Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

Breakfast, Anyone?

Yes, I know I said I was back.  Yes, I know I've been a bad blogger.  Yes, I'm going to try to be better.  No, I have no excuse.   Just, hope you still love me.  :)

This morning I got my cooking bug back when I realized that we have no decent food in the house, I'm without my van for the weekend (power steering system is being completely replaced), don't want to drive the car to the store, and I'm hungry.  Nothing fancy, but some muffins sounded good and I tried out ones with dried cranberries, apples and pecans.

Two for the Price of One

Yesterday Adrienne had an eye doctor appointment after school to update her glasses prescription and order a new pair so dinner had to either be take-out, something quick, or ready when we got home.  I opted for the "ready when we got home" and tried a new crockpot recipe for chili.

Liam likes his chili with just "beans and sauce" so this was perfect for him.  The meat in it?  Fresh chorizo.  I'd never worked with the "tube" of chorizo that you find by the sausage section of the supermarket -- and it wasn't what I was expecting.  The recipe stated to cook the chorizo and then slice it when it's done but when I cooked it (no casing) it almost disintegrated leaving a very fine paste.  I was seriously worried about the taste and texture of the final dish but I have to say I was impressed.  Just the right amount of spice and a good texture.

When we were eating it last night I realized it was the perfect consistency for a topping for hot dogs or even french fries so tonight's dinner idea was born ... chili dogs (and Travis' request chili cheese fries).  Great way for me to use up the leftover chili and the kids are happy because they get hot dogs.  :)

 

Start of a Trend?

Hmmm... blogging 2 days in a row.  I hope this is the start of a trend to get me back to blogging reguarly.  Tonight's dish?  A pasta I found in November's Everyday Food magazine ... Spaghetti with Sweet Sausage and Cabbage.

How was it?  It was good but a bit too greasy (from the sasusage).  I opted to use spicy sausage instead of sweet and I'm glad I did because it added a nice bite.  It really reminded me of my mom's cabbage and noodles -- which is basically cabbage saute'd in butter and then mixed with either egg or bow tie noodles.  (That, by the way, happens to be a favorite of my brother.)  No, I don't believe I would make this again.  While it was eaten (by everyone but Liam who had plain spaghetti) it didn't receive big rounds of applause.

What? A Post?

I know, I know .. I haven't updated the blog in ... oh ... way more days (months) than I'd like to admit.  I could give some excuses, but I'm not about excuse so, I'm just going to say I think I'm back.  :)

While I did make a nice Thanksgiving dinner, I still wasn't in a blogging mood so I didn't get any photos of it... so I'll have to make this first post about what I made Travis and I for dinner tonight ... shrimp and potatoes.

The recipe was one I modified from November's Everyday Food magazine ... Shrimp with Scallions and Crispy Potatoes.   The original recipe uses curry powder as the seasoning and while I would have enjoyed that, Travis isn't a big curry fan so I opted to dump some Old Bay Seasoning on it instead.  Diced potatoes stir fried with some scallions and then mixed with shrimp .. easy and delicious.

Pretty Easy and Delicious

One of my favorite recipes that I don't make very often is stromboli.  Meat, cheese, roasted peppers, sauteed mushrooms and onions all wrapped up in a dough and baked.

This is a recipe that I've had for several years now and even blogged about before but I thought it deserves a repeat.  Really it's a little time consuming, but the end result is worth it.  (And it really is easy to make).  This last time I made it I forgot the cheese inside so that's why I put some cheese on the top of the dough.  I'd really NOT recommend forgetting the cheese -- the cheese does a good job melting the inside ingredients together and helping it stay together to eat as finger food.

See, doesn't that look good?  :-)

Sap!

I know I don't mention it often, but our family (minus Don) are all addicted to World of Warcraft (WoW).  With the announcement of a release date of the expansion this week, I thought I'd share with you the comic Liam drew:

A little background first before I try to explain it...  For those of you that don't know, WoW is a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) with over 10 million subscribers.  It's a multi-faceted game that's really pretty simple to play but has complexities to it.  On the surface, it looks like your goal is to get your character to level 70 (soon to be 80 in the expansion) but it really is so much more.  One of the parts Liam likes is battlegrounding.  What that means is you pit yourself and your allies against an equal number or the opposing faction.  Each character class has a different set of abilities:  both in strengths and weaknesses.

One of the abilities of a rogue is to Sap people.  That means he sneaks up to you stealthed, and hits you so you're unable to move.  In the game when you (or anyone) gets sapped there's a swirly circle above your head until you can move again.  Hence, that's what the red circles above the guys heads are.  The little bubble states "No Wonder They Win"  since all the characters except one are sapped.  (And btw, the guy on the left side that's lying down is a hunter that has feigned death but is still sapped.) 

This probably makes NO sence to anyone that doesn't play, but I thought I needed to share it -- he did a great job. :)

If you're curious, here's our character breakdown:  Liam has a lvl 54 hunter, Adrienne has a lvl 43 mage, Travis has a lvl 70 priest, a lvl 70 warrior, and a lvl 46 mage, and I have a lvl 70 paladin, a lvl 70 warlock, and a lvl 50 rogue.  Wanna play?

Mmmmm Brisket

Paula (from The Cookbook Junkie) asked me in the comments section yesterday if my health "issues" were due to a bun in the oven ... well, I'd rather be able to say "yes" then the truth which is at this point I still don't know what the problem is.  Since the end of June I've had varying symptoms -- the worst of which has been debilitating chest pains -- but now is mostly just stomach upset when I eat certain things (but I never know just what will set it off or how badly it will be set off).  I've been to a cardiologist so my heart is fine (thankfully!) and he put me on some acid reflux meds which have really helped.  I go back to him next month and we'll see where we go from there.  So, that's one of the reasons I've been negligent on the blog -- though since feeling better slightly it's easier for me to cook (and post!).  BTW, thanks to everyone who stuck around in my absence ... I appreciate it!

Now on to some food ...

This last week on my Costco trip I picked up a brisket thinking I might use my standard Ina Garten recipe but opted instead to try a new one.   The new one comes from Emeril and is beer braised instead of the tomato braised and I think just about as good as the Ina recipe.  My brother was over for dinner last night too and he said that while they were both different from each other, they were each very good.  One of the things I liked about Emeril's recipe is that you put the vegetables in about an hour before it's done so they have a little more texture to them -- but as my brother said last night also, mushy veggies are good too.

My only changes to the recipe were that I didn't brown the brisket before I put it into the oven, I omitted the tomato paste and doubled the amount of beer and beef broth.  Next time I might even triple the amount of liquid because there wasn't anything left in the pan after I took it out.  (Oh, and I cooked it for about 4 hours.)

Luckily I have leftovers today for lunch (as long as they'll agree with me!)

White Chili

In my quest to find quick, easy, healthy meals I came across this recipe for white chili.  I was thinking this is a unique way to make it -- cook the "chili" part of it separately from the chicken (which you grill) and then combine it all together.

How was it?  Well, I don't think I'll make it again.  I didn't eat it (my stomach still isn't behaving itself) but Don and the kids just gave it an "eh".  I mean, it got eaten, but not gobbled.  Hence, I'm not posting the recipe... but if you'd like it (and it looks good to you!), click on the above link and it will take you to it on Food Network's site.

In other "news", Liam's second soccer game yesterday was another win.  Yeah!  I'm so glad he has fun playing soccer -- he played the first 3 quarters and thankfully it wasn't as hot as it was last weekend.  (Though the game was at 8am so that helped).

A Crockpot Recipe that Works

Thanks, everyone.  I'm glad to be back.  :-)

While I was on my hiatus from blogging I took maybe 2 pictures of things I could share.  I'm not proud to say that over the last 2 months we've eaten a lot of quick throw together things as well as a number of take out meals.  When you don't feel good it's hard to get excited about cooking (or anything for that matter).

One of the meals that I actually cooked and we liked came out of the Crockpot cookbook Better Homes & Gardens Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes.  It's not very exciting, but it worked.

Yes, it's a pasta sauce recipe.  Unfortunately it's not just a "throw all together in the morning and let it cook all day recipe" but it was nice that it was ready to eat when we were and at 5:00 I didn't have to stand and cook.  The original recipe says you can cook it all day (well, 6 to 8 hours), but in the past I've found if you cook Italian sausage all day in the crockpot it gets, well, mushy and unappetizing.  I opted to throw all the actual sauce ingredients into the crockpot in the early morning and then about 2 hours before dinner throw in the browned sausage (and mushrooms).  All in all something I could happily repeat again.

Almost A Month

Yes, I know it's been a month since I've posted (sigh).   No excuses, no complaints, just an "I'm back, thanks for sticking it out with me".  :-)

While I don't have anything foody to share with you today, I wanted to put a shout out to Liam's new soccer team - the Infernos.  Their first game was last weekend and it was SO hot.  Game time was at 11:45 and the temperature was already over 100.

Liam had to play the entire game (we only had 7 players show up) and during the 4th quarter it was all he could do to walk after the ball (poor kid was so hot and tired!)  They all played a great game, though, and won 6-0.   I'm hoping this will be a great start to a great season.

Thankfully our game this Saturday is at 8am -- it will actually be pleasant outside and we won't have to melt.  (I feel sorry for the poor goalies who have to wear long sleeve shirts and gloves!)

GO INFERNOS!

That's Some Spicy Shrimp

If you've been reading for a while, you've probably noticed that I don't cook much seafood.  The unfortunate part is that no one in the house likes it except for Travis and I -- and I feel it's a waste of my time to make something for just he and I when I'd have to turn around and create something different for everyone else.  (Not to mention the incredible mess that would make.)  However, since my brother comes over on Saturday nights to join us for dinner (and he likes seafood), I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try out a new recipe:  green shrimp curry.

Basically it's shrimp simmered in a coconut green curry paste sauce and then topped with sliced chilies, fresh basil leaves and strips of cucumber.  It was so delicious -- but it was also very very spicy.  My brother and I both agreed that we liked the green curry taste but would love to try the same recipe using red curry paste instead ... the flavor is a little richer.  Definitely something I'd like to repeat!

Breadsticks

Yesterday was Don's birthday so I told him to decide what he wanted me to cook for dinner.  For me if someone asked I'd probably come up with something exotic and out of the ordinary but he just wanted spaghetti and sausage.  To make it seem I did a little more work then just throw that together I opted to make some homemade breadsticks to go with it.

The unfortunate part?  I thought they'd like the harder kind of breadsticks to dip into their spaghetti sauce but it was received as a "eh, don't do that again".  I'm sure by today they'll be fine (I put them into a zipper top bag to soften up) but last night, while they were eaten, they weren't inhaled.

Ehh... Muffins

If you've noticed, I've done a little more baking than usual lately -- or I should say my kids have gotten into cooking and they've been doing a little more baking than usual.

This is another recipe from Muffins Galore by Catherine Atkinson that Travis tried out while my mom was here.  The title is "Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins" and use a chocolate muffin batter with a cheesecake-ish filling topped with almonds.

How were they?  Eh .. not memorable.   Amazingly they didn't have much flavor and didn't seem to be worth eating.  (Though refrigerating them seemed to help their texture.)  So, a recipe we won't be making again.  (Makes a great looking photo though!)

What else is happening around here?  Well, our beautiful new pool has not been getting the workout I thought it would -- Liam developed his first ever ear infection so he's been banned until at least Wednesday.  The weather has just been miserably hot (like 108) so we've all been staying inside as much as possible (and to the kids happiness they've been play Warcraft a little more than I would like).  Oh and speaking of Warcraft, Travis got his 2nd character ('toon) to 70 last night with a little help from me and another player so he's a happy camper.

Happy Monday all!

Banana Snack Cake

For lunch every day Liam eats a peanut butter sandwich with bananas, spicy hot cheetos and baked Lay's potato chips.  I'm not quite sure how that ritual started, but that's what's on his menu daily.  Once school starts we'll have to come up with another meal (peanut butter/banana sandwiches don't transport well) but for now I have to make sure to always have bananas in the house.

Always having bananas in the house also means several times a week we have old bananas in the house.  (Liam only likes them when they're yellow with no brown spots -- I think he gets that from me.)  So instead of throwing them away I really like to find good ways to use them.  Last week when my mom was here I assigned Adrienne to bake this cake while I was out running errands.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?  Adrienne had a few issues with the baking of it (like spilling ingredients on the counter, not reading the recipe all the way through first, forgetting to preheat the oven) but even with the mishaps it came out good and we ate our way through it in a couple of days.

A Little Different

How many cooking magazines do you subscribe to?  I think my list is down to about 4 but still one of my favorites is Eating Well.  It's not the biggest cooking magazine out there, and unfortunately it's not published monthly, but usually the recipes are pretty down to earth and look delicious.

A few weeks ago I felt like something a little different and chose their Middle Eastern Chickpea Platter. 

A salad made of eggplant, garlic and chickpeas in a tahini based dressing, add some Kalamata olives, feta cheese, tomatoes and pita bread and you've got a light, healthy delicious meal for summer.

The big question is how did everyone like it ... Travis, my brother and I really liked it.  Don I don't think was crazy about it and Adrienne and Liam didn't even give it a shot (good thing they like pasta with parmesan cheese!).  I'm not sure I'd make it again anytime soon (mainly because I hate having to make multiple meals) but it's something to keep in mind when you're looking for something light, fresh and tangy.

Lisa commented about yesterday's post and asked what I served the dip with -- they're Plantain chips from Trader Joe's (what was recommended).  And by the way, I tried the leftovers yesterday and they just weren't good straight from the refrigerator.  I think the tang of the cotija mixed with the slightly metallic taste of cilantro clashed.  So if you are going to make that dip, I don't think I'd save the leftovers.