Health Nut

If anyone who knows me was asked to describe me in two words or less, I believe their answer would be health nut. *this may or may not be a gross exaggeration* A while back I wrote about how I was going to start working out more, and I have been doing a fairly good job of sticking with it. Currently I am unable to walk normally, due to Jillian Michael's No More Trouble Zones.

Now that spring is around the corner, and summer isn't too far behind, I am having nightmares about shorts, dresses, skirts and bathing suits. So for the next while, I am really going to try and attempt a more balanced eating lifestyle. This does not mean I'm going to eat steamed chicken or fish with a salad every night. I am still looking for really good food, that's tasty and satisfying, but borderlines on the description healthy.

Yesterday I had a flat tire on my car, I took it to the shop, and by the time my car was ready to go it was 6:30 pm. I still had to go to the grocery store, so I had to make something quick or I wouldn't be eating until 9 or 10. I went with Everyday Food's Orecchiette with Bacon and Tomato Sauce. Those of you thinking that I am crazy if I think this is healthy... it's not so bad. The sauce is comprised of canned whole tomatoes, red onion, garlic and 4 strips of bacon. The recipe serves 4 people, so that is roughly only one piece of bacon in a ton of produce per person. I also only used 3 strips of bacon, and even that small amount created a lot of flavor in the sauce.

Since the sauce has so little ingredients, you want to use a good brand of canned tomatoes. Look for Italian whole plum tomatoes. Every time I have bought them they were in a can with a yellow label. I used tri-colored bowtie pasta, since that's what I had on hand, but to make the pasta even healthier I would have preferred to use a whole wheat pasta. Finally, it was topped with Parmesan cheese, which also isn't so bad because it doesn't take a lot of cheese to get a lot of flavor out of it.

This was very good, and it was ready, start to finish, in under a half hour.

I did follow up this meal by making Peanut Butter Brownies. Even though that's what they are called, they are more of a blondie. (Brownies are made with cocoa powder, blondies are made with brown sugar) Those of you thinking that I will never be able to follow a healthy diet, let me show you something using my awesome Paint and awesome Internet skills. I bet there isn't many of you who click on the recipe link so I took a little screen shot of the recipe to show you how healthy this bad boy is:

Unfortunately my zoom skills are lacking, so if you can't read that it says "2 cups white whole wheat flour". Ok, so making a sugar laden baked good with whole wheat flour doesn't make it entirely virtuous, but it tasted really good!

Cute Cake

This past week has been extremely chaotic for me. It's been a whirlwind of ups and downs and I have neglected my blog in the meantime. Last Friday I had intended on blogging about a very important event, and I missed it, and haven't been able to make up for it yet. So let's all suspend reality for a minute and pretend it is March 19 again. Ready...



Like I said, an important event in history. This might surprise you, given the high quality of the image, but I made it using my impressive skills in Paint.

The other night I made a Tortilla Pie. I loosely based it off this. Since it's loosely based, and not the same with only a couple tweaks I will write the recipe below for what I made.

Rebek's Tortilla Pie
1) In a large skillet brown up a pack of ground beef. Once browned, add a package of taco seasoning, half a cup of water, a can of kidney beans (rinsed), and a can of black beans (also rinsed). Add some chili powder as well if you like things to be a bit spicy.
2) You will need tortillas, I used a whole wheat flour variety. Pick a round baking dish the same size as your tortillas. Place a tortilla on the bottom, and spread a thin layer of salsa over it. Layer some of the meat mix on next. Sprinkle with cheese. (I was feeling lazy so I used a pre-grated Kraft Mexican mix). Top with another tortilla, repeat the salsa, meat, and cheese layers. Do it again. And again. For the very top, sprinkle the cheese generously.
3) Place in a preheated oven (350 F) for 20 minutes or so. Until the cheese is melty, and the top tortilla is browned and crispy.

This was really tasty. I served it alongside some salsa and and a Cilantro Lime Crema. Which is sour cream with lime juice and cilantro mixed in. If I was feeling lazy, I probably would have added some chopped onion, and a can of tomatoes.

Cute dishes!

I also made Miniature Coffee Cakes. The coffee cake does not taste of coffee. Apparently it is called this because it goes very well alongside coffee. These were fantastic. I did have to tweak a little though. I had no pecans, so I used slivered almonds instead. I did the first part of the recipe in my miniature food processor, but for the mixing I used my stand mixer.
I also only made half the glaze, and added just a wee bit of vanilla to it.

They were great fresh from the oven, as well as the next day. I will be making them again very soon.

Mom's Mac n Cheese

I'm in my twenties, so a typical Saturday night involves getting dressed up, and hitting the "tizz town" with my millions of friends. So I wish. My typical Saturday night is more reminiscent of a Cathy comic. *Weeps* This last Saturday I started my night by picking up dog food. Right now I just have one really adorable dog, but I can see in the future years having about five of them. (I'm allergic to cats so becoming the crazy cat lady isn't an option) Then I went to the grocery store. I bought milk, and ice cream bars. Jealous yet? Then I went and ordered stir fry from Wok Box. I love Wok Box. I always get the Singapore Cashew stir fry with Hokkein noodles and shrimp. And an order of pot stickers. While I wait for the food to be ready, I walk next door to the Blockbuster. Saturday nights are the worst night to go to Blockbuster. If you don't rent movies before supper time on Friday night, I guarantee all the good ones will be gone. Which they were. Also everyone in there is all coupled up and judging your sad, single behaviour.

I then went home, and changed into my sweet flannel pants. Then I popped in a Gilmore Girls DVD. I watched several episodes, in my flannel pants, eating stir fry and ice cream. It's an exciting life that I lead.

Clearly the picture above is not Singapore Cashew with Hokkein noodles. Macaroni and Cheese casserole is another one of my mom's recipes that I make time and time again. I find it easier to make than other macaroni and cheese dishes, and it has a sentimental value to me.

To make:

1) preheat the oven to 350 F

2) cook 3-4 cups dried macaroni (or small shells) according to package directions

3) Add just under 1/4 cup milk, an egg, and a tbsp of ketchup to the bottom of a baking dish

4) When the pasta is al dente (not overcooked, the pasta still has a bite to it), drain

5) add half the pasta to the baking dish and stir. Top with some grated cheddar (I use marble because I love it). The amount is up to you, but you should have the pasta covered. Top that with the remaining pasta. Add some more cheese. Break up a piece or two of sliced bread and place them on top.

6) Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes

The results are not as creamy as most macaroni and cheese. I love it though. I also eat it with ketchup, but I spared you the sight of it. Some people may prefer to sprinkle breadcrumbs on top, instead of having croutons, and that's ok too.

Meatballs

My mom is an incredibly talented woman. To start off with, she raised four kids almost on her own. My dad was a truck driver (he works in an office now which is why that is in past tense) and he was rarely home. My mom also survived cancer, that left her with an arm that doesn't work as well as it did pre-cancer. And even with a wrist that doesn't work to its full capacity, my mom is very crafty. I mean in the artistic way, not in the deceitful way. She makes beautiful quilts, and I would love to be able to scrapbook anywhere nearly as good as she can.

There are a few meals that my mom made, that are my all time favorites. One of them is the meatballs pictured above. My twin and I love these. (No, I don't really have a twin, one of my sisters is convinced that she is my twin so we sometimes call each other that).

The original recipe called for adding diced onion to the meat, which I substitute for onion powder. My twin and I also didn't think the original recipe had enough sauce, so we doubled it.

If you are feeling particularly lazy, you cannot just brown up some ground beef and pour the sauce in with it. My twin did this once, and the result was not good.

To make the meatballs you combine:

1 package of ground beef

just over half a cup of rolled oats

1 egg

a couple pinches of onion powder

a couple pinches of garlic powder

a dash of Worcestershire sauce

if the mix seems a bit dry, you can add a bit of milk.

Roll the meat into balls that are bigger than ping pong balls, but smaller than tennis balls. Place them into a baking dish.

To make the sauce combine:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup ketchup

a pinch of garlic salt

a dash of Worcestershire sauce

Pour the sauce over the meatballs. Cover the dish and bake at 350 F for an hour.

Every single time that I have made this is serve it over white rice, with canned brown beans on the side.

After supper I had a hankering for cookies, so I made Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal cookies. I did a couple things differently. I didn't have all purpose flour, so I used bread flour. I had googled whether or not that was ok, and I was warned that the bread flour might make the cookies dry. The mix did appear to be dry, so I added a bit of milk. I was out of vanilla, so I used Kahlua instead. The recipe said drop the cookies in teaspoons, but I did them in double tablespoons. Which meant after 12 minutes, they were not done baking, and they took about 5 or 6 minutes longer.

Even with all my meddling, the cookies turned out really good. I gave one to my brother in law to try, and he said that there wasn't enough chocolate chips. He is right, so if you bake these use a cup of chocolate chips.

Caramel Chicken

Last week I ended up coming down with a cold. I haven't been cooking much, unless you count making canned soup as cooking. I have been spending most of my time feeling sorry for myself and trying to convince my mom to come up to Edmonton and take care of me. No such luck.

Before I got sick I made Vietnamese Caramel Chicken. The recipe in the link uses soy sauce, and I used the fish sauce it originally called for. The recipe also says it will take 5- 7 minutes for the sugar to turn the color of iced tea. They are lying. It takes less than 2 minutes for the sugar to turn black. So my best advice is to watch the sugar very carefully. This would have been a good chicken dish if it didn't have the burnt taste to it.

If this picture looks weird to you, it's because no matter what I do, Blogger uploads it sideways. And I can't flip it. I am not talented at the Internet. Although one could say with the amount of burnt dishes I have made, I am not talented in the kitchen either.
I served this with a salad made of sliced cucumber, sliced red onion, and cashews. They were tossed with a dressing made of 1/4 cup rice vinegar, a pinch of red chili flakes, and a bit of sugar.

Overall the taste of the chicken was good. If it wasn't burnt, I bet it would have been really good. The salad was good on the side.

Is Toasted Really Better?

I think one of the most disappointing things is to have someone strongly recommend something, so you try it thinking you will love it, and then... you don't. Someone I know recommended a book to me, said it was really good, so I went out and bought it. And hated it, I didn't even finish it, and I really loathe not finishing a book even if I don't like it.
When I was on Food Gawker, I found a recipe that looked interesting. Toasted mushroom pasta. The mushrooms aren't toasted, the pasta is. You toast the pasta by browning dried pasta in a mix of olive oil and butter. The pasta is then cooked in chicken broth and, once finished, tossed with sauteed mushrooms that were cooked down in wine and fresh parsley.
The blogger who posted this originally raved about this dish. I admit the ingredients sounded foolproof, however I found it to be lacking. I'm not sure if toasting the pasta gave enough taste to compensate for the extra oil and butter used in the recipe. And I found the sauce to be pretty bland.
I wanted to love it, I really did, but I just didn't.
Overall, I did like it and it tasted better the next day when I heated up leftovers for lunch. To fix the blandness problem I would add a minced shallot with the garlic step for the mushroom mix, as well as I would use a bit more wine. I also don't think I would toast the pasta. It's an interesting concept, but one that I think is unnecessary.

Red Meat Makes the World Go 'Round

Spring has reached Edmonton, at least for the time being. I'm sure we will still see another cold front, and perhaps a couple more snowfalls before it is actually spring. But for now, it is beautiful outside. I did a bit of spring cleaning yesterday, and then I took a step out of my normal hermit tendencies and went out in the world. I picked up some pasta and a bottle of balsamic vinegar from the Italian Centre. I went to Chapters and bought a couple books. It would have been an entirely perfect trip out in public, if it weren't for 3 things.

1) The small child who was accompanied by both parents at the Italian Centre, neither parent willing to control him in any way

2) The guy, who when saw me trying to cross the street (on foot) in the Chapters parking lot, debated whether or not he should let me cross, and then sped up, while turning his stereo on really loud, and proceeded to not let me pedestriate. I waved at him, using both hands but not all my fingers.

3) Remembering once I got home, that my car has a sunroof. A sunroof that should have been open the entire time I was driving around, but I forgot it existed.

The first two are huge pet peeves of mine. I know that kids have a mind of their own, and you can't control them all the time. But if your kid is a hellion, should you really bring him to a busy grocery store on a Saturday afternoon? Should you let them drive the "cute" little mini-cart? I think the worst is when a kid is driving the little cart, and runs into you, and the parent glares at you, like it's your fault you choose to stand in little precious' way. You don't see me hitting kids with my cart and then glaring at you for bringing them.

And I hate stupid drivers. The guys who drive really slow in the left lane bother me the most. In fact, I think cops should stop handing out speeding tickets, and crack down on the real hazards. The people who drive under the speed limit, the people who see your signal light when you're trying to get out of a lane with a broken down car, but they just have to get past you and not let you in.

Woooooo. Ok rant over. Spring is here, and life is good.

The other night I made a perfect meal. Steak with potatoes and money beets. I took a perfect New York strip, brushed it with olive oil, seasoned it with salt and pepper and cooked it for 3 minutes on each side in a skillet over med high heat. (Then I took it off the pan and let it rest for 5 minutes under foil). This will make a medium rare steak, which is the only way to eat it.

What is on top of this perfect steak? Steak butter. I made it by taking a 1/4 cup of white wine, the juice of one lemon, and a minced shallot, and boiling the mix in a saucepan until it reduced to a tbsp. I then let the mix cool. Once cooled, I added it to a half of cup of butter that I had whipped in a food processor.

Delicious! Also note the super cute little red dish. My sister E got it for me for my birthday. The white dish underneath is tear drop shaped and I got that for my birthday from C's parents.

I made the potatoes using a Chef Michael Smith recipe. You take a cooked baked potato that has cooled down and smash it by placing it on a flat surface and then pressing a plate on top of it. You drizzle it with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. and then bake for 30-40 minutes at 45o F. The reason you use a cooled potato is that a warm potato will crumble, and a cooled potato will hold its shape when smashed.

The exposed flesh will go crispy and brown in the oven, and the potato under the skin will stay tender and fluffy. Very very good.

About half way through cooking time I drizzle a bit more olive oil on the potatoes. I think it makes them a bit more crisp.

To make the money beets, I peel the beets (wearing rubber gloves), and then grate them. I put them in a saucepan with a bit of water and white vinegar, roughly 1/4 cup each. I put a lid on the saucepan and cook the beets on medium for about a half hour. Then I drain the liquid, add a bit more white vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

Oh yeah, those are the money beets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_P1-ipWdWg

Watch that video if you want to know what money beets are. I do not know how to post the actual video on the blog. Sorry.

Not These Ribs...Those Ribs

If it's one thing my family never does, it's overuse a joke. If something was hilarious once, it will be hilarious a hundred times more. Last year I went to Hawaii with my parents and one of my sisters. My parents, rebels that they are, love the coffee shop called the "Bad Ass Coffee". Neither of my parents are particularly known for swearing. Especially my mom, who if you make her mad in traffic she will call you a "doe-head", but if you make her really angry she might call you an "idiot". I think this is why they love the Bad Ass Coffee so much, it gives them a sense of being "wild".

So we're in Hawaii, and my parents realize that the Bad Ass Coffee that they always go to, is no longer there. Great disappointment ensues. One day when we were driving around, my parents spotted where the Bad Ass Coffee had moved to. We go inside, and gave our order to the Bad Ass Coffee maker. At this point my mom tells her about how upset they were when they couldn't find the first one, and thought they wouldn't be able to partake in the coffee. The cashier replies "Thanks gods you found us". This has lead to us saying "thanks gods" for the rest of the trip, and actually still to this day. We find it hilarious.

Another common joke in my family is always mentioned when someone is making ribs. My aunt "Tante", whenever someone asked what she was making for dinner, if her answer was ribs she would follow that by saying "not these ribs...those ribs". You probably aren't getting how this is a joke. It's hard to get it, unless you can see her as she says this. To help I used my awesome skills in Paint (photoshop is for sissies) to demonstrate.

First she says "Not these ribs" as she points to her ribcage:

No, my aunt is not a Bruce Willis look-a-like. I used him as a model, since sometimes I think this blog could use a little "brucing up".

She then says "those ribs" while pointing to the actual ribs that are about to be consumed.

I suppose this could actually be more eye roll inducing, than actually hilarious, but we still do it. Every time. Let's get to some food. Thanks gods there was a point to this story eh?. I made ribs the other night. I have been known to make ribs before, usually I do them up in the wife. This time I tried a little something different. My Aunt C had mentioned that she had made a recipe that appeared earlier in my blog, and now she had a bottle of fish sauce she didn't know what to do with. The latest issue of Everyday Food had several recipes in it that included fish sauce, and I concluded that it couldn't just be a coincidence.

The recipe is actually for chicken wings, but they did mention that you could substitute the wings for pork ribs. (Not these ribs....those ribs).

I can't find the recipe on Everyday Food's website, so I am writing it out:

Sticky Ribs

Ingredients:

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp soy sauce

a 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and smashed

1 Serrano chili

pork ribs, cut individually

The steps are written in my words, not EF's

1) Preheat oven to 300 F

2) Mix the sugar, fish sauce, lemon juice, soy sauce, ginger and chili in a bowl. I didn't peel and smash the ginger, I cut it into slices and didn't bother with peeling it. The peel will not hurt you. I also just cut the chili in half and threw it in, without bothering to seed it.

3) Place the ribs in a 9 x 13 baking dish. They should no longer be together in a row of ribs, but rather all single ribs.

4) Pour the sauce on top of the ribs, and mix a bit so the ribs are coated. Cover with foil and bake for an hour.

5) Remove the foil. At this point the ribs are grey and kind of gross looking. Turn the oven up to 450 F, and bake for another 40-45 minutes. At this point the ribs will have browned, and the sauce will have turned into a glaze.

6) This wasn't in the recipe, but I did it anyways. I removed the ribs and put them on a plate. I poured the sauce into a saucepan (after discarding the ginger and chili pieces) and boiled it down for a couple minutes, and then spooned it onto the ribs.

I served it with jasmine rice. I made the rice according to package directions. When it finished cooking I added a mix of carrot, red bell pepper (or capsicum), and peas that I had sauteed a little in a pan with a bit of olive oil. To this mix I added some of my sauce I made the other night for the fried rice and chicken. (The mix of mirin, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, honey and rice vinegar)

The ribs were so good. I could have ate the whole rack in one sitting. I didn't, but I wanted to. You must make these! They were so flavorful.

The following dessert I made on a different night. This is loosely based off of bananas foster.

I took a pineapple, peeled it, and cut it into pizza topping sized chunks. I put a 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and about half of a 1/4 cup of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum in a saucepan and heated it over medium until it was thick and bubbly. I tossed in about half or so of the pineapple chunks and stirred to coat. Easy, and oh so very delicious. Not kidding, this was magical.

I feel slightly embarrassed to admit this, but I drank all of the sauce that was in the bottom of the bowl. Yes, I realize it was a 1/4 cup of brown sugar. To be completely honest, this dessert would have been really really good with a bit of ice cream. Thanks gods I didn't have any in my freezer, because the 1/4 cup of sugar was already bad enough for my health.