Meal Planning - Week of July 8th

Yeah I hear what you're saying. "So much for 'regular' blogging Allie". And you're right. My bad.

Here's this week's menu:
Sunday lunch - salad (I did a spinach caprese salad - spinach, fresh mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes).

Sunday dinner - Korean BBQ pork chops and green beans

Monday - Green Chili Chicken Tostadas (one of my favorite cheater-chicken recipes, and it's healthy too!)

Tuesday - steak & grilled corn on the cob

Wednesday - parmesan chicken (this is a Pinterest find - can't way to try it!)

Photo & Recipe from mykitchenescapades.com

Thursday - burgers

Friday - roasted chicken thighs

Saturday lunch - calzone

Saturday dinner - out

So planning a big week of eating in, wish me luck!!

What are you cooking this week?

Enjoy your new day!

Meal Planning: Week of June 17th

I thought I'd try something new to keep me in the habit of blogging - sharing my weekly meal planning with you guys. Now, I never claimed it's super healthy, organic, or anything else. Mostly it's just quick and easy. And yes, we plan to eat out a couple of nights a week. Don't judge!

Sunday lunch: spinach salad (note - this got changed this week because the spinach in the store looked sad!)

Sunday dinner: steak & grilled corn on the cob (my honey is a Grill Master!)

Monday: out (working late, and I have a hair cut after work = we will get home late. so out it is)

Tuesday: pork chops and green beans

Wednesday: Sausage with peppers & onions

Thursday: chicken thighs & spanish rice

Friday: burgers

Saturday: play it by ear/out (I know..awful).

I find myself repeating the same meals week after week. I definitely need to mix it up a bit. Any suggestions for quick & easy dinners?? We're trying to stay low carb too, so that's a challenge for me.

Oh, and baking cookies on Sunday night probably doesn't help.

Enjoy your new day!

Tried & True: My (Mother's) Lasagna Recipe

Back in December I guest posted at The Scrap Shoppe for Michele's Homemade Holiday event. I shared my lasagna recipe as my favorite non-traditional holiday meal.

I made lasagna again last night, and realized that I had failed - FAILED! - to share it with my own readers.

One disclaimer - if you're Italian, and like the traditional lasagna with lots of noodles, then you may not like my recipe. The noodles are just a delivery system for the meat sauce & cheese. And the smoked sausage gives it a smokey flavor that's just a little different (but oh so good!). 

Cast of characters (Ingredients):

1 lb ground beef
1 lb smoked sausage
2 jars spaghetti sauce (right - I do NOT make my own sauce)
1 16 oz tub of ricotta cheese
1 huge block (16+ oz) of mozzarella or monterey jack cheese
1 box no-boil (oven ready) lasagna noodles (time saver!)
salt and pepper
Italian seasoning
Parmesan cheese

Check your no-boil noodles for the oven temp recommendation. It's typically 350 to 375 degrees. Go ahead and get it pre-heated. 

Step 1: Get that ground beef browning in a pot. I start layering in my flavor here. I add some minced garlic (2 tsps or so = 4 cloves of garlic), plenty of salt and pepper, and Italian seasoning (oregano, basil, marjoram, rosemary & thyme).

Steps 2 & 3: While that cooks, slice up the smoked sausage and the mozzarella/monterey jack cheese:

Step 4: When the beef is browned, drain off excess grease. Then add a jar and  half of spaghetti sauce, the smoked sausage, and a generous palm full of Italian seasoning.

Step 5: stir it all together and let it get happy for a few minutes at a simmer. (5ish minutes works. At this point all of the ingredients are cooked, plus it's going in the oven so it'll all heat through).

Step 6: Spoon off some sauce and put a thin layer in your pan. (note - I use a stone pan, so I coat it in a thin layer of canola oil in the pan first to make clean up easy).

Step 7: Cover the noodles with ricotta cheese and fill the pan. (I spread the ricotta on the noodles just like buttering bread, then lay the noodles in the pan. Sometimes I use my fingertips to smooth it in there).

Step 8: Pour in half of the meat sauce, spread evenly. Then sprinkle on the Parmesan cheese (yes, I use the powdered stuff.)

Step 9: cover with cheese

Step 10: repeat layers (noodles, ricotta, sauce, Parmesan, and cheese).

If you are making this a day ahead, go ahead and cover it with foil, and put it in the fridge.

If you're ready to bake, throw this baby in the oven, uncovered for about 45 minutes. I prefer uncovered b/c I like the brown bubbly cheese.

See what I mean??

A full pan will feed a crowd, or make plenty of leftovers.

Let me know if you try this recipe, and how you like it!

Enjoy your new day!

Guest Blogging @ The Scrap Shoppe

As promised, I'm guest blogging over at The Scrap Shoppe as part of her Homemade Christmas recipe week.

Check it out!!

Two of My Favorite Appetizers

December is the month of holiday parties, gatherings of friends and family.

Here are two of my favorite appetizers to take along to these gatherings - Texas Caviar and Artichoke Dip. I hope you'll forgive the lack of pics - I haven't made them yet.

Artichoke Dip
--imagine a creamy white bubbly cheese dish. you can do it!
1 package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
4 oz mozzarella or monterey jack cheese (I always add more...more is better)
1 can artichoke hearts (I like the quartered artichoke hearts)
dash garlic powder
--drain & chop artichoke hearts

350 degree oven, bake 20-25 minutes. Stir once halfway through.

And it's seriously that easy!! Serve with bagel chips, corn chips, melba toast, or whatever you like. Fritos scoops is one of my favorites.

Texas Caviar
ok, it's not really caviar. But it is GOOD. It requires opening & draining cans, and chopping some veggies.

You can handle that, right?
Ok - here's the can list. 1 can each of:
black eyed peas
black eyed peas with jalepeno (if you can't find this, use the regular BEP, and finely chop a jalepeno)
white homini
diced tomatos
Rotel

The veggies:
--2 cloves garlic (is garlic a veg? hmm...)
--1 medium bell pepper - chopped
--1 and 1/4 cup chopped onion
--1 and 1/4 cup chopped parsley (use cilantro if you prefer)

and 8 oz italian dressing

--drain all the cans, throw into a big bowl with the veggies and dressing.
--chill 2 hours (let those flavors mingle and get happy!)

Enjoy your new day!

OhMiGawd Chocolate Chip Pie

Yes, that's right my friends, I made a pie today.

My sister shared the recipe from this blog post from The Passionate Penny Pincher blog.

It's really called Pecan Chocolate Chip Pie, but trust me when I say this: when you take a bite, you'll go "OhMiGawd". It's deserving of the name.

So you probably have guessed that I prefer cooking to baking. I'm just not much of a baker. But when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to give it a try. It got 4 thumbs up in my household for both taste, and ease!

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup melted butter (splurge..the butter is worth it)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
6 oz package of chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla
9 inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix the flour & sugar.
Add melted butter and blend well.
Stir in eggs, chocolate chips, pecans and vanilla.
Pour mixture into pie crust.
Bake for approx 1 hour or until golden brown (I did mine for 50 minutes).
Pie will wiggle when it comes out of the oven, but will set as it cools.

Don't wait until the next holiday to make this pie. Your family will thank you! (your waistline, however, probably will not).

Enjoy your new day!

Big Time Baby!

Milestone Culinary Arts Center hosted an evening with Ming Tsai as he celebrated (ahem..marketed) his latest book: Simply Ming - One Pot Meals. (wow, three links, one sentence!)

The evening included wine before/during/after the demo, a buffet meal of Chef Tsai's dishes, and a personalized autographed copy of Chef Tsai's book. All this for the bargain price of $75. Seriously.worth.every.penny.

Let's start with the Milestone Culinary Arts Center. It's located in the uptown area of Dallas - and is an AMAZING venue. They had a lovely space for receptions, a demo theater, and a teaching kitchen. The space is beautifully decked out with various Viking appliances and cabinet options. It's the un-store, store part of it. I would love to have a reception, party, or take classes here through the Viking Cooking School.

I could go on and on - because the facility and the chefs were just incredible.

I know you're really curious to hear about Ming Tsai. So I won't dither dather on any longer.

Quite simply, Ming Tsai is incredible. He's HYSTERICAL, in a crusty-sarcastic-chef sort of way. Right - my kind of people. He's an amazing chef too. If you didn't know, he's currently competing to win The Next Iron Chef competition on Food Network. He wouldn't tell us any thing, except that he made it to final 4, and the last challenge was in Vegas (which was the episode that aired on Sunday).

Chef Tsai's One Pot Meals cookbook is based on the premise of quick, healthy, and affordable meals. Quick: since all meals are made in one pot, clean up is easier. Healthy: fresh ingredients, readily available in most supermarkets. Affordable: a meal for 4, under $20. Seriously - who isn't looking for these three things?? I'm so looking forward to trying some of these dishes, and learning more about Asian flavors. (yes, I'll blog them for you!)

Chef Tsai demo'd his "Mom's Vinegared Shrimp" recipe for us - it was later one of the items on the buffet dinner we had. SO GOOD. So, so very good.

Here are a couple of pics from the demo:

And here's a pic of me with Chef Tsai (tongue tied, as usual):

I really enjoyed our evening, and can't wait for another opportunity like this! 

Enjoy your new day!

Hyperventilating

Someone needs to drag me off the cliff before I hyperventilate. Or jump. I think hyperventilation is the more immediate fear though.

I'm going to meet - and eat - Ming Tsai.

Did I just say I was going to eat Ming Tsai? not *exactly* what I meant of course. I mean I get to eat his cooking.

Oh say what? you don't know who Ming Tsai is?!?!

Girlfriend, get out from under your culinary rock!

Ming Tsai is THE East-Meets-West chef. Click the link to check out his website. He's currently competing to be the Next Iron Chef, and also hosts Simply Ming on public TV.

 Here's a photo of Ming and his mom - photo courtesy of Simply Ming's FB page.

Ming is a James Beard Award Winning Chef (are all of those supposed to be capitalized?!! gah! should have paid more attention in grammer. err grammar school. aw heck!), and his Boston restaurant, Blue Ginger has also won many awards.

Ming's latest book - Simply Ming One-Pot Meals will be released November 1st. Annnnnd on November 10th he'll be doing a demo and book signing here in Dallas at the Milestone Culinary Arts Center.

If I was prone to squealing, this is where you'd hear me squeal.

But I don't squeal. Just giggle like a school girl. So giggle with me, ok?

Ming is going to demo 7 techniques which can be used to create one-pot meals. And here's the menu:

--Braising - Aromatic Short Ribs with Root Vegetables
--Wokking (wok it out! hahaha) - Black Pepper Sake Mussels with Granny Smith Apples

--Sauteing - Mom's Famous Vinegared Shrimp --Roasting - Mushroom Chicken Fricassee with Edamame --Flash Frying - Flash Fried Eggplant with Honey Lemon Syrup --Tossing - Tea-Smoked Salmon with Preserved Lemon and Fennel Couscous Salad; Soup - Shrimp Bouillabase

Holy drooling batman! (ok, except for the mussels, which I'm not all that fond of).

Don't worry. I promise to take my camera and record the evening for you. I'm dedicated like that!

Enjoy your new day!

Finding My Inner Chef

As you've probably figured out long before I decided I ought to point out the obvious, I'm not a professional chef. I can't even claim to be an amateur chef. I certainly can't claim to be a food blogger ala The Pioneer Woman or Aarti of Aarti Party fame. (Yes, the same Aarti who is now the Next Food Network Star and host(ess?) of Aarti Party show on Food Network started out as a food blogger.)

I digress. (don't you love that FedEx Kinkos commercial? Good morning! ........But I digress...)

Oops, did it again. Sorry.

I'm barely a home cook. I cook because I like to eat. And because my dear boyf not only likes to eat, he will suffer through any of my experiments in the kitchen (bless his generous heart). Even better? He never says a negative or critical thing about those experiments. The harshest feedback he's given is "it's ok". So I've learned to interpret his "it's ok" as "I'd really rather you didn't force me to eat this crap make this particular dish again".

I said all that to explain that once in a while I try a recipe, and gosh darnit, it just doesn't work for me. Lately I've been experimenting with chicken. It's the one protein that just begs to be dressed up and funk-i-fied. (I just made that word up. Did you notice??)

I've developed a fascination with chicken thighs (bone in). They have so much more flavor than the breasts, (the chicken breasts I mean) and don't dry out as easily. With the bone in, they do take longer to cook, which is the downside.

A dear friend of mine shared this recipe with me, and I had to try it. This recipe is the reason I set out on the hunt for garam masala.

Here's the recipe (though I used chicken thighs instead of drumsticks). All other notes in parenthesis are from my friend's notations.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients:
6 chicken drumsticks, remove skin or not, your choice. rinse and pat dry.
1/4 cup lemon juice (lime works)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil (olive oil is too strong - use canola or peanut oil)
2 minced cloves garlic
1 tsp paprika (if you have smoked paprika, definitely use it)
1 tsp garam masala (if you don't have it/can't get it, use a mild curry powder and a bit less than 1 tsp)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp tumeric
salt & pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a medium sized bowl.
Roll the chicken in the mixture, spread out in a single layer on a roasting pan, cover loosely with foil.
Into the oven it goes for 35 minutes.

Sauce:
3 tbsp butter
2 sweet onions, quartered and thinly sliced (Vidalia, Texas 1015, walla-walla, maui sweets, etc)
1/4 cup raisins
2 tbsp rum (Allie's note: make this 5 tbsp if you like rum & cokes like I do...you're welcome for that helpful hint!)

Melt the butter over medium low heat. Add the onions. Cook slowly, stirring occassionally until the onions are golden brown and caramalized (20-25 minutes).
Stir in raisins and rum (another Allie note: remove the pan from the burner if you're working with an open flame/gas stove!!)
Cook 2-3 minutes more until the alcohol evaporates.

When the timer for the chicken goes off, take it out of the oven. Spoon the onion/raisin/rum mixture over the chicken. Increase the oven temp to 400 degrees, and bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes more.

So here's what the chicken looked like before it went in the oven:

And when it came out:

I made some simple garlic-buttery rice to go with it. Here's how I served it (super simple!)

Aaaannnnddd by now the smarty-pants among you faithful readers will be thinking to yourselves "whoa, I don't see no raisin/rum/butter sauce on them there chicken thighs." (feel free to insert your own geographically-based dialect. I tend to translate everything into Texan. Or backwoods-Florida. Same thing!)

Yeah, I completely failed to make the butter/raisin/rum sauce. I didn't have onions you see. Or raisins. I didn't do so well in my meal-planning-shopping-list-making task this week. 

And so I have to say, this dish just didn't really work for me. The chicken was too sweet. What's that you say? You didn't ever expect me to say the words "too sweet"? I know, it was a complete surprise to me as well. 

I do think the butter/raisin/rum sauce would have made a difference. And so I'm going to have to give it another try with the sauce this time. 

Mostly cuz I have this big-ass jar of garam masala now. 

 

And I have no idea what else to do with it!

I titled this blog post "finding my inner chef". Why you ask? Well, I kind of felt like a cheap imitation of a Top Chef contestant who's dish just didn't work for the judges this week. It reminded me that even the very best experienced and trained chefs have an off day. And that it's ok to experiment, and have something turn out *not quite like you expected*. 

I'm taking this as a lesson learned, and an attempt at using a new-to-me spice (garam masala). To me, that's a real win!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with Uncle Google and the words "garam masala recipes". (holy results to sort through batman!)

Enjoy your new day!!

Burgers and Spice and Everything Nice...

It probably won't surprise you to find out that I love hamburgers.

Something about a juicy beef patty on the grill....

throw in a toasted sesame bun, some cheese (maybe), some mustard & mayo and I'm ready to chow down.

I have discovered a couple of short cuts for spicing up my burgers. I like to rotate them to keep burgers from being boring.

This week it was the Lipton Onion Soup Mix short cut, topped with gouda cheese.

Wanna see? 

Makes your mouth water doesn't it???
Here's another angle of burger goodness.

My mouth is watering looking at the pics all over again!

I'll share couple of my other favorite not-so-super-secret short cuts:

• Ranch dip mix (the dried stuff)
• Chimmichurri spices, with a bit of olive oil & vinegar
• Worcestershire sauce (with a dash of salt and pepper)
• Taco mix (the dried packet stuff) - top this with pico and monterey jack cheese, mmm mm!
• The simple mix: salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, onion powder 

I prefer gouda, swiss or monterey jack or colby jack as my cheese toppings. I'm not all that partial to cheddar or American.

Speaking of cumin... I ducked into our local Indian grocery store in search of garam masala. A friend gave me a recipe that sounds delish (yes, yes, I'll try it and post it, have no fear!).

Not only did I find the garam masala

I found this honkin jar of cumin too.

Yeah, I know!!!

Wanna know the best part?
Each of those humongous tubs of spices were all of $4.50 for the entire thing.
UNDER 5 BUCKS!

So you may want to check out your local ethnic food store for some delish spices at a bargain price.

Ok friends: what's your favorite burger recipe?? I've shared mine, now it's your turn!

It's a new day!

Austin is Delicious

We had two wonderful dinners while in Austin.

The first was at Manuel's on Congress

We started off with ceviche

Which was really good.

Lots of flavor from the pico, fresh fish.

Except - someone needs to tell Texas restaurants that ceviche isn't supposed to be cooked.

I'm not sure why they can't grasp this concept.

Steve had a Yellow Fin Tuna Steak on a bed of garlic spinach.

Flavorful, fresh, and soooo good!!

I went a little more traditional Tex-Mex

Chicken enchiladas with mole sauce

Uh huh. It was that good!

and then there was this:

Cucumber lime martini, with a pepper rim.

The pepper was a bit strong for me, but the martini was light and refreshing, not too sweet.

Our second dining stop was even more memorable: Perla's.

We learned about Perla's from Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations

We saw the show, and unlike Tony, we decided to make reservations.

And boy am I glad we did!!

Fresh seafood, in central Texas.

Yessiree.

I loved the decor of this place - it screams beach cottage to me.

Light and airy

Relaxed and cozy

Aren't the woven shades divine?

And the yellow and the aqua really pop.

Fresh flowers on the tables, and scattered around the restaurant

And the food.

To.Die.For.

They bring out a bowl of hush puppies to munch on.

I could eat a dozen.

(I think I might have actually).

I couldn't resist the calamari

It was served with the traditional marinara, and a jalapeno sauce.

The jalapeno sauce was delish - not spicy at all.

It was light, and some of the best calamari I've ever had!!

Steve ordered the sirloin with a lobster & crab citrus salad

I tried the salad, and it was so refreshing. Mmmmmmmmm!!

I ordered the pan seared grouper

It's served with grilled lemon and tomato

Goodness gracious alive - this was some of the best fish I've ever had!

The dessert menu was equally delightful.

Unfortunately we were stuffed.

Maybe it was the dozen hushpuppies.

If you're ever in Austin, check out these places.

Two forks up from me!!

Enjoy your new day!

The Kabob Post

I have this compulsion to show you that I don't eat pasta covered with cheese for every meal. 

Every other meal perhaps... 

Now and then we break out the grill and throw on steaks, or chicken, or pork chops. 

Today's choice was steak, with onion, green bell pepper, orange bell pepper and (for me) fungus. 

Mushrooms folks. I'm talking about the shrooms. 

It's really simple - make a few rough cuts on the veggies, slap on some olive oil, salt and pepper. Cube and season the meat - our choice was Montreal Steak Seasoning with olive oil. (I've found that the olive oil helps the steak carmelize). 

So here they are,getting happy on the grill.

Don't you like the orange bell pepper? Adds a nice pop of color!

And getting happier still...

Tick tock

tick tock

turn

roll them around

try not to burn off a finger (or arm at this point!)

FINALLY! Ready for eating. 

MM mm good! 

so do you do kabobs? 

What's your favorite combos? 

Seasonings?

Any tips or tricks to sharing?

It's a new day!

The OHMIGAWD Meal

First, since this blog is all about honesty, I have a confession. 

I intended to make a penne pasta with chicken and spinach in a garlic cream sauce. 

Except, I forgot to thaw the spinach. 

And if that wasn't bad enough, I quickly discovered that the heavy cream that I had just bought was sour

(and by just bought, I mean I bought it on Sunday.)

And yes, the expiration date was well into August. Harumph! 

So two ingredients down, and I'm in a pinch. 

I did something I rarely do. I experimented. 

Much to my surprise IT WORKED. oh yeah momma! 

Technically it's a penne pasta with chicken in a tomato-cream(y) sauce. 

I was so surprised, I immediately said OHMIGAWD it's sooo good.

And had to share it with you.

So here's how it all happened. 

The suspects: 

Seasoned chicken breasts (salt, pepper and a little oregano) cooked on the stove in a little olive oil

In another pan, I started a roux - 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour

And pasta boiling on the stove

 

not an exciting picture, but I really wanted to show off the backsplash again! (sorry)

Look at the color on these babies! 

is calling chicken breasts "babies" ok? 

I kinda felt dirty there for a second... hmm

 

When the chicken cooked through, I set them aside. 

I added a good 3 tablespoons of crushed garlic and a 1/2 cup of chicken broth to deglaze the pan

I also added a chicken boullion cube for a little more flavor

Meanwhile, I whisked in some chicken broth into the roux, to build that part of the sauce

And added some tomato sauce to my garlic/chicken broth base.

And then...

are you ready for this? 

are you sure? 

really sure?

Ok. here it is. 

I combined the two sauces. 

and whisked them together

looks a bit like a vodka sauce eh? 

while those two sauces simmered and became one, I cubed the chicken

This is the really elegant part. Are you ready? 

are you sure? 

OK! 

I threw the chicken and pasta into the sauce. 

and added ricotta cheese.

MIND BLOWING, right?? 

I introduced all the ingredients to each other

You'll never believe what I did next. 

Go on, guess. 

Nope. 

Nuh unh. 

That's not it either.

Want me to tell you? 

ok, here goes..

I topped it with cheese. 

you didn't see that one coming, did you? 

I baked it for about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven to let everything melt together, and 

OHMIGAWD!!

It was so good, I said it twice.
OHMIGAWD!! 

Tomorrow: leftovers report!

It's a new day in the kitchen! 

~Allie