Tagged: Savory

Gaining, gaining, gained.

For just a second I believed this would be an “okay” for me meal since there was no cream in it. Then I added the butter. Oh and since I’ve come out of the closet about stealing people’s pics – this one is from PW and all ya have to do is click away ;) . Also, the reason I attempted this meal in the first place was becuase of TBF. I asked him what I should do with the left over ham instead of Pea Soup, he said Carbonara because “I think it’s a white sauce and ham cubes” Oh hunny… it isn’t.

What TBF and I ate on Wednesday Night or
Fettuccini Carobonara

  • 1/2 lb bacon cubed
  • 1/2 lb ham cubed
  • 1 large white onion minced
  • 8-12 cloves garlic chopped (It will be okay, I promise.)
  • 1 cup white wine
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded parmasean
  • salt n peppa
  • parsley
  • 1 lb fettuccini

 

  1.  Open the wine and have a glass
  2. Fry up the bacon and ham be sure to not over cook or burn. Remove from pan while leaving the grease behind.
  3. Fry up the onion for a minute or so then add the garlic, if there’s not too too much grease throw the white wine in and reduce. Add Chicken stock and then the pig back in, simmer.
  4. Make sure your pasta’s boiling away, fettuccini takes a while and you want to place it directly from the water into what happens next.
  5. In a large LARGE bowl whisk the eggs with the parmasean, salt and pepper, and a bunch (your choice) of chopped parsley. Quickly add the pasta mixing all the while and then throw on the meat and onions and the butter. Toss to combine, try not to drool.
  6. Stay away from the scale for 7 days.

Ar riv war

Moi xoxo

One Fish, Two Fish, Three Fish… Broccoli

Not My Photo... I Got It From: http://dexteryarbrough1.wordpress.com

I am going to start this bad boy off by saying this: I am in no way a photographer. I do not own a camera, I do not have an understanding of either composition or light, and I use instagram unabashedly. Therefore; while I enjoy cooking and posting recipes online I shy away from those yellowish cast, out of focus pictures.

In fact, true confessions moment here: usually I just Google what I’ve made and take a photo someone else lovingly created. Today however, as I made up this recipe, there is no physical evidence except the lovely warm feeling of fullness in my tummy.  You will have to use your imagination.

Once again I found myself wanting to make something and not having: a) the ingredients, b) the time, or c) the recipe. I winged it (wing it?) anyway.

Here’s the Dr. Seuss Fish Chowder

  • Filet of Steel head
  • Filet of Halibut
  • Filet of Ahi Tuna (please don’t sacrifice any Ahi on my account, go get a good salmon instead. I had to use the tuna or it was caputskis.)
  • 2 1/2 cups left over barley from yesterday (already cooked)
  • 3 cups water
  • 3 cups milk
  • 1 small head of broccoli, separated into small little bite sized trees.
  • 2 Tb butter
  • 1 small yellow onion, minced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tsp fresh chopped ginger
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 can creamed corn
  • dash of this dash of that maybe a bay leaf or two
  1. Chop the fish into cubes, boil in the 3 cups water for about ten minutes. While that is happening fry the cubed carrot in the butter.
  2. Add the water from the fish to the carrot and butter, dump in the minced onion, minced garlic, and minced/chopped ginger. Let bubble for about five min.
  3. Throw everything back into the large pot with the fish sitting in it, add the milk, barley, creamed corn, spices, and anything else I forgot to mention. (Right! The broccoli.) Simmer for about an hour – or until you get back from working at the theatre hoping your house doesn’t burn down in the process, you love your dog after all… he’d better not eat that chowder!
     As I added the creamed corn after I snuck a bowl of chowder this isn’t exactly tested. The once or two hurried tastes I had on my way out the door spoke good things of midnight guilty pig outs though… oh and I’m totally making some baking powder biscuits when I get home.
Peace out hommies
Moi xoxo

Pita! Pita!

[Warning, this post has little to do with Pitas, it's mostly about chicken.]

     I’ve written about them before, and I’ll write about them again. Two “thems” in fact. I read a bunch of cool blogs, two of which are The Pioneer Woman, and The Inn at the Crossroads. I follow those blogs voraciously for one incredibly important reason – the food.

     I have been looking for a good flatbread recipe for a while so when The Inn came out with their post on Dornish food, I quickly copied the recipe into my ever handy journal. I’ll write about that later though as the first experiment was ok, and the second is in progress. 

     Last night I was surfing the internet for a chicken recipe that sounded fun and *pop* Pioneer woman just posted about one! I was ready. I don’t know if this happens to you, but it happens to me all the time. I read a recipe, I get inspired, I have none of the ingredients, I cook it anyway. So after I realized I did not have any peach preserves, BBQ sauce, Whiskey of any sort, white onion, or Worcestershire sauce, I did not fear! Lo because I had oil, butter, and most importantly – chicken.

     Read the Pioneer Woman’s recipe. It looks good, I’m sure it tastes good, but this is what I made last night.

“Stubborn” Chicken

  1. 3 Chicken thigh/drumstick big leg pieces
  2. 1/2 red onion
  3. Sherry
  4. Balsamic vinegar
  5. Soy sauce
  6. Garlic
  7. Butter
  8. Oil
  9. Cranberry Jalapeno Jelly
  10. Salt and Pepper

In my large cast iron saucepan I heated oil and melted butter and browned up my largish chicken pieces just like the P-Woman.

I chopped the red onion, and squished the garlic and after removing the chicken added it to the left over fat in the pan. ( I did not throw away half, I don’t care that my thighs are growing faster than the weeds in my garden.)

I added a couple glugs of sherry, a dash of soy, a glug of balsamic and a jar of my home-made Cranberry Jalepeno Jelly, and a cup of water.

I brought it all to a quiet boil and threw the chicken back in covered it with an oven proof lid and fired into a pre-heated oven at 350° and baked it for an hour and a half.

Voila! Just like hers, I’m sure of it.

 Moi xoxo

 

Lunch

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 to 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 3/4 Cups frozen peas
  • 1 avocado
  • 1 Cup water
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 Tbsp pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1tsp cayenne pepper
  1. Put the chopped onion and garlic in the bottom of a sauce pan and cover with water. Place frozen peas in the vegetable steamer and place above the onion and garlic in water. Bring to a boil until peas are cooked.
  2. Add all to blender with the avocado and 1 cup of water, pulse until liquefied. (May need to do in batches.)
  3. Pour into saucepan and add salt, pepper, cayenne, and lemon juice. Stir constantly until just boiling. Serve warm.

This is the greatest pea soup I have ever had. For those interested, the whole recipe is 15 weight watchers points.
Serves up to 4.

Moi xoxo

Food For Thought

Taken from “The Inn at the Crossroads” blog.

    
     After getting over the initial shock that “A Dance With Dragons” is finished, and about to hit the shelves around July, I started to peruse George R. R.’s website. I remembered he had a funny “notablog” so I stopped off there first, and followed a link he posted to an absolutely kick ass blog here. These ladies are actually making recipes and cooking the dishes they find in A Song of Ice and Fire series! Amazing, wonderful, exciting.
     There are several recipes I want to try out, not the lease of which “Winter Cakes”, but I was suddenly reminded of finding a recipe for “Spice Soup” which is featured in Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. I have looked and looked but it seems Mr. Goodkind has written a new book, also expected in July 2011 so his old site is down. However, I have a copy of the recipe and I have made it often, I love it.

………………………………………………………………………
SPICE SOUP

First, lightly brown some hot peppers in oil. (The little dried red peppers, often used in oriental cooking.) Be careful not to cook them too long, or the soup will be really spicy. After they’re browned, take them out. Be sure to get all the seeds, too. I like to break up the peppers and put them in a vertical handled strainer and then lower that into the hot oil. After they brown this makes it easy to take them out. (You could also cook the peppers in a small pan and then pour the oil into a big soup pot through a small strainer, if it’s easier for you.) (All the following ingredients should be cut up into bite size pieces.) Sauté 2 onions, and then mushrooms (about equal to the onions) in the oil.

After the onions and mushrooms are sautéed, add the following:

4 or 5 potatoes
3 carrots
celery
1 small zucchini
1 package frozen corn (or 1 can)
1/2 head of cabbage
2-15 oz cans of tomatoes (or 1 large one)
chicken soup base
dry parsley, crushed

fill the pot with water so that it generously covers everything. After bringing it to a boil, cover and let it simmer until the vegetables are all cooked. It takes some time for the potatoes to cook. Add water as it evaporates. I like to let the soup simmer all day. It not only makes the house smell wonderful, but it gets better the longer it cooks. With chunks of fresh bread, it makes a hearty meal, especially on a cold day sitting by a crackling fire. Enjoy. All best wishes.

Whole recipe is roughly 30 weight watcher’s points depending on how true you stay to the ingredients. Substitute out the canned corn for fresh, and use less tomato and potato to decrease the points value substantionly.

     One of the great things about Spice Soup is that it is so easily adaptable, and mould able to whatever you have left over in your fridge, try it out an let me know what you think. I’m going to make mine with hot peppers, fancy mushrooms, and some venison from last season tonight.
     I love food. See my “about me” section on my eating habits. I absolutely love reading about food. I believe this is why A Song Of Ice and Fire is so irresistible to me. I can’t read it without stuffing my face with something, anything. It seems the book is constantly filled with descriptions of food. Gah! Weight Watchers Canada loves me, I am sending all their collective children to college with the amount money I am forced to spend on them to stay below a size XXXXXL.  
     I know that I’ve read other books with amazing descriptions of food, but it always seems to me that the fantasy genre just goes the extra mile. I have read about honeyed cakes and an array of wines in The Farseer Trilogy; Ales, stews, and breads in The Wheel of Time series; and porridge, lots and lots of porridge in the Malorean…poor Silk.
     Does anyone have any favorite foody passages in a book? I challenge you to bring a non-fantasy one! I would love to hear from any of you.
     Have a fantastic day! Happy Calories :-)
Moi xoxo