Pizza

My mom makes great homemade pizza, so a couple of weeks ago, I decided to get the dough recipe from her and try my hand at it.  The recipe is crazy simple (providing you have a stand mixer) and the result is very tasty.

Pizza Dough Ingredients:

• 3 cups unbleached flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 packet of active dry yeast

Directions:

1. Mix the 3 cups unbleached flour and 1 tsp salt in mixer
2. Microwave 1 cup of water for 30 seconds
3. Add 1 tsp sugar and 1 package of active dry yeast to the water
4. Let the water sit for several minutes.  You’ll know it’s ready because a slew of bubbles will form on the surface of the water.
5. Add the water to the flour mixture and blend (using a dough hook if at all possible) on low for 5 minutes.  At this point, you can also add any herbs or other spices that you want in the dough.  When doing a traditional tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese pizza, putting some oregano and garlic powder in the dough is good.  After 5 minutes, if the dough still looks like a bunch of smaller separate pieces, add a Tbsp of water and blend for another minute or two.  If it’s sticky to the touch, add another Tbsp of flour and blend another minute or two.
6. Spray the inside of a bowl with cooking spray and put the dough in the bowl.  Cover with saran wrap so that it’s air tight.  Make sure to use a bowl that’s at least twice as big as the dough. 
7. Wait about 45 minutes and the dough should have almost doubled in size.  This amount of dough will make 2 medium sized pizzas, so if you only need one, you can wrap the other half in plastic wrap and freeze it until you’re ready to use it.  Roll the dough out fairly thin (it should rise in the oven), cover with sauce and toppings, then bake at 400 degrees until the crust is golden brown.

Pizza toppings:

You can always make a traditional pizza using mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, and your favorite toppings.  You can also use olive oil or even ranch dressing as a base.  My mom makes a delicious olive oil based pizza with slices of tomato, slices of mozzarella cheese, and basil leaves as toppings.

I’ve made pizza with this recipe three times so far and the best by far was tonight’s incarnation.  I used ranch dressing as the base and on one pizza I put slices of potato (pre-cooked for a couple of minutes earlier in the day) along with crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese.  On the other pizza was also ranch dressing, but topped with chicken, crumbled bacon and mozzarella cheese.  It was so good I would have paid money for it.

Here is my potato pizza prior to baking:

I wish I had a picture of it after baking, but it looked so good, we ate it before I thought to snap a picture.

Chocolate Chess Pie with Pecans

I found this recipe while searching AllRecipes.com for a good pie recipe.  Since finding this recipe, I’ve made it three times. 

Ingredients:

• 1 (9 inch) pie shell
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Mix together sugar, cocoa, and melted butter.
3. Stir in evaporated milk, beaten eggs, vanilla, and chopped pecans.
4. Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell.
5. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.

Outcome:

The first time I made this, it was a complete disaster.  The nuts had formed a perfect shell across the top, but the filling was runny:

At first, I couldn’t figure out what I’d done wrong.  Two days later, it dawned on me…when I was supposed to change the temperature from 400 to 325, I accidentally turned the oven off.  Turns out, pies don’t cook very well when you just leave them sitting in a slowly cooling oven for a half hour.

The second (and third) attempts were much better:

I left the pie in the oven past the 30 minutes stated in the recipe (about 10 minutes extra in my case), so don’t be afraid to do the same.  It’s a little hard to tell when the pie is firm enough since the nuts form a hard shell pretty early on.  I was erring on the side of caution and I waited until the filling had actually risen up a little and caused separation in the nutty shell.  This might have been overkill, but I had no complaints about the final result.  

This pie was good when it was still warm, but it was even better after it’d had a chance to cool completely in the fridge.  It’s fairly rich, but not sickenly sweet.  With such a quick prep time and delicious result, I won’t be waiting for a special occasion to make this pie again.

Hummus and Pita Chips

When I bought some cumin, there was a recipe for hummus on the side, so I couldn’t resist.  I’d already gotten the idea to make homemade pita chips the week before, so that sealed the deal.  This recipe is courtesy of McCormick.

Hummus

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Drain chickpeas, reserving 1/4 cup of the liquid.
2. Place chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, cumin, red pepper and salt in food processor; cover. Process until smooth, scraping down sides as necessary.
3. Add reserved liquid; process until smooth.

Substitutions:

The recipe on the side of the bottle was a little different than the one listed on the McCormick website, probably just amended for the amount of space available.  The website says you can use crushed red pepper instead of ground.  The website also says to drizzle with a Tbsp of olive oil once it’s all blended, which wasn’t in the short version.

Outcome:

Quite tasty.  The short version of the recipe said to add the reserved liquid until you’d reached the desired consistency, but I used every drop and wished I’d reserved a little more.  Overall, this is a very simple recipe for a very tasty dip.

Pita Chips

This is so simple that it’s more of an idea than a recipe.  All you really do is get some pita bread, brush it with olive oil, sprinkle it with a little garlic powder and some grated parmesan cheese (the kind in the green can), cut it up with a pizza cutter and stick the pieces in the oven until they’re crispy, about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Keep an eye on them so they don’t get overdone, but there’s not a lot you can do wrong here. 

I read one “recipe” for these that said you could use butter flavored cooking spray instead of olive oil, which would have been even easier.  I might try that next time.

Overall outcome:

Pita chips and the hummus go great together.  I only made a half a package of the pita bread (3 big pieces) and that was about right for one batch of the hummus.  This combination is a great snack either for just having on reserve in the fridge or for a get together.  It’s easy to make and is a delicious, healthy alternative to a lot of other dips.

Mexican Cheese Soup

This recipe is one I found in my Rival Slow Cooker cook book.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Velveeta
• 1 lb. ground beef, cooked and drained
• 1 can of whole kernel corn
• 1 can of kidney beans
• 1 can of Rotel
• I can of tomatoes
• 1 envelope of taco seasoning

Directions:

As with many great crock pot recipes, the directions are as follows: dump everything in the crock pot, then put it on low for a long time (in this case, 4-5 hours)

Verdict:

This is one of my new favorite chili/soups.  I didn’t even need a spoon, I ate my whole bowl with tortilla chips.  The Velveeta didn’t disperse evenly on it’s own, so you’re going to have to stir it a couple of times along the way, and maybe even cut it into little chunks instead of throwing it in there as a huge block like I did.  In any case, this tasted a little bit like a soup version of tex/mex cheese dip, the kind that you stand by the bowl continually thinking…just one more chip.  I will definitely be making this again.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

This recipe was in a recent issue of All You magazine.  It’s the easiest and perhaps one of the tastiest recipes I’ve come across since I started this cooking adventure.

Ingredients:

I was going to rave about how this recipe only required three ingredients, but I suppose I have to include buns and call it 4 ingredients.  Either way, it’s pretty simple.

• Pork Roast (about 2-3 pounds)
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• BBQ Sauce
• Sandwich buns

Directions:

1. Put the roast in the the crock pot
2. Add 3/4 cup of vinegar
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours
4. Pull the meat apart with a fork
5. Add the BBQ sauce
6. Leave in the crock pot for about another half hour
7. Put the meat on the bun and enjoy!

Substitutions:

You can use boneless chicken instead of pork and it works just as well.  I just looked up this recipe online and found several similar recipes where you use a can of beer or even root beer instead of vinegar.  I might try one of those next time and see how it changes the flavor.

Final Product:

If I made this for company, I would try to have some potato salad and baked beans on hand, but when it’s just the two of us, sometimes we just stick with chips and call it a night.  This recipe is part of our regular rotation and it never fails to delight.

Use It or Lose It

Today has been a busy day!  This morning about 8:00 I stuck a pork roast into the crock pot to start it on it’s way to becoming pulled pork sandwiches (extremely easy recipe to be posted soon).  I’d already earmarked today as a grocery shopping day, so I went through what recipes I wanted to make this week and compiled a list of all the ingredients.  Once Emily was fed and happy, we headed off the the grocery store and stocked up.

Emily had fallen asleep at the grocery store, but she work up not too long after we got home.  After feeding her again, she didn’t want to hang out on her playmat for long, so I strapped her into the sling and decided I still had enough energy left to make some hummus.  I’d seen this recipe on the side of some cumin I bought and it looked extremely easy.  I had everything but the chick peas so I bought those at the store along with some pita bread to make into chips.  I’ll make those two into a post later on, just suffice it to say they’re both pretty simple.

By the time I was done with the hummus, Emily was conked out in the sling, so I took her out, swaddled her up, and put her in the swing.  I decided she’d probably be asleep for a while longer, so I pulled out my mixer and decided to try a peanut butter cookie recipe that was in my recent issue of All You.  I managed to make a full batch of those while Emily was sleeping.  There were way more cookies in a full batch of those than I thought there would be, so now I’ve got more peanut butter cookies than I can shake a stick at. 

In the midst of all this, I managed to clean up as I went and while each batch of cookies was baking, so not only do I have dinner, dessert, and a snack made, I don’t have a complete mess in the kitchen.  This is probably the most productive day of cooking I’ve ever had that wasn’t a lead up to a major event.  If only I had this much energy every day!

Pumpkin Chili

I got this recipe from a friend of mine from college named Donna.  When I went shopping for the ingredients, I had trouble finding pumpkin.  I went to three different grocery stores and none of them had it.  Two of them were out and the third didn’t even have a place on the shelf for it.  When I mentioned it to my grandma, she happened to have a can, so that took care of that. 

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
• 2 jalapeños, ribs and seeds removed, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their liquid
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin purée
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large pot over medium high heat. Add onions, bell peppers, jalapeños and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, or until tender.
2. Add turkey and cook until browned.
3. Add tomatoes, pumpkin, 1 cup water, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat to low, then add beans.
5. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes more.
6. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and garnish with cilantro.

Substitutions:

When my friend posted this (I would link to it, but it’s behind facebook), she noted that she leaves out the jalapenos and adds a can of rotel instead.  I should have done this, but I forgot to check her substitutions when I made out my grocery list, so I ended up just leaving out the jalapenos instead.  Also, I despise cilantro, so I left that out, and I forgot about the sour cream, so maybe next time I’ll add that.

Verdict:

This chili came out very good.  If I didn’t know there was pumpkin in it, I would have never known.  I think between the turkey meat and the can of pumpkin, this is probably a pretty healthy chili recipe.  I’ve already bought the stuff to make this again (even the pumpkin, which was back in stock) since we liked it so much.  The only changes I’ll make are to add a can of rotel (like I meant to do the first time) and put in two cans of kidney beans instead of one. 

Tortilla-Crusted Pork

I found this one while looking for low-carb recipes on myrecipes.com.

Ingredients:

• 2 Pounds Pork Tenderloin
• 1/2 cup finely crushed blue-corn tortilla chips
• 1/2 cup finely crushed tortilla chips
• 1 Tablespoon coarsely ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salsa

Directions:

1. Remove silver skin from tenderloin, leaving a thin layer of fat covering tenderloin.  Cut tenderloin into 1-inch thick medallions.
2. Combine blue-corn tortilla chips, tortilla chips, ground pepper, chili powder, salt, and cumin into a bowl. 
   
3. Brush pork medallions with 1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil and dredge them in the tortilla chip mixture, pressing mixture into all sides to thoroughly coat.
4. Cook pork medallions in remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat for about 6 minutes on each side, or until done.
   
5. Serve with salsa.

Step-by-step

1. I didn’t know exactly what “silver skin” they were talking about.  At the time, I just trimmed off what looked like big fat deposits, so according to this site, which actually explains about trimming pork tenderloin, I probably covered all the bases on that one.
2. No problem here.  In the future, unless I’m fixing this for a special occasion, I’ll probably just just use all regular tortilla chips instead of going out of my way to buy the blue ones.  I guess they taste a little different, but I think I’ll take my chances since they’re more expensive and I then end up with two big bags of opened tortilla chips instead of just one.  Granted, they also make the finished product prettier, but I can get over that.
3. I finally bought a basting/pastry brush.  I’ve gotten around it on a couple of recipes before, but since it keeps coming up, I went ahead and got one.  In this case, I didn’t want a thick layer of oil, so the brush was definitely worth it.
4. Something I like about pork medallions is that they’re a bit like the Oral B Indicator tooth brush.  I know the recipe says 6 minutes, but you can tell just by looking how far the pork has cooked just by looking at the side as it turns from pink to white.  I just let it get white halfway up, then flip it over and let it finish.  Easy, breezy, beautiful.
5. Since there are just two of us, I usually make a recipe twice off a single tenderloin.  The first time I made this, I forgot about the salsa.  They were still good, but when I served them with the salsa the second time, they were much better. 

Verdict:

I’m starting to really like pork tenderloin.  This is the second recipe good recipe I’ve found using pork tenderloin.  I’m so used to just cooking with beef and chicken, but I’ve always liked pork chops, so finding another way to add pork back onto the menu in new and different way is strangely exciting. 

I have another recipe for pork tenderloin that I like better, but this one is definitely a keeper.  The tortilla chips in the coating added a crunch, while the spices and salsa gave it just enough of a flavorful kick.

15 Bean Soup and More Musings on Custard

I successfully made a custard, but there wasn’t much to tell.  I got the recipe off the Argo website and I didn’t have any problem getting it to come out the right consistency.  The problem was that the taste was just sweet, not much real flavor to speak of.  Next time, I’ll try either adding more vanilla or some other flavoring to get it to come out better.

As for the 15 bean soup I had a similar problem.  It was good, but a little bland.  I added salt as I dished up, and that helped, but there wasn’t any spice…no real flavor.  It was just average. 

I repeated a couple of recipes this last week, so I haven’t had anything new to share.  Last night, I tried a spicy rub on steak, but there wasn’t really much to say.  Tonight though, is tortilla-crusted pork tenderloin, so I’ll share the outcome of that in the next post. 

Daniel has decided to try out a low-carb diet, and while he’d be perfectly happy to fix himself simple stuff each night and let me cook whatever, it’s no fun cooking for one.  I found a couple of low carb recipes on the internet that I’m looking forward to, but trying to avoid pasta, potatoes and most vegetables takes a lot of recipes off the table.  I do have a new cookbook on the way from Amazon though, so stay tuned for more!

On a final note, I was going to try a recipe for Pumpkin Chili, but I couldn’t find any pumpkin puree!  I checked at 4 different stores and no one has it.  Apparently there is full fledged pumpkin shortage right now, but I think everyone is trying to keep it on the DL to avoid widespread panic. 

15 Bean Soup – Part 1

The next recipe to cross off my list is 15 bean soup.  I don’t know if' I’ve ever had it before, but it sounds like loads of fun.  This one looks like it’s going to be pretty easy, but it showcases another of those simple tasks (like cooking a whole chicken) that I’ve never done before.  I have never cooked dried beans. 

After I bought my 15 bean soup starter kit, containing a variety of beans and a seasoning packet, I figured I should make sure I’d gotten my money’s worth, so I sorted through and made sure I had actually received 15 distinct bean varieties.  Here’s what I came up with:

Interestingly enough, the ingredient list on the package said the bag contained 15 of 17 listed varieties, so it was up to me to figure out which ones I’d actually gotten.  It got a little dicey when it came to some eerily similar white beans, but as far as I can tell, my soup will contain the following beans: northern, garbanzo, green split pea, large lima, cranberry bean, baby lima, kidney, pinto, small white, pink bean, small red, yellow split pea, lentil, navy, black bean.  All that, plus some polish sausage should be quite the treat.  I put the beans on to soak a few minutes ago, so everything will be ready to go tomorrow.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Custard’s First Stand

In my last post, where I talked about making Decadent Chocolate Delight, I mentioned how I thought a nice custard poured over the top of the dessert would be absolutely divine.  Last night, i decided to follow through on that sentiment and find a recipe for custard.  Turns out, custard comes in a lot of varieties.  I read all about it on wikipedia and thought I wanted something called Crème anglaise.  There are a lot of different recipes for this concoction, most of which involve double boilers and strainers and things I didn’t really have the patience for at the time.  I then came across a recipe that looked pretty simple.  Mix vanilla with milk, mix egg yolks with sugar, heat the one, mix the two, then heat the mixture.  Simple enough, right?  Apparently not, because the outcome was not as desired.  After consulting my mom (you’ll start to see a theme where I often consult my mother right after a failed attempt to make something new) I think I overheated at the end, causing the egg to cook.  Turns out, even a simple recipe can be a delicate process. 

I’m going to try making custard sauce again, but I’ll probably follow my mom’s advice and look for a cornstarch based recipe.  I might even try to find a powdered version, because I think what I’m really wanting is Bird's Custard.  I don’t think I can find this stuff locally though, and Amazon only offers it in bigger quantities than I want.  I wonder if Jell-O custard mix can be adapted to make a pourable custard?  I’m not sure, but I’m not giving up on this one just yet.

Decadent Chocolate Delight

This recipe comes courtesy of a cookbook I forgot I had.  It’s called Rival Crock Pot Slow Cooker Recipes for All Occasions.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of chocolate cake mix (about 18 oz.)
• 1 cup (8 oz) sour cream
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup water
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 pkg (4 serving size) instant chocolate pudding mix

Directions:

1. Grease the inside of your slow cooker using either butter or non-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine cake mix, sour cream, chocolate chips, water, eggs, oil, and pudding mix in the slow cooker.  Mix it up well.
   
3. Put the cover on the slow cooker.  Cook either on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
   

Verdict:

The hardest part of this recipe was greasing the slow cooker and counting to four.  The finished product was much better looking than that picture suggests.  When dished up, it looked like really crumbly cake.  I would love to know what part sour cream played in this recipe, since that ingredient took me completely by surprise.  This dessert tasted a lot like regular cake, but more moist.  I ate it with ice cream, but I think some kind of custard poured over the top would be absolutely amazing.  I’ll have to see if I can find some sort of simple recipe along those lines.

I would definitely make this again as a quick prep dessert, and I might play around with the flavors of cake, pudding, and chips to see what other tasty combinations I could make.

Chicken with Herbed Dumplings

I’m going to start off by telling you that I was really excited about this recipe. I love chicken and dumplings, but it’s never as good as when my mom makes it homemade. I was hoping for great things from my own homemade dumplings, but such was not the case. I made this a couple of weeks ago, before I had the idea to start this blog, so the only pictures I have are of what it was supposed to look like and what I ended up with. But before I get ahead of myself, here’s the recipe I was trying to follow:

Ingredients:

Chicken:

• 1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 lbs)
• 2 carrots (cut into 2 inch pieces)
• 1 celery rib (cut into 2 inch pieces)
• 1 onion (quartered)
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 4 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• Salt
• Pepper

Dumplings:

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh herbs, such as thyme and oregano
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions:

1. Make chicken: Put first five ingredients in slow cooker. Pour in 6 cups cold water. Cover and cook on high until chicken is tender, about 3 1/2 hours. Remove chicken from cooker and set aside. When cool, remove meat and shred into large pieces.
2. Strain cooking liquid and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour and whisk until smooth. Add cooking liquid to pan, increase heat to high, bring to a boil and whisk until smooth and slightly thickened. Return sauce and chicken to slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Make dumplings: In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and herbs. Add butter and use fingertips or a pastry cutter to work butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Whisk egg and milk to blend, then stir into flour mixture to form a sticky batter. Drop batter by tablespoon into cooker. Cover and cook on high until dumplings are fluffy, about 1 hour.

Pickles:

I have never bought a whole chicken. I always buy frozen boneless chicken. I don’t really even know what to do with a whole chicken. But the recipe called for a chicken, so I got a chicken. I bought the smallest one they had at the store, and when I got home, it barely fit into my crock pot. I shoved as many onions and celery bits inside and around the chicken, then filled it up with water, but I could only fit about half the amount of water I was supposed to. After the chicken cooked, I had a bit of a time getting it out of the crock pot, since it was such a tight fit. I think I ended up using a big metal spoon and a shoe horn. The chicken looked great, but I still had to take all the meat off the bone. If you’ve done this often, it might not take long, but I have never done it, so it felt like it took forever! Everytime I would think I’d located and extracted all the meat, I’d find some other crevice hiding a little more. Not wanting my chicken and dumplings to be short on the chicken, I kept going until I could go no more. If this was the end of the recipe, it wouldn't have been to bad, but this was still prep work, so it was a bit taxing on the amount of time I had to spend cooking that day.

My second pickle goes back to the fact that I have a small crock pot. I don't remember when I bought it, but I think it's a 3qt. model. The problem this caused was that I had only been able to add 3 cups of water instead of 6. I figured this would leave me short on broth, so I made some extra broth, assuming there would be room once I was down to just chicken meat instead of a whole chicken. I was wrong. I still didn’t have room for all the broth.

Dumplings. According to this recipe, I was supposed to be able to mix up the dough mixture and drop it into the liquid in my slow cooker, then come back an hour later and have wonderfully fluffy dumplings. What actually happened was that the dumplings came apart and remained doughy. I still don't know what I did wrong to make that happen. My mom suggested that perhaps the liquid in the crock pot hadn’t been hot enough to cook the dough, but I’m not sure. In addition to all that, something expanded during the hour I was waiting, so the crock pot started overflowing. I didn’t see that coming.

End result:

After an hour of sitting, my broth was full of delicious chicken and horrible dumpling. By this time, between cooking the chicken, pulling the meat off the bone, dropping the dumplings, and waiting for it all to come together, I’d spent most of the day either making or waiting on something in the kitchen. All I had to show for it was this horrible, inedible mess.

Salvaging the Mess:

After consulting my mom, we came up with a way of salvaging the meal. After all, I’d gone through all the trouble with that chicken, and the meat from that was still very good. Since the dumplings were, for the most part, floating, I used a slotted spoon to remove as much of that mess as I could. Since some of them had broken up into fairly small pieces, I couldn’t get it all out, but at least there weren’t any meatball sized dough balls floating around any more. By this time, the broth wasn’t really broth anymore, it was a little thicker, which was actually good. In the end, instead of trying to eat it from a bowl, I just made a pot of white rice and spooned the chicken concoction over the rice. Here’s what it was supposed to look like:

And here’s what I ended up with:

It tasted very good served this way, but I definitely took the long way in getting there. Maybe if I had a bigger crock pot and hadn’t had to try to improvise, this would have come out better. In any case, I won’t be attempting this recipe again anytime soon.

Chicken Pot Pie

Tonight’s recipe comes from a friend’s blog, so click here to view her original post.  Also, I just want to point out that I made it through almost this entire recipe with both hands!  The only exception was having to hold the kiddo while cooking the chicken, and that just involved flipping it over a few times with a fork.  She slept through the rest of the ordeal, so I got off easy tonight.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 2 cups of cubed, cooked chicken
• 2 cups frozen vegetables of choice
• 2 medium potatoes
• 2 pie crusts
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup flour
• salt and pepper
• 2 Tbsp minced onion
• dash of garlic powder

Substitutions:

My friend’s original recipe says she uses 1 can of potatoes instead of having to cut up an actual potato, and you can use the dried, minced onion (found in the seasoning section) if you don’t have an onion on hand or don’t feel like crying.  I happen to have some onion left over from the other day and I bought a potato at the store, but I might take the easier options in the future if I’m in a bind. 

On the frozen veggies, you can use whatever you like.  I went with sweet peas and chopped broccoli.  You should be able to find an inexpensive premixed vegetable medley (usually peas, carrots and corn) that would add a good variety while only requiring you to buy one package.

Directions:

1. Once you have the chicken cooked and cubed, and you’ve cut up the potatoes, mix the chicken, vegetables, and potatoes in a bowl.  Set this mixture aside for later.
   
2. In a saucepan, over low-medium heat, melt the stick of butter.
3. To the melted butter, whisk in a small amount of the flour.  If the temperature is too high, this will get thick too fast, so keep it low and slow.
4. Add 1/2 cup of the chicken broth to the saucepan.  Whisk this in until the mixture is smooth.  Alternate adding flour and broth until it’s all been added and the mixture is smooth.
5. To the buttery broth mixture, add the onion, salt, pepper, and a dash of garlic powder.  Turn up the heat under this to medium.  Keep whisking it as it heats because it’s going to start getting thick.  The original recipe said this could take up to 10 minutes, but I think I was taking so long getting things mixed in, it only took a minute or two on medium heat before my mixture got to be about the consistency of good cream gravy.  When it’s thick, get it off the heat.
6. Fill the pie crust with the veggie/chicken/potato mixture from earlier.
7. Pour the gravy mixture into the pie crust until everything is completely covered.
8. Take the second pie crust, and put it over the first one.  Pinch the edges together to seal the crusts up.  Cut a few slits in the top to vent.
9. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Finished product:

This is my pie before putting it in the oven.  It’s quite possibly the ugliest chicken pot pie I’ve ever seen:

I think my problem was twofold.  First off, I ended up with too much mixture to fit it all in the pie crust.  In the future, I’ll make sure I get a deep dish crust, and hopefully that will help.  Also, I used one big baking potato instead of two medium potatoes, so that didn’t help.  My other problem was that my second pie crust starting coming apart when I was trying to put it on top.  It tore in the middle, so I didn’t even bother trying to cut vents in top.  I was just happy it stayed in one piece.  I’ve never done this where you use one crust as a topper, so I’d set out the crusts earlier today to let them thaw out.  They were pretty soft when I got around to assembling the pie, so maybe next time I’ll let them thaw in the fridge instead of on the countertop.

Verdict:

My pie looked significantly better after it had baked:

Most importantly, it tasted delicious!  I think next time I’ll make the gravy mixture a little runnier so it’ll get into all the nooks and crannies of the pie mixture, but the crust was flaky, and the filling was wonderful.

I would go out of my way to make this again, but I’ll also be keeping it in my back pocket for times when another recipe has left me with leftover chicken or veggies.  This could easily become a catch all for whatever you have left in the fridge at the end of the week.  Two thumbs up!

Pasta Carbonara Frittata

Tonight's recipe came from the August issue of All You magazine. I just started getting this magazine and it's worth it for the recipes alone.

First off, let me just say that I didn't know what a frittata was when I decided to make this recipe. All I knew is that I liked carbonara. I had to ask my mom about it, which is something I do a lot when cooking. Turns out a frittata is a bit like a quiche, but with no crust. I didn't

see how mixing egg with pasta would be very good, but there was only enough egg to make a layer on the bottom, so it wasn't too weird. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 8oz spaghetti
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4oz turkey bacon
• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• Salt
• Pepper

My substitutions:

I used the garlic in a jar instead of actual cloves. I figured it would just be easier.

Directions:

1. Cook spaghetti according to directions. Drain, transfer to a large bowl and toss with olive oil. Let cool to room temperature.

I didn't want to dirty another bowl, so I just drained the pasta and left it in the pot I cooked it in. This might have made it take a little longer to cool, but I try to keep the number of dirty dishes to a minimum.

2. Cook turkey bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crishp, 5-8 minutes;drain on paper towels. Discard all but 1 Tbsp of fat in skillet. Preheat broiler to high. Whisk eggs, Parmesan, garlic, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper in a small bowl. Pour over spaghetti and toss to coat. Crumble bacon over spaghetti and mix well.

Why this all got shoved into one step, I have no idea. I think they were trying to make the recipe appear simple by having it show three steps, but I had to keep re-reading this step while I did each thing. As for draining the fat off the bacon, I didn't have enough fat to justify draining any off. I suppose if you'd used regular bacon instead of turkey bacon, that would have been necessary. Since I hadn't put the spaghetti into a seperate bowl, I just dumped it into the skillet and mixed everything in there.

3. Place skillet over medium-low heat; add spaghetti, spreading evenly with a spatula.Cook until bottom is well-browned, about 8 minutes, sliding a spatula under frittata occasionaly to loosen. Place pan under broiler and cook until top is set, about 3 minutes. Cut frittata into wedges and serve.

I had already put my spaghetti back into the skillet at this point, so I was ready to go. I had to check the website to my cookware and found out that it wasn't supposed to be put into the oven at any temperature higher than 350. Because of this, after I'd browned the bottom of the frittata, I transferred it to a 9x13 glass casserole dish to go under the broiler.

And tada! There you have it, my first ever frittata. I served it with some toasted bread, which got pretty brown because I forgot I had the broiler on, but it tasted much better than it looked.

Finished product:

Verdict:

This didn't just blow me away, but it was good enough that I'll make it again. I like pasta, and this would be a nice way to mix it up a little instead of just cracking open a jar of sauce. Also, who doesn't love bacon?

Adventure of a One-Armed Cook

I've never been much of a cook. Don't get me wrong...I can whip up a mean box of mac 'n cheese, but I have little concept of what goes well with what. If I don't have an ingredient, there's no way I'm going to come up with an acceptable substitute on my own. I once tried to substitute ranch dressing for milk. That was a disaster that I'll never live down. My one saving grace is that I'm good at assembling things and I know how to follow directions. In fact, I love following directions. I like going from step to step and seeing a product come together. As such, recipes are right up my alley. Why I waited this far into my life to take an actual interest in recipes and learning to cook anything more complicated than grilled chicken, I don't know. In fact, I couldn't have picked a worse time. You see, I had a baby three months ago, so the amount of time I can reliably devote to anything has shrunk significantly. For me, having a baby in tow doesn't mean I have no time for anything, it just means that I have to be prepared to drop what I'm doing at a moment's notice if the baby wakes up or requires attention for some pressing matter like wanting to be held of having spit out her pacifier. So why, in the midst of this I've decided to start cooking, an activity where timing is everything and a few minutes can mean the difference between rice that's perfectly cooked and a starchy mess, I don't know. But that's exactly what I'm doing, and that's exactly what this blog is about. It's about learning to cook while my attention is split between a boiling pot and a crying baby. So join me in my journey as I discover how to make delicious meals with simple ingredients, in limited time, and often with only one hand to spare.