11 posts tagged “food”

Thanksgiving is almost here in the U.S., heralding the start of the holiday season and the first of many meals where you might be confronted with a traditional dish that you happen to find disgusting. What holiday food do you hate to see on the table?

Oh, that's easy. I'm a true food lover, and I honestly do really enjoy most holiday foods, but there are a few glaring exceptions. For instance, let's have a look at Exhibit A, shall we?

Now, granted it could be in part because my mother never would have even tried to serve us anything that looks like that hot mess, but I really hate green bean casserole. Actually, I didn't even realize that everyone else ate this monstrosity every Thanksgiving until I was much older. I'm not the biggest fan of green beans in the first place, and putrifying them by way of a can of condensed soup does nothing to improve my feelings on the matter. And the French fried onions? I really don't understand why those are even there, apart from simply making that whole used diaper of a dish even more confusing to me.

And now on to Exhibit B. I know this one won't make me any friends, but hey. Whose blog is this, anyway?

I know a lot of people are all about egg nog, but it positively nauseates me. It really does. I'm not really the biggest fan of thick, rich drinks in general -- (I'm generally of the mind that drinks should be refreshing) -- but the real barf factor here is the knowledge that this one contains actual beaten eggs. In my opinion, eggs have no business being anywhere near anything I intend to put in my mouth, so I'm not nuts about the idea of them hiding in my beverages. Just... no. Get it the hell away from me.

Ever had one of those experiences where you start to question the accuracy of your own senses? Well, I had one of those yesterday. As you're probably aware, I've been well-immersed in Operation Becoming-A-Montana-Citizen lately. I'd already been to the DMV to update my ID and register to vote earlier in the week, since I've been playing with the idea of losing my "voting virginity" this year. Yesterday, I went down to the public library to sign up for a library card so that I can continue to be the ultimate book nerd when I'm not busy working. 

After we finished selecting our books and wandered around for a while, we decided to sit down at one of the tables upstairs and do some light reading. Seth had just settled down with a stack of magazines, and I had just cracked open a Clark Gable biography I had decided to check out, when we started to smell this... smell. It smelled an awful like hot dogs and garlic or something, but we just couldn't put a finger on what it was exactly. All I know is I really thought it was food. Neither of us had eaten yet, so it wasn't long before our stomachs were growling and we were wondering who the a-hole was that brought their fast food into the library to taunt everyone.

Eventually we just couldn't stand it anymore, so we got up to make a trip back to the snack machines. In the process, we figured out where the odd, can't-put-my-finger-on-it smell was actually coming from. Do you know what it was? It was this homeless guy who probably hadn't showered in months that had decided to chill in the library as homeless guys sometimes do! Suddenly it all made sense. Somehow I had translated the smell of extreme b.o. into the smell of food and was actually salivating over it. That made me feel a bit weird to say the least. I guess that's what sinus problems will do for you!

On the brighter side, the librarian that checked my books out for me correctly identified Violet Baudelaire from Lemony Snicket on my t-shirt, which made me smile. I got it years ago when the movie came out, and it's one of my very favorite shirts ever, as I'm a huge Snicket fan. It has the stylized cartoony version of Violet from the book illustrations along with the slogan "first impressions are almost always entirely wrong". People always think it's a cool shirt, but no one has ever actually realized what it is before. Leave it to a librarian! This just proves my theory that reading people are the best people.

I haven't really been feeling myself lately, so I have definitely been missing in action over the past week... or two? Not sure how many it's really been. I guess it depends on which of my blogs you're using as a frame of reference. Hopefully I'll have a "real entry" sometime later, if I get into a writing mood, but for now? Allow me to present my latest "I-wonder-how-hard-that-would-be-to-make-myself" culinary experiment. Homemade tortillas!

The other day I was watching some show or another on History Channel or Food Network or some channel along those lines and found myself wondering how difficult it would really be to make my own tortillas from scratch, since we eat so many wraps and such around here. Actually? It's not that hard. I made these today using the following recipe that I dug up on-line sometime last week.

• 4 C flour
• 1/2 C shortening
• 1 t salt
• 1 C warm water

Mix 2 C flour, all of the shortening and salt until the mixture has the consistency of small crumbles. Add warm water. Mixture will be sticky. Add remaining flour and knead until dough is pliable and springy. May not need all of the flour. Let sit covered for a minimum of one hour. Take small portions and form a ball. Roll out with rolling pin and cook over medium heat on a cast iron skillet until brown spots form.

One thing I did different? I used vegetable oil instead of shortening, because frankly shortening scares the piss out of me, but they certainly tasted fine to me. (I made a wrap after I was done here to test them out before I go feeding them to anyone else... heh.) Try it whichever way you want though. If you do use the shortening, let me know how they turn out for you.

I suppose I should post "everyday" posts more often I guess, yes? I'm always somewhat surprised, but apparently there are people out there that pay more attention to me than I think they do and sometimes write to ask how something was that they know I planned on doing, so here it is. A couple of highlights from our weekend. We didn't really go on any big, marauding adventures or anything. We were just at home for the most part. However, it was a weekend of firsts... really cool firsts that have been on my to-do list for a while. (They were really cool to me anyway.)

First number one? Well, recently we acquired a bottle of absinthe. Neither of us had ever had any real absinthe before, despite always having been fascinated by it, so we had a little of that after dinner on Friday. I think dinner itself was tuna casserole, so I'm not sure that was a very good match on a "fine cuisine" level, but hey... whatever works, right? The picture above is what "raw" absinthe right out of the bottle looks like.

This picture is what it looks like after it's been "prepared" as the French used to do it. To make a long story short, ice water and sugar have been added. The cloudiness is due to a phenomenon known as "louche". When water is added to absinthe, all its herbal essences come out, causing the drink as a whole to look cloudy. If you want more information as to the method we used to mix this, go here to watch a video.

I hear so much about how God awful this stuff is supposed to taste, so I was prepared to drink something that was a close cousin to lighter fluid, but really... I didn't find it unpleasant at all. It was very strong, but it wasn't a thing like gasoline, which I actually have heard absinthe compared to. To me, it tasted a lot like really strong, drinkable licorice... more dessert-like than anything else. You kind of need to approach it thinking of it like that. It's not something that goes down easily as a shot, and it really does taste better prepared. I actually really liked it and will certainly have it again. No hallucinations. No psychotic episodes. All that stuff you hear about absinthe is just bullshit. Absinthe is just a really strong, highly alcoholic liqueur. That's it.

Then on Saturday, I made cheese! Yes... cheese. If you've known me for a long time, you've probably heard me prattle on once or twice about being completely fascinated with Little House on the Prairie style farm living... care and feeding of livestock, knowing how to do things like make your own clothes, and especially how to make foods like cheese from scratch. Not that long ago, I stumbled upon a site that had fairly easy directions on how to make simple cheese from scratch and... of course... I decided to try following them to see what happened.

This is the cheese! The photo isn't fantabulous, but you can probably see it well enough. Man... that cheese was really good. Basically I just followed the directions shown here (using the lemon option as opposed to the vinegar one) and sprinkled a few red pepper flakes on the top before I put it in the fridge to set, since we like our food very spicy.

Texturally, it reminds me a lot of feta... meaning it's soft enough to spread it somewhat, but also very crumbly. (You could certainly just not squeeze yours as dry as I did if you'd prefer your cheese creamier.) It also had a pleasant tartness from the lemon juice I used to curdle the milk. I crumbled some of this onto the top of some beef stew we had for dinner last night, and it was just delicious. I imagine this would also be great in wraps, salads, tacos, and absolutely anything that involves poultry or fish. This is definitely something I'll be making periodically and having around. It's not only delicious and versatile, but there's also the "wow" factor of getting to serve and eat cheese that you made yourself.

So those were probably the highlights of my weekend. How was yours?

So this is the world's easiest dessert/breakfast pastry. I'm not kidding. I saw Sandra Lee do something really similar to this to make a topping for a strawberry shortcake on a Food Network special I watched the other night, and alas... we found ourselves craving cinnamon rolls the next day, but not actually having the makings for any. These made a great substitute and are adapted from Sandra's recipe that I remembered from the night before, using things that I happened to have on hand. I would totally make these again though. Try it! Seriously... I'd never know these things started out as regular old Pilsbury biscuits out of a tube.

What You Need

• 1 tube of Pilsbury Grands biscuit dough
• Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Caramel sundae topping
• Non-stick cooking spray
• A round baking dish (or square is fine in a pinch, too... that's what I wound up using)

How To Make Them

• Preheat your oven to 350 °.

• Add a couple of cups of sugar to a mixing bowl. Sprinkle in cinnamon to suit your taste. The idea is to make enough cinnamon sugar to thoroughly coat all your biscuits.

• Thoroughly spray the inside of your baking dish so that your biscuits don't stick.

• Pop the biscuits out of the tube and thoroughly dredge them in your cinnamon sugar. (Coat them just like you're breading chicken or fish for frying.)

• Arrange them evenly in your baking dish. Just squish 'em in if you have to. You can sprinkle more cinnamon sugar over the tops if you have leftovers.

• Bake them until they rise and are done in the middle. It will probably take a little longer than it does to bake normal Pilsbury biscuits. Mine did. Just keep an eye on them.

• Serve warm and drizzled with the caramel sundae sauce as seen in my crappy little photo up there, and butter as well, if you want. That's how Seth likes his. I imagine honey would be delicious on these as well if you don't want or like caramel sauce.

So this is actually a take-off on one of the recipes Giada made on an episode of her show I watched the other day, so it isn't 100% mine. I apparently have no ability whatsoever to just take a recipe and make it exactly the way I was "supposed to". Being an artist, I guess I have to be creative... change it a little bit and make it my own. I just had to share this. It's so easy to make, and delicious!

Basically these were made using this recipe as a basis. I just used strawberry preserves instead of orange marmalade, because I love strawberry anything in the summer, and I omitted the nuts because Seth does not like them. Other than that, it's the same as Giada's. Please make these! They're delicious. They'd make a beautiful and easy-to-make dessert to take to work or to a potluck as well.

Here are some tips for making these, since you don't get to watch Giada making them to give you a visual.

- The cookie dough is much easier to spread over the entire surface of your baking sheet if it is at least as warm as room temperature. It seems like it won't cover the whole thing, but it will. Just work with it.

- In the event you don't know what "double-boiling" is when it comes time to melt your chocolate, you do it like this. Get a mixing bowl made of Pyrex glass, or some other material that is safe to use over heat. Sit it over the top of a pot filled with a couple of inches of boiling water. The pot should be smaller around than your mixing bowl so the bowl can sit there comfortably. Stir your chocolate constantly until it melts, using your hand (covered with an oven mitt!!) to hold the bowl in place. Again, it seems like it's going to be a big old mess, but once the chocolate gets going on the melting process, it becomes much easier. The idea is to melt the chocolate using indirect heat so it doesn't burn.

- Let these guys cool completely before you try to slice them or get them off your cookie sheet. The first one will probably disintegrate, since it's the hardest to get out of there, but just eat it! That one's for the chef! Also, make sure you use plenty of non-stick cooking spray on your cookie sheet before you put the cookie dough down on it to make sure the others come out perfectly.

It's one of those days where I feel moved to share. I just can't believe how good my house smells right now. It's because of this chili I'm making for dinner in the crock pot. It's kind of an "experimental" batch, since I've never made chili that had Guinness in it before, but so far so good. (I just had a small taste even though it's not quite done yet.) The plan is to have it with grilled cheeses tonight, so I am also baking some potato bread to make them on.

What's in it?
- 1/2 pound dried white beans (pre-soaked)
- 1/2 pound dried dark red kidney beans (pre-soaked)
- 1/2 pound ground turkey
- 1/2 pound chopped chicken breast
- 1 packet McCormick's chili seasoning (mild)
- 2 1/2 cups tomato sauce
- 1 11.2-ounce bottle of Guinness
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (approximately)
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

How do you make it?
- Make sure you soak your beans in water overnight. When you're ready to start your chili, rinse thoroughly and pick through carefully to remove any small rocks or oddball beans. Add 'em to your crock pot.
- Add Guinness, tomato sauce, and seasonings and stir to mix thoroughly.
- Sauteé ground turkey in vegetable oil over medium heat, breaking into small pieces, until cooked through. Add to pot.
- Chop chicken breast into 1-inch cubes and sauteé until cooked through. Add to pot also.
- Cook on high for approximately 4-5 1/2 hours (or low for approximately 8 hours). Personally I prefer high. Also, use your own judgment as far as cooking time. Sometimes mine is done after 4 hours while other times it's closer to 5 1/2. (I usually stop mine cooking whenever the beans are fork-tender and it looks thick enough to suit my preference.) Chili's pretty fool-proof, so when it looks done to your liking, it probably is.
-You can also play with this recipe to suit your preferences. Do you like more sauce? Add a little water or use more Guinness. Taste it on a spoon a couple of times while it's cooking. Want it saltier? Go ahead and salt it until it tastes good to you. Add veggies if you want or choose different beans or meats. This is a very flexible recipe. Enjoy!

I really do get into these sharing moods from time to time. Lately I've been making these really delicious sliders for Seth and I to snack on sometimes. We've both always been addicted to mini burgers a la White Castle, but I prefer to cook my own versions of things like that a lot of the time, so I came up with my own super-flavorful recipe to try out for the Super Bowl back when that was going on. (You can't watch the Super Bowl without great snacks, right?) We had them again last night, and it occurred to me that some of my friends might like to try making these as well, so I took a quick (although not really great) photo this time around, and I am about to attempt writing out a recipe. They're so easy... and delicious, too. Easily one of Seth's very favorites.

What You Need

1 pound ground beef
1 packet McCormick's Santa Fe Chicken Seasoning
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Small soft potato rolls (you will need 10)
Cheese of your choice if desired (we like Velveeta)
Non-stick cooking spray

How To Make 'Em

- In a large mixing bowl, combine ground meat, seasoning, and bread crumbs until everything is evenly mixed. (I just use my hands to squish it all together the way you do when you make meatloaf.)

- Divide the mixture into ten equal parts and form each part into a small hamburger patty. Set them aside on a plate.

- Coat a grill pan (if you have one) or a skillet liberally with non-stick cooking spray and fry patties on medium high heat until they are cooked to your liking. Melt cheese on top if desired. Set aside.

- Carefully using a serrated knife, cut the potato rolls in half to make your hamburger buns. (You can also use hot dog rolls in a pinch, which is actually what I did for the burgers in the picture. Just cut them in half and trim the rounded ends so the rolls are more "square".)

- Assemble burgers and enjoy!

These are super flavorful, moist, and are almost a cross between normal hamburgers and meatloaf. The recipe for the meat mixture also makes truly delicious meatballs for spaghetti, so try it both ways. This is also a great one to play with. Try using different spice packets to put a different spin on yours, add a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce to the meat mixture before forming the patties, or experiment with different cheeses or rolls, too. I certainly do. This combo is probably my favorite though.

Who taught you how to cook?

Actually, although I did learn some of the basics from my mother growing up, I learned to cook almost completely due to a lifetime obsession with cooking shows. I've watched them from the time I was a little girl because I find them fascinating, well before Food Network or Emeril Lagasse or Iron Chef came along and made cooking "cool". I just have always loved hearing about different types of food, and seeing how different dishes are prepared in order to taste and look their best. I guess some of it started to stick after a while, because when I did become an adult and started cooking for myself, my friends, and my significant others, it turned put that I'm actually an excellent cook who knows how to cook almost anything. I guess in a way, cooking appeals to me because it can be very creative and artistic. There's something incredibly satisfying about taking a bunch of raw ingredients that probably aren't much on their own and turning them into a delicious meal for myself and my family.