I Am Still Alive :)

I haven't had much time lately to blog or make anything super interesting. We have been having very random meals at my house trying to clean out our fridge (i.e. dinner two nights ago-- fried catfish, beets & lo mein. lunch--cream of broccoli soup & waffles). I do have a couple of posts that are in the works (hopefully, I'll get them up after I send out the Christmas cards today), but the holiday season has been quite busy in this household this year!

I will leave you with some great food blogs to read that aren't on the side of my blog:

Cake Wrecks- professional cakes that people actually paid money to take home. Really funny stuff!

Cooking for Engineers- for those of you who like to deconstruct things.

Orangette- lovely food blog with tasty looking pictures (and recipes)!

Bakerella- YUMMY! I made one of the cakes on her blog. At first, I thought it was a bit dry, so it sat a day and ended up DELICIOUS. I think that I ate 70% of the cake!

Homesick Texan- I love this blog. I haven't had a chance to make anything on it yet, but it's delicious sounding. Home-style TX food. It will make you gain 20 lbs just reading it!

Smitten Kitchen- I believe this one was featured on Martha Stewart's show. The couple works in their 80 sq ft (yes, that's 8-0!) in NYC. I can no longer complain about my small kitchen anymore.

Dorie Greenspan- Well known in the baking world, this cookbook author has a great blog with lots of information, recipes, stories, etc, etc.

Hope you like these blogs and I'll be posting again soon--promise!

Herb Baked Eggs

I was a little surprised that I hadn't tried out this recipe yet because I usually buy herbs for a specific recipe and then have to scramble to figure out what to do with the rest of them. We always have farm-fresh eggs on hand thanks to CSA subscription. I did cut the recipe in half and only used two eggs per dish instead of the three that she used. I would suggest cutting your cooking time a bit if you decide to do the same because the eggs cooked faster with only two eggs in the dish, resulting in a non-runny yolk (I like them runny, if you don't then cook away). They were still delicious cooked most of the way and the herbs added a wonderful kick to the eggs. But whatever you do, be sure that your baking dishes that you use are broiler safe and I suggest that you make sure that your baking sheet is too (I skipped using the baking sheet) or it will have a tendency to warp!

This recipe comes from Barefoot Contessa's Barefoot in Paris cookbook.

Herb-Baked Eggs

Sweet and Sour Pot Roast

I had an arm roast in my CSA subscription and was wondering what to do with it. I found this recipe in Neiman-Marcus' No Jacket Required. It was very tender and full of flavor, but it was a little too sweet for my tastes. On the other hand, Chris was a big fan of it and had seconds. If you like sweet and sour things, this is definitely something for you to try.

Sweet and Sour Pot Roast

serves 6 to 8

1 tb shortening

4 lbs arm or chuck roast

2 onions, sliced

1/4 teas pepper

1/4 teas ground cloves

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup sugar

juice of 2 lemons

salt to taste

Heat shortening in a heavy skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Add roast and onions. Brown, turning frequently. Add remaining ingredients, cover, and simmer over low heat for 3 to 3 1/2 hours until meat is very tender, turning every 45 minutes and uncovering for the last 15 minutes to reduce the juices.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Chris and I have always loved spring rolls, but I wasn't sure that Nathaniel would like them. But he loved them! I need to work on the wrapping of my spring rolls (not super pretty), but they

were really delectable. I used pork this time per the recipe, but I think that I'll try out some shrimp next time. The hoisin-peanut sauce was also well received in my house. I had halved the recipe for the sauce, but realized that Nathaniel could have eaten it with a spoon and I'll have to make the full amount next time.

Spring Rolls

Giada's Panna Cotta Recipe

I love the Italian dessert Panna Cotta ("cooked cream"). You can add any kind of berries to top it. I think some mangoes would be delicious too. This time I used whole raspberries and just placed them on top. Giada's version has a very strong honey taste, so make sure that you use a good honey for this. This recipe comes from her Everyday Italian cookbook, but it's already online at Food Network. I wasn't able to get a good pic since I put it in white dishes again, but that's life!

Panna Cotta with Fresh Berries

Stepping It Up

I have been really bad about trying out new recipes lately! I have devised a better way of keeping track of what cookbooks I have used for the blog and sadly, I am only at #22 (and the new total of cookbooks isn't known because I have gotten a few new ones in the last couple of months)! So I need to step it up especially since in a couple of weeks, I'll be taking a cookbook break while visiting the parents over the holidays (but I will be sure to post about the delightful foods that I do eat in CA). I'll try to do better at scouring through my cookbooks on a weekly basis and have recipes ready to go for that week. I already have four new recipes in different cookbooks ready for this week. I will be sure to include good recipes in favorite cookbooks that are staples in our diet whenever I make them.

I am still trying to catch up on past meals that I haven't gotten up on the blog yet. I should be getting closer to being finished with those posts soon. Happy Cooking!

Paprika Home Fries With Poached Egg

I am a sucker for poached eggs. I love the gooey goodness of the yolk dripping all over my food (I know that some people are grossed out by this). It's especially disappointing when I order a poached egg in a restaurant and it comes out with a hard yolk. So while reading food blogs, I found this great recipe for paprika home fries on Serious Eats. We buy large bags of potatoes, so it was a great way to use some of them up before little eyes developed all over them and ended up in the trash!

The red stuff that is on the dish is the special Frontera Grill hot sauce that we discovered in Chicago when eating at Rick Bayless' restaurant. It's sad that we have been able to find other Frontera Grill products like salsa in Kansas, but no hot sauce. Luckily for us, they have it in San Antonio (which meant bringing 4 bottles back)!

Shrimp Fra Diavolo

Fra Diavolo (means "Brother Devil" in Italian) is a spicy sauce for pasta or seafood. This is a quick pasta sauce perfect for a weekday meal.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo from Quick From Scratch Pasta by Food & Wine Books

Serves 4

2 tbs cooking oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 cup canned crushed tomatoes in thick puree (one 16 oz can)

1/4 teas dried red pepper flakes

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

3/4 teas salt

1 lb med shrimp, shelled

3/4 pound vermicelli (or other thin long pasta)

1) In a large frying pan, heat the oil over moderately low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds longer. Stir in the tomatoes, red-pepper flakes, water, parsley, and salt. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook, covered, just until the shrimp are pink, about 4 minutes.

2) In a large pot of boiling water, cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta and toss with the sauce.

Tonight's Dinner- Pizza and Creole Corn Chowder

Nathaniel has been waiting for me to make pizza again for awhile now. Since I didn't get the roast cooking early enough, I decided why not try out a new pizza crust recipe that I had been eyeing for months now. It turned out great and it was simple with only 10 minutes sitting time to rise. The crust is a thin wheat crust, but it's not cracker-like as with some thin crusts. You won't be able to use lots of sauce or toppings since the crust is so thin, but that's good for the waist line. I added a little bit of tomato sauce with herbs and some fresh mozzarella. Perfect! Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Since the pizza crust only made two pizzas (one for Nathaniel, half for me & Chris), I decided to make creole corn chowder. I have wanted to make this chowder for years now, but I never got around to it. Since we had gotten some ham in our meat CSA subscription, I had the perfect excuse to make it tonight. It's pretty thick, so if you might want to add more milk or cream to your pot of chowder. The chowder is also pretty spicy, so you might adjust the red pepper in the soup to your taste.

Creole Corn Chowder from Neiman-Marcus' No Jacket Required

serves 10 to 12

2 cups finely diced bacon

2 cups finely diced onion

2 cups finely diced green bell pepper

2 cups finely diced red bell pepper
2 cups finely diced ham

4 cups corn

3 cups diced tomatoes

1/2 cup tomato juice

1 teas oregano

1 teas basil

1 teas thyme

2 teas red pepper flakes

1 teas black pepper

2 cups milk

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup oil

2 cups cream

Saute bacon in heavy pan until crisp. Add onion and bell peppers, cook until limp. Add ham, corn, tomato juice and seasonings. Simmer 30 minutes. Bring milk to boil in a saucepan. Make a roux to corn mixture and mix well. Add milk. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes. When ready to serve, add cream and cook until hot. (This recipe can be cut in half, which is what I did)

Austin, TX

I forgot to write about the Austin part of our trip. It's only about an hour away from San Antonio, making it a nice day trip for us when we are visiting. If you have never been to Austin, it's a huge college town (1.6 million if you count the surrounding Round Rock suburb) with lots of great non-chain restaurants, live music nightly, a very nice university art museum, etc. etc. It's definitely the "coolest" city in Texas and a foodie paradise. Chris and I have eaten in Austin quite a few times and have yet to have a bad meal.

On this trip, we decided to try out Shady Grove, a roadfood.com suggestion. We were pleased with the cheese fries (so good that Chris didn't even offer to let me eat the last one), Chris' hippie sandwich (a bunch of grilled veggies on their homemade hippie bread) and my Monterey Chicken (grilled chicken topped with bacon, green chile strips, Monterey Jack cheese and green chile sauce). I was also very happy with the homemade jalapeno ranch dressing for my side salad. It was so tasty that I thought about getting another side salad to use up the rest of the dressing!

After lunch, we made a stop at LBJ's Presidental Library that is located on the University of Texas campus. It's free admission (free parking too) and worth the stop. An old lady at the admission desk talked our ear off for about 10 minutes explaining the museum layout to us, but we couldn't really complain because she was so excited about everything!

Our last stop in Austin was Amy's Ice Cream. I had heard about this terrific place while watching Food Network before our last trip out there and I am addicted now. The ice cream there is fabulous (14% butterfat--how could it be bad?). I was excited to see that she had a location in San Antonio (which I ended up visiting a couple of times).

We were disappointed that we missed out on a roadfood find, Eva B's Bakery and Cafe. They were closed by the time that we drove by and we didn't get to try all the delicious looking kolache that they have. It looks like we'll have to make another trip to Austin in the near future...bummer.

Rustic Chicken with Mushrooms and Polenta

This is one of our favorite chicken dishes. I finally got a chance to use the organic chicken thighs that I bought from a local farm. They ended up being delicious.

adapted from magazine The Best of Fine Cooking; Comfort Food Issue Comfort 2004

For the chicken:
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tbs olive oil, more as needed
8 bone-in chicken pieces (3 to 4 lbs total) or one 3 1/2 lb chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 cup sliced yellow onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups sliced portabella mushrooms
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups canned diced tomatoes, with their juices
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped

Polenta:
1 tbs unsalted butter
4 cups water or chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1 cup medium ground cornmeal

To make chicken: Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Cook the chicken pieces, skin side down in batches, until browned on all sides, 3 to 4 minutes per side, adding oil if necessary. Transfer the chicken to a plate as it's browned.

Reduce the heat to medium, add the onions, saute, stirring, until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, another 2 minutes. If the pan is dry, add 1 Tbs, oil. Add the mushrooms and cook until they release their juices and begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp, salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Add the wine and scrape up any browned bits in the pan. Return the chicken pieces to the pan (they should just fit in snugly) and simmer until the wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, broth, olives and thyme. Reduce the heat and simmer the chicken, turning occasionally, until it's completely cooked and very tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Meanwhile, make the polenta while the chicken is cooking.

To make polenta:
In a medium saucepan, bring the butter, water (or broth) and salt to a boil over medium-high heat. Slowly, add cornmeal, whisking until smooth. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook, whisking or frequently stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture is thick, about 30 minutes. If polenta is done before the chicken, cover with foil and stir occasionally to keep a crust from forming.

Serve the chicken over the polenta with some of the sauce.

Million Dollar Brownies

The other item that I brought to the Christmas party.

Million Dollar Brownies from Neiman-Marcus' No Jacket Required

14 oz bag of individually wrapped caramel candies
1/3 cup evaporated milk
8 oz German's sweet chocolate
6 tbs butter
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup sifted flour
1 teas baking powder
1/2 teas salt
2 teas vanilla
6 oz chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (if you want them)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 inch baking pan. In a double boiler over low heat, combine unwrapped caramels and evaporated milk. Cover and simmer until caramels melt, stirring occasionally, keep warm until caramels melt, stirring occasionally, keep warm with lid askew and water barely simmering.

In a 2 quart saucepan over low heat, combine chocolate and butter, stirring occasionally, until melted. Remove from heat, let cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with an electric mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until slightly thickened and pale yellow.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, gradually add to the egg mixture. Mix. Blend in the cooled chocolate mixture and vanilla. Spread half of the chocolate batter into prepared pan. Bake for 6 minutes, or until set. Remove from oven.

Spread caramel mixture over baked chocolate batter. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Add half of pecans into remaining chocolate batters (if using). Spoon over caramel layer. Sprinkle remaining pecans over top. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top layer of the batter is set. Let cool in baking dish. Chill for at least 2 hours in the dish.

Note: If brownies are not chilled, they will be difficult to cut.

Hummus

This is what I made for last night's Christmas party that we went to.

Hummus from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

2 cups canned chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)
6 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
2 tbs liquid from the chickpeas
8 dashes Tabasco sauce

Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until the hummus is coarsely pureed. Taste for seasoning and serve chilled or at room temperature.

Slacking!

Sorry about the lack of posts! With the holiday and my trip to see the in-laws, I haven't had much time to blog! I didn't get a chance to cook much before our trip since we were busy with an out of town guest and running around trying to get things ready for our trip.


We ate A LOT of great food in Texas, but I have to say that I was a little relived that I finally got to cook and eat at home tonight! Our friends from Dallas were planning to come down for the weekend and Jeff told us that there was only one thing that he wanted to do was eat at Taco Taco, which was named best taco in America by Bon Appetit. The small no-frills restaurant only holds 40 people and the homemade tortillas and authentic Mexican fillings in the tacos made us recall the delicious tacos that we had in Mexico. It was so tasty that Chris and I made another trip to the restaurant the day that we left San Antonio for a final meal there.

April, Brett and I also ate at the Tip Top Cafe (while the adult males were golfing on Sunday), which I had seen on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I had never eaten at a restaurant that I had seen on this show and always wanted to, but I was pretty disappointed with the food. My chicken fried steak was huge, but pretty flavorless and I'll probably skip any of Guy Fieri's choices from now on.

Sunday night after the nephews left, Chris' dad took us to Welfare Cafe in Hill Country. The restaurants is in the middle of nowhere on a working ranch. Unfortunately, the weather was windy and cold, so we couldn't sit outside on their porch. There was a bluegrass band playing that night, making most conversation hard to hear, but the food was wonderful. They have a rotating small daily menu (not a good place for vegetarians or picky eaters).

We ended up eating at Liberty Bar the last night that we were in San Antonio. It's a restaurant in an old building with a crooked floor. I have eaten here a couple of times and I wasn't really that impressed the first time, but it's a place that Chris' parents like to eat at. The menu is extensive, which sometimes isn't a good thing. But this time, I did have some delightful pasta (which was a great choice after all the super fattening foods that I had eaten during the trip).

I can't wait for another trip down to San Antonio next year for some more mouth watering food!