Archive for April, 2012

  |  
April 27, 2012

Friday Recipe: Last Minute Mac

(pretend there’s a picture here of a huge bowl of creamy, dreamy pasta; I didn’t have time to snap a pic!)

I’m writing this last minute post to tell you about the last minute pasta we had last night because we threw a last minute Thursday night celebration.  Long story short, yesterday afternoon we received some really great news and invited a few friends over after work to share the joy.  After a few rounds of cocktails, the natives started getting hungry.  Luckily, right then some friends showed  with some delicious sausages to throw on the Webber.  But we couldn’t sit around outside eating just sausages like some sort of savages.  We needed a starch to make it a civilized meal!

“Carey, think real fast!  What would go with sausages… uhhhh… how about buttered Parmesan noodles?  It’s quick, it’s tasty, it fills the belly, it will be perfect!”  Thus began the scrounging through the refrigerator, only to discover <gasp!> we were completely out of Parmesan!  What to do??!!

I’ll tell you what you do: you treasure hunt for all the bits and scraps of cheese you can find in the cheese drawer, make a cheese sauce  and turn it into a stove top mac and cheese.

To further complicate things, I needed to cook up 2 lbs of pasta to feed the small crowd that had gathered.  The problem with that was what I  found in the pantry was one box of whole wheat shells, one box of regular white shells of a slightly different shape, a box of spaghetti, a box of corkscrew pasta and one bag of analletti (think Spaghetti O’s).   I knew the whole wheat shells were going to cook at a different rate than all the rest but I took my chances and went with 2 lbs. of shell pasta.  I set that to boil and crossed my fingers.

Meanwhile, I rounded up all the leftover cheeses we had in the fridge.  It’s a good thing I’m a cheese hoarder because this is what I found: 1/2 bag of shredded mozzarella, 1/2 bag of shredded “Mexican Style” shredded cheese blend, a couple slices of Swiss Cheese, about 6 oz. of sharp cheddar cheese, a couple slices of Provolone, 1 brick of smoked Gouda and 2 bags of mozzarella cheese sticks.

Yeah, we eat a lot of cheese.  You got a problem with that?

Into a medium saucepan I melted a whole cube of butter and sprinkled in about 4 heaping tablespoons of flour.  I let that cook out for about a minute then poured in enough milk to make a roux, about 4 cups.  Then I raided the newly organized spiced cabinet.  I fished out salt, pepper, ground mustard, roasted garlic powder, toasted onion powder and sprinkled a little of each into my pot of roux.

Then I stirred in the shredded cheeses.  I showed some restraint by only choosing the following cheeses:  the cheddar, the shredded mozzarella, the shredded Mexican style cheese and the smoked Gouda.

I drained the al dente pasta (thank goodness the whole wheat shells didn’t overcook), but left about 3/4 cup of the pasta water in the pot then stirred in the gooey, melted cheese sauce.  I gave it all a vigorous stir so the pasta and sauce could get to know each other and it was done!

Those sausages with that pasta… well my friends… it was divine.  And I’m not just saying that because we were starving hungry (it was nearly 10pm by then).  It was a delicious feast, thrown together at the last minute and shared with 1 happy little group of friends.

The end.

Posted in Carey's Recipes, Food, Friday Recipe, Recipes | 1 Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
April 24, 2012

My New Mug


So here was my dilemma: Lukewarm coffee is from the devil, I can’t stand it.  Obviously, those flimsy paper cups you get at the coffee shop don’t hold in the heat but most of the plastic reusable tumblers don’t do that great of a job either.  I have also tried a number of other travel mugs like ceramic and double walled metal mugs.  Those did a  slightly better of a job keeping my coffee hot longer however, because most tumblers are not dishwasher safe, the seams and lids get all gunky inside and it’s practically impossible to get them clean.  Ew.

Then one day…. one of the gals from work was helping her kid raise money for their school.  You know, those annoying fundraisers where you end up with a 5 gallon drum of caramel popcorn or  enough cookie dough to open your own shoppe or 13 magazine subscriptions you didn’t really need.  Except this fundraiser was for Klean Kanteen, a local company that sells stainless steel beverage bottles and “cups”.

We heard rumors from other buyers that these insulated mugs can keep drinks hot or cold for hours and hours.  They are stainless steel inside, insulated, double-walled and BPA free.  The mug itself must be hand washed, but since it is wide and seamless inside, that would be no problem.  It comes with an optional cafe-lid that…get this… comes apart in two pieces so you can easily clean it.  SOLD!

I bought one (the lovely purple one pictured above) as an experiment and when it arrived I was so excited to see if the claims were true… and they are!

In the morning I pour hot water into my mug  to bring it to temp, then dump out the water and fill it with my hot coffee, or in many cases, hot milk and coffee. I loves me a latte.  I twist on the original lid because 1) it is spill proof and the cafe lid is not.  That’s the only real drawback to the cafe’ lid.  2) The original lid will help keep it hotter, longer since there are no drink holes and is lined in stainless steel.  The cafe’ lid is all plastic.  With cap on I throw it in my purse and head to work.

My 16 oz of coffee stays perfectly hot so I can sip on it all morning.  And cleaning the mug is a breeze since the inside has no seams and the cafe lid pops apart for a quick scrub. And I think it’s pretty nice lookin’!

I love it so much, I bought 3 more.  One 20 oz for my brother-in-law who is on the road a lot for work, one 12 oz for my nephew’s baby food when he’s visiting Grandpa.  Grandpa doesn’t have a microwave and Jake doesn’t like cold green beans.  And when he gets older it will be the perfect size for juice or milk for long car rides or shopping with mama.  I also bought one extra 16 oz because it’s the best!!

They aren’t paying me to review their mugs, I just really believe in this product.  So if you’re in need of a mug that really works, go check out Klean Kanteen!

Posted in Randomness | 2 Comments »

Tags: , , ,
April 20, 2012

Friday Recipe: No Knead Pizza Dough by Bon Appetit

There are moments in the kitchen when you just have to yell “YES!” and do the Kevin McCallister fist pump. This recipe brought one of those moments.  I have always been intrigued by the idea of making my own pizza dough at home.  I am super-picky about my pizza.  Well, I’m super-picky in general but for pizza I prefer a thinner, crispy crust over a thick, doughy version that you will find in most of the pizza parlors in our town.  I believe (and correct me if I’m wrong) it would be called Neapolitan style: thinner, crispy, slightly charred crust, light on the toppings and sauce.  Of course, for a real Neapolitan pizza you would need a wood burning oven, which I do not currently own (bucket list) so I have to make do with a pizza stone.

Anywho… I stumbled on this recipe over at I Am A Food Blog and was intrigued because not only did it promise the Neapolitan style pizza I so craved but the dough requires no kneading.  No kneading?! If you have ever struggled with a wad of springy dough, trying desperately to stretch it out to a decent sized pizza-pie only to have it mock you again and again by bouncing back into a small wad of dough, you can understand my excitement.

So I figured, “What the heck, I’ll give it a shot.”  I started Monday night by prepping the dough, let it sit overnight, came home from work on Tuesday and…

…Oh…Em…Gee!!!  What an easy recipe and it delivered on it’s promises! I’ll give you a little photo tour of the process:  (I’m still working from my Iphone so sorry about the sketchy pics)

20120419-111147.jpg

You have to start this dough the day before but don’t let that intimidate you!  The finished dough will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days so you could mix up the dough on Sunday night and have til Thursday to use it.  And making the dough is super simple.  Just combine the flour, salt and scant bit of yeast in a bowl then gradually stir in the water until you have a sticky mix.  Cover it up and set it aside for at least 18 hours.  That’s right, do nothing to your mixture, just set it in a warmish spot and go about your life.  The next day, after 18 hours, it will have expanded and bubbled and will look like the above photo.

20120419-111200.jpg

The next step is to plop your dough out onto a cutting board, counter or baking sheet covered with flour and for good measure, sprinkle a little flour over your dough so it doesn’t stick to your hands.  Then simply use your hands to smoosh (it’s a technical kitchen term, probably French) the dough out into a rectangular shape.  Don’t worry about dimensions,  just get it spread out in an even layer.  Then cut the dough into 4 equal portions, which will make (4) 10 inch pies OR cut it into (6) personal sized portions, which is what I did.

20120419-111215.jpg

Next, take a portion and fold each corner up into the middle then put it seam sides down and using your hands gently shape it into a little ball.  Don’t get hung up on that last step, its not complicated.  Just fold up the ends, pinch it off and turn it over so the top is a smooth dome as shown above.  Dust all your little buns with flour and set them aside on your floured board (or pan or counter).  Let them sit there, undisturbed for 1 hour.  After 1 hour of naptime, they are ready to go!

I didn’t get a picture of it, but take your rested dough ball and using your fingers once again smoosh the dough out into a pizza shape roughly 10″ in diameter, dusting with flour as needed to avoid sticking.  If you opted to make the 6 inch personal size, smoosh the dough out to approximately 6 or 7 inches in diameter.

Put your toppings on (please remember less is more), and cook in the hottest oven you have.  Most kitchen ovens go up to 500-550F.  I will give you links at the end that describe in full how to cook the pizzas, depending on whether or not you use a pizza stone.  It will work just as well in a regular old baking sheet so don’t stress out if you don’t have a stone.

20120419-111231.jpg

I set out a “toppings” bar since we each had our own personal sized pizza: red sauce, onions, jalapeno, tomato, olives, salami, etc.  Can I make a suggestion?  Follow my lead and do goat cheese, prosciutto, salami and a drizzle of Lucero olive oil.  You will thank me later.

20120419-111245.jpg

Or you could follow my niece’s lead and put a little bit of everything…twice!  It was the ultimate combo.

20120419-111258.jpg

This was my pizza, on one side is the goat cheese combo and on the other side is all veggie.  Making one side vegetarian made me feel a lot  less guilty about the salami even though I inhaled the whole pizza.  Girl math.

20120419-111309.jpg

This was my brother’s pizza, all sliced and ready to go.

There were 6 happy tummies that night, let me tell you.  Right after we got everything cleaned up my brother said, “We should make some more dough tonight!”  I don’t know if I’m ready to eat pizza every day but I am definitely looking forward to trying this recipe out again real soon.

So that’s my pizza story, now let me give you some details and the links to the recipe.

The original recipe comes from the March issue of Bon Appetit and you can get it here.  The original recipe makes (6) 10 inch pizzas.  This link describes the difference between cooking with a stone and a baking sheet.  I wish I had read this first because technically I did it wrong.  But it still tasted delicious.

The recipe from I Am A Food Blog is basically cut down to make (4) 10 inch pizzas (or in my case, 6 personal size) and you can get it here.

Pick which ever size batch you want and let me know how you like it!  Send me pics!

Posted in Food, Randomness, Recipes | 3 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , ,
April 18, 2012

A Teaser

20120418-155354.jpg
Ohhhh our Friday Recipe is going to be good! Friday I’m going to share a recipe that was new to me last night when i prepared it but is now going to be a regular in my repertoire because it was deee-vine. Come back Friday for the glorious details!

Posted in Food, Recipes | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , ,
April 16, 2012

Focus

..

I didn’t realize how chaotic things had become until I suddenly had become sequestered out in farm country, limited cell phone access, zero internet access, and a lot more quiet time on my hands.  No Facebook, no Pinterest, no Instagram, no Twitter, no Words With Friends, hardly any texting even!  ”Chirp-chirp, chirp-chirp”, hear those crickets?   The silence was deafening.

When you have what I call “creative-brain”, life can be a lot of fun.  Your brain comes alive with a new project, a new learning opportunity, new information.  All of our modern electronic wonders (Iphones, computers, etc) and the invention of the internet make it even easier for us “creative-brains” to get instant gratification.  I know who some of you “creative-brains” are because you pin on Pinterest even more than I do!  With all this creative energy can come amazing bliss, it makes us tick, it brings us so much happiness.  It’s some of our first thoughts when we wake up in the morning and we fall asleep thinking about it at night.  We create because… well, we just have to.  We will just explode if we don’t!

But… one of the pitfalls a “creative-brain” can fall into, repeatedly, is getting their fingers in too many projects at once.  And planning too many future projects.  And volunteering for other people’s projects.  And in all that creative overload, getting really excited over a lot of different things but forgetting those one or two things that you’re really passionate about.  The things that bring you the most personal joy and peace.

So I find myself in need of some refocusing.  It started with a Purging Phase.  I’m about halfway through all that fun, the Goodwill really loves me lately!  Fortunately, the sudden lack of “media” outlets made it pretty easy to see what I could live with or without.  And what things were fun at one time, but started sucking the energy out of me.  Energy vampires, that’s what I’ll call them.  Had to purge the energy vampires.  It made it easier to remember what things I truly love and come easily and naturally to me.

What comes naturally to me?  Food.  Cooking it, sharing it, planning it.  Whipping up an old recipe with my sister or creating new dishes with my brother.  Learning the “secrets” from my grandmother and talking about it all…the…time with family and close friends who share the same passion.  It’s what we do, we always have.  It’s as natural to me as brushing my hair.  It’s not work for me.  I know some people hate cooking, and it makes me so sad for them because it brings me so much joy to cook for myself or others.  And people know this about me because they ask me all the time “How do I cook string beans?” or “What kind of vegetable peeler do you use?” or “What can I make with a pork tenderloin?”

All that to say, there will be a slight shift here.  Not that I will never again share a DIY project or other random bits from my travels, but I am going to be focusing more on the recipes and food related areas of my life.  I know most of you are going to be OK with that because my WordPress stats show steady interest whenever I post something about food here.  In fact, the weekly Friday Recipe is hands-down the most popular feature. And coincidentally, is the easiest for me to put together because 1) I’ve always got a recipe from someone else I’m dying to try or 2) I’ve got a recipe of my own I’m dying to share.  Win-win!

Truth be told, in the beginning I had steered clear of being labeled a “food blogger” because there are already so many out there and I was reluctant to get pigeon-holed or become a cliche’. I’m still trying to steer clear of it, although it might be inevitable.  But for now, I’m just sharing me, and it just so happens that a lot my life, and the ones I love, is all bout the food!

So if you want to stick around for all the food talk, I would love to share that with you!

Posted in Randomness | Leave a Comment »

April 13, 2012

Friday Recipe: Ina’s Potato-Fennel Gratin

I’m not going to lie, these potatoes are sinful.  And I attempted to serve them on Easter, but I accidentally left the whole pan of taters in the fridge at home.  Or perhaps I sub-consciously did it on purpose so I could have them all for myself, I’m not sure.

Here’s the deal: there is a ton of fat in this recipe.  After sauteing your veggies and layering it all in a large pan, you dump in 2 cups of heavy cream and 2 1/2 cups of cheese!  As you can imagine, it turns the lowly potato into velvety goodness.  But if you eat these potatoes too often you are going to have to invest in bigger pants so save it for special occasions like Christmas.  Or a Tuesday.

The recipe comes from none other than the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, and can be found in her cookbook The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook AND can be found online at the Food Network.  Before I started cooking I read through most of the comments and there are some slight adjustments the other reviewers suggested and wholeheartedly agree:

  • You can cut the cream in half and replace it with whole milk.  If you use the full amount of cream (which is what I did) you will end up with a delightfully creamy dish but there will also be a pool of butter-fat swimming at the top of your dish.  Go ahead and replace some of that high fat dairy with a lower fat option, it will still be delicious.
  • Based on other readers suggestions I boosted up the flavors with a few sprigs worth of chopped thyme, 1 garlic clove, extra pepper, and replaced half of the onion with a sauteed leek.  It added some terrific layers of flavor.
  • Feel free to swap out the cheese for whatever you have on hand.  In addition to the Gruyere I added a few grates of parmesan because I love it.  I also grated some parmesan over the dish in the last 5 minutes and broiled it till browned.
  • You can make this dish ahead of time by preparing everything as listed, then baking it for roughly half the time (45 mins or so) just to get everything “set” then refrigerate after it has cooled off.  Then when you are ready to serve, throw it in the oven for the remainder of time (another 45 min or so).  Just don’t put it in the fridge and forget that it’s there.  I’m just saying, it can happen to some people.
  • If you have a mandolin or a little slicer like this one from Kyocera,  now would be a good time to pull it out.  I was able to slice up my potatoes and fennel so fast and evenly, much thinner than I could have done by hand and definitely more consistent.
  • Note that this recipe serves 10 so unless you are making it for a small army (which happens to be the size of my family) then I’d cut it in half.

As for the process itself, it’s pretty straightforward: slice up your potatoes and let them soak in the cream while you saute your aromatics.  Dump all of that plus the cheeses in a buttered dish and bake for roughly 1 1/2 hours.  You can find the full recipe by clicking here.

It’s blustery and rainy here in CA but there is the promise of sunshine for the weekend.  I sure hope so, my skin is turning an unattractive shade of pale!

Posted in Food, Friday Recipe, Recipes | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
April 9, 2012

My Weekend In Pictures

20120409-081909.jpg

My weekend started with preparing a Potatoes Au Gratin dish from Ina Garten for Easter Brunch.  I’ll share that recipe on Friday because it was de-li-cous.

20120409-081922.jpg

I must shamefully admit, however, that my super-preparedness backfired on me because I completely forgot to take the potatoes with me when I went out to my Dad’s for Brunch!  So we ate them for dinner instead.

20120409-081936.jpg

I also experimented with our last Friday Recipe, the Apple Pie Egg Rolls.  They were good, but need some tweaking.  And I have about a dozen egg roll wrappers that need to be filled with something….

20120409-081949.jpg

But really, how can you go wrong with apples & cinnamon?

20120409-082000.jpg

They were pretty good straight out of the oven… with vanilla ice cream.

20120409-082019.jpg

Sunday morning was all about biscuits.  Triple batch.  No big deal.

20120409-082029.jpg

I also started looking at garden layouts, brother and I have big plans for vegetables this year.

20120409-082037.jpg

I spent most of Sunday laughing at this guy.  He owns my heart.

There was also a lot of bass fishing at Easter Brunch.  Because that’s what we do.

One right after another.

Pretty much just stick your line in the water an you’ll catch one.  They’re pretty hungry right now.

All in all, a great weekend.  Cooking, fishing, family.  Doesn’t get much better than that.

Posted in Randomness | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , ,
April 6, 2012

Friday Recipe: Baked Apple Pie Egg Rolls from spoonforkbacon

.

I have been a little obsessed with dessert lately.  Not that I’ve eaten a lot of them, but I’ve been on the hunt for… something… you know when you are craving something and you don’t know what it is?  Well, I found it.  I was craving this: mini apple pies.  But not just any little pie, ones made with egg roll wrappers.  This appeals to me in the same way a super-thin crust pizza appeals to me.  I don’t feel as guilty if the crust is light and  ”other stuff” is healthy-ish.  Apples are healthy, right?  Cinnamon is healthy, right? We just won’t think about the sugar right now.

I stumbled on this recipe from spoonforkbacon.com over on Pinterest and I think I might give it a whirl on Easter Sunday.  I’m already making Ina’s Potato-Fennel Gratin and I know some of the sisters are  planning on bringing dessert but you can never have enough dessert.  Sacrilege.  Let us never speak of it.

While reading through the recipe I noticed that they use tapioca pearls in their filling, a little trick I use in my berry crisp because the tapioca creates a thickness in the sauce without adding flavor or strange texture.  You won’t even notice it’s there but will make a dreamy filling.

So here’s the gist:

You combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl (apple, tapioca, lemon, cinnamon, sugar, etc.) and let it sit a bit to meld.  Take your little egg roll wrappers and add a dollop of filling, seal and bake until lightly crisp and browned.  Oh yum.

You can get the whole recipe here:  Baked Apple Pie Egg Rolls

And while we’re at it, feel free to follow my boards on Pinterest.  I pin a lot.  A-lot-a-lot.  Muchos pasadores.

Happy Easter everyone!  He is risen!!

Posted in Food, Friday Recipe, Recipes | 2 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
April 3, 2012

I know, I know

“Where have you been?!”

“What happened to you?!”

“What is going on?!”

I’ve received a lot of these messages in the past couple of weeks and all I can say is I know, I know.  I could tell you a ba-jillion different stories, all very true, about what has gone on in my little world in the past few months but it all comes down to this:  things be crazy.

And on top of it all, my connectivity to things like Facebook, Twitter, and the internet in general have been sporadic at best (not that I’ve had time).

I can tell by the stats that some of you have been lurking around, checking in, probably looking for our Friday recipe.  Oops.

The good news is this:  life is slowly getting back to new-normal.  I’m not 100% certain what new-normal looks like yet, even here on ATC, but come hell or high water there will be a recipe posted on Friday.  Even if I have to use my Iphone to do it, standing barefoot in the middle of a walnut orchard.  OK, I’m exaggerating.  I wouldn’t be barefoot.  Is “Cracking and Eating Raw Walnuts” considered a recipe?

So no more worries, I’m back, mostly.  Let’s get back to the good stuff.

-carey

PS:  And soon there will be squirrels.  Because I have seen quite a few lately and you know I just can’t resist.

 

Posted in Randomness | Leave a Comment »

Tags:
  |  
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 218 other followers

%d bloggers like this: