fitfool

I didn't follow the recipe particularly closely, instead opting to do a variation on this recipe. This led to less than stellar results.

I did start with throwing the cubed lamb pieces and bones from some lamb loin chops and the lamb shank into a pot, covering with cold water (should've at least used some kind of broth), and bringing that to a boil. Then lowered to a simmer, covered and simmered for 40 minutes to start the basis of the stock. After 40 minutes, I added two pinches of salt, about a 1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper. Laid down a layer of the chopped carrots and onion rings, and put some sweet potato chunks over that (since I didn't have any regular potatoes). I think the recipe was right...I should've waited 20-30 minutes and then added the potatoes on top. I also shouldn't have been cavalier and just mixed the potatoes into the soup. They got very very soft and mushy. I left it to simmer for another hour after the vegetables were added.

I liked the texture of the meat -- very tender and soft. Overall taste was pretty bland (which B notes is true to traditional Irish cooking). I still liked this but I think I was mostly liking the hot soup in cold winter comfort aspect of it. It's not too difficult though so I would make it again if I could remember to start it early enough. I served this over egg noodles. My boyfriend B liked it ok but didn't think it was all that memorable compared to many of the other recipes I've tried.

( Click for recipe and bigger photo )

This recipe is very easy to make and tastes like the basmati rice I've had at Indian restaurants. if you have a rice cooker, it's even easier! Just mix in the peas, cumin seeds, and some salt after the rice is done cooking. You could serve this up with the Aloo Saag (Potatoes in Spiced Spinach Sauce) that I posted recently.

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aingealnacistin posted this recipe for Lime-Thyme Potato Wedges. Like her, I thought it sounded strange but I tend to like potato dishes so I gave this one a try. They smelled so good while I was making them. The air was filled with the herb-tinged limey scent that intensified while they were in the oven. As soon as they came out of the oven, we dug in but they were too hot to taste much of anything. As they cooled, they tasted better but never quite got up to really awesome. I might've messed up by not adding alll of the grated cheese, but it never tasted particularly limey to me. And maybe my batch needed to be cooked a little longer. Not sure. I'll have to give it another try some day since it really did smell awesome. I'll try doubling the seasonings.

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Both Brian and I liked these Crash Hot Potatoes a lot. These potatoes were awesome, cooked through with lots of crispy edges after 25 minutes in the oven. Thanks to

aingealnacistin and

mellybrelly for posting about these!

It was also easy to set it up so we had 2 sides to go with whatever entree I was cooking on the stove top.

Order of operations:
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- While oven heats, prep the Roasted Asparagus and set aside. DON'T put it in the oven yet.
- Prep these potatoes and pop in oven if it's hot enough.
- Prepare the entree (sometimes I pick something quick to make, other times I just heat up leftovers)
- After the potatoes have been in their 20 minutes, add the asparagus to roast in there too.
- Finish making the entree and pull the asparagus and potatoes from the oven when they're ready (maybe 5-8 minutes for the asparagus)

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )

This is a quick recipe for homemade drop biscuits. I like them hot out of the oven for breakfast. Insides of these biscuits were soft and fluffy. Perfect consistency. I ate these with just a little smear of butter, while B didn't even add butter. You can start setting out the ingredients the night before to make it even easier to throw together in the morning. Takes maybe 10 minutes of prep work and then bake for 10-11 minutes. (I baked for another 5 minutes on top of that trying to brown the tops a little more but they remained just barely browned. Maybe I'll try brushing with melted butter next time. Would that help it brown?)

So the night before, I mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl and then cover it with plastic wrap until morning. I also set a stick of butter out on a plate to let it soften overnight. Then in the morning, preheat the oven to 400F. Since the butter softened overnight, it's easy to mix it in with the dry ingredients with a fork (if, like me, you don't have a pastry blender). Since I was also making scrambled eggs, I just threw the recipe's leftover egg yolk in with some more eggs.

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cwhf posted this recipe for Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and I decided I had to make it.

But then the substitutions began. I didn't have any buttermilk so I made a substitute of 1 Tbsp of white vinegar plus enough milk to make it a cup. Then I screwed up and used that entire cup of buttermilk instead of just 2/3 of a cup. No problem...I'll just bake it longer and hope I can get away with that. Crap. What else? Brown sugar was all hard so I put some in a ramekin and put a cup of water in the microwave and microwaved on high for 30-60 seconds at a time until it was softened enough to use. And finally, I used 2 9-inch round pans since that's what I had instead of 8-inch round pans or in a single 9x13 pan that

cwhf used. Close enough, right? Oh and I used pecans instead of walnuts because, again, that's what was available in the house.

Looking back at those steps, it doesn't seem like much changed. But I'm still nervous when it comes to baking and I haven't baked that many cakes. After 30 minutes in a 350F oven, I took them out and toothpicked them. One of them seemed a little moist still so I put it back in for about 5 more minutes. Then I set both of those out to finish cooking in their pans on a wire cooling rack.

For the frosting, I decided to just make half as much since Brian's not even into frosting. Had to wait for the butter to thaw from the freezer. Finally made the icing too. It was a little too tangy for me. I think I should add more sugar. Brian thinks I should reduce cream cheese and increase butter. In any case, I was too impatient to just finish and eat cake already. Iced between the 2 layers of cake and then iced the top and sides. Found it slightly tedious to put the icing on. Maybe it would've helped to chill the icing a little bit. Sprinkled chopped pecans on top. Looked great. Brian laughs that sometimes I seem to care only about getting a good photo of the dish -- having it taste good too is just bonus.

And we got our bonus. Tasted great and was nice and moist. Adding too much buttermilk didn't kill it after all.

photo of the frosted outside of the Banana Cake

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I love corn on the cob but for some reason, it's not something that my boyfriend gets excited about. He'll eat it but it's nothing special for him. But me? I can easily munch away on 2 or 3 ears of corn. Maybe it's because I grew up with corn growing in our backyard garden and I remember the days spent hoeing and weeding, clods of dirt crumbled between my fingers. I loved walking through the stalks, selecting which ears to pick for dinner in an hour. Well, I loved it until I read that creepy short story by Stephen King called "Children of the Corn" anyhow. After that, my enjoyment was marred by an intermittent wave of nervousness.

Anyhow....How could I make corn into something my boyfriend could get excited about? Because once summer corn hits and it goes on sale for 5 or 6 ears of corn for a single dollar, all I want to do is eat corn. Settled on Fried Corn Off the Cob. I thought cutting the ears off the cob would be a pain, but it's not too much hassle after all.

He liked Fried Corn Off the Cob better than boiled corn on the cob but still wasn't all that excited. But then I added chili powder and lime juice. And now? Now he likes it so much he'll cut the kernels off the cobs for me lest I decide to skip it and just boil the corn.

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I love it when my monthly share of meat includes sausage. Greek Lamb Sausage, Sweet Italian Pork Sausage, Garlic and Cheese Pork Sausage, and Breakfast Sausage....all yum! One month, when we hadn't received any sausage but had received some ground pork, I poked around online, looking at descriptions of making your own sausage meat. Settled on this recipe which has turned out to be used quite often.

Dishes I've used the resulting sausage in:
- Breakfast Sausage Patties served with eggs, fried bananas, and toast
- Breakfast Sandwich of sausage and eggs in a Portuguese Muffin (or use English muffins)
- Spaghetti con Salsiccia (Spaghetti with Sausage)
- Ziti with Sausage, Onions, and Fennel
- Sausage Pasta Bake
- Zucchini and Sausage Mix (haven't posted this one yet)

Brian even sniffed the spice mix, sprinkled a good bunch of it into a bit of olive oil, and then dipped bread into that. Tasted yummy. This is another spice mix that I now mix up in quadruple batches so that I can keep it on hand. I was hesitant at first to use the breakfast sausage in savory dinner dishes but it tasted great to me. I assume it would taste even better if I branched out and made other sausages. I spotted a few books on Charcuterie that I want to get from the library including Michael Rulhman's Charcuterie : the craft of salting, smoking, and curing and also Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery by Jane Grigson. Have I mentioned how much I love the library?

In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions on other spice mixes for making sausage?

Breakfast Sandwich of sausage and eggs on a Portuguese muffin

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I've been happy to find cauliflower on sale several weeks recently. My favorite way of cooking cauliflower remains Honey-Curry Roasted Cauliflower but I've been buying a lot of cauliflower so I thought I'd try a few alternate preparations too.

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( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photo )

Potatoes get a bad rap for being starchy carb-bombs that will ruin your diet. But... if they're not drowning in butter and sour cream or dripping hot oil from becoming greasy fries, I think they're fine for you. Then again, I'm an 'eat-everything-in-moderation' kind of person so I don't really know the official facts. I love potatoes and they don't go bad too quickly so I'm going to keep buying them. Here's a cute way to spruce up baked potatoes. The garlic slivers help fan out the little slices for an eye-catching presentation. Despite the name, there wasn't much hassle to making these.

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My memory's going. I've been trying to use up food that's been sitting around in my kitchen for too long. I've been pawing through things that have lingered in the cupboards and hidden away in the back of the fridge. Found some frozen strawberries and was very pleased with myself when I threw some in a blender with a cup of yogurt and made myself a quick and delicious smoothie. Then I went to my computer to tell you about it only to find that I had already made that particular discover 4 years ago with the Banana Strawberry Smoothie.

And the other night, as I went to put my dirty dishes away after dinner, I saw a glass of wine sitting on the counter. "Oops. I meant to drink that with dinner. And I was thinking about having wine all day. Do you think I'm becoming an alcoholic?" I asked my boyfriend.

"No. An alcoholic wouldn't forget to drink a glass of wine."

"But I've been thinking about alcohol a lot lately. Maybe I'm just a forgetful alcoholic?"

"No. A forgetful alcoholic would pour a glass of wine, drink it, and forget that they'd had a glass of wine, pour a new glass, and drink that too. You're just forgetful."

It's true. With the sub-freezing temperatures we've been having, I wanted a hearty stew. While I thawed out a package of Lamb for Stew, I searched the web for a good lamb stew recipe. Found an Alton Brown recipe with good reviews that looked easy enough. And it used barley! I had a small bag of barley that I needed to use up. Perfect. I also threw in the rest of a bag of dried small white beans that I had soaked overnight and cooked up too. I was so pleased with the results I sat down at my computer again to write up notes so I could post this only to realize -- Hey! I made this last September already. I liked it then too.

And I still like it. So now I'll post this before I forget again.

( Click for Recipe and bigger photo )

Very simple recipe. Tastes delicious on its own or served as a side dish. I've been loving it with lamb dishes.

I've started making big batches of this spice blend (4 times the given recipe) so that all I have to do is toss the sweet potatoes with 3 Tbsp of oil and about 2 tsp of the spice mix on nights when I want to make this. Some reviewers mentioned this blend works well with other vegetables too. One person loved it with zucchini.

small photo of Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )

I pick up a monthly package of frozen meat from my Meat CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) membership. We asked for no beef so we usually get a mix of pork, chicken, and lamb (our favorite). But many times I'll get cuts of meat that I'm not sure how to cook. For example, I found this recipe by searching for "Leg of lamb that looks like a steak." Tasty and easy to make.

small photo of Pan Fried Leg Steak with Rosemary

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )

One of my former roommates made a version of African Chicken Peanut Soup and let me try some. I didn't think I would like something called peanut soup but I thought it was a very comforting soup on a cold winter's day. My boyfriend Brian agreed that it's a satisfying soup although he doesn't like the particular flavor combination, partly because he keeps expecting it to taste like peanut butter. It's more like a chicken soup with a nutty undercurrent.

I cobbled this recipe together after mixing together a bunch of recipes based on what I had in the house. This soup was a little on the thin side. I let it simmer for 2 hours to make the broth. Deboning the chicken took a lot longer than I wanted since I hadn't done that in a while. But it made a big batch of soup so I was able to enjoy this for several days.

small photo of African Chicken Peanut Soup

( Click to see Recipe and Bigger Photos )

You ever cut up a head of cauliflower, wonder if those green leaves and stem bits are edible, and then toss them into the garbage? I have. But when I was searching for recipes that use chickpea flour, I stumbled across this use for cauliflower leaves and now I don't have to waste any of it. Crispy and tasty side dish or snack. Best eaten while still hot. Now I can get a second dish out of a head of cauliflower when I make Honey Curry-Roasted Cauliflower

I found the chickpea flour (also called gram flour or besan) in an Indian grocery store. It's ground from chickpeas so I imagine this would also work as a gluten-free recipe.

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Time to post one of my favorite vegetable dishes. Adapted Curry-Roasted Cauliflower and came up with my new favorite cauliflower dish. Adjusted the level of the spices so that I wasn't weeping from the spiciness like before. Now the spiciness is balanced with some sweetness from the honey.

Bonus recipe: Learned how to use the cauliflower leaves too!
Try making Cauliflower Leaf Pakoras for something different.

small photo of honey curry-roasted cauliflower

( Click to see recipe and a bigger photo )

I made this one up! Back in February, my boyfriend came home from work earlier than expected. So I hurriedly whipped up this chicken dish. Tasted amazing to both of us though I tend to like any dish that involves lots of artichokes. I tried making it again a few weeks later but I must've forgotten how to make it because it didn't taste the same. Still tasty, just not awesome. The chicken wasn't cooked perfectly like the first time. Maybe I needed to pound flatter the second time. I had scribbled down some notes if you want to try making it.

Chicken with Artichokes

Start with split chicken breasts with bone. Pound them flatter.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper under the skin, on top of the skin, and on the back side of the chicken.
Sautee some minced garlic then push garlic to the sides of the pan.
Put the chicken in, skin side down for about 3 minutes. Then flip and let the other side cook about 4-5 minutes. Still not all the way done.
Remove chicken and deglazed the pan with some chicken stock.
Mix in the coarsely chopped artichokes.
Add back the chicken (keeping skin above the liquid) and let simmer another 5 minutes until it is just finished cooking.
Splash it with two squirts of lemon juice.
Serve with some rice or roasted asparagus.

Ever eat something at a restaurant and have that dish linger long in your memories? That's how it was when my sister took me to The Helmand in Cambridge, MA, for my birthday. I don't know what food from Afghanistan is supposed to taste like but I loved everything. In particular, I loved the appetizer, Kaddo Bourani, that my sister got. It didn't sound like the sort of thing I would like since it involved a yogurt sauce and pumpkin and I don't care all that much about either of those things. But when I tasted it, I was a convert. The sweet hot pumpkin mixed with the tang of the cold yogurt sauce and then melded with the hot savory ground beef sauce. (They also offered this as a vegetarian option by leaving out the meat sauce.) The blend of flavors, textures, and temperatures made me sigh happily. When I got home, I looked on the restaurant's website to see if they shared the recipe and they didn't. Alas. If you're in San Francisco or Boston, I heartily recommend making reservations to eat at The Helmand.

When I was looking for pumpkin recipes last month, I stumbled upon The Recipe! I read it eagerly and was surprised to see that it required baking the pumpkin for over 3 hours. Not something to make on a whim. Well I finally tried it and it was worth every moment of waiting. The hardest part was preparing the pumpkin. The rest of the recipe is fairly simple and straight-forward. But it did take a long time. I kept going over to check on things. By the time I was done cooking, eating, and cleaning everything up, I lay down and noticed, "Wow...my FEET are sore from all that cooking and cleaning." But you know what? I loved it. I couldn't believe that something that tasted so good had come out of my kitchen. I only regret that the stores around here seem to sell fresh pumpkins only for Halloween. So I guess I'll have to wait until next year to make this again.

(If anyone in Boston or Seacoast New Hampshire knows where I could buy some sugar pumpkins, please let me know!)

( Click for recipe and more photos )

Here's another recipe from my friends list.

angel_vixen posted this amazing recipe that has been met with rave reviews both times I've made this now. I modified it slightly to use less honey (because I'm running low on honey and my boyfriend doesn't like things to taste too sweet). She originally made it with boneless chicken breasts, but I've made it with pork cutlets since that's what I had at home from this month's meat CSA share. First time served up with some curry-roasted cauliflower. Second time we paired it with green beans and mashed potatoes. Very satisfying meal for not much effort.

small photo of Honey Mustard Pork with green beans and mashed potatoes

( Click for recipe and bigger photos )

I love it when a dish is both quick and easy to prepare. To make things even faster, you could mix up the seasoned flour and pre-chop the pecans and just keep them in tupperware containers until you're ready to cook. I served these with roasted spiced sweet potatoes (which were awesome and I'll post those separately).

small photo of the Honey Pecan Pork Cutlets

( Click for recipe and bigger photo )

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Adventures in the Kitchen and on the Road

Entries tagged with food2009

Irish Lamb Stew

Basmati Rice

Lime-Thyme Potato Wedges (thanks aingealnacistin!)

Crash Hot Potatoes

Drop Biscuits (quick and easy)

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Chili-Lime Fried Corn Off the Cob

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

Cauliflower Popcorn

Hasselback Potatoes

Barley and Lamb Stew (from Alton Brown)

Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes

Pan-Fried Lamb Leg Steak with Rosemary

African Chicken Peanut Soup

Cauliflower Leaf Pakoras

Honey Curry-Roasted Cauliflower

Chicken with Artichokes

Kaddo Bourani (Afghani pumpkin dish from The Helmand restaurant)

Honey-Mustard Pork (or Chicken) - from angel_vixen

Honey Pecan Pork Cutlets

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February 2014

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