Chili

Tonight's dinner was incredibly easy to fix and can be a great crock pot dinner if you are organized early enough in the day.  Today I was not so organized, so it just simmered on the stove for an hour and a half.

There's not much of a history to this one.  I was just craving chili one day and I'd never made it before so I went hunting for a recipe on allrecipes.com.  The original recipe calls for turkey.  I have used turkey before and it has turned out well, but recently there have been a lot of contaminated ground turkey scares so I haven't bought any ground turkey for a while.  I think it also tastes a bit better with ground beef, so that's what I made tonight.

One of the great things about looking for recipes on recipe websites is that you can look at reviews.  I tweaked the original recipe a lot based on reviews I read from other people who had tried the recipe and I like the upgraded version much better. 

Usually (when I'm organized) I'll make a side of cornbread to go with the chili, but tonight since I was pretty out of it I just threw a bunch of corn into the chili.  I know, definitely not the same, but at least you still get that nice sweetness of the corn in there.  I also tried adding spinach tonight because I'm starting to really like sneaking spinach into things.  It worked well and added another vegetable serving in there!

Here's what I did.

Chili
adapted from Simple Turkey Chili recipe on allrecipes.com

Ingredients
1lb ground beef
1 medium onion diced
3 cloves of garlic minced

1 large carrot diced

2 anaheim chiles diced(I usually use 1 bell pepper, but I had the anaheims in the fridge and didn't want to waste them)
2 cups chicken broth (or beef broth should work well too)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and partially mashed
2 cups chopped spinach
1cup corn (I used frozen)

2 tblsp chili powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

*the original recipe also had 1/2 tsp cayenne which is nice, but I leave it out now so that it's not spicy for the kiddos.  Jon still adds a dash after it's made.  Don't add the cayenne until the last minute if you're making it in a crock pot though!

Method

1.  Brown the ground beef in a large pot.

2.  Add the onion and saute with the beef until the onion is softened.

3.  Add the garlic, carrot and chiles and saute until the chiles start to soften.

4.  Add the spinach, tomatoes, beans, broth, and spices and mix well.  Bring it up to a boil on med-high heat and then lower the temperature and let it simmer for at least 40 minutes covered or more until all the veggies are tender. 

Spinach

Tomatoes and beans

Broth

Spices

5.  Take the lid off and add the frozen corn and simmer it for another 15 minutes to let some liquid evaporate so it's a thicker chili.

This works well in a crock pot too!  Just throw everything in a crock pot after step 3 and let it go all day.

It's very filling and has a lot of protein and fiber.  It's also nice with a bit of shredded cheddar on top.  Mmmm...

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

  please bless and protect all those out celebrating All Hallow's Eve tonight.  Keep them safe and help them remember the incredible Feast of All Saints tomorrow.  Amen.

Salmon with Pesto Sauce

I think this blog is good for Friday meals.  I'm getting more creative with the fish!  We had Salmon smothered in Pesto Sauce with Pesto Pasta on Friday night.  I surprised myself, I didn't think it was going to be too fantastic, but the Pesto sauce turned out very well and it paired really well with the salmon.

Usually Pesto sauce is made with pine nuts, but the price of pine nuts prohibits me from using them!  So I went with walnuts and I think they worked really well as a substitute.  I made the sauce in our magic bullet, but I imagine that you could make a larger batch in a food processor.  You might also be able to use an immersion blender for this, but you'd probably have to start with the olive oil, garlic, and nuts, then add the rest of the ingredients slowly. 

Pesto is a great sauce because all of the ingredients are raw (which means more nutrition!) and it's not incredibly rich like white sauces.   The raw garlic cloves are immune boosters, walnuts have lots of omega 3's, extra virgin olive oil has good plant fats, and basil aids in digestion and is a mood booster!  For me personally pasta is a mood booster (ha ha ha!) just because I like it. 


Salmon with Pesto Sauce
from my own brain (since I know the ingredients that go in pesto I never really looked at a recipe for it)

Ingredients
1/2 salmon filet (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2tbsp butter
1tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper

(pesto sauce)
4 large cloves of garlic
2 handfuls of fresh basil roughly chopped
1/3c extra virgin olive oil
1/4c parmesano reggiano
1/4c walnuts (I've also used pecans and almonds with success too.  Traditionally pine nuts are used.)


Method
1.  Place all the ingredients for the pesto sauce in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  Add more extra virgin olive oil if it gets too thick. 

2.  Dot the salmon filet with butter, then sprinkle with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

3.  Bake the salmon in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

4.  After 30 minutes take the samon out and pour on some of the pesto sauce so that most of the filet is covered.  Return it to the oven for 2 minutes.

5.  Serve the salmon with pasta tossed with pesto sauce.

Yum! 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear God,
  thank you for a relaxing evening with friends on Friday.  Help us all to treasure the people that you put into our lives and always treat them with love and respect.  Amen.

Chili crusted steak with cilantro butter and cheddar mashed potatoes

If you're thinking that you've read this somewhere before, you're not crazy.  This is what Jon had when we went on our date at The Stone House.  The only difference is that Jon had a filet mignon and there was asparagus and red pepper coulis.  Both the asparagus and filet mignon were too expensive at the moment and to be honest I forgot about the red pepper coulis.  Oh well. 

Unfortunately the recipe I got from the food network did not imitate the chili crusted masterpiece at Stone House at all.  It was still pretty tasty, but it was really spicy and didn't really have the same flavors.  Eh, what do you expect?  I am not a very experienced or trained chef with my own restaurant. 

I think if I had tried this on its own, not trying to imitate the best food I've ever tasted I would probably be more satisfied with this dish.  But all in all I think it was a decent attempt. 

We'll see what Jon thinks whenever he gets home from his 14+ hour day.  Darned software ...grrr....


The Recipe for the Chile Crusted Steak is Here.  It's from Bobby Flay.  I didn't use the filet mignons or the chili sauce with mushrooms.  I found some reasonably priced western grillers at the butcher shop on Tuesday so I thought I'd try those.  They were okay, I think if I tried this again I'd probably go with a Top Sirloin.  I might also try a different combination of chiles.  Maybe chipotle?  Hmmm...


I had to grind my own chile de arbol and pasilla chile powder.  Yay for the Magic Bullet.



The spice mixture looked pretty cool.



Dredging the steak in the chile mixture.



Steak in the pan searing on the first side.  I cooked it for 5 minutes on the first side.



I did 7 minutes on the second side, but unfortunately I found out after a few bites that it wasn't enough.  My steak ended up being medium when I was going more for medium well.  I needed to return it to the pan for a few minutes.  This was pretty annoying especially after letting it rest for 10 minutes, but preggos probably shouldn't be eating bloody steaks.



For the cheddar mash I just used russets, butter, salt, and cheddar.  Sorry, no real measurements. 

I washed, cut, then boiled them and mashed with a good old potato masher.  I'm a little scared to use machinery with potatoes since the 3 or 4 times I have they've gone gluey.  Ick.



Cheddar mashed potatoes, sorry for the horrible shot.



For the cilantro butter I took about 5 tbsp of butter and a handful of fresh cilantro and threw them in the magic bullet.  I am not really sure what they did at the Stone House, but it was so much better than this.  Maybe more salt?  Or maybe it was fresh butter that they made at the restaurant.  Who knows.  Maybe someday if I get to be a famous food blogger I can go and pick at the chef's mind.



You may be thinking, geez that looks charred, but it wasn't burnt at all.  That's just what happens to the color of the chile powder after it's been seared.  No burnt taste I promise!



In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

  thank you for humbling moments.  Help us all to remember that it's not our actions or characteristics that give us value or dignity, but the sheer fact that we are made in your image and likeness and loved infinitely by you.  Amen.

Hummus

Didn't do too much cooking tonight.  Jon suggested that we just have the siopao leftovers for dinner.  What wife can complain when her husband asks for leftovers?  So with my little bit of extra time I decided to make some hummus.

Clare loves hummus and I thought if there's a good amount left over I could serve some at girl's night on Friday. 

Oh and when I say loves hummus, I mean she eats it alone.  I'll give her stuff to eat it with or spread it on, but those all end up being used as spoons.  I can't blame her.  This stuff is pretty darned good.  I'm not sure if it's the recipe or if it's just because it's so fresh, but I've never had better.  Instead of giving myself all the credit for that I'll thank David Lebovitz.  It's his recipe.

Check it out.  I think the pictures he took are much better than any of the ones I would have taken, so it's a much nicer blog post to look at.

Cabbagetown Hummus

One thing I did differently today than I normally do is that I made my own tahini!  The last time I sent Jon to the grocery for some tahini I almost cried when he told me the organic tahini cost like $13.  What the heck?  So after I learned that the lovely food processor that I got for my birthday (Thanks Ma!!) could make nut butters, I figured it must be able to make tahini too right?  Yes!  It was super easy too. 

All I did was dump a cup of sesame seeds in and let the food processor do it's thing for like 5 minutes or slightly more.  I had to scrape down the sides a few times.  After a little processing it was nice and smooth just like my $13 bottle.  Ugh, $13?!?!  So crazy.  Needless to say I will continue to frequent the bulk section for sesame seeds instead of emptying my wallet the next time I want to make hummus.  1cup of sesame seeds makes 1/2c of tahini.

You should definitely try this
1) because there's raw garlic in it and that's really good for your immune system
2) because garbanzo beans/chickpeas are good for you  Check it out!  Lots of protein, fiber, B6 and folate
3) because it's so good!!!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear God,
  Thank you for the joy of children.  Thank you for their innocence, curiosity, and excitement.  Help all of us to grow more like them every day.  Amen.

Siopao (Filipino steamed pork buns)

So I think these are known in Vietnamese cooking as Hum Bao(?).  I think people around this area might be more familiar with them by that name, but if you're Filipino you'll know them as siopao (pronounced See-Oh-Pow)

I've been having these things for as long as I can remember.  I don't really remember my mom making them from scratch, maybe once?  I think I might have already been away at college at that point.  Whenever we bought them we would drive down to China town (usually after picking my mom up from work down town) and pick up a box of these and probably an egg tart for me.  We would always go to New Town Bakery.  Sometimes we would stay and eat and dad would have a bowl of soup along with his siopao, but most of the time we just came for the ever beloved steamed buns.  These are not actually my favorite type of steamed buns, I always loved the chinese sausage filled buns, but I can't seem to find chinese sausage that doesn't have either msg or food dyes in it, so these will have to do until some healthy food company works on a natural chinese sausage.

When I moved down south to the states I only ever got siopao when my parents would bring some, or if I was courageous enough to try some frozen variety from the asian section of the grocery store (ick!).  I'm quite picky with my chinese restaurants and I've only found one that meets Vancouver (BC) standards around here so far. 

At some point, after reading a few recipes on the internet and in the Filipino cookbooks my mom got me, I started trying to make my own.  I think I've got it down.  I've made them a few times now and once you get the hang of things you really get a sense of the time it takes and how to do things most efficiently. 

I don't think Jon had ever tried siopao until my mom got some from New Town Bakery while we were dating.  He was hooked instantly.  He said something about them being fun to eat and I think he felt like an anime character chomping into those big fluffy white steamed buns.  Ha ha!  He asks me to make these a lot.  He doesn't usually eat dinner faster than me (or eat more than me) but tonight he was finished with a big satisfied look on his face much faster than I was.  Michael even attacked his.  I think it's safe to say that these are a family favorite for
a) the fluffy white bun part
b) the flavorful pork inside
c) because they're fun to eat.

So try it out.  If you have a bread maker or are at ease with dough you won't have any trouble with this recipe.  If you don't have a bread maker or are freaked out by dough, trust me, these are worth facing your fears.

Siopao (pork filled steamed buns)

(adapted from Let's Cook with Nora by Nora V. Daza)

So I'm going to give the instructions in 2 parts, but you'll want to start making the dough as soon as you get the pork simmering on the stove.

A.  Pork Asado (filling)

Ingredients

1lb pork country ribs cut into cubes

3/4c (you might need some extra) chicken stock

1/3c soy sauce

1/3c brown sugar

1/2c onion diced

2 cloves of garlic minced

Method

1.  In a saucepan combine all the ingredients except the pork and heat on low for a few minutes until everything combines nicely.



I have no idea why blogger made this picture portrait (it's landscape on my computer) but I can't fix it!



2.  Put the pork into the pan and raise the temp up to med-high.  Bring it to a boil, then lower the temp and let it simmer until the meat is tender.  I let mine go for almost two hours.  Watch out!  If your liquid gets low before your pork is tender add more liquid.  I probably added another 3/4 cup of chicken stock.  When the pork separates like pulled pork then it's done.  When it's done the pork should be tender and the liquid should be almost completely evaporated.  The sauce should be thick and dark.  If you want to prepare this ahead of time I've had it work well in the slow cooker before, just make sure you have it in there for a long time (like 5 or 6 hours at least). 



Same problem with this shot.



3.  Take the pork off the heat, shred all the pork and let it cool.  Mine was so tender after 2 hours I just had to stir it hard with a wooden spoon to get it all shredded nicely.  Set it aside.

B.  Siopao Dough
*scroll to the bottom for instructions without a bread maker

Ingredients

1 1/2c warm water
4tbsp sugar
1/4c coconut oil (the original recipe says lard) + about another 1/4c for kneading
4 1/2c all purpose flour
3 tsp yeast

Method

1.  Put all ingredients in the order listed into the pan of your bread maker and set on dough setting.

2.  When the dough finishes punch it down and knead it for a minute or two on an oiled surface (use more coconut oil).  Separate the dough into 8-12 balls depending on the size you you want.  I should probably make mine smaller because they get so puffy that they stick together in my steamer.  If you don't want that to happen try making 12 smaller siopao instead of my 8 gigantic ones.


C.  Filling and cooking
Materials
parchment paper cut into 3x3 inch squares
steamer

1.  Flatten each ball of dough in your (well oiled) hands and put about 2 rounded tablespoons of pork asado filling in the center.  Gently pull the dough around the meat and pinch the dough together at the top.  Lay the ball on a piece of parchment paper seam side down.  Repeat with the rest of the dough and meat filling.

2.  Steam the buns for 15 minutes.  I don't have a huge steamer (probably like most of you) and I had to steam them in 3 batches.

Serve hot! 



I wish I had gotten a shot of it after I bit into it.  Or better yet of Jon sinking his teeth in.



So again, don't be daunted, it's really easy once you get the hang of it.  Just get the pork simmering, start the dough, then by the time the dough is done the pork should be cool and ready to go.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear God,
  Thank you for my husband and my children.  They help me become better every day.  Thank you for the love and laughter in our family, we are truly blessed.  Amen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

*Non bread maker dough instructions from "Let's cook with Nora".

1.  Dissolve yeast in water.  then add sugar and 2 1/2c flour to make a soft sponge, beat thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

2.  Let dough rise in a warm place covered for 30-40 minutes.

3.  After rising add remaining flour and 1/4c oil and mix well.  Turn onto a greased board and knead until smooth.

4.  Divide dough into 8-12 balls.  Flatten each ball and fill with asado.  Pinch the edges together and seal, lay seam side down on parchment paper.

5.  Let dough rise for 20 minutes before steaming.

Family Dinner

There may be a post later tonight on cheese bagels, but tonight's dinner is a simple breaded chicken, so in lieu of an exciting recipe I'll leave you this awesome read.

Want to fight premarital sex, drug use, suicide?: eat more meals as a family

This is an article from life site news.  It has some compelling statistics for making family meals a priority!! 


UIOGD.

Red Sauced Chicken Enchiladas

On thursday night when I made the Pad Thai I used up the rest of my roasted chicken from a few days earlier and made chicken stock.  I also threw in another carcass from separating some chicken pieces for the chicken breasts I used in the Pad Thai.  After the stock was ready I was left with quite a large amount of chicken meat.  So I thought tonight I'd make enchiladas.

I usually make white sauced enchiladas with green chiles, sour cream, and monterrey jack cheese, but recently Jon has been talking about how much fun it'd be to learn how to make red enchiladas.  Hint hint....  That means, "Hey wife would you mind looking up a recipe for red enchilada sauce and learning how to make it so I can eat red enchiladas without paying $11 for it?"  Ha ha!  At least I think that's what he means when he says this. 

I had looked through a few recipes before and I thought I had tried making some sort of red Mexican sauce a while ago with dried chiles (which were hiding in a ziplock bag in the back of our pantry/cupboard), so I figured I could just pick up a few ingredients that were pretty common to Mexican food while we were at the grocery after Mass this morning and whip them up for dinner.

After looking through my mexican cookbook, another sheet full of enchilada recipes my mom gave me, and allrecipes.com I found a recipe called, "The Best Red Enchilada Sauce".  I also happened to have most of the ingredients needed and it got great reviews.  So I thought I'd try using the enchilada sauce in the link with the method for making the other type of white cream based enchiladas...sort of.  I didn't dip the tortillas in the red sauce like I do with the creamy casserole type enchiladas.

I honestly didn't know if this was going to work out so well.  I taste tested the sauce before I simmered it and it didn't taste like much besides tomato paste, so I got a little worried.  Usually when I get really worried about trying something new I don't take a lot of pictures because I don't really want to blog about a kitchen fail.  However....after the sauce simmered, the enchiladas were baked, and Jon took his first bite he said, "Wow that's really good."  He took a few more bites and said again (without prompting by me!), "Wow, that's really good."  I usually have to prod my husband with my fork before he says anything about the food, so this was pretty exciting.  I thought they were decent too, so I prodded, "What would you rate this out of 5?"

He replied, "4.9-5 but only because I think it could still be really perfected."  4.9!!!  4.9!!!??!  That's like a gold medal for an ice skater...wait do they go off a scale of 10?  Whatever!  I was pretty darned excited he liked this that much.  But I agree, it could be even better.  I might even try this with shredded beef sometime, I bet that would be fantastic.

One thing I didn't have was beef broth (yeah, yeah, as usual) for the sauce.  I'm sure that would have made the sauce 10 times better.  I used the chicken broth I made when I cooked all that chicken.  I also scaled down the recipe a bit, so the measurements were probably a tad off.  The original recipe said it made 17 servings.  Since I'm not feeding my extended family I decided to scale it down to 4.  (I know, there are only 2 adults in our household, but Clare eats pretty well, I had a lot of shredded chicken, and we like leftovers here!)

So just be warned.  Try to be very careful with your measurements and use beef broth!

Here's what I did.

Red Sauced Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients
1lb cooked shredded chicken
6 flour tortillas (I made mine again the recipe is here and I used coconut oil)
1/2 an onion chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1/2c shredded cheese (tonight I used white and regular cheddar, you could probably also use monterrey jack or cotija)

4 servings of Best Enchilada Red Sauce


Method
1.  Saute onions in a medium pot on low heat until soft. 

2.  Add shredded chicken, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper and 1/3 of the enchilada red sauce and continue to saute on medium until everything is well combined and heated through.  Take off the heat.

3.  Preheat oven to 350.

4.  In each tortilla put some chicken and a sprinkling of your shredded cheese and roll up (don't use up all the cheese).  Put all your rolled up enchiladas in a casserole dish and cover with the rest of the red sauce.  Sprinkle with the remainder of the cheese. 

5.  Bake in the 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes until the sauce is nice and bubbly and the cheese is melted.

Yum!  Serve with a side of homemade (I'll have to post that recipe another time) guacamole!

Again, I have no idea if this is an authentic Mexican recipe, because I am not Mexican, so if my Mexican friends (or those married to Mexicans and living in Mexico) want to correct some inauthenticity here, please feel free to leave a comment! 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

  thank you for successful and surprising discoveries.  Help us to never be bored with life so that we always have a child like sense of awe and excitement, especially for your wonders.  Help us cultivate a virtuous Fear of the Lord, which helps us to understand our own place, your love and mercy, and your majesty all at the same time.  Amen.

Spinach Alfredo Pasta with Garlic prawns

Since my parents gave us some prawns to take home last week, I figured I'd make them for our Friday meal.  I am sure there are some great spinach alfredo recipes out there, but I just didn't have the energy or interest to go looking for one tonight when I figured I could wing it. 



I did have more prawns than this, but I was trying to make a fancy looking picture!



This is another one of those really simple meals that someone would probably pay a good $13-15 for at a chain restaurant.  This also probably has 1000 less calories or 1000 less mg of sodium or something crazy like that.  Sometimes Jon finds nutrition facts at the restaurants we go to and I always wonder how the heck they get all that stuff in there.  How on earth can you fit that much fat and sodium into some dishes?  It's crazy. 

I really hate when he finds the nutrition facts.  Hee hee! 

But anyways, tonight I was looking for a way to fit in some spinach and I thought it would work well in a garlic alfredo type sauce and I am pretty sure that seafood and pasta with white sauce have been friends for a long time.  The great thing about spinach is that you can't taste it when it's cooked, so it's like sneaking in veggies (except you can still see them of course).  Oh and I probably would have used linguine or penne, but I only had this vegetable radiatore laying around, so the presentation wasn't as lovely.  But hey, it tasted good, and that's what matters most.  Sorry, no procedure pictures tonight.  I was in a rush and my hands were pretty goey from handling the prawns and trying to de-shell them.  So here's what I did.

Spinach Alfredo Pasta with Garlic Prawns
(I winged it, I'm sure you can find a recipe for it somewhere on the internet)

Ingredients

Sauce
1/2 c half and half
1c milk
1c chopped spinach
1/2c shredded parmigiano reggiano
3-4 cloves of garlic minced
2tbsp butter
3tbsp flour
salt and pepper to taste.

Prawns
1lb Prawns
1tbsp butter
2 cloves of garlic (or 1tsp garlic powder)
salt and pepper to taste


Sauce Method
1.  Saute the garlic and butter on medium-low in a saucepan.  Once the garlic has softened as is fragrant add all the chopped spinach.

2.  Mix together the flour and half and half until there are no more lumps.  It's better to add the liquid into the flour slowly so you can prevent clumping.

3.  When the spinach is wilted and some of the liquid (if any) from the spinach has cooked off add the half and half mixture and the milk.  Increase the temperature to medium.

4.  Continue stirring until it has thickened slightly and then add in the parmigiano reggiano.  Stir until everything is combined and the sauce is thick.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.


Prawn Method
1.  Heat a saute pan to medium heat and add your prawns.

2.  When the prawns are almost completely pink add the butter and garlic and continue sauteeing until the prawns are fully cooked.

3.  Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the prawns with the pasta and sauce. 

See?  Easy right? 

Enjoy!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

   please bless the efforts of 40 days for life and help everyone in this country realize the beauty of the gift of life and the horror of abortion.  Amen.

Pad Thai

Tonight I decided to try my hand at Pad Thai.  I got the recipe from my aunt.  It turned out....okay.  I think that my tamarind paste may be less than fantastic, because the last time I tried making something using the tamarind paste it was also lack luster. 

Something else that probably also contributed to the "Eh" status of our Pad Thai tonight was that

a)I'm not feeling well and so

b) I didn't have all the right condiments/toppings  - green onions, peanuts, cilantro, bean sprouts

c) I didn't add the chili sauce to the base sauce because I thought I would be serving it to the little ones who love noodles

This may lead you to think, "Now why on earth would you even try making a dish like this when you don't have half the ingredients?"

 Yes, I know.  That's a completely valid argument, however I thought it would turn out alright because most of the time when I see or order Pad Thai at Thai restaurants they don't have most of those things on top of the pad thai, or I don't add them from the little condiment plate. 

NO excuses though, next time I will be prepared!

But you should try this and tell me how it goes.  My aunt loves it and I'm sure if you follow the recipe exactly with all the ingredients you'll have better luck than I did.  All the people who reviewed it on the website gave rave reviews, so I'm sure it's better when you actually follow the recipe properly.  Oh and make sure you get a good tamarind paste.  I might try to actually go to an asian food store for mine next time instead of buying the only one available in the asian section of my grocery store.

Here's the recipe.

Pad Thai just click the title to see it!



Stir frying.



The noodles before being added to the wok.



pretty much done.





It was decent, but it could have been 5 stars instead of 3.5



In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

 please bless our little growing family and teach us all to love you with our whole hearts, minds, and souls and to constatnly seek you throughout the day.  Amen. 

Stuffed Red Peppers

Last week when I asked Jon to grab some things at the store he came home with red peppers.  I think I said, "What are those for?" Then he said something like, "They're good.  You can make stuffed peppers with them."  I took that as a hint.  Ha ha!  I don't really make a lot of things with red peppers except Arroz con Pollo and maybe fajitas or pizza so I kind of had to make these.

Usually when I think of red peppers my heart doesn't jump and my stomach thinks "Errrg".  But I forgot how much I liked this recipe until I made it tonight.  They're pretty good.  Jon seemed to enjoy them. 

I only remember my mom making stuffed peppers once when I was living at home and I don't really remember what they tasted like.  I think Jon's mom made these more often and she did them differently.  I think I did what she usually does.  I went off of my memory from the last time I made these when I got the recipe from Jon's mom on the phone.  As it turns out I didn't write the recipe down, so hopefully if she reads this sometime she'll agree with me.

Stuffed Red Peppers

adapted form Jon's mom's recipe

Ingredients
1lb ground beef
3 (4 would be better) red peppers tops cut off and seeds pulled out
1/2 cup cooked rice
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 onion diced
1 large clove of garlic minced
2 tbsp basil (I used dry, but I"m sure fresh would be better)
salt and pepper to taste
parmesan cheese (or other cheese) to taste

Method
1.  Blanche the red peppers in boiling water for a minute just to soften them slightly.

2.  Saute the onions until softened, then add the ground beef and garlic.  Cook until the beef is completely brown. 

3.  Add the rice, half the can of tomato sauce, 1 tbsp of basil, and the salt and pepper to the beef and mix well. 

4.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Stuff the peppers with the beef and rice mixture and put them (open sides up) into a casserole dish.  Cover it with foil and bake for 30 minutes.



Right before I covered them and popped them into the oven.



6. Mix together the rest of the tomato sauce, basil, salt and pepper (I added a bit of garlic powder too). 

7.  At the end of the 30 minutes remove the foil, pour the tomato sauce over the peppers, and top with cheese.  Bake for another 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the tomato sauce is bubbly.



Tonight's dinner spread.

I ended up with too much filling for these, so if I make these again the same way I'll use 4 red peppers.  I was also thinking about trying some hot italian sausage mixed in with the ground beef next time.  I might also try adding some chopped spinach sometime.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear God,
  thank you for my husband.  We are so blessed to have him work so hard for us, love us so much, help at home so much, and always lead us closer to you.  Amen.

Light Rye Caraway Rolls

At first I was thinking about making a batch of bagels this afternoon, but I thought some rolls might be a bit more versatile, so I went with that idea instead.  Most of the time when I make rolls I usually end up making herb rolls, but since I was thinking breakfast and lunch food for the kids I thought I'd leave room for peanut butter and jelly compatibility too, hence the switch to rye rolls. 

I've never actually made these before, it was an experiment!  I'm really happy with the way they turned out though.  Once again I used the breadmaker, but if you've read a few bread type posts on this blog (like this one or this one) you'll know what to do if you don't have one. 

I think the first time I came to appreciate rye bread was while I was spending time discerning at St. Walburga's in Colorado.  The bread they put out for breakfast was rye and they always had honey on the table that I ended up spreading on it (instead of jam).  I became somewhat addicted to the really good bread with a touch of butter and a smear of honey.  When I have rye in the mornings now I'll usually add a dash of cinnamon too.  Hmm....I wonder if I can tweak this into a honey-cinnamon roll recipe sometime.  That might be fun. 

I do something a little different with my rolls.  I boil them before I bake them.  I think I saw bagels being boiled on a food show one time and thought it was interesting and I thought I'd try it.  I wanted to give them the sort of texture that bagels have so I boiled them and I really liked the result. 

Anyways, here's the roll recipe in case you feel a carb craving coming on like I did.

Oh and by "light" I don't mean low fat necessarily, I mean light rye instead of dark rye.

Light Rye Caraway Rolls
(my own experiment)

Ingredients
1 1/4c warm water
2 tsp salt
3tbsp honey
2tbsp butter
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 c all purpose flour
1/2c rye flour
1tbsp caraway seeds
1tbsp vital wheat gluten
2 1/4 tsp yeast

quart or more of water
1tbsp sugar


Method
1.  Add the first 10 ingredients in the order listed into your bread maker pan on dough setting.

2.  Take out the dough after the cycle has completed and divide into 12 equal pieces.  Shape into balls. 

3.  Boil a quart (or maybe more) of water in a small pot with 1tbsp of sugar.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

4.  Drop each ball of dough into the boiling water for 30seconds-1 minute then pull out with a slotted spoon and put it on the cookie/baking sheet you'll be baking it on.

5.  Once all the dough balls have been boiled score a cross on top of each one 1/4 inch deep (this will help them keep their shape and not explode on the bottom).

6.  Bake in the 400 degree oven for about 12 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Enjoy with honey and cinnamon in the morning or some cheese and salami in the afternoon or with dinner! 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear God,
thank you for the smell of fresh bread.  Thank you for coming to us humbly as bread so that we might be able to be as close to you as food and drink.  Amen.

Roast Chicken

Tonight we had one of those great meals that looks really fancy and complicated but actually requires less work than making ....spaghetti.  It just requires me to have a whole chicken ready for roasting. 

Doesn't this sound fancy?

Roast chicken seasoned with herbes de provence, cracked black pepper and coarse sea salt.

Delicata squash roasted, buttered, and sprinkled with brown sugar

Lightly steamed broccoli

Not bad for a weeknight meal at home. 

It's ridiculously easy.  Well honestly it was made a lot easier because the organic chicken I bought (on sale for $2.29 a pound!!  It's local and free range too!!!) was already cleaned, trussed, and tipped!  Woohoo!  If you don't know how to truss (tie up) a chicken, I highly recommend watching a video or two on how to do it.  It's not that difficult, but watching a video can probably save you some time.  I learned how to roast a chicken on the "Techniques Special" episode of No Reservations.

That episode also taught me to pull out the wishbone to make serving and cutting the chicken easier after it's been roasted. 

The original recipe from the cookbook I was looking at just uses butter, salt and pepper.  I remember looking at some recipes on allrecipes.com a while back and someone had suggested to stuff the chicken with an onion, so I did that.  I also thought one evening that it might be fun to add some herbes de provence just to see if it would make a difference and I think the flavor is nice.  So here's my take on how to make a great, simple, roast chicken.

Roasted chicken 

Slightly adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

Ingredients

1 whole chicken cleaned, trussed, tipped, with wishbone removed

2tbsp butter

3tsp herbes de provence

1/2 an onion cut in chunks

coarse sea salt

freshly cracked black pepper

Method

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2.  Sprinkle a generous amount of sea salt and black pepper inside your chicken.  Sprinkle about a tsp of the herbes de provence and stuff with the onion chunks.

3.  Rub your chicken with the butter and sprinkle all over with more sea salt, pepper and the rest of the herbs. 

4.  Roast your chicken in the oven for 50 minutes.  The cookbook said to look for an internal temp of 165, but I was just going by my meat thermometer tonight which said that poultry should be cooked to 185.  I cooked mine to 185 and it took about an hour and everything was still juicy and tender.

Ta da!!  All done.  I even roasted my squash in the oven on the bottom rack.  I had to take it out earlier though because it didn't need quite as much time as the chicken.

Roasted chicken is a great meal to serve for a couple of guests or if you want some leftovers the next day (and don't have a really large family).  

I remember having some close friends over and making this with some roasted veggies and foccacia.  It was a great hit and I felt like I had made something so fancy, but everything was so simple.   Sometimes great ingredients speak for themselves I guess.  (I may have borrowed that thought from Anthony Bourdain.)

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

 thank you for simple days.  Thank you for a nice trip to the park, an enjoyable trip to the store with my kids, and a relaxing evening with my family enjoying good simple food.  All of our blessings are too numerous to count and I'm sure many more go unnoticed, so thank you for those as well.  Amen.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

I've been thinking about making it for a couple of weeks now and I finally did it!  I remember making this last year and it being SO satisfying.



The color of the ice cream isn't a bold orange, but I think it's because of the brown sugar and pumpkin spice.  Don't let the color fool you, the flavor screams pumpkin.



 I'm one of those pumpkin fanatics come fall so this is probably going to kick off my pumpkin baking/cooking spree.  Sometime soon I'm sure I'll be making pumpkin cookies, pumpkin granola, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cinnamon pull apart bread, pumpkin muffins, and possibly even a regular old pumpkin pie.  We'll see what happens and how much energy I have to devote to my pumpkin fetish. 

Usually when I make gelato or ice cream I like to use David Lebovitz's pistachio gelato recipe and substitute all sorts of things for the pistachio paste.  I think I used this last year.

A few months ago I had read about Jeni's Ice Creams and was interested in trying her base recipe, but not using corn syrup which she recommends for the smooth texture.   I used honey instead.

I also happened to find this recipe while googling for pumpkin gelato recipes and decided to use brown sugar instead of regular sugar and honey. 

So this is what I ended up doing.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

(Adapted from David Lebovitz, Jeni's Ice Creams, and NYT recipe.   Links above.)

Ingredients

2c half and half

1c milk (I used lactose free 2%, but if I had lactose free whole I would have gone with that)

1c pumpkin puree
1/3c brown sugar
3tbsp honey
3tbsp cornstarch (use organic non gmo!!)
2tbsp cream cheese
3tsp pumpkin spice
1/2tsp vanilla extract

Method
1.  Combine 1c milk, 1 3/4c half and half, sugar, and honey in a saucepan and heat over medium heat.

2.  Mix together 1/4c half and half and cornstarch.  Add to the milk mixture in the saucepan just as it starts to boil.  Lower the temp immediately and stir until it thickens (2 or 3 minutes).

3.  In a bowl combine pumpkin puree, cream cheese, pumpkin spice, and vanilla extract.  Mix in the milk mixture from your saucepan once it's thick and chill.  You can put it in the fridge or a bowl or sink of ice water.

4.  Once the mixture is cool, process in your ice cream maker.  Ripen in the freezer for at least 4 hours before serving.

**Homemade ice cream usually needs 15 minutes or so to soften up when you take it out of your freezer. 

Oh my gosh, I just had my first taste of the batch I made today and I think this is the best ice cream I've EVER made.  It's really smooth and it has a great mouth feel.  The flavor of pumpkin is really strong and it's not too sweet.  Oh man, I don't know if this batch will last very long.  If you want to try it you'll have to visit within the next few days.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

  thank you for the seasons and all the lovely produce that comes with it!  Help us to be greatful throughout all the seasons of the year and seasons of life.  Amen.