Weekend foodie

Saturday Lee drank alot of beer... so Sunday I made him a hangover cure - breakfast tacos!Basically I cooked some bacon and the sauteed the onions and red pepper in some of the grease. Then I scrambled some eggs. Put it in a warm tortilla with cheese and salsa!
These were soooo yummy and we had some homemade salsa from Jennifer to put on them too.

Then for dinner - classic beef stew. this was GOOOOODHe had 2 bowls. I did too. While we watched Dexter on Showtime.

Then tonight was Lasagna Bowls for Monday-Night-Dinner - which is back on since my test is this Friday and the study class is OVER. 9 weeks in a row of a study class... wow.
This recipe is from Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals on Food Network. I added some stuff to it and it was very very good!You can see her recipe here. I was bothered by the lack of tomato sauce so I dumped in some leftover Prego from what Ben had brought a few weeks ago, it thickened it up and it was great!

Ok, back to studying!

Yummy Yummy Goodness

I am a happy cook these days. Most of what I am doing is coming out really well.
About 2 weeks ago, I made some marinara sauce and sauteed some spicy italian sausage. Ben (our Sunday-night-dinner-case) brought over a little Prego jarred sauce (i know... bear with me) and the sausage.
I made my regular sauce (here) and then thickened it a bit with the prego ( i didn't want to hurt his feelings) and then I cooked the sausage and then sliced it into rings. Tossed it all together with some penne.
YUM!
It's blurry. I know. Plus the steam got in the way. The taste, however, was not affected. :)
This last Sunday, I roasted some chicken in the oven and made a mushroom risotto to go with. For the chicken, I rubbed it down with some softened butter and pushed fresh rosemary under the skin as well. It turned out sooo well. The mushroom risotto was a hit with Lee, who used to claim he doesn't like risotto. That has changed.Last night, I was craving chinese food. Chinese food is not good for you, especially when you eat out. I stopped at the store and picked up a few things so I could make chinese at home.
I sauteed some chicken breasts with onion and broccoli and a little "stir-fry-sauce." Not much because I also made sesame noodles. This is my new addiction. At the last minute i grabbed some dumplings at the sushi bar in the grocery store and sauteed those for a moment in a skillet to heat them up.
Noodle Recipe:
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 to 3 tablespoons pure sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon hot chile oil (more to taste)
4 to 5 tablespoons canola oil
a healthy squirt of Siracha sauce (if you can handle the heat)
3 to 4 green onions, sliced thin

Boil noodles, toss in sauce, garnish with green onions. YUM!

This isn't my original recipe, but i modified it a bit from one I saw recently.

Ignore my mess on the kitchen table, it is always like that these days!

Success and Defeats

This week i had a surprise success at one meal, and a defeat at another.

Wednesday night we had pot roast. I had a can of cream of mushroom soup, but I normally use Golden Mushroom. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a recipe on the back of the cream of mushroom that said "slow cooker pot roast." So I mixed the can of soup with 1 packet of beefy oni0n soup mix, placed veggies and the roast in the slow cooker and spread the soup mix on the meat. My house smelled divine when I got home from work and the meal was REALLY good!

Thursday night I was trying a recipe out of this month's Real Simple magazine - Spicy Orange Glazed Chicken. I enjoyed this, actually. You mix 1/4cup orange marmalade with about a tablespoon of chili-garlic sauce (spicy, in the Asian aisle at the store) and glaze the chicken when it is about 10 min from being done. I served this with green beans and some "smashed" potatoes.
Lee sort of liked it but the bitterness you can get out of a marmalade was too strong for him. He HATES marmalade. So where most people would just move on and be like "that was good!", he was like "AHHH! MARMALADE!" He ate it, I cried, then we had brownies.

He did like the tangy/spicy glaze so now I am looking for a good asian style glaze for chicken. No marmalade allowed.

If you like Pinot Grigio and are looking for a good, cheap one, go for a brand called Masi. I loved it. It was a little heavier, closer to a Charnonney. It went well with the chicken (for whatever it's worth.)

Shrimp Quesadillas

Last night I threw together Shrimp Quesadillas. YUM!

Rice and beans courtesy of Central Market Prepared foods (because it's just that good).

Grocery Store Specials

I love Central Market. I love when they have sales on things I like to eat plus give you bonus points for purchasing them (which turns into cold hard cash. awesome huh?)
This week's flyer had all kinds of yummy yummy things on sale.
T-bones.
Shrimp.
Asparagus.
Pork Tenderloin.
So i bought it. All of it.
And we had this:And it was WONDERFUL.
What? Bikini in October?
Pish.

Oops...

Yeah I didn't get any photos on Labor Day. That day was STRESSFUL. Whenever you have family over it can go either way - stress or none. Oh well, the food was great and I made way way way too many beans.

This week was pretty much a no-cook week. Tuesday I had my class, Wednesday we went to Lee's sister's house for dinner, and it was so yum! Here is the recipe for what she made:

Teriyaki Sauce (we did with beef & broccoli)
1/3 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
3 tbp packed dark brown sugar
2 tbp rice wine vinegar
1 tbp grated ginger
1 clove garlic, minced (i did more, because i love garlic)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

In small saucepan over medium-high heat, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, ginger, garlic, and red pepper. bring to boil & cook 5 min. remove from heat & cool completely ~15 min. marinate beef for about 15 min or so. Sautee in skillet with all the drippings until about medium rare. Serve with broccolini and rice!

Thursday night I was alone so I had this:
Recipe here: Spinach Salad

I had that with this:Sweet Tea in a mason jar (from Palestine with a dogwood on it). Yes m'am, I am Texan.
I also spent some time with these:
The test is on Oct 2. I can now say I have read all the cards more than once and I know about 75% of them. There are also more quizzes i need to retake. I am TIRED!
But this cheered me up:
Thank you CW, for endless tv shows with beautiful people to distract me from the real world.

I HAVE been cooking!

I have just not been posting... sorry!!

First - Grilled Pizza - AGAIN. (Thursday night)
So good. So easy and cheap.
This is a whole wheat dough with a homemade marinara, marinated mozzarella, prosciutto and pepperoni. Ooooh yeah.

Next - (Tuesday night) I have been experimenting with sauces. I have found a whole grain pasta, simple sauce, and grilled chicken can make a wonderful meal in no time at all.

First - I tried a pesto cream sauce. I had my homemade pesto so I combined 1 tablespoon flour with 1 tablespoon butter to make a thickening agent - then slowly wisked in some cream. I didn't measure... maybe 1 cup to start?? Depends on how much you are making. Slowly add it in so that you don't get lumps. Then I added about 2 - 3 tablespoons of the pesto. Lee walked over and said "make more." So i added more cream and pesto. I added a little salt and pepper and whisked away until I liked the consitency.
I had marinated some chicken breasts in basil, oil, salt and pepper. They turned out so crispy and juicy - i just can't describe!
This photo is BAD - the flash washed it out and no amount of photoshop would fix it...
Anyway - i shaved a little parmesean with my carrot peeler, a little white wine... done!

Next - (tonight) same dish - with marinara.
I can't tell you how easy this marinara is. It really is 4 ingredients.
1 can whole peeled tomatoes
1 small white onion, diced small
3 cloves garlic, diced small
basil and italian seasoning.
The tomatoes I used were advertised as San Marzano, sweet plum tomatoes. I love them!
I marinated the chicken the same way as above, and diced some fresh basil and grated some fresh parmesean cheese. Magnifico!
So I suppose it seems I have been feeling the Italian vibe! I can't help it...
I am so glad fall is around the corner! Soups, stews, chili's... oh my!
Tomorrow we are headed it the Astros game and then maybe a quiet night. Monday is a Labor Day celebration with ribs, baked beans, sheet cake, salad, and bread.
Pictures to come for sure!

Calling all home-cooks!

I received my latest copy of Food Network Magazine yesterday and while flipping through I found this website - WebStaurantStore.com <--- CLICK!
I promptly bought some of these:I always see Barefoot Contessa using these and I am always like "WHERE does she get those?"
I also ordered the 16 oz. I am pretty excited because soup/stew season is almost here. Plus, I never have enough containers and these were cheap compared to what you pay for the throw-away ziploc variety.

Have fun shopping!