I made a tasty lil chicken dish my my Crock Pot over the weekend but somehow forgot to take photos. But I'll be pposting a review anyways bc it was tasty and I'd like to share!
Anywho... So this Sunday is it: the BIG DAY. The day when Americans all watch the same game and simultaneously tweet/instagram pictures of shenanigans and their favorite commercials(and let's be honest, most of us care more about the commercials than the actual game).
And this is my 1st Superbowl Sunday where I'm going to make something. I wanted to have a party but that didn't really work out but I was invited to a friend's house and so this will be my opportunity to strut my culinary stuff in front of others. I probably should be nervous but I'm kinda excited. I wanna see if I can make something that other football fans will enjoy.
I've made a poll for all of my readers to vote on(yes, all 6 of you) and pick the dish that I'm going to make for Super Sunday. So far only two people have voted and I'm one of them. The other one is my brother.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Spicy Asian Chicken Pasta
Hey, kiddos. Back after a nice long week of trying out new recipes while also being sure not to burn down my lil' apartment. So what did I make? Well, in this installment, I'll tell you about the bootleg teryaki chicken pasta i tried to make...
So, I'm absolutely in loooove with Kraft's Asian Toasted Sesame Anything dressing. I will seriously put it on just about anything. But I especially love it on chicken and long grain rice. But, since this whole project is all about trying new things, I decided to make my own version of Asian noodles(or something) using broccoli, chicken and thin spaghetti--oh, and my Asian Sesame dressing, duh.
So I made the pasta in a big ol' pot and meanwhile, let the sesame dressing, a tablespoon of Sriracha, some soy sauce and little chicken strips have a party on the stove. Well, umm....It looked and smelled delicious but all the brown everywhere made it EXTREMELY hard for my already bad eyes to determine if the chicken was cooked. Sooooo long story short, I over cooked the chicken(but didn't know it at the time). So, I drain the pasta and pour my Asian Sesame Toasted chicken concoction over it and mix it well. Or at least try to. I didn't make enough sauce(I only had like maybe 1/3 cup in the bottle left) and it never occurred to my newbie cooking mind to only cook HALF a pound of pasta instead of the whole friggin box! So, of course this occurs to me as I'm trying to mix the sauce with the pasta and half of it isn't getting coated and all of the chicken and broccoli has fallen to the bottom of the pot.
Anywho, since making this I've decided that my scoring scale for my creations will be as such(in order from best to worst rating):
Anywho, even though there was wayyyy too much pasta in the pot and the chicken was so overcooked I wasn't sure I could eat it, the actual flavor of the sauce was really really good and I'll (maybe) try this again and correct my mistakes.
So, I'm absolutely in loooove with Kraft's Asian Toasted Sesame Anything dressing. I will seriously put it on just about anything. But I especially love it on chicken and long grain rice. But, since this whole project is all about trying new things, I decided to make my own version of Asian noodles(or something) using broccoli, chicken and thin spaghetti--oh, and my Asian Sesame dressing, duh.
Anywho, since making this I've decided that my scoring scale for my creations will be as such(in order from best to worst rating):
DELISH!
GOOD!
OK.
TERRIBLE!
I feel like it's a big jump from OK to TERRIBLE, but I don't forsee myself making anything that's truly mediocre...I just see surprising succeses or epic fails, so I figured keeping the scoring system to 4 simple grades instead of like 9 was for the best.
OVERALL SCORE FOR THIS DISH: OK.
Did you say "Country-Fried Steak"? I thought you said "Country-Fried DISASTER"!
I wasn't even sure if I was gonna post about this seriously lame fail of a recipe. But, i gotta have 100% transparency on here so that means you'll see the good, the bad and the TERRIBLE. This one goes down in the history books as just horrific.
Where to begin? Should I start with the smoke detector going off and making the dog and I run in circles like crazy zombies? Or maybe the perfectly good steaks that I burned so bad that the meat began to morph shapes and kinda looked like a cup made out of meat? Hmmm...
I'll start at the beginning I guess. Had 5 skillet steaks, wanted to do something new with them and there was a recipe for "country fried steak" on the packaging. I had all of the ingredients in my pantry and fridge so I was like "Yeeeehaw!!! Let's do this country thang!"
So it started off easy enough. Dipped each steak in the egg, then put it in the bread crumbs. It was just like doing fried chicken, which I used to make in my little deep fryer back when I thought having a deep fryer was a healthy life choice. Anyways, so I get 'em all dipped and battered and my skillet's got hot oil in it.
I drop the 1st two steaks in and let them cook for a couple minutes as per my directions. Well, apparently my heat was too high so I burned one side and kinda under cooked the other. And I had too much oil in the skillet. So the next two, i turned the head down a smidgen and put less oil in. Well this was just as bad because they weren't really cooking at all and they were just dry and crumbly since there wasn't hardly and friggin oil in the skillet. So I rectify the situation, only to burn the shizz outta these steaks too!. They actually curled up and looked like upside down bowls made of meat. I was alone in my apartment and still felt utterly embarrassed!
So I had one steak left and I tried one more time to get this thing right. Well it actually got nice and brown on the 1st side and I turned it and I managed not to burn that side either! "YES!!! VICTORY IS MIN--" I was cut off my the blaring of my smoke detector. I swung around in fright and found that, while I'd been entranced in my steak-ruining process, my entire apartment was gray and hazy with smoke!!! So I freaked out and started running in circles. Yes, just running in circles, waving a dish cloth around in the air. Like a lunatic. At this point the dog is also running in circles, barking like a rabid maniac. I finally get some common sense and open the patio door, turn on the ceiling fan and wave my cloth in front of the detector to get it to shut up.
Then I turned back around to see that all my steaks were sitting in little puddles of what looked like blood. "Oh yeah....I forgot that I should make sure they're cooked through...."
The recipe called for cooking some diced tomatoes in the skillet and topping each steak with some and sprinkling Parmesan on top so I did that. 5 minutes later I sit down to a plate of country friend nightmare meat, garden veggie rice and garlic bread. I cut into my steak and see the most uneven cooked piece of meat I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. In places it was well done; others, medium; in most places, medium-rare. I ate it anyway(hell, i bought the meat I wasn't gonna waste it!). It was terrible. Just terrible. And 25 minutes later I ran to the bathroom. I'll spare you the details.
Needless to say, I won't ever try to country fry ANYTHING for a long, long, LONG time.
OVERALL RATING FOR THIS RECIPE: TERRIBLE!
I'll start at the beginning I guess. Had 5 skillet steaks, wanted to do something new with them and there was a recipe for "country fried steak" on the packaging. I had all of the ingredients in my pantry and fridge so I was like "Yeeeehaw!!! Let's do this country thang!"
So it started off easy enough. Dipped each steak in the egg, then put it in the bread crumbs. It was just like doing fried chicken, which I used to make in my little deep fryer back when I thought having a deep fryer was a healthy life choice. Anyways, so I get 'em all dipped and battered and my skillet's got hot oil in it.
I drop the 1st two steaks in and let them cook for a couple minutes as per my directions. Well, apparently my heat was too high so I burned one side and kinda under cooked the other. And I had too much oil in the skillet. So the next two, i turned the head down a smidgen and put less oil in. Well this was just as bad because they weren't really cooking at all and they were just dry and crumbly since there wasn't hardly and friggin oil in the skillet. So I rectify the situation, only to burn the shizz outta these steaks too!. They actually curled up and looked like upside down bowls made of meat. I was alone in my apartment and still felt utterly embarrassed!
So I had one steak left and I tried one more time to get this thing right. Well it actually got nice and brown on the 1st side and I turned it and I managed not to burn that side either! "YES!!! VICTORY IS MIN--" I was cut off my the blaring of my smoke detector. I swung around in fright and found that, while I'd been entranced in my steak-ruining process, my entire apartment was gray and hazy with smoke!!! So I freaked out and started running in circles. Yes, just running in circles, waving a dish cloth around in the air. Like a lunatic. At this point the dog is also running in circles, barking like a rabid maniac. I finally get some common sense and open the patio door, turn on the ceiling fan and wave my cloth in front of the detector to get it to shut up.
Then I turned back around to see that all my steaks were sitting in little puddles of what looked like blood. "Oh yeah....I forgot that I should make sure they're cooked through...."
The recipe called for cooking some diced tomatoes in the skillet and topping each steak with some and sprinkling Parmesan on top so I did that. 5 minutes later I sit down to a plate of country friend nightmare meat, garden veggie rice and garlic bread. I cut into my steak and see the most uneven cooked piece of meat I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. In places it was well done; others, medium; in most places, medium-rare. I ate it anyway(hell, i bought the meat I wasn't gonna waste it!). It was terrible. Just terrible. And 25 minutes later I ran to the bathroom. I'll spare you the details.
Needless to say, I won't ever try to country fry ANYTHING for a long, long, LONG time.
OVERALL RATING FOR THIS RECIPE: TERRIBLE!
Baked Ziti
Finally! my 1st crock pot recipe! I've been looking forward to this and am excited. I got this recipe from a GREAT blog that's dedicated to all things crock pot. Check it out, it's fabulous.
So, if you click the link you'll see the recipe there and I did exactly what the recipe called for except, I used diced tomatoes and I think the ounces for my pasta sauce may have been a little different(<10 oz difference).
I have notice that cooking and baking has become a GREAT stress release for me and so when I came home from work today in an absolutely horrid, wretched, poopy mood, all I wanted to do was distract myself with a recipe. And I'd been wanting to make this one for a couple weeks so I just decided to do it.
I lined my crock pot with a crock pot liner so there will be easy clean up. I also did this recipe on HI so it only has to be in the pot for 2 hours. As I type this it's been in there for an hour and 7 minutes. This was so incredibly easy to make, I will undoubtedly add this to my list of "mommy training" recipes. Yes, you read that right. I have a list of activities, recipes, songs, crafts, etc. that I've picked up over the years from being a nanny, a pre school teacher, a camp counselor/youth minister, a teacher and a volunteer. And they're all things I want/hope to do with my kids someday (Lord willing). And this recipe is totally something that I think would be so quick and easy to do.
Anywho, enough about me and my nonexistant, unborn kids, this recipe smelled great when I was mixing all the ingredients and in a little bit I'll be able to taste it and take some pics of the final product. See you in an hour or so...
Ok so I checked it at exactly 2 hrs and it was pretty darn awesome in the middle but the pasta on the edges was NOT cooked all the way! :( But the cheese was all melted and delicious and the taste was very good. I put the lid back on and have it cookin on low for 30 minutes to see if that'll help.
OVERALL RATING FOR THIS RECIPE: GOOD!
I have notice that cooking and baking has become a GREAT stress release for me and so when I came home from work today in an absolutely horrid, wretched, poopy mood, all I wanted to do was distract myself with a recipe. And I'd been wanting to make this one for a couple weeks so I just decided to do it.
 |
| Got all the goodies layered in there |
I lined my crock pot with a crock pot liner so there will be easy clean up. I also did this recipe on HI so it only has to be in the pot for 2 hours. As I type this it's been in there for an hour and 7 minutes. This was so incredibly easy to make, I will undoubtedly add this to my list of "mommy training" recipes. Yes, you read that right. I have a list of activities, recipes, songs, crafts, etc. that I've picked up over the years from being a nanny, a pre school teacher, a camp counselor/youth minister, a teacher and a volunteer. And they're all things I want/hope to do with my kids someday (Lord willing). And this recipe is totally something that I think would be so quick and easy to do.
 |
| Cooked this baby on HI for 2 hrs |
Anywho, enough about me and my nonexistant, unborn kids, this recipe smelled great when I was mixing all the ingredients and in a little bit I'll be able to taste it and take some pics of the final product. See you in an hour or so...
Ok so I checked it at exactly 2 hrs and it was pretty darn awesome in the middle but the pasta on the edges was NOT cooked all the way! :( But the cheese was all melted and delicious and the taste was very good. I put the lid back on and have it cookin on low for 30 minutes to see if that'll help.
 |
| Finished product! |
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Chocolate Chip Cheese Bars
Ok, this recipe is a prime example of my impatience and the insanity of the fat girl who lives inside of me. I saw this recipe a week ago(yes, in the same cookbook my mommy gave me in college) and saw that it had chocolate chip cookies and cream cheese and only 5 ingredients and I was like "uh, I want those now. No, scratch that, I want them yesterday."
So I made this plan to make them for Super Bowl Sunday because I'm hoping to be able to host my 1st ever Super Bowl party which I will of course blog about if it comes to pass. Anywho, I was like yeah yeah, Super Bowl Shluper Blowl, I want those suckers NOW!(in the deep, husky voice of the fat chick inside me) so I bought the ingredients when I went shopping and told myself "I'm just being prepared and prudent and making sure I have all my ingredients like a good little girl so I'm not running around on Super Sunday."
Now, we're all adults here. We can all smell bull from a mile away and we all know that deep down I bought that stuff so I could make these suckers ASAP! And I made them today right after I made the quiche because they baked at the same temperature so I didn't have to turn the oven on multiple times or change the temp I just made the quiche and bout halfway through its baking I prepped and made the bars and when the quiche was done I took it out and slipped the 8x8 baking pan in(a brand new purex pan that I just bought, love it) and got them both done in one sitting.
1 tube refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar (I use Truvia Baking Sweetener for reduced calories!)
1 egg
Cut cookie dough in half. For crust, press half of the dough onto the bottom of a greased 9 in. square baking pan OR a 7x11 in. pan.(I used my square 8x8)
In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Spread over crust. Crumble remaining dough over top.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 mintues or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. cool on a wire rack or in pan until no longer warm to the touch(I kinda screwed up and didn't have a wire rack so just let them cool in the pan and then cut them to remove them and they were crumbly!! So if you don't have a rack, let em cool til they're easy to touch and take out and put them on a plate or foil or ANYTHING that's cool bc sitting in that hot pan kinda jacks with their firmness). regrigerate leftovers.
Fresh outta the oven and cooling!! They smelled divine.
The first piece I cut right before I ate it. True story: it was soo good I started laughing. Just uncontrollable laughing! I couldn't believe I made something that actually tasted good! Hahaha the dog was like "uhhh what the....?"
And here's a side view so you can see how it's layered with cookie-cream-cookie. Sorry for poor photo quality, took all pics on my phone.
OVERALL RATING FOR RECIPE: DELISH!
So I made this plan to make them for Super Bowl Sunday because I'm hoping to be able to host my 1st ever Super Bowl party which I will of course blog about if it comes to pass. Anywho, I was like yeah yeah, Super Bowl Shluper Blowl, I want those suckers NOW!(in the deep, husky voice of the fat chick inside me) so I bought the ingredients when I went shopping and told myself "I'm just being prepared and prudent and making sure I have all my ingredients like a good little girl so I'm not running around on Super Sunday."
Now, we're all adults here. We can all smell bull from a mile away and we all know that deep down I bought that stuff so I could make these suckers ASAP! And I made them today right after I made the quiche because they baked at the same temperature so I didn't have to turn the oven on multiple times or change the temp I just made the quiche and bout halfway through its baking I prepped and made the bars and when the quiche was done I took it out and slipped the 8x8 baking pan in(a brand new purex pan that I just bought, love it) and got them both done in one sitting.
1 tube refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar (I use Truvia Baking Sweetener for reduced calories!)
1 egg
Cut cookie dough in half. For crust, press half of the dough onto the bottom of a greased 9 in. square baking pan OR a 7x11 in. pan.(I used my square 8x8)
In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Spread over crust. Crumble remaining dough over top.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 mintues or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. cool on a wire rack or in pan until no longer warm to the touch(I kinda screwed up and didn't have a wire rack so just let them cool in the pan and then cut them to remove them and they were crumbly!! So if you don't have a rack, let em cool til they're easy to touch and take out and put them on a plate or foil or ANYTHING that's cool bc sitting in that hot pan kinda jacks with their firmness). regrigerate leftovers.
Fresh outta the oven and cooling!! They smelled divine.
OVERALL RATING FOR RECIPE: DELISH!
Crab Quiche
Ok, so I wanted to start my cooking adventure with a dish I love. I've never made quiche ever in my life but I've eaten plenty and my mouth and my tummy will tell you that I love me some quiche. Doesn't matter if its for breakfast, lunch or dinner, I love it. So I found this recipe in a cookbook my mom gave me years ago (junior year of college I think) and there was this easy, quick recipe for crab quiche and it only had 5 ingredients! I was sold.
So I made it today with my own lil spin on it 'cause I'm creative and innovative like that(or I couldn't find shredded swiss cheese at Winn Dixie.... I mean whatever. You say missing an ingredient, I say culinary prowess). It turned out GORGEOUS. It was cooked all the way through, smelled pretty good. When I cut it into slices enough of it collected on the knife and so naturally I tasted it and YEEAAAAAHH BABY! It was good. That pepper jack cheese gave it a *kick* of flavor and I'm glad I subbed the swiss because I'm not even a swiss fan anyway. It' smelly and holey, who wants that?
Pictures and recipe are below. Enjoy.
3 eggs, beaten
1 (8 oz) carton sour cream
1 (6 oz) can crabmeat, rinsed
1/2 cup grated swiss cheese (I used shredded pepper jack bc I like a lil' kick!)
1 pie shell
In a bowl, combine eggs and sour cream. Blend in crabmeat and cheese; add a little garlic salt and pepper.
pour into a 9 inch(or whatever you have lol) pie shell
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. (I baked it for 40 just to be sure it was done)
Sorry no pics of it sliced! I'm having it for breakfast tomorrow morning so I cut it and then popped it in the fridge! So excited. Gonna have it with fruit and a hot cup of green tea. mmmm! **update: using a graham crust was lazy and stupid and kinda ruined it. Use a dough crust!**
OVERALL RATING FOR RECIPE: GOOD.
So I made it today with my own lil spin on it 'cause I'm creative and innovative like that(or I couldn't find shredded swiss cheese at Winn Dixie.... I mean whatever. You say missing an ingredient, I say culinary prowess). It turned out GORGEOUS. It was cooked all the way through, smelled pretty good. When I cut it into slices enough of it collected on the knife and so naturally I tasted it and YEEAAAAAHH BABY! It was good. That pepper jack cheese gave it a *kick* of flavor and I'm glad I subbed the swiss because I'm not even a swiss fan anyway. It' smelly and holey, who wants that?
Pictures and recipe are below. Enjoy.
3 eggs, beaten
1 (8 oz) carton sour cream
1 (6 oz) can crabmeat, rinsed
1/2 cup grated swiss cheese (I used shredded pepper jack bc I like a lil' kick!)
1 pie shell
In a bowl, combine eggs and sour cream. Blend in crabmeat and cheese; add a little garlic salt and pepper.
pour into a 9 inch(or whatever you have lol) pie shell
Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. (I baked it for 40 just to be sure it was done)
And so it begins.
I guess this is gonna be a blog where I do what I've complained about other blogs doing for years: ramble on about myself for page with no apparent point or message or even interesting point. Well, I guess it'll be kinda interesting...
I'm trying to learn how to cook. Well I know how, but I do it like 4% of the time and I'd like to do it 85% percent of the time. Yes, I'm a big dreamer.
So here I am with my tiny lil' kitchen in my tiny lil' one bedroom apartment and my laptop that's on it's dying legs and my digital camera and smart phone camera. Two cookbooks. The internet. And recipes from friends. Oh, and mix in my own very crazy unpredictable life and that's what will fill up the entries and pages of this web log. I'll talk about eating(it's what I do best, some might argue). Praying('cause that's uber important and ya gotta do it before you eat, duh). Loving(umm, I've heard it's all the world needs). Teaching('cause it's my purpose in life and I love what I do and how can I NOT talk about it?!). And yes, of course: eating some more.
Enjoy, kiddos.
I'm trying to learn how to cook. Well I know how, but I do it like 4% of the time and I'd like to do it 85% percent of the time. Yes, I'm a big dreamer.
So here I am with my tiny lil' kitchen in my tiny lil' one bedroom apartment and my laptop that's on it's dying legs and my digital camera and smart phone camera. Two cookbooks. The internet. And recipes from friends. Oh, and mix in my own very crazy unpredictable life and that's what will fill up the entries and pages of this web log. I'll talk about eating(it's what I do best, some might argue). Praying('cause that's uber important and ya gotta do it before you eat, duh). Loving(umm, I've heard it's all the world needs). Teaching('cause it's my purpose in life and I love what I do and how can I NOT talk about it?!). And yes, of course: eating some more.
Enjoy, kiddos.
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