Adventures in Gourmand Cooking

Frustration!

2010-09-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

The frustration continues. So, I totally meant to write last Thursday, but as you may know I didn't. I didn't because I was frustrated and confused and all aflutter. You see, I went to my interview Thursday afternoon and I was fine. I was calm, cool and confident. I got into the interview and they asked questions and I answered and all was going well. Then just as the interview was wrapping up, they said “And now we need a writing sample. We'll give you 30 minutes to write a one to two minute congratulatory speech on the opening of the new Kia plant in Georgia”. Wah?! To put this in perspective, a one minute speech is about a typed page worth of words. I also know absolutely nothing about Kia. If I had a couple hours, I could probably have whipped up a killer speech about whatever they wanted (clearly I like to write) but 30 minutes isn't even enough time to type out 2 pages worth of material let alone research something that you know nothing about. Well, I researched a little online and came up with some interesting facts about Kia and the new plant they built (they are the only plant in North America to put wood floors on the production line, which is apparently easier on the workers). I had just enough time to write about 2 paragraphs and they came and said time's up. The sentences were disjointed and not cohesive, there was no flow whatsoever, and I hadn't even put any sort of closing on the speech. I was sweating bullets. I know I can write (although it's been a long time since I've written any type of formal speech). I know I can research, and I know that measly handful of sentences was not my best work; it wasn't even mediocre. So, when I got home Thursday night I was in no mood to write or really do much of anything. I spent this whole weekend kicking myself. Ok, so I spent the whole weekend kicking myself minus the time that I partying hardy at a bachelorette party, and that was only because I was too drunk to do so. The kicking recommenced Sunday morning with the added bonus of also getting to kick myself for drinking so much the night before.

Fast forward to yesterday... I got a call. They want to see me again Wednesday because the Consul General wants to ask a few more questions. Arg! How much longer can they string this along? The job is supposed to start this coming Monday. I suppose at least it isn't a no, but I'm not entirely sure what this means. My sister thinks it's so they can offer me the job in person (best case scenario). I think it's because they are waffling between candidates and want to ask more questions (most likely scenario). Of course, they could have been bored and decided to make a game of torturing me (worst case scenario). Meh!

So, needless to say, all I have been able to think about for the past several days has been this job. Clearly I will be thinking about it for a few more days. But... in the meantime you can make my newest recipe: Ranch Chicken. The guys liked it so much that they ran out (over 12lbs of chicken for 24 people).

Ranch Chicken
Serves 6

6 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
2 packets of Ranch Salad Dressing Mix
2 cups Milk
2 cups Low Fat or Fat Free Plain Yogurt
2 medium Tomatoes, sliced
12 slices of Bacon
1 cup Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Mix together the dressing mix, milk and yogurt. Flatten chicken breasts between two sheets of waxed paper until chicken breasts are an even thickness. Pour over the chicken and refrigerate for 1-3 hours.
Remove chicken and shake off any extra dressing. Broil for approximately 7 minutes per side or until chicken is cooked through. Top each breast with a couple slices of tomato, a couple slices of bacon and a small handful of cheese. Return to the broiler and broil until cheese melts, 2-3 minutes.

All We Ever Get is Gruel

2010-09-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

I hope you guys had a pleasant labor day weekend. Ours was alright. We decided to make a trip up to Helen, Georgia to “tube the 'hootch” (the Chattahoochee River). We went the very first weekend in June and had a ton of fun. We had fun when we went this time too, but the fun was slightly marred by the serious traffic jam on the way up there. The only way in to town is by a two lane highway that winds through the “mountains” (having seen the Alps, the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Tetons, I refuse to call the large hills in North Georgia mountains) and it was jam packed with tourists. I was afraid that the river would be bumper to bumper inner tubes, but for as much traffic as was heading into Helen, there were surprisingly few people on the river. I think it's because the temperature that day was under 90 degrees. In fact, it barely hit 80 in Helen, and people in the south do not get in the water unless it's above 90 otherwise it's “too cold”. The water level was a lot lower than it was in June and the river was almost unrecognizable. The June river was ice cold, fast and deep; the September river was warm, shallow and slow. We went around the rocks rather than over them (somewhat less terrifying). All in all it was a beautiful day and a lovely chilly night. Now I'm back at work and it's hot and muggy again with no reprieve in sight.

Because a week can't go by at the frat without some sort of drama, there's been some on-going drama at the frat. It all started at the end of my first week. Knowing how forget full and disorganized the guys are, I reminded them several times to get the paperwork in to the people that pay me so they would be sure to send a check this past Friday. Friday came and there was no check. Shocking! Needless to say, I was livid. Then, because apparently I wasn't angry enough, they said they had a new way they wanted to serve lunch. I guess they'd been having problems with people on half meal plans eating when they weren't supposed too and people taking more than they were supposed to; all of which led to some people not getting their meals and going hungry. Of course, who knew what meals the people on half meal plan were supposed to eat and weren't supposed to eat because they hadn't signed up for them yet and the steward hadn't gotten me the numbers. I had a number of problems with this. To begin with, it's more work for me (they told me this Friday right after they told me I was getting paid). Then, it is impossible to keep stuff warm once it's been portioned out. So unless people get there at 10:30am when I put the meals out, everyone will be getting cold food. Third, there are certain dishes that are impossible to portion out because it depends on the person's taste. For example, I'm going to have sub sandwiches for lunch tomorrow. I know that there are some people that don't like ham and there are some people that don't like turkey and some people that like both. I also don't know how each person likes their sandwich. Normally, I set out plates of meat and cheese and dishes with all the different condiments and veggies. The same goes for pizza or chips; do I put fruit and veggies on each plate. What if the person doesn't like fruit or veggies? I've considered getting a bunch of cheap dog dishes, writing each person's name on them and then just slopping food in. Perhaps I should just serve gruel. No one would steal that and it wouldn't matter if it was hot or cold because it's disgusting either way.

Side note: My big interview is tomorrow. So, I would request that if you could pray/ keep your fingers crossed/ do a “get Kristy a job at the consulate” rain dance; I would appreciate it. I would really like a job that actually pays me and doesn't force me to serve gruel in dog dishes. Thanks!

P.S. I'll be posting a recipe tomorrow. I made it for the guys tonight and want to make sure they ate it and I didn't kill them or anything ;-)

She's Baaaack!

2010-09-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

So I'm back at the frat. I don't want to be back at the frat. I really dislike that I'm back at the frat. It isn't better. It's actually worse. There's no internet. What am I supposed to do with my time if I can't look up mindless drivel and play Wordworm? Of course, there's already been drama. They couldn't decide when I started, and then they couldn't decide how often I was working. And of course they didn't know how many people were eating when (and they still don't), and they weren't terribly sure what the budget was. Oy... welcome back to work, right? The good news is, it might not be forever. I have an interview next week. Woot! But, I don't have the job in the bag yet. I'm only hoping... praying... wishing... crossing fingers, toes, eyes, the beams from my nuclear ghost-catching backpacks, etc. I would totally ask all of you to put in a good word for me at my (hopefully) future place of employment, but then I realized that you read my blog and probably think I'm insane. So, that might not be a good idea.

I did find something out about the boys; there are guys at the frat that like vegetables. They will actually take large helpings of all things green. I knew they existed! I'm even fairly sure they aren't just figments of my imagination. While hiding in the lounge (the kitchen gets to be over 100 in the summer, requiring me to find someplace cool) a couple guys came in and they actually requested that I cook more veggies like broccoli. Of course one of them also requested that I cook less pork. Eh, less pork is not a very viable option as the guys won't eat fish and there's only so much you can do with just chicken and beef on my budget. The new steward also informed me that the guys requested that I make mac and cheese once a week. They are going to get really sick of it really fast. Or maybe they won't, but I'm pretty sure I'll get sick of making it. Homemade mac and cheese is somewhat labor intensive; it requires a lot of steps. I also tend to burn myself on the cheese sauce pot every time I make it.

I've decided to make a change to the way I do the blog. It simply isn't feasible to put up a new recipe every day. So, I'll probably put up a recipe once or twice a week. I haven't decided if I'll still put up thoughts every day. I'm not sure you want to hear me babel that often. I'll have to think about it.

Torture: (v) 1. To inflict pain 2. To cause anguish 3. To sit in a room with a fresh out of the oven apple cobbler and vanilla ice cream in the freezer but not be allowed to eat it.

I made apple crisp today. If it tastes half as good as it smells than it turned out divine. I didn't really have a recipe for it (as per usual) so when I got groceries I just kinda grabbed what I thought I might need. I used to make apple crisp back in the long long ago when I worked at a grocery store deli in high school. I remembered making large trays of it using apple pie filling and making a sort of crumb crust on top. Well, I haven't been able to find any industrial-sized cans of apple pie filling and the little ones are expensive. So I decided to go ahead and make it from scratch. Yeah, I've lost my marbles, I know. It really didn't end up being all that hard to make. Sure, peeling 8-10 lbs of apples wasn't particularly fun, but I used a one of those little utensils that cores and slices the apple which cut the steps down considerable. The end result was a gooey apple filling with a lovely cinnamon-y crunchy top. (Ok... Ok, so I stole a bite...) Lucky for you I wrote down the ingredients I used and the amounts, so you can make it too.

Apple Crisp
Serves... probably about 8

For the Filling:
8 medium Granny Smith Apples, about 2 lbs
1/8 cup Lemon Juice
2 TBS Flour
½ cup Brown Sugar
½ tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Allspice
¼ tsp Ginger
¼ tsp Nutmeg
¼ tsp Salt
½ cup Butter

For the Topping:
½ cup Flour
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Rolled Oats
1 tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Nutmeg
½ cup Butter

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease a 9x13 pan. Peel, core and slice apples. Do not slice the apples too thin or they will disintegrate; slice the apples into 12ths or 16ths. In a small mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Mix lemon juice and sugar mix with apples until they are well coated. Spread the apples evenly over the pan. Cut the butter into small pieces and dot the apples with it.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cut the butter into small chunks and add to the oat mixture. Using your hands (or a pastry cutter), cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles small crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs evenly over apples. Bake for 15 minutes then turn the temperature down to 350 and back for another 30 minutes. Crust should be golden brown and the apples should be soft. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Life Happens

2010-05-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know I promised you an oven baked fish recipe and a lower calorie mac and cheese recipe. Here’s what happened, it didn’t happen. Friday, the day I had planned to make these delicacies, was A. much to hot for extended oven baking and B. Tyler was supposed to be home at 6pm and he was, but then there was catastrophic failure at work and he had to go back in. So, we had pigs in a blanket because they were fast and didn’t require extended oven usage. Then this weekend was super busy, and it really didn’t happen. What can I say, life happens.

Oh by the way, a shout out to all mothers… Happy Mother’s Day! I would especially like to thank my mother. If you want to know where my love for cooking and creativity in the kitchen comes from, it is most definitely from my mother.

Speaking of life happens, I’m still out of work. Bah humbug. My parents are redoing their kitchen and wanted to repaint… basically the whole house. The problem, dad decided he really didn’t want to paint it himself. So, he asked me if I wanted to paint for a little extra cash. Ok… I’m not sure if I ever mentioned that I do not paint for a living and have never painted for a living. As a matter of fact, I’ve only ever had a few major home décor painting projects and I’ve never painted crown molding (eek, a ladder!). Perhaps I should also mention that my dad is a paint perfectionist. (Perhaps being a second generation in the paint industry has something to do with it). So to say that I was a little nervous getting started today is an understatement. While I don’t mind painting, I think I’d like a real job. Preferably not one an hour an a half away (the commute to my parent’s). Not that I'm not grateful to my excellent parents for enabling me to pay the rent... I'm just fairly sure that I want a real job at a desk not on top of a tall ladder painting crown molding.

The good news is I did come up with a new recipe this weekend. I made some Chicken Fajita Quesadillas. They turned out fabulous. I made them in the oven, which I think is an ingenious way to make quesadillas especially when you want to make several. They crisp up nicely and you only have to turn them once so there’s no worry about everything falling out. There’s also no need to get a silly quesadilla machine. Serve these with a little sour cream, guacamole and a margarita.

Chicken Fajita Quesadillas
Serves 4

1 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, cut into thin strips
3 cups Shredded Mexican Blend Cheese, divided
8-10 6-inch Tortillas
1 cup Bell Pepper (any color or a mix of colors) cut into strips
1 cup Onion, cut into thin strips
1 medium Tomato, cut into thin wedges
Fajita Mix (use store bought or you can make your own with the recipe below)
Vegetable Oil
Cooking Spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, heat 1 tbs of oil over medium-high heat. Add the peppers and onions and sauté until onion is tender. Remove the vegetables from skillet and add a little extra oil. Brown chicken until cooked through. Add vegetables back into the pan along with the fajita mix and 3 tbs of water. Add in tomato wedges and simmer, uncovered for 3-5 minutes or until water is mostly evaporated. Spray the one side of each of the tortillas with cooking spray and arrange half of them, sprayed side down, on a greased cookie sheet. Using half of the cheese, spread equal amounts of cheese on each of the tortillas. Arrange a layer of chicken and vegetables on each tortilla (try to keep the layers as flat as possible to make for easier handling). Sprinkle the remaining cheese on the top of the chicken and vegetables and top with the remaining tortillas, sprayed side up. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes, turning once halfway through.

Fajita Seasoning Mix
Note: I never seem to have a packet of taco or fajita seasoning on hand when I want it. But with the help of a little internet research, I found that I usually have all the ingredients I need for a good seasoning mix already in my cupboard, plus then I can control how spicy or salty the mix is.
This mix is the equivalent of one spice packet… seasons one pound of meat

1 ½ tsp Chili Powder (I used Chipotle Chili Powder for a smoky kick)
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Ground Cumin
¼ tsp Onion Powder
½ tsp Garlic Powder
¼ tsp Black Pepper
A pinch of Ground Cayenne Pepper (Optional)
1 tbs Cornstarch

Mix ingredients together and use as you would a packet of fajita seasoning

This Is The Blog That Doesn't End...

2010-05-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

So, things are going to change a little here at Adventures in Gourmand Cooking. Yesterday was my last day working at the fraternity for the semester, and I’m not due back until late August (if I choose to go back). So, for the summer, it’ll be just you and me, and possibly all of Newton County, Georgia. My darling hubby, the web guy at The Covington News and offered me up to be the “food blogger” for their website. His department recently doubled (as in there was one and now there are two), and this new lady has worked for several larger publications and wanted to put into practice at The Covington News what had worked for some of the larger publications. Namely, several different blogs that would appeal to different ages and interest groups. Sadly, the position wouldn’t be paid… exactly. The food would be paid for, so we have the potential of getting one to two meals for free a week. I’m perfectly alright with that. The part that makes me nervous is they want to go high tech with it. Tyler’s boss wanted to have video of me cooking. Ummm, that might be the worst idea ever. First, we have a small, rather ugly kitchen. The countertops are probably as old as my grandparents and the washer and dryer are right next to the stove. Plus I have no desire to be on video. I would have to dress nicely and wear make up. At home I usually cook in oversized pajama pants, one of Tyler’s t-shirts and puppy slippers. Also, I’m a messy cook, and there could be no do-overs. I wouldn’t mind photos, you can crop and edit things out of photos. You can stage photos so you can’t see the laundry basket full of underpants and socks. I don’t have to be in the photos. I can still wear puppy slippers. I would also have to scour the local Goodwill and Salvation army to find some interesting dishes to use in the photographs. Well, the idea has me nervous, but it has potential.

For final frat boys news until next fall:
I made homemade cinnamon rolls for the guys Wednesday. I used the recipe from ThePioneerWoman.com. Mmmm… these cinnamon rolls really are the best. They take a little time to make, but are well worth the wait. The minute I walked in the door on Wednesday, I was accosted by a frat boy, “Cinnamon rolls!?”. That was all he could say. I think he was worried he wouldn’t be able to get one before he had to take some evil GA Tech final. He started talking about analyzing cinnamon rolls in some sort of unheard of mathematic way. I think he may have lost his mind somewhere between over studying for his final and anticipation of cinnamon rolls. Shortly thereafter another frat boy came in and demanded to know when they would be done. I was up to my elbows in dough and flour and threatened to throw wads of dough at him. When I did start putting out the pans, the boys came trickling down. I saw two boys take a couple of forks and one whole pan of cinnamon rolls and head back upstairs. The poor sausage patties I put out were sadly ignored. There’s something about pan after pan of warm fragrant cinnamon rolls that just makes a tray of sausage patties seem a little pathetic. I had brought some of my own ingredients and had made some dough specifically for Tyler and I. Last time I made cinnamon rolls for the guys, Tyler was upset that I didn’t make any for us, so this time I wasn’t going to make that mistake.

An update on the landlord situation: Our old landlord finally got us our check. In the end, Tyler had to go and get it. I wasn’t able to do it because I had to take the bus to work and wouldn’t be able to get back (as we’re down to one car for the moment). He (Tyler) wasn’t particularly happy about this arrangement; he hates confrontation of any sort and has some sort of phobia of landlords. I would imagine if I had gone, I would have said something nasty as a parting thought because, while I don’t like conflict, if you get me riled up enough it takes me a while to settle down. So, perhaps it’s all for the best that Tyler went.

I am making Spicy Breaded Baked Fish for tomorrow and Lower Fat Mac and Cheese tomorrow, so I will give you those recipes (and possibly pictures) tomorrow.

I'm going to go have a cinnamon roll and some milk.

P.S. Can you guess what song I referenced in this post's title?

UPDATE

2010-05-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Chicken Quesadillas, Chips and Salsa
Dinner: Chicken Parmesan, Spaghetti and Salad

UPDATE: So, when I arrived at my old landlord’s office yesterday just before 3:30pm, he wasn’t there. Apparently he goes home every day between 2 and 3. Urgh! He said he would call us and let us know when he was available. Well, there’s no way I could leave work early today (I have cinnamon rolls to prep), and I certainly wouldn’t be able to make it from downtown Atlanta all the way out to Conyers (where his office is located) at the drop of a hat. So, poor Tyler had to wake up early and take me to the bus. I must admit, I really don’t feel that bad for Tyler. He completely balked at the idea of having to wake up early, and I had to kindly point out that not only was this a one time deal, but that I have to get up that early every morning (and he’s always poking fun at me because I want to go to bed before 11pm). I hate only having one car.

In other news, the frat boys have run amuck. Apparently the stress of finals and the upcoming, relative freedom of summer has made them take leave of what little brains and civility they had. They completely cleaned out the fridge over the weekend, and by cleaned I mean ate everything they could find like a bunch of Hoover vacuums. So, if they’re short on chicken quesadillas today because those buttheads ate the tortillas and cheese (again with the cheese!), then I really don’t care. I’m feeling a bit of the end of semester lassez-faire as well. They want to eat the cheese and tortillas? Ok, I’ll put out a big bowl of canned chicken with taco seasoning and call it lunch. They also took an entire gallon of whole milk that was needed for cinnamon rolls. I sent the steward a quick e-mail letting him know I would be unable to make cinnamon rolls because we had no milk. Unsurprisingly, he went out and bought a gallon of milk right away. Ahh the power of cinnamon rolls! In order to discourage any further thieving, I left a note on the whiteboard: “Dear Lodge Inhabitants, If you remove or “borrow” any of the following ingredients, it will result in my being unable to make cinnamon rolls for tomorrow: sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, cinnamon, flour, butter, milk, maple and vanilla” Hopefully, that will deter them. I’m serious about not making cinnamon rolls if any of it’s missing, even if they only wanted a glass of milk.

Today’s recipe is oven-baked chicken parmesan. Tyler’s favorite “Italian” dish is chicken parmesan. I would bet anyone any amount of money that, no matter what Italian restaurant we go to, so long as they have chicken parmesan on the menu, that’s what he’s ordering. I wanted to make it for the guys, sautéing it in oil on the stove would take waaay to long. So I came up with this version. I adapted the coating from my chicken cordon bleu recipe. Dipping the chicken in butter and then in the breading makes the bread crumbs turn crispy (rather than soggy) in the oven. As a plus, because this recipe is done in the oven (rather than on the stove, dripping with oil) it’s also a little healthier. (Note: I said healthier, not calorie free, it still has butter and parmesan cheese). I used chicken tenders, but you can use chicken breasts. If you are using chicken breasts, I would pound them a little to make them thinner so the breading doesn’t burn while you’re waiting for the chicken to get done. This is also an excellent breading recipe for fish (you’ll have to adjust the time though).

Oven Baked Parmesan Cheese
Serves 6

1 ½ lbs Chicken Tenders
1 1/4 cups Bread Crumbs
1 ¼ cups Parmesan
2 ½ tbs Italian Seasoning
2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 cup Butter or Margarine, melted
Salt and Pepper to taste (you’ll only need a little salt because the cheese is salty)

Preheat oven to 350; lightly spray a shallow baking pan (or cookie sheet with sides) with cooking spray. Combine bread crumbs, parmesan, italian seasoning, garlic powder and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Dip chicken in butter and shake off excess. Roll chicken in bread crumb mixture being sure to thoroughly coat with bread crumbs and place on pan in a single layer. Bake for approx 20 minutes turning midway through. Serve with spaghetti and marinara sauce.

Lessons Learned

2010-05-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Cheesy Pigs In A Blanket and Chips
Dinner: Brunswick Stew and Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

I hate getting duped, and I really hate that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when someone you believed to be a generally nice person turns out to be a complete scumbag. And boy did both happen in abundance this weekend. I may have mentioned that we moved… right? Well, I’m not sure if I mentioned that our lease was not up on the old house. It is not technically up until the end of this month. We were alright with that. We figured we would give the landlord plenty of time (60 days notice) to find someone else, and that we would have plenty of time to move our stuff (and save money by not renting a moving van). Well, he had a few people go through the house and a relative of our neighbors decided to rent the house. The landlord called us Thursday afternoon and asked if we could get the rest of our stuff out by the 1st of May. Ok… no problem. Friday night while loading up our stuff at the old house, the new tenants stopped over to look at some things around the house. While they were looking at things we chatted, and they mentioned that they had already signed the lease and it went into effect on the first. Well, Tyler and I thought that was excellent because it should have meant that we would not owe any rent for May and that we should be getting back our deposit. We called the landlord Saturday morning… he informed us we would not be getting back anything because we broke the lease…

What?!

I tried to argue that we didn’t break the lease, that I’d never told him we had any intention of breaking the lease, and that I had specifically said that we would see the lease through until the end of this month. I even pointed out that he had the place rented already (and had a lease signed that went into effect before our lease was up). He started to talk in circles about how I hadn’t given him any notice and whether or not he had a new tenant was none of my concern, but that I broke the lease and would not be receiving any of our $800. I was completely flabbergasted. The man went from what I thought was a nice old man to a completely sketchy jerk. He was actually laughing! I hung up on him and called my dad. I love my dad; he’s a great guy. He always seems to know what to do when I get into a situation where I’m in over my head (or if I can’t get the weed eater started). In true protective father style, dad wanted to get on the phone with this guy. I gave him the number and a little while later, I got a call back. “Kid, I think you’re hosed. This guy is a real jerk” (although I think dad might have used a moniker a little stronger than jerk). After much conversation and much enraged pacing, we decided that this was most likely going to have to go to small claims court and that it would be a toss-up as to whether or not I would win. The problem, this guy wanted to fight dirty. He accused us of not keeping up the yard, of not telling him about our pets, of giving him no notice before moving etc etc. All of which were not true, but hard to prove. It would have been an enormous case of he-said/she-said. Though, in my mind, the cold hard facts were he broke the lease by signing a new lease that started a month before ours ended and he had not given us the required (by law) 30 days notice nor did he have anything from us stating an intention to leave early.

Well, just about the time that Tyler and I were getting all fired up to take this guy’s butt to court (ok, maybe more me than Tyler), the guy called my dad back. I guess he realized that this could end very badly for him. While Tyler and I stood to lose a possible $800, he could lose much more. He’s a real estate agent. His career could be hurt by losing a case in court like this not to mention the potential of having his name dragged in the mud. Hey, there are advantages to having a husband who works at the local newspaper. He said he would be willing to offer us $400 in exchange for a letter stating that we forfeited the rest of the deposit because we “broke the lease”. Well, here’s the classic double or nothing scenario, or as Tyler called it, the Cash Cab choice. We could either walk with $400 or we could go to court and get either $800 or nothing. I really didn’t want to have to deal with the anger and the pain in the butt it would be to taking this jerk to court, and Tyler decided some money in hand was better than none and a uncontrollably angry wife (a potential outcome). Here’s the catch, I have to hand deliver the letter. Which means that this afternoon, I’m going to have to be face to face with this (insert expletive here). I’m terrified he’s going to bully me or go back on his word and say there was no such arrangement or what have you. I couldn’t sleep last night and my stomach has been all in knots today. I can deal with confrontation, but I don’t like it. I’m not a nasty person and I don’t like dealing with nasty people, and I most certainly don’t like the way nasty people make me want to act.

Oh… and if all that weren’t enough for one weekend, our car decided to overheat. So now we have to get it fixed. All I have to say is, I better win the lottery next weekend (or at the very least land a really good job this week). That’s about the only thing that can make up for the horrible weekend I had. So to recap, lessons learned for this weekend: 1. always always get everything in writing, even if it seems silly and trivial. 2. people that seem nice, even if they give you cookies for Christmas, might be really nasty jerks. and 3. my dad is great (and plays a mean saxaphone)

P.S. I promise I’ll post a recipe tomorrow, I’m just a little to keyed up to do it today.

Shredded

2010-04-29T19:38:00.001-07:00

Lunch: Shredded Beef Sandwiches and Chips
Dinner: Pulled Pork Tacos, Rice and Corn
Dessert: Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bah! The grocery thieves strike again! There is no cheese left for tacos tonight… literally no cheese. They stole the last of it last night. Oh well, I don’t feel bad. I’m fairly sure the brothers will ferret out who these cheese weasels are and make them pay. Luckily the pulled pork turned out excellent, so it doesn’t really need cheese. I would be perfectly happy to sit there and eat it with tortillas… although if I were to serve it to guests, I would serve it with queso fresco, fresh cilantro, black beans and lime wedges, but that’s just me. Mmmm… sounds good. Apparently it smelled really good, because the brothers kept coming down and commenting on how delicious it smelled. I love comments like that. I rewarded one of the boys with a bite of the pork (I was shredding it at the time).

I didn’t realize, but today was unintentionally shredded meat day. I made shredded beef sandwiches for lunch and there was shredded pork tacos for dinner. Oops! I generally try to keep things mixed up, but sometimes it’s all I can do just to keep from having chicken for lunch and for dinner. The shredded beef sandwiches I made for lunch were a bit of an experiment. I have seen other recipes for shredded beef, but I wanted something simple with a little kick. I really like how it turned out. They are excellent served on toasted buns with swiss or provolone cheese and the sauce on the side to dip it.

Shredded Beef Sandwiches
Serves 10

4-5 lb Beef Roast
4 cups Beef Broth
2 tsp oregano
1 tbs Hot Sauce (optional)
1 bay leaf
Salt and Pepper

Salt and Pepper the roast and put it in the crockpot. Mix together the beef broth, oregano, hot sauce and bay leaf and pour over the roast. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours. Remove the roast and siphon as much fat as possible from the liquid *. Shred the beef with two forks.

* If you’re making this ahead of time (like I did) leave the roast whole and put the roast and the liquid in the fridge. Then when you’re ready to warm it up, you can remove the hardened fat with a spoon and then shred the beef.

Twilight Zone

2010-04-27T18:23:00.001-07:00

Lunch: Bacon Mac and Cheese and Pineapple Tidbits
Dinner: Swiss Steak with Peppers, Rice and Salad

Today feels a little like a Twilight Zone episode. I know it's supposed to be a Tuesday in late April, but I feel like it's a Saturday in late October, early November. Here's why:
1.I had to get groceries yesterday (something I generally do on Fridays)
2.Tyler had to work late last night (something he usually only does on Fridays)
3.It's chilly, windy and gray outside like it would be in late October/ early November
4.We moved into a creepy house and I'm already planning on how to decorate it for Halloween

Of course, it also feels a bit like the 4th of July should be next week because for the last several years, we've moved at the end of June and last year we had a 4th of July party (our old back yard was a prime fireworks shooting space). Well, we just moved and are talking about having a party in a few weeks. My family let me know that a party was pretty much mandatory. My family does not mess around when it comes to parties and any event that might need celebrating is generally celebrated. Oh, and Tyler and I (the designated party throwers of our group of friends) haven't had a party in a while.

Steak with Peppers
20 servings

24 Round Steaks, ½ inch thick
1 can (6lb 6oz) Crushed Tomatoes
6 Green Bell Peppers, sliced into thin strips
2 Onions, sliced into thin strips
¼ cup Worcestershire Sauce
4 cups Beef Broth
2 tbs Ground Black Pepper
8 cloves Garlic, minced

Mix together the Worcestershire sauce, crushed tomatoes, beef broth, ground black pepper, and minced garlic. Put round steaks, pepper and onions in crock pot; pour tomato mixture over steak and peppers. Cook over high heat for 6 hours or low heat for 8 hours. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.

Our House is a Very Very Odd House

2010-04-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and readers, I’m blogging today beacause: a. I probably won’t be able to blog tomorrow (more on that later) b. my husband and his friends are blowing each other up in our living room and it’s loud and rather boring for those not blowing each other up and c. I decided to give myself a day off from packing/ unpacking/ moving/ cleaning and enjoy the lovely day.

So the reason I won’t be blogging tomorrow (most likely, unless something crazy happens, of which there is a strong likelihood) is that I have to get groceries, all of the groceries. I was all set and ready to get groceries Friday, but they neglected to mention the frat house would be “closing” at 10am Friday for initiation of the pledges this weekend. I’m not sure what secret things they needed to do between 11am and 2pm on a Friday afternoon and what it had to do with the kitchen but I didn’t want to ask. (It’s supposed to be secret, right? It’s not like they’d tell me even if I did ask.) Well, I wasn’t particularly happy about having to get groceries Monday because that always makes Monday’s extra stressful. Grocery shopping can take awhile and I’m rarely back before 2 let alone have the groceries unloaded and ready to cook. Grrr..

In other news, I decided to take today off. I’m tired and have been packing/ unpacking/ cleaning/ moving nonstop for some time now. Today will be the first day in a while that I’ve just relaxed. I thought it might be fun to show you some of the oddities we found in our new house. DISCLAIMER: We are still in the process of moving in, so please do not judge any stacks of boxes, undecorated walls, etc. Also, I am not exactly design inclined when it comes to interior decorating (nor do I have the budget to be) so please… don’t judge.

This is our house… Hi House! (I told it was rather homely on the outside)

This is our mail box… please note the fact that there is no gate anywhere near the mail box. We have to walk all the way around the yard to get the mail. (Big Mail Fail!)

This is the cute porch light cover on our front porch. Please note: that is not our house number. Why is there a porch light cover with a house number that is not even close to ours, I do not know.

This is the seesaw. Would you like to come and play seesaw at our house? It’s a fun ride, you just have to have your tetanus shots up to date and sign a disclaimer.

This is the cat I found in the cupboard (looks remarkably like our cat George…)

This is the enormous dog rug I found in the guest bedroom.

This is the really weird, very stained old sink. I think it was put in before indoor plumbing was invented. Look at the faucet… it’s off center and does not belong with this sink and there are no holes for another faucet.

And here’s our tiny little bathroom. Why yes, that is a window in the shower. Very convenient when you want to flash the neighbors from the privacy of your own home.

These are some of the weird gang signs drawn in the guest bedroom closet. Awesome.

This is the doorframe for that closet. Please notice that someone tried to screw/nail it shut several times. Apparently they didn’t want anyone to know about the gang signs in the closet.

These are the very creepy stairs up to our very creepy attic. Please note the really creepy lace curtains hanging in the middle of the room for no apparent reason other than to be really creepy.

And finally this is a picture of our creepy attic with the really creepy children’s rocking chair and various things. With the wall decor and the multitude of toys including some scary old dolls (not pictured) we have reason to believe this may have, at one time, been a children’s play area. The question is, who would do that to their child?

Help! Lasagna Has Taken Over My Kitchen

2010-04-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Ham and Turkey Sub Sandwiches, Chips and Carrot Sticks
Dinner: Beef Lasagna, Salad, and Garlic Toast
Dessert: Chocolate Cake w/ Vanilla Frosting and Yellow Cake w/ Chocolate Frosting

Ok… so this will be a short post today. I’m dead beat. Tired is making and frosting 6 cakes. Really tired is making homemade lasagna and cake. Dead exhausted is making 6 cakes and over 60 pounds of homemade lasagna. Yup, that’s right, over 60 pounds. Just getting out the ingredients is enough to make you tired. So what does 60 lbs of lasagna look like? I wish I had brought my camera… it was an awesome sight. The lasagna was in 4 deep pans that were a little larger than 12 x 24 and each weighed over 15 pounds. So what goes into 60 pounds of lasagna? Here’s a clue:

15 pounds of Hamburger Meat
8 pounds Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
8 pounds Ricotta Cheese
13 pounds Prepared Spaghetti Sauce
6 ½ pounds Crushed Tomatoes
6 ½ pounds Tomato Sauce
5 pounds Lasagna Noodles

That doesn’t include the eggs, the seasonings, the onions, the tomato paste, the garlic etc etc.

All that and 6, yes count them 6 cakes. I made 3 chocolate and 3 yellow cakes. My arms are tired from stirring. I burnt my fingers and my back hurts from lifting the pot of boiling noodles. All this was after making lunch and while making salad and garlic toast… for 40. All that and one of the frat boys walked in and had the nerve to say, “I hope that lasagna is good” as if there was any question that it wouldn’t be good. I asked if he liked my spaghetti… he said he couldn’t remember my making spaghetti. Oy! Seriously? I probably make spaghetti or at the very least spaghetti sauce at least once every other week. Sometimes I don’t know why I exert myself. Perhaps I should have made something easy. Something where I wouldn’t burn my fingers and strain my back. Something that would at least leave me time enough to eat lunch and dink around on the internet for a couple hours.

But you have to admit, 60 pounds of lasagna is a pretty awesome feat. Do you think I can put that on my resume under a list of accomplishments?

Hooray Home Depot Guy!

2010-04-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Turkey Nachos (boy I’m sneaky, I didn’t tell them it was turkey)
Dinner: Italian Chicken and Sausage Soup

Oy, it has been a hectic week already! Is this week over yet? Cooking for 40+ requires soo much more work. It also makes it more difficult in that I only have 1 oven. There is only so much space which means that things have to be cooked in stages, and it is likely that something is going to cool down or dry out. The lovely roasts I made last night ended up a little dry because I had to make them hours in advance in order to make the roasted potatoes. I should have made gravy, but I didn’t think about it. Today I made my Italian chicken and sausage soup for the guys and Tyler was completely jealous. He loves Italian chicken and sausage soup. The problem is our stove is currently non operative. Mom and dad graciously donated their stove to us because the one that came with our rental house was old and icky. The landlord was also kind enough to run in a gas line for us. The problem is getting it all connected. We went out to get a new gas line (as you’re supposed to do) but the connections didn’t match. The kit only has one male/male connector and we needed two. I went to every hardware store in town trying to find one that A. knew what I was talking about and B. had the piece. I really didn’t think this was rocket science. Here’s how the conversation went at Ace Hardware:
I brought in the kit with the piece I needed and showed it to a person in the department and said “I need another one of these”.
Ace Guy: “You need a male/female one?”
Me: “No, I need this exact one. Male/Male” I show it to him.
Ace Guy: “Hmmm… well let’s see what we can put together for you”
He then tried to put together some sort of contraption with all sorts of expensive connectors, and it still wasn’t what I was looking for.
Ace Guy: “Well, you know, I think you should have everything you need in that kit. You shouldn’t need another one”
Argh!
Then I went back to Home Depot. The first time I was there I couldn’t find a person to talk to. Then Tyler went. Then I went back again. You see they have only one type of connector for gas lines. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong size. Why would you have a gas connector that doesn’t fit the lines you sell? It makes no sense. Well, the final time I went I found a gentleman in the plumbing area. He helped me look for a minute, and then he pulled down one of the kits, “You just need this part right here, right?”
Me: “Yes!”
Home depot guy then ripped open the package, took out the part and handed it to us. He said we could look at every hardware store in Atlanta and we probably weren’t going to find it and he wasn’t going to make us buy a whole new kit for a $2 connector. So, I would just like to say, in a public forum, thank you home depot guy you restored my faith in humanity. It’s good to know not everyone out there is a soulless boob like the people at ATT&T (more on that tomorrow, the anger is still too fresh).

The moral of the story is, we currently have a non operative stove and I don’t like eating fast food. We’re definitely putting the old crock pot to good use. Tomorrow I’m going to try making Italian chicken soup in the crock pot for Tyler. I’ll have to let you know how that turns out. Last night we made mock beef burgundy. I generally hate any sort of recipe that has mock in the title… so we’re going to christen this recipe “Faux Beef Burgundy”. Faux sounds so much better than mock. Someday I’ll tell you about Mock Yummy Good Surprise. This recipe is great if you just want to throw stuff in a pot and forget about it. That’s all you do; you dump the ingredients together and forget about it until you get home and smell the wonderfulness. It is excellent served over egg noodles or mashed potatoes (while they are nowhere near as good as real mashed potatoes, if you use the Oreida steam and mash variety you can get dinner on the table 10 minutes after you get home.)

Faux Beef Burgandy
Serves 6

1 ½ lbs Beef Stew Meat
1 can Beef Consommé
1 can Condensed Cream of Golden Mushroom Soup
1 packet Onion Soup Mix
1 soup can worth of Dry Red Wine
1 jar Button Mushrooms, drained

Put stew meat and mushrooms in crock pot. Mix together the onion soup mix, the beef consommé, the golden mushroom soup and the dry red wine; pour over beef and mushrooms. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

I'm Sorry

2010-04-19T13:17:00.001-07:00

Lunch: BLT’s and Chips
Dinner: Chili and Cornbread

I would like to apologize in advance if I end up being spotty on the posts this week. If you want to hear the excuses, here they are: We’re in the middle of moving… still, so my nights are a little tied up. This week is initiation week at the frat house which means I have to cook for all the pledges and brothers… we’re talking double what I normally fix… so I might be a little busier than normal. I do promise to try and post this week. I certainly have plenty to say. But, I guess you already knew that. Hmm… perhaps I should apologize for that as well. Well… I’m sorry I’m such an opinionated loudmouth, but then again, if I weren’t, I probably wouldn’t be a blogger so… I guess it all works out. I would also like to apologize for my blatant over use of ellipses; I do love them so.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I would like to say that I hate moving. I really really really hate moving, and when I win the lottery, I’m not going move anything ever again. I’m even going to get a special assistant just to bring the groceries into the house. So… here’s hoping that I win the lottery tomorrow or Wednesday ($143 million and $252 million respectively). I’ll let you know if I do because then I can afford to start having giveaways here… (ellipse!)

Yesterday, or How I Lost My Butt

2010-04-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Cheesy Pigs in a Blanket and Chips
Dinner: Hungarian Goulash, Egg Noodles and Mixed Veggies

The last 24 hours have been very hectic. After I left work yesterday afternoon, I got a call from my landlord. You see, I’ve been trying to get in touch with my landlord for the past 2 weeks to try and tell him that we were planning on moving out. But he never called me back… We found out from our neighbors that he was in the hospital, but is out now and is all better. Well, the neighbors told him yesterday that we were planning to move apparently because I got a call from him. I’ve come to believe you have to be a strange sort of person to be a landlord. All the landlords I’ve ever had have been strange. The current and the new one are no exceptions. Anyway, the landlord informed me that he had someone interested in buying the house, but they wanted to do it before the end of the month (homebuyer credit) and so they needed to come look at the house tomorrow (as in today, Wednesday). What! EEEK! Let me tell you a little secret about myself, I’m messy. Now let me tell you a little secret about my husband, he’s messy. We’re both messy, disorganized people (except for when I’m at work, strangely I can keep a million things straight and my desk neat at work… when I come home, well that’s another story). To make matters worse, we haven’t really been home to clean. And if all that weren’t bad enough, we’re in the middle of trying to pack all of our belongings. Last time we moved, I was out of work and had time to keep the house clean and organize and pack things neatly. This time, we’re both working and just sort of packing and hauling as we go with no sense of organization. Our house looked something like a war zone, complete with orange Georgia clay foot prints all over the carpet from our dog. A note on Georgia clay and white carpets: they don’t mix, thank God our new house has wood floors! When he told me they had to see it today, I could have cried. Instead, I called Tyler and we spent the next 5 hours working our butts off. The house is immaculate. I rented a carpet cleaner and steamed the Georgia clay out of the carpets. We threw all of the messy disorganization that was our closets into boxes; heaven help us when it comes to unpacking time. The downside is, I’m fairly sure I have no butt now because it sure is sore when I sit down. The upside is, now we won’t have to worry about cleaning after we move… we’ve done most of the work already.

Because we were up so late cleaning last night, I decided to sleep in an extra hour and drive to work rather than take the bus. Boy am I glad I did, the bus I normally take was sitting broken down on the side of the road. Hooray for avoiding bus drama by sleeping in!

When I got to work this morning, the kitchen smelled like gas. In fact, the whole basement smelled like gas. It was time to get drastic. I e-mail/ texted all of the top dogs and let them know that either the stove needed to be fixed by 2pm or I was going home and staying there until the stove was fixed. Well, apparently they had a technician out last night to fix it. He said the lines were clogged and needed to be cleaned and the pilot lights were out. Well, he cleaned the lines and all, but did not relight the pilot lights for the broiler… so the kitchen filled with gas. Luckily, no one exploded. We shut off the gas to the broiler because the broiler is nasty and broken and it makes no sense for those pilot lights to be on.

Now dinner is almost done, I’m just waiting on the egg noodles to finish. Tonight I’m making Hungarian goulash for the guys. I love goulash. I especially love goulash from the Bohemian Café in Omaha. I decided that goulash would be perfect for the guys because it’s meat slow simmered in a tomato based sauce served over noodles. It’s very man foodish. It does require one special and sometime hard to find ingredient: Hungarian style paprika. It is important that you don’t use just any old paprika. Hungarian style paprika is different, it’s sweeter and less bitter. It isn’t that expensive, it just may be difficult to find at a small grocery store.

Hungarian Goulash
serves 25

10 lbs Beef Stew Meat
12 medium Carrots, roughly chopped
4 medium Onions, cut into thin strips
1 head of Garlic, minced
7 cans Tomato Paste
3 cans Tomato Sauce
½ cup Hungarian Paprika (sweet, not hot)
1 tbs Salt
1 tbs Carraway Seed
1 ½ tbs Pepper
6 Bay Leaves
12 Green Bell Peppers, cut into thin strips
Vegetable oil

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet. Brown beef on all sides. Drain and add beef and remaining ingredients except for the green bell pepper into a crock pot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Turn the crock pot to high and add peppers; cook for 30 minutes. Serve over egg noodles.

CHEF SMASH!

2010-04-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Sloppy Joes, Chips, Carrots and Dip
Dinner: Pork Chops with Stuffing and Salad

Argh! I am so frustrated right now! The stove is still broken… they told me they were getting it fixed today. Well as of my writing this post (at 4pm) no one has been here to fix it. I had to try to make sloppy joes on it and it nearly took my eyebrows off. Luckily I had just finished the sloppy joes, but as I was about to turn off the stove, the gas flared and I was very glad I was wearing my headscarf… I am not happy! To make matters worse, the guys are stealing again. They ate the pepperoni that was to be for Thursday’s French bread pizza. Well… they’ve angered the chef! I will not be replacing the pepperoni. They can just have cheese pizzas. And if the stove isn’t fixed tomorrow, they won’t be having anything. I like having hair and eyebrows and not having 3rd degree burns on my face and/or hands.

Today’s recipe is for yellow rice. It’s also called saffron rice, but, as saffron is the world’s most expensive spice, we’re not using saffron and so I call it yellow rice. I like yellow rice; it’s very aromatic but has a mild flavor.

Yellow Rice
Serves 25

9 cups of Long Grain Rice
1 ½ tbs Tumeric
1 ½ tbs Cumin
½ tsp Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground Cayenne Pepper
10 cups Chicken Broth
8 cups Water

In a small nonstick skillet over medium heat, stir together spices. Continue stirring until spices become aromatic, approximately 1 minute. Remove spices from heat. Add spices, rice, chicken broth and water to a large pot with a lid. Heat over high heat until boiling, then cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until rice is done.

KaBoom!

2010-04-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, Chips and Pineapple Tidbits
Dinner: Jerked Chicken, Yellow Rice and Veggies

Disaster is temporarily averted. I did not blow up. You may feel free to breathe out a sigh of relief now. In case you’re wondering what I’m talking about, there could have very nearly been a disaster today. I was working in the kitchen as usual (read: dinking around on the internet) when I started to get a terrible headache. I went outside for a little air, and upon returning, noticed the kitchen smelled like gas. I checked all of the knobs on the stove to be sure they were in the proper off position; they were. I asked a passing frat boy if he thought the kitchens smelled like gas, and he confirmed it. I had to get in touch with the higher ups and let them know. They came down and started sniffing around, determined it was one of the stove burners leaking and then shut off the main gas line. Ok… well that makes it hard to cook. So I waited awhile for them to get in contact with someone… then the time for me to start cooking came and went. By the time 3 o’clock rolled around, I was beginning to wonder if I shouldn’t just go home. I called the president of the fraternity to determine what was being done. He said they weren’t going to be able to get anyone out there until tomorrow. So, he lit the offending burner and turned it on low. Eeft! I was terrified the whole thing would blow. I let them know that in no uncertain terms would I cook like that again tomorrow. They had to get it fixed, pronto. It’s just too dangerous otherwise. The kitchen is poorly ventilated. What would have happened if I hadn’t discovered it till tomorrow and then went to light the stove…? I say again, eeft!

I really must apologize for my spotty posting of late. I’m in the middle of trying to get our house cleaned, packed and moved. So unless I can get my post done on the bus, then I’m not going to get a post out that night. It isn’t always possible to get a post done on the bus either. Frequently, I’ll have large seat mates who take up more than their own seat so I can’t put my computer on my lap, or the person in front of me will lean their seat back so far they’re practically in my lap (the commuter buses are like greyhound buses). Once, I even had a seat mate that kept falling asleep on me.

If I ever do find a real job (like Pinocchio, he wanted to be a real boy… well, I want to have a real job), I think I know what I’m going to re-name my blog… “Cooking by the Seat of Your Pants” Do you like it? I think it’s a rather apt description of my cooking style. I have a tendency to just throw myself into it and see how it goes. I never follow recipes exactly. I might research different recipes, trying to find one that describes what I’m trying to achieve or to give me ideas on the general method or cook times, but I always end up changing it as I’m going. I frequently, especially at home, just dive into my cupboards to see what will go with what. Although, I’ve become rather accustomed to doing that at work too when the guys thieve my ingredients and I have to make on the fly substitutions. This week I decided to make jerk chicken for the guys. I had a couple jars of jerk seasoning blend leftover from a previous recipe and decided that I would just get some chicken and figure something out. Well, it wouldn’t work just to sprinkle the seasoning on the thighs and legs I got. The skin would be tasty, but the meat would be bland. Well… I served pineapple for lunch, and I always pour the juice off canned pineapple and save it. (I love the juice from a can of pineapple, my siblings and I used to fight over who got to drink the juice when we had canned pineapple at home). But there was only about 3 cups of pineapple juice… not really enough, I needed something else… To the fridge! Hmm… Leftover orange juice from Friday’s lunch? Ok! Mayo… no Mustard…. no… Pickles, probably not. Ah ha! Soy sauce. Pineapple juice and soy sauce make a great base for teriyaki marinade. Asian food has a lot of the same blending of sweet and hot that Jamaican cuisine is known for. We’ll use that! Voila, add in the orange juice and jerk seasoning and you have a respectable marinade. Maybe not authentic, but we’re not necessarily going for authentic; we’re going for tasty. The minute I blended it together I knew we had a winner. And that my friends is a brief glimpse into how I cook.

What was in the Fridge Jerk Chicken
serves 24

48 Chicken Legs and/or Thighs
3 cups Pineapple Juice
3 cups Orange Juice
1/3 cup Soy Sauce
2 bottles Jerk Seasoning Blend

Blend the orange juice, pineapple juice, soy sauce and jerk seasoning together. Pour over chicken legs and thighs. Cover and marinate at least 4 hours or overnight (overnight is better).

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a shallow oven proof casserole or roasting pan. Place chicken, skin side up in casserole; discard marinade. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until internal temperature reads 165 degrees. Skin may blacken a little.

(You can use a homemade jerk seasoning blend, there are plenty of recipes out there. Use about 1/3 to ½ cup or seasoning blend for this recipe)

Countdown

2010-04-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Dinner: Pot Roast, Roasted Potatoes and Veggies

So the count down begins for both the end of the semester and for Tyler and I to move. I hate moving; I hate packing; I hate unpacking. Since I started college (way back in 2003), I’ve moved at least once a year. I really hate it. However, we’re renters. With every house we’ve rented there’s always a catch, something that we’ve disliked. Something we’re sure we’ll find an improvement upon in the next house. When you’re a renter, you can’t improve a house, not in any real sense. If you have leaky windows and doors, you’re not going to make an investment in fixing them. If you need a fenced-in yard and you don’t have one, you’re not going try to put one up. And if your living room is oddly shaped and only has 1 power outlet which is nowhere near the cable outlet, you’re definitely not going to rewire the house (a. we don’t know how b. we’re not going to pay someone to do it). Then there’s always the idea that there’s something better, something cheaper out there. Towards the end of your lease you start to wonder if the perfect house (for the perfect price, at the perfect location) isn’t out there and you’re just about to miss it. Well, our new house is far from perfect. In fact, on the outside it’s downright ugly and the kitchen and bathroom are ugly too. However, it’s nearly $300 cheaper and it’s in town (not 20 minutes outside of town in the sticks like our current house). It also has a fenced in yard, a ton of storage space, pretty wood floors, and nicely sized rooms. Did I mention that’s it’s nearly $300 cheaper and not out in the boonies? We’re also fairly sure it’s haunted. It looks like it should be haunted. The attic stairs are narrow, dark and super creepy and when we first looked at the house there was a creepy, broken child’s rocking chair in the attic. I love it. I love creepy old houses. I tried to get Tyler to talk the people from the Gaithers Plantation (which is down the road from where we currently live) to let us stay there overnight. Tyler was out there covering a story about it for the newspaper for Halloween (my birthday). It’s supposed to be really haunted. He didn’t ask; I think he was afraid.

The other major news is, it’s nearly the end of the semester, which means I’m nearly out of a job. The guys don’t keep a cook for the summer (which is silly as there are still plenty of guys living there). So during all of my down time at work I’ve been sending out my resume and researching job opportunities. Any one want to hire me? I’m a hard worker and have an excellent office/ administrative background. I’ll bring you cookies… Please? Applying for jobs is so stressful and somewhat disheartening. You see a job you want to apply for. You spend a good amount of time tweaking your resume and cover letter so it’s just perfect. You try to make it say all those things that are simply impossible to convey on paper, but that are key to getting the position: that you’re a motivated, hard worker, that you’re organized and good at time management, that you’re professional and courteous, that you’re smart and a quick learner, that just because you’ve never worked in that specific industry or with that specific computer program doesn’t mean you won’t be able to understand and get it right away, that you are absolutely sure that within mere weeks of being hired, you will become an indispensable, integral part of their team, and you’ll bake them cookies. Then you send it out like a little bird from the nest, and wait for a response to come flying back to you. But… it doesn’t. You begin to wonder, “Did they get it? Is it lost out there somewhere in cyberspace? Is it sitting at the bottom of thousands of other resumes, never to see the light of day? Did they use it to spit their gum into or to wipe up some spilled coffee?”. The waiting is terrible, and 99.9% of the time, you won’t hear a word from them. The first week, you’re excited about all the opportunities and are optomistic. By the third week, you’re despondent. I know you’re not supposed to take it personally, but it’s terribly hard not to. Couldn’t they at least send out a quick form e-mail letting us poor applicants know that they’ve actually received our resume and when to give up hope (as in, thanks, but no thanks). After almost 2 years of job hunting (off and on), I’m not sure which is worse, rejection by simply not ever saying anything or straight out rejection (we’ve met you and we’re not interested). No, maybe the worst is, “Thanks, but you’re over qualified”. Umm… but my bills aren’t. Meh.

Sorry to be so “dark”, but I hate job hunting. It makes me grumpy. So does crashing into a MARTA bus, as the bus I’m currently riding on nearly did. I also don’t like when recipes don’t turn out. Ok, it isn’t so much that the recipe didn’t turn out as the meat I purchased was really gristly. The recipe actually worked rather well (and is ridiculously simple). There were even a few boys who came poking their noses around wondering what the wonderful smell was. So, it smelled good and tasted good… the meat was just gristly. So, here is a wonderful recipe for super simple pot roast try not to use gristly meat. I’m giving you this recipe per roast… it’s just easier that way. Just multiply it by the number of roasts you’re going to make.

Super Simple Pot Roast
Serves 6

3 lbs Boneless Beef Roast (I used chuck roast)
2 packets Onion Soup Mix
¾ cup Water
¾ cup Ketchup

Preheat oven to 275. Mix ketchup, onion soup mix and water together. Place roast in a deep oven proof pan. Pour ketchup mixture over roast and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 3-4 hours or until roast is tender. You can serve the sauce from the bottom of the pan on top of the roast.

Mehh

2010-04-05T11:54:00.001-07:00

Lunch: Corn Dogs, Chips and Carrot Sticks
Dinner: Hamburgers, Corn and Macaroni Salad

Blech… I’m miserably sick right now. I’m not sure if it’s allergies or a really nasty cold. But whatever it is trying to make my face explode and there is a solid layer of snot between me and rational thought. Seriously my head is so stuffed and fuzzy that when people talk to me all I hear is “mwah wah wah wah” like in the Peanuts (you know, when the adults talked…). The cold medicine hasn’t helped either. Pseudophed makes me feel all jittery while the others make me feel languid. Mostly I just want to sleep and eat carrot sticks (I seem to have lost my appetite for anything other than carrot sticks today). Hmm.. fuzzy head, twitchy and likes carrots, I think I’m turning into a rabbit.

It’s a good thing I had already planned easy meals for today. Complexity is really beyond me today. In honor of the summer-like weather we’re having today, I’m serving some very summery dishes. I even thought briefly about making the hamburgers on the grill, but I realized that was a silly idea. I don’t want to stand outside in the nearly 90 degree weather in direct sunlight battling with a cantankerous old grill. So I’m doing the burgers on the griddle, but hey, that’s how most fast food places cook’em. It’s not like I’m making fancy hamburgers or anything, they’re just the cheap frozen hamburger patties… Eh, that means the guys get 2... They’re gourmands… quantity over quality right?

The macaroni salad I’m making is a family favorite. It is as synonymous with summer for my family as swimming pools or sunburns. It is an excellent accompaniment to any sort of grilled item, bbq chicken, hamburgers, ribs.. you name it. Best of all, it’s very simple to make. It only has 6 ingredients, and is best when made ahead of time and refrigerated over night or at least a couple of hours. One word of warning, the recipe calls for Miracle Whip and there can be no substitute. Do not try to use mayonnaise or the store brand of “dressing”, I promise you it will not turn out.

Mom’s Macaroni Salad
Serves 25

4 lbs Macaroni Noodles, cooked, drained and cooled
4 cups Miracle Whip
2 cups White Vinegar
1 cup Sugar
4 cups Cucumber, peeled and chopped
2 med Onions, finely chopped

Mix Miracle Whip, vinegar and sugar with a whisk until smooth. Pour over macaroni noodles and stir. Mix in onion and cucumber and cover. Refrigerate overnight or at least a few hours.

How to Quit in Greek

2010-04-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Cheesy Pigs-in-a-Blanket and Chips
Dinner: Chili and Cornbread
Dessert: Chocolate Chip and Walnut Cookies

Happy April Fool’s Day! I like pulling pranks on people. For Christmas one year, we gave my brother a 6 pack of beer. He was really confused until he saw that 2 of the beers were full of money. He wanted to know 2 things: how to get the money out of the bottles and what did I do with all the beer that was in the bottles. I just realized last night that today was April 1st, and was racking my brain to think of some great joke I could play on the boys. I mean, you would think the possibilities would be endless as a chef. I researched food related pranks online and the ones I found were either gross and enough to get me fired (ex-lax in anything is a bad idea) or too time-consuming and too expensive. Making what looks like and entire meal out of nothing but candy seems funny, but do you have any idea how long that would take? Painstakingly hand rolling green beans out of Now and Laters… for 20 people? No thanks. I even called my grandpa, the king of all pranksters, and he couldn’t think of anything on the spot. He did have a funny story about a farting stuffed gorilla. (My grandpa has a thing for monkeys and for fart machines).

I love the French tradition for April fool’s day. The call it poisson d’Avril, or April fish. You take paper fish and tape them to other people’s backs so they don’t notice. Then they go around all day looking like a fool with a paper fish taped to their back. I am extraordinarily good at taping things to people’s backs without them realizing. In high school we went to a French immersion retreat that just happened to fall over April fool’s day weekend. Needless to say our rag tag group of Francophiles fished the heck out of the other schools. Enough so that the other schools present ganged up and tried to get us back. We were wise to their ways… Hee hee hee. It still gives me a chuckle.

Anyway, the question still came down to what to do to the guys… I couldn’t find a remote controlled fart machine like my mom suggested. So I decided to put out a tray of dog kibble complete with a decoration of dog biscuits. As the lunch trays are generally covered, the guys wouldn’t know anything was amiss until they got their plate, filled it with chips and such and then lifted the lid for the main dish…. and it was dog food. I had the real food in the kitchen. The first frat boy down was very astute and started laughing and came into the kitchen wanting to know where I hid the real food. The second guy was clearly not awake (he was still in his bath robe) he opened the lid, stuck the spoon in the kibble, and then set his plate down to go fill his cup with ice. He walked back out and just looked at the dog food. It was about that time that I popped out and said “Happy April Fool’s Day!”. I let him know the real food was in the kitchen. I don’t think he quite got it. Some of the guys were confused (and thereby fooled), but most of the guys caught on pretty quick and thought it was funny. But the best response was from a couple of the guys who thought I was seriously putting out dog food either because I was ticked off and decided to get back at them or that I was fed up with all the crap they’d given me and quit in grand fashion by feeding them dog food. Seriously? Who would quit that way? Well, at least I know in the future that a tray of dog food equals two week’s notice in Greek (get it?).

Sorry I'm a Lazy Butt

2010-03-31T08:07:00.001-07:00

Lunch: Bacon Mac and Cheese and Canned Pineapple
Dinner: Russian Chicken, Buttered Noodles and Green Beans

Ok, so I’ve been very bad of late and haven‘t posted for a while… But in my defense it was spring break. Can you forgive me?

No? Oh well, can’t please everybody.

The weather is lovely again and everything is in bloom which means that I’m getting no sleep at night because both my hubby and my dog have allergies which cause them to snore. Yes, that’s right. My dog has seasonal allergies; we give him benedryl. We give him lots of benedryl. He gets 4 wrapped up in a piece of cheese every night (so he won’t spit them out). I feel bad drugging him like that, afterall, 2 knock me out for the night and I’m groggy the next day. I guess it’s just further proof that my dog is, in reality, a horse. Too bad you can’t put breath-right strips on a dog…

The warm weather is bringing more than just sneezing fits… it brings out the exhibitionist frat boys. On the way to the bus yesterday I saw a shirtless frat boy. Ok, I saw lots of shirtless frat boys, but this one caught my eye because he was swinging a large sledge hammer. (In case you’re wondering, no he was not a part of the frat I cook for, thank goodness). Swinging a large sledge hammer, shirtless, in your front yard is strange enough, but even stranger… he was using it to beat the poo out of a large tire. He would swing the hammer, the tire would bounce and then he’d hit it again with the hammer. Over and over. I’m not entirely sure what his motivation was. Perhaps the tire angered him? I mean, despite the fact that he was clearly swinging that hammer with all his might, it didn’t do anything to the tire. The tire just bounced a little and remained intact and unharmed. There were also several of his brothers sitting out in the yard watching him. Maybe he lost a bet… The strangeness of frat boys will never cease to amaze me.

I’m not making any new recipes this week for the guys, just a bunch of tried and true ones that you already have the recipes for. I decided that I couldn’t be bothered last week to research new recipes and come up with a whole new meal plan and grocery list. So I went with the easy stuff, what I knew worked. Call me lazy, but hey, it was spring break. So this week I’ll be giving you some of the recipes I tried out last week for Tyler and I. These will be more family-friendly sizes. The one I’m giving you today is a modification on a recipe I found in one of my cookbooks. The recipe was for lemon-thyme chicken, but I didn’t have any boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I had some boneless pork chops. I was originally going to make braised pork chops… but those took too long. The recipe definitely needed modification anyway. It called for too much lemon. You wouldn’t want a really lemony sauce for pork chops. so this sauce is lovely with just a hint of lemon. The best part… it’s low fat and it takes next to no time to make. Pair it with some brown rice or barley and a salad and voila a delicious, healthy dinner on your table in under 30 minutes. Just call me Rachel Ray (without the weird voice… and I never say yum-o or EVOO)

Skillet Pork Chops with Lemon Thyme Pan Sauce
serves 4

4 Boneless Loin Chops, ½ inch thick
3 tbs Flour
½ tsp Salt
¼ tsp Pepper
½ tsp Garlic Powder
A pinch of Cayenne Pepper (just a little kick)
2 tsp Olive Oil (EVOO… just kidding, you should cook with regular olive oil and save the “EVOO” for salads and dressings)
1 tbs Butter
½ tsp dried Thyme
1 cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth
1 tbs Lemon Juice

Combine flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a small dish. Remove 5 tsp of mixture and set aside. Coat both sides of the pork chops with the flour mixture. In a non-stick skillet, heat olive oil. Cook the pork chops in oil for 6-8 minutes on each side, turning once. Remove pork chops and cover.

In the same pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add thyme and the flour mixture that was set-aside. Stir it with a whisk to get rid of any lumps. Allow the flour mixture to cook for a minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add chicken broth and lemon juice, stirring constantly and scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes or until thickened. Serve over pork chops.

Tyler is soo Totally Lame

2010-03-22T16:50:00.001-07:00

Proof that my hubby is totally lame: He apparently has a debilitating fear of landlords. He claims that talking to landlords on the phone gives him mini panic attacks and I’m better at it any way. At least those were his excuses as to why I should try to haggle with our new potential landlord to bring down the price of the rent he’s charging. This from a guy who works in journalism. I thought journalists were supposed to be good at talking to people and getting information and all that? Well, I argued that he’s “much better at cleaning our really messy bedroom” than I am and going into our really messy bedroom gives me mini panic attacks. So, he said he’d clean the bedroom if I talked to the landlord. Well I talked to him; I even got him to lower the rent by $50, and yet our bedroom remains dirty. I think I totally got gypped. Sorry, that might not be totally P.C., I think I got totally screwed. He didn’t even clean the bathroom this weekend and I helped him clean the living (both of which are his responsibilities). Hmm… perhaps the Playstation should have remained broken… Maybe I should pull a page out of my dad’s book and put it up until all his chores are done.

The first official day of spring was this past Saturday, and it was beautiful. It was sunny and blue skies all day long with a balmy 75 degrees. Today it was a not exactly balmy 48 degrees and gray and rainy. Bleh. It’s supposed to be beautiful again tomorrow though. With all this week off, I was really looking forward to taking the dog on long walk everyday. Instead I hid inside and flipped back and forth between Star Trek, The Next Generation and Anthony Bourdain. Woot. At least it was a perfect day to try out my new recipe. I have several recipes I’m looking to try this week and one of them was potato soup. I love rich creamy potato soup, but it’s so calorie laden… Well, I came up with this lighter version which is perfect for a damp rainy night. To make it real loaded baked potato soup (and a little healthier) I added some cooked, cut-up broccoli florets to mine as well as the cheese and bacon. But, it definitely stands well on it’s own and would be good paired with a salad. (No, Tyler didn’t eat any broccoli with his).

Loaded Baked Potato Soup
serves 4

3 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled and cubed
½ a large Onion, chopped
3 cloves Garlic, minced
3 cups Chicken Broth (approximate)
½ cup Fat Free Sour Cream
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to Taste
½ lb Turkey Bacon, cooked and crumbled
Shredded Cheddar Cheese, Chopped Chives, Cooked Broccoli Florets as Toppings

Heat a little olive oil over medium heat in the bottom of a large soup pot. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently until onions are soft and translucent. Add garlic and cook for another minute or 2. Turn the heat up to medium high and add in cubed potatoes. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add in just enough chicken broth to barely cover the potatoes and bring to a boil. Cover and lower the heat and allow to simmer until potatoes are fork tender, approximately 15-20 minutes.

Remove the pot from heat. Mash the cooked potatoes lightly with a potato masher. Remove approximately half of the potato chunks and set aside. Using a blender or an immersion blender, blend the remaining potato mixture until smooth, add back in the chunks. Stir in the sour cream. Serve hot with shredded cheese, crumbled bacon and your favorite toppings.

Busy Week

2010-03-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

Sooo… I’m sorry it’s been a couple days since I’ve posted. It’s been a very busy couple days.

To start, the concert was excellent. Our seats were so-so but I can’t complain too much because they were free. Michael Franti was very entertaining and very energetic. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grown man bounce for an hour straight. John Mayer is an excellent guitar player, but I don’t really understand why people find him all that attractive. He makes the strangest faces when singing; he looked like he was in pain. We wouldn’t have been able to tell what kind of faces he made from our seats, but they had an enormous screen behind him that would do close-ups on his face. All I can say is eeefft. There was also a teenage boy in front of us who was there with his mom. You’d think the kid was at a heavy metal concert instead of John Mayer. He was standing up and head-banging… to Heartbreak Warfare. Yeah… not normal. But all in all it was a very good night.

Tyler almost lost a very dear friend this week. It was touch and go for a while, but it appears his dearest friend has made a recovery and will pull through. This friend, of course, is his PS3. While in the middle of killing Nazi zombies, it just stopped. It gave a feeble hum and then blinked the yellow light of death. Tyler was frantic. He spent the better part of last week researching possible problems and solutions on the internet. The PS3 apparently has problems with overheating. When it overheats, it can cause the solder on the hard drive to melt and the hard drive to pull away from whatever it was connected to. Sony will fix the problem… for $150 plus shipping and handling. Oh and they will get it back to you within only 90 days. The thought of being without his friend for 90 days caused Tyler to do something drastic, he decided to try and fix it himself. There are, apparently, detailed videos on just how to do this on you tube. But, Tyler isn’t exactly handy… When something breaks he asks me to come and take a look at it (because I know anything about riding lawn mowers…). When I told my dad about Tyler’s plans, he offered to help. So Tyler and I headed up to mom and dad’s this weekend and they attempted to fix it. There was much sweating and stressing and talk of needing to imbibe to help with the nerves. I guess it was a very precise and delicate procedure requiring the removal of many screws. In the end, they fixed it and all seems to be back to normal. Tyler celebrated by having his friend come over with his PS3 and they set two TVs up in the living room so they could kill zombies together.

This coming week is spring break, and I am off for a week. While the thought of sleeping in and not having to deal with traffic is nice, I really hate not having anything constructive to do. Sure there are things I can do around the house, but it isn’t quite the same. I think it stems from all the time I spent unemployed after Tyler and I got married. It also doesn’t help that I’m waiting to hear about an application I put in. Keep your fingers crossed for me. As if waiting on an application weren’t enough, we’re also waiting to hear about this house we want to rent. As much as I hate packing and moving, I love changing stuff around and redecorating. I’m having daydreams about how I would position furniture and decorate. (I never said I was normal).

I do have a recipe for you. I’m going to do my best to keep recipes coming this week, mostly because there’s a whole bunch that I want to try while I’m at home and have time. I came up with this recipe because enchiladas are tasty and delicious but take waaay to much time to roll (esp. when you’re making them in bulk) and they just end up falling apart when you pull them out of the pan anyway. So I thought… why not make it in layers like a Mexican lasagna, and why not add frozen corn and black beans because you have some stray frozen corn and black beans. The result was a cheesy delicious and filing concoction that I will most definitely be making again, not just for the guys but at home as well. I would like to try it with chicken or perhaps some ground turkey.

Mexican Lasagna
Serves 25

7 lbs Ground Beef
3 cans Black Beans, drained and rinsed
3 ½ cups Frozen Corn
8-10 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
4 ½ cups Water
3 tbs Chili Powder
1 1/2 tbs Dried Oregano Leaves
1 tbs Ground Cumin
5 cans Diced Chilies
8 cloves Garlic, minced
120 oz Tomato Sauce
24-30 Corn Tortillas, 6 inches in diameter
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Brown ground beef and garlic in a large skillet over medium heat and season with salt and pepper; drain. Add frozen corn and black beans. Meanwhile in a large sauce pan, combine the tomato sauce, water, chili powder, cumin, diced chilies salt and pepper. Cover and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Spoon a small amount of sauce in the bottom of 2 baking pans. Top with a layer of corn tortillas, overlapping slightly. Top tortillas with a layer of ground beef, another layer of sauce and a layer of cheese. Repeat. Top with a final layer of tortillas, sauce and the remaining cheese. Heat, uncovered for 20 minutes or until sauce is hot and bubbly and the cheese is melty and beginning to brown. Serve with sour cream.

Luck o' the Irish

2010-03-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Dinner: Beef and Beef Irish Stew and Bread

After yesterday’s bread debacle, today has seemed like a breeze. Perhaps I have the luck of the Irish with me. (I did wear green, the fear of being pinched at the frat house was too great) I got here, made sandwiches and soup, threw together some stew and cut up the bread I got from Wal-mart this morning. So far there have been no major mishaps, snafus or concerns. Right now I’m just sitting around waiting for the stew to be done enough for me to leave it on warm for the next several hours. In fact I should be done and on the road by around 2:30. That’s a record for me. Of course, I don’t usually start dinner until 2 most days because I don’t want it to end up soggy or gross from sitting in a warming oven for 3 hours. But tonight’s dinner is stew and bread. I’m fairly sure it won’t hurt the stew (or the bread) to sit around for awhile.

I was planning on making cookies today if there was going to be time. While I do happen to have plenty of time, I find I’m rather short on eggs. Apparently the guys have gotten into the milk, the eggs and the mozzarella cheese. I guess they were hungry for omelets last night? I don’t really mind not having to make cookies (it gives me time to write this), but I know there are going to be some very disappointed guys this week. They get very up in arms over desserts. I have a feeling someone will be tarred, feathered and run out of town tonight when it’s discovered that there will be no cookies this week. I hope they take pictures.

Beef and Beer Irish Stew
Serves 25

12 lbs Stew Meat
15 Carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
8-10 lbs Potatoes, roughly chopped
2 med Onions, roughly chopped
24 oz Tomato Paste
8 cloves Garlic, Crushed
2 quarts Beef Stock
4 ½ cups Dark Beer (Guinness or Amber Bock)
1 tbs Thyme
Salt
Pepper
1 cup Flour
Vegetable Oil

Preheat oven to 300. On the stove, heat oil in a large dutch oven. Mix salt and pepper with flour and dust the stew meat. Brown the stew meat on all sides in the hot oil. You may need to do this in 2 batches. Remove meat and add onion, garlic and tomato paste. Sauté onions until tender, about 5 minutes. Add beer and scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Return the meat to the dutch oven and stir in the beef stock, potatoes and carrots. Cover tightly and bake for 2 to 3 hours or until meat is tender. Serve with rye bread (or soda bread, if you dare).

Irish Soda Bread Fail

2010-03-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Beef Nachos
Dinner: Brats, Baked Beans and Salad

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m excited. I don’t know why, I just love St. Patrick’s Day. I even spent one in Boston once, of course I was under age and it was cold so we just stayed in my friend’s dorm room and played drinking games (with legally obtained orange juice ;-) wink wink), but hey, I was in Boston on St. Patrick‘s Day. Tomorrow, I’ll be going to a John Mayer Concert. It’s been a while since I attended a “real” concert or at least one where I know who the band is and am familiar with most of their songs. I’d like to go to more concerts, but they’re so darned expensive. The only reason we’re even going to this one is because I humiliated myself on the radio to win free tickets (although, I do believe I had a hilarious Oprah impersonation if I do say so myself). Because the concert is so late (it doesn’t start until 8pm) I’ll be taking Thursday morning off. I’m a little nervous about how that is going to go down. I approved it through the steward and the VP, and told them I would have something they could just throw out and help themselves. But that’s the problem… the guys are, by nature, greedy little piggies sometimes. If you put something out where they have to help themselves the first few will load up on all the good stuff and by the time 12:30-1 comes around, there’s nothing left but the rejects. Because of this I have to be careful to set out either an enormous amount so much so that they can’t possibly eat it all (and then they do anyway) or I have to give them a very defined serving size. Well, I can’t exactly tell them they can have 2 slices of cheese and 4 slices of meat; I won’t be there and I’m not going to count meat slices. I can just see the first guy coming up to the counter and plopping an inch high stack of ham on his sandwich and walking off. Then later some poor hungry guy just getting out of classes goes to make a sandwich and finds that all that’s left is lettuce and tomato slices. I wonder if I portion out the meat in serving sizes between waxed paper like they do at Subway if that will work… hmmm…

Today I will be attempting to make Irish soda bread. I’m making it for tomorrow, but because I’m hoping to skip out early I’m going to attempt the bread today. Making bread is rather terrifying, and yeast just gives me the heebee jeebies (it looks like germs plus it’s alive and smells weird). Of course, Irish soda bread doesn’t require yeast, but I’m still afraid I’ll end up with hard flat disks full of raisins. I’ve never had Irish soda bread before, but it has raisins and caraway in it which seems like a very odd combination. However, I think the raisins will go nicely with the beef and Guinness stew I’m making. No, I’m not making corned beef and cabbage because a. corned beef is not actually Irish and I’m going for a little more authenticity b. corned beef is expensive and c. while I happen to love it, corned beef and cabbage is an acquired taste and I’m not sure the frat boys will appreciate it. Ok, so it’s really more reasons b and c, but corned beef isn’t an authentic Irish dish; it became popular with Irish immigrants in America because it was cheap (back then). Besides, the guys will probably be roaring drunk tomorrow and it’s all too easy to throw around pieces of potato corned beef. It’s much harder to throw stew, not that they won’t try.

*** Hours Later***

So… I won’t be serving Irish soda bread to the guys tomorrow. I made the mistake of following the recipe. I should have gone with my instinct. I made 4 loaves of bread that was both bland and way to caraway-ie at the same time. The recipe didn’t even call for salt. I knew that was a mistake. I’ve forgotten to put salt in bread before to rather nasty results, but I thought perhaps they left the salt out because of some it would have some negative effect on the bread… I should have known better. I also thought that 3 tablespoons of caraway for small loaves of bread seemed a little overkill. Sigh, all that work for nothing. Now I’m going to have to get something to replace the icky bread which means a grocery store stop in the morning. Meh, getting up early is totally lame, especially when I know I’m going to be up way past my bedtime tomorrow night. Woe is me! (ok… that may have been a little melodramatic). So, I was planning on giving you the recipe for Irish Soda Bread, but I really don’t think you want it. Perhaps you know a better one or can find a better one out there and can share it with me. Eh, every chef has those little fail moments, even me.

The Cheese Incident, Part Deux

2010-03-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

Lunch: Corn Dogs, Tater Tots and Fresh Veggies
Dinner: Chicken Stir Fry and Rice

So, did you all survive the time change? I did, but just barely. I remembered to set my alarm clock forward an hour and then promptly forgot to set the alarm. So I woke up this morning to the cat licking me (weird in and of itself because the cat never licks) only to find that if I hurried, I would still miss the bus and had just enough time to drive to work. Bah humbug! Oh well, I suppose it isn’t all bad as now I can go check out the new Goodwill by my sister’s. I’m a Goodwill junkie. I love shopping there especially when it’s in the swanky part of town because then I’m more likely to find good books. George (the cat) deserves a treat though, he’s saved me from many a morning disaster by waking me up. Good Mr. Kitty! Although, he frequently is guilty of aiding and abetting my lateness by being cute and cuddly in the mornings. Bad Mr. Kitty! (I honestly think he does it on purpose. He snuggles up close and purrs just at the moment when I know I can’t hit the snooze anymore and have to get up. How does he know?)

So… the cheese incident has come (hopefully) to a close. I received a letter of apology from each of the two perpetrators. I honestly wasn’t expecting such a courtesy. It ticked me off a bit when I found it mostly because I don’t like to be accused of mishandling the funds when I’m working so hard to be frugal and still create an appealing and diverse menu. After blowing off a little steam, I realized it was actually really funny. Who, other than a crunchy granola vegan, honestly complains about too much cheese? If I ever decide to do stand up comedy, you can bet this will be a part of my act. Perhaps I should thank them for being such a wonderful target of interest and ridicule for my blog (and imaginary future comedy career). I do like that the steward actually did something. It seems kind of novel to have someone effectual who is on your side (and not talking smack behind your back). Good Mr. Steward! It certainly does make my job here a little brighter.

Speaking of a little brighter, do you think I’m too dark? My dad (who has already let me know I will be receiving no letter of apology for this) thinks this blog is too dark. I’m not entirely sure what he means by this. I tried to get him to explain what he means by “dark” but he really couldn’t. Ok, sure I do have a rather sarcastic sense of humor, I’ll admit to that. (But, where could I have gotten that from DAD? Cough cough mumble mumble mumble) I’m not advocating the clubbing of baby seals nor am I (at least I think I’m not) woe-is-me-everything-is-horrible emo. I don’t do bright and bubbly. But, just a week ago he was posting on Facebook how funny he thought this blog is. Perhaps he’s just getting senile in his old age… (How’s that for dark?)

Here’s my latest whiteboard creation…

Thought you might like to know.

The following recipe is one I whipped up for an impromptu St. Patrick’s Day family get-together this past Saturday. I wanted to make something sugar free that was still tasty and St. Patrick’s Day themed as well as being relatively quick and easy to whip up. Not a small order. So, this is what I came up with. Sure, there are more sophisticated desserts out there, but this fit the what I was going for, and turned out tasty. (Although I did have to make a minor change from the one I actually made. Apparently, sugar-free cool whip doesn’t like to be mixed with Bailey’s).

Irish Cream Chocolate Trifle
serves 8

Sugar Free Angel Food Cake
1 small packet Sugar Free Instant Chocolate Pudding
4 cups Sugar Free Cool Whip, thawed
1/3 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream
1 ½ cup Skim Milk
Dark Chocolate Shavings or curls

Mix the pudding and the milk together and whip with a whisk for 2 minutes or until the pudding thickens. Fold in 1 cup of cool whip. Cut cake into thin slices. Dip half the slices into the Bailey’s so that the cake soaks up some of the liquid but doesn’t become too soggy. Arrange the slices on the bottom of a trifle bowl. Layer half of the chocolate pudding and half of the remaining whip cream over the cake. Repeat with remaining cake slices, pudding and whip cream. Top with dark chocolate shavings or curls. Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

The Idleness of March

2010-03-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Pepperoni and Cheese Calzones and Pineapple
Dinner: Pulled Pork Tacos, Salad and Rice
Dessert: Rice Crispy Treats

Soooo….. nothing much happening today. It is gray and drizzly and rather typically March in Georgia. I took advantage of a dry spell in the middle of the day to take a very long walk (mostly because the internet at work kept going out and I had nothing better to do). Sadly, I missed the bus this morning because of bad traffic and had to drive to work. I hate driving to work. I like leaning back in the comfy bus seats and getting work done. I’ll admit that I usually do my blog writing and compile my grocery lists on the bus. It’s the only time that I’m free from distractions (ie the internet) enough to concentrate on what I’m writing. Yes, grocery lists require a lot of concentration. I need to make sure I get every ingredient and side dish on the list otherwise I will forget that I need it. Woe to the chef that forgets to purchase sour cream for taco night. Frat boys love their sour cream (apparently they can do without the cheese… hint hint, nudge nudge, know what I mean?). There is some talk about getting internet on the bus… I’m not sure I support this, my grocery lists will suffer horribly. I certainly can’t do anything work related when I get home at night, I have TV to watch. Not that I always want to watch TV, there are mandatory TV nights in our house; it changes with the “seasons”. My hubby is a huge TV and movie buff. Honestly, I could do without TV (I never had cable when I lived alone), but if I plan on spending any time with him at night, I have to just suck it up and watch some shows. I’ve been thinking, that as retaliation, I should make him come to a bead show with me (I like to make jewelry). But, then there was the dance class incident, so maybe that’s not such a great idea. Besides, going to a bead show would just want to make me spend money. Eh, at least I draw the line at watching baseball with him (unless I need help falling asleep).

One exciting and sort of strange thing did happen today… Sunchips posted on my blog. Yeah, the company that makes those crackery chips. How did they know about my blog? Why did they bother to post? Can I get free Sunchips? I prefer the cheddar flavor.

I made pulled pork tacos for the guys tonight, and they turned out awesome. Of course, I haven’t gotten feed back from the boys yet so I’m not going to go so far as to say they are a hit with the 12 and under (mentally) crowd. But, I tried the pork and it was killer. It is sweet and spicy and soo easy. I thought about taking the pork home with me. Of course, I’m not sure what the guys would have thought about having cheese and lettuce tacos. I think the Mexican blend cheese might be “highly processed”. But if you’re looking for a different twist on taco night, this is definitely something to try.

Spicy Shredded Pork
Serves 26

12 lbs Pork Shoulder
1 tbs Ground Cumin
1 1/2 tbs Chili Powder
2 Onions, quartered
3 cans Diced Green Peppers
½ cups White Vinegar
½ cup Brown Sugar
1 pinch Cayenne Pepper
1 scant tbs Salt
2 tsp Black Pepper
7 cloves Garlic

Put all ingredients except the pork shoulder in a food processor and blend until it is smooth and there are no chunks; reserve ½ cup of mixture. With a fork, pork several holes all over the pork shoulder. Rub the mixture all over the pork. Place the pork in a deep pan, roaster or crock pot; fill the bottom with 1-2 inches of water. Cover the roast tightly and bake at 300 degrees until fork tender, approximately 5 hours. If cooking in an oven or roaster oven, you will need to monitor the amount of water in the bottom of the pan to be sure it doesn’t get too low. You will also need to turn the roast once every hour. If you’re using a crock pot, cook on high for 5-6 hours. When the roast is fork tender, remove it and shred it with 2 forks. Take 2-2 cups of the liquid from the bottom of the pan and skim off the fat; add in the reserved sauce and mix with the shredded pork. Serve warm on tortillas with your favorite taco toppings.

Cheese Platitudes

2010-03-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Chicken Nuggets, French Fries, Carrot and Celery and Ranch Dip
Dinner: Spaghetti Burgers, Pasta Salad and Salad

Word to the wise, don’t piss off the chef. If you’re drunk and feel the need to write a treatise on how there’s too much cheese in the fridge on the whiteboard outside the kitchen, don’t. Just don’t. Unless you really want to piss off the chef and she then decides to no longer serve cheese. You might find yourself being chased down by your fraternity brothers with pitchforks when they find out there will be no more bacon (or chicken) mac and cheese. Yes, that’s right, on coming into work today I found a drunken message on the whiteboard outlining why one brother thought there was an excessive amount of cheese in the fridge. Really? Of all the possible culprits… you choose cheese? Of course, I was just a little miffed about the whole thing. I especially liked the notes after each platitude saying “CHEF DO NOT ERASE”. They put little boxes around them to make sure they were noticed. The best part, though, was that in each bulleted point they made sure to point out the expiration date of the cheese and whether or not it was processed. They even underlined the fact that the mozzarella I buy is “highly processed”. Ok… at least none of the cheese was expired. They might have room to complain if there was a fridge full of expired cheese that didn’t get used. But complaining that there were several pounds of cheese in the fridge and that some of it was “highly processed”? I thought I was cooking for a fraternity, not some sorority with recovering processed cheese addicts. Why is there so much cheese (and cheese product) in the fridge? Because that’s how much the guys eat. I didn’t erase the sign; I brought the steward down to see the board. He seemed a little flabbergasted. Seriously? Cheese? He apologized and promised to thoroughly shame the culprit. I kind of wish I knew who it was so I could throw Cheez Whiz at him. I bet he would cry.

I had another surprise today on coming into work. All of the chicken noodle soup I made yesterday was gone. Food being gone is not necessarily news around here, but you have to understand, I made a substantial amount of chicken noodle soup. And, it wasn’t just any kind of chicken noodle soup, homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade broth. I spent all day boiling chicken and vegetables, then picking the chicken thighs and cutting up new vegetables etc etc and ended up with around 28 quarts worth of chicken soup. In case you’re wondering, that’s around 7 gallons of soup. It wasn’t even very soupy as it was chock full of chicken and noodles (and corn and carrots). When I talked to the steward he said that everyone loved the chicken soup, and that they thought it was magic because they kept going back for more and… finding more. It was like magic soup. I tried the soup, and it was pretty magical. Homemade chicken soup takes some time to make, but it blows that mushy canned stuff right out of the water. In fact, my homemade chicken noodle soup is the reason my husband eats soup today (not to brag or anything…). Of course, there are always some dissenters in the group. Apparently the guy who wrote the cheese platitudes didn’t like the soup. How much more natural and unprocessed can you get than homemade chicken noodle soup?

Kristen’s Chicken Noodle Soup
Serves a whole lot of people, a small army or 23 really hungry frat boys

1 ½ gallon water
1 ½ gallon chicken broth
18 lbs chicken thighs
1 tbs Lawry’s Seasoning Salt
3 tbs Old Bay Seasoning
6 Bay Leaves
1 tbs black pepper
1 tbs ground sage
1 tbs celery seed
16 medium carrots
1 bunch of celery
3 large onions
3 lbs of corn
3 lbs egg noodles

Put the chicken in a large stock pot and cover with chicken broth and water. Stir in Lawry’s Seasoning Salt, Old Bay Seasoning, bay leaves, ground sage, black pepper and celery seed. Cut 5 carrots, celery (celery leaves and all) and 1 onion into large chunks and put in the pot. Bring the broth to a boil and then cover and simmer for 1 hour. Using tongs, remove chicken from the broth and set aside to cool. Strain the vegetables out of the broth, and then skim the grease off the top of the broth. (Note: You can make the broth a day ahead and put it in the fridge at this point. The grease will harden over night and you can skim the hardened grease off the top easily). While the chicken is still warm, remove the skin. If you’re having trouble getting the skin off the chicken, warm it up in the microwave for a minute. Pick all of the chicken off the bones and shred it. Chop the remaining carrots and onions into bite-sized pieces.

After you have skimmed the grease from the broth, put it back on the stove. Bring the broth to a boil and add the noodles, carrots and onions. Cook the noodles for the time indicated in the directions. Add in the shredded chicken and frozen corn. You may need to add a few extra quarts of water at this point and adjust the seasonings. Simmer for 10-15. Serve with warm bread.

Bus Battle

2010-03-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
Dinner: Meatloaf, Baked Potatoes and Green Beans

Today may very well be one of the most beautiful days of the year. It was a balmy 68 and sunny today. Days like this are rare in good ol’ Georgia. Generally it goes from being relatively cold to being really hot in a matter of days. Therefore, you can’t take days like today for granted. Back in my college days, on beautiful days like today, I would cut class and find a grassy spot to stretch out on and revel in the beautiful weather. It seems the students at Tech decided to follow my lead. While out for my daily walk, 5 of the 8 frat houses I passed had moved their living rooms out onto the front lawn. I’m not kidding either; they dragged chairs and couches and coffee tables out onto their lawns and were lounging (many of them, rather unfortunately, shirtless… Not a thing you want to see on a bunch of pale Tech boys). There were countless games of Frisbee and random lounging in the sun on every available grassy spot. There was also the usual contingent of boys in hats playing guitar. You can’t walk across a college campus on a sunny day and not find a boy in a hat playing guitar for the ladies. I’m fairly sure it’s written in some international college guideline that you can’t be an accredited college without at least one guitar-playing-hat-wearing guy.

While the day was beautiful, it didn’t start off so pretty for me. Usually my morning bus ride is uneventful. People either sleep, read or fiddle with some electronic device for an hour. Rarely is there any talking or noise of any kind aside from the occasional clack of keys. In the afternoons, a few people might chat or talk on the phone, but in general people respect each other’s right to not be bothered. This morning however a man and a woman broke the silence. The man was texting and had his ringer on (quite possibly the world’s most annoying ringer too, it was some stupid rap song) so every minute or so, it went off. The woman sitting next to him asked him to turn the sound off. Rather than acquiesce to this simple request, he shouted at the top of his lungs “I can text if I want b*tch!”. Now, the woman could have changed seats and moved away from him or she could have kept her trap shut and left him alone. Of course, she didn’t do either. No, she started shouting back at him at the top of her lungs. They yelled at each other like a couple of crude children letting each other know where they could stick what and what they thought of the other’s mother. I plugged in my headphones and turned them up, but, unfortunately, they were right behind me and there was no escaping it. The rest of the bus patrons were looking back and shaking there heads; it being rather obvious that there was no shutting the two of them up. Finally, the woman moved to the front of the bus, but the guy didn’t shut up for the entire bus ride. I would have given anything for a tranquilizer gun. I will never understand some people and how they can behave so poorly. My 2 year old nephew has better manners and he still poops in his pants.

After such an eventful and stressful bus ride (I kept waiting for someone to throw a punch) I was really glad I’d planned an easy meal to start the week off. I like to plan something simple for Monday mornings to ease me into the work week. Today’s lunch was barbecue chicken sandwiches, and there are few things simpler. Although you could make it really easy on yourself and just used canned chicken, but I think canned chicken tastes a little like canned tuna which does not strike me as something I want to put barbeque sauce on… But, that’s just me. You can go ahead and do whatever floats your boat (how well would a boat float in canned chicken?)

Barbeque Chicken Sandwiches
serves 12

6 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
Your Favorite BBQ Rub (See mine below*)
2-4 cups Barbeque Sauce

Preheat the oven to 375. Spray a large baking pan with cooking spray. Rub with plenty of BBQ rub . Place in baking dish, cover and bake for 20-25 minutes cooked throughout. Allow the breasts to cool enough so you can handle them. When they are cool, shred them. You can shred them with 2 forks, but I find that it works best just to pull them apart with your fingers. Place shredded chicken into a saucepan and cover with just enough ;barbeque sauce to coat chicken pieces. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until hot, stirring occasionally. Serve on hamburger buns with pickle slices.

*My Favorite BBQ Rub
Note: I don’t have measurements for this because I tend to just dump stuff together until it tastes right to me that day. I promise sometime in the future I’ll figure out the right measurements.

Chili Powder
A Pinch of Cumin
A Dash of Cayenne Pepper
Brown Sugar
Garlic Powder
A Dash of Onion Powder
Salt
Black Pepper or a medley of different peppers (I have a grinder with pink, black, green and white pepper corns)

Things I've Posted on the White Board

2010-03-04T20:02:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Cheesy Pigs in a Blanket, Chips, Veggies and Dip
Dinner: Chili and Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

So, today I was feeling creative and chose to grace the the white board with some illustrations. Here is the one I put up along with the serving size of today's lunch.
(Please note this is a reproduction, they guys don't splurge on colored markers)

Bet you didn't know I was such a talented artist huh? As good as that reproduction is, the real drawing was really magnificent. It is unfortunate you weren't there to see it.

The next one requires a little explanation. I spent the better part of this afternoon making dough for cinnamon rolls. While the dough isn't difficult to make, it takes a lot of steps and requires a lot of sitting around waiting for it to rise. Well, after all that I put it in the fridge and got ready to go home. The problem is, the dough will continue to rise in the fridge unless you poke it down a couple times. My mom discovered this over Christmas when I left some dough in their fridge that I was planning to bake the next day. Yeah, it grew over it's bowl and was threatening to take over. Since I'm making 3 times as much dough for the guys, I envisioned mass chaos unless I let the guys know how to wrangle the dough. So, I left detailed instructions as to what to do in case the dough looks like it's going to take over. I left them with dire warnings that the dough must be checked. To further illustrate my point, I left this little cautionary illustration on the white board:

Wonderful, non? I know the guys appreciated it because I got a text as soon as I got home praising my note worthy artistic skills.

Thought you might like to know...

Who Do You Call? Ghostbusters!

2010-03-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Chicken Quesadillas, Tortilla Chips and Salsa
Dinner: Sausage and Pepper Baked Ziti and Salad
Dessert: Funfetti Cupcakes

While I cannot say there is never a dull moment at the frat (there are, lots of them), the dull moments are soon left behind and superseded by much hullabaloo. This morning when I got to the lodge (did I ever explained that they call the frat house the lodge?) there was a large pile of equipment on one of the dining room tables. I ignored it and went about my work. Soon, however, a troupe of rather nerdy looking guys carrying strange ghostbuster-esque equipment invaded my kitchen. They pointed lasers and took pictures and held weird looking instruments in the air. They looked like they might have been from the Ghost Hunters tv show except they weren’t being followed around by camera men and I highly doubt the frat house is haunted. Or is it? Perhaps that’s why my stuff keeps going missing and things keep getting moved around and misplaced… or that could just be because I work at a fraternity. Come to find out they were testing the lodge for drafts. The VP told me that, apparently, their power bill had been astronomical this past month, and in an attempt to cut back on power usage, they were checking for air leaks that they could stop. Personally I think they could save thousands if they cut back on pulling all-nighters studying. It seems not a day goes by without one of the brothers complaining about not getting any sleep because they stayed up all night cramming. Think of how much electricity that uses… not to mention that all night cramming is useless.

Apparently, the guys also came up with another way to save money last night. They let me know about their brilliant plan this morning at lunch. Are you ready for it? Ok, here it is… They proposed that I cut vegetables out of the budget and spend the money saved on extra meat and potatoes (or noodles). Yup, that was their brilliant plan, to cut vegetables out of the menu as a way of saving money. Yeah… too bad I already had a good answer for that. A food service size can of green beans, which is enough one meal, only costs $2.50-$3. In fact, at any given meal, I only spend between $2 and $5 on vegetables. Furthermore, I pointed out, if only 5 guys eat the vegetables, that would save about 1 serving of meat/ potatoes (because those 5 people would take less of the other stuff). That serving of meat and potatoes would most likely cost more than $2.50. Ah the wonders of irrefutable logic! I have to give them credit though; that is a rather creative way to attempt to get rid of vegetables.

In other news, I was very surprised by my husband the other night. Tyler likes to cook on occasion, and he does help out a lot by starting or even making dinner on weeknights. Of course, when he makes dinner, it’s usually either something he really likes or something relatively easy (like box dinners or spaghetti). He surprised me last night by not only making dinner, but researching and making a new recipe. He usually leaves all that to me, and rarely makes anything that requires a recipe. But when I came home last night, he had his computer in the kitchen and was following along with a recipe to make lemon rosemary broiled chicken breasts. So not only was it something new, it was healthy. Along with the chicken, we had spinach salad and barley cooked in chicken broth (Tyler’s new favorite). It was all very delicious. Who knows, maybe he’ll start his own cooking blog…

I made baked ziti (ok… I used penne, they didn’t have ziti at Sam’s). This dish is very simple, cheap and super quick to make (which was probably good because they kicked me out for 45 minutes so they could do one of their air leak tests in the kitchen). Add a salad, and voila, dinner is ready in no time.

Sausage and Pepper Baked Ziti
Serves 25

3 lbs Ziti (or Penne)
7 lbs Italian Sausage (I used both spicy and mild)
6 Green Bell Peppers, cut into thing strips
2 bulk-sized can, approx 106oz, Spaghetti Sauce
8 cups Shredded Mozzarella

In a large skillet, cook sausages until done. Set sausages aside to cool. Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to directions on package or until al dente. When sausage is cooled enough to handle, cut into bite-sized pieces. When the pasta is done, mix it in a large baking dish with the sausage, spaghetti sauce and green bell peppers; top with mozzarella cheese. Bake in an oven preheated to 375 for 20 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and cheese is melted and browned.

Yurt!

2010-03-02T18:28:00.001-08:00

Lunch: Bacon Mac and Cheese and Fruit Salad
Dinner: Herb and Garlic Roast Pork Loin, Gravy, Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans

Apparently, I didn’t do too bad in the meal planning so far this week. I was a bit worried because the budget cut caused me to really pare down my menus. Sure, it was only twenty dollars, but we’re looking at a three hundred dollar difference between this semester and last semester while we’re only looking at the difference of around 10 guys per meal. So I have the guys on a poor man’s menu plan. It’s a menu plan I’m rather familiar with because Tyler and I were have been on it since we got married. Hamburger is cut with ground turkey because the turkey is cheaper and doesn’t shrink as much but since it‘s mixed with hamburger you still get a beef taste. Meals have more “filler” such as rice or beans which allows me to stretch out the servings. I make less sides. Sure there is a meat, a veggie and a starch with every meal, there just isn’t anything beyond that. I might have served a salad along side chili and cornbread; now I just serve chili and cornbread. I might have served rolls or biscuits with tonight’s dinner last semester, but they aren’t in the budget for this semester. I also make things that have fewer ingredients or less expensive ingredients. Let’s just say there will be no barbeque ribs this semester where I made them once a month last semester. But, a poor man’s menu plan doesn’t mean you have to suffer. In fact, most of what we call “comfort food” is relatively inexpensive to prepare. Take the cinnamon rolls I’ll be making for Friday… butter, flour, yeast, milk, sugar and cinnamon… these are things I generally keep on hand (ok, maybe not the yeast… I don’t like yeast, it gives me the heebie-jeebies). Even if I didn’t already have most of this on hand, none of it is really bank breaking. The most expensive thing on that list was probably the cinnamon, and I got a huge jar of it for $5. After years of budget menu planning, I think I could probably teach a class. You know, in these times they really should have degree on frugal living. Perhaps it would involve a yurt. Maybe the class could be taught in a yurt. I want to go yurt camping. Did you know several state and national parks rent yurts? If Tyler and I ever get around to going on our honeymoon, maybe we can rent a yurt. I doubt we’ll ever be able to afford anything swankier (unless we win the lottery… I have my ticket. I’ll let you know). I like the word yurt. I mean, it is kind hard to say yurt without the !. Sort of like “nee!”. You know, like the knights who say nee… from Monty Python… No? You have no sense of humor. Well, yurt makes me smile at least. Yurt yurt yurt yurt puma yurt! Hee hee… puma.

Sorry about that… I get easily distracted sometimes. I promise it won’t happen again. (Yurt!) Anyway, the herb and garlic roast pork loin is an excellent example of how you can make something tasty and delicious without breaking the bank. Hey, it’s even something that looks and tastes fancy enough to serve to guests… but at $1.77/lb (Sam’s Club) it’s cheaper than just about anything out there (except maybe chicken leg quarters, which were 97¢/lb).

As an aside… my favorite words are so far pamplemousse, parapluie, puma and yurt (Yurt!). Am I the only one who is dorky enough to have favorite words? Do any of you guys have favorite words?

Herb and Garlic Roasted Pork Loin
serves 8-10

3 ½ - 4 lbs Pork Loin Roast**
6 cloves Garlic, peeled
1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
1 tbs Dried Rosemary
2 tps Thyme
Seasoning Salt
Black Pepper

Pre heat oven to 400. Do not trim the fat from the roast, leaving it on will help keep the roast moist and tender. With fat side up, make 6 deep cuts in the meat just big enough to stuff in a clove of garlic. If the garlic cloves are really large, you can cut them in half. Stuff a clove of garlic down each hole. Drizzle the oil over the roast, be sure to coat it on all sides. Rub all sides of the roast with rosemary and thyme and sprinkle with seasoning salt and black pepper. Put roast fat side up in a roasting pan on the roasting rack. Bake at 400 hundred for 10 minutes then turn the temperature down to 250. Roast for 1 -1 ½ hours, until the roast’s internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. (Should take approx 20 minutes per pound, but be sure to check your roast with a meat thermometer as it can take more or less time, depending on the size and shape of the meat.) Remove roast to a platter and allow to set for 10-15 minutes before slices. While you wait for the roast to rest, you can make a pan sauce or a gravy with the drippings in the bottom of the pan. (Yurt!)

** This is a pork loin roast, not a tenderloin. The tender loin is the smaller, skinnier cut. It’s usually only about 1 pound. The pork loin is much larger, usually found between 2-5 pounds and is usually around 4 inches in diameter.

(Yurt!)

And the Gold Medal for Extreme Grocery Shopping Goes to...

2010-03-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Hot Ham and Cheese Sandwiches and Chips
Dinner: Dirty Rice and Green Beans

I am soo tired and soo bored! I am also soo tired of being bored. Between Friday afternoon and Sunday, I probably spent 12-13 hours in the car. It all started Friday afternoon on the way home from work. Traffic is always bad on Friday afternoon, but it doesn’t generally start getting really bad until after 3:30. I got done with groceries early that day (extreme grocery shopping should totally be an Olympic sport) and got out of work around 2:30. I was excited because I thought I was totally going to get home early and bypass the worst of the traffic. Boy was I wrong! It took me nearly an extra hour to get home because of a baby bison on the interstate. No, I’m not kidding. Apparently the bison fell off of a truck and was hit by a car and caused a big pileup. All lanes of traffic were stopped until they could get the cars and the bison off the road. Then Saturday morning we got up early to head down to my hubby’s hometown. The 3 ½ hour drive to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere is quite possibly the longest and most boring drive in the world (unless, that is, you’re driving across Kansas, Wyoming or eastern Colorado). Then we had to turn around and make the trip back again the next day. When we got home Sunday, we had to get back in the car to take the dog up to Conyers to get him bathed. We normally just bathe him outside with the hose, but it was too cold and he desperately needed a bath after my mother-in-law’s drooly mongrel slobbered on him so much that his fur actually stood on end and was crunchy. Come to think of it, this has been a rather traumatic weekend for me and the dog.

So in other news, I think that extreme grocery shopping should totally be an Olympic sport. The event would consist of being given a very long list of groceries which you would then have to go and purchase (using the minimum of at least 2 stores), load and unload the groceries and get them put up. The event would be judged on time it took, how cheaply you were able to get the groceries and style points for how well the groceries were loaded on the carts. Points would be deducted for groceries that fell off the cart or out of the car and forgetting items. The event would require intense training, athleticism and concentration. I’m sure I would medal… possibly even get the platinum. (If you’ve been following the Olympics, you’d get that). Yesterday, I managed to get everything in record time and even came in 50 cents under budget. No mean feat considering the fact that they just docked $20 off my already stretched weekly budget. The question is. is it a summer or a winter sport?

Last tidbit of the day before I get to the recipe:
Here is today’s frat house news. One of the brother’s is sick. He came down hoping for sympathy. In a very sympathetic way, I crossed my fingers, hissed and told him to go away (hey, I don’t get sick days!). In other news, Sun Chips has a new biodegradable bag. The boys especially love cheddar Sun Chips, but they apparently hate the new biodegradable bag. One complained very loudly and persistently that the chip bag was too loud (yeah… I’ll get right on to fixing that). Lastly, hot ham and cheese sandwiches are apparently universally loved at the frat house. They are nothing more than slices of ham and American cheese stacked on toasted French bread, but the guys were gushing about them like it was a feat of sheer culinary genius.

Today’s Recipe:
Dirty Rice

Dirty Rice is great because it’s super cheap to make, easy to make in large quantities and generally very appealing to boys as it is little more than ham, hamburger, rice and Cajun spices. Add a quick salad and you’ve got a meal that children and grown children (guys) will love.

Dirty Rice
Serves 25

3 quarts Long Grain White Rice
1 ½ gallons Chicken Broth
20 cloves Garlic, minced
2 med Onions, diced
3 cups Green Bell Pepper, diced
3 cups Ham, diced
¼ cup Butter
1/8 cup Cajun Seasoning Mix (like Tony Chachere’s or Zatarains)
1/8 cup Tabasco Sauce
2 tbs Dried Thyme
4 Bay Leaves
6 pounds Ground Beef

Melt butter in a large sauté pan. Add onions, garlic, green pepper and ham. Sauté until onions are tender; add Cajun seasoning, tabasco sauce, dried thyme and bay leaves and remove from heat. In a large stock pot, add rice, stock and veggie mix. Stir together and bring to a boil. When rice mixture comes to a rapid boil, lower heat and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes.
In sauté pan, brown hamburger. Season hamburger lightly with salt and pepper. Drain cooked hamburger and add in to rice and veggies.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly... and Cookies

2010-02-25T17:42:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Beef and Bean Nachos
Dinner: “Beef Burgundy“, Buttered Noodles and Veggies
Dessert: Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, today I would like to talk about the good, the bad, the ugly and chocolate chip cookies.

The Good: Much to my great happiness, the old steward has stepped down. I was informed of this yesterday morning by the vice president of the frat; however, they had to vote on who would replace him so I had to hold off on my celebrations until I found out if it really was for the better. It was. My little brother’s big brother was voted in as steward and song leader last night (song leader? I don’t know; I didn’t want to ask). I’m happy about this change because this particular guy A. actually lives at the frat B. is actually on the meal plan and C. is one of the guys who regularly comes down to talk to me. He did send me an e-mail last night, after he was voted in, saying he was going to make sweeping changes. I’ll admit that made me a little nervous. However, the sweeping changes he’s planning on making involve keeping the kitchen cleaner and setting up a feedback system so I know whether or not the guys like particular meals. I’m a little skeptical about the feedback system. You must keep in mind these are college boys and while they are grateful for tasty food they are also very, very whiney. Feeding frat boys tends to be a damned if you do, damned if you don’t affair. But, at any rate he said he was going to be a hard a$$ about keeping the kitchen clean (hooray), set up better lines of communication and organization between me and the frat (hooray!) and see about funneling more money into the food budget (possible raise?).

The Bad: The much less organized treasurer let me know today that he screwed up on the budget. Rather than $370 a week… I only have $350, but then he thought he had told me $400 before so I suppose it could have been worse. Of course, it’s nearly halfway through the semester and these guys go to Tech, you’d think they’d have figured it out by now… Perhaps I should cut cookies out of the weekly budget.

The Ugly: Today on my way back down to the kitchen from the ladies room, I was accosted by one of the brothers carry a clear plastic bag. He grinned and said, “Look what I got!” and then turned the bag around to show me the contents. It was full of condoms, a lot of condoms. Yeah… I really didn’t know what to say to that. Again, there are some things I simply do not want to know and are much better not asking about.

Cookies: Rather than a recipe today, I thought I might give you a few tips on how to perfect chocolate chip cookie baking. Chocolate chip cookies are actually relatively easy to screw up. I’ve had my fair share of cookies that turned out too crumbly, that spread into pancake cookies, etc etc. Over the years of baking chocolate chip cookies, I’ve found a few tricks that help to make a nearly fool proof cookie.

First, I always use the traditional Toll House cookie recipe. This, I’ve found, is the best recipe with one tiny exception. I like cookies that are a healthy mix between crisp and chewy. With the traditional toll house cookie recipe, you tend to get a cookie that is crisp all the way through. I want one that is golden brown and buttery with crisp edges and a soft and chewy center (I don’t ask for much do I?) I achieve this by using half the amount of butter and substituting butter flavored vegetable shortening for the rest (you can find this in the baking section in convenient bars).

Second, the butter must be just the right temperature. Just like with pie crust, chocolate chip cookie dough is finicky about how warm or cold it is. If you use butter right out of the fridge, it won’t incorporate easily into your dough and you’ll end up with a worthless mess. Similarly, you can’t use melted or melty butter. If the butter is too soft, you will end up with a sticky gooey mess that won’t form into a stiff dough. While I know we’re all impatient, it is important to let your butter sit out until it is room temperature and soft but not melty. It shouldn’t fall apart when you remove the wrapper. It is the right temperature when you can easily cut off a slice and the slice doesn’t lose its shape, but you can then spread it across a piece of bread without destroying the bread. For the love of all that is baking, don’t try to soften your butter in the microwave. I promise you, it won’t turn out. (Sorry to be a butter Nazi, but… this is important to making perfect chocolate chip cookies) Also, you shouldn’t refrigerate your shortening unless you’re making pie crust with it, so it should already be room temperature.

Third: When your butter has reached the right consistency and you’ve made your dough (it should be a fairly stiff dough), stop what you’re doing. Don’t start attacking the dough with any spoon or scoops! Refrigerate it for the next 20-30 minutes. The friction from mixing it in the mixer will have warmed the butter enough to make the dough sticky. This is bad. Sticky dough leads to major cookie spreadage. Luckily, refrigerating it for a little while will cause the butter to set and make for a better dough. Also, if you’re making a lot of cookies and have to do several batches, be sure to keep the dough refrigerated between batches. You don’t want your dough getting sticky in a warm kitchen.

Fourth: What kind of sheet are you using? I don’t really like the dark, non stick cookie sheets as they tend to over bake the bottom of the cookie. A well seasoned baking stone works nice or one of those air cookie sheets. If you find you’re having trouble with the cookies sticking you might want to use parchment paper on your cookie sheet. Parchment is also an excellent tool if you’re going to be reusing cookie sheets. While one batch is baking, you can set up the next batch on some parchment paper. At work I don’t have any of these things. I only have some old, industrial sized baking sheets and foil. So even though the recipe tells you that you don’t need it, I lightly butter the foil to keep the cookies from sticking. The emphasis is on lightly. To do this I use the wrapper the butter came in and just give the foil a good wipe with this. You can also use the wrapper from the shortening just keep it very, very light.

Fifth: Before you put those cookies in the oven you want to make sure your oven is completely preheated. Again, impatience leads to bad cookies. You want the oven nice and hot and the dough nice and cool because that will help prevent cookie spreadage. Your cookie will be done when it is golden brown and the edges are defined but the center is still soft. Let the cookies sit on the pan until the pan is just cool enough to touch. If you try to remove the cookies too soon, they’ll just fall apart. (Although, I do like to eat a piping hot, falling apart chocolate chip cookie…). You can then carefully move them to some cookie racks (which I don’t like) or you can let them cool on some parchment or foil laid out on a table. You want your cookies to be completely cooled before you try to box them up or stack them. If you put them away still warm, they tend to crumble and mush into each other and then you have a box of cookie mess.

So… those are my tips for making perfect chocolate chip cookies.

Pearls Before Frat Boys

2010-02-24T06:36:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Chili Cheese Fries
Dinner: Ham and Cheese Potatoes and Corn

Ok, so it is really hard to keep up with eating healthy when the kitchen smells like bacon… or like chili cheese fries. Yesterday I made coq au vin for the guys. Coq au vin is a traditional French dish of chicken, bacon and vegetables simmered in red wine. It has to simmer for hours, so when I was sitting down to my pathetic lunch of a lean cuisine the kitchen was already smelling like bacon heaven. One of the guys actually came into the kitchen for lunch disappointed because he smelled bacon upstairs only to discover that the bacon was not for lunch. I bet I could put out a large tray of bacon for lunch one day and not only would no one care that all they were having for lunch was a large tray of bacon, I would most likely also get complements on the excellence of the lunch. Again, why do I bother casting pearls before frat boys? My sister had to remind me the title of this blog is gourmand not gourmet. In all fairness, coq au vin is one of those meals that is easier to prepare in bulk than it is for 2. I also pared the recipe down a bit to make it easier and more frat boy friendly (only 1 type of onion). The bacon aside, it is also not that bad for you or that expense (I used a cheap jug of wine… I‘m not sure if frat boys are even aware that there is any other kind of wine). I received Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child for Valentine’s Day, and I have been itching to try it out. I wonder if coq au vin is in there? The plan is to have a Julia Child party sometime in the near future with my family (my dad has recently become a huge Julia Child fan… you should hear his impersonation). I’ll have to let you know how that turns out.

(Relatively) Easy, Pared-Down Coq au Vin
serves 25

24 Slices Bacon
3 lbs Mushrooms, sliced**
28 lbs Chicken Thighs and Legs, skinned
Salt and Pepper
10 medium Carrots, chopped
6 medium Yellow Onions, chopped
3 heads Garlic, minced
8 cups Dry Red Wine (I used a jug of cheap table wine)
3 6oz cans of Tomato Paste
8 Bay Leaves
6 cups Chicken Broth
Vegetable Oil (or leftover grease from bacon)

Cook bacon in the oven at 400 until crisp, 5-10 minutes, then set aside on a paper towel to drain. Crumble the bacon when it is cool enough to handle.

Sprinkle Chicken pieces with salt and pepper. In a large skillet heat oil (or you can use bacon grease) and brown chicken on all sides, about 10 minutes per batch. You will most likely have to do several batches. Remove the chicken and dump the remaining grease. Add in the carrots and onions and sauté until onion softens and is translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook for an additional minute. Add in wine, chicken stock, and tomato paste and stir until well combined.

In a large crock pot (I used a roaster oven set to 250) combine the chicken, mushrooms, red wine and carrot mixture, and crumbled bacon. Cover and simmer for 4 hours. You may want to stir the chicken several times to ensure that the chicken at the top doesn’t dry out. The chicken should be almost falling off the bone. Serve chicken with buttered, boiled potatoes with wine and veggie sauce poured over the chicken and potatoes.

** Note: You can substitute drained, canned mushrooms is you want a less mushroomy flavor.
*** How many times can a person say bacon in one paragraphy? I think I may have broken some kind of record

Fancy Dinner Plans

2010-02-23T10:40:00.000-08:00

**Note: This was supposed to be yesterday’s post, but the internet was down… so here it is**

Lunch: Grilled Cheese and Soup
Dinner: Chili Mac, Veggies and Dinner Rolls

I’ve noticed that the guys have started straying into my kitchen more and more. While I don’t like people messing with my kitchen arrangement, I do love having someone to talk to. My brother is in Tennessee doing a co-op, and I’ve really missed having my baby brother there to talk to and make fun of. I kind of like playing the big sister part to the guys that make a point to come in and chat with me. One of the guys came in all lugubrious and was having a bad day. He recited the long list of his sorry woes. I asked him if he wanted a cookie. He looked as if to ascertain whether not I was being sarcastic and making fun of him and I pointed to a batch of chocolate cookies fresh out of the oven. As he ate his cookie, he said, “I feel better now”. I felt a sense of accomplishment. While I really love cooking, I’m a social person, and spending a day drudging in my little dungeon of a kitchen (and it is a windowless dungeon) tends to take on the tedious if there is no people interaction. One of the joys of cooking is knowing who you’re cooking for and knowing not only that they like the food but that they appreciate it. The real job satisfaction in cooking for frat boys is not in making a perfectly executed gourmet feast, but in making a meal that you know will be well appreciated and even comforting. After all, no matter how well you cook, if it’s for a nameless, faceless horde it’s somewhat like that old joke about the priest. You know, the one where he skips Sunday mass to play golf and makes a hole in one, but can’t tell anyone. Well it would be kind of like that, what is success without sharing it?

I made a success this weekend. My hubby had a few friends over to drink and kill zombies. (If the zombie apocalypse ever comes, I feel safe knowing my husband has had so much training in fighting off the zombie hordes). When I asked him what he wanted me to make to feed the zombie-killing battalion, he said he wanted, “those little orange chickens”. In other words, orange and rosemary roasted Cornish game hens with orange and white wine pan sauce. Hey, a zombie-killer has to eat right? I adapted this recipe from a few that I found online. While it sounds super fancy and looks impressive to guests, it honestly isn’t that difficult. It isn’t even much more expensive than making roast chicken, which is in fact a rather cheap meal. I think it looks so fancy because each person gets their own little chicken, and who doesn’t love individual-sized chickens. I’m going to caution you now, if you make this recipe, do not, under any circumstances substitute lemons for the oranges. I tried this once figuring that people eat lemon chicken all the time. The chicken turned out fine, but the sauce was just plain nasty. Just say no to anything but orange.

Orange and Rosemary Roasted Cornish Game Hens
Serves 4

4 Cornish Game Hens, 1 lb each
4 tbs Butter, softened
Salt and Pepper
½ an Orange, cut into 4 wedges
Several Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary, cut to about 3 inches long
1/2 cup White Wine
1 cup Orange Juice
1 1/4 cup Chicken Stock

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees with the oven rack placed in the middle of the oven. Rinse and dry the game hens; carefully tucking their wings back (so they don’t burn). Rub a ½ tablespoon of butter all over each hen then salt and pepper the hen all over including in the cavity. Stuff each cavity with an orange slice and a few sprigs of rosemary and then arrange the birds breast side up in a shallow roasting pan. Roast for 10 minutes then using a tongs, gently move the birds a little to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Roast another 10-15 minutes or until the birds are done. Remove the birds to a plate and cover lightly with foil. If your roasting pan cannot be used on stove top, scrape as much of the juice and chicken morsels from the bottom of the pan into a sauce pan, otherwise put the roasting pan on the stove and turn the heat to high. Add the wine and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen all of the little morsels. Allow the wine to boil until its volume has reduced by half then add the orange juice. Allow the mixture to simmer again until its volume has reduced by half and then stir in the chicken stock. Allow the chicken stock mixture to simmer until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Serve with the roasted game hens.

No Recipe For You!

2010-02-18T17:10:00.001-08:00

Lunch: Chicken Mac and Cheese
Dinner: Pork Chops with Stuffing and Salad

Ok, I have no recipe for you today. I’ve already given you both of today’s recipes and yesterday’s recipes. While I do try to come up with interesting and varied menus, I also tend to repeat favorites. Coming up with weekly menus is actually a lot of work. I came in with a fairly sizable repertoire of recipes, but when you’re cooking 9 meals a week, every week, even a sizable repertoire isn’t enough. You have to research new recipes (and yes, it require a lot of research) to find new ones that will fit a budget, be able to be made in bulk and be guy-friendly. When you’re planning menus, you also have to take into consideration what else you’re making that week (so you’re not making chicken for lunch and chicken for dinner or having potatoes three nights in a row), the ease of preparation (if I have to grill, then side dishes must be simple because the main dish takes so long to prepare. If I’m making something for lunch that requires prep the day before then I need to make sure the dinner the day before doesn’t take long to prepare so I can prep for the next day’s lunch) and how many people will be eating that day (things that are more expensive to make should be made on days when less people are eating). With all this, it can take me several hours to come up with a week’s menu and that doesn’t even include making my grocery list (which is usually 2 pages, single spaced). Well… I’ve just finished my menu and now I need to get together my list.

Spaghetti Burgers are Great!

2010-02-17T15:23:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Pizza
Dinner: Spaghetti Burgers, Pasta Salad and Veggies

So… the other morning I apparently turned my alarm off without waking up. I was in the middle of this really weird dream; I was being attacked by three tiny old women in big “going to church” hats. Only, I didn’t know they were old women, I thought they were bugs so I swung my arms out to swat them away. Only, I actually swung my arms out and hit the water glass off my night stand and the water in the cup splashed all over the dog, who was apparently still fast asleep, and caused him to wake up and yelp like he was being beaten. I just thought you should know.

Dinner tonight is somewhat of a meat-fest. There is meat in all parts of the dinner, so I’m fairly sure the guys will be pleased. I made Italian pasta salad (pasta, home-made Italian dressing, feta, olives and pepperoni), green beans with bacon and spaghetti burgers. Spaghetti burgers are something I thought up one night when I saw some bulk Italian sausage at the grocery store. They really came about because of Tyler’s peculiar dislikes. He doesn’t like bread unless it’s toasted; he really loves it if it’s garlic toast. He also dislikes most anything you would put on a normal hamburger (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce…). I really love hamburgers and I really wanted a burger. Tyler really loves spaghetti. Voila! I made patties with the sausage, threw on some provolone (or mozzarella when we have that) and topped it with some extra thick marinara sauce and put it all on garlic toast. It was fantastic. Over time, it’s evolved into regular hamburger patties with Italian seasonings (sausage patties are way too greasy). My next plan is to try it with ground chicken mixed with a parmesan cheese and a little egg (ground chicken doesn’t hold together as well as hamburger when you put it in a patty, so the addition of a little egg is usually helpful). I will call it a chicken parmesan burger. Perhaps I will submit it to the hamburger cook-off. I think that’s got to be worth a prize, especially if you top it a little crispy pancetta on some toasted ciabatta. Mmmm… Can you tell I’m hungry?

Aside from making delicious and creative burgers ( J ) I also love to tease the guys. There is a large white board on the wall just outside the kitchen. It is used to indicate which of the guys need a “save plate” that night. They guys will also write stupid drunk messages on it when they’re stupid and drunk. I use it to communicate things to the guys. For example, sometimes I serve milk with Friday brunch and it can’t sit out like soda, so I write on the board so the guys know it’s there. Or perhaps, like this evening, there’s a cold side-dish for dinner or there’s cheese or sour cream or something that needs to accompany dinner. I’ve also used it to convey dinner instructions. Last semester I’d made a Moroccan chicken stew. The stew is meant to be served on top of cous cous. Knowing that the guys would not know this instinctively, I wrote some instructions for how to serve themselves. The guys apparently decided that it was an affront; they didn’t require instructions on how to eat. (Of course, clearly some of them didn’t get it because they said the cous cous was tasteless plain. Yeah, it’s meant to have stew on top of it….). They weren’t really insulted, but being the little buttheads that they are they wrote a bunch of snarky comments back on the board. I have since then had fun writing tongue-in-cheek comments on the board to them anytime I’ve needed to convey some sort of special dinner prep instructions. For dinner tonight I thought I should let them know how to build a spaghetti burger, so I put up the anatomy of a spaghetti burger complete with labeled diagram. I can’t wait till tomorrow to see what they had to say about that (or write about it).

Spaghetti Burgers
Serves 25 College Boys

10 + lbs Lean Ground Beef
Seasoning Salt
Italian Herb Mix (Basil, Oregano, Thyme, and Crushed Rosemary)
Seasoning Salt
25 Hamburger Buns
40 Hamburger Buns
Butter
Garlic Powder
40 slices Provolone Cheese
Extra Thick Marinara

There are 2 ways of make the hamburgers, you can either season the meat and then make them into patties or you can make them into patties and then sprinkle them with seasoning. I personally mix a couple handfuls of the Italian herbs into the meat and then season the outside with Lawry’s (ok… so that’s three ways). Make approx. 40 burgers. Then grill, broil, or pan fry your burgers to your desired level of doneness. A few minutes before they’re done, top each patty with a slice of cheese so the cheese will melt a little on the burger.

Meanwhile, butter the insides of the buns and put them on a baking sheet, butter side up. Sprinkle the buns with garlic powder and Italian herbs. Toast them in a hot oven or under the broiler.

Extra Thick Marinara

4 15oz cans Tomato Sauce
4 15oz cans Tomato Purée
6 small cans Tomato Paste
Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper
Italian Herbs Mix

Mix all ingredients together (season to taste) in a large covered sauce pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and simmer covered for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Note: Do not use jar spaghetti sauce like Prego or Ragu as a substitute for the extra thick marinara. It is too watery and runny and it will just make your bread soggy. You will regret it! If you want a quick substitute, use jar/ canned pizza sauce. Hunt’s pizza sauce works really well, if you can find it. It has a good taste and it’s watery, runny or greasy.

Beware of Chef

2010-02-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

Lunch: BLT’s and French Fries
Dinner: Oven-baked Chicken Strips, Butter and Herb Boiled Potatoes and Corn

The kitchen has been infiltrated, repeat: the kitchen has been infiltrated! I don’t know if I’ve ever explained that I’m really a one person per kitchen kind of gal. When I’m cooking, I don’t really like people getting in my way or making unnecessary comments about how they think things should be done (“backseat driving” I call it). Oh, I don’t mind people coming and chatting, and on occasion I can even cook with other people (so long as we all have designated jobs and space). But when they invade the kitchen unwanted and unannounced, it drives me batty. It’s like someone coming in to your office, plunking their butt down at your computer and playing games when you’re in the middle of trying to finish a project on deadline. Ok, that might be a little extreme, but that’s what it feels like. One of the brothers came in just after I served lunch and started making his lunch. Ok, usually I don’t mind that. Then his girlfriend came in and they turned the radio on loud. Ok… getting a little annoyed. Then they started using the dishes I laid out. He was cutting raw meat on the cutting board I laid out for cutting the vegetables with the knife I’d laid out, and they were moving around all the spices I’d laid out. Ok… I’m really really annoyed now. Just as he was finishing, another brother came in and made eggs and left a huge eggy mess all over my clean work surface, and if that weren’t bad enough the steward came in with no other design than to bother me. That’s it, I have to leave the kitchen or people will get hurt!

I can’t help it, I’m territorial. I have my kitchen just so, and I have it that way for a reason. When cooking for a large group you have to have a game plan (and contingency plans for when you find some little “mousy” has gone and eaten all of the cheese you put aside). You can’t just go into the kitchen and see what you can find and start throwing things together because things won’t turn out. Before I start cooking, I get out everything I’m going to need, ingredients, pots, pans, knives etc. I lay them all out so A. I know I have them and B. So I’m not scrambling for an ingredient while I’m in the middle of trying to keep my roux from burning and C. So everything will be done when I need it to be done. Plus, I have limited resources. I only have 1 large cutting board and 2 really sharp knives. So, I have to plan carefully to avoid contamination etc. My path to kitchen enlightenment is organization. (Remember my dream kitchen? That’s kitchen nirvana). When someone goes and messes with it, it can throw me off. I have to stop and redo everything, wash the cutting board, wipe down the counters and realign my ingredients. People who know me may find this rather strange. I am not what you might call a “neat” person nor am I particularly organized. I am not a type A personality, at least not until you cross the threshold of my kitchen. Then… well perhaps the guys should get a sign “Beware of Chef, Enter at Your Own Risk".

For a quick and delicious lunch, try these chicken melts… they have a kick. They guys loved them.

Spicy Chicken Melts
Serves 12

24 slices Toast, good with whole wheat or 7 grain bread
5 cups Canned Chicken
3 tbs Hot Sauce (more or less depending on how hot you like it)
2 cups Miracle Whip
1/3 cup Sweet Pickle Relish
3 tbs Dijon Mustard
¼ cup Red Onion, diced fine
½ cup Celery, diced fine
A couple pinches of Cayenne Pepper, if you dare
Tomatoes, sliced
12 slices Provolone Cheese

Mix together chicken, celery, red onion, hot sauce, sweet pickle relish, Miracle Whip, and Dijon mustard until well mixed. Arrange ½ of the toast on a baking sheet and top with a generous scoop of chicken mixture. Top with tomato slices and cheese. Place pan under a hot broiler until cheese is just melted, 3-5 minutes. Top with the rest of the toast and serve immediately.

Home Sweet Home

2010-02-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

We made it home safely last night, in case you were worried. Some how between yesterday and today I have contracted a terrible head cold and am feeling a bit like my head has been turned into a giant marshmellow. How romantic, just in time for Valentine's Day.

If you're wondering what to make your sweetie for Valentine's Day brunch, you should try this recipe (although it might be a little late to be wondering that... you probably should have already gotten whatever you plan to make). The guys really like it, but then again, it contains bacon.

Denver Omelet Casserole
serves 25

56 eggs
3 1/2 cups of Half and Half
3 Green Bell Peppers, chopped
2 med. Onions, chopped
6 cups Ham, cubed
6 cups Bacon, cooked and crumbled
6 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk together eggs and half and half. Stir in remaining ingredients and pour into a large, shallow greased baking pan. Bake for 25 minutes, or until center is set. Serve with salsa and sour cream.

Family-size:
Serves 8

16 eggs
1 cup Half and Half
1 cup Ham
1 cup Bacon
2 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1/2 cup Green Bell Pepper, chopped
1/2 cup Onion, chopped

Follow instruction above. Pour into greased 9x13 baking dish.

Watch Out for Flying Pigs!

2010-02-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

Ok… don’t panic but I’m about to tell you something truly terrifying. You must do your best to refrain from screaming, tearing out your hair or jumping off the nearest bridge. Are you ready?

Are you sure?

Ok…. It’s snowing in Atlanta.

Ok! Ok! We all just need to stay calm. Getting hysterical will help no one. Although, since it is snowing in Atlanta, perhaps you might want to watch the sky for flying pigs…

In all truth, snow in Atlanta is a big deal. This never happens. Oh sure there might be some flurries here and some flurries there in the north GA “mountains” but all in all snow just doesn’t happen here. People don’t know how to respond so they panic. I’m not kidding you either. Any readers from northern climates are probably shaking your head mystified. But when there is so much as the threat of freezing rain people leave work early, schools close and there is a run on gas, bread and milk. (Ok, bread and milk maybe, but gas? What are they going to do, try and outrun the snow?) That is just for the threat of freezing rain. Actual snow came down, and not just a few flakes either but it came down in earnest. In Covington (where I live) there is around 3” currently and it’s still snowing.

Getting to work was no problem this morning. Atlanta is notorious for its bad traffic, but the ride to work was smooth and easy. There were no cars on the road. In fact, it was kind of eerie. There was definitely a sense of waiting for the shoe to drop. The guys were all extra chatty and excited. They reminded me of birds before a storm, all huddled together chirping in a tree. Only the guys were huddled around the food I put out and not in a tree. I hit the grocery stores before the snow, and subsequent panic, ensued. By the time I got out, the snow was really coming down. That is when the first waves of panic settled on the city. Traffic back from the grocery stores was a snarled mess. After putting up the groceries, one of the brothers informed me that traffic was really bad and I could totally hang out there until traffic calmed down. Yeah… not happening, although, the brotherly impulse was sweet. Traffic was an even worse snarled mess on the way home and it took me two hours rather than one. I got home safe and sound (I was nearly creamed by a large black truck that clearly wasn’t paying attention). I did get to throw snow at the dog and watch him hop around in it like a really big, awkward bunny. Tyler, my hubby, is working late tonight. I currently am sitting in his office wasting time on the internet in hopes to hurry them along. The roads are only getting worse and Tyler has never driven on snow (Let alone 3+ inches of slushy, snowy ice). I decided that I would take him home in our SUV. So, hopefully we will get home safely so we can enjoy the bottle of vodka and the grapefruit juice I purchased when I went out to forage for dinner (everything but McDonalds and Popeye’s was closed). If we do get home safely, then tomorrow I can post the recipe I’d planned to give you today (I can’t do it currently as my computer and all of my recipes are at home).

Happy Snow Day!

FAIL!

2010-02-11T15:48:00.000-08:00

Lunch Menu: Homemade Corn Dogs and French Fries
Dinner: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Salad and Breadsticks
Dessert: Peanut Butter Cookies

Ok, so it’s shaping up to be big fat fail week. Yesterday, I missed the bus and had to drive to work (I hate driving to work!). Then when I got to work, the internet wasn’t working. Bah! Today, I thought I’d get all creative and make homemade corn dogs. I found a recipe online for making oven-baked spicy corndogs. Perfect! Or so I thought. The thick batter stuck to the dogs really well, at least until I put them in the oven. The batter sort of slid off and made a pool around the dogs. It looked so bizarre with the hot dog just chilling, naked, in the middle of a cornbread biscuit. The sad part is, the crust tasted really good. It was sweet and spicy and crisp. It was everything you’d want wrapped around your hot dog… it just wasn’t wrapped around the hot dog. Because of their bizarre look, the guys didn’t really go for them. I seeing good food go to waste, but there was nothing I could do. Luckily tonight’s dinner was a safe one. I could make spaghetti with meat sauce in my sleep. By the way, the internet still wasn’t working. It’s really beginning to annoy me. What am I supposed to do in the afternoon if I can’t mess around on the internet? They said they were working on it, but I’ll believe that when I can start reading my 9 Chickweed Lane again every day. (Have you ever read that comic? It’s my favorite because they have a cat that is my George to a T complete with sleeping on the face and random spazz attacks.

Well, lunch may have been a big fat fail, but dinner last night wasn’t. I made red beans and rice with smoked sausage. I knew it was going to be popular when I had several guys come down to investigate what smelled so good. If the pied piper wanted to attract frat boys instead of rats, all he would have to do is put down his flute and sauté some sausage, onions and garlic together. I was going to grill the sausage, but it was really cold and windy yesterday. You can’t make me grill when the wind chill is 15. But, I didn’t hear any complaints. Next week I might be sneaky and do the spaghetti burgers on the griddle rather than on the grill…

Red Beans and Rice with Smoked Sausage
Serves 26-30

8 lbs Smoked Sausage
2 cups Onion, chopped
5 cloves Garlic, minced
1/3 cup Hot Sauce
2 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
6 cans Diced Tomatoes, drained
10 cups Chicken Broth
5 cups Rice
5 cans Red Beans, drained (if you can’t find canned red beans, you can cook 2 lbs of the dried ones according to the directions on the bag)
Vegetable Oil

Slice the sausage into approx. ½ inch slices, cut in half again. Sauté half of the onion, garlic and sausage over medium high heat until onions are soft and translucent. Repeat with the remaining sausage garlic and onions. In a large stock pot, add meat, garlic and onions to the remaining ingredients. Stir well and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

Note: You can grill the sausage, just omit it from the recipe and follow the directions for the rice and serve the sausage alongside the rice. You can make this meal lighter by substituting turkey sausage and brown rice.

Generally Gloomy

2010-02-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Sloppy Joes, French Fries and Apples and Oranges
Dinner: Russian Chicken, Buttered Noodles and Peas

It’s cold and raining again. It has been dark and dreary all day; I suppose it could be worse, I could live up North where they’re getting dumped on with snow. It’s hard to remember 20 inches in a night. I vaguely remember blizzards. I do remember getting stuck at a friend’s house after a surprise snow storm and having to stand at outside at the bottom of the hill waiting for my dad to come and rescue me. I can also remember the blisters on my hands after having to dig out the driveway. Snow is deceptively heavy. While part of me has snow day envy and misses sledding and snowball fights. I do not envy freezing cold blizzards that knock out power and prevent you from going anywhere. I also would not like to imagine trying to catch the bus in blowing snow. I’ve had to do that before… it’s not fun. Snow is also deceptively sharp.

Speaking of the bus, there seems to be a rise of Chatty Cathy’s lately. I was sitting in front of a woman this morning who was chatting loudly on her cell phone. She was describing in great detail her recent weight gain and botched perm. I couldn’t help it, I had to sneak a peek at her. She did rather resemble a chubby poodle which makes me feel bad for thinking. But, I never would have even noticed her if she hadn’t practically announced it to everyone. Currently the person behind me is having an in-depth conversation on the phone about horses. I really don’t want to listen in. I’m wearing headphones and am listening to some Norah Jones (fitting for such a rainy day), but I can still hear here over the music. I did see someone riding a horse through the center of town one night on their cell phone. It was quite possibly one of the most bizarre things I’d ever seen.

Because I’ve already given you guys my recipes for sloppy joes and Russian chicken, I thought I might share a recipe that Tyler and I made last night. It’s for a less fattening General Tso’s Chicken. General Tso’s chicken is one of my favorite Chinese food dishes. But the deep fried chicken bits in a sugar-filled sauce are simply not on the diet plan. Tyler also loves Chinese food, so we made this and he loved it. The chicken is crisp and the sauce is sweet and spicy and it really does satisfy a craving for the real General’s chicken. Tyler even liked the snow peas.

General Tso’s Chicken
Serves 4

¼ cup Cornstarch
½ lb Snow Peas
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Ginger
3 tbs Brown Sugar
2 tbs Soy Sauce
½ tsp Red Pepper Flakes
2 Egg Whites
Salt and Pepper
1 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tbs Vegetable Oil
½ cup Water

In a bowl, mix together 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and ½ Water; add in snow peas, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, soy sauce and Snow Peas.

In another bowl, combine remaining 3 tbs of cornstarch, egg whites, salt and pepper. Coat chicken in mixture. In a large skillet heat 1 tbs of oil over med-high heat. Add half of chicken mixture to the skillet and cook until golden brown and set aside on a plate. Repeat with remaining oil and chicken and set aside when cooked through. Add snow pea mixture and cook, stirring often, until the mixture thickens. Add chicken and stir to coat. Serve over brown rice.

Note: Tyler likes veggies so crisp they’re practically raw. If you would like yours a little softer, after you dump the sauce and snow peas in the pan, you may want to cover it and allow it to cook a little longer.

There Are No Hamburgers In Barbeque

2010-02-08T17:19:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Chicken Patty Sandwiches, Chips and Oranges
Dinner: Brunswick stew and Rice

Today has, so far, not been much of a “Monday”. Of course, I’m still at work and haven’t braved the traffic home yet. But, so far I can’t complain and that’s saying something because I had to get groceries today. Ok, I only had to get half of the groceries as I got the Kroger half yesterday. Still, Sam’s Club was blessedly empty and I got in, got out and got everything that I needed and was even under budget. Staying in budget has been a constant struggle this semester. With such a low budget, it’s been tough coming up with menus that will satisfy the frat boy’s desire for a meat-filled mini feast that’s still budget friendly and varied. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s make the same thing week after week. Any way… I’m a little off topic. There were no major snafus making lunch and the guys seemed to enjoy it (even if it was sort of a cafeteria-ish lunch). It is 2:45 and dinner is almost ready. Of course, the Brunswick stew recipe is rather dump, cover and leave. It almost belongs in that Man a Can a Plan Recipe Book.

Brunswick stew is a very Southern dish. I’d never heard of it before coming to GA. Then, when it was explained to me, I was told it was made with squirrel and rabbit. It might have once been made with small rodent and there are probably places where you can find it prepared that way, I just don’t go there. Banjos scare me. No, Brunswick stew is generally made with shredded pork and/or chicken. Everyone you meet has a different recipe for it. It is most frequently to be found in real barbeque joints. In case you don’t know the difference. To any good southerner, barbeque refers as much to the sauce as the preparation of the meat. To a Southerner, a barbeque is not a get together with friends where you serve hot dogs and hamburgers off the grill. That is called grilling. No, barbeque consists of slow-cooked, smoked meat that is accompanied by barbecue sauce. There are several different variations to this sauce, a South Carolina sauce is generally mustard based while a North Carolina Sauce is thinner and spicier. Kansas City sauce is the kind most typically found on grocery store shelves, it’s thick and sweet and not as sharp or spicy as other sauces. Georgia sauce is somewhere in-between. It’s usually thinner and more vinegar based with hints of sweetness. This is just the kind of sauce I like. Again, I’m off on a tangent (although anyone who’s had real south barbecue will forgive me for wanting to clarify). The backbone of most Brunswick stew is pulled pork, a southern barbeque staple. Pulled pork is a Boston butt that’s been smoked slow and low until it’s falling-apart tender. The meat is then pulled apart to form long, thin shreds of pork. This makes the stew thick and super hearty. A good Brunswick stew is almost thick enough to eat with a fork.

Brunswick Stew
Serves 26

1 large Onion, chopped
2 Green Bell Peppers, chopped
4 cups Frozen Okra
6 pounds Barbeque Pulled Pork
6 cans Rotelle Tomatoes
1 bulk-size can Tomato Sauce
4 cups Frozen Corn
2 quarts Chicken Broth
2 teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Pepper
1 ½ cups Barbecue Sauce
1 ½ tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
4 cups Canned Chicken, shredded

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.

Note: Barbecue Pulled Pork can be found in bulk (4 pounds each) at Sam’s Club or can be found in small tubs at any grocery store. You can also use left-over pulled pork from last week’s Jamaican Pulled Pork. While it isn’t traditional smoked pulled pork… it certainly works.

As Always, I have tried most of these recipes at home before cooking them for the guys, if you would like a more family friendly sized recipe… let me know and I’ll give it to you (free of charge too! ;-) )

Because I Didn't Want To

2010-02-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

Brunch: Raisin Walnut Monkey Bread, Sausage and Fruit

Friday is typically grocery day. But, I decided to postpone grocery day. Here are my reasons:
1. When I woke up this morning, the cat was cuddled up next to me under the blanket, and I didn’t have the heart to move him so I slept in a little longer.
2. It’s raining. It rained all night; it rained all morning; it’s still raining.
3. It’s Friday before the Super Bowl, and Sam’s club would be packed.
4. Traffic on a rainy Friday is usually abysmal.
5. I’m lazy and wanted to go home and cuddle my cat some more.
Speaking of abysmal traffic, I was late getting in this morning because of the rain-related back up. When I got in, I got straight to business. Not 5 minutes after I got there, one of the brothers came down. He poked his head in and said, “Oh good, you’re here.” Apparently some of the brothers were worried because I wasn’t there yet. They weren’t concerned about my safety on a wet dismal day where the roads were slick. They were concerned they wouldn’t get their monkey bread on time. They didn’t, it was 15 minutes late getting out, but no one came down to check on it in that 15 minutes so I don’t think it really mattered. Although, I’ve come to realize that you don’t get between these boys and their monkey bread. When I first started here, none of them even knew what monkey bread was (clearly not a lot of boy scouts in the lot). But they realized they really really love it, and I have heard a boy who was not on the meal plan attempt to trade one of the boys who was on the plan beer for his plate of monkey bread. That’s a pretty serious trade there. Frat boys take their beer seriously.

As it is Super Bowl weekend, I thought I might give you a meal idea that is easy, cheap to make in bulk and delicious. I made this for the guys and it was a huge success, and if it passes frat boy standards, it’s certainly worthy of football fare. It’s Jerk Pulled Pork. You can fix it ahead of time and just reheat it for game time. It also freezes well in case you want to make a big batch just to have some on hand.

Jerk Pulled Pork
Serves 28

10 lbs Pork Shoulder (boneless is good, but I couldn’t find it at Sam’s so I used bone-in, and it worked just fine. You can also use pork roast)
2 liters Coke or Dr Pepper (I like using Dr. Pepper because it lends a little something-something to the mix)
1 bottle Jamaican Jerk Rub or Dry Seasoning Blend (approx 1/3 cup)
2 quarts BBQ Sauce

Rub the meat down with the Jerk spices until it’s seasoned on all sides. Place in a slow cooker and add coke. Put on low and cook for 8 hours. After 8 hours, pork should be falling apart. Remove the roast(s) from the slow cooker and discard all but 2 cups of juice. Using 2 forks, shred the pork. Return the pork to the slow cooker and add reserved juice and BBQ sauce and stir until pork is coated. Cover and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Serve on buns or garlic toast with pickled pepperoncini slices.
Note: You can also make this in the oven, it just takes a while. You’ll want to use a heavy duty casserole with high sides like a cast-iron dutch oven or an oven-proof ceramic crock. It needs to be tightly covered with foil or a lid. Bake for 6-7 hours on 200.

Stupid Picky Fart Boys

2010-02-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

Lunch: BBQ Lil’ Smokies and French Fries
Dinner: Chicken and Sausage Paella and Rolls

Despite the gloomy, rainy weather, today doesn’t seem as bad as yesterday. But then again, I still have half the day. The rain even held off long enough for me to take my walk today. Hooray me for continuing with my goal! I also got to wear my adorable rain boots, although I probably looked rather silly this morning wearing yoga pants and rain boots. Eh, I really don’t care. I had a teacher in high school who always wore white knee socks, white sneakers and floaty skirts. I also had a teacher in college who wore bells all the time and smelled like patchouli oil, but we won’t talk about her because it upsets me.

So, I struck out with the Italian meatball soup. Apparently the veggie to meat ratio was just too high… Argh! I’m fairly sure there is no secret combination. I doubled the meat! Sigh… there simply is no pleasing frat boys. (Please note, when I first typed this, I accidently put fart boys, which I believe should work interchangeably) Tonight I’m making chicken paella, similar to the one I made for Tyler’s birthday (see recipe here: Chicken_and_Shrimp_Paella ) except I’m exchanging sausage for the shrimp. Sadly, Spanish Chorizo is difficult to find and rather expensive, so I had to sub some spicy Italian sausage. Please note: Spanish Chorizo is very different from Mexican Chorizo, which is rather widely available at grocery stores in the South. Spanish or Portuguese Chorizo is a deep red-colored smoked sausage in a casing. Mexican chorizo is uncooked and usually sold bulk or not in a casing. The two are not interchangeable. If you live in the Atlanta area, the DeKalb farmers market sometimes carries a good Spanish Chorizo (made in house) that is not terribly expensive. I would have gone there (they have really cheap fresh fruits and veggies!) but they are far away and rather a pain to get to. I’m all about getting my butt home on grocery day.

Paella is one of those weird dishes that seem a lot easier to make in bulk than in family portions. This concept is still new to me. When I made it for Tyler, I was in the kitchen for well over an hour when a typical meal for us only takes 30 minutes. Making dinner for the guys can take anywhere from 2-4 hours depending. If you were to count the things that I prep in advance (such as veggie dicing or marinating) or stuff that I start cooking when I start breakfast (barbecue ribs) then we’re looking at even longer. The thing is, dishes that are a snap to whip up at home (chicken and dumplings take 30 minutes at home) can take a surprisingly long time to make in bulk (3 hours). Then in reverse, the paella will only take me 2 hours… It doesn’t always work that way. For example, beef stew takes a long time either way. Of course, I am cheating a bit with the paella for the guys. Rather than sauté the chicken and sausage on the stove top, it’s cooking in the oven. I wouldn’t recommend doing your chicken in the oven at home because it would take less time for you to sauté it and it will come out better, but the frat has a large convection oven that cooks the chicken faster and at a lower temp which keeps it from drying out. I am also using frozen onion and pepper slices. Hey, bell peppers are out of season, expensive, and time- consuming to chop. I can buy them frozen and they’re already cut into perfect strips (hooray for no onion hands!). I’m fairly sure the guys will like this because it is basically just meat and rice with only the tiniest hint of veggies (a smattering of peppers and onions and a handful of frozen peas). Of course, I’ve been wrong before.

Chicken and Dumplings
Serves 24

10.5 cups Milk
7 cups Frozen Mixed Veggies (the kind with carrots, green beans, corn and peas)
2 large Onions, chopped
1 head Garlic, minced
7 pounds Boneless, Skinless Chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
8 cans Cream of Chicken Soup
Salt and Pepper
Paprika
Olive Oil
7 cups Bisquick
2 1/3 cups Milk
1 tbs Garlic Powder

In a large dutch oven, drizzle several tablespoons of oil and heat over medium high. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender and transparent. Remove onions and garlic and add in chicken (you may need to add more oil). Season chicken with salt, pepper and paprika. Brown over medium-high heat until cooked through. Add in 10.5 cups of milk, frozen veggies, cream of chicken soup and onions and garlic, combine thoroughly. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring mixture up to a boil, stirring continuously. Lower to a simmer (you want small bubbles breaking on the surface continuously, but not at a boil). Combine remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl to form a soft dough. Drop mixture by the tablespoonful onto the chicken. Try not to drop the mixture into the liquid otherwise the dough will not cook properly and will stay doughy. Cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Cover and cook until the dough steams and becomes more biscuit like and is no longer dough (can take between 15-30 minutes, check every 5 minutes after the first 10 minutes).

The Mondays

2010-02-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

Meh… I’ve really got a case of the Monday’s. While I do enjoy my job, it is still a job and there are times that I simply don’t want to do it. I most certainly did not want to get up at 6am so I could stand be standing in the cold at the bus stop at dawn only to find the bus was 10 minutes late. I didn’t really want to walk a mile from the bus stop to work in the cold. I really didn’t want to have to track down someone with a key to open the pantry when I found it locked this morning (why don’t I have a key?). Then I had to make chicken quesadillas, which seemed suddenly very irksome and boring. It was definitely a case of the Mondays. I felt better after I went for a long walk around lunch time (a good start to my “mini French” diet/ new routine/lifestyle). After all the hullabaloo and stress over work the past few weeks, I’m glad things are getting back to a somewhat functioning “normal”. But, life at a frat house is never really normal. There are constant surprises and quandaries (why, for example, don’t they like strawberry Jello? I made a whole tray of it and they didn’t touch it. Perhaps I should have made jigglers and cut them into shapes…) There was also a nearly full case of beer in the fridge. This is truly a quandary because generally on Monday there’s only an empty cardboard case that the beer came in residing in the fridge. There was, however, an empty pan that contained the dregs of the chicken and dumpling I made last Thursday night. Apparently they really liked it, despite the fact that it was chock full of veggies. I’ll have to put up that recipe later on this week.

It is now nearly 10pm and I’m feeling like the Mondays might be spreading and become the Tuesdays… After all the bus home was 15 minutes late and then there was a big pile up on I-20. And if all that didn’t make the trip home long enough, on the way to dropping people off at one of the stops on the way home, we watched a large truck turn over on the on-ramp. No one was hurt, but the truck completely blocked the on ramp meaning that the bus had to take an alternate route and we got in 45 minutes late. Also it’s Monday night, Tyler’s big TV watching night which means I’m hiding in the bed room with head phones on. I hate 24; I think it’s stupid and really loud. Is it wrong of me to wish that our surround sound would mysteriously get “sick” every Monday night?

I did get to try a new recipe today, Italian Meatball Soup from the Pioneer Woman. As any good soup, it is a little time-consuming. If making it in bulk, it really requires a lot of chopping (4 cups each of potatoes, onions, celery, and carrots and 2 small cabbages) I also made home-made meatballs for it rather than cheating and getting the frozen mini meatballs. While I doubt the guys will appreciate the hard work of homemade meatballs, I don’t think the soup would have been nearly as fantabulous without them. They had lemon juice in them, very different but very tasty. Because I have the Mondays, I’m going to cheat a little and just post a link to the site. Because I’d never made it before, I didn’t really deviate from the recipe. I tried a little of it before I left, and it was heavenly. Fate will determine if the guys liked it, but it certainly filled the whole lodge with the most fabulous beefy, oniony homey smell (good smells in a frat house are none just a rarity but really unheard of). It hit levels of nirvana when I pulled the dinner rolls out of the oven. So here is the recipe in all of its glory: Italian-Meatball-Soup

Note: I did change how much meat was in the soup. I made a quadruple batch of the soup, but doubled the meat for that. So, if you quadruple the recipe it calls for 3 pounds of ground beef, well I did about 6.5-7. I feed frat boys. If I’m going to convince them to eat a soup full of cabbage and carrots, it better have meat in every bite. It worked out rather well and made for a very hearty soup. I also had to up the dose on all the other meatball ingredients. So, to recap I quadrupled the soup ingredients and octupled the meatball recipe. (Ok, octuple is a word, I double checked it at dictionary.com, so why is my spell check saying it’s wrong?)

Pamplemousse

2010-01-28T17:45:00.001-08:00

Lunch: Pepperoni and Cheese Calzones with Marinara and Strawberry JELLO
Dinner: Chicken and Dumplings (with veggies!), Rice and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today is adventure Thursday. Getting off the MARTA train this morning I suddenly felt this déjà vu/ nostalgia for France. Maybe it’s because I’m wearing my Pumas. So, I decided to go on an adventure between making lunch and dinner. I had a lot of time on my hands in France, I often spent my afternoons going on adventures. I decided I wanted to see how far it was to walk to Piedmont Park from the frat. It was a decidedly beautiful day for a walk; Sunny, low 60’s with a cool breeze. So, I strapped on my book bag (which contains my laptop and everything I might need throughout the day and weighs in at around 20-25 pounds) and headed out. I did not look up how to get there; I just headed in the general direction. On the way, I saw the Margret Mitchell house, outside of which there were a couple tourists snapping pictures. I saw a picket line of construction workers in front of a tall building (très français!). I petted a very cute Dalmatian who reminded me of Indie (most likely stupid). I saw a fountain outside of a spa that I really wanted to take my shoes off and walk around in. I did find the park although it turns out I went a rather round-about way which is fine as I was out for adventure. I found a much quicker way back. I also had to stop at Publix on the way back to get some milk as some little thief got into it and I needed milk for the chicken and dumplings as well as the French toast tomorrow. While at Publix, I found some grapefruit Perrier. I decided it was a sign that I had a good adventure because a. I love Perrier b. I love anything grapefruit c. grapefruit flavored Perrier is very hard to find stateside and most importantly c. grapefruit is my favorite word in French (pamplemousse pronounced pomplemousse) also puma is my favorite word in English. (Seriously, say puma a few times and see if it doesn’t make you smile.) I also found out that next time I go on an adventure, I should probably leave my pumas at home or at least wear better socks. (I hate it when your shoes wear the back of your ankles!)

Interesting fact: There was nearly 30 degrees difference between when I got on the bus this morning and when I got on the bus to go home.

About the following recipe:
The boys really love calzones; I also really love calzones. I love calzones because they are disgustingly easy to make and very versatile. I am rather hesitant to put this recipe up because it almost isn’t even a recipe. It’s more like a moment where you say “duh!” and then smack your forehead. But in the interest of keeping it real, I’m going to give it to you. It is honestly very hard to come up with ideas for lunch because they have to be quick (remember I’m cooking for 15-20 in only an hour) and they have to be fairly cheap but they guys also want a hot lunch. That makes variety rather difficult as you can only do so many hot sandwiches in a week, and the guys are rather leery of casseroles. The great thing about these calzones is that it meets all the criteria and it allows me to clean out the cupboards a bit. I’m always finding myself with some extra ham, bulk sausage or salami, a pound here or there. It isn’t really enough to make a meal out of, but throw it in some crust with cheese and voila… “calzone”. I know it probably doesn’t meet the traditional standards of calzone, and if you’re a purist you can call it a pizza pocket or something (although the sauce is not on the inside). I can even hide vegetables inside if I get the urge although I haven’t been that mean yet. I just want to let you know that I’m thinking about it.

“Calzones”
Serves 24

6 tubes Pillsbury Pizza Dough, Thin Crust Style
3-4 lbs Mozzarella Cheese (or mozzarella mixed with whatever you got)
4+ lbs Pepperoni (or your favorite filling examples: ham, browned Italian bulk sausage, shredded chicken etc)
Garlic Powder
Parmesan Cheese
Italian Herbs Blend
Marinara Sauce (You can use the jar kind, which they have a large jug of at Sam’s or you can use this recipe for homemade)

Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease several large cookie sheets. Unroll one tube of dough on a cutting board or on a lightly floured counter. Carefully stretch the dough just a little so it’s about 10x12. Cut into 4 equal pieces. Put a handful of cheese and a handful of pepperoni on each piece. Place the toppings so they evenly cover half of each piece leaving a little room around all of the edges. Take the un-topped side and fold it over the toppings and pinch the sides closed. If the sides won’t stick together, you can roll the bottom lip up a little with the top and pinch it and it should stay closed. Repeat this with all the tubes and you should have 24 calzones. Place the calzones on the lightly greased cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Sprinkle the tops of the calzones with garlic powder, parmesan cheese and Italian seasonings. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with hot marinara for dipping.

Hidden Tomatoes

2010-01-26T10:14:00.000-08:00

Lunch Menu: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Chicken Noodle Soup and Tomato Soup
Dinner Menu: Roast Chicken, Roasted Red Potatoes and Green Beans

So… this is a frat kitchen and things break. Things break all the time because a. the things were cheap to begin with, frat boys don’t tend to purchase things with thoughts of them enduring beyond their stay here and b. it’s a frat house and things get used, abused and just plain trashed. Yesterday I noticed that the BBQ chicken I had put out for lunch was cold after an hour. I had put it on the black and decker griddle turned warming plate (they are after all, essentially the same thing), turned the griddle on and left it as usual. The guys, oddly, didn’t say anything about the cold chicken. (Eww… hot things should be kept at 160 otherwise they become a bacterial breeding ground. Besides who wants to eat a cold BBQ chicken sandwich?) I mentioned that we needed a new one to the guys in charge, but in the mean time I have to find a way to keep stuff warm over lunch. While some might enjoy cold tomato soup, I doubt gazpacho is something the guys will go for. Because of this, I have guys traipsing in and out of my kitchen (grrr!). However, it did lead to me to an interesting insight. One of the guys, in complementing the lovely meal I made last night (Swedish meatballs, buttered egg noodles and broccoli and cauliflower), let me know that none of the guys ate the veggies. He said, “We’re just not veggie people”. Then he filled up a big bowl of tomato soup and said, “Mmm, grilled cheese and tomato soup, my favorite!”. One of my rotational lunches is grilled cheese and a choice of chicken noodle or tomato soup. It’s easy and cheap and generally well liked (they are gourmands, not gourmets). While none of the guys may have touched the veggies last night, it seems that tomato soup is the favorite today. Never having monitored the soup intake before, I find it rather amusing. I didn’t even hide the veggie here. It’s right out there in all its pureed goodness. The most amusing part is that the same gentleman from above let me know that I put too many tomatoes in my chili. Yet here he is filling up on tomato soup. Some things I will never understand.

I had my first taste of Swedish meatballs at Ikea. At first I wouldn’t try them because with the light tan gravy, they look a little like they’re covered in snot. Then I tried them, and I found that I loved them. Tyler and I used to live rather close to Ikea and would sometimes go for a lunch of meatballs and walk it off looking at the interesting room configurations (if you’re going, plan on spending an afternoon and coming out with at least 3 things you didn’t plan on purchasing… like a room-size rug and an giant stuffed rat). Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Eww… over processed, mass-produced meatballs from a furniture store?”. Well, we all have our dirty little secrets and one of mine is meatballs. (So you can just hush! I won’t say anything about the McDonalds cheeseburger/ stadium nachos/ movie theater popcorn drowned in “butter” habit you have). Now that we no longer live within lunching distance of Ikea, I had to find another way to get my Swedish meatball fix. I researched recipes on the web, and came across one that looked promising, a little complicated, but promising. Well… it was ruination and a trip to pizza hut that night. With humiliation, I shelved my Swedish meatball dreams and stuck to random trips to the big blue box (Ikea…). Then… it crept back up. I was flipping through my Rachel Ray Orange Cookbook over the holidays trying to come up with some new meal ideas for the upcoming semester when I saw it, a recipe for Swedish meatballs. Say what you will about her, but Rachel Ray’s recipes are usually simple, straight forward and many of them are guy friendly. Well, I tried it out, making a couple changes as per usual, and found it was easy and resulted in a very tasty meatball and gravy. It was perfect to serve to the guys, and I could make a few changes for home to make it more figure friendly (I’m not going to bother with figure friendly for the guys; it’s wasted on them). Besides, who doesn’t love the novelty of a surprise ingredient? Cookies in the gravy…

Swedish Meatballs
Serves 25

10 lbs Ground Beef
1 cup Flour
2 cups Butter
7 ½ cups low sodium Beef Stock*
7 ½ cups low sodium Chicken Stock*
Salt and Pepper
14 slices White Bread, torn up
1 ¾ cups Milk
7 Eggs
2 tbs and 1 tsp Ground Allspice
35 Gingersnap Cookies, ground fine**

Pre heat oven to 375. In a bowl, pour milk over bread slices and soak briefly. Remove bread, squeezing to get rid of excess milk. In a mixer combine bread, ground beef, allspice, eggs, salt and pepper. Mix until combine thoroughly. Using a cookie scoop or your hands, portion out meatballs so they are roughly the size of a walnut (about a large tablespoon’s worth). Arrange meatballs on a cookie sheet so they are about ½ inch apart. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cooked all the way through.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt butter. When butter is completely melted, whisk in flour; cook for 1 minute. Add chicken stock and beef stock to the saucepan slowly, whisking while you do to prevent clumps. Season with salt and pepper. Bring mixture to a boil then lower the temperature and simmer for 10 minutes. The gravy should be on the thin side. Add in ground gingersnap cookies, whisking to prevent clumps. Add the gingersnap cookies, whisking to prevent clumps (they will thicken the gravy). Add in the meatballs and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve over noodles, mashed potatoes, rice, etc.
* You may need more stock depending on how thick the gravy turns out; you don’t want it to be too thick as the gingersnaps will thicken it later.
**If get small cookies, you may want to do 40-45 cookies. I used about ¾ a pound of gingersnaps.

A family friendly/ Slightly Healthier version:
Serves 5

1 ½ lbs Ground Turkey Breast or Ground Chicken Breast
¼ cup Low-Cal Butter (Yay Smart Balance)
2 tbs Flour
1 cup low sodium Beef Stock
1 cup low sodium Chicken Stock
2 slices Whole Wheat Bread, torn
¼ cup Skim Milk
1 egg
1 tsp Ground Allspice
Salt and Pepper

Follow the directions from above

Tough Cookies Kid

2010-01-25T07:58:00.000-08:00

It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it is truly a sight to behold. That is, I’m generally a softy, a push-over, but get me angry and I can shoot with the big boys. Well, they’ve got me angry and all I can say is watch out. So this week will be all about tough love… or maybe tough shit (sorry, I warned you…). After all the problems at the lodge, after all the meetings, e-mails and discussions, they still screwed it up. Friday, there was much gnashing of teeth. I managed to keep my cool, I didn’t hurt anyone. But I think that was mainly because the problem causers stayed well clear of me, and we communicated via phone. I gave them fair warning. I let them know that they are walking a fine line with me and if they cross it again, it won’t be pretty. Well this week, it won’t be pretty.

I bet you can guess what happened. Yup, they failed yet again to get me the information. When they didn’t answer their phones Friday morning, I let a couple of the brothers know that the next week they would be having peanut butter and ramen because a. they didn’t get me the check to pay for groceries and b. they hadn’t told me who was eating. Unsurprisingly, the offenders were found in rather short order and made to give me the information I needed. I went grocery shopping, and it should have ended there. Then I went and checked my e-mail, and lo and behold… the numbers they gave me were wrong. Oops. Did I run out and get more groceries to cover for the mistake. Nope. I sent a very nice e-mail back saying tough shit (there I go again, ok, I didn’t really say tough shit, but it was certainly implied). I let them know I got groceries already and if there are any short comings during the week, they needed to let the brothers know why. I also let them know that their math skills were seriously wanting. I was a French major, and I abhor math. Yet, I still knew that neither set of numbers they gave me added up. (I know how many brothers are on the meal plan, and if the number of people eating is greater or less than the number of brothers on the plan… there’s a problem with the math). Hey they had their warning, I can be my father’s daughter when need strikes. Just ask me how I got out of paying a few for overweight luggage on my way home from France J (even more interesting, ask me how I got my luggage through the metro when it actually weighed more than I did).

I promised a recipe for buffalo chicken pot pie…

It’s in family size because you need to make individual pans otherwise the topping doesn’t turn out… which would be a very sad day.

Buffalo Chicken Pot Pie
Serves 6

2 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, cooked and diced (you can use canned if you like, but chicken breast is better)
1 medium Onion, chopped
2 Carrots, chopped
2-3 stalks Celery, chopped
6 cloves Garlic, finely minced
¼ cup Butter
¼ cup Flour
½ cup Buffalo Sauce (I recommend getting the hot variety as it is diluted in the sauce)
2 cups Chicken Broth
Salt and Pepper
½ cup Cheddar Cheese or Blue Cheese Crumbles (I don’t like Blue Cheese, so it’s up to you)
2 cups Bisquick mix
1 cup Milk
2 Eggs
Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 375. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add in onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Sauté until tender 5-6 minutes. In sauce pan, melt butter. Whisk in flour, and continue whisking 1 minute to cook flour. Add in buffalo sauce, chicken stock and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil then lower temp and simmer 3 or so minutes until thickened. Add chicken and veggies to the sauce, and pour into a 9x13 casserole dish.

In a mixing bowl, mix together bisquick, cheese, egg and milk until well combined. Pour over chicken and vegetables, covering completely (mixture will be runny, don’t worry). Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until biscuit topping is golden brown and cooked through. (If you stick a knife in the middle of the biscuit crust, it should come out without any white batter on it.)

Super Fabulous Lasagna Recipe

2010-01-19T16:40:00.000-08:00

Here it is, my fabulous lasagna recipe:

Kristen’s Greek Lasagna
Serves 8

1 pkg Lasagna Noodles
1.5 lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, marinated in Greek marinade
1 lg can Crushed Tomatoes
1 15 oz can Tomato Sauce
1 15 oz can Tomato Paste
1 sm Eggplant, peeled and diced
2 Portobello Mushroom Caps, sliced
1 sm Onion, chopped
4-5 cloves Garlic, minced
2 tsp Dried Oregano
2 cups Ricotta Cheese
½ cup Feta, crumbled
3 cups Mozzarella, divided
1 Egg, beaten
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Boil the lasagna noodles until just al dente. Sauté chicken over medium-high heat in a non-stick pan (no oil or spray) until cooked through. Set chicken aside. Sauté onions and garlic over medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until onions are just becoming translucent; add in eggplant. Sauté another 5 minutes or until eggplant becomes soft but not mushy. Add a little olive oil to the pan and brown the mushrooms, giving them plenty of space in the pan. When the mushrooms are browned remove them from the pan and dice them. In a large saucepan with a lid, combine crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, onion and eggplant mixture, diced mushrooms, oregano, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes or until heated through, stirring occasionally. When chicken is cooled, cut it into small bite-sized pieces (you don’t want large chunks of chicken or you lasagna will be lumpy. In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, feta, egg and 1 cup of mozzarella.

Assemble lasagna in a 13x9 baking dish. Start with a little sauce on the bottom, top with noodles, completely cover sauce by overlapping the noodles slightly. Top the noodles with 1/3 of the cheese mixture, add ½ the remaining sauce and ½ the chicken. Top with noodles then cheese mixture, the remaining sauce and the remaining chicken. Top with one more layer of noodles, remaining cheese mixture and the reserved mozzarella cheese. Bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and the cheese on top is beginning to brown. (You may want to put a cookie sheet under your lasagna pan as some of the sauce might escape).

I am MASTER CHEF!

2010-01-18T19:04:00.000-08:00

While part of me is still fuming at college boys, I am happy I had today off. It was one of the most beautiful days we’ve had in a while. Not joking, it was 63 degrees today. It is supposed to be beautiful for the next few days. Huzzah! This is what January in Georgia is supposed to be like. If only we still lived close to Piedmont Park… I could have taken Indie, our dog, for a good, long, terrifying walk. (Have I ever mentioned that he’s terrified of just about everything? He loves the idea of going for a walk; he just hates the actually doing it because there are other people out there and dogs and trash cans and cars and balloons and wreaths and children and ducks and leaves the blow in the wind and…). If only George (the cat) would allow me to walk him. I think he would love it. He’s so curious (curious George, get it? Get it? Oh, never mind), and he loves meeting new people. If he didn’t find the leash and collar so repugnant, I would totally walk him.

In cooking news, I auditioned for a reality show this weekend called Master Chef. I don’t really know what it’s about other than they were looking for amateur cooks and it had something to do with Chef Gordon Ramsey. So you just might see me on the boob tube in the future. Odds are you won’t, and even if I did make it, I most likely wouldn’t make it out of the first round where I would be blasted by the judges, told that I am an abysmal cook and should be relegated to nothing more complicated than Kraft Mac and Cheese and Tuna Helper. It was quite possibly one of the strangest things I’ve ever done. To start with, the application was twelve pages long. Twelve Pages! It included such questions as “Have you ever hit anyone in anger?” and “What is the last spontaneous thing you instigated?” or “Describe yourself in one word”. I like to think that I require more than one word to define. Then you had to bring a dish. They wanted something impressive something that is unique to you and your style of cooking. Well… huh. I’ll admit I was stumped. My style of cooking tends to be less impressive and more comfort, more like Snoopy slippers and less like Manolo Blahnik 6 inch, peep-toed heels. On a good a good day I might achieve brightly colored plaid rain boots (thanks Katie!). The point being, what in the world would I make? The other problem was how to keep whatever I make warm. The website expressly promised that they had no facilities for keeping anything warm. So, with all that in mind I decided to make Greek lasagna. Greek lasagna came about because my husband insisted that lasagna was gross, more specifically that ricotta was gross (he actually referred to it as cottage cheese... big difference!!!). I had on hand chicken, lasagna noodles, feta and spaghetti sauce. Thus Greek lasagna was formed. I updated It later with some sophisticated things like vegetables and I added the ricotta back in (mixed with the feta) because otherwise it was didn’t stick together. But all in all, it is a dish that is 100% truly mine.

I learned about the audition Friday afternoon from my mom (who heard it from a co-worker who reads this blog. Hi Martin!). I stayed up late chopping, boiling, sautéing and baking. I was up early the next morning so I could take a picture of the dish, make sure that it was as hot as possible, wrap it in layers of towels and then a really large insulated bag (Yay Sam’s Club bags!) and drive the hour+ it took to get to Buckhead. The Friday before had been sunny and warm and lovely. Saturday was cold, windy and drizzly. I didn’t bring an umbrella. I had to stand in line in the cold, rainy drizzle for nearly 3 hours. My lasagna actually stayed warm. I couldn’t feel my toes by the time I got into the building, but my lasagna was warm. Once I actually got in, I was shown to a small desk space in a room full of people (it was an auditorium in a cooking school) I had less than 5 minutes to plate my dish before the judges came by. I have never plated a dish for presentation in my life. So it took me about 2 minutes. I put it on a plate, threw on a little oregano and called it good. Like so:

So, I had time to observe the people around me. The woman next to me had this behemoth… thing. If my dish was Snoopy slippers hers was… well… shoes a crazy person makes out of cardboard boxes and aluminum foil. When describing it to the judges she called it pasta cake. It had chicken and spaghetti in it, beyond that I don’t know that I could explain it. I think the outside was over-baked lasagna noodles, and she didn’t try to keep hers warm. So it was cold pasta cake. Oy. Then it was my turn. The male judge took a tiny bite and asked me questions. Who taught you to cook? Why do you like to cook? What’s in your dish? How did you cook the eggplant? He looked really distracted while I answered his questions. I don’t think he looked me in the eyes once. The female judge did not try my dish, but she did give eye contact and asked a couple questions and then it was over. Less than 5 minutes tops. I stressed, I cooked, I stood in the rain for 3 hours, and I got 5 minutes. Oh well, it was an experience. Although on second thought, maybe I don’t want to meet Chef Ramsey and be on TV. I like laboring under the illusion that I am a competent and even sometimes creative cook.

Tomorrow I’ll post the recipe for my fancy Greek lasagna.

You Can Get Anything You Want at Alice's Restaurant (but not at Kristy's)

2010-01-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

Being a fraternity chef may seem all fun and games, but there is a dark side. A dark side that makes me jump up and down yelling “KILL! KILL!!!” (I love referencing Arlo Guthrie). The dark side is that I work for frat boys. I know I know this seems rather obvious considering I’m a fraternity chef. But take a moment and really think about that. What would it really be like to work for a bunch of college boys who have crazy drunk parties and throw around perfectly good sausages (this is the 4th time I’ve found sausages or hot dogs thrown around the morning after a big party. I wonder what Freud would say.) If you answered frustrating, sometimes nauseating and generally resulting in the pulling out of one’s own hair/ kicking of concrete walls, you would be correct. Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking for the brothers. My dad thinks it must be the world’s perfect job. But, sometimes I would like to bring a big hammer and knock them all on the head a couple times.

The problem generally lies in the fact that I have to rely on getting all the information I need to successfully complete my job from a couple of frat boys. Things I need to know that they need to tell me: How many people are eating this week? When am I working and when am I not working? What is my budget?

In order to help smooth the flow of information I set up a schedule for myself, and let all interested parties know. By Monday, at the latest, I give them the menu for the next week so the guys on half meal plan can determine what meals they want to eat. On Friday immediately after serving brunch at 10:30am, I go shopping for the next week’s groceries (unless there are extenuating circumstances requiring that I shop on a different day). By Friday at 10:30 I need to know the four things I mentioned above. Number of times I’ve been given all four things by Friday at 10:30… probably about twice. Which generally doesn’t create a major issue as I am a smart enough person to take previous information (how many people generally eat lunch on Wednesdays, that more people will eat pizza than grilled cheese and tomato soup… etc) and apply it to the present situation. The problem is we’ve started a new semester, so the numbers are very different from last semester. Unfortunately, I don’t have an accurate count of those numbers. So, after asking the steward (the person who is supposed to get me this information) just about every day this week to please get me the information before I go shopping Friday… Well, it’s currently Friday at noon… Not only don’t I have the information, but I was just now told (at noon on Friday) that next week they will only need me for lunches as it’s rush. Ok… so what’s my budget? “Uhhhh… I don’t know.” When will you know? “Umm…” I live over an hour away and can’t go home and wait for you to figure it out, when is the soonest you can get it to me? “Can you give me an hour?” It’s probably a good thing that conversation took place over the phone because I’m afraid instead of kicking the concrete wall that I was kicking I would have been kicking a person. Also, I may have been shooting daggers out my eyes and breathing fire.

I think I need a little stress therapy today. So everybody sing with me…

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Let Let Me Know What's Your Fantasy...

2010-01-13T09:42:00.000-08:00

Wednesday Lunch: Chicken Gyros and Vegetables with Hummus Dinner: Brats, Baked Beans and Coleslaw

It’s entirely possible that I’ve lost my mind (what little of it was still considered sane). I get a bee up my… well… and decide to make something exotic or special. Tzatziki isn’t any easier to make than it is to spell. Why did I feel the need to make homemade tzatziki? (Probably because it can’t be purchased at the grocery store and it would be expensive to purchase it at my favorite Greek restaurant). Perhaps I’m merely miffed at the unappreciative audience that pokes at the bowl and says “what’s that” in a voice that suggests that I am, in fact, feeding them smashed worms. At least I didn’t make homemade hummus. Maybe I should feed them smashed worms… Except then I would have to get worms and smash them. In truth, the tzatziki turned out beautifully. I guess sometimes it’s hard for me to remember I’m feeding a bunch of college boys. They give me free range of the menu and the kitchen and sometimes I feel the need to act out my cooking fantasies because, let’s face it, Tyler isn’t about to eat that stuff at home. In case you’re wondering tzatziki is a cucumber-yogurt sauce that is put on top of gyros. At least the guys appreciated the gyros… The chicken would have been even better had it been grilled, but I already have to grill the brats today. And, I think I’ve mentioned before my utter detestation for that specific cooking appliance.

Cooking fantasies… it just seems wrong, but I do have cooking fantasies. I fantasize that I have a lovely, state-of-the-art kitchen filled with gleaming appliances and a cupboard full of pretty dishes to show off my masterpieces. Then the pantry… ahh the pantry. The pantry and the fridge are full of top-notch farm-fresh ingredients. The pantry (which is approximately the size of my current kitchen) looks like a cross between a specialty food store and a real farmers market. There is also an herb garden somewhere nearby which really is a fantasy as I have two brown thumbs. In the fridge there is crème fraiche, butter from a local dairy and unpasteurized cheese. (Ok… I might have separate dairy fantasies, so sue me!) Then the best part… the best part of all, I make whatever I want. I make all sorts of exotic and foreign dishes. From curry (both the Indian and the Thai varieties) to ratatouille. I might even make whole meals without meat (GASP!!!). I might just come up with something on the fly. Then, there are people there to eat my creations. People who love food and don’t say “Eww, what’s that?” or ask if I’m putting onions in something (in a dear God, please don’t put onions in that voice) or rip apart a carefully constructed dish to surgically remove all traces of mushrooms. They aren’t a bunch of sycophants though, they just aren’t picky and they’re adventurous and willing to try something new. Sigh… Somehow, unless I win the lottery, I doubt these fantasies will ever come true. (In case I do win the lottery, how much do you think it would cost to hire a bunch of foodies to come over for dinner every night? I would have to change the blog name to Adventures in Gourmet Cooking.)

Here is a delicious recipe for chicken gyros with homemade tzatziki:

Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki:
Serves 15

For the Chicken:

4 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
1 large Head of Garlic, peeled and smashed
1 small container of plain yogurt (the little container, like you would have for breakfast)
½ cup Red Wine Vinegar
1 cup Olive Oil
½ cup Lemon Juice
¼ cup Dried Oregano
3 tbs Parsley
Salt and Pepper

Mix ingredients together until well blended. Pour over chicken breast, cover and refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight.
Heat non-stick skillet over medium high heat (no pam or olive oil please, we want to get a good sear on the chicken. If you use a non-stick skillet it should be just fine) Add the chicken and cook for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown on one side, then flip and continue cooking until golden brown and cooked through (if you’re chicken is golden brown and not done in the middle, you can throw it in the microwave for a couple minutes to finish it out without burning it). Allow chicken to rest 5 minutes after cooking. Cut lengthways into thin strips. Serve on warm pita bread with tomatoes, feta, red onions and tzatziki.
Note: This would be excellent grilled.

Tzatziki

1 large (16 ounces) container Plain Yogurt
-Or- 1 16 ounce container of Greek Yogurt (if using Greek yogurt, skip the straining step)
2 tbs Olive Oil
1 tbs Red Wine Vinegar
4 cloves Garlic, minced very fine
1 Seedless Cucumber, peeled
1 tbs Oregano
A large dash of Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper

To strain: line a colander with two heavy duty paper towels (or a few coffee filters or cheesecloth if you want to get fancy) pour yogurt over paper towels. Put the colander on top of a bowl. You want to use a bowl that is smaller than the colander so the bottom of the colander doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Cover the colander and refrigerate overnight.
Remove the bowl and colander, discard the liquid in the bowl and dump the yogurt into a mixing bowl. The yogurt should be considerably thicker.
Grate the peeled cucumber with a fine grater. You want it very small. You can use a food processor to shred it, and then run a knife through the shreds until it’s chopped fine. Squeeze the grated cucumber to remove some of the juice. Mix in with the yogurt. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined. Refrigerate for an hour; stir before serving.

Start Your Slaving Job to Get Your Pay...

2010-01-12T16:16:00.000-08:00

Monday Lunch: Cheesy Pigs in a Blanket and Chips Dinner: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Salad and Garlic Toast
Tuesday Lunch: Sloppy Joes, Tater Tots and Pineapple Dinner: Chicken Stir Fry and Rice

So I am now officially back at work. I’m not sure whether or not to be happy about this. On one hand I love cooking, getting a pay check, and not spending all day feeling like a lumpy couch pillow. On the other hand, I like sleeping in, dislike having to walk 6 blocks in the cold when I can’t find my hat or gloves and I sometimes I want to spend all day being a lumpy couch pillow. Also it means grocery day twice this week and having to figure out what the guys did with all my stuff (the answer: threw it away or hid it; and no, they’re not sure which one it is). The good news is they actually pretty much cleaned the kitchen. They cleaned out the fridge and “organized” the pantry. They also scraped off the seasoning on the griddle. I’m still confused about that one (also I don’t know how to re-season a commercial griddle).

Sadly, the frat house is rather empty. Apparently most of the guys do a co-op program during the winter semester, which means they aren’t at school and therefore are not here to eat my fabulous cooking. My little brother, for example, left for Tennessee Sunday to co-op for some big company. Who’s going to bother me every day and now who am I supposed to eat lunch with? I hate to admit it, but it will be a lonely semester without my dorky little brother. Since the house is so empty, the numbers I have to cook for have gone down and so has my budget. While one might think it would be easier to cook for fewer, they would be wrong. It’s actually cheaper per person to cook for more people (hooray buying in bulk!). Also, it’s been hard for me to scale back mentally. I have to keep reminding myself that there are only 8 people eating lunch today (I may have made 5 pounds of sloppy joes any way…). Apparently my I can cook for 2, 20 or 40 but not 8 or 15.

Being a normal, red-blooded girl, I relish compliments. Sure, I should be humble and say, “Aww… you’re too kind! You shouldn’t say that…” but let’s be honest. We all love compliments; we revel in them. Today I got a lovely compliment from one of the guys. He informed me that he hated sloppy joes, but he loves mine, and that he would only eat mine. Ok, so sloppy joes aren’t exactly a culinary masterpiece, but it’s always nice to hear that someone loves your cooking and that you have even converted them to a dish they previously avowed to hate. So, without further ado, here is my super fantastic sloppy joe recipe:

Kristen’s Sloppy Joes
Serves 8-10 frat boys, probably 16 normal people

5 lbs Lean Ground Beef
2 cups Spaghetti Sauce (I like Ragu traditional because it doesn’t have chunks)
2 packets Sloppy Joe mix*
½ cup- 1 cup Ketchup (depends on how saucy you like your joes)
3 tbs Mustard
3 tbs Horseradish (not the creamy style, the “prepared” style that’s in the refrigerated section)

Brown and drain the ground beef. Add the remaining ingredients and stir until well combined. Cook over medium until bubbly and heated through, about 2-4 minutes. Serve with pickles on hamburger buns. (Or, you can be like one of the guys and pour the meat over tater tots and top with shredded cheddar cheese for .. Sloppy Tots? Hmm… must think of a better name, that just sounds disgusting)

*Note: If you can’t find sloppy joe mix packets (and they can be hard to find) you can always substitute a mix of garlic salt, onion powder, chili powder, black pepper and just a little flour. I don’t have any measurements for how much, but I’ve used those spices in lieu of the packets and it turns out just fine.

Oh where oh where did my waistline go? Oh where oh where could it be?

2010-01-06T13:21:00.001-08:00

Somehow between living in the south, living with my husband and my love of everything sweet and chocolaty I seem to have gained a few pounds. As it is New Years and I need to make one of those pesky resolutions and all that, I’ve decided to try getting back into a healthier life style and lose a little weight. There is only one fool-proof method I’ve found for losing weight. The best part is you don’t even realize you’re doing it. There is no weighing, measuring, or any of that nonsense. It just happens like magic. I call it the “Living in France” diet. Yup, that’s it. You move to France, and magically the weight disappears. I lived there for one semester and lost 20 lbs. I didn’t diet; I didn’t give up alcohol or chocolate (or any of the other wonderful, sinfully delicious desserts that are found on every street corner in la belle France). Of course, I walked absolutely everywhere not only because I had to but because I could. Also, I found my true love there: the market. Every Saturday the center of town became a festival of food complete with street musicians and performers. I’d never seen so much fresh and varied produce all beautifully laid out like a painting. It was so different, so beautiful, so inviting. I simply had to try everything.

Sigh… I still shed a tear when I think of the fresh artichokes and the jam lady (mmm raspberry lavender jam! Ooo or pumpkin citrus marmalade). Sadly the France diet is a little out of reach. Getting a job there is next to impossible plus Tyler has no desire to move out of Georgia let alone out of the country.

It looks like I’m going to have to stick with the old fashioned method… diet and exercise. As Weight Watchers and gym memberships are really expensive, Tyler and I are going to have to go it on our own. We’ve purloined a couple Weight Watchers “Getting Started” books and are going to use those to help guide us. Indie, our dog, has also promised to help by being more insistent that we walk him every day (the lack of sidewalks and street lamps make walking him out here in the country a bit harder). So in the spirit of going healthy, here is a healthier main dish that I found that Tyler absolutely loves:

Bourbon Chicken
Serves 4

2 pounds Chicken Breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1-5 tbs Olive Oil
2 cloves Garlic, minced fine
¼ tsp Ginger
¾ tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
¼ cup Bourbon (or Apple Juice)
¼ cup Light Brown Sugar
2 tbs Ketchup
1 tbs Cider Vinegar
½ cup Water
1/3 cup Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add Chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned. Remove chicken and add remaining ingredients to skillet. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until well mixed and dissolved. Add chicken and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve over brown rice.

Ahoy Mateys! Happy New Year!

2010-01-04T16:08:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year…
Ok, so I’ve been woefully negligent in posting of late. I apologize, but in my defense, it has been the holiday season and much of it was spent elsewhere (as in not at home, and in some cases, nowhere near an internet source). The holiday season is now (finally!) at a close and I start back to working and slaving the in frat house kitchen next Monday. This week will be spent trying to sort out the enormous pile of music my dad gave me (and the enormous pile of laundry that’s built up in our frequent jaunts out of town) as well as finishing up some minor last-minute before I get back to work things such as fixing my car, Dora. Since it’s a week for catch-up, I thought I might get you guys caught up to speed as well.

Christmas Eve we managed to lock ourselves out of the house, and had to go bother my landlord (who lives in the middle of nowhere). I prefer not to think about it. So, after we finally managed to get ourselves back inside. We packed our bags and left again for my parents’. Christmas Eve and Christmas were spent with my family. Which means the drinking began as soon as we got back from 6pm Christmas Eve Mass. It started up again with mimosas with breakfast, continued as all the in-laws arrived (my sister’s in-laws and my mother-in-law) and went on straight through dinner. Dinner was as marvelous as we all hoped it would be, and much meat was consumed. My mother-in-law stayed through the weekend until Sunday morning. In order to entertain we went to see Avatar at the IMAX, and the GPS stopped working on our way home as we were on a dark country road with no idea where we were at or how to get home. Luckily, we weren’t far from recognizable territory and made it home.

The week after Christmas was spent babysitting my nephews. I dearly love my nephews, and consider them quite the cutest things going. That being said, I’ve decided to never have kids. I know that Patrick was sick and that Alex… well Alex is two, but oh my golly goodness! I’m fairly sure if I ever have to do that again, I’ll have a nervous breakdown. Between poor Patrick screaming because he wouldn’t eat (and would not let me put him down, or even sit down while holding him) and Alex’s general 2-year-oldness (“No!” “I can’t!” “MY POOP!”), I was fairly sure I was going to lose it! I still love my nephews; I’m just not sure I want some that I have to take home with me…

New Years Eve was not the bacchanalian revel of the past. There was no bar-hopping, clubbing or drunken revelry as in the college days. It was more low-key. After a day babysitting my nephews, Tyler and I went out to dinner with our friend Lee (whose birthday is the 1st) and then we all returned to the house to play Rock band until midnight. We were in bed before 1am. Kind of pathetic, I know. To bring home the point of exactly how pathetic we were, our neighbors were having a loud raucous party. The middle-aged neighbors with kids… they rocked into the wee hours of the morning. Sigh…

The next day (the 1st) we celebrated my husband’s and my brother’s birthday at my parent’s. The theme was pirates. We all made our own pirate hats and eye-patches out of craft foam and string (my dad was the hammerhead shark/ butt pirate, sometimes it’s better not to ask). We played pirate dice ala Pirates of the Caribbean; pirate dice is one of my favorite games and it translates nicely into a drinking game (btw, don’t bother going out to buy the official game, all you need are a couple packages of extra dice, a few plastic cups and the rules which can be found online). There were also pirate-themed coloring pages, word finds, and such. Much fun was had by everyone, including my husband who was given many pirate-themed shots of rum by my father. Ahoy Matey!

Here is what I made for Tyler on his birthday yesterday:

Chicken and Shrimp Paella
Serves 6-8

¾ pound Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
¾ pound Shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tbs Olive Oil
1 small Onion, chopped
5 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Red Bell Pepper, cut into strips
1 Green Bell Pepper, Cut into strips
1 can Diced Tomatoes, drained
2 cans Low Sodium Chicken Broth
1 ½ cup Long Grain Rice
1 tsp dried Oregano
½ tsp Tumeric
½ tsp Paprika
¼ tsp dried Thyme
1 can Diced Chile Peppers
Salt and Pepper to Taste
1 Cup Frozen Peas

In a heavy, shallow sauté pan with a lid (or a paella pan) heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Lightly season the shrimp with salt and pepper. Add the shrimp to the oil and cook until just pink on both sides, about 4-5 minutes. Remove shrimp and set aside. Add chicken and cook until browned on all sides. Remove chicken and add in the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the chicken and the remaining ingredients (except for the shrimp and frozen peas) mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Simmer for 20-25 minutes until almost all of the liquid is absorbed. Stir in peas and shrimp and cook for an extra minute.

Opa!

2009-12-22T11:24:00.001-08:00

Part of me loves lazy days, and part of me hates them. I love lazy days at home because they give me a chance to catch up on things I’ve been meaning to do, like the dishes. But I hate them because I simply can’t seem to get anything done on lazy days; I’m too busy doing nothing. I feel like I have a day off and I should get to sit on the couch all day and watch cheesy movies. On some lazy days it feels like I’ve accomplished something if I’ve taken a shower. So, I decided I needed to break my couch-potatoness and I walked the dog. Not only that, I showered. Hooray for me! If I’m feeling extra vigorous later, I might actually go through all of the stuff we brought back from our trip down to Fitzgerald and put it away/ wash it. Our going away bags and all the lovely presents we received are still sitting on the couch where we dropped them on arriving home Sunday afternoon.

I mentioned earlier that I walked the dog. In case you’re wondering what he looks like, this is Indie:

Indie is short for Indiana (as in Indiana Jones). Unlike his namesake, he is not brave and adventurous. In fact he’s terrified of just about everything and everyone. Or at least everyone until he’s in the room with them for about two hours (they must, of course, be completely ignoring him, even when he comes up for a stealth sniff and lick) after those two hours, you are his friend for life. He is sweet and loveable, goofy and while he can be very smart, he’s mostly pretty stupid. I can say that because I love him. He is a real-life version of Pluto, you know Mickey Mouse’s dog. He’s clumsy and silly. He thinks he’s actually a little dog. He will try to get in laps. Here is trying to be a little dog:

This means “pet my tummy”:

“Please pet my tummy”:

This position usually is accompanied by a strange grunting noise.

My cat, George, you’ve met. Here he is helping me with the laundry. See how he helpfully sits on the clean shirt. He’s getting hair all over it.

This position we call loaf cat. We call it that because you can’t see his feet or tail and he looks like a hairy loaf of bread with a cat head.

Here is loaf cat from the side:

Here is a true story that is very, very funny and for which my sister will most likely get mad at me for telling you. This past Sunday, my hubby and my sister’s hubby went to go see a movie; meanwhile, I hung out with my sister and her two kids. When the guys got back from the movie, we were all starving and decided to go to this Greek restaurant. Mmmm Greek food. So my sister, her hubby, my hubby, my two nephews (ages 2 and 5 months) piled into our cars and headed out. Never having been to this particular restaurant before, we were not aware that they had dinner and a show. In other words, they had a scantily clad belly dancer with sparkly fringe on her hips and chest that performed every so often. We sat down to eat and all was going well. The boys were very well behaved. Then, the music started, and the dancer started making her way between the tables. At first our little 2 year old nephew took no notice. Then she got closer. He turned and looked, and boy let me tell you his eyes took over his whole face. She stopped at our table right next to him, and he sat there eyes wide, mouth hanging open just staring at her. She, of course, thought this was just precious and she danced there for a while, clanging her finger cymbals and shaking everything she had. My sweet little nephew was just enthralled and everyone around was in tears laughing. The song ended and she left the floor. Then, just as we were finishing dinner, the music started back. This time my nephew knew what was about to happen and he started to point and laugh. Not a sweet little boy chortle, but a wild, crazy little man laugh. My poor sister hid her face, although I’m pretty sure she was still laughing. He continued laughing until the music was over, and then it was time for us to go. On the way home, we asked him what he liked about the dancer. His response, “She’s sparkly”.

Here is a recipe for red velvet cake. I love it because it uses oil rather than butter which makes it very dense and moist and fabulous. Every Christmas deserves a red velvet cake! (A word to the wise, do no be funny and try to make this green velvet cake. They made green velvet cake at Kroger and no one would buy it. It just looked disgusting)

Red Velvet Cake
Make one 9inch, 3-layer cake

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring (1 ounce) (I prefer to use the Wilton, no-taste, red gel food coloring)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pecan pieces for garnish

To prepare pans: Thoroughly grease 3 round 9-inch cake pans, it works best if you use vegetable shortening. Then, using the bottom of the pans as a guide, cut out three circles of wax paper to go into the bottom of the pans. Press them into the bottom, and lightly grease the paper. Then, flour the pans with the paper in the bottom until the sides and the paper are covered lightly with flour. Set pans aside. (this is a sure-fire way of keeping the cake from sticking to the bottom of the pan)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour 3 (9 by 1 1/2-inch round) cake pans.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.
Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.
Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.
Frost the cake. Place 1 layer, rounded-side down, in the middle of a rotating cake stand. Using a palette knife or offset spatula spread some of the cream cheese frosting over the top of the cake. (Spread enough frosting to make a 1/4 to 1/2-inch layer.) Carefully set another layer on top, rounded-side down, and repeat. Top with the remaining layer and cover the entire cake with the remaining frosting. Sprinkle the sides with the pecans.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese, sugar, and butter on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to high, and mix until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Occasionally turn the mixer off, and scrape the down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.)
Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally). Store in the refrigerator until somewhat stiff, before using.

Tradition... Tradition!

2009-12-18T12:59:00.000-08:00

Christmas wrapping is officially done. We’ve bought all the presents, and I spent an hour today wrapping them. I hate wrapping; I hate wrapping very very much! My dad used to foist all of his Christmas wrapping on me. Come to think of it, he used to foist all of his Christmas shopping on me too. I seem to remember him celebrating the year I turned 16 because it meant he could hand me his shopping list last minute and order that I get it all done and wrapped in time for Christmas. It feels like nothing has changed; while Dad no longer gives me his list, Tyler does. I went and got/ made/ wrapped the all the presents for his family and mine. I even wrapped the presents we’re getting from his family.

Yep, you read that right. I wrapped the presents his family is giving us. We purchased them to. It is quite possibly the strangest tradition I’ve ever heard of. While they didn’t do it when he was young, as he got older they gave him a budget, took him out and shopped for what he wanted, and then wrapped it up and put it under the tree. Tyler and I live too far away to go shopping with them, so they give us money, we buy the gifts, wrap them up and take them down. It really weirds me out. On occasion my family has allowed us to pick out a gift for our birthday if it’s something we need beforehand or it’s something we’re going to pay for part of ourselves. But, they always just give it to us, even if it’s 6 months before our birthday. There’s no wrapping or waiting to use it involved. But with his family we have a pile of gifts we went out and got ourselves that we couldn’t use but had to wrap up and wait until we’re together to open them. Then, when we do open them, I hardly know how to act. Do I act surprised? Do I shake it and try to guess what’s inside? Do I exclaim “Gee thanks! It’s what I’ve always wanted!”? Also rather strange to me, they don’t take turns opening gifts and ooing and ahhing over when each person got. They just say “go” and everyone starts ripping.

My family has some interesting traditions themselves. When we were younger, we couldn’t just get up and open our gifts. No matter how early you woke up, you had to stay in your room until mom and dad got up. They would assemble us in the hall, and we would wait until they said we could go look at our presents. We would race down the hall while they took pictures. There are dozens of pictures of us at Christmas and Easter in our pajamas or sometimes matching sweaters running down the hall. And when we got the presents, we had to wait our turn patiently and ooo and ahh over everyone else’s gift while mom took pictures. Then there’s the Christmas pickle. Have you ever seen a green glass pickle ornament at the store and wonder who in the world would want a bumpy, ugly pickle on their tree? Well, apparently it’s an old German or more likely German immigrant tradition (I swear I’m not making this up!). Christmas eve, my parents hide the pickle on the Christmas tree. Then Christmas morning the first to find it gets an extra gift. We would always forget about the pickle until the presents were opened and we were contemplating breakfast; one of us kids would remember it. As soon as that child jumped up and raced towards the Christmas tree, the rest of us would suddenly remember and it was all elbows and jostles and we fought to search the tree. It’s a miracle we never knocked the tree over or broke any ornaments. Then we would eat breakfast, bundle up and head off to whichever grandparent was hosting Christmas dinner that year. Sometimes my parents would leave us at said grandparents later that evening to go off to a tradition they started when they were younger: The St. Stephen’s Day party. St. Stephen’s feast day is Dec 24 on the Catholic calendar, and my parents celebrated it because he was the first Christian martyr to get stoned. And no, it is not a religious celebration (I remember seeing pictures one year, after they'd had to much egg nog, they went around forking peoples' yards, including the governor's mansion…) The other major Christmas tradition my family has revolves around food (duh!). Christmas Eve dinner is always chili. I’m not sure why, that’s just the way they do it. Christmas dinner is prime rib roast. Mmmm prime rib roast! And, no one does it quite like my dad. I’ve had it in all sorts of restaurants, but it never compares. I get excited about prime rib weeks in advance. It is also my husband’s new favorite holiday tradition. He was skeptical about our full contact Easter egg hunts, he wasn’t sure (at first) about shooting off illegal bottle rockets on the 4th, he still dislikes singing the birthday dirge, but a hunk of perfectly prepared prime rib he can get behind.

Baking Day Extraordinaire!

2009-12-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday was baking day extraordinaire. I made 3 cookie plates for a lady at my mom’s work (hooray, a paying customer!) and a large red velvet cake for the Christmas cooking contest at my hubby’s work. Well, I had originally planned on coming up with a devastatingly delicious side dish, but then I found out that there will only be one prize awarded for side dishes and desserts combined. And let’s face it, who’s going to vote for corn pudding or cheesy leeks when there’s homemade fudge and caramel cake. So, we went with what’s tried and true. By “we” I mean I made it and Tyler stole pecans and licked out the frosting bowl.

I baked, rolled, frosted and dipped for hours. In case you’re wondering here’s what my kitchen looked like beforehand.

All pristine and clean, right? Never mind the pot of chili on the stove, I took this photo Monday night and the chili was cooling so I could put it in a bag and freeze it. Didn’t I say that I always made too much food? My freezer is now exploding with frozen soup.

Then, Tuesday I went into the kitchen to bake. When I opened up the cupboard to get out a pan, here is what I found…

He looks evil, and he is but in a more “I’m going to kill you with kindness by lying on your face while you sleep and purring”. This face is more a “why are shoving that flashy thing in my face and would you mind closing the door I was hiding in here”. I have trouble getting a picture of my cat when he’s not making an “I am evil” face.

Anyways… here is my kitchen after I was through with baking day extraordinaire.

Eeepp! Gives the heart palpitations does it not? Where are the frat boys to clean up after me when I need them? I’m afraid I’m going to have to go at this one alone. Sigh…

But in case you think it was all for naught, here is a picture of one of the cookie plates.

Mmm mouthwatering, non?

I think I mentioned before that I am no photographer. I just thought you might be amused by the transformation. I'm going to have to stop here for the day because the cat just curled up on my lap making it nearly impossible to type.

Picky Picky Picky

2009-12-14T16:48:00.000-08:00

Sorry for another soup entry, but it’s been rather dismal weather here. It’s been foggy and rainy and just plain blah. Plus, my husband loves soup. A fact I find hilarious, as when I first met him he said that he hated soup, all soup. Perhaps I should tell you a little something about my husband. He is one of the world’s pickiest eaters. If he tried something once when he was younger, and didn’t like, it and anything sort of like it are relegated to the land of things Tyler won’t eat. And let me tell you, just a quarter of what’s in that land could feed the world for at least a year. Soup, all kinds and forms of soup, were residents of that land. I couldn’t figure this out. All soup? How is that even possible? The truth was, he didn’t really like canned soup. He’d never had homemade soup. So because he didn’t like Campbell’s chicken and stars, all soup was out.

I don’t really skip for joy over canned soup either, but I was lucky. My mother is an excellent cook who tries all sorts of new things, and is an excellent maker of soup. It also helped that picky wasn’t tolerated at our house. You ate what was on the table, and if you didn’t like something, you had to take at least a bite of it anyway. While there are some critics of this method, it does have its good points; after all, our tastes change as we grow. I hated sausage when I was little, and though it’s still not my favorite I’ll eat it sometimes and I’ll even cook with it. I have an excellent recipe for sausage kabobs… Well, that’s not how my husband was raised and it drives me nuts. I love variety, and nothing makes me happier than getting in the kitchen and trying something new. It has been a trial with Tyler, but he’s slowly coming around. For the curious, here’s a list of things he was sure he hated when I first met him that he now either loves or at least tolerates: any kind of soup (he will now eat turkey noodle, chicken noodle, chili, and Italian chicken and sausage soup), barbeque (I know, the ultimate man food right?), fresh green beans, zucchini, homemade spaghetti sauce, pork chops or pork tenderloin, summer squash, mashed potatoes (actually any kind of potato that wasn’t fried), hummus or Greek food, and lasagna.

P.S. I love you Tyler, even if you don’t like veggies!

Easy Chili
Serves 5

1 ½ pound Lean Ground Beef
1 med Onion, chopped fine
2 cloves Garlic
1 can Diced Tomatoes, 15 oz
1 can Tomato Sauce, 15 oz
1 can Chili Beans, 15 oz
1 can Kidney Beans, 15 oz drained
1 tbs Chili Powder
2 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Ground Cayenne (Optional)
2 tsp Dried Oregano
Salt to taste

In a 5 qt dutch oven or soup pot, brown hamburger with onions and garlic. Drain and return to pot. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer covered for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally.
The seasoning measurements are really more suggestions. I tend to like a spicy chili, so I use more chili powder and cayenne than I put in the recipe. I find this recipe is one of those taste as you go sort of things.

Homebound

2009-12-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the change in backgrounds was not what I’d intended to do. To be honest, I really don’t like this Santa background. But, something went screwy with my old background. I used a template from one of those free template sights, and something happened. One day it was fine, the next day the background was all screwy. Oy! So, I had to change it to something temporary until I figure out how to make my own templates. This bright red is really getting on my nerves. It isn’t me. It doesn’t say Kristy, nor does it say Gourmand cooking.

Yesterday I ran around like the proverbial chicken with my head cut off. Since poor Dora (the Ford Explorer) is still out of commission my husband and I are sharing a car. I don’t like to share. I had the car yesterday so I could run a bunch of errands. It meant I had to get up early on my first day of Christmas break so I could take my hubby to work. It also meant that I needed to get everything possible done before 5 when I needed to go pick Tyler up from work. And most importantly, it means I’m homebound when he has the car. I loathe going out when I don’t have to. We live out in the country, 15 minutes from the middle of nowhere. So, there is no 10 minute trip to the store. When I have the luxury of coming and going at will, I generally prefer to stay home unless it’s absolutely necessary. That being said, it’s day 1 of being homebound and I’m going stir crazy. I’ve thought of at least 5 things I need to get at the store and I’m bemoaning the fact that I can’t take the dog to the pretty neighborhoods downtown (downtown Covington, not Atlanta) for a walk despite the fact that it’s overcast and grey. And no, I can’t take the dog walking here. There is no sidewalk, and we live off of a narrow, busy, winding road. So I’m sitting in the dark, cuddled under a blanket with my cat slipper on doing nothing. (In case you were wondering, no, that wasn’t a typo. My cat is sleeping on my feet, and so I refer to him as a cat slipper)

Since it is cold and dreary outside, I’ve decided to make Chicken and Sausage Soup for Tyler and me. I made it for the boys earlier this week, and now I’m making it for us. This soup came about because Tyler and I went to Medieval Times last year. They had a tomato soup. When I make a can of condensed tomato soup, I mix it with milk. Tyler thinks that’s gross. The tomato soup they had tasted like it had been made with broth. Tyler actually ate it. This got me thinking… Maybe a tomato/ broth based soup would be good. Tyler said if I made it, I should put in sausage, and it grew from there. Now, it’s a particular favorite with my husband.

Kristen’s Italian Chicken and Sausage Soup
Serves 6

Shredded Chicken from 1 Roast Deli Chicken
1 pound Italian Sausage, cooked and cut into slices
2 can Tomato Purée, 15 oz
6 cups Chicken Broth
1 ½ pounds New Potatoes
1 ½ cup Frozen Corn
1 medium Onion, chopped
3 cloves of Garlic, minced
1- 1 ½ tbs Italian Seasoning
Salt and Pepper to Taste
1 tbs Butter or Oil
1 Zucchini, chopped into bite-sized pieces (optional)

Microwave the potatoes until they just begin to soften, about 6 minutes. Chop the potatoes into bite sized pieces. Heat the butter/ oil in a 5 quart stock pot. Sauté the onion and garlic until the onion is transparent and tender. Add the remaining ingredients, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serve with shredded parmesan.

* If you don’t want to pick a whole deli roast chicken, you can used canned chicken or any other cooked chicken cut up or shredded.

A New Adventure: Christmas Break

2009-12-09T17:20:00.000-08:00

Menu: Homemade Caramel-Pecan Cinnamon Rolls, Sausage and Fruit

The semester has come to an end, for me at least. For the next month, I’ll be frat boy free. The only animals I will have to contend with will be my neurotic dog and cat. I will only be cooking for two, and it will certainly be an adjustment. But, it will give me time to experiment. My first task is to come up with a tasty side dish for my husband’s office Christmas soirée. They are having a contest for tastiest dish or dessert. They had a similar contest for Halloween. I made mini monster cream puffs with cheesecake filling. They were adorable and delicious. I was told that that competition would be judged on taste rather than ghoulish appearance. I was told wrong, ironically, by the person that ended up winning the prize… Coincidence? I think not! So, I need to come up with something all-star to make up for my lost prize (I contend that it should have been mine. I was cheated! I was framed! I was robbed!) Sorry, it’s been a rather sore subject with me. My other hope is to make a little money off the baking-challenged this holiday season by hocking my cakes, cookies, and pies. So, if you live in the Atlanta area and are jonesing for some fantastic baked goods, or need a gift for that person who is impossible to buy for, I’m your baker! Cookie Platters R Us, once you try my peanut butter fudge, you’ll never go back… or something like that.

So after today’s, the recipes may be more “family sized”. I may only be cooking for two, but I still feel the need to cook enough food for at least four on any given night. This turns out to be good for my husband’s friends as he tends to like to invite them over at the last minute for dinner. At least he calls me before inviting them now.

The cinnamon rolls I made today turned out spectacularly. I was quite pleased. The recipe isn’t mine, it’s true. I found it on the Betty Crocker Website. But, it needed a little tweaking (as most recipes you find on the internet do). The guys really loved them. I know this because I was late getting them out (traffic was a mess, 3 accidents on my way to work! I will not miss Atlanta traffic while I am on Christmas break). Anyways, the guys came sniffing around the kitchen the minute I pulled the first pan from the oven. They proceeded to stay in the kitchen or just outside the kitchen door and chat. Stuffing their faces and burning their fingers on a hot, sticky mess. When I told them there was milk in the fridge to go with the rolls, you’d have thought I said free beer or gold (which is equally valuable to the average frat boy).

Caramel Pecan Cinnamon Rolls
Makes approx 24 rolls

1 cup Brown Sugar, packed
1 cup Pecan Halves, approximately
1 cup Butter
4 ½ cups Bisquick Mix
1 cup Cold Water
4 tbs Margarine, the soft and easily spreadable kind
½ cup Brown Sugar, packed
1 tsp cinnamon

Heat oven to 450. Generously grease 24 regular sized muffin cups with Spray Pam. Put 2 teaspoons of butter, 2 teaspoons of brown sugar and approx 3 pecan halves (I put more pecan halves in each one because I love them so) in each cup.

In a large mixing bowl, mix water and Bisquick together. Beat vigorously with a fork until the dough comes together. You want a soft dough, but not a sticky one. If it’s sticky, add a little extra Bisquick; if it’s crumbly, add a little extra water. (Unlike most baking, this recipe does not call for exact science, so you’re free to fudge a little). Smooth the dough into a ball on a surface sprinkled with Bisquick (I suggest a countertop covered with plastic wrap, for easy cleanup). Knead 5 times. Pull the dough into 2 even balls. Shape one ball into an elongated rectangle. Roll out until dimensions are approx. 15x9. Spread 2 tablespoons of margarine over the dough. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and ¼ cup of brown sugar. Starting on the 15 inch side, roll the dough tightly to form a log. Pinch to seal. Cut into 12 1 to 1 ¼ inch slices. Place each slice in a muffin cup. Repeat with the other ball of dough. Put the muffin tins on a foil line baking sheet (the butter mixture in the cups can run over the edge).

Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately invert pan on a heatproof plate. Leave the pan/s over the rolls for a minute (but not too long or the rolls will stick to the pan). Serve with cold milk.

Note: The beauty of this recipe is that it’s super easy, and the end result is delicious. No waiting for the dough to rise, no anxiety over exact measurements. In fact, I didn’t really bother measuring out the cinnamon and the sugar when I was sprinkling it over the dough before rolling it. It makes it easier to sprinkle evenly if you leave the cinnamon in the jar (which is conveniently equipped with a sprinkle top)

Note 2: If you don’t have 2 muffin pans, don’t worry, you can use an 8x8 pan. Just evenly spread the butter, nuts and brown sugar over the bottom of the pan. Cut the rolls into 20 even slices (between 1 ¼ to 1 ½ inches). Place them side by side in the pan. You may need to add another couple minutes cook time. The rolls will be more like pull-apart sticky buns as the center ones won’t get golden brown on the outside.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

2009-12-08T17:07:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Menu: Lunch: Chicken Mac & Cheese
Dinner: Kristen’s Italian Chicken Sausage Soup
Dessert: 10 Pumpkin Pies and Whipped Cream (yup, you read that right, 10!)

So, last night we went to the Pioneer Woman Cooks book signing. Great fun was had by all. There were so many people in that little book store it was hard to breathe. It was an interesting crowd too. It was mostly women, but of a rather diverse age group. They ranged from girls in their early 20’s to women in their 60’s. There was one guy there on his own. He was getting the book signed as a Christmas gift for his mother. Some ladies thought that was so adorable they gave him one of their better wristbands so he could go ahead of them. It was very sweet. And it seemed almost everyone there had an awesome, fancy-pants camera. There was much camera envy by Katie and me. I have no talent for taking pictures, but that doesn’t keep me from wishing I did. Maybe if I had a fancy-pants camera… We were glad we got there early to get our wrist bands, as we were among the first to get our books signed. Ree Drummond was very nice, and I wish we’d stuck around to listen to her speak, but after an early morning and a busy day of cooking, I was definitely ready to go home. Not to mention that my trek home generally takes an hour plus, and my sister needed to go home and feed her three babies (please note I included her husband in that ;-)

Now that you’re thoroughly tired of hearing about that… let’s talk frat. It is the middle of finals week and quiet as a tomb around here. I don’t have any decent frat boyisms. They aren’t even meeting for their usual lunch-time Price is Right fix. I remember finals week. Everyone made such a fuss over it. Being a French major, finals week wasn’t really a big deal for me. Sure there were tests that I studied for, and late nights spent doing projects that I probably should have started weeks earlier. But for most of my classes, finals were never any bigger deal than any other test. In fact there was only one class I took in college where the final represented the majority of my grade. In fact, it was the only thing that we were graded on, and I failed it. I failed it because I missed the day that they taught the proper form with special emphasis on using the appropriate beginnings and endings. The test was to write a letter in the proper form. I missed that day because the metro workers decided to go on strike while I was eating lunch. Ah, the French. Luckily, it was a class I didn’t need and I only took because the schools were on strike and it was either take a bunch of fluff classes from French as a foreign language program or be sent home and have wasted thousands of dollars getting there etc… Ahhh the French… But that’s a whole different story. Remind me to tell you about it some time, it involves a crazy cab driver, blockades and getting chased and tear gassed by the police. Good times!

In other news, it’s cold outside. It’s cold, rainy, drizzly and dismal. It’s times like these that I miss snow. Snow is at least pretty. You can play in the snow, build forts, throw snowballs and go sledding. The only thing you can do when it’s cold and rainy is thank your sister again for giving you rain boots. Then I remember what it’s like to live in the Midwest. I’ve forgotten what below freezing feels like, let alone below 0. I don’t think I could handle that. They would completely freak out here. My husband has never even seen real snow; not the kind that sticks to the ground and can form a ball to hurl at his unsuspecting face. He thinks a toboggan is a kind of hat.

On cold, rainy days the only thing to do (other than thank your sister for rain boots) is make something warm, comforting and delicious. It is also a great booster if you’re stuck in room studying like a mad man for an upcoming final. Chicken Mac & Cheese is just that kind of food. It’s also a great favorite of the guys’. Whenever I ask them what they want for lunch, the answer is always chicken mac & cheese. I came up with it at the beginning of the semester. I wanted to make homemade mac & cheese but I thought they would probably want some kind of meat with it. Homemade mac & cheese is a little time consuming (compared to box mac & cheese); I think it deserves its place as a main dish so I added chicken. The result is the ultimate creamy, cheesy, meaty comfort food.

P.S. It is also an excellent comfort food on cold, snowy days, if you have those where you’re from

Chicken Mac and Cheese
Serves 25

6 pounds Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, cut into bite sized pieces**
½ cup Vegetable Oil
1 tbs Garlic Powder
1 tbs Paprika
2 pounds Macaroni Noodles
1 ½ cups of Butter
1 ½ cups Flour
10 ½ cups Milk
3 pounds Cheese (shredded cheddar or American cut up into small cubes, depending on which you prefer)
Salt and Pepper

Heat oven to 375. In a baking dish, mix chicken pieces with oil, garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Cover and bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. Cook macaroni according to package instructions. In sauce pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. When butter is completely melted, whisk in flour and a little salt and about a tablespoon of pepper. Cook mixture for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add in milk slowly while whisking to prevent lumps. Reduce heat and bring to a boil for 1 minute while stirring constantly. Mixture should have thickened quite a bit. Remove from heat and stir in cheese. In baking dish (I usually use the one I cooked the chicken in, less dishes that way) add cooked macaroni and cooked chicken pieces. Pour cheese sauce over pasta and stir to coat pasta and chicken with sauce. Top with shredded cheddar cheese if desired. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

**Note: You can use leftover roast chicken, canned chicken, tuna, or turkey… whatever strikes your imagination or pantry. If you’re not making the chicken from scratch, omit the paprika and garlic powder. If you are making the chicken from scratch, you can use any combination of spices and herbs that strikes your fancy. Example: rosemary, garlic and thyme with a white cheddar sauce are absolutely divine. Just make everything as directed but substitute white cheddar for cheese and the appropriate spices for paprika and garlic. Or you can omit the chicken all together for your vegetarian friends or to bring it as a side dish for your next potluck

I've Never Been to a Book Signing Before

2009-12-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Menu: Lunch: Pepperoni and Cheese Calzones w/ Marinara Dipping Sauce
Dinner: Oven Pork Chops with Stuffing and Veggie

Happy Monday!!! I’m actually really excited that it’s Monday because… I get to meet the pioneer woman (http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/) tonight! You’re jealous, just admit it. I had to get in extra early today to make lunch for the boys so I could go get wristbands for tonight. It was rather sneaky, mean and evil of Borders to force us to A. Go get wristbands B. You could only get them today C. Not allow you to get them for other people D. Not announce anywhere that you needed wristbands or that the time was changed from 7 to 6. Luckily I thought to call just in case (being the good little scout that I am). So, I’m very excited!

On a sad note… Dora, my Ford Explorer decided to go lame this weekend. There is a problem with the clutch. Does bad luck have good timing with me or what? Here it is, nearly Christmas, and I’m going to be out of work (and out of pay!) for a month, and my car goes on the fritz. Hopefully it will be something minor (please let it be something minor!). So if you’ve a mind to, pray for Dora.

In frat news, GA tech won their game Saturday and will be going to the Orange Bowl against Iowa. Be impressed, I didn’t even have to Google that. Actually, don’t be that impressed. I know they won because of the state of the house when I got here this morning (let’s just say the burn barrel was still smoking). Also, all of the plastic cups were gone. When all of the plastic cups have disappeared, you know it was a good party. However, that means I have a bunch of boys shuffling through the kitchen in search of cups. They don’t believe me when I say there are no more plastic cups, unless they want to rinse the beer out of the 50 or so that are still sitting on the pool table (I can just see my dad cringe at the desecration. Cups on the pool table, they must be heathens!) .

Tonight’s meal is one of my favorite winter meals. It’s warm and hearty and definitely a guy-pleaser. Well, that is, every guy but my own. My husband has an unfortunate dislike for stuffing and does not have a very favorable outlook on pork chops. When it comes to cuisine, he has a lot of hang-ups. But, the boys are less picky than he is, and they love this dish. The best part, it’s super easy and cheap. It can easily be scaled down, and as there’s only 6 ingredients (if you count the butter it takes to make the stuffing) it’s nearly impossible to mess up.

Oven Pork Chops with Stuffing
Serves 45
45 Pork Chops (I prefer bone in pork chops, but thick cut loin chops will do as well)
9 boxes Stove Top Stuffing Mix
9 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup
4 ½ cups Milk
Seasoning Salt

Lightly season pork chops with seasoning salt. In a non-stick skillet over medium-high, brown pork chops briefly on each side. A couple minutes or so per side, the object is to get some color and flavor to the meat, not cook it through. Prepare stuffing as package directs.

Pre-heat oven to 325. Arrange pork chops in a baking dish so they do not overlap. Spoon a generous amount of stuffing on top of each pork chop (a large cookie scoop or an ice cream scoop is especially helpful if you want to make it a neat and pretty mound). Mix together soup and milk until thoroughly combined. Pour evenly over pork chops. Cover and bake for 1 hour.
Note: If you want to make this family size, its 5 pork chops, 1 box of stuffing, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup and ½ cup of milk, follow the directions above.

Ooo La Oui

2009-12-04T17:31:00.000-08:00

Friday Menu: Brunch: Crepes and Sausage.

I love crêpes. They are one of my favorite street/café food in France. Although, I think I prefer the savory buckwheat ones called galettes. Those they fill with all sorts of delightful things such as juicy brat-like sausages, or ham and cheese or tomatoes, onion and a fried egg or just about anything you can imagine. Mmmmm… When I studied abroad we would have galette parties and have everyone bring something to put in the galettes, rather like a French Stone Soup. But, buckwheat flour isn’t sold at Sam’s and I’m not about to trek all the way to Whole Foods just to make galettes for the guys (although, now that I’m talking about it, I might do it for me. Galette party at my house, everyone bring something!). So, I decided to stick with the sweet ones, which are every bit as delicious, and again, filled with every sweet thing imaginable. I once had a bananas foster one one time…

Crêpes (pronounced like crap with a French accent) are very easy to make. They are generally served for dessert in France, and are traditionally eaten in the wintertime. And, if you want to really impress your friends and family, you can learn to flip them in the air rather than turn them with a spatula. My dad taught me when I was in 6th grade, and I have impressed everyone ever since. Ok, maybe not everyone, but I have impressed a few people… There’s also an old tradition that if you can flip it and catch it in the pan with your left land, while holding a coin in your right hand, you’ll become rich. When it comes to fillings, the most common way you find them is either with butter, sugar and cinnamon, or Nutella. Nutella is a chocolate-hazelnut spread that is out of this world. I would eat it with a spoon if it wouldn’t make me gain 100 pounds. (How did I get so skinny in France, this was literally about 36% of my diet, the rest being bread, yogurt, and pasta. Maybe it was the yogurt…). Fruit is also a very popular filling. For the guys, I’ve got a few different kinds of pie filling, whip cream, and of course, Nutella.

If you’re wondering just what exactly crêpes are, they are, in the words of the movie Talladega Nights “Those skinny little pancake thingys”. Yup, that’s what they are. Skinny pancakes. You’ll find a rather pathetic version at IHOP (ok, call me a foodie, but I simply can’t call those soggy, floppy things crêpes, they don’t deserve the circumflex).

So, without further ado, here is the recipe for crêpe batter.
(Oh… so who’s bringing the wine to the galette party?)

Sweet Crêpes

24 large Eggs
8 cups Milk
12 tbs Butter, melted
6 cups All Purpose Flour
3 tsp Salt
1/3 cup Sugar

Mix all ingredients well, until there are no lumps (It may be easiest to give a mix in the blender). Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour (can be made a day ahead of time. Heat a non-stick omelet pan over medium-high heat (or whatever setting you would put it at to make pancakes). Run a stick of butter over the pan to grease (do not melt too much butter in the pan as it will ruin the crêpes. The easiest way to do it is to unwrap part of a stick of butter and then run the butter over the hot pan quickly while holding onto the still wrapped end) Pour a small amount of batter into the pan. This will vary depending on pan size, but for an 8 inch skillet, it will be slightly less than ¼ cup. Swirl the batter around as you pour to evenly coat the surface of the pan. The crêpe will cook quickly, usually less than a minute or so per side. When the bottom has become light golden brown and crisp, flip it over to the other side. Cook for an additional minute. Serve warm with a selection of tasty fillings (strawberry lavender jam was another of my favorites… L I miss the jam lady at the Rennes market!!!)

Ham I Am

2009-12-03T17:18:00.000-08:00

Thursday Menu: Lunch: Pesto Chicken Sandwiches and Chips
Dinner: Glazed Baked Ham, Green Bean Casserole, Dinner Rolls and Apple and Onion Stuffing

So, when I left last night there were 3 cans of decorating icing (the kind that you attach the tip and squirt) and 2 tubes of glitter gel. He hehe, yes I put glitter gel on the boys’ cookies. Anyway, this morning when I came in, the cans of icing were all but gone. Apparently they decided there wasn’t enough icing on the cookies and had an after dinner art project.

Today was a relatively easy day. Honestly, I don’t know what all the fuss is about cooking over the holidays. People stress out so much about cooking for 12 people… Ha! By now, I could do that in my sleep. I’m not saying that I don’t sometimes stress out about getting stuff done, but that’s generally either because something is out of whack (cough cough… the grill cough cough) or because the guys have changed something last minute (remember the time when they let me know on a Monday that there would be 40 guys instead of the usual 20-some?) or because someone has eaten the food I need to prepare the meal. But, on a normal day like today, it doesn’t really seem like anything more strenuous than putting out a dinner for me and my husband. Perhaps even less stressful because I really don’t care when the guys complain about not liking onions. I don’t know, maybe it’s the impeding invasion of family that stresses people out, maybe I’m just weird and like cooking enough for an army. If you’re going to make a ham, how much harder is it to make 3 than 1? And then I can be nice and share the extra ham bones with family. Yes, I am going to steal the ham bones. But hey, what are a bunch of frat boys going to do with ham bones? Ok, other than throw them in the burn barrel and light them on fire when they get drunk. It’s isn’t like any of them know a good recipe for ham and bean soup ooo or lentil soup! I think that’s what I’m going to make with my ham bone; I’m going to make some lentil soup!

I have noticed a few changes in how I cook since I started cooking for the frat. For one, I feel weird cutting stuff up or touching raw meat when I’m not wearing gloves. I’ve seriously considered buying some gloves for home, but then I realized I was being crazy. I also noticed that I’ve had difficulty scaling back when I get home. It feels wrong to make something for 2. I want to dump a handful of herbs into the pot instead of just sprinkle a little in. Luckily, I haven’t really tired of cooking yet. Sometimes I feel too tired to cook when I get home, but that’s more the never-ending, stress-inducing 1-1 ½ hour commute I have each way. I would give anything to live in our old house back in the Brookwood area… Except the one we’re living in now is bigger and almost a third less in rent. But that’s a different story.

Chicken Pesto Sandwiches
Serves 18

6 ½ - 7 pounds Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast
4 tbs Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
1 ½ cup Prepared Pesto

Cut the chicken breast into small, bite size pieces. Season chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil over in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and sauté until cooked through. Drain any excess liquid. Add pesto to hot chicken. Serve with Provolone, lettuce and tomato slices on either toasted Italian bread or a large sandwich croissant.

Ham Glaze
For 1 8-10 pound ham

10 cups packed Brown Sugar
2 1/2 cups Orange Juice
2 tbs Molasses
2 2/3 tbs Ground Mustard Seed

Mix ingredients together. Remove ham 30 minutes before it’s done. If not a spiral sliced ham, cut diamonds into the surface of the ham, being careful to not cut into the meat. Cover with glaze. Return to the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Cookie Monsters

2009-12-02T18:35:00.000-08:00

Wednesday Menu: Lunch: Ham and Cheese Pockets, Chips and Carrots
Dinner: Red and Green Kabobs, Baked Beans, Veggies and Christmas Cookies Galore (Gingerbread Men, Sugar Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies)

I could feel the vultures circling today; I was baking Christmas cookies. I make a dessert every week, and generally they don’t bother me much unless they happen to be in the kitchen when I’m taking the dessert out of the oven. But, there must be something special about Christmas cookies. As I pulled the first tray of sugar cookies out of the oven, I heard a voice behind me exclaim, “Ooo Christmas cookies! It just smells like Christmas!”. Then, later as I pulled the gingerbread men out, another came in and was helping himself to the sugar cookies (I put a stop to that). He also wanted to decorate a few; so I let him. Another came down and complained that he could smell them in his room, and to make up for it, I had to let him have a cookie. Then last of all, my brother came bounding down, “I came as soon as I heard…” Then he looked rather disappointed. He was hoping to help decorate the gingerbread men. I had already decorated those, and was half through the sugar cookies so I let him help with those. If I had known decorating cookies would be such a draw (hahaha, me and my hilarious puns), I wouldn’t have decorated any cookies, and would have just left them the icing to decorate their own.

2 for Tuesday, Round 2

2009-12-01T13:17:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Menu: Lunch: Pizza (Pepperoni, Buffalo Chicken, Ham, and Supreme)
Dinner: Roast Beef, Garlic Cheese Potatoes, Veggie and Rolls

Is it nap time? After all the rush and confusion of the past couple weeks, a regular old Tuesday seems a little sleepy. Or maybe I’m just a little sleepy. I don’t need to put the roast in until 2… Sadly, I don’t think a nap will be possible. I could just imagine the guys coming down to get pizza, poking their head in the kitchen and seeming me snoring away… Yeah, probably not a good idea. Besides, this chair (I stole it from the dining area) is not all that comfortable. I’m probably giving myself scoliosis as we speak (type? blog? whatever)

So, as a nap is out of the question (well… mostly out of the question, we’ll see how the next couple hours go) I’ve been perusing the internet, checking out my favorite food blogs, facebook stalking and trying to decide what seasoning I want to rub onto tonight’s roast. So, why not share with you all a few of my favorite sites. Now, this doesn’t mean you can stop coming back here… I’m just giving you options for a sleepy Tuesday afternoon, when you’re done reading my blog of course.

www.ThePioneerWoman.com : This is probably one of my favorite blogs, it’s got it all. A love story, excellent recipes, beautiful photography (and hints on how to make yours pretty too!), funny dogs, and give aways. I haven’t won anything yet… but I’m going to continue to try. I’m really hoping for one of those Le Creuset sets.

www.cookingforengineers.com: I just thought this one was funny. I cook for engineers (it’s GA tech, most of them are going to be engineers of one form or another) and this site is a breakdown of cooking and recipes for people with analytical minds (not me necessarily but I still like it)

www.threemanycooks.com: this one is mostly just about the recipes, although the stories are interesting. I feel like a lot of it could be part of a conversation between my sister, my mom and I (minus the fact that none of us are exactly published cooking professionals)

www.mylifeisaverage.com : Wait… did I put that there… I mean… no uh this doesn’t belong here, I don’t know how it got there… (guilty pleasure?)

**** Some time later****

Alright… I think I’ve discovered the formula for seasoning my roasts:

Roast Beef ala Kristen

20 lbs Sirloin Tip Roast (the ones with the strings around them)
Olive Oil
Salt
Coarse Ground Pepper
Rosemary
Thyme
Approx 32 whole cloves of garlic

(ok… so there aren’t exact measurements, but they really aren’t needed for this recipe)
Bring roast(s) to room temperature 1 hour before cooking. Preheat oven to 375. Cut small slits in roast, just big enough to stick your finger down. Shove a garlic in each little slit so there are approx 8 in each roast (depending on how big the roast is… etc). Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil over roast, sprinkle with salt, rosemary, thyme and a generous sprinkle of pepper. Rub evenly over top of roast. Turn roast over and drizzle bottom with olive oil and salt and pepper and herbs. Put the beef in a roasting pan with a rack. Cook for 30 minutes. Lower temp to 275 and cook until internal temperature comes to: 130 rare, 145 medium rare, 160 medium, 170 well done (approx 1 ½-2 hours more). Allow the roast to sit for 15 minutes under a foil tent. Slice and serve with gravy.

So as I promised, today is 2 for Tuesday… this next recipe isn’t on tonight’s menu, but I’ve made it before and absolutely love it. It’s super easy and makes an excellent side dish for Russian Chicken (see previous post) or for just about anything. Try it sometime instead of going for the Lipton noodles or Rice-A-Roni.

Buttered Noodles
Serves 28

5 lbs Egg noodles, cooked according to package instructions (the good kind of egg noodles that are thick and opaque white)
2 cups Melted butter
2 tbs Garlic Powder (or more depending on taste)
¼ cup Dried Parsley
Salt and Pepper
Combine and serve hot.

I Hate Grocery Shopping

2009-11-30T18:02:00.000-08:00

Monday Menu: Lunch: Grilled Cheese and Soup (Choice of Tomato or Chicken Noodle)
Dinner: Chicken Carbonara, Salad and Garlic Toast

Some days it’s really better not to get out of bed, don’t you think? I knew I should have called in sick this morning. I knew it when I first peeked my nose out from under the covers and felt the freezing air (we forgot to put the heat on last night…). So after battling the lovely Atlanta traffic, then being blocked off from parking at work for ½ an hour (stupid Sysco truck!), I finally made it work this morning, 40 minutes late. Not that there’s anyone monitoring when I get in and when I go and what I do in the mean time; I mean frat boys simply can’t be expected to be that responsible. Then the incident with the grilled cheeses (see the fratboyism for this week below). It was a rough start for any day let alone the Monday after a holiday. Then I remembered I had to get groceries.

I hate getting groceries for the frat. I hate it with a burning passion. I used to love getting groceries for Tyler and I, ambling up and down the aisles deciding what I wanted to eat that week. I used to love it, but not anymore. There is no time for ambling, and I have to know exactly what I need and how much of it I need. I only get one shot to get everything I need for the week, which means being super prepared and organized. This might be the time to mention that organization and preplanning are not my strongest suits. We’re talking an itemized, 3 page, single spaced list that has everything grouped by store location and which store I get it from.

Then there’s the amount of groceries. Have you ever seen $650 in groceries? I mean $650 in everyday groceries, no alcohol or caviar included. It’s a lot of stuff. And, I mean a lot. It fills the back of my SUV practically to the top. We’re talking 7-8 banana boxes full of groceries just for one week. I have to get a running start just to push the cart it’s full (I’m not kidding either, you should she the people laugh at me). And then there are the questions… When you’re walking around Sam’s with groceries piled so high the piles wobble and sway and threaten to send everything crashing to the floor, you tend to get weird looks and questions. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I was having a party or where the party was, I would be able to retire sometime next semester. Seriously people, who throws parties like that? Why am I not invited? Sometime, I’m going to go in a long skirt and tell people I’m one of the Duggars and I’m shopping for my 47 brothers and sisters.

And then if that weren’t enough, I have to get the stuff out of the car, into the frat and put away. Wait, when I say put away, I mean hidden. I strategically hide the foods the frat boys would be most likely to get into, and if I can’t hide it, I put duck tape all over it and cover it with signs threatening life and limb if it’s taken (again, I’m not kidding). All of this is why I normally do my shopping on Fridays when I only have to prepare the morning meal. Today I still had to get back and have stuff put away in time to make dinner. Sigh… I’m tired and my turkey noodle soup smells done. I think today I might forgo the recipe and make tomorrow another 2 for Tuesday.

Frat Boyism of the Week (Nov 30)

2009-11-30T16:44:00.000-08:00

Now just to get this clear, this past weekend was Thanksgiving, the holiday of overeating and gluttony (and all that other junk like family and being thankful). I’m fairly sure the boys all went home and stuffed themselves silly with turkey and all the fixings. Please keep this in mind for what I’m about to tell you. I fixed the usual amount of grilled cheese sandwiches this morning, two of those really huge Sunbeam loaves. You know, the ones that say they’re 2 pounds or something like that. Which adds up to around 35 grilled cheese sandwiches. That, with the gallon and a half of soup that I fixed, should have been enough for a normal Monday lunch. But, as I was getting ready to go do the weeks grocery shopping half an hour later, a head poked into my kitchen.

Disembodied Head- “Umm… are there any more sandwiches coming?”
Me- “No, why?”
Disembodied heat- “Because they’re all gone”
Me- “What?!?”

Yes, 35 sandwiches disappeared in 30 minutes. Where did they go? Nobody seems to know. So the mystery of the day is who took all the grilled cheese sandwiches. Did someone decide to take up competitive eating? Are there incredibly large, smart rats that can open and close serving trays (unlike a frat boy who cannot for the life of him figure out how to close the tray and thus keep the food warm) Luckily I had extra bread and cheese, and was able to save the day with more sandwiches.

Black Friday Comes

2009-11-27T12:53:00.001-08:00

Menu: Lunch: Pizza Hut Buffet Dinner: Golden Corral Buffet

Happy Black Friday! I think it only makes sense that the day after the holiday of gluttony is the day for spending more than you ought to on stuff you most likely don’t need and won’t use. Ok… so I’m not much of a spender and even less of a shopper. My husband is just the opposite. So you can guess who got up early to shop and who stayed in bed… We are currently is the lovely southern small town of Fitzgerald, GA, known for its wild chickens. No, I’m not kidding. There are wild chickens running around everywhere here (and crowing at 5am).

As you might guess, I’m not cooking for the boys today. In fact, I’m not cooking for anyone. We’re at my in-laws this Thanksgiving, and my in-laws are big fans of going out to eat, especially when it includes a buffet. So this afternoon we’ll be hitting the stores (again… sigh) in search of “awesome deals” and then hitting the buffet. The only cooking I will have done this holiday is the enormous pile of mashed potatoes and the gallon of gravy. I didn’t even make my signature pies this year. While I love to cook all sorts of things, desserts are probably my first love in cooking. Maybe because I have such a sweet tooth… Instead the role of pie maker in my family fell to my sister this year. My sister is an excellent and creative cook, and I was sure desserts for my family were in good hands. I even handed over my pie crust recipe. Not really much of a secret as it’s based on Emeril’s recipe (only based on, I can’t help but try to improve on everything). The great secret in perfect pie crust making isn’t really as much in the recipe as it is in how you make it, and this is where even the best cooks get frustrated. The two keys are keep it cold, and don’t mess with it more than absolutely necessary. So, here is how I make my pie crusts.

Sweet Pie Crust
Makes 2 9-inch crusts

2 cups of Flour*
¼ tsp Salt
1 ½ tsp Sugar
½ cup Vegetable Shortening**
½ cup Butter **
½ cup Ice Water

Refrigerate both the butter and the shortening overnight; do not remove until you’re ready to make the crust). Mix the flour, sugar and salt. Put butter and flour mixture into the food processor and pulse until the mixture is coarse crumbs. Do not over process. Put crumbs into a mixing bowl. Mix in 3 tablespoons of cold water with your hands. Add more water as necessary until dough just begins to come together. Form two equal-sized disks, and cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Roll out the crust on a lightly floured surface until its 1/8 inch thick.

* Do not sift flour before measuring
** For a crisper, more buttery crust, use 1 cup of butter rather than ½ shortening and ½ cup butter

I'll Have Extra Tryptophan on Mine, Thanks

2009-11-25T13:00:00.001-08:00

Wednesday Menu: Lunch: Oven Denver Omelet, Toast and Fresh Fruit Salad

Happy Turkey Day Eve! It’s a short week, and I’m only cooking one meal today. Everyone, like me, will be off this afternoon to their respective destinations to celebrate Thanksgiving and gluttony. Turkey day is truly a day for gourmands. Instead of giving you the boring old recipe for Oven Denver Omelet (which I’d be more than happy to give, if you ask me for it) I thought I would pass along a helpful recipe that my mother sent me. Ok, actually she gave me 2 recipes and said, “I combine these, you can work it out I’m sure”. But, it’s for make-ahead gravy. Do you see the utter genius? You no longer have to keep people waiting after the turkey’s done, so you can use the drippings to make scrumptious gravy. And, you don’t have to *gasp* use gravy mix. This is Thanksgiving people, show a little respect and make it from scratch. The best part is it makes a ton of gravy so you can top both your turkey and your potatoes (esp. helpful if you happen to have any gravy hogs in your family. *cough cough* David! Tyler!*cough cough*)
Until next time, drive, fly, boat, and cook safe! Happy Thanksgiving!

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy
Makes 8 Cups

4 Turkey Wings
2 Medium Onions, peeled and quartered
4 Celery Stalks, roughly chopped
4 Carrots, washed and roughly chopped
8 cloves Garlic, smashed
½ tsp Dried Thyme
8 cups Chicken Broth
1 stick Butter
1 cup Flour
Salt and Pepper

Heat oven to 400. Put wings in a single layer in the roasting pan. Scatter vegetables and garlic on top. Roast uncovered for 1- 1 ½ hours or until wings are browned. Transfer contents of roaster into large stock pot, being sure to scrape all browned bits from the bottom of the roaster. Add 6 cups of broth and thyme. Bring to a boil then lower heat and simmer for 1 ½ hours.

Remove meat and vegetables (save meat for another use, makes great soup). Let fat and stock separate and skim as much fat off the top without removing broth or refrigerate overnight and remove the hardened fat with a spoon.
In a large saucepan, melt butter. When butter is completely melted, whisk in flour. Allow to cook for 1 minute. Then stir in broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until thick. If you need to thicken, allow the gravy to cool than create a slurry of flour with a small amount of water and whisk in to room temperature gravy.

2 for Tuesday

2009-11-24T17:15:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Menu: Lunch: Buffalo Wings, Celery and Baby Carrots
Dinner: Russian Chicken, Buttered Noodles and Mixed Veggies
Dessert: Pumpkin Roll (AKA Pumpkin Ho-Ho)

Today is 2 for Tuesday as I am throwing in an extra recipe: Russian Chicken and Pumpkin Roll. Ok, so the pumpkin roll one isn’t actually my recipe. It is, in truth, off of the Libby’s Pumpkin can, but it’s on the back of the label and therefore hard to get to. And then, you go embarrass yourself by trying to peel the label off in the store to make sure you have all the ingredients you need, and everyone’s looking at you like you’re nuts, and some store clerk comes up and asks you if you need help… Ok, so I have some issues when it comes to Libby’s Pumpkin Roll. Not the least of which is that my family calls it pumpkin ho-ho. Which I feel demeans all the hard work that goes into actually making it. It is not some glorified chocolate Twinkie, but it is a delicious dessert that makes an excellent accompaniment to any holiday meal.

Russian chicken is a recipe I borrowed and adapted from my old boss. I was lucky to fall in with a company that loved food (and drink) as much if not more than I did, and we were always swapping recipes. She made this one at work for us one chilly winter day. The prep is soo easy. Throw a couple things together and throw them in the oven for a while. And the smell… oh the smell. You know when Russian chicken is in the oven; you spend all day salivating over it. The chicken is absolutely fall off the bone, and it turns a delightful red.

Libby’s Pumpkin Roll
Serves 10 (I’m making 5)

Cake:
Powdered Sugar
¾ cup Flour
½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Ground Cloves
½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
¼ tsp Salt
3 Eggs
1 cup Granulated Sugar
2/3 cup Canned Pumpkin (not the pie filling kind)
1 cup Walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 15x10 jelly roll pan, line with parchment paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton towel with powdered sugar (Note: Not a terry cloth towel. If you don’t have a flour sack towel, you can use a clean sheet of parchment paper. Just be sure it measures out longer and wider than your cake)
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in mixer until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly in prepared pan, and sprinkle with nuts.
Bake for 13-15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together. Allow to cool completely.

Filling:
½ lb Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
6 Tbsp Butter, softened
1 tsp Vanilla
Powdered Sugar

Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla in mixer until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread filling mixture evenly over cake. Reroll cake . Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Russian Chicken
Serves 26

28 Chicken Leg Quarters
9 bottles Russian Salad Dressing (If not available, use Catalina)
9 pkgs Onion Soup Mix
4 jars Peach Jam
1 cup Sliced Jalapenos, the canned variety

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together salad dressing, onion soup mix and peach jam until thoroughly combined. Arrange chicken in a greased baking dish, skin side up. Pour dressing mix over chicken. Sprinkle with jalapenos. Cover and bake for 1-1 ½ hours, uncovering the last 30 minutes.

Fratboyism of The Week

2009-11-24T10:36:00.000-08:00

Overheard... Boy 1"I woke up in a chair clutching Tom's cooler of alcohol"
Boy 2 "Why were you holding his cooler?"
Boy 1 "If I knew that I wouldn't be telling you"

(Names have been changed to protect the somewhat less than innocent)

But... It's Not Themed!

2009-11-23T18:58:00.000-08:00

Monday Menu: Lunch: BBQ Little Smokies, Chips and Fruit Dinner: Tacos, Spanish Rice and Green Beans

For the week of Halloween I did a special themed menu. Funny names and spooky food. Halloween is my birthday, and my favorite time of the year, so I thought it would be fun… Little did I know it would come back to haunt me. This morning I received an e-mail alerting me to the fact that the boys were “disappointed” that I had not done a thanksgiving themed menu for this week (not a stitch of turkey anywhere on the meal plan), and requesting that I do a Christmas theme for next week’s meals. All of this is code for “Kristen you’ve spoiled them, and they’re a bunch of whiney babies”.

I figured they were done with themed menus after a slight mishap with some chicken wings that caused food coloring to be banned (unfairly… see the whiney baby part above and maybe add wuss to it). Besides, why do a Thanksgiving meal when, on Thursday, they are all going home to have Thanksgiving meals? So, now I’m at a loss. What exactly can I do to make a Christmas themed meal? While I’m sure they would love a meal of nothing but Christmas cookies, that is out of the question, and I’m fairly sure immoral somehow. Elf shaped meatloaves seems wrong. And, as I mentioned before, food coloring has been banned. A horrifying thought just came to me! Does this mean they’ll want themes for every holiday? Am I doomed to fashion Easter bunny meatballs? What on earth will I serve for Presidents’ Day? How do I get myself into these messes?

On a lighter note, I served this casserole up this past Friday, and apparently it was a big hit. Something about the sausage and the crispy hash browns and the cheese…

Sausage and Hash Brown Bake
Serves 20

18 cups Frozen Hash browns (do not thaw)
7 pounds Bulk Sausage (browned and drained)
6 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
26 Eggs
1 1/4 cups Milk
3 cups Small Curd Cottage Cheese
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 2 shallow (2 inch deep) commercial baking pans. Layer pans equally with hash browns, sausage and cheese. Beat together eggs, milk, cottage cheese, salt and pepper. Pour over hash brown mixture. Bake uncovered 45-50 minutes or until hash browns are crispy and center is set.

Chicken Cordon Bleu it ain't

2009-11-21T15:06:00.000-08:00

Aren’t weekends lovely… nothing to do but lay around and be lazy, or in my case, be miserably sick and still cleaning carpets because the dog got them muddy. Is anyone looking for a large, horse-like dog or a small, cuddly but still supremely annoying cat? (Just kidding, mostly). So, now that the carpets no longer resemble a barn floor. I can relax and play a little catch –up.

Friday Menu: Brunch: Cheesy Sausage and Hash Brown Bake and Fresh Fruit Dinner: Chicken Cordon Bleu, Green Beans, Corn and Rolls

I would like to say for the record that Friday dinner was not prepared by me. It was a special week, and the boys were doing dinner for themselves Friday night. They just asked me to pick up the groceries for them while I was at the store. Now you might think, Chicken Cordon Bleu, pretty fancy for a bunch of frat boys. Well, clearly you haven’t been to Sam’s Club lately. In the freezer section they have these frozen, prepared chicken things they call chicken cordon bleu. I’ve had the stuff before, and it’s not terrible. But to say that this frozen chicken product is the same as real chicken cordon bleu is like saying mahogany and MDF are the same thing. Funny enough, the “chicken” in Sam’s chicken cordon bleu has about the same consistency and amount of taste as MDF...

The only bonus I could see to getting these as opposed to making chicken cordon bleu yourself is that these make fart sounds when you press them and they poop out cheese. I’m not kidding. If you can stand paying $13 for 6 mediocre frozen chicken patties stuffed with cheese product and ham, buy them. Heat them up, and then poke ‘em a couple times. They are sure to amuse your inner frat boy.

If however you want to experience the delight of real chicken cordon bleu (which is actually relatively simple to make). See below. This recipe will be in standard family size as I haven’t adapted it for frat use yet. Maybe I’ll make it next semester…

Super Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu (sorry, no fart sounds included)
Serves 4

4 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
4 slices of Ham (8 if they are thin sliced)
4 slices of Swiss Cheese
2 Eggs
1 cup Bread Crumbs
2 tbsp Butter, melted
½ tsp dried Thyme
½ tsp Garlic Powder
½ tsp Paprika
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Between 2 sheets of wax paper, gently pound the chicken breasts to ¼ inch thick taking care not to tear or rip holes in the chicken. Place a slice (or two if thin sliced) ham on each chicken breast and top with a slice of swiss cheese. Roll the each chicken breast into a tight jellyroll-like shape and tuck ends in. Secure with a toothpick. Beat eggs and season with salt and pepper. Mix together bread crumbs, garlic, thyme, paprika, salt and pepper. Dip the chicken breasts into the eggs, and then roll in bread crumb mixture until coated. Place chicken breasts in a greased baking dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.

* Note: If you really want to get fancy, you could trade the ham and swiss for prosciutto and gruyere. Or, you could do cooked slices of bacon and smoked gouda… the possibilities are endless.

EEEeehhh

2009-11-20T17:05:00.000-08:00

So, I have a post with a recipe half ready. But this morning when I woke up, the cold I have been battling for weeks took a nose dive (another pun? yes I think so) straight into full on horribleness. So, pathetic and miserable, the most strenuous thing I've managed to do today is nap. Please forgive me, I promise to get the full post up tomorrow in all it's awesomeness.

To Photo or Not to Photo

2009-11-19T16:26:00.000-08:00

Thursday Menu: Lunch: Buffalo Chicken Twice Baked Potatoes and Carrot Sticks Dinner: Beef Stew, Rolls and Brownies

I love food blogs with lovely, colorful photos showing every step of the cooking process. They make the recipe so appetizing. They make you want to jump in your kitchen and start cooking that dish right away! And I would love to have that kind of photo gracing my every post. I would post photos that show that I have a lovely clean workspace, spotless kitchen appliances, and beautiful picture-worthy cooking utensils. Ahh… What a sweet dream. There’s just one problem (actually several). I work in a frat house kitchen. A kitchen which the frat boys clean, and which is older than dirt (I think the first dirt invented is actually in that kitchen). I do, when need demands, rewipe a surface or rewash a pan. But the major part of the cleaning is up to the guys, and I’m sure I mentioned before that frat boys are among the dirtiest and most foul creatures on earth. So, I would be terrified to show pictures of a sauce simmering on the stove, only to show that the backsplash is so black and grimy that it defies logic. I’m sure that anyone reading this would immediately close the blog, shudder, and then fast for a week because the image so nauseated them. Ok, maybe it’s not that bad, but it’s not a pretty picture (that pun’s for you Lee). It is an industrial kitchen, it is older than dirt, the pots and pans are dinged and dented, the knives are dull and notched, and the walls are stained yellow with years of cooking.

The other major obstacle to posting photos is that I am no photog. I can point and shoot. And, that is the extent of the capabilities of my poor old camera. It can point and shoot. The photos for other food blogs are made with fancy expensive cameras, and they use words like aperture and flash. I don’t even know how to spell aperture correctly (spell check corrected it for me).

On the other hand, I hate cookbooks that don’t have pictures of the finished product. I like to know what the food is supposed to look like so I’ll know if it’s all going horribly wrong, and that no, indeed, the pan sauce is not supposed to be purple. So, I’m in a quandary, do I post pictures or no? I’ll have to think about this one.

Grill Thou Art Mine Enemy

2009-11-18T17:30:00.000-08:00

Wednesday Menu: Lunch: Chicken Mac & Cheese and Apple and Orange Slices Dinner: Spicy Cajun Shrimp Kabobs, Rice and Broccoli

I have a hate-hate relationship with the grill at the fraternity. I hate it, and it spews smoke in my face and catches on fire. I have begged, pleaded, whined and cried about this grill to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, no one listens. I am, after all, only the chef and a girl. What do I know about grills? Well, I know that I hate this one. And much to my chagrin, the boys at the fraternity love grilled food. So much so, that it is a requirement of the job that every Wednesday be grill day. This means every Wednesday afternoon I must face the beast, that pint-sized dragon that haunts my nightmares and burns the food.

Grill battle must begin much earlier than normal food prep because it is so temperamental. Normally I mosey away from my computer and facebook stalking around 2, but on grill days I generally start prep right after I serve lunch at 10:30am (that’s when the guys want lunch served, it’s weird , I know). To make matters worse, I made kabobs today. I don’t know what goes through my head sometimes when I’m planning meals… Shrimp kabobs, honestly! Do you know how long it takes to fill 120 kabobs with marinated shrimp and bell peppers? It took me an hour and a half. Then I had to grill them… Two hours and a few burnt shrimp later (the grate fell into the flames for no apparent reason) the main dish was done and it was time to move on to the sides. Thus ends the saga of the shrimp. Did I mention that I don’t like shrimp…?

Spicy Cajun Shrimp Kabobs
Serves 40
(Note: This recipe is also excellent with chicken in case you don’t like shrimp)

12 lbs large Tail-On Shrimp, deveined
5 cups Olive Oil
5 cups Lemon Juice
½ cup Cajun Seasoning
20 Green Bell Peppers, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 cups Butter, melted
½ cup Tabasco Sauce

Mix together oil, lemon juice, and seasoning. Pour over shrimp, cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
Remove from marinade and put on skewers alternating shrimp and peppers. Mix together butter and Tabasco Sauce. Brush kabobs with butter mix and grill until shrimp are pink.

A Note on Bacon

2009-11-17T13:21:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Menu: Lunch: Pepperoni and Cheese Calzones with Marinara and Fruit Salad Dinner: Jerk Chicken Alfredo, Salad and Garlic Toast

Ahh Tuesday, I like Tuesdays. It seems to be the most laid back day of the week. There is almost no chance of the boys having a party Monday nights so I’m less likely to find vomit in the drinking fountain, and less likely to be missing the 5 pounds of shredded mozzarella I need for today’s lunch. Also, today I’m making one of my favorite recipes. It’s my version of a dish I had once in a restaurant near my alma mater. I’ve made it before for the boys and they love it; it has bacon in it.

A note on bacon: It is an undeniable fact of nature that you can put bacon on just about anything and a frat boy will eat it… because it has bacon. I’ve tried this out on several different occasions. One week I sliced a pound of bacon into the green beans for dinner and they were the first to go. The next week, just out of curiosity, I made the green beans without bacon, and most of them ended up in the trash. Now whenever I want them to try something new or get them to eat their veggies, I just sprinkle on a little bacon.

Jerk Chicken Alfredo
Serves 50

½ cup Jerk Seasoning Blend
½ cup Italian Seasoning Blend
1 cup Vegetable Oil
13 lbs Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
3 lbs Bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 5/8 quart Butter
5 lbs Cream Cheese, room temperature
2 heads Garlic, Minced
3 quarts Half and Half
2 quarts Milk
4 lbs Grated Parmesan
6 ¼ lbs Penne Pasta, cooked
2 quarts Frozen Peas
Optional ¼ cup Cayenne Pepper

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a large baking pan. Coat chicken lightly with oil and then sprinkle generously with jerk seasoning, Italian seasoning and cayenne pepper (optional). Put in pan and cover with foil, bake until chicken is cooked completely through (approx 20-30 minutes in a convection oven, approx 45 in a regular oven) Let cool and dice into large chunks.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic and whisk until smooth. Mix together milk and half and half. Add milk mixture to cream cheese a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in parmesan cheese. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. If needed, thin with milk. Toss sauce with hot pasta, stir in chicken and frozen peas and top with crumbled bacon.

Fratboyism of the Week

2009-11-17T09:38:00.000-08:00

Here is the fratboyism of the week: "I would rather have sharp knives than hygiene"

Monday Monday... so crazy

2009-11-16T13:28:00.000-08:00

Monday Menu: Lunch: Meatball Subs with Cheese, and Potato ChipsDinner: Pork Chili Verde with Tortillas and Rice

Yup, it’s Monday, and in college land that means quick tell the chef what we forgot to tell her last week! So rather then spending today easing into the week, I got the rude wake up that… oops we forgot to tell you that there would be 40 people eating every night this week instead of the usual 25-30. Oh, and while you’re out, we’ll need a meal for Friday too ( which I don’t normally fix). Every job has it’s hazards, mine is slipping in spilled beer and not getting the information I need to successfully complete my job. Oh well, they are only frat boys after all. Perhaps I should note, a meal for 40 college boys is equivalent to a meal for 50 regular people.

After making lunch, I scurried around trying to get everything I needed for an extra 10 people per night. But thanks to my superhuman shopping skills, I got almost everything I needed and got dinner on the stove in time. I am now just waiting for everything to get done. If you would like the recipe in a more family friendly size... just let me know.

For those interested here is the recipe:

Chili Verde
Serves 50 (or 40 college boys)

13 lbs Boneless Pork Butt, cubed
2-3 cups of FlourBacon Drippings from 2 pounds of Bacon*
4 large Onions, chopped
16 cloves of Garlic, minced
3/8 cup Mexican Oregano
¼ cup Cumin
68 ounces of Diced Green Chili Peppers (the canned kind)
11 cans of Chicken Broth
6 cans Tomatillos
4 lbs Frozen Corn
Salt and Pepper

Season the pork with salt and pepper and dust with flour. Heat the bacon drippings (or oil) in a large pan. Brown the pork on all sides. The pork will need to be browned in several batches to prevent crowding in the pan. Meanwhile, drain canned tomatillos and puree. When all the pork is browned, remove and sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are tender. Put all ingredients into a large pot and simmer until pork is tender, approx. 1 hour.

*Note: I am using the bacon for something else later in the week, ¾ Cup of vegetable oil can be used instead, but bacon dripping just give it a little je ne sais quoi

Trying Something New

2009-11-14T18:18:00.000-08:00

I've always been a big advocate of trying new things, so when my sister suggested writing a blog during my downtime rather than facebook stalking for hours a day I thought it might be fun. After hours of research I discovered two things: I cannot and will never comprehend html and I have no desire to do so. I think I better stick with what I know, which is cooking and consequently what this blog is about. More to the point, I want to share with you all my adventures (and recipes!) in being a fraternity chef.

Being a recent college graduate in desperate need of a job, I stumbled upon an opening in my little brother's fraternity. They needed a chef who could cook; I could cook and needed a job. Seemed like a win-win situation. Never mind the fact that I had never cooked for more than 10 people, my BA is in French not culinary arts, and I am somewhat germaphobic. After taking the job, I came to the realization that there is little to no information about how to cook for large groups, and doubling or quadrupling a recipe simply doesn't work. Also, frat boys may actually be the dirtiest most disgusting and uncivilized creatures on earth, but they crack me up and make every day interesting. They also really appreciate good-old-fashioned home cooking (in very large quantities), and even put up with my attempts at recipe creation.