I've been doing a lot of cooking lately, I just haven't posted about it. We'll start somewhere...
WEll, Sophie and I have actually been doing all of our cooking together, so it's her fault she hasn't posted yet. Mom left chicken breast out thawing the other day and we thought we'd make something for dinner cuz she decided she wasn't going to do anything with it. Well,we looked through some cookbooks and finally just decided on classic Chicken Dumplings. Now, all of us girls have known how to make dumplings probably since we could breath. They're really simple, but we decided to use a recipe just to say we did. The only thing that was different was that we added carroits, onions, and celery to the chicken as it was boiling. It added more flavor, but it was subtle, cuz it was just a little bit.
That same night I also made Chocolate Lava Muffins from the Alton Brown cookbook. I started off by melting bittersweet chocolate chips and 4oz of butter in a double boiler. After that I poured it into a mixing bowl and added 3 eggs, one at a time till it was all mixed in good. Sugar, salt, cocoa poweder and flour were next, then I let it whip the batter for about 5 minutes till it was SUPER fluffy, almost like chocolate mousse. Stuck it in the fridge for 30 minutes while I coated the muffin tin's with butter and cocoa powder. Baked them straight from the fridge so they were still really cold so the tops baked firm but the center was still all gooey and hot and delicious... My grandma ate, like, 3 in one night! They were suuper rich but they were incredible. I was supposed to make a sauce to go o top our of melted vanilla ice cream and espresso powder, but I liked it just how it was.
A couple days later I made som homemade pizza with Sophie, and our two bff's Katie and Sarah. We started off making the dough. After it was all mixed together we let it knead in the mixer for 10-12 minutes. I let it rise in a warm oven for about 30 minutes and then turned it out on a floured board and began to stretch it. I even tossed it up in the air!! It was so cool! Katie made the pizza sauce, cuz I just accidentally bought tomato sauce. She added in some oregano, italian seasoning, crushed garlic, minced onions and plenty of salt and pepper and let it heat for a little bit. We topped the pizzas with cheese, peppers and onions for mom, ham for dad, and anything we felt like for us girls. I've never been a fan of homemade pizza, but this was SOO good that we made it again the next day! (this time with Bacon XD) We had a little left over dough, so we ended up making garlic knots like they have at Palace Pizza in downtown Lakeland. They were good but not incredible or anything. The crust of the pizza was awesome though!!
Finally caught up!! lol, Yesterday I made doughnuts. I've been making doughnuts for a while, so I don't think this is odd at all, but everyone that i've told seems to find it very strange. Apparently they didn't know that you could make doughnuts at home?? idk. Silly kids... Well, I used an old recipe that we've had for a while, except we didn't have the nutmeg it called for, so I left it out and honestly I think I think I like them better without the nutmeg. They have a much more versatile flavor without it. After they came out of the oil I topped them with cinnamon sugar and dipped them in chocolate syrup. They were really yummy! I think it'll be one of my favorite snacks to fix for the "guys" when they come over to visit.
My goal was to pick a cookbook and cook through it in the 6 months before teh wedding, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing that. I just weighed myself and I've gained 8 pounds since I've been home (1 month...) Plus, we're down to almost 5 months I think I'd have a hard time going through a cookbook in 5 months. I think instead I'm going to aim to cook/bake at least 150 recipes. I'm going to keep track of it by copying down the recipes on an index card after I've made it. This will help me build up a recipe box of recipes that I've actually MADE and know I like. So, I'm excited!! So far I'm up to 5.... lol, better get cracking! Time to go make something!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Mashed Potato's and Spaghetti
Well, my first blog is about two meals. One I only kinda helped with and one I made practically by myself! Last night (01/04/10) Grandma wanted some real food so she fried country steak, or something like that. She floured cubed stake and fried it in the skillet. Meanwhile I peeled and cubed Idaho potato's (cutting my thumb in the process) and put them on to boil. The end product of the night was Country fried steak with mashed potato's and gravy. It was amazing!
Today I took Mom to ORMC for her doctors appointment and on the way out she must have read my mind because she suggested that we have spaghetti for dinner, yum! I always love me some spaghetti but I had been wanting it for the last week or so. So on the way home we stopped at Publix and picked up noodles, and the salt-free ingredients to make spaghetti sauce and ground beef as well. (Because of the iodine treatments Mom can't have and salt, or something like that.)
When we got home Momma left me to the kitchen (giving instructions from the living room :D) I made the sauce, we used diced tomato's, crushed tomato's and tomato puree, all salt free, combined them in a pot with garlic and kosher salt (which is okay because it doesn't have and iodine) as well as some Italian seasoning. We only put a tad in each but as things progressed we added more because it tasted too tomato-y.
The end result, Spaghetti with meat sauce and toasted french bread with garlic butter. Mom praised over and over again *blushes* and I think Dad enjoyed it. Now to top the whole experience off I have a lovely chocolate eclair from the Publix bakery!
Sophie (Ski)
Today I took Mom to ORMC for her doctors appointment and on the way out she must have read my mind because she suggested that we have spaghetti for dinner, yum! I always love me some spaghetti but I had been wanting it for the last week or so. So on the way home we stopped at Publix and picked up noodles, and the salt-free ingredients to make spaghetti sauce and ground beef as well. (Because of the iodine treatments Mom can't have and salt, or something like that.)
When we got home Momma left me to the kitchen (giving instructions from the living room :D) I made the sauce, we used diced tomato's, crushed tomato's and tomato puree, all salt free, combined them in a pot with garlic and kosher salt (which is okay because it doesn't have and iodine) as well as some Italian seasoning. We only put a tad in each but as things progressed we added more because it tasted too tomato-y.
The end result, Spaghetti with meat sauce and toasted french bread with garlic butter. Mom praised over and over again *blushes* and I think Dad enjoyed it. Now to top the whole experience off I have a lovely chocolate eclair from the Publix bakery!
Sophie (Ski)
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Banana Bread!
So I have a massive amount of bananas that have been sitting in my pantry for exactly a week now and they're getting ready to go bad. I found some walnuts this morning while I was making pancakes for my husband's breakfast and had a thought.. I should make banana bread! I've never made it before and I don't really think we have a "family recipe" for it so I went online and found this one.
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Banana Bread Recipe from FoodNetwork.com.
Ingredients
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 2 large eggs
* 3 ripe bananas
* 1 tablespoon milk
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.
Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.
--
I doubled the recipe cause I had a lot of bananas that I wanted to use and added 1 teaspoon of nutmeg to the recipe. (If you wanted to add that to a single loaf it would be 1/2 teaspoon.)
I waited patiently for it to cool completely and then sliced off a bit to toast in the toaster and slather with butter. I was a little nervous about tasting it because the pumpkin bread I'd made earlier this year flopped bad.. I doubled THAT recipe as well.. everything except the spices! It tasted alright it was just really, really bland.
So anyways... this banana bread was freaking AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've never had banana bread that rocked this much... it's moist, its tasty, its crunchy on the top... gosh, I love it! I am definetly gonna add this one to the "family recipes to pass down and down and down"... It was sooooo good. I'm not sharing it with anyone! Except maybe my husband... Maybe I'll send a slice with him for lunch tomorrow. :)
Later!
Katelin (new)
--
Banana Bread Recipe from FoodNetwork.com.
Ingredients
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 2 large eggs
* 3 ripe bananas
* 1 tablespoon milk
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.
Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.
--
I doubled the recipe cause I had a lot of bananas that I wanted to use and added 1 teaspoon of nutmeg to the recipe. (If you wanted to add that to a single loaf it would be 1/2 teaspoon.)
I waited patiently for it to cool completely and then sliced off a bit to toast in the toaster and slather with butter. I was a little nervous about tasting it because the pumpkin bread I'd made earlier this year flopped bad.. I doubled THAT recipe as well.. everything except the spices! It tasted alright it was just really, really bland.
So anyways... this banana bread was freaking AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've never had banana bread that rocked this much... it's moist, its tasty, its crunchy on the top... gosh, I love it! I am definetly gonna add this one to the "family recipes to pass down and down and down"... It was sooooo good. I'm not sharing it with anyone! Except maybe my husband... Maybe I'll send a slice with him for lunch tomorrow. :)
Later!
Katelin (new)
Julie and Julia..
My dad bought the movie "Julie and Julia" for my grandma for Christmas, which was like the coolest thing ever! It was based on two true stories and after watching it my sisters and I decided we wanted to try something similar! Hence the blog. I have no idea if we'll actually go through with it or not buuuuut that is just a little explanation of this blog!
Katelin (new)
Katelin (new)
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