Home free

So Keith has been out of town for the last two days and comes home tonight. I can barely remember any other time when he has gone out of town without me. I am always up and leaving him to go here, there and everywhere. So when this little trip came up, I got so excited about what I would do with my free time. Hurray! I could do anything I wanted, eat anything I wanted, accomplish any sweaty, annoying task I wanted.. So I watched loads of HGTV and Gilmore girls, made flan from scratch (astonishingly simple recipe at the end of this post), purged my pantry of everything that had already expired- some expiration dates were 2007!! Now I know that my grandma could beat me hands down on that. I'm sure she has things that expired in the 80s, but for someone who just started keeping their own house in 2006, it's pretty horrifying. I organized said pantry and it looks so beautiful! The only problem is that everything is exactly in its place and there is no room for anything else. So each time I find something randomly in my living room or bedroom that should be in my pantry (hey, I'm still new at this..), I freak out. And I'm looking at my grocery shopping list and having a little panic attack about where I will put the staples that I have run out of.
The other huge task that I accomplished was sorting through all of my clothes and getting them in the right place. Because of several trips and LOTs of laziness, I had accumulated quite a little pile of clothing on top of my dresser. Now the dresser top is visible again, my old, stained or torn clothes have been thrown away or put in Kitty's little house so she can rip them even more, my closet is organized and my drawers are full. What a good feeling.
Now I am surveying the house and I see a million other projects calling my name- sort through old mail and papers, take out the recycling, do laundry, straighten the living room, clean out the car so we can sell it, sweep the porch and replant the pots whose plants died..
I have one thing to say. COME HOME KEITH!!! I can't handle any more projects.


Frighteningly Easy Flan:
Mix together
8 eggs
1 can (14 oz) sweetened, condensed milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a pan, melt down 1 1/2 C sugar until it becomes a thin caramel and turns golden brown. (don't stir until it is pretty well melted!) Pour this caramel in the bottom of a 9" cake pan.
Add the egg/milk/vanilla mixture.
Put the cake pan in a larger pan with some water in it and bake at 300 degrees for 70 minutes. Run a knife around the edges and flip onto a plate (with edges to hold in the caramel!) and let cool.
The end.

Italian Lentil Salad

Ok, time to catch up on my Giada recipe adventures. Last Tuesday, I decided to make the Italian Lentil Salad. Obviously, it has lots of lentils in it.. So I cooked those up in a sauce pan. Then, you chop up and add all of these things:

 Back to front, left to right, grapes, hazelnuts, cucumber, scallions, bell pepper, and then the lemon you use for zest and juice. You mix all of this with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and then you serve your cold salad. Easy enough, right? I hadn't counted on this..

 Hazelnuts. Apparently, they are the biggest pain in the behind EVER. I never knew this. I saw hazelnuts in the recipe and I thought back to my fond memories of cracking hazelnuts, almonds, and whatnot and eating them from the shells. We only pulled out the nutcracker at Christmas, so I had this warm Christmasy wave of nostalgia wash over me.
I went to Trader Joe's and bought a large bag of hazelnuts, thinking of all the fun things I would do with the rest of the nuts. I only needed half a cup for this recipe. Visions of hazelnut risotto and hazelnut cookies danced in my head.
As I looked over the recipe, I noticed that these hazelnuts should be skinned, roasted and chopped coarsely. Still naive, I googled 'skinned hazelnuts' and that is where the madness started. Apparently, there are 2 ways you can skin hazelnuts. And also apparently, hazelnuts are terribly bitter if you leave the skin on. Believe me, my lazy self considered this option.
One way to skin hazelnuts involves boiling them in hot water and a few tablespoons of baking soda for a few minutes, then rinsing them individually under cold water and 'popping' the skins off. Then, since the hazelnuts have absorbed so much moisture, you put them on a pan and roast them in the oven.
The second method is to throw the skinful hazelnots on a baking sheet, roast them, and then put the hot hazelnuts between 2 towels (that you don't care about) and rub them together until the skins come off. According to my sources, this method is time consuming and less effective than the first.
I chose the second method. Laziness aside, I just couldn't quite face boiling nuts in baking soda. The picture above is the aftermath. As you can see in the first picture and the picture below, though, I think I did a fairly decent job.

So this is the finished product. I would give it a thumbs-middle. It was ok and the grapes and hazelnuts made it really interesting texturally. Bu, I kept getting bites that tasted like a mouthful of vinegar. And there was no vinegar in it! I'm thinking it might have been the scallions. Maybe if I try it again, I would use red onions instead.
Oh, and hazelnut risotto? Suddenly sounds atrocious.

Brisket part 1

One great memory I have from college involves a certain brisket made by my best friend's mom. At certain InterVarsity functions, she would come and cook for the group and make this brisket. It was amazing. Melt-in-your-mouth beef. Since I have gotten married, I have always looked longingly at the brisket at the grocery store, but have never been brave enough to try it myself.
Until now. It helped that the meat was on super-sale, so at least if I ruin it completely I won't feel too bad about throwing away my money.
Being the foresightful planner I am, I shot an e-mail off last night to both Kristina and Jen, demanding their mother's recipe. I told them I needed the recipe by this morning, or else. Needless to say, there was no recipe in my inbox this morning. So I threw some random things in the crockpot and we'll see. I decided I should write this down so that in case it should turn out well, I would be able to replicate it. And, I guess, in case it turns out terribly, I'll know what to avoid.
On the bottom of the crockpot:
2 onions, quartered
1 celery stalk, cut into 1 inch pieces.
2 cloves of garlic, rough chopped
2 dried chipotle peppers
1 bay leaf

On the meat:
fresh ground pepper
ground cumin
onion powder
garlic powder

Poured over all:
3/4 cup of liquid that included
Soy sauce
worcestershire sauce
beef boulion
hot water
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt

I seared the brisket before I thought of the little spice rub, so I put those dry spices on AFTER it was seared. I think if I did it again, I would do that before I seared it, possibly even overnight.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Lentil soup

I made some lentil soup today. Here's how it went:

1> Cut up onion, celery, carrots and garlic and sautee in some olive oil.

2> Add in some chicken stock (vegetable, if you are a vegetarian). I would add this whole carton.

Just look at this swirlin' goodness.

3> Go through the lentils, pick out any little rocks or wierd lookin' lentils.
Rocks and wierds are top right. Bottom left is a little fish. Yes, this is supposed to be my fish cutting board. I don't cook much fish.

Quick side note about lentils- today I used just the regular old greeny-greyish lentils. They're pretty good. The best lentils for soup, in my opinion, are the little red ones.

4> Rinse lentils in water. Pour off the water, including anything that floats.

5> Add lentils into the stock and vegetable mix.

6> Flavorings- a bay leaf, ground coriander, ground cumin, juice of 1/2 a lemon.

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30-40 minutes.

Finished product:

This bready goodness on the side is some italian bread, spread with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic salt, italian spices, and parmesan cheese, and put under the broiler for a few minutes. Try it. You'll never be the same.

Cheesecake- phase 1

So I am in the middle of my cheesecake adventure and thought I would share my progress. This recipe is from Ina Garten and you can find it at
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/mixed-berry-cheesecake-recipe/index.html

Here's what I've done so far:
1: Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 TBSP melted butter
1 TBSP sugar
Mix together, pat into the bottom of a spring-form pan and about 1" up the sides.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Then, set it aside to let it cool and bump up the oven to 450

2: Filling

The cast:
2 1/2 lbs. cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs and 2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream (cutest measuring cup ever!!)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 TBSP lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
Disclaimer-The olive oil in the picture is just a backdrop. It is NOT one of the ingredients.

Side note: Surely the 1/4 cup of LIGHT sour cream will counteract the large tower of full-fat cream cheese. Right?..

Mix, add, mix, add..

The last step- adding the sour cream. You can also see the lemon zest, and the dark liquid making a ruckus in the corner is the vanilla. Probably should not have used dark vanilla.

Mix, mix, mix..

Then, finally, you pour it into your cooled crust.

Since this is my first attempt at cheesecake, I made a little extra one so that I could taste it before taking it to the family Christmas eve party without cutting into it.

Now it's in the oven. And smelling AMAZING! Too bad the baking process takes an entire day!! I will try to snap a picture of the finished product tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Better-for-you Fried Chicken

Here is my attempt to be like the Pioneer Woman (http://thepioneerwoman.com/) and write up a recipe with pictures. Please excuse the picture fuzziness, as my camera doesn't do well with low light and my kitchen is basically a galley.

This recipe is one of Keith's favorites and I think it's somewhat healthier than regular fried chicken, but I haven't done the calorie count, so who really knows?

First, you cut up your boneless, skinless chicken into smaller pieces. Then, get out two random dishes. I used a bread pan and a strange-shaped bowl. One is for your wet ingredients and the other is for the dry stuff.

The wet ingredients: one egg, some buttermilk (1/3 cup? I don't measure), season salt and ground pepper. Mix together with a fork.

Here are your dry ingredients. You can leave stuff out or add other stuff in as you see fit. You can see that this is a very precise science.

Bread crumbs- I use panko, will be the the bulk of your dry ingredients. Maybe 1 cup? Parmesan cheese will be next- maybe 1/4 cup (forgot to add it to the lineup for the picture), then ever so much season salt, garlic powder, ground pepper, cayenne pepper, and just a little Italian seasoning. Don't overdo it on the cayenne.

Next, heat an iron skillet on medium and heat some olive oil. 3 TBSP?

Then, dip your chicken into the wet stuff.. There you are, parmesan! You missed your group photo.

Then the dry stuff...

Then you put it on the pan. The real trick of this recipe is getting all of your chicken pieces to fit on the pan. Success!
You'll cook them for 5 minutes or so, then flip
Cook on that side for another 5 or so minutes. I usually turn on the oven at the beginning to 375 or so and stick the pan in the oven after the chicken is brown on both sides because I'm psycho about overcooking my chicken so I don't get salmonella. Better safe than sorry.

Here's the finished product:

For this particular meal, I just cooked up some broccoli to serve with it. Other times, I have served the chicken with baked beans, baked butternut squash, potatoes, etc.

Now, go get cooking! My next cooking project? A cheesecake. We'll see how it goes. Or if it goes at all.

Chicken pasta

So here is a new recipe that is so easy and tasty that I make it probably twice a week. It's basically pasta with some kind of meat, some vegetables, and parmesan cheese. I'll write up the chicken version here.
Ingredients:
Pasta
Onion
Garlic
Spinach
Tomatoes
Chicken
Parmesan cheese
Lemon zest

1. Start a pot of water boiling for the pasta. Add salt once it starts boiling.
2. In a skillet, sautee some whole cloves of garlic (maybe cut in half), and a small onion, minced, in some olive oil over low heat.
3. Add 2 cubed chicken breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cook through on medium heat.
4. Remove the garlic chunks.
5. To the skillet, add a bag of spinach and let it wilt down.
6. At this point, add the pasta to the water, if it is ready. Right now I am using no yolk egg pasta to bump up the protein. You could use whatever kind you have handy.
7. Add cut up tomatoes to the chicken and spinach. I like to use grape tomatoes and cut them in halves or quarters. If I only have a big tomato or a roma tomato, I just cut it down to size.
8. Once the tomatoes are hot, add the whole mix to the drained pasta. and mix it together.
9. Add about 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese and mix it in. I also like to add some lemon zest to brighten up the flavor- about 1/4 teaspoon.

*I've also made this pasta with bacon instead of chicken and it is AMAZING!!