Tag Archives: Cooking

At Least There Was Cake!

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Zekie and me

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

As I’ve mentioned, my husband puts on a Valentine’s dinner for the family every year. This year was rather challenging trying to pull it all together. In the morning I was vacuuming the house and discovered that the drum filter had slipped on the vacuum so was not seated properly. This allowed dust to blow into the air. My husband is allergic to dust. Not a good time.

After that, normal preparations continued and arrival of the first guests was scheduled for four o’clock. At 1:30 pm, the power went out. Most of the food was ready, so we waited. At 3:30 there was still no power so we moved the location to my mother in law’s. As soon as we finished loading up the five course dinner, our power came back on. The truck from the electric company was still parked down the street so we opted to stick with taking the dinner elsewhere.

We spent a large portion of the week preparing and cleaning with no one to appreciate it. In a couple more weeks this will probably seem quite humorous. Hey, at least there was cake!

Black Forest Cake

Pancakes, It’s What’s For…

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One of my favorite breakfasts. Or lunches or suppers for that matter. Pancakes!

These are blueberry-chocolate chip. I find the ones I am happiest with are if I use Bisquick. I do add a little more liquid than called for so they spread out and I can make a bigger pancake.

I generally use almond milk for the liquid, but regular milk, or even eggnog are good too. I like to add in either vanilla or almond extract for extra flavor.

Then I jazz them up with add-ins like blueberries, chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, or maybe puréed banana or canned pumpkin. If I make pumpkin I also add molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, plus chocolate chips. This makes them similar to pumpkin pie.

The humble pancake can be turned into so much more

Stuffed Flounder

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Stuffed Flounder with Imitation Crab

We had stuffed flounder with oven fried potatoes and broccoli for dinner. I made up my own recipe for the flounder and was pleased with how it turned out.

The potatoes were peeled, cubed, mixed with extra virgin olive oil, garlic powder, and salt. I tossed to coat and baked in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes, turning once. They were nicely browned and crispy.

The broccoli was left over from another meal. I microwaved it to put on the side. No reason to go crazy when I had the other dishes to prepare.

The flounder was the most labor intensive part of the meal. First, I had to make the stuffing. I used an 8 oz. package of imitation crab meat that I chopped to a fine mince. I added a couple Tablespoons of finely minced onion, then added some Italian bread crumbs, a couple Tbsp. mayonnaise, Old Bay Seasoning, salt, and 1/3 teaspoon of horseradish. Mix all ingredients together. I put foil on a small cookie sheet, then put the stuffing on the sheet in a straight line about 4 x 1 inches. Set this aside until the flounder is breaded.

I did something different with the flounder, at least for me. Rather than coating it with egg, which always slides off with the breading, I thinned some mayonnaise with milk then added salt and pepper. I cut the flounder filets in half and coated each half in the mayonnaise mixture and then in an Italian breadcrumb and cornmeal mixture. I put one half of the filet on each side of the line of stuffing on the cookie sheet. Bake for 17 minutes at 400 degrees along with the potatoes.

Dinner is served.

I don’t give exact measurements for most items because I believe everyone should make adjustments to suit their own tastes. You know best what you like!

Indonesian Stir-Fried Noodles, Yum!

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My attempt at Stir-Fried Noodles-not bad!

I tried making something new for dinner tonight. That is not unusual. The unusual part was that I used a recipe. The recipe was for Easy Mie Goreng or Indonesian Stir-Fried Noodles. I did alter the recipe slightly to accommodate my ingredients. I found the recipe in a book I checked out from the library. Gotta love your local library. The name of the cookbook is Rice. Noodles. Yum. by Abigail Sotto Raines. Most of the recipes look tasty but use ingredients that I don’t have on hand. This recipe was pretty basic so I gave it a try. It was delicious and I look forward to having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

The final product did come out looking similar to the picture in the book. Their shrimp were larger but otherwise, very similar. It wasn’t overly difficult to make either. I would recommend this recipe. If you don’t mind tracking down some of the ingredients, a number of the other recipes look delicious as well. Things like oyster sauce and tamarind paste are not something I have easy access to. I suppose I should try looking on-line. Also, I did not know there are different kinds of soy sauce such as dark or sweet. What they carry at my local stores just says soy sauce. I did substitute finely sliced green cabbage for the Napa and Bok Choy. These would have been $12 for each head at my local grocer.

I certainly can’t complain about the results though. We both had two servings of this noodle dish for dinner. If you’re looking for something tasty and different from your usual fare, give this a try.

The Art of Food

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The year 2020 got off to a good culinary start. With our traditional pork and sauerkraut that I made for everyone else, we had raisin walnut cinnamon bread that I made this morning. It was delicious with some butter but I couldn’t help but think what amazing French toast it would make. I love making bread. The dough is so soft and smooth when I knead it. It is therapeutic.

My mother in law spent the afternoon with us and joined us for the New Year’s meal. She brought an amazing coconut cream pie that she made this morning. It was also delicious!

We are fortunate to have a family of good cooks who appreciate cooking and baking for the art they can be!

Pizza, Mangia!!

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From time to time I like to make homemade pizzas. They are fun because you can make up your own concoctions with whatever you want. My pizza dough recipe makes enough for two pizzas. You can make both at the same time or save the dough in the refrigerator to make the second pizza on another night.

I just use the standard pizza dough recipe that came with my bread machine. If I’m going to be away, I will make the dough in the bread machine so it is ready when I get home. If I’m around the house anyway, I knead the dough by hand. You could also use pizza dough from the freezer section of your grocery store. 

Above is my red pizza before it goes into the oven. This one has fresh mushrooms, black olives, and chicken sausage on half. The cheese is cheddar. I find that the cheese you use doesn’t really matter as long as you don’t mind a non-traditional pizza.

And here is the pizza after baking. My pan has holes to make the pizza crispier and make it cook more evenly. For the sauce I just used jarred spaghetti sauce of your choice. I often use Del Grosso Three Cheese.

This pizza is actually the favorite in our house. It is a white seafood pizza. The crust is brushed with olive oil, then topped with sea stix, shrimp, chopped marinated artichoke hearts, minced fresh garlic, and Old Bay Seasoning. The cheese on this one is a six cheese Italian Blend.

I bake the pizzas at 425 degrees for 15-17 minutes. Let them cool a few minutes, then slice and serve!

Soup’s On!

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Hot soup after working outside on a cold afternoon. My husband has been making and installing old-fashioned storm windows for our old-fashioned house. I help a little bit (very little) when I get home from work. So soup hit the spot this evening.

I sautéed some garlic, onions, and celery, then added the rest of the broth that I made a couple weeks ago and put in the freezer. I added some Slovenian sausage, also from the freezer, that we purchased on a trip to Rogers Flea Market back in the summer. Then I threw in some green lentils so I would have some protein as I avoid eating meat and would pick that out, saving it for my husband. Next came cubed sweet potatoes, chopped zucchini, some celery leaves and spinach. For spices I used salt, pepper, basil, oregano, garlic and onion powders.

You may notice that I use fresh garlic and garlic powder in the same recipe. I do this on purpose because each adds a different, unique flavor that complements dishes in a different way.

Everything simmered in a pot on the stove while we finished up a storm window. When we came back inside, the house smelled wonderful and dinner was ready. Bliss.

Results Not As Expected!

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I’m usually a pretty good cook. I do well with cooking meals although baking is my specialty. Most of what I make is at least edible.

So I was not happy when I had one of those experiences recently where I followed a recipe and the results came out nothing like the picture. I have to admit the difference for actual vs. expected is pretty humorous.

There is soggy liquid around my sliced caramel apples. The apples apparently made liquid which combined with the caramel to form a syrup and slid the caramel right off, rather than having candy coated apples.

I was hoping to take these to my niece’s birthday party. That did not pan out because I didn’t think anyone wanted a bowl of caramel apple soup.

Oh well, good for a laugh!

A Holiday Dinner

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In our family, Valentines Day is a family affair. My husband started the tradition because he wanted to do something special for all the women in the family and it became a couples event. There is much planning, shopping, prepping, cooking, and baking that takes place.

We get out the good dishes. There are decorations, and flowers.

And of course there is cake made from scratch! This one was a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

The menu was:

Homemade potato vegetable soup with heavy cream

Marinated salad with cucumber, olive, onion and other delights

Flank or tuna steak from the grill with reduced mango sauce

Fettuccine

Asiago Cheese Bread

Carrot Cake

Occasionally a guest joins our family to partake of the fun. Sadly, this year was an adults only event since my nieces were sick. We didn’t get to see them in their matching tights with hearts on them. We did have three guests of the canine persuasion in addition to our own so it was still an exciting event.

Fresh Bread

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I have been enjoying baking bread. It is such a heartening cold weather activity. It is good for the palate and the soul.

There is nothing like slicing a piece of bread while it’s still warm from the oven and melting a pat of real butter on it. That is all. The yeasty simplicity needs nothing more.

Tomorrow when it’s day old, will be the time to have it toasted and drizzled with honey.

This particular loaf is whole wheat. And there is enough dough in the refrigerator to make a second loaf later in the week. Something to look forward to mid-work week.