A request!

My boyfriend, Chad, requested me to make something meaty for dinner and so I began to list off dishes. We came to a conclusion of enchiladas. I also had a mission to make these as good as his mother's. A quick grocery trip later and then enchiladas!

I'm not always a fan of Mexican food. Maybe it is because I've never had real Mexican food and Sam Diego's is the closest thing to Mexican on Cape Cod...(It's awful Tex-Mex with amazing fried ice cream). Cilantro is not my favorite herb and generally the flavors get kind of muddy for me. However, when Mexican is done right and everything is super fresh, it turns out amazing.

I got a pretty simple, beef enchiladas recipe from Food Network and kinda made it my own from there. I cooked two tablespoons of canola oil and flour together to sort of make a roux and then after that cooked, I added the can of enchilada sauce, chicken broth and then brought that to a boil and then a simmer. I decided to put about two little canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I kinda eased off the heat, cause I kinda used a whole can back when I made chili. It was a tad bit too spicy. Whilst that was simmering away, I cooked a pound of ground beef with a medium onion together with salt and pepper. I also chopped up a half cup of black olives, cup of scallions and then a quarter cup of jalapenos. I then quickly fried about 10 large, white tortillas in canola oil. Crispy enough to taste cooked but not deep fried.

After the tortillas were patted dry of oil, I put about half the sauce at the bottom of the pan.Then, I dipped each one in the enchilada sauce, put it on a plate, scooped a bit of meat, olive, scallion, jalapeno and then a buttload of cheese. I rolled it up, put the fold side down in the deep baking dish. I continued with the rest and poured the rest of the sauce and about a cup of monterey jack cheese on the top. Then, because I'm addicted to lemons, I put a bit of lemon and lime zest on top for some brightness. It went in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees!

I also did make some instant Mexican style rice...it was quick and necessary!

However, Chad did say this was the best thing that I have ever made and it was "close" to his Mother's. :)

An Old Favorite.

So, I'm definitely sure that I didn't make this up on my own and there are lots of variations out there. But a couple of nights ago I decided to make something that I hadn't made in awhile...hummus pasta. For those that don't know me or don't know this about me, I am a hummus fanatic. I love to try different kinds and I love to make. In high school, I used to make a hummus pita wrap every day for lunch.

Anyways this is one of the easiest recipes, doesn't take awhile and you can make it differently depending on the ingredients that you have in the house. This time, I had a container of garlic hummus, onion, garlic, carrots, lettuce, olives and sundried tomatoes. I started off by boiling my water for the pasta since the sauce doesn't take much time at all. I then started to sautee two small yellow onions in a pan with olive oil, added some chopped carrots and let those soften. I saw that I had romaine lettuce in my fridge and chopped it up. It would add some nice crunch. I sliced up some black olives and threw those in as well as sliced sundried tomatoes. I am also a fanatic of sundried tomatoes, they're super sweet and have amazing flavor. Regular tomatoes don't have that kind of depth or flavor.

Other times that I've made this dish, I've used sundried tomato hummus, redpepper hummus, lemon, any other kind, you name it. I also base it around what veggies I have in the fridge. You can use celery, peppers, turnip, artichoke, eggplant; there's a lot of choices. Add some minced garlic and you can make it into what you want.

After the veggies were softened, garlic was in there and it was seasoned, I added about a half pint's worth container of the hummus. You swirl it around, mix it together and let the veggies become part of the hummus. Obviously it's going to be pretty thick so I add some of the hot pasta water to the hummus and veggies so it becomes a sauce. Plus, the water has the nice pasta flavor. For this time, I used fettuccine. I add about two ladles full of hot, pasta water to the sauce so it becomes thick, but also creamy. Once it gets to that consistency, it's done. Drain the pasta, add the sauce and it's a meal. It's awesome because it's creamy and rich but has no milk or butter!

Two in a day?! What what?!

The other day, I was watching Giada de Laurentiis and she was making a lemon, mint cake. I suddenly wanted to try and decided to make my own version of it. So I went to the kitchen and looked to see what we had. Well, we had the lemons, eggs, flour, sugar, salt but no mint. Well, I could improvise. We also had blueberries. Blueberry compote! The cake was super easy and kinda healthy. I started to whip the egg whites and sugar until it formed soft peaks and could stand on their own. Kinda wished I had cream of tartar to help them, so I added a pinch of salt. Then I worked on the egg yolks and beat those with the zest of the lemon, lemon juice, flour and salt. I then folded the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture and beat them together. It smelled so gooood! That went into a pan and in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. 

Whilst that was baking, I made a lemon simple syrup which is just water and sugar and whatever else you put into it. In this case, it was lemon. So I just brought the sugar, water and lemon to a boil and let it cool. I then started on the blueberry compote with a half pint of fresh blueberries, half cup of water, a tablespoon of sugar a bit more lemon. I also brought that to a boil and then to a simmer and then let it cool.

The cake was delicious, it was moist and light, almost like an angel food cake. I put the simple syrup on top to let it soak in and then the blueberry compote and a bit of hand whipped, whipped cream. Yum!

The long awaited new post...(Bad blogger, bad blogger!)

So...I know that I have been a bad blogger. A new post has not been written in a couple of months. It wasn't something that I intended nor wanted to happen. Basically I didn't have the finances to be able to cook as much as I wanted or what I wanted to cook. However with a new job job and passion going again, I intend to keep this going!

So, in other news...I have been accepted into culinary school! Yes, I have been accepted into Lincoln Culinary Institute in Hartford! I'm very excited. :) I have not told many people as of yet pretty much because I wasn't sure if I could go yet. But finances are looking up...so hopefully in either end of April or September, I shall be back in school. Ultimately, I just want to get my culinary career started!

Lately, I have been uber obsessed with the show "Chopped" on Food Network. It is my new favorite show and religion. (I have also gotten two other people in the house into it. *Self High Five*) If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a competition where four professional chefs compete in the kitchen to win $10,000. There is an appetizer, entree and dessert round. The catch is, there's mystery ingredients in each basket for every round and believe me, there's some weird stuff in there. Oh and btw there's only 20 minutes for the first round, half hour for second and half hour for the third. It's pretty difficult. Needless to say, I have been inspired by the show.

Today with the storm and having over two feet of snow and all, I have been a bum, as has everyone else in the house. My boyfriend Chad and I were watching a special edition of "Chopped" where the four contestants were teenagers, the youngest being 13. 13?! 13 years old and on this show?! Well, I suddenly felt very sad about my life and existence so I knew I had to get back to the blog and get my ass in check. So, Chad gave me a task of creating a dish with ingredients that I found in the kitchen and he was going to judge the taste and presentation. Time wise, it was not Chopped style due to other people in the kitchen, but it was all good. So I looked to see what we had and I got out turkey stuffing, chicken noodle soup, cranberry juice and parsnips. Well, I knew I could make something with this. Was it anything compared to what the Chopped contestants deal with? Hell to the no.

 I knew that I wanted to make a puree with the parsnips and started to sautee them in olive oil and garlic. I then added some chopped turnips and carrots as well. As those started to soften, I added some chicken stock to it to get to cook faster. Meanwhile I started to get the instant stuffing  in a pot and left that alone. I also got out the two cans of canned soup and drained the liquid part into a bowl and chicken, veggies and noodles into another bowl. I knew that I could use both. I then started to get some turkey bacon in another pan and got that crispy and added the noodles and chicken from the canned soup. I then got the parsnips, carrots and turnips I was cooking in the chicken broth into the blender, added about a tablespoon of milk butter and pureed. It was a little chunky so I added a bit more of the liquid from the canned soup too. So the puree, chicken and noodles and stuffing was done and I need to do something with the cranberry juice. So, I made a sauce out of it. I put the juice into the hot pan the veggies were in to get that flavor and also more bacon and let that reduce and become a cranberry, bacon vinaigrette. I also put a few greens on the plate for color and crunch.

Chad was impressed and asked for seconds, as was I. :) The puree had an awesome color and and a great, creamy texture. The turkey bacon added a lot of flavor to the chicken and noodles and the cranberry, bacon sauce surprisingly had some depth. All in all, not bad.

Chili night!

So I know I am late on this one. And I promise to get better. I'm trying to fit blogging into this new work schedule. It'll happen, sooner or later. So last Thursday was a cold night and I really wanted to make soup. So I thought, what is better than chili? I looked up some recipes but kinda decided to go off on my own for this one.

I used ground beef and also added a lot of veggies to put some good stuff in there. I started off with sauteing onions and putting a few spices, including, cumin, chili powder and oregano. Have to have the chili powder in order for it to be chili. I then added about 5 or 6 cloves of garlic and the house was already smelling awesome. I also added half of an orange pepper and a red pepper and that was giving it some color. I added 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and let that sit for a few minutes. Then I added some peppers that were sitting in adobe sauce that I found at the store. I added the whole can....:) The sauce was amazing by itself and smelled it too. After that I put in some canned, sliced jalapenos and also fresh as well. I didn't put the seeds in, I was being nice. After I put in about 2 pounds of ground beef and started to let that cook for about five minutes. Then came the tomatoes. I used two cans of whole peeled tomatoes. I put them in a bowl first and started to squish them with my hands. (A weird, but interesting feeling.) That simmered for about 10 minutes until the meat was cooked.

Some recipes called for a can of Mexican beer. Since I didn't see any Mexican beer around the house, I kind of added a can of Budweiser. I know what you are thinking...eww, Budweiser. Not something to add to soup. However the soup erased the smell of the gross beer and instead turned it into a much better flavor. Believe me, it made the chili better.\ I also added three types of beans: red kidney, blackbean and chickpeas. Now, you don't see chickpeas in recipes all that often, but I love them so why not. I added beans last since they don't take all that long to cook.

Whilst the soup simmed for about about 15 minutes, I made cornbread. Now, I kinda copped out on the cornbread. I used a mix. Cost and time made me do it. However it came out delicious and I added some paprika and chili powder to the batter to make it my own.

Once the soup was done, I put a little but of scallion, sour cream and shredded cheese and voila!

Old School.

So, tonight I did not totally get out of my comfort zone. That's for next week. But tonight it was old school spaghetti and meatballs. However, this had to be done just right. Mom of course makes the best meatballs in the world. So it's a hard recipe to contend with. Also I am now living back with the boyfriend in Connecticut with a bunch of guys who don't eat a lot of home cooked meals most of the time. So I am hoping they'll be happy to know that I'll be cooking a lot again.

So, I knew as I saw a good price for 3 pounds of ground beef for a good price today, that it would be a beefy week. Besides, nothing says more like a home cooked meal or colder day than an awesome plate of pasta and meatballs. I actually started the sauce early in the day, as soon as I came home, in fact. I went off of my Mom's recipe and kind of made it my own. Sauteed onion, garlic, a little diced, yellow pepper to give color and to add a veggie in, peeled tomatoes and a good amount of tomato paste and I started to let it simmer. I added some sherry cooking wine to deglaze the pot and add some extra flavor and it really did. Balsamic vinegar also gave it some extra kick and depth. I am a fan of spice so a teaspoon of red pepper flakes added some kick as well.

So, the sauce simmered and became rich and awesome all day and I started the meatballs around dinner time. I used about a pound and a half of meat, (I have some hungry boys in this house), one egg, italian breadcrumbs, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and red pepper flakes. I also added some thyme and oregano. Now, I know we are all fans of pan fryed meatballs which give a great crispy texture. But I tend to find and my Mom has taught me this as well, that baking the meatballs gives extra an extra juicy and moist flavor. Plus, they don't turn out dry. So the meatballs cooked at 375 in the oven for about 12 minutes while I got the pasta going, I chose fettucine tonight. One thing about pasta, I don't know about anyone else, but overcooked pasta is the worst. This is why it's always best to cook it al dente. Obviously longer pasta takes a bit longer. Fettucine in this case, about eight minutes. The pasta also continues to cook when it is taken out of the water and continues if you put it directly in the sauce. It is the same case with the meatballs.

I made a very simple garlic bread. It's my go to when I am craving it and don't have much to work with. So I simply toasted bread with a little bit of butter and a piece of chopped garlic on top to give it that garlic flavor.

Tonight, it was my boyfriend's father and I eating dinner while others were at work. But I know two people that will be enjoying it later. Played it kinda safe tonight, but all in all delicious and couldn't go wrong with a classic. Also an ode to Mom. =]

Middle Eastern Night

Hello Peeps!

So, sorry for the late post. I meant to start the whole cooking and blogging adventure earlier...but things got a little hectic and life is calmer now. So I had the day off and I figured tonight would be a great night to start. I am going with cooking seasonally and started to go through cookbooks and was immediately attracted to a few dishes. I was going through one of my Mom's vegetarian cookbooks, Cooking by the Seasons, and found a recipe for hummus, (which I've actually never made before) and another one called Middle Eastern plate. I knew I wanted those for appetizer and entree. Desserts were not calling my name in this cookbook so I did some Googleing and found something called Indian fruit pudding...um...hello, yum?! It sounded and looked like a warm pudding/apple pie. I couldn't resist.

I also went to Market Basket today, which is supposed to be the mecca for cheap groceries on the Cape now. So I went on an adventure. I have never seen so many little old ladies push me out of their way before...forrealz. I almost got run over. But, to my delight, everything was inexpensive and went with my budget and I got a metric ton of food for like $80. My bank account is taking a sigh of relief.

And so the Middle Eastern food palooza started around 5. I started with dessert because I knew it would take the longest. 6 cups of milk, butter, cinnamon, eggs, cornmeal later and the house was starting to smell like apple pie. Yum! Decadent: yes, but so worth it. Plus I was making super healthy veggies for dinner, I was set. Pudding went into the oven for 2 hours and onto...the app.

What is a Middle Easter dinner with hummus? I mean really. I'd never made homemade hummus before but figuredit had to be super easy. You put chickpeas, garlic and....stuff into a food processor. Well it's super easy until your good processor decides to not work on you. Yeah, no bueno. No matter how much I tried to lock it..it would not start. And so I start to use a potato masher, which was working except of course for the big chunks of onion and garlic. Though it was smelling pretty fantastic, I was ready to eat it then and there. Note picture of my fun above. Of course the cursed food processor started to work for my mother as soon as she came home. It just likes her better.

Now it looks much prettier.

Dinner was the easiest part of the meal really. Roasted eggplant, butternut squash, garlic, onion and green beans on couscous. And what is easier than couscous? Five minutes and you have cooked rice!

So all in all appetizer and entree were really easy and I'm thinking next time I'm going to look for more difficult recipes. But not a bad start. I've always been a fan of Indian and middle eastern food flavors so I knew it couldn't really go wrong. I'd say that dessert was the hardest part of the meal and having left it at room temperature...it was so delicious. GUYS, IT WAS SO GOOD. Like apple pudding and pie all in one. Btw, I totes made a cinnamon, home made whipped cream. Delicious.

So..night success. Btw: I could eat this hummus all night long. My dogs wish they could too. Also Mom and Dad were guinea pigs and both enjoyed every part. Kinda a big deal, cause Madre is picky when it comes to other people's food. But Dadders enjoys all food. So peeps should come over and be my test monkeys!