Fondue Night!

After being married for a year, Rex and I decided that we needed to implement a date night once a week so that we could make sure we spend quality time together. It’s been great. Instead of scheduling ourselves so tight on weekends, we managed to give ourselves a break from the busy week to just enjoy time together. The only issue is that date night can get expensive quickly :) Thus, we’ve had some fun doing creative dates. I love utilizing Groupon and LivingSocial, but there are definitely “dry” weeks with a lot of coupons that won’t work for our dates. This past week I decided to do a “date night in”. I had a lot of fun planning it and not telling Rex anything about it! I received a fondue pot for our wedding and decided to put it to use for more than just a chocolate dessert. So what else should I make with a fondue pot other than cheese! I made a couple of things to dip into the cheese: meatballs, granny smith apples, carrots, celery, and French bread. I also made stuffed mushrooms in the oven (DELICIOUS!). We ate probably less than half of each item on the table and took a break to watch a redbox movie. After the movie we made a chocolate, peanut butter fondue and dipped strawberries, bananas, and marshmallows into it. It was a great date night and I think the meal turned out wonderfully. Although it was probably more than I would have spent on a normal dinner, it was much less than we would have spent on a date night out. 

Cheese Fondue:

INGREDIENTS

·        1 cup dry white wine

·         1/2 pound shredded Swiss cheese

·         1/2 pound shredded Gruyere cheese

·         2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

·         1/4 teaspoon salt

·         1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

·         1 (1 pound) loaf French bread, cut into 1 inch cubes

DIRECTIONS:

1. Simmer wine in fondue pot. Add Swiss cheese and Gruyere cheese 1/4 lb at a time. Stir after each addition of cheese until melted. Stir in flour. When all cheese has melted, stir in salt and nutmeg.

Stuffed Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS

·       1 pound lean ground beef

·         2 pounds fresh mushrooms-stems removed, chopped and reserved

·         1/4 cup margarine

·         1/2 cup chopped green bell peppers

·         2 teaspoons minced garlic

·         3 teaspoons dried parsley

·         1 teaspoon dried basil leaves, crushed

·         2/3 cup dry bread crumbs

·         1/3 cup soft bread crumbs

·         2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

1.     Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

2.     Place ground beef in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble and set aside.

3.     In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the margarine and stir in the mushroom stems, green bell peppers, garlic, parsley and basil.

4.     In a large bowl, mix the ground beef, mushroom stem mixture, dry bread crumbs, soft bread crumbs and Cheddar cheese.

5.     Place the mushroom caps, upside down, on a large baking pan. Generously stuff each cap with the mixture.

6.     Bake in the preheated oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until the filling is golden brown.

Meatballs

INGREDIENTS

1/2-1 lb ground beef

1 c Panko dried bread crumbs

1 tsp thyme

1 tbsp basil

1/2 c dried Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

DIRECTIONS

1. Crack 2 eggs into shallow dish (I like using pie plates).

2. In a separate dish, mix bread crumbs, thyme, basil, and Parmesan until well combined.

3. Roll ground beef into separate meatballs, dip in egg wash, and then roll in bread crumb mixture.

4. Place meatballs in skillet and cook until no longer pink inside (8 or so minutes).

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Fondue

INGREDIENTS

1 c semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c milk

1/2 c creamy peanut butter

DIRECTIONS

1. Set up a double-boiler. My set-up is to place a metal bowl in a saucepan. Place 1-1.5 c water in sauce pan and bring to a boil. Place metal bowl over water.

2. Place chocolate chips into saucepan and melt. Add sugar, milk, and peanut butter and heat until smooth. Transfer into fondue pot.

Meal Planning

This post is a bit different as it will not be including any recipes, but I will give insight into my meal planning. Meal planning a perfect way to make my grocery shopping trips less stressful and more budget friendly. Although I love to cook and try new recipes, I strongly dislike meal planning. Meal planning can be a tricky and time-consuming, but the benefits of meal planning far outweigh the torture it seems to put me through. Most of the time I have a really hard time planning what to make and I have to turn to the internet and cookbooks to give me inspiration. I do admit that if I am lucky that week, I may have some cravings for particular foods and that makes the whole planning process easier.

The first thing I do when meal planning is log onto allrecipes.com as that is the site I store most of my recipes. I also utilize http://crockpotgirls.com/about-us/ for some crock pot inspiration and pinterest. I typically scan my folder in allrecipes to see if I can cook up an old favorite or a recipe I archived in months past. When I find a recipe I want, I add it to Word doc to keep my weekly menu organized. I then look at my crock pot website for more inspiration and typically pick something simple to make so as to make at least one of my meals per week is effortless and easy :) Then if I haven't filled up my Word doc with a full weeks worth of meals, its usually time to look through my cookbooks and browse pinterest for meals worth making. Sometimes meal planning takes me 10 minutes and sometimes it takes me an hour. Yes- an hour! Can you hear/feel my agony of sitting for an hour to make just 7 days worth of food and then repeat the following week. Ok, I'm a bit dramatic.

Once I have a plan, I open a text document to make a list of things I need to buy for each recipe that is not already in my pantry. Here is where I probably get too technical, but I absolutely hate making multiple trips to the same aisle to get everything off my list SO I divide my list into grocery departments according the store layout and that way I don't waste time in the store and I don't miss anything off my list. I print my list and I'm ready to shop!

The torture is over, I can grocery shop, and soon be making delicious meals w/o that inevitable question creeping into my mind: "Oh no, what should I make for dinner?"

Chicken and Dumplings

I know I have been super MIA lately, but buying a house has had it's share of projects. I have a list about a mile long of things I would like to do to the house so that its more "our style". I was blessed to have enough furniture to fill the rooms from my grandma, but floral grandma and brown 1970s-ish chairs are really not the look we're going for. So I made curtains for the living and family rooms, I am in the process of making a slipcover for the floral sofa, and then I should really get going on re-upholstering the brown chairs and PAINTING! I really would love to get paint on the walls so I can start hanging pictures and decor :) It's a slow process, but I know we'll get there. We also need to squeeze in some kind of "open-house" house-warming so everyone can finally see the house!

We have been opening our home to others already, but on a smaller-scale basis. In fact, we recently had friends over where I got to make my chicken and dumplings! I really love chicken and dumplings and by far my favorite part is the dumpling. I make mine in the slow-cooker so I can forget about it. I love my crock pot, easy to use and it makes meal planning easy. I also used by bread machine to make dinner roll dough that I added to my crock-pot about 2 hours before serving, so that the rolls would cook in the soup's liquid. An easy substitution would be to use store-bought dinner roll dough. This particular night I was feeling festive and as it was the 2nd official day of Fall it felt appropriate to also serve a Harvest Salad with a raspberry vinaigrette. Also delicious!

Chicken and Dumplings
INGREDIENTS
1.5-2 lbs boneless chicken breast halves
2 tbsp butter
2 (10.75 oz) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
1 yellow onion
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp parsely
1/2 tbsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp seasoned salt
pepper to taste
1-2 cups chicken broth (enough to cover the chicken once in the crock pot)
2 pkgs refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into pieces OR dough*

*dough
3 c bread flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 c warm milk
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 1/4 tsp yeast

DIRECTIONS
1. Place the chicken, butter, soup, onion, and spices in slow cooker, and fill with enough chicken broth to cover chicken breast. Cover, and cook for 5-6 hours on High.
2. *optional skip this step if using store bought biscuit dough* Place milk, butter, flour, sugar, salt, and yeast (wet ingredients are always first and yeast is always last!) into bread machine. Set on dough cycle and start. Remove risen dough from machine at end of cycle, deflate, and turn out onto a floured surface. Divide dough into equal pieces and form into rounds. Place the round on a cookie sheet and cover with cloth until they double in volume (40 mins or so).
3. About 1.5-2 hours before serving, place biscuit dough in slow cooker. Dough should be cooked through-out by serving time.

General Tsao's Chicken, Asian Salad, and Naan

Ok, admittedly it has been awhile :) We had some delays with moving which meant I was literally cooking out of boxes for the last week in our apt! Then unpacking our new kitchen took a couple days. Since then, I have been cooking my usual 5-6 nights/week. I missed it so much! Rex and I had to eat out for almost 1 full week and it was not fun at all. I was so excited when our fridge arrived and I was able to go grocery shopping with my meal plan for the week. With all this being said, I'm sad to say that I am not in the habit of documenting food again (as if I was amazing at it anyway!). Thus, pictures will have to be skipped for a bit until I find my camera. I also need to order a new camera charger as my last one suffered puppy chewing :(

Since moving, I still travel to my beloved Winco for food items, but I have since learned that they are putting a Super King Supermarket in Claremont and I am so excited I don't have to travel to Winco as often to get necessities. Super King has better produce and meat than Winco AND it is cheaper! If that were even possible :) Winco will still remain my market of choice to grab my dry goods, spices, cooking wines etc., but meat and produce are used faster than any dry good so it will be convenient to have I better market closer!

Anyways, last night Rex and I had hosted his brother and gf over for dinner. I had been itching to try a new recipe I had found on allrecipes.com for some time. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. I made General Tsao's Chicken, an Asian Vinaigrette Salad, and Naan. The naan was just for fun and really didn't match the rest of meal's Asian theme, but isn't the matchy-matchy thing out? Do food menus go out of style? Probably not, but that's the best excuse I had for making naan :) The chicken was delicious! I loved how it was tangy, citrus-y, and had a kick to it. I will definitely use it in the future for other gatherings. I really didn't adapt this recipe (how unlike me!), but I did really enjoy it still. The only thing I left out was peanut oil. I felt like it was unnecessary and why pay for a bottle of peanut oil you will likely not use again! Anyways, I think I left you waiting long enough. Here is my delicious recipes (all from allrecipes.com):

Naan

INGREDIENTS:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast 1 cup warm water 1/4 cup white sugar 3 tablespoons milk 1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons salt 4 1/2 cups bread flour 2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional) 1/4 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.
2.	Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
3.	During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat. I just pan fry my naan. As one commentator on the website suggested I rolled two small balls and pushed them together to rise to give more air bubbles in the product. You can put a lid on the skillet to also help form the bubbles. Be careful not to burn the naan. It really only takes 1-3 mins per side depending on the heat setting!
4.	At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2011 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 9/1/2011

General Tsao's Chicken II

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups vegetable oil for frying (I always fry in canola oil) 1 egg 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1/2 inch cubes 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon white sugar 1 pinch white pepper (I just used black pepper) 1 cup cornstarch   2 tablespoons vegetable oil 3 tablespoons chopped green onion 1 clove garlic, minced

6 dried whole red chilies (I just bought a pack from the mexican spice aisle at the grocery store and used 10 of them since they were the size of a raisin) 1 strip orange zest (1 tbsp or so of the orange zest) 1/2 cup white sugar 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 3 tablespoons chicken broth 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 teaspoons sesame oil 2 tablespoons peanut oil (omitted this ingredient)   2 teaspoons cornstarch 1/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Heat 4 cups vegetable oil in a deep-fryer or large saucepan to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2.	Beat the egg in a mixing bowl. Add the chicken cubes; sprinkle with salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, and white pepper; mix well. Mix in 1 cup of cornstarch a little bit at a time until the chicken cubes are well coated.
3.	In batches, carefully drop the chicken cubes into the hot oil one by one, cooking until they turns golden brown and begin to float, about 3 minutes. Remove the chicken and allow to cool as you fry the next batch. Once all of the chicken has been fried, refry the chicken, starting with the batch that was cooked first. Cook until the chicken turns deep golden brown, about 2 minutes more. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
4.	Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Stir in the green onion, garlic, whole chiles, and orange zest. Cook and stir a minute or two until the garlic has turned golden and the chiles brighten. Add 1/2 cup sugar, the ginger, chicken broth, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and peanut oil; bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.
5.	Dissolve 2 teaspoons of cornstarch into the water, and stir into the boiling sauce. Return to a boil and cook until the sauce thickens and is no longer cloudy from the cornstarch, about 1 minute. Stir the chicken into the boiling sauce. Reduce heat to low and cook for a few minutes until the chicken absorbs some of the sauce.

Asian Salad

INGREDIENTS:

2 (3 ounce) packages ramen noodles, crushed (top ramen w/o the seasoning is easy and cheap!) 1 cup blanched slivered almonds 2 teaspoons sesame seeds 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 head napa cabbage, shredded (I used romaine since it was easier to find and inexpensive)

1 bunch green onions, chopped (only used 3/4 of a bunch and used the rest in the chicken recipe above) 3/4 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar 1/2 cup white sugar 2 tablespoons soy sauce

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a medium skillet over low heat brown ramen noodles, almonds, and sesame seeds with melted butter or margarine. Once browned, take off heat and cool.
2.	In a small saucepan bring vegetable oil, sugar, and vinegar to boil for 1 minute. Cool. Add soy sauce.
3.	In a large bowl , combine shredded napa cabbage and chopped green onions. Add the noodle and soy sauce mixture. Toss to coat. Serve.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2011 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 9/1/2011

Hiatus

Yup, I must go on hiatus for a little while, at least until the move is complete. We are either moving this weekend or the following depending on when we get the keys! I cannot wait to start cooking in the new kitchen. My only concern is being surrounded by several projects in the new house that will limit my access to the kitchen (i.e. removing ugly linoleum from under foot). I think the month of August will be busy, but fun. I will still be cooking before we move, but for sanity's sake I will not be blogging :)