And i have enough sliced turkey, bread and cheese to keep me happy, but I am still left with a recipe fail.

I will present it to you, my 5 readers. Let me know if you have any thoughts. I really wanted this one to work.

Miso Chicken with Brown Rice

From Cooking Light

I changed two things: 1. I marinated the chicken for about 6 hours and 2. I used cilantro instead of parsley. Otherwise I followed this exactly.

2 tablespoons miso (soybean paste)
1 1/2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 (4-ounce) skinned, boned chicken breast halves
Cooking spray

5 large egg whites, lightly beaten
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup thinly sliced carrot
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup diced shiitake mushroom caps (about 3 ounces)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 cups chopped spinach

Combine first 3 ingredients in a small bowl. Rub miso mixture over both sides of chicken breast halves. Wrap each breast half securely in plastic wrap. Arrange the packets in steamer rack; place rack in a Dutch oven. Steam packets, covered, 20 minutes or until done. Remove packets from steamer; let stand 5 minutes. Remove chicken from packets, reserving liquid from packets. Dice chicken; set aside. Discard water in pan; wipe pan dry with a paper towel.

Place a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot. Add egg whites, and cook 2 minutes or until done. Remove egg whites from skillet; coarsely chop.

Add reserved cooking liquid, chicken, onion, carrot, and fish sauce to Dutch oven, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Add rice, mushrooms, parsley, green onions, and soy sauce; cook 3 minutes. Stir in egg whites and spinach.

Looks kind of brown and non assuming.

Picture Wednesday.

2011-01-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Breakfast: Oatmeal, diced apple, cinnamon, small squeeze of agave and a *splash* of half and half. Nothing wrong with a little fat.

Lunch: Open face turkey. With Laughing Cow soft cheese, herb and garlic variety., my new fave thing.

Wine courtesy of a Groupon. I love wine brought to my door at a lower price.

Bye bye Uverse. Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

Dinner, yummy corn chowder. With salad and warm bread, who needs Panera?

Spicy Corn Chowder

Adapted from Cooking Light
8 points per cup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3-4 stalks celery, diced
2 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
1 large poblano pepper, seeded and diced
3 cups 2% reduced-fat milk, 1/4 reserved
2 cups chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 2 breast halves)
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (about 3 ears)
3-4 tablespoons chopped cilantro, to taste
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, celery, poblano and jalapeño; cook for 3 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in milk, chicken, corn, and cilantro. Combine the reserved milk and cornstarch, miking until completely blended, adding to the chowder. Bring to a boil; cook until thickened and serve hot.

Lamb dinner for 2.

2011-01-11T16:02:00.000-08:00

Need a special meal for a special someone? Would you like to not feel like a blimp afterwards? Me too.

Good thing I found this recipe.
Some lamb (I used part of the shoulder), seared, finished off in the oven and topped with a pomegranate and red wine pan sauce. Serve with your choice of sides. We had steamed broccoli and a garlic mashed cauliflower. The lamb was delicious, divine, delectable. The sauce was perfect. I cannot wait for the leftovers tomorrow night after I get home from work.

I'd eat some more of it now if I could.

Roast lamb with red wine and pomegranate pan sauce

From Cooking Light
8 points for 3 ounces Lamb with 3 tablespoons of sauce

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 (1-pound) boneless leg or shoulder of lamb
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/3 cup red wine
1 1/2 cups chicken stock, divided
1/4 cup pomegranate juice
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375°.

Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Sprinkle lamb with 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper; add lamb to pan. Sauté 10 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Place pan in oven; bake at 375° until cooked to desired doneness. (130 degs for rare, 135 for medium rare, 140 for medium). Remove lamb from pan; let rest while you prepare the sauce.

Place pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic to pan; sauté for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add red wine; bring to a boil. Cook until liquid almost evaporates, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 cup broth, juice, and sugar; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/2 cup, stirring occasionally. Combine remaining 1/2 cup broth and flour, stirring until smooth. Add flour mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve; discard solids. Serve sauce with lamb.

One last Christmas related sort of posts.

2011-01-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

This is a bragging sort of post, partly because the gift was so well received and also partly because I managed to have it together enough this year to finally follow through on something I wanted to do when I put my first garden in and started canning.

This year, under the tree, were 7 matching, bright red bags, tied with raffia with tags gifting them to our family. In the bags were the fruits of my labors, a combo of home grown and purchased fruits and vegetables canned by me, tagged by my husband, and put into the bags by the both of us.

I was so excited to get these gift bags together this year. I didn't have the best season in my garden, my tomato supply was anemic despite having 7 plants and a good portion of what I did get on the vines were eaten by rodents looking for a midnight snack. My cucumbers did all right, but I ended up with only two vines. But still, with all the issues I did have, I had a ton of zucchini, my hot pepper plants finally took off and the end of the summer and are still producing now, and my winter garden isn't too shabby.

I am already plotting what I will be planting this upcoming spring and summer, with an eye towards making gift baskets again for Christmas not only for our immediate family, but hopefully we will be able to expand this out to some friends as well.

In our bags this year (from right to left) was the hot chocolate mix, lemon pickles, a blueberry lemon-basil preserve, our reserve limoncello, peach preserves and zucchini relish. All labeled just like the hot chocolate mix there. The corgis were happy to sit for a bit for a treat, but only a bit. I gave the photo a vintage look and my husband sized and printed them out.

I am surprised I never blogged about the pickles, they are really quite good, and I could swear I remember writing it up. I actually have the blog from last summer when I made the blueberry preserves sitting in purgatory. I even have the pictures I took for that post sitting on our desktop. I will have to resurrect that post at some point. Blogger had crashed on me and I thought it was lost forever, but I noticed just a few months ago, it was still sitting in the memory banks.

And the limoncello, oh the limoncello. This is the second batch we've made and by far it is the best, homemade or store bought, I've ever tasted. We called it our reserve because we were able to get a small amount of 190 proof grain alcohol from a friend who went to Texas. We let the cello hang out for 7-8 months before we added the simple syrup, then it sat an additional 3-4 months before we strained, bottled and labeled it mid December for the gift giving. It is so, so smooth. We are working on finding another source for some 190, if not, 151 will get going by the end of this month, the lemon tree in back is back in season and we've got a lot of lemons back there again. We will be making more this year, no matter what proof alcohol we end up with so we can share the wealth.

So, my plans are forming. I want to add more pickled veggies, like peppers and beans. I hope to be able to do 2-3 jams again. I am literally planning my garden around what I can put up for the next year, not only for my husband and I to enjoy, but also to share with my family and friends.

Slowly easing back into normal life.

2011-01-04T20:47:00.000-08:00

Today was my first days in a few weeks where I wasn't cooking for the holidays, entertaining family for the holidays, traveling for the holidays, eating for the holidays or otherwise dealing with the holidays. Despite the fact my Christmas decorations need to be on their way into boxes for storage until next winter and that my house could use a good straightening up and linens and what not washed from house guests; I took today to sit on my butt, on the couch, with my laptop, my TV and my kittens.

It was nice to do nothing.

We had intended to return from visiting my in laws yesterday for some cleaning and do nothing time but the weather detained us in the Las Vegas area a day longer. It was time well spent, otherwise we would have been stuck outside the San Bernadino area, sleeping in our car at a state fairgrounds due to snow and ice. Monday would have been lost no matter what due to the weather, I am glad it was lost to a night of Italian food, limoncello and Mexican Train dominoes in a warm house with a comfy bed to sleep in later on.

With a day of doing nothing, dinner needed to be an easy feat. Thankfully, we still had some leftover roast, easily reheated and some spaghetti squash, easily cooked up for dinner tonight. I also managed to get the initiative up to start dinner for tomorrow and the next night since I will be working the next two days shifts. So all in all, the day was not a total loss to laziness.

Being winter, squash are in season in full force. I've had some stacking up from my CSA boxes lately. Somewhat on purpose, somewhat from not having had much time to cook squash lately.

It also occurs to me I have been mentioning my CSA, but not really explaining it. CSA stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture and essentially, I am prepaying for a share of a local farm and as such, get a box of produce at regular intervals. Currently we get a box every 2 weeks, but as part of our efforts to keep ourselves healthy and at a better weight, we will be increasing our share to a weekly one. I've loved our boxes so far, and I haven't even had a chance to see what the summer boxes will bring. If you are in the San Diego area I highly recommend Suzie's Farm for produce, even if a CSA isn't what you need. They sell at many of the local farmer's markets as well and the onion sprouts are to die for.

Back to that squash up there. Being a spaghetti squash, you get nice little stands of squash versus a soft puree type of result when it is roasted. A lot of people go ahead and top it off with pasta sauce, but tonight a pasta sauce didn't make much sense with roast beast. A quick Google search brought up an Emeril recipe for herb spaghetti squash and it was perfect. Nice and light but tasty, a nice way to start easing back into our regular, non-holiday, weight watchers eating.

Herbed Spaghetti Squash

Adapted from Emeril Lagasse
Serves 4 at 3 points a serving (I am still trying to figure out the new points system...)

1 small spaghetti squash, about 2 1/4 pounds
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley and sage
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Using a sharp knife, cut the squash in half lengthwise and place, cut side down, in a baking dish. Add enough water to come 1/2-inch up the sides of the baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes, until the squash is easily pierced with a paring knife. Turn squash over and cover with foil again and continue to cook another 15 minutes, until the squash is very tender. Remove from the oven, uncover, and allow to cool slightly. Using a spoon, remove the seeds and discard. Using a fork, gently pull the strands of squash away from the peel and place the squash strands into a mixing bowl.

Heat a skillet. Add the oil, spaghetti squash, herbs, salt and pepper and toss thoroughly but gently to heat and combine. Serve immediately or cover and keep warm until ready to serve.

Days of Christmas: A final sparkling addition

2011-01-02T10:39:00.000-08:00

One last recipe from Christmas and then I think I am done. Whenever I start looking at recipes for anything, I tend to hunt down ones with lemon in them. I have a lemon tree in the back that 9 months out of the year is just kicking out tons of lemons. Meyer lemons to boot.

And I love it. I love the taste of lemons in food, sweets especially. I am the one who like the sweet and sour candy. These cookies aren't anywhere near a sweet and sour sort of taste; they have a light texture with a yummy lemon taste.

The only caveat to this recipe is the labor involved. These are small one or two bite little sandwich cookies, which means you have to roll out small, teaspoon sized balls of dough. Repeatedly. Especially if you double the recipe. And then you roll the cute little balls of dough in some sanding sugar for a sparkling, glittering cookie. Popular with little nieces, especially when they are rolled in the pink sugar. Also popular with grown ups because they taste so good.

All in all, I had a lot of fun picking recipes, baking, candy making and eating this year. I found a lot of great recipes, repeated some I love and found some that were okay and leave room for improvement next year.

Now that the new year is here, my husband and I will be restarting our Weight Watchers and a return to healthier recipes here on the blog. But I am not walking away from the yummy sweets completely, my not quite resolution for the year is to choose to be happier. And the healthy recipes leave me feeling better and full of energy, but, cookies also make me feel happy.

Happy New Year!

Glittering Lemon Cookies

From Epicurious

For Cookies
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla
White and colored sanding sugars

For Filling
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

Make Cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt.
Beat together butter and confectioners' sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, then beat in zest and vanilla. At low speed, mix in flour mixture just until a soft dough forms.
Put sanding sugars in different bowls. Roll a scant teaspoon of dough into a ball and drop into sugar, turning to coat. Reshape if necessary and transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat, spacing balls 3/4 inch apart, until baking sheet is filled. Refridererate for 30 minutes or freeze for 5-10 until dough balls are firm.
Bake until tops are slightly cracked but still pale (bottoms will be pale golden), 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer cookies on parchment to a rack to cool completely.
Form and bake more cookies on second baking sheet.

Make Filling and Sandwich Cookies:
Beat together all filling ingredients in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until combined well.
Turn over half of cookies and spread about 1/2 teaspoon filling on flat side of each. Sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing gently.

Days of Christmas: Holy Cannoli!

2010-12-31T22:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! I hope 2011 brings you many blessings and much joy.

Between cooking dinner with my mother in law and running out to take pictures of the last sunset for the year, I have spent the afternoon learning to make cannoli from the recipe my mother in law's Aunt Mary gave her. Aunt Mary was from Sicily, and quite the chef. When my in law's had moved into their first house, Aunt Mary came for a 5 day visit and went through 25 pounds of flour making pizza crusts, pasta and gnocchi to fill up their chest freezer.

Every Christmas she made traditional Italian cookies and cannoli. When she passed away, my mother in law Eileen inherited her wooden cannoli molds. These molds were cut from her broom stick, one of them even has the rounded end still. The only reason anyone even has the recipe is because Eileen wrote it down. The card is now yellowed around the edges and has some drops of something on it, which can only mean good things in my book.

This afternoon and evening, with Eileen there to guide me, I made my first batch of cannoli. The dough is a tough one to roll out, and mastering keeping the rounds of dough on the molds when you drop them in the oil ( I had only two turn into little tortilla cannoli) was a bit of work. The end result was so, so worth it. Now I am the proud owner of half of the molds, and will be able to make my husband one of his most favorite desserts whenever we feel like it.

Aunt Mary's Cannoli

Shells:

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 teas salt
2 T sugar
1 egg
2 T butter, diced into small pieces
1/4 cup Sauterns or other white dessert wine
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Filling:

2 lbs Whole Milk Ricotta, drained over fine mesh strainer, then pushed through for a finer texture
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons vanilla
A dash of almond extract
Optional: 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips, 1/4 cup candied orange peel, and/or 1/4 cup chopped pistachios

For the shells:

Combine the dry ingredients on a nice clean, flat surface and form a well. In the center of the well drop in the egg and butter. Using a fork, blend the egg and butter into the dry ingredients a little at a time until just combined, then begin adding the wine 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing untilthe dough just begins to form. Shape into a ball and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

After dough has rested, roll out on lightly floured surface to about 1/16" thick and cut into 3 1/2 inch circles, rerolling the scraps until done. After all the dough is cut into circles, roll them slightly into an oval shape. Wrap them around your cannoli forms, overlapping slightly at the top, sealing with a small amount of the beaten egg white.

Cook the cannoli on the molds in oil heated to 350 degrees until puffed and brown, remvoe from oil on mold and allow to cool before remvoing the cannoli shells.

For the filling:

Combine the riccota, sugar, vanilla and almond extract and mix to combine. Fold in your choice of the chocolate chips, orange peel or pistachios.

Assembly:

Pipe or spoon the filling into the cooled cannoli shells, leveling off the filling at the egdes of the shells. Dip the ends of the cannoli in the chocolate chips or pistachios and serve immediately.

Days of Christmas: Christmas Dinner

2010-12-30T12:39:00.000-08:00

So, this will be a shockingly picture free post...for now. My big Christmas present from my husband this year was a Canon 10D digital SLR camera. The body is an older one, but the kit that came was way worth the price he was able to get it for and I finally have what I call my big girl camera. Yay!

Down the road, my husband plans to update the body so I get more megapixels, but since Christmas, I've had the camera with me pretty much all the time. And being a new toy, I tried new settings I hadn't been able to use before with my point and shoot, like shooting in RAW. One thing I learned is that GIMP (a free open source photo editing software) doesn't like RAW. And of course, all the pictures I took on Christmas Day are in RAW. So I can't edit them quite yet. We are working on that. And I've since decided that JPEG is quite all right in most cases. RAW is keen, but the files will eat the hard drive space if that's all I shot in, so for now, only RAW on occasion.

Anyway, on to dinner.

I have three really yummy recipes to share today. One for a standing rib roast and two sides that wowed even the toughest critics in my family. I have a love for sweet potatoes AND brussels sprouts. Not everyone in the family does. I managed to find two recipes that had everyone in the family admitting they weren't half bad. I'll take that.
And honestly, who doesn't like a good roast beast?

Bacon Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Adapted from Epicurious

1 lb Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved (quartered if large)
1/2 pound bacon, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450°F.
Toss together Brussels sprouts, bacon, garlic, oil, and salt and pepper to taste in an 11- by 7-inch baking pan and spread in 1 layer.
Roast in upper third of oven, stirring once halfway through roasting, until sprouts are brown on edges and tender, about 25 minutes total.

If you want to do some prep ahead of time, you can qucikly blanch and chill the brussel sprouts and freeze them. When ready to cook, toss the frozen sprouts with the bacon, garlic and oil and roast as directed. EDIT 12/31/10: I've now made the sprouts blanched and not blanched and completely recommend blanching them before roasting. Made for much more tender, but still well roasted sprouts.

Sweet Potato Pudding

Pretty much taken word for word from Epicurious

Topping:
3/4 cup coarsely chopped gingersnaps
1/2 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

Pudding:
3 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams; about 3 large), scrubbed
3/4 cup half and half
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 3/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
4 large egg yolks
5 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

For topping:
Toss first 4 ingredients in medium bowl. Add butter; using fingertips, rub in until well blended. Cover; chill. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.

For pudding:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Roast potatoes on baking sheet until tender, 45 to 60 minutes. Cool. Cut in half lengthwise. Scoop flesh into bowl; mash. Transfer 4 cups potatoes to large bowl. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature before continuing.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 13x9x2- inch baking dish. Add half and half and next 5 ingredients to potatoes. Using mixer, beat on low speed until blended. Season with salt and pepper. Add yolks 1 at a time, blending after each addition. Using clean dry beaters, beat whites in another large bowl until foamy. Add salt and cream of tartar. Beat until peaks form. Fold whites into potatoes; spoon into dish. Sprinkle with topping.
Bake pudding until puffed and brown, about 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

My note: I doubled the amount of topping for the same amount of sweet potatoes because I love struesally sorts of toppings. I suggest trying it with more topping as well, but you don't have to.

Pepper Crusted Standing Rib Roast

Adapted from Epicurious

a 4-rib standing rib roast (about 7 1/2 to 8 pounds trimmed)

For crust
2 teaspoons whole allspice berries, crushed
4 ounces mixed peppercorns
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 teaspoons salt

For sauce
2/3 cup dry red wine
2 cups low-salt beef broth
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon water

Make crust:
In a small bowl combine crust ingredients, stirring to form a paste. You can make the crust and refridgerate it up to 2 days before.

Let rib roast stand at room temperature 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 500°F.

Pat beef dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a roasting pan roast beef, ribs side down, 30 minutes. Transfer beef to a platter and discard drippings.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Return beef to roasting pan, ribs side down, and spread with peppercorn paste. Roast beef 1 to 1 1/4 hours more, or until a meat thermometer inserted in fleshy section registers 135°F. for medium-rare meat.
Transfer beef to a cutting board and discard strings if necessary. Let beef stand, covered loosely, at least 20 minutes and up to 30 minutes before carving.

Make sauce:
Skim fat from drippings in roasting pan. To pan add wine and deglaze over moderately high heat, scraping up brown bits. Boil mixture until reduced by about half and transfer to a saucepan. Add broth and boil 5 minutes.
In a small bowl dissolve cornstarch in Worcestershire sauce and water and add to pan in a stream, whisking. Bring sauce to a boil, whisking, and boil 1 minute. Season sauce with salt and pepper.
Carve rib roast and serve with sauce.

Days of Christmas: Caramel Bacon Popcorn

2010-12-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

I will be heading out shortly to another holiday sort of party, so this will be a short, sweet, to the point post. It involves bacon, sugar and popcorn, and I don't think you can go wrong with this combination. I love salted caramel, the sharp salty bite against the sweet, creamy caramel backdrop is awesome, so when I came across the blog I found this recipe on, I couldn't wait to try it.

It was quick and easy, especially since I already had all my candy making gear out and at the ready from making marshmallows and fudge.

The only thing I did change and would do again is to add more bacon. I increased it some, I would likely add more when I make this popcorn again. The bacon was good, but not plentiful enough for my bacon loving family. People were digging around, trying to find the pieces with bacon stuck to them!

Caramel Bacon Popcorn

Adapted from Zakka Life

15 cups of popped popcorn - 2/3 cup of kernels will make about 15 cups
1 lb bacon
1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1-2 teaspoon of salt (I only used 1, but I would increase it if you like more of a salty bite)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Cook bacon as normal till crisp. Chop up finely and set aside.

Make the popcorn: Add a couple of tablespoons of oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add one kernel, cover pot with lid. When you hear that kernel pop, add one third cup of kernels, place lid back on. Shake pot while kernels cook. When the popping starts to die down, turn off heat. Continue to shake the pot and keep the lid on for about 30 seconds. Repeat process. Spread popcorn out on two baking sheets coated with oil or cooking spray.

In a medium sized pot melt butter. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, salt and mix together. Bring to a boil and stir constantly. Boil for four minutes without mixing. Turn off heat and add baking soda, vanilla, and bacon. Mix all together.

Drizzle mixture all over popcorn and mix well.

Place both baking sheets with popcorn in oven. Bake for 30-60 stirring every 15 minutes, until caramel darkens slightly and popcorn is evenly coated. Take out of oven and let cool, store in airtight containers.

Days of Christmas: Breakfast for the family

2010-12-26T22:48:00.000-08:00

Merry, merry Christmas everyone! We've made it through the rush of Christmas, family and food and I am getting the chance to sit, relax and look back at the last 48 hours or so. I'll start with our family breakfast on Christmas morning.

I wanted to make breakfast, but I didn't want to be in the kitchen cooking while everyone was opening the gifts from Santa. Everything here is easy and either cooked or prepped in the couple of days before Christmas. The morning of, all you need to do is get up and put the strata in the oven an hour ahead of time. The scones can be made and the citrus salad can be cut up and refrigerated the day before, just add the sugar and allow it to sit and meld while the strata bakes. Brew some coffee or tea, pour some mimosas and enjoy the morning. It was a great start to the day, and it was a chance for my sister and her in law's to hang out with us before they all had to house hop to see all my brother in law's huge family yesterday. Even my niece enjoyed the "chocolate rocks." Usually known as scones.

Green Chili and Cheese Strata

Epicurous

16 ounces chorizo sausage, casing removed (I used soy chorizo, tasted just as good wihtout being too greasy)
2 1/2 cups half and half
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 6 1/2x4 1/2-inch slices sourdough bread
1/2 pound shredded hot pepper Monterey Jack cheese
2-4 peppers like poblano, jalapeno or anaheim, peeled, seeded and chopped (I used a mix of poblano and jalapeno)
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Butter 8-cup soufflé or baking dish. Sauté chorizo in heavy large skillet over medium-low heat until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer chorizo to plate lined with paper towels; drain well.
Whisk next 5 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Place 2 bread slices in bottom of prepared dish. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup cheese and half each of chilies, cilantro and chorizo. Pour 1/3 of egg mixture over. Repeat layering with 2 bread slices, 3/4 cup cheese and remaining chilies, cilantro and chorizo. Pour half of remaining egg mixture over. Top with 2 bread slices. Pour remaining egg mixture over and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese. Cover; chill overnight.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake strata uncovered until puffed and golden, about 55 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Citrus Mint Salad

Epicurious

4 grapefruit (what ever variety you can get a hold of)
6 large navel oranges
8 tangerines

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup sugar
Seeds from 1 pomegranate

Cut peel and white pith from grapefruits and oranges. Cut between membranes to release segments. Combine fruit in large shallow bowl. Peel and sperate tangerines, add to grape fruit and orange.(Fruit can be segmented 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
Place mint and sugar in processor. Pulse and blend until mint is finely chopped, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Sprinkle mint sugar and pomegranate seeds over fruit; serve.

Scones

2 1/4 cups unbleached pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen

4 1/2 ounces candied ginger, finely chopped into 1/4-inch pieces to equal 2/3 cup or 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

3/4 cup buttermilk

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 400F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder, and mix on low to incorporate. zest and butter, and mix on low, untl the mixture is pale yellow and the consistency of fine meal. Add the ginger or chocolate chips, and With mixer turned to low, slowly stream in the buttermilk until the dough just comes together. Drop scoops of the dough 1 inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake for 12 to 16 minutes, until the surface cracks and they are slightly browned.

Days of Christmas: Homemade Marshmallows and Hot Chocolate

2010-12-24T15:46:00.000-08:00

First off, happy Christmas Eve everyone! I hope you and yours have a wonderful night tonight.

One of those things I've always wanted to try and make but never had were marshmallows. Up until recently, candy making of any type beyond my super easy fudge recipe kinda scared me. Candy sounds messy and easy to ruin, leaving you with a horribly burnt sugary mess to clean up.

Thankfully, I got over that. Making the candy favors for my sister's wedding certainly helped. A really good thermometer helps too, temperature is everything in making candy.

To go along with all the cookies I've made this year, I thought hot chocolate would be awesome. The nights are cooler, even in Southern California, and who doesn't like hot chocolate? And of course, with hot chocolate, you need marshmallows. This was my big chance to try and make my own.

Of all the candy making I've done before, marshmallows have the most hands off time. If you have a stand mixer, it does most of the work for you.

Once you get you sugar mix up to temp, it goes into a mixer for 15 minutes. And for those 15 minutes, it whips the mixture up to a stiff but fluffy consistency. And allows you 15 minutes to sit around and watch. Or blog. Whatever suits you.

Then you get the fluff into a pan to set up for a few hours, while you again, hang out, do something else.

Then you get your hands messy with the cutting up and dusting of the marshmallows, but really, there isn't much work to them at all.

And the flavor is something else, so much better than the jet puffed you get at the store.

And to go with them, I have a hot chocolate mix that not only is going out as a gift for my family, but I am serving it that day as well. I used a super intense cocoa powder for the mix, I am so excited to try it tomorrow!

Homemade Marshmallows

Taken from Epicurious

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 cup cold water, divided
3 1/4-ounce envelopes unflavored gelatin
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Line 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan with foil.
Coat foil lightly with nonstick spray. Pour 1/2 cup cold water into bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand until gelatin softens and absorbs water, at least 15 minutes.
Combine 2 cups sugar, corn syrup, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup cold water in heavy medium saucepan. Stir over mediumlow heat until sugar dissolves, brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush. Attach candy thermometer to side of pan. Increase heat and bring syrup to boil. Boil, without stirring, until syrup reaches 240°F, about 8 minutes.
With mixer running at low speed, slowly pour hot syrup into gelatin mixture in thin stream down side of bowl (avoid pouring syrup onto whisk, as it may splash). Gradually increase speed to high and beat until mixture is very thick and stiff, 12-15 minutes. Add vanilla and beat to blend, about 30-60 seconds longer.
Scrape marshmallow mixture into prepared pan. Smooth top with wet spatula. Let stand uncovered at room temperature until firm, about 4 hours. If you need to store the pans longer, cover with saran wrap sprayed with the nonstick spray to protest the still sticky top.
Stir potato starch and powdered sugar in small bowl to blend. Sift generous dusting of starch-sugar mixture onto work surface, forming rectangle slightly larger than 13x9 inches. Turn marshmallow slab out onto starch-sugar mixture; peel off foil. Sift more starch-sugar mixture over marshmallow slab. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut marshmallows into squares. Toss each in remaining starch-sugar mixture to coat, shaking off excess mixture. Store in air tight container.

Vanilla Hot Chocolate Mix

Also taken from Epicurious, but found via a blog I forgot to bookmark. :(

4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split crosswise
1 1/2 pounds high-quality semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
8 ounces milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process (I used some seriously good stuff, Valrhona, but any good cocoa will do it).

Place sugar in large bowl. Split half vanilla bean lengthwise, scrape seeds into sugar, and add pod. Work seeds in with your fingers. Cover snugly with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature. Or for a quicker version, blend sugar in food processor and slowly stream in 1/4 cup vanilla extract.
In food processor fitted with metal blade, process semisweet chocolate and milk chocolate until finely ground, using 4-second pulses. This will be very loud.(Process in two batches if necessary.)
Remove pod from sugar. Add ground chocolate and cocoa powder to sugar and whisk to blend.
Store mix airtight at room temperature for up to six months.
To serve:
For each serving, heat 8 ounces milk in small saucepan over medium heat until scalded (or microwave 2 1/2 minutes at full power). Whisk in 1/4 to 1/3 cup mix. Serve with marshmallows.

Days of Christmas: Thumb print cookies

2010-12-23T05:56:00.000-08:00

When I started digging out recipes for cookies, I found two that I was really excited for. Both involved rolling out very small portions of the cookie dough, refrigeration and other what nots for prep. I may have been able to get them all done if not for some time lost to an extra shift at work and some errand running prolonged by rainy weather.

These thumb print cookies were the ones to take the fall. They were originally meant to be trios: smaller cookies linked in threes, each with a different preserve filling. They were to look sort of like Mickey Mouse heads.

Rolling out many, many teaspoon sized balls of dough, poking a small hole in them, and filling each with 1/88th teaspoon of preserves lost it's mystique for me on Sunday afternoon. Time of death round about 2:00 PM PST.

I still had the dough of course, I just went ahead with a normal sized cookie scoop for far less work on my part.

Your preserve fillings can be any flavor you want, I went with apricot, strawberry and blueberry. I would have thrown in a blackberry if I'd have ditched the tiny cookie thing earlier on. these are my new addiction now, they cookie is tender and buttery. My husband and brother were the early testers and both proclaimed them fabulous. Just give them a few minutes to cool, the preserve filling get molten hot, my brother learned this when he popped a whole cookie in his mouth fresh from the oven. I don't think he'll do that again.

Thumb Print Cookies

Adapted from Epicurious

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Blueberry preserves
Apricot preserves
Strawberry preserves

Equipment: a 1/2-inch-thick wooden spoon handle or dowel

Preparation

Make dough:
Whisk together flour and salt. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until very pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes, then beat in egg and vanilla. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches just until a dough forms. Divide dough in half and form each piece into a 6-inch disk, then chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, about 1 hour.
Assemble and bake cookies:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Once dough has chilled, remove from fridge and roll about a tablespoon of dough at a time, flattening slightly. With end of spoon or dowel, make an indentation for the fruit preserves and fill with 1/4 teaspoon of fruit preserves. Place on a parchement or silpat lined cookie sheet.
Bake until cookies are baked through and golden-brown on edges, about 15 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.
Bake more batches on cooled baking sheets lined with fresh parchment or reuse your silpats if you have them.

Days of Christmas: A Chocolate family tradition

2010-12-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

My Mom was a crazy baking lady for the holidays when we were kids. Lots and lots of cookies. A lot of work for a working of of 3, I still don't know quite how she did it. Lucky for her, she got three kids who don't mind being in the kitchen and cooking or baking. So as we grew up, we helped out.

Cookies, tamales, candy, we helped with it all. Yup, I said tamales. 2 years we did them. We should do them again, there isn't anything like homemade tamales.

I digress.

Another of those family must haves at Christmas is fudge. Good, melt in your mouth fudge. Most of the family prefers it to be nut free, but there are a few that like the nuts.

This recipe is apparently an old and well know one. My mom found it in a cookbook she bought from a family friend as a fundraiser for where the friend worked. Thankfully, the person who submitted the recipe didn't change the name too much, so when I went to make fudge and my mom wasn't sure where the cookbook was, I was still able to find the recipe online.

I think my favorite part about this recipe is that it not only produces a great candy, but it does it without you needing a candy thermometer or needing to know the ball stages for candy making. It is almost completely foolproof. I say almost because I need to make another batch of the plain, I had my heat up too high and the final product doesn't have the right texture.

Beyond that though, there is nothing hard about making this fudge. If you've never made fudge before, give this a whirl, it is a damn amazing recipe. I've been making it for years now, stirring the sugar base the second my mom could get a spoon in my hand.

Red Cross Fudge

Recipe from Wikibooks

4-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 lb. butter
12 oz. evaporated milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 cups miniature marshmallows
12 oz. real chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts

Combine sugar, butter, evaporated milk, vanilla in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium low heat.
Cook on medium low heat for 11 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add marshmallows, chocolate chips, walnuts to fudge and mix well. Pour into a buttered pan and let cool. Slice into squares and store in an airtight container.

My days of Christmas.

2010-12-21T12:19:00.000-08:00

I would call this my 12 days of Chrsitmas, but I really don't know how many recipes I will eventually post. This is good and bad. Good because I've used some really good recipes this year and I am excited to talk about them and have someplace where they are recorded for next year; bad because I've been eating a lot of cookies and such. And there is still more eating to be done between now and the new year.

First recipe for my Christmas prep are Sausage Balls. These aren't always well thought of, I am sure many people wince if they appear on the table for the holidays, but for years now, they've been a Christmas Eve tradition in my family. We always have a gaggle of appetizers and cookies, eat split pea soup, open presents from the family and then go to church for the 11 pm candlelight service. It just isn't Christmas if we don't do all of the above.

One of those many years ago, my Grammy made and brought sausage balls as her contribution. We loved them. We ate them up like the end of the world was near. We were amazed that Grammy had cooked something, it really wasn't her forte, and that we loved it. From there on, Sausage Balls became as ubiquitous on Christmas Eve as my mom's Split Pea Soup. If they weren't there, it wasn't Christmas.

Now that Grammy has retired from making the sausage balls, I've picked up the banner. It helps the recipe is so easy. No wonder Grammy was able to pull them off.

Bisquick Sausage Balls

Recipe from here, although there are many different ones that are easy to find with Google with alternate ratios if you prefer more cheese, more biscuit or more sausage. Also, most recipes I referenced for this don't call for peppers of any type, but Grammy said the original she had called for pimentos. I used a sweet hot type of pepper in mine, but green chilies, jalapeños, what ever you prefer would be excellent.

2 cups Bisquick
1 pound sausage, uncooked
10 oz. grated chedder cheese
6 ounces pimento, red pepper or green chiles chopped
Directions:

Combine all the above in a bowl and mix until combined. If you want a more homogenous mixture, you can use a food processor to combine all the ingredients. Roll the mixture into balls about the size of a walnut and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degress F for about 20 minutes. The balls should be lightly browned and the sausage cooked through.

Oh the yummy.

Crash hot.

2010-12-14T16:58:00.000-08:00

I know she didn't start it, but that Pioneer Woman certainly added to the internet love for crash hot potatoes. Google puts her right at the top if you do a search for a recipe. Ever since she posted her crash hot potatoes, I've seen recipes for them on many blogs.

And for some reason I resisted. It isn't as though I don't love potatoes, and I've succumbed to internet potato crazes before with excellent results. I just didn't feel the need to try and make potatoes that required a double cooking process. Why boil and then roast? Why not just boil and then mash or just roast them to start with? What could possibly be so special about this damn recipe?

This:

Yum.

I will now state that I was wrong. This is a really nice way to get fluffy, crispy, salty, yummy potatoes. Perfect with meatloaf and salad. The cooking process was not horrible at all. So, in need of tasty potatoes for dinner tonight? Try these, they will not disappoint.

Crash Hot Potatoes

Stolen away from Pioneer Woman

12 whole New Potatoes (or Other Small Round Potatoes)

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil (flavored oils like garlic olive oil work great here)

Kosher Salt To Taste

Black Pepper To Taste

Parsely to Taste

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender.

On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.

Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped parsely. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Tis the season for broccoli.

2010-12-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

I am sure the holiday season doesn't make you think of broccoli at all, but it is fully in season, and I pulled my first two crowns of broccoli out of my garden yesterday. Add to that the small, tender baby crowns of broccoli I had in my CSA box this week and I was ready for stir fry.

I love, love, love broccoli beef stir fry. I almost always get it when we eat Chinese food. Stir frying is just so good for broccoli. It cooks it fast and keeps it crisp, nothing worse than soggy veggies.

Last night I made a broccoli chicken stir fry with a citrus based sauce, i had some chicken tighs in the freezer, but the recipe would also be great with some lean beef or even shrimp. . It was quick, easy, very tasty and reheats well.

Broccoli Chicken Stir Fry

Adapted from Epicurious

1 1/2 pound skinless, boneless, chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons cream Sherry
Juice and zest of 2 tangerines

1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 inches ginger root, peeled and minced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 bunches broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

Mix first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Cover and chill 30 minutes.
Whisk orange juice, vinegar, and cornstarch in medium bowl to blend. Set aside.
Heat oil in heavy large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes; sauté 15 seconds.
Add chicken mixture; stir-fry until just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Transfer chicken to plate.
Add broccoli to same skillet. Stir-fry until crisp-tender. Return chicken to skillet. Stir juice mixture to recombine and add to skillet. Simmer until sauce thickens, stirring constantly.

A very late Thanksgiving run down.

2010-12-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

Due to my work schedule and some technical difficulites, (meaning my laptop picked up a virus, yuck), I wasn't able to access the internet at all for about a week. Now, my computer is STD free, I am relaxing after some time with friends and some extreme house painting and can finally getting around to talking about my Turkey day.

When I was thinking about how to do a round up of what I made and ate for Thanksgiving, I had a hard time deciding how to go about putting everything up here. Should I go with one post for each recipe? Should I break it down by type of side, like veggies one day, starches the next?

I ultimately decided, one because it is December 8th, and two I didn't manage to get good individual pictures of every. single. item. to just do a catch all type of post. Lots of links to recipes online ahead

Yes, that is my plate of food. There is one side my Mom made missing because it took a bit longer to bake than expected. I will actually be making that side for Christmas Day dinner and will post it around then because it was so, so good. Now on to what is there.

Going counter clock wise starting with the Gnocchi, which I blogged about here. They were still very tasty after being frozen, but turned a bit gummy. I did change one thing though, I boiled them in salted water, which seemed to be the downfall for many in reviews of the original recipe. I will definitely make them again though, maybe even try freezing them again as well.

Next we have our stuffing, which you can find here. I made one big change to the recipe, the day of I asked the family what pork product they wanted in their stuffing and the vote was for sausage. So I used 8 ounces of bulk pork sausage. I also didn't make the corn bread recipe Epicurious calls for, I used a box mix from Trader Joes. I used a little more than double the amount of cornbread called for, and while the stuffing was delicious, the sausage was scarce, so a full pound would be best of you double or triple the recipe.

Next to the stuffing are the mashed potatoes and gravy. No real recipe here. Peel and boil your potatoes until fork tender. Warm up butter and twice as much milk/half and half/cream in the microwave. Mash the potatoes and add the butter/milk, etc. mixture until you get to a creamy consistency.
For the gravy, I melted a stick of butter in a saucepan and added a scant cup of flour to make a roux. I cooked the roux for a couple of minutes then whisked in my turkey stock and cooked until thickened, adding salt and pepper to taste.

Next up is our turkey. So good. We used a buttermilk brine, which takes it's inspiration from here. Now, given this recipe comes from Williams-Sonoma, they want you to buy and use their brine blend. But you really don't have to. If you already have a brine you like, keep it, cut back on the amount of water you use and replace it with buttermilk. If you don't have a brine recipe you like, might I suggest this one from Alton Brown? It's a great recipe, our roast turkey was cooked using his technique.

And lastly, our two veggie sides, the green beans and the sauteed carrots. Both very good and very easy. I made no changes or adjustments to either of these recipes.

So that was my Thanksgiving dinner, hope you and yours had a good time and great food!

Another try at Sweet Potatoes.

2010-11-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

When it comes to side dishes that should be on the table on Thanksgiving, in my family, sweet potatoes/yams are one that will only get eaten by 3 people; me, my Mom and my Grandma. My Mom has tried many different incarnations of recipes, sweet, savory, spicy, none of them have gone over as a huge success.

This year, I am trying again to get the rest of the family on board with sweet potatoes. Instead of mashing them, topping with strudel or marshmallows, I am making dumplings. Gnocchi to be exact.

Now, I've never made gnocchi before. Eaten them yes, made them no. A couple of weeks ago I was watching the Cooking Channel and caught an episode of Everyday Italian where Giada is making Thanksgiving sides and she made this amazing looking gnocchi with a sweet brown butter sauce. They sounded great. I ran the idea by Mom, she agreed they sounded delicious.

Then I went to the Food Network website to find the recipe. And I checked out the reviews, as I am wont to do before trying a new recipe.

I'd be lying if I wasn't concerned.

A lot of people loved the gnocchi, but an equal amount said the recipe was flawed, they needed to use cup after cup of flour to make it a workable dough and that they texture was off, more gooey than anything. Others added an egg to make the dough stay together. Some had no problems, until they tried to cook them and had the gnocchi completely fall apart in the boiling water.

Glimmers of hope were to be found amongst all those reviews though. Some had great success and made recommendations.

The first thing I did was to allow my riccotta to drain overnight. It pulled off a a scant 1/8 cup of water, so not a lot, but maybe enough to not make the dough too sticky.

The recipe itself is really quite easy. I pulled together a batch and got to forming them.

The dough was soft, was not impossible to handle, exactly what I expected for a dumpling. It rolled out quickly without too much sticking to my board, as long as I kept it well dusted with flour.

My next concern was how they would hold up to boiling. After I formed the first batch, I cooked some of the gnocchi up and they held up really well in the water, none of them fell apart.

So, for me, the recipe was a big success. I even had a chance to try out the sauce before our Thanksgiving dinner which is always a plus. I won't make any changes to the recipe yet, but I have some pancetta for green beans, I may use some with the gnocchi as well.

So despite my concerns and the so so reviews, I think these are a great success.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Maple Brown Butter Sauce

Adapted from Everyday Italian via Food Network

For the Gnocchi:
2 pounds sweet potatoes, equal to about 2 cups once cooked
2/3 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/3 cup for the work surface

For the Maple Cinnamon Sage Brown Butter:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
20 fresh sage leaves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the Gnocchi: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Pierce the sweet potato with a fork. Bake the sweet potatoes until tender and fully cooked, between 40 to 55 minutes depending on size. Cool slightly. Peel and place flesh in a mixing bowl. Mash the sweet potatoes. Add the ricotta cheese, salt, cinnamon, and pepper and blend until well mixed. Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough forms. Lightly flour a work surface and place the dough in a ball on the work surface. Divide the dough into 8 equal balls. Roll out each ball into a 1-inch wide rope. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces. Roll the gnocchi over the tines of a fork. Transfer the formed gnocchi to a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Continue with the remaining gnocchi. At this point, you can freeze the gnocchi on the cookie sheet. Once frozen, transfer to a ziploc freezer bag until ready to use.

When ready to cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add the gnocchi in small batches and cook until the gnocchi float to the top of the water. Drain the gnocchi using a slotted spoon onto a baking sheet.

For the Brown Butter sauce: While the gnocchi are cooking melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted add the sage leaves. Continue to cook, swirling the butter occasionally, until the foam subsides and the milk solids begin to brown. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the cinnamon, maple syrup, salt, and pepper. Careful, the mixture will bubble up. Gently stir the mixture. When the bubbles subside, toss the cooked gnocchi in the brown butter, allowing to come back up to temp. Transfer the gnocchi to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Turkey day cometh! Have you Gravy?

2010-11-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

I got caught a bit off guard. It wasn't as if I didn't know it was November. I certainly know what month it is, I just can't believe Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away. I just want to know where the entirety of November vanished to.

I love the holiday season. The cooking, the eating, the family gatherings, the decorating. So even though I have no idea what happened to the rest of November, I have been prepping for dinner on Friday. Yeah, I know Thanksgiving is on the Thursday, but I will be working, as will my mom, so my family is having our dinner on Friday.

So, my Mom is handling the turkey(s). I will share the recipe for those after Friday, but we always brine our turkey, and sometimes we roast it, others we smoke them, I think we will have one of each this year.

One issue we do have when we smoke the bird is the complete lack of dripping to makes gravy with. We'd have the giblets, but they didn't have the great taste of roasting to add to the gravy. Last year, I found the answer. One of our local grocers has a pretty good butchers counter, and they always have the random turkey pieces most people don't buy, like the necks and wings. I mean honestly, who asks for the turkey wing? Ok, maybe me, but most people skip that. And I certainly don't go looking for turkey neck.

The neck and wings have a lot of meat on them plus a lot of the smaller bones, which makes a really good basis for stock which makes for a really good gravy.

So, carrots, onions, celery, some garlic and the turkey parts. A good, basic stock, so what's so magical and different about this stock?

The roasting.

Roasting everything before covering with water and cooking for an hour or so makes for what is likely the best stock I've ever made. And makes for a really good gravy for those mashed potatoes without hoping you get a lot of good drippings from your roast turkey, or if you smoke or even deep fry a turkey, this is what you need. And the color is beautiful, making a really nice, rich, brown gravy.

Also, any extra you have will make a really great soup with some of the leftover turkey.

Roasted Turkey Stock for Thanksgiving Gravy

Adapted from Noble Pig, which I use quite often. Please feel free to use her recipe for the gravy, as I will likely use a slightly different recipe on Friday. It may involve bacon fat. I don't know quite yet.

2 turkey wings and 2 turkey necks
1 bunch celery, cut in half
2 onion, cut into chunks (go ahead and leave the skins on)
4 cloves garlic, smashed
4 carrots, cleaned and cut in half

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and in a large pan, roast turkey parts, celery, onion, garlic and carrots for 2 hours. Remove from the oven.

Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer on low for one hour, uncovered. Stock will reduce.

Strain the stock into a bowl with at least a 4 cup capacity. Place liquid into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight and remove the fat accumulated on top.

You can now use the stock however you'd like. For gravy, start with a roux and add the stock, until thickened. Like I mentioned above, Cathy from Noble Pig has very good directions for the gravy portion.

Eating and Sleeping.

2010-11-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

My husband and I are home again after spending a weekend visiting his family out in the Vegas area. The occasion was his Grandmother's 85th birthday and we spent our extended weekend doing a whole lot of eating and a whole lot of sleeping in. It was glorious. I had pancakes for breakfast 3 out of 4 days, went on a chocolate factory tour and we went out to the Hoover Dam and took the Dam tour. Our last night in town we went out for a fabulous steak dinner.

I got to the point I felt like eating the rest of the week seemed out of the question. Brown sugar banana pancakes will do that to you.

I can't not eat, so back on to lighter fare we go.

I have been buying meat at Costco more and more lately, and I have small pork roasts in the freezer. I really like pork myself, but I hate when it is over cooked and dry. With how lean pork is, it isn't hard to do.

By the time I got the small roast defrosted yesterday, brining was unfortunately out of the question, just not enough time to let the roast soak.

I dug around online looking for a marinade that sounded good and seemed like it would give some flavor in a couple of hours time. I found a recipe on Epicurious that I used for inspiration. The recipe called for rosemary, which I have a ton of out in my little herb garden.

The roast was good, stayed tender and juicy, and is helping to make up for the eating I did over the weekend. And speaking of brining, Thanksgiving is next week, and I am doing a little trial run of a brine on a chicken in the fridge right now. My family has been brining turkey for quite a few years now, and I love tinkering with the flavors. I can't wait to share this brine and the brine we ultimately use, brining is so good for turkey.

Mustard Rosemary Pork Roast

Loosely adapted from Epicurious

1/2 cup Dijon mustard
6 tablespoons agave syrup
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 2-pound boneless pork loin roast

Combine the mustard, agave, rosemary and garlic in medium sized bowl. Generously season the roast with salt and pepper, then place in bowl, turning over in marinade and allow to sit for at least 1 hour and up to overnight, turning occasionally.

When ready to roast, preheat oven to 375°F and remove roast from marinade, placing in pan on a roasting rack. Roast until thermometer inserted into center registers 150°F. Let rest 15 minutes. Slice and serve.

Go forth, conquer, and bring back a great story to share with friends.

2010-11-08T20:36:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking, reminiscing, and some crying today. A dear friend lost her very short battle against stomach cancer on Friday night. To say I was shocked would be an understatement; Oyana was young, strong and full of fight. In our few years of friendship, she taught me many things, and the biggest message I take away is to go, conquer, and bring back the stories to share. She was an excellent story teller, and she let nothing hold her back. She wore a hat like no other woman. She told a story like no other. She had even gone back to school and had just finished her first year of law school when she received her diagnosis. Law school! In her mid-thirties! Not many people make the huge decision to go back for a new degree after the first time around, and I bet even fewer go back for something as heavy as a law degree.

Often times, when I need to think, I cook. I am sure that seems odd to some, but honestly, while I am in the kitchen, I can mindlessly throw a simple meal together and process things. Whether it was the onion or my memories that brought the tears today didn't matter, I was able to remember. And not just Oyana, but Pastor Ray, who also lost his battle with stomach cancer; Andy, our church organist who passed away only a year ago. Andy played not only at my wedding, but my parent's wedding and he taught me to play piano. My grandfather, 18 years ago next month, which doesn't even seem possible. I can still remember dinner with him the night before.

Their lives touched mine, and I am better for it. There is sadness, but peace. I don't know God's plan, I certainly don't understand it, but I know it is there and He has his reasons.

In celebration of Oyana and all those in my life now and past, I will have dinner in tonight, with my husband, and count my many blessings. I wish I could share this simple soup with Oyana's family and friends back east and all the friends who are grieving with me. I think my Grandfather would approve of the kielbasa.

White Bean Soup with Kielbasa

1 pound Navy Beans, soaked

1 large onion, diced

4 celery stalks, diced

3 carrots, diced

3 tablespoons fresh sage, torn or sliced

1/4 cup dry white wine

64 ounces chicken stock

1 pound turkey kielbasa, diced

1 bunch chard, center ribs removed then sliced

Salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy pot over medium heat, saute the onion, carrots and celery until softened and slightly carmelized, about 10 minutes. Add the sage and combine, allowing to cook until the sage is fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the white wine.

Add the beans and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cover, allowing to cook until the beans are nearly done, about two hours. Add the kielbasa and simmer an addition 30 minutes. Just before serving, stir the chard in. Enjoy with loved ones, some red wine and a loaf of crusty bread.

Succotash doesn't have to suck.

2010-11-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know that when I say succotash, most people say ew. Especially if you go to that Wikipedia link and see the picture of succotash made with kidney beans. It doesn't look too tasty.

But stay with me, I promise this is good. And colorful.

It all started with some pimentos. Fresh ones, and some fresh hot peppers from the garden.

See, those are nice looking and tasty.

So dice those up, add some chopped garlic and get them going in a skillet. Then add some edamame. Yup, soy beans. They fill the roll of lima beans and I think are tastier. The edamame with some corn, heated through and finished off with some green onion and cilantro. It was delicious. My husband had two huge servings, that is always a good sign.

So, give succotash another chance, I promise it is good.

Spicy Succotash

2 poblano peppers diced

4 pimento peppers or 2 red bell peppers diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 16 oz bag frozen corn

1 16 oz bag frozen edamame

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

2 green onion, white and green portions, chopped

Over medium heat, saute the peppers and garlic in 1 tablespoon oil until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the edamame and corn, stir to combine, and allow to heat through, about another 8-10 minutes. Add cilantro and green onion, stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Grilling In November.

2010-11-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

After having a summer full of clouds and cooler weather, summer finally arrived. It took until October/November, but the sun is out and the temps are up.

We grilled on Thursday night, the hottest day of the heat wave. Our house stays pretty cool, but once the temp inside gets up there, it takes along time to cool back down. There was to be no cooking inside, at all, that day. And I have a grill with a side burner for throwing together side dishes as well, so my stove didn't get turned on at all.

There is only one problem with grilling in November: Sunset comes far earlier compared to July. I was grilling in the dark at 6 pm. Well mostly dark, there was still a tiny bit of fading sunlight, but pretty much dark. I am happy to report the weather is cooling back down and rain is on it's way back, which makes much more sense in November. It will make my garden happier too.

On to the meal. I have two go to recipes for grilling. One is a dry rubbed, basted chicken, the other a marinade for london broil. Both come from Noble Pig, blogger and wine maker extraordinaire. I had some flank steak in the freezer so out it came and into the marinade it went. The marinade is so good, I would swim in it if I could.

Since I am a slacker, the flank steak only got about 6 hours in the marinade, but the longer, the better. I've had a 48 hour marinade before and it was divine.

And instead of wine with dinner, we pulled out a bottle of ale we've had aging since we bought it this time last year. If you like ale, and can get to a Trader Joe's, they have an annual release about this time. And at around 4 bucks a bottle, the price can't be beat. We have one more bottle from last year, they really do taste better the longer they sit, it's just hard to ignore it for too long.

Sesame-Soy-Brown Sugar Marinade

Adapted from Noble Pig

One 4 pound London Broil or Flank steak
1-3/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Whisk together oil, Worcestershire, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame seeds, ginger, and garlic powder. Pour over meat in a 9 x 13 pan or a gallon sized ziploc bag and marinate for up to 48 hours. If marinade does not completely cover the meat, turn the meat several times during the marinade period.

Grill over medium high to desired doneness, remove from heat and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Slice thinly, across the grain, and serve.

Vegetables for breakfast for dinner.

2010-11-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt that my favorite meal of the day is breakfast. I will always choose breakfast given the option, whether it is lunch or dinner time.

One of my favorite local restaurants has a breakfast menu I adore, and now they offer it pretty much all the time. I went for lunch just a couple of weeks ago and had french toast while my Mom and Grandmother had an actual lunch.

A few night later, breakfast was in order again at dinner time
Despite the Santa Ana weather here pushing my local temps up into the 90's and 100's, the rest of the country has acknowledged fall is here and seasonal veggies are popping up all over.

I got beets and turnips in my CSA box two weeks (maybe three?) ago when I made this recipe, and I will be completely honest, I'd never cooked with either before.Never ever. I've tried canned beets, and didn't really like the taste. Turnips, when I've had them, likely were overcooked and under seasoned, because I wasn't a big fan of them either.

But I was really excited to get the fresh beets and turnips, because I'd seen a recipe for a hash with poached eggs in October's Cooking Light. Breakfast for dinner with seasonal veggies I had sitting in the fridge to boot.

One thing I discovered, beets and turnips are actually really pretty on the inside.

The hash breakfast for dinner was delicious.

Two Potato and Beet Hash with Poached Eggs

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 cups cubed peeled Yukon gold potato (about 3/4 pound)

2 cups cubed peeled sweet potato (about 3/4 pound)

1 cup cubed peeled turnip

2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage, divided

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup cubed peeled cooked beets (about 1/2 pound)

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided

4 large eggs

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion to pan; sauté for 5 minutes or until tender and golden brown. Add potatoes, 1 tablespoon sage, and garlic; cook for 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in beets, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add water to a large skillet, filling two-thirds full. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer. Add 1 tablespoon vinegar. Break each egg into a custard cup, and pour gently into pan. Cook for 3 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Remove eggs from pan using a slotted spoon. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon sage evenly over eggs. Serve hash with poached egg on top.

My Halloween in pictures.

2010-11-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

One should always start ones Halloween day with Voodoo.

Carving is intense.

My niece's pumpkin.

The Jack O' Corgi.

Zombie Princess.

Zombie Luigi.

Happy Halloween Birthday to my Sister!

My two favorites.

2010-10-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

In Oregon at least.

My niece, Eva.
Also known as Evers and Goob.

And her dog Bowser.

Also known as Hippo Face, Deputy Derp and Land Whale. I lurve him. Except when he thinks that he is an 80 pound lap dog.

After spending the day exploring the area around Eugene with Jeremy and tasting a lot of wine (four wineries worth!), it was nice to come home to those two faces.

Tonight's dinner was not that dissimilar from yesterdays post, a really easy to throw together meal that is tasty. It was originally called Skillet Lasagna, but Evers renamed it to Eva's Pizza Noodles because they are tomatoey and cheesy just like pizza. And she loved them! Great considering how picky she can be.

We had this with lean ground beef tonight, but you could easily substitute ground turkey. And while it cooks you can play one and a half rounds of Heroscape. Ask Eva, she kicked her uncle's butt at it. The dice gods were on her side tonight.

We had this with one of the wines picked up during our numerous tastings, King Estate's Next Red. It's a blend with a big taste, well suited with the heavier pasta.

Eva's Pizza Noodles

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound uncooked mafalda (mini lasagna noodles)
28 oz. canned tomato sauce
14 oz canned, diced tomatoes
1-1/2 cups water
3/4 cup red wine
1 cup ricotta cheese
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup grated Parmean cheese
3 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

In heavy skillet, brown ground beef with onions and garlic. Drain thoroughly. Add uncooked noodles, tomato sauce, tomatoes, wine and water to meat in skillet. Mix well and bring to a boil, then cover skillet, reduce heat and cook 15-17 minutes until noodles are tender, stirring frequently.
Meanwhile, combine cottage cheese, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, parsley, basil, and oregano in a small bowl until blended.

Add 2 cups mozzerella cheese to pasta and stir to combine. Spoon the cheese mixture evenly over cooked mixture in skillet. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese. Cover and cook 5 to 7 minutes until cheese is melted and mixture is hot. Remove from heat and uncover. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Blogging in flight no less

2010-10-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

I am currently on a flight to Oregon to visit my sister, brother in law and niece for an extended weekend away. And if Alaska Airlines didn't want 10 bucks from me in order to get completely online and post this, it'd be an even better success for in flight blogging, but for now, typing up and posting later will have to do.

I didn't intend for there to be such a gap in postings lately. Truthfully, I've been so busy the last couple of weeks between work and home projects, blogging kind of had to fall by the wayside.

Our current, still unfinished unfortunately, project is an update to our kitchen. A true remodel is a few years off, so we decided to at date the look of the cabinets with new hardware and paint. We also hoped to be able to correct some of the oddness of doors that wouldn't close or were set funny. We mostly suceeded. Kind of. Not really. 50 year old cabinets with 20 year old mis measured replacement doors equals a kind of odd mish mash of quality and hindered our ability to make things as near perfect as I had hoped for. I don't have final project pictures yet, we still need to finish installing handles, but the look is really nice compared to the before.

And I think our bedroom may be ready for a big reveal as well. One of the last thngs I'd been scouring the internet and Craig's List for were midcentury style nightstands. I finally found ones that we liked, were the right stain and a matched set. They are a modern take, but the lines were perfect and I didn't have to refinsh a thing.

In the meantime, cooking has been harder with the kitchen mostly out of commission, but we managed with quite a bit done in the crockpot until we had the stove back in place. I will get one or two of the recipes i tried in the slow cooker posted in the near future. This really fast meal was one that we threw together after work earlier this week. It is really basic, but with good flavors and it is healthy. It also gave me a chance to use some poblano peppers from the garden. I am just surprised to get anything from the plants. First, with our way cooler than average summer, they weren't getting the heat they liked and secondly, the zucchini plants next to them really grew sideways more than I expected and shaded them even more. Thankfully for the pepper plants, I pulled the Eight ball plants out a few weeks ago to make room for broccoli and cauliflower plants, so they've shot up and are busily kicking peppers out. I even have some jalapenos waiting to be used.

For the poblanos first meal, I made a super easy, super fast saute. I should say we made. My husband and I pulled this together Monday night after we were both home from work. It was ready to go by 8:30, and I walked in the door at 8:05 that night. This isn't a dish to wow guests with, but it is something good and healthy. We avoided a trip through the drive through that night with this meal, and I think that is a big win.

Tex-Mex Turkey and Black Bean Saute

Adapted from Weight Watchers

1 tsp canola oil
1 large onion(s), chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced finely
2 medium poblano peppers
3/4 pound(s) lean ground turkey
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp table salt, or to taste
14 1/2 oz canned tomatoes
15 oz canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup(s) low sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup(s) cilantro, fresh, chopped
1/2 medium lime(s), cut into wedges for garnish
Corn tortillas to eat on the side

Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and place over medium-high heat; add oil. When hot, add onion and peppers; sauté until softened and lightly charred or golden in spots, about 6 to 7 minutes.
Add turkey; brown meat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks, about 4 minutes.
Stir in cumin, oregano and salt; cook 1 minute until fragrant.
Stir in canned tomatoes, beans and water; bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, to blend flavors, about 5 minutes. Stir in cilantro; remove from heat. Serve topped with lettuce and tortilla chips. Drizzle with fresh lime if desired.

Hamburger, hamburger!

2010-10-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

I am sad to report the last meal from my week of planning is a hamburger, filled with onion and blue cheese. The hamburger itself was delicious, but I am sad that I didn't get to the other two meals I had planned for the week, a potato soup and a hash topped with a poached egg. I came down with a bug in the middle of the week and was even sick enough to go to the doctor to be sure whatever it was wasn't turning into strep throat. Even the doctor wasn't sure and gave me a prescription of antibiotics to hole on to if I wasn't feeling better in 24 hours. Bleh. Thankfully, I ended up feeling progressively better and didn't need the antibiotics.

The first night I felt sick last week my Mom fed us and the next night my husband brought me home pho, and come Friday, we had burgers, which isn't a bad way at all to end the week.

The inspiration for having hamburgers came, again from the Farmer's Market. One of the stalls had several varieties of sprouts, including onion sprouts. I had the chance to taste them, and they had such a yummy, fresh oniony bite to them, I grabbed some to bring home.

That night we tried them in a salad and they were excellent, but something the girl running the stand mentioned stuck with me, how the sprouts would be excellent on a burger. My husband agreed, and I sought out a recipe I thought would be perfect for the sprouts.

I ended up deciding on a blue cheese filled burger because we love blue cheese and thought nothing could be better with the onion sprouts.

The burgers came together really quickly, I pulled them together on Monday while prepping to make the bolognese sauce, since they both shared the ground beef and onion component, I was able to chop and saute a little extra onion and split the ground beef i bought between the two.

The recipe I referenced actually was for a blue cheese stuffed burger, but to make it a little easier on me for assembly, I just mixed the blue cheese in the hamburger. Some of the surface pieces stuck a bit to my skillet, but the flavor was good and the prep was so much easier this way.

We loved the burgers, they were fabulous, but we were both a bit sad that the blue cheese completely overwhelmed the taste of the onion sprouts. So next time, a basic burger is the plan to let those onion sprouts shine through. But don't let that keep you from trying this burger, it was really, really good.

Blue Cheese Burgers

Adapted from My Recipes

1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 pound ground round
3 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons water
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled blue cheese
4 (1-ounce) English muffins, toasted
Your choice of toppings

Coat a small nonstick skillet with cooking spray; place over medium heat until hot. Add onion; saute 5 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat; let cool. Combine onion, beef, breadcrumbs, water, blue cheese and egg white in a large bowl; stir well.

Shape into four patties and either cook on gas or charcol grill over medium heat, about 4 minutes a side until done or on indoor grill/skillet over medium heat the same amount of time.

Serve on english muffins with your favorite burger toppers.

Pears become a cake.

2010-10-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

I brought this on myself really. I bought pears at Costco earlier in the week. The season of pears is here and they are a favorite of both myself and my husband. Then I went to the farmer's market...and bought more, locally grown pears.

So, with a bushel of pears in the house, I set out to find something to do with them.

Enter cake.

I don't think anyone who knows me is surprised that I love cake, I also love fruit with my cake, take for example pineapple upside down cake. Last week, I found a recipe for an apple upside down cake and knew a quick substitution of pears for the apples was in order.

While the eggplant bolognese sauce I made last week simmered away, I pulled this cake together. Coming from Cooking Light, it used a few tricks to make a nice light cake without a lot of calories, including whipped egg whites.

I chose to whip mine by hand because I was feeling too lazy to pull the hand mixer out. This statement makes no sense when you really think about it. It took me 15 minutes to whip them by hand, which wasn't too bad, now I know and next time I will just dig the hand mixer out.

The cake would be really good with some fresh whipped cream on top.

Pear Upside Down Cake

Adapted from Cooking Light

Topping
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3 cups sliced pears (about 2-3 large pears)

Cake
1 1/3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
3 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, spray a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray.

For topping, combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium high heat, cook until sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Once sugar is dissolved, stop stirring and continue cooking for 4-5 minutes until light golden brown. Immediately pour syrup into cake pan and swirl cake pan to coat the bottom evenly. Arrange pear slices in pan over the syrup.

For the cake, combine flour, baking soda and salt in bowl and whisk together.

Combine melted butter, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla and whisk to combine well. Add flour mixture and milk to sugar mixture alternating between the two until combined.

Whisk egg whites in clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, then pour batter over the pear slices in cake pan.

Bake for 35 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool on wire rack for 5 minutes, then loosen edges of cake with a knife and invert on to serving plate. Serve either warm or at room temp.

A meal my husband can make.

2010-10-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is another meal I pulled last week for my meal planning. This was Tuesday night's dinner, a night where my husband would have to be responsible for cooking if we were going to eat anytime before 9 pm. He's a great helper in the kitchen, but not often responsible for the whole meal.

An easy meal to start him off with was a quick stir fry, one with heat from chili paste and a nice bite from lemon grass.

The chopping part was easy for him, and the whole dish came together really quickly and easily. I really don't have too much to say about this one, since I had nothing really to do with it except choose the recipe and buy the ingredients. I came home from work and dinner was ready about 10 minutes later. This is something I hope becomes a trend, a delicious dinner made by my husband.

I will say this though, if you've never used sambal oelek before (we hadn't) it has a heat that builds, so be prepared for a spicier dish. if hot isn't your thing, I'd start with a little and add more if you'd like. Just be prepared for a heat that hits its peak about halfway through the plate. But it is such a good heat, this was really yummy.

Vietnamese Stir-Fry

From Cooking Light

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/3 cup finely chopped peeled lemon grass
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons sambal oelek chili paste (Huy Fong, the folks that make the Rooster sauce make one I found at my local asian market)
1/4 cup soy sauce (can be low sodium)
Salt to taste
3 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
8 ounces rice noodles cooked to package directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the lemon grass and saute for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add chicken and continue to saute for 3 minutes until chicken is lightly browned. Stir in the sambal, then add the soy sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until the chicken is done. Add rice noodles, green onions and cilantro to pan and toss to combine.

Dinner tonight:

2010-10-11T21:51:00.000-07:00

Corned Beef with red potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots. The corned beef has been in deep freeze since just after St. Patrick's' Day. I finally pulled it out last night to defrost and cook in the Crockpot today. I am limited to Crockpot cookery right now as we've temporarily moved out of our kitchen to paint our cabinets. So right now, the majority of my kitchen is in the dining room and/or pool room and/or back yard, depending on what it is and where I decided it needed to be. The doors and main framing are all primed and ready for their chosen color, which we will be applying over the weekend. I cannot wait to get it all done, it should make the whole room feel brighter and lighter and make me feel like cooking and baking a lot more.

That being said, I cannot wait to get my kitchen put back together, new paint color or not. This whole Crockpot cooking on the bar set up won't be manageable for too long.

Lots of pasta!

2010-10-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, armed with a few copies of recent cooking magazines, I did something I've never done before; I meal planned for the week. I was scheduled to work on Tuesday and Wednesday and I didn't want us to fall into the trap of "What do you want to do for dinner? I don't know what do you want to do?" We tend to have that happen more so on the days I work, I'm not home until 8 pm, and by that time, it's either we go out or scrounge in the fridge for something that sounds good.

I did not want to scrounge this week.

So our first meal of the week on Monday night was pasta, a whole wheat spaghetti, with an eggplant bolognese sauce. The recipe was a great find since I came home from the Farmer's market last Friday with 4 smaller eggplant and my plant out in the garden kicked out a few more over the weekend.

That's a lot of eggplant.

I also had to face the sad reality I am going to need to buy canned tomatoes here soon. I used my second to last jar in the sauce. I am still sad my tomato plants had such a bad year.

The sauce was good for dinner and really good reheated for lunch at work the next day. I think it is a recipe we will use again.

Eggplant Bolognese

Adapted from Cooking Light

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 pound ground sirloin
8 cups chopped eggplant (about 1 1/2 pounds)
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
10 ounces whole wheat spaghetti

Heat oil in dutch oven over medium heat, adding the onion and ground sirloin. Cook for 10 minute until onion is soft and beef is browned. Add eggplant, garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and cook 20 minutes until the eggplant is very soft, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato paste and cook for two minutes, stirring constantly, then add wine to deglaze the pan and continue to cook for one minute, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.
Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
Cook your pasta as directed, drain, and toss together with the sauce. Serves 6 or two people for dinner one night and lunch the next two days.

Yum.

The secret is the sauce in the sauce.

2010-09-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

I love bourbon, it's good stuff. I think I have my father to blame for the constant presence of bourbon in our home. Also, the lack of bourbon as he tends to drink my bourbon when my parents are over for dinner.

Tonight, the weather is cooler, so we are going to sit in the backyard and grill some chicken. Which necessitates a sauce to baste the chicken with. I felt like a good barbecue sauce and pulled one out I had bookmarked earlier in the summer and just hadn't pulled out to use yet.

This recipe is slightly different from the one I made with the pulled pork a few weeks ago, I like the use of fresh versus dried onion and you can never go wrong with butter.

I made some adjustments, as always, to increase the heat a bit and decrease the tomato-yness of the sauce. If I could figure out where my apple cider vinegar went, I would have added a bit of that as well.

Bourbon Barbecue Sauce (take 2)

Adapted from Epicurious

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup minced onion
3/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespooons yellow mustard
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup bourbon

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until soft, about 6 minutes. Add next 5 ingredients, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and chili powder. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until sauce thickens, about 15 minutes. Stir in bourbon; cook until heated through, about 3 minutes. Season with salt. For a smoother sauce, blend in blender or with an immersion blender to desired consistency.

Heat wave, coming through.

2010-09-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

I worked over the weekend, so I wasn't privy to the temps during the day here. I was inside an air conditioned environment from 7 am to 7:30 pm both Saturday and Sunday. I mocked my husband some as he talked about how warm both days were.

Karma has caught me my friends, and today is the hottest day yet of this heat wave. I am off work, at home, where we don't have whole house AC, while my husband is at his office with nice cool air flowing.

I have the fans going, curtains drawn, blinds closed and the temp inside the house is holding at about 83 degrees, which is likely about 15 degrees cooler than it is outside. Still not cool enough to make me want to cook anything, any where. I don't even feel like going out back to grill.

I suppose, thankfully, needing to make a trip to my local Costco was a very good thing. I had some AC early on and was able to grab one of their rotisserie chickens to use in a chicken salad recipe for dinner tonight.

Besides being delicious, the dressing for the salad is really light, with no mayo. I like mayo, it's good, but on a hot day it can feel so heavy.

This is one of those versatile recipes that doesn't require you to stay between the lines. I throw in whatever vegetables I have on hand that sound good, today that included cucumber.

We tend to eat the salad with a green salad and some good crusty bread.

Chicken Salad
Serves 8
Adapted from Epicurious

4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra, if desired
1 roasted chicken, skinned, meat removed from the bone, and roughly chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/3 english cucumber, diced
2 green onions, diced
Coarse sea salt or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Whole wheat bread or crusty white bread and mixed salad greens, for serving, optional

1. To make the vinaigrette, in a small jar combine the mustard, vinegar, and garlic and olive oil. Shake until combined.

2. In a medium bowl combine the chicken and vegetables. Fold in the vinaigrette. Season with salt and black pepper and serve, either made into a sandwich or over salad greens. You can also refridgerate the salad for a few hours prior to serving to allow the flavors to combine.

Magic mole.

2010-09-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

Not mole, the small blind, below ground dwelling mammal or mole the unit of measurement, but mole, the really yummy, chili and chocolate based sauce.

I swear the stuff is magic. Chili and chocolate on top of turkey or chicken or pork? Sounds good to me.

My local Mexican market carries their own blend of mole paste. Very convenient for when you want mole but don't have the time to make your own. Which I don't personally.

So, being that today is the first day of fall, and for today and today only, we are having slightly cooler weather, I decided chili was in order. Also, I am fighting a head cold and I think my sinuses could benefit from the spiciness. I discovered an absolutely yummy sounding chili featuring mole recipe over at Epicurious.

Part of the magic that is mole is one of the types of chili often found in it, ancho chili. It adds a dark, smoky flavor.

Ancho is one of my must haves in the spice cabinet. Besides flavoring chili, I use it in my dry rubs and any sauces that could use a little kick. I alternate between ancho and chipotle, depending on my mood.

This being chili, I used a chuck roast, trimmed and cubed.

I tried to make the recipe a little more figure friendly, so I didn't use bacon that was called for in the original, but I added a bit more mole, not enough to really alter the calorie/point count, but enough to make it more tasty if I do say so myself.

Beef Chili with Mole

Ten servings, for 12 WW points a serving without your garnishes. Not too shabby.

Adapted from this recipe at Epicurious.com

Chili:

1 4-pound boneless chuck roast, trimmed, cut into 1/2- to 3/4-inch cubes

1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups)

4 large garlic cloves, chopped

3 1/2 cups (or more) beef broth, divided

1/2 cup dry red wine (I had a Baco Noir that I used)

1/4 cup pure ancho chile powder*

1/4 cup chipotle or plain chile powder

3 tablespoons mole paste

2 teaspoons (or more) salt

2 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled

Garnishes:

Warm, freshly cooked or drained canned black beans or pinto beans

Chopped white, red, or green onions

Grated cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, or queso fresco

Sour cream, chips, jalapeños, whatever sounds good

Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper. Working in 4 batches, sauté beef in 1 tablespoon oil in pot until browned, about 5 minutes per batch. Transfer beef and most drippings to bowl. Add onion and garlic to pot. Sauté until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add red wine to pot to deglaze. Bring to boil, scraping up browned bits. Return beef and any accumulated juices to pot. Mix in ancho chile powder, chipotle or plain chili powder, mole paste, 2 teaspoons salt, vinegar, oregano, and cumin. Add broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat to very low and simmer gently uncovered until beef is very tender, stirring occasionally and adding more broth by 1/2 cupfuls if chili is dry, about 2 1/2 hours. Season chili with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle chili into bowls and serve with garnishes.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.

2010-09-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

I continued on in the garden and house today.

My garden is partially winterized, I have broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts in. And my pepper plants are powering forward still, so they stayed. I cannot tell you how exciting it is to actually have hot peppers this year. Last year, my pepper plants kept getting eaten. Horn worms apparently don't discriminate and only eat tomatoes.

I also checked on our Limoncello. I've blogged about making the yummy stuff before, this is our special reserve. Our previous attempt is really good, we made it with 151 proof Everclear.

One of my husband's co-workers brought some 190 proof Everclear back to us and we've been steeping this since January or February. I honestly can't remember, which isn't a bad thing. The longer it sits, the better the end result. Today I added the simple syrup and by the holidays it should be ready to go.

And for dinner seared ahi tuna steak. Green salad on the side. yummy and light with a little heat from a simple wasabi yogurt sauce. It was really tasty, definately something to make again, maybe when my husband is home too, I think the wasabi may be enough to get him to eat more fish.

Seared Ahi

2 1/2 pound ahi steaks
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
3 tablespoons greek yogurt
1/4 teaspoon wasabi powder (or more to taste)

1. Combine soy sauce and vinegar and allow tuna to marinate 20 minutes, turning halfway through. Mix yogurt and wasabi powder in small dish until combined and set aside.

2. Heat a skillet over high heat until screaming hot. Press sesame seeds on to one side of each tuna steak and put into skillet seeded side down, cook for 3-5 minutes, flip, then continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes. Less time equals a rarer steak.

3. Serve immediately with the wasabi sauce on the side. Enjoy!

When the cat is away...

2010-09-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

...this mouse gets out and does some gardening. I put my husband on a plane to Chicago this morning for a work trip. So I got outside and played in the dirt some.

We have two garden beds in our front yard. When we moved into our home, both had newly planted palm trees. Not long after, despite my best efforts to keep the palms alive, the very front ones died. We pulled those out, leaving us with this:

Lovely isn't it? I especially love the weeds. Let's pull back for a better look:

Here you can see how nicely our brown stucco blends with our dead brown lawn. To be honest, we aren't planning on putting real grass in the front, we figure we use enough water in our backyard where it really matters. Eventually we plan on fake grass in the front, but for now it is dead. Like a lot of our neighbors actually, we are in a drought out here.

So, after some weeding, digging, some amending and planting I now have this:

That's two star jasmine plants on the ends with three white rosebushes between and some nice bright annuals filling in the rest. Here is a shot of the far end:

I also, with some help from my brother, pulled out a dead lemon tree and planted a new Valencia orange tree in the back yard.

Our poor, deceased lemon tree. It was dug up and transplanted when we had our backyard landscaped back in May. The landscapers made no guarantees it would survive.

I think this is why all the watering and fertilizer I dumped on the poor thing didn't work, it had no more roots. For an older tree, 7-8 inches of roots just won't cut it. Hence why I am thinking the landscaper told us they couldn't guarantee it would survive.

But, it let my brother chop, chop and dig, dig. I didn't even have to give him beer or food, he was happy to get to hatchet it down to fit in the greens can.

And now we have a cute little dwarf tree to nurture.

Tomorrow, I will be clearing one of my raised beds out for planting some broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts. Time for garden, round two!

New additions.

2010-09-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

This is Eddie.

This is Tess.

Born July 14th at my Vet's office, we brought these two home on Wednesday. Our old man and old lady cats don't approve of them just yet, but the babies as we are prone to calling them don't give a damn. the dogs are still not sure what the situation is.

They are super active as kittens are and little loves when they are spazzing around the house like they are right now.

Comfort food for my husband.

2010-09-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

My husbad has had a really busy last couple of weeks at work, filled with late nights and some work on the weekends trying to get his company's tax returns for this year completed and sent to the IRS. Everything wrapped up today and he came home early, completely wiped out, and promptly fell into bed for a nap before dinner.

I had some time to pull dinner together and his final words to me involved grilled cheese and tomato soup.

So while he slept I made a quick trip to the store and came home with prosciutto, pears and a Tuscan style bread for grilled cheese with tomato soup to go on the side.

My husband prefers a completely savory grilled cheese, so his was tomato, cheddar cheese and the prosciutto. I love a little sweet with my savory, so I subbed pears for the tomato and drizzled a little honey on them.

The soup got a little jazzing up with some fresh basil and a shake of red pepper flakes.

After a slow toast on the griddle pan, the sandwiches were ready to go.

My husbands was good, but I think mine with the pear slices was even better. The little honey drizzle and pear sweetness was awesome against the prosciutto and cheese.

Apples and pears are both really good in grilled cheese, give it a try sometime.

Also, I am experimenting with watermarks on my photos, bear with me while I tinker with font, size, etc on them. Just in case someone wants to try and steal my stuff, now they have m name on them!

Dessert last night...

2010-09-14T11:03:00.001-07:00

Quick and easy dessert last night. Figs with goat cheese warmed in the oven at 375 for 15 minutes, then topped with a drizzle of honey. I am so excited figs are coming back into season, they are excellent with cheese and wine which are two of my most favorite things. Last nights wine was Ventana 2008 Orange Muscat.

Might as well face it.

2010-09-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

I have an addiction and I think I am ready to admit it here.

Hi, my name is Jo, and I have an addiction to dry rubs.

Whew! I feel better getting that out.

I never used dry rubs much before until I started using a grilled chicken recipe that used a dry rub. Since then, I use one whenever I can. I again have the Noble Pig to thank for this.

We had folks over last night for a game night, so I grabbed some pork, gave it a dry rub and popped it into the crock pot while I cleaned the house up during the day. The smell in the house yesterday was insanely good, I wanted that pork to slow cook faster so I could taste it.

So good.

Straight from the Crockpot and shredded, on a roll topped with your favorite barbecue sauce this pork is good. But if you have the time, a vinegar sauce and bourbon barbecue sauce that come together really easily are the perfect accompaniment to the pulled pork.

Crockpot Pulled Pork

Adapted from The way the Cookie Crumbles

2 tablespoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons ancho chili powder
2 tablespoons chipotle chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin (I only ended up having 1 teaspoon left, which was fine, but I'd rather have had the 2 tablespoons.)
5 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 tablespoon dried oregano
4 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons seasoned salt
2 cups barbecue sauce

1 (6-8 pound) bone-in pork shoulder or pork butt
Rolls for serving

1. Mix all spice rub ingredients in small bowl.

2. Massage spice rub into meat. Wrap tightly in double layer of plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (For stronger flavor, the roast can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

3. Unwrap roast and place it in slow cooker. Turn slow cooker to low and cook for 10 hours, until meat is fork-tender.

4. Transfer roast to cutting board; “Pull” by tearing meat into thin shreds with two forks or your fingers. Discard fat.

5. Place shredded meat back in slow cooker liner; toss with 1 cup barbecue sauce or vinegar sauce if using, and heat on low for 30-60 minutes, until hot. Serve with additional barbecue sauce and vinegar sauce.

Vinegar Sauce

Adapted from Epicurious.com

1 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
3 tablespooons firmly packed brown sugar, or more to taste
3 teaspoons salt, or more to taste
2 teaspoons hot red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Combine the vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and white pepper with 2/3 cups of water in a nonreactive medium-size bowl and whisk until the sugar and salt dissolve. Taste for seasoning, adding more brown sugar and/or salt as necessary; the sauce should be piquant but not quite sour. Mix half into pork and serve the remainder on the side.

Bourbon Barbecue Sauce

From Epicurious.com

2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
1/3 cup bourbon
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons hot pepper sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

Combine all ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer uncovered until sauce thickens and flavors blend, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes.

Peanut butter, oatmeal and chocolate, oh my!

2010-09-03T22:00:00.001-07:00

A trifecta. Holy trinity. Darn good stuff.

Oh, how I love some oatmeal in my cookies. Peanut butter too. Chocolate chips, of course.

I have two special folks in my life that have birthdays this week, my grandmother turned 87, my best friend turns 30.

Grammy had some cake on her official day, but to be honest, cake isn't her thing. She prefers cookies anyday.

We are taking Carly to Disneyland for her birthday this weekend, and cookies travel better then cake. I don't believe she has any aversions to cookies.

And they make a good bribe for the friend whose house you are staying at for the weekend. While she is in the midst of a slight, minor kitchen/bathroom/backyard face lift. I feel you Trina, and I will be taking notes on your kitchen face lift, I have that on my list. Oh and my "nephew" her son, I bet he and his Dad both wouldn't mind some cookies either.

I googled the interwebs some and found a recipe for peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I made a slight adjustment and carried on.

Also, it's that time of year again...at least according to Costco where Christmas decorations are already available for purchase. Nearly time for holiday baking, I can feel it around the corner. That and I have 2 large bags of chocolate chips, 20 pounds of sugar and the first four pounds of butter for the baking season. I feel the pressing need to bake things and hand them out to people, starting with these cookies.

I assume these would be really good with a glass of milk, I happened to have Rosy Cheeks wine from the Sweet Cheeks Winery in Oregon. They weren't half bad with glass of wine.

And my little tweak I think made for a very tender cookie.

Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used an all natural pb)

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup agave syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 cup rolled oats

2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liner and set aside.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. On medium speed, cream together the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and agave syrup and beat to combine. On low speed, gradually add the flour until just combined. Stir in the oats, and then the chocolate chips.

4. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly golden. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move to cooling racks. When cooled completely, store in an airtight container at room temperature.

As such, I am a cheater, cheater, pastry eater.

2010-09-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

Do you like chocolate?

I do.

How about pastry?

Me too.

What is your opinion on a combo of the two for breakfast?

I concur.

Want to know what I do when I want chocolate croissants? And don't feel like driving around to find them?

1 sheet of puff pastry, cut into equal pieces of your chosen size (I myself made 8).

1 bar of bittersweet chocolate broken into equal sized pieces.

Egg wash.

Wrap up chocolate with pastry, fold ends over, brush with egg wash, bake until toasty in 350 degree oven.

Add some powdered sugar if you would like.

Nom.

Canning part 2: Electric Boogaloo

2010-08-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love bread. I could eat good bread all day and all night. I really shouldn't, but I could.

Good bread deserves a good topper. Sometimes it is cheese, other times I want something sweet. Fruit preserves are a big favorite of mine.

Growing up, my Grandpa had fruit trees that my Grandma often used to make jam. I still remember the plum jam she made, nothing store made matches my memory of course.

Unfortunately, the plum tree is gone now, so I can't recreate my Grandma's plum jam. But, peaches have been plentiful at all the stores nearby at really good prices, so last week I made peach preserves.

Peeled, diced and with some sugar and pectin, I let them cook for a short time before ladling into jars for processing.

I don't use much pectin, which is used to thicken jams and preserves, because I personally like a thinner preserve. They work well on pancakes and ice cream that way.

Yum yum!

Peach Preserves

Adapted from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving

4 cups peaches, peeled, pitted and diced

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 package powdered fruit pectin

2 cups granulated sugar (if your peaches aren't very sweet, you can increase the amount of sugar to taste, up to 5 cups.)

Prepare canner, lids and jars.

In a large nonreactive sauce pan, combine peaches, sugar, lemon juice and pectin, stir to combine.

Bring to a boil over high heat, and allow to cook at a full rolling boil for 10 minutes.

Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Place lids and screw band on until resistance is met. Process jars in canner for 10 minutes with lid on, then remove lid and turn off heat. Remove after 5 minutes, allow to cool and store.

Adventures in Canning: Part 1

2010-08-26T20:00:00.001-07:00

The last two days, my kitchen has been a small batch canning factory. I've done some canning before, last year it was tomatoes from the garden and blueberry preserves. This year, my tomatoes haven't been too plentiful and I haven't been able to find blueberries for the same low price I them for last year.

Instead, I have a ton of zucchini and found peaches on sale. And I have a fair amount of cucumbers this year as well.

Yesterday and today, I put all of the above into jars of some form and processed them to store up for the long winter ahead. Or not so long winter ahead, whatever.

Canning is actually a very easy process, it just takes some set up and equipment and then the time needed to prepare the food and process it. Currently I only am doing hot water bath canning which requires higher acid foods for safety reasons. Foods with a good acid content are safe to can this way and not run the risk of eating god knows what kind of germs. For meats and some vegetables, a pressure cooker/canner is the way to go. I haven't purchased or tried pressure canning yet, but it is something I am considering.

I have three recipes to post. After I've posted them, I will talk about the supplies, equipment and techniques one should use for safe, at home, canning.

First up, a zucchini relish.

This recipe requires some prep time. The zucchini, onions and some bell pepper are shredded and left to sit for at least 12 hours with pickling salt to pull out the extra water.

Then into a pot with some seasoning and vinegar to cook down a bit.

Once cooked, into jars it went for processing, but not before I took a quick taste.

So very good. I can't wait to cook up some hot dogs and brats to top with this yummy relish.

Zesty Zucchini Relish

Adapted from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

12 cups finely chopped or shredded zucchini

4 cups chopped onions

3 red peppers, seeded and chopped

1/3 cup pickling salt

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 1/2 cups white vinegar

1 tbsp ground nutmeg

1 tbsp ground turmeric

5 tbsp prepared horseradish

2 Anaheim chilis, diced, including seeds

In a large glass or stainless steel bowl, combine the zucchini, onions, red bell peppers and pickling salt. Cover and let stand in a cool place for 12 hours or over night.

Transfer to a colander to drain off water, squeezing out as much as possible.

In a large, non-reactive saucepan, combine zucchini mixture, sugar, vinegar, nutmeg, turmeric, horseradish and chili pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and boil gently for 45 minutes until liquid is reduced.

Prepare canner, lids and jars.

Ladle hot relish into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and add more relish as needed for correct headspace. Wipe rim and center lid on jar, screw on top until resistance is met and increase to only fingertip tight.

Place jars in canner and bring to a boil. Process for 15 minutes, then turn off heat and remove canner lid, allowing jars to remain in water for additional 5 minutes. Then remove jars, allow to cool and store.

Crockpot Carnitas

2010-08-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

My friend Deanna recently had a beautiful baby girl and will soon be returning to work. She asked me yesterday if I had any crockpot recipes.

Yes, yes I do!

I used our Crockpot quite a bit while I was in school, it made us many a meal during my winter semester time.

Unfortunately, I found that in warmer months, I tend to put the Crockpot up and seemingly forget about it. Warm weather and Crockpot just haven't seemed to jive in my mind.

I decided to change my way of thinking. Crockpots are really such a versatile kitchen tool for busy folks, and they don't heat the kitchen up like the oven will.

Last week I pulled the Crockpot out, dusted it off and whipped up some Carnitas.

These were really tasty. We had leftovers the next night and I think my brother had something like 8 tacos.

The best thing to have on the side is a nice cold bottle of Coca-Cola.

Mexican Coca-Cola sans corn syrup if you can get it. If not, beer is really good too.

Enjoy! Hope this helps you Deanna, I will try and get another recipe up for you soon.

Crockpot Carnitas

Adapted from Bon Appetit on Epicurious

2 pounds boneless country-style pork ribs or pork shoulder (Boston butt), cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

4 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons ground black pepper

4 teaspoons dried oregano

4 teaspoons cumin

5 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large onion, cut into 4 pieces

Fresh cilantro, chopped

Diced onion

Lime wedges

Salsa

Guacamole

Corn tortillas

Toss pork in bowl of slow cooker with salt, black pepper, dried oregano, cumin and garlic to coat. Place onion pieces atop pork. Cover slow cooker and cook pork on low setting until meat is very tender and falling apart, about 6 hours.

Using slotted spoon, transfer pork to cutting board. Discard onion pieces. Using fingers, shred pork; transfer carnitas to platter. Wrap corn tortillas in damp kitchen towel; microwave until warm, about 1 minute. Serve carnitas with warm tortillas, diced onion, cilantro, lime and salsa. Put carnitas in tortilla, top with onion, cilantro and a squeeze of lime and add as much salsa and guacamole as you'd like.

Deep fried goodness.

2010-08-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

We moved into our house about 5 months after we were married.

As we planned, married, honeymooned, house hunted, packed and moved there was one thing my husband really wanted: A deep fryer.

And lo and behold, with a suggestion from his loving wife to her parents, for our first Christmas in our new home, he got one.

I would like to preface the following with this: We don't fry a lot.

This weekend, we had friends over for a game day/afternoon and we fried. We were plotting what could be fried. We ended up being to full to try deep frying pickles, but they were there. Next time.

What did we end up frying?

Big slices of zucchini, fresh from the garden.

Delicious onion rings.

Oh yes, and Twinkies.

I'd never tried the fried Twinkies before. Now I am sold. With some whipped cream and strawberry sauce, it was yummy.

Enjoy.

Beer battered veggies

Adapted from Foodnetwork.com

4 cups canola oil

2 cups buttermilk

2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

2 teaspoon garlic, granulated

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

12 ounces beer

Vegetables of you choice sliced, I used 1 onion and 1 zucchini

Soak vegetables in buttermilk for 1 hour.

Heat oil in dutch oven or deep fryer to 350 degrees.

Combine 1 cup of flour, salt, pepper, and garlic, mix thoroughly. In a medium bowl combine beer and 1 cup of flour, mix thoroughly.

Remove vegetables from buttermilk, shake off excess, dredge in flour, shake off excess, then dip in beer batter. Drop into hot oil and continue process, being sure not to crowd the pan or fryer as they will stick together. When golden, remove and let drain on paper towels.

Sprinkle with additional salt to taste after removed from oil.

Deep Fried Twinkies a la Jo

borrowed from GMA

6 Twinkies, frozen overnight

4 cups vegetable oil

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 Tablespoon oil

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Powdered sugar

1 cup quality strawberry jam, thinned with 1/2 cup water and warmed to make a sauce

Heat oil in dutch oven or deep fryer to 350 degrees.

Mix together milk, vinegar and oil, while in another bowl, blend flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk wet ingredients into dry and continue mixing until smooth.

Dip Twinkie into the batter and rotate until batter covers entire cake.

Place carefully in hot oil. Cook until golden brown, turning as needed to ensure even cooking. Cook only 1-2 at a time as these will stick together.

Remove Twinkie to paper towel and let drain. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream and strawberry sauce. Try to not eat yourself silly.

Saturday morning pancakes

2010-08-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

I've taken a bye week from Weight Watchers this week. My middle of the week was the suck and cookies and donut at work got me, so I decided to skip a weigh in and points counting this week. Which meant a Frosty at lunch today. It also meant pancakes for breakfast.

I had blueberries in the fridge which obviously necessitated making blueberry pancakes.

The internet gave me a recipe that I tinkered with to work with what I had in the fridge.

I truly, deeply adore breakfast. I don't know if it comes from working nights myself now or growing up with a mother that worked nights and often made breakfast for dinner, but I can eat breakfast ANY time of day or night.

Especially sweet stuff and especially pancakes. I do love them something fierce. Enough to try and make a Weight Watchers low point pancakes last weekend, it doesn't quite meet my standards yet.

These were excellent pancakes however. With bacon and warm maple syrup, I was in breakfast heaven.

I mean really, yum.

Blueberry Pancakes

Adapted from Epicurious

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/4 cups Greek yogurt

1 cup milk

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all dry ingredients in medium sized bowl. Whisk together eggs, yogurt, milk, butter nad vanilla and add to dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in blueberries.

Drop by 1/3 cup full onto greased griddle pan over medium heat, cook until brown on both sides, approximately 3-4 minutes. Serve hot with warm syrup and butter.

I am so far behind

2010-08-13T18:02:00.001-07:00

At least in terms of updating here. I have been cooking, in fact I have a couple of recipes to get pulled together and posted. I tried out a couple of recipes that aren't quite ready for prime time posting just yet, I need to tweak them.

Here's what I have been working on:

My latest Craigslist find! A birch chest of drawers in the mid-century style. My husband and I have started to fall in love with mid-century style. Good thing too, it works so well with a house built in 1959.

So the dresser was a steal at $100. The finish was pretty bad though. I've spent the last week stripping, sanding, staining, sanding some more, and refinishing it.

Here we are waiting for the stripper to strip. Strip baby, strip. Brown chicken, brown cow.

And in an internet minute, done! Then there was some sanding. Lots of it. 120, 220 and eventually some 320...grit that is.

Then I reached the point where it was ready for stain.

Our bed frame is a darker stain, but I wasn't looking to take the really light birch too dark, so we split the difference and used Provincial from Minwax.

After a couple of staining coats and some polyurethane, we now have a beautiful new dresser for our newly redesigned master bedroom:

Here are some more details from our improved bedroom, I will post a full review once we have it all wrapped up.

Drapes and paint.

Paint in both the bedroom and our bathroom, the bathroom is getting an overhaul as well, and I am very, very excited to get it all done!

Mark yesterday on the calender...

2010-08-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

My husband willingly ate a portion of fish. More on that later.

Yesterday was a really productive day for me. Now that school is out and life is settling into a normal routine of me just working and not working, studying, going to clinicals, studying some more, etc. etc. I am getting projects done around the house.

One of them was cleaning and organizing the fridge, freezer and pantry. I finished up the fridge and freezer today, including these guys belonging to my husband. Have I ever mentioned my husband is a nerd? And plays miniature games? And as such paints them? Occasionally he also uses clay to alter them and leaves them in the fridge overnight to cure. And for me to find the next day when looking for the cottage cheese for breakfast.

My biggest task yesterday was organizing and cleaning out out pantry. When we moved in, we had shelves and not much else. Over time, as we shopped, things basically got shoved into the pantry and were never seen again. This was how I ended up with multiple packages of corn meal, cornstarch, syrup, and cake flour. I also discovered I had Knox gelatin and raisins.

For now, this is a stop gap. I used pull out drawers and baskets from Rubbermaid, which will work well until I get a new cabinet set up in the kitchen. We've got a plan in mind to hopefully get more pantry space, counter top space and maybe even better lighting.

My other immense task yesterday was making fish and having my husband eat it. He isn't known as a fish eater. Although he likes sushi/shashimi. He isn't a big fan of the flakey texture and fishier taste cooked fish has. But he will eat fried fish and chips. He is a finicky fellow.

I on the other hand love fish. I tend to only eat it when we go out to eat.

Bring in Noble Pig. I love fish and her blog.

She took Tilapia, seasoned it with Chinese 5 spice and gave it a brown sugar soy sauce reduction.

And my husband liked it. Thank you Noble Pig. I now have a fish recipe I can freely cook at home.

Five-Spice Tilapia

From Eating Well via Noble Pig

1 pound tilapia fillets

Chinese five-spice powder, enough to cover fish

1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

1/3 Tablespoons light brown sugar

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 scallions, thinly sliced

Sprinkle both sides of tilapia fillets with five-spice powder. Combine soy sauce and brown sugar in a small bowl.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the tilapia and cook until the outer edges are opaque, about 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, turn the fish over, stir the soy sauce mixture and pour over the fish and into the pan. Bring the sauce to a boil and cook until the fish is cooked through and the sauce has thickened slightly (make sure not caramelize sugar), about 2 minutes more. Add the scallions and remove from the heat.

Serve the fish drizzled with the pan sauce.

In the original recipe, the ingredients for the sauce were halved, I doubled them to have more sauce, but dropped the amount of green onions by one.

An ode to goat cheese.

2010-08-03T14:45:00.001-07:00

I love goat cheese. Creamy, delicious, goes well in sweet or savory dishes, it is just all around good stuff.

I also love quesadillas. Comes from living in a border city, I suppose. Cheese stuffed in a tortilla and cooked until melty and crispy? Yes please!

And even though I am technically dieting, you can only have my cheese when you take it from my cold, dead hands. It is one thing I refuse to give up.

Enter my internet friend Danielle, (by the way, happy birthday again!). She too loves quesadillas. And through her comes this wondrously easy technique for goat cheese quesadillas.

No exact measurements are really needed, but I will pass mine along. Your main ingredients include the previously mentioned goat cheese and corn. Preferably corn roasted on the grill.

Combine, spread on tortilla, and cook until crispy in a hot skillet. Couldn't be easier.

Danielle's Quesdillas

3-5 ounces goat cheese (I went more cheesy last night)

2 ears roasted corn, cut from the cob.

2 green onions, chopped

1 bell pepper, your color choice

1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

2 large tortillas (I used Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas)

Combine all ingredients except tortillas in a small bowl and mix well to combine. Spread on one tortilla, top with the other and cook in an ungreased skillet over medium heat until brown on each side and warmed through.

Share with a friend and have some salad on the side. Wine is great too, we had Silvan Ridge's Dry Riesling.

We found it gave us energy for this:

We are finally painting and organizing our master bedroom. Once I have more of the details to share, I will.

Garlic and chops.

2010-07-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

Oh, how I love simple, flavorful meals. In all honesty, I can be damn lazy. On those days, a simple meal is always best, otherwise we head out for dinner. Most likely for Pho from our favorite place that happens to be only a few minutes from our house. And is next door to the frozen yogurt place we frequent. We actually stopped at both last night after I came home from a hellacious day at work. I believe my husband remarked at one point we spend more money at these two places then we do on our mortgage, but I couldn't hear him clearly. Too busy slurping noodles.

But I digress.

My parents had us over for dinner recently and my Mom made garlic pork and aranitas. I loved it and recreated it to the best of my memory the other night for dinner at home.

Of course, garlic was required.

And some lovely, lean, boneless pork chops.

And some shredded plaintains, also with garlic.

Reheated for lunch at work yesterday, I had all sorts of people asking me what I had, the garlic was wonderful and fragrant. So was the mint I had before heading back to check on my patient.

Garlic Pork

6 pork chops (bone in or not, my local grocer happened to have boneless on sale)

1 cup vegetable oil

1 head garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Chop garlic and combine with oil, adding desired amount of salt and pepper. If cooking immediately, brush chops with garlic oil during cooking. If you time, reserve a few tablespoons of garlic oil and use rest to marinate chops (I marinated for 2 hours).

Cook on grill on medium, direct heat until done, turning halfway through cooking. Time will be dependent on thickness of chops. You can also cook inside on a grill pan. which is what we had to do. The weather here still isn't exactly conducive to grilling out in the yard, damn June Gloom that doesn't know August starts on Sunday.

Aranitas

2 plantains, peeled and shredded

2 cloves garlic chopped finely

Salt and pepper to taste

Vegetable oil for cooking

Combine all ingredients. Drop by spoonfuls into hot skillet over medium heat with 1/4 inch of oil and cook until browned on both sides. Serve hot.

For dinner tonight

2010-07-26T18:44:00.001-07:00

New York steaks with alder smoked sea salt. I found the sea salt in Oregon and brought a small container home with me. Given how delicious it's been with my morning eggs, I can safely say the steaks will be incredible.

On the side, baked sweet potato and salad with some tomatoes out of our garden, finally! Our cooler and cloudier than normal weather over the last month has likely delayed them. Hopefully the tomato ripening trend continues. Tonight's wine is Chateau Lorane's Pinot Gris.

Boards, Oregon, and a dessert to celebrate

2010-07-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

This morning, I drove myself to a testing center and sat in front of a computer for an hour and twenty minutes to prove myself capable to practice as a midwife. 175 questions later, I walked out as a Certified Nurse Midwife, thank goodness for instant results! I don't know that I could have handled a longer wait, studying over the last two days especially has been nerve wracking.

Some of my study time was undertaken last week on a plane flight to Oregon to deliver my niece to her new home . While there, my sister our friend and I saw some of the local sites. We went wine tasting, to the coast and on my last full day hit up the local farmer's market. In truth, it's was far more than a farmer's market, there were wares to buy and musicians and even a karate demonstration. However, my sister and I had one goal in mind and that was blueberries. Well blueberries and peaches.

After seeing Smitten Kitchen's Peach Blueberry Cobbler come across my Facebook news feed and seeing all the tremendously yummy berries at the market, I knew what I wanted for dessert that night.

Having shopped the farmer's market here at home and there in Oregon, I am a little jealous. Pretty much any berry you can imagine was up for sale. The blueberries were big and sweet, the raspberries were insane. But, (and there is a but here) no citrus.

My sister and I already decided a trade is in order. I pack up lemons off my tree here and send them to her. She packs up the berries and a few heads of the giant elephant garlic I saw and sends it to me. We live happy.

Let me say, this cobbler was awesome. The farm fresh fruit definitely helped, but the cornmeal biscuit top was excellent. We had a local wine to match, the Early Muscat from Silvan Ridge. It's a sweet, semi-sparkling wine and went so well with the berry sweet goodness of the cobbler. I came home with a bottle of it myself and we already drank it.

I knew I should have brought a case of just that home. I may have to order more for myself to go with more cobbler.

Peach Blueberry Cornmeal Cobbler

Borrowed from Smitten Kitchen

So, we like carbs in my family and we doubled the amount of biscuit topping with only maybe a third more fruit filling, which may have been a bit too much. If you'd like more top, try 1 1/2 times the biscuit recipe. Otherwise I did nothing different.

Know your oven well, we didn't need the full 25 minutes because my sister's oven runs hot.

For the fruit

1 1/2 (about 4 cups) pounds peaches, pitted and cut into slices

1 pint (about 2 cups) blueberries, rinsed and dried

2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the biscuit topping

3/4 cup (3 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup fine stone-ground cornmeal (yellow or white)

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).Toss peaches with blueberries, sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt in the bottom of a 2-quart ovenproof dish.

Make the biscuit dough: Stir together the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into the dry mixture with your fingertips, a fork or a pastry blender. Stir in buttermilk with a rubber spatula until a wet, tacky dough comes together.

Plop spoonfuls of the biscuit dough over the filling; don’t worry about covering entire surface. Bake until the cobbler’s syrup is bubbly and the biscuit tops are browned, about 20 to 25 minutes.

For dinner tonight

2010-07-21T18:02:00.001-07:00

Japanese eggplant, yellow zucchini and crimini mushrooms tossed with salt, fresh ground pepper and minced rosemary. Roasted at 425 for about 20 minutes. Eggplant and zucchini straight out of my garden.

Tomorrow I take my Midwifery Board exam. I have two recipes to be posted after all is said and done, including one with farm fresh Oregon produce.