Trader Joe's Win

I picked this up on a whim the other day while I was at Trader Joe's. I'd never tried one of their frozen chinese meals before, so I thought why not. In reality, I could just get chinese from my takeout place around the corner, and it would require no effort, but I thought I would just try it. I love it! It turns out that this is a best seller, if not the best seller at TJ's. And I can totally see why. There's multiple ways to heat this up (it comes frozen) but I did it skillet style. So it takes about 10 minutes to cook and you end up with something that genuinely tastes like it could have come from a chinese restaurant. And I got 4 decent servings out of it. And I think it was like $6-7? Totally worth it!

The Best Of Leftovers

With the onion loaf from Acme Bread and the leftovers from Walzwerk, it made the perfect little sandwich. Sauerbraten, cabbage and carrot salads, in between toasted onion loaf. Awesome. And colorful too.

Makin Waffles

I like to stay at hotels that give you complimentary breakfast of some kind. I like it because then I don't have to think about it. I'm not a huge breakfast person so it's not a meal that I particularly like to plan around. And when a hotel has complimentary breakfast, there's usually tons of stuff to choose from, and there's bound to be at least a few things I like. And I especially love it when they have belgian waffle stations! There's something about "making" it on my own that makes me happy.
These made perfect breakfasts during my stay. The batter was premade, but great! You could totally tell you were in the south because of the breakfast choices here. There were biscuits, but there was also sausage gravy. There was also hot sauce available. For breakfast. I love seeing regional food differences!

Bagel Sandwiches

I've totally been making myself bagel sandwiches lately. I love the chewiness of bagels as sandwich bread. They're substantial and not flimsy. I just throw a little turkey, cheese, and lettuce in there, simply because I have it. And mayo too. I'm not a mayo freak or anything, but in a turkey sandwich, it's got to be there! I wish I had tomatoes around because they would totally make this better.

Easiest Veggie Stir Fry, Ever!

I had bought a giant bag of green beans the other day. It's not something I normally do, but it was already bagged up and on a super sale. I love green beans so I knew I could do something with them. After remembering that I had these, I bought some broccoli too later in the week. And then I threw together the easiest veggie stir fry, ever. I swear. There's 3 ingredients. That's it.
Ingredient 1 - veggies. Ok, so that can be 1 or as many as you want, but let's just lump it together as one ingredient. For me, I had green beans, broccoli, and onions.
Ingredient 2 - garlic. I chopped up a whole bunch and then I cooked that up for a little bit with the onions. I wanted the onions to be cooked down a bit that's why I threw them in with the garlic. Otherwise, I could have waited until the rest of the veggies. There's some oil in the pan, whatever kind you like, however much you feel like, if you choose.
Ingredient 3 - kecap manis. I don't know what this is exactly, except it's indonesian, and comes in a big bottle. And it's thick and dark and delish. It's a perfect stir fry sauce.
That's it! Throw in the veggies after you cook the garlic and onions a bit, and then cook the veggies a little bit until they're done the way you want. Then throw in some kecap manis. And voila. Done! Delicious, quick, super easy veggie stir fry. Trust me, it's good. It's savory and sweet and lovely. Cooking does not get easier than this. And if you think this is hard, then please step away from the kitchen.

I Love You Broken Rice

I pose this question to you, my dear blog readers. Why is broken rice so damn good? Seriously. In concept, it's ridiculous. It's broken bits of rice. It's the stuff that extremely expensive and sophisticated machinery are designed to remove from the rice they are sorting. The whole point of those machines is to take these defective grains and toss them. Yet when I get a bowl of broken rice in front of me, it's just the best damn thing in the world. And I know you agree. When you get vietnamese rice plates, this is what you get. Broken rice, rice bit, whatever it's called, all I know is that it tastes amazing. And I just don't know why. It just does. I always wanted to buy and make my own, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Simply because of the concept itself. I'm paying real money for the rice parts that they typically throw away. But I finally broke down and did it, and gosh darn it, it's awesome.

Queen of Grilling

M was kind enough to invite me to a cookout at her house the other night. I did some last minute yard work, against my will, and was starving, so I couldn't refuse. All I had to do was show up! And food showed up on the plate, and I got a nice cold Stella put in my hand! We had ribs, bratwurst, mushrooms, potatoes, and grilled corn. It was perfect. And my company was beyond entertaining that evening. If it weren't for their nutjob neighbor, we would have taken advantage of their firepit. Boo for bad neighbors!

Hankering for Pasta

Some days, I just hanker for something. Something very specific. The other week I wanted spaghetti with italian sausage. And I wanted it bad. So I whipped some up. It's easy! Here's what you need:

Italian sausage

Onions - sliced, chopped, whatever

Pasta

Jar of spaghetti sauce

Throw the onions and the sausage in a pan, skillet, whatever you want to cook on. I just bought some sweet italian sausage, but I could have used hot just as easily. Depends on my mood. There's tons of way to cook the sausage, but this is just the way I did it. I should have cut up the sausage into smaller pieces, but I just cut it up into bigger chunks. And then while cooking, I just cut them up even more. It would probably have been easier to cut it up first with a proper knife.Then once the sausage and onions are cooked through, just dump a jar of spaghetti sauce in there. Whatever flavor you like. Heat this up a bit and then after your pasta is cooked the way you want, dump the sauce over the pasta. Then proceed eating. This obviously makes a ton. It lasted me for days!

Sure looks like a hot mess, but it certainly tasted great. It's super easy to prepare and nice and hearty!

Oh, The Colors!

With the weather continuing with its swelter, my body continued to crave cold foods. I had a bunch of veggies handy and this bag of radiatore that needed to be used, so I whipped up a quick pasta salad. I love me some radiatore. Whenever I've had saladworks, I always have them put tons of their pasta in there, and it happens to be radiatore. There's just something about its shape that I dig. And this is a very difficult pasta shape to find in regular grocery stores. Believe me, I tried. But then I found this multi-colored one from trader joe's. Score. This just turned out to be one hell of a colorful pasta salad. With yellow pepper, cucumber, red onion, tomatoes, the vegetable radiatore, and the mozzarella, it was all the damn colors of the rainbow. I had a bottle of vinaigrette that was nearing its expiration date, so I just threw that in there as the dressing. It was just what I wanted.

Repairing The Muscles

The other day, M and I went to gymnastics class. Yes, you heard me right, gymnastics. Adult gymnastics. When's the last time I did gymnastics? Oh, I don't know. But I think Reagan was probably president. Why did I agree to such a preposterous idea? I don't freakin know. Well it turned out alright. Alright in that I did not break anything or cause any permanent damage, but I certainly caused enough temporary damage. My poor poor body is still recovering.

One good thing is that as soon as we got back, E had dinner waiting for us. Whoo hoo! And it was a lovely meal of london broil, potatoes, and a fresh cucumber salad. My body was craving muscle repairing nutrients!

Makin' Egg Salad

I really like egg salad. I've never made it before in my life, but I've eaten plenty. The best egg salad, in my humble opinion, is at Izenberg's. It's got big hunks of egg, without celery, and is zesty and generously portioned. J cooked up some eggs and he wanted egg salad, so I did a little research to see what I could come up with. I came across tons of recipes and just consolidated and made up my own. It's my first time, so it could have been better, but it still turned out quite well for a first try. Next time, I'll experiment a bit more to make it more zesty.

Egg Salad:

6 hard boiled eggs

3 Tbsp mayo

1 Tbsp mustard (used Trader Joe's organic yellow mustard, but suppose any would do)

dash of lemon juice

dash of cider vinegar

black pepper

paprika

I peeled the eggs and separated the yolks from the whites. Then I roughly cut up the whites, leaving them in bigger hunks. I mashed the yolks and mixed in the mayo and mustard and all other ingredients. Then I folded the whites back in. Voila. I knew it wasn't hard to make egg salad, but I just didn't realize how easy it was. I think I'll be doing this much more often. So I hope to have the perfect recipe during one of my future experiments.

Pastaimprovization

I really wanted some pasta the other night. It was a serious craving. So I decided to just throw together a giant vat of pasta so I could eat it for days. I had some bacon, so I took half of a small pack of bacon and chopped it up, along with half an onion. And I fried all this up together. No need to add oil, as the bacon has plenty of fat on its own to help cook the onions. I cooked this enough so that the bacon was thoroughly cooked, and on its way to being crunchy.

Then I dumped in a jar of already prepared vodka sauce and simmered this for awhile. And when I felt it was nearly done, I dumped in some frozen sweet peas. Once the peas were cooked through, I dumped the sauce over a giant pot of rigatoni that I had cooked and drained.

Mix it all together and you have a several-day supply of pasta that will make your tummy happy. The sauce is tangy and the bacon gives it a really nice smoky kick. And I just like peas and it adds a nice pop of color and veg, which always makes me think that I'm being healthy.

Full-ish English Breakfast

Have y'all ever had a full english breakfast? Or a full irish breakfast? The contents can vary, but it usually involves some eggs, potatoes, bacon/ham type substance, baked beans, tomatoes, toast, and some sort of blood pudding. J had been talking about it for weeks, and he got me hankering, so I decided to make our dreams come true.

I cooked up some improvised potatoes, with onions, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. They turned out pretty well for me making up the whole thing. We went with turkey bacon to feign some semblance of healthiness. The beans were from trader joe's and they were quite excellent. And some eggs to round out the plate. Neither of us were interested in any type of blood pudding, which is a good thing as I would have had no clue as to where one can procure some. Hearty? Yes. Healthy? No. But I coveted every bite!

My Chili F'in Rocks

People, people, listen up. I make good chili. It's a fact. And since it's clearly winter, it's just the time to whip up a batch. I've been making this for years, ever since I saw a recipe on Oprah (or something like that) and it was a copykat recipe of Wendy's chili. Then I adulterated it over the years and added things I felt like. But it always turns out well. So fight the cold weather and make yourself some chili.

Ingredients:

Ground meat - pick your favorite, a lb or two, or anywhere in between

Chopped up onion

Canned beans - 3 or 4 cans of whatever you choose, typically kidney, white, pink, etc

1 can baked beans

1 can Campbell's french onion soup

1 can v8 or something equivalent

1 can stewed tomatoes, whatever variety you want

1 can tomato paste

Cut up frozen bell peppers, red/yellow/orange, I don't like green so I leave em out

Ketchup - some

BBQ sauce - some

Chili powder - however much you want

Paprika - you decide

Cayenne - you decide

Cumin - a little

Black pepper - however much you want

Garlic powder - you decide

Directions:

In a big pot on highish heat, cook up onions and cook up the meat. Spoon out the grease, if you want. Throw in the soup, stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, v8, and stir it all up while simmering. Add the beans and stir this up too. Add in the bell peppers and then throw in all the spices and condiments, however much you want. Again, It's really up to you. And let this simmer for a long ass time, stirring occasionally, tasting and tweaking to your liking. If you want spice, you could chop up a chili pepper and throw it in. And you'll end up with a vat full of delicious homemade chili.Enjoy!

Holiday Cookie Exchange

M had a cookie exchange party this year. I'd never been to one, she'd never thrown one, so it was all a nice first for us all. In fact, everyone that went to the party had never been to a cookie exchange party. It was a random coincidence. We couldn't just stuff our faces with cookies, so M had a nice spread for us. Cheese with port wine sauce. Candied walnuts. Veggie spread with spinach dip. Hummus and pita. All freakin good, especially the darn walnuts.
Some candy cane cookies, with a hint of peppermint. Peanut butter cup cookies with a whole peanut butter cup smooshed in. One of my favorites from the party.
R made some fudge and peanut with chocolate chip cookies. This from a woman who doesn't cook at all, apparently.
A made these chocolate crinkles which were a huge hit with the kids. They totally cleared her out!
K and the kids made some sugar cookies along with chocolate espresso biscotti. I couldn't even imagine making my own biscotti.
M, the hostest with the mostest, made these chocolate heath bar cookies. Beyond decadent!
I made some chewy gingersnaps from a random recipe I found on a fellow blog. I used fresh spices that I got from the Head Nut, so with every bite of cookie, you got a punch in the mouth with all the spices. They were a hit!

Attempting Comfort Food

I've always liked Cooking Light magazine. I acquired an old issue last week and really wanted to make the chicken pot pie recipe. Who was stopping me? No one! So I did. Here it is!

Chicken and Root Vegetable Potpie

3 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups frozen peas, thawed

1 cup (1/2 inch) cubed peeled baking potato

1 cup (1/2 inch) cubed peeled sweet potato

1 cup (1/2 inch) cubed peeled celeriac (celery root)

1 cup (1/2 inch thick) sliced parsnip

1 (10 oz) package frozen pearl onions

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

2/3 cup all-purpose flour, divided

1 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 Tb chopped fresh thyme

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Cooking spray

1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough, thawed

1 - preheat oven to 400F

2 - Bring broth to boil in large dutch oven. Add peas and next 5 ingredients (through onions) to pan; cover, reduce heat, simmer for 6 minutes. Add chicken, cook for 5 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken and vegetables from broth with a slotted spoon; place in a large bowl.

3 - Increase heat to medium. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place all but 1 Tb flour in a medium bowl; gradually add milk to bowl, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Add milk mixture to broth; cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Stir in chicken mixture, stirring frequently. Stir in chicken mixture, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper. Spoon mixture into an 11x7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

4 - Sprinkle remaining 1 Tb flour on a work surface; roll dough into a 13x9-inch rectangle. Place dough over chicken mixture, pressing to seal at edges of dish. Cut small slits into dough to allow steam to escape; coat dough lightly with cooking spray. Place dish on foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400F for 16 minutes or until pastry is browned and filling is bubbly. Yield: 8 servings.

So how did it turn out? Well, I had several problems. First off, all the root vegetables were crunchy. So if anyone is going ot make this, they need to be cooked in advance, because they will not get cooked during baking. I would also have the onions be defrosted first, or just use regular onions instead. I like pearl onions, but they ended up crunchy too, and the inside was too crunchy and not flavored. Lastly, it was too much thyme. It's way too much thyme and all you taste is thyme. I would half it. It still turned out fine. I was able to cook the innards some more so it didn't end up hard and crunchy and rescue it. I particularly enjoyed the puff pastry part. The chicken was great. Next time it will turn out perfect! And by the way, I didn't make anything light, so if you want to, just be sure to use fat free or light stuff.

What To Do With Leftover Buttermilk

After making the banana bread, I had a whole crap load of buttermilk left over. I didn't want to waste it so I decided to make some buttermilk biscuits instead. I found a simple and straightforward recipe on the food network. And they turned out great! My only issue was that I did not have a pastry blender. I just used two butter knives instead and it still worked fine. Warm buttermilk biscuits with melted butter and honey, it's a meal in itself!

Baking Banana Bread

I found some recipes for banana bread and was itching to bake. I used one I found on a blog which was based on an America’s Test Kitchen recipe and tweaked it to be my own. It turned out quite well, if not a bit on the sweet side due to the sugars I used, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

My Banana Bread

Butter a non-stick bread pan then flour well.

Combine and mix dry ingredients in a bowl:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

In another bowl, coarsely smash 3 extremely ripe bananas (the browner on the outside the better) so that the smashed bananas are somewhat chunky.

To the bananas, add and combine wet ingredients:

2 large eggs, beaten
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup buttermilk

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently fold until the flour is thoroughly moistened. Pour into the prepared bread pan and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 45-50 minutes.

Then stuff your face.

Pizza Bagels!

I was recently informed that J is a freak about pizza bagels. Like he'd make 8 at a time and eat them all. How crazy. And that he'd be crazy about giant bowls of cereal too. But then that got me thinking about pizza bagels. Then I was talking on the phone with K and she talked about how she just made pizza bagels with her kids. And damn, I had to make pizza bagels! I picked up some frozen bagels and some chicken sausages from Trader Joe's. I already had pizza sauce and cheese left over from when I made the hawaiian pizza.
How can anyone not like pizza bagels? Pizza on top of a crispy on the outside, hot and chewy on the inside bagel. The sausage was a nice touch too. I am so doing this again and again.

Why Can't I Sear?

I had been having a bunch of scallops lately when dining out, so I decided perhaps I should try to cook some on my own. I got these beautiful big scallops at Assi. I looked up a bunch of recipes, but it really seemed like just plain ol searing them with a little salt and pepper was the way to go. Well, it didn't go so well. As you can see, there's no sear. But damn it if I didn't try. I followed all the rules: keep the scallops dry, have an extremely hot pan, a little bit of oil, don't touch them when you put them on the pan. But did I get sear? Hell no. But it was still good nonetheless. But it would have been better with sear.
The pasta and the asparagus turned out nice too. The asparagus I just grilled with olive oil and salt and pepper. The linguine I tossed with garlic and shallots and olive oil. But next time, I'll get my sear!