That on the left is my old kitchen. That’s the whole thing.
Okay, not really. There was also a sink and a fridge, but that was pretty much it. And as you can see, cooking up a dinner like the one on the right, my version of the Panda Express 2-Item Combo, was tricky in such a small space.
However, Brian and I moved a few weeks ago and now we have two whole glorious sides of our kitchen, tons more storage, a dishwasher, and a full stove. There’s even enough room for a breadmaker! Check out my first loaf!
I recently made chocolate chip cookies on a full size tray for the first time in ages. I can’t wait to keep cooking!
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I love my microplane. It was a gift from two of my old roommates (including the one that taught me how to make stroganoff). At first I wasn’t sure what it was good for, but now I use it quite a bit, and I love it!
Not only is a microplane excellent at grating cheese and zesting citrus, but my very favorite use for it is grating nutmeg. Fresh nutmeg is practically a life-changer in baked goods and sweets. Yes, you can get the ground stuff and that’s all well and good, but freshly grated nutmeg, which looks a bit like wood shavings and smells oddly acidic like fresh paint, is truly fantastic. (If my odd description didn’t sell you, you’ll just have to try it yourself.) I like to sprinkle some over my yogurt in the morning or toss a teaspoon or two into the egg wash of my french toast. Anywhere cinnamon goes, it’s good buddy nutmeg can easily follow. Just remember to keep it fresh and use your handy microplane sharp side down so that the shavings rest in the plane giving you great measurement control.
*Sorry about the stock photo.
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This is an apology for disappearing for a month. Life has been coming at me pretty fast these last few weeks, but that’s no excuse. As a peace offering, here is a picture of a sleeping baby who also happens to be my nephew, Teddy.
He’s quite a looker, huh?
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Clockwise from Top left: (1) Tacos with broccoli cheddar rice. (2) Mushroom ravioli with bechamel, prosciutto and peas. (3) Beef Stroganoff and roasted green beans. (4) Healthy Chicken Fingers (with spicy yogurt sauce), fruit salad, and boiled corn.
In the summer, I try to keep it a little lighter and cooler in the kitchen, avoiding the hot oven whenever possible. But there’s one cozy food favorite that Brian requests even when we’re in the middle of another heat wave and that’s Beef Stroganoff. I’ve mentioned making it before, but I’ve never given a recipe. The main reason is because I don’t have one! My sophomore roommate in college talked me through my first beef stroganoff and I’ve been winging it ever since. But maybe if you let me talk you through it, you can start winging your way to delicious beef stroganoff too.
Beef Stroganoff (A Guide)
What you need: egg noodles, beef, mushrooms, butter, flour, beef broth, brown mustard, worstershire sauce, sour cream, salt, pepper
What to cook with: A non-stick frying pan is going to be your home base for this meal. I like to cook everything in one pan so all of the flavors really meld together, but if you’re 1) pressed for time pre-dinner, 2) don’t mind the extra clean up post-dinner and 3) don’t suffer from teeny tiny stove syndrome like me, you can use as many pans as you’d like. A good sense of timing is also beneficial, but that comes with practice.
What to do: Put some water on to boil, then cook the beef. If you’re using a nicer cut of meat, cook it any way you’d like to preserve that great flavor (use a grill pan, broil it in the oven, etc.). If you’re using stew meats you can just cook them in your non stick frying pan. Nicer meats do help with the tenderness in this dish, but you can get away with most cuts. Cut the cooked meat into approx. 1″ slices and set aside.
Cook the mushrooms in your non-stick pan. Cook ‘em in the beef juices or a small pat of butter until soft. Set aside.
By now your water should be boiling so throw those noodles in. Begin making the sauce in your frying pan by making a roux. (There’s no need to dump out those meat or mushroom juices; they will just add to the flavor.) I like a thick sauce and usually make enough stroganoff for two huge or four normal sized portions (see huge portion above) so about 2 T butter and 2 T of flour is more than enough to get the sauce started. Mix the flour and butter over medium-low heat until they get consistent and nutty brown, then slowly mix in beef broth. (I use 1 can or 1 3/4 c.) Let the sauce simmer and thicken.
If your noodles are done, drain those puppies. When the sauce is thickened to your liking, season with a small spoonful of brown mustard, a splash of Worcestershire and salt and pepper. Adjust these items to taste. Remove from heat and stir in one heaping spoonful of sour cream. Return mushrooms and beef to sauce so everything gets nice and warm again. Ladle sauce over noodles and serve.
I guess that was essentially a recipe but the amounts and seasonings are all to taste so feel free to wing it!
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I was all set to post about what a fabulous tool the microplane is when I realized that if you didn’t know better, you might think I haven’t been cooking lately. It’s not true, I promise you. While other lucky folks may be able to get away with the kind of dinner where you just throw an egg on top of whatever’s in the fridge, my New England-bred fiancé would grumble about it through the whole meal. He likes a good round all-American meal. You know, the kind with a meat, a starch, and a veggie (light on the veggie)? Sometimes coming up with new combos can be a little tricky, but here are my most recent inventions.
(clockwise from top left)
1. Steak and veggie fajitas with tortillas and/or rice (not pictured)
2. Tortellini with chicken, bruschetta and a side of crispy spicy roasted zucchini
3. Rosemary pork chop, macaroni and cheese, and roasted broccoli
4. A light meal of grilled chicken, rice, soy sauce, and Sriracha roasted green beans
We do a lot of roasting around here to bring out the best taste in our vegetables and I was on a major Sriracha chili sauce kick for a few weeks this month. I also love love love our grill pan (originally Brian’s) because we don’t have any outdoor space for a grill. With it I can emulate the grilled flavor of meats and veggies and make lovely grill marks, of course!
P.S. Isn’t this collage a little better than my last attempt? I just learned about the “free transform” feature in Photoshop. What a lifesaver!!
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If you are the owner of an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, this post is for you! I originally set out to tell you all about my favorite smart phone apps, but it turns out that my three favorites are only available for Apple products at this time. I hope they will create versions of these fun culinary apps for all of you other smart phone users in the future…
While I do savor a good cookbook, farmers markets and food blogs give me the greatest cooking inspiration. These things evolve with the seasons and guarantee fresh ideas at a great price. But sometimes, I just don’t have the inspiration or the knowledge to pull off something new and interesting. For those days I look to the incredibly amazing database that is the internet. An application is especially good because I can find a great recipe anywhere, like on my way to the grocery store, for example.
Here are my top three applications for dinner inpirations:
1. Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List App: currently available for iPhone and iPad, Free
The Epicurious app is great because not only can you do a regular keyword search, but you can search for recipes with all kinds of great categories like ingredient, type of cuisine, and season. There are also sponsored sections on the app’s home page that highlight great seasonal ideas and have sections for different skill levels. The most convenient part about this cool versatile app is that you can create a shopping list for your recipes which is divided up by the sections in the grocery store (dairy, produce, etc.). You may recognize the recipe above from my most recent post. And you can bet I made use of the shopping list and suggestions in the reviews as I was wandering through the store.
2. All Recipes Dinner Spinner: currently available for iPhone, Free
This is the application I suggest to friends who are less culinarily inclined, but it’s great for anyone. It’s perfect for those times when you have the same old ingredients in the fridge, but you’re not sure how you want to use them. With the dinner spinner, you select a type of dish, an ingredient, and the amount of time you want to spend cooking and you get a great list of recipes that fit your needs. The combination above returned 72 matches and there are tons more combinations you can try. The most fun and silly feature of this app is that you can spin the dinner spinner with just a flick of the wrist. I love that it utilizes that iPhone technology. (You can also spin it by touching the ‘Spin Categories’ button, if you’re so inclined.)
3. Ratio App: currently available for iPhone and iPod Touch, $4.99
This is actually the only app I have ever paid for on my iPhone. That’s how awesome I think it is. I also have Michael Ruhlman’s cookbook, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, but I wanted the app too. This book and app could revolutionize the way you cook, if you let them. Ruhlman advocates for the kind of cooking that ditches recipes because behind every recipe is a ratio that, once understood, can be adapted to cook pretty much anything. I chose to include a picture of the ratio for cookies because they are the first thing I made using this technique. The app has tabs that not only give you the ratio, but details on how to assemble and adapt it and a calculator so that you can use any kind of measurement that makes you comfortable (cups, pounds, grams). This is truly one awesome and educational app.
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I was trying to change up our usual dinner routine a bit because food routines totally bore me, so I decided to take an old favorite and spin it a new way. Brian was a little nervous, eying the yellow-ish brown puddle before it went into the oven and sarcastically quipping, “I love it when you make new things” but in the end, both of us were happy.
This Bechamel Lasagna is creamy but earthy. The Marsala wine gives the bechamel sauce surprising depth. You could swear there were mushrooms in it, and throwing some in wouldn’t hurt at all. I added cooked ground spicy Italian sausage between the layers, which added a little kick as well as some protein to make this a solid main course. Spinach would also be a good addition.
Assembly is a little strange because the sauce isn’t thick enough to really create a layer between the noodles, but trust that the oven will work its magic. You won’t be disappointed. You may have some extra bechamel- I did in my 9×9 pan- which is awesome because you can use it to dress up asparagus, green beans, or chicken another night of the week.
P.S. Sorry about the lack of decent pictures. I dropped the ball on this one.
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28.May.2010 Yum
The rhubarb coffee cake was delicious. As you can see, it wasn’t cut into the perfectly layered squares that Deb over at Smitten Kitchen elegantly managed, but the taste is excellent. Sweet, a little spicy from the cinnamon and ground ginger, and very messy. The rhubarb mellowed out into an obediently soft and ever so slightly tart accompaniment to the crumbly cake, a flavor akin to a sour cherry.
Okay rhubarb, I guess I’ll bite.
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…and it was bitter. Well sour, like a lemon. And a little tart. And all around not too pleasant. I guess since it’s paired with things like strawberries and baked into pies, I always thought the raw stuff would be a little bit sweet. Or at least mild like celery…
But then, inspired by my sister and the stalks of rhubarb at the farmer’s market, I just put a big crumb rhubarb coffee cake into the oven.
I’ll let you know what it looks and tastes like when I know! Hopefully all of that sourness and bitterness will be baked away.
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25.May.2010 Pesto
Before Brian and I went on our trip, I had to get rid of some of the stuff in the fridge, including basil and cilantro. The obvious answer? Pesto!
Pesto is easy as can be. Just don’t try to make it without a good blender.
Blend up herbs, cheese, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and optionally pine nuts to a smooth consistency.
Top with a layer of olive oil and refrigerate or, if you happen to be going out of town, freeze. When you serve frozen pesto, just mix in a couple of tablespoons of hot starchy pasta water to melt and thicken it.
So fresh, green, and springy!
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