I've been fighting with horrible data ever since I passed my defense. I often complain about the general quality of the data that I work with in my project, but right now I'm dealing with the "problem" stars and they are quite problematic. Instead of chucking my laptop across the room in frustration, I've found that cooking helps quite a bit. Today I made tomato basil soup because a) it's delicious b) Colby likes it and c) I bought a thermos for it specifically so I could take it to a picnic with me tomorrow.
Tomato basil soup:
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 sweet onion, diced (I used a Texas 1015, which is by far my favorite onion)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 28 oz cans of tomatoes (I used San Marzanos, but anything works here)
15 oz chicken stock
1/2 c heavy cream
3 T butter
2 T tomato paste
lots of basil, chopped (I used about 2.5 c, loosely packed)
salt+pepper to taste
Heat the evoo in a large pot. Once hot, add in the onions and a good pinch of salt and cook until softened and a bit brown about 5-10 minutes. Add in garlic and stir until fragrant, ~30s or so. Add in chicken stock and tomatoes and stick blender until mostly smooth...ish. Bring to a boil. Bring to medium heat and add butter, cream, tomato paste, and basil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread.
Showing posts with label garlic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garlic. Show all posts
15 June 2010
09 November 2009
New Kitchen
We finally unpacked the kitchen enough such that I could actually find enough bowls, pots, and pans to cook a meal. Granted, the entire house is still in boxes and bags, but there's a ton of space in the kitchen so I settled on my new go to meal: pasta with garlic, artichokes, and sundried tomatoes. I served it with a salad made with spring mix, crimini mushrooms, getost cheese, and croutons with a bottled dressing (shameful, I know!).
garlic pasta toss
1 lb spaghetti, cooked to al dente
reserved pasta water
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
6 oz jarred artichoke hearts, quartered
1 T dried basil
salt+pepper
parmasean cheese
heat EVOO in a crazy large pan (or stock pot if you don't have one). add in garlic and stir for 30 or until fragrant. add in artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes and stir to heat. add pasta and basil and toss to combine. If it's too thick, add in the reserved pasta water to thin. season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated parm.
p.s. if you've never had getost, you should really try it. it's pretty awesome and it goes well with fruit.
garlic pasta toss
1 lb spaghetti, cooked to al dente
reserved pasta water
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
6 oz jarred artichoke hearts, quartered
1 T dried basil
salt+pepper
parmasean cheese
heat EVOO in a crazy large pan (or stock pot if you don't have one). add in garlic and stir for 30 or until fragrant. add in artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes and stir to heat. add pasta and basil and toss to combine. If it's too thick, add in the reserved pasta water to thin. season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated parm.
p.s. if you've never had getost, you should really try it. it's pretty awesome and it goes well with fruit.
16 August 2009
Hatch Season!
It's hatch green chile season once again and there's a glut of them at the local grocery stores. I'm pretty sure that if there's a state that I am spiritually from besides Michigan, it's definitely New Mexico. I definitely go hatch crazy! Anaheim peppers are similar, but not grown in the designated county, so these are special peppers. Being that I've been on a hummus kick, I decided that roasted hatch "hummus" would be a really great end-of-summer snack.
Hummus is very basically garbanzo beans + tahini + lemon juice + olive oil. A lot of other ingredients are often added including roasted red pepper. In fact, I have roasted red pepper hummus sitting in my fridge, but I couldn't resist making this reformulated version for a light dinner tonight. In the version, black beans replace the garbanzo, lime juice replaces lemon, and avocado replaces tahini. Tahini is roasted ground sesame seeds and has a high fat content, so something that was similarly fatty needed to replace it to help maintain a similar texture.
Hatch "hummus"
2 roasted hatch peppers, seeded and skinned
1 14-15 oz can black beans, rinsed
1/4 c avocado, diced
1/4 c olive oil
2 cloves garlic, grated
2-3 Tbs lime juice
salt to taste
Roast the hatch peppers any way you like. Since we have an electric stove as well as a grill ban at our apartment, I coated the peppers in vegetable oil since it has a higher smoke point than olive oil and then put them under the broiler until the skins blistered. The time will vary based on your oven, peppers, etc. so keep an eye on them. It probably took 3-4 minutes on each side for me. After roasting, place in a sealable plastic bag and leave sealed until they're at least cool enough to handle. This makes taking the skin off super easy.
Add the peppers, black beans, avocado, 2 T lime juice, and garlic to a food processor. I usually just grate the garlic over the other ingredients. Pulse a few times to break down the beans, peppers, and avocado. Taste to see if you want more lime juice and add if desired. Turn the food processor back on and drizzle in the olive oil.
The peppers add some water to help thin out the mixture. If the texture isn't to your liking, add in water, about a tablespoon at a time.
Hummus is very basically garbanzo beans + tahini + lemon juice + olive oil. A lot of other ingredients are often added including roasted red pepper. In fact, I have roasted red pepper hummus sitting in my fridge, but I couldn't resist making this reformulated version for a light dinner tonight. In the version, black beans replace the garbanzo, lime juice replaces lemon, and avocado replaces tahini. Tahini is roasted ground sesame seeds and has a high fat content, so something that was similarly fatty needed to replace it to help maintain a similar texture.
Hatch "hummus"
2 roasted hatch peppers, seeded and skinned
1 14-15 oz can black beans, rinsed
1/4 c avocado, diced
1/4 c olive oil
2 cloves garlic, grated
2-3 Tbs lime juice
salt to taste
Roast the hatch peppers any way you like. Since we have an electric stove as well as a grill ban at our apartment, I coated the peppers in vegetable oil since it has a higher smoke point than olive oil and then put them under the broiler until the skins blistered. The time will vary based on your oven, peppers, etc. so keep an eye on them. It probably took 3-4 minutes on each side for me. After roasting, place in a sealable plastic bag and leave sealed until they're at least cool enough to handle. This makes taking the skin off super easy.
Add the peppers, black beans, avocado, 2 T lime juice, and garlic to a food processor. I usually just grate the garlic over the other ingredients. Pulse a few times to break down the beans, peppers, and avocado. Taste to see if you want more lime juice and add if desired. Turn the food processor back on and drizzle in the olive oil.
The peppers add some water to help thin out the mixture. If the texture isn't to your liking, add in water, about a tablespoon at a time.
01 May 2009
Dark Matter Dinner
Today was a day dedicated to the sole purpose of slogging through as much information about galaxy formation and dark matter as possible. It turns out that they are neither interesting nor relevant topics to my research (at least in the way that it was presented) so studying it is about as fun as, oh, watching Guy Fieri take a bite out of a deep fried sandwich twice the diameter of his beach ball sized head. Nevertheless, I had a study partner coming over with wifey in tow and a husband of my own to feed (he gets grumpy when I forget to feed him), so I decided to use that seven-dollar-a-pound-too-lean-free-range-ground beef that's been sitting in my freezer and make burgers. They turned out wonderfully and were much more delicious than n-body simulations of dark matter halos.
Green Chile Cheeseburgers
1 lb ground beef
1 can hatch green chiles (not sure what size, but it's an awfully small can)
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp parsley (because what the hell, why not?)
1/4 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 onion, sliced and caramelized
~3 tbs chevre
Drain the can of chiles to get some of the water out and then mix in with the granulated garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and mozzarella until well combined. Make four patties that at least stick together, making sure not to over work them. Cook the patties in your preferred cooking machine. I have to pan-fry all my stupid burgers because it's apparently illegal to have a grill on a balcony in Austin. So. Not. Cool. Towards the end of cooking, add ~2 tsp or so of chevre to each burger and cover with caramelized onions. Cover for a few to get the cheese warm and gooey-ish. Nom nom.
I ate mine plain, Colby ate his with a ton of ketchup (because he's classy like that) and study parter covered his in spicy brown mustard (because we don't have no stinkin' yeller mustard in these parts because like... EW). These were also served with a large helping of nachos a la Crown&Anchor because we're nothing if not classy in this joint.
Tomorrow is a pizza party kind of night. I bet I'll be kicking myself for not starting the dough tonight, but the bit of evening that I managed to salvage was spent over a dutch oven deep frying things... but that's for another delectable post. :)
Green Chile Cheeseburgers
1 lb ground beef
1 can hatch green chiles (not sure what size, but it's an awfully small can)
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp parsley (because what the hell, why not?)
1/4 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 onion, sliced and caramelized
~3 tbs chevre
Drain the can of chiles to get some of the water out and then mix in with the granulated garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and mozzarella until well combined. Make four patties that at least stick together, making sure not to over work them. Cook the patties in your preferred cooking machine. I have to pan-fry all my stupid burgers because it's apparently illegal to have a grill on a balcony in Austin. So. Not. Cool. Towards the end of cooking, add ~2 tsp or so of chevre to each burger and cover with caramelized onions. Cover for a few to get the cheese warm and gooey-ish. Nom nom.
I ate mine plain, Colby ate his with a ton of ketchup (because he's classy like that) and study parter covered his in spicy brown mustard (because we don't have no stinkin' yeller mustard in these parts because like... EW). These were also served with a large helping of nachos a la Crown&Anchor because we're nothing if not classy in this joint.
Tomorrow is a pizza party kind of night. I bet I'll be kicking myself for not starting the dough tonight, but the bit of evening that I managed to salvage was spent over a dutch oven deep frying things... but that's for another delectable post. :)
30 April 2009
Fish'n'Taters
I find Guy Fieri to be crazy amounts of annoying. I only really watch Diners, Drive-ins and Dives because it's probably on the better half of Food Network's programming and nothing is more irritating than listening to Bobby Flay mispronounce "chipotle" every five seconds since he is unable to make a dish that doesn't involve chipotle and ancho chile powder. *Anywho* one of the few high points on DDD was a salmon hash that looked tasty enough to attempt to make at home. The results were nomilicious!
I had a frozen salmon filet leftover from Lent and a failed attempt at dieting, so I had the most "elusive" ingredient on the list already on hand. Hence, I definitely *had* to make this.
The salmon also looked kind of gross after being shrink wrapped in plastic in my freezer for a couple months, so I felt much less guilty for chopping up a perfectly good piece of salmon.
Salmon Hash (or "Fish'n'Taters" as proclaimed by the 'sband)
4 oz salmon
1 large russet potato (~1.25 lbs), cubed into ~1/4 in pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, sliced
olive oil, butter
s+p
1/4 tsp paprika
Heat oil over medium in a large pan, add onions, pinch of salt and cook until translucent and a little bit brown.
Add potatoes and a large amount of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper (and maybe some butter if you're feeling adventurous). Cook until the potatoes are mostly done. Add in paprika and stir to coat all potatoes. Add in garlic and stir for 30s until fragrant.
Add in salmon, some more salt and stir the hash to break up and cook the salmon.
So I admit that the pictures don't look completely appetizing, but not all food must be beautiful to be delicious. I think my biggest problem was that I didn't soak the potatoes before frying which meant that they were still incredibly starchy. It wasn't a huge deal, but as one can see, they left quite a mess on the bottom of the pan. Overall, though, this didn't matter much and it was super duper tasty. :)
I had a frozen salmon filet leftover from Lent and a failed attempt at dieting, so I had the most "elusive" ingredient on the list already on hand. Hence, I definitely *had* to make this.
The salmon also looked kind of gross after being shrink wrapped in plastic in my freezer for a couple months, so I felt much less guilty for chopping up a perfectly good piece of salmon.
Salmon Hash (or "Fish'n'Taters" as proclaimed by the 'sband)
4 oz salmon
1 large russet potato (~1.25 lbs), cubed into ~1/4 in pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, sliced
olive oil, butter
s+p
1/4 tsp paprika
Heat oil over medium in a large pan, add onions, pinch of salt and cook until translucent and a little bit brown.
Add potatoes and a large amount of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper (and maybe some butter if you're feeling adventurous). Cook until the potatoes are mostly done. Add in paprika and stir to coat all potatoes. Add in garlic and stir for 30s until fragrant.
Add in salmon, some more salt and stir the hash to break up and cook the salmon.
So I admit that the pictures don't look completely appetizing, but not all food must be beautiful to be delicious. I think my biggest problem was that I didn't soak the potatoes before frying which meant that they were still incredibly starchy. It wasn't a huge deal, but as one can see, they left quite a mess on the bottom of the pan. Overall, though, this didn't matter much and it was super duper tasty. :)
14 January 2009
My Two Part Approach to my New Year's Resolutions
Being that I'm still recovering from adolescence, my New Years resolutions usually include "being healthy", which is really just code for "losing weight". This year is no different and I'm taking steps in the right direction (I hope!). I'm going to see about a gym membership on Saturday at Curves. I'm a little skeptical, but it didn't seem *too* expensive and it's way closer to my apartment than the UT gym. I've also resolved to start eating better, which includes my snacks. Tonight it was chicken noodle soup, which was basically chicken stock, noodles, chicken, and veggies (this time being carrots, onion, and celery). The other night we made stir-fry with broccoli, chickpeas, and green pepper all foraged from the local Whole Foods. And I can see now that this post is mostly to showcase my horrible camera skillZ AND to keep with my new year's resolution.
Perhaps, one day, I'll figure out how to incorporate pictures into this... but anywho... The other thing that we've been doing a lot is drinking smoothies for whatever reason. I think part of it is that we got a ginormous bag of frozen strawberries from Costco (which, if you're into bulk goods, is a much better choice than Sam's Club).
Mid-snack, it occurred to me that this is exactly the best food to give to sick kids. Who doesn't love soup when they've got a cold? And these smoothies have so much vitamin C that it's a better way to boost the immune system (and to make Linus Pauling happy) than simply taking vitamin C pills. The only thing that's missing is the Vernor's (which is by far the superior ginger ale if you're into that sort of thing). It's revelations like that that make me want to have babies like yesterday.
Perhaps, one day, I'll figure out how to incorporate pictures into this... but anywho... The other thing that we've been doing a lot is drinking smoothies for whatever reason. I think part of it is that we got a ginormous bag of frozen strawberries from Costco (which, if you're into bulk goods, is a much better choice than Sam's Club).
Mid-snack, it occurred to me that this is exactly the best food to give to sick kids. Who doesn't love soup when they've got a cold? And these smoothies have so much vitamin C that it's a better way to boost the immune system (and to make Linus Pauling happy) than simply taking vitamin C pills. The only thing that's missing is the Vernor's (which is by far the superior ginger ale if you're into that sort of thing). It's revelations like that that make me want to have babies like yesterday.
29 November 2008
Thanksgiving Recapped
I celebrated my first Thanksgiving away from home and it made me realize two things: a) my friends are wonderful and b) I really want a *real* dining room table instead of the card table that we inherited from Kyle. I sent an open invitation to the department and had about 12 people show up. It was the perfect size for the party and now I'm looking forward to planning a miniature white-elephant exchange Christmas party.
I took a lot of recipes from all over and modified them to fit my tastes/pantry. I made the homemade rolls from the pioneer woman cooks, which were tasty if not a bit heavy. Turkey, of course, with stuffing a la Chris complete with breakfast sausage and sour dough bread from the farmers market. We also had the Alton Brown version turkey and green bean casserole (although, I didn't have the patience or time to make my own french fried onions). Both came out wonderfully, and the turkey was made even better with cranberry apple chutney. There were also mashed potatoes with roasted garlic (along with plenty of cream and butter) and we mashed sweet potatoes from the farmer's market with cream, butter, smoked sweet paprika, and just a hint of cayenne. We also had apple and pumpkin pies which were made courtesy of my new pink KitchenAid stand mixer. Way tasty and easy too! :) In all, it was very successful and I'm looking forward to winding down the rest of the semester and going home.
I took a lot of recipes from all over and modified them to fit my tastes/pantry. I made the homemade rolls from the pioneer woman cooks, which were tasty if not a bit heavy. Turkey, of course, with stuffing a la Chris complete with breakfast sausage and sour dough bread from the farmers market. We also had the Alton Brown version turkey and green bean casserole (although, I didn't have the patience or time to make my own french fried onions). Both came out wonderfully, and the turkey was made even better with cranberry apple chutney. There were also mashed potatoes with roasted garlic (along with plenty of cream and butter) and we mashed sweet potatoes from the farmer's market with cream, butter, smoked sweet paprika, and just a hint of cayenne. We also had apple and pumpkin pies which were made courtesy of my new pink KitchenAid stand mixer. Way tasty and easy too! :) In all, it was very successful and I'm looking forward to winding down the rest of the semester and going home.
18 August 2008
Why Cayenne Pepper is Entertaining: A Memoir on Corn Chowder
Colby is funny, but more on that later. After perusing enough tastespotting, I've been itching to make some sort of soup. I found one recipe that seemed promising, mostly because it didn't require a stick blender.
Corn Chowder a la Julie
3 tbs butter
3 tbs olive oil
1 carrot, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 small tomato, deseeded and chopped
1/4 sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 baking potato, cubed into 1 cm pieces
celery leaves, chopped
1 c chicken stock
4 ears corn
1 c cream
herbs
cayenne pepper
s+p
Melt O.O. and butter in a stock pot. Add in onions, celery, carrots, garlic, potato and s+p to taste. Let cook for ~10 minutes, until the onions turn translucent and everything begins to soften. Husk the corn. Take a large bowl and place the corn in the center, cutting parallel to the body in a swift, downward motion to take off the kernels. You'll probably have to flip it upside down because it'll probably be too hard to get all the way down. Once you're done, take the cob and run the back of your knife down where the kernels used to be and get all of the "corn juice" out. Take one of the cobs and divide it into thirds (I just did it by hand). Add in the corn, tomato, and chicken stock. Also, add the corn cob bits. Take this up to a boil and let cook for another 5-10 minutes. Add in the stock and then whatever herbs/spices you want. I used ~1 tsp of Old Bay, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried parsley and let's say 2 tbs of celery leaves, chopped fine. Let it simmer for awhile until the flavors start to blend.
So about celery leaves: Colby and I were discussing whether or not to get celery. I decided to make the soup at about 10:30 PM last night (and by "last night", I mean 3.5 hours ago, but *technically* it was last night) standing in front of the produce section at H.E.B. the local friendly megamarket. I have always felt that celery smells wonderful, but tastes disappointing, since all of that wonderful scent is coming from the leaves. According to Rayray and Alton, celery is related to cilantro or parsley or something that's aromatic and herb-y so I took all the leaves from the celery bunch and treated it just like a fresh herb. I felt all thrifty and creative. Small victories. Anywho, it actually turned out wonderful. I'm guessing that as long as you have the celery leaves, s+p, and like cayenne pepper, the taste will still be wonderful.
So during the making of the soup, Colby started making a pork roast. We're apparently impulse cookers. How cute. He was in the kitchen and standing by the sink and I had just dumped the cayenne pepper into the soup and I wanted to clean off the spoon to use it to taste with, but I wasn't about to eat a mouthful of cayenne with the soup. While my back was turned, Colby put the spoon in his mouth, not really knowing what it was and then turned around to me and told me that "the stuff on the spoon" was hot. Tee hee.
Corn Chowder a la Julie
3 tbs butter
3 tbs olive oil
1 carrot, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 small tomato, deseeded and chopped
1/4 sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 baking potato, cubed into 1 cm pieces
celery leaves, chopped
1 c chicken stock
4 ears corn
1 c cream
herbs
cayenne pepper
s+p
Melt O.O. and butter in a stock pot. Add in onions, celery, carrots, garlic, potato and s+p to taste. Let cook for ~10 minutes, until the onions turn translucent and everything begins to soften. Husk the corn. Take a large bowl and place the corn in the center, cutting parallel to the body in a swift, downward motion to take off the kernels. You'll probably have to flip it upside down because it'll probably be too hard to get all the way down. Once you're done, take the cob and run the back of your knife down where the kernels used to be and get all of the "corn juice" out. Take one of the cobs and divide it into thirds (I just did it by hand). Add in the corn, tomato, and chicken stock. Also, add the corn cob bits. Take this up to a boil and let cook for another 5-10 minutes. Add in the stock and then whatever herbs/spices you want. I used ~1 tsp of Old Bay, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried parsley and let's say 2 tbs of celery leaves, chopped fine. Let it simmer for awhile until the flavors start to blend.
So about celery leaves: Colby and I were discussing whether or not to get celery. I decided to make the soup at about 10:30 PM last night (and by "last night", I mean 3.5 hours ago, but *technically* it was last night) standing in front of the produce section at H.E.B. the local friendly megamarket. I have always felt that celery smells wonderful, but tastes disappointing, since all of that wonderful scent is coming from the leaves. According to Rayray and Alton, celery is related to cilantro or parsley or something that's aromatic and herb-y so I took all the leaves from the celery bunch and treated it just like a fresh herb. I felt all thrifty and creative. Small victories. Anywho, it actually turned out wonderful. I'm guessing that as long as you have the celery leaves, s+p, and like cayenne pepper, the taste will still be wonderful.
So during the making of the soup, Colby started making a pork roast. We're apparently impulse cookers. How cute. He was in the kitchen and standing by the sink and I had just dumped the cayenne pepper into the soup and I wanted to clean off the spoon to use it to taste with, but I wasn't about to eat a mouthful of cayenne with the soup. While my back was turned, Colby put the spoon in his mouth, not really knowing what it was and then turned around to me and told me that "the stuff on the spoon" was hot. Tee hee.
10 August 2008
Lego my dinner party!
Okay folks, here's the lego party post. Unfortunately, there weren't really any pictures, but I'll do my best to describe.
So the whole thing that started this party was this post that I found on Slashfood and then later on Tastespotting. It was apparently taken from the Betty Crocker website, but it seemed like a fun idea. Shortly thereafter, I was alerted to the existence of Lego gummy candy from Kellog's. Seeing that I'm not actually three, I procured a box. Also, at some random trip to the mall (the one where Colby and Kyle went on a mandate to see the batman movie) I found these hard tablet powder candy legos that you can actually build with! Super cute.
We (Colby, Kyle, and I) used box mixes to make the cake (chocolate, yellow, and marbled) and then used white frosting + food coloring from Hill Country Fare. The interesting thing about Hill Country Fare is that it's one of a few different house brands for HEB, a largely Texan grocery store; given that Texas is beef country, I shouldn't have been surprised when I found out that the main fat ingredient was lard. Oh well. I didn't have any vegetarians at the party. We made the cakes the night before and they came out okay. It doesn't help that I suck at frosting cakes.
To continue on with the lego theme, I made lasagna (which is sort of brick-shaped!) which was topped with homemade croutons that were cylindrical. The lasagna is actually super simple and mostly stolen from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (of which I have mixed feelings):
15 oz ricotta
1.25 c grated parm
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil, minced
1 egg, lightly beaten
12 no boil lasagna noodles (I used HEB brand)
16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
3ish c sauce
I made the sauce first which consisted of:
1 lb ground beef
s+p
1/4 c minced onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs olive oil
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (I used Contandina crushed tomatoes with herbs by accident)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried oregano, parsley, basil
Brown/season meat w/s+p, break up into little bits. In a sauce pan add in olive oil and onions and let them soften for like five minutes (or more if you realize that you've forgotten to mince the garlic), add in the garlic and let cook for 30 seconds and then add in both cans of processed tomatoes and whatever herbs you decide. Let that simmer for 15ish minutes or so and that could be a sauce in and of itself. Add the meat (try to drain off the fat) and then let that sit with the sauce for as long as possible.
To construct the lasagna:
preheat the oven to 375. combine ricotta+s+p+egg+1 c parm+basil mix thoroughly until combined. add in like 1/4-1/2 a cup of sauce to the bottom of whatever you're using to cook in. It should be rectangular and deepish. layer on three lasagna noodles side-by-side and spread some amount of the ricotta mixture on it. Add about 1/2 c of sauce over top. cover in mozzarella and do this layering bit twice more. take the remaining three noodles and layer over top the rest of the pasta, cover with the remaining sauce and then cover in the rest of the mozzarella and 1/4 c of parm. cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Take it out and then uncover it and bake for an addition 25ish minutes until everything is soft and the cheese is all melty.
I found that the easiest way to spread on the ricotta mixture to the noodles was to take the dry noodle in hand and then spread the cheese on it before putting it in the pan. It caused way too much grief to try to do it the other way.
As a side, I made garlic bread the Heidi Swanson way and at the very end, put 2 little half slices of fresh mozzarella on each piece so that they would look like lego things.
Everyone loved the lasagna and people that that the cakes were clever. I'm not so sure that they tasted all that good, but that wasn't really the point with these cakes. I made a flourless chocolate cake the other night which turned out "better", but that's for a later post.
So the whole thing that started this party was this post that I found on Slashfood and then later on Tastespotting. It was apparently taken from the Betty Crocker website, but it seemed like a fun idea. Shortly thereafter, I was alerted to the existence of Lego gummy candy from Kellog's. Seeing that I'm not actually three, I procured a box. Also, at some random trip to the mall (the one where Colby and Kyle went on a mandate to see the batman movie) I found these hard tablet powder candy legos that you can actually build with! Super cute.
We (Colby, Kyle, and I) used box mixes to make the cake (chocolate, yellow, and marbled) and then used white frosting + food coloring from Hill Country Fare. The interesting thing about Hill Country Fare is that it's one of a few different house brands for HEB, a largely Texan grocery store; given that Texas is beef country, I shouldn't have been surprised when I found out that the main fat ingredient was lard. Oh well. I didn't have any vegetarians at the party. We made the cakes the night before and they came out okay. It doesn't help that I suck at frosting cakes.
To continue on with the lego theme, I made lasagna (which is sort of brick-shaped!) which was topped with homemade croutons that were cylindrical. The lasagna is actually super simple and mostly stolen from the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook (of which I have mixed feelings):
15 oz ricotta
1.25 c grated parm
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil, minced
1 egg, lightly beaten
12 no boil lasagna noodles (I used HEB brand)
16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
3ish c sauce
I made the sauce first which consisted of:
1 lb ground beef
s+p
1/4 c minced onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs olive oil
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (I used Contandina crushed tomatoes with herbs by accident)
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried oregano, parsley, basil
Brown/season meat w/s+p, break up into little bits. In a sauce pan add in olive oil and onions and let them soften for like five minutes (or more if you realize that you've forgotten to mince the garlic), add in the garlic and let cook for 30 seconds and then add in both cans of processed tomatoes and whatever herbs you decide. Let that simmer for 15ish minutes or so and that could be a sauce in and of itself. Add the meat (try to drain off the fat) and then let that sit with the sauce for as long as possible.
To construct the lasagna:
preheat the oven to 375. combine ricotta+s+p+egg+1 c parm+basil mix thoroughly until combined. add in like 1/4-1/2 a cup of sauce to the bottom of whatever you're using to cook in. It should be rectangular and deepish. layer on three lasagna noodles side-by-side and spread some amount of the ricotta mixture on it. Add about 1/2 c of sauce over top. cover in mozzarella and do this layering bit twice more. take the remaining three noodles and layer over top the rest of the pasta, cover with the remaining sauce and then cover in the rest of the mozzarella and 1/4 c of parm. cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Take it out and then uncover it and bake for an addition 25ish minutes until everything is soft and the cheese is all melty.
I found that the easiest way to spread on the ricotta mixture to the noodles was to take the dry noodle in hand and then spread the cheese on it before putting it in the pan. It caused way too much grief to try to do it the other way.
As a side, I made garlic bread the Heidi Swanson way and at the very end, put 2 little half slices of fresh mozzarella on each piece so that they would look like lego things.
Everyone loved the lasagna and people that that the cakes were clever. I'm not so sure that they tasted all that good, but that wasn't really the point with these cakes. I made a flourless chocolate cake the other night which turned out "better", but that's for a later post.
06 August 2008
Guacamole by feel... for the family!
I've decided that when I have kids that are old enough to be trusted to not drool in the mixing bowl, I'm making guacamole a family activity. It's totally gross to smash avocados, and that seems like something a little kid would *love* to do.
I've been straying from recipes for some time, which is ironic because I am a scientist and recipes can be very scientific things. This is due, in part, to sheer laziness and also due to the fact that I want to develop my palette. It's sort of like writing computer programs. Even though it's faster to just do the task by hand, and even though programming makes you a wee bit homicidal, it's all because you want to automate a task and learn something new... yeah. ANYWHO
I had this intense desire to make guacamole because I haven't baked/cooked/prepared anything that wasn't leftovers in the microwave for a few days and tonight we had yummy dinner at North by Northwest. I found out midway through the process that Colby has used an entire huge onion for the meatballs he made last night (which explains why there were so many damn onions) and so I had to improvise. Based largely on the Alton Brown version, I mashed avocados, added lime juice, threw in one small tomato, diced, 1/2 a jalepeno diced super small, two small garlic cloves, minced, about half a tbs of onion powder, some large amount of salt, about half a tsp of black pepper, tsp ground cumin, tbs dried parsley so you can fake out guac snobs by having them think there might be cilantro in it (because cilantro==gross). Stir stir. It actually came out pretty well.
I have tons of other posts in the works, but I've been too busy (read: lazy) to post. I threw a Lego themed dinner party a couple weekends ago and recipe to follow from it. Also, thoughts on milk from a lactose intolerant.
Also, yay for my friends getting food blogs too! (And she's going to grad school for food science!)
I've been straying from recipes for some time, which is ironic because I am a scientist and recipes can be very scientific things. This is due, in part, to sheer laziness and also due to the fact that I want to develop my palette. It's sort of like writing computer programs. Even though it's faster to just do the task by hand, and even though programming makes you a wee bit homicidal, it's all because you want to automate a task and learn something new... yeah. ANYWHO
I had this intense desire to make guacamole because I haven't baked/cooked/prepared anything that wasn't leftovers in the microwave for a few days and tonight we had yummy dinner at North by Northwest. I found out midway through the process that Colby has used an entire huge onion for the meatballs he made last night (which explains why there were so many damn onions) and so I had to improvise. Based largely on the Alton Brown version, I mashed avocados, added lime juice, threw in one small tomato, diced, 1/2 a jalepeno diced super small, two small garlic cloves, minced, about half a tbs of onion powder, some large amount of salt, about half a tsp of black pepper, tsp ground cumin, tbs dried parsley so you can fake out guac snobs by having them think there might be cilantro in it (because cilantro==gross). Stir stir. It actually came out pretty well.
I have tons of other posts in the works, but I've been too busy (read: lazy) to post. I threw a Lego themed dinner party a couple weekends ago and recipe to follow from it. Also, thoughts on milk from a lactose intolerant.
Also, yay for my friends getting food blogs too! (And she's going to grad school for food science!)
27 June 2008
Pandora just picked "sunny came home" also, "Greek" salads and wedding dresses
I woke up at the crack of dawn (8:15) to spend 45 minutes to get to work for a skype conversation that never happened. Oh well. This meant that I got to have *real* pop for the first time in weeks. Yes, I find it necessary to self-congratulate with high-fructose corn syrup and carbonated water. The other real reason for coming into the office today when I could have been otherwise sleeping is the promise of free food stolen from the honors-type undergraduate association for the college of natural science at the University of Texas. I find it a bit scary how quickly my life is approaching PhD comics.
This Saturday will be four weeks in Texas. It still hasn't really sunk in that I've moved halfway across the country for at least the next five years of my life. It also hasn't sunk that I'm getting married in less than six months, but I've finally got my dress and veil. That was a bit of a relief. Thankfully, most things are coming together. My friend Chris is coming to visit on Wednesday and Colby has a job interview later that day. I suspect that there will be much tasty food making in the upcoming couple weeks. :) We've been cooking almost every night, so we've made a few things that I haven't really updated with yet including abomination pie, oatmeal cookies that weren't really noteworthy, and a host of other things that may or may not get mentioned later
Orzo Salad
1 lb box orzo
chicken stock
2 small tomatoes, deseeded and diced
1/4 medium red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 tbs olive oil
3 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp dried oregano
3 tbs roasted red pepper, diced
1/3 c crumbled feta cheese
salt+pepper
Boil ozro in a combination of half water and half chicken stock. drain, save some liquid for thinning. combine lemon juice, lemon zest, 4 tbs olive oil, oregano, and salt+pepper to taste. Add 1 tbs olive oil to orzo and combine dressing and everything else.
This turned out to taste mostly the way I expected. It was way too salty the first day, but after it sat in the refrigerator for awhile it was pretty good.
This Saturday will be four weeks in Texas. It still hasn't really sunk in that I've moved halfway across the country for at least the next five years of my life. It also hasn't sunk that I'm getting married in less than six months, but I've finally got my dress and veil. That was a bit of a relief. Thankfully, most things are coming together. My friend Chris is coming to visit on Wednesday and Colby has a job interview later that day. I suspect that there will be much tasty food making in the upcoming couple weeks. :) We've been cooking almost every night, so we've made a few things that I haven't really updated with yet including abomination pie, oatmeal cookies that weren't really noteworthy, and a host of other things that may or may not get mentioned later
Orzo Salad
1 lb box orzo
chicken stock
2 small tomatoes, deseeded and diced
1/4 medium red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 tbs olive oil
3 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp dried oregano
3 tbs roasted red pepper, diced
1/3 c crumbled feta cheese
salt+pepper
Boil ozro in a combination of half water and half chicken stock. drain, save some liquid for thinning. combine lemon juice, lemon zest, 4 tbs olive oil, oregano, and salt+pepper to taste. Add 1 tbs olive oil to orzo and combine dressing and everything else.
This turned out to taste mostly the way I expected. It was way too salty the first day, but after it sat in the refrigerator for awhile it was pretty good.
04 June 2008
Arrivals
It's extremely possible to drive from Michigan to Texas in one day; however, it's extremely unpleasant to do so. Colby and I left Stockbridge, MI at 5:00 AM on Friday morning and arrived in New Boston, TX at 10:00 PM, a mere eighteen hours on the road later. (No, that's not a miscalculation: Texas is on central time.) We got up bright and early the next day to finish the trip. I got to drive from Dallas to Austin, which was only slightly terrifying. I only thought we were going to die about 10% of the time, though, so that's a plus.
Since then, we've acquired an apartment (okay, we sort of had that one in the bag), a couch, television (like the last CRT TV available in all of Texas), washer/dryer set, a rice cooker, and a new-found independence that's really frickin' weird. I'd describe it if I could, but it's almost straight from that pool scene in Garden State (when your home is not really your home), but different. I guess this is the beginning of the terrible ordeal known as "growing up".
The kitchen in my new apartment isn't by any means spectacular, but it's a major upgrade from my old apartment. I've finally got counter space. It's amazing how much simpler everything becomes when there is room to work. The inaugural meal was stir-fry with rice noodles and after that we've been good about trying to cook every day and whatnot.
The other night, Kyle came over and we had mustard chicken with pasta dish, which went as such:
marinate chicken (aka let it thaw in the fridge) in spicy brown mustard+olive oil+honey+lemon juice mixture with some salt and pepper. It should probably be 2:1:1:1, but that's mostly a guess on my part. Pan fry. Eat. The pasta sauce was just a roux with cheese+sauteed mushrooms, garlic, s+p which was poured over 1/2 lb of penne with some steamed broccoli. Yay for fake attempts at being healthy!
Today, we're going to the farmer's market in Triangle Park and later on, I'm making dinner. I'm thinking risotto with tomatoes, spinach, and yellow squash, with fresh corn. Yay summer!
Since then, we've acquired an apartment (okay, we sort of had that one in the bag), a couch, television (like the last CRT TV available in all of Texas), washer/dryer set, a rice cooker, and a new-found independence that's really frickin' weird. I'd describe it if I could, but it's almost straight from that pool scene in Garden State (when your home is not really your home), but different. I guess this is the beginning of the terrible ordeal known as "growing up".
The kitchen in my new apartment isn't by any means spectacular, but it's a major upgrade from my old apartment. I've finally got counter space. It's amazing how much simpler everything becomes when there is room to work. The inaugural meal was stir-fry with rice noodles and after that we've been good about trying to cook every day and whatnot.
The other night, Kyle came over and we had mustard chicken with pasta dish, which went as such:
marinate chicken (aka let it thaw in the fridge) in spicy brown mustard+olive oil+honey+lemon juice mixture with some salt and pepper. It should probably be 2:1:1:1, but that's mostly a guess on my part. Pan fry. Eat. The pasta sauce was just a roux with cheese+sauteed mushrooms, garlic, s+p which was poured over 1/2 lb of penne with some steamed broccoli. Yay for fake attempts at being healthy!
Today, we're going to the farmer's market in Triangle Park and later on, I'm making dinner. I'm thinking risotto with tomatoes, spinach, and yellow squash, with fresh corn. Yay summer!
12 April 2008
Stuffed Shells
Finally, a recipe! After the ravioli fiasco (oh yeah, they definitely didn't turn out that well. Sadness... and I have all these left over wontons. What to do? What to do?), I wanted to do some sort of stuffed pasta right, so I opted for jumbo shells stuffed with ricotta cheese.
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 c mushrooms chopped
fresh basil
10 oz? ricotta
8 oz shells?
spinach
I've stopped following recipes. I took minced garlic and mushrooms and sauteed them in butter and olive oil with a little bit of salt. When they were almost done, I added some finely chopped basil and then incorporated this into the ricotta which I then put into the shells which I then covered with (gasp!) jarred tomato sauce added some mozzarella and parm over top and then baked at 375 for 15 minutes. Serve over wilted spinach and w00t. The sauce that I used was terrible. So next time I'm not going to dick around with that. I have about 5 oz of ricotta left and I'm not sure what to do with it. I was thinking about something along the lines of a berry dessert.
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 c mushrooms chopped
fresh basil
10 oz? ricotta
8 oz shells?
spinach
I've stopped following recipes. I took minced garlic and mushrooms and sauteed them in butter and olive oil with a little bit of salt. When they were almost done, I added some finely chopped basil and then incorporated this into the ricotta which I then put into the shells which I then covered with (gasp!) jarred tomato sauce added some mozzarella and parm over top and then baked at 375 for 15 minutes. Serve over wilted spinach and w00t. The sauce that I used was terrible. So next time I'm not going to dick around with that. I have about 5 oz of ricotta left and I'm not sure what to do with it. I was thinking about something along the lines of a berry dessert.
08 April 2008
why I shouldn't go grocery shopping whilst hungry or stressed
I can't control food purchases. I can only control my nail polish-buying slightly better... which is why I walked out of Meijer without the four dollar bottle of Sally Hansen, but was armed with baby corn, blackberries, and ricotta. *However* I intend to make Thai-something-curry soup with chicken, potatoes, and other stuff; stuffed shells with ricotta+garlic+basil+mushrooms atop a bed of wilted spinach?; and stir-fry with lots of baby corn, broccoli, mushrooms! Go me. We'll see how much of this I actually cook before it all rots. I forgot the mozzarella!!
I need to make corn bread again soon. I think it's draining my soul.
I need to make corn bread again soon. I think it's draining my soul.
30 March 2008
Refrigerator Pie: Part Doo
I'm pretty sure that quiche is a very amazing breakfast food, even if it is 2:40 PM. I set out last night to do laundry and make a spinach-artichoke quiche, but it turns out that artichokes are a) hard to deal with and b) fucking spiny, screw that. It became a spinach+mushroom+garlic quiche. It should be noted that Julie + wilted spinach == bff returns true.
two large handfuls of flat leaf spinach destemmed and washed
2 tsp? of olive oil
2 tbs butter
1/2 thing of roughly chopped mushrooms
mozzarella
colby jack
3 big CLOVES of garlic
s/p/garlic salt
put a little bit of olive oil (like 1 tsp?) into a pan and make sure that you coat the entire bottom. put in spinach... turn turn wilt wilt. season with salt. Try not to eat all of that spinach whilst you're cooking because seriously... you <3 spinach. Add in the 2 tbs butter (this may be excessive and it was kind of like I was boiling the mushrooms in butter) and when it melts, add in the mushrooms and season with garlic salt + a bit of kosher s/p at the end. More on that later. Anywho, take out the mushrooms when they're done. Add in a bit more olive oil, put in the minced garlic and fry until they start to look light brown. add the spin+mush+garlic to a pie crust making sure it's well-mixed and there is space for cheese+royale mixture. Add in handfuls of cheese at your own discretion. Pour in the royale (2 eggs + 1 c heavy cream beaten together) making sure the mixture sinks to the bottom. Sprinkle some kosher salt over top of the pie. Into the oven at 350 for ~45 minutes.
So the quiche came out pretty okay. The garlic didn't come out exactly as I had hoped because apparently Chris' stove runs at 5778 K. Still... if you heat up the garlic slower, it should be better, not bitter. Also, this is the thing about garlic salt. I like using it with mushrooms because I feel like mushrooms pick up the flavor better with garlic salt because it's super concentrated granular garlic. Also salty. Anywho, tonight looks like a good night to try to make the poor man's alfredo sauce, since i have lots of leftover cream and Colby's back in town. Yay heart disease!
Also, the next time, I'm going to look for either a better pie crust or a crust recipe because the crust, I feel, is too sweet. Puff pastry would make this kind of excellent, but again with the heart disease.
two large handfuls of flat leaf spinach destemmed and washed
2 tsp? of olive oil
2 tbs butter
1/2 thing of roughly chopped mushrooms
mozzarella
colby jack
3 big CLOVES of garlic
s/p/garlic salt
put a little bit of olive oil (like 1 tsp?) into a pan and make sure that you coat the entire bottom. put in spinach... turn turn wilt wilt. season with salt. Try not to eat all of that spinach whilst you're cooking because seriously... you <3 spinach. Add in the 2 tbs butter (this may be excessive and it was kind of like I was boiling the mushrooms in butter) and when it melts, add in the mushrooms and season with garlic salt + a bit of kosher s/p at the end. More on that later. Anywho, take out the mushrooms when they're done. Add in a bit more olive oil, put in the minced garlic and fry until they start to look light brown. add the spin+mush+garlic to a pie crust making sure it's well-mixed and there is space for cheese+royale mixture. Add in handfuls of cheese at your own discretion. Pour in the royale (2 eggs + 1 c heavy cream beaten together) making sure the mixture sinks to the bottom. Sprinkle some kosher salt over top of the pie. Into the oven at 350 for ~45 minutes.
So the quiche came out pretty okay. The garlic didn't come out exactly as I had hoped because apparently Chris' stove runs at 5778 K. Still... if you heat up the garlic slower, it should be better, not bitter. Also, this is the thing about garlic salt. I like using it with mushrooms because I feel like mushrooms pick up the flavor better with garlic salt because it's super concentrated granular garlic. Also salty. Anywho, tonight looks like a good night to try to make the poor man's alfredo sauce, since i have lots of leftover cream and Colby's back in town. Yay heart disease!
Also, the next time, I'm going to look for either a better pie crust or a crust recipe because the crust, I feel, is too sweet. Puff pastry would make this kind of excellent, but again with the heart disease.
26 March 2008
Burgerama
So my new "experiment" is with ground beef, which I can't touch without gloves because obsessive compulsive disorder is an interesting phenomenon when it meets raw meat. Anywho. So I've been making various cheeseburgers with varying degrees of success. My latest is mixing in minced shallots, garlic, cheese, and bbq sauce. I used colby-jack the last time because *someone* doesn't like cheddar. Also, I find it ironic that Colby doesn't like Colby cheese. Just a thought. Anywho, Chris is donating some Gorgonzola to me, so maybe that will become a beef-y burgery meal. Or maybe it'll make Colby sick. We shall see.
Burgers! (this is mostly for you, Kyle. Also, I'd rather be writing this than doing homework, or other homework or wedding planning or other homework. Gah.)
makes 2 burgers.. but kind of small burgers because I don't have a black hole for a tummy.
1/2 lb ground beef (I use chuck)
2-3 cloves minced garlic (also, for the love of jebus, kyle, buy actual garlic and mince it yourself)
1/2 shallot minced
olive oil
salt, pepper
bbq sauce (sweet baby ray's was totally on sale at meijer)
heat oil in pan, add in garlic+shallots. when the garlic is starting to brown and the shallots are translucent-y take these out and put them in the GB... which is defrosted and stuff. Also, add in a squirt or two of bbq sauce and some cheese and mix thoroughly and put back in pan and make sure you watch to not start a grease fire. w00t. I should really get ketchup.
I'm thinking about making this a for-realsies blog as opposed to just a place for me to dump recipes to kyle.
Burgers! (this is mostly for you, Kyle. Also, I'd rather be writing this than doing homework, or other homework or wedding planning or other homework. Gah.)
makes 2 burgers.. but kind of small burgers because I don't have a black hole for a tummy.
1/2 lb ground beef (I use chuck)
2-3 cloves minced garlic (also, for the love of jebus, kyle, buy actual garlic and mince it yourself)
1/2 shallot minced
olive oil
salt, pepper
bbq sauce (sweet baby ray's was totally on sale at meijer)
heat oil in pan, add in garlic+shallots. when the garlic is starting to brown and the shallots are translucent-y take these out and put them in the GB... which is defrosted and stuff. Also, add in a squirt or two of bbq sauce and some cheese and mix thoroughly and put back in pan and make sure you watch to not start a grease fire. w00t. I should really get ketchup.
I'm thinking about making this a for-realsies blog as opposed to just a place for me to dump recipes to kyle.
24 March 2008
Mushroom Stuffing+Mushroom Pasta
Hokay. So what I'm supposed to be doing right now is a literature search on the observed radii of white dwarfs, but it turns out that that's boring and even though they were stars, they're dead and therefore dead to me. Anywho, Easter was an interesting weekend beginning with horribleness, but ending with a lovely pot-luck dinner party which required some sort of dish. Yay for mushrooms.
I made a mushroom stuffing that turned out *okay*. I think there were too many bread crumbs. Also, I would have liked stronger notes of garlic, shallots and something to "freshen" the taste. Anywho recipe:
portabello mushrooms, roughly chopped
shiitake mushrooms, de-stemmed, roughly chopped
1c bread crumbs (next time, I'd probably use like.. 2/3 c, maybe even less)
6 cloves garlic
1/2 shallot
lemon
butter
olive oil
oregano
Parmesan
fresh basil
salt, pepper
mince 3 of the cloves of garlic, all of the shallots and sautee them in oil. Add in the mushrooms, about 2 tbs butter, and some salt. cook cook cook. when it's almost done, add in the ripped up basil to wilt+flavor and some oregano. Add in a bit of lemon as well also, pepper and more salt. Remove from heat
put in 3 tbs butter + bread crumbs + remaining garlic in the pan + olive oil (because fat is tasty). This is to "toast" the bread crumbs, and is probably ill-advised. Maybe you don't want to do this step and maybe you want to put in all the garlic and butter at once and double the amount of shallots. So combine all this in a bowl, as well as a good dusting of grated parm cheez and mix. yay? Squeeze on some more lemon to make it a brighter flavor. I know that this could be really tasty, but I don't know how. I actually think that this would actually be pretty awesome with couscous instead. Maybe I have my answer.
Anywho, what was kind of interesting about this is that I made something super similar on Thursday night. Chris suggested the mushroom dish. I decided that it was going to be a stuffing. Sometimes I'm afraid that all my food tastes the same. Woo hoo insecurities creeping into my cooking. So yeah, on Thursday:
2/3 box pasta (not long noodles, I used rotelle)
1/2 tray pre-washed, cut white mushrooms roughly chopped (yes, I'm lazy)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 poblano pepper, roasted, skinned, chopped
1/2 shallot
some amount of lemon
parm cheese
mozzarella cheese
butter, oil
fresh basil, torn
salt/pepper/garlic salt
boil boil boil pasta. sautee garlic, shallots in oil. Add in butter, mushrooms. Add in pepper, lemon, salt+pepper, garlic salt. stir stir stir. Add in mixture to hot, drained pasta. Add in cheese... mix mix mix. I think that one turned out better. Also, it turned into a one bowl dinner which is pretty much amazing and my favorite thing ever
So I guess I was inspired by the pasta dish and is probably the reason why it'd work better with couscous. Also, the reason why i used 1/2 a shallot for the second dish is because I used the other half earlier. Heh. I usually have them on hand because i hate hate hate onions, so they're nicer (for me) to have to eat around.
I made a mushroom stuffing that turned out *okay*. I think there were too many bread crumbs. Also, I would have liked stronger notes of garlic, shallots and something to "freshen" the taste. Anywho recipe:
portabello mushrooms, roughly chopped
shiitake mushrooms, de-stemmed, roughly chopped
1c bread crumbs (next time, I'd probably use like.. 2/3 c, maybe even less)
6 cloves garlic
1/2 shallot
lemon
butter
olive oil
oregano
Parmesan
fresh basil
salt, pepper
mince 3 of the cloves of garlic, all of the shallots and sautee them in oil. Add in the mushrooms, about 2 tbs butter, and some salt. cook cook cook. when it's almost done, add in the ripped up basil to wilt+flavor and some oregano. Add in a bit of lemon as well also, pepper and more salt. Remove from heat
put in 3 tbs butter + bread crumbs + remaining garlic in the pan + olive oil (because fat is tasty). This is to "toast" the bread crumbs, and is probably ill-advised. Maybe you don't want to do this step and maybe you want to put in all the garlic and butter at once and double the amount of shallots. So combine all this in a bowl, as well as a good dusting of grated parm cheez and mix. yay? Squeeze on some more lemon to make it a brighter flavor. I know that this could be really tasty, but I don't know how. I actually think that this would actually be pretty awesome with couscous instead. Maybe I have my answer.
Anywho, what was kind of interesting about this is that I made something super similar on Thursday night. Chris suggested the mushroom dish. I decided that it was going to be a stuffing. Sometimes I'm afraid that all my food tastes the same. Woo hoo insecurities creeping into my cooking. So yeah, on Thursday:
2/3 box pasta (not long noodles, I used rotelle)
1/2 tray pre-washed, cut white mushrooms roughly chopped (yes, I'm lazy)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 poblano pepper, roasted, skinned, chopped
1/2 shallot
some amount of lemon
parm cheese
mozzarella cheese
butter, oil
fresh basil, torn
salt/pepper/garlic salt
boil boil boil pasta. sautee garlic, shallots in oil. Add in butter, mushrooms. Add in pepper, lemon, salt+pepper, garlic salt. stir stir stir. Add in mixture to hot, drained pasta. Add in cheese... mix mix mix. I think that one turned out better. Also, it turned into a one bowl dinner which is pretty much amazing and my favorite thing ever
So I guess I was inspired by the pasta dish and is probably the reason why it'd work better with couscous. Also, the reason why i used 1/2 a shallot for the second dish is because I used the other half earlier. Heh. I usually have them on hand because i hate hate hate onions, so they're nicer (for me) to have to eat around.
13 March 2008
semi-home made ravioli (but way the hell more home made than sandra lee)
So after traveling around over spring break, I came home to a bag of rotten potatoes, some frozen broccoli (because I actually have a refreezerator), and the sad, sad remnants of mire poix fixings. Suffice it to say, I needed to go to el supermercado (which, sadly, does not sound as cool as el gran mercado, but has a helluva lot more food in it). Anywho! I ended up buying a bunch of "random" things, which I thought were random, but apparently make for a fairly standard shopping trip which included wonton wrappers and ricotta.
So tonight, I'm going to attempt to make garlic+mushroom+basil ravioli with the leftover bolognese sauce. Go me!
This is how I think it'll work: (also, someone slap me. I got the sudden urge to do this in LaTeX in math mode... la la la physics is eating my brain)
Drain the ricotta (via magic).
sautee mushrooms + garlic in butter
add M+G, B to the cheese+more (mozzarella) cheese (slap me again. I'm thinking of trying to do this in terms of nuclear reactions... like, you know... MushroomGarlic(Butter, tasty)sauteedmushroomgarlic)...)
put a bit on a wonton wrapper
brush edges with egg wash (and more magic)
put another one on top
boil boil boil
eat eat eat
We'll see how it goes. And I've shamelessly stolen the idea from my new favorite food blog the delicious life.
So tonight, I'm going to attempt to make garlic+mushroom+basil ravioli with the leftover bolognese sauce. Go me!
This is how I think it'll work: (also, someone slap me. I got the sudden urge to do this in LaTeX in math mode... la la la physics is eating my brain)
Drain the ricotta (via magic).
sautee mushrooms + garlic in butter
add M+G, B to the cheese+more (mozzarella) cheese (slap me again. I'm thinking of trying to do this in terms of nuclear reactions... like, you know... MushroomGarlic(Butter, tasty)sauteedmushroomgarlic)...)
put a bit on a wonton wrapper
brush edges with egg wash (and more magic)
put another one on top
boil boil boil
eat eat eat
We'll see how it goes. And I've shamelessly stolen the idea from my new favorite food blog the delicious life.
05 March 2008
Lazy-man's Alfredo Sauce
So given that I had all this leftover pasta, I wanted to do something with it because, mostly, I had been watching cooking shows all night (with the wonderful exception of a two hour stint of Law & Order SVUUUU) and so I kind of wanted to cook. This ended up being alfredo-y and not that good, but I have a feeling that it could be easily modified to != suck.
What I did:
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp kosher salt
some amount of chicken stock
some amount of milk
3 cloves minced garlic
~1.5 oz grated Parmesan cheese
2 slices provolone
so I melted the butter+flour+salt to make the base of a roux, added in the wet ingredients, let it thicken, add in the garlic, added in the parm cheese because it was the rest of a container that i had sitting there, and then decided that it was too salty, so I added the provolone, more chicken stock (realized that that made it saltier), more milk... boil boil stir stir. It's edible. Maybe not for me what with the dairy, but it's not spectacular.
This is my theoretical Lazy-Man's Alfredo
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 c heavy cream
3 cloves garlic (because, hey, who doesn't like garlic? [also, CLOVES, Kyle, CLOVES])
2 oz Parmesan
2 oz Mozzarella
black pepper to taste
mix mix mix stir stir stir. It should come out way better. Also, sauteed mushrooms would make this better
What I did:
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp kosher salt
some amount of chicken stock
some amount of milk
3 cloves minced garlic
~1.5 oz grated Parmesan cheese
2 slices provolone
so I melted the butter+flour+salt to make the base of a roux, added in the wet ingredients, let it thicken, add in the garlic, added in the parm cheese because it was the rest of a container that i had sitting there, and then decided that it was too salty, so I added the provolone, more chicken stock (realized that that made it saltier), more milk... boil boil stir stir. It's edible. Maybe not for me what with the dairy, but it's not spectacular.
This is my theoretical Lazy-Man's Alfredo
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 c heavy cream
3 cloves garlic (because, hey, who doesn't like garlic? [also, CLOVES, Kyle, CLOVES])
2 oz Parmesan
2 oz Mozzarella
black pepper to taste
mix mix mix stir stir stir. It should come out way better. Also, sauteed mushrooms would make this better
Flying Spaghetti Monsters sans the flying and monster-y bits
So I haven't written in this in forever. There's a good reason. Actually, no there's not; however, there are always a lot of excuses, including: I was sick for a month.
Things I've cooked since last time... pan fried chicken (not actually a departure from too much, but I learned the lovely process of dredging). Beef bolognese (lots of time, minimal effort, pleaser of crowds). Um... a lot of corn bread, almost weekly. Cupcakes (not from scratch). Stir-fry. Packaged hot dogs. I eat pork again.
So let's go with the bolognese and I'll update the Christmas stuff at some point so I can remember how to do things in the future.
Beef Bolognese
6 Tbs butter
6 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
3 c mire poix:
3/4 c celery, chopped fine
3/4 c carrots, chopped fine
1 1/2 c onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic chopped fine
salt + pepper
1 lb beef
1/3 lb pancetta cubed
1 1/3 c tomato paste
1 1/2 c whole milk
2 c red wine
2 2/3 c whole canned tomatoes, torn and seeded
4 c stock
handful of spices
mushrooms
So... melt the butter+oil and, when hot, add in the mire poix mixture and season with salt and pepper. I stole this from a NYT Magazine article on ragus. Simmer in the butter until the colors "brighten" (~20 minutes). Add in garlic and let it cook and get fragrant. Add in the beef+pancetta and let it brown (~25 minutes, longer if frozen). Add in the tomato paste, mix, and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add in the whole milk until the mixture really "takes it" in (10-15 minutes). Do the same with the red wine. This bit takes awhile. The key point is getting it all to reduce well. After that, add in the canned tomatoes, the stock, the mushrooms, and the spices. Mm mm spices. I used basil, thyme, oregano, and sage in dried form. Let it simmer for 3 hours. Stir it once in awhile. Perhaps at the end, you should skim the fat and stick blender it. This is if you're too impatient to let the tomatoes break down and such (I was). Eat-y eat-y yum yum.
Serve with garlic bread... which is made by chopping up garlic, melting butter+garlic in the microwave, letting it get hard-ish in the fridge, and then smearing on a loaf and baking it at 300 in the oven til when you feel like it.
Enjoy.
Things I've cooked since last time... pan fried chicken (not actually a departure from too much, but I learned the lovely process of dredging). Beef bolognese (lots of time, minimal effort, pleaser of crowds). Um... a lot of corn bread, almost weekly. Cupcakes (not from scratch). Stir-fry. Packaged hot dogs. I eat pork again.
So let's go with the bolognese and I'll update the Christmas stuff at some point so I can remember how to do things in the future.
Beef Bolognese
6 Tbs butter
6 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
3 c mire poix:
3/4 c celery, chopped fine
3/4 c carrots, chopped fine
1 1/2 c onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic chopped fine
salt + pepper
1 lb beef
1/3 lb pancetta cubed
1 1/3 c tomato paste
1 1/2 c whole milk
2 c red wine
2 2/3 c whole canned tomatoes, torn and seeded
4 c stock
handful of spices
mushrooms
So... melt the butter+oil and, when hot, add in the mire poix mixture and season with salt and pepper. I stole this from a NYT Magazine article on ragus. Simmer in the butter until the colors "brighten" (~20 minutes). Add in garlic and let it cook and get fragrant. Add in the beef+pancetta and let it brown (~25 minutes, longer if frozen). Add in the tomato paste, mix, and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add in the whole milk until the mixture really "takes it" in (10-15 minutes). Do the same with the red wine. This bit takes awhile. The key point is getting it all to reduce well. After that, add in the canned tomatoes, the stock, the mushrooms, and the spices. Mm mm spices. I used basil, thyme, oregano, and sage in dried form. Let it simmer for 3 hours. Stir it once in awhile. Perhaps at the end, you should skim the fat and stick blender it. This is if you're too impatient to let the tomatoes break down and such (I was). Eat-y eat-y yum yum.
Serve with garlic bread... which is made by chopping up garlic, melting butter+garlic in the microwave, letting it get hard-ish in the fridge, and then smearing on a loaf and baking it at 300 in the oven til when you feel like it.
Enjoy.
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