Two Pina Coladas

I absolutely love the smell of coconut. I remember a friend of mine had the best smelling body spray. She bought it for a couple bucks at the drug store, but since she bought that one we have never been able to find it again. There is nothing that tops the smell of a really good pina colada, except the taste of a really good pina colada.

Bacardi sells these delicious blended drink mixes in the grocery store freezers. I remember loving them so much when my dad would make them for us kids. (Without the rum). When I was rooming with my second roommate, we would makes these (with rum) only our blender was so awful it had to be "drank" with a spoon because the ice chunks wouldn't make it through the straw. When this roommate of mine was visiting me recently we had a supper of pina coladas, lobster tails, risotto and roasted pineapple.

Rebekah's Baked Lobster Tails

1) if you bought frozen lobster tails, thaw them out by placing them in a sink filled with cold water. This will take some time.

2) once the tails are thawed cut the tails in half lengthwise

3) take a piece of foil and fold up all four sides so it's like a square bowl. Place the tail inside with the exposed meat facing up.

4) place tabs of butter on top of the meat and sprinkle some lemon pepper seasoning on top

5) close up the tin foil so it's a pouch and no lobster is exposed

6) place in an oven @ 350 F until the lobster meat is opaque, about 7-10 minutes


The lobster has been placed on a bed of risotto. Risotto is one of my favorite things. (I have a lot of favorite things). The problem with risotto is it can be so time consuming. And it's not like you can start making it and then go off and do something else, you have to be attentive. Risotto is high maintenance.

Microwave risotto is not high maintenance, and yet it yields great results.

Tante's Microwave Risotto:

Ingredients: 1 cup arborio rice

3 cups BOILING chicken stock

1/2 or 1/3 cup chopped white onion

2 tbs butter

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

grated Parmesan cheese

(this will serve four small portions, so you can up the amount however you like the basic rule of thumb is 3 parts stock to 1 part rice)

1) in a large microwavable dish heat the butter and oil for 1 minute

2) stir in the onion and heat for another minute

3) stir in the rice and heat for a minute (keep the onion and rice glossy with the oil and butter, dry rice might burn, if you need to add more oil so all the grains are shiny)

4) add the boiling stock. If you do not heat up the stock first, it will not be absorbed. heat for 8 minutes

5) stir, and heat for another 8 minutes

6) add some grated Parmesan. 1/2 cup should work, but feel free to add more. Stir. Crack black pepper over it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When I say add pepper to any recipe, I always mean fresh ground pepper. I NEVER mean "restaurant pepper".

This is so delicious. I could eat the whole thing for dinner. The risotto is creamy, and rich and so simple.

Roasted Pineapple

I took the whole pineapple and sliced of the top. Then I sliced the peel off in strips, using my knife. I cut the pineapple into slices and cut out the harder core in the center.

I topped it with some brown sugar and butter. I had some butter sitting on the cutting board from when I was making the lobster, and I couldn't let it go to waste.

Place the rings on a baking sheet and heat at 400 F to 425 F for 15 minutes or so. The pineapple should be soft, and the butter and sugar should be melted.

The pina coladas were easy. Take a can of Bacardi's frozen Pina Colada Mix and squeeze it into the blender. Add 2 cans of ice, and a half can of rum (if using, the drink is still very very good without any alcohol). Blend. Pour into a glass. Add a straw and some leftover sliced pineapple.

The Bacardi frozen mixers taste way better than the syrup that is sold in the grocery stores. It is worth the extra money. They also sell lime mix and strawberry mix for daiquiris and margaritas.

Holiday

Merry after Christmas! I hope everyone had a great holiday, mine was great but very busy. Friday was spent with family at my sister's house. Saturday was my niece's first birthday so my sister had a party for her that morning. The afternoon and evening I spent at my friend's parents place.

I have talked to a couple people who had nothing to do on the holidays, and no family or loved ones to spend the time with. I'm lucky that not only do I have my own family to spend the holidays with, but I also have my "second family". I have known this certain friend since the time we were five, which means we're going on twenty one years of friendship! Since my move to Edmonton, her family has really made me feel a part of their own which means a lot to me. They also really know how to cook which means a lot to my stomach.

After the two very busy days, that had been preceded by a couple of very hectic weeks at work, I took a day off. I mean a day off from EVERYTHING, I brushed my teeth and that was the end of any activity that day. I sat my butt on the couch and I read and watched television and movies all day. Which included Moonlighting. Recently I have had a mild Bruce Willis obsession, and due to this I have discovered the 1985 TV series. I heart Bruce Willis, and I am also loving this show.

Today was my last day before going back to work. I went with my sister (have I mentioned I have three of them, and whenever I say 'my sister' that it isn't always the same one?) to see Sherlock Holmes. I really enjoyed this movie, and Robert Downey Jr isn't bad either. The movie had its funny moments, and for anyone who is concerned about bad language, I don't remember there being any.

Over the course of the weekend, I did receive some presents. I have this somewhat weird, possibly immature, habit of laying my Christmas presents out on my kitchen table for a couple days before putting them all away. I didn't really know why until my grandpa had mentioned "You're just getting used to them". The story behind that is whenever my grandmother gets a new item of clothing she has to "get used to it". She will not wear this item when it's new, rather she waits for a couple weeks or so.

When my grandmother saw my loot out on the table and commented that my apartment was too full, I mentioned that I just like to put my presents out on the table for a couple days. She kind of scoffed at me, until my grandpa came to my defense, and I then replied "Yes, I am just getting used to them, which is something you should understand".

One present that I had received was a baking dish from Le Creuset. Upon opening it, I had mentioned that I could now make a smaller lasagna than my usual one. Which is what I did tonight.

Rebekah's Lasagna Take 2

1) I browned a couple strips of bacon (chopped) in a pan, then removed them once browned.

2) I took three hot Italian sausages, removed the casings, and placed them in the bacon pan. I broke the sausages up and cooked them like they were ground beef

3) I added half of a medium onion, chopped, and sauteed for a couple minutes

4) I added a clove of chopped garlic, a can of tomato sauce, pepper, salt, crushed red chili, and Italian seasoning

5) I added the bacon back to the sauce

6) I sprayed the baking dish with non-stick spray and placed enough tomato sauce on the bottom to cover it

7) I then placed in a layer of ready-to-bake lasagna noodles, a layer of the meat sauce, a layer of cottage cheese, and a layer of grated mozza cheese

8) repeat

9) Sprinkle on some grated Parmesan cheese, and bake for 45-60 minutes @ 350 F

I absolutely love this dish, it's red and Le Creuset, two of my favorite things. The lasagna, on the other hand, was only so so. If you are going to make this, I recommend using a mix of sausage and ground beef or pork. The sausage was pretty overpowering and tasted heavily of fennel seeds. I did like the use of cottage cheese instead of my usual ricotta. Mainly because cottage cheese was cheaper, I am Dutch after all, but also because it spread easier during assembly. Overall I gave the lasagna a 6/10. Tasty to eat, but I wouldn't use it as a dish to impress.

Macho Man

These past couple weeks for me have been insane. Between having longer hours at work, and having too many unavoidable plans lately, I haven't had much time for anything else like my blog or housework. (If you think I have been neglecting my blog, you should see my apartment). I'm starting to panic a little, I have family that will be spending the weekend at my place and it needs to be cleaned, scrubbed, and bedding needs to be washed. Not too mention I still have to finish Christmas shopping and wrap all my presents... The list goes on. Sorry for the lack of regular posts!
Back to blogging, I did have a request the other day for nachos. Not from someone who wanted me to make them nachos, but a request for me to blog about them.
(I'm reminded right now of one of my sisters who tells this terrible joke every time nachos are mentioned. "What do you call cheese that is not yours?" "Nacho cheese!" I supposed this is cute the first time you hear it, but after the hundredth time it gets old).
Nachos are great, they are so versatile, nearly anything can go on nachos. I personally like ground beef, bell peppers, green onion, tomatoes, jalapenos and cheddar cheese on mine. The great thing about nachos is it's all about personal preference. If you don't like spicy foods, omit the jalapenos. If you don't like cheddar you can use Monterrey jack, pepper jack, or whatever cheese you do like. Any vegetable or topping can work. Add olives if you like. This is uncommon in restaurant nachos but even black beans or kidney beans work.

I made nachos the other day. I browned ground beef, and once cooked I added taco seasoning. I placed a layer of multi grain taco chips on a baking sheet and topped it with the taco beef. I topped that with cheddar cheese. I sprinkled on chopped white onions, tomatoes and Thai red bird chilies. I had intended on adding chopped yellow bell pepper, but forgot it in my fridge. I would have preferred to add sliced green or pickled jalapenos, but I had the Thai chilies on hand.

The nachos were very delicious nonetheless, after I had baked them, until the cheese melted, at 350 F.
I served them with salsa and guacamole. The guacamole was made by my friend, but I use the same recipe, which is below (in my own words)


Guacamole
Ingredients: avocados, red onion, tomato, chile, garlic clove, limes, cilantro
The recipe instructions are for making guacamole using 2 large-ish avocados
1) I start by chopping about a half cup (maybe a bit more) of red onion, and tossing it into a bowl
2) I cut a tomato in half, and scoop out the innards. I dispose of the innards. I use Roma tomatoes for guacamole, but a small hothouse, or a tomato from the vine would work too. I chop the tomato halves and add them to the chopped onion.
3) I mince the garlic clove and add it to the bowl.
4) I halve the chile and remove the ribs and seeds. I then dispose of the ribs and seeds. I use Thai red bird chilies (just one) in my guacamole, but a green jalapeno or even a habanero works. I chop the chile into fine pieces and add it to the bowl.
5) I halve the avocados and dispose of the pit. I use a spoon to scoop out the avocado meat onto my cutting board, and then I mash it with a fork. I add the mash to the bowl and stir it up.
6) I add the juice of two limes to the mix and stir that in, followed by a bit of salt.
7) anyone who likes cilantro can add some of it (chopped) at this point. I do not.

My friend tops hers with some reserved tomatoes and onion for a garnish.

To make more, you would use more of everything. I find a good rule to follow is one lime per avocado in the guacamole. If you do not like chunky bits of onion and tomato in it, you can puree the whole mix in a food processor. If you are curious about what avocados are ripe, they will have black skin and should be soft to the touch. If the avocado is hard, it's not ripe yet. If it's really soft, it's also no good.
I warn you, the guacamole is crave inducing. A lot of times in the summer when I don't feel like cooking, I just make a bowl of guacamole for supper.

Someone's in the Kitchen

Initially I sat down at my computer to write a post about the pizza I had made earlier this week. Then I realized the cord to transfer my pictures from my camera to my computer was sitting on my desk at work.

I have a tendency to forget a lot of things. For instance, I have every intention of bringing home my dishes from lunch everyday, but usually I forget until I have about a week and a half's worth of dishes sitting in the office fridge. This has been a problem since I was a kid and was always in trouble because I would never remember to get any permission slips signed until the last possible moment. I have no peppermint tea in my apartment because the last eight times I have been to the grocery store I have forgotten I was out of my favorite tea. And since I have forgotten to bring home my camera cord, this is no longer a post about pizza.

Instead, I am going to show you all where it is that I do my cooking. Most of my readers have probably seen my kitchen, since my readers mainly consist of close friends and family, but those of you who haven't seen it...here goes:

I love the red color of my kitchen. Red is my all time favorite color, and I wanted to make my kitchen some place I wanted to be. (Maybe kitchen is a generous term considering how small it is, but small hallway with all the kitchen appliances and sink takes too long to say). I hate large spaces of white, so the fridge is littered with all sorts of things. The sign on the left side says "Parking for Dutch Only", an homage to my heritage. The knife set is something I had begged for for years. Whenever it was Christmas or my birthday, if someone mentioned they got me a gift, I would ask "Is it knives?". Finally, someone took the hint and got me a set of KitchenAid knives.

The piece of counter to the right of the sink is where I do all my prep work. I have set the television to angle towards the kitchen so I can watch it while I make dinner. Perhaps that's why I manage to cut my fingers as much as I do. The spice rack holds about less than half of the spices that I have, the rest are in my pantry/storage closet/laundry room. The spray bottle is not for food, rather it's for spraying my dog when she starts to bark.

My two favorite things in my kitchen are my KitchenAid stand mixer, and blender. For a while my stand mixer didn't get a lot of use. Recently I have been using it more and more, it's so handy for some of the most menial kitchen tasks. Tasks like making meringue.

So there you have it. My kitchen is small, but it's big enough to get the job done.

Walking on Sunshine

I had a friend come to town to visit me for the weekend. She was supposed to leave on Sunday, but her car wouldn't start. We had to get it towed to a shop, which left her stranded in Edmonton until it was fixed. I was thrilled, to be honest, I hardly ever get to see her, so to have her here for a whole week was really awesome.

At some point this past week, I had one of my sisters, her friend, and my friend over for dinner. This was crazy for me. I am used to cooking for one, not cooking for four! This particular sister of mine loves a chicken dish that I got from Everyday Food.

Indian Spiced Braised Chicken

1 1/2 pounds chicken thighs, boneless and skinless

1 medium onion,thinly sliced

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes drained

2 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 Tbsp. ginger, grated from 1″ piece

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup yogurt, plain

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1/2 teaspoons garam masala, optional

Cooked white rice, for serving

In a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker, stir together chicken, onion, tomatoes, tomato paste, ginger, garlic, coriander, and cayenne; season with salt and pepper. Cook on high for 4 hours (or 8 hours on low) until fork tender. Stir in yogurt, cilantro and, if using, garam masala. Serve with rice.
Generally I make this in the oven. I start by browning the chicken in oil, then I remove the chicken from the Dutch oven. Then I saute the onion for a minute or two, add the garlic, ginger and spices, and saute it for a minute longer. Then I add the tomato paste and melt it in, then I add the canned tomatoes, and the chicken. Also add 2 cups of water or chicken stock. Bake @ 350 F for 2 hours. Remove from the oven, stir in the yogurt and garam masala. I omit cilantro because I am not a fan of it.

Note, I have made this in the slow cooker and I do brown the chicken, and saute the onions, garlic, ginger and spices.

I also serve this with na'an bread or pitas.

My stranded friend and I also went for dinner last night. We were trying to pick somewhere in West Edmonton Mall to eat at and we settled on The Cactus Club Cafe. Both of us ordered the Butternut Squash Ravioli. The ravioli filled with a puree of butternut squash, and it's served with seared scallops, crispy sage and pine nuts. The sauce is a truffle beurre blanc.

This was soooo good. We stared at it for five minutes before eating it because it was so beautiful. (Actually it was because they had taken our forks away when clearing the calamari).

Seriously though, who wouldn't want to eat this??

Keep Me Warm

On December 7, 2008, I was on a cruise ship in Miami, heading towards the Western Caribbean. The weather was very warm. I was lying out on a lounger, and when it got too hot I would either jump into the on board pool or have a frozen drink to cool down.

Fast forward to December 7, 2009. I am in the non-exotic city of Edmonton. The temperature is -30 C. The heat in my office isn't working, and my office is a balmy 10 or 11 C. (50 F for my American readers).

I wasn't prepared for a chilly office, so I hadn't worn a lot of warm clothes. My feet had hurt for a bit in the morning, but they didn't hurt again until I got into my very warm car. After a few minutes I realized my feet had gotten so cold during the day they went numb, and were now just starting to thaw out.

So after this very chilly day I was in the mood for something very warm. I had debated soup, but then I thought that maybe something with a bit of spice would be the best thing to fully warm myself up. I started searching the Internet for different curries. I found a recipe for one, but I feel that I changed enough of the recipe that it's my own.

Madras Curry

Ingredients:

- 14 oz can of full fat coconut milk

- 4 tbs madras curry paste (I used one made by Patak's)

- 3 tbs brown sugar

- 2 tbs fish sauce

- package of chicken breasts, cut up into small pieces

- medium onion, diced

- 3 carrots, sliced

- 3 handfuls of cashews, separated

- bunch of green onions, chopped

To make:

1) pour the can of coconut milk into a wok, or large skillet. Heat until hot, but do not bring to a boil

2) Add the curry paste and mix until dissolved. Add the brown sugar and fish sauce and mix until dissolved.

3) Add the chicken and two handfuls of cashews, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked

4) Add the onion and carrot and stir long enough for the veggies to heat through.

5) Remove from heat. Top with remaining cashews and green onions. Serve alongside jasmine or basmati rice. I also served it with mini pita rounds.

This was very simple and very tasty. I brought the leftovers into work, and one of my East Indian coworkers confessed this morning that he had ate some of my leftovers because he wanted to see how a "white person would make a curry". He said it tasted good, but wasn't spicy enough. I would say that it was fairly warm, but at the same time I wouldn't have called it spicy either. Delicious, nonetheless. (He suggested adding jalepenos to make it spicier, if anyone wants to make it that way)

To make the cute rice tower take a ramekin, or cup, or some sort of holding device about the size of serving of rice you desire. Spray it with a non-stick spray and pack the rice in gently. Packing it in gently means to not just spoon the rice in, and not to pack it in as hard as you can squish, but to gently press in the rice. Place a plate on top of the ramekin and flip it over, so now the ramekin is resting upside down on the plate. Lift the ramekin off, and you have a rice tower. Serve immediately because the rice tower will start to fall down in a matter of minutes.

I am lucky enough to work in an office that allows me to bring my dog at work. This is a shot of her on her makeshift bed that is on my desk. She is so adorable, I couldn't help but post it!

(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight

I think I am going to have to make my next week a light week. Most of this past week has been laden in sugar, butter, and all things delicious. I'm a firm believer in "all things in moderation, including moderation", yet there hasn't been much moderation at all lately.

Before I start attempting a "light week", I will finish off "slowly blocking off my arteries" week.

The vegetable for my supper tonight was beets, roasted beets. I stick whole beets in a baking sheet with about an inch of water @ 375 F. The beets I was using were on the large side so it took about an hour for them to be fork tender. Count on 40 minutes for small beets, 60 minutes for medium to medium large beets, and 80 minutes for the money beets.

Those of you who watch the Office might remember Dwight talking about money beets when he said "First rule in roadside beet sales, put the most attractive beets on top. The ones that make you pull the car over and go, 'Wow. I need this beet right now.' Those are the money beets"

After the beets are fork tender, let them cool for about ten minutes so they are cool enough to handle. Then peel and quarter them. Use a paring knife to aid in peeling. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, and season with salt and pepper.

For my meat part of dinner, I made my all time favorite pan-fried New York strip loin. The recipe is from Everyday Food. I take a skillet and on med-high I heat up enough extra virgin olive oil to cover the bottom of the skillet. Season the steak with salt and pepper on both sides. Place in the pan for 3 minutes, flip and cook for another 3. This will make a medium rare steak. (And really that's the only way to eat it). Remove the steak from the skillet and place under foil for 5 minutes. In the pan pour 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, and a 1/4 cup Dijon mustard. Pour the sauce over the steak after its 5 minutes resting period. (Cut into the steak before it rests and you are really doing yourself a big disservice)

Wow. I'm not going to lie, I will eat this sauce with a spoon. It is that good. Then again, I am an addict.
The final part of my meal was ravioli with a brown butter balsamic sauce. Yes, everything had balsamic in it, I did just admit I was an addict!

Cook the ravioli according to its package directions (I would use cheese ravioli as a meat one might overwhelm the very simple sauce). Meanwhile heat 6 tbs of butter in a saucepan, until the foam has subsided and the butter has turned a golden amber color. Remove from the heat and let cool for 1 minute. Add 2 tbs of balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. When the pasta is done, drain it, and toss with the sauce. Top with Parmesan cheese.

I forgot to add Parmesan though. The pasta was very delicious and I imagine if I had added the Parmesan it would have even been better.

Picture

I spent a good portion on Saturday looking at other food blogs. Mainly trying to figure out how to make my pictures better. I'm not going to complain about my camera, but I feel that it's strength might not necessarily be close up food shots. However, I think I have finally learned how to make them better.

The biscuits from the other night:

This was the picture I previously posted. Sure it looks tasty...but is it as good as this biscuit?

Hopefully what I read over the weekend will make the food in the pictures look better. Though I do think there is still room for improvement.

Heaven

If heaven had a taste, I believe it would be dulce de leche. Dulce de leche is an incredibly good caramel sauce that is popular in South America. To sound smarter than I am, I googled dulce de leche so I could blog interesting tidbits about it. The first five websites all had different terms of what dulce de leche meant in English (it's Spanish). So I gave up on that idea.

The websites basically said that dulce de leche meant candy or caramel made from milk. I guess it doesn't really matter what it means, it sounds better in Spanish anyway. Who would want "candy from milk" over dulce de leche? (dull-chay de lesh-ay).

Making dulce de leche is simple. It takes 30 seconds to prepare, but 2 hours to cook, plus cooling time, and the biggest catch is it requires checking on (you can't just set it and forget it).

You start by taking one (or more) cans of sweetened condensed milk. (Please make sure you didn't grab evaporated milk, I did this the first time and believe me, dulce de leche is not the end result).

Place the can, with the label removed, in a large pot of water and fill it with water until it's FULLY SUBMERGED.

Now you might be wondering why I didn't take the time to clear away the red pot before taking the first picture. Or why I made FULLY SUBMERGED all caps. This is very very important. The top of the can must always be covered with water. If the top becomes exposed you run the risk of the can exploding. Which at the very best would leave you with a big mess to clean up, at the very worst exploding tin could seriously hurt someone. What does this have to do with the red pot? When making the dulce de leche, the water in the can pot will evaporate, leaving the potential for the can to explode. Keep a separate pot of water simmering the entire time so that you can replenish the water in the pot holding the can.

Bring the water in the can pot to a boil, and then turn the heat down to a simmer. I have made this a few times now and I noticed when it was at an actual simmer the milk didn't caramelize enough. Keep it at a low boil. My definition of a low boil is that water still bubbles to the top, but there's no rolling boil. I kept the stove at medium.

Keep it at this low boil for two hours. Making sure to replenish the water (and then replenish the replenishing water as needed).

After two hours, remove the pot from the heat and let it cool slowly. Why? By immediately taking it out of the water you could shock the can and cause it to explode.

I can almost hear someone saying "Rebekah, with all this possible exploding going on, is dulce de leche really worth it?" I am replying with "Did you not hear me call this heaven??" I do not toss the word heaven around, as a description of food, lightly. I apply it to things like creme brulee, exceptionally good quality ice cream, mushrooms browned in butter, bacon, or a medium rare teriyaki sirloin from the Keg. Please people, give me some credit.

Once the the dulce de leche has cooled sufficiently, open the can and you will have:

You can use dulce de leche on many things. It can be spread on toast, or muffins. Pour it on top of angel food cake. Eat it out of the can with a spoon...not that I have done this...

I use it for an ice cream topper.

Let it Snow!

I woke up this morning and my half-closed eyes looked between the cracks of the blinds and I saw snow. The scene reminded me of Christmas movies, ones where there is no snow on Christmas Eve, but when people wake up the next morning there was a Christmas miracle and it snowed six feet worth overnight.

(I just think this picture is so cute)

I have underground parking, and the beauty of this is that I don't have to scrape off my car in the morning. And my car is warm without me having to idle it. (And right now my key fobs have been driving me mental by not working half the time, so that is a good thing)

The snow and road conditions didn't bother me until I had made it to Tim Hortons. As I slowed down to pull into their parking lot, my car resisted stopping and was sliding. I am enough of a coffee addict that my biggest fear was that I was going to slide past the parking lot entrance, and not that I was going to crash into someone else.

My day at work was fairly uneventful, but it was long. I left at 18:45 after having started at 7:15. Side note: I prefer the 24 hour clock. If I can get my clocks to read 24 hours, I do. Those of you who don't know how to convert the 24 hour clock into the regular boring time, you subtract 12 from the number. 18-12 = 6, therefore I left work at 6:45 pm.

The ride home was terrifying. One of my biggest fears is winter driving. I have been in several car accidents in the winter (NONE OF THEM BEING MY FAULT!) So I am a big bundle of nerves in the winter. My car also has a mind of its own. Even if I start from a complete stop at an incredibly slow rate, I will always spin out.

Now at this point I was at work for a little over eleven hours. I'm stressed out. And work also had me out in the snow and it got into my shoes so my feet were so cold they hurt. I wanted nothing more than to get home and never leave my place again.
I stopped at Sobeys first. I love Sobeys. I go there probably 4 or 5 times a week, and I pretty well know where everything is. So much, that when I make a grocery list I can pretty well put my list in order. I don't just mean produce, to meat, to deli, to frozen section. I mean I can put the produce in order of where the produce is located so that I just walk down the sections without having to backtrack. (yes, I do know I have no life)

I thought that the most perfect way to get over this day was a hot bowl of soup, with homemade biscuits, and blondies to finish out the meal.

For the soup, I made a soup adapted from a cheese and potato soup in a Williams-Sonoma cookbook.

Cheesy Potato Soup

Ingredients:

4-6 slices of bacon, chopped

2 leeks, thinly sliced and rinsed

3 large baker's potatoes, peeled and cubed

3 cups chicken broth

2 cups milk

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

To make:

1) brown the bacon to your desired crispness in a medium saucepan. Remove bacon and set aside on paper towel to drain

2) In the leftover bacon fat (remove some of it if there is a lot), saute the leeks. Note, you should include the white, the light green, and the darker than light green part of the leeks, but not the dark green part.

3) add the potatoes to the pot and stir so that each cube gets coated in the bacon

4) pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 20 min to half hour, until the potatoes are fork tender. Maybe simmer is the wrong word, keep the heat on about medium.

5) When the potatoes are tender pour in the milk and bring the soup back up to a boil. Remove from heat. At this point I use a potato masher to mash up the potatoes. I like my soup to have pieces of potatoes and leeks. If you like yours completely smooth you can blend it.

6) stir in the cheese

7) divide into bowls and top them with the cooked bacon.

I also made biscuits tonight, and the recipe for biscuits left me with and extra half cup of whipping cream. I didn't want it to go to waste so I used 1/2 cup whipping cream and 1.5 cups of milk instead of the 2 cups of milk in the soup.

I have made this soup about eight or nine times, and I have to say this was the best one I have had. I am crediting the cream for this, and it is unlikely I will make this soup without the cream in the future.

The biscuits. I was nervous about the biscuits. The last time I attempted a biscuit, they turned out more like rocks. My sister called them biscotti biscuits. They were not good. Tonight's though, were amazingly good. So light and fluffy, and they were EASY. I hate baking and this recipe was simple for me. Chef Michael Smith's Cheddar Biscuits can be found here

Lastly... the blondies. Blondies are most commonly described as brownies made with brown sugar, not chocolate. I made Toffee Crunch Blondies. The blondies have chocolate chips and toffee bits in them, and then are topped with more toffee bits. Now, the recipe states that it makes 36 bars. I don't know who was deranged enough to cut them so tiny that one would get 36 out of a pan, but I made mine so that I had 16.


Tonight's meal was so good that I couldn't even wait until tomorrow to blog about it. I have plenty of dishes waiting to be written about, but this one pushed its way to the front. I was dead tired (still am) but I fought to stay awake long enough to post this.

Now I am heading for bed.

Too Much

A movie that I really enjoy is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. If you aren't familiar with it, the movie is about a woman, Toula, who is from a large Greek family, who pressures her to marry a nice Greek boy, and make lots of Greek babies. Toula ends up meeting and falling for a man who is not Greek, to the dismay of her entire family. One of my favorite parts is when Toula's aunt invites Toula and Ian (the non-Greek) for dinner. Toula says to her "He's a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat". And the aunt looks horrified (as would I) and says "He don't eat no meat? It's ok I make lamb".

The other day I was talking to someone I work with and I had asked if he was going to have a turkey dinner for Christmas and he said no because his wife was a vegetarian. It took all my will power not to say "She don't eat no meat?"

I am a carnivore through and through. I can't think of very many meals of mine that don't contain an animal of some sort, my very favorite being beef. Last weekend was a good weekend for beef. On Friday night I went to dinner at The Keg, which is one of my all time favorite places to eat. I ordered the prime rib. On Saturday I had my friend and her family over for dinner and I served Beef Bourguignon. That same family invited me over on Sunday for prime rib. By Monday I was feeling a little beefed-out and was planning on making chicken. Then I saw a recipe for chimichangas and I had to make it, so once again I had beef. I drew inspiration from the recipe I had found, and changed it enough that I can call this one my own.

Chimichangas

To make the filling:

1) I browned a package of ground beef

2) I added a can of chili beans (it included kidney, navy and a third kind)

3) I also added a pack of taco seasoning and the amount of water it instructed to add

Take a tortilla, place some of the filling in the middle, top with grated cheese (I used cheddar) and wrap it up like a burrito. I did this by folding the bottom up, folding in the right side as tight as possible, folding down the top, and bringing the left side over to the right as tight as possible.

Heat some oil (I used safflower) in a skillet over med-high. Just enough to over the pan. Place a burrito in the oil and cook until browned, flip and brown the other side.

Serve with salsa and sour cream.

(is anyone else thinking about that part in Napolean Dynamite when Summer says "So, who wants to eat chimichangas next year? Not me")

Since I had company I followed up dinner with dessert. I made the Bananas Foster, from Everyday Food. This particular recipe involved heating dark rum and brown sugar together until they form a syrup. Then placing cut bananas into the syrup to heat them through. It's served with ice cream. Delicious. Sadly my pictures turned out pretty crappy, so if you want to look at them all delicious-like, click on the link.

How Long Gone

It feels like a long time since my last post. I haven't had a lot of extra time lately, but I'm going to try and update more often.

This particular post, however, will be short and sweet. The last time I had attempted to make creme brulee, I had actually made a creme anglaise. The difference being the one I wanted was a custard, and the one I made was a cream sauce.

I made an actual creme brulee in this attempt. I used a recipe from Chef Michael Smith. Those of you familiar with the Food Network will know him from Chef at Home and/or Chef at Large.

The final result was delicious, and custardy!

That's Amore

When it comes to books turned movies, I always make a point to read the book before the watching the movie. I find that sometimes Hollywood screws with the book so much to make the movie, that if I watch the movie first it will ruin the book for me. Take, for instance, The Devil Wears Prada. The book was good, but I wasn't a huge fan of the movie because it strayed so much from the plot of the book. When this happens I get offended on behalf of the author.

Sometimes when a book turned movie comes out, I may have read the book a while beforehand, so I re-read it closer to the movie day so when I do see the movie I am familiar with how it compares to the book. With the recent release of New Moon, I have started re-reading the Twilight series.

I heard a quote from Stephenie Meyer, the author, that when people read New Moon they have a habit of trying to read it very quickly, and that everyone should read it twice. I just read it for the second time, and I would have to agree with her. I liked the book more the second time I read it.

Those of you who hate Twilight, and hate hearing about it... I'm sorry. I will be the first to admit that they aren't extremely well-written, however they are very entertaining. I was absorbed from page 1 of the first book to the last page of the fourth.

I also liked the first movie, but I have also read the book. And I think to enjoy the movie at all, you would have had to read the book. I enjoyed the second movie even more. I think it was mostly due to Taylor Lautner.

Not to say that I have switched from Team Edward to Team Jacob, because I am still on Team Edward.

And while on the subject of moons... I made pizza the other night. It was a very lazy night for me. I topped a pizza crust with some jarred sauce, real bacon bits, grated mozzarella, sliced mushrooms, and sliced onion. I baked it until the cheese was melted, and the crust was golden.

Note how cute I arranged the carrot sticks.

And I am including a picture of my sister's "Super Soup". She will not give me the recipe, but there's canned tomatoes, and zucchini involved. The soup also gets "help" from a little white talking oven mitt. Very tasty soup... if I can get the recipe I will post it.

She's Not Pretty, She Just Looks That Way

Mussels are incredibly tasty. They also look a little unappetizing. I made this dish for my mom the other night, and she couldn't get over how they looked. Or apparently the texture. So I ate them all. Here's a classic recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Moules à la Marinière or Fresh Mussels Steamed open in Wine and Flavorings

Ingredients:

2 cups light, dry white wine or 1 cup dry white vermouth

An 8- to 10-quart enameled kettle with cover (I used a Dutch oven)

1/2 cup minced shallots, or green onions, or very finely minced onion

8 parsley sprigs

1/2 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon pepper

6 tablespoons butter

6 quarts scrubbed, soaked mussels

1/2 cup roughly chopped parsley

How to make it in my own words:

1) Scrub the mussels. Throw out any that didn't close, they are dead and will make you sick if you eat them. The closing mussels are pretty weird, you don't expect them to be living so when they close on their own it's kind of freaky. Remove the beards (or the hairy string thing that hangs out of the shell) with a paring knife. Soak them in water for 1-2 hours so they expel any sand they might have in them. (I soak them in water with a bit of flour in it since Julia said this might make them more succulent)

2) In the Dutch oven add everything but the mussels and chopped parsley. I used white wine for the base. Bring to a boil and reduce the liquid for about a minute or two. Also, I used shallots, and I would recommend them over the onion or green onion.

3) Add the mussels into the boiling liquid. Cover the pot. Put on oven mitts, and grasp the handles at the same time as holding the lid closed using your thumbs. Shake the pan in a back and forth manner so the mussels are being redistributed in the pot.

4) The mussels are finished when they are open. This will take maybe a minute or two.

5) Throw out any that didn't open. They are dead and unfit for consumption.

6) Using a slotted spoon, scoop mussels out and put them into bowls. The parsley sprigs will now look like rotting seaweed so throw those out, and the bay leaf.

7) Let the liquid rest for a minute so any other sand will sink to the bottom. Ladle the broth into the bowls with the mussels. Top with the chopped parsley.

Serve with sliced bread to dip into the broth, and a lemon wedge.

Saturday Night

On Saturday I went to a local Italian grocery store. I have been wanting to go for a while now. I have heard excellent things about their produce, deli, and cheese sections. I found trumpet shaped pasta which I have seen several times in Everyday Food, but never at my grocery store.

I also found the balsamic vinegar aisle. Balsamic vinegar, to me anyways, is like candy. I get intense cravings for it sometimes. I found a couple of neat looking bottles so I had to buy them.

So what did I do Saturday night? I had a balsamic vinegar tasting for one.

To have a balsamic vinegar tasting you need some extra virgin olive oil, some bread (like a loaf of French bread, or ciabatta...not your regular slice loaf of bread though), and some balsamic vinegar. Obviously. In the picture above I have just the vinegar on the plate, but below I have artistically added some olive oil to the plate.

Some people do exciting things on a Saturday night. I am not one of them.

Caramel

I am not a baker by any means. I am the most impatient person on the face of the Earth. The reason I love cooking so much is that everything is open to interpretation. Back when I thought chipotles in adobo were as fictitious as unicorns, I would use Tabasco Chipotle sauce in place of them in recipes. I could remove any item from the recipe I didn't like, and omit anything that I didn't have. If a certain recipe called for only two slices of bacon, I could throw in four.

Baking on the other hand, is a real b...witch. Some recipes even call for you to spoon and level the needed flour. Are you freakin' kidding me? Who has time to spoon and level anything? There's so many dishes wasted too. If a non-baking recipe calls for a cup of something, I eyeball it. In baking, one must actually find the measuring cup.

I was scouring the web the other day and found a picture of the most delectable brownies I have ever laid eyes on. I looked up the recipe, and saw how simple this recipe was, and knew I had to make the Caramel Brownies

The blogger is right. The most annoying part of making the brownies was unwrapping all the caramels. That and trying to save some for the brownies.

The only thing I did differently was used a cake mix for Swiss Chocolate cake. I couldn't find a German version.

Nowhere With You

Earlier this week I had a craving for an Everyday Food recipe Lighter General Tso's Chicken. The chicken has a garlicky, almost sweet taste. The recipe can be made very quickly, and it is fairly healthy.

EF recommends you serve this with brown rice. That is crazy talk, since there is such a thing as fried rice. I googled easy fried rice recipes and looked through a bunch of them until I came up with one of my own inspired by what I saw. All of the recipes call for eggs. I love eggs, just not in my rice so I ommitted that ingredient.

I cooked up some jasmine rice and let it cool spread out on a baking sheet. In a large pan I heated some safflower oil. (Just enough to cover the pan). To the hot oil I added a cup of cold, cooked rice, soy sauce, and green onion. You could also add grated ginger, minced garlic, chopped carrots, frozen peas... the rice is your oyster. Though next time I make it I would add carrot and peas.

I fried the rice until it was heated through, and some of rice was getting a bit crispy. The end result was so tasty, and pretty. The rice took on a glossy sheen and I have not ever had better fried rice.

I also made pot stickers. They turned out less pretty, so I am not showing pictures until I have made them successfully. Which has happened before so I know it is possible!

You can note the following in the above pictures:

1) You can't see the pretty sheen of the rice that I mentioned

2) Those are square bowls. I purchased them last weekend at Crate and Barrel. The coolest store on Earth

3) I am very anal about presentation and wipe all the sides of the bowl down just like on Iron Chef America

Take it Easy

Lasagna is a dish that a lot of people don't attempt to make because it looks difficult to assemble, and is time consuming. Lasagna can be time consuming, but in all honesty I don't think it takes a long time to assemble. The lengthiest part of lasagna making is the baking time and in that hour you can easily accomplish many other household tasks.
I don't use a recipe for lasagna. From reading recipes, and trying other people's lasagna I developed my own.


I start off by making the sauce:

1) Cook 3 or 4 strips of chopped bacon in a large skillet/saucepan. Remove bacon

2) add a chopped onion and a chopped carrot to the bacon fat and saute until onion is soft, about 2 minutes. Add in one or two minced cloves of garlic, cook for another minute. I add a tbsp or so of tomato paste at this point and let it coat the vegetables. Set the veggies aside with the bacon.

3) In the now empty skillet, add a pound of ground meat. I used beef, but you can use beef, veal, pork or a mix of them.

4) When the ground meat is cooked, add the veggie/bacon mix back to the skillet. Pour in a large can of whole plum tomatoes. (I puree the tomatoes first in a food processor because I don't like large tomato chunks, if you like the chunks just add the tomatoes to the pan and break them up with a spoon). At this point add some seasonings and flavorings, such as dried basil, dried oregano, garlic powder, chili flakes, salt, pepper, or cayenne pepper. I had some leftover chipotles from the tacos so I chopped a couple up and added them to the sauce.

5) In a casserole or baking pan place a bit of the sauce so it covers the bottom. This is so the bottom layer of pasta will absorb the liquid and cook. Layer oven ready lasagna noodles so they cover the bottom of the casserole. *Use oven ready lasagna noodles! Why waste time cooking the noddles first???*
On top of the noodles place a layer of the meat sauce, then a layer of ricotta cheese, and a layer of mozzarella cheese, and then noodles. Repeat. On top of the third layer of noodles place a thin layer of sauce. I prefer my lasagna to have a harder, sort of crunchier outside edge so I don't cover the entire top layer of noodles with sauce. Then cover that with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake for an hour @ 350 F

Below is the picture of my lasagna. Because of not covering the top noodles with sauce my lasagna is considerably browner than it would be. I also don't cover mine in the oven. You could cover it for half of the baking time and it would yield softer top noodles.

A Whole New World

I love photographs. I like taking them, and I love looking through moments that have been caught on film. Pictures have the ability to say so much without saying anything at all. I have been through art galleries a handful of times (not that I am all that cultured or artistic), and my favorite displays are the photography ones.

A few days ago one of my friends posted a link on Facebook for a photo collection. The photographer is Dina Goldstein, who is based in Vancouver, B.C. The collection, Fallen Princesses, is really really thought provoking. I'm a pessimist by nature and I love the take she has on "happily ever after" for the popular princesses from fairy tales. My personal favorite is the Snow White picture. Let me know what you think of the collection.

Snow White:

Sleeping Beauty:



Not-So-Little-Red-Riding-Hood:

Rapunzel:

Princess and the Pea:

Cinderella:



Belle:

Ariel:

Jasmine:

I had no luck finding somewhere online to order prints, if anyone has more luck than I did please let me know!