Two Things Tried

     Okay, so my fridge was kind of empty again today...So I had to invent!! I had some chicken in the fridge thawing out, and had this brilliant idea come to mind. So, here is what I did:
     I put about 2 TBS of olive oil in a non stick pan, then added finely chopped onion, dried basil, and a little lemon juice. Then I cut my chicken thighs into time pieces and put them in the pan to cook. I also sprinkled a little bit of lemon pepper on the chicken.
     In another pot, I made about 2 cups of chicken broth. I still had some gravy left from that other experiment (see previous post) so I added about a cup of that to it too. Then, I added some corn starch to thicken it into a sauce.
     Last, I boiled some spaghetti noodles. After they were cooked and drained, I put the chicken into the sauce and that went on top of the noodles-kind of like alfredo. It was really good...I just think the sauce should have been thicker. It also would have been yummy to add some veggies to the broth.
     The second thing I tried today was brownies. About a week ago, I made brownies from a recipe book I got in 8th grade-which can be a bad idea, as 8th graders can be prone to type stuff wrong. The brownies were really dry, so I made some fudge sauce too. Well, the brownies got eaten, but the sauce did not. So, the 2nd thing I tried today was a modification of that dry brownie recipe. Instead of using the cocoa called for in the recipe, I used the sauce. I also had to add milk, so the brownies weren't super dry. Also, I had about 1/4 cup of cream cheese in my fridge that I threw in. It turned out pretty good. Very interesting flavor.

     When I have gone shopping again, I will recreate the chicken and noodle recipe using actual measurements. It was a really good recipe. :)

Bon Appetite!

LP

Lesson Learned

     Finally! My computer if fixed! Now I get to explain yesterday's cooking catastrophe. I have only made 2 dishes that I have been told flat out never to cook again. The first was goulash, which my dad grew up eating and hated...thus the dislike and request never to cook it again. The second was sweet and sour meatballs...they just turned out nasty and I was quick to agree that I shouldn't make them again any time soon. I now have another thing to add to the list. Last night, I decided to make mashed potatoes in a whole new way. I was feeling lazy and decided to use my Idahoan Potato mix-flavor being roasted garlic. The twist I wanted to try was to use half of the water required and then substitute the other half with the left over gravy/broth mix from the last experiment (see previous post). It seemed like a good idea, but the flavor of the broth mix clashed really bad with the garlic. In short, it was disgusting and the smell was so strong  I thought I'd die! Lesson learned.
    I do want to make one point here. Eventually, I will try to make sweet and sour meatballs again. I will also eventually try to make a goulash recipe that my dad will like. Lastly, I will eventually try the potato concept again...without using garlic flavored potatoes.
     On another note, I am trying to make broiled chicken for the first time. We'll see how it turns out!

Cheers!

-LP

Dinner Tonight :)

     Tonight for dinner I tried to recreate a dish that I came up with for Sunday dinner about a week ago. there were several things wrong with the dish then so I figured I would try again. Tonight when I cooked, I measured everything out, so here is the recipe for what I think I will call Chicken-Boiled Potatoes. Caution: You may want to read through this entire post before you try this recipe.

Chicken-Boiled Potatoes
                                                           
Chicken:
4 Chicken Thighs
4 C water
1TBS Candont Pesto Classic paste
1/3 C Lemon Juice
1 tsp basil
1/8 C butter

Before cooking

     Mix water, lemon juice, and basil in a large bowl (one that has a lid to go with it). Rinse off chicken thighs and place in the water mixture. Put the lid on and refrigerate. You can let it soak for an hour to 2 days. I let mine soak for two days because I had to go shopping.
     After the chicken has soaked as long as you want, you can do several things. Tonight, I pulled one of my pyrex dishes from the cupboard to cook the chicken in the oven. I cut the butter into 5 pieces and put pieces all around the pan. Then, I used the Pesto Paste, and put a little on the underside of each thigh, kind of like a rub. I put the chicken paste-side down in the pan, put the lid on it, and cooked it until it was done.

After cooking

   ALSO: I use my slow-cooker (crock pot) a lot. You can do this same process, and just leave it to cook on low. I have also cooked the chicken in a pan on the stove. Every method yields slightly different chicken. Slow cooker chicken is usually really tender, and not rubbery at all.



Preheat oven to 400 (Fahrenheit)

Potatoes:  (This isn't just potatoes, but I couldn't come up with a short enough name for it.)
7 medium potatoes
2 quarts water
3 TBS chicken base (I used the paste stuff)
1 TBS basil
3 C baby carrots
3/4 C onions, chopped
1/8 C butter

    Put the 2 quarts of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. While you wait, cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch slices and set aside, and chop the onions to your desired size (mine were in 1/4 inch pieces). After the water begins to boil, mix in the chicken paste until there are no clumps. Add 1 TBS basil to the mixture. Put the potatoes, carrots, and onion in the chicken broth and basil mixture. Cook until the potatoes and carrots are tender about half way through.

Butter in the dish

   In a baking dish (mine was Pyrex again) cut up the butter into pieces. Spread the pieces along the bottom of the pan. Put the vegetables from the pot and pour them over the butter. DO NOT DUMP OUT THE BROTH MIXTURE. Pour about 3/4 cup of the broth mixture over the top of the potatoes. This will help to keep them moist in the oven. Put the lid on the baking dish and cook until the potatoes and carrots are soft all the way through. I also sprinkled a little salt and pepper over the top of the veggies.

Before baking

     Last, if you so desire, you can turn the broth into gravy. All you gotta do is mix cornstarch with cold (emphasis on the cold) water. Mix it with the broth, bring it to a boil, boil for a few minutes and viola! Gravy!! You can find instructions for the cornstarch mixture on the back of the cornstarch box.
   

After baking

Okay, now, here are a few things I learned from doing this dish.

1. Potatoes cut in 1/4 inch slices cook a LOT faster than potatoes cut in chunks. When I tried this dish the first time, I used potato chunks. I would recommend doing the chunks, personally.

2. If you are going to cook the chicken in the oven, get it started and cooking BEFORE you start the veggies boiling-especially if you do potato slices and not chunks.

3. Sugar can help make something that was too spicy a little less so. Got to be careful though, or suddenly your gravy will be too sweet instead. (this happened to me)

4. I was in a hurry tonight and used baby carrots. Last time I tried this, I used long carrots that I pealed and cut into 3 inch pieces. It tasted much better that way.

Dinner on the table

How it looks on a plate. ;)

5. The chicken was soaking in the lemon water too long. I think, because the Pesto paste had a slight lemon taste, that it would have been a good idea to mix some of the paste with water and use that to soak the chicken in.

     We had a few friends over tonight to be my guinea pigs. A special thanks to Chris and Clairissa for lending their services. Here is the rating scale I am going to use:

Name of guinea pig (gp)
Rating for chicken with gp comments
Rating for potatoes and carrots with gp comments'

Chris: He was funny because he didn't really care much about details in the dish
Chicken: 4 (no comment)
Potatoes: 4.5-Potatoes were too mushy, but still tasted good
Carrots: 5-Loved them!

Clairissa: Clairissa was my toughest critic tonight. :)
Chicken: 3-The outside tasted good but because of the soaking in the lemon juice, the inside tasted off.
Potatoes: 4-Too mushy
Carrots: 4-Not much flavor in them (she said they weren't fresh and young enough, which is accurate. The younger the carrot, the better it tastes)

Bryan:
Chicken: 3-for the same reasons listed above
Potatoes: 4-Too mushy
Carrots: 5-Loved them!

     I calculated the average of the above scores. Turns out this meal now had an overall rating of a 4 out of 5. I can already see a lot of things that I can (and will) change about this dish. Hope you enjoyed it!

LP

Full Fridge Again (Finally)

     I went shopping today and refilled my fridge. We hadn't been to the store in several weeks, so we had a lot to buy. I went down the discount isle to see if I could find anything to cook with. I found some sage, and 2 different rubs that looked like they might be interesting.
     Anyway, I haven't been able to create in a few days since we had nothing to cook with. :) I'm excited now, because I've had chicken thighs soaking in lemon water and basil for a day or two, and tomorrow I get to use it in the dish I have been concocting in my head for the past week or so. Hopefully I can take some pictures of the completed dish tomorrow too!
     On another note, I watched a video on Yahoo! today that featured chefs using dandelions in food. They had dandelion oil, dandelion cookies and jelly, dandelion calzone, and a lot of other interesting dishes. It made me want to go outside and pick a bunch of the noxious weeds to cook with. Hmm...maybe someday. I love to watch all those cooking shows because it helps to feed my idea bank. Anyway, for anyone who wants to see the famous yellow "flower" actual become useful, here is the link: http://screen.yahoo.com/the-great-dandelion-cook-off-29598394.html?pb_list=809f7f41-46e5-4104-9eba-e0702551faaf

Cheers,

LP

How It All Started For Me

     I have always enjoyed cooking. As a teenager, I cooked dinner for the family a lot; not because I had to, but because I enjoyed looking up recipes and trying them out. My family became my unofficial guinea pigs when it came to my creations. When I left home to go to college, things changed a little. Not only was I on a budget, which limited what I could cook, I had to start planning around classes and such. I ended up on the typical "college kid menu," which consisted of prepackaged foods that were easy to make.

     Around the time I met my husband, I started to really cook again. I discovered that cooking is like any other talent-if you don't use it, you lose it. All those months of a college kid diet had completely slashed my creative thinking when it came to food.

     It took a few months after we were married for that creative thought to reappear in my mind. When it did, I started to do something I had never done before: I started creating my own recipes. Up until now, I have never recorded these recipes anywhere but in my memory. This blog is so I have that record and can share what I make with others.

     Recording the recipes may turn out to be a bigger job than I can do. You see, I don't use measurements when I cook from my own recipes. My husband says I have a "Remmy-like" ability. For those who don't understand that reference, Remmy is the Rat from Rattatouille. But I digress. When I cook, I decide what spices should be used based on smells. I discovered that if the spices smell good together when they are just in their jars, they will go well together in the food. I also have to take into consideration what it is I am cooking. For instance, I wouldn't use Seasoned Salt and Lemon Pepper in Chicken Noodle Soup. The two aforementioned spices go very well together, but they don't go very well in Chicken Soup. This I know from experience.

    With that said, I will make every effort to accurately record the measurements I use, and to not just "dump and chuck." Instead of being Amelia Bedelia, (who mixes "a little of this and a little of that")  I will try to be as the chef on Yahoo's Chow Ciao (I think his name is Fabio).

Cheers,

LP