Shepherd's Pie

Our new puppy is awesome! His name is Albus Dumbledog and he is such a sweetheart. We affectionately call him Albie. I'm really hoping his beard grows in as he matures to match his namesake. I am loving all the time I get to spend with him. Today was his first vet appointment and he got a clean bill of health. He goes back on Saturday for his last puppy shots and then he's clear until 4 months :) Between potty training, waking up for him in the middle of the night, and all the fun play times, he has been keeping us pretty busy!

Ear flopped up and enjoying his tiger :)

He passed out again right after this picture. So cute!

Well back to the meat and potatoes...literally. Shepherd's pie is such an easy meal and it's quite filling as it consists of meat and potatoes. It doesn't take too long to make and if time is tight in the evenings its something you can make ahead of time and heat up before serving. I made this for Rex Thursday night so that we could have a nice meal before our class at church. This is one of those recipes that I tend to make up as I go, but I kept tabs on how I made this particular pie as it was probably the best version I've made so far :)

Pre-mashed potatoes.

The end product. Yummy!

INGREDIENTS
1 lb ground beef
1/2 onion diced
3 carrots peeled and chopped
1 cube beef bouillon
1 tbsp flour
1/4 c water
4-5 medium sized potatoes
2 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp butter
1/4 c cheddar cheese shredded
1 small pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Peel and cut potatoes. Add to boiling water for 15 minutes or until soft.
3. In the meantime, fry ground beef in pan with onion. When meat is no longer pink, add water, bouillon cube, and carrots.
4. Once carrots are soft, add the flour to thicken up the meat mixture. Put meat in a 8x8 dish to be baked.
5. Drain and mash the potatoes to desired consistency. Add cream cheese, butter, salt, and cheese. Mix well.
6. Evenly spread potatoes over meat mixture and bake in oven for 20-30 minutes until cheese is melted and the entire pie is uniformly warm.

Grilled Cheese

No, I'm not going to tell you how to make a grilled cheese :) I just wanted to share the recent experience I had while making grilled cheese. It was the day I had gotten home from the doctor and feeling pretty crummy I decided to keep it simple for dinner. Grilled cheese and soup were on the menu. I began making the soup earlier in the day and allowing it to simmer, so when Rex came home I could pop on the grilled cheese and be done with cooking. By the time I wanted to start the grilled cheese, I grabbed my bread and *gasp* it was all green! Oops! I guess I should have checked the bread ahead of time. Fortunately earlier in the week I had made honey grain bread in the breadmaker. With a little slicing, some butter, and American singles we were still able to have some delicious grilled cheese. We even preferred the bread to the store bought kind as it was thicker and heavier. We've been going through our flour and sugar so much recently with making virtually everything from scratch that I think I need to come up with some more storage solutions for my pantry.

Here's a picture of frying up our delicious grilled cheese:

Speaking of expanding, Rex and I just adopted a puppy from the humane society. I actually get to pick him up today from the vet hospital after he's "altered". He's a small terrier that's only 2 months old. Since he's so little we really aren't sure what kind of terrier he is actually, but he is a playful little guy who loves to cuddle :) And his name- Albus Dumbledog :) We are going to affectionately call him Albie. I'll have pics to post of him later.

Fried Chicken

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind. My cold decided to turn itself into a sinus infection which is actually quite painful! Rex has been so busy that he hasn't been home for dinner at least 2-3 nights a week for the past 2 weeks, so dinner hasn't been going quite as planned. Last Saturday, I wanted to make fried chicken but due to a late lunch, I postponed frying until Sunday. Little did I know I would only sleep 2 hours Saturday night (or shall I call it Sunday morning!). Let's just say taking Sudafed at 3pm is a bad idea. I slept from 7 am to 9 am on Sunday and went to the main service at church. Afterwards, we ate lunch, went to see Thor, and came home to fry some chicken.

I actually like frying things in oil with a pot or wok. It's pretty fun and everything tastes better fried :) I enlisted Rex's help since I was still in sleep deprivation mode. I used a recipe I randomly found on a website that happened to show my favorite chef Curtis Stone. By favorite, of course, I mean that he is the only chef I can watch on Netflix Instant Streaming.

Here is a video of him making it: http://www.kitchendaily.com/2010/03/09/southern-fried-chicken/

Rex and I really enjoyed the recipe. It tasted great and we'll definitely be using it again whenever we get a fried chicken craving :)

Deep frying in the Wok with my trusty candy thermometer

The Result: Crispy fried chicken and creamed corn

INGREDIENTS:

4 tsp salt divided

1 whole chicken (4 lbs) backbone removed chicken cut into 8 pieces

3 c buttermilk

6 c canola oil for frying

2 c all-purpose flour

1.5 tbps dry mustard

1.5 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tsp ground pepper

3 lg eggs

2 tbsp water

DIRECTIONS

    

1. Massage 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt into the chicken pieces.

2. Combine the chicken pieces and buttermilk in a large bowl or large shallow dish and turn the chicken pieces to ensure they are completely coated with the buttermilk.

3. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

4. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Add enough oil to fill a large wok about halfway. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until it registers 350°F to 375°F on a deep-fry thermometer.

5. Stir the flour dry mustard paprika garlic powder onion powder pepper and 2 teaspoons of salt in a shallow dish to blend.

6. Whisk the eggs and water in a medium bowl to blend.

7. Working with one chicken piece at a time lift the chicken from the marinade allowing any excess marinade to drip back into the dish then dredge the chicken pieces in the flour mixture to coat completely.

8. Dredge the flour-coated chicken pieces in the egg wash.

9. Dredge the coated chicken in the flour mixture again to coat completely.

To Fry the Chicken:

10. Working in 2 to 3 batches carefully place the coated chicken pieces into the hot oil and cook for about 12 minutes turning as needed until they are golden and almost cooked through.

11. Using a skimmer transfer the chicken pieces to a rack set on a baking sheet to drain any excess oil.

12. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the chicken pieces are cooked through but still moist and juicy. Sprinkle with the remaining salt and serve.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

So, I really enjoy baking cookies. I especially love making all the traditional cookies that my mom would bake around Christmas time. In fact, this past Christmas was the first year I was not living at home on school breaks and so I needed to jot down every cookie recipe so I could make it a tradition in our own family! Well, my Christmas cookies are tried and true. They come out great every time without fail. My chocolate chip cookies (the most basic of recipes) always turn out flat! Since Rex was working late (he came home at 8:30!), I decided I would make him a batch of chocolate chip cookies for when he arrived home. Well, as usual they came out pretty flat. The taste is great, but I want great taste AND great consistency. So, with a quick google search I found a remedy to my problem. Apparently if your dough is refrigerated, the cookie will not spread as fast on the cookie sheet while baking causing it to be puffier. So for years of messing up the most basic of recipes, I have hopefully found a cure to my chocolate chip cookie flaw. Yay! I may have to make another batch next week, but for proof of my failed work, here are my flat cookies before and after.

I'm a cram and jam type baker. I can't let 2 cookies be wasted or make another cookie sheet for a measly 2 cookies!

Looking like pancakes :( Well, next time refrigerate the dough!

Classic Nestle Tollhouse Recipe:

*making your own brown sugar makes cookies taste that much better! It's easy just add 1 tbsp molasses (2 tbsp if you need dark brown sugar) to 1 cup white sugar and mix with a fork until well combined. Be sure to note that when baking you need to remove 1 tbsp of liquid to compensate for the molasses being added (I usually just reduce the butter in the recipe).

INGREDIENTS

2 1/4 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 c butter

1/2 c shortening

3/4 c sugar

3/4 c packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 lg eggs

1 (12 oz) pkg semi-sweet morsels

1 c chopped nuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, shortening, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

3. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Tomato Basil Soup

Last night I was on my own as Rex was practicing drums for our church's Men's Conference this upcoming weekend. I decided to keep it simple and just make a bowl of soup. My sinuses haven't cleared yet, so having soup this week for lunch has been a given. In fact, Rex loves egg-drop soup which is egg dropped into a Soup Secrets noodle soup with added noodles. Since he stayed home on Monday to get better, he made egg drop soup for me. When he cracked the egg, there were 2 yolks! Little chicken-twins...lol. I had never seen it before but we were quite amused with the phenomena.

In Socal we've been having unusually gloomy and rainy weather in May and so soup has been a good treat. I love all kinds of soup from split pea soup to minestrone. But rainy weather always makes me think of tomato with grilled cheese. I didn't end up making a grilled cheese last night, because Rex made dinner croissants using his new bread machine, so I've been on carbohydrate overload for a couple days now :)

Tomato soup is so easy to make as long as you have the right ingredients on hand. And homemade tomato soup is so much better than anything you can buy out of the can. A lot of homemade soups need to be "mushified" with a little help from the blender.

And with the help of the blender the soup is finished. The final product, tomato basil soup!

INGREDIENTS (2 servings)

1 can whole, peeled tomatoes
1 equal "can-ful" of milk
1 tbsp dried basil
1 bay leaf
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

1. Combine all ingredients in pot and bring to boil. Cover pot and reduce to a simmer for about 20-30 mins.
2. Remove bay leaf and pour into blender. Blend soup until smooth (30 seconds on liquefy). Pour and enjoy!

Back into it!

Saturday was Rex's birthday. We celebrated with a homemade dinner and cake prepared for him. The majority of his family was able to come celebrate. Unfortunately we've still been battling this nasty cold. Saturday morning I woke early to prepare a cake while he practiced his drums at church. It was a coconut cream cake with coconut whipped cream frosting. Rich and yummy! After finishing the cake I took a break until he came home. Not having a strong voice and still feeling tired we rested most of his day. For his gift, I bought him a bread-machine. So making bread for the company that evening was a pretty fun task :) 

For dinner I prepared sirloin and mushrooms in a red-wine tomato sauce with garlic mashed potatoes and Raspberry vinaigrette salad. Although Rex doesn't normally enjoy salads, he likes this particular salad because and I quote "it tastes like candy." I forgot to take pictures, mainly because I was still in that sick fog, but I still want to include the main course recipe :) Hopefully I'll finally kick this cold by tomorrow so I can start cooking up a storm again in our kitchen!

RED WINE SAUCE SIRLOIN AND MUSHROOMS

Ingredients

2 lbs sirloin cut into bite-sized pieces

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

16 oz. mushrooms, sliced

1-1.5 c Cabernet or cooking sherry

16 oz tomato sauce

1 tbsp thyme

3 bay leaves

Directions

1. In a large skillet, cook sirloin and garlic in oil until meat is well-browned.

2. Add mushrooms and cook until tender. Add wine, tomato paste, thyme, and bay leaves. Cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes.

3. Remove bay leaves and serve over noodles or mashed potatoes.

Spaghetti

Onion powder, garlic powder, carrots, bell pepper, zucchini, tomato sauce, and whole, peeled tomatoes 

Spaghetti is a childhood favorite and I'm pretty sure everyone knows how to make spaghetti from the time they were old enough to boil water. I love spaghetti and I especially love its versatility. I think I can confidently say that no two spaghetti sauces I make taste the same. I don't have a set recipe, I just toss things into a pot and let it simmer for 1-2 hours and finito! I almost always make a meat sauce, so I start by cooking my meat in a pot that can hold sauce. Then I drain the meat of any excess oil (yea, I buy the cheap stuff and I'm not ashamed...lol). Then I add my 2 cans of whole, peeled tomatoes w/ one small can of tomato sauce along with whatever veggies I want to throw into the pot along with a little oregano and basil. Bring the pot to a boil with the cover on it and then simmer for a couple hours. Sometimes the veggies water down my sauce so I have to add a tbsp of flour. Since nothing I add is measured and I vary the vegetables quite a bit from sauce to sauce you can imagine the variety my spaghetti becomes. Nothing goes to waste though! I freeze any amount I do not use or will not use throughout the week.

Really, nothing goes to waste. My extra bit of zucchini for Bissel

Even my fish gets to enjoy the leftover veggies. He loves zucchini and cucumber.

The finished product.