Friday Odds and Ends

TGIF, friends!

A couple of notes:

I went out yesterday to the Asian market a couple towns over, only to find them closed. For good. No, for bad, since I'm not aware of any other Asian markets without driving some 30 miles. Possibly someday when we're out for a Saturday lunch we'll make our way to Falls Church, where there are more Asian markets than Caucasian ones. Until then, I have seen tamarind in my "regular" supermarkets and may have to try to make the paste myself. From what I've read it isn't difficult, just messy.

John told me last night he's been hankering for pizza. He denied being tired of my cooking ;-) But since I woke up with quite a headache today and it has yet to go away despite my best efforts, I think I'll take him up on that "let's go out for pizza" tonight.

I also get Saturday night off from cooking since we're heading to a baseball game. Red Sox vs. Orioles, in Baltimore. Also known as Fenway South. Since it's nearly impossible to get a ticket to see the Sox at home, a lot of people make the trip to Baltimore (thank you Southwest airlines!). Add that to the multitude of transplanted New Englanders and members of Red Sox Nation from other parts living in the DC metro area, and it's quite a fun event for a Red Sox fan. Listen for me to start a rousing "Let's go RED SOX" as soon as the strains of the national anthem fade away...

Como se dice "yum"?

I was in the mood for Mexican tonight, and getting ready with a kick-anatomy Cinco de Mayo menu for next week. There were a few varieties of meat in the fridge from which to choose: shrimp, surimi (aka faux crab), chicken. Since we had chicken last night, and since the shrimp have a short shelf life, it wasn't a hard decision.

I had a menu for tacos, but realized after I got out my food processor to get together some stuff for salsa that I had forgotten to pick up the tomatillos. So that brought about my first "back up 10 yards and punt" episode connected to this meal. I knew I wanted to make a flavored sour cream so I chopped up one chipotle pepper from the can of same in adobo sauce, and grabbed a couple teaspoons of the sauce while I was in there. Then I squeezed half a lime into the bowl and stirred it up and tasted it. It had a kick but it wasn't going to burn down our mouths. I decided to semi-ceviche the shrimp so I peeled them and put them into a bowl with the juice from the other half of the lime and some cilantro. Let them bathe in that for awhile as I got other components ready. I also chopped up a couple of tomatoes, some purple cabbage - very thinly - and at the last minute an avocado.

In the meantime, I made the salad. I peeled and julienned a jicama (exotic ingredient du jour) then cut up a cucumber in like fashion. The recipe (here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/crunchy-jicama-and-mango-salad-with-chile-and-lime-recipe/index.html ) called for peeled and wedged mangos. I had only one on hand but was sizing down the recipe in general anyway since there's just two of us. But as I got into the mango, I got worried. It was mushy. And overripe. Way overripe. It fell apart in my hands as I tried to cut it up. Punt time again. I haven't been watching Top Chef for years without reason. I mentally did inventory in my head as to what I had on hand that might have similarities to a mango. How about that cantaloupe sitting on the counter over there? I had another use in mind for it, but... I think I can use that. I followed the recipe closely other than that emergency swap of orange-fleshed fruit. It actually worked pretty well!

I did cook the shrimp for a couple minutes before putting them in the taco. Served it with the cabbage, avocado, tomatoes, spiked sour cream (low fat, I might add - but not the nasty fat free stuff) - all tasted pretty good.

Then for dessert. John had, on more than one occasion, mentioned how delicious he thought tres leches cake was. With some assertive flavors in the meal, I thought it'd be a nice soothing dessert. Not to mention I had too much cream in the house from making ice cream. Now, I not only had never made tres leches cake before, I'd never even HAD it. So I needed a recipe I could trust. I found one from Alton Brown, but ran into a problem. I love Alton. He cracks me up. But I don't have all the gadgets he has. And I never will have. His recipe called for a certain weight of cake flour. I found a conversion into cups, but it was just too much math for me to do in my head, and I am not interested in getting out the calculator (especially at 10am) to bake. So I found another recipe. I think this one worked well. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tres-leches-milk-cake/detail.aspx

I did substitute some of the fat. I used Eggbeaters instead of 5 eggs (1 1/4 cups of Eggbeaters). I used 1 cup of fat-free milk and 1 cup half-and-half instead of 2 cups whole milk (probably came out to about the same damage). Both the evaporated milk and the sweetened condensed milk, I used fat-free. But I did use heavy cream for the whipped cream on top.

It is just stupid good. Then again, very little that's covered in about an inch of whipped cream tastes poorly.

I have found some very interesting things to try for Cinco de Mayo next week.

Where in the world...?

Does one find tamarind paste? I couldn't find it anywhere today. I wanted to make chicken Pad Thai and make the sauce myself, but without tamarind paste, I had to use a jar of "pad thai sauce". It was disappointing. I'll head out to an Asian market that's a few towns over before trying it again. It wasn't horrible, but it was unremarkable.

Vegetarian success!

With a couple of not-so-subtle suggestions from John's doctor about cutting back on meat, I started searching for ways to make some interesting meatless meals. I've done the occasional veggie stir-fry, quesadilla, mac n cheese, spaghetti, eggplant parmesan... but am always looking for something different and tasty. No, we are not cutting out all meat - going whole hog so to speak - just cutting back. It's a good idea for our waistlines and budget, and even the planet.

I found some of that while surfing my phone during a baseball game. Epicurious.com (yep, there's an app for that!) has the recipe, and you can find it here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Curried-Lentil-Stew-with-Ginger-Yogurt-107271

We really enjoyed the stew, which was nowhere near as pungent as I thought it would be. Actually the ginger yogurt wasn't needed. It wasn't a bad addition, but it didn't really add anything to the meal (maybe some calcium). I also made a pear salad - the recipe said make an Asian pear salad but none of the pears in my grocery store were Asian so a red bosc had to suffice. http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/748680-Asian-Pear-Salad. I have to warn you - what that recipe does to pecans is decadent!

I also made pita bread! Yes, from scratch! It was actually a bit easier than making yeast bread loaves. The first group in the oven didn't puff up as much as they should have so I had to increase the heat a bit. The second group in came out better. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/pita-bread-recipe

The curried lentils recipe says what is good to serve for dessert, but I didn't listen to them today. I had my mind set on something else, and I'm glad I went my own way on this... I made the most yummy hazelnut ice cream ever!! It is to die for. And from. Although I did use half and half instead of light cream, I doubt that saved me too many calories. http://www.makeicecream.com/hazicecream.html . The only bad thing about it is how good it is - and trying to find willpower to "just say no".

What to do with a couple butternut squash?

The answer is - make lasagna! I was busy today, first roasting the squash, then making the pasta and rolling it out for lasagna. The recipe is here, although I got the one I used from Cooking Light and it used cooking spray instead of oil, and other lightened up features. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roasted-Butternut-Squash-Rosemary-and-Garlic-Lasagne-13479

I decided on a salad to go with this entree and thought a BLT sounded good, so I made a BLT salad. I fried 4 slices of bacon (our only meat in tonight's supper), and crumbled it on top of some torn and some whole (small) leaf romaine lettuce. Sliced up a couple tomatoes, and it's a salad!

Dessert was the finale for the mocha fudge bread pudding I made last week. It was all very good!

Supper

This was our supper tonight. I followed this recipe exactly, right down to the salad to go with it:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1867562

For dessert, I made honey-lavender ricotta ice cream. It'd delicious! But it's not something you can eat a lot of in one sitting - which could very well be a good thing!! Here's that recipe:

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1734298

Sunday mid-day

Today's mid-day meal, so-called because some call it Sunday dinner and some call it lunch and I call it both about interchangeably but don't want to confuse you, was a nice turkey meatball stroganoff with a caprese salad. I glanced at a recipe in a magazine I received (unsolicited) last week called Cuisine at home, but didn't follow it. I have made stroganoff for years, but it's different almost every time.

This time, I took about a 1/2 pound of ground turkey, added salt & pepper, some A-1 steak sauce and dill and formed it into about a dozen small meatballs. I cooked those in a frying pan with some olive oil spray. When they were done I removed them and added some thinly sliced onion. I had the onion in the freezer leftover from another use. I also sliced up the package of baby bella mushrooms I had in the fridge. Sauteed those until done, and added a little white wine and chicken stock. I didn't measure but it was probably about 2 tablespoons of wine and about a cup of stock. It ended up being too much stock - the sauce was somewhat runny. I also added about a tablespoon of stone ground mustard (the idea I got from the Cuisine at Home magazine). Then I put in about a tablespoon of flour since it was SO runny.

I let all that cook together for a bit, and then boiled water for egg noodles. Meanwhile, I did some slicing for the salad - tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and a chiffonade of basil leaves. Drizzled a bit of balsamic vinegar on that and the salad was done.

I will make stroganoff again, no doubt, but today's sauce was too runny and I'm not convinced the mustard added enough zing to add it.

Tonight's evening meal (called "supper"" where I'm from) is still percolating in my brain.

Saturday

We went out today, for a ride. It was supposed to be just for lunch, but it was a nice day (if overcast) and we stayed out for supper too. So I didn't cook today. I did make sliced strawberries and topped them with some Honduran cream (heavy cream, cream cheese and sour cream mixture). I ate it before I could get a picture :) Sorry! (but not very sorry)

Turkey Taco Salad

Here it is:



I didn't put any olives in. It looked full enough as it was. Oh, and I do not purchase tortilla chips. I purchase tortillas, cut them into quarters with a pizza slicer, spray them with butter spray and sprinkle salt on them. Put them on a cookie sheet in a 400 oven for about 10 minutes... tortilla chips!

Speaking of pizza - that urge is gonna strike within a matter of days. I can cook an ok za, but I prefer going out for extra cheese and mushrooms. And a beer! Mmmm!!

TGIF!

Happy Friday!

Last night's dinner was loosely based on this recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=689925

I say "loosely" as it involved me seeing the title of the recipe only. I didn't read it. I just used chicken, mushroom and spinach inside a crepe.

Now for today. It's far too nice of a day to cook something hot, heavy & filling. Although the weather fixture in my tool bar is broken as my weather this morning is "N/A". I would've sworn there was weather out there.

I'm thinking Turkey taco salad for supper. I don't use a recipe for it - it started as a way to get rid of extra stuff in my veggie drawer and I still use whatever I have on hand, especially those small bits that aren't enough in quantity to use on their own.

I'll tear up some romaine lettuce for the salad base, and add celery, red peppers, tomatoes, maybe an avocado (I'd actually have to get to the store for that though), black olives. And brown up some ground turkey, adding taco seasoning. Put that on top of the salad, add salsa and a dollop of sour cream and voila! It's a meal! We still have chocolate frozen yogurt, mango sorbet or mocha fudge bread pudding to choose from for dessert.

We don't have any specific plans for this weekend. Hope yours is enjoyable!

Dinner happened!

Imagine that... :)

I had company today - a friend who's been trying to visit for nearly a year but for one reason or another kept getting stymied. Vehicle illness, snow, other appointments which were necessary not pleasure, etc. all kept us from spending time at my house until today.

We were supposed to make bread. She wants to learn. We ended up making crepes and pasta. The pasta went home with her to make lasagna with. The crepes ended up on our dinner table tonight. The recipe is loosely based on one I found in one of my Cooking Light Annual Cookbooks. I'll look it up tomorrow.



I had two chicken breasts thawed and cut those into bite-size pieces and sauteed them in some olive oil spray. In another skillet I sauteed spinach and a couple varieties of sliced mushrooms I had on hand - baby portobellas and shiitake. Only used salt & pepper as a seasoning. Next time I think I'd put in some thinly sliced garlic too. I added a couple spoonfuls of that Honduran cream I mentioned previously to keep the mixture from being too dry - the heavy cream/cream cheese/sour cream mixture. Then I put a crepe on each plate and filled it with the meat & veggie mixture, folded it up and drizzled it with more of the Honduran cream. Yum!! I also made a simple tossed salad to go with the meal. For dessert we enjoyed the last of the coconut sorbet I made the other day. Now that that's gone I can make the lavender-honey-ricotta ice cream I've been eyeing!! And hopefully next time she & I get together we'll actually get some bread made!

Tonight

Dinner will happen. That's about all I know so far. I have three or four possible meals in mind, but it all depends on how the day progresses. If I find time, I plan to make pasta and have lasagna. But then I'd need to find room in the fridge for leftovers, and space is at a premium there right now. Stay tuned.

Meh...

There is a pork chop under that pile of creamy leeks but you'll have to take my word for it.

The dish wasn't bad, but it wasn't outstanding. Suffice it to say it won't be making its way into Becky's Book of Yum based on this testing. The Book of Yum is a loose-leaf photo album I keep with clips of all the recipes that've wowed us over the years and are ones I turn to repeatedly.

I did find I had to make two substitutions in mid-stream. Possibly, those were involved in the "meh"ness of the dish, but I'm not sure. First, the alcohol I had on hand was not brandy, as I thought. It was sherry, so that had to suffice. Secondly, I taste-tested the Honduran cream and it was far too sweet and too liquid to use in this dish. So in went some lowfat Greek yogurt instead. Thanks for the heads-up on that idea, Michelle!

The dessert, although slightly dry, was a thumbs up. Although between the chocolate and the coffee in it, I hope we sleep ok tonight.

That bread pudding for tonight's dessert

Still warm... makes me want to dive in right now!

In the kitchen having fun.

So I've received encouragement to write a cooking blog. I love to cook. I do. I read cookbooks for enjoyment, at any time of the day or night. I take notes while watching "Iron Chef America". But, I must admit, almost none of what I cook come from my own ideas. I occasionally will vary a recipe, based on what I have on hand or to make dietary changes. But rarely will I concoct something out of the gray matter in my brain (I can't change its color like I can the hair on the outside). If you find it enjoyable to hear about what interesting looking recipe I'm trying tonight, this is the place to do it. Between the internet (favorite sites include epicurious.com and allrecipes.com) and my two completely filled-to-overflowing bookcases of cookbooks, I do find some pretty tasty things, I think. Because I'm not a willing plagiarist (my journalism background is too strong), I will link to the recipe when I can find it online, or give credit to where I found it if I cannot.

Tonight's entree is Pork Chops with leeks in mustard sauce, from Epicurious. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pork-Chops-with-Leeks-in-Mustard-Sauce-352613
I'm using regular ol' pork chops (have never seen "heritage" ones for sale and don't think I want to know how much those are per pound), and I'm only making two chops. I'm going to use the full amount of leeks though, because veggies are good. Oh, and I have yet to find a store anywhere near me that carries creme fraiche, but I have one which has an awesome supply of Latin American creams. Seriously - they have Mexican and Guatemalan and Honduran. Maybe more. Are all those creams That much different from one another? They all looked like pretty much they had the same ingredient list. The Honduran has heavy cream, cream cheese and sour cream, and it's in a thick liquidy form. I'm going to try that with this dish.

Along with that, I'm going to roast some carrots. I'll try to dig up that recipe but it's been a long time since I actually used the written word for it. Peel carrots - however many you want - and cut them into the approximate size and shape of those overpriced "baby carrots" they sell. Put in a casserole dish, drizzle olive oil on 'em and season with salt and pepper. Roast in a 400 oven (not sure this is correct... I usually just put them in with anything else that needs oven time and take them out when they're neither raw nor mushy).

For dessert, I've made mocha fudge bread pudding. The recipe came from my Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2007 cookbook, but the link I found is at allrecipes.com: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1227891
I only have fat-free milk on hand, not 1% (will make up the dietary difference by using that Honduran cream in the pork chop sauce, no doubt). I used a cup of coffee from my freshly-made this morning pot and it's half hazelnut, half French vanilla. And I used light brown sugar instead of dark. That was because I apparently needed to drink more of said coffee before beginning to cook and grabbed the wrong kind.

Pictures later - now it's lunchtime! Having leftover Thai coconut-butternut squash soup.