Gourmandery

Monday, March 31, 2008

Taking a page from The Crock Pot Lady, who is my new hero, I going to try to use the crock pot more than once a week. I’m not quite sure I’m ready for daily yet. Baby steps.

First, I’m going to try her Red Wine and Cranberries Pot Roast next time I do a roast. Looks delicious.

Second, I forgot to thaw any kind of meat for tonight’s dinner. What to do? Crock pot!

Today’s experiment:

6 frozen chicken thighs
1 bottle General Tso’s sauce

Put chicken pieces into the crock pot. Season with salt. Pour sauce over the chicken. Set pot on Low, 8 hours.

When ready to eat, I’ll cook some rice in the rice cooker and will add some frozen broccoli to the crockpot. I figure in the time it takes the rice to cook, the broccoli will have warmed. Maybe I’ll add it a bit earlier than when I start the rice, just to be sure.

I’ll let you know how it tastes later, but it smells yummy right now.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

We get to meet the Sleepy Baby tonight! I’m very excited.

We’re heading over to have dinner with Beth and Tim - our annual get together. At least up to now our meetings have been just once a year.

Beth requested chili and I’m happy to oblige, especially with the new crock pot. I don’t think I’ve ever made the same recipe twice. It’s still the basic chili recipe I use, but I always manage to switch something up because of the ingredients I have on hand. Today’s additions include chipotle peppers and some roasted green salsa. Oh, and this time there wasn’t much liquid, so I added a bit of veggie stock. It smells good, so I’m hoping it’ll taste good, too.

I need to remember to take my camera to get pictures of The Baybee.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

My new hero, courtesy of my BIL, Denis.

We tested the new slow cooker yesterday with mixed results. The cooker worked perfectly. The meal I put into it was less than stellar - my own fault. Since it was only edible by putting the contents into a flour tortilla I will not share the details. OK, here are the details:

2 cups uncooked white rice
1 can black beans, drained
6-8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can Ro-tel
1 cup vegetable stock

Set cooker for 7 hours on Low.

The meat was tender, but looked nasty. The rice was super sticky - we determined later than rather than the regular rice used, I should have used Basmati rice and less stock or no stock. And I should have added one more can of beans. And seasoned the whole thing. So we sliced the chicken and wrapped it all up in tortillas - a dash of salsa, sour cream and cheese and it filled the stomach. But we both agree it won’t be repeated.

Next up in the new slow cooker - BBQ pulled pork with homemade buns (leftover from our hamburgers a few weeks ago) - tomorrow! Woo!

And don’t think I won’t be hunting for recipes at that A Year of CrockPotting blog.

Friday, March 14, 2008

On a much lighter note, Jesse and I made a trip to BJs this morning. Normally, Beau does most of our grocery shopping. However, I’m in charge of the farewell luncheon for a departing manager so it was up to me to buy the stuff I’ll need to make the bulk of the food for the lunch. Why is a long story that I will refrain from sharing.

We do potlucks, but we are also a single male-dominated office and while a couple of them do cook, most don’t. And because of the circumstances that put me in charge of the thing, it also means that I’ll be doing most of the rest of the cooking to ensure we have enough food. So on the menu (I’m listing just the items I’m making - there are other tasty dishes that others are bringing):

Corned beef and cabbage (we have a huge corned beef, so half will be taken to the potluck)
Cheesy hash brown casserole (my usual contribution)
Pasta bake with alfredo and chicken
Meatballs
Ham Rolls (these are easy to make and always a winner - the recipe is my mother’s, if she permits I’ll post it)

Amazingly, with the money already collected and promised, I’m even in my spending. So I may actually make money on this luncheon and that hasn’t happened, ever. Of course, I’m sure there’s something we’ll need last minute, too.

Anyway, Jesse is such a patient little boy. He hung out in the cart and just took everything in as I put it in the cart. He never whined or tried to get out until we got out to the car. Towards the end he did lean his head against my side, so I knew he was getting tired. But he never complained. I’m such a fortunate Mom.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

A bit of random:

1. The open house last weekend was very successful. I posted about it at my business blog. I also have a couple of new custom orders. I’ll be busy for the next couple of weeks on my growing list of custom pieces. And I made a tidy sum to add to the Disney fund - the total receipts were more than I had prayed about (I prayed about a ballpark figure, nothing specific), which is awesome.

2. Beau got another internal email sent to the PHC faculty about the acceptance to their offer for the Government position. So now we just wait to hear about the Poli-Theory slot. And we continue to pray hard for God’s will - it would be nice if God’s will fits our desires, of course, but if not then we’ll deal with the disappointment.

3. I’d love to petition my congressmen about abolishing this crazy Daylight Savings Time idea. However, I know it won’t go anywhere since Congress just lengthened DST last year. Neither my dog nor my kid are clock watchers so they are not on board with the time change yet. As far as the dog is concerned it’s actually a good thing since it moves the early morning barking to later. But it makes Jesse’s bedtime challenging since I want to put him down at the usual time, but his body clock thinks it’s too early.

4. I’ve got a hankering for Indian/Indonesian food, so I’m on the hunt for some good recipes. Related, we got Thai take out a couple of weeks ago and the lemongrass-peppercorn pork was delicious. I’m looking for a recipe for that, too. Also, with St. Patricks Day next week, we’re doing the corned beef and cabbage thing with my parents on Sunday. I can’t wait!

5. Survivor Pool - Somehow I’m still in the game. And mirroring the show, our game has also switched up the tribes, so I now have tribemates who are completely unaware of my plea to be voted out. Of course, there’s the chance that one of the people who stayed on my tribe spilled the beans, but I think I’m safe for a bit because I’m the highest point person now. My ally is on the other tribe now, so I have someone after the merge, if we make it that far. And I’m working on a new alliance with a couple of people who came to my tribe in the switch.

I think that’s about it for now.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

We had this for dinner last night. Fantastic and highly recommended. The one key ingredient change was diced tomatoes for the tomato sauce.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

I just spent the last hour or so going around and around with Useless One #2 on things that can’t be resolved until Amazing One returns on Monday. I’m telling you, this woman is amazingly slow at getting points.

***************

Yesterday’s baking masterpiece was homemade hamburger buns since I had thawed ground beef for dinner and it was warm enough to fire up the grill for burgers. So Beau made the dough in the breadmaker and I finished the rising, shaping, and baking of them. They turned out amazing and perfect! The recipe:

1 cup water
2 Tbsp butter or margarine (we use butter flavored Crisco because of Beau’s milk thing)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
3-3.25 cups bread flour
(3 Tbsp nonfat dry milk) - Beau left this out
2 tsp yeast

He set the maker for 1:50 on the dough setting. Remove dough from machine. Punch it down and let rest for 20 minutes. Form 12 balls (we got 10), make bun shapes and flatten. Cover and let rise 1 hour. Bake in preheated 375F oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

I did an egg wash, but that’s optional. They only took 15 minutes in my oven. I used parchment paper on the baking sheet, as I always do for baking.

For the burgers I just mixed in some Meat Magic into the beef and then grated some chipoltle seasonings over each side before putting them on the grill. They could have used a wee bit of salt, we thought as we ate them, but they were delicious.

We will never buy hamburger or hot dog buns. And we determined that the only hot dogs our kids (assuming we ever have more than Jesse) will eat will be kosher to avoid the preservatives. Except for the dogs bought at baseball games, of course.

*****************

I love now that scientists are saying we’re now heading into a period of global cooling. I more especially love that Lord Monckton and others are going after Al Gore and his inconvenient movie at the UN conference on climate change. Beautiful. Oh, and the Weather Channel founder is in on this, too. Ha!

I’m going home now.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

I’m still experimenting with the cake mix cookies. Yesterday’s edition was made from your basic chocolate cake mix. Hands down they are the best of the bunch so far.

Chocolate Oat Cookies
makes 2-4 dozen, depending on the size of the cookies

1 chocolate cake mix
1 cup quick oats
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix all ingredients together well. Measure out portions of dough using spoon. Roll the dough into round balls. Place on baking sheet. Press flat with greased glass bottom. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool for 1 minute before removing to a cooling rack.

Easy. Delicious. Perfection.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Beau picked up our corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day this week. You may remember that we had awesome corned beef and cabbage last year. We knew my parents enjoyed that meal, so when I was talking to my mom earlier this morning, I mentioned it. Her immediate acceptance of our invitation to share the 2008 version was gratifying. We’ll actually be taking it over to their house, since we know my dad will want to be able to watch college hoops on that Sunday afternoon.

Just a couple of weeks away. Crazy.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Here’s the recipe for yesterday’s cake mix cookie experiment.

Apple Spice Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 2-4 dozen, depending on size of cookies

1 spice cake mix
1.5 cups quick oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup oil
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
2-3 Tbsp applesauce
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all of the ingredients well. The dough will be very sticky. With a greased spoon, drop dough onto parchment paper lined baking sheets, about 1” apart. Use a greased glass, with a flat bottom, to press the cookie flat.** Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to cool on a rack.

**These cookies do not spread, so you need to press them flat for them to bake evenly and to look like cookies.

I think I’m going to reduce the amount of oil to 1/4 cup next time. I think the addition of the applesauce means less oil is needed, if any. They taste pretty good - the apple is just hinted at, which is nice.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Sleepy Beth links to a disturbing quiz about dining on your friends.

I can’t get the code for my results to work, but I scored 37% likely to eat my friends in a blizzard. I think the veal question caused a higher score than I expected to get.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Felt like making more cookies and thought I’d try to new variations. Both are very good, although the first came out so well that I think I could sell them. They are bakery quality from their uniform look, to their mouth feel, crumb, and flavor. I told Beau I was hesitant to post the recipe, but then I realized that would be just stingy. So here it is:

Jen’s Oatmeal Spice Cookies
Makes 2-4 dozen, depending on the size of your cookies

1 yellow cake mix
2 cups quick oats
1/2 cup oil
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Blend all ingredients well. The dough will be thick. Place rounded tablespoons of dough about 1 inch apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. (These cookies do not spread much.) Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit on baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a cooling rack.

The second batch of cookies are:

Jen’s Chocolatey Chippies
Makes 2-4 dozen, depending on the size of your cookies

1 German chocolate cake mix
1.5 cups quick oats
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Blend all ingredients well. The dough will be thick. Place rounded tablespoons of dough about 1 inch apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. (These cookies do not spread much.) Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit on baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a cooling rack.

Happy baking!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

On Monday I had this weird desire to bake cookies, but with Beau’s milk intolerance I had to come up with a way to make them without butter/margarine. He uses butter flavored Crisco for his bread (he makes his own bread weekly), but I didn’t want to use that. So I Googled for cake mix cookie recipes, because I knew there had to be some out there. There are ... plenty.

I ultimately chose this page because of the recipes using oil. I used recipe #2, but here’s what I did:

Cake Mix Cookie #2

Yields about 4 dozen cookies

1 box Triple Chocolate Delight cake mix
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I wanted to use white chips, but they contain cream and milk)
1 cup oatmeal
1 /2 cup oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp peppermint extract

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, blending well. If the mixture is too stiff, add a little water. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute before removing form the cookie sheets.

They do not spread very much so I was able to get about 15 cookies on a sheet at a time (I would have ended up with about 36 cookies, but I ate too much dough). For me they took almost the full 10 minutes to bake and the one minute cool time on the baking sheet is important for drying out the cookie a bit before removing them to a rack for final cooling. They are a chewy cookie and really delicious. And it only took me about 30 minutes from start to finish.

I plan to attempt this with other cake mixes, too.

Friday, February 08, 2008

I’ve got a pork roast going in the crockpot today. It’s a teriyaki/soy deal, so I’m debating which starch to serve with it tonight. I’ll be steaming fresh brocolli for sure. So you tell me, would you want

Rice

Potatoes

with your pork roast?

[UPDATE]: We had potatoes. I scrubbed the spuds clean, then diced them. Put the pieces in a ziploc bag then drizzled in olive oil, soy sauce, and teriyaki sauce. Sealed the bag and swirled them around until they were all coated then I poured them onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Sprinkled a little kosher salt and put them in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning them once about halfway in. Delish and they went well with the pork, which was also delish.

In the crockpot with the pork roast was:

3/4 cup apple cider
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp teriyaki sauce
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp black pepper

I think next time I’ll season the meat with Meat Magic as well. I doubled the recipe since the roast I had was almost 6lbs. I had to cut it into two pieces to fit into the pot. I rotated the pieces so that both were in the liquid equally during the day. They came out very tender and moist after 8 hours on Low.

Monday, February 04, 2008

I made a huge crockpot of queso for the Super Bowl party yesterday. I had more of layered dip plan, but it all melded together to form some really good queso instead. We ate /13 of it, I gave 1/3 of it away, and I have the rest left to eat this week. It’s all mine since Beau can’t eat the cheese. Woo!

Jen’s Meaty Queso

1 lb ground beef, browned and grease drained
1 packet Taco seasoning
1 can refried beans
1 can black beans, drained
1 can chili beans in sauce (or Ranch beans if you have them where you live)
1 can Ro-tel
1/2 jar salsa
1 small block Velveeta
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend (cheddar and Monterey jack)

Brown the beef and add taco seasoning according to packet instructions. Put the beef and all canned ingredients into crockpot and blend well (until the refried beans are mixed in well). Cut Velveeta into smaller cubes and add to meat/bean mix. Set crockpot on Low setting and let sit for a bit for Velveeta to melt. Stir well and then add the shredded cheese.

Serve with tortilla chips, guacamole, and sour cream.

For the guacamole, I used 3 ripe avacados, a guacamole seasoning packet, half a jar of salsa, and a bit of lemon juice (didn’t have lime juice). I pureed two of the avacados in the food processor and then mixed that with the other avacado, which I mashed with a fork to that there were some chunks. Then I just added the rehydrated seasonings and salsa/lemon juice. It sat, chilled, for about 2 hours before we ate it and it was very tasty. I have about half of it leftover as well, but Beau will eat that since he can, I’m sure.