The Story is Cooked!

Black Bean and Corn Salad

2011-08-28T14:56:00.003-06:00

Apparently, we post in August these days. Oops. Anyway, we have now made a black bean and corn salad twice, and we like it a lot. I made it up based on a similar salad I had when we were at MathFest this year (except that one had cilantro in it, and I despise cilantro. If you like cilantro, you should probably add it to your salad. Unless you're going to feed your salad to me or anyone else who can't stand cilantro. Then have a heart, and don't send us home with a metallic soapy taste in our mouths). So, anyway, here's somewhat of a recipe (when I say I made this up, I'm serious, so of course I didn't measure):

some cans of black beans, rinsed (number depends on size of group you're serving)
some corn (the better the corn, the better the salad), cooked/unfrozen
some onions, chopped (browned if you're like me and have trouble with raw onions)
some green and/or red peppers, chopped (or another color; these can be browned with
the onions if you so desire)
some tomato, chopped
juice of a lemon or lime (or more than one, depending on how much of the previous
ingredients you're using)
some olive oil (as in, a few tablespoons)
some vinegar (I've been using white--probably 1/8-1/4 cup)
some cumin
some garlic powder or pressed garlic if you want it stronger
some cayenne pepper
some salt

Mix all the dressing-type ingredients together and pour on top of the other ingredients. Mix well; refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

If you like spicy (we do, in case you weren't aware), I think some jalapeños or jalapeño juice would be a nice addition. Of course, I forgot that I think that this morning when we were making the salad. Green onions could work, too, as could jalapeño-pickled carrots.

Curried Chickpea Salad

2010-08-17T21:16:00.007-06:00

We went to a restaurant in Angelica for lunch on my birthday and had a curried chickpea wrap. We both liked it but agreed that we should be able to make it better at home. Tonight we had our first attempt based on this recipe, but because I didn't want to waste the good ingredients in case we didn't like it, we halved the recipe. Also,
we had no limes, so we used lemon juice;
we had no olive oil, so we used just a tiny bit of vegetable oil;
we had no maple syrup, so we used honey;
we had no cumin seeds, so we used ground cumin;
we had no raisins, so we used dried apricots;
we had no red pepper, so we used green;
we had no red onions, so we used Vidalia*;
we had no fresh parsley**, so we used a bit of dried parsley;
we had no pitas, so we used homemade bread;
and we had no mixed greens, so we used red leaf lettuce.

I feel like this is some children's book about curried chickpea salad during the Great Depression.

By the way, we liked this a lot. Probably a new staple. Oh, and we added carrots and put toasted almonds on top.

*which for some reason were cheaper at Wegmans than yellow onions were.
**or cilantro, but there will never be cilantro in my mouth voluntarily if I'm in charge of cooking.

Western New York Food Lament

2009-08-22T20:47:00.003-06:00

We survived our move, but we don't remember what we used to eat and we're having trouble procuring items we think are necessary (read: good tortillas and salsa and reasonably-priced bread flour). We now live at least 1/2 hour from any grocery store of consequence, we have an electric stove, and it's humid here--bread molds instead of going stale (so no excuse to make croutons) and cookies do not get better when they are left on the cooling rack overnight. We also fell out of the habit of planning our meals by the week (which we never reported here, but was really helpful). All in all, we're a bit food discombobulated. On the good side, there are tons of produce roadside stands, every tiny town (it seems) has at least one pizza, wings, and sub shop (which may be located in the gas station), and we bought a chest freezer before we left Missoula so we can stock up more easily when we make the pilgrimage to the good grocery store.

Onion and Garlic Rolls

2008-12-03T18:32:00.003-07:00

We have a ton of onions and garlic (it's a figurative ton, but I think it might actually be a garlic ton and an onion ton if we define those as new units of measurement), so when we volunteered to provide the bread for our Thanksgiving dinner with the Makis, Ryan thought it would be a good idea to make onion and garlic bread. At least, that's what I thought he thought; he apparently thought it was my idea and I had a specific recipe in mind. After much internet searching, we based our rolls on this recipe. Of course, we didn't follow it exactly: we used 1 cup of wheat flour instead of all bread flour, chopped and pre-toasted (as in, toasted before putting in with the other ingredients) an entire (small--maybe 2 in. in diameter) onion, threw in some roasted garlic, used a lot more cheese (well, maybe twice as much), and of course only let the bread machine do the mixing and kneading and rolled the rolls ourselves. I think we baked them at 350 for 20-25 minutes. No one could taste the cheese, but the onions and garlic were detectable without being overwhelming (I was afraid they would be way too much).

Super Mustard Cheese Fondue

2008-11-11T16:15:00.004-07:00

We had another evening of When Do I Get A Brownie? last night, complete with much hilarity, brownies, ice cream, and other snacks. One such snack I shall call "Super Mustard Cheese Fondue." We had some leftover bread from lunch with our small group yesterday and we had cheese, of course, so I decided that cheese fondue sounded excellent. I proceeded to search the internet for cheese fondue recipes, became impatient with finding a recipe for which we actually had everything, and decided to make up my own based very loosely on multiple recipes (big surprise--Rebekah's not following a recipe!). So I threw some cream cheese (probably about 3 ounces), some grated cheddar cheese (about 1 cup), some whole milk (we had whole milk because we were going to make ice cream to go on top of the brownies; I'm not even sure I want to attempt to give an amount--maybe 1/4-1/3 cup?), some white wine (could've been around two tablespoons), and some dry mustard powder (1 tsp? 1.5 tsps? hard to say) into the Little Dipper, covered it, and plugged it in. A little later I stirred it, added more cheddar--whatever amount fit, and mentioned to Ryan that some recipes I saw called for Worchestershire sauce. We are now the proud owners of a bottle of Worchestershire sauce which we have used precisely once (aha! I can give a definitive measurement in this post. Don't worry, there won't be any more) since purchasing it at least a month ago, so Ryan said that it could give the fondue a mysterious nutty flavor--sufficient encouragement for me to add some (3-4 dashes). Then I put the lid back on and let it all melt together, stirring occasionally--the stirring was more so I could taste it than because it was necessary. I cut the bread up into cubes and also cut some red pepper slices and carrot sticks for dippers. It was apparently a good fondue if you like mustard (or even if you only slightly like mustard), but I thought it was disgusting. Everybody else liked it, though, so I thought I should probably record this for all the mustard lovers out there. Personally, I love cheese. I was sorely disappointed.

Minestrone

2008-10-31T20:22:00.003-06:00

Yes, we have been eating. No, we haven't been writing about it. At least not here. But, devoted readers, we're back to report on our latest culinary triumph: minestrone soup--it's shockingly easy and really good. Chop up some onions and red peppers and brown them with garlic (we recommend fresh garlic from the gobs of garlic you've recently acquired from friends, of course)--three cloves in this case. Then add 2-3 cups of vegetable broth, a can of tomatoes (not drained), a can of kidney beans (drained and rinsed), a can of green beans (drained--fresh or frozen would also work, but we had canned from a long time ago), some chopped carrots (we used 3 small ones), basil, oregano, salt, fresh cracked pepper, and Cholula hot sauce. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 25 minutes. Add some pasta (we used small seashells), cover again, and simmer for another 10 minutes or so until the pasta is done.

We really liked this. I think I liked it better than Olive Garden's minestrone, but I can't really remember since I've only had Olive Garden's minestrone once in the last 4 years or so. It would have been especially good with some fresh French bread.

Vegetable Mix (Some Might Call It a Salad)

2008-07-20T20:11:00.003-06:00

We got a cucumber at the grocery store because I wanted to try the recipe that Catherine suggested in her comment a long time ago. So for lunch today, I made it. Well, kind of--we didn't have any green peppers (they're $1.29/each at the cheapest right now and our pepper plants aren't even flowering yet, so it will be awhile before we're eating homegrown green peppers), so I used some red pepper and just cooked it with the onion. I'm also not a huge fan of vinegar, so I used our new salad dressing (we had a coupon--you can print one from that website--and it was on sale). We had leftover pasta and garbanzo beans in the fridge (separately), so I added some of each. It was very good. Thanks, Catherine!

Triple Chocolate Coffee Bean Cookies

2008-05-14T13:53:00.005-06:00

We finally made this recipe. Yes, I changed the name, but that's because we used coffee beans, not espresso beans. I'm too cheap to buy chocolate-covered espresso beans, so I decided we could make our own, and certain places online said that one can use any dark roast to do so. Hence, we bought the darkest roast we could that was on sale at Albertsons and was free trade (conveniently, it was also organic and the same price as regular coffee--which we discovered it always is, even when they aren't all on sale--I've never actually looked at the coffee there before). Then, yesterday morning, instead of cleaning the house, I melted chocolate chips (Ghirardelli 60% cocoa, of course) in our Little Dipper (it was free with our big crock pot) and made chocolate-covered coffee beans...for the next hour. I am no longer too cheap to buy chocolate-covered espresso beans unless we're going to have a chocolate-covering party. I also made chocolate-covered almonds, a chocolate-covered oatmeal peanut butter cookie, and a big mass of chocolate and coffee beans when I was really sick of it at the end. I would like to say, however, that melting chocolate in the Little Dipper is the way to go. It took about 15-20 minutes to melt, but it didn't get very hot at all, and it stayed consistently melted (the Little Dipper stayed plugged in) for the entire time. I was pleased (the idea of melting chocolate in a crock pot came from here).

Our friends Clara and Cindy came over for dinner and cookie making last night. We had Taco Soup, salad, and chips with cheesy salsa, and then we got down to the real reason anyone was there: making these cookies. We basically followed the recipe (except for all the caveats like "aluminum-free"--well, we may have followed those, but I don't actually know--I've never checked. I'm pretty sure our Costco eggs are not organic and I know our Albertsons imitation vanilla extract would not be considered "high quality") except that we used only 1 cup of (local) whole-wheat flour (not pastry flour) and 1.5 cups of (unbleached) white all-purpose flour and we used 1 cup white and 1 cup brown sugar. I thought the recipe was a bit too high maintenance--beat the butter until fluffy all by itself first? Really? But I actually followed the given directions. I don't think it made a bit of difference. The cookies are good, but Ryan is not a fan of the chocolate-covered coffee beans in them (he's not a fan of chocolate-covered espresso beans in general), and I think they'd be better without those as well; next time we'll add more chocolate chips or some peanut butter chips.

Speaking of peanut butter, Clara and I decided that we could add peanut butter to the cookies as well next time (I usually make cookie recipes with 3/4 of the butter that they call for; we didn't this time, but I think it would have been fine--dare I say better?--if we had. So next time, we may use 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup peanut butter--if we're feeling adventuresome. Otherwise, we'll use 3/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup peanut butter. I say these things like we're actually going to carefully measure...you all know that's not true!). Clara and I also declared the dough to be (as usual) significantly better than the cookies, Ryan didn't comment, and Cindy is a rational, self-controlled person who is able to overcome her desire to eat cookie dough with raw eggs and did not partake of the dough.

Soda Bread

2008-05-12T10:43:00.003-06:00

We made this recipe last night to go with our Italian Chili (which had no zucchini, but did have some sun dried tomatoes and spinach). We used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour (it's bread--shouldn't it have bread flour in it?) and I was lazy and kneaded it in the bowl instead of on a floured surface. Well, I attempted to knead it in the bowl. The line in the recipe that says the dough will be sticky--well, that's a bit of an understatement.

I'm not incredibly impressed with this bread. Ryan's assessment is that it's like cornbread, except with wheat. It definitely did not go with the Italian chili, but I really wanted bread. It was fast, which is a definite advantage some days. It's pretty good with honey or cinnamon sugar, but it will not make it onto the list of things I crave.

Sun Dried Goodness

2008-05-10T19:23:00.002-06:00

Ryan picked the title, but I agree. We bought a bag of sundried tomatoes at Costco today, so we had to do something with them for dinner. This is the result. We put the pasta on, sauted the chicken with onions, garlic, sundried tomatoes, sundried tomato vinagrette, Italian seasoning, and oregano. When things were looking close to done, we added a bit of white wine for more flavor (I couldn't taste the wine, which is always the goal). About a minute before the pasta was done, we threw some spinach in with the chicken mixture. Then we put the finished pasta in the fancy bowls and topped it with the chicken mixture and feta. It was excellent. Next time (yes, there will be a next time), we'll use more spinach and less pasta.

Update: The picture didn't work the first time. And we forgot to mention that this was really easy. And fast.

Vegetarian Curry

2008-05-05T10:45:00.002-06:00

I made vegetarian curry in the crockpot Thursday morning, so we ate it Thursday night. We didn't have celery (we never have celery--I strongly dislike celery), vegetable broth, or plain yogurt, so I put onions in it instead (onions belong in almost everything) and substituted beef broth and sour cream. I also added some green peppers (they, too, go in most anything) and skipped the peas (Ryan didn't seem to excited about them). We didn't get home until 8ish, so we didn't bother with rice or naan, but we did have bread that I'd made earlier in the day. So, no, I didn't exactly follow the recipe (surprise!), but I would like to note that this recipe basically says it doesn't need to be followed (at least the vegetable list). It was good, but not amazing. It has gotten better with age, however. And rice. Rice makes it better.

Lemon-Lime Cheesecake Bars

2008-05-05T10:12:00.006-06:00

I don't really like the first Sunday of the month because we have to make food for potluck and for our small group meeting Sunday evening. It just seems a bit excessive most of the time--our church definitely fits the stereotype of liking to eat--we were once reading Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline in our small group and we still had food for the meeting in which we talked about fasting--gobs of food! Anyway, this Sunday we were assigned to bring dessert to our small group meeting, which was going to involve a barbecue. Clearly, we needed something springy. As in, appropriate for Spring, not bouncy. We had some cream cheese in the refrigerator that I'd been wanted to use up (Western Family 1/3 less fat cream cheese is not a good substitute for other brands of such cream cheese--it has a teeny bit of the fat free cream cheese taste. However, it's fine for baking or cooking), so we decided that I would make this recipe (doubled since our "small" group sometimes has 17 people there), except we called them lemon-lime cheesecake bars since we didn't have enough lemons to get 1/2 cup of lemon juice (okay, so we had part of one lemon), but we do have frozen lime juice. Hence, I used the lime juice and lemon peel. Also, I wanted a graham cracker crust instead of a Nilla wafer crust (I've never been a fan of Nilla wafers). The graham cracker crust required melted butter, so in what I consider my most recent moment of brilliance in the kitchen, I put the butter in the glass mixing bowl in the oven as it preheated. Hence, the butter quietly melted away while I crushed the graham crackers. Yes, the bowl got hot, too, but since I barely had to touch it in order to mix the sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and melted butter, my sleeves sufficed for hand protection, and it was cool enough by the time I had to dump the crust into the baking pan that I could touch it directly. There were no butter splatters on the microwave ceiling and no extra pan to clean. It was marvelous. So were the cheesecake bars with defrosted three berry mix (from Costco) on top. There were only 12 people at small group, so we have at least 1/3 of the pan left...come visit us and help us finish it! Oh, and we're discussing The Dangerous Act of Worship in our small group, which is an excellent book if we do say so ourselves (we actually had one of our suggestions for a book accepted!).

Potluck

2008-05-05T09:59:00.002-06:00

Potluck Sunday at our church is always a bit difficult for us--we don't want to take anything that needs to be baked because the ovens are always crowded and the potluck oven-use etiquette is entirely unclear, so we usually end up taking brownies or something in the crockpot. Yesterday (we have Potluck Sunday the first Sunday of every month, so this is a frequent issue) we had decided to ride our bikes to church, so the crockpot was clearly not a viable solution. I'm a fan of leaving the brownies in the pan in which they are baked, so they didn't seem to be the greatest solution either. Instead, we made a bean salad because we had all those ingredients and I was sick of having the green beans in our freezer. Ryan liked it, and one of our friends asked for the recipe, but I was not impressed (of course, Ryan picked the recipe with the warning that I would not like it--which I was pretty clear on myself). It was okay, it transported well, it was very easy to make, and it looked pretty (we used black beans instead of garbanzo beans because I used all the garbanzo beans in curry earlier in the week--but that's another post), so I wasn't too disappointed that I had no desire to eat it.

Chocolate Hazelnut Latte Cookies

2008-04-29T20:29:00.004-06:00

I really want to try this recipe, but we are currently (not that this is a strange state of affairs) lacking espresso beans, thus we cannot make chocolate covered espresso beans nor espresso powder. So I settled last night for making chocolate chocolate chip cookies based on a recipe from a Hershey's recipe sampler ("7 Great Ways to Make It Chocolate!"). My office mate declared these to be her favorite of my cookie products. I think they're pretty darn tasty myself and Ryan also claims to be a fan. I must confess my cookie making secret, however: really good chocolate makes any cookie a really good cookie (this is apparently not true for peanut butter brownies)--in this case it was Ghiradelli 60% cocoa chocolate chips (the standard) and Ghardetto (no idea on the spelling on that one) cocoa powder. Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (I'm sure 1 cup white and 1 cup brown would be fine--or any other proportions, for that matter)
2 eggs
2 tsps (ish--I never measure vanilla) vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour (the flour proportions can be changed also)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder (but throw leftover hazelnut fake coffee mix into the 3/4 cup measuring cup before filling the rest with cocoa powder--yes, everyone should have a 3/4 cup measuring cup--it's my favorite one)
1 1/2- 2 cups chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Combine flour, cocoa, soda, salt; gradually blend into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking stone. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly, then move to wire rack to cool completely.

One other cookie secret: I always use salted butter and close to the full amount of salt in the recipe--I think the end result tastes better that way, especially when it involves chocolate. Also, these are the directions from the original recipe. I didn't actually follow them very well, but the cookies are fine (as in, I mixed the eggs with the butter and sugar at the beginning and didn't do the whole "gradually blend" thing).

Yes, I know there's nothing "latte" about these cookies really, but it sounded fancy. I'm sure a latte would be a lovely accompaniment to them.

Peanut Butter "Brownies"

2008-04-23T11:33:00.001-06:00

I made this recipe to welcome Ryan back to MT. Of course, I didn't actually follow the recipe: I melted the butter in the microwave (why in the world would you get a pan AND a mixing bowl dirty unless you had to?!), used about 1/4 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of brown sugar (and they are not lacking in sweetness) and about 1/4 cup of white flour and 1/4 cup wheat flour (by "about" I mean I was eyeballing 1/2 of the 1/2 cup measuring cup), and added 2 tsp cocoa powder, some peanut butter chips, and some chocolate chips. They're not bad...but they're not all I dreamed they would be. Not even close. I think they'd be better with creamy peanut butter, but we don't have creamy in the pantry regularly.

Pi Day 2008

2008-03-21T21:29:00.006-06:00

We celebrated Pi Day 2008 (3/14, in case you forgot) with a homemade pizza (using this recipe for the crust and adding spices to spaghetti sauce for the sauce--I'm still not satisfied with this method, so if anyone has a good pizza sauce recipe, we'd love to learn it from you!)

and what we have decided to call "Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens Pie." This name is Ryan's fault--he asked me what kind of pie I was making and I called it "Rebekah's Favorite Things Pie," so he started singing. Realizing that it does not contain all of my favorite things, we went with just the first two in the song. The pie is based on some Kraft Food and Family recipes, but I, of course, did not actually follow them (I think it's an attention span issue--you have to pay so much more attention to follow a recipe than to just go with your general idea of the recipe). Instead, I made an Oreo crust, melted some chocolate chips and put a very thin layer of melted chocolate in the bottom of the crust, then mixed about 4 oz. of cream cheese with 2 Tbsp of sugar, folded into that mixture somewhere between 1/2 cup and 1 cup of whipped cream (real whipped cream--as in, made from whipping cream; no sugar) and then stirred in the rest of the melted chocolate chips (probably melted about 1/3 cup chocolate chips overall) and spread that on top of the melted chocolate in the cooled Oreo crust. I put the pie-in-progress in the refrigerator. While the bottom layer was setting a bit, I mixed 1/2 cup (about) creamy peanut butter with 2-2.5 cups of milk, then beat in two vanilla pudding mixes for 1-2 minutes and let it sit for about 5 minutes. For the final step, I poured the peanut butter pudding on top of the rest of the pie and adorned it with a chocolate chip π.

It was pretty good, but next time I would only use one pudding mix and 1 cup of milk and add some whipped cream to the pudding. We froze two pieces of it and liked it much better that way.

Pita

2008-03-21T21:15:00.004-06:00

We bought a big thing of hummus at Costco (yes, we are now Costco members--milk is significantly cheaper there--so significantly, it makes the $50/year membership fee more than worth it right now), but we neglected to buy pitas. Hence, we made pitas using this recipe with 1 cup of wheat flour and 2 cups of bread flour but cooking them on top of the stove. Oh, yeah, we also added about 1 teaspoon of honey. They were/are tasty. Most of them puffed the whole way, but if we're just eating them with hummus, we don't care. However, we are going to use them for our sandwiches for our traditional Easter picnic tomorrow, so it's good that we have at least two sandwich-worthy puffed ones.

Aunt Kathy's Bread

2008-03-06T21:04:00.002-07:00

My Aunt Kathy makes excellent bread, so I finally got around to asking her for her recipe (hoping that she did, in fact, have some idea of a recipe--I've watched her make bread and it didn't seem to involve a lot of measuring...). She sent me a much more detailed recipe than I was expecting (still a bit sketchy, but I could work with it), but seeing as she makes three loaves at a time and our bread machine can only handle one (she uses a Kitchen Aid mixer), I had to cut the recipe to a third of its size (which only makes sense since our family is a third the size of hers). I also substituted some wheat flour for some of the bread flour because we always have wheat flour and I wanted to see if it would make much difference. I've now made the bread (okay, I've put the ingredients in the bread machine, taken them out when the machine has nicely made dough for me, shaped said dough into a loaf, let the loaf rise, and baked it in the oven--I'm not sure everyone would call that "making" bread) many times and I'm a big fan. Ryan seems to like it, too (but, as Aunt Kathy says, you can feed anyone bread fresh out of the oven and they'll think it's amazing). It makes great sandwiches and toast. Thus, I will now share my version of Aunt Kathy's recipe with the world:

1 cup 7-grain flakes (we buy these in bulk at the Good Food Store--like Whole Foods)
1 cup wheat flour
1 1/2 -2 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 2/3 cups very warm water
1 heaping teaspoon yeast

Put all ingredients in bread machine in order directed by manufacturer (that's my favorite line in bread machine recipes--clearly something bad will happen if I put the flour below the water! If you're going to delay the start of the machine, I suppose it could, but if you're just using the dough cycle--which is all I ever use--nothing bad will happen if you deviate). Let machine make dough. Punch down, roll into a rectangle (I confess, I press instead of rolling), roll the rectangle up into a nice loaf, tuck the ends under, put in bread pan, and let rise in warm place until double. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Indian Spiced Chicken

2008-02-23T22:22:00.003-07:00

Thursday afternoon, I went to Costco with another grad student who has a membership. While there, I purchased a 3 lb. bag of dried apricots for less than $7. I also purchased two gallons of milk for $5.39 (the cheapest it is anywhere else in town is $7.50/two gallons), but that's not relevant to this story. Ryan was excited when I got home because we could put the apricots in Moroccan Vegetable Stew (about which we shall have to report another time). Then we remembered that we had once made this recipe using apricots instead of raisins, and it was really good. So we made it again tonight, except that we made the rice separately, skipped the baking step, and therefore the phyllo dough, used sour cream instead of plain yogurt (somehow, I don't think raspberry yogurt would be a good substitute for plain, and I was wary of using vanilla), cut the chicken into tiny pieces instead of as described, used ground ginger instead of fresh, and didn't really bother to measure anything. It was really good, and the point of this post was not so much to inform you of that as to document the location of the recipe for ourselves so I don't have to search for it every time. However, it's very easy (at least, when you do it our way), very tasty, and makes really good leftovers.

Green Salsa

2008-02-19T12:52:00.002-07:00

We have been strong devotees to Santa Barbara brand green salsa, but it has been a while since it has been on sale. Tomatillos, jalapeños, onions, green peppers, and spices area all on sale though, so I thought it was about time I attempted green salsa.

The first step was to halve the tomatillos and broil them (that's what that setting on the toaster oven is for) on something that can catch all the juice (i.e. not on the bars). I read that they should broil until the skin is lightly blackened. While it was broiling I chopped up jalapeño, green pepper, and onion and grilled it all while adding cumin salt and garlic. Once the tomatillos were done I added the juice to the pan, then chopped up the more solid parts (it was kind of mushy) and added that to the pan. As the consistency started to dry out I added some water and let it all boil some. While that was going on I added some lime juice and got out the blender. Things were still pretty chunky so out of the pan and into the blender plus a little working of the puree button and I had some hot green salsa. I tasted some of the residue from the blender on some chips and I’m fairly optimistic that it will be tasty, but not Santa Barbara level at this point.

There are probably better ways to evenly roast the tomatillos and maybe the order should be blender then pan. Once it has cooled and had a chance for the flavors to really blend I’ll let you know how it turned out (with pictures).

Taco Soup

2008-02-16T22:25:00.003-07:00

In a flurry of activity informing the world of our eating, we would also like to report on the main dish we had with the corn bread (and for the next few days). Ryan made a roast in the crock pot earlier this week (it had onions and green peppers with it, but I have no idea what else he did). It was about 3 pounds, so there was a lot of meat. Some of the meat we put in burritos, some of it we used for taco soup (which is what I'm trying to post about, if I could just get around to talking about it), and some remains in a glass container in our refrigerator, waiting for us to be inspired (anyone have any suggestions?). But about the taco soup...first, I browned/stir-fried/cooked green pepper and onion (I'm searching for the appropriate verb here, in case you can't tell--what I did was heated the pan and then threw in the vegetables)--about half of a large one each--with some garlic. Then I put in some of the roast meat (I'm such an exact cook--I don't even know what kind of measurement to use for this step, much less how much of that measurement--I was using the two-quart sauce pan and there were more vegetables in it than meat at this point) and added cumin, Mexican seasoning (as another side note, we cannot find McCormick Mexican seasoning in our grocery stores anymore--it's quite sad. We're also sad about the fact that we can't get Santa Barbara green salsa directly from the company with free shipping anymore--we are out of our secret ingredient!), Santa Barbara cantina salsa, and oregano. After that all looked heated nicely (when I got bored might be a more accurate time statement), I added half a can of corn (we had no frozen corn), a can of diced tomatoes with jalapeños, half a can (the larger size) of green chilies, a cup of beef broth, and some water and let it all boil until Ryan came home with the milk and the corn bread was ready. We, of course, ate the soup with sour cream and cheese as well as tortilla chips. I had very low expectations for this soup, so I was pleasantly surprised that I liked it. I liked it even more today (two days old) when we ate it out of my new Crayola thermos (a Christmas present from my sister and brother-in-law) right before we went cross-country skiing (the thermos worked beautifully, by the way--thanks Rachel and Doug...and Daru and Kina!).

In search of the perfect cornbread

2008-02-15T13:29:00.005-07:00

Okay, so that title is a bit presumptuous, I suppose. We had cornbread at our small group meeting Sunday night that Leslie had made with Marie Callender's mix and some alterations. It was amazing. We decided last night that we would like more good cornbread, but we lacked the mix, so we made it with this recipe...with a few alterations: I cut the shortening into the flour mixture with a pastry blender because I didn't believe that it would mix in very well. We had no milk, so I used 1 cup rehydrated powdered milk and 1/4 cup half and half (most recipes seemed to want whole milk, but we of course did not have that!). I beat the egg with the milk/half and half before mixing it into the shortening/flour mixture. Finally, we baked it in Ryan's birthday present stoneware pie dish. It was not the perfect cornbread, but it was better than the recipe we've been using from Betty Crocker.

Hot Peppers

2007-10-01T20:47:00.001-06:00

Here's the last (probably--there was a frost Saturday night) of our crop of "hot" peppers--some of them are hot and some are not; we have no idea how to distinguish which are which because we've gotten hot ones and not-hot ones from the same plant. Oh, and there are a few jalapeños in the corner; they fall in the not-so-hot category. We've put them in black bean soup, lentils and sausage, taco salad, burritos, and spaghetti and on pizza (and probably some other things that I can't remember). We discovered the secret to gardening: put the plants right in front of one of the sprinkler heads. Our green pepper plants have not been nearly so productive, but we're getting some bitty peppers from them. Someday we may have a real garden.

Domesticity Abounded

2007-07-06T17:25:00.000-06:00

We had a domestic flurry this past weekend--on Sunday, I made homemade pizza using this recipe for the crust. The recipe is pretty annoying to read, and I didn't feel like the dough really superior to any other dough that I've ever made, so I'm not necessarily recommending it. It did set the smoke alarm off, however, since I was preheating the oven with the baking stone in it at 450 degrees, which caused a bit of smoke. Ryan waved stuff in front of the smoke detector and it stopped quickly. For toppings, we had cheese (of course), Italian sausage, onion, green pepper, and tomatoes. Oh, and I broke the rolling pin when I was rolling out the dough. While I was making the pizza, Ryan was busy designing a skirt for me based on the one skirt I wear all the time (all the time being the 3-4 times a year that I bother to wear a skirt), thereby taking part in the domestic flurry. After we ate, I helped (not much) him cut out the pieces. When we were done cutting, we'd had enough domesticity for a while, so we went to play tennis (we are both terrible!).

On Monday afternoon, I decided to sew my skirt together. However, my sewing machine hates me and has tension issues whenever I use it. Ryan has no problems with it, however, so he took over when I got frustrated (which was basically right away. I think the sewing machine likes him better because he's a boy and the machine is blue. My sister has a pink machine that has no problem with her--and she doesn't even like pink--not that I do either...). I needed to do something useful, so I went downstairs to make key lime pie. Now, if you're like me, you look at that recipe and think, "Oh, a pie that has only 4 ingredients in the filling and three in the crust. This will be fast!" There, my dear reader, you would be wrong. Well, the crust is fast, but key limes are tiny things with many seeds that do not produce much juice. "But you only need a half cup of key lime juice," you say? Ah, but a half cup of key lime juice took me at least half an hour (at least!) and at least 20 key limes (good thing they're so light and were only about $1.29/lb). And then there's the lime zest. Yes, you only need two teaspoons (I checked that twice before I started just to make sure it said "teaspoons" and not "tablespoons" and then, once again, thought, "Oh, this will be fast"). I grated almost all the peels from the limes that I used for the juice before I had two very scant teaspoons and declared myself done. I now understand why some people have juicers (I was cutting the limes into quarters and squeezing them--it's easier if you cut them the opposite way that I normally do--that's a good description, isn't it? Okay, the opposite way of the little membranes inside)...if I were to make this pie again, I might actually invest in one...or at least borrow one. I'm not sure if a zester would be that helpful having never used one myself, but perhaps zesting before squeezing would be more effective (I didn't want to do that when sqeezing by hand because I was afraid that the weakened rind would not get the juice out as effectively). Now, having complained about the work, I would like to say that key limes are actually quite juicy; it's just that juicy when you're the size of a small bouncy ball does not quickly translate to a half cup of juice. Overall, the pie is good, and we are still enjoying it with real whipped cream (whipping cream was on sale and we're mad at Albertsons for no longer selling the cheap brand of the squirty kind, so I bought and whipped real whipping cream). The skirt is almost all done (I sewed a little bit on it after the machine got warmed up, but Ryan did most of it). Our domesticity has ended, however, seeing as it is 105 degrees outside and 81 degrees downstairs in our house. We're living on fruit, salad, and cheese and crackers these days (okay, it was a little less hot yesterday--like, 3 degrees--so I made a "pizza burrito" for lunch using a sundried tomato and basil tortilla and the toaster over and Ryan made a pork stir fry) or anything we can grill--we practically don't have to turn the grill on to cook things!

Creamy Vegetable Soup

2007-06-18T19:44:00.001-06:00

I was bored tonight, so I decided to experiment while Ryan was working. I looked through our old Kraft Food and Family magazines, as I usually do when looking for inspiration (though I find them much more inspiring for desserts than for anything else). The recipe for Cheddar Biscuits looked good (and it had amusing cheesy pictures of a mother and daughter making them), but then I had to decide what we should eat with said biscuits. Not feeling inclined toward meat, I decided to make vegetable soup based on our experience with chicken pot pie since I felt that the chicken was completely unnecessary in that recipe. So I made the biscuits, put them in the oven, and then pulled out most of the frozen vegetable that we had and some carrots and onion. I chopped about 1/2 cup of carrots and 1/4 cup of onions (both in pretty small pieces) and stir-fried them in Roasted Red Pepper with Parmesan dressing (which is what we used for the chicken pot pie) for about 2 minutes. Then I dumped in the frozen vegetables, which included red pepper, snow peas, corn, peas, and mixed vegetables (probably about 3 cups of vegetable overall--maybe more--I'm bad at estimating such things). I let those cook for a few minutes and stirred them some, added rosemary, thyme, and a bit of savory, and then poured in 2 cups of vegetable broth. After boiling for about 2 minutes with the lid on, I let it simmer on low for another 3-5 minutes, then added about 3 oz of cream cheese and 1 tablespoon half-and-half (only because we had it in the refrigerator from making scones and it needs to be used). After the cream cheese melted, I let everything simmer a few minutes longer and then decided that I wanted it to have thicker broth, so I stirred in some flour. I was a little lazy about that with the first 1/2 tablespoon of flour and just threw it into the pot and stirred. It looked like we were going to have miniature dumplings in the soup, so for the next tablespoon, I applied the method I learned in....a Christian romance novel (isn't that where everyone learns to cook?!): scoop some of the broth out, whisk the flour into that broth until there are no lumps, and then pour the mixture back into the soup and stir. I'm not sure the flour actually contributed anything to the thickness of the broth in this case, but I felt better. I let it cook for another 2 minutes or so and then we ate. It was surprisingly good, especially with the biscuits (we did not put cream cheese on our biscuits, by the way, despite what the recipe says). I was thinking it was also somewhat healthy, but having reviewed the nutrition facts on the biscuits alone, I'm no longer convinced (though I did use skim milk...that has to count for something...and Neufchâtel cheese, not cream cheese). It does contain a lot of vegetables, so I suppose that's good.

Chicken Pot Pie

2007-06-06T15:18:00.000-06:00

The other day (where the other day should be read as somewhere between the beginning of February and the beginning of May), after browsing through our collection of Kraft Food and Family magazines, we decided to make Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie in our Deep Dish Baker (which, by the way, is not glazed with any color on the outside, but Pampered Chef has apparently discontinued that version...sad). We basically followed the recipe, but Ryan made pie crust from scratch instead of using a refrigerated one, I have no idea in what type of dressing we cooked the chicken (it may actually have been the one recommended in the recipe--if we had it--we usually just skip that part of the recipe but I know we didn't this time), we used more vegetables than suggested, and we added rosemary and thyme. Oh, and I'm sure we used less than a full pound of chicken because we rarely use the whole amount of meat in a recipe. It was really good (and pretty easy), but we're not convinced it would have been without the rosemary and thyme. I've decided that rosemary has recently pushed its way onto my list of favorite spices.

Scones

2007-06-04T16:34:00.000-06:00

We ran out of muffin cups during Lent, and, as I had given up buying non-essential things at the grocery store considering the state of our pantry closet, no muffin cups were on the horizon any time soon. However, muffin mixes abounded seeing as I (before Lent) kept buying a few at a time whenever they were on sale. Ryan hates washing the muffin tins, especially when muffins have been made in them without muffin cups, and I'm not a big fan of it, either, so making muffin-cup-free muffins was out of the question. Hence, I started pondering the similarities between muffin recipes and scone recipes. After comparing them in Betty Crocker, I decided that I could make scones from muffin mixes as follows:

Dump muffin mix into bowl. Add 1-2 teaspoons of baking powder, stir all together. Cut in 1/3 cup cold butter (yes, butter--we have switched from margarine since we have become convinced that trans fats truly are awful for you--and us--though at the time I started these I was probably still using margarine or shortening if I didn't have margarine/butter) using a pastry blender--you probably want to cut the butter up into smaller chunks using a knife before attacking it with the pastry blender. When the mixture is the consistency that it should be (according to one scone recipe I looked at, it looks like "wet sand"--I just go with "fine crumbs" myself), add a beaten egg and a few tablespoons of milk and stir until dough comes together and leaves sides of bowl. You don't want to over-mix (same idea as with biscuits). You may have to add a bit more milk as you're going. I started just pouring some milk in without measuring at any point, but you want the dough to be kind of like biscuit dough, so don't add too much. If you're making the scones from a muffin mix that has things to add at the end, such as blueberries or apple filling, stir that stuff in carefully here--once, again, take care not to mix too much. Then, if you like round drop scones, drop the size you'd like onto a baking stone (or a baking sheet if that's all you have) and bake at whatever temperature the muffin box says for somewhere between 15-20 minutes (time is pretty variable on these--watch for whatever color of doneness you like and take them out then--I make it up every time). If you like triangular scones, you can knead the dough lightly on a floured surface 4 or 5 times, then squish it (okay, most cookbooks use the word "pat" instead of "squish," I think, but squish is more like what I do) down to the thickness that you think it should be before it bakes (they will rise some) either in a circle or a rectangle, cut that into triangles, and place the triangles on the baking stone/sheet (or squish it directly on the stone/sheet, score it into triangles and cut them apart as soon as you deem them baked to your satisfaction--but I think they take longer to bake using that method and I can't see any great advantage over separating them before baking. So it's your choice: break-and-bake or bake-and-break) and cook them the same way you would drop scones.

Having now used up all but one of our muffin mixes (and the last one is Cinnamon Streusel, which we had way too many of before, so I'm sick of them), I graduated to scones from scratch. The first ones I made were apple cinnamon streusel scones and chocolate chip scones based on the Betty Crocker recipe for basic scones. They both turned out more like flavored biscuits, so that recipe has since been abandoned. We had to take breakfast to church yesterday, so we tried two new scone recipes--this time Ryan picked them out. Both of them are from Joy of Baking. I was not impressed with the chocolate chip scones (though I did forget the egg wash and the cinnamon sugar, which may have helped), but the cranberry oat scones, even without the egg wash, the sugar on top, and the lemon or orange zest, were amazing. I was leaning toward the conclusion that I should just give up on chocolate chip scones, but Ryan says we should try making chocolate chip oat scones using the cranberry oat scones recipe, so we'll probably do that once before completely despairing. Oh, by the way, we only had salted butter, so I just left the salt out of the dough.

Based on these recipes, if I make scones from muffin mixes again, I will probably add 1/2-1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, some oats, closer to 1/2 cup butter, and skip the egg instead of what I did before. They were good as described above, but more like rich muffin tops than scones, so we'll see if making these alterations makes them more scone-like.

Sauce

2007-04-02T17:49:00.000-06:00

A little while back I was given the challenge to help serve a friend in need. Matt Kingsley needs him some BBQ sauce and Ireland appears to be a land full of much goodness, but little sauce. To this end I purchased some fine sauces from our local grocery store (out of the plethora of choices available to us in Montana) and have tried some of them out on the occasional appropriate meats. The standout, so far, has been Cattleman's Smoke House (which is superb on leftover pork tenderloin sliced on a sandwich with melted cheddar). A quick read of the ingredients list and it seems at least plausible to duplicate the recipe with the exception of "Liquid Smoke". This is a product that I understand to be very difficult to come across "across the pond" begging the question, will it still be BBQ sauce with out the smoke? As we enter BBQ season with spring making its debut, we will start working on creating an acceptable BBQ sauce for those away from the curse of American Idol but sadly also away from a source of good sauce. Any advice, favorite sauces, family recipes, substitutions, lists of available ingredients, and beta testers are of course welcome.

Pi Day

2007-03-18T00:05:00.000-06:00

No, we didn't give up eating for Lent; nor did we give up blogging. We just keep forgetting. Also, my computer kept shutting down after 20 minutes or so because it was overheating, so running Picasa was out of the question. I now have a new laptop, but I'm not promising that will mean more regular posting. We'll see. Anyway, as everyone should remember, Wednesday (3/14), was Pi Day, so we had an apple pie. I must say that I am a big fan of the refrigerated roll-out pie crusts that are being sold these days--very easy! Possibly a bit lazy, but when you're peeling and slicing 9-10 apples, a faster crust is much appreciated.

In other Pi Day news, it appears that my email to bluemountain.com last year about the inaccuracy of their definition of "transcendental number" on one of their Pi Day e-cards did not actually inspire them to change it--despite their reply that they were terribly embarassed and would fix it as soon as possible, a reply that I received before the end of March last year. I meant to write to them again this year before Pi Day to remind them to fix their "educational" blurb at the bottom, but I forgot. Thus, the lie continues to be perpetuated by the poor unsuspecting people out there who just want to wish their friends and family a happy Pi Day.

This entry is not very focused on food. Oh, well.

More Deep Dish Baker

2007-02-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

Since the caring-for-your-stoneware instructions always suggest that a good way to start seasoning new stoneware is to bake refrigerated crescent rolls on it, our next adventure with the Deep Dish Baker was the mini-cinnamon rolls in this picture. Here is the recipe (also due to Pampered Chef--and this one we actually followed--except I think I added a bit of vanilla to the glaze), in case anyone's interested (in case anyone still reads this blog...):

Mini-Cinnamon Rolls
2 packages (8 ounces each) refrigerated crescent rolls
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup raisins, optional (We opted for no raisins.)

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons apple juice or milk (Having no apple juice, we went with milk.)

Preheat oven to 350. Separate rolls into rectangles, press perforations. Spread with butter. Combine sugar, cinnamon, and raisins in Small Batter Bowl (clearly, one cannot make this recipe without having a Small Batter Bowl!). Sprinkle mixture over rectangles. Roll up each rectangle from short end. Cut each roll into 5 slices. Place slices cut side down (this was my favorite part of the directions since 3 of the 5 slices obviously have two cut sides) in ungreased Deep Dish Baker. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Mix glaze. Drizzle on top of warm rolls.

Yield: 40 mini-rolls.

New Stoneware

2007-02-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

Ryan got a new stoneware round baker thing for Christmas. He has been wanting one for awhile, so he was very happy to finally be the proud owner. Stoneware, as many of you probably know, spends the first few months of its life with a cook being seasoned--absorbing all kinds of fats and oils so that it can make its own non-stick coating. You're supposed to bake some high fat items on it at the beginning to get it on its way to a happy, non-stick life. The first item we baked on it was biscuits (ok, I say "we" but it was really just Ryan--I had no part in it other than saying that I wanted biscuits for breakfast). They were very tasty, but not exceptionally helpful for the stoneware in its quest to be seasoned. So we decided to try something else. Since this new stoneware was from Pampered Chef, it came with a variety of recipes in which it (along with many other specially-named Pampered Chef products such as the "3-qt. Batter Bowl," etc.) could be used (all Pampered Chef products come with recipes in which they can be used--even things like strawberry corers--which, of course, have some sort of fancy name that appears somewhere in bold in the recipe--like to make a strawberry banana smoothie, "core all the strawberries with the Strawberry Coring Device." Anyway, back to the story). We took Blueberry Pizza Dessert to the January potluck at our church. Granted, what we actually took was "Mixed and Mashed Berry Pizza Dessert," but it was based on the Pampered Chef Blueberry Pizza Dessert recipe. It was very good, and since it has a real recipe, I'm going to include it here. The special name for the new stoneware is "Deep Dish Baker," which seems a bit odd to me since the depth of the baker is about 1.5 inches....

Blueberry Pizza Dessert
1 package (18-19 ounces) yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats (We used regular oats.)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped nuts (Ryan chopped the non-chopped almonds that we bought because they were a lot cheaper than pre-chopped nuts.)
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 can (21 ounces) blueberry pie filling (We used semi-defrosted/semi-mashed frozen mixed berries--a whole bag--with a bit of sugar.)

Preheat oven to 350. In a Classic Batter Bowl, combine cake mix, 1 cup oats, and 6 tablespoons butter until crumbly (Pampered Chef must not make a pastry cutter or it would be mentioned here since that's the easiest way to do this). Reserve 1 cup crumbs for topping. Blend egg into remaining crumbs. Press into Deep Dish Baker forming a short rim. Bake for 12 minutes. Meanwhile, to reserved crumbs add remaining 1/4 cup oats, 2 tablespoons butter, nuts, sugar, and cinnamon. Mix well. Remove base from oven and spread with pie filling. Return to oven and bake 15-20 minutes or until crumbs are light golden brown. Cool completely. Cut into wedges. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream (oh, yeah, we skipped the whipped cream).

Christmas

2006-12-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

We posted on our Christmas blog about some of the food we have been enjoying so far during Christmas:

http://yateschristmas.blogspot.com

Cooking Steak

2006-12-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

We tried a new way of cooking steak today and it worked out pretty well (medium well actually). First we did a dry rub of salt, pepper, cayenne, and garlic powder while the oven heated to near 500 (I'm not sure it actually goes that high) with our iron skillet inside. Once the oven was at temperature we took the skillet out and put it on to a burner on high and placed the meat in it. Do not try this without a hot pad or oven mitt! Only do about 20 seconds per side, then stick the whole thing back in the oven for 2-3 minutes then flip again, and do another 2-3 minutes (the timing makes the difference for thickness and doneness). The result was quite tasty and tender.

Shopping

2006-10-19T22:34:00.000-06:00

An essential part of cooking is shopping. He who does not shop does not cook. Thus, I am compelled to share our most recent shopping adventure with our faithful readers (most of whom I sent this to in an email, so they'll be bored). As a warning, I spent all today inside pretending to get some work done, so this shopping trip this evening was my first interaction with anyone besides Ryan (who was actually working all day) and Mobius (who was sleeping all day). Hence, you may not be nearly as amused by this as I have been. We went to Albertsons because milk and boneless skinless chicken tenders (we've switched from chicken breasts to chicken tenders because we almost always cut the chicken into small pieces before cooking, so there's less cutting involved with tenders and there's less fat to trim off of them as well, not to mention that they go on sale for the same price as chicken breasts) were on sale--okay, really because it's the closest grocery store to our house and those items being on sale was just an excuse to go. We got to the refrigerated section and a kid was mopping the floor (late high school age, probably) and didn't want us to walk across it, so he offered to get stuff for us. This is how the conversation went:

Kid: "What do you want?"
Me: "Milk and whipped cream." (Don't call it "squirty." Don't call it "squirty." This was actually more difficult than one might think!)
Kid: "What kind of milk?"
Me: "Skim...the..." and I try to point.
Kid: "The organic kind?"
Me: "No, the kind that's on sale 10 for 10."
Kid: "Viva?"
Me: "No, Albertsons" (duh, that's the one on sale).
Kid: "A gallon?" as the bright yellow 10 for $10 tag is glaring at him from the half gallons.
Me: "No, half gallon."
Kid: "How many?"
Me: "What's the date?"
Kid: Incredulously: "The date?!?"
Me: "Printed on the milk."
Kid: "Oh....Ocotober 29"
Me: "Today's the...19th...okay, two, please."
Kid brings them over across his nicely mopped floor (why his shoes were clean enough and mine were not, I have no idea!)
Kid: "What else?"
Me: "Whipped cream--the kind that squirts." (Ha! Not "squirty.")
Kid: "Albertsons?" (since I want Albertsons milk so badly, I must want Albertsons whipped cream, too).
Me: "I think Meadow Gold is usually cheaper...."
Kid: looking at Meadow Gold "$2.73." Clearly, I have the price of the Albertsons whipped cream, which I apparently don't want, memorized so as to compare it with the Meadow Gold price, which I do not seem to have memorized.
Me: "Okay." Whatever, kid. Maybe you'll learn to shop someday.

Apple Chips

2006-09-17T19:14:00.000-06:00

We purchased some Nature Valley apple chips at Albertsons the other day when they were $1 for a box of five bags (way overpackaged!) and have enjoyed them. Then we got our Kraft Food and Family magazine with directions on how to make dried apple slices in the oven. I decided that if we sliced very thinly, we could make apple chips instead of apple slices. So I sliced two apples thinly, dipped them in a mixture of lemon juice and water as suggested by the magazine (and that's really all it said--the magazine that is generally overprescriptive in recipes merely said "a mixture of lemon juice and water" with no attempt at giving amounts. Therefore, I make no attempt to give an amount either.), sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar, placed them on a baking stone, and put them in a 200 degree oven for 4 hours (the directions for apple slices were 4 to 12 hours--quite the range!). They turned out quite well and we've gobbled them up. I may not be able to take them in my lunch this week since they may not exist any longer.

Landscaping Update

2006-09-04T19:57:00.000-06:00

Here is what our house looks like today. You might notice some slight differences, like the peppers on the jalapeño plant:

And a huge raspberry plant:

In addition the strawberry has been doing ok (it had some delicious berries, but not much since we got back from our travels). While we were gone this summer our friends Justin and Melinda plant sat our pepper and strawberry. The raspberry did its thing all by itself. Our piney shrub didn't do anything but stay cute and soft, while the purple explotion exploded, then kind of fizzled a little.

All in all a grand success!

Oh, I almost forgot, we ate one of the jalapeños in some taco meat (which ended up be burrito meat). I couldn't really tell it was there, but I ate a chunk as I was cutting it and it had a satifying flavor and kick.

Fish Sauce

2006-09-02T17:18:00.000-06:00

Because Thai Lettuce wraps are so tasty I have to counter point with something not at all tasty. This summer I happened to watch several food documentaries around the forth of July leading up to the Nathan's hotdog eating contest (Kobayashi is a hot dog Samurai). Not that I think that anyone was in doubt, but hot dogs are really gross as they are making them (and afterwards too). But the cool thing is that after they cook the dogs they take them out of the casing with what can only be described as a hot dog machine gun. Basically it is the coolest thing you can do with a hot dog.

Slowly I'm getting to the point... So after I saw the thing on how hot dogs were made I saw another behind the scenes, this time for imitation crab. You know things are not going to turn out well when you start with a squarish brick of something called surimi (Japanese for minced fish) and then you start processing it. It turns out they use what looked like exactly the same machinery as the hot dog plant did only the slurry was cream colored instead of pink. The results are the hot dog of the sea.

Now to the Thai food. So when I look for recipes for Thai food they always suggest you use something called "Fish Sauce". A rather generic termed sauce one could only expect that it is made of fish and tastes like fish (not being a fan of fish myself I never feel bad leaving it out). So in documentary number three (it was just a cooking show this time) I learned about the wonders of how fish sauce is made. First you get a big vat (bucket won't do, even if it is large enough, it has to be a vat). Fill the vat with anchovies (dead ones). Add some water and vinegar, maybe some salt too and let sit... for a year (covered). Finally squeeze the chunky parts to the bottom and the liquid at the top is Fish Sauce.

Thai Lettuce Wraps

2006-09-02T17:14:00.000-06:00

So if you couldn't already tell we have been quite busy this summer. This last week Rebekah had a chance to make Thai Lettuce Wraps and they were delicious. Perhaps it is the complementary combinations of hot and cold, sweet and sour, crunchy and smooth that makes TLW's so tasty. Maybe it is the savory pop of the lettuce as you bite in to its ambrosial innards that ensures TLW's place on the podium of goodness. Whatever it is, you must try them; they are even easy to make.

To prepare, marinate some chicken in a mixture of Newman's own Sesame Ginger salad dressing and teriyaki sauce. Just before starting, grate some carrots and make sure you have lettuce leaves and bean sprouts ready but chilled (you want to eat the chicken while it is hot, but you don't want your lettuce to wilt).

Start cooking rice. Chop up the chicken and cook with chopped red peppers in a hot skillet adding more teriyaki and Sesame Ginger as needed. Oh, also add Thai seasoning if you have it.

In another pan add garlic, Sesame Ginger, soy sauce, hot chili sauce, teriyaki, peanut butter (chunky, or superchunk), and sugar. Bring to a boil and stir around until it is consistent (this is the sauce for the top).

Construct your wraps with lettuce first then filling that with rice, chicken, carrots, bean sprouts, and finally sauce. Be careful not to overfill! Most people recommend Boston lettuce and it would probably work better then the Romaine lettuce that we used as they are broader leaves.

Oh and don't let your cat too close to it, you know where those paws have been.

Landscaping

2006-06-15T10:16:00.000-06:00

We spent hours (okay, days) a couple weeks ago pretending we know how to plant things that will actually not die (otherwise, why would we bother?). Here is the result. "Landscaping has nothing to do with food," you say? Ah, loyal reader, that is where you are incorrect! The plant on the far left in this picture (under the swing; okay it's a bit difficult to see it) is a Fall Gold Raspberry. Fall Gold Raspberries are food. The pot closest to the front door on the steps holds a jalapeño plant--also food. Finally, the second pot down holds a strawberry plant. That, too, is food. If it survives. We have a great ability to kill things that are supposed to grow. We shall see.

Last Two Months in Review

2006-06-15T09:46:00.000-06:00

To the average reader, it may seem that we have not eaten in almost two months. That conclusion is not true. However, the statement "we have not eaten anything new in almost two months" is basically true. We've had skewers, pizza, biscuits, bread, multiple versions of Indonesian Peanut Sauce Chicken, chicken tortilla soup, pasta galore, strawberry lemonade, a variety of stirfries (we do have a new favorite ingredient for stirfry: Newman's Own Sesame Ginger salad dressing), pork tenderloin on the grill, Rice-a-Roni (we like Four Cheese, Long Grain and Wild Rice--Original, Country Cheddar--apparently they don't like this one since it doesn't seem to be on their website, and Cheesy Italian Herb--also not on their website--we make the Easy Supper Risotto recipe on the back pretty often), quesadillas, taco salad, Outback Steakhouse (we always split the 9-oz Outback Special and get the loaded baked potato. We usually end up bringing home at least half of the food), Applebee's (we had to go there on Saturday to see some of the World Cup), and the Cabo Chicken sub at Quizno's. Okay, maybe we haven't ever written about some of these, but there's not a whole bunch to say about the ones we haven't written about. Maybe we'll be more creative in the days ahead. Maybe you could send us some of your recipes and we'll review them. You'll be famous. Just like we are.

Skewers

2006-04-28T00:27:00.000-06:00

We used our grill for the first time in a long time this evening. We had chicken, green pepper, red pepper, and onion skewers. We marinated the chicken in A1 Cajun Marinade, which we both greatly enjoyed. I'm incredibly tired, so this is a very uninteresting post. Mostly I'm writing it because we haven't updated in awhile and it seems that most of the blogs I read regularly are having that same issue, which frustrates me when I'm looking for a short distraction. So here's my contribution to the short distractions of the world. When I have completed two Algebraic Topology homework assignments, one Real Analysis homework assignment, one Real Analysis project, one Real Analysis final, one Master's project paper (the first draft has already been turned in), given one more presentation of my project, written quizzes for my students to take on their projects, graded said quizzes, graded my students' "research" papers, written a final, graded a final, and completed my students' grades, then I may write a more interesting post on our culinary delights, for then we may actually have some. Until then, you'll have to rely on the over-worked Ryan (who, by the way, is still up himself working on stuff for a demanding customer) to update you. In other words, it may be two weeks before you have any idea that we are actually being nourished. I hope you can live with that. Here's one last tidbit (this is especially for Catherine, who may be concerned that we are losing important moments for posterity by neglecting our blog): we had frozen pizza again this week--but this time, we didn't do anything to it. We tried Freschetta's Special Deluxe, and, I must say, I have never had worse sausage in my life. The rest of it was fine, but the sausage was so bad it was offensive.

Mobius Debuts on "The Story is Cooked!"

2006-04-11T19:00:00.000-06:00

Mobius asked me to announce to the world wide web that she had a special treat today. She attacked and consumed a spider. It was very tasty, but required quite a bit of water to wash it down. Then she searched for more.

Lazy Food

2006-04-11T18:51:00.000-06:00

Ryan and I have both been working all day (ok, he got started a lot faster than I did) and neither of us is terribly interested in making dinner, so we're having Freschetta pizza. We cut up onions and green and red peppers and put them on top of the four cheese variety--it's pretty good. Especially when the pizza was on sale for $3.33. Sometimes we put Italian sausage (Johnsonville Sweet is our preferred variety, but Village Market is okay on pizza--not good in our Italian chili or on pasta, though) on it, too, but we exhausted our supply of sausage last week with Italian chili, so no sausage tonight. If we weren't being lazy, we would also have salad....

Ryan is going to make blackberry cobbler later. Perhaps he'll post about it.

Happy Pi Day!

2006-03-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure you're all aware, today is Pi Day. So, instead of being a good, productive student, I decided I needed to make a pie. And I decided that I needed to share that pie with all of you, so as I wait for inspiration (and I mean that in the Biblical sense) on my homework (yes, Rachel, it's analysis homework), I'm posting this picture. This is a chocolate-peanut butter pudding pie (please notice the beautiful teapot in the background--Ryan thought I was silly to want a teapot, but he has become a big fan--there's something much more soothing about a whistle informing you that your water is hot than there is about four obnoxious microwave beeps--or is it three?). I thought pudding pie would be the fastest method of making my own pie--of course, I forgot about the fact that the crust has to bake, so the process was several hours long since it also had to cool, but oh, well. I was going to buy a pre-made crust, but Oreo crusts were $1.99 at Safeway and we had a few Oreos (the peanut butter stuffed ones--Ryan's new favorite indulgence) at home, so I decided to use those. Of course, I had to check whether Oreos were on sale before I left the store just in case Ryan had eaten the remaining Oreos. They were. $1.88. They're normally $3.69 or something like that (we only buy them on sale). So I had to buy a new bag, but I still think I came out ahead since I used a total of about 7 in the crust and some butter (margarine) that cost about $.25 (it's a pi day entry--I have to share my mathematical triumphs at the grocery store!). I don't know how much energy I used in the baking of the crust, however, so I cannot truly declare myself victorious. Anyway, my final remark concerning this pie (I'm beginning to think this is probably a very boring entry, so I'm not going to read it myself) is that, as I was placing the chocolate chips around the edge, I was very disappointed that I had not thought to place three chocolate chips, then one peanut butter chip, then four chocolate chips, then one peanut butter chip, then five chocolate chips, then nine peanut butter chips....

Scones!

2006-02-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Apparently Scone is a place in eastern Scotland, but as a pastry it might have its roots from the Dutch word schoonbrood which means pure/clean bread (this is all according to Merriam-Webster). Aunt Susan gave Rebekah a scone mix in her stocking this Christmas and I finally got around to making it last Sunday. It didn't fit the Dutch word, however, as it was a lemon, Poppy Seed scone mix, very much not pure/clean (Ok, things could be a lot less pure). A possible alternative etymology for these scones would be vervuildbrood, which the Internet tells me is polluted bread. The mix was from the Sticky Fingers Bakeries of Spokane Washington (which is ironic as we are much closer to Spokane then Aunt Susan is). On the package it also said "English Scones", which I guess throws out both the Dutch and Scottish roots.

I just noticed that according to the Sticky Fingers Bakeries of Spokane Washington scones originated in Scotland.

All this to say, they were delicious. The lemon chunks were a little hard sometimes, but that could be because they had to travel from Spokane to Maryland, to Pennsylvania, to California, and then to Missoula before sitting in our cupboard for a while until finally being mixed with just water and baked. We took them to our Church small group and the scones were proclaimed Delicious by at least two people. Another asked if they were to be consumed with butter or sugar. Not knowing how to respond I said "You are supposed to eat them with cream and sugar... in your tea." There was no tea available, however.

So, thank you, Aunt Susan, for that adventure!

Crepes Delicizette

2006-02-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

For Saturday brunch Ryan made crepes. Though he was halving the recipe and forgot to halve the butter, they were excellent. I had mine with kiwi and whipped cream (the squirty kind; I like this combination on my waffles as well). Ryan had his with the apricot jam mentioned in a previous post or with lime juice and powdered sugar (as another phase in his continual quest for lime bars for breakfast). We went cross-country skiing afterwards to burn off the extra butter--ok, so it was margarine this time, too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2006-02-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

We forgot to set an alarm last night, so we slept in a bit. Hence, Ryan had to start working right when he got up. He was so deep into his work that he didn't notice me making noise downstairs (except when I had some crashing going on trying to get out the big thing of cookie cutters my Aunt Susan gave me a couple years ago--then he asked me if I was okay, but not what I was doing). So I made these biscuits, and right before they were done, I went upstairs and asked him, "If you were to have biscuits today, what would you want as topping on them?" His answer: "Pink with your face on them." I looked at him like he was nuts, so he said, "Chocolate chips? Is that the right answer?" So I had to clarify that I meant in the butter/jam/honey category. He then gave a very reasonable answer involving butter (ok, so it's margarine--not that it matters, just maintaining the accuracy of our reporting) and apricot low-sugar preserves (we recently discovered, compliments of Ryan's parents, that Smucker's low-sugar preserves taste a lot better than the full sugar stuff without any nasty-tasting artificial sweetners--they use half the normal amount of sugar so the taste actually resembles fruit instead of sugar with a faint hint of fruit). So I went downstairs, took the biscuits out of the oven, laughed at how some of them had risen, and margarined and preserved (hey, butter is a verb, why not margarine and preserve in the sense of jam?) his five biscuits and put "my face" on one of them with raspberry preserves--so it was kind of pink. He was shocked that I was so fast seeing as he had not noticed the noises I had been making previously were all involved in the biscuit-making process, so the biscuits were already done when he placed his order. You may notice that he didn't take the picture until he had eaten one and a fifth or so biscuits.

Instant Replay

2006-02-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of the Superbowl and the Olympics, we have an instant replay from the last post (you do read them in chronological order right?). Many of you doubtlessly noticed the striking and bold new apron (a custom order from the winter line of the Janet Yates collection). But did anyone notice the Steelers yellow lurking beneath? How about the nearly empty propane tank that ultimately would make the whole outdoor part of the adventure fruitless. Perchance one of you noticed the Seahawks colors around my head where I could send out negative brain waves, to disrupt their game (apparently only the refs heard them). Just in case you missed any of these details, I added this instant replay.

My New Apron

2006-02-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Continuing with our grand update, we have... Me, in my new apron! Making the chicken for Buffalo Chip Chicken Dip. So you make the chicken, rip it into tiny pieces, mix with cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and sour cream, then bake for a while. But first you ask Rachel for the recipe (she recently received Gmail chat). We took it to our Superbowl party (they were all Seahawks fans, so they didn't comment on the dip).

Challah!

2006-02-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is the picture of the excellent loaf of challah that Rebekah made. Not only did it look delicious, it tasted spectacular. Since making this we have progressed to use the same basic recipe, but as small loaves with more wheat flour and some molasses. Making the bread in small loaves has made the bread easier to eat. We don't have to make a bunch of crumbs slicing it, and it is in a good size for one portion. Having it braided achieves this too as the braid chunks are easy to pull off.

I have been enjoying eating it by cutting a mini-loaf in half and toasting it with cheese (Tillamook special reserve white cheddar), then putting the two halves together and eating it with soup. Mmmmmmm.

Updates

2006-02-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

Contrary to popular belief, we have eaten since December (I know our figures don't show it). I'm writing this to let all of our readers know about the delightful culinary adventures we have had and will write up. Due to lack of temporal assets, we have heretofore been unable to delight in the writing up of said adventures.

First we have Rebekah's recent success in making Challah. Since then we have modified the recipe to move closer to the lovely loaves of bread given at Outback Steakhouse (and with each step also closer to the coupe du monde de boulangerie).

Next we have pictures of myself in my new apron (an essential for all cooks!). I am sporting my new adornment while placing chicken on our grill. Little did we know that the grill was about five minutes from being out of gas.

Lastly we have the aforementioned chicken (after finishing its cooking indoors) shredded and mixed with various cheeses to make Robin via Rachel Buffalo Chip Dip (Rebekah uses the name Buffalo Chicken Dip, but we all know its true name).

This is simply to whet your appetite for what is to come!

Thanksgiving

2005-12-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

Ryan promised a post on our Thanksgiving cooking adventures, but he never delivered, so here it is. We had an excellent turkey breast: Honeysuckle, the best there is (according to my Aunt Freeda), basted in vegetable oil and rubbed with garlic powder and some other spices that I can't remember. It was very moist--we think the secret was wrapping it in aluminum foil for the first 2.5 hours of cooking and then keeping the aluminum foil beneath it for the rest of the time, which kept the juices close to the turkey (keeping the foil beneath it was an accident--I had not thought about wrapping it in a manner that would make the foil removable from a steaming hot turkey breast in the middle of cooking...). We also had excellent Green Giant Nibblets Corn with Butter Sauce, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (my mom sent us a coupon), raspberry jello, cranberry sauce, and chocolate cheesecake. Our friends Melinda and Justin brought the potatoes--two kinds, "heart-attack potatoes" and mashed potatoes (including the skins--the best way to make them!), the green beans with almonds (not out of a box, as I grew up with, but they were just as good except for missing the soaked-in-salt water taste that I enjoy in the boxed kind--I do think the almonds were better than the boxed ones), the pumpkin chiffon pie (Melinda's grandma's recipe--it was very good--and I don't like pumpkin pie), and probably some other things that I can't remember because it was two weeks ago and today is the last day of the semester before finals week.

Tomato Flop

2005-11-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Ryan decided that he wanted grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch today, and then he asked if we happened to have any tomato soup (he likes Progresso Hearty Tomato; I hate tomato soup in general, so this question was clearly only in his own interest). I didn't really feel like doing any work at the time, so I ventured downstairs to see what the pantry held. No tomato soup, no diced tomatos (despite the plethora we had--about 6 cans worth--a month ago. I have no idea where they went!), but two cans of tomato sauce (not that I know what use we have for that!) and two cans of tomato paste (vital ingredient in chili). Feeling ambitious (though only toward cooking--not graph theory, or topology, or representation theory, or the theory of what we're going to do next year, etc.), I looked on the internet for tomato soup recipes. Almost every one I found required fresh tomatoes, which we did not have, or whole canned tomatoes, which we also did not have. However, I did find a vegan recipe that only required tomato sauce (and cornstarch for thickening, but I figured flour would work just as well, and rice milk, which we did not have, but I figured cow's milk was a perfectly acceptable substitute since I didn't care about the vegan-ness at all), so I asked Ryan if he would like me to make him tomato soup. He sadly replied, "We don't have any?"
"No, but we have tomato sauce...."
"Do think you can?" Ryan asked.
"What, you think I won't be successful?!" I answered.
Of course, he reassured me that was not his thought at all; he just didn't want me to go to all that work. I insisted, so we made the soup. Ryan added some "Old World Spices," and I added the milk and flour. Then Ryan said it tasted like dough, so he added the other can of tomato sauce, since we had only used one at first (he was reluctant to waste the tomato sauce, but, as I have previously mentioned, I have no idea what we would do with it otherwise). It still tasted like dough, apparently, so Ryan ate his grilled cheese sandwich without tomato soup, which I dumped down the drain. Clearly, I was not successful. Maybe next time. Maybe there will never be a next time.

Indonesian Peanut Sauce Chicken

2005-11-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

We decided to try this recipe before we realized that it called for chili sauce, which we didn't have, so we went to Albertsons to pickup some. There were only a couple of options so we got a hot one from the Asian food isle and a mild one next to the BBQ sauce. When we checked out the expensive one rang up wrong so we got it for free. The recipe we have wanted us to cook the chicken pieces whole for 20 minutes, but that would have taken too long, so we treated it like a normal stirfry and cut the chicken into little pieces and cooked it without any oil for about 5 or 6 min (until it's done). Oh we had onion and red peppers in there too. Once the chicken was cooked we took it out and put in crunchy peanut butter and chili sauce (about equal amounts) stirring constantly and adding water in small amounts until the peanut butter is all melted and the whole thing is boiling. After that we added the chicken back in just in time for the rice to be done.

The chopsticks are authentic southeast Asian utensils (a wedding present from Pierce Baehr out of Papua New Guinea). This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Addendum

2005-11-08T08:59:00.000-07:00

I still hate Krispy Kreme, and, yes, I do gag whenever I think about the gobs of glaze on any of their normal donuts, but I must confess that the Boston Creme (although I supppose at Kripy Kreme it should be Boston Kreme--oh, yeah, they call it something else weird) and the Cinnamon Apple-filled donuts that Ryan got weren't awful (they weren't glazed). However, they still weren't very good. Dunkin' Donuts is much, much better! I realized when we left Kripy Kreme the other day that it's the glaze that makes them so gross--I've never liked icing. My sister and I used to split cake anywhere we went--she ate the icing, I ate the cake. (Of course, I don't even really like cake now, but that's not the story here.) So when you melt down tons of icing a day and then pass through it tons of rings of dough that have just bobbed in millions of gallons of oil, I just can't quite find it attractive. Or even close to edible.

Rebekah's Fatwa on Krispy Kreme

2005-11-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

We went to Krispy Kreme tonight (they just opened this weekend). Rebekah confirmed her gag reflex to the mention of that particular doughnut establishment with a real gag at the sight of the fountain o' glaze. She had one bite of her free doughnut and then gave it to me. Not that this has much to our cooking (which we have not had a lot of time for lately) but I thought the Kingsleys would like to know that Missoula now has a Krispy Kreme. Do they have them in Ireland?

Thanksgiving is coming so we should have some cooking adventures in the near future. (the tablet PC just interpreted "future" as "fatwa").

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2005-09-17T21:57:00.000-06:00

"Chicken Tortilla Soup" and its close (albeit weakling) cousin "wimpy-no-spicy" soup have becomes staples of our house. We made it again this week as the weather has once again turned cold in the mountains. The key ingredient that pushes this soup from tasty to down right scrump-"give me another serving"-tious is what we call the "crunchies".

Now to the crunch. As is implied in the name this is a soup with chicken and tortilla. There really is no replacement for a tortilla lovingly crafted by the artisan hands of a sweet Mexican lady over a mesquite charcoal flame in a stick and mud hut that was built a hundred years ago, but they don't have those in Montana so we use flower tortillas bought from Albertsons. No wait come back! I know that is an insulting substitute, I'm not finished though. We take the store bought "Tortilla Wraps" and cut them into slices and bake them on our handy baking stone. To bring them to the level of the aforementioned scrumptious (not the village made ambrosia, but the "give me another serving" kind) you must use the tomato basil flavored wraps.

For the soup itself it is best to use leftover grilled chicken, lightly blackened and marinated in a mesquite, lime, or something of that sort sauce. Tear the chicken into pieces and add to the soup. Oh yeah, the soup is chicken stock with cumin, chili powder, cayenne pepper, Santa Barbara brand Green Salsa (it's amazing), Ma Se Ca tortilla mix (we noticed that Wolfgang Puck adds this to his CTS), diced green chilies, Jalapeños if you got 'em, garlic, onion, green pepper, red pepper, and sometimes corn.

Top it off with sour cream and Cheddar or Pepper Jack cheese and the crunchies.

P.S. For the "Wimpy-no-spicy" version don't add anything that you would consider spicy (yeah, I know you are left with slightly spiced chicken broth).

Italian Chili or The Spaghetti Western's Long Lost Brother.

2005-09-05T23:05:00.000-06:00

Tonight we took inventory of our pantry and found that we had about six cans of stewed, diced, or whole tomatoes, everyone different. Some how that inspired Rebekah to propose Italian Chili. We both think the best thing that Johnny Carino's has to offer is their Italian Chili soup so we were already sold on the idea. The recipe called for Italian sausage (out of it's casing), onions, and garlic (we added red peppers too) all sauteed until they were done. Next we added some leftover pasta sauce (roasted garlic) which Rebekah thought wasn't sweet enough so we added some sugar. While that warmed we added pasta (Fusilli Bucati, it would be better with something shorter though) and some beef broth. When the pasta was just about done we added zucchini (which is listed under "squash zucchini" in the Albertson's self checkout). Oh I almost forgot, basil and cayenne pepper. The results were exquisitely delicious!

Pasta

2005-08-24T10:45:00.000-06:00

Our favorite pasta dish is a garlic or garden sauce with freshly grilled peppers (green, orange, and red) and onions on top of penne pasta. In addition we add sweet Italian sausage and a mixed Italian cheese on top. It is tasty and easy dish to make. We would prefer a hot Italian sausage, but they don't have as good a flavor as the sweet ones. So far we have been unable to find a sweet-hot variant.

Last week we were a host family for a couple of teenagers at drama camp and Rebekah decided to do a pasta bake version of our pasta dish. It turned out pretty good, not quite as good as the not baked version, but it ended up being more work. I think it would only be worth it with the leftovers from having it "fresh" the first time. The teenagers didn't mind though, they both had fourths.

Cookbooks lie.

2005-08-17T15:05:00.000-06:00

We have some apples that are getting old, so I decided to make applesauce. Most of my decision was based on the fact that the big red Betty Crocker cookbook says that it is "Fast." 5 minutes preparation, 20 minutes cooking, stir occasionally. So I could study while making it and not take a ton of time; therefore, I would have a lot of time left to study. I dutifully peeled the apples and cut them into fourths as directed by the recipe. Then I put them in the pan with 1/2 cup water, as directed, and brought it to a boil. I emptied the dishwasher during the 5 minutes that the apples and water were supposed to simmer, stirring occasionally to break the apples up. At the end of 5 minutes, the apples were still happily in fourths and had made no progress toward "tender." So I did the dishes while they continued to simmer for the next 5 minutes (the recipe did say 5-10 minutes of simmering). Then I stood over the stove for the next hour and fourteen minutes stirring occasionally and reading Contemporary Abstract Algebra. Finally, I gave up, added the nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar, let simmer for one more minute, and ate chunky applesauce (in which some of the chunks were still not tender). Not fast. Not at all.

Fun with Strawberries

2005-08-10T22:08:00.000-06:00

A while ago some friends had a plethora of strawberries leftover from a funeral reception and we shared the burden and took a large basked full home. We used them while they were still good on granola and yogurt, waffles, and just plain then chopped bagged and froze the rest. I didn't have a clue what we would do with pounds of frozen strawberries until our friends called and said they had made some excellent strawberry lemonade. So we have been making it ever since.

Make lemonade (fresh or from a can).

Add frozen strawberry chunks generously.

Let stand refrigerated.

Drink on a hot day.

It is amusing to watch how the color changes from a orangeish pink to a mild strawberry red as you get down to the bottom of the jug and the berry chunks have bleed out their juiciness.

Beef Peapods and Friends

2005-08-10T21:46:00.000-06:00

We really enjoyed this last night and the leftovers for lunch today. It probably would have been a little better if we had cooked the onions and red and green peppers in a separate skillet, but it was easier this way and still excellent (the difference would have been in less mushy more flavorful peppers). To thicken the sauce we used flour instead of corn starch which worked out well. Next time I think I would like to flavor the beef with a Korean BBQ sauce (sugar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil).

Beans and Rice

2005-08-09T08:18:00.000-06:00

Last night we had a staple meal that we both love, black beans with rice. We usually warm the beans out of a can to save time. Rebekah chopped and added red and green peppers to the beans as well as some spices (cumin and chili powder) and green salsa. The rice and beans get mixed together when we serve as well as the optional/to taste ingreedients:

Cheese (cheedar and/or pepper jack)

More salsa (usually chipolte)

Sour cream

Salt

This morning I am making waffles for Rebekah. I have to go wake her up now (I think I will let mobius do most of the work).

Pride goes before the fall

2005-08-06T21:13:00.000-06:00

We went out to breakfast (brunch, I guess) this morning and I had a Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. My response was, "Ryan, you make better waffles." (He makes really good mixed berry waffles that are excellent with kiwi and/or strawberries and whipped cream on top). Then we went to the grocery store later to get a marinade for our steak and we had sample brownies. My response was, "I make better brownies." Then we had a real American meal: steak and potatoes (I think I once told Ryan that I would probably never make a meat and potatoes meal--so he had to do this one). We started off with a really good salad, and the steak was pretty good, but the potatoes, which were my baby, were not so great. Apparently grilling them is not the best way to go. I'm sure there are many places out there that make better spicy potato wedges than I do!

Grilled Steak and Potatoes

2005-08-06T21:10:00.000-06:00

We decided to contribute to the smoke by grilling steak and potato wedges. The wedges got a little burned and a lot dry, but they were ok with catsup. Albertson's gave us a coupon for a free bottle of Kikoman's Teriyaki sauce (and we got another coupon when we checked out) so we marinated our steak in it for about 30 minutes. It was very tasty, bringing back memories of teriyaki beef jerky when I was growing up (not because the meat was over done and dry, it was just right ... ok, a little over done). Our cat Missy used to go crazy over that stuff. We would come home find the bag with bite and claw holes all over it. Speaking of cats attacking bags, it's Mobius' favorite thing to do now. The other day when we got up in the morning we found bite holes all over our bread bag. She doesn't even like bread!

2005-08-06T21:09:00.000-06:00

Smoky Sunset

Spices

2005-08-04T22:52:00.000-06:00

The chicken needed some other spices, but we followed the recipe. We should have gone with the gouda option as opposed to swiss cheese, but we didn't have any gouda and it was already 6:00 PM (the story of our cooking--though it's often already 7:30 or so before we start thinking about dinner). Next time....

We have a working title

2005-08-04T21:43:00.000-06:00

Tonight we had Chicken stuffed with Swiss cheese and spinach. It was pretty good, but was missing something. The chicken came out a little dry after 45 minutes at 375, but it was easier then I thought it was going to be. As an appetizer we had some mixed vegetables with some butter, pepper, and salt.