Lesson Learned

Ah... weekends. Two more days to play with my new mixer! Husband and I went on a fun Friday night date to the supermarket, so I was all ready to continue with my experimentations.

Alas, did you know that you cannot make meringues with store bought egg whites? I didn't! Turns out it says so on the carton, in tiny writing. Who has time to read tiny writing in the grocery store? I didn't have time to read it until after my failure had become obvious. At this point my plans fell apart and I threw some flour into the frothy not whipped egg whites and sugar... and called it a cake? (more like guessed it a cake). Actually, I think almost accidentally created an angel food cake, it puffed up huge in the oven, but then deflated to the thickness of a pancake (which is pretty much exactly what happened the time I tried to make an angel food cake for real). This "cake" tasted great, but was impossible to eat, it was like chewing gum with a crunchy layer on top... I salvaged a few crunchy bits (husband declared them a delicious breakfast the next morning) and started over with REAL, HAND SEPARATED egg whites. Finally, SUCCESS! All these, from just 2 egg whites:

They look kind of like peeps, don't they?

While all of this was happening, I had some ropa vieja in the crockpot, getting ready for our dinner guests from Thundermoon Farm (not the animals of course!). But I still needed to make dessert! I had some leftover pound cake that was tasty but dry, and strawberries were on sale this week... so my plan was to try out my mixer on some home made whipped cream to tie those two together! I though to myself, if I succeeded in whipping egg whites, cream will be easy, right? WRONG! I don't know what I did wrong, but my whipped cream wouldn't get whippy enough! Tasted fabulous though... especially with a little sugar and vanilla thrown in... mmm. Unfortunately I only ended up with about half as much whipped cream as estimated... so my trifle was more like an ugly single layer mess that tasted great.

Dinner was a success, I taught our guests how to play Scattergories (which, as I discovered thanks to college roomies is 2nd only to trivial pursuit, and muuuuch easier to play), and we had a great night! Fun was had by all (I hope)!

Birthday Presents!

It's not even my birthday yet, but so far I've gotten the best presents possible! I found out this morning that I passed my professional engineering exam, woohooo! And Husband got me this awesome kitchen aid stand mixer for my birthday! It's so pretty!

So, what's the first thing you have to do when you get a stand mixer?

Whip!

I didn't have any cream, so I whipped egg whites and made my first ever meringue cookies! I screwed up the recipe (added a 1/2 cup of cocoa instead of a 1/4 cup... woops!) but I corrected for it (added enough water to make it moist...) and they turned out reasonably delicious, and super duper chocolatey. Here's a picture!

But then what do you do with all those leftover egg yolks? I searched and searched... and settled on another first: homemade pasta! Again, I screwed up the recipe. I reversed the order of dry/wet, and got a whole lot of dry mess! I again added a little extra water to hold it together, and gave myself the ab workout of a lifetime trying to roll out the pasta dough. But it might have worked! I haven't had a chance to make dinner yet since I made the pasta, so I have no verdict on my rescue efforts. Maybe we'll find out tonight!

I'm pretty sure this is not what pasta dough is supposed to look like...

...but maybe it worked anyway?

2011, a year of deliciousness?

So it's been a while. Maybe 2011 will be a year of better blogging? We'll see. Hopefully I won't have to resit the PE exam (i should find out in a few weeks... the anticipation is killing me!) And hopefully I won't have to spend all my internet time browsing real estate, because we finally bought a house! We moved in right before Christmas, and set up a tree before we'd even begun to unpack! 2 years in a row of Christmas moves taught me to get my priorities straight.

We even hosted my family Christmas dinner! We still did Christmas morning at Mom's, but we packed up the refrigerator and commenced the cooking at nuestra nueva casa.

Sister and mom practically kicked me out of my kitchen (which i dont even know my way around yet) and made a delicious dinner! I helped here and there, but they definitely deserve all the credit. We started out with some baked brie and shrimp cocktail, but graduated onto roast pork with stuffed apples (amaaaazing stuffed apples), cauliflower and fennil gratin, simple greens with a mustard vinagrette, carmelized onion mashed potatoes, and pan blackened (with butter?) brussel sprouts. Look, here we are:

To top it all off we dined on peanut butter brownies, everything oatmeal cookies, and a pineapple layered cheesecake that was to die for. mom gave me the recipe, i can't wait to experiment with other fillings! I lived on leftovers all week, expanding my belly in preparation for new years eve's banquet.

For new years, mom and dad returned to nuestra nueva casa for more snacks, cuban food, sangria, and chocolate fondue and games. I've oversimplified... let me try again. Cheese and crackers. Mom's shrimp dip (one of my favorite things in the world), chips and guacamole, veggies and dip, cuban lobster, ropa vieja, cuban black beans (the husband cooks!), rice, Toblerone fondue, scategories, and wii sports. Thank god husband's friend joined us or we would have died of overindulgence. As it was, we all went to bed with belly aches, though the sangria helped dull the pain of over expanded stomach's (until the heartburn kicked in of course!).

Hopefully all that delicious food means that there will plenty more where that came from in 2011 (though perhaps without the belly aches?)

Easy Recipe for Mom's Shrimp Dip

• 1 jar of cocktail sauce
• 1 small tub of cream cheese (light is ok, but fat free is gross)
• 1 can of tiny shrimp (same size as a normal tuna fish can)
• 1 box of Triscuits
• pie dish or other shallow serving dish

The combo of ingredients sound weird, but it's delicious!

1. Spread the cream cheese in an even layer covering the bottom of the serving dish. Aim for 1/4 inch, doesn't have to be perfect, you can use as much or as little as you want.
2. Pour half the jar of cocktail sauce over the cream cheese.
3. Rinse the can of tiny shrimp and dump into the center of the dish, on top of the cocktail sauce.
4. Pour remaining sauce over shrimp.
5. Gently, using the back of a spoon, distribute the saucy shrimp mess evenly over the cream cheese layer.
6. Serve with Triscuits! Mmm mmm!

I guess summer isn't over yet!

It may be October, but my little balcony garden isn't done trying yet.

I guess little gardens produce little fruits? Check out the bountiful mini produce I'm getting:

That big green pepper is almost a normal size!

Yaaay Fall!

I'm diving right into this cold weather! This past weekend i made not one, but 2 delicious and hearty soups/stews. (in other words, i've been procrastinating with my studying).

I'm a big supporter of "one pot" cooking. So i make lots of soupy stewy type meals, intended to be eaten in a bowl, because I'm also a big fan of spooning. I should also mention that i make up recipes as i go, so sometimes they could use improvement.

Saturday, we had:
Butternut Squash, Apple, Sausage, and Tortellini Soup

Chopping list:

• 2 lbs butternut squash, 1/2 inch to 1 inch pieces (i used the pre-cut kind, it was actually cheaper!)
• 1 or 2 apples, diced ( i used 3, too many i think.)
• 1 small potato, peeled and diced (i used red, but shouldn't matter much)
• 1 medium onion, diced

Other:

• 3 links sweet italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 package frozen cheese tortellini
  
• 1/2 tsp herbs de provence ( i have this one with a built in grinder and i love it... i definitely bought it at a regular grocery store, but i don't know which one)
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 carton (4 cups?) chicken broth
• water... enough to cover what chicken broth can't
• a little butter? (i didn't use, but would have been a good flavor addition)

Optional:

• 1 beer for enjoying while cooking
• music (optional) for singing and dancing while cooking (I used a combination of Ella Fitzgerald and "Rhythms del Mundo: Cuba)
  
• Blender (I looooove my kithen aid immersion blender)

Instructions:

• Open beer
• Cue music (Que? Queue?)
  
• In large pot, brown and crumble sausage. Anyone know a good way of doing this? I end up with giant chunks, but it doesn't really matter, since they're still delicious.
• Sip beer. Start nodding your head to the music.
  
• When fully cooked, remove sausage, put in a bowl, and set aside.
• In same large pot, now greased with sausage juices, add onions and spices and saute until onions begin to turn translucent. I bit of butter would be good to add here for increased flavor, but I didn't think of it at the time.
• Sing into your beer bottle microphone.
  
• Add remaining vegetables. Stir well.
• Add broth and enough water to cover vegetables. Dance a bit while it comes to a boil, then some more after reducing to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are fork tender.
• If you want a creamy soup, remove from heat and submerge immersion blender, or blend small amounts at a time in a traditional blender.
• Place back on medium heat, add in sausage and 1 bag of frozen cheese tortellini. Cook until tortellini is warmed through. Dance and finish beer to speed along the process.
  
• Salt and pepper to taste, and serve!
• Yum!

Sunday, we had:
Mustard and Beer Beef Stew

Chopping list:

• 1 small potato, skin on, chopped
  
• 1 medium onion, diced
• few carrots, peeled and chopped
• few stalks of celery, chopped

Other:

• Stew meat, doesn't really matter how much... i use a package. 1.5 pounds maybe?
• Beer (darker is better), not for drinking this time.
• Mustard of choice, ~2 tsps (i used a combo of "cuban mojo" and brown mustard)
• 1 carton (4 cups) beef broth or stock
• 1 Bay leaf (i forgot, would have been good)
• 1/2 tsp of herbs de provence or oregano, or maybe sage?
  
• bit of olive oil

Optional:

• half a kielbasa or smoked sausage, chopped

Instructions

• In large pot, add a bit of oil, and brown stew meat. Cut up into bite size cubes as is easiest for you... i use tongs and kitchen shears while they're browning to save time.
  
• when done browning, add mustard of choice, stir well.
• Add sausage, if including.
  
• Add half the beer, stir well. Cook a bit over medium low heat.
• Add onions, stir well, let cook a bit.
• Add a little bit of herbs de provence
  
• Add remaining vegetables, stir well, cook until onions are translucent.
• Add broth and bay leaf
• Cook for a while... until the potatoes start to fall apart
• Make sure beef is fully cooked
• Remove bay leaf
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• Serve! With remaining half beer perhaps?
  

Smelled funny while cooking (due to the weird mustard i used) but turned out well. Even more tasty a day later!