Tired Cook

Lentil Soup

2010-02-13T16:56:00.000-08:00

If any of my readers out there in blogland have been listening to the news, you know that Maryland and DC have been hit with some record snow storms. Lucky us, we happen to be in Maryland, and the first storm brought with it some 3 feet of snow! The second one, only 3 days later, brought blowing blizzard winds, white out conditions and snow drifts, although it only dropped 6 inches of snow or so. The freezing temperatures have not left us either, so there are piles and piles of snow everywhere.

In the midst of all this, we have been basically house bound for days and days. I made the chicken chili, which was good for two meals, then I made tacos one evening. We also had spaghetti and meatballs, pork loin, and some grilled chicken.

Since it is still so cold, I thought I would try another soup this evening. The recipe I tried was Lentil and Vegetable Soup, a Barefoot Contessa recipe.

Lentils are really good for you. They are full of protein and fiber, and besides that, very cheap. When I started to saute the spices (onion, garlic, thyme and cumin) it smelled really good, and I thought, "This will be a really good soup." Well, I was wrong. It cooked for an hour in chicken broth, with the lentils, but was basically flavorless and boring. I only made half a batch and there are still lots of leftovers. I don't want to waste it, but I am not looking forward to eating this again. I may do some experimenting and add some more flavors to it before I eat it again. It was discouraging to make something that didn't taste so great, but I will continue to experiment with new recipes.

Until then-

Happy eating!

Comfort Food!!!

2010-02-01T16:51:00.000-08:00

While I was cooking tonight's meal, all I kept thinking was, "I hope this tastes good, because it sure is a lot of work!" I decided to make Chicken Pot Pie, something so many restaurants make as comfort food, and something I have never made at home. There was a recipe in the Julia Child's cookbook I checked out, so I thought it might be good.
I also thought it would be really easy, but while cooking, there were words used in the recipe that were really new to me. For example: I needed to poach the vegetables. What is poaching vegetables? I can poach an egg, but how do you poach vegetables?? After some research, I think it is cooking the vegetables in a broth. My next confusion was that the recipe calls the sauce "veloute sauce" What?? Does that mean velvet in French or something? And then, it said 4 cups of poaching sauce in the ingredients, then in the instructions 'cook down the poaching sauce.' I was very confused. In the end, I only put 1 1/2 cups of the poaching sauce in the sauce, or I would have had chicken pot pie soup.
One of the reasons I've never made chicken pot pie before is because there are peas in it, and I don't like peas. I have traced this dislike of peas back to my childhood. I think it is because I was forced to eat peas. My sister was also forced to eat peas, and she has a greater hatred for them than I do. I do remember one time, she was forced to eat one pea too many, and henceforth threw up!!! No wonder I hate them.
In tonight's chicken pot pie, there were NO PEAS! The vegetables were carrots, celery, baby onions, and mushrooms. I also made homemade pie crust for the top.
It was awesome! The sauce was velvety-so if veloute means velvet, it's accurate. Even my daughter, who is not a pot pie fan, said it was fabulous. There were no special spices in it, just salt and pepper, and we were all pleased. The amount of sauce I made was just right. The recipe calls for too much in my opinion.
The most amazing thing is that I have made 2 recipes from a cookbook of Julia Child. I may learn to enjoy cooking yet.

Finally, a new recipe!

2010-01-28T16:36:00.000-08:00

I have not done a lot of cooking these last few weeks. I seem to have the winter blues-it's cold and often not very sunny. When it is sunny, it's too cold to walk around much.
Well, this week, the sun is finally not setting before 5 pm, and the weather is above freezing, so I can manage to stay outside for more that 2-3 minutes. And I felt more like cooking something.
I got a Julia Child cookbook at the library entitled, Julia and Jacques, Cooking at Home. I have been leafing through it and there's lots of good info in there. There is not a lot I want to cook in it -but I did run across a really easy steak recipe.
It's called Jacque's Top Blade Steak and unlike the professional cooks of all these cookbooks, I did not buy a superb cut of beef from my local, reputable butcher. I just went to the plain, old, local grocery store.
I found a piece of beef that was $3.00! Not 3 dollars a pound, just 3 dollars, and it was enough to feed four of us! I think it was round steak or something like that. What made it easy and good was the little sauce that Jacques told me to make to put on the steak.
I seasoned the meat with salt and pepper, cooked it in a pan for about 2 minutes each side (it was only about 1/4 inch thick) and then made the persillade. That's a fancy name for mashed garlic and parsley. After the steak was done, the persillade went into the pan with 1/4 c. water, deglaze the pan and it's done. A bit of tasty sauce on the perfectly done beef. In the past, I have often cooked steak way too long so it's tough and tasteless. This one was medium rare, which was great for a cheap cut, making it not taste like a cheap cut. Some baked potatoes and fresh asparagus completed the meal.
Easy but good, that's the way I like it. Since there were hardly any leftovers, I am assuming my family approved of this meal also!

Making a recipe my own

2010-01-16T06:39:00.000-08:00

My family laughs at some of my recipes, the ones that I make all the time, but every time they taste different. One of them is Mexican Rice-the easy way. I have noticed though, that there is no standard when it comes to Mexican rice. Every Mexican restaurant makes it differently. It's something I really like, but only a certain way. My favorite one in San Diego is the one at J.V.'s. A taco establishment that knows every person in our family, especially my husband, who used to frequent JV's about two times a week. We first learned of this place from a friend who said their carne asada burritos were the size of a small baby. It's true!! Anyway, I love their rice, but Jesus, (the J of JV's) would not give me the recipe.
I make my Mexican rice by browning the rice (you don't really brown rice, it becomes a little bit translucent)then adding the water and a chicken bullion cube. After the water is boiling, I throw in some salsa for flavor and some taco seasoning mix. This is why it tastes different every time. I never measure the salsa or the taco seasoning mix. Once the taco seasoning spilled and the rice was so spicy that it put your mouth on fire!!! Good though!
Since October, I have made White Chicken Chili three times, and each time it has been different. The last time I made it, it was really good, so I am sticking with what I did. The good thing is, I actually wrote it down. In case anyone is interested, here is the recipe I took it from and my variations. I italicized what I did

Ingredients
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped (I only use about 1/2 and onion because we are not onion fans)
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed (I only used one garlic clove)
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapeno peppers (didn't use this either)
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers (didn't use this either!)
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano (I also didn't have cayenne pepper, but used red hot pepper flakes, which are really spicy and you only need about 1/4 t. of them)
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
(This makes a huge difference. I buy chicken broth in the cardboard boxes, the better brands. They are low salt and taste like homemade chicken broth. One box is 32 oz.)
• 3 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
(I cooked the chicken in the oven, way before I made the chili, so it was cool enough to work with. I put olive oil on it, then some salt and pepper. For the chili, I tore the chicken rather than cut and cubed, so it was like shredded chicken rather than chicken chunks.)
• 3 (15 ounce) cans white beans
(This is not near enough beans. I got 3 cans of white navy beans and 3 cans of white pinto beans. Before adding the broth, I mashed the beans, 1 can of each can. This helps to thicken the chili, otherwise it's like a chicken and bean soup. It makes a big difference in the texture and the effect is delicious.)
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Directions
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Slowly cook and stir the onion until tender. Mix in the garlic, jalapeno, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano and cayenne. Continue to cook and stir the mixture until tender, about 3 minutes. Mix in the chicken broth, chicken and white beans. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove the mixture from heat. Slowly stir in the cheese until melted. Serve warm.
(We usually only have cheddar around our house and rather than stir it into the chili, I just serve it at the table. That way, anyone who wants can have as much or as little cheese as they want.)

We all agreed that this was the best of this recipe. The cumin I had was a newly bought bottle, and I think that made a big difference in the flavor. I also threw in some salsa, since I didn't have the green chiles. Salt and pepper to taste. I read in one of Barefoot Contessa's books, that you should continually taste as you prepare, so I did with this. This makes a lot. We had four for dinner and there were leftovers the next day.

Happy and creative eating!

Christmas Brunch

2009-12-31T03:47:00.000-08:00

Here it is, New Year's Eve, and I have a bit of time to tell about Christmas Brunch. I have been up since 4 am taking my daughter to the airport. She has left snowy Maryland to fly off to sunny San Diego. Of all the nerve! I guess her sister is having the party of the year tonight, and she just had to be there. And it started snowing this morning, so who wouldn't want to leave?

I'm getting off the topic, which was Christmas Brunch.

Here is our menu:

Potato Basil Frittata p. 182 in BC Family Style

Cinnamon Rolls

Fruit Salad

Pumpkin Bread

Bacon

Yum! Though I had made quiche numerous times, I had never made frittata before. It was really good. After breakfast, we watched "White Christmas", another fun thing to do on Christmas. It was a nice relaxing morning. I can tell though, that I need to make the typical New Year's resolutions to eat better (perhaps less!) and do some kind of exercise. Here's to a New Year and hopes of happy eating that is good for the mind and soul!

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-30T08:56:00.000-08:00

I heard from a friend that most people gain 12 pounds during the holiday season. I could have easily gained something between Christmas Eve and the 26th. I felt like all I did was eat!

Our family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. We eat a big meal, go to church and then come home, open presents and then eat dessert. On Christmas day we eat again, usually a big brunch. We end Christmas day usually eating again with family and friends.

Each year I make something different for Christmas. Some years we go very simple. I have made enchiladas, and one time I made waffles. This year I went rather big; I made a rib roast, asparagus, tomato-mozzarella salad, mashed potatoes, and homemade rolls.

The rib roast, asparagus and mashed potatoes were all recipes from Barefoot Contessa.I really liked the rib roast, but have decided I will not make one of those again. It is a long roasting process, which starts out at 500 degrees. The house was full of smoke and I had to open doors and windows to get all the smoke out. This is fine if you like in sunny California, but here in Maryland it happened to be about 34 degrees, so the house got cold fast! I also didn't like cutting through all the fat that is in a rib roast. It gave me the creeps!

But I do like BC mashed potatoes. There is an addition of a cup of sour cream in this particular recipe, and it was so good. Remember licking the bowl after mom made a cake? Well, I licked the bowl and the beater after making these potatoes. By the time we sat down to eat dinner I was almost too full to eat!

I also made a batch of rolls, half of which I saved to make into cinnamon rolls for Christmas brunch. These are the basic sweet rolls from Better Homes and Garden cookbook. I made them a day ahead, cooked them for only 10 minutes, and then finished the cooking right before dinner. They were the biggest hit of the meal. I made 14 rolls for dinner and my family of 4 at all of them!! It's a wonder we stayed awake at the Christmas Eve service.

The entire evening was wonderful, being with my family, the pretty Christmas table, the service remembering the birth of Jesus, the meaningful gifts from those I love. I am truly blessed.

Why I don't plan!

2009-12-21T16:47:00.000-08:00

Back in the old days, or should I say young days, when I was a young wife and mother, I tried my best to plan my weekly meals and to only make one trip to the grocery store a week. I even had my shopping list pre-made, and all I had to do was check off what was missing on that particular grocery trip. I also (get this!) made this list according to the order of where the items were placed in my favorite grocery store! Amazing! The even more shocking part of this time of my life was that my best friend and I actually taught other young wives and mothers like us, how to organize their homes and household chores so they would have more time to have fun with their family.
But that was then, and this is now. I was not working full time then, I had but one young child and although she was a difficult baby for about 6 months, she was the most compliant toddler around. It was really easy to get organized and think I was really doing something special in those days. Now I am older, that compliant toddler is almost 28 and I rarely plan my menus. I started out planning when I started cooking a lot of Barefoot Contessa recipes, but I discovered a few things this last week. Those few things happened to be parts of planned recipes that were never made, yet still lurking in my refrigerator. I opened the fridge one lovely morning, and it smelled so bad, I thought something had crawled in there and died. When I finally had the time to find and clean out the science experiments growing and dying in my refrigerator, I realized that much of my planned great food was now in a state of decomposition. So many different things came up and I never had a chance to make the meals. I threw away formally fresh spices, some sausages that were slimy, some bacon that was green, some asparagus that was, well I won't tell you what it looked like, I almost couldn't touch that one. There was also shriveled mushrooms, mushy tomatoes, bread as hard as a rock, and cheese that had green spots on it! I wanted to spare us all, so there are no pictures! Back in the day when I taught others about the wisdom of making menus and one stop shopping, I had regular family attendance at dinner. Now it is hit and miss, so planning small things that are quick and good seems to be the way to go.
Two of my last minute meals were this: chicken shish-ka-bobs, and beef stew. And you won't believe this-I made up both of the recipes!! They turned out great, I bought just enough to make the meal, and there are no hidden treasures in my refrigerator ready to surprise me someday soon!

Between the Holidays

2009-12-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

I am just now recovering from having our family together for 5 days at Thanksgiving. It was the greatest time ever, but I didn't realize how much we did together until after they left and I actually had to try to work. I don't even remember last week, or if I cooked anything at all. It's all a blur.
We had some great meals together, and experienced good food all over the DC area. This one picture is of a crab feast at a place called Cantler's Riverside Inn, in Annapolis. It was so good. At home we cooked twice, once was a meal prepared by daughter # 1, chicken with cheese and sage, then tacos prepared by yours truly and daughter #2. Daughters #3 and #4 did loads of work to get ready for the Thanksgiving feast. We had fried turkey (very good ) and all the normal stuff-mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish, cranberry bread, asparagus, carrots, rolls, and dessert was cheesecake and pumpkin pie. I'm getting full just thinking about all that food.

Here it is about a week and a half after Thanksgiving and I still don't want to do anything in the kitchen. Last night we had waffles for dinner! Tonight I made a salad and muffins (a tried and true meal). Oh, I forgot that on Sunday, I made chicken with wild rice soup. It was different. I liked it, but don't think I'd make it again. Since the weather has become quite cold, it's great to be making soup again.

Hopefully I'll have the energy to continue cooking something interesting over the next month.
Until next time.....

Disaster!

2009-11-06T02:26:00.000-08:00

To me my last meal was a disaster, just because it was a lot of work and then tasted awful.

I tried to make clam chowder. I love clam chowder. The best that I have ever had is from a small cafe called Boudin's Bakery in California.http://boudinbakery.com/Their chowder is much better than any I've had in Massachusetts, which is supposedly the home of clam chowder.

Being as Ina is from Mass. I thought her clam chowder would be great-and it probably is. But..once again, ingredients were difficult for me to find. One review of her books said that all of her ingredients are easy to find, and she even says that many recipes are of things you probably have in your cupboard. Well, my cupboard has no fresh spices lingering around, and when I do buy them, they go bad before I can use them in a second recipe, and they are expensive. Those who know me, know I cannot possibly grow my herbs. I have the blackest thumb there is.

Anyway, the recipe called for fresh clams-couldn't find, so I bought frozen ones, and I couldn't find clam juice, but found clam broth which said "use wherever a recipe calls for clam juice."

I did everything else according to the recipe, it thickened up nicely and looked great, but the taste....well, it was too fishy and very blah. When I was cutting up the frozen clams into tiny bits, I got nervous that we were all going to get food poisoning. They looked really strange, with black spots on them and with some weird stuff on the inside. I got very grossed out. I was wishing I had bought canned clams where someone else had done all the cutting. I looked at the clam package and saw that they were from Vietnam, and I must say, that really gave me a fright. I hope we don't all have mercury poisoning.
Since that meal, I have not tried another Barefoot Contessa recipe. I've once again resorted to some standbys-even going so low as to cook hot dogs. There's a really old song that my parents used to sing to me that I should sing to myself in the midst of this. Some of the words go like this:
"Pick yourself up,
Dust yourself off,
And start all over again!"
As this new week progresses, I will try, try again to get excited about cooking some new and interesting meals.
PS: No one got food poisoning!

Quick meals

2009-10-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

On page 114 of Barefoot Contessa at Home, it says, "Everyone needs a few dishes they can assemble ten minutes after they walk in the door at night." This quote proceeds the very tasty "Chicken with goat cheese and basil" recipe. As I entered the door one night last week, I was greeted with laments of ,"Where have you been?","I'm leaving in 5 minutes." "I'm running errands, when do I come back." and various other comments. I was once again tired, and my brain was totally foggy from the long drive or something. I know I had a deer in the headlights look about me. In spite of that, I managed to get this meal together in about 10 minutes, (fortunately the chicken was already defrosted), we all ate, and everyone went on their merry way.

The next night was another quick meal-but one I have tried before. I had a meeting late in the afternoon, so knew there would not be a lot of time to prepare anything. I once again made blue cheese burgers. I am amazed that I have never tried blue cheese on a hamburger before. It is really delicious.

I must confess, I have been able to try new recipes once and awhile, but some nights I still resort to grilled cheese and tomato soup. I figure at least there is food on the table and that must count for something!

In another life...

2009-10-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

If I believed in reincarnation, I would like to come back as a person of the female gender again, but I would like to be one that has servants. (I think most of us agree that would be great). I still would like to cook, but I want someone to do all the grocery shopping, all the preparation for cooking, and all the clean up after we eat!! Just think of how easy it is for chefs to prepare their meals on the cooking shows. First of all, the kitchen is huge-loads of counter space. Secondly, everything is cut up ever so neatly, and perfectly placed in cute little bowls. The cook just puts the meal together, and voila! it comes out of the oven, also looking perfect.

Why am I waxing eloquent on the joys of someone else preparing the preparations?? Because I made Filet of Beef Bourguignon. (Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, p. 123) It's a favorite of Ina's. She used to make the famous one of Julia Child's. This, she says, is much faster, and fresher tasting.

In this tasty dish is beef (obviously) carrots, mushrooms and pearl onions. All of the above had to be cut up, sauted, strained and then put together once again. The carrots and onions were cooked in a wine sauce for about 20 minutes, after which I added the previously sauted beef and some already cooked bacon. See? Had someone else done all that cutting, dicing and saute-ing, it would have been easy to make. There was loads of clean up too. I almost took a picture of my kitchen after I had been cooking, but I was much too embarrassed. It looked like it had been hit by a tornado!

In spite of all this work, this dish is WONDERFUL!!! The entire family really liked it. I made potatoes to go with it, as well as a salad and bought some really good crusty bread.

My only real question is this. There is a picture of this Beef Burguignon in the BC cookbook and the carrots as well as the onions look orange and white. My carrots and onions took on a rather purple hue because they were cooked in wine for 20 minutes. I didn't end up with as much sauce as in her picture either. What's the deal with that?

All in all, I would recommend making this meal. It's a keeper in my book.

Really tired today!!

2009-10-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

I had the day off of work, and am more tired than on days that I work! Cleaning house is exhausting and boring. I'm really sick of laundry, and we have so many stairs in this house!!!
Anyway, because I was home all day, I made a roast chicken, according to Ina-it's her husband's favorite meal. It was good. But when I started to carve it, I realized I had cooked it upside down! I make roast chicken about once a year, so I think that is why. The positive side of that is, the breast meat was very moist and tender. Roast chicken is nice to have, but my family will only eat white meat. I eat the dark just because I don't want to waste it. I did not do what my mom always did, save the carcass and then make soup. The leftover chicken bones are actually in the trashcan.
I also made oven roasted vegetables (p.171 in Back to Basics). It was also good, but something in it gave me a huge stomach ache. Maybe I'm just too tired to be eating all this food.
Here is the picture of our dinner. I must say, besides tonight's tummy ache, I have felt a lot better eating fresher homemade food.

Happy eating and cooking.

A failure and a success!

2009-10-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'm not being totally true to my experiment. This last week I make two dinners that had nothing at all to do with Barefoot Contessa. Actually, that is not quite true. After reading through many of her recipes, I did notice some things she wants to be used as ingredients. Whenever she uses chicken as part of a recipe, she bakes it. And in soup recipes that need stock, she asks for homemade chicken stock. Well, forget the homemade chicken stock. I tried to make chicken soup once in my life, and it was a disaster. I never tried it again. It was a mainstay mean in my growing up years. My mom would make it after a chicken roast, and after Thanksgiving, we had turkey soup practically until the next Thanksgiving. Maybe that's why I don't try too hard to make homemade stock.

So...one evening I was really late so an easy dinner was important. I made my own version of a Cobb salad. Katherine put the chicken in the oven to bake before we shredded it for the salad. It was much better! I usually microwave chicken, but this was moist and tender whereas microwaved is rather tough. So much for convenience. We did make BC blueberry muffins. But the blueberries were frozen and so they colored the entire batter purple. They were still good.

Now that the coolness of fall is approaching, I love to make soup. Tonight I made White Chicken Chili and again baked the chicken first. There are no pictures. We were so hungry we set to it right away and it was gone in short order! I made cornbread which turned out better than any cornbread I've ever made. The reason...the cornmeal was fresh ground from a grist mill here in Maryland. The picture below is of the grist milll with a miller in period costume.

Now I am moving forward to plan for the new and exciting meals of next week.

Worth the Work???

2009-10-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had pork tenderloin, homemade applesauce, Parmesan Smashed Potatoes,(these two recipes are in BC Cookbook) and asparagus. I thought the preparation would go really fast since all I had to do with the pork was stick it in the oven, but peeling the apples took forever. I would have done that no matter what, I cannot eat pork without homemade applesauce. Store bought tastes like medicine in comparison. Barefoot Contessa applesauce adds the juice of an orange, as well as zesting the orange. She asks for two oranges, I only put in one, otherwise the orange taste is stronger than the apple taste. The absolute best apples for applesauce are Granny Smith. It was so yummy that I could have eaten the entire bowl. The BC recipe says to bake the applesauce, but I did not have an extra one and a half hours for that, so I cooked it on the stove. I still give it a big thumbs up.

As far as potatoes go, mashed potatoes are great, but so messy and a pain to make after a day of work. I usually make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so this was a rare treat indeed. They tasted good-although I couldn't really taste the Parmesan, so they were not anything special. I think I like her buttermilk mashed potato recipe better.

Thanks to anyone who makes comments. I especially like the ones from my delightful daughters!

Full freezer

2009-10-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

My freezer is full to overflowing, as you see. There is stuff hiding in the back of it that I have not seen since we moved here. It's a good thing it is frozen, or it might walk out on its own. One of the reasons it is so full is that there are three bags of Costco goodies in there. Now that our family is down to 3 and often nights there are just two of us, we never manage to get through all that Costco stuff. When I got meat last week, I was not sure where in the world it would go. The only thing in our freezer that regularly disappears without getting lost or freezer burn is ice cream!!!

I will try my best to use the wonderful things that are in my freezer and continue to whip up edible meals!!

Italian Wedding Soup and Steak!

2009-10-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

I am not Italian and I did not go to a wedding, and have no idea if this really is served at Italian weddings...but I really liked it.

This recipe is in BC Back to Basics, p. 72-73. I made the meatballs on Sunday night. She had a suggestion I have never heard before about meatballs-cook them in the oven. Guess what? They are all done at the same time and no bothersome cooking and trying to brown them on the stove top. These meatballs were very tasty, made from ground chicken, chicken sausage (I was able to buy just two sausages) as well as freshly grated Parmesan and Romano cheese. Yum.

The broth was really easy to put together on Monday after work, with the last ingredient being fresh spinach. I added some of Trader Joe's bread to our meal. I was happy that the weather has turned a bit cooler so it made eating soup really nice.

Tonight I made "French Bistro Steaks with Provencal Butter." (same cookbook p. 122) I really improvised with this one. We don't have an outdoor grill so lo and behold, I found a web posting that told me how to grill with my broiler! It actually worked. Then, the recipe called for "hanger steak." What in the world is a hanger steak? Unlike these cooks who write these great books, I shop in a local grocery story, not a specialty food shop. So, I got what looked like the best steak I could afford at Costco. I don't even remember which one it was, but it was $4.99 a pound.

The thing that makes this steak special is that butter. It's a butter with various ingredients to boost the flavor of the steak. It called for anchovies, which I refuse to buy, and also capers, another thing I couldn't find, but I did put in the fresh thyme, lemon pepper and garlic. I was then supposed to puree all this with the butter, but much to my dismay, our blender had disappeared. So I just mashed it as best I could.

The steaks turned out great, tender and moist. The butter was good even if it wasn't even close to what it was supposed to be. When we lived in Europe, they served steak with a spicy butter, and I always liked the taste. This reminded me of that.

What amazes me most about this (meaning my cooking experiment), is that I am starting to like creating food for my family again.

Grocery Shopping

2009-09-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

It is 4:30 on Sunday afternoon and I just finished grocery shopping. I have yet to clean the kitchen (since Friday night) or do next week's lesson plans.

I started grocery shopping yesterday. First I went to the library and checked out 2 more Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Then I spent forever just figuring out which recipes to try, then made my list, then finally started my shopping. I went to Trader Joe's first. They did not have a lot that I needed but I do like their tortillas (hand made flour). Those are the only decent tortillas in all of Maryland, which is where we now live. It was hard to give up all those great tortillas that can be found in San Diego. I also buy their instant oatmeal, yogurt, granola and almonds, all items that get me through the work day.

Across the way from Trader Joe's is Costco.

Costco is great for a lot of things. I often buy my meat there-a big one time expense, but much cheaper in the long run. I bought fruit there in the summer when there were four of us around, but now if I buy it, it spoils before we can eat it. I resisted all the clothes and other non-essentials they try to get me to buy.

Today I finished up my shopping at Harris-Teeter, a store that hails from the south, I think. It has almost everything you could ever want, but is on the expensive side. I finally found saffron, but it was $18.99. That is not a spice I will be buying anytime soon. I got the last of what I needed at Weis Market, which is 2 blocks away from our house. Convenient, although not my favorite. The service is not great nor are the products. I have yet to find a store like Windmill Farms in San Diego-especially one I can actually locate. I still get lost around here.

Now it is going on 5 pm, and I still need to clean the kitchen and plan for school next week, so I think I'll eat pancakes for dinner!

A good one and a not so good one

2009-09-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

I tired two more BC recipes. If I had not challenged myself to do this, I would just blow these off and go back to my old stand-bys when I'm so tired. So I'm glad I'm trying new stuff. The last two were interesting, to say the least.

The first recipe was "Easy Lobster Paella" with many modifications. The recipe calls for saffron, which I could not find, and something called Pernod. I had to look up Pernod in a culinary dictionary: it is a yellowish, licorice-flavored LIQUEUR similar to ABSINTHE. (Absinthe, for all those who don't know, is an aphrodisiac that has been banned in the US since the 1900's! I think because it's 136% proof). Anyway, no saffron, no Pernod, and no lobster! I put in shrimp and (dare I show how cheap I am) fake crab. I liked the shrimp, I wasn't wild about the fake crab. It tasted fine, but the texture was strange, rather rubbery.

The recipe also calls for kielbasa, which is something I really like and there is no problem finding it in the store.

Although this was easy to cook, it was time-consuming, but in between stages, I was able to clean the kitchen up, get the table set and make the salad. The resulting dish is pictured above. It made a lot for just two of us, so we both had it for lunch the next day. My only complaint is that is is a bit greasy. There is a lot of fat in kielbasa, and the recipe calls for cooking the onions in 1/4 cup of oil. I think in the future I would cook them in a couple of tablespoons of oil and then the entire dish would not taste so greasy.

Friday night came and with that the usual end of the week exhaustion. At school (I am a teacher) we had "Friday Finale" which means everything is a bit crazy with lots of activities. Makes for a tiring but fun day with the kiddos. So I opted for one of the sandwich recipes. The one I tried was "Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto Panini". This was the not so good one. The bread I got was too thin for a panini, and I did not like the taste of the pesto, and so much cheese being grilled was was too much fat for my system. I did not take a picture, because it wasn't very appetizing looking. I couldn't even eat a half of a sandwich. I think I tried something like this sandwich at Panara and didn't like it then. I don't know why I can't remember these things!! Oh well.

It's the week-end. Yeah! Happy eating.

Another recipe and why I'm tired

2009-09-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I am a tired cook is because I am, quite literally, really tired. One of the side effects of being 50 something is the inability to sleep through the night. I was awake last night from 1-3:30 and I get up at 5 am to go to work. Oh well.
My plan for dinner was to make Easy Lobster Paella (p. 124 in BC At Home), but my husband wanted to work on his car and my daughter wanted to go buy material for some costume. Hence, I started dinner at 6:55. Luckily I had the ingredients to make Blue Cheese Burgers (p. 92 At Home), and that is what we had for dinner. The difference between these and regular burgers is that there are egg yolks mixed in with the hamburger, and blue cheese crumbles on the top. The blue cheese is really good-it has a bite that goes well with the hamburger.
As I am looking at the different recipes in Barefoot Contessa, I realized that I am not a Barefoot Contessa but a poor cousin. I don't have a grill, I don't have good cooking pans, and I do not know where to find some of the ingredients that are listed on some of the recipes. Such is the quandary of being a cook who never tried anything new. So part of this new adventure is to find where I can buy these various ingredients and actually plan my meals. What a novel idea!!
I'm still planning to try the paella sometime this week. I had to make my own variations since lobster is way out of my budget and I couldn't find some of the spices. I will write later this week about how it goes!
It is practically a record to have actually made 3 meals, even if they were simple. They were not the standard simple that I usually make. I hope I can keep this up. So far, it's rather fun.

Trying to bring new life to cooking.

2009-09-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

This last summer I saw the movie Julie and Julia (or is it Julia and Julie?) I was very impressed that someone actually cooked through an entire, very difficult cookbook all while working full time. Yesterday, my 17 year old and I were trying to think of something new and different to have for dinner this week. Some of our favorite cookbooks are by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. I made the comment to Katherine, "I should do like that movie and cook through all these recipes". (those in the Barefoot Contessa series.) She thought that was a great idea, so together, we are going to cook our way through the 3 Barefoot Contessa's that we own.
There will be many differences-one, I won't cook everything page by page. For example, no beets. I hate beets. 2nd, I doubt if I'll cook a lot of fish, since I can hardly find it or afford it. If I could just make the desserts I would, but I don't really want to weigh 300 lbs.
The real reason for all this is that I am over 50 years old, have been married 30 years, and am completely bored with cooking. I have about 5 standard meals, and we seem to repeat those over and over because I'm too tired after work to think about anything. I cannot tell you how many times we have eaten hot dogs, or grilled cheese. I'm tired of my cooking and so is my family.
Last night we tried our first recipe, "California BLT." Simple and good, a BLT with avocado. We had been gone all day so it was a perfect amount of food for a Sunday evening. Tonight I made "Parmesan Chicken" from the book Barefoot Contessa Family Style. I served it just as she suggested, topping each piece of chicken with lettuce that had been tossed with a lemon vinaigrette on top. As a side, we had steamed asparagus. It was also very good and very easy, and I have enough leftovers to take to work tomorrow.
Onward I go as I attempt once again in my life to enjoy cooking!