Quick, yummy, and ohmygoodness, healthy recipes

Garden Fresh Vegetable Soup

2011-09-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

2011-9-5

Garden Fresh Vegetable Soup

These are just some of the gorgeous vegetables with which two families from church blessed us this past Sunday, yesterday. I got everything from zucchini to two different kinds of potatoes to two different kinds of onions. Decided to make a hearty soup out of everything except one of the vegetables. I also had a some cooked beans, the beans of which also were home grown by a friend's mom.

These vegetables need to be enjoyed, before this very pregnant mommy decides that energy is non-existent and is rendered incapable of doing anything in the kitchen.

2011-9-4

In a pan with a bit of olive oil on lower medium heat, I cooked the onions. Once the onions were almost done, I dropped in the potatoes, cut into little chunks or squares, along with some water. Cook the potatoes until done.

Throw all the other vegetables, peeled (where ever appropriate or desired - carrots, cucumbers, etc.) and cut, into a pot. I used water exclusively as the broth. Once the vegetables have been cooking, they form a rich flavored, mouthwatering broth. The spices and flavoring I used for the soup included:

sea salt
freshly ground black peppercorns
a few hints of cinnamon
some Hungarian paprika
a bit of soy sauce (just a bit)
a few drizzles of Worcestershire sauce

I dropped the cooked beans my friend gave me after everything else was tender. I'm not sure what all went into cooking those beans. Some bacon, I believe, was dropped into cooking them; so, the soup cannot qualify as vegetarian.

Cook the soup for awhile to allow the various flavors to spread. Then it's ready to serve. I enjoy my soups with rice, over rice.

Pesto, perfectly thick pesto sauce

2011-09-05T20:43:00.001-07:00

2011-8-25

Pesto, perfectly thick pesto sauce

I hadn't planned on my recipe blogging hiatus to be the norm but more of an exception. However, this pregnancy with twins had thrown my love affair with food off course into to the uncharted territory of picky, easily offended senses. Pesto is a more recent love or desire, and I hadn't attempted making my own until quite recently. This is my third attempt at tweaking with various ingredients, and I am pretty satisfied with this rendition.

The results were thick, and the version I made was on the salty side. However, this pesto, for my intent, wasn't and isn't meant to be eaten along. I've served it atop plain pasta and I have also used it on cheese pizza (along with fresh olives and freshly grated muenster cheese).

Here's my recipe to share:

In a blender, blend the following:

4 oz of basil
2 cups of freshly grated parmesan (I purchased a chunk of parmesan and grated it using a hand grater)
3 cloves of garlic
1/3 c. of pine nuts
26 peppercorns (I used a pepper mill to grind the peppercorns)
2/3 c. olive oil
sea salt (I don't know exactly how much I used)

Once blended evenly and well, empty blender contents into sauce pan, along with 1/3 - 2/3 c. organic chicken broth and 1/3 c. whole milk. On low to low-medium heat, bring to a gentle boil, and the work is done. Use the pesto sauce in whatever way is pleasing to you.

After eating it once over pasta, my pregnancy pickiness wanted something different. Having it on a cheese pizza, along with fresh, pitted calamata olives and freshly grated muenster cheese was tasty as well. What is your pleasure?

A fancy schmancy pepper mill

2011-07-07T22:31:00.000-07:00

I got myself a splurge. I've been wanting a pepper mill or grinder for awhile now. I have a pepper grinder for black peppercorns or rainbow peppercorns. But, I needed one for white peppercorns or something that would allow me to interchange them frequently and easily.

And yes, the taste is so different using freshly ground pepper, in contrast to the store-purchased pre-ground pepper. By a country mile.

I saw this beauty on sale, marked down not once, not twice, but thrice. Even then, I wasn't sure I should buy it. After all, though cooking well is still a high priority, being frugal is, well, a must. In the end, I gave in to the whispers of the Peugeot Olivier Roellinger Pepper Mill, yesterday. And, thrice, with utter thrill and excitement, it has been used today. Got a bit too carried away one of those times today. Used in a egg and tomato stir fry this morning. Used it when making pesto this afternoon. Followed by making hot and sour soup. Wow, way too much of the black peppercorns and white peppercorns for that soup; set my mouth and face on FIRE. Still could appreciate the complex flavors of the freshly ground pepper, however.

Seared salmon

2011-05-04T20:06:00.001-07:00

2011-5-4

Seared Salmon

Fish and meat can easily be overcooked. Results of overcooking, depending on the food in question, is dry, rubbery, over chewy crap. For fish, I don't recommend baking, unless super carefully monitored; easily overcooked when baking.

I pan fried - seared - the salmon.

My sister came for a visit and picked up all kinds of goodies. This morning, I seared the salmon. This afternoon, I tended to the pork and ribs, decorated with celery, carrots, mushrooms, red onion, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and other spices. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Back to the salmon, in a pan on lower medium heat, with some green onions and olive oil, I sizzled the green onions for several minutes. Then I dropped in the salmon (which was frozen but had been defrosting in the refrigerator), adding sea salt and a bit of soy sauce for flavor. Should be somewhat pink and transparent on the inside. It was amazing that I didn't overcook any of the fish (I cooked six pieces of salmon, three at a time), considering I was also getting my children out of their bath and helping to dress them. . .

Cooked just right. Delicious.

Very gourmet scrambled omelets

2011-05-01T19:10:00.001-07:00

2011-4-29

Very Gourmet Scrambled Omelets

My sister and her two kiddos are visiting from California. You may have already gathered, if you follow this blog in any way or form, that I'm a bit of a food snob. Perhaps "foodie" is a more friendly term. Add to that my being pregnant, and you have one picky lady. Even though being pregnant with two (yes, twins) has been challenging on my taste buds, nausea, and acid reflux, bland foods have never quite sold me.

In terms of typical breakfast foods, such as eggs, I have always hated, HATED, cafeteria style scrambled eggs. So tasteless. So bland. So disgusting. The day before yesterday, I decided to make the adults a delicious, taste-bud-tingling breakfast, using what we had available in the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

eggs
garlic, diced into rather small chunks
olive oil
(fresh) mushrooms
(fresh) tomatoes
sea salt
freshly ground black peppercorns
Trader Joe's everyday seasoning with grinder

Since the day before yesterday, I've been making this breakfast every morning. In fact, my sister was so hungry this morning, she was nearly physically ill waiting (famished) for my breakfast. But, she didn't want something else to take up room in her belly. She was desperate for my, what she calls "very gourmet" scrambled omelets. Fourteen eggs worth of scrambled omelets disappeared among three adults and four very small children (ages 4 and under) within seconds; I kid you not.

I believe key to making this very gourmet breakfast is timing. The garlic, for instance, must be cooked just so. The mushrooms must be cooked and seasoned on its own before being married to the rest of the ingredients (eggs, tomatoes, and what not).

Salivating, yet?

Instructions:

On low medium heat, with approximately 1 1/2 cloves of garlic (diced) and olive oil, wait until the garlic has been sizzling a few minutes before dropping in the small mushrooms (cut thinly). Season with a bit of salt and Trader Joe's everyday seasoning. Cover. Cook until tender (no longer crunchy). Stir intermittently. Set to the side when done.
In the same pan, drop the remainder of the cut garlic (approximately another 1 1/2 cloves, diced), adding perhaps just a bit of olive oil, still on low medium heat. Once again, once the garlic has been sizzling for a few minutes, drop in the beaten raw eggs. When the eggs are nearly cooked, but some liquid is still present, add in the diced tomatoes; and stir. Add in sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and stir. Once the eggs are cooked to liking, add in the mushrooms; stir, and viola!

The photograph really doesn't do the food justice. Literally, this breakfast leaves the persons eating the food wanting more, more, and more. I'm so pleased how popular this dish is, at some point, I may post a photo essay of this recipe, even though I'm too tired and too busy to do much of anything these days. May you have a blessed evening dreaming about this dish.

2011-4-29

Lily's Fruit Salad

2011-04-12T16:03:00.001-07:00

2011-4-12

For lack of a better term, since this salad seems abundant with fruit, I'm calling this a fruit salad. No mayonnaise, though. Do people put mayonnaise in fruit salads? I can't stand mayonnaise.

Under normal (non-pregnant-with-multiples) circumstances, I'm not at all drawn towards salads. But, I am now. I have a guess as to why this is the case.

This particular salad has the following ingredients:

baby spinach
arugula
freshly peeled clementines
fresh strawberries
shredded mozzarella cheese
pine nuts
Annie's Tuscany Italian dressing

I had been putting raisins in some of my salads, but this seemed plenty laden with fruit.

Eggs, sunny side up

2011-03-27T08:19:00.001-07:00

I don't remember ever making eggs sunny side up or over easy.

This morning was a morning I wanted eggs. But not scrambled. Sunny side up seemed the right fit. Without any prior memorable experience, off I went.

The moment the eggs went into the pan and the girls could see what I was making, I knew they would want some. Made enough for the ladies in the house.

In a non-stick pan with some olive oil massaged into the pan, I turned the pan on lower heat. Once the pan was heated, I broke the eggs into the pan. After a bit, I loosened the eggs from the bottom of the pan, to ensure the eggs weren't sticking to it. Letting the egg whites and yolks to solidify, I left my yolks quite tender (and runny in one case). Some parts of the egg whites were crispy underneath.

2011-3-27

The girls, after they had finished their breakfast, decided they were going to prepare their own eggs and wanted me to take their pictures.

2011-3-27

Want some?

That's sea salt and freshly ground black pepper on top.

What I can eat

2011-03-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hello. I promise, some day, some day, some day, I will return to recipe postings. But, in case you haven't heard, yet, I'm pregnant. With twins.

Never in my life before this, have I ever been this picky, this nauseated. Textures and colors can make me nauseated. I'm not kidding and I'm not exaggerating. Makes eating tough, especially since I am hungry. All. The. Time.

So far, vanilla yogurt with fresh strawberries always sit well with me. Good thing strawberries are in season now.

By the way, I have made my own yogurt in the past, but I'm much too tired and exhausted to contemplate making anything most of the time. Yes, a sad state of affairs.

Spaghetti with pasta sauce, with shredded cheese on top. Another staple I've been able to stomach. Again, I didn't make either component. I'm interested in making pasta and pasta sauce some day. Just not now.

Chicken Noodle Soup, without chicken

2011-03-10T18:27:00.000-08:00

2011-3-10

Chicken Noodle Soup, without the chicken

I have been craving Chicken Noodle Soup for some time now, and that soup has always been a favorite of mine. Haven't always had the soup cooked to perfection, but that's another subject for another time. Anyways, I saw this recipe, and I decided to use that for a jumping off point for making my own twisted recipe. Not sure why, but I haven't been a fan of the chunks of chicken in the various versions of soup I have sampled. Perhaps the chicken was too dry, not juicy enough. I decided to make a chicken-less version.

Ingredients:

pasta - I fancied elbow macaroni the day I was grocery shopping - approximately 1/3 to 1/2 a really large box
cream of chicken soup
cream of mushroom soup - I prefer not to use a majority of cans of this I've seen on the shelf, because they contain msg. My body throws fits when I consume msg; I'm insanely thirsty, I get headaches. Need I go on?
parsley flakes
olive oil - enough to cook the red onion
sea salt
butter - nearly 3 tbsp
red onion - diced
celery - the whole bundle - washed and cut thinly
carrots - the whole package - cut into thirds or fourths
can of tomato sauce

garlic - oh my goodness, how could I neglect to include these? - 5 cloves, diced. I love garlic; the more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned.

Directions:

In a pan, with a bit of olive oil on lower medium heat, cook the red onion until transparent. I added a pinch of sea salt. Then throw in the carrots, celery, and garlic, adding in the nearly 3 tablespoons of butter. Cook with a lid on until tender. I was distracted and lost track of time. Probably only needed to cook for 10-15 minutes. Mine ended up cooking for around 30 min. Like I said, I was distracted.
In a pot, cook the pasta until tender and then set aside.
Add to the contents in the pan: cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, tomato sauce, some water, parsley flakes, and sea salt. Once that has been boiling, let simmer for a bit.
To the pan, finally, add the cooked macaroni. After the soup is boiling, it is ready to serve.

When I consumed it the day it was cooked, I thought it was a bit strong tasting on the cream of mushroom. But, when I had it the next day, adding a bit of water when reheating it, I favored the soup much more.

Breakfast, pure and simple

2011-02-26T11:27:00.000-08:00

2011-2-24

Vanilla Yogurt with Fresh Strawberries

These days, finding food that satisfies is difficult for me. Nothing to do with the food, I am sure. It's me that has issues.

This isn't a post about making yogurt (though I have done that) or growing strawberries. Just a small meal - vanilla yogurt and fresh strawberries - I can stomach.

When precious little seems appealing

2011-02-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

2011-2-13

Sliced Rice Cake Udon Soup

I'm taking a forever lasting hiatus from trying new recipes. Alright, I'm just kidding about the forever bit. But, I am taking a break.

Unfortunately, these days, precious little seems appetizing to me. Puts me between a rock and hard place, when eating is kind of important. Anything, everything I cook seems repulsive to me right now.

Udon hasn't reached that status, yet, thankfully. And, I purchased Korean sliced rice cakes at the Asian grocery store recently. So with just a bit of sea salt, green onions, and a touch of soy sauce, along with rice cakes and udon, I made a little soup.

Stovetop Vegetarian Chili

2011-02-07T15:33:00.001-08:00

2011-2-7

Stovetop Vegetarian Chili

This is recipe #1 in Good Housekeeping: Vegetarian Meals; Meatless Recipes Everyone Will Love. This is actually the third recipe in the book I've tried. For those of you who are just joining me, I had meant to go in order, for the most part. Somehow the pages got stuck together, and I neglected to see the first two recipes. Also, I am not a vegetarian, but I have good friends who are. One of those really good friends has this cookbook, and I told her I'd go through it kind of like Julie Powell did with Julia Child's cookbook.

I made this in a bit of a hurry, being on a time crunch, this morning. I'm pleased with how it turned out. Very tasty. My husband agrees. I made several of my own tweaks, as usually. You'll have to get a hold of the original recipe to see the differences. Unless you're content with my version. Plan on adding this to list of foods to make in the future.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 medium red onions - chopped
4 garlic cloves, sent through a garlic press
3 medium sweet potatoes - peeled & cut into small squares
1 jalapeno chile, seeded & minced
2 15.5 oz cans of black beans, drained
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
1 28 oz can of pre-cut mushrooms
olive oil
3 tbsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp red sugar
3-4 tbsp sea salt
6-8 c. water

Directions:

In a pan, with a few tablespoons of olive oil, on low medium heat, cook the red onions until transparent. I added a bit of sea salt towards the end of cooking.
In a large pot, place in the sweet potatoes with just enough water to barely cover the sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil & lower heat until simmering with lid on but somewhat displaced. Cook for about 20-30 minutes.
In the large pot, add everything else to the sweet potatoes: garlic, jalapeno chile, black beans, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, pre-cut mushrooms, chili powder, cumin, coriander, sea salt, and sugar. Add the red onions as well. Allow the contents enough time to soak in all the flavor, and it's ready to serve.

One rookie mistake I made was, I wish I had pan-fried the mushrooms first, before throwing them into the soup. Cooks fast that way. Sometimes the mushrooms don't quite cook well if they're thrown into the soup late in the game. Thankfully, the mushrooms were fine this time.

A delicious soup.

Still steaming. Can you see?

As my dad would say, "Try it; you'll like it."

Caribbean Black Bean Soup

2011-02-03T13:09:00.000-08:00

2011-2-2

Caribbean Black Bean Soup

I apologize for the photograph that doesn't do justice to this dish. My husband said he really liked it; wondered whether I had put barbecue sauce in it. Barbecue sauce? Huh? No.

One thing I would have changed in how I prepared this soup yesterday, my first attempt, was to soak the dry beans over night, cook the beans by themselves first, cook the beans longer . . . the beans could have been more tender. I'm getting ahead of myself.

This is the 4th recipe in the Good Housekeeping Vegetarian Meals recipe book.

Ingredients:

1 pound dry black beans
olive oil
2 medium red onions, chopped
3 jalapeno chiles, seeded and minced
2 tbsp fresh garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 tsp ground allspice
4-6 garlic cloves minced, via garlic press
1/2 tsp dried thyme
7-10 c water
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small squares
1 tbsp brown sugar
sea salt
3 bunches of green onions, washed and cut finely

Directions:

Soak the black beans over night (translation: don't be stupid or last minute like me; I soaked the dry beans for maybe four to five hours) and perhaps even cook them separately first.
In a pan, throw in a modest amount of olive oil and cook the red onions on lower medium heat until they are transparent. I threw in a few pinches of sea salt.
In a pot (stock pot?), throw everything else in. Bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for an hour or long enough for the sweet potatoes and black beans to be tender and for the flavors to soak into the potatoes and beans.

Our whole house smelled flagrantly of this delicious soup, and when my husband arrived home, his interest was peaked and ripened for tasting the aromatic food.

A longing, a desire

2011-01-28T12:35:00.000-08:00

Do you know what this is? It's a Cherry Red, Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron 7 1/4 Quart Round French Oven.

From what I understand and reading various reviews, it's the brand that makes the best quality in the business. Lasts for many, many years (translation: decades, minimally). I had looked at this in this past, drooling. Mind you, I am not a hedonist. Not that I don't enjoy pleasures every now and again, but it is neither the focus nor the purpose for which I live. But, the price, even at its discounted price, is way beyond the price range of what I can afford. Recently, at least a couple of blogs have included mention of it: Manda's blog and Ree's blog. I place a comment nearly every time Ree offers a giveaway, but my chances of winning a Le Creuset oven is slim to none.

I do loads of cooking and love it, unlike many people with whom I am acquainted in my generation, and a Le Creuset would sure get plenty of use in my lifetime. Plenty.

Julie Powell, as portrayed on Julie & Julia, sure seemed to gather lots in her readership by blogging after blogging about each of Julia Child's recipes. I have no where near the fan base Julie Powell had, at least to my knowledge. But a blogger can dream right? Perhaps there are loads of blog fans that simply don't leave comments. Maybe even some of those fans love me and are very generous and desire to make this dream come true.

The Le Creuset brand. 7 1/4 quarts is great. The Cherry Red is my preferred color. But, Cassis (the purple one) will do as well. Amazon has a decent discounted price and it offers free shipping for the item. Any takers?

***
Addendum: Wow, I just read an Amazon review that said there's a 101 yr warranty on the Le Creuset.

Vegetarian Chili

2011-01-26T17:47:00.001-08:00

2011-1-26

Vegetarian Chili

An individual who became my best friend in the 4th grade recently purchased a Good Housekeeping Vegetarian Meals book. Partially inspired by Julia Powell as portrayed in "Julie & Julia" and mostly inspired by a long-lasting growing friendship. My plan is a bit slower than that of Julie, one recipe from not Julia Child's book but one recipe from Vegetarian Meals per week. This is my revised version of recipe #1 in the Good Housekeeping Vegetarian Meals cookbook. [ADDENDUM: I just realized on February 2, that this recipe is actually recipe #3 in the recipe book.]

Of the various spices that go into different versions of chili, this is, by far, my favorite. Per usual, I turned the written recipe into something else and made it my own, some changes including using different kinds of beans to adding tomato sauce and water. Anyways, I am proud of the concoction that resulted.

One change I would make is: use LESS salt. The vegetable broth, I suspect, is already plenty salty; didn't taste it ahead of time and wish I had. I ended up eating mine over rice; surprise, surprise.

Here's my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 large red onion, cut thinly (perhaps diced would have been a good choice)
1/2 of a 32 oz bag of small carrots, cut into thirds or fourths
1 medium organic butternut squash, peeled and cut into small squares
3 green onions, washed and cut thinly
2 jalapeno chiles, minced
4 cloves of garlic, pressed through a garlic press
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
1 15.5 oz can of dark red kidney beans, without the juice
1 15.5 oz can of black beans, without the juice
a few tablespoons of olive oil
1 tbsp sea salt (this is what I would recommend after using more than 1 tbsp)
1 tbsp red sugar
2 tbsp chili powder
1 cup vegetable broth
2 cups of water

Directions:

In a pan, with olive oil, cook the red onion on medium heat until transparent. Then set aside.
In a pot on medium to high heat, throw in the carrots, butternut squash, beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic, green onions, vegetable broth and water. Once the carrots are more tender, add in the sugar, sea salt, and chili powder. Leave simmering for awhile.

I've got to confess that the aroma from the soup leaves me salivating and wanting seconds and thirds, even though I am full to the brim. Enjoy, my friends.

By the way, I'm not sure you can tell from the photographs, but steam is rising from the bowl of soup.

Shiitake Mushroom, Udon Soup

2011-01-26T16:54:00.000-08:00

2011-1-5

Shiitake Mushroom, Udon Soup

I love, love, love udon. Anyone else? Am also a super huge fan of shiitake mushrooms. Thought of it as a treat whenever we had it growing up. They were usually dried, but I've been getting mine fresh, at Sunflower Farmer's Market. Compared with other types of mushrooms, this one's expensive. . . something like $9/pound. But, I usually buy four or five at a time, which is affordable. Perhaps some day I can grow my own; for now, I have Sunflower Farmer's Market.

Here's a simple recipe I can offer. None of that caramelized, Americanized stuff Noodles & Co. offers.

Udon is needed.

Doesn't this look heavenly already?

Here's what the shiitake mushroom look like.

Ingredients:

udon
water
chicken broth
green onions - sliced thinly
shiitake mushrooms = sliced thinkly
garlic - diced
sea salt
soy sauce

Directions:

Bring water to a boil. Boil the udon for six minutes.
Dump out a fair portion of the water (not all) and add some chicken broth, green onions, garlic, and shiitake mushrooms. Once the green onions and garlic have had a chance to boil for several minutes, add some sea salt and tid bit of soy sauce.

Baked wild rice & veggies

2011-01-26T14:27:00.000-08:00

I've taken a shining to wild rice for some time. This is a relatively simple dish to satisfy any wild rice cravings. Though this dish is meatless, it is not vegetarian; I used chicken broth in it.

This is totally my own creation. Inspiration from no other source than me. I'm a bit fuzzy on what I put in, but here's the general idea.

2010-12-29

Wild Rice & Veggies

Ingredients:

1 32 oz bag of small carrots, cut into thirds or fourths
1 thing of celery, washed and cut thinly
1 red onion cut thinly
butter, no more than 2 tsp
2 6.0 packages of Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Rice Original Recipe
chicken broth
water
milk, perhaps 1/2 cup
sea salt
parsley flakes
several cloves of garlic, diced

Directions:

In a pan, with a bit of olive oil (perhaps a few tablespoons of olive oil), on medium heat, cook the red onion until it's transparent. Then set aside, leaving behind any olive oil or onion juice.
In the same pan, throw in the garlic. After the garlic has been sizzling for half a minute to a minute, add in the carrots, celery, some water (around a cup), milk (approx. 1/2 cup), and chicken broth (maybe 1/2 to 1 cup). Place the lid on the pan. Season with sea salt and parsley flakes in the cooking process. Cook 15 to 20 minutes.
While the onion is cooking, in a separate pot, cook the long grain and wild rice according to the directions on the box(es).
In a 9 x 13 rectangular stoneware, lay all the vegetables, including the soup and broth, across the bottom evenly. Next, layer on the onion. Finally, spread out the long grain and wild rice on top evenly. Sprinkle with shredded cheese if you like. Cover and cook at 350 degrees in the oven for an hour.

Cinnamon & Sugar Almonds

2011-01-24T19:49:00.001-08:00

2010-12-22

Cinnamon & Sugar Almonds

I apologize for the many slightly blurry photographs below. Perhaps I could blame it on my broken camera flash. Or maybe it's an artistic rendering for how we, as adults, watch life and time fly away.

This recipe isn't mine. Not at all. But it is one, the only one, that I have borrowed and used from Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen: Burnt Almonds (Gebrannte Mandeln), provided by Birgit Kerr. Thank you, Birgit. I got loads of compliments on this, as I gave it to people as part of their Christmas gifts and made it for my parents the day they arrived this most recent trip.

I changed the name of this recipe because my version wasn't burnt. Not at all. I also didn't cook mine for 20 minutes, like the recipe says. But then again, I'm always making up my own stuff.

Again, since this isn't my recipe and I didn't really manipulate and morph the ingredients and stuff into my own take, I'm not going to restate the recipe here. Click on the above link, if you'd like to see the recipe.

Ingredients are simple and few:

1. water

2. raw almonds

3. brown sugar - the recipe only said 'sugar,' but I took the liberty of using brown sugar

4. cinnamon

5. vanilla extract

Here come the blurry photographs. Again, my apologies. Here was my cooking process.

Brown sugar

and cinnamon and water in first.

Stirred, stirring on medium heat. Brought to a boil.

Drop in the raw almonds. Constantly stir (or everything will hug the pan), cooking until the water gets absorbed or evaporates.

Finally, add a little extra brown sugar and the vanilla extract.

The directions said to spread the stuff in parchment paper, but I had none. Aluminum foil sufficed.

Viola. Tasty treats that continue their beckoning call, day after day.

2010-12-22

Potato & Egg Burrito

2011-01-24T07:15:00.000-08:00

I'm back. First, my laptop's screen / monitor decided to retire without permission. Then, a desktop computer decided not to recognize my camera or any of the photographs on it. Attempting to sabotage my blog posts, perhaps, but only temporarily. I'm back. But watch out. . . I have a number of food blog posts for you.

Potato & Egg Burrito

2010-12-22

It's unfortunate that I'm finishing up this post as my stomach churns, churns, and churns with hunger. Unfortunate for you, because I'm likely to skimp on details.

I cooked the eggs and potatoes (I believe these were made with red potatoes) separately. Some diced garlic was involved. But make sure the garlic is well cooked in the olive oil to avoid burning your mouth with raw garlic.

For seasoning? Sea salt, Hungarian paprika. I can't remember what else. Give a break, will you? I get a little hazy on details.

Gave mine a bit of ketchup before consuming.

This year's turkey, turkey brine and all

2010-11-26T22:04:00.000-08:00

The flash on my camera is still broken, the sun had already set on Thanksgiving day, and I didn't have any fancy schmancy lighting available. I have no idea what happened to the piece of paper on which I wrote the specifics of the turkey brine I made and used this time around.

2010-11-25

So, pardon me whilst I provide very little in the way of details. I started preparing the brine Wednesday morning. I used roughly 4 cups of kosher salt (I actually didn't have 4 cups left, so I substituted sea salt) and a heck of a lot of water. Enough to fill this pot all the way up to the top. I was dealing with a SIXTEEN POUND BIRD, not like the 10-12 pounder from last year.

Brought the water to nearly to a boil and made sure the salt dissolved. Then added parsley flakes and rubbed sage to the pot, let the liquid cool to room temperature, & my husband helped with the next step. He bagged the bird and the liquid in a huge, brand spanking new (unused) trash bag. Actually, I had him double bag the stuff; didn't want any accidents on the floor. Cleared a tupperware container, so we could surround the garbage bags housing the turkey and brine in ice. Poultry needs to stay cool, to avoid spoiling.

This year, unlike last year, there was no snow on the ground. Though we couldn't pack the turkey with snow, temps outside were plenty cold enough to keep our poultry company.

Thursday morning, my husband and I busily prepared many ingredients for both cooking the turkey and making chicken pot pie. I'll let you guess which is which. Just kidding on that last bit. Some potatoes, carrots, celery, and green onions went into baking the turkey. Also added freshly ground pepper, some apple cider vinegar, and brown sugar. I placed slivers of unmelted (straight out of the refrigerator) butter on the top of the turkey.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (oven should be preheated as vegetables are being cut).

Cover turkey baking vessel. I baked the turkey for nearly 6 hours. Checked the internal turkey temperature (avoiding hitting the bone, of course) around half way through the bake time.

Can't tell from this photograph (STUPID broken flash), but the top of the turkey was golden brown. VERY exciting, considering this didn't happen last year. Juicy. Meat was falling off the bone by barely touching the meat.

Chicken pot pie, with a Lily twist

2010-11-10T20:40:00.000-08:00

2010-11-10

Chicken Pot Pie, with a Lily Twist

Throughout my life, from time to time, some of my departures from the what's been considered as normal practice has been considered significant or quite different. I'm not just talking about food. On the topic of food, this is one of those deviations. That signature pie crust that sits on top of chicken pot pie is missing is this unique recipe of mine. But, I am not worried, and I believe this is a tasteful change. Using Panko instead of the pie crust is my signature stamp on this creation.

Want the recipe? Please keep in mind that when it comes to providing recipes, I'm horrendous about remembering exactly how much I used of most any given ingredient. I use my senses to cook, so when I cook something, I never cook it the same exact way twice.

Ingredients:

family size of chicken tenders (this happened to be on sale at one of the grocery stores I frequent) - 3.24 lbs - tendons cut off, cut into small pieces
1 bundle of celery - leaves taken off, rinsed, and cut into thin slices
1 small package of mini carrots - quartered
2 red onions - diced
6 cloves of garlic - diced
6 red potatoes - washed (I left the skin on) and cut into small squares
1/3 c. of butter
a bit of olive oil
parsley flakes (several tbsp)
a bit of soy sauce
a bit of Worcestershire sauce
sea salt
pepper, from a pepper mill
approx. 1/2 c. of frozen corn
chicken broth (1-3 cups? sorry, I really am not sure) - cooking the chicken tenders will draw a decent amount of broth
milk (2-4 cups? again, sorry about the really rough estimate)
Panko bread crumbs - 1/2 to 2/3 of a package

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

1. I first caramelized the red onions. On low heat, I cooked diced red onions with a bit of olive oil, until the onions were more transparent. I added a bit of salt towards the end.

Leaving behind the juices & oil (in the pan), I set the onions aside.

2. Then I dumped in the cut chicken tenders. Somewhere in the cooking process, I added sea salt, a bit of soy sauce, and a bit of Worcestershire sauce for flavor. Once the chicken was almost thoroughly cooked (remember the dish is going to bake in the oven, so we don't want the chicken dry), leaving the juice behind in the pan, I set the chicken aside.

3. Into the pan, dump all (except the Panko) the other (uncooked) ingredients into the pan: diced garlic, chopped celery, chopped red potatoes, chopped carrots, milk, chicken broth. I also added a bit of salt, parsley flakes, ground pepper flakes from a mill, and the butter.

Let this stuff cook (let is be a bit bubbly) for at least 10 minutes. I might have let it simmer for 20 minutes; my husband doesn't appreciate crunchy cooked carrots.

4. Dish as much as you can into a large pan. I love my Pampered Chef stoneware*. Be careful to not let the juice get too close to the top of the pan or you'll have a very decorated oven to clean! I let mine heap, such that it slopes downwards and doesn't fill to the rim of the container.

5. Cover the top with Panko.

6. After the oven has been preheated to 400 degrees, bake for approximately 50 minutes.

Here's the finished product. Bon Appetit.

Swordfish delight

2010-11-10T20:10:00.001-08:00

2010-11-8

The day before yesterday, in the name of or justification of taking care by nourishing, I made two main dishes: swordfish, which my husband and I (our girls also enjoyed the fruits of my labor) had for lunch; and chicken pot pie. I had taken the girls on my crazy three story grocery marathon run and found out the swordfish was on sale. This was about $3 less a pound than usual. I couldn't resist. By how quickly it was devoured by the four of us, I can say it was a good buy.

Food, food, food

2010-09-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't stopped cooking, but, life has been flying past me and I haven't had a chance to work on my bug-ridden lap top. I've done some work on it, but, I'm not yet ready to coast with it, yet. How is that significant for you? I usually upload my photographs there. Not that I can't on my desktop. I'm just too lazy, I mean busy, to upload my camera software there, too. Where are those discs anyhow? I'll be operational soon; I promise.

Fried rice

2010-09-02T14:26:00.001-07:00

I'm super tired. Why am I telling you this? Because I'm super tired. And my children are finishing their naps, I have finished washing the dirty dishes and wiping down the counters, and my husband has to go back to work tonight. I'm tired.

In other, more pleasant, news, I had a relatively new friend over for lunch. Not the sort of Hannibal Lecter (have you seen that movie with Anthony Hopkins in it? Haven't thought or seen him in the same way since) way. I made fried rice.

2010-9-2

Fried Rice

I've made this numerous times now, none relatively recently; but, I decided to try two things different:

After cooking everything separately, instead of combining everything in a big pot, I threw everything back into the pan. That means the rice got a bit of frying, in the end.
I used a "specially seasoned Southwestern corn" mixture instead of a frozen vegetable mixture that usually includes corn, carrots, green beans, and peas. Why, oh why, must my two little girls be so picky about the green beans and peas? My 3 yr old's favorite color, after all, is green (and some times blue).

This dish involved combining 4 individually cooked components:

1. 1/2 red onion diced. I cooked on lower medium heat with olive oil until a bit transparent. I got a bit distracted by my two little children and by dish washing, so some of it got golden brown.

2. 3 ingredients used: diced garlic, four beaten eggs mixed with a bit of chicken broth.

3. Use a bit of diced garlic and olive oil. On medium heat, let garlic sizzle for about a minute. Then throw in frozen mixed vegetables and put the lid on the pan. Add a bit of sea salt while it's cooking.

4. Cook rice. I cooked about 3 cups. Using a rice cooker.

4. In the now empty frying pan, on super low heat, throw in the cooked medium grain white rice, adding soy sauce. Do NOT drown the rice in soy sauce. There's plenty of saltiness from salting the other components. Now combine all the other components into the pan and stir carefully. Try not to smother the rice; gently stir.

Mi fen, good food without forsaking the effort

2010-09-01T20:50:00.001-07:00

2010-9-1

Mi Fen

My life has gotten much more hectic this week, now that classes have started. I'm beginning to wonder how I survived the last two years with the following FULL TIME JOBS: cook (chef want-to-be), laundromat, accountant, children's character molder, janitor, I know I'm forgetting some stuff. Oh, and I'm in school. Again.

Of pertinence to this particular blog is cooking. I do minimal ready-prepared frozen foods, whether chicken breasts or what not. It's not that I disrespect those who do. It's just that in my own life and in the lives of those in this house, I don't want to spend the extra money (that I don't have) on that and I'm convinced I can do better (in terms of nutrition and taste).

But, the day before yesterday, the same day as my first day of class, I nearly had a breakdown. Perhaps that's a bit of a hyperbole, but you get the idea. I panicked. I can scarcely keep cooked food, even when made in bulk quantities, in this house; because it gets consumed too quickly. I don't know how my parents cooked EVERY DAY, but I cannot do that and maintain my sanity. Cooking takes time, no matter what my dad says; and I haven't mastered being super quick in the kitchen. Especially when I have two little children constantly asking for this, that, and the other.

All this is to say that I understand people live busy lives. I've been in that zone for quite awhile now. Just ask any of my close friends, near or far. But, any meals par excellence, is complicated. I've discovered, via trial and error, before noticing this on Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen, that parts of an exquisite dish are cooked separately; in other words, a dish is rarely cooked altogether, at once, in one pan or pot. Trust me, any five star restaurants cook component parts of dishes separately. Not that I can afford to eat in such places, and not that I claim to make such comparable food. I only dream of making such.

***

Well, for this rice noodle stir fry that I made the day before yesterday, here are the component parts:

1. A red onion with some olive oil, cooked on lower medium heat, until nearly transparent. Tried adding a bit of sea salt; perfect.

2. Using the same pan, without first washing it, but adding a touch more olive oil and diced garlic, on the same level of heat, once the garlic has been sizzling for a bit, adding in eggs beaten with a bit of chicken broth. Added a touch of sea salt.

3. Cabbage. I had this left over from a couple of days previous. I had cooked half a red onion per the instructions above, then added the thinly sliced cabbage. I added water, chicken broth, some sea salt and oyster sauce. Cook until tender.

4. Soak the rice noodles (the packages I use really are made of rice, not wheat) in hot water. To be cooked for a brief amount of time with the rice noodles and some water include: fresh shitake mushrooms, green onions.

On medium heat, with the lid on, cook for 5-10 minutes.

While that's simmering, make a sauce concoction that will give the mi fen a lovely, tasty complex flavor. I offer my humble apologies for having no clue how much of what I put here. I can, however, disclose what I put into the mixture:

brown sugar.
rice vinegar.
sesame oil.
sea salt.
oyster sauce.
barbecue sauce (not to be confused with what we normally think of as barbecue sauce. This is not what is normally found in grocery stores; this is an Asian sauce that's spicy).

Mix the stuff together well and then dump the contents into the mi fen (rice noodles) that's cooking and stir well. I always operate with the "waste not" mentality. Once, I've emptied the contents of the bowl into the pan, I place some water into the bowl, scrape the sauce contents off of the bowl, and pour all of what is in the bowl into the frying pan. Stir well, add the onion, eggs, and cabbage into the mixture, stir well, and serve.

If you've been following this blog for awhile now, you heard me say this previously. My husband was a meat and potatoes man when I met him, and deep down, he still is. When I make this, I make roughly 12 servings worth. And it is sometimes gone within 24 hours. So, folks, it is worth putting in the effort, though the work may appear intense or daunting at first.

Viola.

A mi fen (rice noodle) stir fry that would make chefs proud

2010-08-19T17:22:00.001-07:00

This had originally started out as a post with some 20+ photographs, and as I type, they are still attached to this post. But, I've decided, they must go. I haven't the stamina to complete such a lengthy post, and I don't think you'd want to follow such a post all the way to its end.

Perhaps less than photographs will suffice.

2010-8-20

Mi Fen (Rice Noodle) Stir Fry

This is easily the best, hands down, mi fen stir fry I have ever made. This is something I would proudly create for others, chefs even. Seriously, it's that good. But, this is not one of those super quick or easy things to make. And, I apologize, I have no measurements to share for this recipe, not because I have secrets I desire to keep clandestine, but I functioned in a normal mode of operation for me (cooking by taste and smell, with no exact measurements in mind and none holding me back).

Four "things" were cooked separately, in preparation for this dish. This time around, I am listing the ingredients and directions unconventionally, with each component or thing separately cooked in preparation for the stir fry. Ready? The ingredients will be listed by number, with instructions following.

Component #1
1. 1/2 red onion.
2. a little bit of olive oil.

Peel and cut the onion thinly, then into thirds. In a large pan (I use the same pan to cook all the components, without washing the pan from cooking one component to another; this keeps the flavor of what was previously cooked), on low medium heat using just a bit of olive oil, cook the onion until it's transparent. Then set aside, leaving behind any remaining oil and juice residue from the onion.

Component #2
3. cabbage - which I got garden fresh from a friend.
4. chicken broth.
5. water.
6. garlic.
7. sea salt.
8. oyster sauce.

Add the garlic to the pan. Still on medium heat, once the garlic has been sizzling a bit, add the cabbage that has been rinsed and cut very finely. I added water and chicken broth to prevent the cabbage from getting too dry and sticking to the pan. Place the lid on the pan. Stir occasionally. I also added sea salt and oyster sauce. Cook until fairly tender (which was more than a few minutes for me). Once done, set aside. I kept a fair amount of the juice with the vegetable (instead of keeping all the juice/soup in the pan).

Component #3

9. 3 eggs.
10. 3 tomatoes - fresh from my dad's garden - diced.
11. chicken broth.
12. sea salt.
13. soy sauce.
14. olive oil.
15. garlic - diced.

Add a tad bit more olive oil into the pan, with some garlic cut into small pieces and the white parts of 2 green onions cut finely. Turn the stove on low medium heat. Once the garlic and green onions have been sizzling for a bit, add three beaten eggs (with a little bit of chicken broth added at the end of the egg beating phase) to the pan. When the eggs are nearly well cooked add in the diced tomatoes. Cover for a minute or two. Add soy sauce and sea salt; not too much is needed.

Before Component #3 is cooked. the rice noodles need to be soaked in hot water, like so:

Component #4
16. rice noodles - 1 package.
17. green onions - the white parts - cut finely.
18. green onions - the green parts - cut finely.
19. water.
20. chicken broth.

Mix the following ingredients in a bowl (for a sauce):
21. sesame oil.
22. aged rice vinegar.
23. soy sauce.
24. cane sugar.
25. sea salt.
26. barbecue sauce - b/w 1 tsp & 1 tbs - CAUTION: this is not what we normally think of as barbecue sauce. I didn't keep the original can, but this is what the stuff looks like:

In the same pan, which should be empty except for some residual oil, broth, and perhaps a few pieces of this and that. Place the rice noodles in the pan, and add a couple of cups (?) of a combination of water and chicken broth, along with the whites of the green onions. Place the lid on the pan and let simmer, stirring occasionally. After the noodles are firm, but tender enough to chew (eat), add the sauce mixture as well as the previous three components.

Stir well and serve.

Serve with chopsticks, which is what my 2 yr old and 3 yr old prefer trying, especially when they see me eating with chopsticks.

Or without (chopsticks).

***

Either way, it was huge hit with the husband and the children.

Each mouthful is full of complex, delightful flavors; I kid you not. I'll be making this in the future. No hesitation (except it takes me awhile to make this).

Baked rotini with zucchini

2010-08-18T19:27:00.001-07:00

2010-8-18

Baked Rotini with Zucchini

This is was own creation. Well, nothing is, strictly speaking our own without borrowing ideas and tips from others. But, I took what I know about cooking and blending things together, as well as some ideas from lasagna or baked ziti; and, I made my own thing.

My husband has come a long way. Before me, I believe he hardly ate vegetables. What are vegetables? Who the heck would eat those?

I, on the other hand, grew up eating a wide variety of vegetables: of varying sizes, shapes, colors, textures, and flavors. One of my friends, Cecily, brought over a couple of garden fresh zucchinis: one that was cooked a few days ago in a rice noodle stir fry and the other went into the baked rotini I prepared today.

Speaking of today, I must have been insane to cook on the stove and then bake. It was hotter than Hades, reaching over a sweltering 100 degrees outside. Since I don't have air conditioning in my house (we do have a lovely down draft swamp cooler), the inside temperature was perhaps 10 degrees cooler. With a stove and an oven on, the temperature was climbing up to match the outside heat. But, since I wanted to make some food my husband was sure to appreciate, off to work I went.

In effort to really cut the grocery budget, I'm not necessarily purchasing meat for cooking every week. My husband has breakfast pork sausage with his breakfast most mornings, so he's not entirely without his meats. I thought the flavor of zucchini would go lovely in this dish.

Without further ado, here's the recipe:

Baked Rotini with Zucchini

Ingredients:

1 fresh zucchini, peeled and cut into super thin - angel hair pasta size - strips
1 & 1/3 packages of rotini
2 24 oz of marinara sauce
1 24 oz container of cottage cheese
shredded cheese
a tad bit of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
chicken broth*
sea salt*
oregano*
parsley flakes*

* I apologize I do not have any measurements for the salt, oregano, or parsley flakes. My normal mode of operation is to fly by the seat of my pants. Several pinches of oregano and parsley flakes went into the marinara sauce, here and there.

Directions:

Peel and cut the zucchini. Cut the zucchini super finely, so they end up looking like thin angel hair (pasta).
Peel and dice the garlic.
In a pan on medium heat, place the diced garlic and a few table spoons of olive oil. Once the garlic has been sizzling and you can clearly smell the fragrance of it cooking, add the zucchini. I added some chicken broth and sea salt so it would not burn and so it would cook faster and more evenly. Place the lid on it, and cook it until it's well done, stirring occasionally. I added oregano and parsley flakes. Once the stuff is cooked thoroughly, I added the marinara sauce, stirred the contents thoroughly, and placed the stove on medium heat.
In a separate pot, cook the rotini for 8 minutes. I'm not including specific instructions on this, so if you have questions, feel free to ask.
Preheat the oven to 375.
The rest of the instructions is a bit artsy fartsy, or perhaps a bit foodie in attitude.

1. In the baking stone (I used a rectangular Pampered Chef stoneware), lay some of the sauce mixture sparingly on the bottom; no need to cover the bottom entirely of sauce.
2. The next layer, a decent spread of cooked rotini.
3. Then added cottage cheese. No need for it to be thoroughly covering this layer. Here and there.
4. Add shredded cheese. I added a mixture of shredded mozzarella cheese and shredded mild cheddar jack cheese. Also no need to be super thorough in cover this layer with cheese.
5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4.
6. Apply a generous layer of rotini.
7. Add shredded cheese; same mixture as mentioned in step 4.

Cover the stoneware, baking container, with aluminum foil.
Bake for 1 hr.
Let sit for 10 minutes and it's ready to serve.

***

The following are some photographs to go with the aforementioned recipe:

Ingredients:

Zucchini. I have no photographs to show. I decided to blog about this recipe only after I had already skinned the zucchini and started slicing it.

2 boxes of rotini (actually, it was more like 1 and 1/3 or perhaps 1 and 1/2)

2 24 oz jars of marinara sauce

1 24 oz container of cottage cheese

shredded cheese - I used a combination of cheddar jack and mozzarella

olive oil - just enough to cook the zucchini. Don't drown the stuff with olive oil; not all that much is needed.

3 cloves of garlic

chicken broth - I have no idea how much I used; sorry. Less than 1/2 a cup?

Sea salt. Again, not sure of the amount here. A teaspoon or so?

Oregano. How much? Don't know. Pinches of it, here, there, over here, and over there?

Parsley flakes - same as oregano

Directions:

First peel and cut the zucchini like so.

Then cut the zucchini again into thin spaghetti, angel hair, like strips.

Peel and dice the garlic.

Start layering the bake ware. See the instructions above. I apologize for not writing something else here. My steam is petering out.

***

The baked rotini with zucchini after it's baked and been sitting for a bit.

Enticed?

My meat eating husband enjoyed this dish thoroughly, despite the fact that this was a meatless dish.

That's what friends are for

2010-08-16T20:02:00.001-07:00

2010-8-15

I'm much more uncomfortable being a receiver (or taker, or whatever interpretation you like). I'm a giver and I love to bless others. One of the lessons I've been learning the hard way is that I need to learn to receive.

Long story short, my friend, Cecily, blessed me by making lunch, spur of the moment, Sunday after church. Read about my adventurous weekend here. Her dish was so good, and no doubt filled with love, I had three helpings. Thank you, thank you, friend.

Beef and mushroom lasagna

2010-08-12T18:17:00.001-07:00

Friends of ours came over last night for dinner. Their days here in the States are numbered, as they prepare for their return to Australia. Decided to make them lasagna during a less than cool part of summer. Lack of foresight on my part. However, to my credit, I was thinking about a food that many of our friends seem to appreciate - lasagna. If left to my own devices and preferences, I probably would have made a vegetarian lasagna. Or a soup. Or Asian food.

When I've made lasagna in the past, I made it without boiling the pasta first. Doing so required a fair amount of additional liquid (insert added water here) and I went without a third layer of lasagna pasta when made this way in the past. This time, I boiled the lasagna pasta first.

The following is the brief recipe, followed by a photo essay of the recipe. Should you choose to follow the latter, I warn you ahead of time and apologize for the tremendous number of photographs that follow.

***

Beef Lasagna

Ingredients:

9 pieces of lasagna pasta.
1 family size package of lean ground beef.
1 small package of baby portabella mushrooms - presliced.
1/2 red onion, diced.
2 cloves of garlic, minced.
olive oil, just enough to stir fry the beef, mushrooms, and onion.
2 24 oz jars of marinara sauce - I like Barilla's marinara sauce.
1 1/2 24 oz containers of cottage cheese.
shredded cheese - I happened to use 2 different packages this time: mozzarella and Mexican style.

Instructions:

Pan fry each of the three - onion, ground beef, and mushrooms - separately.
Then combine the three with the pasta sauce and let marinate overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375.
Drop some marinara sauce here and there, at the bottom of the 9 x 13 pan.
Line up three pieces of lasagna pasta; followed by the sauce combination, layer cottage cheese, and pay shredded cheese on top.
Repeat previous step.
Line up three pieces of lasagna pasta on top. Cover that last layer with shredded cheese.
Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil.
Bake on 475 for 50 minutes, covered. Add shredded parmesan cheese or Mexican cheese and place back in the oven covered for 10 minutes.
Let lasagna cool for 10 minutes. Cut and serve.

***

Ingredients:

Lasagna noodles

Lean ground beef

Sliced baby portabella mushrooms

Half a red onion

2 cloves of garlic

a little bit of olive oil

2 jars of 24 oz jars of marinara sauce

1 1/2 containers (24 oz) of cottage cheese

shredded cheese

The process:

Skin and cut a red onion in half

Slice thinly one way

like so.

Then slice thinly in the perpendicular direction.

Diced onion is what we're wanting.

After peeling the garlic, I used a garlic press to mince the garlic cloves.

Use just a bit of olive oil (I used no more than a few table spoons) to cook the onion until it's transparent. Then remove the onion, leaving behind remaining the olive oil.

Cook the ground beef on higher heat. Once well done, let cook off. Remove the beef, leaving behind any grease, fat, or juice. I put that liquid stuff in a different container.

Place the minced garlic with a bit of fresh olive oil on medium heat. Then add the mushrooms. I added a bit of sea salt, so it wouldn't be too dry.

Combine the three aforementioned ingredients. Also add the marinara sauce; both jars.

Mix and let sit over night.

Next day, I boiled the lasagna noodles for about 9 minutes.

The marinara sauce mixture after it's been sitting overnight.

Dabble the bottom of the pan with some marinara sauce.

Put in one layer of lasagna pasta.

Cover with thin layer of marinara meat sauce.

Add cottage cheese.

Followed by shredded cheese.

Repeat the last 4 steps: add a layer or lasagna pasta.

Add meat marinara sauce.

Add shredded cheese.

Followed by cottage cheese.

Add a last layer of lasagna past along with shredded cheese on the very top.

Cook at 375, covered, for 50 minutes. Uncover, added Mexican shredded cheese or shredded parmesan cheese, cover, and cook for 10 more minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before cutting or serving.

Viola. Fertig.

Chili

2010-08-07T19:39:00.001-07:00

2010-8-6

I'm not sure what is motivating me to blog about chili, since I've shared some sort of recipe here before. Perhaps part of it is the fresh vegetables (such as squash and zucchini) and herbs I got, which went into the soup. Maybe also to share what I made for company Friday. My friend had two helpings of the chili. While writing this post, my husband's on his second bowl of chili, and there isn't much left.

An anniversary meal all the members of my family couldn't wait to eat: HOMEMADE PIZZA

2010-08-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

2010-8-3

Today, my husband and I celebrated our eight wedding anniversary. Food is such an important part of our lives, so that had to be part of the celebration. We wanted to celebrate with a delicious meal on a budget.

For our anniversary meal, I made two pizzas for about $7. No kidding. TWO PIZZAS for about $7. And? It was so tasty, hardly any leftovers, among two adults and two very small children (one 2 yrs old and one will be 4 next month). Due to my influence, my husband is a fan of mushroom and pineapple (not to be confused with the Hawaiian ham and pineapple combination) pizzas.

Ingredients - 6 total:

1. French loaf dough King Soopers (aka Kroger) uses to make their French bread. It comes frozen. Just ask the bakery for the dough. They charge the same amount as the stuff that's baked. After tax it was $1.77.

2. Olive oil, just enough (not enough to make greasy) to thoroughly cook the onion and mushrooms (separately). 3. Red onion. 4. Pineapples. 5. Mushrooms.

6. Shredded cheese.

The process and preparation:

Peel and cut the red onion.

Cut thinly.

Like so.

Wash and cut the mushrooms thinly as well.

Until they are all cut.

Separate the juice from the pineapples. I drank the juice.

Pizza sauce. Need that. Goes on top of the dough flattened on the baking surface.

With just a bit of olive oil, cook the red onion until it's transparent. The onion and mushrooms must be cooked BEFORE placing on the pizza; otherwise, the result is nearly raw onion with crunchy mushrooms.

Put the onion aside, leaving any remaining liquid in the pan and cook the mushrooms. I added a hint of sea salt to the mushrooms. Then set that aside once cooked until tender and soft.

This will be needed last, on top of the toppings.

One of two pizzas before I added the cheese.

The other pizza, with the cheese added on it. Ready to bake.

After the baking, cooling, and cutting. I baked my pizzas individually at 475 for about 18 minutes.

The other pizza after baking.

The girls ate the cheese portion of the pizzas, and my husband and I ate the pineapples, mushrooms, onion part of the pizzas. My husband and the girls did not want to stop eating the pizzas. No kidding. People were drooling as they thought about and talked about the pizzas.

Viola.

And gone.

Sweet, delectable, colorfulness

2010-07-30T20:06:00.001-07:00

2010-7-30

Initially I had started calling this post, "Sweet, delectable, colorful art." But, I decided it didn't quite look like art. As a kid, I remember my mom often saying that when making food, presentation matters. Certainly, taste matters most. But, if the food tastes wonderfully but appears like a disaster, people won't be interested. I've hung on to those words since. I treat anything I am creating in the kitchen as a work of art, carefully and thoughtfully crafting.

On the flour tortilla: caramelized red onions, yellow bell peppers, red bell peppers, fresh corn (I am sad to admit, I usually use frozen corn, but I shucked that corn off the cob myself), chicken breast. Then I added shredded cheese and pineapple peach salsa. Salsa I've been on to lately? This one.

P.S. I love when the non-green bell peppers go on sale. I have to keep myself from going crazy.

***

I am not be given anything by Archer Farms (aka Target) to advertise for them. I simply enjoy this salsa at the moment.

Sweet corn at a sweet price

2010-07-29T20:15:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I took advantage of Sunflower Farmer's Market's deal on fresh sweet corn. 10 ears for $1.

Turns out it was a sweet deal from what I've sampled and from what my 2 year old enjoyed.

2010-7-29

She polished most of an ear of corn on her own.

This is all without any help from her mommy. Not bad for a 2 year old.

Tofu and Shrimp Pad Thai in review

2010-07-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, I made a huge portion of Pad Thai when we had Susan and some of her children over: read about it here. Also gave some to other friends, including Phil and Darbi. Asked Phil for input, and he gave me constructive criticism: the noodles broke into small pieces and the dish wasn't very spicy. The former is something I've been working on and have been frustrated with, to the point of not really enjoying the leftovers. I don't know whether Phil had other things he didn't like about the dish, but those two aren't bad. I'll perfect the former, hopefully sooner rather than later. As for the latter, members of this household do not necessarily appreciate truly spicy dishes.

I made Pad Thai this past Friday. I changed a few things about how I treated the rice noodles. I didn't soak them, to start. Then when I added the water and chicken broth to it, I poured boiling water over the noodles.

Tofu and Shrimp Pad Thai

2010-7-23

Result? Success. Initially, anyways. See how long and luxurious the noodles look?

But, after sitting in the pot for awhile, even with the stove off, the noodles got soggy and broken. FAIL.

Phil said that he and his wife flash boil the noodles and pan fry the rest of the way. That might help take care of the sogginess. But, pan frying noodles isn't my preference, at least not now. So, I must make more adjustments, changes, and refinements.

For now, take a look at some of the component parts of the Pad Thai, which were all cooked separately.

Tasted the rich flavors embedded in the eggs, even after it joined the soup.

Ah, caramelized onion. Love them.

The shrimps could have been a dish by themselves.

The tofu.

Tacos, fajitas, or something

2010-07-20T19:14:00.001-07:00

2010-7-16

This was the second of the dishes I made Friday, the first being hot and sour soup. Right against the flour tortilla is a stir fry: caramelized red onion, green peppers, chicken breast, and corn. Other ingredients: shredded cheese, Archer Farms pineapple peach thick and chunky, mild salsa.

Though I made a pretty generous amount, this dish didn't last past the weekend. My husband claims it was that good.

Two of my Favorites: Rice and Hot and Sour Soup

2010-07-20T09:24:00.001-07:00

We've been experiencing hot, sweaty weather that is more than I can handle with grace. I'm talking about over a hundred temps for several days and minimally the high nineties for a week or so. I live in a house with a down draft swamp cooler for cooling (no air conditioning). Dying here.

Somehow none of that deterred me from two foods that I consume on a regular basis: rice and soup. Hot and sour soup is one of my favs lately.

This past Friday, I made two things: hot and sour soup and tacos. Despite the fact that it was so hot that day. By the time I consumed my lovely hot and sour soup with rice, I was a sweatier mess than I was before I started eating.

Not a pretty sight, whatsoever. But, the food was so satisfying.

Seared Tuna with Caramelized Onion

2010-07-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

2010-7-15

Bought some Ahi Tuna at the store today. Since we've been in this house one year as of today and that's anniversary of sorts, thought we'd celebrate.

I caramelized a red onion, by cooking it on lower heat with a bit of olive oil, until the onion turned a bit transparent. Then i added the tuna. It wasn't frozen when I was ready to cook it. So, I cooked it no more than a few minutes on each side, adding a bit of sea salt on each side.

Enough Pad Thai to feed a king and his kingdom

2010-07-13T21:56:00.001-07:00

2010-7-12

Pad Thai with Tofu and Shrimp

I had told my husband I was planning on making Pad Thai yesterday. When he heard that, he was ever excited and requested I make a huge amount. Huge amount I did make. We didn't have company over or anything, but I still made roughly the same amount the last time I made this - for Susan and some of her kids. Click here for that recipe.

Garden delight all done

2010-07-11T13:15:00.001-07:00

Pickled Kohlrabi

My side of the family came towards the end of June, and they left, leaving behind exquisite vegetables from Daddy's garden. Yesterday, the last of the vegetables were consumed. I was the only one working on the kohlrabi.

And there was much to be had. See?

Not the usual size one spots in the grocery store. Took some effort to cut the thing.

Since I wanted to pickle the kohlrabi, I cut it into small pieces, so it would soak in the sugar, salt, vinegar, and sesame oil more easily.

Into smaller pieces, I cut.

And finally this.

Lots of kohlrabi to come. That's why I took nearly two weeks to finish all of it. Oh yes, and I had a violent stomach bug to interrupt consumption of delicious food.

I am sad all that deliciousness is gone. Sad, sad, sad.

Homemade Pineapple, Mushroom, and Caramelized Onions Pizza

2010-07-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

2010-7-4

Homemade Pineapple, Mushroom, and Caramelized Onions Pizza

Yesterday was the 4th of July; a celebration of freedom and liberty that must be observed. Also had my best friend since the 4th grade visiting from out of state; last night was her last night in town. Wanted to have something special for dinner; the verdict was home made pizza.

Our friends, Liz and Geoff, had has over for dinner not long ago, and they told us about getting dough from King Sooper's (perhaps owned by the same company as Kroger's) bakery section. Liz said to ask a bakery employee for the dough used to make the store's French bread. The store uses ready-made, frozen dough to bake their French bread. I took that suggestion and ran with it.

Troy and I enjoy having the combination of mushrooms and pineapples on our pizza. Abby is a vegetarian, didn't specify other ingredients she preferred on the pizza(s), and agreed my suggestion of putting mushrooms, pineapples, and onions on the pizza(s).

This is a very easy recipe, considering I didn't need any time or effort to make the dough. Six ingredients. A bit of cooking, before the baking. Loads and loads of deliciousness. Ready?

Ingredients:

1. dough.

2. mushrooms - sorry, no photograph available.

3. red onions.

4. pineapples.

5. pineapples.

6. shredded cheese.

Directions:

Flatten dough on stoneware (I love using my Pampered Chef stoneware to bake, and no, I am not being paid or being given any gifts to speak highly of their products). Um, we could have easily used one loaf to make two crusts, but we didn't take that route this time. My husband rolled the dough.

Wash and cut the mushrooms. Cut very thinly.

Peel and cut the red onions. Half an onion, and cut into very, very thinly, then half.

Lessons learned from the past. Make sure to cook the mushrooms BEFORE baking them; otherwise they turn out crunchy.

I first caramelized the red onions (in a pan, cook the onions with a bit of olive oil on medium heat, until a bit transparent). Pull out most of the red onions and set them aside in a bowl, leaving behind the olive oil and any onion juice in the pan. Then, throw in the cut mushrooms. Add a bit of sea salt. Cook until tender. Pull out the mushrooms (leaving behind the juice that developed from cooking the mushrooms) and set them aside in a bowl.

Spread the pasta sauce over the dough. Then add the toppings - in this case - onions, pineapples, and mushrooms. I left part of each pizza without toppings, for our daughters.

Look good?

Then add the cheese.

I cooked each of our pizzas (individually - because the huge round stoneware didn't fit alongside the rectangular stoneware, and I didn't think about baking them on different levels simultaneously) at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. I baked ours until the crust started turning a bit golden.

Here's one of the final products:

***

Oh, and by the way, those two generous size pizzas barely lasted the night, last night. The girls polished off the little remaining at lunchtime today. The pizzas were ever popular.

Shrimp and Tofu Pad Thai

2010-06-25T20:23:00.001-07:00

2010-6-25

Pad Thai with Shrimp and Tofu

I made this for some friends from church, four of seven members of a family were attending. I had promised another couple I'd make some Pad Thai for them. And, there are four of us in our family. So, with a total of five adults and four children and with no specific knowledge of everyone's appetites, I wanted to make plenty for everyone to eat.

I basically doubled the recipe from the last time I made Pad Thai, on June 4th. Last time, I made Tofu Pad Thai; this time, Shrimp and Tofu Pad Thai. Be not surprised that I'm going to copy much of the text from the last time I blogged on this dish. If you'd like to refer to my last blog post about Pad Thai, go here.

Some changes I made from the last time I made Pad Thai include: 1. the addition of shrimp; 2. using a red onion (instead of a sweet onion); and 3. the difference in cooking time of the rice noodles. Do NOT wait until the soup (with the noodles in it) are boiling and start counting five minutes after that. Cook the noodles for a total of five minutes, on high, regardless of whether the soup is boiling or not. Otherwise, when the noodles cook too long, they break fairly easily.

Ingredients:

2 14 oz package of rice noodles (Thai style - Pho)
1 14 oz package of firm tofu
6 eggs, lightly beaten with chicken broth added
8 green onions - rinsed, whites separated from the greens - whites cut extremely thin and greens cut roughly half an inch. Used a combination of store bought green onions and onions from my dad's garden.
1 red onion, cut very thin
8 minced garlic cloves
chicken broth - roughly half a box - 16 oz.
water - approximately double the amount of chicken broth
olive oil - just enough to caramelize the onion, stir fry the eggs and the tofu; all individually
lime - cut into wedges
fresh bean sprouts - rinsed - roughly three handfuls for cooking and more to serve when ready to eat
48-50 crushed cashews

for the sauce:

6 tbsp (tablespoons) soy sauce
4 tbsp tamarind paste
6 tbsp fish sauce
4 tsp (teaspoons) chili powder
6 tbsp cane sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar
4 tbsp oyster sauce

Directions:

Mix the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.
Soak the rice noodles in hot water and set aside.
In a pan, with some olive oil and some minced garlic on low medium heat, once the garlic sizzles for a bit, cook the onion until it starts turning clearish and then set aside in a bowl (leave any juices and oil from cooking the onion in the pan).
In the same pan, add a bit more garlic, leaving the stove on lower medium heat. Like the previous step, with until the garlic is sizzling and cook the lightly beaten eggs that were mixed with some chicken broth. Once done, put in a bowl and set aside.
In the same pan, add some more minced garlic and olive oil. Like the preceding three steps, wait until the garlic is sizzling and then drop in the cut tofu, adding some soy sauce (a few tablespoons?). Cook for a few minutes and then set that aside in a bowl of its own.
Drain the rice noodles.
In a large pot - drop in the rice noodles, water, chicken broth, the remainder of the minced garlic, the whites of the green onions - on high heat. Make sure there's enough water and chicken broth that the noodles are barely submerged. Once the mixture has been boiling for 5 minutes (be careful not to wait too long, or the noodles will start breaking quite easily), add the sauce mixture, caramelized onion, eggs, tofu, three-ish hands-full of bean sprouts, and the green parts of the green onion. Stir well. Right before serving, add in the shrimp, stir well; the Pad Thai is ready to serve with fresh bean sprouts, crushed cashews, and lime wedges.

***

Photo details of this recipe are as follows:

Ingredients

1 package of firm tofu, 20 jumbo raw shrimp, 6 eggs (beaten with some chicken broth), 2 14 oz packages of Pho rice noodles.

Also needed: olive oil (just enough to cook the red onion), a fair amount of chicken broth, loads of water.

Also needed: 8 cloves of garlic, a medium sized red onion, 8 green onions. Oh, and bean sprouts are needed.

Condiments. These go on each individual plate, when ready to serve and eat. Ingredients needed: bean sprouts, cashews (peanuts are fine as well), lime wedges.

Sauce. Seven ingredients are necessary for this: 1. fish sauce, 2. tamarind paste, 3. chili powder, 4. soy sauce,

5. cane sugar, 6. rice vinegar, 7. oyster sauce.

The process:

Peel and mince the garlic. Thank goodness for my garlic press.

Drain the tofu of the water. Cut into small squares or rectangles. My husband cut the tofu into small squares.

Break six eggs into a bowl. Gently beat. Add some chicken broth and mix well.

Preparing and Cooking the Pad Thai - The Final Steps

1. I cooked (pan fried) four ingredients separately. I caramelized the red onion and set that aside (leaving any juice in the pan) in a bowl. In the same pan (I didn't wash the pan after every use), I added a bit of garlic and cooked the shrimp. Once the shrimp was done, I set that aside, leaving any juices in the pan. Add some garlic to the pan and cook the eggs. Whilst cooking the eggs, I added some sea salt and red pepper flakes. Once done, set aside. Add a bit of olive oil and garlic to the pan and cook the tofu. Add in soy sauce and let the tofu simmer for several minutes. Then set the tofu aside.

2. Assemble and stir the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl of its own. Set aside when done.

3. I had to use a large stock pot to make sure I could accommodate all these goodies. Probably made 20-30 servings, after all. In the stock pot, insert the rice noodles (I pulled the rice noodles out of the water; add fresh water), add in loads of water and about half the amount of chicken broth.

Also add in the remainder of the garlic as well as the green onions. Turn the stove on high.

After a few minutes of the having the stove turned on high, add to the pot: eggs (which were set aside), about three to four hands full of bean sprouts,

tofu, onion, and sauce - all of which have been set aside in separate bowls. When ready to eat, at the last minute, add the shrimp to the pot and mix well with other contents.

4. On each individual plate, for serving, add a lime wedges, fresh (uncooked) bean sprouts, and crushed cashews (I don't have any photographs available of a bowl full of crush cashews).

***

Here, again, is the finished product.

The eight and ten year old guests repeatedly said just how tasty the dish was.

Simply Shrimp

2010-06-25T19:34:00.001-07:00

2010-5-25

Simply Shrimp

Simply put, I pan fried a finely sliced red onion until it started turning transparent. Then I dropped in frozen, raw shrimp into the pan. When the shrimp was almost done, I added some sea salt and red pepper flakes. Careful not to overcook the shrimp, as that shrinks the shrimp and makes it somewhat rubbery.

I had this to eat over rice, along with some Swiss chard and pickled kohlrabi.

Here's the somewhat more picturesque version of the recipe:

Ingredients

Uncooked easy peel shrimp of the large variety. Six of them.

A small red onion.

Olive oil. Just a tid bit.

Sea salt. Again, just a bit.

Red pepper flakes. A few shakes.

Directions

Cut the red onion finely.

Then cut in half in the perpendicular direction.

The six shrimp up on the chopping block (to be cooked).

Place the cut onion into a pan with just a tad of olive oil.

Separate the onion into its individual pieces and fry until somewhat transparent.

Then add in the shrimp. Cook the shrimp just until it turns orange. Don't overcook this.

Boiled Eggs Bathing in Deliciousness

2010-06-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

Eggs Having Bathed in Deliciousness

This is the last dish in a series of Taiwanese dishes. Taiwanese (or in my case, Taiwanese Americans) love consuming this dish.

I've got a HUGE disclaimer to make before I start. The soupy thing that has a jello-y texture is not of my doing. It's my mom's concoction. I'm posting this to brag about the deliciousness of the final product and, more importantly, to brag about my mom's cooking. I've spoken highly of my dad's cooking; now it's my mom's turn. You see, I grew up with two chef's in the house. My dad, due to practical reasons, ended up being the everyday chef, who taught my sister and me many essentials of cooking. My mom attacked some of the more complicated - time and labor intensive - Taiwanese cuisine. All this is to say, both parents taught us different but significant cooking concepts, ideas, skills.

The soupy thing pictured below is more than a mere beef broth, as you can probably see. It started as water, cooking meat for hours, hours, and hours. It also has a generous amount of soy sauce. The meat was later removed. Then, I allowed the fat to separate from the rest; refrigeration actually wasn't necessary for that process. I skimmed the fat off and then brought the stuff back to a boil.

Eggs. Lots of eggs. This batch around, I used 18 eggs. Boiled 18 eggs in water for six minutes. For those who are inexperienced with boiling eggs, do NOT wait until the water is boiling to drop in the eggs. Put the eggs in water whilst the water is at room temperature. Do not turn the stove on high (if the eggs are immediately coming out of the refrigerator); that could crack the egg shell before it's finished boiling.

Peel the egg shells off the eggs once the eggs are done cooking. The fresher the eggs, the more difficult it is to peel the eggs.

I even used my mom's suggestion of adding salt, after the eggs are done cooking and the eggs are resting in cold water, to the water. That helped when we were peeling white eggs (that, I guess, were older) but not with the brown eggs. Still, the finished product was ever tasty.

Swiss Chard Stir Fry

2010-06-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

Swiss Chard Stir Fry

Points before I start on the recipe:

1. In a series of Taiwanese dishes, this is NOT Taiwanese. Merely a concoction from my imagination.
2. Two ingredients I am not absolutely certain I put in here: chicken broth and half a sweet onion (versus half a red onion). I'm more certain of the latter. Give me a break, it's been a few days since I cooked it. I'm on the verge of a heat breakdown; I am so hot.
3. I'm not entirely pleased with how this dish turned out. As you may have figured out, I am a bit of a perfectionist. Any dish needs to look just so and taste just right. If not, in my mind, it qualifies as a FAIL. Why am I posting a dish I count as a failure, you might be thinking. Perhaps I'm bragging about the produce in my dad's garden. Maybe I've lost my marbles. Or, maybe I'm petitioning you for a better way to cook this.

Without further ado, let's begin.

Ingredients:

Swiss chard.

Not to be mistaken for lettuce. The taste of this has some personality to it. The night before last, we went to some friends' home for dinner and we were assigned to bring salad. My husband asked whether this greenery could constitute part of the salad.

"No," was my response.

He looked puzzled, "why not?"

"Taste it, honey."

"Wow, that has some kick to it."

Moral of the story? This vegetable isn't for the faint-hearted (or those who desire blandness).

Again, Swiss chard.

Next. Half a sweet onion. I used the other half of what I had used to make guacamole.

A bit of olive oil to caramelize the onion. Sea salt. Worcestershire sauce. Chicken broth.

Directions or the process:

Take half a sweet onion.

Cut thinly one way and then make a perpendicular cut.

Wash the chard thoroughly. I apparently didn't, because some parts were a bit gritty. Worry not. My father's vegetable garden is pesticide free. At the very worst, I'm ingesting some dirt, stuff from the earth. Then cut.

This is how much chard I had to cook.

In a frying pan, on lower medium heat, with just a bit of olive oil, cook the sweet onion until it's just about transparent. Then add in the Swiss chard and a bit of chicken broth. Cover for several minutes. Add in salt and Worcestershire sauce, stir thoroughly, and cover. Ready to eat a few minutes after that.

Pickled Kohlrabi

2010-06-25T07:04:00.001-07:00

Pickled Kohlrabi

Onwards with the Taiwanese dishes. This doesn't involve any heated surfaces. This has been one of many, many favorites since childhood. What can I say? I love to eat, it's not just about throwing random ingredients together, and sometimes the most delicious things are simple.

Enter in kohlrabi. From my dad's garden.

Are you familiar with kohlrabi? Do you realize that that is HUGE for kohlrabi? Not sure? Compare with the tomato pictured below. Normally kohlrabi found in grocery stores are the size of the tomato seen below. If bigger, oftentimes the stuff is too tough and too old to enjoy. But not this one. My dad is a truly amazing gardener.

Ingredients:

The most important is kohlrabi.

To pickle the vegetable, I used sea salt, rice vinegar, and sugar. I didn't pay attention to the quantities I used, so look here, where I made a cucumber salad for an idea. Recently, my dad made pickled kohlrabi using sesame oil. What a great idea; I decided to follow suit.

Be careful not to get too happy with the sesame oil; it carries much flavor in minute quantities. I probably used less than a teaspoon.

The kohlrabi needs to be skinned (the outside layer needs to be cut off) and then cut thinly. First, I cut it like this.

And then this.

After giving the kohlrabi a chance to soak in the aforementioned ingredients, it's ready to serve. The photograph at the top of the page was taken after it had sat, refrigerated, overnight.

One of Isabella's favorites

2010-06-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

An Egg Stir Fry - One of Isabella's Favorites

2010-6-23

Just in case you didn't read the post previous to this one, I don't know what this green stuff is called in English. Help from you guys would be great. Probably belongs in the onion family, but it's not green onions or leeks.

Also, this as well as the next few posts include Taiwanese style dishes.

Ingredients:

This. From my dad's garden.

Eggs. Eight of them.

Garlic. Two cloves.

Then, olive oil, chicken broth, soy sauce, and a tad of sea salt.

Directions:

Wash and cut very finely.

Peel the garlic and cut it into small pieces, like so. Set that aside.

Place eight eggs in a bowl.

After beating the eggs, add in some chicken broth.

Followed by some soy sauce.

Mix well and then pour over the greenery.

Like so.

Mix well.

On low medium heat, allow the garlic and a bit of olive oil to sizzle. Once sizzling, add the other stuff in, perhaps putting in a little bit of salt.

Here's the finished product. The whitish look at the top isn't due to inability to handle a camera. That's steam coming from the dish just cooked.

Served that over rice. In my home growing up, a number of various stir fried vegetables were served for lunch or dinner, all with rice. Rice is to bread, as Taiwanese culture is to American culture. Make sense?