Nachos!

My fiance really loves nachos and I have slowly been coming up with my own recipe for making them at home based on our own personal preferences and what I come across online.

Essentially:
Brown hamburger or ground turkey and then add about 1 cup of water mixed with a healthy dose of taco seasonings (Penzey's has a great mix).

I drain a can of diced tomatoes (I like Del Monte's mixed blends and usually use the green pepper/onion one), a can of sliced olives, and some chili beans.

I layer chips, shredded cheese, the veggies, and meat until the pan is full and pop it in the oven for 10 minutes until the chips soften and the cheese gets all melty.

Incidentally the dish pictured above was a holiday present that I am really liking. I never would have picked it out for myself but I am glad I received it because I think it is going to fill in some gaps in my kitchen utensils quite nicely.

Dark Sweet Cherry Crisp

There is a brand of frozen fruit I like. It is a little expensive but the fruit is generally better than what I can get fresh (except of course when it is in season) and it is already cleaned/de pitted/ de whatever. It comes in these huge bags. I had bought a large bag of dark sweet cherries with the hopes of making cherry crisp. In my online searching I mostly found tart cherry recipes but this one looked really promising.

I doubled the recipe since I had well over twice that much fruit and I mixed some cinnamon and nutmeg in with the oat/crisp portion. It turned out really yummy!

Year End Project-y Goodness

So I am rapidly approaching the end of the year and I don't think I will make my 52 "things" before that time. It was really exciting and encouraging at the beginning of the year and I might try for the the thing-a-day again in early spring but will need to plan it out a bit.

That is not to say I have not been busy. For Thanksgiving this year I was tasked with making pies. I made 2 apple and 2 pumpkin pies. They turned out okay. They needed to be baked a little longer I think but it was a good experience. I even had enough pumpkin filling to make little pumpkin "custards" so that one of the gluten intolerant guests could enjoy dessert as well.

I also tried a chocolate nut pie. It was a different take on a pecan pie. Essentially using mixed nuts. I only really liked the effect when I got a mouth full of peanuts. I like other kinds of nuts but not many and the flavors of them were significantly enhanced in the pie. If I make it again I will just use peanuts I think. Though it was tasty and rich.

While at Bards N' Cooks I managed to turn the heel on my bulky boot socks but to date I have yet to finish one complete pair of socks. Mostly I have been working on the baby sweater for my co-worker. I have all the individual pieces done so now all I have to do is assemble and make the collar. Wish me luck.

It seems my knitting queue has kind of exploded. I need to make a mobius scarf for A along with some typing gloves. I have another friend who just found out she is having a baby and would like to make something for her. And I have socks to finish and some projects for myself I would like to do. I guess I need to become a faster knitter.

For the holidays I had good intentions of making a bunch of homemade gifts but the month sort of got away from me. I ended up getting a good part of the baking done that I wanted to however. I made extremely tiny snickerdoodles, fruit puffs (dried fruit cookies), lots of ginger cookies, some pecan tortes that I am not sure how I feel about, chewy peanut butter chocolate bars, and some candy cane bars that I am rather disappointed in.

I also made a beaded necklace for my grandmother for the holidays. I wasn't pleased with how it turned out. I couldn't seem to find any inspiration with the beads and so I think that hobby has become one I am no longer interested in. I think I might use up my beads and make a bunch of bracelets, etc for gifts for folks and then back my tools away. It is kind of expensive and I find the knitting far more relaxing though not as sparkly.

So all in all I think I can say I did what...maybe 45 projects this year. Not bad. Sadly not my goal but fairly productive.

A Thing-A-Week Part 40: Rocky Road Bread Pudding

This recipe also came from the same magazine as the Harvest soup. This was a weekend of trying foods I normally don't like but was intrigued by high quality recipes. Again, this is not mine so I will give you the ingredients and my instructions. If you know the source, please let me know as I want to give credit where due.

It turned out really well and was excellent served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Rocky Road Bread Pudding

1 cup salted nuts (I used a blend of cashews, almonds, macadamia nuts)
1 lb. brioche or challah with crusts removed (I could find neither so I used 1lb. croissants) cut/torn into one inch cubes
3 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
¾ cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean)
8 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chopped
½ tsp kosher salt
4 large eggs + 2 egg yolks
1 1/3 cups mini marshmallows

(You can toast bread and nuts if you wish. I opted not to.)

*Grease a 13x9 inch baking dish. Seriously...need to grease your dish. This stuff sticks.

*Coarsely chop nuts.

*Bring milk, cream, and sugar to a boil. Add vanilla, chocolate, and salt. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth.

*Whisk eggs and yolks in a large bowl. Gradually (don't curdle your eggs) pour hot chocolate mixture into eggs whisking until blended. Pour over bread cubes in baking dish making sure all are coated. Let stand for a bit (the recipe recommended 45 minutes but I was in a hurry and did about 20. No adverse affects but it would probably be more pudding like if left longer). Heat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a kettle with water and boil.

*Put 1 cup of the marshmallows and 3/4 cup of the nuts into soaked bread and mix in. Place baking dish into a larger roasting pan. Fill with roasting pan with enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the dish with the bread mixture. Bake 50 minutes.

*Scatter remaining nuts and marshmallows over top and bake another 10 minutes. Cool on a rack and serve warm (with ice cream…okay so that is optional but really really good)

A Thing-A-Week Part 39: Harvest Soup

At my part time job there is usually a ragged collection of magazines for folks to browse through between calls that have been donated by other co-workers. I don't remember where on earth I found this recipe but it looked really good and I don't even like squash. Since it is not mine I am not including the complete recipe just the ingredients and general outline of instructions. If anyone has the source I would love to have it.

I made this for the Greyfeathre gathering last week and it went over fairly well. I really enjoyed it and I think it will be included in my "someday" Thanksgiving menu when I finally am able to host Thanksgiving dinner in my own home. This was not originally a vegetarian recipe but I converted it to one by using a good quality vegetable broth and it worked really well.

4lb. pumpkin or squash of your choice, peeled, seeded, and cut into 2 inch chunks.
3 tbsps olive oil
1 onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 small leeks, sliced (about 1 cup)
About 8 oz of russet potato, diced (I added a lot more but I like potatoes which may be why I liked this)
1 stalk celery, diced
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
6 cups of broth (whatever kind you like)
2 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp freshly ground pepper

*Roast the squash or pumpkin at about 425 for 45 minutes. I used acorn squash because I couldn't find any pumpkins. I couldn't get the peel off easy enough to fuss with it ahead of time so I just halved the squash, scooped out seed goo, and put some butter and salt and pepper in the core.

*Saute the diced veggies with a little olive oil until tender. It takes a bit so it is a good way to kill time while the squash is roasting. I added a little season salt as well but that is optional.

*(I put this all in a crock pot and cooked it on low as I didn't have a lot of pots and stove space for the party. You can also make on the stove). I scooped out the roasted squash and added the vegetables to a the crockpot. I added the broth and let cook. When everything was soft, I pureed it with a stick blender and seasoned with salt/pepper to taste.

I didn't get a chance to make this because I ran out of time but it looked like a really nice addition. It is sprinkled on top of each individual serving)

Mushroom Topping
Saute:
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp buter
• 1 Tbsp minced shallot
• 3 cups assorted mushrooms (whatever you like)
Toss this together with:
• 2 Tbsp fresh chives
• 1 tsp fresh thyme
• Kosher salt and ground pepper to taste.

A Thing-A-Week Part 38: Cake in a Mug

So I found online the following recipe:

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
a small splash of vanilla extract

Essentially, you mix all those ingredients in that order in a large coffee mug and microwave it for about 3 minutes and you get cake...theoretically. I tried it and what you get is a large brown lump of slightly burnt cocoa with a sort of waxy rubbery texture. It is cake if you squint really really hard. I wasn't really surprised but a little disappointed. There has to be a way to manage the science to get something more cake like. I think chocolate is right out unless it is a white cake with chocolate chips because the temperature is too hot and too fast for cocoa which burns fairly easily.

I didn't take pictures but this website is almost exactly what it looks like. Although their's looks more like cake so perhaps the wattage on my microwave is too high. It could have been that my cocoa was too good as well. I have noticed some recipes only really work with a more generic cocoa.

Although in doing a web search there are all sorts of variations online so perhaps it could just have been a bad example. I am not sure whether or not it warrants further investigation though because at the end of it, I know that mixing all of the same ingredients and just baking it an oven will yield good cake as opposed to sub standard cake. And no one deserves sub standard cake.

A Thing-A-Week Part 37: Stew

It's a very Hobbit dinner Charlie Brown!

So I have never been much for stew. My father always made gallons of it whenever my mom was out of town and my brother and I grew up hating the stuff. But I wanted something hearty and autumn-like that I could cook all day in the crock pot. I thought I would give it a try.

I have learned from my limited cooking experience that it is time and attention to detail that makes simple food so wonderful. So I decided to put a little energy into everything rather than just dumping it all in the pot. I did a little research and looked at a few recipes on line and this is what I came up with:

1. Mix flour, paprika, salt, and pepper. Roll cubed beef in the seasoning mixture and then place in a frying pan with hot olive oil. Sear/fry until brown on the outside. Transfer meat to crockpot.

2. Dice an onion and place in same frying pan to absorb the flavors of the meat drippings and olive oil. Add diced garlic. Saute until slightly brown. Transfer to crockpot. Deglaze the pan with a little port and add to the rest.

3. Dice 4 potatoes and about 2 cups of carrots and add.

4. Add broth (beef would have been better but I had some chicken that I needed to use up) and add Worcestershire sauce and a bay leaf. Let cook for 4 hours on high.

5. Mix 1 tbsp each of flour and cornstarch with about a cup of water. Whisk vigoursly until there are no lumps and add to put. Then I seasoned with some seasoned salt, pepper, nutmeg, and mustard powder. Remove bay leaf.

I served with buttermilk biscuits I had made from scratch (I need to remember not to roll those so thing when I am making them or they don't puff), chedder cheese, and apple cider. It was very hearty and not bad. I thought the base needed more flavor but I think I might try making the thickner on the stove with a little port and using beef broth next time.