Chipotle Flank Steak

I had full reign of the kitchen Friday night, as everyone else was driving back home from an all-day outing.  It was nice to put on some music, tidy up the table, light some candles, and cook dinner for the fam. 

I chose the Latin-Style Flank Steak from FC issue #65, topped with the Chipotle Butter from the same issue.  Very easy, but flavorful and everyone said it tasted good after a busy week. 

Spices for the recipe

I did choose to broil instead of grill the steak, as there were several ominous storm clouds hovering nearby.  I also recommend using the food processor for the butter, instead of doing it by hand--otherwise you'll have pockets of lime juice, unless you like this 'rustic' approach.

For sides dishes, I sauteed some swiss chard with garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  So simple, but delish.  I also included a side of cous-cous (easiest starch to cook ever).  Anyone have much luck with cooking the bigger couscous varieties?  I've tried the Israeli couscous, and love the texture, but there's another, larger variety couscous which I think needs to simply be treated like regular pasta:  boil til cooked, drain, and season with salt, pepper, and some butter or olive oil. 



Isn't the chard beautiful?

Saturday Night Grilling

Tex-Mex tacos with grilled pork, scallions, radishes, and poblanos, topped with crumbled feta cheese, and a side of black beans. 

Your mouth watering yet?

It should be.  The Spicy-Smoky Mexican Pork Kebabs recipe from Fine Cooking, issue 72, was to die for.  The marinated pork by itself would have been gobbled down by several people...if given the chance. 

Mom chose this recipe earlier in the week and it was a good night to grill, as it's been way too hot to cook anything in the kitchen.  Be warned, there was a fair amount of chopping required for this recipe. 

The marinade is very easy.  Instead of putting it in the blender, I used a hand blender (best kitchen appliance ever...definitely going on my wish-list) because I'm too lazy to wash out the big blender.  For the dried chile, I chose 2 guajillo chiles and soaked those for about 15 minutes. 

I let the pork loin marinate for close to 2 hours, and instead of skewering it like typical kebabs, my dad just grilled as-is, which worked perfectly. 

The recipe also called for grilled vegetables to go with the 'tacos' (they aren't your typical Mexican tacos, so I don't know what to call them):  poblanos, radishes, and scallions.  Everything was tossed with a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.  I also cut the poblanos into 1/4" strips, instead of the 1 inch chunks....NOT recommended for grilling!!  My dad lost several strips through the grill's grates...oops.  Also, grilled radishes are very strange...they're good, but they're just so different when you pop them on the grill.  My mom commented they tasted a little like turnips. 

Peppers, scallions, more peppers, and radishes...yum :)

We also had a side of black beans.  No recipe for that, although I kinda based it on the Classis Mexican "Pot" Beans from Rick Bayless' cookbook, Mexican Kitchen (yes, I do actually cook from other resources, besides FC!).  Basically I sauteed an onion with some garlic and a jalapeno pepper, then added in one can of drained and rinsed black beans, added some beef broth and let that simmer for a few minutes.  I also added a bay leaf, ground cumin, and chile powder.  I let it cook too long so I added a little more broth...the idea was that the beans would be moist.  They made a yummy side dish with a little feta sprinkled on top! 

Grilled Pizza

I can't believe I haven't posted about grilled pizza yet!!  Oh. My. Goodness.  It might not be a new concept, but it sure is delicious.  My mom pulled this recipe from Fine Cooking, issue 66, last summer, and we turned every Friday into a grilled pizza and movie night, until it got too cold to grill (although this was at the top of my "must eat while home on break" list for spring break).  Since the weather is warmer now, we've gone back to grilling pizza every weekend again.  Unfortunately I missed this week's grilled pizza to go see 'Brave'....totally worth it though.  I definitely recommend going to see it!  A little bit of a tear-jerker, but it was worth the $10.50 I paid. 

This recipe seems intimidating (initially the idea didn't fly with my dad) but honestly it's not any harder than baking a pizza.  And if you break up the prep and clean-up work, it goes all that much faster.

Dough on the grill in the first step

Some small changes to the actual recipe:

*I substitute about 6 ounces of whole wheat flour instead of APF.  The first time we made grilled pizza, we found the dough very, very, very sticky, and elastic--aka, it wouldn't hold its shape.  I found that by substituting even just a little WWF this helps with the stickiness and elasticity.  It also makes the pizza a little more substantial and filling.

*The roasted red pepper sauce is good, but it's a little acidic for my mom's taste, so after the first 4 or so times we made it, we just reverted to "normal" pizza sauce--a can of crushed tomatoes, cooked with a little sauteed garlic, red pepper flakes, and a combination of different herbs.

*My dad also started doing what he calls his "funky pizzas."  Usually these are sauceless pizzas that just have a little olive oil, herbs, and salt.  Essentially they're flat breads, but shhhhh don't tell him I gave them a name.

Friday's night pizza entailed an artichoke and chicken pizza...the fam is getting tired of the same old pepperoni/cheese/sausage/herb toppings, so we're trying to expand our horizons.  I've had some ideas--like a Mexican one, with chipotle rubbed chicken, cheddar, some grilled poblanos...or a seafood pizza at the beach, with leftover shrimp (or even fish), sauteed spinach and feta....instant yum.  The more inspirations the better, so let me know if you have ideas!  :)



Finished product! This pizza has pepperoni, fresh oregano, and mozzarella.



Stir Fry

You know your mom likes ginger when...you look in the vegetable drawer, and every other veggie is--you guessed it--a bag of ginger. 

Last week's dinner was stir fry.

All the vegetables chopped up and ready to stir fry

It was fairly easy to put together after coming home from work...lots of chopping and prep work of course, but that just meant I was reunited with my favorite Cutco knife again.  I was shooting for something fun and different to cook...when mom tells me to menu-plan for the week, I usually revert to the same old dishes.  Bad habit.

I pulled this recipe from an older (but much beloved) Fine Cooking Magazine--issue #58.  Here's the link for the recipe.  It's basically a "create your own" recipe, so you can pick and choose your veggies and meat. 

I chose shrimp for my protein, and veggies I used bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli, scallions, and ginger (hence the comment at the beginning of my post).  The author also said to choose a sauce; I used the sesame soy one. 

I've never cooked a stir fry before.  They're definitely fast-paced!  This one came together very nicely though.  I did find I needed to cook my shrimp a little longer than the recommended 20-ish seconds before removing them from heat.  Other than that, everything was smooth sailing.  With just a pot of cooked rice, this was definitely a dinner I'd do again.  I think it'd also be a good one to keep in mind for college life.  Obviously I don't have to use shrimp (since that can be a little spendy on my wallet) but chicken would be a yummy (cough, cough: cheap...) substitute, too. 

I've never cooked with bok choy before, either.  An interesting vegetable...it's like it's half spinach, and half celery or something.  According to Wikipedia (bad resource I know...), it's of the same species as the turnip, and can also be called Chinese cabbage, but this name also includes Napa cabbage. 

Hello again!

Dear readers (although I think you are few and far between),

Boy, has it been a year!  You might have guessed that I was college-bound these past 12 months, and you would've guessed correctly.  Home for the summer, and working full-time (lemme just say, 40 hours a week takes some adjustment) but trying to cook nonetheless. That's one thing I discovered I missed a lot in college--cooking. Not just the art of creating a meal or dessert, but making it a family affair by involving everyone. I also discovered that cooking is very much my own little 'niche', my way of both relaxing and focusing on a task at the same time.

This coming school year I have a better opportunity to cook and blog, as I will have my own kitchen.  I'm very excited about this, because it's a brand-spanking new kitchen.  I think this will also add an interesting twist to my blog approach--how to cook on a budget, while maintaining my high-standards (or so I consider them) tastebuds. 

Anyway, so moving on to the real subject--food!  If you have any suggestions on how to eat well--while on a budget--let me know! 

More cake...

Well here I go again, ignoring my poor little blog!  haha  Anyway, it's been very busy which is why I haven't had much time to cook, and thus no blog posts! 

Recently I made a chocolate cake.  Very easy recipe found here from the Fine Cooking magazine.  No quips or problems at all with this recipe!  :) 

I'm afraid my photography skills don't do the cake justice.  But it tasted amazing, if I do say so myself.  ;)

Cooking ideas...

Sorry for not posting!  It's been busy with work and studies.  :)

Instead of blogging about what I've cooked, I decided to make a 'to-do' list of things I'd like to cook.  {Not like I need yet another to-do list, but these recipes looked yummy}.

I found this Chicken Gyros with Cucumber Salsa and Tsatsiki on the Gourmet Magazine website.  Doesn't it sound scrumptious?  I love gyros, but I've only had it with lamb. 

While browsing the Gourmet magazine website, I also came across these frozen delights--Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches with Blueberry Swirl, which I thought sounded like a fun and different dessert.  The only thing I might do differently is make my own ice cream, instead of using it 'ready-made.' 

Back to my favorite Fine Cooking magazine, I found this recipe for Oreo cookies.  I told my mom the other night that I wanted some Oreo cookies next time she went grocery shopping, but then I thought "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if I could make those?!"  Soooo I found a recipe!  These are definitely a priority.  :) 

One last recipe:  Pop-tarts.  Anyone out there had any luck with these?  I've seen them here on Fine Cooking, as well as on the Food Network website here, and of course Alton Brown has a video clip from his show Good Eats here.  I'm thinking I'll go with A.B.'s recipe. 

More Adventures with Ice Cream and Cupcakes...

This Sunday my mom announced she wanted some sort of dessert to go with our lovely turkey dinner Dad roasted.  I listed several options--a cake, pie, torte, cookies...but we finally decided on ice cream. 

I chose the Hazelnut and Chocolate Chunk ice cream option from the Fine Cooking magazine.  It's hard to believe the last time I made ice cream was over a month ago!  Check it out here.  Very easy, except I think the hardest part was waiting for the ice cream to finish churning! 

Also a couple of side-notes.  I used a 4-oz. bar of Girardelli chocolate.  The family thought this was too much (I don't understand how you can ever have too much chocolate, though!), so next time I'll only use about half as much.  This recipe also calls to infuse the milk/cream/sugar mixture with the nuts.  I did this, and afterwards I saved the hazelnuts.  I plan on making oatmeal within the next day or two and stirring in some of the nuts--I mean, you can't go wrong with hazelnuts cooked in sugar and cream!  haha  Next time I make this recipe, I'll probably leave some of the nuts in the mixture simply because everyone agreed it would have been even better with some extra crunch.

Finally, I have 5 egg white sitting in the fridge, since the ice cream recipe only uses yolks.  Any ideas what to do with them?

And no pictures, due to the fact the entire batch of ice cream was eaten immediately following dinner.

Now on to the cupcakes.  My friend came over last Saturday and we made dessert for the family dinner.  We chose bright, cheerful colors because it was pouring down rain/extremely windy/chance of tornados.  Very depressing weather.  Anyway. 

Our sunflower cupcakes.  :)

We used Abigail Johnson Dodge's chocolate cupcake recipe and made a simple buttercream recipe for the frosting.



All 12 cupcakes.



Dear me.  I haven't posted in a while, have I?  It's been rather hectic, between trying to finish my last 2 classes and starting a second PT job.  And I really haven't had time to cook--last week I wasn't home for dinner AT ALL.  *sigh* Oh well.  I'm working on that.

So two weekends ago (flasback time!) I made cake pops with a friend (we also made blondies and pancakes).  I got this book out of the library for inspiration (all of the designs are really cute!!).  You basically make a cake, crumble the cake all up (horrifying, really, ruining a perfectly good cake that way), then mix in frosting (which acts as 'glue'), then roll it into one- or two-bite sized pieces of cake.  Then you cover the cake with melted candy coating.  We chose to use a ganache (after we figured out why it kept seizing up) instead, but it didn't give us that pretty, smooth finish.  It tasted better, though!  :)  We also decided to go with a homemade cake and frosting recipe, instead of a box-recipe. 



Ta-da!  Our lovely cake pops.  :)



And this week I did have time to bake a cake.  I don't normally bake cakes, but I thought "I can handle cookies, brownies, and cupcakes, so a cake can't be that hard...".  I made this Butter Cake with Browned Butter Frosting, from the Land 'O Lakes website.  The recipe was very easy, but my cake seemed a little flat around the edges...of course, I don't think that was helped any by the fact I almost forgot to add the baking soda...

Now on to the frosting.  I browned the butter in a small pan (I did have to let it cook more than 5-6 minutes...more like 8-ish), then let it cool.  After beating in the sugar and vanilla, I tasted it.  I was really surprised to taste--caramel!  It tasted like caramel frosting to me.  Very surprising.

What to do with...bamboo rice

Remember I said in the Grilled Chicken Tacos Alambres post there'd be more to come?  Well here it is, the beginning of an occasional series about "what to do with..." a certain ingredient, the ingredient's origin, and maybe a recipe or two.

Anyway, one of my best friends and I browsed through Fresh Market looking for things we'd never heard of or eaten before.  The first thing we came across was bamboo rice. 

After Googling and reading about bamboo rice, it seems to simply be a short grain white rice infused with bamboo juice.  Easy enough.  Anybody cooked bamboo rice before?

Coconut and Chocolate Cupcakes

Yep.  I'm back to cupcakes--for the moment anyway.  I used Abigail Johnson Dodge's Emergency Blender Cupcakes from her cookbook, The Weekend Baker (New York: 2005).  If you remember, I also made these earlier this month here.  This time, however, I tried a different flavoring and the frosting was once again successful.  :)

I made these into mini cupcakes, and instead of 12 regular sized cupcakes the recipe made about 42 minis.  I also chose to flavor the buttercream frosting with coconut.  I beat 1/4 butter (room temperature) with about 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar.  I then added about 2 tablespoons of coconut milk and beat that in.  Voila!  After topping the cakes with frosting, I sprinkled coconut flakes on top (sweetened of course). 

more dessert

Spiced cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  Hungry yet?  I've made this scrumptious recipe from the Gourmet magazine two times now, and they're a huge hit. 

{Please ignore the Christmas/holiday cupcake wrappers...they were the only ones handy.}

This was a very easy recipe from the something-er-rather issue of the Gourmet magazine.  They remind me of my Molasses cookies, but a very tender cake version and with a lovely cream cheese frosting.  And this time I followed the recipe and didn't mess up the frosting!  yay!  The only thing about this recipe (which I'd noted from last time) was the original recipe didn't make nearly enough frosting to frost all 12 cupcakes.  So I made 1.5x which worked well. 

I also made Mocha Cupcakes (on a different day, of course) from the Wild about Cupcakes cookbook by Rachel Lane.  These were very yummy, too.  I didn't like that the cupcakes sank, though.  They're not supposed to be poufy cupcakes like the spiced cupcakes above, but I was still rather disappointed.  Also, the topping is a flavored whipped cream so instead of "frosting" them all I stashed the cream in the fridge to be dolloped on top when dessert was served. 

Family dinner adventures

Last Tuesday was a very productive evening--cooking-wise.  The parents had a "date night" at home, with cheese fondue and homemade bread.  Dad and sis worked on that and the final result was a wonderful loaf of bread: Crackly crust and airy interior.  Mom made spiced nuts for a snack.  Quite tasty--they had sugar, salt, a bunch of spices, and some dried fruit.  It was more of a savory snack, and not as sweet as it might sound.  A slight kick of spice, too.

The addictive nuts on the left and the beautiful loaf of bread on the right.

Since the parents were having their own meal, I made dinner separately for the sibs and I.  It was a simple pasta dish with spinach, roasted red peppers, canned artichokes, and parmesan.  I sauteed 2 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil then added the spinach.  After that cooked down I added the thinly sliced pepprs and diced artichokes to the mix.  I added a little chicken broth, let that and the veggie juices cook down, then seasoned to taste.  In the meantime, I got a pot of water boiling and cooked approximately 8 ounces of pasta.  I drained that and added it to the veggie mix.  Dinner time! 

It was fairly easy, but I still need to work on my proportions.  I forget that I have a lot of pasta and that there really aren't as many veggies as it seems!  Still, it was tasty and there weren't any leftovers.  :)

Pretzels!

Okay so I finally made a savory snack--pretzels!  Sorry cookies, but pretzels are my new thing.  I made these Hot Buttered Pretzels from King Arthur Flour.  Super, super easy recipe.  They have a wonderful soft chewy texture and a beautiful browned outside that's buttery and salty.

yummy...

Only a couple comments.  First, they only needed to bake for 7 1/2 minutes instead of 8-9.  Secondly I found I didn't need to work on a greased surface area as the dough wasn't as sticky as the recipe implied.  But other than that the recipe seems to be a hit!  I'll definitely make these again, maybe experiment and see what variations I can come up with. 

Grilled Chicken Tacos Alambres

The weather was rather warm Saturday, so I spent the afternoon with a friend eating a picnic lunch, going out for coffee, and browsing through Fresh Market.  More on the latter part, but basically we decided to photograph certain ingredients we hadn't eaten/cooked before, and I would research the ingredient and find a recipe.  But like I said, more on that to come.

After the day's excursion I made dinner.  I hadn't planned on cooking but I'd started the prep work and somehow ended up actually cooking dinner (Mom was quite okay with that! haha). 

Anyway, I made Grilled Chicken Tacos Alambres from the Fine Cooking Magazine (surprise, surprise!) issue 64 page 69. 

A few modifications:  First, I didn't use a whole cup of vegetable oil for the marinade.  Instead, I only mixed a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  I also didn't use the guacamole, pico de gallo, or tomatillo salsa they called for, so to keep things simple.  The recipe called for oazaca cheese, but we didn't have any, so a little cheddar sprinkled on top tasted just as good.  :)  

The beautiful cilantro!





End result

And finally, everyone agreed the dish could have used a little less lime juice but more chile powder.  Overall, a big hit.  :)

More...chicken! (and you thought I was gonna say cookies)

Last Thursday I still had a whole leftover cooked chicken breast from dinner on Sunday.  What to do?  Well it was all rainy and icky outside so I made CNS.  And no, I'm not talking about the central nervous system from biology.  I'm referring to my absolute favorite lunch: Chicken noodle soup. 

Anyway, it's really easy and I made 3-4 servings in under 30 minutes (now I sound like Rachel Ray...).  Basically I chopped on shallot, carrot, and a couple of mushrooms.  Then I sauteed them in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  I also added a bit of thyme and a couple bay leaves.  After the veggies were softened, I added about 3/4 of a carton of chicken broth and seasoned it.  Then I brought that to a boil and added a couple handfuls of elbow macaroni pasta and cooked that for 7 minutes.  I chopped the boneless skinless chicken and threw that in after the pasta was finish cooking.  And there you go--instant lunch!

Usually I use celery in place of mushroom, but there wasn't any to be found so this changed things up a bit.  Most any or all herbs could be used (i.e., oregano or basil) but I liked the thyme.  Same for the pasta--the macaroni was just what was on hand.  And finally, I didn't use all of the chicken as it really doesn't take much.  I ended up making chicken salad with the last little bit.  :)

More cookies...

Ok, so I'll try to stop baking so many cookies.  I've decided I need to look into more savory snacks (suggestions?) or find more time for actually cooking a meal.  But in the mean time, here's a yummy sugar cookie recipe I made about 3 weeks ago and forgot to blog about...

Chewy Sugar Cookies:  (source:  Fine Cooking Magazine, issue 109)

A couple of things.  First, I'm not big into colored sugar, so I didn't use any.  I also chose not to use the almond extract.  Thirdly, I actually have pictures!  yay! 

Friday = Pizza and movie night

For the past month or so, we've had a weekly pizza and movie night.  As my mom jokingly puts it, we "eat the movie and watch the pizza."  Some of my favorite recent movies include "The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer" and "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," both starring Cary Grant.  I also enjoyed the original version of "The Shaggy Dog" and the classic "Lawrence of Arabia." 

Anyways, we rarely order pizza out, preferring to make it ourselves.  Mom and/or Dad make the crust, I make the pizza sauce, and my sibs help with grating cheese or slicing toppings.  It can be quite a production sometimes!  ;)

For the pizza sauce, one 28-oz. can of diced or crushed tomatoes is more than enough for 2 large pizzas.  Here's how I generally make the sauce:

Heat a pot on medium-high on the stove.  When it's hot, add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sautee either 2 cloves of garlic or 1 small, finely chopped shallot.  Then add about 2 teaspoons of basil, oregano, and/or thyme, and one pinch of red pepper flakes.  Add one can of diced/crushed tomatoes and bring to simmer.  Cover partially and cook for about 10 minutes.  Taste and season with salt, pepper, and sugar as needed.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Voila!

Very simple recipe.  I like it because it's fairly quick and there are boundless variations.  Plus, if there's any leftover sauce, we freeze it.  Awesome for those nights we don't feel like making sauce. 

(bad picture, I know, but the lighting was poor and this was best pic of the bunch)

Molasses Cookies

Back to sweets again.  Oh well...these are too good to not share. 

Anyways, this is part two of Sunday's cooking adventures.  I made a batch of these cookies because there weren't any sweets in the pantry and I had nothing better to do (haha).  This is my aunt's recipe and I've used it many times.

Molasses Cookies:

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 tsp. baking soda

2 cup flour

1/2 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

350 degrees for 10 minutes.

*   *   *   *   *

And yes, those are all the instructions.  I usually mix the shortening and sugar together, then add everything else except the flour because the spices will often be unevenly distributed if added them after mixing in the flour.  Then I'll add in the rest of the ingredients; usually the flour is last.  Generally I add heaping teaspoons of the spices. 

I've tried a couple of molasses/spiced cookie recipes, but this one is, by far, the best.  I also like Abigail Johnson Dodge's Ginger Crackles from The Weekend Baker cookbook.  Her recipe is very similar to my aunt's, making roughly x1.5 more cookies, and uses butter in addition to shortening.

Once again, sadly no pictures. 

Dinner

This Sunday I made dinner for the sibs.  A pretty basic menu--roasted chicken, spinach, and rice.  Oh and my famous molasses cookies (recipe to follow). 

For the chicken breasts, I seasoned both sides with salt and pepper and browned them in a cast iron skillet at medium high with a little olive oil for approximately 4 minutes per side.  Then I put the entire skillet in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes.  Maybe a little long, yes, but I'm not about to eat undercooked chicken.  I topped it with a simple compound butter composed of butter (real surprise, right?), lemon zest, olive oil, salt, garlic, and rosemary. Voila.  Pretty simple and very flavorful.  I smeared some of the butter on the chicken about 10 minutes before it finished cooking, and then added more right before serving.