Delicious Accidents

So in honor of Valentines Day, Brian and I decided to forgo any fancy dinners in a crowded restaurant and decided to cook ourselves. Brian went out and got me flowers. Although I wish the boy remembered that I love orchids. Although the arrangement of the roses he got me last night was beautiful.

It turned out quite nicely. We started out with fried coconut shrimp. Then Brian had filet mignon and I had veal chop both accompanied by mashed potatoes and roasted acorn squash, and Italian red wine which I got from Central Market. What a splurge. I know we avoided the fancy restaurant, but if we were to add up the bill for tonight’s dinner, I think it came out to 100 bucks. Still cheaper than your usual Bob’s or III Forks.

We ended with coconut cake from the store and prosecco. I think I did most of the cooking, whereas Brian peeled and mashed the potatoes. Silly boy thinks you’re supposed to mash it before you cook it, so he made tiny little cubes. I was like what are you doing?? He said, it makes it easier to mash. He also opened the wine, which I guess counts for something.

I have to say that steak isn’t hard to make, but I hated having to babysit it. But I had to do it right for a $25 cut of meat, I certainly didn’t want to waste all that money on a badly cooked piece of meat. I didn’t have a pan to sear it on, and you had to either use a stainless steel pan or a cast iron pan. So instead, I stuck it in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes and gradually lowered the temperature. It spent 18 minutes in the oven, but it still didn’t look cook enough and according to my thermometer, it was only at 120 degrees. So I turned on the stove and let it sear on the baking pan atop the stove for another 4 minutes. That seem to do the trick. Medium just like we like it. I usually don’t go out for steak but maybe 1-2 times a year, so this certainly was a treat.

The steak and potatoes were good, but Brian hated the acorn squash. Thought it was too squishy. Whatever. I liked it. I seasoned the squash with dried herbs, tossed them in olive oil and stuck in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees. It came out perfect. I love pumpkin and squash. The best part of the night of course was giving Reesey her wine, and the pink prosecco. I love sparkling wine, and prosecco is light and crisp. It was still exhausting. Next time, maybe we’ll have frozen pizza.

I make such a mess when I cook. But we got most of it cleaned up last night. In the process though we missed last night’s episode of Lost, which I hope to catch up this weekend. THREE day weekend baby. Thank goodness, because work was starting to get to me.

This is my first attempt at making gnocchi or vodka sauce. It’s actually my first time eating it. To my surprise it was quite good. I was afraid the gnocchi would be too heavy. I didn’t really find my recipe anywhere. I originally was planning on making a Rachel Ray Recipe of gnocchi with chicken meatball soup. But I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand. Plus I had leftover pasta sauce that I needed to use up. Brian actually liked the gnocchi, and the leftovers I had for lunch was still just as good, even better than last night.

Turkey Meatballs

• 1 lb of ground turkey
• 1/4 cup of Italian breadcrumbs
• 1 tbs of red pepper
• 1 tsp of garlic powder
• 1 tsp of onion powder
• 1 tsp of seasoning salt
• 1 egg beaten

Vodka Sauce

• 1 large jar of your favorite pasta sauce
• 1/4 cup of vodka
• 1/4 cup of skim milk (a true vodka sauce uses heavy cream)
• I liked mine chunky so I add a can of petite diced tomatoes

Gnocchi
No recipe here, I just bought the potato kind off the shelf in the pasta section.

1. Simmer the ingredients for the vodka sauce on low for 30 minutes. For the next 10 minutes add the gnocchi and turn the heat up to medium. Gnocchi will cook in the sauce.
2. While the sauce is simmering, mix in the ingredients for the turkey meatballs and shape them into 1.5 inch balls. Place them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serve the gnocchi with meatballs on the side or covered in sauce. Enjoy.

Pad Kee Mow (with chicken) – I prefer this dish over Pad Thai since the latter is too sweet I think. I also made this dish since it’s the only thing Brian would ever order at a Thai restaurant. I think he’s just sticking to what is safe.

Pad Kee Mow stands for drunken noodles and is a standard Thai Street dish.

This recipe makes a ton so we had plenty of leftovers. I also have to say that this is my own recipe adapted from my mom’s kitchen. Brian thought it was a bit bland, but I think it’s just right. If it’s too bland, just double the sauces.

• 1 tablespoon chopped Thai chiles (I didn’t even notice the spice, so I would add more)
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• black pepper
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 chicken breast sliced
• 1 box dried wide egg noodles, 1/2 inch wide, soaked in hot water until tender for about 15 minutes. If it’s still not al dente, toss it in boiling water for about 3-5 minutes.
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup fresh Thai basil, and buds (I omitted because I didn’t have any)
• 3 Roma tomatoes, sliced into quarters
• 2 cups of snow peas (you can add any veggies, most restaurants use green bell peppers)

1. Heat up non stick pan and make an omelet with the eggs.
Slice up cooked omelet and set aside.

2. Preheat wok on high heat with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Add in garlic and brown sugar. Let the sugar carmalize a bit. I only used sugar because I didn’t have dark soy sauce on hand. 1 – 2 minutes is good. Just don’t let the garlic burn.

3. Add in the chicken and let it sit for about a minute before stir frying. Once the chicken is and cooked, add in the
fish sauce, soy sauce, and oyster sauce, and black pepper. Toss it around for about 3 minutes. Add in snow peas. Stir fry for another 2 minutes.

4. Toss in cooked noodles and eggs. Add more fish/oyster/soy sauce if needed. Add in lime juice, tomatoes, thai peppers. Stir fry for another 5-8 minutes.

Garnish with thai basil and enjoy.

I’ve always been intrigued by these. They remind me of either the oatmeal cream pie made by Little Debbie or the Moon Pies that Brian claims to taste a bit artificial. The recipe originates from the Pennsylvania Dutch area. But enough with the history. I made them tonight and yet again another easy recipe. Not to mention Brian loved them. I remember coming downstairs and seeing a bite missing off one of the pies sitting on the cooling rack. I know it wasn’t Reesey’s teeth mark. Anyway, I made these as a test for our company bake sale in two weeks. I think these will be a hit. Anyway, click on Epicurious for a better picture.

Here’s the recipe from Epicurious…

For cakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg

For filling:

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
11/4 cups confectioners sugar
2 cups marshmallow cream such as Marshmallow Fluff
1 teaspoon vanilla

Make cakes:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until combined. Stir together buttermilk and vanilla in a small bowl.

Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a handheld, then add egg, beating until combined well. Reduce speed to low and alternately mix in flour mixture and buttermilk in batches, beginning and ending with flour, scraping down side of bowl occasionally, and mixing until smooth.

Spoon 1/4-cup mounds of batter about 2 inches apart onto 2 buttered large baking sheets. Bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until tops are puffed and cakes spring back when touched, 11 to 13 minutes. Transfer with a metal spatula to a rack to cool completely.

Make filling:

Beat together butter, confectioners sugar, marshmallow, and vanilla in a bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Assemble pies:

Spread a rounded tablespoon filling on flat sides of half of cakes and top with remaining cakes.

Cooks’ notes:

• Cakes can be made 3 days ahead and kept, layered between sheets of wax paper, in an airtight container at room temperature.
• Filling can be made 4 hours ahead and kept, covered, at room temperature.

Today for the Super Bowl, I decided to make something “manly” other than the usual pizza and wings or queso dip. So I decided to try Pioneer Woman’s Marlboro Man’s Favorite Sandwich. The recipe was easy peasy and it turned out super delicious. I did however improvise and used I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spread instead of actual butter. I also cut down the butter portion to something more reasonable. I just couldn’t get myself to use 2 sticks of real butter for sandwiches. I don’t think I would ever miss it. I served it up with some roasted fingerling potatoes. I bought them in bulk at Costco. Never buy veggies in bulk at Costco if you’re a 2 person household.

Click here for the recipe.

This is my first post on the food blog. Since I like to experiment with cooking, there may be some recipes that I would want to share to world, and I wouldn’t really want to post on my main blog. Expect to find many recipes and pictures. But as you saw, I did export some of the food blogs from my other blog. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

I took pictures but it’s at home, so I’m going to post one I found online. I can’t remember the site, but feel free to ping me if it’s your photo. I’ll replace with my own sometime soon.

I brought these into work and everyone raved about it. I think I’ll recreate them at Christmas time.

Oreo Truffle Balls or Dirt Balls

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
16 ounces oreos, broken into quarters
Enough best quality white chocolate chopped to measure about 2 cups

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese for a couple minutes to smooth out. Add in just over 1/2 of the broken oreos and mix until thoroughly combined. Add in the rest of the oreos and mix just until combined – some bigger pieces are ok.

Cover bowl and chill for at least 2-3 hours. Scoop out dough with a heaping teaspoon and roll into 50-60 balls. Cover and place back in the refrigerator to firm up.

Slowly melt the white chocolate in a double boiler, stirring occasionally, until most of the chunks are smooth. Remove and stir to melt the rest of the chocolate. Dip each truffle ball and set aside on a silpat or parchment paper. If the chocolate mixture starts to firm up, place back over the double boiler to slowly remelt, or gently rewarm in the microwave. Store in the refrigerator after all are dipped.

After a short hiatus from the baking I decided to put my KitchenAid mixer into good use. I made three different things, all of which were easy peasy recipes. Hopefully my goodies will win my coworkers over :D

Anyway here’s what I made.

I had a can of pumpkin that I wanted to use up. So I decided to make a pumpkin bread. The piece I sampled was a bit dry, but that was the end. It did have that fall pumpkin flavor though and just enough spice. I decided not to put icing on this since the flavor itself was good why ruin it with icing. Anyway, we’ll be having this for breakfast.

Brian’s comments: Not too sweet, but good.

Recipe from Allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

* 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
* 1/4 cup margarine
* 1 1/4 cups white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup canned pumpkin
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I used pumpkin spice)
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted this)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9×5x3 inch loaf pan.
2. Put softened cheese, butter, and sugar in mixing bowl. Cream together well. Beat in eggs one at a time until blended. Mix in pumpkin.
3. In another bowl combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and walnuts. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour all at once over batter. Stir just enough to moisten. Turn into greased 9×5x3 inch loaf pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60-70 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove to rack to finish cooling.

The other two items I made were fairly simple. One of them is a plain jane Rice Krispie Treat. Brian didn’t think I put enough sugar, but you’re not supposed to put sugar in the recipe. I guess it wasn’t sweet enough. Maybe I should’ve added more marshmallows. Still good nonetheless. Recipe can be found anywhere. Just google it.

Final item, chocolate cupcakes from scratch. Why bother with Duncan Hines or Betty. I made this simple recipe which can be found in the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa box. It’s called the Heshey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake, and perfect it is. Originally, I wanted to make these look like little mummies in honor of the season, but I didn’t make enough icing. And the flowers didn’t turn out too great…

Brian’s comments: It was very good.

Ingredients:

* 2 cups sugar
* 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
* 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup milk
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 cup boiling water

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.

VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13×9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Workout to continue the rest of the week!!

Oh another failed attempt at homemaking last night. I tried to make a french bread, bread bowl for soup. It didn’t turn out well. I used the breadmachine to process the dough and let it rise in a small mixing bowl. I think the dough may have been too dry. The bread was edible though, just not perfectly round. HMPH. I’ll leave to breadmaking to the machine.

It’s this time of the year that makes me want to bake. The month of December means experimenting with cookie recipes. Yesterday we had lunch at McAlister’s Deli and Brian wanted to buy a cookie. I told him I’ll make my own variation of those giant cookies you see at delis/bakeries. So here’s a recipe I found. It’s ginormous, it’s chewy, it’s delicious.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
I substituted a half cup of the choc. chips with some peppermint chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease cookie sheets. Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
The recipe makes a dozen big cookies.

They were yummy and huge and probably better than what you get at these delis. I need to take a few to work just so we don’t eat them all.