I'm really itching to get baking, but I just bought all (or at least most) of my ingredients yesterday and I have to do some errands first. Today I ran to the mall and was able to finish up quite a bit of my Christmas shopping. Tomorrow, I have to run to Sam's Club for more Christmas shopping and groceries. Come Friday, I should be able to get full-swing into baking. I'm not sure how much I'll actually get to, but my list of cookies and goodies is pretty long!
For now, though, I'll have to be satisfied with sharing a savory recipe with you. Tonight we had beef stroganoff. Stroganoff, with or without beef, is one of my favorite comfort-food dishes. Sometimes I make it with just mushrooms, but we really prefer it with a little beef. The recipe I tried calls for 2 pounds of beef, but I only used one. For one thing it's healthier to use less beef and for another it's more economical. The only problem was that I didn't plan on using less beef and didn't buy enough mushrooms to compensate. Still, the sauce over noodles is yummy in and of itself, so it still worked.
This particular recipe is a well-regarded by the members of the CLBB and was shared by one of them. We liked it quite well, but I was not crazy about the addition of tomato. This could have been my own fault. The original recipe calls for using catsup. I decided to use tomato paste. In the end, the tomato was a bit more dominant than I would have liked. I wonder if using catsup, which is quite high in vinegar, would have been better. For some reason, I thought tomato paste would work better. Live and learn. All things considered, I'd probably just leave out the tomato altogether. Stroganoff is just one of those things that doesn't seem to need tomato products of any kind - I don't want anything to interefere with the sour cream.
I don't know that there will be anything to share tomorrow.......it will be a day of errands, tuna melts and tomato soup for dinner and then a choral concert for my youngest. Stay tuned for what will hopefully be my first holiday baking post on Friday...........
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
A Menu for Hope
It's that time of year again - the time for giving. Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen recently emailed me with information for something called A Menu for Hope, a fundraiser reaching out to food bloggers and food blog readers to help raise money for those in need. In the past, A Menu for Hope, sponored by Chez Pim, has raised funds for victims of the tsumani in Southeast Asia in 2004 and victims of the India-Pakistan earthquake in 2005. This year, the money raised will be going to the United Nations World Food Programme.A Menu of Hope is a big raffle with lots of great prizes - just look at some of the great things offered last year. Check out this link to get a better idea of how it works. You can participate by either donating a prize, bidding on a prize or even just helping to spread the word. If you have something you'd like to offer up for the raffle, time may be running out, but contact the appropriate blogger below according to where you live to see if they are still willing to accept prizes. Kalyn is accepting prizes for the Central U.S. up until December 9th.
US West Coast: Sam of Becks and Posh
US East Coast: Adam of Amateur Gourmet
US (the rest): Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen
Canada: Jasmine of Cardamom Addict
Europe and UK: David Lebovitz of Davidlebovitz.com
Latin America: Melissa de Leon of the Cooking Diva
Asia Pacific: Helen of Grab Your Fork
And, last but not least, a special wine host for wine blogs: Alder Yarrow of Vinography.
This year I'll just be bidding, but next year I'd love to offer a prize. Now that I know all about A Menu for Hope, I'll have a whole year to think of something...........
Monday, December 04, 2006
Sweet Rolls on Sunday
Or more like it, sweet little hockey pucks on Sunday.
Yesterday was not a banner day in the kitchen for me, but that's okay - you win some, you lose some. Still it's frustrating, especially since I wasn't even trying something new.
I seem to be having a major problem with yeast lately. I've tried fast rising and regular on both pizza dough and other doughs and I'm not having much luck. I just can't get the dough to rise! Now sometimes I have found that dough will take longer to rise than the recipe states, but these are recipes I've tried before - recipes that worked the way the recipe said it should. It's not like I'm new to yeast either - I don't use it all that often, but I've made plenty of pizza crusts and those tried and trues aren't even working all that well.
The failed sticky buns - they should be about twice the size they are -
still tasted pretty good with all that gooey topping.
I've checked the yeast - it's not expired or old. I've checked the water temp - usually around 110ยบ. I give it a nice, warm environment to rise in - I turn the oven on briefly, let it cool down a bit, and put the dough in to rise. It's draft-free - covered in plastic wrap with a kitchen towel on top.
This happened last week when I made the pumpkin rolls, but I baked them anyway and they rose very nicely during baking, just not when they were supposed to. No such luck this time - these buns did not rise much when I baked them, so no last-minute reprieve for these rolls.
Unfortunately with the holidays fast-approaching and a very long list of baked goods I'd like to make, I'll probably have to put my yeast problem on the back burner for now. We'll see......
Fortunately the soup that DH made for dinner was NOT a failure. He whipped up a chicken soup using chicken thighs, corn, peas, rice, barley, wild rice and a few other odds and ends. Very tasty.
Yesterday was not a banner day in the kitchen for me, but that's okay - you win some, you lose some. Still it's frustrating, especially since I wasn't even trying something new.
I seem to be having a major problem with yeast lately. I've tried fast rising and regular on both pizza dough and other doughs and I'm not having much luck. I just can't get the dough to rise! Now sometimes I have found that dough will take longer to rise than the recipe states, but these are recipes I've tried before - recipes that worked the way the recipe said it should. It's not like I'm new to yeast either - I don't use it all that often, but I've made plenty of pizza crusts and those tried and trues aren't even working all that well.
The failed sticky buns - they should be about twice the size they are -still tasted pretty good with all that gooey topping.
I've checked the yeast - it's not expired or old. I've checked the water temp - usually around 110ยบ. I give it a nice, warm environment to rise in - I turn the oven on briefly, let it cool down a bit, and put the dough in to rise. It's draft-free - covered in plastic wrap with a kitchen towel on top.
This happened last week when I made the pumpkin rolls, but I baked them anyway and they rose very nicely during baking, just not when they were supposed to. No such luck this time - these buns did not rise much when I baked them, so no last-minute reprieve for these rolls.
Unfortunately with the holidays fast-approaching and a very long list of baked goods I'd like to make, I'll probably have to put my yeast problem on the back burner for now. We'll see......
Fortunately the soup that DH made for dinner was NOT a failure. He whipped up a chicken soup using chicken thighs, corn, peas, rice, barley, wild rice and a few other odds and ends. Very tasty.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Weekly Recap
For whatever reason, I find it interesting to see what everyone cooks up in their kitchens on a daily/nightly basis. I'm always curious as to how often people cook, what kinds of sides they pair with what dish, etc., etc. Over on the CLBB, people often share their menus for the upcoming week. I used to love to do this, but I found that I rarely followed the plan - something always happens to throw off the menu - so I figured that telling you what I DID make would be much easier and more accurate than telling you what I plan to make.
I share the new recipes here on the blog, but that doesn't account for the other things we throw on the table during the week that don't get included here on the blog - either because they are repeats or because they are not very exciting or because they really don't constitute "cooking" at all.
Our weeks are usually a combination of very easy and quick dishes, along with hopefully a few new or at least more exciting dishes. The boys both have activities on Tuesday and Thursday nights, so those are the nights where you're most likely to see something like grilled cheese and tomato soup. I also tend to keep sides very, very simple unless the main dish itself is very simple.
Since I find it fun to get a peek into what others do each night, I thought I'd start doing a weekly recap of our weekly dinners and anything else of note that was baked or cooked in the kitchen.
Sunday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Saturday:
I share the new recipes here on the blog, but that doesn't account for the other things we throw on the table during the week that don't get included here on the blog - either because they are repeats or because they are not very exciting or because they really don't constitute "cooking" at all.
Our weeks are usually a combination of very easy and quick dishes, along with hopefully a few new or at least more exciting dishes. The boys both have activities on Tuesday and Thursday nights, so those are the nights where you're most likely to see something like grilled cheese and tomato soup. I also tend to keep sides very, very simple unless the main dish itself is very simple.
Since I find it fun to get a peek into what others do each night, I thought I'd start doing a weekly recap of our weekly dinners and anything else of note that was baked or cooked in the kitchen.
Sunday:- Pumpkin-Cinnamon Streusel Buns
- Vietnamese-Spiced Pork Chops
- roasted sweet potatoes with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce
- roasted mixed vegetables: red pepper, mushrooms, red onion, zucchini
- Roasted vegetable omelet - using up roasted veggies from Monday night
- Chicken Quesadillas - chicken, black beans, bell peppers, onion, cumin, lime, chipotle powder
- apple and pear
Tuesday:
- Wegmans ravioli with Marinara
- salad
Wednesday:
Thursday:- Lemon Lentil Soup with Spinach
- leftover Peela Gobi
- Sliced apple
Saturday:- Farfalle with Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce
- mustard greens sauteed in olive oil, garlic and lemon juice (these did not turn out well at all, thus no recipe sharing or photo)
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Farfalle and Mushrooms
Tonight's dinner was supposed to be last night's dinner, but the boys and I started playing Scattergories and I completely forgot all about dinner. Although I've chosen not to make dinner plenty of times, I don't know that I've actually ever forgotten. But we were having fun - missing dinner because you're having fun with your family is definitely not a bad thing.
This is one of the recipes in the December issue of Cooking Light that caught my eye. Pasta, mushrooms, cream and cheese - a no-fail combination. This recipe went far beyond no-fail. I almost didn't try it because although it sounded delicious, it seemed so oridinary - something anyone could make up on their own. It ended up being one of those dishes where the sum is greater than the parts. The key is to stick to the ingredient list. If you try to make a low-fat substitution for the cream or try to use a lesser quality Parmesan cheese, you will most likely be disappointed and think this dish nothing special. Had I made it on my own, I probably would have chickened out and skipped the cream, using half & half instead. Seeing cream as an ingredient in Cooking Light, however, made me feel as though I had permission to go all out.
How do they get a recipe with cream and Parmigianno-Regianno to be a low-fat dish (low-fat meaning that about 30% of the calories come from fat)? Lots of pasta. Too much pasta, if you ask me. I ended up adding about 3/4 the amount of pasta the recipe calls for because I could tell that adding the entire pound would result in too little sauce. Less pasta means that the overall percentage of fat ended up being higher than 31%. Personally, I'd rather have a higher fat percentage and a little more flavor.
This dish will likely be come a regular - it's easy, fairly quick, and oh-so-good. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.............
This is one of the recipes in the December issue of Cooking Light that caught my eye. Pasta, mushrooms, cream and cheese - a no-fail combination. This recipe went far beyond no-fail. I almost didn't try it because although it sounded delicious, it seemed so oridinary - something anyone could make up on their own. It ended up being one of those dishes where the sum is greater than the parts. The key is to stick to the ingredient list. If you try to make a low-fat substitution for the cream or try to use a lesser quality Parmesan cheese, you will most likely be disappointed and think this dish nothing special. Had I made it on my own, I probably would have chickened out and skipped the cream, using half & half instead. Seeing cream as an ingredient in Cooking Light, however, made me feel as though I had permission to go all out.
How do they get a recipe with cream and Parmigianno-Regianno to be a low-fat dish (low-fat meaning that about 30% of the calories come from fat)? Lots of pasta. Too much pasta, if you ask me. I ended up adding about 3/4 the amount of pasta the recipe calls for because I could tell that adding the entire pound would result in too little sauce. Less pasta means that the overall percentage of fat ended up being higher than 31%. Personally, I'd rather have a higher fat percentage and a little more flavor.
This dish will likely be come a regular - it's easy, fairly quick, and oh-so-good. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.............
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