Last night a friend and I made cheesecake. The pan we used was 8″ (all the recipes I found were for 9″ pans) so we ended up with some leftover graham cracker crust crumbles. Never one to let anything delicious go to waste, I decided to whip up some tartlets to see if I could wing a custard from scratch. Turns out…I can!

Apple Custardlets

For the Crust:
4 Graham Crackers (ground)
2 TBS butter
1 TBS brown sugar

For the Custard:
3 eggs
2 TBS sour cream
1 TBS sugar
2 Granny Smith apples (cored, peeled, and sliced)
Cinnamon to top

Method:
line cupcake pan with  cupcake holders.  Press  1 TBS  graham cracker crumbles into the bottom of each cupcake holder. Layer a few pieces of apple into each cupcake, and then pour custard filling onto apples to just cover apples.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Bake at 325 F for 30 minutes.  Chill and enjoy.

For the poor student who arrives home late in the evening and famished, sauerkraut is a great easy dinner fix.  These days it seems I rarely have time to toil away over a sumptuous stew or sauce, but am instead confined to all things crock pot.

Chop and Combine in crock-pot:

1 Kielbasa or similar sausage
1 lb carrots
1 lb potato
2 cans sauerkraut
Water to keep from boiling dry (1-2 Cups)

Set to cook (8 hours for me) and forget about it till you arrive home and famished.   We ate this with homemade bread and sharp mustard (and beer, of course!).

Sorry for the long hiatus, between school and life my laziness got in the way and prevented me from keeping up my blog. Here’s to a fresh start.

In an effort to cook new (to me) things, this week at the store i picked up a package of chorizo. The store where i shop actually has a pretty wide selection of hispanic groceries, so i liked to meander and discover new spices and other things that rarely make it onto our table.

Tonight i heated up some pinto beans i had cooked a few days earlier in the crockpot (sans anything but water, good for freezing and using in other dishes-way better than those sodium loaded canned beans), and decided to try my hand at what i will affectionately call “tex-mexican” rice, and something akin to huevos rancheros.

“tex-mexican” rice

The quotes are due to the fact that the only thing remotely mexican this has going for it is a can of rotel.

1 cup long grain rice
2 cups water/ stock
1 can rotel
3 TBS oil

Fry the rice in the oil until it starts to brown. Then add the rotel, and shortly thereafter, the water/stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

Something akin to Huevos Rancheros

In my infinate laziness, I looked at all of the potential accoutrements involved in Huevos Rancheros, sighed, and resigned myself to eggs, green onions, and chorizo, which worked just fine (especially with an ice cold margarita to wash it down).

3 links chorizo
a few stalks chopped green onions
4 eggs

Brown the chorizo over medium heat, crumbling as it cooks. Add the green onions when the meat is almost done. Break the eggs into a separate bowl and scramble. Add the eggs to the cooked meat and onion, moving the ingredients in the pan until the egg has set but not overcooked.

In an effort to further utilize my favorite cooking small appliance (my breadmaker), tonight I found a recipe for challah in a betty crocker bread maker cookbook. I’ve been in the habit of using the BM to make whole wheat bread for our lunch sandwiches, and the occasional pan of whole wheat cinnamon rolls. One of the bakery’s in town sells the best whole wheat flour, I use so much of it I have to constantly restock (maybe I should get a bigger flour container).

Tonight, with no wheat flour (just ran out making yeast rolls this weekend to go with another bean soup), I took a chance using store bought white bread flour.

Maybe the BM is cheating, but it’s saved us a lot of money and (me) time, and generally turns out tasty and healthy bread, what more could someone ask for??

Bread Maker Challah

3/4 C + 1 TBS water
1 egg
2 TBS butter (melted/softened)
3 + 1/4 C flour
2 TBS sugar
1 + 1/2 tsp salt
1 + 1/2 tsp yeast

place all ingredients in BM and run the dough cycle (takes about an hour and a half for mine)

after the dough has completed, remove from BM and split into three parts.  Roll each into a long snake (like play-dough).  After then are all uniform length, twist them together into a braid.  Brush with a mixture of 2 TBS cold water and one egg yolk

Bake for about 25 minutes at 375 F.

one of the things we do best, is breakfast.  however, i rarely feel like eating all those heavy foods (waffles, eggs, bacon) so early in the morning (i have a tender stomach).  so, breakfast for dinner is always welcome in our household.

on this particular evening i found some cubed ham (purchased with the intention of a ham & bean soup that never came to fruition), green onion,  regular onion, and mushrooms (all originally destined for a stir-fry that wasn’t to be).

recently i saw an omelet/frittata recipe where the cheese was whisked into the egg/milk mixture before being poured over the already sauteed meat & veg.  i decided to give it a try, and since i’ve never been particularly adept at keeping omelette’s intact, i opted to make it frittata-esk.

i thought about structuring this post more recipe-like, but i generally lack the motivation to follow any set recipe, and so the best i could transcribe came up to “hand-fulls” and “eyeball  it” (directions that are completely worthless).  i’ll try better next time.

chop ham, onion(s), and mushroom and sauteed until delicious-looking in a small non-stick pan.  beat 4 eggs  into about 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese and salt and pepper.   pour egg mixture over meat and veg and cook until bottom starts to brown (every 30 seconds or so, i lift up the edges of the egg with a flexible spatula and allow runny egg to sneak under already cooked egg).  when the bottom looks brownish place pan under broiler in oven until top is set.  enjoy with toast.

what’s a girl to do when the weather outside is icy and there’s still leftover turkey? why, make turkey and dumplings of course!

this wasn’t from a specific recipe, per se, just a little bit of this and that thrown into a pot and cooked to perfection.  i chopped up some onions and carrots and cooked in a vat of chicken broth until they were softer.  next, i added some leftover fresh thyme and plenty of turkey.

when everything was starting to look edible, i decided to whip up some jiffy mix dumplings, and let them work their dumpling magic.  i so rarely get the urge for dumplings, that i am always amazed how huge they grow and how much liquid they can absorb.

when the soup was all ready to eat the broth (what was left of it) had become nice and creamy from the dumplings, and just perfect for a cold winter night.

after giving much thanks and seeing much family on thursday (but eating little turkey or stuffing), i decided it was time for thanksgiving part deux.  the main thanksgiving meal we celebrated was serving dual purpose as a 20th wedding anniversary celebration.  thus, instead of the traditional fare, they opted for prime rib and wedding cake.

now, i’m not one to argue with prime rib, but it’s hard for me to forgo turkey on the day affectionately known as turkey-day.

so, after purchasing a 12 pounder for .49 cents/lb I set off to cook my first bird.

We ended up with copious amounts of turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing (from homemade bread, no less) and gelatinous turkey gravy.

a succussful feast, if i do say so myself.  which will reapear in various forms on our dinner table for the next week or so.

no pictures or recipes today, although i can brag on myself that everything was done from scratch (i even produced a pumpkin pie earlier this week from a sugar pumpkin…far too much work but it was kind of fun).

i attempted to follow the recipe of elise for baking the turkey breast side down to seal in the delicious juices.

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000037moms_roast_turkey.php

but, true to form, i neglected to read the cooking instructions to repeatedly turn down the oven temperature (so our bird was roasted at 400F for 3.5 hours) surprisingly it didn’t do too much damage!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

as i spend the day toiling away with math concepts, i am reminded of a joke our old med chem teacher started the semester with.

“a man was informed by his physician that he had only one day to live and was asked how he would like to spend it.  the man  replied “i want to spent this last day in an organic chemistry class”.  shocked, the physician asked why.  to which the man replied “it will be the longest day of my life.”

cue rimshot

i’ve never been too enamored with pork (except for bacon, which is really just salt in meat form). i don’t know exactly what the turn off is, the cooking smell, or fear of trichinosis, but i rarely opt for it in the meat aisle. recently i saw a recipe for pork chops with a mushroom and onion sauce, and it just felt right.

pork chops with mushroom and onion sauce

4 lean pork chops with/out bone
Salt and Pepper
one medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz mushrooms, sliced in large slices
1 cup white wine (I used a wine, that was predominately chardonnay)
2 tsp corn starch

1) season the chops on both sides with salt, pepper, Cook in heavy skillet over medium heat. when done, remove from pan and keep warm.

2) add onion and cook through until translucent. may add a few Tbsp
of wine if needed for moisture.

3) Add corn starch to stock or wine and whisk until smooth. Add
liquid mixture into skillet all at once to deglaze pan, lifting any
bits of pork, onion, or mushroom from bottom of skillet. Cook until
sauce reduces and thickens. Pour over chops.

Serves 4

This was really great! I served it with a mixture of wild and brown rice (cooked, as always in the rice maker), and a light salad.

to finish off the running theme of what we had to eat on saturday, an ongoing exercise in self gratification at my ability to produce three meals in one day.

dinner wasn’t nearly as fabulous as lunch, but we did have leftover breakfast (apple crisp) for desert (this time topped with ice cream).

this is a (somewhat) healthier dish than the version i used to make while living in the college dorms. back then, with only a microwave to cook with, and meal plan allowing 10 meals a week, i had to get creative. I used to load up on the flavored rice side dishes that you could buy at the grocery store. all you had to do was add water and cook in the microwave. To add some flavor and substance (and stretch the side dish into a meal for two) I would add a can of beans and a can of tomatoes (or rotel, to spice it up). Here is my updated/healthier/slightly more homeade version.

Rice + Beans + Tomatos = Good

a few cups cooked rice (brown for us)
1 can tomatos
1 can beans (I prefer kidney or black beans)
2 TBS chili sauce
1.5 TBS cumin
salt to taste

Mix above ingredients on stove top until heated through. enjoy!

This is a great meal when we have leftover rice from the previous night’s dinner. This takes around 10 minutes to prepare from recipe ideation to plating the food. While not the most fancy of meals, it’s easy and substantial. And it can easily be reheated the next day with some feta cheese sprinkled on top for a great lunch!