Drink your dinner, the confession

Confession time.

When I wrote the blog about how the limoncello turned out, I said it was yummy. And it was.

It also was, waaaaaaay too sweet for me. So sweet, in fact, that I put it where all my ruined recipes go.

Note to self and to everyone - make the simple syrup with 1/2 the amount of sugar. Please, I beg of you.

:)

Itsy bitsy burgers

How does that Jack in the Box commercial go again? Oh ya, "yippe-ki-o, mi-ni sirloin burgerrrrrs"

I need to begin by confessing that I don't have any pictures to post with this blog (yet..) you will just have to regress back to childhood and use your imagination. I don't have any pictures because as soon as I made em...they were gone, which is a good thing. But not a good thing for blogging.

Raise your hand if you have been to Costco and seen the itsy bitsy hamburger buns? They are just the cutest things ever, just begging to be purchased! Isn't everything at Costco begging to be purchased though?

I will tell you that the first time I made these (yes, I have made them twice without taking pictures) I didn't used any special tools, grilling baskets or measuring scoops. I made them in a regular old frying pan and guessed at the size. The key to these little darlins is not to over cook them. I decided to time them on each side and undercooked them by just a teence. Another key is to add some kind of fat to them to help ensure they don't dry out even if you are lucky enough not to over cook them. My chosen fat was shredded cheddar jack from Costco. Any finely shredded fatty cheese would do the trick I imagine, use what you have. I had shredded cheddar jack. The second time I made them, I purchased a medium cookie scoop, scooper thing to keep them the same size and I also got a cool slider griller basket thing from Williams Sonoma. I liked this one the best because you can put it on the grill - remove the handle and shut the grill. Not that I have used it yet, but...that is what the directions said you do.

I made two kinds, turkey and beef (beef for the kids). There won't be a recipe at the end of this either (quit yer cryin) but, what I will do is explain the main concept of what I did. Even I didn't use a recipe.

No recipe. I know, right?

Ok, for the turkey ones I started with a package of ground turkey. I added a 3 count squirt of ketchup, what may have amounted to 1/2 cup of shredded cheese and about 1tbl or so of the everyday seasoning that we use at my house. You want flavor but you don't want too much seasoning. You can always add more right? I made the patties fairly thin because they will shrink up during the cooking and you want patties not meatballs. Plus, it will reduce the cooking time and theoretically...produce a juicer burger. I am not a scientist, but it makes sense doesn't it? I, personally, fried them in a bit of vegetable oil on a medium highish heat for 2 minutes per side in batches. Drain on a paper towel and build your burgers how you would.

For the beef ones, I did the exact same thing..minus the ketchup.

As you can imagine, they turned out super cute. They made good snacks the next day for the kids too! Next time, I may even take some pictures....


Everyday spice:

1 Part Granulated Onion
1 Part Granulated Garlic
1 Part Med ground black pepper
1 ½ Parts Table Salt

Drink your dinner...the conclusion

It's been more than a week but I am back to tell you the conclusion of how the Limoncello turned out! I've been busy, ok?

Can I tell you how yummy this liquor is? Yummy. Not, yum-o as Rachael Ray will say. I don't believe that you should invent a new language when we have a perfectly good one which will express the same thing!

The only problem with this recipe is you don't get instant gratification AND you need cutsie glasses to drink it in. It is for sipping and you really don't want to make a huge cocktail out of it. Well, I guess you caaaaaan...but it's too sweet for me to do that.

Does this look good or what? I know right? I even went out and purchased some cutsie glasses. I am sure it's 5:00 somewhere!

Bulgar and Lentil Salad

Looking for a filling and healthy salad/snack? Stop right here because I have just the thing - Bulgar and Lentil salad. You don't even have to hug trees or wear socks with your sandals to like it.

The only thing is that you should make it a day prior to when you want to eat it because it needs to sit in the dressing and absorb the flavors but I like to make it on a Sunday for the week as a quick lunch or something to "hold me over" till dinner without reaching for chips, candy, brownies, Easter candy....well, you get it.

Bulgar and lentil salad – make at least 1 day ahead.

1 ½ cups boiling water – or veg/chicken stock
1 ½ cups bulgar
1 ½ cups dry lentils rinsed
½ cup diced green onion
½ cup minced fresh flat leaf parsley
Crumbled feta
Chopped tomatoes


Dressing: (I double it)
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 olive oil
1 tbl dried basil
1 tbl dill seed
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp salt

In a large bowl, pour boiling water over bulgur. Let stand until the liquid is absorbed about 45 minutes or so. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add lentils. Reduce heat and cover simmering until tender about 10-15 minutes. Drain. In another large bowl combine bulgur and lentils cool completely.

Add onions and parsley. In a jar with a tight fitting lid, combine the vinegar, oil and other spices. Shake to combine. Pour over salad, toss. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or best overnight. Before serving add feta to taste and chopped tomatoes.

Drink your dinner

A couple of summers ago, when I wasn't working and could cook waaaaaaay more often a friend turned me on to Limoncello. It's a sipping liquor and you can either buy it or make it. My friend made hers, so I am making mine. The only problem with making your own is the lack of instant gratification as it takes about a week or so. So set your timers for a week and I will update you on how it turned out!

So easy (and hopefully, so tasty). You take vodka, either plain or vanilla (I chose plain because flavored alcohol makes me gag) and you measure out 4 cups which turns out is roughly a fifth of the stuff. Into a glass bowl or in my case, a Pyrex measuring thingie add the rind (no white stuff) of about 5 large lemons. Let that sit for a week at room temperature lightly covered (so nothing falls in). Then, supposedly in a week, you make a simple sugar mixture and voila! Limoncello.

How to drink it......in a little glass you pour ice cold (not sure yet if you can keep it in the freezer) Limoncello. Add a lawn chair, sunglasses and a Summer day and there you have it. You won't care what's for dinner.




Ingredients:

The peels from 2 pounds of lemons (just the yellow)

4 cups of vodka (or reg or vanilla vodka…)

leave sit for one week (I cover loosely with plastic wrap to keep things from falling in it)

Then Combine:

4 cups of sugar with 4 cups of water in a sauce pan and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. ****revision**** Use 1/2 the amount of sugar with the same amount of water. Jimminy Crickets, this drink turned out like drinking melted lemon drop candies. If that is what you are in to....grrrrreat. If you are like me, just use 1/2 the amount of sugar.

cool

strain the lemon mixture and combine with the sugar solution

store in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Pizza Sticks

Who doesn't like pizza? It has to be one of the most versatile foods ever invented....you have a crispy crust topped with whatever you can think up! The only issue with me is trying to make it at home and not have a meltdown over it. If you follow this blog, you know what I mean.

So I am at Williams Sonoma (cue singing angels) and I see this nifty pan called a "pizza stick pan". Number one, I want an easy way to cook pizza at home and number two...I can always use another gadget. Bam, sold!

I hope you can tell from the picture, but the pan has 5 shallow wells in it and it is coated in this gold coating that I have been seeing more and more of. It's non stick but looks different. The pan also comes with a handy dandy cutter so the dough fits perfectly in the wells.

Top it with sauce and whatever, bake them at 450 (I think) and you are in business. I have made them two times..one time it worked (pictures attached) the second time I did something wrong because it so didn't work. Note to self: When rising the pizza dough in the oven with the oven off...don't try to get ahead of yourself and pre-heat the oven for the actual pizza sticks. It wrecks the dough. I'm just sayin.

I think these are a cool invention and everyone gets their own pizza to top.





Pizza Sauce

1 6oz can tomato paste
6 oz warm water 110 degrees…but hot tap will be fine
3 tbl grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp of honey
¾ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp dried marjoram
¼ tsp dried basil
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt to taste

In a small bowl, combine everything (water last) and let sit for 30 minutes or longer to let flavors blend. Spread over pizza dough, top and bake – yum


Pizza Dough

3cups flour
1 package active dry yeast
2 tbl vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1 tbl granulated sugar
1 cup warm tap water – 110 degrees at least.

Combine flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. When a ball forms spray ball in the bowl with cooking spray or rub lightly with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes or so. (You don’t have to let the dough rise…it is perfectly good as is, but it just is a bit denser. If you can let it rise its just a bit chewier) I turn on the oven to about 280 degrees and put the oven safe bowl covered in there and turn off the oven. Rises fine.

After the rising, or after the mixing (if you aren’t rising) you can do 1 of 2 things:
1. Spread out on a large cookie sheet or pan. Top as desired. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or so.
2. If you have a pizza stone (how I do it with a pampered chef cookie sheet stone) preheat the stone in a 500 degree oven for 30 minutes. Spread the dough out onto parchment paper, top with toppings. Slide pizza onto either an inverted sheet pan or cookie sheet and slide from that onto the preheated stone for 15 or so minutes. To do a second pizza you only need to heat the stone for 5 minutes.
3. For pizza sticks, roll out the dough and use the cutter and continue with the pizza stick pan directions.
Yummy!

Supposed to be "poached" not overcooked salmon in sour cream dill sauce.

So I am at Costco (moment of silence...) last weekend and I am compelled to buy the new Bon Appetit magazine which features a yummy looking fillet of salmon on the cover. Doesn't that look yummy? I thought so too.


It looked so yummy that it inspired me to cook, or overcook..rather, salmon for last nights dinner. Did I set out to overcook dinner? I don't enjoy my food tantrums that bad. No, I just wanted a good piece of fish for dinner which doesn't seem too much to ask. You would think that I would just open my new magazine for a recipe but no, I head to the Internet. I guess $4.99 just bought me "inspiration" as opposed to actual recipes I want to use. I swear, only I would buy a gourmet food magazine only to search the Internet for a recipe where the main ingredient is FEATURED on the cover of the magazine. Maybe that should have been a red flag?

I decide to adapt a Cooks Illustrated recipe called "Poached salmon with dill and sour cream sauce". Mmmmmmmm. Doesn't that sound good? I know right? I make a list and run off to the store to get the ingredients (the salmon, I actually had). Oh, I was also excited that I got to use my Christmas saute pan for this recipe. I still haven't quite figured out how to cook normal food in it without needing a chisel to get the food out afterward. Woo hoo! Let's get this party started!

There is a bit of prep to do ahead where you slice lemons and mince shallots and put them in the pan with wine and water and dill stems. Lay your salmon fillets on top of the lemons, bring to a boil....reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 11-16 minutes until the internal temperature (make a note of this step) is 125 degrees. You take the temperature of the fish with an instant read thermometer. I am always excited to use my thermometer. So the timer gets set for 11 minutes and I am mincing dill and measuring out the other ingredients...making rice pilaf yada, yada. Timer goes off, I take the temperature and its barely 100. That's strange. The fish is looking done? Remembering back to the big cookie, and how that too, "looked" done. I set the timer for 4 more minutes and go back to finishing the rest of dinner. The timer goes off again, and as I remove the lid from the pan I instantly know something is amiss. The fish has shrunk and looks dry instead of moist (I can't describe it ....you would have to be there) and almost at the same time as I am reaching for my thermometer I see that it isn't set to Fahrenheit. It's set to Celsius. Celsius! At this point, I don't even NEED to take the internal temperature of the stupid fish to know it's overcooked. I add insult to injury and take the temperature and let's just say, it was way more that 125 degrees Fahrenheit. I announce the "fish is overcooked" and get the response "I'm sure it will be fine". There is a sauce with this recipe so now my thought is to smother the fish in the sauce and it should help. That probably would have been true except this sauce is made with lemon juice, Dijon mustard and shallots. Not the kind of sauce that you want to "smother" anything in really.

So anyways...I did smother the fish with the sauce. The fish was horribly overcooked. I have two more dinners worth of overcooked fish to eat which I guess serves me right.



Here's the recipe. Make sure your thermometer is set to Fahrenheit. Far-en-height!

Ingredients
2 lemons
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill fronds , plus 8-12 dill stems
2 small shallots , minced (about 4 tablespoons)
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup water
1 skinless salmon fillet (1 3/4 to 2 pounds), about 1 1/2 inches at thickest part, white membrane removed, fillet cut crosswise into 4 equal pieces (see note)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions
1. Cut top and bottom off 1 lemon; cut into 8 to ten 1/4-inch-thick slices. Cut remaining lemon into 8 wedges and set aside. Arrange lemon slices in single layer across bottom of 12-inch skillet. Scatter dill stems and 2 tablespoons minced shallots evenly over lemon slices. Add wine and water.

2. Place salmon fillets in skillet, skinned-side down, on top of lemon slices. Set pan over high heat and bring liquid to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until sides are opaque but center of thickest part is still translucent (or until instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part registers 125 degrees), 11 to 16 minutes. Remove pan from heat and, using spatula, carefully transfer salmon and lemon slices to paper towel-lined plate and tent loosely with foil.

3. Return pan to high heat and simmer cooking liquid until slightly thickened and reduced to 2 tablespoons, 4 to 5 minutes. Strain cooking liquid through fine-mesh strainer into medium bowl; discard solids. Return strained liquid to skillet; whisk in Dijon mustard and remaining 2 tablespoons shallot. Simmer over high heat until slightly thickened and reduced to 2 tablespoons. Whisk in sour cream and juice from 1reserved lemon wedge; simmer 1 minute. Remove from heat; whisk in 2 tablespoons unsalted butter and 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill fronds. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Season salmon lightly with salt and pepper. Using spatula, carefully lift and tilt salmon fillets to remove lemon slices. Place salmon on serving platter or individual plates and spoon sauce over top. Serve, passing reserved lemon wedges separately.

The last cheesecake recipe you will ever need.

Cheesecake is just one of those things, isn't it? You either like it or don't. Usually, the cheesecake you get in restaurants is so heavy that you can barely manage one or two bites without feeling overcome with richness. I am not much of a dessert person (it's all about the salt, baby) but when I do eat dessert, I want something light that won't push me over the "bad full" edge. Readers, you know what I am talking about. You go out to eat. You are full after dinner but want dessert because they flaunt the dessert tray right under your nose. You are overtaken by the Jedi mind tricks of the server and BAM! now you are "bad full". Not just full, but unbutton you pants, wish you hadn't been born full. And really, who wants that?

Holy waaaaay off track, Batman. So as I was saying...

I have in my possession, the bestest cheesecake recipe in the universe. I got it from a co-worker about 1 million years ago in a galaxy far, far away. No, but really I used to work in this office and we would have these quarterly pot lucks in the department. One time my co worker brought this cheesecake and I had an out of body experience. She was kind enough to share the recipe which she got from this B&B she and her husband went to once. It is everything that the typical cheesecake is not: It's Light, it's silky and not, and I repeat not heavy!

I bet you could even eat two pieces and still not be "bad full".

I usually serve it with raspberry sauce which gives it a slightly sweet note to the cheesecakes tartness and it's a really good balance. This time, I just put a bunch of fresh strawberries in the food processor and added a bit of sugar. But it's very good just plain. I have been making this recipe for, *ahem* over 14 years and I swear by it.


Buckle your seat belts, you won't use another cheesecake recipe ever again.

(Excuse the crumbs all over the cheesecake in this picture....there were issues getting it onto the plate.)

Crust

2 packages graham crackers

4 tbl unsalted butter

2 1/2 tbl sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Process the above in a food processor pulsing until the crackers are uniform crumbs. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a 10 inch spring form pan. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned. cool on a wire rack.

Filling

2-8oz packages cream cheese (softened)

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. Process all the filling ingredients in a food processor until the mixture is smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and process again to insure that the mixture is well blended. Pour into prepared crust and bake for 25 minutes. Cool 30 minutes.

Topping

2 cups sour cream

2 tbl sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 425. Blend together all ingredients. Cover the cream cheese mixture with the topping. Spoon it on so that it doesn't sink into the cheesecake. Return to the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, cool and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

This isn't the quickest recipe on the planet and you should plan to make it in the morning for that nights dinner so it has time to chill. It is great leftover.

Raspberry sauce - because Sascha will ask.... love you Sasch, muwah!

1 package frozen raspberries, sweetened if you can find them. If not, just get regular and add a teence of sugar.

Let them thaw completely in the sink (still in the package).

Put them in a strainer and press with a spoon to get the juice out leaving the seeds in the strainer. Voila! Raspberry sauce for your cheesecake.

A hot mess

I asked Chris what he wanted for his birthday dinner this year and he said 1. Lasagna and 2. Carrot cake. Sounds simple enough.

Wanting to impress him I decided to make a layer carrot cake. Layered! Dummy. My neighbor, Amy (the friend who bakes) kindly loaned me her round cake pans since I don't own any (for obvious reasons) and I went to work. So I am going along and I have the parchment paper buttered and floured in the cake pans which are also buttered and floured, I go to put the batter in and I am not paying attention to how full these pans are getting (as you will see). In the oven they go. Now, it's President's Day and I am off work doing laundry...baking this cake..blah.blah..blah. After about oh, 15 minutes I start to notice a burned food smell coming from the kitchen. I am thinking that maybe something is burning on the bottom of the oven from before. I open the oven door, smoke POURS out and here is what I see:

Let me explain what you are looking at here - we have our 2 cake pans on the top rack which have (and are currently as I snap this picture) overflowing down both racks and ultimately pooling in a big burning mess on the bottom of the stove and the oven element.

Nice.

I don't have enough ingredients to make this cake again so I make the executive decision to put a sheet pan under the mess and keep em' baking. Figuring that I can clean the oven later and hopefully the cake that stays in the pan will bake up fine and can be frosted and salvaged into a birthday cake.

The cakes finished baking, I cleaned the oven (well, scraped all the burned cake out) and cooled them. I had to do a bit of creative carving to get the cakes to release from the pans because they were essentially baked around the edge of the pans but I got them out and cooled. Here is what a frosted hot mess looks like:

Not the prettiest cake in the land, but it was good. I am proud of myself that I pulled it off and didn't panic.

Mmmmmm, cake.

Hot Mess Carrot Cake (as adapted from Food and Wine as adapted from Maria)

1 cup pecans
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup buttermilk
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 lb carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
2 tbl fresh grated ginger

1. Preheat oven to 325. Butter two 9-in cake pans, line bottom with parchment. Butter the paper and flour the pans.
2. Make the cake: Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and toast for 8 minutes. Cool and finely chop. I used a food processor.
3. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a small bowl, whisk the oil, buttermilk vanilla and ginger.
4. In a mixer, beat the eggs and sugar at high speed until pale, 5 minutes. Beat in the liquid ingredients. Beat in the dry ingredients just until moistened. Stir in the carrots and pecans. Divide the batter between the pans (uh, but do not over fill) and bake the cakes for 55 to 1 hour until springy and golden. Let the cakes cool on a rack for 30 minutes, then unmold them and let them cool completely on the racks.

Frosting
2 Sticks unsalted butter softened
2 8oz packages of cream cheese
1 tbl vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

In a mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese at high speed until light, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla, then the powdered sugar. Beat at low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Frost the cake.

The coolest thing ever

The kids like to take juice, lemonaide or whatever and make popsicles. Fine. The popsicle thing we used to have until it got "lost" *wink* was this plastic thing that would fall over in the freezer and sticky crap would go all over the place. Then, it was "lost". The kind of lost that annoying toys your relatives give your kids that won't turn off or shut up get. That's the kind of "lost" I mean.

The kids have lost uncounted amounts of time looking for the lost popsicle mold thing. They want me to buy another one. Well, shut my mouth because I have found the coolest thing ever.

Enter, the ZOKU popsicle machine at Williams Sonoma. You put the base in the freezer and them when that is frozen, you insert the sticks...pour in juice or kool aid and the popsicles freeze right in front of you in about 10 minutes. Rad huh? I got it for them for Valentines Day and usually I don't buy gifts for them on that day..just candy. This was an exception. Ahhhhh. No more spilled coke in the freezer. And it's interactive.

Like, it's totally awesome.

Tortellini and Sausage Soup

Soup sounded good for dinner. What kind of soup? I was shocked and surprised when Chris actually suggested I make a new recipe. Woot, woot. Usually this is how it goes.
Me - "What sounds good for dinner?"
Chris - "I don't know honey, I am easy"
Me - "Something has to sound good"
Chris - "Everything you make is good"
Me -"No, but are you in the mood for something in particular?"
Chris - "How about macaroni and cheese?"
Me - "sigh......"

So I went on the search for a new recipe and this Tortellini and Sausage Soup is adapted from 3 recipes I found on the Internet.

Ingredients:
1 lb sweet Italian sausage (I used Insernos Italian chicken sausage)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups beef broth (I used Swanson's beef stock, not broth)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup red wine
4 large tomatoes - peeled, seeded and chopped
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
About 6 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 small can of tomato sauce
1-2 small zucchini cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 lb tortellini

Directions:
1. In a stock pot, brown sausage. Remove sausage and drain reserving 1 tbl of drippings.
2. Saute onions and garlic in drippings. Stir in broth, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil, oregano, tomato sauce and sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.
3. Stir in zucchini and simmer covered for 20 minutes. Add tortellini during the last 8 minutes.

Ok, first off here are some specifics on how I actually cooked this:
1. For the sausage, I browned it whole in the pot and let it rest and then cut it down the center and then in 1/2 circles. I used Italian chicken sausage because I don't like how fatty and gristly regular pork sausage is. I almost bought Adeles already cooked Italian chicken/turkey sausage but the sodium content made me run screaming away.
2. For the onions, Chris hates them. As someone who loves to cook, that is just crazy talk. How can you develop flavor without onions? The answer is you can't. So, I have developed a way to get the flavor without him biting into an onion. I cut the onion in quarters and put 4 of the layers into whatever. Then I can pull them out before I serve it and nobody is the wiser. So that is what I did.
3. For the tomatoes, I peeled them and seeded them but instead of chopping them (again, Chris hates chunks of tomato in soup - whatever) I put them in the food processor and gave them a few pulses until they were more than chopped but not liquefied. Some texture remained but not chunks.

It was tasty. Below is the soup after dinner and also after I put it in a Tupperware bowl as leftovers. It looks greasy but it's just the lighting, really.

New Year's Food

Happy New Year!

No matter how you spent the new year, I will bet that food was involved. Us too! I will admit that my picture taking has been poor this last year so I will attempt to do a better job in 2010. Not a resolution, but just something I want to do. I am not calling these things "resolutions" because really, who ever keeps them? Nobody, that's who.

Since it's all about the food, not the resolutions let's get to it.

Menu (my portion anyway)
Lumpia with dipping sauces
Turkey Meatballs
Roasted Shrimp Cocktail

Lumpia
If you aren't familiar with this one, it's a Filipino egg roll of sorts. The one thing I know for certain is you can't make it right without lumpia wrappers and you also can't just be-bop down to Safeway and get some. Ohhhhhhh no. You have to go to an actual Asian grocer. I don't live in the boonies, but each and every time I need to buy a specialty food item you would think that I do. I ended up going to "99 Ranch Market" in Edmonds which is just about the coolest Asian grocery store around my area. If you are cooking food from that region and they don't have it, you are doing something wrong. They carry all types of grocery items, live seafood and cookware/serveware. Seriously, they have it all. They also are the only place I could find that carries lumpia wrappers. They are in the frozen section and I learned a valuable lesson. Buy the ones that are separated by a sheet of parchment and then frozen. Don't get me started, just do it. I bought the ones that are NOT separated by paper and drama ensued when I tried to defrost them to make the lumpia. They are paper thin, and take absolutely for-ev-er to defrost. We ruined 1/2 of them just trying to rush the process. Oh ya, don't do that either. They need all day to defrost at room temperature and not a moment less.

Lumpia

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound ground pork
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup minced carrots
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup thinly sliced green cabbage
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce

Lumpia wrappers
Oil for frying

Directions
1. Place a wok or large skillet over high heat, and pour in 1 tablespoon
vegetable oil. Cook pork, stirring frequently, until no pink is showing.
Remove pork from pan and set aside. Drain grease from pan, leaving a
thin coating. Cook garlic and onion in the same pan for 2 minutes. Stir in
the cooked pork, carrots, green onions, and cabbage. Season with
pepper, salt, garlic powder, and soy sauce. Remove from heat, and set
aside until cool enough to handle.

2. Place three heaping tablespoons of the filling diagonally near one corner
of each wrapper, leaving a 1 1/2 inch space at both ends. Fold the side
along the length of the filling over the filling, tuck in both ends, and roll
neatly. Keep the roll tight as you assemble. Moisten the other side of the
wrapper with water to seal the edge. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap to
retain moisture.

3. Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat, add oil to 1/2 inch depth, and
heat for 5 minutes. Slide 3 or 4 lumpia into the oil. Fry the rolls for 1 to 2
minutes, until all sides are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve
immediately.

Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon chili oil (optional)
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 medium scallion , white and green parts, minced

Combine and serve.

Lumpia filling cooling in the pan.

Rolled up and ready to fry

All cooked and ready to eat!


Turkey Meatballs
These are really cocktail meatballs made with the same recipe as my turkey meatloaf. Just made smaller. So you use the turkey meatloaf recipe and form them into the size of your choice. Brown them in a fry pan with some oil in the bottom and them bake them at 350 for about 30 minutes on a sheet pan. Transfer them to a crock pot to keep them warm. Yum!


Roasted Shrimp Cocktail


These are super easy!
Ok...buy a bag of shrimp at Costco that are raw, devained and with the tails on and defrost them. Toss them with enough olive oil to coat and a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast in a preheated oven set to 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until just pink and cooked through. Cool and dip in your favorite cocktail sauce. Here's mine:

Homemade cocktail sauce
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco

Combine, chill and serve with shrimp.

Don't bring a knife to a gunfight

So, here I am feeling all Christmassy (which doesn't happen) and I thougth - hey, those spritz cookies turned out so well (and easy) the other night I should bake some and give them as gifts!

So I am. Well, I am as of today ...we will see how long this takes me as I can't stand babysitting baked goods.

I digress.

A change from the last time is I discovered that I work close to a Sur La Table cooking gadetry store. Ooooooh, ahhhhh. And I figured I may as well have 2 very good cookie sheets used only for cookies just in case the mood strikes right? Right. I am a firm believer in the notion that if you have the proper tools/gadgets for your task it is more enjoyable and easier to accomplish. Go me! So I have these cookie sheets and I figured I would break them in with this spritz "cookie gift" idea. And since none of my friends really know about it..I can abort at any time and nobody is the wiser.

Let me tell you, if you don't have quality cookie sheets...you are missing out. I hate to bake, but I can appreciate a good piece of baking equipment when I see it and these are. http://www.surlatable.com/nav/i/category/nonstick+baking+sheets/*/price+range/%2410+%E2%80%93+%2424.99/n/217.do?keyword=chicago+metallic&sortby=ourPicks

The ones I have are the cookie sheets. The above link is a picture of both the jelly roll pan with the cookie sheet on the top. The cookie sheet was the 2nd higest rated by CooksIllustrated. They don't steer you wrong. They are $20.00 each and worth every penny.

The brown evenly and there is a large surface for the cookies. I am not even going to show a picture of the cookie sheet I used for the last batch..too scary. Let's just say that I had no business using it and have retired it to other purposes. It's a Christmas miracle that they even turned out.

I had a much longer, wittier blog but then I lost it all (boo hiss) and the moment is gone. Just get decent cookie sheets already!

Christmas Memories

I was feeling extra nostalgic today thinking about how my mom would bake about 12 different kinds of Christmas cookies every year as gifts for her friends. The house would smell like a bakery for a week or so. She was a very good baker (my dad taught her). I would look forward to her baking the Christmas cookies every year.

Before my story turns down the "Lifetime movie" road (because oh yes, it will) I will get on with it.

My favorite cookie was the Spritz. It is like those butter cookies you can buy in the tin from Costco every year. Just a yummy butter cookie. My mom used a pastry bag to make them but since I don't claim to be something I am not...I bought a cookie press. I did a bit of research on cookie presses and found that the highest rated one according to http://www.cooksillustrated.com/ is the Wilton Comfort Grip Cookie Press which you can purchase at your local Michaels.


This baby is under $10.00 and super easy to use.

Making actual "cookies" in the cookie press, well..it takes some practice.

I would like to say that since I am not a baker, I don't have the proper baking pans and cookie sheets. Oh, I have some..but, they are not in the best condition in the world and after tonight it became clear that I need to have a couple of cookie sheets that I only use for the rare occasion when I actually make cookies. I ended up using my only cookie sheet which is warped and therefore doesn't bake the straightest cookies. I went to take them off and many broke apart. That was ok I guess, at least they tasted good. Nice and crispy.

Back to the press. The easy part was putting the patterned tip thing, putting the dough in and using it. What was trickier was getting the cookie to stick to the cookie sheet. I finally figured it out without throwing a tantrum (which was a Christmas miracle) but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. It WAS way easier than rolling out cookies and using the cookie cutter blah, blah, blah. That takes just waaaay too long. This method was easier than that.

I had planned on using the recipe from the "Cooky Book". Raise your hand if your mom had this book! I used to sit and stare at the pictures for the longest time. She didn't make many kinds out of it, but it was my favorite of her cookbooks. I ended up using a different recipe but it was fun just to have the book out.


I was pretty pleased with how they came out, despite my jacked up cookie sheet and recommend this recipe to all of you! Go make some cookie memories :)


Spritz Cookies

Ingredients:

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees. In small bowl, beat yolk, cream, and vanilla with fork until
combined; set aside.

2. In standing mixer, cream butter, sugar, and salt at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. With mixer running at medium speed, add yolk/cream mixture and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl. With mixer running at low speed, gradually beat in flour until combined. Scrape down bowl and give final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain.

3. If using cookie press to form cookies, follow manufacturer's instructions to fill press; Press cookies onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing them about 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking time. Cool cookies on baking sheet until just warm, 10 to 15 minutes; using metal spatula, transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Turkey Stock

I have had at least 1 request for a recipe for turkey stock (hi Sasch) so here it is! Super easy..the only hard part is getting the turkey carcass. I used to recruit them from peeps I worked with - "hey, after Thanksgiving bring me your turkey bones" it was awkward but I got to make extra stock!

Turkey Stock

• Turkey carcass, bones skin and all
• 1 onion - peel on and quartered
• 3 carrots (unpeeled) or 2-3 hand fulls of the small bite sized ones
• 1 head garlic cut in half - also unpeeled
• 3 stalks of celery - leaves and all
• 2 bay leaves
• Fresh thyme (1/2 package) if you have it (leftover from Thanksgiving). If not, never mind. Don't lose any sleep over it.

Directions:
Put the turkey in the largest stockpot (or Nesco oven) you have. You want to make sure that you can fill it with water at least 1-2 inches over everything and when it simmers the water doesn't splash out all over the place.

Add everything else and add plain old tap water to cover by at least 1 inch.

Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and cook like that partially covered for at least 3 hours. Then uncover and simmer (Simmer! not boil) for at least another hour.

Strain all the stuff out and yum.

What can you do with this yummy stock? You can freeze it, of course. But the best thing to do is make Turkey Noodle Soup!

Ziti, the correct way

I was so bored with our weeknight dinner rotation that I dug deep tonight. I dared to make the dinner from the infamous "dinner and a tantrum" blog post.

I give you....baked ziti the correct way! (Insert Christmas Vacation drumroll) Joy to the Worrrrrrrrrld!


There is really no real point to this blog. I just wanted to share.

Click here for the original recipe and subsequent painful blog about it.

Day after Thanksgiving - Turkey Noodle Soup

Sasch, this one's for you!

A couple of days after Thanksgiving, the tradition in my house is we (or rather, I) make turkey noodle soup. Chris had been doing it before he met me and I have cheerily taken over this time honored Schedler family tradition. Our friend, Sascha, is usually the one to remind me that since it's almost Thanksgiving....we will be making the soup and since she lives in Arizona now, she is always sad that she won't have some. Don't worry readers, I gave her the recipe :)

I just finished making it and am currently eating a bowl so the recipe is fresh in my mind. Compared to the actual Thanksgiving dinner, this soup is a home run over the green monster and out of the park! Sad, isn't it? When the soup made from the Thanksgiving turkey is better than the actual Thanksgiving dinner.

First things first - you make turkey stock. Chicken stock simply won't do. What I do is take the turkey carcass and put it into this Nesco oven thing I have along with an onion, carrots, celery, garlic and thyme and let it simmer for hours. This year, I did it at night and let it go until the morning. The house smelled wonderful.

The stock is really the most time consuming part. Once that is done you are ready to go. Ok, this is not a low calorie soup. And you can't skimp. This soup calls for cream and you really need to just suck it up and add it. But be careful and don't add too much or you will end up with cream soup with a hint of turkey flavor. Kind of like my gravy from Thanksgiving. No bueno.

Here is the recipe. It is one of those that really doesn't have measurements. I know, I know...but once you make it you will see why not. You truly just make as much as you want with as much stuff in it as you want. Oh, a secret of mine for thickening cream based soups is to thicken them with instant mashed potatoes. Try it!


Turkey Noodle Soup

Turkey Breast diced – a handful or so
Carrots diced – about 3
Onion diced – ½
Egg Noodles – a few handfuls
Turkey or Chicken Stock – add enough to give you the desired amount of soup
Mushrooms (1 package sliced)
Heavy Whipping Cream - maybe ½ cup?

Directions:
In a stockpot saute veggies in butter together until desired doneness. Add the stock. Cook noodles separately until almost done in another pot. Add turkey and noodles to soup. Add heavy cream until it looks creamy enough (you don’t want to drown out the stock flavor though…). Season to taste. Simmer for a few minutes until heated through. If you need to thicken it, add instant mashed potatoes a bit at a time until you reach the desired thickness.

Cashew Chicken

After the "meh" Thanksgiving of 2009, I was feeling like I needed to create a sucessful meal. Just to prove to myself that I still could.

Enter Cashew Chicken! As adapted from Everyday Food by me :)

Holy cow, this was yummy. It has the perfect balance of tangy and savory. I even used my new rice cooker from Tupperware which worked quite nicely. Now, this meal wasn't without drama. There was the matter of the small grease fire that occured under the large burner I was using to brown the chicken. I had a small panic because of course I forgot how to put such a fire out. I did remember not to put water on it however - yea for me! Note: tossing flour on a grease fire just gives you burned flour all over the place. I did get the fire out and on today's agenda is buying a new burner for our stove at Home Depot.

Back to the meal. You marinate cut up chicken in sherry and ginger, then saute it till golden. Put that aside and in the same pan saute green onions, garlic and toasted cashews. Add the sauce mixture, put the chicken back in and voila (or is it voici?) you have it. Serve over rice and yum. I think I liked it better than Chris did but I will definately make it again.



Cashew Chicken
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons dry sherry (or cooking wine, or leave out)
2 tsp. minced, peeled, fresh ginger
3 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
coarse salt
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2/3 cup unsalted cashews, toasted
2 green onions, white and green parts separated and thinly sliced

Directions
In a medium bowl, toss chicken with sherry, ginger, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch; season with salt. Refrigerate 30 minutes. In another bowl, combine broth, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and 2 teaspoons cornstarch. Set sauce aside.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken and cook until golden and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer chicken to a covered plate. Add 1 teaspoon oil to skillet and cook remaining chicken (reduce heat if chicken is over-browning). Transfer to plate.
To same skillet, add 1 teaspoon oil, garlic, cashews, and green onion whites. Cook, stirring constantly, until garlic begins to soften, about 30 seconds. Whisk sauce and add to skillet along with chicken. Cook until sauce thickens, about 30 seconds. Top with green onion greens and serve over rice.

Thanksgiving - The "Superbowl" for us, food nutjobs.

Thanksgiving. Everyone has their own idea of what that word means, don't you agree? For a food nutjob, Thanksgiving is the Superbowl of all dinners for the year. You either win or lose. How did my food Superbowl turn out? Let's just say that it didn't live up to the hype. Oh, and to make things extra fun my in laws were over so I had an audience to my dinner theatre.

Readers, I have had an epiphany! Don't mess with a Thanksgiving menu that is successful. That is going to be my New Year's Resolution.

Before I continue I would like to say that I did not have any meltdowns, tantrums or crying fits on Thanksgiving day due to the meal being all kinds of jacked up. I worked on that this year. Hopefully, I won't have a meltdown typing this blog...

Schedler Thanksgiving Menu (all but the pie and potatoes are new recipes):

Spachcocked Turkey
Cream Gravy
Roasted Asparagus
Green Beans with Lemon Vinaigrette and Walnuts
Mashed Potatoes
Sausage and Apple Stuffing
Mixed Berry Pie
Rolls

I will now break down the dinner...I even tried to take pictures but I have to be honest, I kept forgetting so the pictures are sketchy at best which actually..mirrored the meal.

Spachcocked Turkey (I remembered to take the picture after Chris had started carving)


This is a method originally from Martha Stewart as adapted by me, in which, you remove the backbone of the turkey..flip it over and break the breast bone. The turkey is flat and it roasts in a shorter amount of time. This was a good and bad way to cook the turkey. The best thing about it is that you still have room in the oven to cook other things and it yielded the most pan juices that I have ever gotten from a turkey. Ok...the bad. Since this list is rather long, I will get right to the point - when you roast any poultry for a short time at a high temperature it doesn't come out juicy and tender (at least mine don't) it comes out chewy...CHEWY! How many of you look forward to a chewy turkey on Thanksgiving? (insert cricket noise).

That's what I thought, me neither!!!!!!

Next year, I will still spachcock the turkey BUT I will season it like I normally have and put butter under the skin. I will also roast it at a much lower temperature (325) instead of 400 for longer as this produces a juicier bird. Even if it doesn't..I am convinced that it does and so that is what I am doing next time. Seriously, the main part of this meal is the bloody turkey and when that gets messed up, it's all downhill.

Cream gravy

This SEEMED like a good idea. Adding heavy cream to gravy, what's not to like? I just don't know what the heck happened here. I think that the cream diluted the gravy just enough to make it taste like thickened infused cream. The turkey flavor was soooooooo faint that it's like, why even bother? At least the year I accidentally dumped the turkey stock down the drain I had an excuse for the gravy being ruined. People, just make the turkey gravy with stock and roux. Don't go messin with something that works because the result will be your husband saying something to the effect of "can we make another batch of gravy for the leftovers?" Um, yah.

Roasted Sad Asparagus

When roasting asparagus, this is one of the only times that you want the thicker kind of veg. Even if you have to peel down the stems a tad, it will be much better than what I served. In my own defense, I usually flash-saute asparagus so I get the skinny kind. You see where this is going, right? I roasted the skinny kind of asparagus and the result was, as Chris said, and I quote "It had the texture of canned spinach". We were all dished up and eating and he casually says "honey, have you tried the asparagus?". That is NEVER good. I say, no. He says "you should". So I take one and start to chew and promptly get up to spit it out in the garbage. Yes, it was that bad. I then banned anyone from taking some. My father in law had already been eating some and insisted on finishing it. I said I was sorry because, really, there wasn't much else to say.

Green Beans with Lemon Vinaigrette


Here is the crown jewel of our dinner. These were so good that it made the rest of the meal just downright laugh-out-loud funny. This recipe could not be easier! You boil green beans and then toss them in this lemon vinaigrette and sprinkle walnuts on top. Super good.


Mashed Potatoes

Chris makes these every year and they are always good. Potatoes, butter and cream. Yum. Too bad the gravy sucked.

Sausage and Apple Stuffing


Meh. I made it up. Day old french bread is toasted and mixed with sauteed onions, sausage, celery and apple. Add stock and 1 egg and bake. It was ok. At least it didn't completely suck like the rest of the dinner.

Mixed Berry Pie

This is a tried and true recipe of mine. Homemade crust is filled with a combination of mixed frozen berries (blueberry, marionberry and raspberry - I think), lemon juice, sugar, tapioca and butter and baked. The "new" part of this was the top crust. I didn't do a normal one (as the theme of this Thanksgiving is turning out to be) but instead, I saw these super cute fall cookie cutter thingies at Williams Sonoma that you use to decorate the edges and top of pies with. I did a leaf pattern on the top which, didn't cook at the same rate as the rest of the crust. After broiling it (yes, you read that right) oh...and then forgetting it was under the broiler the top was a bunch of burnt leaves. And by burnt, I mean black. The kind of filth you scrape off your toast. Remember how I said I didn't have any meltdowns on Thanksgiving? Well, I made the pie the night before and the process of cutting the burnt parts off the leaves brought me to tears. But NOT on Thanksgiving! Ha! The pie looked like crap, but tasted good (I cut all the burned parts off). I should have taken a picture of it before I baked it because the leaves looked really cool. After I was done surgically removing all the gross of the top, it just looked like a big mess.

Rolls

How do you screw these up? You over bake them, that's how. We actually had hockey pucks for rolls. The insides were soft, but the outsides were knock, knock, knock hard! They were perfect for sopping up the tasteless gravy.

The moral of the story: If it ain't broke, don't try to "fix" it.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ahhhh Fall.

I am not a Halloween fan, never have been. I do, however, really get into Fall. I love the colors, the smells and cooking (and eating) Thanksgiving dinner. The tradition which rings in the Fall cooking season for me is roasting pumpkin seeds.

You either like them, or you don't. I am the latter, obviously. I have a friend who says that pumpkin seeds "taste like a farm smells" but I don't agree.

I think the key to perfectly roasted pumpkin seeds is slow roasting until they are golden brown but not burnt and just a bit of seasoning. Sometimes, a recipe will have a ridiculously short roasting time and it makes the seeds chewy and nasty. To get them just to crispy without burning them, I roast them on 275 for about 2 hours (give or take). Sometimes, the seeds will start making a popping sound in the oven and when that happens I will take them out.



Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Seeds from a pumpkin with as much of the guts removed as possible
2 Tablespoons olive oil - just enough to coat all of them...depending on how many
1-2 Teaspoons seasoning - I use the one we make at home (it's on the blog somewhere..search for it) or really any kind from salt and pepper to season salt

Preheat oven to 275
Dry off seeds as best as you can. Add oil and mix to coat. Spread out onto a rimmed baking sheet and sprinkle with seasoning.
Bake stirring every 30 minutes or so until golden brown.
Cool on wire rack covered in paper towels to get any extra oil.