Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas!!

Christmas was different this year - it was my first Christmas away from my family, my second major holiday away as well (this Thanksgiving I wasn't able to go home due to work).  Brent and I spent it by ourselves (oh, and Zeusy, too).  It was nice.  We had Papa Murphy's pizza on Christmas Eve and watched movies (Easy A and Salt - Both were VERY good).  We drank mimosas all weekend and I made Nog French Toast ("Nog" because I used Silk's "egg" nog).  Here's a few photos from the weekend.

Cooking stuffs!

New floor mats!

Of course, new socks (and undies, but no pic of those).

Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book!

Magic Mouse - he looks overly excited...

Zeus likes the paper :)

iTunes giftcard!

FUZZY SOCKS!

Mom gave us a bottle of wine

Keyboard

New cookware!

Troy got us "Despicable Me" on Bluray - This little dude came with it! :D

All in all, it was a good holiday.  I do miss my family, but being surrounded by my own little "family" and friends helped make up for it.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Project Life


Zeus's xmas gift for Dad :)

WooWooo!

I got to use my rice cooker!  I forgot to take pictures of my meal, but I made a FANTASTIC chicken stir fry.  The chicken turned out perfect!  It was tender and juicy, not at all like the tough chicken you get in a lot of stir frys.

I purchased a bottle of Kikkoman stir fry sauce and cut chicken into strips, about 1/2" - 1".  I put 1 tbsp of corn starch in a large plastic Zip-Lock bag and pouring some of the sauce in there, mixing it well and then tossing in the chicken, coating it.  Throw that in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Heat up a large skillet with a bit of vegetable oil and throw the marinated chicken in there.  I cooked it through and removed it from the heat, putting it in a glass bowl.  Throw some of your favorite veggies into that skillet, pouring a bit of the stir fry sauce over it, cooking them until tender.   Mix the chicken back in.  Serve on top of rice.

It was soo good!  I was proud of myself.  Brent likes his with some of those crunchy noodle things on them, but I just put a bit of low sodium soy sauce on mine.

The only thing that sucked was the rice didn't cook quite right because it was my first time.  I was kind of a newb at all of this.  It was quite dry, but the soy sauce helped out a bit.

But, mmmm-mmmmmmmmmmmm!!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Mmm Thai Foods - Bamee Gaeng

Brent and I are huge fans of curry.  We stop by the Drunken Noodle on occasion and can't get enough of it.  I usually order the Ba Me Gaeng, but I cannot for the life of me find a recipe for that online!  Anyway..  There was actually a point where he asked that when we make our monthly menues if we could put more Asian and rice dishes on there.  We're constantly looking for more recipes and this is one we found online.

Here's what you'll need:

2 cups uncooked Jasmine rice (I used the Mahatma brand) and cook according to package
1/4 cup red curry paste
2 (13.5 oz) cans coconut milk
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into strips (either use ENORMOUS chicken breast or add 3)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 cup white sugar
1-1/2 cups sliced bamboo shoots, drained
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
1/2 green bell pepper, julienned
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 cup pineapple chunks, drained
Dash of red chili powder or cayenne pepper

1.  Drink the pineapple juice - ok, just kidding, but I did. It's my favorite.  Reminds me of when I was a kid and Mom would let me drink the juice that she drained from the can :)

Real 1.  In a small bowl, whisk together the curry paste and one can of the coconut milk.  Transfer to wok (I don't have one so I used a large pan) and mix the remaining coconut milk, chicken, fish sauce, sugar, red chili powder (or cayenne) and bamboo shoots.  Bring to a boil and cook for 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

2.  Mix the bell peppers and onion into the pan.  Continue cooking for 10 minutes or until the peppers are more tender.  Remove from heat and stir in pineapple.  Serve over cooked rice.



I was surprised at how much this smelled and tasted like the Ba Mee Gaeng at the Noodle!!  It wasn't exactly like it, but it was close enough for my taste!  However, it's not spicy at all like the recipe suggests, so that was a little disappointing.  It's a great recipe for people who don't like the spice as much, or have kids who aren't fans of the spicy.  Consider adding some ground cayenne pepper if you do want some spice.  BUT  -  maybe we got the wrong curry paste?  Who knows.  Anyway, I added some cayenne pepper toward the end so that my left overs tomorrow would be spicier.

Speaking of left overs...  HOLY MOLY!  This makes a TON of food!

I did do a couple things differently, however.  I only had a cup of bamboo shoots as that's what the can gave me (I'm lazy, what can I say?) and Brent hates onion, so I didn't put any in at all.  Sometimes I try to sneak a bit in the food (I don't like much of it either, but a tad doesn't hurt) and I play it off like that's how I'd always made the meal.  He's not stupid and he totally remembers how I had made stuff the previous times.  Also, as far as changes, I added a tad less sugar than what it called for.  I didn't want it to be too sweet.

All in all this was a great meal!  I'm really impressed and glad I tried it out.  I'm still on the hunt for more recipes with curry!  Either Thai or Indian.  I recently got a recipe from a friend for sweet and spicy sweet potatoes.  I'm stoked for that one.  I'm a sucker for sweet potatoes, but that's another blog for another day.

What are some of your favorite curry recipes?

recipe source: allrecipes.com - Thai Pineapple Chicken Curry

Thursday, November 25, 2010

New Toy


We broke down and got this at Target.  We're excited.  Now what to cook with it...

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Pom Kick

I'm still on my pomegranate kick.  I made some muffins this morning after doing some cleaning.  They look a lot like cornbread.  Oh my gosh are they good.  I think I'd consider sprinkling a bit of sugar on the top before I bake them next time to make them a little bit more crunchy.

You'll need:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk (add more if you need, but I definitely didn't need to)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
2 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp orange zest (I always put in a bit extra)
1/4 cup orange juice and pulp
2/3 cup pomegranate seeds

Add the sugar to the flour, then add the baking soda.  Set aside.

Beat the butter until it's fluffy, then add the egg and mix well.  After this is well combined, add the orange zest.

Mix the orange juice and milk in a small bowl and set aside.

Add the butter/egg mix to the flour and mix it constantly.  Add the milk and the orange juice and mix it well.  Gently fold in the pomegranate seeds.

Bake at 350˚F for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

(I saw a recipe like this where the person put a smal piece of dark chocolate on the tops of all of the muffins.)

Monday, November 15, 2010

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my boys

Sweet and Salty Pretzels, Pomegrante Muffins, Egg Nog French Toast AND Alfredo Pasta!


I had a busy weekend! I took off the wrong weekend for the back up managing for our apartment building so it was kind of a little pseudo vacation.

We had gone out for a "couple's" night with some of our friends and we also had some friends come in from Minot that we went out with later that night. It was fun..

Yesterday we had jammie day and brinner. It was so great. I made french toast. Mom always made the best french toast and I remember growing up and just eating myself stupid on the stuff. I like to tweek the recipe depending on what I'm craving.. and the season of course.

Last night I made it with Silk's Nog. It tastes like egg nog, but coming from Silk it's all natural and free from any animal product, gluten, dairy, lactose.. Yadda. Honestly, I can drink sthat stuff straight from the carton. Anyway, Here's the recipe if you'd like it :)

2 eggs
Rounded 1/2 cup of flour
Pinch of salt
Cinnamon
3/4 cup of milk (or soymilk.. or egg nog)

The bread I use is Country Hearths English Muffin bread. I use it because it's a little more dry and soaks up more of the batter. When I make the egg nog french toast I add nutmeg, cloves and a small dash of ginger. There's really no science behind the amoun
t of spices I add, I just do it until I think it smells right (I won't taste si
nce there's raw egg in it. Mom freaked me out when I was younger and I am very hesitant to sample anything with raw egg in it).

Heat up a pan or griddle and cook until golden brown. Silk als
o makes a pumpkin spice drink which is seasonal and I like using that in pancakes or even in the french toast batter ... I add pumpkin spice to that batter.

After eating we sat down to watch the movie we rented. We got "Grown Ups". It was cute, but as Brent always says, it was nothing to write home about. It was
obvious why Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 9%. That sound pretty awful, but it was cute. We munched on some pomegranate. Deeeeeelicious! It's my favorite.



Today I wanted to bake.. I wasn't sure what I wanted to bake, so I started off by making some almond bark dipped pretzels and sprinkled lightly sprinkled with some kosher salt. There's something about the salty and sweet to those things that's irresistible. I gave Brent a baggy of them to take to work and he sent me a text saying he'd eaten them right away.



Then I Googled a couple recipes and decided that I was going to bake some muffins.. Banana Pomegranate muffins to be exact. They're pretty. And were super easy
to make.

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used Dannon Greek Yogurt)
1/2 cup sour cream (I used Daisy Light)
1 Pomegranate, seeded (It's easiest to score the fruit's skin and peel it apart in cold water. That way the fruit sinks to the bottom and the pulp floats to the top)
2 large bananas, mashed.

Preheat your oven to 350˚F and adjust rack to the middle position. Grease a standard 12 cup muffin tin and set aside (I don't like cleaning so I just used paper cups - isn't that what most people would do?)

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

In another bowl, whisk the egg until well-combined and light colored.

Add the sugar to the egg and whisk vigorously until thick and combined, about 30 seconds or so. Add the butter in increments, mixing well after each addition.

Add the sour cream, whisk to comine; add the yogurt, whisk to combine.

Add the mashed banana and stir it enough to combine. Then, add in the pomegranate seeds. It's important to stir them in gently with the whisk or a spatula so as to not break the rubies ;)

Add the wet mixture and fold with a rubber spatula until batter comes together. Small spots of flour may remain and the batter will be super thick, but don't over mix it!

Add them to the muffin cups (I overfilled mine - love that!) Bake until a light golden brown and a toothpick (or butter knife) inserted in the middle comes out clean. I baked mine for 25 minutes and rotated the pan half way through to ensure an even bake.

Sooooo tasty! :)

- - - - - - -

Then tonight I made my homemade alfredo sauce with angel hair pasta and shrimpies.

I seriously have to half this recipe, sometimes quarter it. It's so good, super rich and, unfortunately, doesn't reheat well. Just make some garlic toast to dip in the remaining stuff :) The butter just separates from the cheeses and makes it hard to eat as left overs, although, one time I did drain the butter out and spread the cheese on to a pre-made pizza crust and made chicken alfredo pizza. You could also just keep it cold and spread it on smell pieces of toast rounds or something.

Alfredo Sauce

1/2 cup sweet butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 c. heavy cream
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 c. mozzarella cheese

- Melt butter in medium sauce pan over med/low heat.
- Add garlic and stir until butter starts to bubble.
- Add cream and pepper, bring to a simmer.
- Stir frequently, add parmesan cheese and simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until sauce has thickened and is smooth.
- When sauce has thickened, add the mozzarella and stir frequently until smooth.

If I'm making it with shrimp, I take the tails off and drain them really well and then toss them in the sauce to heat right before serving.



Wow.. What an entry! I'll have to write an entry about my chicken curry I made a week or two ago!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Baked Apples

So, growing up, my parents had an apple tree in the back yard by the swing set and I can remember going and helping pick these apples. Mom always made stuff like homemade apple sauce (with Red Hot cinnamon candies), pies, etc..

They came to visit me this weekend and brought me a boat-load of apples. I found a recipe for baked apples and decided to try it out.

(Above pictures borrowed from link at the bottom of this post. I'm pretty accident prone so I'm not quite able to core apples and take photos at the same time. I've almost lost a finger a time or two.)

You take 4 large apples wash and core them so the hole is about 3/4" wide. The tree doesn't produce the largest apples so I was able to get this done with 5 decent sized apples.

Mix together 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 cup chopped currants or raisins, 1/4 cup chopped pecans. I added a teeny tiny dash of nutmeg, ginger and cloves as well... Pack this inside of the apples (literally pack it) and then cut the butter into quarters and place it on top of the apples in an 8"x8" baking pan. Take the boiling water and pour it into the dish.

Bake @ 375 (I don't know how to make the degrees sign on a MacBook Pro - Get back to me later on that one) Fahrenheit for 30-40 minutes until they're soft but not mushy. Baste them with the juices from the bottom of the pan. They should look like this.... (Pic below is mine.. Not thieved...)

Serve those puppies up with some vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Recipe: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/baked_apples/

Sunday, October 24, 2010

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bras on broadway - october 2010

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layla

Sunday, October 17, 2010

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