Crock Pot Chow Mein

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

Generic Asian Chicken

Day 70: Recipe 19

The 'generic' in the title should not be interpreted to mean that it tastes bland - just that I can't place the region of Asia that this particular taste comes from. It's a good taste, though.

I've actually made this recipe before, but I used breast meat, and while we thought it was good, we thought it was really garlicy (yes, even I thought something was too garlicy) so I used thigh meat (as suggested) and modified the recipe a bit this time around. Good call!

Asian Chicken (modified from A Year of Crockpotting)
makes 6 chicken thighs

6 chicken thighs (I used boneless)
1 1/2 Tbl soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbl fish sauce
1 1/2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 cloves chopped garlic
1/4 tbs fresh minced ginger
1 Tbl canola oil

Put the thighs in the crockpot.

Dump everything else in a bowl and mix it well, then pour it over the chicken.

Cook it on low for about 6 hours, or on high for about 3-4.

Eat!

Survey Says
Will kept on repeating how much he liked it and how it was totally better than last time, so it's safe to say that he's a fan. I really enjoyed it too, but again, I could have used a bit stronger taste. Maybe I have a cold or something that's affecting my sense of taste?

Definitely making it again, though.

Veggie Taco Chili Soup Thing

Day 69: Recipe 18

I should probably stop making crock pot recipes and save them for a week that I really need them, but this is mainly just to get me back into the swing of cooking - next week I'll actually cook some stuff.

The official name of this recipe is "Taco Soup" but it's really more of a chili than a soup. At least mine did. Still good, though!

Taco Chili/Soup (from A Year of Crockpotting)
makes 3-4 quarts

2 cans of kidney beans
2 cans of pinto beans
2 cans of corn
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of tomatoes and chilies
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 packet of ranch dressing mix
shredded cheese and sour cream

optional:
1 lb browned ground meat (turkey or beef)

This recipe is an example of why I love the crockpot.

Drain and rinse the beans, then dump them in the crockpot.

Dump both cans of corn and both cans of tomatoes into the crockpot - the whole can, including the juices.

Dump the to packets of seasoning into the crockpot.

Dump the meat into the crockpot (if you're using it).

Stir.

Cook on low for 8-10 hours, or high for 4-5.

Serve, add cheese and sour cream to taste, and eat.

I told you it was easy!

Survey says...
It was good. However, I'm starting to think that I may have lost a few tastebuds, because I think it probably could have used another packet of taco seasoning. We went meatless because the turkey wasn't defrosted before I left for work, and I didn't feel like messing with defrosting it and then browning it, but Will still ate it, which is a pretty big deal because he's a meat and potatoes kind of guy. (Oh, and two years ago he wouldn't touch beans with a 10 foot poll!)

Will ate his whole bowl, seconds, and half of my seconds (because I got full). And took it in for lunch today. So my guess is that he liked it too.

Manouche Zatar

Day 68: Recipe 17

This is probably stretching whether or not it counts as a recipe, but I'm behind, so we're going to count it anyways.

Okay, so tonight I was craving something snacky, and over the weekend I'd wandered into a World Market and come across zatar spice mix and decided to buy it on a whim. I wasn't sure how, but I wanted to figure out how to throw together some manouche zatar, which is a bread thingie I grew up with.

We have some frozen Rhodes bread rolls because I discovered over Christmas that my husband is totally in love with them, so I decided to throw the two together and make me some manouche!

It should be noted that these are a lot smaller than they look in the picture - they're about 3-4 inches across.

Manouche Zatar

frozen Rhodes bread roll
zatar spice mix
olive oil

Let the bread roll rise. This is the most frustrating part, because it takes the most time. There has to be an easier way to do this.

Roll out the roll into a little circle once it's defrosted and risen.

Mix the spice mix and the olive oil together, and then drizzle it on the bread.

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes (but watch it, in case it overcooks).

Eat!

Survey Says
It tasted really good, but there has to be a better way of doing the dough. This was a spur of the moment decision, though, so I didn't really research it.

Will liked it too. Mine was heavy on the zatar, and I thought it was perfect, his was light on the zatar, and he thought his was perfect.

I'm so glad I thought of the rolls and figured out how to do it!

Cream Cheese Chicken

Day 68: Recipe 16

Just to let you know, there is no way to make this food look appetizing in a picture. It's very pale and looks kind of like mush. That is why there's no picture.

That should not, however, be taken to mean that it doesn't actually taste appetizing.

I was really skeptical about this recipe when I saw it for the first time because I couldn't really tell how all the flavors worked together. But I kept reading everywhere and it appears it's the classic easy crock pot recipe that everyone loves, so I figured I had to try it.

Cream Cheese Chicken from A Year of Crockpotting
makes enough for 2-3 adults

2 cups homemade cream of mushroom soup*
3 frozen chicken breasts
1 packet of dry Italian salad dressing mix
2 cloves of minced garlic
block of cream cheese (to add later)

*if you don't have homemade soup, you can just get a can of it, and then 2 cups of chicken broth

Put the chicken in the crock pot.

Dump the mix, garlic, and soup on top.

Cook for 6 hours on low.

(I love the crock pot)

Shred the chicken with a fork, and dump in the cream cheese.

Cook for another 30 minutes on high.

Serve over rice or pasta.

Survey Says
I liked, it but I thought that it needed more flavoring. Maybe two dressing packets next time?

Will thought it was good, but that it lacked texture. I'm going to try it again with more flavoring (maybe use the flavorings that are included in the "homemade" version of the recipe I linked?), and a pasta that has some texture (like farfale or rotini).

Stuff to freeze!

Day 67: Recipe 15

In my continued attempt to cook regularly, I scoured through my bookmarked items to try to find the next recipe, and decided to try Chicken Puff Samosas because

(a) I've never cooked anything like this before, and
(b) The pictures on this blog are so amazing that I'd gone way too long already without trying one of her recipes

Seriously, poke through her food blog. The pictures make my mouth water just from looking at them.

Actually, I'm going to go grab a samosa from the freezer before I finish writing this, because the pictures are making me hungry.

Chicken Puff Samosas modified from here
makes about 24

6 puff pastry sheets
1 chicken fillet (about 5 oz)
2 tsp tomato paste
1 tbsp sour cream
1/2 bell pepper
1/2 chili pepper
1/2 onion
1 T oil
honey
parsley
curry powder
paprika powder
pepper
salt
egg

If you got frozen puff pastry, pull it out so it has a chance to defrost.

Mince up the bell pepper, onion, and chili. You can peel it if you want, but I didn't, and didn't really find any issues with the texture.

Cut up the chicken, and then sprinkle some salt, pepper, and curry powder, and then mix it all up. Make sure everything's well coated I under-seasoned and then ended up adding a lot more later, so go generously - especially with the curry. But if you're sensitive to spice and taste, know that you can add later.

Heat up the oil and toss the chicken in, cooking it until it's really well done. Then dump the chicken into a bowl, but don't clean out the pan, and toss in the veggies (add more oil if you need it).

Cook the veggies over medium until the onions translucent, and then add in the tomato paste and sour cream. The original recipe had pineapple & pineapple juice, but I'm not a fan of pineapple, so I did a squeeze of honey to substitute the sweetness, without having to do the pineapple taste. Mix it all up, and then let it simmer over low heat while you tend to the chicken.

Get the chicken shredded, whether that's by hand, with two forks, or just chopping it up into little bits. Toss it into the veggies, and taste to see if you need to add anything again.

Taste a second time, because it's really good.

Taste a third them, and then tell yourself that you need to stop, or else you won't have anything left to fill the puffs.

Grab a small bunch of flat leaf parsley and chop it up. Then stir it into the chicken veggie mixture.

This must be the longest recipe I've typed up yet.

Sprinkle a cutting board with flour and put the pastry sheet down, and then sprinkle it again. This was my first time dealing with this kind of dough, so know that it's fragile and can be sticky. Roll it out so that it's flatter, and then cut each piece into quarters. Put some of the filling on it and then fold it over to pinch it up. The original recipe said to fold it on the diagonal to make triangles, but I much preferred the fold-in-half-to-make-rectangles ones because there was a more even meat-to-puff ratio.

Plop them on the cookie sheet. (Delicately, so they don't fall apart!) They're not going to expand by much, so you can put them relatively close together.

Okay, so this next part is optional, but fun. To add a little color to the outside, you can crack an egg, and brush it on it. To add a little taste to the outside, sprinkle paprika on the now-wet dough. Or, if you're completely uncoordinated like I am, mix up the egg and the paprika, and then brush the mixture over the dough.

Get your oven to 400 degrees, then put them in there. Leave them there for 12 to 15 minutes, and then take them out.

Eat.

Survey Says
They were GOOD. My husband said that they're "probably some of the best samosas [he's] ever had," but I suspect he's exaggerating a bit because he doesn't want to do the dishes. I think I want to try them with a non-pufflike dough, or maybe I just need to perfect working with the dough.

We froze them after cooking because I want more non-microwave-dinner stuff in our fridge. While writing this I ate 3 that I'd defrosted and they were great.

I want to try figuring out how to make veggie ones, but in the mean time I'm going to love eating the ones we have!

I love cooking.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Day 66: Recipe 14

Friday night after the fun scallop experiment I went through and made a menu plan for the week, because I've decided that I need to stop making excuses for not cooking, and just do it. It helps my mood so much, so I just need to get it done.

One of the things that I've found is that there are a handful of "quick and easy"-type recipes that require cream of something soup - most often, cream of mushroom. So when I was looking through recipes I've bookmarked from A Year of Crockpotting I decided that a good place to start would be to make my own cream of mushroom soup!

My husband was less than thrilled with this proposal, since he's not a fan of mushrooms, but he was a good sport and let 2 pounds worth of mushrooms cook in the apartment all day anyways. The recipe is modified because we only have a 4 qt crockpot, and she suggested a 5 qt for the proportions she mentioned (though now I think I could have done her proportions with my size anyways).

Cream of Mushroom Soup from A Year of Crockpotting

1.5 lbs mushrooms
1 cup water
4 cups vegetable broth
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 tbsp dried minced onion
1 1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning

3 cups milk (added later)

Wash and cut up your mushrooms. Dump in the crockpot. Add the spices. Add the lemon juice. Add the vegetable broth and water.

Cook for 8 hours.

With an immersion hand blender, blend it all up. It will look kinda grainy, but it doesn't taste that way - just make sure all the big chunks are blended.

Stir in the milk. The only thing we had in the house was lactose-free milk, which tends to be a little on the sweet side, but it was fine.

Let it cool on the counter for a few hours. We watched The Wrath of Khan to kill the time.

Stir it to mix up anything that may have settled, and then pour it into whatever storage device you're using. We used sandwich-sized freezer bags. Freeze them flat, then you can store them wherever you have room once they're solid.

Survey Says
It was good! Even Will said that "it was okay." He's also said that he's "willing to try more of it." For someone who hates mushrooms, I'd say it was a ringing endorsement.

I used the same amount of pepper as was used in the original recipe, and there was a bit of a kick to it, so if you're really sensitive to spice, I'd tone it down a bit (or use more mushrooms). Also, it didn't have the thickness that I'm used to with regular cream of something soups - it was pretty thin, but I didn't mind that.

Definitely using it in recipes, and just eating it all alone.

I can cook scallops!

Day 65: Recipe 13

My goal is to be at 45 recipes by the end of March, so that at least I'm halfway caught up.

So I love scallops whenever I eat them in restaurants, but I've been really anxious about making them myself because they're expensive and everyone says they're really complex. However, last night during my grocery store visit I decided, what the heck?

So I went to the seafood counter and asked for 2 scallops. "Only two?" the guy asked. "Only two," I confirmed. "I've never cooked them before, so I'm just experimenting." "Makes sense," he said, and wrapped them up for me. "Two scallops, that'll be $300."

And THAT is why I only got two. (I should probably clarify that they weren't really that much.)

I was really nervous about cooking them. If my boss didn't read this, I might admit that I spent about an hour this afternoon watching videos about how to cook them online. But since she (and her mom) do, I won't tell you that.

There's this dish from one of my favorite LiveJournal communities ever, Food Porn, that I've been wanting to try for a while, so I figured I'd try to throw that together, even though there's not a real recipe, but instead just ingredients.

And it worked!

Red Pepper Scallop Pasta from here
serves 2

at least 2 scallops (though next time I'm totally using more)
14 oz of spaghetti
1 red pepper
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
oregano
basil
olive oil
salt
pepper

The night before, cut up the onion and pepper and put it in a container. Dump some olive oil, salt, and pepper in, and let it sit overnight. (Mix it or flip it over a couple of times so that all of the veggies get marinated.

The next day, cook up the pasta.

Put the veggies in a pan and saute them over medium heat in the olive oil with the garlic, oregano, and basil (and other herbs you think would work if you have them) until the onions are relatively clear. Once they're cooked, dump them and most of the olive oil into the pasta.

Put the pan over high heat and tend to the scallops. I cut them in half horizontally, so I ended up with 4 discs. Season one side with salt and pepper, and then put them, seasoned side down, into the pan. Let them cook and sprinkle the up side with more salt and pepper. Flip them when they're nicely browned - it took me about a minute and a half. After another minute and a half, you're done!

Serve up the pasta and veggies, then top with the scallops.

You can cook scallops, too!

Survey Says
Overall, we really liked it! One thing I'll change next time is that this time I cut the veggies in strips, next time I'd dice into small squares. Also, I'd use more scallops now that I know I can cook them and make them taste yummy.

My husband wanted something to balance out onions and peppers, but isn't sure what he's looking for. It might be that they needed to cook for a little longer so that they weren't as strong tasting, but we're not sure if that's it. Any suggestions?

But yes, we're definitely making it again.

Cooking totally turned my day around

Day 64: Recipe 12

I was in a major funk today, and then to top it off I had to go shopping for an ice cream social in my building today. While at the store I decided that I was going to cook, gosh darn it, because cooking makes me feel better!

Since it was already 8:30 at night I didn't want to do anything fancy, so we just threw the steaks on the grill. But I called my mom to get this salad recipe that I'm kind of in love with.

Yes, salads count.

Insalata di cipolle e rucola
(Arugula and onion salad)
Serves 3-4 normal people, or just me

1 large red onion
baby arugula (spring mix works too)
thinly sliced parmigiano cheese – Reggiano is best
3-4 garlic cloves
a bit sea salt
a bit freshly grounded black pepper
juice from one lemon (use ½ the juice to start; remainder to taste)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Pound the garlic and the salt together until it becomes kind of a creamy mixture. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, and pepper and mix it all up well.

Cut up the onion and saute it in some more olive oil until it's brown. Once the onion is done, pour half the sauce on the onions.

In a salad bowl, layer the arugula, onions, and slices of parmigiano cheese.

Dump the rest of the sauce on.

Eat.

Survey Says

Well, I made this because I love it so it's safe to say that I think it's a keeper. My husband said it was really good, but that it needs something crunchy in it - "like a walnut, or bacon". He wants me to add bacon to everything, so this may just be an excuse, but it's definitely something to consider for the future!

The Oscars

Day 52: Recipe 11

So one of my coworkers has this awesome Oscar party every year and asked people to bring a snacky-type food to share. Last year, when I wasn't trying to cook regularly, I brought 3 different dishes. This year, when I'm about 41 recipes behind where I should be, I only brought one.

Go figure.

It was a goodie, though!

Roasted Red Pepper Dip
makes around 1-2 cups?

3 red bell peppers
2 cloves garlic
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Cut up your bell peppers into slices, remove the seeds, and roast them. I did it on our George Foreman, but you can also do it under the broiler in your oven (or toaster oven, if you have one). It's done when they're soft and kinda smushy. The skin should get kind of wrinkly.

With the garlic, you have two options. For a mellower flavor, roast them briefly, and for a bit of a spicy flavor, keep them raw. Or you could roast one, and throw the other in raw.

Toss the roasted bell peppers and roasted or raw (or both!) garlic into a food processor, and process. It's never going to be smooth just because of the texture of the peppers, but it's up to you if you want chunks or not, based on what you like from your dips. Once it's pretty well blended, start adding in the olive oil, bit by bit, to help it reach the consistency that you want. Be sure to taste while you're adding, though, because if you add too much it can dilute the red pepper taste.

Then add the balsamic vinegar. Again, taste as you go, because you might want more or less depending on how much you like balsamic vinegar. I love it, so I tend to go on the heavy side.

Pour out, and serve with veggies or pita chips! Or, really, anything, because this stuff is awesome.

Survey Says

I'm probably kind of biased, but I think this stuff is amazing. My husband seems to like it too, since he's been eating it and putting it on sandwiches ever since. And my coworkers tend to like it as well, so I'm going to say it's a keeper.

Day 44 - That was disgusting(ly good)

Day 44: Recipe 10 (darn!)

In an effort to show my face more around my building in a way that my students will like, I have come up with a new program, which I have dubbed "Happy [blank]! Have a [blank]!" Previous programs held were "Happy Thursday! Have some candy!" and "Happy Wednesday! Have a cookie!" Today I did the newest one - "Happy Friday! Have a cupcake!"

The cupcakes came from a box, and the frosting was going to come from a package as well, but then I decided that I needed to update this thing, so I made it from scratch. It was disgusting(ly good). The amounts below really are correct, which is part of why my husband will not get to see this - it's totally out of his diet, and he'd hate me.

Cream Cheese Frosting
makes way too much

1 1/2 lbs cream cheese, room temperature
1 lb butter, room temperature
2 lbs confectioners sugar
1 tbsp vanilla

Cream the cream cheese and the butter together until they're mixed. Then add the confectioners sugar little by little until it's well incorporated. Then add the vanilla. Then beat it like crazy until it's nice and fluffy.

DONE!

Survey says
The students loved it. So did the coworkers. So did I. So I say it's a keeper. But did you really expect anything different with an ingredients list like that? I'd encourage you to half it, though, because it was way too much. I had 96 mini cupcakes, and there's over half of it left.

In the mean time, anyone have a suggestion of what to do with 2 lbs of cream cheese frosting?

Day 28 - In a rut

So I've been struggling a bit lately because my husband has gone on a diet, and the things that I know how to cook and are excited about cooking don't tend to be friendly to his diet. I do have two things that I've cooked and just not posted about, but aside from that we haven't really done much cooking - mostly eating frozen or salads.

I know that I CAN cook food that fits his diet, I'm just not all that excited about it, because I love carbs and cheese and all sorts of other things that he's not eating at the moment. I'm going to do some searching for recipes online, and I'm still going to try to do 365 recipes this year, but I just need to get excited about cooking again.

Dining out - Ethiopian food!

I didn't make it, but I ate it, so I'm posting it anyways

We had time for dinner every night with our staffs during training. During the school year we have to be back by 8:00 because an RA needs to go on duty, but the first night back there weren't any students, so we didn't have then 8:00 curfew. So we decided to go to little Ethiopia, and have Ethiopian food!

We went to Merkato at the suggestion of one of my Resident Ministers, who is very familiar with East African food since he lived there for a while. We basically put the ordering in his hands, and were delivered two large platters with all sorts of food.

The food is served on a pancake-type bread thingie, which has an odd texture because there are a bunch of bubbles in it. There was lamb, chicken, and beef, all with yummy sauces. There were also some vegetarian sides - cabbage, collared greens, peas, and a pico de gallo-type dish.

You eat it by ripping off some of the pancake-type stuff, and then picking up the food with it. It was communal, so the 9 of us ate off of two platters.

We ate it all. Then we ate some of the pancake from the bottom, because it had soaked in all the saucey goodness.

After dinner we had some coffee, which was ridiculously strong. My RM told us that coffee there is a very social thing, and the drinking can go on all night with the same beans, the coffee getting weaker as the night progresses.

They were the teeny-sized cups, but we're not all coffee drinkers, so a few of us shared cups. One of our RAs had about 4 cups.

We only had one pot, and it did not get weaker with every drink.

It was very strong coffee.

He was up all night.

Banana Bread!

Day 11: Recipe 9

Late last night I entered the kitchen to get a glass of water, and realized that the bananas we had were getting pretty brown. My husband said to just throw them away, and I briefly considered that, but then I remembered that I had my mom's banana bread recipe! And who wants to waste food when you can make delicious bread instead? Delicious bread it is.

Mom's banana bread
makes 1 loaf

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
3 mashed, RIPE bananas
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 steaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup walnuts or pecan pieces (optional - we opted out)

Preheat your oven to 325, and grease a bread pan.

Mix the sugar and vegetable oil together.

Beat the egg, and add it to the mixture. Mix some more.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda, then SLOWLY add it to the banana etc mix.

If you're going to throw in the nuts, do it now and mix (gently, so the nuts don't get pulverized.

Pour it into your bread pan, and bake it for an hour.

Survey says...
I loved it! So did my husband, my coworkers, my RAs, the RAs of the building across the way, and my temporary boss (because my regular boss was out of town). I was a little worried at first because the mix only went halfway up the pan, but it rose like crazy as it baked, and even got that neat little thing where it looks like it broke at the top. I really need to finally upload photos so that you know what I'm talking about. (Done! I uploaded pictures for previous recipes, as well.)

Totally making this again, though probably not for a bit since my husband's on a diet for the new year. Or maybe I'll just make it and eat it all by myself.

Baked Oatmeal - not bad!

Day 9: Recipe 8

I did breakfast again, and again, it worked! I preferred the breakfast casserole, but I really did like the baked oatmeal, too.

Baked Oatmeal (from A Year of Crockpotting)
serves 8+

6 cups rolled oates (not instant, not steel-cut)
1 cup brown sugar
4 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted

Dump all the dry stuff in the crockpot and mix well. Then beat the eggs and dump in the wet stuff, mixing well again.

Cook on low for about 5 hours. I really wanted to do this overnight, but since I don't have a smart crock pot (one of the kinds that switches to warm after a set time) and I sleep more than 5 hours a night, I bought a light timer (the kind that you use to have your lights turn on and off when you're out of town) and had it shut off after 5 hours. I only did this because the finished product would be shelf-stable, and it worked perfectly!

Let it sit in the cooling crockpot for at least an hour before you try to cut it. The more it sits, the more solid it becomes.

Survey says...
I served it with yogurt and fresh fruit and my RAs and I all liked it! It tasted kind of like a cinnamon oatmeal cookie. My husband didn't get to try it (and sounds a bit bitter about that) but I'm pretty sure he would have liked it. If I'd been just making it for us I'd have added dried fruit or something that I knew that we liked (maybe chocolate chips?) but since I was making for 8 people, I figured I'd stay generic and let people just add what they wanted.

Overall? I'll definitely make this again. Oh, and it made our apartment smell amazing for a full day.