my cooking adventure

moving.

2011-05-28T18:12:00.000-04:00

We're moving. Not just locations but I'm moving directions too. I have loved my spontanious time where MCA over the past few years, but my life has turned into so much more than cooking. So here I go, I'm moving to Run.Dream.Cook.
I hope to see some of you over there, it feels like starting all over again....There will still be some delicious recipes, but I will also be adding in some running stuff, fashion, event planning and all things pretty!

School Spirit Cupcakes

2010-10-23T21:33:00.000-04:00

My cousins are seniors on their varsity soccer team and each year the younger girls do something for the seniors as sort of a senior appreciation at their last home game. This year, the last home game actually got cancelled and they rescheduled a scrimmage in it's place. But because it wasn't a real game, the girls didn't plan anything for them! So to perk up some school spirit and help the girls stay up beat I made mini cupcakes and brought the cookies from this week's Christmas cookie project.

They are the Highland Huskies and the colors are blue and yellow. I made chocolate and vanilla mini cupcakes with chocolate and vanilla buttercream. I dyed the vanilla cupcakes blue and the vanilla buttercream yellow. They were very festive and delicious. I'm sharing the cake recipes today, stay tuned to tomorrow for the buttercream recipe!

Dark Chocolate Cake
Makes 3 dozen mini cupcakes

1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line mini cupcake pan with pan liners.
In the bowl of a stand mixer mix together sugar, four, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix on low (careful - it can poof out!) until well blended.
Add in egg, milk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract then mix them into the batter. Once well combined add in the hot water.
Batter is very liquidy, I put it into a liquid measuring cup to pour into cupcake pan.
Bake 11-13 minutes until baked throughly

Best Vanilla Cupcake
Adapted from Smitten Kitten
Makes 3 dozen mini cupcakes

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 extra large eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cream together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer. Mix together vanilla extract and eggs and add into butter mixture. Once very light and fluffy add in baking power, baking soda, and salt. Mix in flour, alternating with buttermilk. This is when I added in the blue coloring.
Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the pan half way through.

Chewy Caramel Chocolate Cookies!

2010-10-22T12:48:00.000-04:00

It is week 2 of 10 in my Christmas cookie adventure. This week has been a very busy one for baking! I posted a picture of my Biscotti to my facebook page last week and my Aunt Tink left a comment on it telling me how delicious they were, and how she hoped that they were fat free because she had been eating the package of them that I gave her all day. My Aunt Barb responded to that asking where she could find some of these "fat free Biscotti!" I then remade the Biscotti on Monday and sent some out to her and the rest of my family that lives in Colorado. Hopefully they traveled well and she is enjoying the treat.

This week's cookie was inspired by a cookie that I saw while surfing around the Internet. The cookie called for a chocolate dough wrapped around a Rolo. They reminded me of these brownie bites that my Aunt Cindy makes. She makes her favorite brownie batter and bakes it up in mini muffin pans and then immediately out of the oven she presses in either Rolos or Reese's peanut butter cups. They are delicious and all of my cousins love them.

I ran with the concept and I made my own caramels this week (see the previous post! They were amazing!) I made a chocolate cookie dough and wrapped the caramel in it, they were really delicious!

Chocolate Cookies with Chewy Caramel Centers (That is a very alliterative cookie name!!)
Adapted from: Two Peas and Their Pod - I love this blog!

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
Caramels (home made preferably!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream together butter and both types of sugar in a stand mixer. Once it is light and fluffy add in the eggs one at a time. Then mix in the vanilla extract. Add in cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, mix until well combined. Mix in the flour and mix until smooth-ish. Some lumps are ok, they will bake out.

Take a tablespoon or so of dough and wrap it around the caramel. Place it on a cookie sheet (I lined mine with silicone mats - it helped when some of the caramel oozed out!) Bake for 11-13 minutes.

**Let cool completely before eating - while they are still warm the caramel is kind of dissolved into the dough, but once cooled there is a chewy caramel consistency in the center. Delicious!!**

Salted Chewy Caramels

2010-10-20T14:33:00.000-04:00

In order to prepare to make this week's cookie, I made salted caramel. I actually had to make it twice because my first batch wasn't soft and chewy, it was hard as a rock. Although still very delicious, it wouldn't work for my cookie recipe, so I tried again, this time with a different recipe.

These turned out beautifully and even more delicious than the first recipe. Yum!

Salted Chewy Caramels

5 tablespoons butter

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup water

Line a 9x9 baking pan with foil and spray foil with vegetable oil spray.

In a small sauce pan melt the butter, once melted add in the heavy cream, vanilla, and salt. Bring to a slow boil stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

In a 4 quart sauce pan with high sides mix together sugar, corn syrup and water. Boil without stirring (a gentle swirl of the pan occasionally is helpful to avoid hot spots) until a light golden color, approximately 310 degrees. On my gas stove this takes about 10 minutes.

Add in the heavy cream mixture. BE CAREFUL! It will boil up violently!!! Return to heat and stir frequently until mixture reaches 248 degrees, it took about 8 minutes on my stove. Pour into the lined baking pan and let cool.

10 Weeks of Christmas cookies!

2010-10-14T12:51:00.003-04:00

I decided to jump on a bandwagon I saw while surfing the web yesterday...Some bloggers I saw are doing 12 weeks of Christmas cookies to test out different recipes. I loved the idea so I jumped right on. Since I go to Connecticut on Fridays I'm making the cookies to post on Thursdays.

This week I started with my favorite Christmas cookie, biscotti. Yum! This is a tried and true recipe. I use it every Christmas season and all of my family and friends adore it. I think I've been making it for 4 or 5 years at this point.

Traditional Anise-Almond Biscotti

(Adapted from Epicurious)

Makes approximately 30 cookies

1 1/3 cups sugar

10 tablespoons butter, melted

3 extra large eggs

1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons anise extract

3 1/4 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup slivered almonds

1 extra large egg white

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with silicone mat or parchment paper.

In large mixing bowl combine the sugar, melted butter, eggs, vanilla and anise extract. Mix until a light yellow color.

Add in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until just combined.

Add almonds and stir until well distributed.

Separate the dough into two balls. Form each ball of dough into a 13 inch long, 2 inch wide log. Place side by side on the baking sheet leaving space between them, they will spread.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and place baking sheet on a wire rack and allow to cool for approximately 20 minutes. The logs should be cool to the touch. Slice each log using a serrated knife. I get approximately 15 slices per log.

Arrange cookies on the baking sheet and return to oven for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden brown. Turn the cookies over and bake for 8 more minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Keep in a air tight container.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

2010-03-14T22:29:00.003-04:00

Chicken wings are a favorite in my crowd, but they're terrible for you! Dark meat, deep fried dipped in a butter filled sauce! Oh my! Delicious, but not realistic for a regular meal. But with a few changes, you can have a similar flavor outcome, with way fewer calories.

Buffalo Chicken Strips with Blue Cheese Salad

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Buffalo Chicken:

1 tablespoon butter

3 tablespoons ketchup

1/4 cup hot sauce (I used franks red hot wing sauce because it was in the fridge!)

1 cup flour

1 large egg

3 chicken breasts cut into 3 strips each

vegetable oil

In a small frying pan mix together butter, ketchup and hot sauce, heat and mix thoroughly.

Heat enough oil to coat the bottom of a large pan. Put flour in a bowl and fluff with fork. In another bowl beat the egg with 2 tablespoons of water. Coat chicken in flour, tapping off extra before coating in egg and dredging in flour again. Fry until internal temperature hits 160 degrees. Toss cooked chicken in the heated sauce and set aside.

Blue Cheese Salad:

3 tablespoons sour cream

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon water

pinch of course salt

1/4 cup blue cheese

romaine lettuce

2 carrots thinly sliced

2 celery stalks chunked

Mix together sour cream, mayo, lemon juice, water, salt and blue cheese until well combined.

Place lettuce, carrots and celery in a bowl.

Top salad with chicken and dressing.

Breakfast foods

2010-03-04T11:15:00.000-05:00

I love making breakfast for people. It is by far my favorite meal to make. Unfortunately breakfast comes VERY early. So that leads me to enjoy brunch. The funny part about though is that I actually don't like very many breakfast foods. One that I do really love is yogurt and granola. I love strawberry or peach yogurt with granola mixed in. Yum!

I did a brunch for my sister's engagement party in November. One of the foods we had was yogurt with fresh fruit and granola. So delicious.

Super Bowl Cake

2010-03-03T22:55:00.005-05:00

It has been far too long since I have updated my blog. Life gets crazy around the holidays! I know it is a lousy excuse, but a true one nonetheless.

So onto the cake. I made this cake for a friend of the family, he asked for it to tease a friend of his on Super Bowl Sunday. The friend was certain the Jets were going to make it this year, so when they didn't my friend wanted to rub a little bit of salt in the wound. He asked for a Jets team football. After some extensive googling, this is what I created. I am not a football fan, much less a Jets fan specifically, so I did my best recreating something I am only vaguely familiar with.

Typically I would have covered the whole cake in fondant but they specifically wanted it to be covered in buttercream. I had to add some fondant accents to make the football have the right look. I am pretty happy with how it came out overall. It was dark chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse filling. I heard it was delicious.

Lime Mini Cakes

2009-09-03T12:16:00.006-04:00

One of my favorite foods that I've made so far this year is a lime curd recipe that I found on Salt and Chocolate, via tastespotting. We eat a lot of lime flavored food around here and this dessert is creamy, tart and just sweet enough to be satisfying.

I've done many things with the lime curd, I've put it in phyllo shells and topped it with raspberries, I've used it as cake filling, and as a fruit dip. After a failed attempt to make this month's daring bakers challenge, I used the rest of the sponge cake batter to make this dessert. I poured it into a pan and let it bake just to see how it would come out. The result was a light, spongy cake, with a texture similar to an angel food cake. I really enjoyed the flavor and texture of the cake, so I didn't want to let it go to waste. I whipped up a batch of the lime curd and made individual lime cakes as part of a dessert bar that I was making for my cousin's birthday dinner.

Lime Curd
(from Salt and Chocolate)

105 g lime juice

zest of 2 limes

72 g sugar

164 g eggs*

72 g sugar

206 g butter

In a medium (non stick is helpful) saucepan mix together the lime juice, zest and the first amount of sugar. Bring it to a boil.

In a seperate bowl mix together the eggs and the second amount of sugar.

Temper the eggs with about 1/3 of the lime juice mixture, and then add the egg mixture into the pan whisking constantly. Cook on a very low heat until the mixture reaches 165 degrees (hot enough to cook the egg). You'll be able to tell it is ready when it thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

Remove the mixture from the heat and put it in a mixing bowl, let cool slightly. Stir in the butter. Once the butter is nearly completely incorporated, pour into a blender and blend. (An immersion blender would also work well here!)

Put the blended mixture into a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap resting on the top of the lime curd, so it doesn't develop a skin. I use a 16 ounce solo cup, it fits the entire batch of lime curd, and it nearly fills the cup so the plastic wrap rests on the top easily.

Chill for at least 2 hours, but I usually chill over night.

*Eggs - 164 g of eggs is a hard thing to get. I find that it is approximately 4 large eggs. A large egg is between 57 and 64 grams. Something near 164 is fine, it doesn't have to be exact.

Summer Galette

2009-07-20T21:58:00.003-04:00

There is nothing I like more than a fruity dessert after a hot summer day. The only downfall to any of these desserts are that you have to turn on the oven to make them. But in the end, it is completely worth it. Especially when the dessert is topped with a side of ice cream.

Summer Galette

Ingredients:

5 ripe peaches, sliced

1 pint raspberries

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 package premade pie crust

1 egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

In a large bowl mix together peaches, raspberries, sugar and vanilla. Mix lightly as to now crush all the raspberries. Let the mixture sit for a couple minutes and it will become syrupy. Roll the pie crust out slightly. Place on a cookie sheet and pile the fruit mixture onto the rolled out dough. Fold edges of dough up onto the pile of fruit. Whisk egg and brush over dough.

Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown

Most indulgent brownies

2009-06-06T09:00:00.001-04:00

Brownies are my second favorite dessert, second only to ice cream. I'm a little picky about my brownies. I like them fudgey and dense. Sometimes I like nuts in them, but most of the time I'm a purist, and don't want any add-ins involved. I have made many different from scratch brownie recipes. This recipe is by far one of my favorites, it is a little involved, but nothing too outrageous.

Outrageous Brownies
(Recipe adapted from the Barefoot Contessa)
Ingredients:

1 pound unsalted butter
1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (1 cup for batter and 1/4 cup in the chips and nuts)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Method:
Melt together butter, 1 pound of semisweet chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate and set aside.
Stir together eggs, coffee, vanilla and sugar. Add in the chocolate and butter mixture.
Mix together one cup of the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix in the chocolate mixture.
Stir together remaining chocolate chips with remaining flour, once they are fully coated, add into the batter, stirring gently.
Bake in a 9x13 pan for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. DO NOT OVER COOK. I actually liked them a tiny bit undercooked.

Once they cool, store them in the refrigerator, it makes them even better the next day!

DB - Better late than never.

2009-06-04T07:16:00.006-04:00

I actually did complete this month's daring baker's challenge before the end of the month, I just haven't managed to post about it until now.

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

The challenge this month was an apple strudel. I grew up in apple country in New York so this definitely caught my attention. I was a little bummed that the challenge was in May, so I wasn't using fresh local produce, but I will definitely be trying it again when apple season rolls around in October. In order to make the recipe a little more "springy" I decided to make it an apple rhubarb strudel. In doing this, I had to change the recipe a little. I added a bit more sugar to combat the tartness of the rhubarb and I used a bit of nutmeg to add a bit more flavor, because I simply love apple and nutmeg together.

I found the dough to be fun to work with, I think that if I had let it rest longer, I would have been able to stretch it more, but I got impatient after the minimum 30 minutes. I had no trouble rolling it out and then stretching it with my hands. Once it got large, I did get a few sporadic holes, but nothing big.

Overall I thought that the crust was a bit bland and could have used more flavor (more fat?). I liked the filling I made, but I would have preferred a more flavorful wrapper for it.

Preparation time
Total: 2 hours 15 minutes – 3 hours 30 minutes

15-20 min to make dough
30-90 min to let dough rest/to prepare the filling
20-30 min to roll out and stretch dough
10 min to fill and roll dough
30 min to bake
30 min to cool

Apple strudel
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum
3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs
strudel dough (recipe below)
1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

1. Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.

3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.

4. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.

5. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel dough
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Flatbread Caesar Salad

2009-04-30T15:31:00.000-04:00

Warm weather always makes me eat more salads. I truly love a big bed of lettuce topped with different sides. Grilled chicken Caesar salads are a bit hit around here. How could any salad topped with chicken and cheese be bad?

Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 heads romaine lettuce
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shaved
3 chicken breasts
1 loaf of bread
Caesar dressing

Method:
Grill chicken and slice thinly. Meanwhile, make bread and let cool.
Wash and dry lettuce thoroughly. Lay out lettuce on a platter and toss with dressing. Top with Cheese and chicken. Serve with warm flat bread.

Flatbread Recipe:
4 1/2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cups ice water
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
dried basil, oregano, chives and garlic

Method:
Mix together first 5 ingredients and then knead for 8-10 minutes or until smooth. Let rise for 3 hours. Punch down and spread onto a oiled cookie sheet. Let rest for 1 hour. Punch down again, baste with remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle liberally with dried basil, oregano, chives, and garlic.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until bread looks golden brown.

Breakfast cups

2009-04-29T09:09:00.000-04:00

Brunch is my favorite meal for entertaining. Even though I don't generally like breakfast foods, I do love breakfast pastries and a brunch (almost) makes it acceptable to eat 3 or 4 of them in one day. I occasionally get stuck in a rut with which foods to serve. You can only make mini quiches or large bowls of scrambled eggs before the crowd gets restless looking for something with a "wow!" factor, something new and different.

Lately on tastespotting there have been tons of posts with adorable mini breakfast cups. These are muffin tins filled with an entire bite sized breakfast. For Easter I decided to test them out. There were 6 adults and 2 kids eating. Just too many for custom egg dishes and the perfect amount to actually do taste testing with.

Then came the hard part, deciding what in the world to put in these cups. I had seen it all, from what could basically be described as an omlette to simply a single egg on toast. I know that Jimmy Dean Maple Sausage is a favorite among the men I was cookng for, and that bacon is the favorite of the younger crowd, so I did half and half.

Recipe (serves 6)
Ingredients:
1 package Jimmy Dean Maple Sausage
1 lb thick cut bacon (I used applewood smoked)
Shredded cheddar cheese
Butter
12 slices of bread (I used potato whole wheat)
12 large eggs

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cook bacon in a sautee pan. Once bacon is finished cooking, set aside and pour out extra fat and return the pan to the heat. Add in 1/4 of the package of sausage and cook (crumbling) sausage until cooked through, set aside. Form the rest of the sausage into patties and cook thoroughly.
Roll out bread with a rolling pin, making it thin and slightly longer. Remove the crust. Butter both sides of all 12 peices of bread thoroughly. Smoosh the bread into a muffin pan, making a cup out of the bread.
Crumble 4-5 peices of bacon and place a few peices into 6 of the bread cups. Fill remaining 6 cups with the cooked sausage. Top all 12 cups with cheese.
Crack 1 egg into each of the cups, gently shake the pan to help the egg settle and fill the cups completely. Top with salt and pepper.
Cook until the egg has reached the consistency of your liking. I cooked ours for approximately 11 minutes. 10 minutes will yeild very runny yolks and 15 minutes will yeild solid yolks.
Serve with remaining bacon and sausage as a side.

Grilled Ham and Cheese

2009-04-28T11:32:00.004-04:00

Spring has sprung in the northeast and our grill is getting one heck of a workout! I made home made artisan bread (in 5 minutes!) and with one of the loaves we made some gourmet grilled cheese.

Grilled Ham and Cheese Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 slices artisan bread (home made or store bought!)
3 ounces gruyere cheese
2 ounces ham steak sliced very thin.
Spicy mustard to taste
Butter (softened)

I started by grilling ham steaks until heated through. I then sliced them very thin and put them on sliced bread with mustard and gruyere. I buttered the outside of the bread and put it on the grill. I grilled until the cheese was very melted and the bread was nicely toasted.

Grilled Cheese Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 slices artisan bread (again - home made or store bought!)
2 ounces munster cheese
1 ounce sharp white cheddar cheese
Butter (softened)

For me, since I don't eat ham, I did a blend of sharp white cheddar and munster cheeses, approximately a 1:1 ratio. I didn't use any condiments on my sandwich, but I did butter the outsides. The saltiness of the munster against the cheddar was a divine combination.

Tres Leches

2009-04-20T11:14:00.002-04:00

The weather this weekend in New York was fantastic. The sun was shining, we got some rain Saturday night, but then the sun was back out in full force on Sunday. We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weekend. With the sun shining and the birds singing we had to kick off grilling season. We grilled chicken wings as an appetizer and chicken thighs as the main dish. We had a side of fresh asparagus. To cool us off after the meal we had Tres Leches cake.

I hadn't ever had Tres Leches before, and I didn't even really know what to expect. All I knew about it was that it is a vanilla cake soaked in 3 different milks. In general when I don't know much about a type of food, I rely on Alton Brown's expertise to teach me. This situation was no different, I looked at a couple of different recipes but stuck with his recipe in the end.

Tres Leches Cake:
Adapted from Alton Brown:

Ingredients:
Cake:
6 3/4 ounces all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces butter
8 ounces sugar
5 whole eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Glaze:
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
15 ounces half and half

Topping:
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
Cake:
Mix together dry ingredients and set aside. In a bowl beat butter until light and fluffy. Add in sugar and beat until well combined. Add in eggs and vanilla, and beat until lighter in color. Slowly add in dry ingredients, stirring with wooden spoon until just combined. Spread into greased 9x13 pan, it seems like not enough batter, but it poofs nicely. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, until cooked through. Let cool for 30 minutes. Poke holes all over the cake using skewers or a fork.

Glaze:
Mix together the milks and pour over cooled cake. Refrigerate the cake over night.

Topping:
Whip the whipping cream until soft peaks, and add sugar and vanilla and whip until stiff peaks. Spread evenly on the top of the cake and serve immediately.

Spinach lasagne!

2009-03-29T21:37:00.006-04:00

It's that time again! The March daring bakers challenge is here!

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

It was definitely some of the best home made pasta I have ever made. In the past few months, I've made a few different pasta noodles, from different recipes. However, this is the first time that I've made already flavored pasta. I really liked the texture that the spinach added, and the color was fantastic!

This this the flour with the spinach and the egg, I just dumped it on the table and made a well to put add in the "wet" ingredients.

Once the ingredients were all loosely combined, it came into a rough ball of dough, you can see the lumps in it from the flour.

This is the end result of kneading for about 15 minutes, a smooth, very elastic dough. At this point, I wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and set it aside to rest for an hour. After the hour was up, I broke it into 3 balls of dough and rolled them out as thin as I could do it by hand. I cut it into 1 1/2 inch strips, and hung it over chair backs that had been draped with dish towels.

I used the basic bechamel sauce given to us this month, but I added a plain red sauce instead of a meat ragu as I don't eat any of the meats suggested in the sauce.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any decent pictures of it once it was cooked. It was not very pretty, but I assure you what it lacked in looks it made up in flavor!

Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi al Forno)
(Serves 8 to 10 as a first course, 6 to 8 as a main dish)

Preparation Time: 15 minutes to assemble and 40 minutes cooking time

10 quarts (9 litres) salted water
1 recipe Spinach Pasta cut for lasagna (recipe follows)#1
1 recipe Bechamel Sauce (recipe follows)#2
1 recipe Country Style Ragu (recipe follows)#3
1 cup (4 ounces/125g) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Method
Working Ahead:
The ragu and the béchamel sauce can be made up to three days ahead. The ragu can also be frozen for up to one month. The pasta can be rolled out, cut and dried up to 24 hours before cooking. The assembled lasagne can wait at room temperature (20 degrees Celsius/68 degrees Fahrenheit) about 1 hour before baking. Do not refrigerate it before baking, as the topping of béchamel and cheese will overcook by the time the center is hot.

Assembling the Ingredients:
Have all the sauces, rewarmed gently over a medium heat, and the pasta at hand. Have a large perforated skimmer and a large bowl of cold water next to the stove. Spread a double thickness of paper towels over a large counter space. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Oil or butter a 3 quart (approx 3 litre) shallow baking dish.

Cooking the Pasta:
Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.

Assembling the Lasagne:
Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel and about 1/3 cup of the cheese. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese.

Baking and Serving the Lasagne:
Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out very warm, the dish is ready). Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.

#1 Spinach Egg Pasta (Pasta Verde)

Preparation: 45 minutes

Makes enough for 6 to 8 first course servings or 4 to 6 main course servings, equivalent to 1 pound (450g) dried boxed pasta.

2 jumbo eggs (2 ounces/60g or more)
10 ounces (300g) fresh spinach, rinsed dry, and finely chopped; or 6 ounces (170g) frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
3&1/2 cups (14 ounces/400g) all purpose unbleached (plain) flour (organic stone ground preferred)

Working by Hand:

Equipment

A roomy work surface, 24 to 30 inches deep by 30 to 36 inches (60cm to 77cm deep by 60cm to 92cm). Any smooth surface will do, but marble cools dough slightly, making it less flexible than desired.

A pastry scraper and a small wooden spoon for blending the dough.

A wooden dowel-style rolling pin. In Italy, pasta makers use one about 35 inches long and 2 inches thick (89cm long and 5cm thick). The shorter American-style pin with handles at either end can be used, but the longer it is, the easier it is to roll the pasta.
Note: although it is not traditional, Enza has successfully made pasta with a marble rolling pin, and this can be substituted for the wooden pin, if you have one.

Plastic wrap to wrap the resting dough and to cover rolled-out pasta waiting to be filled. It protects the pasta from drying out too quickly.

A sharp chef’s knife for cutting pasta sheets.

Cloth-covered chair backs, broom handles, or specially designed pasta racks found in cookware shops for draping the pasta.

Mixing the dough:
Mound the flour in the center of your work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and spinach. Use a wooden spoon to beat together the eggs and spinach. Then gradually start incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As you work more and more flour into the liquid, the well’s sides may collapse. Use a pastry scraper to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate the last bits of flour into the dough. Don’t worry if it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump.

Kneading:
With the aid of the scraper to scoop up unruly pieces, start kneading the dough. Once it becomes a cohesive mass, use the scraper to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface – these will make the dough lumpy. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. Its consistency should be elastic and a little sticky. If it is too sticky to move easily, knead in a few more tablespoons of flour. Continue kneading about 10 minutes, or until the dough has become satiny, smooth, and very elastic. It will feel alive under your hands. Do not shortcut this step. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it relax at room temperature 30 minutes to 3 hours.

Stretching and Thinning:
If using an extra-long rolling pin work with half the dough at a time. With a regular-length rolling pin, roll out a quarter of the dough at a time and keep the rest of the dough wrapped. Lightly sprinkle a large work surface with flour. The idea is to stretch the dough rather than press down and push it. Shape it into a ball and begin rolling out to form a circle, frequently turning the disc of dough a quarter turn. As it thins outs, start rolling the disc back on the pin a quarter of the way toward the center and stretching it gently sideways by running the palms of your hands over the rolled-up dough from the center of the pin outward. Unroll, turn the disc a quarter turn, and repeat. Do twice more.

Stretch and even out the center of the disc by rolling the dough a quarter of the way back on the pin. Then gently push the rolling pin away from you with one hand while holding the sheet in place on the work surface with the other hand. Repeat three more times, turning the dough a quarter turn each time.

Repeat the two processes as the disc becomes larger and thinner. The goal is a sheet of even thickness. For lasagne, the sheet should be so thin that you can clearly see your hand through it and see colours. Cut into rectangles about 4 by 8 inches (10 x 20 cm). Note: Enza says that transparency is a crucial element of lasagne pasta and the dough should be rolled as thinly as possible. She says this is why her housekeeper has such strong arms!

Dry the pasta at room temperature and store in a sealed container or bag.

#2 Bechamel

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) unsalted butter
4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) all purpose unbleached (plain) flour, organic stone ground preferred
2&2/3 cups (approx 570ml) milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.

#3 Country Style Ragu’ (Ragu alla Contadina)

Preparation Time: Ingredient Preparation Time 30 minutes and Cooking time 2 hours

Makes enough sauce for 1 recipe fresh pasta or 1 pound/450g dried pasta)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (45 mL)
2 ounces/60g pancetta, finely chopped
1 medium onion, minced
1 medium stalk celery with leaves, minced
1 small carrot, minced
4 ounces/125g boneless veal shoulder or round
4 ounces/125g pork loin, trimmed of fat, or 4 ounces/125g mild Italian sausage (made without fennel)
8 ounces/250g beef skirt steak, hanging tender, or boneless chuck blade or chuck center cut (in order of preference)
1 ounce/30g thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma
2/3 cup (5 ounces/160ml) dry red wine
1 &1/2 cups (12 ounces/375ml) chicken or beef stock (homemade if possible)
2 cups (16 ounces/500ml) milk
3 canned plum tomatoes, drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Working Ahead:
The ragu can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. It also freezes well for up to 1 month. Skim the fat from the ragu’ before using it.

Browning the Ragu Base:
Heat the olive oil in a 12 inch (30cm) skillet (frying pan) over medium-high heat. Have a large saucepan handy to use once browning is complete. Add the pancetta and minced vegetables and sauté, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, 10 minutes, or until the onions barely begin to color. Coarsely grind all the meats together, including the prosciutto, in a food processor or meat grinder. Stir into the pan and slowly brown over medium heat. First the meats will give off a liquid and turn dull grey but, as the liquid evaporates, browning will begin. Stir often, scooping under the meats with the wooden spatula. Protect the brown glaze forming on the bottom of the pan by turning the heat down. Cook 15 minutes, or until the meats are a deep brown. Turn the contents of the skillet into a strainer and shake out the fat. Turn them into the saucepan and set over medium heat.

Reducing and Simmering: Add the wine to the skillet, lowering the heat so the sauce bubbles quietly. Stir occasionally until the wine has reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Scrape up the brown glaze as the wine bubbles. Then pour the reduced wine into the saucepan and set the skillet aside.

Stir ½ cup stock into the saucepan and let it bubble slowly, 10 minutes, or until totally evaporated. Repeat with another ½ cup stock. Stir in the last 1/2 cup stock along with the milk. Adjust heat so the liquid bubbles very slowly. Partially cover the pot, and cook 1 hour. Stir frequently to check for sticking.

Add the tomatoes, crushing them as they go into the pot. Cook uncovered, at a very slow bubble for another 45 minutes, or until the sauce resembles a thick, meaty stew. Season with salt and pepper.

A favorite meal

2009-03-12T22:10:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite meals to cook is lemon chicken with pesto pasta. Luckily it is also one of my family's favorite meals to eat! Our grocery store has started selling gourmet specialty pastas.

These pasta nests are one of my favorite things lately. I try not to eat pasta frequently, but these tagliatelle nests are irresistible!

Lemon Chicken
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 lemons, zested
3 cups chicken broth

Method:
Fillet the chicken breasts and set aside. Mix together the flour, garlic powder and salt. Dredge chicken in flour mixture. Saute the chicken in olive oil. Once chicken is cooked through, remove from pan and set aside. Add lemon zest to the pan. Add in chicken broth and boil for 5-7 minutes until slightly reduced. Add in lemon juice and chicken, boil until heated through.

Pesto Pasta
Ingredients
1 bunch basil
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Pecorino Romano cheese
1 pound tagliatelle, cooked

Method:
In a blender mix together first 6 ingredients and blend until chopped and mixed thoroughly. Pour onto hot pasta and toss until coated.

Serve chicken atop pesto pasta.

My favorite kitchen tool...

2009-03-05T21:38:00.001-05:00

I grew up in apple country. The town I lived in had more apple trees than people. I have many memories from when I was a little girl that include both picking apples and cooking with them. I used to make applesauce every year with my grandmother, it is one of my fondest memories with her. After years of asking different family members if they had her old food mill, one of my aunts got the hint, and bought me one for Christmas.

I used it for applesauce and apple butter, and the occasional smooth mashed potato. It wasn't until I started making baby food that I used it on a weekly basis. This tool has become the most coveted in the kitchen. I can make the 8 month old any food he wants to eat. I've put every fruit and vegetable imaginable through it.

It is amazing to me how easy the food mill is to take apart and put together, with only 3 pieces it isn't complicated at all. There are no small parts, just the tension rod on top holding it together, making it very intuitive to use. My favorite thing about it is how easy it is to clean. It is stainless steel, and dishwasher safe, which is a huge perk. But without even putting it into the dishwasher, it rinses clean very easily, which makes rinsing it between foods a cinch.

Greek Risotto

2009-03-05T09:51:00.002-05:00

A hearty side dish, risotto is a tasty accompaniment to a myriad of different meals. With a Greek twist, this risotto paired beautifully with roasted lemon oregano chicken.

Greek Risotto:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

8 ounces arborio rice

23 ounces chicken broth, warmed

4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

Method:

Saute together the onion and bell pepper until both are tender. Add in rice and cook until slightly transparent. Add in chicken broth 1/2 cup at a time, waiting until all of the liquid is absorbed until adding more. Stir occasionally. Once all liquid is added and rice is al dente, add in feta and stir until well combined.

Serve immediately.

Lemon Oregano Chicken

2009-03-04T11:26:00.005-05:00

I frequently crave Greek inspired food, but not everyone I cook for in enjoys it as much as me. I made roasted chicken legs with a lemon oregano sauce to satisfy my craving and to make it enjoyable for everyone else who was eating.

Lemon Oregano Chicken

Ingredients:

2 pounds chicken legs and thighs, skin on

1 lemon

2 tablespoons oregano

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 garlic cloves

1/2 cup olive oil

Method:

Lay chicken legs and thighs in baking pan. Combine juice of lemon, lemon zest, oregano, red wine vinegar and garlic in a blender, mix until well combined and garlic is chopped. Slowly stream in olive oil while blender is running to create and emulsion. Once sauce is combined and thickened slightly, pour most of the sauce, approximately 3/4 of it, over the chicken and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, until chicken is cook through and tender. Remove the chicken from the oven. At this point, pour the rest of the sauce over the chicken, and let it rest for 5 minutes.

February Daring Bakers!

2009-02-28T10:03:00.005-05:00

This month's daring bakers challenge was to make a chocolate Valentino cake and Ice cream. What a perfect month for a sweet and simple chocolate dessert.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The cake was beyond delicious, and even more simple. I served it with chocolate covered strawberries and whipped cream.

So here's the recipe!

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Cranberry Pomegranate Sauce

2009-02-26T10:46:00.001-05:00

I love cranberries. I also love pomegranates. Put them together and it is heavenly.
I was making a roasted turkey and the best way to serve roasted turkey is with a cranberry sauce. I didn't want to make the typical, cranberry orange sauce with warm winter spices. This time I left out the orange, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger. The result was a tart yet sweet meld of flavors that complimented each other beautifully.

Cranberry Pomegranate Sauce:
Ingredients:
1 bag cranberries (Mine were frozen from the fall)
1/4 cup pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon strawberry jam
2 tablespoons sugar

Method:
Put cranberries into a shallow nonstick sauce pan. Cook on medium high until most of the cranberries have popped and there is a reasonable amount of sauce forming in the bottom of the pan. Add in the jam and stir until well incorporated. Stir in pomegranate juice and boil until slightly thickened. Add in sugar and move to bowl to chill. Chill one hour.

Mardis Gras!

2009-02-25T10:15:00.002-05:00

There are few things in life better than cake. Tonight, after wanting to do it for a long time, I finally made cake balls. I originally got the idea from the wonderful Bakerella. I've wanted to make them since right before I went onto The Martha Stewart Show to talk about her cake balls.

The idea is simple, you take the cake and basically mush it into crumbs. Once its a big pile of crumbs, you mix in frosting. I used my favorite cake recipe, and I used store bought cream cheese frosting. Although this is my favorite cake in the world, the cake came out dry and crumbly, I couldn't even get it out of the pan without it breaking. This lent itself wonderfully to cake balls. Once I realized there would be no cake in it's future, I decided to go ahead and give it a try! I took the mushy frosting cake mixture and formed it into balls and dipped them in chocolate. I decorated them with green, purple and gold sprinkles in honor of Mardis Gras.

They were really one of the best cake experiences I've ever had. I suggest you make them the next time you have spare cake parts.

Nothing beats fresh baked goods...

2009-02-24T10:58:00.005-05:00

I'm endlessly inspired by other bloggers. I love browsing and getting recipes from fellow cooks in the blog world. I find Chuck from The Knead For Bread, to be an absolute genius. I think he has some of the most appealing pictures and recipes out of any of the blogs that I follow.

Inspired by his post on English muffins, I decided to give his recipe a try, and actually go all out and top it with tomatoes, spinach, and poached eggs as he did. I started getting them ready at around 10pm last night, which was a little late for such an endeavor, but I was excited to try them.

English Muffins
Adapted from The Knead For Bread

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (approximately 110 degrees F)
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 packet instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg white
cornmeal

Method:
Mix together Water, 1 cup flour, yeast, and baking soda in a large bowl. In a separate clean bowl, whisk egg white to stiff peaks, don't over beat or egg white will become dry and separate. Mix 1/3 of the egg white into the batter, and mix until combined, continue with the rest of egg whites. Once fully incorporated, start adding the remaining 2 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup at a time. With about 1 cup remaining, move dough to counter and knead in remaining flour. Knead for 7 minutes, until dough is very smooth. Transfer to a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for approximately 1 hour, until doubled in size.
Once dough has doubled in bulk, turn it out onto a floured surface, press with knuckles to release some air, then roll out to 1/2 inch. Cut out 3 inch circles, you can mash up the remaining dough and roll the scraps and cut again, repeat until you don't have any more dough. Place circles on a cookie sheet coated with cornmeal, and top with more cornmeal. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 1 hour.
10 Minutes before you're ready to cook them, turn on your griddle to medium high heat. Spray griddle with nonstick spray. Place each muffin on the griddle, I was able to cook 8/batch. Flip every 4 minutes, cooking for a total of 16 minutes. Repeat with second batch.

I topped mine with vine ripened tomato, fresh spinach, and a poached egg. I also added thick sliced local bacon, for those who eat pork products.

They were also delicious with a bit of butter and strawberry jam.

Chinese Night!

2009-02-13T22:54:00.002-05:00

The same night I made spring rolls, I made sesame chicken and soba noodles with bok choy.

Sesame Chicken
Ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts (approximately 8 ounces)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 can of pineapple chunks, with juice
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (as desired).

Method:
Chunk chicken into small bite size pieces. Add the chicken to a hot pan with vegetable oil, sautee until no longer pink. Add in the juice from the can of pineapple, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Stir until combined and cook until sauce has slightly thickened. Add in pineapple chunks and sesame oil. Sautee for 2 minutes, or until pineapple is heated through. Top with sesame seeds and red pepper flakes as desired.

Soba Noodles with Bok Choy
Ingredients:
1 package fresh soba noodles
1 cup chicken broth
1 ounce hoisin sauce
1 ounce soy sauce
1 head bok choy, chopped
1 teaspoon ginger

Prepare soba noodles as directed on package.
Meanwhile, wilt bok choy in 1/2 cup chicken broth, approximately 2 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add the remaining 1/2 cup chicken broth, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce to the pan and stir and heat through. Add in prepared soba noodles, bok choy, and ginger. Stir over low heat 4-5 minutes until noodles have absorbed the sauce.

Spring rolls

2009-02-12T22:23:00.002-05:00

We're very lucky to have a fantastic produce grocery store in my relatively rural area. While shopping the other day, in an effort to have a more diverse menu this week, we picked up a head of napa cabbage, bok choy, soba noodles, and spring roll wrappers. I came home and found some ideas of what to do with each of these ingredients and ended up making spring rolls, bok choy lo mein, and sesame chicken.

Spring Rolls
Ingredients:
1 head napa cabbage, shredded
2 large carrots, grated
4 scallions, sliced on the bias
Spring roll wrappers

Method:
Sautee together all ingredients, with no liquid or fat in the pan.
Soak spring roll wrapper in hot water for 10 seconds, until soft. Put 3 tablespoons of filling in the center of the wrapper and form into rectangle. Wrap from the left over to the right, fold up from the bottom and down from the top. Roll the entire roll to the right to finish wrapping the roll. Set aside.

Crepes

2009-02-11T23:29:00.004-05:00

A light, sweet, delicious dessert that's low calorie too!

Crepes filled with cool whip and strawberries topped with chocolate sauce:
Recipe adapted from Alton Brown:

Ingredients:
2 Large eggs
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons melted butter

Method:
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until well combined.
Let rest for one hour in the refrigerator, this allows the bubbles to dissolve, which will make the crepes less likely to tear while cooking.

Heat crepe pan and pour 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan. Rotate pan until thin, even circle is made. Cook crepes until lightly brown, flip and cook for additional minute.
Repeat until all batter is used.

Honey Roasted Chicken

2009-02-09T09:13:00.005-05:00

Who doesn't love a roasted chicken, twice baked potatoes and lemon garlic broccoli? That's what the thought was when planning last night's dinner.

Honey Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:
1 Whole chicken cut up
2 Tablespoons Thyme
2 Tablespoons Lemon juice
3 Tablespoons butter
3 Garlic cloves
2 Tablespoons Honey
1 Teaspoon Salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Pat chicken dry and place spaced out on a roasting pan. I used a cookie sheet with a silicone mat. Mix thyme and lemon juice in a microwave safe bowl. Add butter and melt it all together in the microwave, for 30 seconds. Mince and add garlic and microwave again until butter is thoroughly melted. Add honey and salt, and stir well until combined. Rub butter mixture over all the chicken parts. I rub it both over and under the skin, since there is honey in the rub it will caramelize in the oven, so I like to have it under the skin to add flavor.
Roast the chicken for 35 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.

Success!

2009-01-31T14:39:00.006-05:00

Daring bakers, take 2

After my tuiles went very poorly, I decided I had to give them another go around. This time I used much less flour than the recipe called for. I had a much thinner batter this time around, and after some googling, I got some tips to help me smooth them into thin rounds easily. The differences in my results were amazing. This time they came out a delicious, light crisp cookie. They were completely delightful. I served them with some strawberry lemon meringue and fresh strawberries.

I was taking pictures of my completed challenge when my sister Jenn and her step daughter Jaclyn came home. Jaclyn is a strawberry fiend, and was dying to try some immediately!

I made Jaclyn her own plate to enjoy.

And enjoy she did. She dug right in! She dipped the strawberries in the meringue and gobbled most of that up, and then ate the cookie.

According to her, they were both a huge success!

Daring Bakers Disaster!!

2009-01-29T21:12:00.004-05:00

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x Umruehren Bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angelique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

After checking the challenge early in the month, I decided it was easy and it could wait until a little later in the month. And that would have been a good plan except that this week got a little bit crazy. My cousin is making her Bat Mitzvah this weekend and in helping other family prepare to travel out to Colorado to help her celebrate, I got very busy and forgot all about the challenge. It wasn't until this evening when I got a call from Kristyn, from over at SugarHoot, that I remembered that I had to bake. She told me they were easy, and I'd have no problem doing them tonight...Boy was she wrong.

I think I need to take some more time and really examine the recipe to see where I messed up, I think they were too thick, and I think the batter was too thick. I plan on remaking them tomorrow to
see if i can make it better...

But for now, here are my tuiles!

Smells like Christmas...

2008-12-17T09:51:00.001-05:00

If you were to ask my mom, Christmas isn't Christmas without snickerdoodles. These are her favorite cookie, so when I went on my baking adventure 2008, I had to include them for her. I made 7 types of cookies, all with different flavors and textures. The simplest of these was the snickerdoodle. With just a simple coating in cinnamon sugar before baking, they have a subtle sweetness that matches their chewy texture beautifully.

Classic Snickerdoodles

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter; softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees
Mix sugar, butter, shortening and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on wire rack.

Cookies cookies everywhere...

2008-12-16T09:03:00.001-05:00

These cookies go by many different names Russian tea cookies, pecan balls, or in my family, snowballs. All of the recipes are very similar and they are topped with the unmistakable adornment of crisp white powdered sugar. The look of a powdered doughnut draws in kids and the unmistakable flavor hooks them for life. The cookie is slightly dry, and barely sweet, and definitely not overwhelming. My cousins have been known to eat entire tins before realizing what they were doing, or being caught by their parents!

Grandma's Snowballs
This recipe is written exactly how my grandmother wrote it on her recipe card...Not my style, but it is her recipe after all...

Beat well:
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream together:
Egg mixture
1 cup butter or crisco
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar; sifted

Sift together:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Add:
1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Chill 30 Minutes in refrigerator

Form into 1 inch balls

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Bake 8 to 10 minutes

Roll in powdered sugar immediately out of oven; Caution will be hot!!

Cool and roll again in powdered sugar

Cookie Spectacular.

2008-12-15T09:57:00.006-05:00

I truly love the holiday season. Everything about it makes me happy. It is the time of year when I get to spend copious amounts of time with my family, bake obscene amounts of cookies, and finish the day with a wonderfully delicious Harpoon Winter Warmer. I really love that beer, I look forward to it all year long.

For my first of the many holiday cookie posts to come, I'm going to highlight chocolate chip cookies. This recipe was adapted from all recipes. This dough is by far the best cookie dough any of us have ever had.

Chocolate chip cookies - Makes 3 Dozen (we got closer to 5 dozen worth of dough, but we actually produced 4 dozen cookies)

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened (I like to leave my butter out overnight if I know I'll be baking the next day)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) package jell-o brand vanilla instant pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
In a large bowl cream together butter and both sugars. Blend in instant pudding mix. Add eggs and vanilla extract.
Mix in flour and baking soda.
Once blended stir in chocolate chips.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are slightly browned.

Recipes to Rival Month 1

2008-12-09T11:26:00.004-05:00

Squash soup is what was on the menu this month over on recipes to rival!
The requirements were that we had to make our own stock, something I had never done, use squash, and use a vanilla cream garnish of some sort. I was really excited when I read the challenge because I had been wanting to make squash soup since fall began. This finally gave me the perfect excuse to just do it already! I liked the leniency of this specific challenge because as long as I made my own stock and used a vanilla garnish, i could use whatever squash soup recipe I wanted. I ended up making up my own after reading and getting inspired by other recipes.

I started on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving by making the stock and roasting the squash. I used my two favorite squashes, butternut and acorn. They're so flavorful and naturally sweet.

Once my stock had boiled away for hours and my squash was wonderfully tender, both went into the refrigerator overnight.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving in my family is what we call pie day. All of the women come over to my mom's house and we bake all the pies and we do a ton of prep work for the big day. I made the soup for dinner for everyone, it was delicious. Everyone liked it. I uses the butternut squash, acorn squash, an apple and a pear. I used an immersion blender to smooth the squash, apple, and stock together.
Once smooth, I added some apple cider, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. I tasted and tasted and tasted and couldn't figure out what to add in order to make it not taste like baby food. After some googling and searching, I decided to add 6 tablespoons of butter. That fixed my problem perfectly. It was amazing.

I then made whipped cream with vanilla bean. That was so delicious. I actually used what I needed for the soup, and then sweetened it for use on the pumpkin pies on Thanksgiving. So yummy!

I garnished with the vanilla whipped cream and some sage leaves.

DB: Caramel Cake!

2008-12-04T12:28:00.005-05:00

I know I'm a little bit late with my Caramel Cake post, but Thanksgiving was just crazy!

This month's challenge was Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting, by Shuna Fish Lydon. The host this month was Dolores from Culinary Curiosity with help from Alex from Blondie and Brownie, Jenny from Foray into Food, and Natalie from Gluten-a-Go-Go.

I was a little nervous about this month's recipe, simply because in the challenge there was a comment about how this cake it truly about baking. I was excited about that because I obviously like to bake, and I like a challenge, hence joining the group...However, I was nervous as this was the first time I took on a recipe that I thought to be challenging.

The recipe was very detailed with many different steps. We had to make a caramel syrup, brown butter, make frosting, and make a cake. The syrup was the part that I found to be the most difficult. I've made hard candy before, in the form of candy canes, but I had never made caramel. The recipe warned to wear long sleeves when pouring the water into the caramel, I ignored the long sleeves, but poured the water in with an oven mitt on my hand. Oh Boy! I was SO glad I made that decision. It really exploded. It was insane. I whisked it a little, and took it off the burner and let it cool. I read the recipe wrong and accidentally added like a cup of the syrup when it only called for 1/3 of a cup. oops. The cake still tasted pretty good, but it was a little overwhelmingly sweet, but that was to be expected when you mess up the recipe!

I made a 9x9 inch square cake, and it cooked for a relatively short time, like 30 minutes. It smelled delicious! While it was cooking I browned the butter and made the frosting. That part was truly delicious. I loved the brown butter, I thought it was delicious and added a great nuttiness to the frosting which balanced my excessively sweet cake nicely.
I loved the cake, and it would have been truly delicious if I had added the correct amount of syrup.

Have your cake...

2008-11-12T12:20:00.001-05:00

After caking the cake decorating classes earlier this year, I have become the official cake maker for all family functions. I love this job, I love trying to think of what everyone will like and seeing their faces after they see my creations, that are hopefully everything they hoped for.
September and October are insanely busy with birthdays and anniversaries in my family, so not everyone got cakes, which made me a little sad, but I wouldn't have left my kitchen between 9/20 and 10/29! There are 20 birthdays/anniversaries in that time!
What I was able to do is make cakes for all my cousins who fall in there, and then a separate one for our September/October birthday celebration that we have.
This was my Grandfather's cake, he turned 76 this year. He is a huge country music fan, and a good old southern boy. He adored the simplicity of it, and also the cowboy hat theme. His cake was one layer of vanilla and one of chocolate, filled with buttercream frosting.

This cake was for my cousin Danielle. I'm really close with both her and her twin sister, Devan. Since I started with the decorating, she had been telling me precisely what she wanted, the doll cake that they make. She wanted it to look like Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I didn't have much creative license on this one, as she was very specific, but she was superbly happy with the results. Danielle is a chocolate freak! Her cake was chocolate chocolate chocolate. Topped with a thin layer of vanilla (yellow) buttercream.

Then there is Devan's cake. She had no idea what she wanted. I looked back through my cake pictures then the idea hit me. She loved these two cakes I made way back when I started. Her favorite cake that I've made is actually my first cake. It had star tipped circles on it. Then she liked the cake I made for my own graduation party cake. It was insanely bright colors. Her favorite color is yellow and she is the most energetic 15 year old you'll ever meet. I love that about her, so I tried to make the cake feel like her. I think I was pretty successful, and she really loved it. Her cake was vanilla with vanilla frosting, and covered in mmf.

DB Pizza take 2!

2008-11-11T12:03:00.002-05:00

My pizza was a resounding success the first time, but my immediate family got a little mad at me for sharing it with my cousins instead of them. So I remade it for my mom, sister and her boyfriend.
I have to say, I found the dough to be slightly fool proof, as I ran out of bread flour half way through and started using all purpose flour, and still had the same delicious results as I had in the first go around. I love the dough recipe, and will never buy dough again!
This time we had:

BBQ Chicken Pizza. This had Sweet Baby Ray's honey bbq sauce, sauteed chicken, thinly sliced red onions, and mozzarella cheese.

Pepperoni Pizza

Plain old cheese pizza

Peppers and Onions Pizza

Everyone enjoyed it the second time around too. The BBQ chicken was by far the winner this time. However, that is always the winner around here, no matter how the pizza is prepared!

I think that face means that Jenni liked it, what do you think?

When the lights go out...

2008-11-10T23:00:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago here in New York we had a Saturday full of miserable weather, it didn't start out so bad, in fact it started out as a relatively normal northeast autumn day. The sky was blue, with a brisk breeze blowing colorful leaves around. Unfortunately that brisk breeze was bringing in a storm that would eventually leave us without power for more than six hours.... While the rain wasn't a huge surprise to us, as the weathermen had predicted it quite explicitly, the wind was quite unexpected.
Based on the predictions of the weathermen, Precious and I had decided to make chicken and dumplings for dinner. A delicious, warm and cozy food. Growing up with a very picky eater for a father, I had never before tried to cook or eat it. Presh says that the only recipe that she likes for chicken and dumplings is the Cooks Illustrated version. She saved it to her computer a few years ago when she discovered it, and I have been unable to relocate it on their website, but we used the version that she had saved.
Everything started out fine, we started cooking sometime around 4 pm while her 5 year old was contently playing his Nintendo DS and her 4 month old was snoozing soundly in his Stokke. (I'll post more on that later - as I think it is by far the best baby "supply" she has!) We teamed up and chopped and chopped all of the vegetables. The recipe makes a ton of food, we had enough for 3 adults for dinner the first night, then 4 adults the next night. So we finely chopped carrots, celery and onion, a mirepoix if I may. While she cleaned up after our chopping extravaganza, I went ahead and started browning our chicken thighs. We bought half with bones and skin and half without, in a futile effort to make this meal slightly better for you, and by that I mean that is what the grocery store had available.

Once all the chicken was browned and removed from the pot, we drained off all of the excess chicken fat and tossed in all of the nicely chopped vegetables and sauteed until tender. This may not seem like a difficult process, but if you have ever tried to lift a LeCreuset pot, you'd understand that a 13 qt french oven pot is nearly impossible to lift above elbow level to attempt to drain off extra fat!

Once all of our vegetables were nice and soft we added in some flour to make a nice non-floury tasting roux.

The flour turns this gorgeous light brown color, and then you add in the chicken stock and whole milk. Bring it to a boil and plop all of the nicely (now cold) browned chicken back into the pot.

For us, this is when the drama started, the power went out! Luckily, the stove is gas powered, and it was already on, so we could finish cooking the dinner. I do know that you can light a gas stove with a match when there isn't power, but with an infant in the house, I wasn't going to try it for the first time! The good news is that once the chicken was nestled soundly in the cooking liquid, it simply had to simmer away for the next two hours.

After two hours of simmering, and numerous flashlight lit stirrings, we pulled out all of the chicken and shredded it. Then we made the dumplings and dumped the shredded chicken into the pot again and topped with the dumplings.

I covered it and we let it simmer for 15 more minutes and then our lantern lit dinner was served!

Brittney really enjoyed the meal, I don't believe she was actually eating at warp speed, I'm willing to bet is has more to do with my lack of abilities with the dslr camera I was playing around with.

I'm thinking the thought going through her mind at this exact moment is, "Julie, I swear if these pictures end up on your blog, I'm going to beat you!" But, alas here they are...She's gorgeous and enjoying my food, I see no wrong!

Zachary did not like the idea of the power outage, nor did he like the chicken and dumplings. Okay, I guess it isn't fair to say that he didn't like the chicken and dumplings, he didn't try them, he didn't like the idea of them either I suppose.

My First Daring Bakers Challenge!

2008-10-29T09:00:00.012-04:00

October brought my first challenge with the Daring Bakers. It is a group of bakers which issue a challenge once a month, and I've been perusing the blog roll for a while now, and I finally gave in and joined. My first official challenge was the October challenge.

We made pizza! The challenge was to make pizza dough. I was super stoked about this because I've been making home made pizza for the past couple years, just not with making my own dough.

I started making the pizza on Monday night, the recipe said that the dough had to rest overnight in the refrigerator so for our Tuesday night debate and pizza party. I made pizza for 5 pizza, and we had about one 10 inch pizza left over. We were all beyond stuffed after eating, but it was truly spectacular, which I think is what lead us to eating more than we actually should have!

So on with the results!
These are my dough balls before putting them in the refrigerator to rest over night. They were very non-tacky and maintained their shape nicely.

My disks resting for 2 hours prior to being tossed and baked.

Tossing was more fun than I ever imagined it would be and it was much easier than I anticipated! I'm not sure if it is the recipe, ingredients, or simply method, but this dough was perfectly pliable without being mushy. It had great elasticity!

The plain pizza prior to making its trip to the oven...I made 6 pizzas. Four of them were plain, one was Gorgonzola and pear, and one was ranch flavored. The ranch one was scarfed down by my cousin and her boyfriend before I could even take a picture!

My very beautiful plain cheese pizza straight out of the oven. It was absolutely divine. Wonderfully crunchy crust, with just enough rise to make the crust itself a little chewy, and the perfect crunch through the rest of the pizza.

Gorgonzola, pear and caramelized onions, could it get much better? This pizza was by far the winner of the night. My cousin and her husband are still raving about it!

We obviously thought the recipe was a hit, and I absolutely LOVED being a part of my first daring bakers challenge. My cousin's boyfriend thinks that there should be a new challenge weekly!

So without further ado, the recipe:

4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

Sweatshirts!

2008-10-20T20:46:00.003-04:00

First attempt at babyfood!

2008-10-06T22:31:00.003-04:00

Precious' son is 14 weeks old now and is just starting to eat solid foods. She wants to make his baby food in an attempt to expand his palette beyond pizza, chicken on a stick and cheese eggs. We gave it a try for the first time this weekend.
We started by making avocado, butternut squash and applesauce. All three were super simple to make. We simply put the avocado in the blender with a little bit of water. As for the butternut squash and the applesauce, those were baked prior to being put through my food mill. But still super simple! I can't wait to try different flavor combinations and stages of food for him.
Avocado in the blender:
Smushed butternut squash:
Avocado being put into the ice cube trays for freezing:

It was so much fun, and I really can't wait to try more!

Salsa!

2008-10-06T21:51:00.008-04:00

End of summer means tomato season, and now that the grocery stores are full of plump, vine ripened, local tomatoes it is hard to not want to come up with methods of using them. Last week I oven roasted plum tomatoes and made tomato sauce from actual tomatoes for the first time. This weekend, Precious and I made and jarred salsa for the first time.
We started with just over 11lbs of plum tomatoes
3 Long hot peppers, 3 Cherry peppers, 3 jalepenos, 4 limes, 10 cloves of garlic
3 bell peppers and 2 sweet onions
The peeling and seeding of the tomatoes was a lot of work!
Then it simmered restlessly for 20 minutes on the stove
Once all done, it had to cool for a couple minutes
While waiting to be jarred...

It ended up being 11 jars of delicious salsa, and the 12th is apple sauce that we made for Precious' 14 week old son, Jackson.

Tiramisu and Eclairs Too!

2008-09-15T20:11:00.001-04:00

Delicious. I'll be back with pictures soon.

2008-05-07T11:47:00.002-04:00

Menu:

Wednesday: Hamburgers, Pasta with Grilled Vegetables and Feta, Summer Salad
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:

Grocery List:
Produce:
Bell Peppers
Red Onion
Cerry Tomatoes
Oregano

Grocery:
Penne Pasta

Meat:
Ground Bison

Dairy:
Feta Cheese

Frozen Foods:
Peaches
Rhubarb

2008-03-30T17:18:00.002-04:00

Grilled Chicken and Tapenade Sandwiches
Barley Pasta Salad
Creamy Cilantro Lime Sauce
Garlicky Roasted Potato Salad
Garlicky Vegetable Pasta Salad
Lemon Garbanzo Salad with Feta
Quinoa, Corn, and Tomato Salad
Roasted Vegetable Pasta Salad
Spinach, Chicken and Feta Salad
Brown Sugar Glazed Sweet Potato Wedges
Creamy Parmesan Orzo
Creamed Spinach Gratin
Garlic Fries
Greek Couscous
Greek Tomatoes
Mustard Dressed Asparagus

Polenta with Roasted Red Peppers and Fontina Cheese
Roasted Cauliflower with Fresh Herbs and Parmesan

2008-01-17T20:44:00.000-05:00

enchiladas were delicious as ever.

2008-01-17T17:53:00.000-05:00

i believe i'm making enchiladas tonight for dinner. now i'm sitting here watching tv via netflix. I'm totally beyond crushing on a boy. thursday has been relatively good.

Menu 1/14/2008

2008-01-14T13:18:00.000-05:00

Menu:
Monday: Mustard Roasted *Chicken*, Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Tuesday: Enchiladas
Wednesday: Cake class night, I'll eat out
Thursday: Chicken in Pasta. Simple.
Friday: Potato, Spinach, Red Bell Pepper Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette (hold the bacon)
Saturday: Probably Out.
Sunday: I'm not sure yet.

Last week was very overwhelming, and I didn't get to make most things on my list.
I'm reusing most of last week's recipes. No grocery list this week :-)

Gnocchi in review...

2008-01-14T12:57:00.000-05:00

This was my first attempt at gnocchi, and I have to say that I was pretty impressed. In general I'm not a huge fan of gnocchi. I don't like it, and the last time I had it, I ended up having and allergic reaction to it. But things went much much better this time.
The ingredients needed for gnocchi are very simple. You need mashed potatoes, flour, salt, and an egg. There is a "correct" ratio of potatoes to flour, but I simply added enough flour until the potatoes and the egg came to the right texture to be rolled into snakes before being cut and shaped.
I skipped taking pictures of the rolling and the mixing because my hands were absolutely disgusting and I wasn't risking ruining my camera by doing that. Basically, I took baseball sized pieces of dough and rolled it out into a rope and cut it into small pieces. When cut the dough looks almost pillow shaped. I then dropped the gnocchi dough pillows into boiling water for 2 minutes or until it floated on top of the water. At this point I put it in ice water to stop the cooking then moved them to a cookie sheet to await further use. Once I was done I made a pink sauce, and dumped the gnocchi in.
Then I stirred it all together and let it simmer until Kristyn and Anne got here to eat. I think one of the best parts about it was that I let it simmer in the sauce, they got a good flavor from residing in the delicious pink sauce for so long.

2008-01-10T13:50:00.000-05:00

Tonight is Kristyn's birthday celebration and I'm making homemade gnocchi. I'm a bit excited about trying it.

But before I get to that, I have to comment on the Lemon and Herb Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and easy Caesar Salad. The chicken was amazing. I really liked it, it was super tender and flavorful. Very healthy because I didn't use any fat in it at all. However, the Caesar Salad was nearly inedible. It was far too lemony and garlicky. I am pretty sure it made my tongue tingle, and not in a good way.

Yesterday was my first cake decorating class. So far we haven't done anything for real, but we talked about our upcoming weeks. The teacher is very go with the flow, and she is into giving us the knowledge to do what we want to do with it. Most classes require that you make a rainbow cake your first week, a clown cake the second week, and a rose cake the third week. So it is kind of exciting to be able to learn what we want to learn and do something more our "style."

Kristyn and I have been discussing what kinds of cakes we're interested in making. I have been doing a ton of research on what I want my cakes to look like. As of right now I am planning on making a white square cake with teal circles. I'm looking for other ideas.

I have to go research some tips in making gnocchi!

Sometimes I'm just a bad person...

2008-01-08T14:38:00.000-05:00

My plan for my day today was quite simple, do some work in the morning, followed by an early afternoon of birthday shopping for Kristyn. The morning started off that simple. I got up and I did a bunch of school work and then I did some IBM work. When I finished all the work that I had to do, I got cleaned up and went on my way.
I went to Downtown Crossing to DSW to see if they had the brown shoes by Sketchers that I want. They did, but they were $55! I couldn't justify that. Even with the $10 off coupon I have. I was a little annoyed because all the other shoes of the same style were $49. I walked around, browsing for a gift for Kristyn. I kind of was looking for a cute dress for her to wear to work, they had some at Banana Republic that I was interested in, but I didn't love any of them. I found one at H&M, but that one was black and white, and I would have preferred a color. I walked down to the Faneuil Hall area and continued to look. I stopped in Crate and Barrel to see if they had any fun kitchen supplies, but they didn't. I went to Victoria's Secret, and they are having their semi annual sale. I searched through the buckets of bras to find that they had one of the very sexy convertible bras that I adore. I bought it for myself.
I then went to look around Banana Republic and the Loft hoping to find something for Kristyn. Then I went up to the Gap and looked around. I found a green wrap dress that I thought she'd be interested in, but they didn't have her size. At the Gap, I saw that the Project (RED) shirts that I love were on sale. So I bought three for myself.

Aren't they cute? I'm actually wearing the blue one at the moment.

So that's my day. I went shopping for Kristyn and I ended up spending more than $50 on myself.

Tonight I'm going to make dinner for me and Anne, and then we're going to the movies, she wants to see Juno. I am feeling the need for some trivia...I'll have to look that up.

Monday mishaps...

2008-01-08T14:30:00.000-05:00

So the rebels that Anne and I are decided to go to the grocery store at 7pm last night in hopes of coming home to cook that mustard crusted chicken and the delicious roasted sweet potatoes and then go to see Juno at 9:45 on the Commons. That plan did not even come close to working out as we had hoped.

We got to the grocery store a bit before 7, didn't leave until after 8, didn't get home until after 8:30, and didn't end up eating until 9:15ish. As we started preparing dinner Anne informed Kristyn and I that it was time to leave for the movie. We didn't see Juno last night.

We did eat the most delicious Feta and Sundried Tomato Stuffed Chicken and Lemon Parmesan Orzo though. It was truly amazing. I didn't follow a recipe, I just made it up as I went along. I ended up making a sauce by deglazing the pan with simply water, adding sundried tomatoes to that, letting it simmer while the Orzo cooked, and then finishing it off with a tiny bit of feta simply to add creaminess to the sauce. It was very good, and the sundried tomatoes in the sauce went delightfully with the lemon/parmesan combo on the orzo.

Tonight I will make the mustard crusted chicken. I promise.

Menu 1/7/2008

2008-01-07T13:40:00.000-05:00

Menu:
Monday: Mustard Roasted *Chicken*, Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Tuesday: Potato, Spinach, Red Bell Pepper Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette (hold the bacon)
Wednesday: Enchiladas
Thursday: Gnocchi, Lemon Roasted Green Beans with Almonds, Birthday cake
Friday: Chicken Stuffed with Feta and Sundried Tomatoes, Lemon Parmesan Orzo, and Sauteed Spinach
Saturday: Probably Out.
Sunday:Lemon-Herb Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Easy Caesar Salad

Shopping List:
Produce:
Lemons
Spinach (2 bags)
Garlic
Potatoes
Green Beans
Onions
Marjoram
Red Bell Pepper
Sweet Potatoes
Thyme
Red Potatoes
Romaine Lettuce

Meats:
Chicken

Dairy:
Parmesan Cheese
Feta Cheese
Eggs
Shredded Cheese
Sour Cream

Grocery:
Orzo
Vegetable Oil
Olive Oil
Sundried Tomatoes
Flour
Kosher Salt
Almonds
Red Wine Vinegar
Red Pepper Flakes
Chili Powder
Dried Basil
Dried Oregano
Dried Rosemary
Cumin
Tortilla Shells
Tomato Sauce
Chipotle Peppers
Refried Beans
White Rice
Dijon Mustard
Bread Crumbs
Whole Wheat Bread

Back in Beantown

2008-01-07T00:18:00.000-05:00

So here I am, back in Boston again...One more semester of school left, and it is looking to be quite a busy one!
I moved into my new apartment where I plan on spending my time working, doing school work, and of course cooking lots of new and different foods. Kristyn and I are taking cake decorating classes at Michaels through Wilton starting on Wednesday and I couldn't be more excited. So for the next 4 weeks on Wednesday nights she and I will be embarking to Michaels to learn a thing or two about cakes!

The week ahead is seeming like it could be a busy one!
Tomorrow is the first day of classes, and my first day working remotely from Boston. Tuesday should be relatively calm. Wednesday is cake decorating class 1! Thursday is an all new Grey's, who doesn't get excited about such things!! And Friday is always a good time. Kristyn's birthday is also this weekend so it should be fun to do something for her birthday one day this week. Which also means that I have to figure out a good birthday gift for her before Thursday!

On my to do list for tomorrow is some menu planning and grocery shopping, so I will post about my menu and grocery list later!

2007-06-24T21:45:00.000-04:00

Monday:
Grilled Pizzas

Tuesday: Big barbecue dinner for Paul's last visit.
Potato Cobb Salad
Sweet and Sticky Chicken Drumsticks

Coconut Biscotti

Wednesday:
Greek Salads with grilled chicken

Thursday:
Rum-Pepper Steak Sandwiches
Tomato, Cucumber and Onion Salad
Pasta Salad

Friday:
Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
Corn on the cob
Baked Fries

Saturday:

Sunday:

College is over!

2007-05-07T09:01:00.000-04:00

Since college is now over, and I don't have a 9-5 job set up yet (on purpose!) I'm going to have a lot more time for cooking. I'm trying to make my family try new things, and hopefully they enjoy all the food.

Menu:
Sunday: Roasted ham, scalloped potatoes, corn
Monday: Mesquite grilled chicken, pine nut and lemon orzo, peas
Tuesday: Chili rubbed steak with corn and red pepper relish, Grilled onion and potato salad, green beans
Wednesday: Spicy chicken and snow peas
Thursday: Tacos
Friday: Chicken with Greek wet rub, Greek rice pilaf
Saturday: Bruchetta Chicken, Pasta
Sunday: London broil with Texas BBQ dry rub, Grilled corn on the cob

Grocery List:
Produce:
Lemons
Parsley
Red Onion
Cilantro
Lime
Red Potatoes
Vidalia onions
Carrots
Snow peas
Oregano
Rosemary
Bruschetta

Meats:
Steaks

Dairy:

Grocery:
Orzo
Pine Nuts
Sherry Vinegar
Chicken Broth
Rice Vinegar
Chili paste with garlic
Peanuts

Menu for week of 1/28

2007-01-29T10:36:00.000-05:00

Menu
Sunday: Tortilla Soup
Monday: Chicken Wings and Salad
Tuesday: Chicken in Pasta with Lemon
Wednesday: Stir Fry and Rice
Thursday: Chili
Friday: Chicken Salad with Couscous
Saturday: Pasta
Sunday: Salad

Menu for week of 1/22

2007-01-22T10:42:00.000-05:00

Week of 1/22/07 - 1/28/07

Menu:
Monday: Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad
Tuesday: Chicken with Cider and Bacon Sauce, Wild Rice, Broccoli
Wednesday: Chicken and Couscous Salad
Thursday: Herbed Chicken Piccata Pasta
Friday: Stir-Fried Chicken Salad
Saturday: Grilled Chicken with Cranberry Sauce, Potatoes, Green Beans
Sunday: Pasta

Grocery List:
Produce:
Bags of Salad (2)
Cilantro
Red Onion
Apple Cider
Scallions
Garlic
Lemon
Broccoli

Dairy:
Sour Cream

Grocery:
Chipotle Chili in Adobo
Lime Juice
Black Beans
Chicken Broth
Couscous
Wild Rice
Cumin

2007-01-15T11:22:00.000-05:00

Menu:
Monday: Pan Grilled Chicken with Cranberry Salsa
Tuesday: Lemon Chicken over Linguine
Wednesday: Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce and White Rice
Thursday: Chicken, Corn, Green Onion Rotini
Friday: We'll see... :-)
Saturday: Chili Seared Chicken with Pineapple Salsa
Sunday: Fresh Pasta with Lemon Cheese Sauce

Grocery List:
Plum Tomato
Onion
Flour
Peanut Butter
Canned Pineapple
Lunch Meat
Soup
Bread
Fig Newton Minis

Week in review

2007-01-15T11:10:00.000-05:00

Well, my first week and a half back on course went pretty well. I didn't make too many things from my list just because I wasn't home every night, and we were pretty busy just because we were all back and together.

I did make: Chicken Slovakia, Enchiladas, Rosemary Chicken, Skillet Chicken Pasta, and the BBQ Chicken Pizza.

All of them were delicious! The pizza was spectacular. The skillet chicken pasta was pretty tasty, but it needed some color to it. It was very brown, with the chicken, mushrooms, and pasta. I don't know what I would have added for color, but it needed some color. The rosemary chicken, I put over pasta and made extra sauce because I was stretching it to feed lots of people.

I'm going to go ahead and make the recipes this week that I missed over the last week.

2007-01-07T14:42:00.000-05:00

So last night was enchilada Saturday, and it was fantastic. I had Kristyn, Dan, Anne, Paul, Yasmine and myself here for dinner. I love cooking for big crowds. Tonight Banana is coming over for dinner, I think I'm doing Greek chicken and feta rice pilaf. yum!

2007-01-02T23:13:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!
With 2007, I'm heading back to Boston and that means more cooking for me! I'm moving back on Thursday the 4th so here is my menu for the next week or so!

Menu:
Thursday: Pan Grilled Chicken with Cranberry Salsa
Friday: Chicken Slovakia
Saturday: Enchiladas
Sunday: Skewers of Rosemary Chicken and Zucchini
Monday: Skillet Chicken Pasta
Tuesday: BBQ Chicken Pizza
Wednesday: Lemon Chicken over Linguine
Thursday: Chicken Sate with Peanut Sauce
Friday: Chicken, Corn, and Green Onion Rotini
Saturday: Fresh Pasta with Lemon Cheese Sauce

Grocery List:
Chicken
Salt
Pepper
Scallions
Pickled jalepenos
Balsamic Vinegar
Cranberry Orange Sauce
Cilantro
Lime Juice
Cream Cheese
Pasta
Olive Oil
Garlic
Lemon Juice
Zucchini
Butter
Onion
Mushrooms
Chicken Broth
Pita
Plain Yogurt
Corn Tortillas
Tomato Sauce
Ancho Chiles
Refried Beans
Cheese (2)
Boboli Pizza Dough
Plum Tomatoes
BBQ sauce
Peanut Butter
Frozen Corn
Pecorino Romano Cheese
Flour
Bread
Deli Turkey
Deli Cheese
Snacks -
Garbage Bags

Back on track!

2006-12-07T19:51:00.000-05:00

It has been TOO LONG! I haven't cooked anything in like a month. Well nothing new anyway. It is hard to get off track, but I'm working on getting back on.

I'm leaving for home on Tuesday, so I'm going to make a menu for now until then...

Menu:
Friday: Easy Pesto Salmon with Brown Rice
Saturday: Mediterranean Chicken with Feta Rice Pilaf
Sunday: Garlic Chicken Pizzas
Monday: Chicken Nuggets with Sweet Potato Fries

Grocery List:
Dairy:
Fat Free Yogurt
Mozzerella
Feta Cheese

Produce:
Rosemary
Thyme
Lemon
Garlic
Spinich
Basil
Plum Tomato
Sweet Potatoes

Meats:
Salmon

Grocery:
Chicken Broth
Boboli Pizza dough

2006-11-19T01:31:00.000-05:00

Week 4 update
I have been incredibly sick all week and barely stayed awake long enough to cook. I did get through a couple recipes....But I'll write about them later...
I'm taking this week off bc I'm home for Thanksgiving...

Week 4!

2006-11-12T12:01:00.000-05:00

This week we're going to do Thanksgiving on Thursday, so that should be fun!

Menu:
Sunday: Feta Chicken with Vegetables
Monday: Spiced Chicken and Greens with Pomegranite Dressing
Tuesday: Chili
Wednesday: Middle Eastern Chicken Salad Wraps
Thursday: Thanksgiving - Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, Stuffing, Jello, Cranberry Sauce, Pineapple Cherry Surprise
Friday: We're going to the Casino to see Montgomery Gentry!!!
Saturday: I'm going home for Thanksgiving!

Grocery List:
Produce:
Sweet Potatoes 3
Bananas 2
Onion
Celery
Red Seedless Grapes
Cranberries
Orange
Romain Lettuce
Hummus with Roasted Garlic

Dairy:
Butter

Meat:
Chicken (Turkey Breast?)

Grocery:
Brown Sugar
Stuffing Cubes
Frozen Peas
Canned Pineapple
Canned Cherry
Dried Coconut
Yellow Cake Mix
Grape Jello
Red Beans
Tomato Puree
Roasted Red peppers
Light Caesar Dressing

2006-11-12T11:57:00.000-05:00

I guess I should catch up before posting about this coming week. Its been a little busy around here and I haven't been very good about posting on here.

Wednesday we had the dry rub chicken and it came out really good. The seasonings didn't get as far into the meat as I would have liked, but it was still pretty tasty over all. I liked it. We made baked potatoes to go with it instead of a pasta salad, but I suck at making those, and it took like 4x as long as it took for the whole chicken to cook!

Thursday we went out shopping so when we got home we decided to make the greek chicken instead of the salad. And as always the gyros were delicious! I love them, and that rice pilaf is to die fore I swear.

Friday we finally did have that chicken salad, and I have to say I was very diappointed with it. It is the first cooking light recipe that I have actually disliked. It was a little sad because I thought I was going to love every recipe I've tried so far. But as Kristyn put it, it tasted like Subway's Tuna...ICK!

We went out to dinner last night. yum.

2006-11-08T17:34:00.000-05:00

So the artichokes were a big hit. Kristyn absolutely adored the dish, and I well, thought it was yummy. I didn't love it, but it was WAY better than I thought it would be. We served it with pasta, because it had so much extra sauce...It was tasty.

Heading to cook a dry rub chicken...wish me luck!

2006-11-07T15:03:00.000-05:00

Last night was the Chicken with the Mustard - Dill Sauce. It was supposed to be a mustard - maple - dill sauce but Kristyn hates maple, so I replaced it with a little bit of honey. I really liked the mustard and dill combo. It was much better than I expected it to be. I also had a spinach salad with a mustard sauce. It was tasty, but it was a little too mustard-y for me for a salad dressing. I liked it though.

Tonight is artichoke stuffed chicken, I don't know how I feel about it. I'm really nervous about it because I haven't ever liked artichokes....Here's hoping.

I'm excited for Banana and Paul to come back to the Boston so I can cook for more people, who are more willing to try new things and kind of force me to.

Week 3 11/6/2006

2006-11-06T10:17:00.000-05:00

So, last week we did really well, but there are still some recipes that need to be carried over, because I came home for the weekend. While I was home, I did make some stuff, just not off of my list because my family isn't as open as my roommate is. So, here's my menu for week 3.

Menu:
Monday: Pan Roasted Chicken Cutlets with a Mustard Dill Sauce, Spinach Pear Salad with Honey-Bacon Vinaigrette
Tuesday: Artichoke and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast, Peas
Wednesday: Dry Rub Chicken with Honey BBQ Sauce with Pasta Salad
Thursday: Chicken Salad with Green Beans and Toasted Walnuts
Friday: Feta Chicken with Vegetables
Saturday: Spiced Chicken and Greens with Pomegranite Dressing
Sunday: Greek Chicken Pitas with Greek Rice

Grocery List:
Produce:
Green Beans
Parsley
Mint
Red Bell Pepper (2)
Red Onion
White Onion
Salad in a bag
Red Onion
Orange
Dill

Dairy:
Gorgonzola Cheese
Yogurt

Meats:
Whole Chicken

Grocery:
Pita Bread
Pomegranite Juice

2006-11-03T17:41:00.000-05:00

I'm not cooking something new tonight. My family heard me rave about the cashew stir fry and they want to try it so thats our dinner plan tonight. I think me and Precious are going to make it. I really hope it turns out as good as it did when me and Kristyn made it. mmm...

Day 10 11/2/2006

2006-11-03T00:29:00.000-05:00

Tonight was Chicken with a Sage, Pear skillet chutney. It was really delicious. I liked the pears as a savory flavor. It surprised me that I liked that aspect so much, it was slightly sweet but had a carmel-y flavor to it. I really liked it. Then there was green beans and lemon hazelnut butter. That was absolutely delicous. I didn't think I'd like the hazelnut part, but it was amazing. The lemon flavor mixed with the slightly sweet hazelnuts was delicious...

Then tonight I had popcorn with italian seasonings on it. It was ok.

Day 9 11/1/2006

2006-11-01T19:24:00.000-05:00

So tonight we had Cider-Glazed Chicken, Warm Spinach Salad with Apples, Bacon and Cranberries and it was delicious. The salad was to die for. It had a balsamic dressing that wilted the spinach a little and made it awfully delicious. The flavor combonation of the things together worked really well for me. In making the bacon to go on top o fthe salad, I burned it and set off the fire alarm in my apartment, that sucked a little. The campus police had to come turn it off for me. Talk about embarassing....He did say that dinner smelled really good though, so i'll take it as a compliment!

Day 8 10/31/2006

2006-10-31T09:06:00.000-05:00

Last night we had the baked citrus salmon and it was delicious. I over cooked it a tiny bit, but it was still really tasty. My baked potato was slightly funny textured but anything with chive sour cream is tasty in my opinion!

On Sunday we had the Spinach pasta with sundried tomatoes, and that was pretty tasty. I didn't think I liked sundried tomatoes, but they were pretty good in the pasta. We also had the creamy tomato balsamic soup, and that was ok...I wasn't the hugest fan of that but it was edible.

Today is Halloween so Kristyn and I are going out to dinner, so no new cooking adventures tonight.

Week 2

2006-10-29T14:13:00.000-05:00

Menu:
Sunday: Creamy Tomato Balsamic Soup, Chicken and Spinach Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes
Monday:Baked Citrus-Herb Salmon, Chive Sour Cream Baked Potato, Corn (Last Week's Recipe)
Tuesday: Out for Halloween
Wednesday: Cider-Glazed Chicken, Warm Spinach Salad with Apples, Bacon and Cranberries
Thursday: Chicken with Pear Sage Skillet Chutney, Green Beans with Hazlenut Lemon butter
Friday:Artichoke and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast, Peas
Saturday: Pan Roasted Chicken Cutlets with a Mustard Dill Sauce, Spinach Pear Salad with Honey-Bacon Vinaigrette
Sunday: Dry Rub Chicken with Honey BBQ Sauce with Pasta Salad

Grocery List:
Produce:
Green Beans
Red Onion (2)
Red Bell Pepper
Sage
Cider
Pears (4)
Spinach (2)

Meat:
Bacon
Whole Chicken

Grocery:
Frozen Corn
Craisens
Hazelnuts
Dijon Mustard
Honey

Dairy:
Feta or Goat Cheese

Day 5 10/27/2006

2006-10-27T20:46:00.000-04:00

Today I didn't make dinner, but I did make a bunch of other stuff. More info to come at a later date ;-)

Day 4 10/26/2006

2006-10-27T01:36:00.000-04:00

Tonight we ended up having Chicken Cashew Stir-Fry and Rice because of time constraints. We were out Halloween shopping, and then we got home and were very hungry so we needed to make something that took a bit less time. It was delicious, I think I added too much hot pepper flakes, but it was still really good.

In other news, Kris and I might be going to Troy for the weekend, so some of the other recipes are going to have to get pushed back to next week. But week 1 went wonderfully!

2006-10-25T21:07:00.000-04:00

The Crepes:

The Filling:

The finished product!

The crepes were amazing! They were some of the best crepes I had ever had! I was so proud of myself! I have wanted crepes for a couple weeks now, and I did it! I made them! WAHOO!

Day 3

2006-10-25T15:20:00.000-04:00

So in addition to making enchilladas tonight, which isn't a new recipe, its actually one of my tried and true recipes, I'm making crepes for dinner. I plan on making a chocolate cool whip with chocolate chips. If it comes out decent looking, I'll take pictures and post them. I've been craving crepes for a long time now, and I decided to give in and just make them.

I'm debating entering my enchilladas recipe in one of the chicken cookoffs that are coming up this spring. Wish me luck.

I got notification that I made it through the first round of the build a better burger contest. So...wish me luck!!

Day 2 10/24/06

2006-10-24T18:11:00.000-04:00

Tonight's dinner was Almond Crusted Chicken with Scallion Rice. The chicken part was really tasty, but the rice was really bland. I could have totally done without the rice. It needed something, like a sauce or maybe some fat. The chicken was very tasty though. It was very easy to make, really quick too. The chicken was huge, so it took a little while to cook. Unfortunately because of that, the almonds burnt on the pan a little. But they fell off, and nothing else even tasted burnt.

My Inspiration

2006-10-23T21:27:00.000-04:00

I was reading again tonight and decided to see if I could find Julie Powell's original blog that she did when she did her Julie/Julia Project. I found it and if you're interested - you can find it: here

Dinner 1

2006-10-23T18:58:00.000-04:00

Tonights dinner was Broccoli and Smoked Turkey Focaccia Sandwiches. I wanted to make them with potato salad, but the dill at the store tonight didn't seem so great, so I had to put it off. I also couldn't get focaccia bread, so I ended up getting a loaf of roasted garlic bread, and that was really good, but I'd be interested in trying it on the focaccia. I made it with a side of broccoli because I had extra from what I steamed to add to the sandwich.

Overall it was pretty good. Probably a better lunch than dinner, but good none the less. It was very simple, and quite tasty. I'm still a bit hungry so I might have a little more. I think if I made the potato salad, it would have been perfect. When Kristyn eats it I will probably tell her to have it with some soup if she's still hungry. And also to toast the bread.

So day one was successful! Talk to you tomorrow!

Week 1 10/23/06

2006-10-23T14:09:00.000-04:00

So this is Week 1:

Menu:
Monday: Broccoli and Smoked Turkey Focaccia Sandwiches, Potato Salad
Tuesday: Almond Crusted Chicken with Scallion Rice
Wednesday: Enchilladas
Thursday:Baked Citrus-Herb Salmon, Chive Sour Cream Baked Potato, Corn
Friday: Artichoke and Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast, Peas
Saturday: Chicken Cashew Stir-Fry, Rice
Sunday: Chicken and Spinach Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes

Grocery List
Produce
Chives
Scallions
Oregano
Terragon
Broccoli
Garlic
Lemon
Red bell pepper
Carrot
Frozen spinach

Meats
Salmon
Chicken
Deli turkey
Chicken thighes

Dairy
Sour cream
Cream cheese
Goat or feta cheese - crumbled

Grocery
Rice
Honey mustard
Roasted red peppers
Focaccia bread
Tomato sauce
Cumin
Paprika
Tortilla shells
Jalepenos
Refried beans
Canned artichoke bottoms
Corn starch
Pineapple chunks
Cashews
Sundried Tomatoes

My Cooking Blog!

2006-10-23T12:17:00.000-04:00

So, in light of me reading a new book, I have decided to start a cooking blog, and post every day about the meals I'm making, and mishaps and other adventures that go along with it. I'm going to try to post my grocery list and menu every Sunday or Monday, and try to keep this very organized so that I can have the detail of this adventure documented. It is going to be cooking only, I have other blogs for my life experience. So here I go!

And if you want to be inspired like me, read "Julie and Julia: my year of cooking dangerously" by Julie Powell