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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Garlic Steak and Potoates


Instead of over complicated recipes I tried this easy dish.
 Remember, sometimes the easiest, most obvious dishes can be some of the best! Last nights dinner went over very well.
Threw the potatoes in the crock pot in some tin foil before work.
Came home, they were fully cooked (don't forget to poke holes in them).
Then took butter and minced garlic and through it in the microwave with some garlic powder.
Took two pans, poured oil in them, let them get hot.
Opened up my steaks and threw them in the pan. Timing them in my head to flip in four minutes.
I used a brush and brushed on the butter sauce generously, because a lot of it will come off in the pan, making sure to get the garlic all over the steak.
Then moved on and did the same to my second steak.
Then I grounded  up sea salt and black peppercorn on top of each before flipping them over.
Then again rubbing the steaks down, then pouring most of the left over juice on the steaks to simmer.
Then right before taking them out, I put the salt and pepper on the second side too.
 Transferring them to plates, I poured the remaining sauce onto the steaks, next to the potatoes.
And it turned out great!
Tips: Be sure to have the crock pot on low and make sure the potatoes are a good size, the smaller ones were a little tough on the bottom from over cooking. I left mine in for 9 1/2 hours. If you can get home sooner than that, I would say, you could use a smaller potato.
Also, make sure your steak is at least an inch thick. Too thin steaks require less time. And do not use a pan lid because this can cook the center too much and make your steak dry.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Do's and Don'ts of great Sauce!

Do use fresh tomatoes
Do not call it gravy
Do use fresh basil leaves
Do not cut the tomatoes too thick
Do use tomato paste, and crushed tomatoes
Do add good amounts of salt and ground pepper
Do add pepper flakes to taste
Don't put in huge amounts of anything without taste testing a little at a time
Do simmer
Do not over cook and in the case of overcooking, -
DO NOT scrape the bottom of the dish or the burned edges will enter the sauce.
Do add a nice red or white wine
Hot Sausage, Sweet Sausage, Angel Hair, and home made sauce!

Apple Sage Pork Chops

One thing I have discovered that I love are the McCormick packets in the spice aisle. They give you a small amount of each spice that is needed to make a specific meal. That way, before you really learn to understand what spices go best with what and you know which to buy for your home. I bought the Apple and Sage Pork Chops and my boyfriend and I were in awe. This was an awesome recipe. For someone who hasn't cooked very long, fruit and meat together is a whole new territory. But I found myself wanting an peice of apple and a peice of pork on each bite! I hope you enjoy it! I served mine with a bowl of potatoes. If you are cheap and still learning like me, you can take my great advice. Go into the aisle, look at the back of the different recipes, take a snap shot on your smart phone and if you already have the ingredients you don't even need to buy the packs.

Makes 6 servings.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons McCormick® Sage, Rubbed
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
1 teaspoon McCormick® Thyme Leaves
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Nutmeg, Ground
6 boneless pork chops, 3/4- to 1-inch thick (about 2 pounds)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 Gala apples, cut into thin wedges
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup apple juice
DIRECTIONS
1. Mix flour, sage, seasoned salt, thyme and nutmeg in small bowl until well blended. Sprinkle both sides of pork chops with 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture.

2. Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add pork chops; brown on both sides. Remove from skillet. Add apples, onion, remaining seasoned flour and juice to skillet; stir until well mixed. Return pork chops to skillet.

3. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 5 minutes or until pork chops are desired doneness. Remove pork chops to serving platter; keep warm. Simmer sauce 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Serve sauce over pork chops.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Spice up your life!

Yesterday morning I was faced with three peices of chicken breast that needed to be cooked asap and zero enthusiasm. So I decided to go online, type in "slow cooker" and "chicken" and find a recipe that allowed my chicken to cook itself. Suprisingly I only found one recipe. And it was entitled, "Bob's Chicken Recipe". Now I am not putting down old Bob, but if I couldn't find anyone else that had slow cooking chicken recipes maybe a light should have went off in my head that people don't slow cook chicken breast for a reason.
His recipe just said to put the chicken in the slow cooker, add white wine and store bought tomato sauce and its a go. I decided to take a somewhat fresher root. Not able to make a whole sauce, in the ten minutes I had before work, I did however cut up some fresh tomatoes, garlic, and add it to a plain sauce, then mix in my own spices, parsley, oregeno, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and basil.
Which i have to say was the FIRST time since this journey began that I felt comfortable mixing in spices from the top of my head and enjoyed the end result! I had previously tried months before and added way too much and ruined some stewed tomatoes to the point where the smell was unbareable. I don't know what happened but I think it was caused by an overflow of parsley mixed with something else. That experience left me scarred from ever feeling confident enough to do my own spicing in recipes.
Growing up, I only used salt. If you are also a spiceless eater,  you probably covered your food in whatever fat, butter, salt you could find to give it flavor. I am hear to tell you, you will get the hang of it! After you slowly adapt your palette to the spices, then you will know what you want to taste in your foods and will know how to add it properly. So, needless to say, this cooking milestone was a very sweet moment in my kitchen. So after combining everything, I put it on low, and headed off to work. I thought that with the over use of chardonnay and the tomato sauce that the chicken would be fine. I would cook up some angel hair and garlic bread and it would be done.


When I came home it smelled amazing in the house! I was excited! When I opened my slow cooker, it was burnt around the top. I was suprised since my food was on low. The chicken had a very dark color to it, like pork. The sauce smelled great, the tomatoes had a little bit of texture left to them but mostly had stewed into a mouthwatering melt. I cut up some italian bread, mixed a little chopped garlic and margerine and made a spread, and spread it on. When the angel hair was done I made up our plates. My boyfriend respectively delighted in everything even though I was curiously staring at the chicken. It was obviously very dry, and weird looking. Finally the truth came out. We decided that the sauce wonderful. We used the pasta and the bread to devour every last drop of it left in the slow cooker, but the chicken breasts probably shouldn't have been slow cooked all day while we were at work. Maybe full chicken's can withstand it, I don't know that fact yet but I will tackle that hurdle when it comes. But as for today, we still had a great filling meal without the chicken and I learned some valuable cooking lessons!  Tonight we are going to dinner with our friends. We are bringing Bruchetta, Melisa is cooking a meatloaf covered in bacon and I believe other people our bringing dessert and wine. I am not a meatloaf girl but I am on a journey of experimentation so cheers to new tastes! I'll let  you know how it goes! Here's a pic of the bruchetta I made last week. I tweaked a recipe and used a three cheese bread from Panera and it was a huge hit!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Wolff's


If you live in the philadelphia area, check out Wollf's Apple House right past Granite Run Mall. They grow their own flowers and veggies and fruit, and everything is home made and local. I am in love with their pulled pork, potato salad and ribs! Today we tried some home made cheeses, nachos, breads and pastries. I really couldn't wait to get home and eat! We picked up a carrot cake cupcake and some great coffee.  Some of the veggies/fruit were even cheaper than acme and looked like they were much better quality. We purchased some ingredients to make our own pickles and a bunch of other things! Next time I go I want to pick up some homemade soap! They have one that repels bugs! How cool is that!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Defrost Debacle

Many of you probably understand defrosting. This process is quite simple. At the supermarket try getting meat wrapped in the size you will be using for one meal or when you buy your meat, you should seperate it by how much you will cook for one night, put it in freezer safe bags or containers and freeze it. You don't want to be trying to seperate chicken that has been frozen all together in a huge bag! Also, If you have to cook all of the meat, make a big meal and when there is plenty leftover, you can freeze it. You also cannot defrost something and then refreeze it, unless it has since been cooked.
This stuff I got quite quickly. My problem with defrosting is that forgetting to defrost stuff ruins your whole nights meal. I have too many times recently planned everything out, bought all of my extra supplies and then came home to frozen meat that would never be ready in time for dinner.
Secondly, do not forget that if you are using a slow cooker, you must take your food out far in advance. This morning I took out tenderloin, thinking I would have all day to defrost it, then I could cook it for dinner tonight. But much to my suprise, I remembered that I wanted to slow cook it, and to do that it needed to already be defrosted. So now I have nothing to cook and that is why my dinner consists of this:
a leftover brownie and some wine!
One more quick tip I learned: As far as freezing your cooked leftovers- remember that the food lasts only as long as the quickest molding ingredient. If anything is used in your meal that doesn't bode well over time (like bacon) you can only keep it for as long as that ingredient lasts!

Resources

When you don't know how to cook you usually don't know what to cook. I have found that looking up recipes can go a few different ways. As much as I want to try new things and learn how to do different stuff I think I had the most luck with meals that are most familiar to something I like, say- food I already likes second cousin. This way you pretty much like 85% of the ingredients and you won't be shocked to find out after two hours and many $$$ for strange new foods that you don't like it and you still have nothing to eat for dinner. This happened to me a bunch when I tried to do some crazy recipes from some super fancy cookbooks. Just not my style yet. Yes, I am stepping a class up from spaghettios but that doesn't mean I need to be reading cookbooks from San Francisco's most prestigious chef's and their recipes for their very expensive restaurants. Not yet at least. The two things I tried to cook out of that book required so much of my energy, I ended up cooking 3 dinners in one day and not being satisfied with ANY of them.
One resource I have found most useful is the website Supercook.com. This website records a list of all of your food, spices etc and gives you recipes based on what you already have. The more ingredients you have the closer to the top of the list it will be, and below those are a list of recipes where you are missing one ingredient and then two and so on. I think it has been my top resource in finding recipes. The best thing about it is you can highlight something you have like, "chicken" and then it will only show recipes with chicken in them. Or you can also go to appetizers, entrees or dessert etc. to find a specific thing to make.
Another thing I have noticed is the most helpful websites for cooking have not been recipe sites. The more someone explains the process of how things are done, the little tips and tricks for cooking and not just lists of recipes the better you will get at cooking. And I have found that people with lots of pictures are pretty helpful also. One I liked is www.ThePioneerWoman.com.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Food Isn't A Cheap Hooker

I have spent mostly all of my 28 years eating crap. Crap, that the rest of the world wouldn't even sell but Americans thrive on. All of the middle aisles of your local supermarket are full of it. Colored boxes with bright pictures but inside, nothing with substance, no actual food.  I can blame the supermarkets, my parents, for allowing me to eat it or the government for the supply and demand of it all -but it was my own two hands who for at least the last 10 years I hold wholly responsible. It isn't just the food I ate that I consider the problem, it's the way I ate it. Shoving down a quick breakfast before work, a fast food lunch in my car and with no thought, a quick and easy dinner that usually included little cooking and no prep time. I was treating my food like a cheap hooker instead of a nurturing and important part of my everyday life. Got it in fast, and got out of there, and as many of you who know me find it to be true- I couldn't even look at what was leftover after. I have spent the last few months trying to undo the process. Starting at the root. Understanding food, it's purpose and learning to enjoy it. In the beginning of this journey I have already learned some valuable lessons.

1. Food needs love and attention.Most of my eating is an almost unconscious event. I eat in front of a TV, in a movie theater, watching a football game, gorging on pizza while playing a drinking game or in a hurry before I have to get somewhere and do something else. Not only do I have NO time to prepare a meal, but I have no time to even eat it! So I thought. In the last few months I have taken a few lessons from the zen masters of the east. I am conscious of my food. I don't prepare it in haste. I set time in my day aside to cook and consider what effort went into the growing, picking, delivering and selling of my food. I respect it. And in this respect, you tend to put a lot less shit in your mouth, and a lot more good food. When I am in this mindfulness of food I care about where it comes from, what was used to preserve it, how far it has travelled because these things matter when it is your body that will be storing and using them. I also respect the process of eating more.

2. Eating is balance between nurturing and pleasure. I have spent boatloads of cash on bad food because I crave it. I don't think about what it will do to my body. I don't think about anything but the pleasure that comes from it. These days, I can assure you, there is tons of pleasure in my eating. But it is just different. A well cooked meal, of fresh food, is a great feeling in itself. A complimentary wine, a variety including a small appetizer can go a long way. Before I started cooking, my favorite foods were butter and salt. Yep, foods. I would have a little steak with my salt, a little rice with my butter but those were the only tastes my taste buds searched for, and wanted in everything and anything I ate. After slowly getting used to herbs and spices, I have found that I don't even need to add salt or butter to my food because it has so much flavor in it already. Another very important change i went through is I stopped dieting.I stopped buying diet food, I stopped binging, I stopped counting calories and I realized that dieting has nothing to do with nutrition. In fact, I have found it's quite the opposite. Starving myself only leaves my body to absorb all of the carbs that I ate because it is afraid it won't eat again. And diet foods have just substituted horrible processed junk in replacement of natural foods. As long as I can use portion control and balance, and I eat real food- the food on the OUTSIDE of my supermarket- then I think I will be much better off. For example, the atkins grease fest of my all bacon and eggs extravaganza left me weak and feeling dirty. Who cuts out fruit? Anyone who cuts out fruit I just don't trust. your body is naturally designed to need those good carbs. Ok, enough ranting.

3. Like a hooker you get what you pay for, sorta. . I have found that even the thriftiest person will shove out money for something they love. Expensive monthly cable channels, designer handbags, fancy cars. But when it comes to food, something that goes in our bodies, our one and only bodies- we want things for chump change. It just reminds me of the time I went to the supermarket to get a pregnancy test and saw one for like $4 on the bottom shelf. Um, no thank you. When something is important- you get the good one. And so yes, I have opened my food budget up, picked up the healthier choices, the fresher meats and cheeses- and found that I actually am spending less than before. How? Because I cook all of my meals. So, even though I am buying fresh mozzarella and imported wine instead of boxed wine, even though I have been using varieties of decadent deli meats, panera bread instead of Strohman and Grey Poupon instead of acme brand mustard- I am saving money. That's the beauty of it! I found that on LUNCH ALONE at the likes of McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell Andrew and I were averaging $112 a week. That in itself is enough money for our weeks groceries.

So on this journey, I wanted to document it. I want a log of all my trials and tribulations through the process of learning how to cook, how to eat properly, how to find wines and how to stop giving into the crap! If you have ever eaten oodles and noodles- you should understand where I am coming from. You are what you eat! Love your body, and give it what it deserves!