Some of the things that have come out of my kitchen in the past week:
Cookies, Cookies and Cookies. Over the years we've cut down on the number of different kinds, usually choosing 4-6 types. These fall into the "It's Just Not Christmas Without..." category: coconut macaroons, old-fashioned sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, Rollo cookies and biscotti. No biscotti yet, but everything else has been baked, one kind a night in the past week. No power outage is gonna stop us, either. :)
Fudge. I haven't made fudge in about five years...and now I remember why. It's because I love it so damn much! I am bringing Rocky Road fudge to my family's Christmas party tomorrow, and it's heavenly.
Garlic and Chicken "Stew." This was dinner tonight, and it's one of my all-time favorite meals. Two heads (yes, HEADS not cloves) of garlic, chicken parts (tonight we used thighs and breasts) and various other ingredients left to stew in a Dutch oven is such an incredible smell.
Coming up on the horizon: Christmas eve dinner, which is getting changed up this year from Spaghetti to Roast Chicken. Christmas morning breakfast....overnight baked french toast. (In my humble opinion, the best kind) And we're doing dessert for the family get-together on Christmas Day, and have some great things!
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Smothered in Love
While perusing Pinterest for recipe ideas, I came across one for Smothered Hamburger Steaks. The thing that caught my eye was that the author said that this recipe is kind of a "blue plate special" so that pretty much sealed the deal: I had to make it! And again....anytime there's a ground beef recipe slightly above the norm, color me interested.
This was a quickly put together meal on a crazy Saturday. I bought groceries, Hubby and I carried them inside and I pretty much started cooking right away. The meal was nothing fancy but tasted like true comfort food. Just hamburger patties mixed with onion soup mix, then left to stew and cook in a brown gravy made with cream of mushroom soup and packet gravy mix. I know...holy sodium! I rarely cook this way because it benefits nobody in my home. But once in a while rules are for breaking....and when it's this delicious, it's worth it!
For kid appeal, I served it with egg noodles and left the sauce off the boys' hamburger steaks. They picked at it, but didn't balk at the peas on their plates (or try them, but the no yelling was nice) and did eat some hamburger. Everyone wins last night!
Easy Empanadas
When i first started working in housing, I had a tenant named Mrs. Alvarez. I remember her fondly, not just because she was a lovely person but also because she was the first tenant I ever got to practice speaking Spanish with on a regular basis. My Spanish back then was pretty awful, but we seemed to understand each other on some level and I got better with time. It was with them I graduated from stammering "I'm sorry, I don't understand" to confidently marching out "You have too much soap in the machine, that's why it's leaking."
Mrs. Alvarez and her husband were originally from Colombia, and enjoyed showing me pictures of their life there. She also made the BEST empanadas. She would bring them down to the office at 9:30 in the morning, and they would smell so good I would eat one right then and there. (I've always had the ability to eat pretty much anything at any hour) Eating these kinds of things has led me to a love of Hispanic foods.
When I saw a recipe for empanadas, I immediately remembered these little beef "pies" that she would bring down. Plus I am always game for something that is not your typical hamburger use. (i.e. meatloaf, meatballs or cheeseburgers) The recipe was spiced beef and cheese, baked in piecrust. They tasted pretty good, but obviously weren't the same. Mrs. Alvarez also used diced potatoes, and her empanadas were spicier and also fried. Still, they were pretty delicious, and now I have ideas on how to improve. I served them with home-fried potatoes and green beans. Next time I will use black beans. All in all, it was a nice visit to a memory.
Mrs. Alvarez and her husband were originally from Colombia, and enjoyed showing me pictures of their life there. She also made the BEST empanadas. She would bring them down to the office at 9:30 in the morning, and they would smell so good I would eat one right then and there. (I've always had the ability to eat pretty much anything at any hour) Eating these kinds of things has led me to a love of Hispanic foods.
When I saw a recipe for empanadas, I immediately remembered these little beef "pies" that she would bring down. Plus I am always game for something that is not your typical hamburger use. (i.e. meatloaf, meatballs or cheeseburgers) The recipe was spiced beef and cheese, baked in piecrust. They tasted pretty good, but obviously weren't the same. Mrs. Alvarez also used diced potatoes, and her empanadas were spicier and also fried. Still, they were pretty delicious, and now I have ideas on how to improve. I served them with home-fried potatoes and green beans. Next time I will use black beans. All in all, it was a nice visit to a memory.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Sausage Soup
What does one do with their newly honed knife skills? Make a soup that requires lots of chopping, of course!
This is an Italian-style sausage soup, with garlic, onion, spinach, tomatoes, pasta and cannelloni beans. The grocery store didn't have two pounds of sweet sausage, so we bought one hot, one sweet. Even the stock was homemade this time!
It was a good soup, and made a ridiculously large pot. I brought some to a friend who's due with her first child, a boy, any day now.
So that is three of the four soups on my Day Zero list. The last one will be clam chowder. Brian and I both adore a good clam chowder and have never made one. Then there will be one more thing to cross off the list!
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Steel Skills
On Thursday night I took a knife-skills workshop. I've always wanted to take one, since my husband likes to poke fun at me because I used to only chop with a steak knife. I'll be honest, I was pretty apprehensive of anything bigger! As time went on Brian helped me get more comfortable with chef's knives but I still could use some more skills.
The workshop was 90 minutes long and was part demonstration, part hands-on. I learned how to hold a knife so that it is an extension of your arm and isn't has hard on your hands. I learned the proper way to dice peppers and onions, and how to cut an onion with a little less crying. (NO crying isn't an option for me.) I also learned the correct way to cut up avocados and mangoes, two foods that I love but avoid because of the messy prep. No more!
There were six people in the workshop including me, and together we chopped and made a tomato salsa and a guacamole with mangoes. Delicious! I came home with a big grin and a little leftover guac, and was thrilled to tell Brian how much I loved it! He's taken a class there before, and now we want to do a Couples Night sometime.
Tomorrow night I'm making soup. And I can't wait to chop all the veggies....by hand!
The workshop was 90 minutes long and was part demonstration, part hands-on. I learned how to hold a knife so that it is an extension of your arm and isn't has hard on your hands. I learned the proper way to dice peppers and onions, and how to cut an onion with a little less crying. (NO crying isn't an option for me.) I also learned the correct way to cut up avocados and mangoes, two foods that I love but avoid because of the messy prep. No more!
There were six people in the workshop including me, and together we chopped and made a tomato salsa and a guacamole with mangoes. Delicious! I came home with a big grin and a little leftover guac, and was thrilled to tell Brian how much I loved it! He's taken a class there before, and now we want to do a Couples Night sometime.
Tomorrow night I'm making soup. And I can't wait to chop all the veggies....by hand!
Friday, November 16, 2012
Mac N Cheese Success!
5. perfect macaroni and cheese from scratch
Finally, a success story! Years of separating sauces, general gloppiness and all-around YUCK, I've finally made a decent baked macaroni and cheese. The recipe was from Cooking Light, part of their 25th anniversary issue. I know I know, light mac n cheese sounds like a drag. But it wasn't! It had parmesan, sharp cheddar, fontina and yep, Velveeta cheese product in it. I think the secret is making sure the cheese is shredded fine, and the continuous whisking. The garlic cracker crumbs baked on top weren't bad either. This was so good, I had a second helping and was thrilled to have tons of leftovers.
Sadly, the kiddos wouldn't touch it. So next time I make this (and there WILL be a next time) I'm going to trick them by leaving an empty box of Kraft on the counter.
Finally, a success story! Years of separating sauces, general gloppiness and all-around YUCK, I've finally made a decent baked macaroni and cheese. The recipe was from Cooking Light, part of their 25th anniversary issue. I know I know, light mac n cheese sounds like a drag. But it wasn't! It had parmesan, sharp cheddar, fontina and yep, Velveeta cheese product in it. I think the secret is making sure the cheese is shredded fine, and the continuous whisking. The garlic cracker crumbs baked on top weren't bad either. This was so good, I had a second helping and was thrilled to have tons of leftovers.
Sadly, the kiddos wouldn't touch it. So next time I make this (and there WILL be a next time) I'm going to trick them by leaving an empty box of Kraft on the counter.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Taste of Morocco
Last Sunday's Dinner: Moroccan chicken. In a tagine.
What's a tagine? Glad you asked. It's a ceramic slow-cooker. Or maybe it's not ceramic, maybe it's clay. One thing I can tell you is that it needed to be soaked for 24 hours before cooking. The only thing we had in the house big enough to soak it was a cooler. But hey, it worked! You put it directly on your stove top and let it do its thing. It was actually quite cool.
I've never really given Middle Eastern food a chance. It feels good to try something just a little bit different. Some of the spices were familiar, some not. Turmeric, for one, I don't know if I'd ever eaten turmeric before. But everything was delicious: chicken, quinoa and carrots. I'd definitely like to try other variations.
What's a tagine? Glad you asked. It's a ceramic slow-cooker. Or maybe it's not ceramic, maybe it's clay. One thing I can tell you is that it needed to be soaked for 24 hours before cooking. The only thing we had in the house big enough to soak it was a cooler. But hey, it worked! You put it directly on your stove top and let it do its thing. It was actually quite cool.
I've never really given Middle Eastern food a chance. It feels good to try something just a little bit different. Some of the spices were familiar, some not. Turmeric, for one, I don't know if I'd ever eaten turmeric before. But everything was delicious: chicken, quinoa and carrots. I'd definitely like to try other variations.
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