Tomorrow morning, I will be volunteering in the elementary school office, doing anything they need me to do, so I decided to bring in a little treat for them. A CLBB member posted these cookies a little while back and they sounded delicious.
These are very good. Unlike many cookies of this nature, they are made with all brown sugar instead of a combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar. As a result, they have that butterscotchy flavor that I adore and a nice, deep brown color (if you use the recommended dark brown sugar). They did not turn out to be the prettiest cookie in the world (I chose the best ones for the photo - more than few turned out quite lump and craggy), at least not for me, but no big deal there - the taste is what matters most to me.
A very good, solid cookie recipe. It's hard to compare them to other similar cookies I've made in the past since I can't compare them side by side and it's been a while between batches, but if memory serves me correctly, the Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies may still be my favorite for this type of oatmeal cookie.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Mac & Cheese
Last night was one of those nights where nothing sounds appealing. I felt overdosed on tomatoes and sausage from the risotto the other night and for the life of me I could not decide on anything. I finally decided that it had to be meatless and that a cheesey pasta dish sounded appealing. After searching for a recipe that fit this description, I suddenly decided on something that I have only made once or twice, ever - good old mac and cheese.
My one or two attempts to make homemade mac and cheese were met with a very cool reception from both boys. I grumpily decided that if they preferred the gross stuff out of the blue box, I certainly wasn't going to waste time and money fixing them the good stuff. Personally I cannot handle even the smell of the blue box variety, so I've always hoped that some day the boys would change their minds. Fortunately, last night they finally did.
Deciding on making mac and cheese was only half the battle. Next, I had to pick a recipe. No easy task with so many recipes out there and with the clock ticking down closer and closer to dinner time. In the end, I took out a cookbook that I love, but have not been making good use of lately - Cook's Illustrated's New Best Recipe. Sure enough, they had a mac and cheese recipe.
This recipe is a very basic mac and cheese and though it does call for a breadcrumb topping, it really is a stove-top recipe that gets a very brief trip under the broiler to crisp the breadcrumbs (this step can be skipped entirey, if desired). According to CI, the success of this recipe relies on using a combination of cheddar and monterey jack cheeses - cheddar for the flavor and oil, monterey jack for the moisture content and creaminess. Unfortunately we did not have any monterey jack on hand, so I substituted an equal amount of mozzarella - mozzarella also has a high moisture content and I thought it would make the best substitute. In place of macaroni, I had to use what we had on hand - ziti. Ideally, I'd prefer a whole wheat blend elbow macaroni, but the ziti made a more than acceptable substitute.
It did indeed produce a very nice sauce - rich, smooth, plentiful and creamy (even using skim milk) - but it was a little on the bland side. Mac and cheese is a very basic dish - it's not really supposed to have bold flavors, but this one seemed just a little lacking. I'd like to try it with the jack cheese as it has more flavor than mozzarella and it's possible that the jack cheese makes all the difference. I had intended to throw in a few cloves of crushed garlic as the sauce simmered, but forgot - this would be a welcome addition that I will be sure to remember next time. Instead of breadcrumbs, I used panko - my oven must have been too hot, however, because the panko started to burn before it really had a chance to get crisp.
Bland or not, the boys loved it and a little over half the 9x13-inch pan was gone by the end of dinner. I know the boys will still readily eat the "fake" stuff, but at least now they recognize that homemade is better............
My one or two attempts to make homemade mac and cheese were met with a very cool reception from both boys. I grumpily decided that if they preferred the gross stuff out of the blue box, I certainly wasn't going to waste time and money fixing them the good stuff. Personally I cannot handle even the smell of the blue box variety, so I've always hoped that some day the boys would change their minds. Fortunately, last night they finally did.
Deciding on making mac and cheese was only half the battle. Next, I had to pick a recipe. No easy task with so many recipes out there and with the clock ticking down closer and closer to dinner time. In the end, I took out a cookbook that I love, but have not been making good use of lately - Cook's Illustrated's New Best Recipe. Sure enough, they had a mac and cheese recipe.
This recipe is a very basic mac and cheese and though it does call for a breadcrumb topping, it really is a stove-top recipe that gets a very brief trip under the broiler to crisp the breadcrumbs (this step can be skipped entirey, if desired). According to CI, the success of this recipe relies on using a combination of cheddar and monterey jack cheeses - cheddar for the flavor and oil, monterey jack for the moisture content and creaminess. Unfortunately we did not have any monterey jack on hand, so I substituted an equal amount of mozzarella - mozzarella also has a high moisture content and I thought it would make the best substitute. In place of macaroni, I had to use what we had on hand - ziti. Ideally, I'd prefer a whole wheat blend elbow macaroni, but the ziti made a more than acceptable substitute.
It did indeed produce a very nice sauce - rich, smooth, plentiful and creamy (even using skim milk) - but it was a little on the bland side. Mac and cheese is a very basic dish - it's not really supposed to have bold flavors, but this one seemed just a little lacking. I'd like to try it with the jack cheese as it has more flavor than mozzarella and it's possible that the jack cheese makes all the difference. I had intended to throw in a few cloves of crushed garlic as the sauce simmered, but forgot - this would be a welcome addition that I will be sure to remember next time. Instead of breadcrumbs, I used panko - my oven must have been too hot, however, because the panko started to burn before it really had a chance to get crisp.
Bland or not, the boys loved it and a little over half the 9x13-inch pan was gone by the end of dinner. I know the boys will still readily eat the "fake" stuff, but at least now they recognize that homemade is better............
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Risotto
When I planned my menu for the week, I had planned to make Cooking Light's Italian Sausage Soup this weekend, but then stumbled on this risotto recipe over at Joe's blog. Actually, I had torn this recipe out of Everyday Food quite some time ago, but never got around to making it and completely forgot about it. The risotto sounds quite familiar to the soup and uses many of the same ingredients, so I decided to give it a go.
Well, it was good, but it wasn't great. There was just something about it that didn't work for me. It's a bit of a mystery, really - this really should have worked. I think it was a combination of several things. For one, it there was too much sausage and tomato for my tastes - and that's despite the fact that I used 9 ounces of sausage instead of 12. I did not care for the large chunks of tomato - a finer dice or perhaps crushed tomatoes would have worked better. Another problem - the spinach. My DH bought the spinach and it was of the curly leaf variety. It's been a very long time since I've bought anything other than baby leaf spinach and now I remember why - baby leaf is so much better - both in texture and especially in flavor. Never again.
Sometimes simple ingredients such as these come together very nicely, but in this case I found it a bit bland. I did use turkey sausage instead of regular, so that may account for some lack of flavor, but not all. It wasn't bad by any means - we ate all of it - and there's certainly room for potential, but I can't say as it was worth the 30 minutes of stirring invested.........
Well, it was good, but it wasn't great. There was just something about it that didn't work for me. It's a bit of a mystery, really - this really should have worked. I think it was a combination of several things. For one, it there was too much sausage and tomato for my tastes - and that's despite the fact that I used 9 ounces of sausage instead of 12. I did not care for the large chunks of tomato - a finer dice or perhaps crushed tomatoes would have worked better. Another problem - the spinach. My DH bought the spinach and it was of the curly leaf variety. It's been a very long time since I've bought anything other than baby leaf spinach and now I remember why - baby leaf is so much better - both in texture and especially in flavor. Never again.
Sometimes simple ingredients such as these come together very nicely, but in this case I found it a bit bland. I did use turkey sausage instead of regular, so that may account for some lack of flavor, but not all. It wasn't bad by any means - we ate all of it - and there's certainly room for potential, but I can't say as it was worth the 30 minutes of stirring invested.........
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Fantastic New Pumpkin Muffin
It has been a while since I've baked any muffins and I was having a craving today. I had a bit of buttermilk to use up, so I went in search of a new recipe. It used to be fairly rare that I would keep buttermilk on hand, and I would get frustrated when it seemed like every muffin recipe I wanted to make called for buttermilk, which I didn't have. Well, wouldn't you know that today, when I had buttermilk, I had a hard time finding a muffin recipe that used it. Sometimes you just can't win.
I also have not done much as much baking with pumpkin this winter as I would have liked to, so when I found this Bon Appetit recipe over at Epicurious that called for pumpkin and buttermilk, I knew this would be the one. I did make several adjustments to the recipe. First, I subbed white whole wheat flour for most of the all-purpose flour. I also cut down the amount of ginger and added a variety of other spices. In addition to the crystallized ginger, I added walnuts for a little crunch - pumpkin and walnuts just go together so nicely.
These muffins are terrific. They are dark and moist, full of flavor from the pumpkin, spices and molasses and have a very nice dome. I could not detect any off taste from the white whole wheat flour whatsoever. If you exclude the walnuts, they are quite low in fat, but even with the walnuts, just 36% of the calories come from fat and since the recipe calls for canola oil, these are low in saturated fat as well. After tasting the final product, I'm glad that I cut down the ginger - the 1 teaspoon of ground ginger combine with the crystallized ginger gave plenty of gingery bite for my tastes. My only complaint - the molasses drowned out the pumpkin flavor a bit, making these taste more like a molasses-ginger type muffin. Perhaps a little less molasses next time?
All around, a great, healthful muffin that will be sure to become part of my regular rotation.
I also have not done much as much baking with pumpkin this winter as I would have liked to, so when I found this Bon Appetit recipe over at Epicurious that called for pumpkin and buttermilk, I knew this would be the one. I did make several adjustments to the recipe. First, I subbed white whole wheat flour for most of the all-purpose flour. I also cut down the amount of ginger and added a variety of other spices. In addition to the crystallized ginger, I added walnuts for a little crunch - pumpkin and walnuts just go together so nicely.
These muffins are terrific. They are dark and moist, full of flavor from the pumpkin, spices and molasses and have a very nice dome. I could not detect any off taste from the white whole wheat flour whatsoever. If you exclude the walnuts, they are quite low in fat, but even with the walnuts, just 36% of the calories come from fat and since the recipe calls for canola oil, these are low in saturated fat as well. After tasting the final product, I'm glad that I cut down the ginger - the 1 teaspoon of ground ginger combine with the crystallized ginger gave plenty of gingery bite for my tastes. My only complaint - the molasses drowned out the pumpkin flavor a bit, making these taste more like a molasses-ginger type muffin. Perhaps a little less molasses next time?
All around, a great, healthful muffin that will be sure to become part of my regular rotation.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Quick and Easy Stir Fry
As stir fry recipes go, this one is relatively simple to put together. I've made this dish before, but it's been quite a while. It's too bad - it's something that I really need to keep in my regular rotation for a little variety. It's not the best stir fry I've ever made, but the amount of flavor you get from relatively little work makes this perfect for those busier weeknights. And the clean plates after dinner was over tells me that this was a definite hit with everyone - always a plus.
The recipe calls for slicing a pork tenderloin, my favorite cut of pork and the most tender pork cut, but you could easily use pork loin (just be careful not to cook it too long) or even chicken or beef. I was a little short on cashews, so I threw in some peanuts to add a bit of flavor - overall I'd prefer cashews, but peanuts make a very acceptable substitute.
Not too much else to say about this dish - it's low-fat, healthy, simple and satisfying.
The recipe calls for slicing a pork tenderloin, my favorite cut of pork and the most tender pork cut, but you could easily use pork loin (just be careful not to cook it too long) or even chicken or beef. I was a little short on cashews, so I threw in some peanuts to add a bit of flavor - overall I'd prefer cashews, but peanuts make a very acceptable substitute.
Not too much else to say about this dish - it's low-fat, healthy, simple and satisfying.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Mardi Gras 2007
A couple of years ago, we tried to start an annual party tradition - throwing a Mardi Gras party the Saturday before Fat Tuesday. It's the perfect pick-me-up for the dull, grey, cold days of February when the holiday season is over and cabin fever is likely to rear its ugly head. How can you feel blah with all the bright, garish, tacky, raucousness that is Mardi Gras???
Due to extenuating circumstances, we have not been able to have our party the past 2 years or so, but we did throw a mini-Mardi Gras here this weekend. My SIL, BIL, 4 girls and dog came for a visit, so we decided to throw up a few decorations, stick a few appropriate CDs in the CD player and focus on Cajun food. I had planned to do more - like a King Cake - but ended up working quite a bit last week and ran out of time.
Muffuletta
However you spell it, what generally makes a muffuletta a muffuletta is the olive salad. The salad we used, from Emeril, does not call for gardiniera - a pickled combination of cauliflower, celery, carrots and pepperoncini - but it is quite good nonetheless. Next time, I'd like to try a version like this one which includes the gardiniera, allowing it to marinate for several days.
Beyond the olive salad, the typical ingredients are ham, capicola, mortadella, salami and provolone and/or mozzarella. We skipped the mortadella. I was so happy to find it one day, only to discover that it's basically a bologna/loaf-style lunch meat that didn't look very appetizing, so we just skipped it. We could not find the kind of bread we wanted - a flat, sort of a foccacia-type bread - in New Orleans they typically use a round loaf. We could only get a loaf of crusty Italian - it was good, but was a bit too fat and hard to eat. I didn't think until later to hollow out some of the soft insides to make it easier to eat!
In any case, it was fun to chase away the winter blues with some Cajun/Creole/New Orleans-style food and enjoy the wonderful jazz/dixieland/Cajun music that reminds us of New Orleans..........
Due to extenuating circumstances, we have not been able to have our party the past 2 years or so, but we did throw a mini-Mardi Gras here this weekend. My SIL, BIL, 4 girls and dog came for a visit, so we decided to throw up a few decorations, stick a few appropriate CDs in the CD player and focus on Cajun food. I had planned to do more - like a King Cake - but ended up working quite a bit last week and ran out of time.
The cousins get into the Mardi Gras spirit with masks and beads.
Every year, Paul Prudhomme's Cajun Seafood Gumbo with Andouille Sausage is a must for us. It's fantastic - you almost feel like you're eating right at K-Paul's in New Orleans. After having problems with my roux last year - I overcooked it which prevented it from thickening the gumbo - I took my time getting the roux to a nice, deep brown color instead of cooking it at a high temperature as Mr. Prudhomme's recipe suggests. I have had success with the faster method, but the roux can go from perfect to burnt in the blink of an eye and I have since read many recipes that advocate for a slower cooking of the roux, sometimes taking as much as a half hour.
To make the gumbo more economical, I used chicken stock in place of seafood stock and only used about 10 ounces of shrimp, only about 9 ounces of sausage, adding chicken thighs and breasts for the rest. I still love the seafood version best, but this version was more than acceptable - quite delicious, in fact. Wish I would have taken the time to get a newer, better picture, but it was a little crazy trying to get dinner ready, 6 kids situated, etc.
Gumbo
Every year, Paul Prudhomme's Cajun Seafood Gumbo with Andouille Sausage is a must for us. It's fantastic - you almost feel like you're eating right at K-Paul's in New Orleans. After having problems with my roux last year - I overcooked it which prevented it from thickening the gumbo - I took my time getting the roux to a nice, deep brown color instead of cooking it at a high temperature as Mr. Prudhomme's recipe suggests. I have had success with the faster method, but the roux can go from perfect to burnt in the blink of an eye and I have since read many recipes that advocate for a slower cooking of the roux, sometimes taking as much as a half hour.
To make the gumbo more economical, I used chicken stock in place of seafood stock and only used about 10 ounces of shrimp, only about 9 ounces of sausage, adding chicken thighs and breasts for the rest. I still love the seafood version best, but this version was more than acceptable - quite delicious, in fact. Wish I would have taken the time to get a newer, better picture, but it was a little crazy trying to get dinner ready, 6 kids situated, etc.
GumboAnother of our favorite New Orleans specialties is a Sicilian sandwich called muffuletta. If you ever search for this, you may want to be aware that there are a variety of spellings out there - muffaletta, muffuletta, muffeletta.
MuffulettaBeyond the olive salad, the typical ingredients are ham, capicola, mortadella, salami and provolone and/or mozzarella. We skipped the mortadella. I was so happy to find it one day, only to discover that it's basically a bologna/loaf-style lunch meat that didn't look very appetizing, so we just skipped it. We could not find the kind of bread we wanted - a flat, sort of a foccacia-type bread - in New Orleans they typically use a round loaf. We could only get a loaf of crusty Italian - it was good, but was a bit too fat and hard to eat. I didn't think until later to hollow out some of the soft insides to make it easier to eat!
In any case, it was fun to chase away the winter blues with some Cajun/Creole/New Orleans-style food and enjoy the wonderful jazz/dixieland/Cajun music that reminds us of New Orleans..........
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Extended Lull
It will be quiet this weekend here at the Savory Notebook. Wait, let me clarify that. It will be quiet here on the blog, but not in my house! My SIL, BIL, 4 nieces and 1 dog are coming for a visit. I'm looking forward to it, but that means no time to blog, I'm afraid. We are not having a Mardi Gras party again this year, but we will be serving up some Cajun food - gumbo and muffaletta - and will put out a few fun decorations. Hopefully I'll be back to posting again sometime on Monday.........have a great weekend and keep warm (still lots of snow and cold around here)! Time to go bake some cookies and get this house cleaned up...............
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Valentine's Day - Lotsa Food, Lotsa Snow
We were all home for Valentine's Day yesterday due to the big storm.............
As we shoveled our rather long driveway, the snow was still coming down.
After finishing the part down near the road,
we still had our large area up top to finish!
DH shoveled some of the drifting snow off our deck
for Bailey to be able to get out.
We got about 10+ inches with this storm after all was said and done. DH and I spent a romantic Valentine's Day shoveling snow, only to have the wind kick up and undo quite a bit of our work. DH had to dig out again this morning and I'm sorry to say the wind blew all day long and we had to shovel a bit again to get him up the driveway tonight. I decided not to take DS to Tae Kwon Do or we'd have to shovel a third time! I think I'll start up a snowblower savings account and start putting away some money NOW! And I think I'm done with snow........
I had plans to do laundry and clean yesterday, but mostly I did a lot of cooking with very little cleaning. After all that shoveling, eating and champagne, I was too tired to clean up my colossal mess, so I had quite a disaster to deal with this morning. Oh well, it was worth it. We ended up making a batch of cookies, a batch of muffins and a special Valentine's Day dinner for all four of us. More on the muffins and cookies later.
We started off with an appetizer recipe I'm trying to develop. The taste was great, but the execution needs quite a bit of work, so no recipe or photos to share, I'm afraid. While I worked on the appetizer, DH worked on the main dish of lump crab saute over pasta. Yum! Sorry, no pictures of that either - I couldn't justify letting beautiful lump crab get cold while I fussed over the perfect photo! We served the crab and pasta with some lovely green beans I picked up at Sam's Club - much better than the green beans I generally see in the grocery stores.
I hadn't really planned on a dessert, but decided that a Valentine's Day dinner cries out for dessert, so I came up with something that's pretty easy to throw together at the last minute, is nice enough for a special occasion and best of all, it's chocolate. I think I've mentioned these here before, but I didn't have a photograph to share, so I'm resurrecting this recipe for a more thorough review, along with a proper photo.
As we shoveled our rather long driveway, the snow was still coming down.
After finishing the part down near the road,we still had our large area up top to finish!
DH shoveled some of the drifting snow off our deckfor Bailey to be able to get out.
We got about 10+ inches with this storm after all was said and done. DH and I spent a romantic Valentine's Day shoveling snow, only to have the wind kick up and undo quite a bit of our work. DH had to dig out again this morning and I'm sorry to say the wind blew all day long and we had to shovel a bit again to get him up the driveway tonight. I decided not to take DS to Tae Kwon Do or we'd have to shovel a third time! I think I'll start up a snowblower savings account and start putting away some money NOW! And I think I'm done with snow........
I had plans to do laundry and clean yesterday, but mostly I did a lot of cooking with very little cleaning. After all that shoveling, eating and champagne, I was too tired to clean up my colossal mess, so I had quite a disaster to deal with this morning. Oh well, it was worth it. We ended up making a batch of cookies, a batch of muffins and a special Valentine's Day dinner for all four of us. More on the muffins and cookies later.
We started off with an appetizer recipe I'm trying to develop. The taste was great, but the execution needs quite a bit of work, so no recipe or photos to share, I'm afraid. While I worked on the appetizer, DH worked on the main dish of lump crab saute over pasta. Yum! Sorry, no pictures of that either - I couldn't justify letting beautiful lump crab get cold while I fussed over the perfect photo! We served the crab and pasta with some lovely green beans I picked up at Sam's Club - much better than the green beans I generally see in the grocery stores.
I hadn't really planned on a dessert, but decided that a Valentine's Day dinner cries out for dessert, so I came up with something that's pretty easy to throw together at the last minute, is nice enough for a special occasion and best of all, it's chocolate. I think I've mentioned these here before, but I didn't have a photograph to share, so I'm resurrecting this recipe for a more thorough review, along with a proper photo.
Warm Brownie Cups
This dessert is one of my all-time favorites and was posted on the CLBB. It's about as easy to throw together as a pan of brownies, but more fun. The recipe calls for serving these in 8-ounce ramekins - I use 6-ounce and get 6 nice-sized servings. It's a rich dessert and I find that you don't need too much, especially after a large meal. The brownie cups are firm and brownie-like on the top and gushy and pudding-like on the bottom. I overcooked them a bit this time, so they weren't quite as pudding-like as usual. I have tried them with both regular cocoa and Dutch process cocoa and prefer the Dutch process. You can assemble these ahead of time and then put them in the oven to bake while you're eating dinner. Or if you're having a large meal, put them in to bake after dinner to give yourself a little time to digest before serving dessert.
All in all a pleasant day off for all of us. Today it was back to school and work for DH and the boys. I got clean-up duty...........
All in all a pleasant day off for all of us. Today it was back to school and work for DH and the boys. I got clean-up duty...........
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Pad Thai
Snow day here in PA today. That big winter storm that's hitting much of the Midwest and East Coast is giving us a fair amount of snow and, unfortunately, sleet. The sleet really ruins it for me. I get excited when I hear we might get huge amounts of snow, but the sleet cuts down the overall snowfall totals and makes it hard to enjoy, not to mention shovel. It's also bitter cold and windy outside, so kind of a disappointment. It would be fun to romp in with the kiddos and dog, but I don't think that's going to happen!
Sorry for the lull here, but I've actually been called into to sub for the last 5 workdays and have been thrown off my routine. And believe me, that's a good thing - it got me out of the house and put a little extra money in our pockets. But on to the regularly scheduled program......the Pad Thai I was talking about on Sunday.........
Mmmm...one of my favorite dishes is Pad Thai. There is one Thai restaurant in the area, but we have not tried it. It looks like a hole in the wall from the street, but it could be nicer inside. Even if it isn't, sometimes a hole in the wall turns out some great food!
Restaurant or no restaurant, it's nice to know how to cook your favorite ethnic dishes at home. I used to think that Pad Thai was a peanut-based sauce. While it is often served with chopped peanuts as a garnish, it does not have any peanut butter in the sauce. It's a sweet and sour sauce, most of the flavor coming from the tamarind paste or concentrate.
At first I thought I had a complete disaster on my hands. First, I didn't have time to soak the rice noodles as the recipe indicates, so I cooked them according to the package directions. The package called for cooking them for 6-8 minutes and even though I only cooked them for 5, they were still a bit mushy. Next time, I will soak the noodles as directed! The next thing that worried me was the sauce - it just didn't seem that interesting at all after I mixed the ingredients together.
Fortunately, I worried for nothing. Yes, the noodles were a but mushy, but they were edible. The sauce, once combined with the all of the rest of the ingredients became very close to what I think of when I think of Pad Thai. I did change the recipe up by using snow peas and tempeh instead of broccoli and shrimp, but this is a recipe that allows a little substitution and the snow peas and tempeh worked very nicely. I ran out of time, so I skipped the eggs, but I would like to use these next time.
While researching more on Pad Thai (but after the meal), I found this great tutorial over on Chez Pim for making your own Pad Thai. I don't think I'll ever take the time to prepare just a serving or two at a time as she suggests, but the tutorial is full of some really good information.
So, I need to refine my Pad Thai skills and try again, but not bad for a first time.
Today we'll be huddled inside (DH is off from work because of the snow too), cleaning, doing laundry and baking. And a little bit of a Valentine's Day celebration...a bit of lump crab and some champagne.........
Sorry for the lull here, but I've actually been called into to sub for the last 5 workdays and have been thrown off my routine. And believe me, that's a good thing - it got me out of the house and put a little extra money in our pockets. But on to the regularly scheduled program......the Pad Thai I was talking about on Sunday.........
Mmmm...one of my favorite dishes is Pad Thai. There is one Thai restaurant in the area, but we have not tried it. It looks like a hole in the wall from the street, but it could be nicer inside. Even if it isn't, sometimes a hole in the wall turns out some great food!
Restaurant or no restaurant, it's nice to know how to cook your favorite ethnic dishes at home. I used to think that Pad Thai was a peanut-based sauce. While it is often served with chopped peanuts as a garnish, it does not have any peanut butter in the sauce. It's a sweet and sour sauce, most of the flavor coming from the tamarind paste or concentrate.
At first I thought I had a complete disaster on my hands. First, I didn't have time to soak the rice noodles as the recipe indicates, so I cooked them according to the package directions. The package called for cooking them for 6-8 minutes and even though I only cooked them for 5, they were still a bit mushy. Next time, I will soak the noodles as directed! The next thing that worried me was the sauce - it just didn't seem that interesting at all after I mixed the ingredients together.
Fortunately, I worried for nothing. Yes, the noodles were a but mushy, but they were edible. The sauce, once combined with the all of the rest of the ingredients became very close to what I think of when I think of Pad Thai. I did change the recipe up by using snow peas and tempeh instead of broccoli and shrimp, but this is a recipe that allows a little substitution and the snow peas and tempeh worked very nicely. I ran out of time, so I skipped the eggs, but I would like to use these next time.
While researching more on Pad Thai (but after the meal), I found this great tutorial over on Chez Pim for making your own Pad Thai. I don't think I'll ever take the time to prepare just a serving or two at a time as she suggests, but the tutorial is full of some really good information.
So, I need to refine my Pad Thai skills and try again, but not bad for a first time.
Today we'll be huddled inside (DH is off from work because of the snow too), cleaning, doing laundry and baking. And a little bit of a Valentine's Day celebration...a bit of lump crab and some champagne.........
Sunday, February 11, 2007
WDB #72
It's been a while since Bailey and I have particpated in Weekend Dog Blogging over at Sweetnicks, so forgive me if we have already shared this photo of Bailey roughing it:
Such a hard life!
I'll be back tomorrow with a recipe for one of our favorite Thai dishes...Pad Thai...yum!
Such a hard life!I'll be back tomorrow with a recipe for one of our favorite Thai dishes...Pad Thai...yum!
Saturday, February 10, 2007
More Curry
I am beginning to rely more and more on Indian and Thai-inspired flavors for quick, easy and nutritious meals that come out anything but boring and routine. A little heat, a little curry (or cumin, etc.), a bit of ginger and you have the makings for great meals with endless variations and options.
Sometimes I follow a given recipe, sometimes I just start throwing things in and see how it all comes out. This time, I decided to follow a Cooking Light recipe that looked very simple. This vegetarian recipe was an especially welcome contrast to our meals that have seemed a little heavy on the ground beef lately, even if it is 90% lean (I'm working on a new recipe that uses ground beef and we had quite a bit in the freezer.....).
As other reviewers of this recipe said, it's a dish packed with flavor for very little effort. Once the onion is chopped, the rest of the dish goes together very easily. I chose to chop the onion rather than use the food processor - I'd prefer to spend a little extra time chopping before the meal rather than extra time cleaning up after the meal.
This recipe called for something I had not used before - red curry powder. Generally I use Penzeys Sweet Curry Powder, adding my own heat as desired. Red curry powder, at least this particular blend by McCormick, is entirely different. For one thing, this blend includes chili pepper, so it comes with its own kick (use sparingly until you figure out how much heat you want). And whereas I find sweet curry powder to be earthy and mellow (probably and influence from the three main ingredients of cumin, coriander and turmeric), the red curry powder seems to get more of its punch from cardamom, a spice that I find strong, sharp, more pungent. Interestingly enough, it appears that the curry powder we find here is actually a British invention and may bear little resemblance to the freshly ground, traditional versions of India. Like Chicken Tikka Masala, whatever its origin, I love it.
Anyway, as promised this dish does deliver a lot of flavor for very little effort. The chickpeas' firm, meaty texture provide welcome contrast and relief to the heat of the curry while spinach and tomatoes add both flavor and color. Bravo - yet another tasty, nutritious dish that comes together in a hurry, making healthful weeknight meals a cinch.
Sometimes I follow a given recipe, sometimes I just start throwing things in and see how it all comes out. This time, I decided to follow a Cooking Light recipe that looked very simple. This vegetarian recipe was an especially welcome contrast to our meals that have seemed a little heavy on the ground beef lately, even if it is 90% lean (I'm working on a new recipe that uses ground beef and we had quite a bit in the freezer.....).
As other reviewers of this recipe said, it's a dish packed with flavor for very little effort. Once the onion is chopped, the rest of the dish goes together very easily. I chose to chop the onion rather than use the food processor - I'd prefer to spend a little extra time chopping before the meal rather than extra time cleaning up after the meal.
This recipe called for something I had not used before - red curry powder. Generally I use Penzeys Sweet Curry Powder, adding my own heat as desired. Red curry powder, at least this particular blend by McCormick, is entirely different. For one thing, this blend includes chili pepper, so it comes with its own kick (use sparingly until you figure out how much heat you want). And whereas I find sweet curry powder to be earthy and mellow (probably and influence from the three main ingredients of cumin, coriander and turmeric), the red curry powder seems to get more of its punch from cardamom, a spice that I find strong, sharp, more pungent. Interestingly enough, it appears that the curry powder we find here is actually a British invention and may bear little resemblance to the freshly ground, traditional versions of India. Like Chicken Tikka Masala, whatever its origin, I love it.
Anyway, as promised this dish does deliver a lot of flavor for very little effort. The chickpeas' firm, meaty texture provide welcome contrast and relief to the heat of the curry while spinach and tomatoes add both flavor and color. Bravo - yet another tasty, nutritious dish that comes together in a hurry, making healthful weeknight meals a cinch.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Baby it's Cold Outside....
I discovered that song while watching the movie Elf and just love it. Considering it's currently 1º outside (including the wind chill), I'd say "cold" is an understatement. Frigid and unbearable is more like it.
Yesterday we warmed up the house with an old favorite - a chili based on one from Jane Brody's Good Food Book. I have posted this recipe here before, but it's worth highlighting again, especially since now I have a picture to go with it. This chili is unusual with its addition of cloves and allspice - I really love the flavors. This time I added 1 pound of extra-lean ground beef, used two cans of kidney beans and 1 chipotle pepper in adobo in place of the jalapeno. We served it with brown rice for a meal that warmed us up, even with those icy winds blowing and howling all night long.
Since this is a great vegetarian chili recipe (even if I chose to add meat this time), I am submitting this recipe to the Soup's On event happening during the month of February over at Alanna's A Veggie Venture.
Keep warm everyone!
Yesterday we warmed up the house with an old favorite - a chili based on one from Jane Brody's Good Food Book. I have posted this recipe here before, but it's worth highlighting again, especially since now I have a picture to go with it. This chili is unusual with its addition of cloves and allspice - I really love the flavors. This time I added 1 pound of extra-lean ground beef, used two cans of kidney beans and 1 chipotle pepper in adobo in place of the jalapeno. We served it with brown rice for a meal that warmed us up, even with those icy winds blowing and howling all night long.
Since this is a great vegetarian chili recipe (even if I chose to add meat this time), I am submitting this recipe to the Soup's On event happening during the month of February over at Alanna's A Veggie Venture.
Keep warm everyone!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
New Chicken Dish
Brrrrrr........it's cold in PA! The temp at this moment is 11º with a wind chill of -7º. As the lady at Macy's said to me yesterday, we're paying for those warm temps in January! Ah well, we knew it would probably happen sooner or later, but let's just hope it doesn't last for too long - no walks for Bailey while the wind chills have us below 0º! I can go walk at the mall if I need to, but that doesn't help the poor pooch. Indoor doggie exercise parks, do they exist?
Back to cooking.....cooking warms up the house!
Friday night we tried a new chicken dish from Cooking Light. This dish is quite similar to an old favorite, Raspberry Balsamic-Glazed Chicken. The difference here is addition of a bit of soy sauce and ginger and the use of rosemary instead of thyme. The addition of soy sauce, rosemary and ginger really do give this dish a distinctly different taste than the raspberry-balsamic dish. We all enjoyed it very much, but I feel it didn't have enough onion, especially since it implies that caramelized onions are a major component. I did up the onion to at least a cup, but I'm thinking it could go up to even 2 cups. We love caramelized onions!
The only other thing I changed was to use boneless, skinless chicken breast halves instead of tenders. Chicken tenders are overpriced and not worth the extra money, in my opinion so the solution for me was to cook the chicken breasts whole, slice, and then return to the pan once the sauce was made. I really liked this method as opposed to putting sauce over a whole chicken breast half - slicing the chicken and adding it to the sauce allowed the sauce to really coat the chicken so that you got sauce in every single bite.
This will definitely go on our list as a regular - it's quick, easy, tasty and it's easy to keep the ingredients on hand.
Back to cooking.....cooking warms up the house!
Friday night we tried a new chicken dish from Cooking Light. This dish is quite similar to an old favorite, Raspberry Balsamic-Glazed Chicken. The difference here is addition of a bit of soy sauce and ginger and the use of rosemary instead of thyme. The addition of soy sauce, rosemary and ginger really do give this dish a distinctly different taste than the raspberry-balsamic dish. We all enjoyed it very much, but I feel it didn't have enough onion, especially since it implies that caramelized onions are a major component. I did up the onion to at least a cup, but I'm thinking it could go up to even 2 cups. We love caramelized onions!
The only other thing I changed was to use boneless, skinless chicken breast halves instead of tenders. Chicken tenders are overpriced and not worth the extra money, in my opinion so the solution for me was to cook the chicken breasts whole, slice, and then return to the pan once the sauce was made. I really liked this method as opposed to putting sauce over a whole chicken breast half - slicing the chicken and adding it to the sauce allowed the sauce to really coat the chicken so that you got sauce in every single bite.
This will definitely go on our list as a regular - it's quick, easy, tasty and it's easy to keep the ingredients on hand.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Recipe Hits and Misses for January
Not much to blog about food-wise here. Between sick kids and activities, I've been keeping it pretty simple at dinner time. My oldest stayed home yesterday with a stomach virus and I hate to whomp up a nice meal when someone is feeling nauseous - it just seems cruel!
Since there's not much new and exciting going on, it seems like a good time to look back on January. Over at the CLBB, there is often a post each month where everyone lists their hits and misses. Most people just list the new recipes they tried, but some people include their tried and trues too - I'm just listing the new recipes we tried, though it might be fun to keep track of tried and trues too.
All in all, we tried 23 new recipes this month (though I didn't include all 23 here - some are works in progress):
Since there's not much new and exciting going on, it seems like a good time to look back on January. Over at the CLBB, there is often a post each month where everyone lists their hits and misses. Most people just list the new recipes they tried, but some people include their tried and trues too - I'm just listing the new recipes we tried, though it might be fun to keep track of tried and trues too.
All in all, we tried 23 new recipes this month (though I didn't include all 23 here - some are works in progress):
Excellent (definite repeaters)
Spicy Red Lentil Soup-Vegetarian Times
Cauliflower Gratin with Tomatoes and Feta-Peter Berley Fresh Food Fast
Homemade Whole Grain Pancake Mix-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Salmon with White Wine Mustard Sauce-Cooking Light, J/F 1999
Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies-Val on CLBB
Very Good
Barley Risotto with Winter Roasted Vegetables-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Chicken Tagine with Lemons and Olives-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Cumin-Dusted Chicken with Guacamole Sauce-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Nutty for Oats Cookies-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Fettuccine Alfredo-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Maple Walnut Bread-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Creamy Cauliflower-Cheddar Cheese Soup-KAF
Chocolate Pound Cake-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Good (might or might not repeat)
Chunky Red Dal Soup-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Gingerbread-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Micro-Brewery Honey Oatmeal Bread-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Okay (has potential, would only repeat with modifications)
Peanut Butter Muffins-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Herbed Whole Wheat Pizza Crust-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Nah (won't repeat)
Falafel - Cooking Light
Of all the recipes we tried, I think that this one might be my favorite. What a surprise, it's a cookie recipe!
Spicy Red Lentil Soup-Vegetarian Times
Cauliflower Gratin with Tomatoes and Feta-Peter Berley Fresh Food Fast
Homemade Whole Grain Pancake Mix-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Salmon with White Wine Mustard Sauce-Cooking Light, J/F 1999
Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies-Val on CLBB
Very Good
Barley Risotto with Winter Roasted Vegetables-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Chicken Tagine with Lemons and Olives-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Cumin-Dusted Chicken with Guacamole Sauce-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Nutty for Oats Cookies-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Fettuccine Alfredo-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Maple Walnut Bread-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Creamy Cauliflower-Cheddar Cheese Soup-KAF
Chocolate Pound Cake-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Good (might or might not repeat)
Chunky Red Dal Soup-Cooking Light, J/F 2007
Gingerbread-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Micro-Brewery Honey Oatmeal Bread-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Okay (has potential, would only repeat with modifications)
Peanut Butter Muffins-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Herbed Whole Wheat Pizza Crust-KAF Whole Grain Baking
Nah (won't repeat)
Falafel - Cooking Light
Of all the recipes we tried, I think that this one might be my favorite. What a surprise, it's a cookie recipe!
Friday, February 02, 2007
Just for Fun
Not much to blog about food-wise here, so just for fun, here are a few more photos of our only significant snowfall this year. The window screens sort of muddle up a couple of them - I wasn't motivated to stand outside!
A view of the sunrise out our front living room window.
The view off our office/guest room balcony.
The view out of our bedroom window.
And finally, going full circle, a view of the sunset in our backyard.
It's been a challenge to drive out here. Although we both grew up on the East Coast with all kinds of weather and terrain, after living in Texas for 3 years and then Indiana for 9, we got used to driving in flat terrain. Indiana certainly had the snow, but very few hills and we lived close to major roads that were plowed quickly and frequently. Even when we lived in PA for 10 years, we didn't have to deal too much with hills - we lived on a busy street that was easy to navigate during bad weather. Not so here! It's fairly nerve-wracking just getting out of our development! After about 2 miles, though, we hit a more major road, but those two miles - coming in and going out - can be quite adventurous. I think next year we'll invest in some snow tires!
I'll be back tomorrow or Sunday with a recipe recap for January.
A view of the sunrise out our front living room window.
The view off our office/guest room balcony.
The view out of our bedroom window.
And finally, going full circle, a view of the sunset in our backyard.It's been a challenge to drive out here. Although we both grew up on the East Coast with all kinds of weather and terrain, after living in Texas for 3 years and then Indiana for 9, we got used to driving in flat terrain. Indiana certainly had the snow, but very few hills and we lived close to major roads that were plowed quickly and frequently. Even when we lived in PA for 10 years, we didn't have to deal too much with hills - we lived on a busy street that was easy to navigate during bad weather. Not so here! It's fairly nerve-wracking just getting out of our development! After about 2 miles, though, we hit a more major road, but those two miles - coming in and going out - can be quite adventurous. I think next year we'll invest in some snow tires!
I'll be back tomorrow or Sunday with a recipe recap for January.
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