In The Kitchen

Dinners

2010-12-31T18:24:00.000-08:00

I made the Fried Eggplant out of my new cookbook "Think Like a Chef" and I serves it with zucchini, tomatoes and onion. It was good.

The next night I made my favorite way of eating eggplant with Puttinesco Sauce and fresh mozzarella cheese.

Today I made his roasted chicken. It was very moist. The big thing I've leaned from him so far is to keep the heat down.

The next thing I want to try is a braised short ribs.

Slow Cooking-Pan Roasted Salmon with Dijon Caper Sauce

2010-12-28T11:51:00.000-08:00

I got a new cookbook for Christmas, Think Like a Chef by Tom Collichio head judge of Top Chef on Bravo. So his first chapter talks about how he like to roast things. He believe slow and gentle is the best approach as apposed to hot, hot temps. I decided to try it on my salmon. He adds butter and bastes the food as it roasts and so that is what I did with my salmon. Being I had all this nice butter in the pan I decided to made a pan sauce and threw in capers and a little lemon juice to cook with the fish and after the fish came out of the pan I added the Dijon. I also made a Greek salad which has a lemon dressing so it was a nice combo.

To pan roast you add some oil to your heated pan, keeping the heat low. I started out with medium and it was too hot so I turned it down to low. You will have to experiment. Turn midway through the cooking and add butter to baste as it finishes cooking. His book has more specific instructions. I'm just trying to give you what I did. Remove fish and make sauce if you wish and then pour sauce over fish.

Asparagus Soup

2010-10-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

I followed this amazing recipe by the Pioneer Woman for Cauliflower Soup except I made it with asparagus and it was delicious. I think you could use this recipe for a lot of different veggies in place of the cauliflower. I want to try the cauliflower verion I just happened to have asparagus I needed to use. This recipe is a little differnt than other cream soup recipes I tried and it's very easy.

Review of Indian Chicken Dinner

2010-08-31T09:10:00.000-07:00

Last night I made the I Ain't Chicken Chicken The Indian flavors were pretty subtle, but what I really like was her method of baking chicken. I can see using this method with different flavor profiles. You could use herbed butter, garlic, lemon, whatever you like. It makes a nice flavored chicken and not dry. It was very good.

I also made the Ugly Duckling Salad The pistachio dressing was very interesting. I even used the Siracha sauce, but only a tiny bit. It gave a nice spice, but it wasn't too much. I wasn't able to get the celery root, so I just left it out. I would make this salad again and the dressing.

Linda

Aarti Party-American Food with an Indian Twist

2010-08-29T13:27:00.000-07:00

Did any of you watch "The Next Food Network Star" this year. I was excited about the winner Aarti Sequeira because her idea for her show was to bring East Indian flavors to regular recipes. I've wanted to explore Indian food but it tends to be very starchy and hot, so I'm hoping I'll learn something from her about Indian spices and ingredients. Today she made a bread pudding that had coconut milk in the custard and baked chicken with flavored butter with coriander and orange under the skin. She also made a spinach salad with apple and celery root and a dressing that had pistachio nuts ground up in it. I thought these were all ideas I would like to try. Her Food Network page is here.

Linda

Plum Jam with Agava and Stevia

2010-08-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

I love this recipe from Elana's Pantry. I left out the arrowroot because it seemed thick enough for me. Also I didn't really taste the vanilla so next time I would just leave it out or open the bean and scrape out the seed and add them to the jam. I don't have a high speed blender, but just used my stick blender. She said this lasts a couple of weeks in the frig and I can't eat it that fast so I put part of it in the freezer. I want to use this same recipe and make apricot jam.

My dd is having a give away for a stevia that has a good taste to it. Check it out here.

Linda

Dehydrating Summer Fruits and Veggies

2010-06-21T10:30:00.000-07:00

I borrowed my dd's dehydrator and dried some strawberries. I wanted to try drying some fruit this year. I've been looking at dehydrators and trying to decide if I should get an expensive one or a cheap one. After trying my dd's (hers is 1000 watts) I think it worth paying a little more, but for now I may just borrow hers.

I also want to dry some veggies. Dehydrated foods are a good thing to have in your emergency supplies. So I'm looking for ideas of what veggies would be good to dry. My dd likes to do red peppers. I think as things are in season I will try them and see how they do.

Linda

Blue Cheese and Roasted Garlic Salad Dressing

2010-06-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

I was going to make roasted garlic mayo this time, but I've been having trouble with my tummy so I decided to save that for later. Instead I made a salad dressing. You start with your basic mayo ingredients but with 1/2 c. of oil instead of a cup. I use extra virgin olive oil, then you add in addition some vinegar, I used 2 tabs. of red wine vinegar, about 4 cloves of roasted garlic and some blue cheese. There are a lot of other ingredients you could use, but this is what I did. I add extra blue cheese in the salad. I'm having a lot of salads and it's nice to have the dressing ready.

Linda

Orange Coffee

2010-06-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

I made the recipe I had posted here. It was pretty good. If you want to make it a bit fancier top it with whipped cream and grate some orange rind on top.

Linda

Yogurt Again

2010-05-31T14:57:00.000-07:00

My last batch didn't work, so I've gone back to my old method of making yogurt which is you heat 1 qt. of milk, or 1/2 and 1/2, or heavy cream, to 180 and cool to 110, then you add your yogurt started (I use 1 tabs. from the old batch or store bought). I then put it into a quart canning jar with lid and put it into the Easyo without the hot water. You leave it for at least 12 hours, but you can leave it for up to 24. I left mine over night and it was perfect this morning, nice and thick. The 1/2 and 1/2 or heavy cream or whole milk are not as sour as low fat or fat free milk. I think next week I'm going to try the goats milk again, now that I know what I'm doing.

I also tried the Fish with Yogurt Sauce last night and it was very good. I really liked the sauce and used it on my Frittata today. I gave you the link here.

Linda

Yogurt Cheese

2010-05-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

I have a strainer called "The Wave". It's for straining yogurt, but you can also use cheese cloth lining a strainer. I was looking through my recipes to try and found this one I haven't done.

Herbed Yogurt Cheese

I like the combination of ingredients in this particular recipe.

The Herbed Gardener also looks like an interesting site for herb info. I've added it to my herbs sites list on my side bar.

Linda

Yogurt

2010-05-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

I made the yogurt with the Easiyo again using regular 1/2 and 1/2 instead of the raw goats milk and it worked this time.

I've been looking for some savory recipes to use the yogurt. I found a couple of simple ones to try. Crusty Fish with Yogurt Dill Sauce and Spinach and Cucumber Salad with Yogurt-Mint Dressing. I just got this one in my email I could use yogurt instead of sour cream sounds really good. I love feta. Here is the link Cucumber Dip with Feta

One of my favorite ways to use yogurt is with the cucumber dill combo as a sauce for cold poaches salmon.

Linda

Yogurt and Farmer's Market

2010-05-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

I'm looking up yogurt recipes. This is one I want to make, Cheese Yogurt Fruit Dip with orange and coconut. It uses orange store bought yogurt. I think I will try and make my own orange yogurt out of my homemade yogurt.

I tried making yogurt out of the raw goats milk and it didn't work. I read somewhere on line that someone tried several times and just could never get goats milk to make yogurt, so I went to the store and bought the most unpasturized I could get (vat paturized) and I'm going to use it for my yogurt. I'm just waiting for it to cool. I got a new yogurt maker from Amazon called EasiYo. I liked it because it was cheap and not electric. They sell packets that you can use to make the yogurt but someone wrote a comment and told how to make it using yogurt for your starter. So I'm not sure if my problems with the goat milk yogurt was the goat milk or the EasiYo. I'll let you know how it works with what I got today.

I wanted to share a link to 10 tips to shopping at a Farmer's Market. This week I got radishes and spinach, eggs and goats milk. I also got a plant a salvia, it has a red flower.

Linda

Red Pepper Mayo

2010-05-23T11:17:00.001-07:00

This is what I made this week. No mystery I just added the peppers to the ingredients before I buzzed my mayo. It was a little thinner at first, but I was fairly sure it would thicken with chilling. It did, but next time I might try making the mayo and then adding the peppers, see if it makes a difference. I put in 2 peppers, it could use even more. I could chop some up and add them that way. I've been eating it with some artichokes I had cooked, yummy. You could add the pepper to store bought mayo in a blender or with a stick blender or a food processor or if you don't mind having it chunky just mix them in. Red peppers are a superfood, see my latest blog about superfood on Foxtales on Monday.

Linda

Good Kitchen Habits-Wash Produce

2010-05-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

I bought some Biokleen Produce Wash. I want to wash all my produce even the organic with it. This is something I've been meaning to do for some time, but get lazy.

Linda

Farmers Market

2010-05-08T10:26:00.001-07:00

I made my first trip to the farmers market today. I was thrilled to get some raw goats milk. They let me taste it first and it was very good. It's hard to find raw milk around her. I think I'll make it into yogurt. I also got some lovely fresh today eggs. Some red lettuce and arugula. I'm starting a diet and so I'll be eating lots of fresh salads and veggies.

I had a delicious salad yesterday with mixed greens, carrot, apple, dried cranberries and walnuts. I also had some wonderful local asparagus cold with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

It's expensive to buy good food but I've decided to eat less and eat quality. This is the time of year to do it. It's harder during the winter.

Linda

Stocking Up Binder

2010-05-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

I was going through some of my binders throwing out stuff that I no longer need and in the process decided to start a "Stocking Up" binder.

I wanted some place to put my inventories and ideas for the pantry and freezer. I did a lot of freezing last year and I still have the recipes I used and so I think those will go in here. It will make it easier to find them. Also notes about what worked and what didn't.

I have several recipes for spice mixes and condiments that could go in here also.

I also had an article about canning that I wanted to put some place. I hope to do some canning this year so this would be a good place to start collecting ideas.

Normally you would put this kind of thing in your homemaking book but I decided to make mine just for housekeeping, no kitchen stuff.

I had the freezer stuff in my "Menu Planning" book but it is getting full. When a binder gets full I either get a bigger one, or narrow the focus.

I thought about putting my emergency prep info in here, but decided to keep it separate for now. I find it unwieldy to have a binder that is too big, so I preferred to stick to smaller ones.

I'm also thinking I want to do some dehydrating this year. I need to get a dehydrator first, but I wanted to do strawberries, so I'll be getting one soon. So that is another area for my binder. I'm sure I'll think of more.

Linda

Good Kitchen Habit-Prep List

2010-05-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

I'm not posting my menu this week because I have so many left overs I'm using them up.

I wanted to say I've started making a prep list. I just look at my menu and recipes and write down for each day what prep I need to do. It's helping me to get it done, esp. when I'm in a hurry to get to other things. If I don't get my prep done in the morning the chances of my cooking what's on my menu is not too good.

Get Rid of Toxins

2010-04-29T13:00:00.001-07:00

I added a new blog to my side bar Kitchen Stewardship. I did a post about it here. I just wanted to post here what I'm learning and changing.

The first thing I start reading about was plastic. She tells you which are considered safe and which are not. I found out my water bottles are not. I don't use my tap water because it doesn't taste good so I've been filling 2 gal. water bottles at the store with filtered water. I've also bought small bottles of water for my emergency supplies. Both are in the bad plastic, so what to do. I would put a filter on my faucet, but mine has a pull out sprayer on it and I can't afford to buy a new faucet right now, so I decided to try the Brita Pitcher. I haven't tried it before because I though it would be too expensive, but it really isn't and the water tastes great.

I also bought a stainless steel water bottle to take with me when I go out instead of the plastic one I had. I'm also going to start replacing my plastics with glass, but I still need plastic for some things like the freezer. I recently bought a Food Safer to help with the freezer burn on meats. So I won't be giving up all my plastics, but where I can. You can use glass in the freezer but it's a lot bulkier and I'm not ready to make that sacrifice yet.

I also read all her posts on fat and I learned a lot about the subject. Changes I'm making are I'm not going to buy my EVOO in large economical bottle anymore, but buy small bottles I can use up in a timely manner and they should be in opaque containers. I'm going to get virgin olive oil for sautes and use coconut oil more in my cooking. I don't use the polys, corn oil and other seed oils.
The big thing with oils is how stable are they and coconut oil is very stable, olive oil need proper storage. The virgin olive oil not the extra virgin is better for high temps. You can read all about it on her site. I always wondered exactly why everyone was so excited about coconut oil until I started reading about how good it is for you, not just in the kitchen but on your skin too. It's worth looking into and learning about. I have some and just need to use it. I was for awhile and then went back to the EVOO. I don't know why, but I did so I'm going to start using it again not just for cooking and learn more about it.

My next thing I was interested in was the super foods and so I'm working on the ones that I particularly need and many of them are already in my diet, but I'm just going to try and increase them like salmon, walnuts and flax.

Good Kitchen Habit-Clean As You Go

2010-04-26T08:18:00.001-07:00

I've been waiting until I was done to clean up, but I'm going to go back to starting with a dish pan of soapy water and cleaning as I go when I cook, especially when I know there is going to be a lot of dishes. I don't use the dishwasher. I wash by hand and recently got a red plastic dish pan and drainer. I find it uses less water than filling up the sink and having the drainer frees up one sink for rinsing and the disposal. Washing dishes was always one of those chores I didn't mind and my dishwasher never seemed to get the dishes that clean. I just try to watch how much water I use.

Linda

Menu 4/24-5/1

2010-04-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

Those baby artichokes I made last week were nice and tender, it's a good recipe.

Baking Day- Muesli Bread

Sunday-Leek and Carrot Soup

Spinach Salad

Monday-Chicken Fingers

Slaw

Tuesday-Baby Artichoke Heart Quinoa Risotto with Shrimp and Meyer Lemon Pesto

Wednesday- same as Sunday

Thursday- same as Monday

Friday- same as Tuesday

Saturday-Asparagus Omelet

The Muesli Bread and Chicken Fingers are from Elana's Pantry's book. Here is her web site although these recipes are not on it. After getting her book from the library I decided to buy it, so I'll be cooking from it for a few weeks.

Linda

Menu- 4/18-4/24

2010-04-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

I want to start eating more raw food. At least one raw thing at each meal. I found these vinaigrette's that sound interesting.

Artichokes are suppose to be in season. I never cook those baby ones, these sound delicious. I think they would be good with the salmon I want to have this week. I'm trying to up my Omega 3's. It was on sale last week so I got 2 pieces and put one in the freezer.

Sun-Baked Chicken Drumsticks
Leftover Quinoa Salad

Mon-Black Bean Soup (from the freezer)
Salad with Baked Goat Cheese

Tues-Grilled Pork Chops with Rub
Cauliflower Puree
Slaw

Thurs-Same as Mon

Fri-Same as Tues

Sat-Salmon Grilled
Baby Artichokes
Salad

No Desserts for a while, maybe some fruit.

Linda

Kitchen Notes- Quinoa Salad with Cannelini Beans

2010-04-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made the Quinoa Salad. It turned out really good. I did change a few things in the original recipe. Instead of chickpeas I use Cannelini beans, I didn't have the red pepper or red onion, I used scallions. I switched out the almonds for pine nuts. The link to the recipe was posted here.

I've been eating out of my freezer quite a bit this week. The Pesto for the above recipe I had in my freezer. I also had meat balls with a tomato sauce that I had frozen they tasted really good. I took out some Black Bean Soup that I'm having next week. I also had some Cheesy Tuna with Peas in the freezer and that was good. So I'm learning for this season what works in the freezer and what doesn't.

Linda

Kitchen Habit- Dish Towels and Dish Cloths

2010-04-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

This may seem obvious, but most of these habits are. Just because they are obvious doesn't mean they get done. This one is putting out a clean dish towel each day and changing your wash cloth or sponge often.

Some Veggie Links

2010-04-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

Veg Stuffed Quinoa Salad with Pesto Dressing Now that's what I'm talking about, I love Quinoa Salad

Vegtable Rice This sounds interesting but I would probably change a few of the ingredients, but I think it is a good recipe to play with.

Add Cream Cheese to Your Sandwich Lots of inspiration here. I've been wanting to do some sprouting.

I decided to not do a menu this week, but may make some or all of the above.

Linda

Kitchen Notes-Bulgogi Wraps (Korean Marinated Beef)

2010-04-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

I made this yesterday. It had been marinating in my frig for several days. It good, I wish I had made more, but the meat was expensive. I couldn't find rib-eye and so I used top round. The only problem I had was the marinade burned onto my pan and I'm having a hard time getting it clean. Sorry I wasn't able to link a recipe because it came from a cookbook, but it is basically strips of beef marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, garlic and scallions. It's stir fried and served wrapped with lettuce. Hope that helps. I'm sure there are probably similar recipes on line. I found the lettuce wrap hard to do and messy, the meat kept falling out. It tasted good though.

Edit-I decided to look myself and there are a lot of different recipes for this with different fillings and different wraps, so if you want this particular recipe you would have to ge this book. I got it out of the library and it is the one I've mentioned at the bottom of menu post.

Yesterday was the first day of the Farmer's Mkt and I forgot about it. I was busy cleaning my kitchen. I'm glad it's back.

Linda

Kitchen Notes- Shortbread

2010-04-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

Made shortbread from the almond flour. It is so easy to make things with the almond flour. I realized they have a web site and I found the recipe on it except mine didn't have the glaze which would have been good. I just noticed mine had 2 c. almond flour otherwise the same.

My dd and gd came over and we enjoyed the shortbread with tea.

I'm having left overs for dinner.

Kitchen Notes-French Lentil Soup

2010-04-07T18:13:00.001-07:00

I made the soup yesterday. I made a few changes. It called for a lot of roasted tomatoes and I cut the amount in half and used some of the whole frozen tomatoes I had in the freezer. The roasted tomatoes I had were also from my freezer. The recipe had you precook your lentils and I eliminated that step, because the lentils I used are those small ones and they cook pretty fast. I also left out the cayenne because I don't like things hot. I use the chard that I'm growing and didn't have as much as the recipe called for, but used what I had.

I had it for dinner today and it was pretty good. I also made another custard out of all whip cream that I bought on sale. It is yummy, but almost too rich. I think I like using 1/2 and 1/2 better.

Linda

Menu 4-5 to 4-11

2010-04-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

Monday-left overs

Tuesday-French Green Lentil Soup

Wensday- out

Thursday-Maggies Turkey and Prosciotto (these are turkey burgers wrapped in prosciotto)
Zucchini Canoes (these are stuffed zucchini halves)

Friday-Turkey

Saturday-Rulgogi Wraps (these are pieces of steak wrapped in a lettuce leaf)
Stuffed Mushrooms

Sunday-Pasta-less Lasagna (these use spaghetti squash instead of pasta)

Except for Soup all these recipes are from Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, by Raman Prasad. I have to take it back to the library soon and wanted to try some first. I think I'm going to buy this book, even though I'm not doing this diet it has good recipes for my diabetic low carb diet.

Dessert- Baked Honey Custard served with Strawberries

Linda

Kitchen Notes-Expresso Brownies

2010-04-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made these delicious Expresso Brownies for our celebration today. They are made with almond butter, no flour and they are very moist.

Kitchen Notes-Asparagus andCashew Chicken Stir Fry

2010-04-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

I made the Asparagus and Cashew Chicken Stir Fry today. Link on menu. It was a really good recipe. I decided I didn't like the Chick Pea Soup after all. It just has an odd taste.

Kitchen Notes-Chickpea Soup

2010-03-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

It wasn't on my menu, but I felt like soup today and I saw this chickpea soup and thought it sounded like a simple but good one. It was pretty good, the chickpea taste is something I need to get use to, but I like the soup and ate a big bowl of it.

Almond Flour Bread

2010-03-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

Today I got more almond flour and so I tried my hand at bread with one of Elana's recipes. It's in her book. I've found several other recipes for bread using almond flour but the recipes are all different so I want to try them in the next weeks and see which I like better. We've noticed that Elana uses oil in her recipes and no dairy as far as I can tell. The others I've looked at use yogurt. In the recipe I tried today there was quite a bit of almond butter and only a little almond flour. Almond butter really is the same just ground longer. I'm still amazed that these things rise at all. This one had a lot of arrowroot in it. I realize I'm learning a lot about how different ingredients can be used in baked products. Vinegar is another thing I noticed in some of the recipes.

Menu 3/29 to 4/4

2010-03-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

Monday-left overs

Tuesday-meal from the freezer

Wednesday-Asparagus and Cashew Chicken Stir-fry

Thursday-Skewered Eggplant, Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Rolls
Pasta Salad

Friday-same as Wens.

Saturday-Mexican Layer Dip
Burgers

Sunday-Easter (don't know yet)

Dessert-Icebox Banana Cheesecake
Shortbread (when I get more almond flour, on order)

Kitchen Notes-Chicken Pot Pie

2010-03-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I made the Chicken Pot Pie see menu for link. I did not follow her directions, but sauteed the ingredients and added a little broth, made a slurry and added that to thicken.

Today I made Chocolate Chip Scones, delish.

New Kitchen Habit-Cleaning the Stove Top

2010-03-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

I'm terrible about cleaning my stove top. I can never get it totally clean. It has burnt on bits that I'm not strong enough to get off and scratches where I have resorted to SOS. This post from Apartment Therapy gave me some ideas on cleaning it. The comments had some good ideas too. So the new habit I want to try and do is to not just give it a swipe once in a while, but clean it thoroughly ever day and better yet would be ever time I use it, but I'll start with daily with a quick wipe as I use it during the day. I'm hoping if I really work on cleaning it every day that eventually those burnt on stains will start to come off. Any suggestion?

Linda

KItchen Notes- French Onion Soup & Coconut Flour Cake

2010-03-23T17:56:00.001-07:00

My gd was over today and we made the French Onion Soup. It turned out really well. I think what I like about the recipe is that it had 3 kinds of onions in it (leek, yellow and shallot) plus lots of garlic. We put the Gruyere cheese and a big hunk of sour dough bread on top.

The cake ended up being underdone and so I can't say if I like it or not. The texture is a little weird and so I will have to try another recipe and see what I think.

Menu 3/22-3/28

2010-03-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Mon. Left Overs

Tues. French Onion Soup
Green Salad

Wens. Chicken Pot Pie Crust made with almond flour.
Green Salad

Thurs. Zucchini Custard Bake
Fried Sole

Fri. same as Tues.

Sat. same as Wens.

Sun. same as Thurs.

Desserts- Coconut Flour Grapefruit Pound Cake except I'm using orange
Mixed Fruit (Rasp., Blueberries and Kiwi with Yogurt and Mint)

Kitchen Notes-Veggie Broth

2010-03-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

Last night I took my scraps from the freezer. I had way more than I needed, so I only used part of them. As per my dd's instructions I put them in my slow cooker on low and filled with water. They cooked all night. This morning I cooled it and strained the broth and put it in plastic containers and into my freezer. I don't think I'll make anymore until I use this bunch because my freezer is pretty full. It smelled kind of strong, so I'm not sure if I'm going to like it. I kept a little out in my frig. to try later.

Today I clean my frig. so that tomorrow when I do my menu I'll know what I have that has to be used up. As usual I have left overs to use up. My corn beef and veggies was delicious. I'll enjoy that for a few more days.

My dd and gd came over and they loved the Cherry Scones and the Tomato and Red Pepper Soup I made early in the week.

I missed not having a menu this week, so I know I want to do one even if I don't think I'll be cooking that much, because things can change. I don't have to actually but the food until I know I'm going to use it, if I'm not feeling well.

Linda

Kitchen Notes-Cherry Scones and Corn Beef

2010-03-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

I made Cherry Scones today with almond flour. The only change I made was I used dried Bing Cherries I got at Trader Joe's. I was afraid the tart would be too tart. They were delicious.

I'm making corn beef with carrots, Brussels sprouts and potato for dinner. I always use the sprouts instead of cabbage or kraut. I like to steam my veggies separately from the beef. I don't like them to get too mushy. I put butter, salt and pepper on them. I love having left over corn beef for hash.

I had the pork chops again last night and they tasted better than the first night. I do ordinarily eat kraut, but have been wanting to try some for a while. I sort of like it, but I think I have to get use to it. A little goes a long way. The chops were very tender cooked this way. I have half a bag of kraut left over. I'm either going to freeze it or try the chicken recipe next week. The link was on this weeks links.

Kitchen Notes-Pork Chops and Sauerkraut

2010-03-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

Can't say too much about it, because I didn't eat much of it. I was in a veggie mood and ate a plate of veggies first while I was waiting for the pork chops to get done. I ate a little just to see how I liked it and it was ok, but I wasn't over the moon about it either. I don't think I would make this recipe again. Here's how you make it brown your 1" thick pork chops and then put them in an oven proof pan. Mix your kraut with an apple (I used 2 pork chops and 1/2 bag of kraut) 1/8 c. brown sugar (I used agava and molasses). The recipe called for some nutmeg, raisins and walnuts. I left all those out. Pill this mixture over chops and bake at 350 for 1 hr. I'll be having the left overs tonight, maybe it will taste better to me.

Kitchen Notes-Pear Crisp

2010-03-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

Last night I made the pear crisp link here. I changed it from apple to pear. This was another almond flour recipe and I wasn't as crazy about this one. It was OK, maybe I'd like it better with the apples. I've found her recipes to be a little under sweetened some times. It could be that my pears weren't tasty enough. The topping wasn't as crisp as I'd like.

Tonight I'm making Pork Chops with Sauerkraut. The recipe is on the sauerkraut bag so I will let you know how it turns out.

Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

2010-03-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

This has always been one of my favorite soups, but I've never tried making it myself. I found the recipe I used in a book I got from the library. It was recommended to me because it has almond flour recipes in it, but I found that it has some interesting sounding recipes. The title is "Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet" by Raman Prasad. I'm not doing the diet, but just using some of their recipes. I found a recipe on line that is similar here. Mine used less chicken broth and it didn't have the garlic. It was simple to make and you can eat it cold or hot. I cooked mine down until it was nice and rich and I think it would be good with a little dab of sour cream.
Linda

Links

2010-03-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not doing a menu this week because of tummy troubles, but here is a few links of what I will make if I'm up to it.

Stuffed Chicken Cutlets with Ham, Cheese and Sauerkraut

Squash and Zucchini Cakes

Cherry Scones (with almond flour)

Apple Crisp (I was going to use pears, made with almond flour)

Kitchen Notes-Orange Chocolate Torte

2010-03-12T14:42:00.000-08:00

I'm having left overs for dinner, but I did make this Double Chocolate Orange Torte from Elana's Pantry. It was easy and yummy.

Kitchen Notes Goat Cheese Tart

2010-03-11T15:20:00.001-08:00

I finally made the Goat Cheese Tart, link for recipe on menu. I've had to rearrange my menu which usually happens because life intervenes. It was very good. The crust was made from the almond flour. It's the first time I've made an almond flour crust and I'm seeing that you need to roll it very thin or it tends to be a little heavy. It does have a nice flavor though. This is a recipe I will keep and make again. I love goat cheese, but you could also use feta or fresh mozzarella. The onion and tomatoes were both precooked so if you substituted other veggies I would precook them. It only bakes a short time after you put it together and the tart is precooked also.

I steamed some veggies that have been hanging in the frig and I didn't want them to go bad before I use them. Also I can use them in salads.

Linda

Kitchen Notes-Vegetable Soup

2010-03-10T09:00:00.001-08:00

My gd was over yesterday and helped me chop veggies for the soup. It had 1 onion, 1 leek, 2 cups each of celery, carrot, mushrooms and zucchini, so It was a lot to chop. It turned out pretty good, but it was very light. Some rice or beans would be a good addition for body or potatoes if you can eat them. I used dried herbs, bay, oregano and thyme, but I think fresh herbs would really be good.

I wrote a post today on Foxtales about French Soup.

Linda

Menu 3-8-10

2010-03-07T16:41:00.000-08:00

Monday-Caramelized Onion, Tomato, Goat Cheese Tart
Salad with Asparagus and Snow Peas

Tuesday-Vegetable Soup
Scones

Wednesday-same as Monday

Thursday-same as Tuesday

Friday-Shepherd's Pie with Whipped Cauliflower instead of potatoes
salad (grapefruit and avocado)

Saturday-Spaghetti Squash and Chard Gratin
some kind of sausage grilled

Desserts-Melting Apple Custard

Kitchen Notes

2010-03-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

I made the Spicy Bronzed Chicken last night and the Jicama and Grapefruit Salad. The chicken was pretty good. I grilled on my indoor grill. I thought the salad was ok, but probably wouldn't make it again. It sounds better than it is.

Yesterday I made the Macadamia Clusters and the Sesame Truffles. The Truffles are just too sweet. The Clusters are good, but very messy, you have to keep them in the freezer and they still start to melt as you eat them. I guess it's the agava that won't harden.

I'm starting to want lighter foods and think when I plan my menu tomorrow I will look for more vegetarian and lighters meals, maybe more salads and raw veggies.

Almond Flour

2010-03-05T10:23:00.001-08:00

I did a post this morning on Foxtales about my adventures into baking with almond flour. There are several recipe links in the post including the blueberry muffins in the photo.

Skewered Shrimp and Quinoa Salad

2010-03-05T08:56:00.000-08:00

Links to recipes on menu.

I didn't cook Wens. because I wasn't feeling well, but last night I made the shrimp and quinoa. I used snow peas with my shrimp instead of the persimmon in the original recipe. She suggested using veggies as a substitute.

For the quinoa instead of making a warm dish, I used precooked quinoa I had in my frig and made a salad out of it by adding tomato, cucumber, scallions and goat cheese. I didn't want to buy all those herbs and so just got parsley. I think I'll revisit this recipe when I have herbs in the garden, right now all my herbs are asleep.

Everything tasted good.

Stock Pot

2010-03-02T11:13:00.001-08:00

I wanted to work another good habit in the kitchen, see hand washing and prep work. I wanted to remember to keep all the scraps when I prep veggies, but I keep forgetting and so I was thinking about what I could set up to remind myself. I would like something prettier, but may not need this once the habit is established. I also have another one of these, but a little bigger in my freezer. I will use the kitchen counter one to collect that days scraps and then put them in the freezer one. Once it is full then I will make stock. I'm not sure if I want to do the same thing for bones and meat scraps, I'll have to think about that one. I do often cook up the carcass of my chicken when I roast a whole one.

Edit-I realized that when I put the veggies in the freezer they should probably be in a freezer bag. I'm not sure if they would get freezer burn because the plastic container wouldn't have air in it. Also my dd said she doesn't add lettuce because it gets slimy.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work- Day 30 Salad With Warm Goat Cheese

2010-03-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

This is the last day of my 30 days of prep work. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing it but I'm going to stop reporting it here. I will continue to write kitchen notes about what I'm cooking and my weekly menu on Monday.

Today I am having baby back ribs. I had them in the freezer and also some sauce that I had made and stocked in my freezer.

This morning I made my salad. I had several veggies prepped and ready to go and this made putting the salad together quicker and easier. I just cut up my lettuce and veggies into a salad bowl, cover it with saran and put it in the frig. The dressing is added just before serving. I'm making my own dressing, just a lemon vinaigrette and I added scallions, radishes and cucumbers to greens.

I prepped my goat cheese rounds and so they are ready to be sauteed. I love goat cheese this way. It seems to have a milder flavor, but I love goat cheese any way. It's not on the menu, but I'm also going to make some goat cheese dip to use with the crackers I made. I also want to make a goat cheese tart, but I'm not sure if I'll have time. It may be a substitute for one of the other dishes. I have a large log of goat cheese and it doesn't last too long, so I need to plan how I'm going to use it. I get mine at Costco and it's a lot cheaper there, but you have to get a larger amount.

Recipe link for salad on Monday's menu.

Weekly Menu-3-1-10

2010-03-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

Monday-
Oven Baked Baby Back Ribs with Barbecue Sauce
Salad with Warm Goat Cheese

Tuesday-
same as Monday

Wensday-
Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Shrimp Skewers with Veggies
Herbed Quinoa

Thursday-
Chicken with Spicy Bronzed Rub
Citrus Jicama Salad

Friday-
Meat Balls (frozen from last week)
Penne with Swiss Chard and Leeks in a Walnut Cream Sauce

Saturday-
same as Thursday

Sunday-
same as Friday

Desserts and Snacks-
Macadamia Caramel Clusters
Sesame Truffles
Herbed Goat Cheese Dip
Almond Flour Pound Cake (link on last weeks menu)

Kitchen Notes Prep Work Day 29 Fried Zucchini

2010-02-27T14:17:00.001-08:00

I'm eating from the freezer tonight, having left over short rib meat and gravy. I cleaned and cut up a lot of veggies this morning, some for tonight and some for snacks. I had raw veggies that were left over so I thought if I had them ready to eat, I would use them.

I'm making french fried zucchini tonight. I cut them like french fries, dredge them in seasoned flour and fry in oil.

The Curried Chicken turned out really well and it is so simple. See recipe on menu. I gave the family my leftover Zucchini Casserole and they loved it also the Peanut Butter Pie

Linda

Kitchen Notes Prep Work- Day 28 Cheese Crackers

2010-02-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

The Peanut Butter Pie was pretty good. I think I can improve on it though with just a little tweaking. Using good peanut butter, a little salt and maybe vanilla. My dd made some suggestions like drizzling the chocolate instead of spreading it on top.

Tonight I'm making the Curried Chicken. I haven't made it before but I always like it in Indian resturants, so I hope this is what I'm thinking of. This morning I chopped my onion, but decided to not cook it ahead. My gd and I also made some Cheese Crackers with almond flour. I'm doing a post next week on my adventures with almond flour.

Linda

Kitchen Notes Prep Work- Day 27 Peanut Butter Pie

2010-02-25T12:54:00.000-08:00

I made the Peanut Butter Pie today. It's going to be yummy. It's chilling right now. Her method of melting the chocolate didn't work for me. I'd just use a double boiler. For recipe see menu on Monday.

I'm having left over pork chops tonight, but the groc. store had asparagus on special, so I'm having those with it. I prepped those this morning. I'm just going to cut up the left over pork and roasted potato and fry them together.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work Day 26

2010-02-24T14:44:00.000-08:00

No prep needed today. I'm having the left over zucchini casserole. The pork chops were good, nice and tasty and not dry.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work- Day 25 Brined Pork Chops

2010-02-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

This morning I made my brine. I don't use sugar, so I substituted agava and some molasses. You have to heat it up and then let it cool before you put your meat in it. So it's in the frig now for 6 hours.

I also made a salad.

My stuffed pepper last night turned out pretty good, but the pesto makes it a little oily, so I think the fresh basil and cheese would be a little better. You could also just put the pesto on top as you serve it and not mix it in.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work- Day 24 Stuffed Red Pepper

2010-02-22T11:39:00.000-08:00

I'm getting close to the 30 days. This morning I prepped for my stuffed peppers. I didn't have all the same ingredients the recipe called for so I made some changes. I added some fresh mushroom and cherry tomatoes. I took some Pesto out of the freezer to add later. I'm leaving out the fresh herbs and the marinara sauce and cheese. I'm cooking some brown rice so I won't be able to put the stuffing together until later.

I made a red cabbage and carrot slaw with red onion and I will put a vinaigrette on it later, using my cinnamon basil vinegar and olive oil.

Weekly Menue-2/22/10

2010-02-22T06:50:00.000-08:00

Mon-Stuffed Red Peppers
Salad

Tues-Juicy Grilled Chops
Roasted Potatoes
Slaw

Wens-Left over Zucchini Casserole

Thurs-Same as Tues

Fri-Creamy Chicken Curry
Green Beans

Sat-Left overs in freezer (short ribs)
Carrots and Peas

Sun-same as Fri

Desserts for the week- Peanut Butter Pie
Almond Flour Pound Cake

Breakfast-Gluten Free Pancakes

Kitchen Notes Prep Work Day 23 Zucchini and Meatballs

2010-02-20T14:26:00.001-08:00

I did a lot of cooking today, so that I don't have to cook tomorrow. My enchilada's and slaw yesterday were really good. I loved the jicama in the slaw. Today I made a Zucchini Dish. I was going to make a recipe I saw, but when I really looked at it I didn't like the recipe. I had something else in mind and so I tried to recreate what I was thinking of.

I cut the zucchini lenghwise and overlapped them in the bottom of a large baking pan. I used about 3 medium size zucchini. I drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled Italian seasoning, salt and pepper over them. Over that I layer on mini meat balls, that I had browned. I had about 25-1" meat balls.

I used the Fanny Farmer's recipe. For 1 lb of gr. beef you add 1 egg, 1/2 cup dried bread crumbs, Italian Seasoning, salt and pepper to taste, it's suppose to have minced garlic, but I used garlic granules this time, and minced fresh parsley.

I added small cubed mozzarella cheese (about 2 cups). On top of that I layered on sliced fresh mushrooms (about 4-5). Then I covered all with marinara sauce. I covered lightly with foil and put in a 350 oven for about 45 mins. Then I plan to uncover and sprinkle on some grated Parmesan cheese and cook for another 15 mins. I want to make sure the meat balls get cooked through. So I may edit this if I have to make any changes or it doesn't turn out.

I'm not eating this until tomorrow because I think it's the kind of thing that will be better the next day when some of that sauce can absorb. I put a lot of sauce on it.

I also made a dessert and bread out of almond flour, but I'm going to do a blog about that on Foxtales next week.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work-Day 22 Southwestern Slaw

2010-02-19T11:37:00.000-08:00

I saw this recipe for slaw using jicama and I thought it sounded good. It's a recipe for 12 servings and I didn't like her dressing, so I just looked at the ingredients and took it from there. It's basically jicama, red cabbage, red onion, and cilantro. I will probably use a lemon vinaigrette as I don't have lime. Here is the original recipe from Food Network Ellie Krieger.

I sliced up everything and I will dress it later. I also sliced up some scallions and grated some jack cheese for Creamy Spinach Enchiladas. This is from Linda's Low Carb Menus & Recipes (not me) I don't have the ricotta cheese so I'm leaving that out. I also am adding some canned green chiles, mild. I waiting for the spinach to thaw and then I will put them together.

The apple dessert I made yesterday was delicious, but not so much the next day. I really is best still warm from the oven.

Linda

Kitchen Notes Prep Work- Day 21 Melting Apple Custard

2010-02-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

OK I'm back in the cooking grove. Today I wanted to make this dessert I saw in Susan Herrmann Loomis's, "On Tue Tatin". It's "Melting Apple Custard". I thought it was basically caramelized apples in the bottom of a custard and I was just going to do my own thing and use the Fanny Farmers custard recipe which I like. I cut the amount of apples because it seemed like a lot and lowered the oven to what I usually use for custards. About midway I realized that the recipe wasn't what I thought it was. It is really an apple dessert with a custard on top. Lots of apples and less custard, so I only used about have of my custard mixture and put the rest in custard cups. Then I raised the oven temp. a bit. So I'm not sure what I'll end up with, but I will have to try this recipe again. Edit FF custard recipe, just leave out the chocolate and cinnamon.

The whipped cauliflower last night was really good. I put a glob of cream cheese and a little sour cream in it because I was afraid it wouldn't be rich enough, but it actually seemed very rich, maybe to much with the rich short ribs. I would definitely try it again to replace whipped potatoes.

Edit-The apple dessert was delicious. I don't think you could really mess up this dessert no matter what you did to it. Carmelized apples and custard a winning combination. I still want to try what I was originally going to do, put the apples in the bottom of a custard and bake as usual. What I did was really delicious, but I wanted more of everything, more apples and more custard. This is one I'll be playing with.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work-Day 20 Short Ribs

2010-02-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

I'm having Braised Short Ribs tonight. I use a basic recipe from The Kitchen . Short ribs are usually braised which means you brown them, add some liquid, cover and cook low and slow until the meat is falling off the bone.

I used a bottle of beer for my liquid and I added an onion sliced. I dredged them in flour, salt, pepper, thyme and paprika and browned them in my enamel coated cast iron dutch oven. So I just added my liquid and onions to that pot, no need to deglaze that way, covered it and stuck it in a 325 oven for 2 1/2 hours. See link for more specifics.

I also prepped cauliflower and carrots for dinner. People that are doing low carb use cauliflower instead of potatoes. You steam or boil them and drain well. Then puree them in a food processor with butter and so on, just the way you do your whipped potatoes. I'm told it tastes just like potatoes. The carrots I'll either steam or throw in with the short ribs along the way. I think I'll steam them because I don't want the sweetness of the carrots to take away from the savor taste of the beer and onions. You could also roast them or saute them with butter/oil and some seasoning, sugar or fruit juice, fresh herbs. With a rich gravy on the meat I like my vegs. steamed and lighter, they'll get mixed in with the gravy anyway when I'm eating them. I could add them to the cauliflower and puree them together, but I want to see how the cauliflower tastes by itself. I like pureed carrots mixed in with mashed or whipped potatoes.

I started meat fairly early because it can just hang out in the oven on low once it's done and you never know with this kind of thing how long it will take, depends on the quality of the meat.

That's the beauty of this early prep you can get things going early on.

Linda

Washing Hands

2010-02-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

I'm starting a new habit, washing my hands more often. I'm trying to remember to wash my hands more often esp. when I'm going to handle food.

I decided to look for a new liquid hand soap with a yummy fragrance. I love citrus. The one I got that I love is Burt's Bees Citrus & Ginger Root. My idea is that if I like the fragrance I will want to wash my hands more. I have some gratefruit hand lotion and should use it more.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work-Day 19

2010-02-16T12:23:00.000-08:00

No prep needed today, left overs. Just took short ribs out of freezer. I can see that I'm definetly not in a cooking mood like I was when I started this. This always happens. I start out with a bang and then lose my steam. I just hope I keep up having a prep time after the 30 days.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work-Day 18

2010-02-15T10:53:00.001-08:00

No cooking to do this morning. Tuna and rice tonight my go to food when nothing else appeals. I did my menue yesterday, but this morning nothing on it appeals. (short ribs, enchilada's and zucchini bake) I went through recipes that were stuffed in my housekeeping binder and found several that I want to make, but not today. There are some condiments that I want to try making and an herb blend. I threw out a lot of recipes. I'm being more ruthless about decluttering my recipes.

Linda

Kitchen Notes Prep Work-Day 17

2010-02-12T15:42:00.000-08:00

Again I didn't need to do any prep for dinner, but I did make a chocolate custard. Last time I made choc. custard that choc. didn't melt well, so this time I gently heated the milk and choc. together until the choc. was melted and then heated the milk to scald. It seemed to work. I haven't tasted it yet, but I didn't have all that choc. in the bottom of the pan. I'm taking the day off tomorrow.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work-Day 16

2010-02-11T22:25:00.000-08:00

Didn't have to do any cooking this morning just took some things out of the freezer for tomorrow. The candy was good.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work-Day 15 Nut Butter Balls

2010-02-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

Today I didn't have to do any prep for dinner as I have lots of leftovers. I made these
Nut Butter Balls from Elana's Pantry .

They won't be ready to taste until they set up.

I tweaked the recipe a little. The almond butter I used was a little bland and so I ended up doubling the agava, vanilla extract and salt. I also added some bitter chocolate to the bittersweet chocolate chips. She also had a recipe for Nut Butter Cups. I made the balls instead of the cups because it seemed easier.

Elana's Pantry is gluten free recipes.

Edit-I tried one they are pretty good. It's important to make sure you like the taste of the almond butter. Mine was good, but I would like to add something to it, maybe some chopped almonds or dried fruit of some kind, just to give it a little more to it. I would also like to try making my own almond butter next time.

Linda

Kitchen Notes Prep Work-Day 14

2010-02-09T11:42:00.000-08:00

Made a slaw this morning and an egg salad. I liked the Baked Pears except I think I would like them with Cinn. Whipped Cream instead of the Choc. Sauce.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work-Day 13 Baked Pears With Chocolate Sauce

2010-02-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I made Baked Pears. I looked at several recipes and adapted one.

Cut pears in half and core. Put them in a baking pan with a little water in the bottom, about 1/8". Sprinkle them with cinnamon and put in a small bit of butter. Put in a 350 oven for about 1 hour or til tender. Baste with water once half way through.

Made a chocolate sauce by melting some chocolate chips about 1/2 cup in a small sauce pan with 2 tabls. of cream or half and half. You can also do this in a double boiler. Stir til melted and spoon over pears when serving. Whip cream on top would be good or some chopped nuts.

I also thought of making a crumble topping to stuff the pears with, next time.

I also made my own Italian Bread Crumbs. I had some left over Ezekiel Bread and dried it out then ran it through the food processor. Then you just add Italian Seasoning, salt and pepper.
I had about 2 cups bread crumbs and just through in what Italian Seasoning I had left about a tabs. a good pinch of salt (it depends on how salty you salt is, I have a sea salt that is quit salty) and several grinds of pepper. I am making Italian Lemon Chicken later in the week, that is where I got the recipe for the bread crumbs

I also bagged the meatballs I made the other day and put them in my freezer. I added them to my freezer inventory.

Meal Planner post here.

Linda

Fanny Farmer's Meatballs

2010-02-07T11:51:00.000-08:00

As per my dd's request here is the FF meatball recipe. It came from the 13th edition.

1 lb ground beef

1/2 cup dried bread crumbs

1 clove garlic, minced (I used more)

2 tabs. minced parsley

1 tabs. basil, crumbled (I forgot to put this in)

1 egg, beaten lightly

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper

2 tabs. oil

Combine ingredients except oil. Mix well and shape into balls 1 1/2" in diameter. Heat oil and brown meat balls on all sides. Drain off fat. Add your sauce and simmer 25 mins.

Prep Work Day 12

2010-02-06T12:17:00.000-08:00

I wasn't feeling too well this morning, but I still made a salad and marinated the beets. I was going to bake pears but they are rocks.

I started a Meal Planner will be sharing on Foxtales next week.

Prep Work Day 11-Meat Balls

2010-02-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

I finished my freezer inventory and now I'm trying to use my freezer foods more. I made up a menue for what's in my fridge and freezer. I looked in my trusty Fanny Farmers book for something to do with a boneless pork loin in my freezer and found a recipe for mustard glazed pork. I also was looking for short ribs whick I found in my freezer and didn't know I had and she has a basic braised short ribs recipe. I think I have some more intersting ones some place for the ribs so I'll keep looking, but I do plan to try the mustard glazed pork roast. Probably not til next week as I have fresh food and left overs to use up. The original Fanny Farmer book is on line here

Today I made meat balls, divided them and am cooking them with two different sauces. I had some Puttanesca Sauce in the freezer along with some cooked spaghetti squash. So I'm cooking some of the meatballs in the Puttanesca Sauce and will serve it with the spaghetti squash instead of pasta. The meatballs and sauce are in my cast iron pot simmering very very low on the back of my stove. I've been eating dinner early and so I've learned to have something on the back of the stove (you could use a crock pot, but I'm not a crock pot cooker).

The other meat balls I was going to freeze as is, but decided to go ahead and cook them in a tomato sauce with some red wine in it. I'm letting simmer very low for an hour or so.

I just tasted both sauces and they are both good. The tomato sauce with wine one is sweet. The Puttanesca is savory. I like both of them. Puttanesca is good on a lot of things. One of my favorites is on fish.

I also have some golden beets roasting in the oven. I'll use them for salads. I would like to get some feta or goat cheese and just have the marinated beets topped with the crumbled cheese.

Prep Work Day 10-Mixed Fruit with Cardamon

2010-02-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

I'm still eating left overs, but I did make some mixed fruit using frozen blueberries and raspberries with orange zest and juice. I will add chopped apples after the fruit thaws. I wanted to try something different and I was smelling my spices and felt the cardamon had kind of a spicy orangie smell and so decided to put some in. I discovered cardamon when I was doing the teas. Grinding the whole spice is much better then using the preground. I have both and I'm going to throw out the preground it has very little smell compared to the fresh ground. I also added a little agava to sweeten the fruit. You could use honey.

I finished inventorying my freezer. It was easier than I thought it would be. I had to throw out a few things. I'm thinking of getting a food saver.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work- Day 9- Deviled Eggs

2010-02-03T14:40:00.000-08:00

Did you know there is a link for Deviled Eggs. I'm doing the Caper Deviled Eggs. I didn't do prep yesterday because my gd wanted to spend the day with me and I still have alot of food in the frig. that I haven't used yet. I didn't do prep this morning because I got a call about a sale, but I'm doing eggs now and I worked on my freezer.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work -Day 8 Enchilada's

2010-02-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

Even though I had all this lovely food ready to go I had a couple of days when I didn't feel like eating a big dinner so I have left overs. This morning I made a salad and put together my Enchilada's and they are in the oven baking now. I figure they are usually better the next day anyway. I'm also carmalizing my red onions using a method I read about where you cook them at a very low heat for a long time. That's it for today.

I read a post this morning about preping your produce when you buy it and that is one of those things I always mean to do and don't so I'm hoping with this prep time I have every day that that is one chore that I will do now.

Kitchen Notes Prep Wordk- Day 7 Apple Sauce and Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

2010-01-30T12:15:00.000-08:00

So I'm having a Pork Chop tonight with Sauteed Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage and Apple Sauce and Sunday I'm having Beef and Bean Burritos and a Green Salad.

I made the apple sauce this morning. I put a couple of pieces of lemon peel in it some cinn. and some ginger candy that I get in the Oriental section, and some agava for sweetening.

I had some Ajuki beans in the freezer. I noticed them when I did my inventory yesterday and also some hamburger. So I sauteed the hamburger with my whole made Taco Seasoning and then added the beans. I'm using this to fill Burritos tomorrow. I really don't know much about Burritos, I don't usually make them, but I have some low carb tortillas I'm trying.

I also made a green salad to go with the Burritos.

Edit-After a little rest I made coffee custard.

I prepped my red cabbage and some red onion for the Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage. I basically saute the onion to carmalize and then add the cabbage and when it's about half done I add some Balsamic vinegar for the sweet sour component. I add a little at a time so that it continues to carmalize and not steam. Yummy.

I'll probably add another veggie to the Pork Chop dinner, maybe some frozen broc I have.

I also prepped the pork chop by seasoning it with some Bay seasoning I got from Penzeys and S&P.

I sliced up some avocado for my burrito dinner and I'm marinating it in lemon juice, will add to the salad probably.

My dd brought me some lovely raw milk yesterday and I thought about making a custard or pudding but got tired. Maybe I'll make that later today.

So my meals are ready to go not only for today, but for tomorrow and the kitchen has been cleaned. I still want to inventory my small freezer out in the garage and the chest freezer, but I'll probably do that next week. It's a big project.

Kitchen Notes- Prep Work Day 6 Mixed Fruit

2010-01-29T12:34:00.000-08:00

Well I'm having left overs today, but I did make some mixed fruit. I like to squeeze orange juice over it to add some sweetness and some juice and help keep it from turning brown. My dd is coming over and we are trying some new tea she has so she can have her choice of fruit or chocolate mousse.

I started doing a new inventory of freezer this morning during my prep time. I have 2 small freezers and 1 med sized chest freezer. I have so much in them it's hard to find anything. I want to make sure I use a lot of it before the new growing season. The Ratatouille did not look good after I defrosted it, too slimy so I won't freeze that again. I'm learning that some vegs. just don't freeze as well unless you are putting them in a stew or soup. They really break down and esp. if they have been cooked.

Kitchen Notes Prep Work Day 5 Tuna Salad and Baked Apples

2010-01-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

I had some of that good tuna left over and so I decided to make a tuna salad and popovers. I mixed the tuna with red onion, celery, hard boiled egg and capers. I made a dressing with mayo, some dijon mustard, dill and a dash of vinegar (one of my wholemade herb ones), S & P. I will make the popovers later. I'm using the recipe in Fanny Farmers. FF is my go to standard cookbook.

I'm also making baked apples. I also looked in FF for a recipe. I'm using SF DaVince syrup caramel instead of sugar. I put in a lemon peel and a cinn stick in pan along with a little tea I had left over. The recipe called for water and so I though why not use my tea. You cover with foil and bake for 30 at 350 or til done.(edit-it took an hour) I'm using two different kinds of apples to see how they do. One is Fuji the other is Pacific Rose. I normally would use a baking apple, but this was what I had.

I cleaned out frig today and checked out my left overs to see if I had ignored anything. I may freeze the rest of the soup. I might want it tonight, so I'll wait and see, but I'll freeze whatever is left tonight.

Kitchen Notes-Prep Work Day 4-Chicken Veg. Soup

2010-01-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

I've been putting my gd's to work the last two days when I do my prep work. This morning I decided to make soup. I'm calling it the kitchen sink soup. I started with chicken broth and some leek ends that were left over and frozen for future soup. I added some water and I'm letting that cook for a while. My gd cut up celery and carrots for me. I also took out of the freezer sauted leeks, green beans and zucchini slices. I plan to add some garlic too. I will take the leek ends out and add the other ingredients and some herbs and seasoning and just let it simmer for a while. Hopefully it will be good.

I also made a small salad for tonight. I was planning to have the pasta and Ratatoulli, but my tummy was kind of upset last night so I may have the soup instead.

Kitchen Notes-Prep Work Day 3-Chocolate Mousse

2010-01-26T15:23:00.000-08:00

This morning I didn't have to do prep for tonight dinner. I did it yesterday. I'm making Chicken Fried Rice. So I decided to make a dessert. I made my dd's recipe for Chocolate Mousse. Here is a link to her White Chocolate Lemon Mousse I couldn't find the Chocolate one, but you just leave out the lemon and use bittersweet choc. instead of the white choc.

I also thought about what I want to make tomorrow and I want to use some leftover pasta. I love to make a big pancake of pasta and fry it until crispy on each side so I was thinking about what I could serve with it and I remembered I had Ratatouille in the freezer, so I took that out to defrost.

KItchen Notes-Prep Work Day 2-Nicoise Salad

2010-01-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

I ate left overs on Sunday and so I didn't make salad, so I made it this morning. I had romaine lettuce already washed and cut up to that I added my cooked gr. beans, potato and hard boiled egg. I also put in the nicoise olives and tomato. I add my tuna later. I get a more expensive good tuna for this. The dressing I'll add just before I eat it. A Lemon Vinaigrette with Capers.

I also had some left over chicken, veggies and brown rice, so I cut up the veggies and chicken for a stir fry on Tues.

I can see one of the benefit of this prep is remembering to use left overs. I have a lot of pot roast left, but I've eaten it twice so I froze the left overs this morning in freezer bags.

Kitchen Notes- Prep Work-Pot Roast

2010-01-23T13:27:00.000-08:00

I'm going to start trying to develop the habit of prepping in the morning for the meals later in the day. I'm going to do this for 30 days and hopefully by then it will be habit. Sundays will be exempt. I'm going to do it right after breakfast. I'm using this blog to keep myself accountable. So all the posts should be labeled Prep Work for those who don't want to read them.

Day 1- I bought a chuck roast the other day fairly cheap, so I was thinking about how I use to make a pasta sauce with chuck roast. Basically you cooked you made a meat sauce and added the chuck roast whole and cooked them together. The roast was cooked until it fell apart. I don't have ground meat for a meat sauce and so I decided to just try and do an Italian pot roast. So I sauteed onions and garlic, then seasoned the meat with S&P&Italian Seasoning. I browned it with the onions on both sides. Then I added 18oz. can tomato sauce and 1 8oz. can of diced tomatoes. I also added about a 1/2 can of water. I added more seasoning and I cut up a green bell pepper and added that just because I like bell pepper. So I'm cooking it in my enameled cast iron large pot on top of the stove, at a low simmer for 3 hours and will be checking it along the way to make sure it doesn't need more liquid. Edit-Didn't need more liquid, but cook for another hour.

I'm going to make Nicoise Salad so I steamed some green beans and some yellow potato. I'm having it tomorrow, so I still have to hard boil an egg and then I can just put the salad together at the last minute.

The Perfect Recipe-Beef Stew

2010-01-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

I tried another recipe from this book and I thought it was going to turn out really good, but there were several things I didn't like about it, so I'm giving up on this book. I'm going to try and find another one to cook from.

Granddaughter's Tea

2010-01-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

Everything was great. I especially liked the shrimp salad. My gd brought the mushroom brie and crackers.

Shrimp Salad

spinach (about 2-3 cups)

1 scallion chopped

1 cup pea pods steamed and chilled ( you could just do them raw)

1 avocado sliced.

1-2 cups baby bay shrimp

Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/4 c. olive oil (this depends of how much spinach or greens you have)

1 T. balsamic vinegar (this depends on how sweet or tart your vinegar is)

S & P to taste

Actually the way I make my salad dressings is I drizzle on what looks like enough oil to coat the greens, but not too much and then I put in a splash of vinegar, bigger if the vinegar is mild and carefully if it is strong. I do tend to try and use milder vinegars. Then I add the sprinkling of salt and a few grinds of pepper. I was taught to put the oil on first and coat the greens. This method works best for me, but admittedly it takes a few times to know how much. If I'm adding mustard or other flavorings like garlic I do it in a small bowl and whisk it or in a shaker bottle.

Kitchen Notes-Granddaughters Lunch/Tea

2010-01-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

I got the Chocolate Orange Custard made. It's very nice. I used the Fanny Farmer's recipe for Chocolate Custard and just added 2 tsp. orange zest and the juice from 1/2 a med. sized orange to the eggs and sugar mixture. I tried melting the chocolate in a double boiler and then adding it after the hot milk was incorporated. It worked better, but it still isn't totally mixing. It tastes good though.

I also made the Chicken Salad. She didn't want the curry and we decided to leave out the orange because I was putting it in the custard. So I added a little apple cider vinegar to the dressing to thin it out a bit and add a little flavor. I also left out the scallion because they will go in the shrimp salad. I added a little more apple and toasted almonds and dried cranberries. I tasted it and it is good. My chicken salad is better since I started using some dark meat roasted and I leave some of the skin on.

I went shopping and changed the Shrimp Salad to spinach instead of the romaine I was going to use. I realized the chicken salad has a creamy dressing and I don't want both salads to be creamy so I'm going to do a balsamic/ lemon vinaigrette and I did get avocado and the baby shrimp.

Instead of mixed fruit I'm making Fruit Kabobs with pineapple, pear, banana, kiwi and drizzled with caramel sauce (store bought, did you know it has HFCS in it, next time try to make it).

I'm making the Shrimp Salad and the Fruit tomorrow.

Granddaughter's Birthday-A Luncheon For Just The 2 Of Us

2010-01-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

For gd's birthday lunch/tea I'm making my Chicken Salad without the orange. Shrimp Salad, Mixed Fruit and Chocolate Orange Custard. She requested the custard and the chicken salad.

For the Shrimp Salad I'm making a green salad and then topping it with shrimp, chopped celery and pea pods, scallions and a sour cream/mayo dill dressing. Oh I forgot I was going to add avocado, but I didn't buy it, so if I can get a ripe one tomorrow I'll add it.

The fruit is going to be frozen raspberries, banana, and apple.

I'm doing the Chocolate Custard I did before and just adding orange zest and a little orange juice. I think it will be good as long as I don't over cook it.

The Perfect Recip- Stir Fry with Lemon Sauce

2010-01-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

I made the Stir Fry with Lemon Sauce. I liked the way she did her stir fry it's the way I was taught to do it. I'm not so sure about the lemon sauce, it's ok but not my favorite. She has a generic stir fry recipe and you just add the meat and veggies you want and then she has several different sauces, so I think I will continue to try other stir fries with other sauces.

I forgot how messy it is to make a stir fry. There is a lot of prep work. The cooking part is pretty easy.

Cooking With Pam Anderson's The Perfect Recipe

2010-01-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

I've always wanted to really concentrate on one cookbook and cook everything in it that intrigued me so I decided to do it this year. I choose The Perfect Recipe by Pam Anderson and I'm starting with Stir-Fried Lemon Chicken with Snow Peas and Mushrooms. I don't feel I can post the recipes here because they are copyrighted unless I make it my own. I looked for it on line but didn't find it. I'm sure you could find her book in the library if you wanted to try any of the recipes. So I went shopping this morning. I only want to cook economically and low carb. The groc. store I went to didn't have snow peas and so I'm using peas instead. In the beginning of her section on stir fries she has several sauces and this recipe uses the Lemon Sauce. It should be good. I won't be making it until tomorrow. I have a habit of comparing recipes and then coming up with my own version and I may do that. When I looked this book up on Amazon it had a different cover, they may have updated it. Mine is an older copy.

Kitchen Notes-menue and chocolate cinnamon custard

2009-12-30T15:59:00.000-08:00

Last night I had-

Split Pea Soup with Ham Hock
Savoy Cabbage and Carrot Slaw with Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing
Chocolate Cinnamon Custard

The custard was a recipe from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook which I tweaked a bit. Here's what I did.

2 egg yolks

3 eggs

1/2 c. agava ( was sugar)

1/8 tsp. salt

3 c. scaled half and half (was milk)

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. cinnamon (was nutmeg)

1 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate melted in milk while it is being heated

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place 8 custard cups in a large pan and fill pan with hot water up to 1". (recipe buttered cups, I didn't)

Beat yolks and eggs together just enough to blend. Stir in agava or sugar, cinnamon and salt and slowly add hot milk and melted chocolate. (the chocolate didn't all melt, so next time I need to either chop up the chocolate in smaller pieces or melt is separately. Also the cinnamon didn't blend in it separated, so need to solve that problem. In the original recipe she sprinkled nutmeg on top.)

Add vanilla. Strain into a large measuring cup or bowl with a spout so you can pour it into the cups without spilling. (Barefoot Contessa says you need to strain because you can get a skin on the milk.) Bake for 30 mins. (Take out when it is still jiggly or it will be over baked, it will thicken up a lot as it cools.) (Next time I'm going to try this with the milk as it seemed a little too dense, but it may be because I did over bake it.)

Greek Seasoning

2009-12-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

Equal parts

lemon peel
garlic granules
oregano

Kitchen notes- appetisers Christmas

2009-12-26T09:09:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve day and so on Christmas my 2 dd's and I sat around and nibbles on appetisers plus a salad and watched Jule and Julia. We had

2 frozen appetisers from Trader Joe's. One was flat bread with Ratatouille which we added Tapenade to. The other was puff pastry with a Feta/cream cheese topping and caramelized onions.

My dd made a grapefruit and avocado salad. I provided salami, crackers, goat cheese, figs, the tapenade, bread. My other dd brought cookies. We slit open the figs and put in the goat cheese and some toasted hazelnuts, delicious. Thanks to dd.

I want to start keeping track of our menus. I will keep them along with other things under kitchen notes.

Candy Cane Tea

2009-12-25T19:52:00.000-08:00

I made this for my dd for Christmas

2 parts black tea, I used English Breakfast
1 part mint
1 part crushed candy canes

Split Pea Soup

2009-12-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

I put together a couple of recipes and it turned out very tasty. Here's what I did-

1 c. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tabs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. salt (see note on ham hock)
1 tsp. pepper
2-3 chopped carrots
2-3 chopped celery
1 lb. dried green split peas
8 c water
ham hock (I had two in a package so I put them both in, the large one had lots of meat the small one didn't have any, so 1 large ham hock with some meat would be good. The ham hock added a lot of salt to the soup so you might want to wait to salt at the end)

In a 4 qt. pot saute onions and garlic with olive oil til onions translucent. Add carrots, celery, oregano, thyme, bay leaf, split peas, ham hock and water. Simmer on a low heat covered til ham hock done. Then take out and ham hock to cook enough to handle. If soup is too thin reduce, then put in blender, in batched. When ham hock is cool pull off meat and shred, add to soup. Taste for seasoning. Also we are planning to add some chopped ham when we serve. We wanted lots of meat in it.

My part of Christmas dinner

2009-12-21T10:31:00.000-08:00

My dd found this recipe for me on line for Orange Creme Brulee I tried making a trial recipe yesterday. Because I was switching out the sugar for agava. Here is what I did-

2 3/4 c. whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla
9 egg yolks
1/2 agava syrup
2 tsp. orange zest
1/4 c. orange juice

Preheated oven to 325 degrees. Put 6 small custard cups in a roasting pan.

Place cream and vanilla in a saucepan over med. heat. Cook, stirring, for until it comes to a simmer. Strained through a strainer into a glass bowl or something with a spout. I used a large meaning cup.

Meanwhile, (actually I did this first), whisk together ( I used a small hand mixer) egg yolks, and agave (you can use sugar or honey, if you use sugar than don't reduce cream as I did, look at original recipe by clicking link) until combined.

Whisk hot cream mixture into egg-yolk mixture slowly. ( I started out with a drizzle). Stir in orange zest and juice.

Pour into custard cups. Than pour boiling water into pan until it comes up half way on your custard cups, be careful not to get water in your custard. Bake 30 mins. or til set. Mine took 45 mins. I haven't tried it yet so I don't know if this was too long or just right. They look good. I readjust this recipe if I find they were over baked.

Remove custard cups and let them cook for 2 hours and then chill in frig for at least 6 hours. I made mine ahead because I think they should be nice and chilled. I didn't do the sugar top because I am topping mine with raspberries. I have some in the freezer I'm just going to thraw and sweeten a little, not too much, with agava.

SALAD
So I'm also making a green salad with marinated shrimp on top. I will cook my shrimp and then marinate them in olive oil, lemon, mustard, capers, scallion, salt and pepper to taste. I will marinate them for a couple of days. The salad is mixed greens with lemon and olive oil dressing. I was thinking avocado would be good with this too.

Brown Bag Cookie Molds

2009-12-18T15:56:00.000-08:00

I've had these molds for years and not done anything with them. We are decorating cookies and a gingerbread house tomorrow so I thought it would be fun to make these for the girls to decorate. My dd was here today and helped me figure out the unmolding process. I lost the directions and recipes long ago, so I looked them up on line at Brown Bag Cookie Molds Here is the recipe I used.

Orange Flower Cookies

1/2 c softened butter

3/4 c. sugar

1 lg. egg

1 Tabs. Orange rind, grated fine (I left this out) and added a little water instead

1 Tabs. orange liqueur or juice (I also left this out)

2 c. all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

grated nutmeg

Cream butter and sugar til light. Stir in egg, grated rind and orange liqueur in using or water.

Now mix the salt and nutmeg with flour and mix into butter mixture. Knead dough for a min. on an unfloured surface and chill for 20 mins. (I wrapped it in wax paper). Then follow directions for molding cookies and bake in a 350 degree oven until edges are a little brown, don't over cook them.

Directions for molding are on the website linked above. Basically you need to brush the molds with a tiny bit of oil and wipe off any excess then put lots of flour in them. Press dough into mold and unmold onto a cookie sheet. If it breaks or sticks start over with more flour. I found I got the knack of it quickly. The first one I had to do over. They really just fell our if there was enough flour.