June 02, 2007
Chicken Pot Pie
I was hungry for pot pie, so I threw one together.
I sauteed some carrots in butter and vegetable oil. I realized I didn't have a good onion, so I added onion powder, and then salt and pepper.
Once they were half-soft, I added about a half-cup of flour, and let it cook to get the flour taste off it. I had some leftover heavy cream in the fridge from a yummy chicken tettrazini I made last week, so threw that in, along with some chicken broth I had in cans. (I have to use that up before I use the good homemade I have in the freezer.)
Added a bag of frozen peas and some cooked chicken I had in the freezer (though I partially thawed the chicken in the microwave).
While it was heating, I preheated the oven, buttered a 9x13 dish, and took the pie shells out of the fridge. The package said to pre-bake a one-shell pie at 450 degrees, so I set the oven to 425.
Once the filling simmered and felt thicker, I took it off the heat, poured it over into the dish, wiped the edges of the dish to make the pie crusts stick better, and lay the crusts over the filling. They are round but the dish is rectangular, so I layered them like a Venn Diagram, crimped the edges good, and cut some vent holes in the crusts.
I put a milk-wash on because I didn't want to hassle with beating an egg and then feeling guilty for throwing the unused egg away. Then the best part: I salted and peppered the crust! Martha's guest told us to do that, and I tried it, and I wholeheartedly endorse it.
I baked it for 25 minutes, then another 15, until the crust was as crusty as I wanted it, and the filling was good and hot. I let it rest for 5 minutes before cutting it, and it was deeeeeelish.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 09:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 22, 2007
For my perfectionist friend.
Recently I heard a friend described via a story. She was trying desperately to make a blini (a kind of thin, thin pancake). She couldn't, and the story teller said, lovingly, "You know, sometimes you can't be perfect. You just can't be perfect at everything."
Well, friend-you-know-who-you-are, I read this in the Kitchenware Textbook I've been studying and thought of you. (By the way, my computer connection can't seem to handle Amazon. So I'll update this post with a true bibliography soon. In the meantime, please don't sue me for plagiarism.)
CREPE PAN
DESCRIPTION: Shallow plain steel or aluminum pan, no more than 8 inches and as small as 5 inches in diameter. Sides may be slightly curved or angled. A pan 4 or 5 inches across may be a blini pan, for making the Russian buckwheat version.
USE: Making crepes (thin French pancakes) or other, similar pancakes.
USE TIPS: Wipe with oil after making each crepe and keep the pan hot. The smaller models are for dessert crepes, the larger models for entree crepes. Keep steel pans well seasoned for best results.
BUYING TIPS: It is much easier to get good results with a high-quality, well-seasoned crepe pan than with a regular skillet. Plain steel or thick anodized aluminum and nonstick pans are good choices here. Do not confuse this with the fancy, flat crepes suzette pan.
Ettlinger, Steve. The Kitchenware Book. Research Consultant: Irena Chalmers. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1992.
I emboldened the bit that made me think of you. Maybe your crepe pan wasn't top quality and that impeded your perfection? Now that you are in a place where you most likely have higher quality cookware, consider trying again. Or, in lieu of that, remind yourself that you are an awesome event planner.
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Here's another tidbit for the same friend:
Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa and lover of French cooking, said on her show today that she loves French flower arranging. She was in Paris and showed us several examples of each technique.
Would you believe she showed us a pink bouquet? It featured roses, peonies, and sweet peas, but it was pink and perfect. Just thought you'd like to know. It's another feather in your cap, to remind you that your event planning is a highly developed skill, and that the event you recently planned was perfect.
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August 12, 2006
About thirty degrees
Ok, maybe twenty. That's the temperature difference between my kitchen and this office. The stove has been running all day, and guess (just guess!) what yumminess is proceeding from the kitchen!
Canned peach pie filling! Woo hoo.
I took about 20 pounds of peaches, peeled them, sliced them, pitted them, and cooked them in a spicy syrup, then canned them.
I borrowed my mother-in-law's canner (because they are expensive, people!) when I was in Kansas, hauled it all the way back home, and dedided to go for it today.
The syrup smelled so yummy, with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in it. I'm getting a little excited for fall to come so I can run the oven again (waiting for the weather to cool down so that I can feel a little less guilty about the heat in the kitchen) and come out with a piping hot peach pie.
I can't can next weekend because the inlaws are all going to be here...most of them, at least...4 of them. And the next weekend, I'm guessing, peaches won't be in. They'll be all gone. But who knows? I've still got 4 jars to fill and a canner to use. Who knows? Maybe I will.
Or maybe I'll do some other fruit. Plums? Can you preserve plums? How about apples? pears? berries? It's got to be a high acid food so that I can hot-pack them. I don't have a pressure canner, you know.
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January 09, 2006
Big Bag of Rice
So, one of the recipes I learned from my Church Lady friends involves rice. Here it is:
1 c. rice
1 can Campbell's French Onion Soup
1 can Campbell's Beef Consomme (or Beef Stock)
1/2 stick butter
optional: 1 can mushroom bits
combine all in baking dish and bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Stir halfway through baking time.
The Dude and I like this rice, and I opted to work it into my family's Christmas dinner table. This is a bold move, because we have a verrrry traditional menu. In order to work it in, I had to make it and provide all ingredients for this dish.
I decided to make a double batch and have leftovers (cause it's good). While driving from Kansas to Colorado, The Dude and I didn't have cell reception until about 1 hour from my parents' home. I ran my idea past Mom and she didn't say no, so The Dude and I stopped at a grocery on the way in to Colorado Springs.
There I picked up all the ingredients (it would have stressed Mom out on Christmas Eve to be asked if she had rice. "Do you have rice? Do you have butter?" I knew she didn't have the Campbell's I needed--so I got it all.
Now picture this: Christmas Eve in a grocery store. It was a zoo, and there were people everywhere too. Sigh. But I knew where everything was, having been to this particular grocery many times. I went to the Rice Aisle (remember, it was crowded) and looked for the Rice Display. I didn't find the Display because this is the mainland, but I did find plenty of empty shelf space (well, some empty shelf space) and only one variety of rice left: Safeway Select Brand Long-Grain White Rice.
Guess how big the bag was. Yep. It was a 20-pounder.
Mom didn't need all that rice. And I only used 2 c. of this massive bag of rice. (It's actually more like a Big Bag of Rice.) So The Dude and I hauled it all home.
And now I make lots of rice. At least one batch in my steamer for every meal.
But the Rice Dish was yummy, and my Sister's Husband named it French Rice.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 03:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 09, 2005
Wonderful Eggs
I'm eating really excellent eggs. I just threw a quiche together to use up some ham I had in the fridge, and sauteed onions to go into it. I cooked my eggs in this oniony skillet (without washing it of course), and that just made them wonderful.
I had a handful of ham left from the quiche, and threw it in the oniony skillet. I cracked my last two eggs, whipped them a little, threw in salt and fresh ground pepper and just a little (about 1 T.) heavy cream (again, from the quiche. I hadn't put it back in the frig yet), and about 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese. I left the burner on low (about level 3), put the egg mixture in the oniony skillet that had ham in it, and let it cook.
I let it go a little longer because I was reading blogs, and it got toasty without getting burned. Oh man, these were delicious eggs! I wish I could share them but 1) they're gone and 2) this is the internet, and Wonka-vision is only fantasy.
Posted by The Newest Worker at 02:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 12, 2005
Apple crunch
Wow, Joy of Cooking is getting a lot of air time here!
I made peach crunch last night, a variation of apple crunch. We really prefer it with apples, not peaches, so make peach cobbler or something when you cook with peaches. And make sure your peaches are good and sweet if you are going to cook with them.
Apple Crunch:
Ingredients:
apples, about 10
flour
sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg
salt
butter
veggie peeler
knife
cutting board
2-quart glass baking dish
Food Processor
-or-
pastry cutter and mixing bowl
Preheat the oven to 375. Set an oven rack in the lowest 1/3 of the oven.
Peel, core, and cube about 10 apples, or enough to fill a 2-quart glass baking dish. Use tart, juicy apples. I used gala apples.
Whisk together 3/4 c. flour, 3/4 c. sugar, 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Cut in 1 stick (8 T.) cold butter. I use the Ubiquitous* Food Processor! Don't overprocess: just pulse the thing till the butter is in small-gravel-size chunks.
(Hey, I just thought of this: you can use the U. F. P. to slice the apples, too. But be sure to make the crunch topping before you slice apples. The topping won't mix right if you have apple juice in there, but if you get a little of the crunch topping on the apples, that's what you want anyway...)
Cover the dish with the crunch topping, tap the dish on the counter to shake the topping down, and set the dish in the oven. If you are nervous about apple-y juice bubbling out of the dish, set it on a cookie sheet. Bake for 50-55 minutes.
You can let it sit for a while and pop it back in the oven to rewarm it.
This is delish.
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*"Good use of the word ubiquitous, Worker!" Thank you very much!
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My Stir Fry
Vegetables, soy sauce, oyster sauce, fresh ginger, and rice are all inexpensive in Hawaii, so while there, I made many batches of stir fry. And I didn't own a wok, so this is just my stock pot recipe.
Ingredients:
boneless, skinless chicken breasts
fresh ginger
soy sauce
oyster sauce
sugar
veggies:
carrots
broccoli
green beans
pea pods
onion
canned water chestnut
canned bamboo shoots
**you can try it with other veggies, too, or without any of these.
rice
rice cooker/steamer (or just make rice however you want)
stock pot with lid
good knife
cutting board
Cube about 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts. If you have a good knife, you can buy the flash-frozen chicken breasts and cut them while still frozen (or let them thaw a little). Put the cubes right into the pot, put about a cup of soy sauce and a cup of water in, 3-5 drops of oyster sauce (really, you need to go easy on this till you are used to it), and a 1/3 cup sugar. Put your ginger in (use fresh ginger! Peel a little bit, slice it, and throw them in), and cover, bring to a boil, take the lid off, and turn the heat down about halfway. (I use about 4 slices of ginger about 2 inches in diameter. Be careful. A little ginger goes a long way. If it's too gingery make it with less ginger the next time.)
Start prepping the veggies. You can use what you want, but I like these: fresh broccoli florets (I use about three stems' worth, and slice the stems, cook them, and freeze for broccoli cheese soup), carrots (three at least), green beans (about 10), pea pods (use as much as you want. About 1/2 lb. is usually good), and onion (about a half a yellow onion). I cut the broccoli flower into bite size pieces, julienne the carrots, cut the green beans into cute diagonal slices, cut the ends of the pea pods off, and put just a bit of onion, sliced fine, all into one bowl to wait for the chicken to be done. Oh, and if you like bamboo shoots (I don't) or water chestnut (I do!), put canned shoots and canned water chestnut, drained, into the bowl now.
Make the rice. My steamer takes an hour for sticky rice, so I start with the rice first. I used a really nice jasmine rice, and it smelled and tasted so good! Rinse the rice till the water runs clear, put it in the cooker/steamer, cover with water, and begin the cooker. (Water should be about 2:1 to the rice, that is, 2 c. water per c. of rice. At sea level go with 1:1, and in Colorado Springs 4.5:1 at least.) Add a little salt to enhance flavor. If you are using a rice cooker, do not open it to check the rice! Let it stay closed.
Once the chicken has simmered for about 15 minutes, dump the veggies in. Fold the juicy broth over the veggies, turn the heat down (way down), and cover. If you like the veggies crunchy, let this pot of stuff just sit for about 5 minutes; if you like them cooked, let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
Serve next to rice if you care about rice purity, or over rice if you like them together. Be careful of the ginger. You can eat it, but if you bite it, it's got a really strong flavor! Pick it out when you find it.
This recipe makes a lot: I guess it would feed 5 adults at least. I put the leftover rice right in the main pot to store it, and I think it gets better as it sits in the fridge.
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We had this for dinner last night and it was so good. But I couldn't find oyster sauce at the grocery I was at yesterday. Is it available anywhere in this area?
Posted by The Newest Worker at 11:50 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 05, 2005
Pot Roast update
It was DEEEEE-LICIOUS!
We walked in and it just smelled wonderful.
But it didn't quite go according to plan...
Tomorrow is Sister's birthday, and I had to get her card signed by Husband and her package in the mail, so I ran over to his school at 3:00, got him to sign the card, went to the PO (drove by Coptix and didn't realize it was Coptix till I saw Josiah's scooter. (; It sure is *cute*, Josiah!), then went to Greyfriar's to hang out till 6. Called Jeep, asked him to come hang out since I was going to be there till 6, but ended up only being there till about 5:30.
Got to Husband's school by 6:15, but he was calling students' parents, alerting them to their children's missing essays (oooh, naughty naugty little kiddies! Teacher got you in trouble!), so we didn't leave for home till 6:45, didn't get home till 7:10, and by that time, it was too late to boil potatoes. SO I diced 5 potatoes pretty small, threw them into boiling water, turned the heat back to about 6/7, and let them go. (If you boil potatoes gently, they will hold together better, as the starch will have more time during cooking to absorb the water.)
I didn't get back to the kitchen till about 8:05, and the potatoes were done. I pulled the roast out of the crockpot, and it was already falling to pieces! I used my hands to prep it (pull the fat off the meat, but I hardly needed to), threw the potatoes in the beef broth + carrot mixture, and served up the food.
It was delish.
The only things I'd change: the roast was pretty big, and I wish I'd made it with more carrots. They are so savory cooked this way!!!!! I'd also have made fresh bread (Pillsbury crescent rolls).
It's a great, great recipe. Sooooooooooo good. I love beef. (It's what's for dinner!)
Posted by The Newest Worker at 11:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 04, 2005
Blogthing Frenzy VI and pot roast
| You Are Mexican Food |
 You pull punches, but people still love you. |
I'm trying crock-pot pot roast today...
Continue reading "Blogthing Frenzy VI and pot roast"
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September 20, 2005
Mom's Lasagna
It tasted just like Mom's when I made it!!
Continue reading "Mom's Lasagna"
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September 09, 2005
Chocolate Eclair
This is Husband's favorite dessert. It's easy. And yummy.
Continue reading "Chocolate Eclair"
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August 26, 2005
Breakfast Casserole
Husband told me about a week ago that he had to bring breakfast food for his colleagues today. I remembered yesterday afternoon while waiting for the UPS man (who still hasn't come), and finished it last night. I popped it in the oven this morning and it was delish.
I got the recipe from Joy of Cooking but ended up changing it because 1) it's not a cake and I can't ruin it and 2) I didn't read the recipe well enough to realize my mistake before 11pm. So here's my variation on the recipe:
Continue reading "Breakfast Casserole"
Posted by The Newest Worker at 12:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 02, 2005
The way to a man's heart...
...is, after all, through his stomach.
Husband loves my cooking. And I have a kitchen full of brand spanking new kitchen tools. So far I made spaghetti, My George Foreman Chicken, and chili.
Continue reading "The way to a man's heart..."
Posted by The Newest Worker at 05:51 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack