I love summer. I love the farmers market, I love fresh vegetables picked that morning... And I love to cook with them!
My garden is a work in progress this year but we have started to get a few veggies from it. Up here in the frozen north, we can't plant till late and it seems like summer is over before it even begins but we'll make the best of it..
I did make a super summery dish though on Saturday.
I took 2 medium sized zucchini and slice the ends off. Sliced them down the middle and scooped the seeds out. Laid those slices into a roasting pan. I then took 1# of hamburger and 1/2# of ground sausage. I browned it and drained it then added to it a bell pepper, 4 cloves of garlic, peas, carrots, and a small yellow squash. Cooked till the veggies are barely done and bright in color. I then spooned it into the zucchini and sprinked shredded cheddar and romano cheese over the top. I baked for about 40 minutes at 350 till the zucs were just tender enough to easily prick with a fork.
On the side I served a simple egg noodle with butter and soy sauce and a bit of cheese grated over the top. Simply summer scrumptious!
2 medium size zucchini
1# hamburger
1/2# ground sausage
1 bell pepper*
1 small onion
1 yellow squash*
1 c corn
1 c peas*
Total cost: $7.00
Yield: 8 servings (I sliced these in half once cooked and we had plenty still)
* From my garden (shameless brag!)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Fathers Day Dinner - or the way to a guy's heart....
...Is through his stomach.
Of course I don't have kids, but my brother does, so he got the dad's day dinner.
Menu:
Fried chicken
roasted corn on the cob
potato salad
risotto
salad
chocolate pecan cheesecake bars
white chocolate cherry pie
Ok, we were not going for a lowcal dinner.
Fried chicken was a twist on my mom's recipe.
I marinated the chicken overnight in buttermilk with some paprika, garlic, and jamaican jerk spices added to it. Took it out, dredged it in egg and coated it with a mixture of flour, old bay seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Fried it in an olive oil/butter mixture till it's brown and then placed it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour until the chicken was the correct temperature.
Roasted the corn, simply put the ears in the silks in the same 350 degree oven for half an hour.
Potato salad. I hate most potato salads, this is the only version I like. 10 smaller potatoes (I used yukon gold, red are really better), boiled, skinned and cut up. 7 eggs boiled and chopped. Enough good quality mayo to make it wet (about 3 cups probably), garlic powder, chopped celery, paprika, old bay seasoning, pepper and a small amt of worcestershire sauce. Mix it all and use all seasonings to taste. This is not a sweet potato salad, it's just a clean, fresh taste.
And the desserts --- I got both recipes from Paula Deen's Chocolate Celebration. The cheesecake bars were good, but I think I need to tweak it a bit. So I'll leave those off for now. But the White chocolate cherry pie. EASY and oh SOOOOOO good!!! This one will go into the mainstay..
Filling:
6 squares white chocolate (6 oz total)
3 tbsp heavy cream
2 8 oz packages cream cheese
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 can cherry pie filling.
Melt the white chocolate with the cream being careful not to scorch. Let cool and beat with cream cheese till smooth then add sugar and beat till creamy smooth. Spoon into a graham cracker pie crust and chill for 2 hours. Top with cherries and serve. Oh my goodness - it wasn't good, it's sinful.
It was better the next day after chilling overnight. It'd be great with other fruit too, or even on it's own.
I strongly recommend this little cookbook, it can be found in grocery stores right now and has amazing recipes in it. There are a lot more I want to try out. Or look online at www.pauladeen.com
Happy Father's day to dad's everywhere!
Of course I don't have kids, but my brother does, so he got the dad's day dinner.
Menu:
Fried chicken
roasted corn on the cob
potato salad
risotto
salad
chocolate pecan cheesecake bars
white chocolate cherry pie
Ok, we were not going for a lowcal dinner.
Fried chicken was a twist on my mom's recipe.
I marinated the chicken overnight in buttermilk with some paprika, garlic, and jamaican jerk spices added to it. Took it out, dredged it in egg and coated it with a mixture of flour, old bay seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Fried it in an olive oil/butter mixture till it's brown and then placed it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour until the chicken was the correct temperature.
Roasted the corn, simply put the ears in the silks in the same 350 degree oven for half an hour.
Potato salad. I hate most potato salads, this is the only version I like. 10 smaller potatoes (I used yukon gold, red are really better), boiled, skinned and cut up. 7 eggs boiled and chopped. Enough good quality mayo to make it wet (about 3 cups probably), garlic powder, chopped celery, paprika, old bay seasoning, pepper and a small amt of worcestershire sauce. Mix it all and use all seasonings to taste. This is not a sweet potato salad, it's just a clean, fresh taste.
And the desserts --- I got both recipes from Paula Deen's Chocolate Celebration. The cheesecake bars were good, but I think I need to tweak it a bit. So I'll leave those off for now. But the White chocolate cherry pie. EASY and oh SOOOOOO good!!! This one will go into the mainstay..
Filling:
6 squares white chocolate (6 oz total)
3 tbsp heavy cream
2 8 oz packages cream cheese
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 can cherry pie filling.
Melt the white chocolate with the cream being careful not to scorch. Let cool and beat with cream cheese till smooth then add sugar and beat till creamy smooth. Spoon into a graham cracker pie crust and chill for 2 hours. Top with cherries and serve. Oh my goodness - it wasn't good, it's sinful.
It was better the next day after chilling overnight. It'd be great with other fruit too, or even on it's own.
I strongly recommend this little cookbook, it can be found in grocery stores right now and has amazing recipes in it. There are a lot more I want to try out. Or look online at www.pauladeen.com
Happy Father's day to dad's everywhere!
Friday, May 2, 2008
Spring has sprung
And with that has been so many changes at work I haven't had a chance to post. But I have been cooking. I'll be posting several recipes over the next few days to get caught up, but here's the one simmering tonight.
Taken from an idea of white chili chicken from a Paula Dean magazine, plus adding the fact that I love the white bean chili from Ruby Tuesday, I cooked this up today.
Soak: 1 package of northern beans, or navy beans (I used a pack of both). Yes, you can use canned beans but in all honesty fresh beans taste wonderful and are easy! Just soak for awhile, pop on the stove, bring to a boil, do a quick sort (for any icky beans) and rinse them off.
Into the crockpot goes the beans, 1 qt of chicken stock, a can of salsa all set to high (or low if you're leaving this for a long time.
In a pan saute an onion and garlic in olive oil. Place some chicken (I used 4 chicken breasts that I sliced) into the pan and cook over medium heat. You don't want to burn it, but it'll get tender as it simmers so no need to cook super slowly. Add to the pot along with chili powder, and paprika to taste.
Cook for several hours until the beans and chicken are tender. Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream, and 1 c of shredded cheese (your choice, I had gruyere and cheddar on hand, not authentic but it worked). Mix thoroughly and cook for a bit longer, the longer the better :).
YUM! This is still cooking, but I'll take a picture tomorrow. It's warming but not spicy, and perfect comfort food.
2 bags of white beans
1 qt chicken stock
1 small onion
2 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 C heavy cream
1 C shredded cheese
1# boneless, skinless chicken
1 jar salsa
chili powder to taste
Paprika to taste
Cost:
2.10 beans
3.00 chicken
1.50 salsa
2.00 chicken stock
2.00 misc (gourmet cheese, spices, cream)
----
$10.60
Taken from an idea of white chili chicken from a Paula Dean magazine, plus adding the fact that I love the white bean chili from Ruby Tuesday, I cooked this up today.
Soak: 1 package of northern beans, or navy beans (I used a pack of both). Yes, you can use canned beans but in all honesty fresh beans taste wonderful and are easy! Just soak for awhile, pop on the stove, bring to a boil, do a quick sort (for any icky beans) and rinse them off.
Into the crockpot goes the beans, 1 qt of chicken stock, a can of salsa all set to high (or low if you're leaving this for a long time.
In a pan saute an onion and garlic in olive oil. Place some chicken (I used 4 chicken breasts that I sliced) into the pan and cook over medium heat. You don't want to burn it, but it'll get tender as it simmers so no need to cook super slowly. Add to the pot along with chili powder, and paprika to taste.
Cook for several hours until the beans and chicken are tender. Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream, and 1 c of shredded cheese (your choice, I had gruyere and cheddar on hand, not authentic but it worked). Mix thoroughly and cook for a bit longer, the longer the better :).
YUM! This is still cooking, but I'll take a picture tomorrow. It's warming but not spicy, and perfect comfort food.
2 bags of white beans
1 qt chicken stock
1 small onion
2 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 C heavy cream
1 C shredded cheese
1# boneless, skinless chicken
1 jar salsa
chili powder to taste
Paprika to taste
Cost:
2.10 beans
3.00 chicken
1.50 salsa
2.00 chicken stock
2.00 misc (gourmet cheese, spices, cream)
----
$10.60
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Italian Beef Roast
I was shopping the other day and found some gorgeous tomatoes. They just looked summery, something we all need! The problem is, I am not a fan of them, and heavy tomato sauce isn't a favorite around here. 2 days later I realized I really needed to use them.. So, I made a sauce and added it to a roast. Healthy, full of vitamins, and not too tomato sauce like.
Italian? I'm not so sure, but it tasted good...
3 cloves garlic
4 fresh tomatoes
1 shallot
1/2 c yellow onion
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Italian seasoning
potatoes
1/2 # fresh carrots (I used baby carrots)
3# beef roast
Frozen veggies
garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste
Chop the garlic, tomatoes, shallot and onion and saute in the olive oil.
Turn to low and let simmer to break the tomatoes down.
Slice some potatoes (your choice, I actually used one sweet potato since I had that on hand.
Place those in a crock pot and season them along with the carrots.
Remove the tomato mixture from the pan and pour over the potatoes and carrots.
Sear the roast on all sides and add to the crock pot. Put a bit of water in the pan and pour over the roast and veggies.
Cook on low for 6 hours, or on high for 2-3.
I added frozen peas and corn about 1/2 an hour before we were ready to eat. It turned into a really flavorful roast without a heavy tomato flavoring. Just very robust.
Total cost for the meal - around 13.00, since winter veggie prices are high. But there was enough for 3 people for dinner, lunch, and dinner again the next day :)
Italian? I'm not so sure, but it tasted good...
3 cloves garlic
4 fresh tomatoes
1 shallot
1/2 c yellow onion
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Italian seasoning
potatoes
1/2 # fresh carrots (I used baby carrots)
3# beef roast
Frozen veggies
garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste
Chop the garlic, tomatoes, shallot and onion and saute in the olive oil.
Turn to low and let simmer to break the tomatoes down.
Slice some potatoes (your choice, I actually used one sweet potato since I had that on hand.
Place those in a crock pot and season them along with the carrots.
Remove the tomato mixture from the pan and pour over the potatoes and carrots.
Sear the roast on all sides and add to the crock pot. Put a bit of water in the pan and pour over the roast and veggies.
Cook on low for 6 hours, or on high for 2-3.
I added frozen peas and corn about 1/2 an hour before we were ready to eat. It turned into a really flavorful roast without a heavy tomato flavoring. Just very robust.
Total cost for the meal - around 13.00, since winter veggie prices are high. But there was enough for 3 people for dinner, lunch, and dinner again the next day :)
Sunday, February 17, 2008
I created a monster...
A cookie monster, or a cooking monster. After making the cake, my genius-boy nephew said he wanted to cook more. He's all the sudden fascinated that you can 'create' a recipe. Genius boy will be reading this so I will keep my soliloquey of his virtues short but needless to say, I must indulge the cookie-ing monster.
So tonight, we made Paula Deen's Oatmeal cookie recipe, found in her Christmas with Paula cookbook, and HERE online (to save on some sort of copywrite infringement.) Genius-boy agreed after I made it clear he could customize a recipe by adding some of his own ingredients. Therefore it was still his to publish, just based on someone else's. (if Paula is reading this, I know you'll relate, and understand why we needed to do this, I'm sure the original is amazing!) so we omitted the raisins and nuts (having non-raisin and nut eaters here) and added white chocolate morsels, semi sweet morsels, and coconut (see Paula - YUM!)
Creaming ingredients
Crackin' eggs
Adding more ingredients
HIS idea of chocolate chips
Scooping them out onto the silpat mat (totally a great tool by the way - really, really get one!)
Genius-boy (and Paula's) Ultimate, loaded, totally cool oatmeal cookie recipe!
Genius-boy's additions:
1 cup of shredded coconut
1/2 cup of semi-sweet chips
1 cup of white chocolate chips
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Chocolate Cherry bliss!
This is the easiest cake recipe ever. I received it from a woman in 2006, and now all of our cakes are made this way. Well, ok, I won't make a real cake due to a traumatic experience when I was 10 (baking soda, baking powder - what's the diff? A lot). Anyway, this is a super fast, super easy cake. It can also in a pinch serve as a breakfast cake. In this one we used cherry pie filling and chocolate cake. Anything can be used. Our 2 favorites are blackberry and french vanilla and apple and spice cake. The blackberry and vanilla has served as a buffet breakfast cake with amazing reviews.
So here we go:
The ingredients, yes that is all of them.
1 can of pie filling
1 box of moist cake mix
3 eggs.
Mix goes into the bowl
Then the eggs
In went the cherries and it was mixed, then into the silicon baking pan, which is greased with Crisco.
It bakes for 35-45 minutes (till an inserted knife comes out clean)
Frosting the cake with chocolate frosting (1 tbsp of crisco, 1 tsp of cocoa powder, 1/4 tsp of vanilla flavoring, 1/4 cup milk and 1 cup + of powdered sugar) by the way, yes, this is a different kid, you're not crazy!
The 2 chefs showing off the masterpiece
The best chocolate cherry cake ever in existance, thanks to the 2 chefs Devin and Cory!
So here we go:
The ingredients, yes that is all of them.
1 can of pie filling
1 box of moist cake mix
3 eggs.
Mix goes into the bowl
Then the eggs
In went the cherries and it was mixed, then into the silicon baking pan, which is greased with Crisco.
It bakes for 35-45 minutes (till an inserted knife comes out clean)
Frosting the cake with chocolate frosting (1 tbsp of crisco, 1 tsp of cocoa powder, 1/4 tsp of vanilla flavoring, 1/4 cup milk and 1 cup + of powdered sugar) by the way, yes, this is a different kid, you're not crazy!
The 2 chefs showing off the masterpiece
The best chocolate cherry cake ever in existance, thanks to the 2 chefs Devin and Cory!
Weekend Cookin'
Since I work full time one of the things I do is cook on the weekends. During the week, I cook 1-3 times, depending on what I make and how long it lasts. The Mayan Chicken for example, we ate for 3 days of dinners. The original one, the next day sauteed with red potatoes and peas. and the 3rd made into a quick sour cream fettucini. That took us to the weekend!
Today, breakfast was a southern fried breakfast. (probably because I watched Paula Dean this morning!) we had bacon, fried biscuits (simply a tin of buttermilk biscuits cooked over the stove instead of in the oven) and sunnyside up eggs. Healthy? Nope, but soooo good!
Then for dinner I took 3 chicken breasts. Seasoned them with garlic powder, McCormick carribean jerk seasoning and olive oil. Popped it in the oven at 350 for about an hour. Alongside of it, I cooked peas, brocolli, some peppers, and sliced red potatoes with a bit of olive oil drizzled over it. After I got it done, I realized the chicken was a bit spicy for the Minnesotan contigent but I made a gravy to offset this and everyone loved it.
Now I'm heading back downstairs to make a Cherry Chocolate cake, the best you will EVER eat and the easiest recipe in the world! Stay tuned!
Today, breakfast was a southern fried breakfast. (probably because I watched Paula Dean this morning!) we had bacon, fried biscuits (simply a tin of buttermilk biscuits cooked over the stove instead of in the oven) and sunnyside up eggs. Healthy? Nope, but soooo good!
Then for dinner I took 3 chicken breasts. Seasoned them with garlic powder, McCormick carribean jerk seasoning and olive oil. Popped it in the oven at 350 for about an hour. Alongside of it, I cooked peas, brocolli, some peppers, and sliced red potatoes with a bit of olive oil drizzled over it. After I got it done, I realized the chicken was a bit spicy for the Minnesotan contigent but I made a gravy to offset this and everyone loved it.
Now I'm heading back downstairs to make a Cherry Chocolate cake, the best you will EVER eat and the easiest recipe in the world! Stay tuned!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Mayan Chicken
Here's tonight's dinner, slowcooking in the crockpot. I know it doesn't look good now, but it will be wonderful when it's cooked - in about 5 hours.
Crockpots are amazing. Anyone who works, or is busy should have a crockpot. I actually have 2. This one, is my bigger one, the Hamilton Beach store n go. I love, love this crockpot. In it, I can make a wonderful meal while I'm at work, or while I'm working on other things. If I want it done in a few hours, I set it on high. If I want it done for the evening and I'm heading out the door, it goes onto low.
Today, it's set on low and here's what's in it:
Yes - this is right - this is a savory dish. But we have:
1 baking chicken, about 5 lbs
Cinnamon (about 1 TBSP sprinkled)
Ginger (approx 1 tsp)
Paprika (1 tsp)
Garlic powder (1 TBSP)
sliced garlic (I believe in garlic - especially during the winter to boost your immune system!)
cocoa powder (1/2 tsp)
soy sauce (2 TBSP)
1 cup of water
Believe it or not the cocoa powder (which of course isn't sweet) and the cinnamon and ginger will offset the flavors. This may be closer to an Asian chicken than a Mayan one, but the chocolate and cinnamon reminded me of Mexican chocolate.
It will cook all day, already the house smells amazing. I'll pair it up with some whole grain rice, and veggies for dinner. Cost involved: $5.40 for the chicken, $1.00 for garlic and spice, .50 cents for rice, $2.00 for frozen veggies. Total of $8.90.
The Inner Chef
Welcome to my new blog. I decided to start this, after talking to some people at work. They were amazed that I'd created honey mustard dressing at home. In today's world, many people consider cooking to be where to go out to dinner, or buying a ready made pizza or if they're adventerous a dinner in a bag stew kit. And I should know, becuase I was one of those people! For years, I didn't cook at all besides one or 2 tried and true meals. I had no interest in it, though I loved watching cooking shows. Then I spent 3 months visiting relatives and eating gourmet meals cooked at HOME with them. It opened my eyes and when I moved away, I was determined to learn how to do it. The Food Network became my best friend, and I bought cookbooks. I quickly figured out, I prefer to look at a recipe for inspiration rather than for absolute guidance. I also really enjoy creating, and changing things.
This blog will hopefully showcase some recipes I've developed, help readers figure out how to incorporate cooking into their busy schedule, and help others find their inner chef!
This blog will hopefully showcase some recipes I've developed, help readers figure out how to incorporate cooking into their busy schedule, and help others find their inner chef!
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