Food: Lemon cake cookies

I used the recipe from Half Assed Kitchen. I threw together a box of lemon cake mix, a 1/2 cup of butter and two eggs. One suggestion I have to make is to let the cookies rest in the fridge overnight (or up to 48 hours).

I rolled my in sugar since I didn't have powder sugar on hand. And let them cook for about seven minutes in a 350 degree oven.

They came out soft, chewy and delicious.

Enjoy!

Food: Bread baking, maybe?

Over spring break, I felt ambitious so I decided to make some bread.

My first experiement was with Julia Child's French bread recipe. It did not go well.

I love The Art of French Cooking mostly because it was a thoughtful and generous gift from CBC a.k.a Manfriend. However 1960s recipe writing really wasn't focused on how the recipe was used. For example, I had to flip three pages to see what step I was on in the recipe and how the dough should be kneaded.

In the end the bread came out hard, dense and burnt. The final loaf of the three I made came out the best, but I wasn't very proud of my baking efforts. It took a good seven hours for me to make the bread and it was a frustrating failure.

A few days later, I decided to take on an easier recipe. I used Emeril's Basic Italian Bread recipe. This time the process took about half as long and came out about twice as good. Perhaps I just needed less time to lose my patience. The bread was much tastier and althought still dense, I'll take Manfriend's suggestion and be careful to not let it overrise next time.

I'm really enjoying the baking this week, but I definitely need to be more committed to staying at home when I bake. Next up: Powdered Sugar Cookies.

Balsamic onion steak

Let's talk about food again shall we? I know it's been awhile, but I want to share my secret for an incredible steak that is oh-so-summer easy.

For the tools, you will need:
A sharp knife
A cutting board
A skillet
A wooden spoon
A spatula

For the yummy stuff, you will need:
4 1-inch thick grilling steaks (like sirloin or round)
1 sweet onion
1 clove garlic
1 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 C. Balsamic vinegar
Kosher Salt
Pepper

Let the steak reach room temperature. I know, when you got your food handler's permit they said this was a no-no, but trust me your steak will be juicier and more tender.


Heat the skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Rub the salt and pepper into the room-warm steak. I just read about this method of salting if you're feeling adventurous. (I'll try it out and let you know how it goes.) Throw the steaks into the hot pan and let cook for seven-ish minutes.

While the steak is happily grilling, slice the onion. You want nice, thin even rings. So slice carefully and slowly. Now, mince the garlic clove. You should end up with about a cup of onion rings and two tablespoons of garlic.

Turn the steaks over and let cook for another seven-ish minutes. The outside should be a little bit charred and a nice brown.

When the steak is cooked through, remove to a plate and let rest for five minutes. The resting lets the steak reabsorb all it's yummy juices.

Keep the heat on your skillet. Toss in the EVOO, the onions and garlic and Kosher salt. Cook the onion and garlic, stirring with a wooden spoon until they are nice and sweaty-about five minutes. Add the 1/2 C. of balsamic vinegar and let everything simmer.

The onions should cook down until the juices run clear. The balsamic vinegar should cook down until it becomes sauce like in it's consistency. About seven more minutes.

You may notice this gives you more than five minutes for the steak to rest. I like to cover the steak with a tent of aluminum foil so it stays warm. If you must, you can cover the steak and place it in the oven on warm. Be warned: the oven will dry out the steak a little bit.

Top your yummy steak with your Balsamic caramelized onions. Enjoy!

Note: The recipe is for medium rare steak. The photo is from Colavita.

Drunken Oreos II

Remember, Drunken Oreos? The cookie and ice cream dessert of amazing deliciousness. Well, here's what it looks like.


I like to make one big plate for Erin, Ava and I to enjoy family style. Props to Erin for the beautiful photos.


We also enjoyed a great bottle of chianti with dessert.


Drunken Oreos were long enough ago, I don't remember specifically what I liked about this chianti, but I remember liking it.

Of course, the best are the originals at Meditrina.

It's all in the roux

I attempted to make mac & cheese the other day. I thought a nice comfort food with bacon bits would go nicely with the drizzly weather these days. And it did sort of.

Unfortunately I didn't mix the flour in the bacon grease quite right so I ended up with a grainy roux. In my efforts to solve the grainy problem, I cooked the sauce for just a few minutes. The longer I let the sauce cook the grainier the roux seemed to become.

I'm not really sure what I did wrong so any advice or insights into how to fix my current roux problem please let me know.

I ended up with a thin, grainy cheese sauce, lots of bacon bits and overcooked pasta.

*Sigh* My cooking mojo has left me. Maybe I'll try something new. Any ideas?

All you need is water

The bane of my kitchen existence was fried eggs and minute rice. I'm not really sure why they are just two foods I couldn't master. However, I have now conquered my nemesis the egg.

Erin showed me this awesome-o trick to fry eggs. It works so well and is so easy I have fried eggs successfully on two occasions without even breaking the yolk.

All I have to do is grease a small skillet, heat over a medium flame for a couple minutes, crack in two eggs and salt and pepper the eggies. Now here's the cool part-when the eggs are about halfway cooked, add about a teaspoon of water to the pan. It will hiss and fizz, but don't worry it's okay. Then cover the pan and wait just a couple minutes. Remove the lid and wa-la, two eggs over medium in five minutes. How easy is that?

Life skill accomplished. Now, on to that damn minute rice.

Drunken Oreos

It's not like there could possibly be enough posts about alcohol, right?

I thought today I would share with you one of the most simple and delicious deserts I've run across. This recipe is rip-off from Meditrina's own Drunken Oreos. Mine is not as delicious as the original, but does a fair imitation.

Drunken Oreos
To begin you will need the following tools:

Hardware:
One 2-quart sauce pan
One mixing spoon
One ice cream scoop
One shallow bowl
One fork
Two desert plates

The yumminess comes from the following:

Ingredients:
1 Cup port wine
1 Tbs. lemon zest
8 Oreo cookies
1/2 cup of red wine
Vanilla Ice Cream (a real ice cream with actual cream and vanilla bean is best)

First, you will make a port wine reduction sauce. This is the trickiest part of the whole dessert and requires patience. Pour one cup of port wine into a 2-quart sauce pan over medium low heat. Add one tablespoon lemon zest. Let the mixture boil for about 1/2 hour constantly stirring. When the mixture is close to being as thick as sauce, but still thin it is done. There should be about 1/3 the amount of the original liquid left in the pan. Turn off the stove.

Now, the sauce is done, so onto the the dunking. Pour 1/2 cup of red wine (whatever you have will work) into a shallow bowl. Using a fork, dunk an oreo into the wine then flip the oreo over so both sides are soft. You want to dunk the oreos quickly so they're soft, not soggy. Place four oreos on each dessert plate. Now the oreos are ready.

The next step is the ice cream. Top the oreos with couple scoops of ice cream. Now, using your mixing spoon drizzle the ice cream and oreos with the port wine sauce.

Bust out your spoons and enjoy.

A couple of things: First, this dessert sounds, tastes and looks far more expensive than it is. Second, This dessert is also very easy to add or subtract from to serve however many people you have. The recipe I found for port wine reduction sauce also suggested an orange zest. I haven't had an opportunity to try that out, but it sure sounds yummy!

Chicken Stir-Fry

...brought to you courtesy of late night house painting. This is a chicken version of a mushroom, pepper steak stir-fry recipe my sister gave to me. It's yummy and goes great with rice and plum wine!* Maybe next week I'll do something without chicken, hmm.

Hardware:
Chef's knife
Wooden cutting board
One wok or large skillet
Wooden spoon
Spatula
Small mixing bowl
Fork
1/2 Cup measurer
Tablespoon measurer
Teaspoon measurer

Ingredients:
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast
1 Tbs. canola oil**
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp. ginger root, minced
1 Tbs. kosher salt
1 Tbs. fresh ground black pepper
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
1/2 C. yellow onion, sliced
1 C. crimini, sliced
1/2 C. sherry cooking wine
3 Tbs. rice vinegar
1 Tbs. corn starch
6 stalks green onion, chopped
1 tomato, quartered

Instructions:
Using your chef's knife and cutting board, mince the garlic and ginger. Heat your wok or skillet over a medium-flame. Once the pan is hot add the canola oil. Heat the oil for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger, saute with wooden spoon.

As the garlic and ginger saute, rub the chicken breast with salt and pepper. Place the chicken smooth side down in the skillet. As the chicken is grilling, slice your red pepper, green pepper and onion. After 5-7 minutes flip the chicken, use a spatula.

Let the chicken grill for 5-7 more minutes. While you wait, whisk together the sherry, vinegar and cornstarch. This should create a sauce, about the consistency of soup.

Remove the chicken from the skillet and let rest on cutting board. Add the peppers and onion to the pan. Let the vegetables grill for about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms. Saute the vegetable mixture for about 5 minutes.

Gently pour in the sherry, vinegar and cornstarch mixture. Stir the vegetable, as the sauce thickens. Continue to cook for 2-3 minutes letting the sauce thicken. Turn off the heat.

Toss in the green onions and tomato and stir. Slice the chicken breasts across the grain about 1 inch thick slices. Stir into the stir-fry, serve on top of rice and enjoy!

*As a side note, I want to try this recipe with peanuts and water chestnuts. (Sorry Andrew, no bok choy.) This recipe was the creation of a late night, a hungry tummy and whatever food was available in the fridge.

**Measurements are approximate. Please feel free to make any changes you think are necessary. And let me know about them all.

Balsamic Chicken

The beauty of balsamic chicken is in it's simplicity and complexity. Simple because it takes 20 minutes to make with relatively little effort. Complex in it's flavor with a blend of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and shallots. This is a recipe of my own invention so please let me know what you think!

Hardware:
A skillet
A wooden spoon
A spatula
A chef's knife
A wooden cutting board
A plate
A small sheet of aluminum foil

Ingredients:
1 lb. thawed, skinless chicken breast
1 shallot offset
1/2 Cup balsamic vinegar
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions:
Begin by warming the skillet over a medium flame until it is nice hot. While the skillet is heating up, season the chicken breast with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Add one tablespoon olive oil to the hot skillet. Let the oil heat for about 30 seconds, just long enough for it to begin to smoke.

Place the seasoned chicken breasts smooth side down on the hot skillet. Let the chicken grill for 5-7 minutes. While the chicken is grilling, peel and slice the shallot using your chef's knife. If you don't have a shallot you can substitute a mixture of sliced garlic and onion.

Flip the chicken over and continue grilling for 5-7 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Put the cooked chicken on your plate. Tent the plate with aluminum foil to keep the chicken warm.

Add the sliced shallots to the skillet. Using your wooden spoon scrape up all the brown little bits you can. Let the shallots saute over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until tender.

Carefully pour in the 1/2 cup or so of balsamic vinegar. The pan will sizzle a lot so be careful. After pouring in the vinegar use you wooden spoon and continue to stir the mixture scraping up the last of those browned bits of flavor. Let the sauce reduce for 5 minutes until a nice sauce consistency.

As the sauce is reducing slice your chicken and arrange on a plate. Pour the finished balsamic sauce over the chicken slices and garnish with the caramelized shallots and a sprig of flat-leaf parsley.

Enjoy!

Chicken Divan

Chicken Divan is a simple chicken casserole dish. Because casserole is a Utah tradition it seems only appropriate to begin my recipe throw down with a nod to the culture I live in. Prepare to be amazed, this casserole is yummy, filling, cheap and easy to make. Let's begin...

Ingredients:
1 bag (16 oz) frozen broccoli florets
1 lb. chicken breast, thawed
Kosher Salt
1 Tbs. fresh ground black pepper, plus some for the chicken
1 Cup Mayonnaise (use real mayonnaise and skip the low-fat)
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup (use reduced sodium)
1 can Cream of Broccoli soup (use reduced sodium)
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 Tbs. garlic powder
2 Cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 bag (16 oz) croutons
non-stick cooking spray

Hardware:
350 degree oven
2-quart sauce pan
Strainer
Skillet
Metal spatula
Rubber spatula
Medium sized mixing bowl
One cup
Tablespoon
Wooden cutting board
Chef's knife
9" x 13" casserole dish

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the frozen broccoli in a 2-quart sauce pan and cover it with hot water. This allows the broccoli to thaw as you prepare the other casserole layers.

Rub the chicken with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Both sides should be evenly spiced. On your stove top warm the skillet over medium heat. Place the chicken with the smooth side down on the heated skillet. This makes it brown more evenly and is easier for turning. Let the chicken cook on one side for 5-7 minutes.


While the chicken is sizzling, use your rubber spatula to mix together the mayonnaise, cream of mushroom, cream of broccoli, cheese, lemon juice, garlic powder and pepper in a medium sized mixing bowl. Continue folding and stirring until the mixture is well-blended.


Using the metal spatula flip the chicken. Continue to let the chicken grill for another 5-7 minutes. As with any protein the less you touch it the more tender it will be in the end. So let it grill away in peace.


Now spray your 9" x 13" casserole dish with a non-stick cooking spray. Next add the bag of croutons to the mayonnaise mixture. I like a little bit more crunch to my casserole so I add the croutons just before I put the casserole together. (For softer croutons add them to the mayonnaise mixture sooner.)

Remove the cooked chicken from the skillet and place on a wooden cutting board. Using your chef's knife carefully slice the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Evenly spread the chicken across the bottom of your greased casserole dish.

Next strain the thawed broccoli. Evenly spread the broccoli over the chicken.

Now take your mayonnaise mixture and spread it on top of the broccoli and chicken. Use the remaining cup of sharp cheddar and sprinkle it evenly across the top of the Divan.

Let the casserole bake in your 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes (at high altitude) until the cheese is bubbly and the edges are beginning to brown. Carefully remove the hot dish from the oven, serve alone or with your favorite sides and dig in. Yumminess is only a casserole away!