A Turn for the Better!

Yep, things have improved. My rotten luck came to an end (thank God) since my last post. I made the Turkey Stuffed Peppers that I spoke of and they were delicious! Cory and I even fought over who got the last one! My 3 y.o. ate them with with a big "mmmmmmm" after each bite! I have made stuffed peppers in the past and was never happy with the pepper. I always felt that it wasn't cooked enough. This recipe has a different technique than I haven't used before. It calls for broth in the pan surrounding all the stuffed peppers. You then cover the pan with foil (or a lid in my case) and it actually steams the pepper to perfection. It was cooked exactly how I like! I used a wild rice/whole grain blend instead of white rice so my mixture was much crunchier than if I would have used white rice, but it was still very good. Next time (oh yes, there will be a next time) I will add corn and black beans to the mixture. Sorry, but we were so hungry I didn't want to waste time taking pictures!! Visit Gina's site and see her beautiful picture of this delicious dish!

Today was definitely "soup weather" so I made a Potato Leek Soup recipe that I found on Recipezarr.com. I modified it with half chicken stock/half water and added some seasoning salt.
I thought the soup was good. Not the best soup I've ever had, but definitely good. Cory, on the other hand, wasn't as thrilled about it. I believe his exact words were "what stinks?" I take this with a grain of salt because he doesn't really like onions, and leeks would fall into the onion category for him.

For me, one of the best parts about the holiday season is pairing turkey and cranberries. It's a flavor combination made in heaven. I made a wonderful batch of cranberry sauce.

This recipe was also from Recipezaar and it had a simple twist to the traditional cranberry sauce recipe. You substitute orange juice for the water. It gives it another layer of flavor that pairs nicely with the cranberries. Once the cranberry sauce was set, I built my wonderful turkey and cranberry sandwich. Served next to my Potato Leek soup it was a great meal in my opinion!The most exciting part about making the Potato Leek Soup was I got to use my new Kitchen Aid immersion blender!
Yep, the experience of having hot soup shoot up through the vent hole of the blender led me to make a new purchase...a very handy Kitchen Aid immersion blender! It works like a champ. Cory was thrilled about this purchase because it is the perfect tool to make milkshakes with...which he wasted no time in testing out!
Cory's creation:

Abysmal...

Yes...that's the word that sums it up...abysmal. That is how I would describe my recent luck in the kitchen! I've been pressed for time (as we all are this time of year), so I've gotten a little absent minded while cooking. I have burned more stuff in the last week than I have burned all year!!! But the bad luck goes far beyond that. Last night I made a loaf of beer bread. I've made beer bread about 5 times in my life and every time it's been flawless (I mean, come on, even the most unskilled cooks can pour a can of beer into a mix and then put it in the oven!!) But I decided to follow the "Optional Recipes" on the side of the box. I added sparkling cider instead of beer, a chopped apple, cinnamon and pecans to it. It was the strangest tasting loaf of beer bread ever. It kinda tasted rancid. At 1st I thought it was the pecans that ruined it, but now I am certain that it was the cider.

Oh, and then today I needed to blend a soup and the soup shot up out of the tiny vent hole in the blender lid. BTW, in case you were wondering, that little tiny hole that is the size of the tip of a pencil can release enough liquid to cause this frazzled cook to clean up for about 10 minutes! And just to add insult to injury the cooking gods decided to get a good laugh at my expense and make the soup way too peppery to fully enjoy!

Ugggg. But on a wonderfully exciting note, I found a really great blog called Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes. Since I am following Weight Watchers (I say that with a crooked smile since my fingers are still sticky from the rice crispy treat I just ate!!!) I love finding flavorful and interesting recipes that still stay true to my weight loss plan of choice!

BTW, the soup recipe that shot up through the blender hole today was the Cauliflower Soup recipe from Gina's website. I'll definitely make it again, I'll just tone down the pepper! Tonight I am making the Turkey Stuffed Peppers recipe for dinner...wish me better luck!!

I'm still here!

OK, it's been a while since I posted. Lots going on I guess. Anyways, I do have some updates: I successfully completed my challenge of not eating out for an entire week. In fact, I was so successful I decided to extend it. I made it 10 days without eating anything besides food prepared at home! Yey!

On to more great news, I had a revelation...remember how I said that I would love to be a cook like my friend Chrystal where she is able to totally throw things together without following a recipe and they turn out delicious every time? Well, it occurred to me that if that's the type of cook I want to be, then I certainly won't get there by trying to follow a bunch of recipes from various websites and cookbooks. I should learn the fundamentals of cooking so that I can have the confidence to open my fridge and create a wonderful meal without a recipe at all. I did a little searching and I found two great books. The first is called How to Cook Without a Book by Pam Anderson (no, not Baywatch Pam Anderson!) and the second is called The Improvisational Cook by Sally Schneider. They are EXACTLY what I need. They go over the fundamentals of cooking, what flavors go well together, and the essential ingredients that every great cook should have on hand at all times. There is also a plethora of recipes in these books. Check these out for yourself when you get a chance...here are the links:

Our dinner tonight was Chili (thank you Amanda) & cornbread. As I was preparing the box of Jiffy Corn Bread mix, I decided to try to spruce it up. Trust me, I realize that this is no culinary feat...this is just a spruced up recipe that I thought I would share with you!! I basically just added a can of diced green chilies and some fat free feta cheese and then sprinkled the top with seasoning salt. It just gave the cornbread a nice added kick and complimented the chili perfectly.

Farmers' Market Bliss

If you start with mediocre ingredients, you'll end up with a mediocre meal (we've all heard the saying "garbage in, garbage out".) But when you start with fresh, good quality ingredients, you've just upped your odds on creating a flavorful and delicious meal. Since deciding to become a better cook I've been going to the farmers' market at Sunrise Mall. I have bought fresh produce, fresh eggs as well as a beautiful perennial herb garden.

I thought about signing up for a local CSA, but I just don't think that's for me at this stage of the game. The loss of control over what produce I will get kinda intimidates me! At this point I would rather pick and choose the items that I am comfortable cooking. Shopping at a farmers' market is just my speed. It feels good on several levels: 1) I am getting fresh items that are in season. 2) By buying from the small farmers directly I am helping to sustain a group who's dedication to their trade leads them to a life of very low wages. 3) I am helping to reduce my carbon footprint. This is a point that I never considered until recently. I never considered how much better it is for the environment to shop locally until I heard a report that laid it out for me. Buying tomatoes from someone who grew them 20 miles from here is much better than buying from someone who grew them 500 miles from here...thus having to truck them across the state to get them to my local grocery store. Duh!!!!

For all these reasons, I just get a warm fuzzy feeling as I stroll up and down the row at my local farmers' market, and I am looking forward to many Saturdays spent there.

So what's your favorite part of your local farmers' market?

My First Challenge to Myself!

Lately I have been reading a blog called Not Eating Out in New York (see here) and the premise of this site is amazing. This blogger got bored of eating out. She lives in New York City and to me, it seems impossible to get bored of eating out in NYC! This seems impossible for several reasons. I lived in NYC for about 4 months and eating out is just a way of life there. EVERY restaurant delivers and everyone eats out most meals of most days. I am also amazed by this site because NYC is a food mecca. Some of the best chefs in the world are there. The food is amazing. But the author of this blog has a great point: restaurants pretty much do the same dishes with very little variation and with large price tags to boot! So why not cook at home all the time and really hone your culinary skills. The author of this blog did not eat out for over 2 years. Not even one meal. That is mind boggling! This has created some pretty unique challenges for her but it also has opened up a huge opportunity to become a better cook (as well as save a ton of money!)

By no means would I be interested in not eating out for years because honestly, I love to eat out. Maybe too much! I get on kicks where all I want to do is eat out. And then I reel myself in and cook at home for a while. But the truth is that I do eat out too much. Cory and I are pretty good about splitting meals when we eat out, so it doesn't cost as much, but it is still expensive. There are other reasons for not eating out as much. By cooking at home I can make sure my food is clean, fresh and healthy. Also the whole reason I am blogging about food is to become a better cook. In order to become a better cook, I need to actually cook!!

So here is my challenge to myself. I am not going to eat out for an entire week starting Saturday Nov. 29th and ending at midnight on December 6th. There...I said it. That is the challenge to myself! No breakfast, lunch, dinners or snacks out at restaurants of any kind. Let's see if I can do it!

A Revelation about Recipe Websites

This goal of mine to become a better cook isn't anything new. Since moving out on my own I have wanted to become a better cook. I have always wanted to be like my friend Chrystal. She can open up the refrigerator, survey the contents, and come up with a spectacular meal effortlessly. She doesn't measure and she doesn't hesitate in making decisions on what foods will mix well together. THAT'S the kind of cook I want to be. I have a theory on where I have been lead astray in my attempt for culinary greatness. Hear me out on this one...

In an attempt to find new recipes without spending a small fortune on cookbooks, 
I discovered a site called Recipezaar and I have visited it countless times over the last couple years. It seems like a great set-up: people post recipes, other people try them and then review them, then others can then read the reviews and then chose whether or not to make them. I have made quite a few recipes from this site. Some turned out good. More turned out bad. I generally will try a recipe only if it has gotten lots and lots of fantastic reviews, but for some reason this doesn't seem to matter. Really bad recipes continue to get great reviews. How can this be? How can so many people be wrong about if a recipe is worth your time and money to make?

A couple months ago, my friends and I got together to do a once-a-month cooking exchange and one of the recipes that I decided to make got hundreds of great reviews... no exaggeration here... hundreds of 5 star reviews. Well, it turned out horrible. It was worse than horrible. It looked bad, and it tasted worse. Since that experience, I have thought a lot about the whole concept of these recipe sites. How is it possible that I could try so many different recipes that got fantastic reviews and have them be horrible? I am not that bad of a cook. I can definitely follow a recipe. I started looking at different food blogs for some insight. After a little bit of research I had an epiphany: the recipe sites such as Recipezaar will never work for me because they are too random. Anyone can join, post, and/or review recipes. There is no accounting for individual preferences, regional styles, and taste in general. I would be much better off finding a couple of individual websites and/or blogs run by people who share similar tastes in food as me and use their recipes. So I set out to find such sites. The first one I stumbled upon was thewednesdaychef.com, a blog by Louisa Weiss. She makes recipes from top chefs and then reviews them on her blog. She is a wonderful photographer and writer. She makes much more sophisticated meals than I have ever made but our tastes seem to be very similar.  From her site I was led to quite a few other food blogs that have piqued my interest, and I have started to follow a few blogs from cooks who also seem to like the same types of food that I like. 

Well tonight I made a wonderful recipe called Butternut Squash with Browned Butter and Thyme from a site called Simply Recipes. Elisa Bauer runs this blog and she definitely has similar tastes as me. I figured I couldn't go wrong with this recipe, and boy was I was right. It was simple to make, beautiful to look at, and full of flavor. However when I make it next time, I will use less butter than I used this time. It called for 3 Tbsp, but I would safely say that I could probably get away with 1 Tbsp. Take a look at my success story:

And an added bonus is that my house has a wonderful smell ever since dinner! 

Favorites and Not-So-Favorites

Top 10 Favorite Things to Eat: 

10. Butternut squash. This is shocking that it is on the list because it's a new favorite. My whole life I thought I didn't like winter squashes, but just last year I discovered how amazing butternut squash is. I've prepared it several different ways so far this season. 

9. Traditional Thanksgiving meal. All of it. Every side dish, every appetizer, every dessert. I try them all. Thank God this meal is only once a year because otherwise I would weigh 500 lbs! 

8. Asparagus. Yummy, yummy, yummy. I like it so many ways: all by itself, seasoned with herbs, cooked into recipes, etc. 

7. Crab legs. No butter, just tons of lemon. When I go out to eat and crab legs are on the menu, you can bet that I will most likely order them. I use the claws to scrape out every little bit of them from the shells. King crab legs are great, but I am just as pleased with the little guys too! I rarely eat them at home because inevitably your house will smell like crab for about 2 days after you eat it! 

6. Bread. Oh yes, bread is one of my favorite things on earth! Oh how a good loaf of bread can make my day! 

5. Good coffee. Although technically not a food, it's a favorite of mine. And NO cheap stuff, only good quality ground beans. I am not picky how it is served: espresso, blended, a regular cup of joe, coffee flavored ice cream... any which way is fine!  

4. Shrimp. I feel like Forest Gump here, but I will honestly eat shrimp any way you prepare it (just as long as you remove the disgusting veins from them!): BBQ shrimp, fried shrimp, garlic shrimp, shrimp louie, snow pea shrimp... you get the picture!

3. New York steak with melted bleu cheese crumbled on top. Prepared medium-rare. Mmmmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. 

2. Breakfast foods. When I wake up in the morning the very 1st thought that goes into my mind is "what's for breakfast?" I swear. I live for breakfast! I can't honestly remember the last time I didn't eat breakfast, and therefore breakfast is my meal that I feel most comfortable cooking. I just get in the kitchen and start cooking. No measuring. No over analyzing. Rarely a bad meal. It's just my thing. Most of the time I make healthy foods for breakfast but I do have the occasional gut-buster! 

1. Burritos. Well, actually anything Mexican is my favorite but burritos rank #1 in my world! They have always been my favorite dish. They are the perfect meal! Tons of ways to prepare them, packed full of flavor, and neatly wrapped in a perfectly sized tortilla for you to hold.

Least Favorite Things to Eat:

1. Eggplant. Yuk.

2. Pork. Actually, I am kinda weird about pork. I have consciously chosen to not eat any meat products that come from a pig for about 20 years, but sometimes it's unavoidable. I love my mexican food restaurants and Lord knows they load that up with lard! Also, there is this amazing corn chowder at Tower Cafe that is loaded with pieces of ham. I overlook it. So as you see, I am not real strict on this dislike. 

3. Huge portions. It's a real pet peeve of mine that restaurants serve such large portions. Cory and I are pretty good about splitting meals because it's absurd how much food some restaurants consider to be a meal for one. 

4. Scallops. Honestly, they may have the greatest flavor in the world but when I bite down into them I can't understand where their body parts are. This mystery that has yet to be explained to me leads me to dislike the scallop in general. 

That's it. I am wracking my brain trying to think of more dislikes, but I just can't (like I said in a previous post, I love food!)

Out with the old and in with the new!

Food processors are one of the greatest kitchen tools in existence. I love the simplicity of putting food in, pushing a button, and wala, it's chopped/sliced/shredded. Even the mediocre ones are great... but the good ones are FABULOUS! Why do I love them so much? Is it because I am lazy and love the ease of just pushing a button?  Is it because I don't really know how to chop, slice, and dice efficiently?  Is it because I absolutely love having a variety of tools for each task? Ehhh, who knows, it's probably a little of each of those things!  

My love of food processors began when I was in college and living in my first apartment.  I bought a simple Braun food processor that was on clearance for around $10. It was too good of a bargain to pass up.  It's small and only has 2 blades, but it has been one of my favorite kitchen tools of all time. I use it whenever I get a chance.  It's been a great kitchen gadget.  And even with all the great things I have to say about it, I have one final thing to say to it: "move over bacon... now there's something meatier!" Yep, I got a beautiful shiny new Cuisinart food processor.  It's amazing and has so many bells and whistles. It has blades that I never even knew existed.  It's finish is stainless so I can be proud to leave it out on my counter, on display for all to admire (my Braun was white so it was tucked away in a cupboard after each use.) 

Stay tuned to hear about my adventures with my new kitchen pal... my Cuisinart food processor! 

Here it is making its debut. Say "hello" to my new friend:

And say "goodbye" to my old pal: 

Finally joining the blogosphere!

Dun, da da dun... I have created a blog! My friend Amanda, who is the quintessential blogger, has nudged me several times to start a blog and I have always said that it wasn't for me. I have always enjoyed reading blogs but had no interest in doing one myself. But for some odd reason, yesterday I decided that I MUST have a blog! So I ask myself "why now?" Why haven't I felt the need to start a blog before now? Is it lack of time? Nope, I spend countless hours surfing the web. Lack of interest? Nope, I love reading other peoples' blogs. Do I not have anything to blog about? Nope, I have a ton of things that inspire me. A need for privacy? Nope, not that either... I love sharing my life experiences with others!

So why now? I have one word to answer that question... FOOD! I love food. I love to eat it. I love to share it. I love to look at it (I open my refrigerator at least 50 times a day...sometimes for a purpose and sometimes just to make sure everything looks the same as it did the last time I looked in there!) I am pretty open minded with trying new foods. I love eating out at different restaurants. And most of all I love to cook food. But here's the catch... I am not a very good cook. I have always wished that I was a good cook, but I am mediocre at best! And I am ready for a change. I have recently decided that I would make it a goal to become a better cook.

So what is my goal for this blog? I have several:

1. I want to learn the basics of food and then develop my cooking skills to become a great cook. I will post on this blog what I am learning and how it is relevant to my food journey.
   
2. I want to move beyond my normal rotation of 10 different meals that I have made forever. To enrich our dining experience and eat a more sophisticated variety of foods and menus. I will post on this blog my new favorite recipes (and my not-so-favorite recipes).
   
3. I want to have wonderful meals with family and friends. The kind that we have all had, where we think about the delicious food we ate for days and weeks after we have eaten it.
4. I want to organize my recipes in a sensible and handy way so I will have access to favorite meals as well as ideas for meals I would like to try. I'd love to hear from you on how you organize yours in hopes of finding the perfect method!
   
5. AND I want to have a kitchen stocked with a variety of dream cooking tools including the Le Creuset line of pots and pans (ahhhh, so beautiful and so functional!) As I try out new items, I will post my opinion of the items.

So, that's the long expanation on how I got here. I hope you'll keep checking back and follow me in my journey to becoming a better cook!