January 30, 2012 – Cream of Potato Soup

Soup month is almost over and today I decided I really needed to try to construct a new challenge, cream based soup.  The thought came after a week of making various excuses to not cook.  Good excuses I might add, such as “restaurant week”, “happy hour”, “I have popcorn”, and other more mediocre excuses.  

Anyway, my not cooking streak finally came to a head and the weather turned just a bit chilly again.  It was about time to enjoy my creamy soup.  I had a lone potato in the kitchen and thus I decided to make Cream of Potato Soup.  I’d done some research on creamy soups and decided to have a legitimate foodsperiment.

Cream of Potato Soup – from my brain

Ingredients:

• 1 large potato – check
• Handful of precut carrots – check
• 2 large garlic cloves – check
• Handful of precut celery – check
• ½ cup of chicken stock – check
• ½ cup milk – check
• 1 spoonful flour – check
• 1 tbs gorgonzola crumbles – check
• Splash of heavy cream – check
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce – check
• Pinch of salt – check

Step 1: Smash and roughly cut the garlic, put it into a pot with a splash of chicken stock to sauté.

Step 2: Peel and cut potato into cubes, throw into the pot to also sauté. Throw in the celery and carrots to sauté. Realize that THERES WAY TOO MANY POTATOES so take some of them and put them into a dish and into the oven; you can have them for lunch tomorrow.

Step 3: Mix the milk and chicken stock with a spoonful of flour.  Pour into the pot over the sautéd veggies.

Step 4: Mix the heavy cream and Worcestershire sauce into the soup. 

Step 5: Remember that you wanted to put some cheese in there and make it the gorgonzola.  Parm might have worked better.

Step 6: Allow to simmer for roughly 20 minutes or until the veggies are soft.  Stir occasionally.  Salt to taste.  No really, taste it, you’ll want to put some salt in it and then go mm mmm good. 

Step 7: Heat up your bowl so it doesn’t make the soup cold and transfer the soup to your bowl and wash the soup pot.  I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do this sort of thing.  That way you aren’t scalding yourself when you eat your food and the kitchen is clean!

This foodsperiment had two reactions.  My first reaction was “OH MAN THIS IS GOOD, I WISH I HAD SOMEONE HERE WHO WOULD TRY THIS!” My second reaction upon biting into a potato chunk was “oh dear I should be more patient and simmered it longer. If I was on the show Chopped, I’d have gotten chopped.”  There you have it, it was a good soup and I enjoyed it but I know it would have been better with a smidge longer cooktime so the veggies would be softer.

Regardless, this foodsperiment gets a +5 for taste, a -1 for slight undercooking, +5 for using ingredients already in my kitchen, +5 for ease, +5 for using one pot, and +5 for easy cleanup.  Happy Sperimenting! 

Cream of Potato Soup

January 28 (29), 2012 – Chocolate Round Cake

Happy Chocolate Cake Day!  Ok, so I’m extended this holiday a few days, but in all fairness I DID have Mexican Chocolate Cake at dinner Friday (Jan 27 - the actual holiday) so it still counts.  I decided I’d spread the holiday out a few days and eat chocolate cake at dinner Friday (the holiday), bake the chocolate cake today (1/28), and bring it to Sunday (1/29) family dinner at my Aunt and Uncle’s. 

Chocolate (Round) Sheet Cake – from a weight watchers recipe (6 servings, I clearly halved this recipe).

Ingredients:

• 7/8 cup flour – check
• ½ + 1/8 cup light brown sugar – check
• 3/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder – check
• ¼ cup sugar – check
• ½ + ¼ tsp baking powder  - check
• ½ + ¼ tsp baking soda – check
• 1/8 tsp salt
• ½ + 1/8 cup milk – check
• 1.5 egg whites – check, but seriously awkward to try to make this work.
• 1 tbs butter – check
• ½ + ¼ tsp vanilla – check
• ½ cup boiling water – check
• ½ tbs powdered sugar – check

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350F; and prep your preferred pan. Also, melt your butter.

Step 2: In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt – mix well.

Step 3: In a completely different and bigger bowl mix together the milk, egg whites, butter, and vanilla – mix well until blended.  Add boiling water and mix well.

Step 4: Mix wet and dry ingredients.  Don’t worry if there are bubbles.  It is ok.  You probably mixed well.

Step 5: Pour into prepared pan and bake 25-30 minutes; use the toothpick and/or plump it up trick to make sure the cake is done.

Step 6: Find a way to get the cake out of the pan onto a rack to cool.  If you didn’t prep the pan with some light oily business you’re going to want to cry and/or some of your cake is going to stay in the pan.  That’s ok though, because you’re going to get to use that bit as a taste test.

Step 7: Allow to cool and then plate and cover, while you go out on the town to play Skeeball with friends at this SAHWEET bar in Olde City. 

Step 8: Steal some confectioner sugar from your aunt and put it on the cake when you bring it to Sunday family dinner.  Also, let your delightful cousin make it look pretty because, well, she’s pretty.

I can’t quite decide which part of this was my favorite…the laziness in which I put the whole thing together, the fact that the cake is a weight watchers recipe and each slice is only 6 points, that the lamb dinner my aunt cooked and we consumed prior to consuming the cake was so epic I am salivating just thinking of it, or that it was enjoyed in the company of my wonderful family.  Oh yeah, and the cake was pretty good.  Everyone gave it a thumbs up and a “let’s have another piece please, oh! Let’s have it with ice cream”.  This foodsperiment gets a +7 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for a healthy choice, +18 for wonderful dining companions, and +10 for being the perfect cherry on top of a very delightful weekend.  Happy Sperimenting!

Chocolate Round Cake

January 22, 2012 – Pumpkin Blondies

Happy Blonde Brownie Day!  My new year’s resolution continues onward and with it the celebration of Blonde Brownie Day!  For this holiday I’d already decided to make Pumpkin Blondies, a recipe which my dearest friend Mai had left at my house many moons ago and that I’d already duplicated in practice.  I decided to make them for our recruitment tea for my singing group (yeah I get it, I’m multi-talented) and of course I made the mistake of waiting until the last minute to pick up some of the ingredients.  Needless to say, Sunday morning was a bit of a rushed bag of tricks as I went to go pick up supplies, had to try three different spots to find the ingredients, then put the blondies together and get them into the oven and then had to run to the wine and spirits store to supply wine for my ladies’ restaurant week dinner later that evening, and back home to make sure the blondies didn’t burn.  What an adventure.

So here it is folks:

Pumpkin Blondies – from a recipe Mai left at my house

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour – check
• 1 T pumpkin pie spice – omitted
• 1 tsp baking soda – check
• ¾ tsp salt – check
• 1 cup unsalted butter – check
• 1 large egg – check
• 2 tsp vanilla – check
• 1 cup pumpkin puree – oops it was pumpkin pie puree so sorry bout it…
• 1 cup white chocolate chips – check
• 1 cup butterscotch chips – surprisingly neither Walgreens, CVS, nor the little shop down the street carries butterscotch chips, so instead I used heath bar crunches that I found at the little shop down the street

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350F.  Set aside your new bar pans to use; you can oil them a bit or maybe use pam.  Woops.

Step 2: In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt (and pumpkin pie spice if you aren’t using pumpkin pie puree)

Step 3: In a bowl beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Try not to let the whole thing beat itself all up in your hair, shirt, and every surface of your kitchen.  Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.  Mix in the pumpkin puree or pumpkin pie puree if you’re not that smart and bought the wrong ingredients. 

Step 4: Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. 

Step 5: “Fold” in the white chocolate and heath bar chips.  Fold is just a fancy term for mix. 

Step 6: If you use just one pan, throw the whole batter into the pan.  If you’re using bar pans spoon a bit of the stuff into each bar spot. 

Step 7: Bake about 35-40 minutes, or enough time to run to the wine and spirits store, have a lovely gentleman help you pick out a nice Malbec and run back home.  Also use the toothpick test to determine if the bars are done.

Step 8: Allow to cool in pan on wire rack until able to take out of the pan (and to cut into pieces if you used a big ol' pan), but if you’re in a time crunch find a way to make it work.   Then run out the door to go greet strangers and chat with friends.

Whew.  I can’t even tell you how lovely my apartment smelled for A WHILE after making these.  Also they turned out well.  My friends Katie and Rick said “They’re nice”.  I’m going to share them with my co-workers too since a full batch of these is too many for me.

This foodsperiment: +8 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for easy cleanup, +5 for helping out at a potluck, and +5 for my first batch of bars using my new bar pans (thanks Ma!).  Happy Sperimenting!

Pumpkin Blondies!

January 21, 2012 – Crab Fried Rice

It is a very rare day indeed that I don’t have a thousand different plans and all my hours aren’t filled.  Today was one of those very rare days.  I woke up to snow covering the alley and reports of more snow to come, and spent most of the day watching tv, lounging, knitting, writing, answering emails and chatting with Erin and Mai.   Finally, it was well past dinner time and I wanted to make something but I didn’t really know what and  Erin mentioned fried rice so I decided that I was going to be inspired by her.

Crab Fried Rice – from my brain

Ingredients:

• ½ bag Uncle Ben’s rice - check
• ½ bag of imitation crab – leftovers, check
• 1 clove garlic – check
• Onion, about a tbs – check
• Carrots, about ½ tbs – check
• Oil, a splash – check
• Rice wine vinegar – check
• Soy Sauce – check

Step 1: Make a bag of uncle ben’s rice per instructions; mostly consists of water etc. 

Step 2: While the rice is cooking, mince the garlic clove and the bits of onion. Also cut the carrot into small pieces.

Step 3: Drain the rice and wash the pot.  Put the pot on low heat; heat a splash of veg. oil and sauté the onions, garlic, and carrots together.

Step 4: Cut the imitation crab into pieces, add these to the pot.

Step 5: Add half the bag of rice to the pot, keep stirring a bit.  Add a splash of rice wine vinegar to the pot and stir.

Step 6: Add about two splashes of soy sauce and stir.  Keep stirring until you feel pretty awesome about what’s going on in the pot and you decide you’re going to eat it.  Leave it in for at least the one minute you put the plate you’ll use into the microwave.

Step 7: Plate the fried rice and clean up so you don’t burn yourself on it. Then consume. Use chopsticks for best results.

Pretty perfect end to a snow day.  It was just a little less like fried rice than I maybe would have liked, but it was so yummy and light that I didn’t even care.  Hurrah for Erin, hurrah for my love of Asians, hurrah for easy cooking and easy cleanup. 

This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for quickness, +5 for using up ingredients in my kitchen, +5 for easy clean up, +5 for friendship inspiration.  Happy Sperimenting!

Crab Fried Rice!

January 19, 2012 – Cheese Bread Rolls

Best New Years Resolution Ever.  January 20^th is National Cheese Day or National Cheese Lovers Day, or just Cheese Day.  If you don’t believe me I don’t care, it’s my New Years Resolution and I’ll celebrate how I want to. 

My creation for Cheese Day was inspired by my time in Japan.  While there, I went with Momma and Staramama to the grocery store and saw this bread with some cheese on top, we decided to get it.  Upon cutting the bread to eat it, I discovered that there was CHEESE MELTED INSIDE THE BREAD! GENIUS!  The cheese was infused throughout the bread.  I can’t tell you how often I dream about that bread, because it’s probably obscene.  In Japan they have lots of breads with food items in them, and I fully support that action.

I decided to do the easiest thing I know how for this foodsperiment, make a batch of pretzel dough to make into rolls and put some cheese inside.  I made enough to share with folks at work too so Cheese Day could be celebrated by one and all.  Even though I started baking after going to see Memphis (sooo good) and I was sleepy, I’m committed to the Holidays cause.

Cheese Bread Rolls – from my mom (pretzel dough) and my brain.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour – check
• 1/3 cup brown sugar – check
• 1 1/3 cup warm water – check
• 1 tbs of dry yeast – check
• 12 chunks of gouda – check, you could probably use any cheese
• Crumbles of gorgonzola – check

Step 1: Combine water, yeast, and brown sugar.  Allow to proof (aka get bubbly). Roughly 1-3min.

Step 2: While the yeast etc proofs, measure out 4 cups of flour into your favorite mixing bowl.  Mine is a metal mixing bowl I inherited from my excellent Teta, who by the way was probably one of the BEST bakers I’ve ever known.

Step 3: Mix the wet ingredients with the flour.  You can do this in a food processor but I prefer the wooden spoon and subsequent kneading method.  Knead dough until smooth.  This can be done on a lightly floured surface or right in the mixing bowl…which is what I like to do for easy cleanup.  Coat the dough lightly with some veg oil and set to rise for a bit.  Use the saran wrap technique for quick results.

Step 4: As the dough rises, cut up your gouda into 12 hunks of cheese, because that’s how big your roll pan is.

Step 5: Rip 12 pieces of dough, for each pieces flatten and place your hunk of cheese in the middle.  Fold the dough over the cheese hunk and form into a roll.  Place into your roll pan and allow to rise just a bit more.

Step 6: With the remaining dough, flatten it and put some gorgonzola crumbles into it to create a gorgonzola cheese bread roll.  Put into your bread pan.

Step 7: Put both your pans into the oven and bake at 400F for 15 to 20minutes or until golden brown on top and some cheese tries to ooze out the sides.

Step 8: Offer to friends and co-workers alike and also consume some rolls yourself.  You can save the gorgonzola small loaf for yourself.  You might need it for a snow day.

I have to say, there’s nothing bad about these.  Maybe I could have cooked them a bit longer, but everyone at work LOVED the gouda bread rolls!  As my dear friend Sam (and what a delight she is) said “It was like a party in my mouth!”  I’ll take that as a compliment.  I also wish the gouda had melted or stayed melted but it didn’t.  The gorgonzola did better but also wasn’t heavy enough to weigh the bread down so there was a lot of bread and the cheese was concentrated in a small area.  I’ll try again someday.

This foodsperiment: +7 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for easy cleanup, +5 for holiday celebrations, +5 for making people happy!  Happy Sperimenting!

Gorgonzola Mini Loaf

January 18, 2012 – Beef Chicken and Veg Soup, Chicken Nugs, Kale Chips, and Love aka Cousinship

My dahling cousin Katie is taking a semester off from college and living at home at my fabulous Aunt and Uncle’s out in the burbs of the City of Brotherly Love and working in her industry so there’s great potential for many more cousin dates.  Also, Katie is a food science major so it’s delightful cooking with her.  We determined that she’d come over, I’d make soup, and in general there would be friendship.  She was a bit late coming over, which was perfect because I was a bit late getting out of my doctor’s appointment so instead of having dinner mostly ready upon her arrival, I had last minute request of hot cocoa available on the frigid night but dinner yet to be made.  As things were constructed we chatted and enjoyed each other’s company.  We decided to make soup (because it’s soup month) and some other items.

We started dinner by making some Kale Chips, since I still had leftover Kale from Tapas night.  They were thoroughly enjoyed by all as the rest of dinner cooked.

Beef Chicken and Veg Soup – from my brain

Ingredients:

• Beef stock – roughly 2 cups? I used the rest that I had in the fridge
• Chicken stock – roughly 2 cups, same method of use as beef stock
• 1 Bay leaf – check
• 3 cloves garlic – check
• Handful carrots – check
• Pinch of red pepper flakes – check
• Oregano  - check
• Marjoram – check
• Onions – check

Step 1: Cut onion into cube-like nature. Smash and slice the garlic.

Step 2: Combine Beef stock, chicken stock, onions, garlic, bay leaf, red pepper flakes, pinch of marjoram, pinch of oregano.  Set to simmer for a while.

Step 3: Make cousin peel a giant carrot while you prep the chicken nuggets you intend to make.

Step 4: Cut up the carrot into a bit of a cubelike strategy.  Nice bit about this part is that the soup has been simmering for a while, and you can cut the whole carrot up and parcel out the bits you aren’t going to eat in tonights soup into ziploc’s for future lunch or soup.  Add about a handful of cubed carrot to the soup.

Step 5: Simmer until the carrots are soft; turn off heat; remove bay leaf and serve.

Beef and Chicken Veg Soup

Chicken Nuggets – from my brain

Ingredients:

• Bread crumbs – check
• Red pepper flakes – check
• Chicken – check

Step 1: Thaw some chicken breast. You previously froze it into normal people sized portions.

Step 2: Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.

Step 3: In a Ziploc combine some bread crumbs (roughly ½ cup?) and red pepper flakes (the more the merrier) and mix. Add the chicken bites and use the old shake and bake method.

Step 4: Bake in the oven at roughly 400F for 15 to 20 minutes.

Chicken Nuggets

Other items that were included in the dinner menu were some rolls that were reheated, and leftover Cucumbers in Cream.  I thoughly enjoyed everything and Katie agreed!  The soup was spicy but delicious, and there was more than enough food to go around. Almost too much, woops.  We watched Betty White’s 90^th Birthday from my dvr and chatted, and agreed that our Staramama’s 90^th birthday is going to be better (sorry Betty, you’re still pretty). 

This foodsperiment gets an overall +5 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for easy cleanup, +5 for great company, -3 for too much breadcrumbs, +5 for leftovers, and +5 for Betty White.  Happy Sperimenting!

Cousin Dinner Spread

January 14, 2012 - Oyster Casserole and Cream Cheese Filled Muffins

After Tapas night, Saturday of Friendship Weekend was supposed to be a breeze.  Mai and Erin, both from out of town, had stayed at my apartment and the day's plan consisted of three very important things: Breakfast, Whatever We Decided to Do That Cost Mostly No Money In the City of Brotherly Love, The Franklin Institute’s Giant Dinosaurs Exhibit at 5pm and Whatever Fun to Follow.  I’d planned out breakfast to coincide in terms of timing, everything was supposed to be prepped at the same time and then cooked at the same time at the same temperature but like they say, you make plans and God laughs.  God pretty much guffawed at me so loud I had to laugh along with him.

We woke up and chatted in a snugglezone for a while before Erin finally mentioned the idea that breakfast would be appreciated.  We got right down to it after that.

Oyster Casserole – from Epicurious.com via Gourmet magazine (I got the idea to find this recipe from my stepmom who makes this for holiday breakfasts and I OBSESS OVER IT EVERY YEAR).  I also reduced it to four servings.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups bread crumbs – I might have accidentally overdone this.  I used crumbs that I created by making a bread loaf the previous evening. 
• 2 eggs – check
• ½ cup heavy cream – check
• ½ cup whole milk – I used 1% because that’s my preferred method of milk. Judge as you will.
• 1 tsp lemon juice – freshly squeezed! Check.
• ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce – check
• 1/8 cup parsley – check
• 1.5 doz shucked oysters, roughly ½ cup – check

Step 1: Spread the bread crumbs in a pan and bake at 375F until golden brown (roughly 15minutes) then cool.  This is also when you should be doing muffin-making things.

Step 2: Whisk eggs, cream, milk, lemon juice, worchestershire sauce, parsley, and 1/8 tsp each of salt and pepper; gently stir in oysters to this mixture; gently stir in bread crumbs to this mixture until slightly gooey.

Step 3: Pour this amazing business back into your baking dish; bake at 375F until custard is set and top is golden, 25-30minutes or longer.  I baked this longer, which I immediately regretted as I enjoy the casserole a bit watery and it was more straight cooked than my stepmom's version.

Regardless of the lack of watery attitude, the casserole was very good!  Mai and Erin enjoyed it, they both agreed that it was a surprising taste for breakfast but delightful.  Good. I enjoyed it too.  This foodsperiment: +4 for taste, +5 for ease, -1 for not so easy cleanup since I soaked that baking dish for a WHILE before it was finally ready to use again.

Oyster Casserole - so much bread

As a compliment to the casserole I considered muffins a necessary idea.  They probably weren’t but the leftovers served as breakfast for the next week. 

Cream Cheese Filling – from both rodale.com and countryliving.com

It turns out that the cream cheese filling for both kinds of muffins was the same so I made that first.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz softened cream cheese – check
• 4 tbs sugar – check
• 2 tbs egg sub – or ½ an egg…roughly, check.

Step 1: Mix together all ingredients and set aside for use as filling.

Carrot Cake Gems – from rodale.com and/or prevention.com

This is a recipe I’ve actually used before but I halved it of course and tried to make it work for me.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup and ¼ tbs flour – check
• ¼ cup whole wheat flour – no I didn’t use this, I just used regular flour
• ¼ tsp salt – check
• ¼ tsp baking soda – check
• 1/3 tsp baking powder – check
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon – check
• 1 tsp canola oil – I used veg oil, check.
• 2 tbs sour cream – check
• 1 tbs brown sugar – check
• 1 tbs sugar – check
• ½ egg – check
• ½ tsp vanilla – check
• ½ cups freshly grated carrots – check, thanks to sues chef Erin
• ¼ cups drained crushed pineapple – check, thanks to sues chef Mai

Step 1: Combine the flour(s), salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.  Set aside

Step 2: Cream together oil, sour cream, and sugars until well blended, beat in the egg and vanilla, stir in the carrots and pineapple.

Step 3: Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients just until combined.

Step 4: Fill muffin cups about a quarter of the way with batter, add 1 tbs of filling, then top with more batter.  Good luck because this is a science I still have not mastered even having made these muffins a few times. They always end up looking odd.

Step 5:  Bake 20-25 minutes or until they are all muffinish.  Consume.

These were good.  I enjoyed them, I think Mai and Erin liked them too, but I may have been force feeding them good things at this point.  Also they ended up taking way longer to finish than I expected.  But no matter.  This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for relative health value.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins – from countryliving.com

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ tbs sugar – check
• 1/8 cup flour – check
• Handful pecans – check
• ¾ tbs butter – check
• ½ cup sugar – check, ok maybe a little more
• 2/3 cup less 1/8 cup flour – check, I did that math once it’s too rough to try it again.
• 1/8 tsp salt – check
• ½ tsp baking powder – check
• 1/8 tsp baking soda – check
• 2/3 tsp cinnamon – check
• ½ egg – check
• 1/3 cups solid packed pumpkin – alas I accidentally got pumpkin pie packed, so that was an oops and I should have been paying WAY MORE attention.
• ¼ of 1/3 cup veg oil – check
• 1/8 tsp vanilla – check

Step 1: Toss 1 ¼ tbs sugar, 1/8 cup flour, pecans (which you already cut into small pieces), butter (melted, but be careful because butter explodes easily in the microwave),  and 1/8 tsp cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside.

Step 2: Combine remaining sugar, flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl, set that aside too while you are so busy setting everything else aside.

Step 3: Lightly beat ½ egg, pumpkin puree, oil, and vanilla together. 

Step 4: Combine wet and dry ingredients until just mixed. 

Step 5: Divide half batter into cups, pour in cream cheese mixture (from above, roughly 1 tbs each), and pour more batter on top.  Then sprinkle some of the sugar/butter/pecan mixture on top.

Step 6: Bake at 275F 20-25minutes, or until they are truly muffins.

These tasted “ok” but they probably get filed under my fail foodsperiments more than the win foodsperiments.  First of all, pumpkin pie puree is not a good sub for pumpkin puree.  The spices/sugars in the pie mixture make for something completely different.  Also, the first batch of these (there were two sets of three so a total of 6 muffins) looked like monsters.  They spilled all over the muffin pan.  I mean they still tasted ok, but there was a lot of awkwardness in which I wish I hadn’t shown Erin and Mai the finished product or made them eat it (even though they really were pretty good).  They were on the menu because Erin said she liked pumpkin things, so I wish they'd turned out better.  Well better luck next time.  This foodsperiment: +3 for taste, -5 for monsters, -5 for being very messy, -5 for halving the recipe making math so difficult.  Better luck next time.

Top Two - Carrot Cake Gems, Bottom Two - Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filled Muffins

Overall though, breakfast was still a win.  We spent the rest of the day touring some free sites in the city, including but not limited to Betsy Ross’s grave, the Liberty Bell, and Dim Sum in China Town adding some epic friends along the way.  Also, the Dino exhibit was excellent, as was the friendship and Dance Party 3 involved Saturday eve.  Friendship weekend was a win.  Happy Sperimenting!

January 13, 2012 - Tapas – or the Friday I spent Cooking, Laughing with friends, and Waiting on a Couch

I’d been planning this tapas girls night and subsequent weekend of friendship for a while.  The weekend was planned around my dear friend Erin's desire to make a trip to Philly to come visit and to convince whoever wanted friendship to come too.  Since the couples in the plan were going to get into town on Saturday, I made an executive decision to have Tapas on Friday for some LU ladies from various walks of life (Erin, Mai, Heids, and KP).  I’d taken Friday off in order to host Erin and deal with my old couch out/new couch in issues and cook.  The night before Erin let me know she’d be in town around 10am, so I made sure to set my alarm for the usual time and get to Reading Terminal in the morning to get all the food shopping done for the weekend.  While I was getting the last few items (some cheese) Erin called me and said she’d be in town in roughly half an hour (that was at 9) so I hustled home, and started chopping up some nuts.  Once Erin made it into the city, I hopped into her car and we found a FREE PARKING SPACE, then we had to make one last stop at the grocery store before the real work could begin.  Since Erin is a girl and can’t pack, we got her a shopping cart to carry all of her belongings around.  Check out my dear hysterical friend.

Erin in a Grocery Store - cart full of belongings and a Pillow

Throughout the day I prepped things for dinner and had friendship time with Erin, we also had two burly gentlemen come and pick up my old couch, KP paid a visit to stay for the day and tapas, and two completely different burly men brought my new couch.  KP and Erin hung my mirror, and everyone was a sues chef.  We also made lunch, and eventually Mai arrived into town and also helped sues chef as we waited for Heids to arrive.  Finally we were able to eat, chuckle, watch Beyonce videos, listen to some Florence and the Machine, get inspired by Lady Gaga, see a mash-up of Gaga and Judas Priest, consume some delightful wine, have a visit from JimmyJ (Heids’ delightful husband) and tweet a little uncontrollably.  Also there was a viewing of this ADORABLE polar bear via Erin’s science writing blog (seen here: http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2011/12/siku-polar-bear-and-power-of-biophilia.html) but I digress.  Onward to the foodabilizations.

Erin sues chef’d for me prepping lunch while we all chatted with KP.  Thankfully Erin has a lot of faith in me because I didn’t even tell her what we were going to be eating until it was almost completely done.  Woops.

Lunch – Sour Pork Soup (or Štajerska kisla juha) from The Food and Cooking of Slovenia (this is a Slovenian wedding soup typically served at the very end of the night…kind of like a late night sandwich only soup).  I cut the servings to 3.

Ingredients:

• 7-8oz boneless pork and “variety meats” – I got a pork chop and a half; I’m not quite ready for variety meats.
• 1 ¼ liters water – check
• 1 bay leaf – check
• 4 fresh sprigs thyme – I used about a tsp of dried thyme
• ½  tsp cumin seeds – check
• 1 garlic clove – check
• ½ tbs veg oil – check
• ½ onion – check, ish, I usually use slightly less onion.  Onions are giant.
• ½ tbs flour - check 
• ¼ tsp paprika - check
• Cider or white wine to taste – used the white wine
• Salt and pepper to taste – check

Step 1: Dice the meats into small pieces and place in a pot, pour in the water and boil, skimming the scum.  There will be a life and death battle between you and the scum, you skim that skum.  Stay vigilant.

Step 2: Reduce the heat so the water is just simmering and add the bay leaf, thyme, cumin, and garlic. Cover and simmer roughly an hour or until things are tender and you’ve done some other prep work, let some burly men take away your old couch, let in your dear friend KP and laughed a lot with Erin.  

Step 3: Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion (which should be chopped) cook until soft but not browned.  Add the flour and paprika and make a smooth paste.  Cook for a minute or so.

Step 4: Remove the pan from heat, repeat: REMOVE THE PAN FROM HEAT, seriously.  Gradually add a ladleful of liquid from the soup and stir to make  thin paste, then stir the whole concoction into the soup.

Step 5: Bring the whole soup to boil, making your sues chef stir continuously to free up your hands for something else.

Step 6: Remove the bay leaf, add the white wine and some salt and pepper, add a decent amount of salt.  Salt is good.

Step 7: Consume, preferably while watching Robinhood Men in Tights. 

Unfortunately though I’d planned the meal for me, Erin, and KP to enjoy I forgot that KP doesn’t eat pork (CURSES! Foiled again…) but regardless it was pretty good, especially once Erin and I both asalted it to our taste.  The meat was a little overcooked if I’m being honest, but I’d make it again.  I'd also add more wine.  After all, it’s a part of my heritage.  This foodspermient: -2 for the scum fight, +3 for taste, +5 for heritage, +8 for Robinhood Men in Tights.

Sour Pork Soup

Nobody panic, as I cooked throughout the day, I discovered I had forgotten to purchase some things (that happens to me more often than it should for the amount of planning that goes into these meals) so there were a few adventures.  Not to bore anyone with the details I’ll get straight to the cooking itself.   Luckily I HAD planned well enough that the items which needed to cool were constructed early in the day etc etc or that cheeses were shredded, onions were chopped, mangos were cut, items were thawed, and pretzel breads were allowed the appropriate time to rise.  Anywoo…tapas were made.

Cheese Stuffed Pecans – from food.com (changed to 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 5/8 cup gouda – I got some honey gouda from the delightful man at the cheese shop in RTM.
• 1 7/8 tbs sour cream – check
• 24 lg pecan halves – check

Step 1: Shred the gouda, good luck trying to figure out how much 5/8ths is, usually err on the side of more gouda.  Put the shredded gouda in a Ziploc.

Step 2: Measure out the sour cream into the Ziploc.  Again, good luck with the 7/8ths tbs, you got this.  Use your eyeballs.

Step 3: Smoosh (that’s the technical term for mix or combine) the sour cream and gouda together to form an amazing creamy mixture.  This is best done while chatting.

Step 4: Squeeze the mixture to one corner of the Ziploc and cut that corner.  Pipe the mixture onto pecan halves (flat side), then top with a second pecan half (flat side to the mixture).  Be tempted to eat one but don’t succumb to the pressure.

Step 5: Cover the plate of stuffed pecans and chill for at least 30 minutes, or the rest of the day until party time excellent.

WOWZA.  These were definitely a hit.  The nutty flavors of the natural and unsalted pecans against the gouda mixture were a whammy.  They got devoured fairly quickly.  I think that they were also one of two cool (temp. wise) dishes of the night worked well in their favor.  This foodsperiment: +10 for taste, +10 for ease, +10 for being the first dish constructed of the day!

Cheese Stuffed Pecans

Cucumbers in Cream (Smetanove murke) – from The Food and Cooking of Slovenia (also reduced the serving size…and this soup/drink/soup is usually a summer treat).

Ingredients:

• 1 1/8 lb cucumbers – check
• ½ small onion – check
• 1.5 cups of buttermilk – using 1.5 cups of milk and ½ tbs fresh lemon juice (thanks Slovenian cookbook for teaching me new things!)
• ½ cup sour cream - check
• 1.5 cloves garlic - check
• Pinch ground cumin – check
• Salt and pepper – check

Step 1: Peel and grate the cucumbers (or make Erin the sues chef do it) and put in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and add the finely chopped onion.  Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.  Make Mai do the buttermilk trick at the same time so that you have those 30 minutes to prep other (buttermilk takes 30 minutes).

Step 2: Drain the cucumbers/onion mixture

Step 3: Mix the garlic, cumin, and pepper into the buttermilk and stir in the sour cream; mix well.  You know you want to.

Step 4: Stir in the cucumber and onion mixture and serve, or put in the fridge until the rest of dinner is ready and THEN serve.  Duh.

This was another cool dish for the evening and I really enjoyed it!  We had some pretzel bread rolls to dip into it and it was a good way to cool off.   Everyone really enjoyed it, there was plenty leftover but I can’t say I minded so much.  After all, how could I have a tapas party during soup month and not have a soup?  This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for decent cleanup, +5 for innovation with buttermilk, and +8 for heritage.

Cucumbers in Cream - Also good to mix with Thai food leftovers!

Stuffed Prosciutto Pillows – from The Atkins Holiday Recipes

Ingredients:

• 12 thinly slices prosciutto (6 oz) – check
• 6 oz goat cheese – check
• 3 tbs sun dried tomatoes – check

Step 1: Chop the sun dried tomatoes and put them in some oil.

Step 2: Semi-slice the goat cheese, work on that, chunking it up is a pretty ok alternative.

Step 3: Put together each pillow in the following very therapeutic manner: Place down a slice of prosciutto, in the middle put a chuck of cheese, shake a few slices of sun dried tomatoes to remove excess oil and place on top of the cheese chunk, roll edges of the prosciutto so that the cheese and sun dried tomatoes are covered. 

Step 4: (optional) wrap and place into fridge until time for the party.

Step 5: At party time excellent allow pillows to come to room temperature, then bake at 300F until just warm, roughly 5ish minutes.

I really enjoyed these.  One or two of these at a party per person are totally enough (we had too many) they were definitely GREAT and so simple to make I’ll for sure make them again!  This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +6 for easy prep, +5 for easy cleanup, +5 for an explosion of taste.

Stuffed Prosciutto Pillows

Crab and Artichoke Dip – from food.com

Ingredients:

• ½ cup mayo - check
• ¼ cup sour cream - check
• ¼ cup cheese, chedder – I actually used gouda because I didn’t have any chedder
• 1/8 cup parm – check
• ½ lemon – check
• ½ clove garlic – check
• 7/8 tbs Dijon – check
• 1 (5 5/8 oz) can artichoke hearts – I used a 6oz can because I’m a rebel.
• ¼ lb crabmeat – I used imitation due to this being a last minute addition to the menu.

Step 1: Do the following prep work or have your amazing sues chefs do some of it: grate the “chedder” aka gouda, grate the parm, juice the lemon including using midwifery skills for the seeds that like to birth into your container (thanks Mai!), cut up the artichoke hearts, smash and slice the garlic

Step 2: Combine all ingredients in a bowl

Step 3: Spoon the ingredients into a oven safe dish (I used two smaller dishes so that there was easy sharing across the dinner table aka my coffee table).

Step 4: Put the dip into the oven at 425F for 15-20 minutes or until bubbly and a bit crusty on top (golden brownish is also a decent guage).

Step 5: Toast pieces of bread that you’d already made to use for scooping.

Step 6: Enjoy!

This was a dish that EVERYONE loved!  It’s not your typical crab and artichoke dip but the Dijon gave it a little mustardy taste so it was a bit more tart and this one was a total hit!  I think of the items spoken highly of for the night this was way up there on the list!  This foodsperiment: +10 for taste, +5 for ease.

Crab and Artichoke Dip!

Toasted Bread Slices - Thanks to KP

Kale Chips – from food.com, and also from my friend Anne (as I’ve been obsessed with making them since I first had them at her place a few months ago).

Ingredients:

• Kale – check
• Olive oil – check
• Seasoned salt  - I use sea salt so check

Step 1: Have a sues chef (KP!) remove the Kale leaves from the stems, cut into small pieces and wash and dry thoroughly

Step 2: Spread Kale on a baking sheet lined with PARCHMENT PAPER or FOIL but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU USE WAX PAPER BECAUSE THAT WILL BURN AND SET OFF THE FIRE ALARM AND HAVE YOUR FRIENDS TRY TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM WHILE YOU TRUST THEY HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL AND YOU DEAL WITH THE KITCHEN REPRICUSSIONS which are actually minimal.

Step 3: Drizzle some olive oil over the kale, sprinkle with salt and then toss the kale pieces until coated with both

Step 4: Bake at 350F until the edges are brown but not burnt, roughly 10-15minutes.

Kale Chips are sent from God directly to man to show that he loves us and to increase our healthy intake of vitamins.  Wow, this was a total win aside from the entire fire alarm fiasco.  Luckily I have friends with hearts of gold who mainly prefer laughing to calling me a moron. I’ve learned my lesson.  This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for easy cleanup, -2 for almost setting everything on fire, +10 for good nutrients!

Baked Kale Chips

Holiday Leftover Pizza – made from my brain

Some of you might remember this from a previous post, if not…too bad so sad.  I added more cheeses (leftover goat, gouda, parm, gorgonzola, Dubliner) and subtracted turkey from the original recipe.  This was the big hit of the night.   The biggest I should say, but who can blame my dear friends for loving it, cheese is a blessing.  I also used the second half of the pretzel  bread from the crust of this to make rolls which became used for dipping the cucumbers in cream and the crab and artichoke dip I also made a second round of that (the dough) for use in making rolls for my lunches the following week, and also a small loaf for Saturday morning’s breakfast purposes, but regardless.  This foodsperiment still gets a super massive high five.

Holiday Leftover 4 Cheese Mango Pizza

Finally, there was dessert.  I probably could/should have simply left the dessert area to my darling Mai, who we all know is the queen of all things cupcakes (and her banana yum yums were AWESOME) but I couldn’t resist.

Strawberry Mousse – from this little Prevention book I have

Ingredients:

• 1 cup graham crackers - check
• 1 qt strawberries - check
• 3 reconsistuted egg whites – check
• ½ cup sugar – check
• 1 container frozen whipped topping – this was an adventure I had to go out for woops but check.

Step 1: Have sues chef Erin crumble up the graham crackers (one bag of the single serve graham crackers you can get from somewhere)

Step 2: Hull (aka cut the centers and the green leaves out…internet it if needed) and slice the strawberries.  Then use a food processor to puree them.

Step 3: Whip the egg whites and sugar in a large bowl, use your own strength with a non-electric until you admit defeat then use your electric hand mixer and mix it until white frothy peaks form.

Step 4: Fold the strawberry puree into the whipped topping you JUST RAN OUT AND BOUGHT in the freezing tundra weather because you didn’t read this recipe carefully enough the first time. Then fold the strawberry and whipped topping mixture into the egg whites mixture and freeze overnight aka put in the fridge until you’re going to serve it and realize that you are a failure at making this recipe the way it was meant to be.

Step 5: For serving, get out those nifty Japanese bowls you bought with Mama and Staramama while IN Japan, pour some of the crumbled graham crackers into the bottom then spoon a serving of the mousse on top.  Serve.

I really liked this, despite knowing that it could have been better it was still good.  I guess while I’ve perfected baking bread, desserts are still not my strongest suite.  The ladies liked this too though, even though we were all thoroughly stuffed and continuing to laugh at the second iteration of Beyonce’s Single Ladies video on-demand.  This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for knowing it’ll be better in the future, and -2 for me not knowing all the ingredients ahead of time.

Strawberry Mousse

Overall what a wonderful Tapas party!  I was in the kitchen all day but it was totally worth it, and my friends are amazing!  I suppose the next party I have I’ll have to invite some of the boys over, since I’ve now had two girls nights and the boys are likely jealous.  Happy Sperimenting!  

January 12, 2012 – Brussels Sprouts Beef Soup

Right.  I've gotten mostly over the plague, but I’ve now been in the SUPER planning stages of two very important events in my life: friendship weekend including girls’ tapas night, and new couch day.  These are equally important but very different and happen to fall on the same day.  Suffice it to say, it’s taken a good bit of coordination on my part, not to mention there’s been some curveballs in the plan this week, mostly with friendship cancellations throughout the week.  In any case, I hadn’t entirely planned tonight’s soup prior to the evening.  I knew I had some Brussels sprouts that were slowly creeping up on an expiration date so that was the base plan of the soup.  Part of it also came from a conversation I had recently with my dear friend Gina, who told me how she likes to cook her Brussels sprouts.  I also incorporated my soup spreadsheet to show me how to make Lamb Stew (one of two recipes on my spreadsheet that has Brussels sprouts) and the cookbook that it comes from (The Best of Croatian Cooking  - thanks Borders going out of business sale).  

In the end here’s how it all went down:

Brussels Sprouts Beef Soup – from my brain

Ingredients:

• Brussels sprouts, about two cups? – check
• 1 clove garlic – check
• Onion – check
• Carrots – check
• Beef Stock – check
• Paprika – check
• Parsley – check

Step 1: Boil the Brussels sprouts until softened; remove from heat (I put them into the bowl I planned to use for soup); rinse the pot.

Step 2: Peel and smash the garlic, put into a saucepan with a little bit of oil.  This comes from Gina’s recommendation.

Step 3: Cut the onion (your discretion here how much onion, roughly…a little bit) and cube it.  Peel and cut some of the carrots into rough cubes. Or you could have done that a few days ago while making a different soup so you can just pop your pre-peeled and pre-cubed carrots into the pot. Ok so both the onion cubes and carrot cubes should be in the pot.

Step 4: Pour in some beef stock, roughly a cup and a half.  Sprinkle in some paprika and some parsley.  I think I probably used about a 1/8 of a teaspoon each.  Who knows, not me.

Step 5: Simmer the soup pot.

Step 6: Heat the saucepan (the one you previously put oil and garlic into) while you slice the Brussels sprouts into halves.  Then put the Brussels sprouts in the saucepan.  Heat over medium for a bit until the Brussels sprouts are just starting to brown.  Put half the Brussels sprouts on a plate to cool (so you can eat for breakfast) and the other half into the simmering soup pot.  Take time to clean your saucepan, it’s quick.

Step 7: Continue to simmer soup, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are softened to your liking.  Put your bowl (you already cleaned it after you used it for Brussels sprouts storage I’m sure) in the microwave for one minute to make sure it’s warm (and thus doesn’t cool your soup down).

Step 8: Put soup in bowl; wash pot.

Step 9: Consume!

I think I’d like to take this soup in the back and speak sweet nothings in its ear until it’s agreed to take me on a second date.  I think that’s how that works right? No idea, but I think you get the point that it was DELICIOUS!  Prepping the Brussels sprouts the way Gina told me, possibly sealed the deal.  The only thing I might change would to be to flavor it a bit with salt and pepper.  But honestly, it tasted like dreams and a fully planned weekend.

This foodsperiment gets a +7 for taste, a +6 for easy cleaning, and +5 for tomorrow’s breakfast!  Happy Sperimenting!

January 10, 2012 - Beef Broth and Vegetable Soup

I think I finally have to admit that I have the plague.  In my world, plague translates into something along the lines of “stuffy nose, head congestion, a bit achy, overall not feeling my best”.  Not to be confused with deceased which means, mainly, hungover. 

What does one do when one comes down with a case of the plague? One normally chugs a gallon of OJ and as much Hot and Sour Soup as possible (also, Lo Mein and probably some crab Rangoon…Asian).  But since it’s soup month, I guess I’ll continue the trend of souping it up on my own to battle this plague.  Today’s jousting match is between the Plague and…

Beef and Vegatable Soup – from my brain

Ingredients:

• 1 Bay leaf – check, because most/all broth based soups deserve a bay leaf
• Marjoram – check; because I think it smells nice
• Red pepper flakes – check; because everyone knows the plague is afraid of heat
• Onion – check
• Celery – check
• Carrots – check
• Beef stock –check

Step 1: Put the bay leaf, a pinch of marjoram, and a pinch of red pepper flakes into a pot.

Step 2: Cut some onion, cube it, add to the pot.  Onions seems to work best in soups as cubes.

Step 3: Cut the celery into pieces and add to the pot, I only used on stick of celery because there’s still only one of me.

Step 4: Peel and cut the carrot into halves and add to the pot; also sort of like cubes but in a carrot way.

Step 5: Pour the beef stock into the pot until the other ingredients are covered, maybe a little more for good measure.  The carrots, celery, and onion should be swimming.

Step 6: Simmer until the veggies are softened to your liking, roughly 20 minutes, also as long as it takes you to take out the trash and reline it.

Step 7: Enjoy!

Well, unfortunately this soup was not a win.  I think the celery made the beef broth more tin-like than I had intended.  Once I ate the veggies, the broth was pretty good, the right amount of spice but just a bit more tin.  Alas, but hopefully the veggies and brothy-ness will still kill the plague.

This foodsperiment gets a +2 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for quick cleanup.  Ah well, we’ve always got the water chug.

Beef Broth and Vegetable Soup

January 9, 2012 - Apricot Day

Apricot Day

As I’ve said, my New Year’s resolution is a fairly simple one, to celebrate all of the holidays on my calendar.  The first one of the year (after New Year's) is Apricot Day!  I got myself to the grocery store (unfortunately due to circumstantial evidence…not Reading Terminal…) and procured the necessary ingredients for my apricot day festivities.  I 100% did not realize that apricots were the little nubbins that they are, I guess I usually have dried apricots which appear much larger.  But anyway, I digress.  For the holiday, I decided to make two dishes, one a dessert and one a main course.

On Sunday, before I put away Christmas in my apartment (tear) and went to my Aunt and Uncle’s to have family dinner, I put together the dessert.

Oatmeal Bars- from Martha Stewart online

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Steel-cut Oats – I used instant oatmeal
• 4 Apricots – check

Step 1: Actually use steel-cut oats

Step 2: Peel and dice the apricots

Step 3: Make the oatmeal as directed

Step 4: Mix the apricots into the oatmeal

Step 5: Spread the whole thing into your faithful jellyroll pan and cool in the fridge

Step 6: When you get home from family dinner and realize that the bars are cooled but still mostly the consistency of oatmeal, go ahead and throw the pan into the oven for a while.  Make sure you sprinkle some brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice on top because you realize this dish is going to taste like oatmeal.

Step 7: When you wake up in the morning and realize there’s still not enough consistency, go ahead and stick the pan back in the oven while you shower and get ready.

Step 8: Do a taste test at work and realize you can’t share this with anyone because it’s not that good.

So there you have it, you win some, you lose some.  And this one, was a lose.  I’m going to try real oatmeal bars sometime, but alas this time was definitely a lose.  The good news is that at least it’s sitting at work in packaging so I can eat it for breakfast for the week.  So yeah for this foodsperiment +5 for celebrating holidays, -3 for failure, +5 for breakfast.

My cold from the weekend became more along the line of “full blown” on Monday, so while I sat at work I decided to add to my planned dinner meal.  A starter course, and since it is still soup month…soup.

Chicken Soup – from my brain

Ingredients:

• Chicken stock – check
• Marjoram – check
• Basil – check
• Bay leaf – check
• Onion – check
• Garlic – check
• Red pepper flakes – check

Step 1: Peel and cube the onion, and peel and slice the garlic. 

Step 2: Put all ingredients in a pot

Step 3: Simmer for 10 to 15minutes or longer…hopefully your other meal will be ready by then but maybe not.

Wowza, so my idea behind this soup was mainly to be similar to hot and sour soup (which everyone knows is hands down the best cold medicine) and somehow I accidentally put a whole lot more red pepper flakes than I had intended.  So this soup was delicious.  It was super spicy too so I had to eat it in increments.  Next time, definitely (I know it’s sacrilege to say) but I'll use less red pepper flakes, and maybe I’d simmer it for longer…but when a lady wants to eat and go to bed as soon as possible…what are you going to do? 

For this foodsperiment +4 for taste, +5 for easy clean up, +5 for quickness, and +3 for a starter course.

Spicy Chicken Soup

As the soup simmered I set up the actual meal…which was premeditated, for the holiday.

Spicy Apricot-Glazed Chicken – from Martha Stewart online

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup apricot jam – I used just some apricots, at least until I discovered I did have some jam so I added a spoonful of jam to the diced apricots
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes – check
• Chicken breast halves – check
• Coarse salt and pepper – check

Step 1: “Broil” seasoned chicken 5 to 6 minutes – if you’re me you don’t have a broiler so stick it in the oven at about 350F and put it in for a full 10 minutes

Step 2: Mix together the apricots, jam, and red pepper.

Step 3: “Brush” chicken with mixture/glaze

Step 4: “Broil” 4 to 5 minutes more, or until done…roughly 25ish minutes in a oven, possibly more. Don’t get salmonella. 

Delicious! I liked everything about this!  Ok I’m lying, it was just a little sweet and after the fire branded soup it was more difficult to actually taste but still it was yummy!  It was, and this cannot be argued, the perfect celebration of Apricot Day!  Next time, I’ll make sure I get apricots from Reading Terminal, but yum. 

This foodsperiment gets a +5 for taste, +5 for easy cleanup, +5 for ease, +5 for happy tummy!!

Spicy Apricot-Glazed Chicken

January 8, 2012 - Garlic Soup

January 8, 2012 and January 5,2012 – Garlic Soup

For Christmas I got two amazing Slovenian cookbooks from my darling Bro-Bro, so now I can further celebrate my cultural heritage via the kitchen.  It’s pretty epic. So on Sunday when I realized that my life had gone from go to stop…or let’s be honest it had never stopped, I decided to really make some Garlic Soup from one of my cookbooks.  I had made a modified version of it on Thursday but I wanted to try out some authenticity for Sunday's try. 

Garlic Soup – from Flavors of Slovenia

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chicken broth – I used store bought stock
• 6 to 8 cloves of garlic – check
• 1 bay leaf – check
• ¼ tsp dried sage – I used rosemary instead, thanks Internets for having a chart that tells me what can be subbed for various spices.
• ¼ tsp dried thyme – check
• ½ tsp salt – check
• Freshly ground pepper – check
• 2 eggs – I used egg substitute
• ¼ cup olive oil – check
• 1/3 cup Parm cheese – check
• 4 slices French bread – omitted
• Chopped parsley – omitted

Step 1: Put the broth/stock, garlic, and herbology in a pot and boil.  Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, covered.

Step2: While the soup simmers, grate the cheese, preferably using your awesome grater that your parents got you to show they love you.  This is the best idea.  Mix the cheese with the olive oil and eggs (which should be slightly beaten).

Step 3: Remove the soup from heat. Remove the bay leaf from soup. You can also remove the rest of the herbology if desired.

Step 4: When the soup has sufficiently cooled set it back on very low heat, drizzle the cheese/egg mixture into the soup while continuously stirring.  Continue to stir until thickened but before the eggs curdle.  (full disclosure, I’m pretty sure I curdled the eggs and I have no idea what that even looks like or means but maybe someday I’ll figure it out).

Step 5: Consume.

So I enjoyed this soup a lot.  I think maybe if I hadn’t curdled the eggs, it would have been better.  In Slovenia, this soup is used to cold and flus, which is fitting considering Sunday I was continuing to feel under the weathers. 

                                                                  Garlic Soup - yum!

As I said, on Thursday I made a modified version of this soup.  Instead of chicken stock, I used my last turkey stock, and I added strips of turkey to the soup while it boiled so I’d have more protein.  Honestly, if we’re being honest, and I prefer that we be honest, I liked the modified version better.  Also, the recipe calls for salt and pepper to taste, but I totally didn’t remember to do that in either modification so I’m pretty sure it’s up to discretion.

For this foodsperiment I’d give it a +5 for taste, a +5 for easy cleanup, -2 for me curdling eggs, +5 for cultural heritage, and +5 for a cure to illness! Happy Sperimenting!

                                                          Modified Turkey Garlic Soup! 

January 2, 2012 - Turkey and Veggie Soup

Turkey and Vegetable Soup

Happy New Year!  And Happy Soup Month!  That’s right, January is National Soup Month, look it up, google it, it’s true.   I have a habit of not making New Year’s resolutions, since I have trouble keeping them, and more importantly I think it’s silly to decide on a “resolution” and stick to it.  The past few years, instead of a resolution I made a promise to myself to keep improving myself, and so far that’s worked out really well.  I sometimes have to pinch myself to believe how good things are and most importantly how good my attitude is about my life and I know what it took to get here.  But this year, I decided – mostly on a whim which is of course how I decide most things – to celebrate all of the holidays on my calendar.  Which includes everything from religious holidays, the Fourth of July, Canada Day (and International Joke Day which is unsurprisingly the same day), to things like Milk Day and Strange Music Day and it includes National Soup Month. 

I’d been doing some research on soups and noticed that most soups contain at least celery, carrots, a bay leaf, onion, and broth or water.  On Friday I made my way to Reading Terminal Market, my favorite grocery store of all, and utilized a grocery list that was fairly small and simple but full of veggies and some fresh poultry.  I still had a lot of turkey stock to use so I tried to find a way to use it and frankly I was on a bit of a time crunch when looking at more complex recipes.  Start small and work your way up right? You can’t run a marathon on day one unless you’re my dear friend Andy.

New Years Eve proved to me two things…that I have improved as promised but also that life is a constant state of give and take, and sometimes you can’t win them all but you can learn and you’ll get there eventually, especially when you have amazing friends who love you even with your faults, and a few puppies to cuddle every so often (Chachi, such a winning puppy!).  I still had to work on the Monday after, when the rest of the world got to have another day for their hangovers and bad decisions, and I was in a mood even though I knew another sleep would be the perfect cure.   I got off of work early and headed home in the bitter cold, that will now be known as “the three months of hellish winter why don’t I live in California” and got excited, because I knew what was on the menu.

Turkey and Vegatable Soup! – a recipe from my brain by way of much reading of soup recipes

Ingredients:

• Minced garlic
• Onion
• Bay leaf
• Celery
• Carrots
• Turkey breast
• Turkey Stock

Step 1: Cut up turkey breast (or any other part) into bite sized chunks. Set aside

Step 2: Cut up celery stalk (just one because there’s only one of you here).  Mince a few cloves of garlic and cut some onion (use your judgment) and quarter it. 

Step 3: Put garlic, onion, and celery into a pot and pour turkey stock over top of it enough to cover the veggies and then some.  Set to simmer about five minutes-ish.  Meanwhile peel and dice a carrot and pop the chunks into the pot.

Step 4: Add the turkey chunks.  Add a bay leaf.  Stir.

Step 5: Simmer, stirring occasionally until the veggies are tender and the turkey is cooked.  It will probably take you as long as finally cleaning up your kitchen.  It will start to smell like dreams and a warm hug.

Step 6: Serve up your soup in a bowl, and let it cool.  Approximately as long as you need to clean the pot you used.  Enjoy.

Wow. Wow. Wow.  Ok, so my Mom used to tell me I use food as “comfort” but SERIOUSLY?!?!?!  I can’t entirely explain what happened…I had talked to my Pops before I started cooking and he sounded worried about me because I wasn't so happy, but as soon as I took that first spoonful of soup my mood improved tenfold.  Of course looking through Mike and Maggie’s wedding album at the multitudes of dance-offs and happiness helped too.   But wow.  This foodsperiment  gets a +8 for happiness, a +5 for deliciousness, a +5 for such fresh and amazing ingredients!, and +5 for easy clean up.  I would only say that tomorrow I’ll add more turkey stock, because there was just a bit less broth than I think a soup would have but wow.  My goodness, wow.  Happy Soup Month!

Turkey and Veg Soup

Me and an Awesome Puppy!