Day 111: Recipe 25
I totally love A Year of CrockPotting. Will does too, I think.
This recipe isn't one of the "dump a bunch of cans into the crockpot" ones, so I did prep work the night before, chopping veggies so that I could just dump the baggies of stuff into the crockpot. It helped. Also, the original recipe called for red bell pepper, which we almost always have, but for some reason were out of today. So we went without, but it would have been nice to have.
I couldn't get an appetizing picture of this one, but rest assured, it tasted yummy!
Crockpot Chow Mein from A Year of CrockPotting
serves 5-6
1.5 lbs of stir fry pork
2 cups of water
2 chopped yellow onions
1 bunch of chopped celery
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 Tbsp molasses
1 can baby corn
1 can bamboo shoots
2 cup bean sprouts
spaghetti or chow mein noodles
Dump the meat, the onion, the celery, and the water in the crockpot.
Cook on low for 6-7, or on high for 4. Shred the meat, or at least make sure the pieces are separated for each other.
Mix the cornstarch, soy sauce, and molasses. A fork or whisk is best, because the cornstarch really likes to clump. Don't taste it, because on its own it doesn't taste that good (but it will later, I promise!)
Open up the cans of bamboo shoots and corn, drain the liquid, and dump it in the crockpot, along with the bean sprouts. Then go ahead and stir in the sauce mixture.
Cover the crockpot and cook on high for another hour.
Cook the pasta according to the package instructions.
Serve.
Eat.
Survey says...
I had a friend over, and she started to get excited when she entered the apartment and it was still cooking, which I figured was a good sign. Both she and Will liked it, and I did too, so this one's a keeper. Want to try with additional veggies, though!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Breakfast!
Day 109: Recipe 24
Today I cooked 2 meals! Does it count if they're both breakfast? Sometimes I get lazy and cook breakfast for dinner.
I have been making this recipe for approximately 17 years. That makes me feel old.
French Toast
makes 3-4 pieces
1 egg
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
dash of cinnamon
bread (stale bread is better for this recipe)
butter
Warm up a pan over medium heat. Mix up the egg, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon in a bowl.
Melt a bit of butter in the pan. Quickly dip the bread in the bowl, both sides, and put in the pan.
Let it cook for a minute or two, then flip it and cook the other side.
Repeat.
Eat!
Survey says...
When I was single, I ate this standing, while cooking, so that it would still be hot. I made Will eat it that way tonight, and I think he thought it was ridiculous, but whatever, I thought it was good.
My hand slipped and I added a little too much vanilla today, so aside from having to eat standing up, 'less vanilla' was Will's only real feedback.
Yummm, breakfast for dinner!
Today I cooked 2 meals! Does it count if they're both breakfast? Sometimes I get lazy and cook breakfast for dinner.
I have been making this recipe for approximately 17 years. That makes me feel old.
French Toast
makes 3-4 pieces
1 egg
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
dash of cinnamon
bread (stale bread is better for this recipe)
butter
Warm up a pan over medium heat. Mix up the egg, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon in a bowl.
Melt a bit of butter in the pan. Quickly dip the bread in the bowl, both sides, and put in the pan.
Let it cook for a minute or two, then flip it and cook the other side.
Repeat.
Eat!
Survey says...
When I was single, I ate this standing, while cooking, so that it would still be hot. I made Will eat it that way tonight, and I think he thought it was ridiculous, but whatever, I thought it was good.
My hand slipped and I added a little too much vanilla today, so aside from having to eat standing up, 'less vanilla' was Will's only real feedback.
Yummm, breakfast for dinner!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Homemade Pizza!
Day 107: Recipes 22 and 23
I have like a zillion blogs on my google reader (correction: I just checked, and it's only 102) on all sorts of topics, including celebrity gossip, home organization, finance, Mormon feminism, and (of course) cooking. This recipe didn't come from one of my cooking blogs - it actually came from one of the finance ones!
Homemade pizza sounded like, fun, so we decided to give it a shot! I'm counting it as two recipes, because one is the dough, and the other is the pizza we came up with. (Give me a break - I have less than a quarter of the recipes I'm supposed to at this point!)
Pizza Dough (modified from The Simple Dollar)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
Italian seasoning
oregano
Warm up the water, (you should still be able to touch it - too hot and it can do bad things to the yeast) then toss everything into a bowl and mix it up. I do it with our stand mixer. (OMG, I love our stand mixer!)
After it's pretty mixed, knead it with your hands. Then cover it with a towel, and leave it in a warm spot to rise for about an hour.
After an hour, knead it again, and then stretch it out on a pan. (We use a cookie sheet, because our pizza stone is in Texas.) Sometimes I let it rise for a bit again.
Then - and this is the important part - pre-bake the dough. Stick in a pre-heated oven for about 6 minutes. Pop any bubbles that come up.
Now we do the rest of the pizza part.
Sausage, Mushroom, Onion, and Red Bell Pepper Pizza
(serves 4-5)
pizza dough (store bought, or see above)
olive oil
pizza sauce
sausage
mushrooms
onion
red bell peppers
mozzarella cheese
oregano
Put a little bit of olive oil in a pan, and then lightly saute the sausage, mushrooms, onions and red bell peppers.
You have your pre-baked pizza dough, right? Spread the pizza sauce on top.
Now... layer. We put a bit of cheese, a bit of toppings, a bit more cheese, and then more toppings. Sprinkle the oregano on top. You can do it in whichever order you want.
Bake in a preheated oven of 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
Eat. (Though I recommend letting it cool first.)
Survey says...
I try to make things healthier with whole wheat, but I don't think it worked so well in this recipe. We're going to play around with the dough some.
But the rest of the pizza was good. We're going to try to make this a weekly thing!
I have like a zillion blogs on my google reader (correction: I just checked, and it's only 102) on all sorts of topics, including celebrity gossip, home organization, finance, Mormon feminism, and (of course) cooking. This recipe didn't come from one of my cooking blogs - it actually came from one of the finance ones!
Homemade pizza sounded like, fun, so we decided to give it a shot! I'm counting it as two recipes, because one is the dough, and the other is the pizza we came up with. (Give me a break - I have less than a quarter of the recipes I'm supposed to at this point!)
Pizza Dough (modified from The Simple Dollar)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 cup water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
Italian seasoning
oregano
Warm up the water, (you should still be able to touch it - too hot and it can do bad things to the yeast) then toss everything into a bowl and mix it up. I do it with our stand mixer. (OMG, I love our stand mixer!)
After it's pretty mixed, knead it with your hands. Then cover it with a towel, and leave it in a warm spot to rise for about an hour.
After an hour, knead it again, and then stretch it out on a pan. (We use a cookie sheet, because our pizza stone is in Texas.) Sometimes I let it rise for a bit again.
Then - and this is the important part - pre-bake the dough. Stick in a pre-heated oven for about 6 minutes. Pop any bubbles that come up.
Now we do the rest of the pizza part.
Sausage, Mushroom, Onion, and Red Bell Pepper Pizza
(serves 4-5)
pizza dough (store bought, or see above)
olive oil
pizza sauce
sausage
mushrooms
onion
red bell peppers
mozzarella cheese
oregano
Put a little bit of olive oil in a pan, and then lightly saute the sausage, mushrooms, onions and red bell peppers.
You have your pre-baked pizza dough, right? Spread the pizza sauce on top.
Now... layer. We put a bit of cheese, a bit of toppings, a bit more cheese, and then more toppings. Sprinkle the oregano on top. You can do it in whichever order you want.
Bake in a preheated oven of 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
Eat. (Though I recommend letting it cool first.)
Survey says...
I try to make things healthier with whole wheat, but I don't think it worked so well in this recipe. We're going to play around with the dough some.
But the rest of the pizza was good. We're going to try to make this a weekly thing!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Muffins!
Day 106: Recipe 22
Breakfast and I don't do so well. I don't like waking up early, and my tummy is usually grumbly first thing in the morning. So I usually go without which apparently is, like, bad for you and stuff. So I'm trying to make grab and go breakfasts, and my first attempt is this recipe, which I found by randomly googling.
When I was growing up, my dad was always telling me to eat roughage, and trying to get me to eat Fiber One, I thought it was gross, and would have much rather just had something chocolate for breakfast.
This way I get both!
Fiber One Chocolate Chip Muffins (from Sparkpeople)
makes about 20
1 cup Fiber One cereal
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cgg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup milk
In one bowl, mix up all the dry stuff, including the chocolate chips. In another, mix up all the wet stuff.
Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and mix it up.
Line muffin tins with paper cups, or oil them, and then put the mix into the cups.
Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.
Chow down.
Survey says...
Well, they're made with fiber one, so they're not the yummiest thing in the world, but they're filling and the chocolate helps.
Okay, I have a really stupid question - are you supposed to crush the cereal? Because we didn't, but I'm thinking we were supposed to. But then that would have mean we needed more cereal. So I dunno.
Will doesn't like chocolate chips (crazy, right?) so I made some without the chips for him, and he thought they were bland. But, I mean, that's what happens when you leave out the crucial chocolate part!
Might mess around with these muffins some.
Breakfast and I don't do so well. I don't like waking up early, and my tummy is usually grumbly first thing in the morning. So I usually go without which apparently is, like, bad for you and stuff. So I'm trying to make grab and go breakfasts, and my first attempt is this recipe, which I found by randomly googling.
When I was growing up, my dad was always telling me to eat roughage, and trying to get me to eat Fiber One, I thought it was gross, and would have much rather just had something chocolate for breakfast.
This way I get both!
Fiber One Chocolate Chip Muffins (from Sparkpeople)
makes about 20
1 cup Fiber One cereal
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cgg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup milk
In one bowl, mix up all the dry stuff, including the chocolate chips. In another, mix up all the wet stuff.
Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and mix it up.
Line muffin tins with paper cups, or oil them, and then put the mix into the cups.
Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.
Chow down.
Survey says...
Well, they're made with fiber one, so they're not the yummiest thing in the world, but they're filling and the chocolate helps.
Okay, I have a really stupid question - are you supposed to crush the cereal? Because we didn't, but I'm thinking we were supposed to. But then that would have mean we needed more cereal. So I dunno.
Will doesn't like chocolate chips (crazy, right?) so I made some without the chips for him, and he thought they were bland. But, I mean, that's what happens when you leave out the crucial chocolate part!
Might mess around with these muffins some.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen!
Day 104: Recipe 21
The title of this post is the name of the book I got this from, not what I said when I moved in.
This is a recipe I've tried before, but I can't ever find ground pork, so I make it with ground chicken instead. Why can I find ground lamb and ground buffalo, but not ground pork?
Whateves. It's still good.
Sizzling Chicken Noodles (from Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen!)
serves 2-3
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
1/4 tsp black pepper
12 oz vermicelli
1/2 large cucumber
2 scallions
Set the water to boil - you'll be using this for the pasta.
Peel and finely chop the garlic and onion.
Brown the chicken in a frying pan over medium heat, and then drain the fat. Add the onion, garlic, chili sauce, water, soy sauce, vinegar, and black pepper, stirring it all up. Over medium heat cook it uncovered for about 8 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated.
While the sauce is cooking, add the vermicelli to the water and cook it.
While the vermicelli is cooking, wash and chop up the cucumber and scallions. If I'm feeling lazy I don't peel the cucumber, but it changes the texture some, so if you want, you can. With the scallions, you mainly want the green parts.
When the noodles are done, plate them, and top with the sauce. Then sprinkles the cucumber and scallion pieces and serve.
Survey says...
I've made these a handful of times, and we both really like it. I need to figure out what's the deal with no ground pork in my life, but in the mean time, it's great with chicken!
The title of this post is the name of the book I got this from, not what I said when I moved in.
This is a recipe I've tried before, but I can't ever find ground pork, so I make it with ground chicken instead. Why can I find ground lamb and ground buffalo, but not ground pork?
Whateves. It's still good.
Sizzling Chicken Noodles (from Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen!)
serves 2-3
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
1 pound ground chicken
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
1/4 tsp black pepper
12 oz vermicelli
1/2 large cucumber
2 scallions
Set the water to boil - you'll be using this for the pasta.
Peel and finely chop the garlic and onion.
Brown the chicken in a frying pan over medium heat, and then drain the fat. Add the onion, garlic, chili sauce, water, soy sauce, vinegar, and black pepper, stirring it all up. Over medium heat cook it uncovered for about 8 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated.
While the sauce is cooking, add the vermicelli to the water and cook it.
While the vermicelli is cooking, wash and chop up the cucumber and scallions. If I'm feeling lazy I don't peel the cucumber, but it changes the texture some, so if you want, you can. With the scallions, you mainly want the green parts.
When the noodles are done, plate them, and top with the sauce. Then sprinkles the cucumber and scallion pieces and serve.
Survey says...
I've made these a handful of times, and we both really like it. I need to figure out what's the deal with no ground pork in my life, but in the mean time, it's great with chicken!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter Brunch!
I have been cooking more than I've been posting! Over the next few days I'll be posting stuff that I've cooked over the past month (let's not kid ourselves, it's only 7 recipes). I'm also going to start participating in Menu Plan Mondays because it'll help my whole "planning and then actually cooking" thing.
Oh, and I have already started figuring out the 10 course meals I'm going to have to cook over the summer to catch myself up.
Anyways, on to the recipe...
Day 102: Recipe 20
I've linked to Kayotic a few times, because I'm (a) in love with her recipes, and (b) in love with her pictures. This is one of her newest recipes, and it looked amazing and perfect for Easter, so I figured I'd give it a shot!
Egg Pie (from Kayotic)
serves 2
2 puff pastry sheet
3 slices ham
1 small tomato
2 egg
cheese
chives
pepper
salt
Preheat your oven to 400.
Get a baking dish that is the appropriate size for however many you're planning on making - we made two, and put the pastry puffs down. Thinly slice a tomato and lay the slices on the pastry puff - the thicker the slices, the soggier the puff will get, so keep them thin.
Then put the cheese on top - we had a few different kinds, so we put some Parmesan, mozzarella, and cheddar. Sprinkle some salt, pepper, and chives on the cheese. We actually didn't put any salt, and I didn't miss it at all (though I'm usually a salt-lover).
Thin ham would work best for this, but we went with what was cheapest, so we cut it into strips and made two "wells" to keep the egg from running everywhere. As you can tell from the pictures, we didn't do that good a job at the wells, one slipped right out, which doesn't affect the taste, but makes it less pretty.
Will's not a fan of runny yolk, so we popped his, but we kept mine while. Sprinkle more salt, pepper, and chives on top of that, and then stick it in the oven.
To minimize runnyness, we cooked ours for around 27 minutes - it was a little overcooked for my tastes, but Will thought it was good. Ahh, the sacrifices we make for marriage. 20-25 minutes would probably have been just about right for me, but it still worked at 27.
Chow down!
Survey says...
We loved it! Next time Will would want his completely scrambled, not just yolk popped, but aside from that, it was just about right. I might also try it with thin ham, or maybe bacon! Bacon might be too strong a taste, but I think I'm okay with that, if it means we get bacon!
Totally making this again, and it was an easy but very fancy-looking dish.
Oh, and I have already started figuring out the 10 course meals I'm going to have to cook over the summer to catch myself up.
Anyways, on to the recipe...
Day 102: Recipe 20
I've linked to Kayotic a few times, because I'm (a) in love with her recipes, and (b) in love with her pictures. This is one of her newest recipes, and it looked amazing and perfect for Easter, so I figured I'd give it a shot!
Egg Pie (from Kayotic)
serves 2
2 puff pastry sheet
3 slices ham
1 small tomato
2 egg
cheese
chives
pepper
salt
Preheat your oven to 400.
Get a baking dish that is the appropriate size for however many you're planning on making - we made two, and put the pastry puffs down. Thinly slice a tomato and lay the slices on the pastry puff - the thicker the slices, the soggier the puff will get, so keep them thin.
Then put the cheese on top - we had a few different kinds, so we put some Parmesan, mozzarella, and cheddar. Sprinkle some salt, pepper, and chives on the cheese. We actually didn't put any salt, and I didn't miss it at all (though I'm usually a salt-lover).
Thin ham would work best for this, but we went with what was cheapest, so we cut it into strips and made two "wells" to keep the egg from running everywhere. As you can tell from the pictures, we didn't do that good a job at the wells, one slipped right out, which doesn't affect the taste, but makes it less pretty.
Will's not a fan of runny yolk, so we popped his, but we kept mine while. Sprinkle more salt, pepper, and chives on top of that, and then stick it in the oven.
To minimize runnyness, we cooked ours for around 27 minutes - it was a little overcooked for my tastes, but Will thought it was good. Ahh, the sacrifices we make for marriage. 20-25 minutes would probably have been just about right for me, but it still worked at 27.
Chow down!
Survey says...
We loved it! Next time Will would want his completely scrambled, not just yolk popped, but aside from that, it was just about right. I might also try it with thin ham, or maybe bacon! Bacon might be too strong a taste, but I think I'm okay with that, if it means we get bacon!
Totally making this again, and it was an easy but very fancy-looking dish.
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