Make the Taco Seasoning

A packet of Old El Paso taco seasoning costs about $1.50 at our local grocery store. And for that amount of money, this is the list of ingredients you and your family get to consume:

Maltodextrin, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, spice, monosodium glutamate, corn starch, yellow corn flour, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, silicon dioxide (anticaking agent), natural flavor, ethoxyquin (preservative).

At least 4 of those ingredients are not available at a typical grocery store and stuff like that scares the bejesus out of me. Also the 4th ingredient listed is "spice". What the heck does that mean?
It's super easy to make homemade taco seasoning and if you mix up a batch in a Ball jar you can keep it stored in your pantry for quick and easy access.

Here's my homemade taco seasoning mix recipe:

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or cayenne)

Make the Guacamole

Guacamole is one of the easiest things to make so I'm always surprised when I see people buy a container of it at a store. I don't think it really saves money to make guacamole but I am sure homemade tastes a lot better and has a better consistency. Who wants creamy smooth guac? I prefer mine chunky.

Quick recipe (serves 1 or 2 people)
1 avocado (ripe)*
1 roma tomato**
pinch of kosher salt
half a pinch of pepper
half a lime (squeezed)

*Take the avocado and cut it in half. Scoop out the flesh on one side of the fruit, and mash it into a pulp with a Molcajete tool or a fork. Take the other half of the fruit and use a knife to cut it into small pieces, then scoop out and mix in with the mashed avocado. This will give the guacamole a chunkier texture.


**I use Roma tomatoes because they have less water and seeds, so the guacamole doesn't get runny. You could use a different variety of tomato I would just recommend first scooping out the seeds/water before dicing the tomato.

If you don't have a lime lying around, a splash of lemon juice will work.

Also, the picture I attached is from a year and a half ago (gosh, has it been that long?) My friend Matt was visiting from Los Angeles and we whipped up a batch of guacamole in my kitchen using the Molcajete that Will and Thea got Chris and I as a house warming gift. :)

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter

My girlfriend Kristin recommended this book to me after watching an interview with the author on The Today show. The premise of the book is that the author, newly unemployed, spent a year making food staples instead of buying them in hopes of saving money. She chronicled her experiments and rated them as "Buy this" or "Make this" depending on how easy/difficult the recipe was and if it really did save money.
For the past 2 years I also have tried making more kitchen staples of my own. Not so much to save money but more so I know the food is fresh and not loaded with salt and/or sugar, as most store bought package food are. So for the next few posts I will share with you some of the basic recipes I have for kitchen staples.




SALAD DRESSING
Two years ago I started making my own salad dressing. In the winter and springtime, Chris and I eat a lot of salad greens and the store bought dressings either have high fructose corn syrup in them or they're crazy expensive. This recipe includes simple ingredients that I always have around my house, it takes about 2 minutes to mix up, and it always tastes fresh. Feel free to adjust the ingredients according to your palate (I'm not a big vinegar fan, so I tend to go light on the vinegar). You can also play up flavors by adding/exchanging out mustard, honey, balsamic vinegar, or different herbs.

Recipe
3 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Teaspoons of Red Wine Vinegar
Pinch of salt
Half a pinch of pepper
pinch of dried oregano

Put all of the ingredients in a Ball jar (of Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker) and mix up. Pour over the salad greens and toss until coated.

Table Centerpiece

I love Christmas! This year I brainstormed elegant and creative ways to decorate our home. We put a 4 1/2 foot tree on our front bay window, decorated with white lights and pretty ornaments. We had to trim some of the lower branches off the tree to get it to sit properly in the tree stand. I saved those branches, dried them for a week in the basement (so they wouldn't drip sap on everything), and then arranged them in our dining table centerpiece (low bowl).
I picked up some fresh pomegranates at the grocery store and voila! We have a beautiful, fragrant centerpiece which at the end of the season I will be able to eat. Merry Christmas!!

Quinoa

In an attempt at expanding our vegetarian meal options, Monday night I decided to try my hand at cooking Quinoa. I researched recipes online for about a week, trying to understand the basics of how to prepare a meal with Quinoa. From what I gathered, these are the universal truths:
1. Quinoa doesn't have much flavor, so you gotta add a lot of flavor with other ingredients
2. Quinoa dries out quickly, so a vinaigrette is helpful

So here's what I started out with: Quinoa, chicken stock, one garlic clove, large chopped bell pepper, chopped onion, and sliced zucchini. For the vinaigrette I had EVOO, an orange, salt, pepper, and fresh parsley. (and a glass of white wine for inspiration) :)

I smashed the garlic clove and threw it in a saucepan with the chicken stock. Once that was boiling, I added the quinoa, reduced the heat, covered, and simmered for 15 minutes until all the liquid was absorbed. Then I discarded the garlic clove and set the quinoa aside in a large bowl.













While the quinoa was simmering I started working on prepping the veggies. In a large skillet I heated up some olive oil. Then I sauteed all the veggies for about 10 minutes until tender. Then I combined the sauteed veggies with the quinoa in a large bowl where I mixed in a cup of Craisins for a bit more flavor.

I created the vinaigrette by mixing 3 Tbsp Olive Oil, the juice of one orange, pinch of salt, half a pinch of pepper and some fresh chopped parsley. I shook that up in my Jamie Oliver Flavour Shaker and poured the dressing over the quinoa, stirring to incorporate.

The meal turned out to be a success! And I've discovered that Quinoa leftovers even heat up well the next day. Yay!

Organic Valley

Sometimes eating organic, whole foods can take some getting used to. I've been a skim milk drinker since the age of 12 and was always grossed out when I would see people drinking 1% or 2% milk, because it just looked like thick paint to me. Like drinking glue.

But darn the interwebs and the information out there on the Google. Cause I got bored one day and decided to read up on how skim milk is made. I researched how the fat is removed from the milk and with what I learned I decided a change to my diet needed to be made.

Here's a little lesson on how to make skim milk:
Back in the old days, milk was allowed to sit in a bucket or bottle for a few days so the fat would rise to the top. The fat was then skimmed off and the milk was used for drinking or cooking with. Now, with increased demand for milk, machines spin the milk in order to separate out the fat. The more fat that needs to be removed, the more cycles of spinning. Once all the fat has been removed you are left with a watery substance. It can look really pale so some companies inject dyes into the liquid to make it look more white. Then they bottle it and call it skim milk.

The thought of drinking dyes makes me shudder and in my quest to eat more whole foods, I knew my milk choices needed to change. So after 20 some odd years (gulp...I'm old.) I have finally made the switch to 2% milk. (I just can't bring myself to drink whole milk. At least...not yet...BABY STEPS, PEOPLE)

It was a slow process that began in August where I tried to eat cereal with 2% milk and seriously could not eat the whole bowl. So I opted for 1% milk for a few weeks as a transitional period, eventually working my way up to 2%. I've been drinking 2% now for about a month and I gotta say I have actually started enjoying it.

In terms of what brand of milk we drink, Chris and I milk shopped for months trying to find an organic brand that tasted good and wasn't 'big box business' like Horizon. (I've heard some real horror stories about Horizon Brand Milk not being honest about their "organic" processes.) We settled on Organic Valley out of Wisconsin.

Things I love about Organic Valley:
1. The farms are in Wisconsin so it's fairly close in proximity to my house
2. It tastes really good.
3. The milk carton notes the farm that the milk came from; you can go on O.V.'s website to read about the farm and the farmers.
4. I really believe that it's organic.


So anyway, if you're trying to consume more whole foods consider changing the milk you drink. Changing from skim to 2% may seem like a small step but in all actuality it's a pretty good leap in a healthy direction.

Chicken Stock

Monday I took the day off of work and took all those leftover chicken bones and made a big batch of homemade chicken stock! I used Alton Brown's recipe, which I found online. I had never made my own stock before and was REALLY excited about trying my hand at it. It takes a few hours to do but is really quite easy. I saved the stock in 2 cup freezable containers, so I can just pull one out to thaw for a batch of soup or to use while slow cooking meat.

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds chicken carcasses, including necks and backs
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 4 carrots, peeled and cut in 1/2
• 4 ribs celery, cut in 1/2
• 1 leek, white part only, cut in 1/2 lengthwise
• 10 sprigs fresh thyme
• 10 sprigs fresh parsley with stems
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 to 10 peppercorns
• 2 whole cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 gallons cold water

Directions:

Place chicken, vegetables, and herbs and spices in 12-quart stockpot. Set opened steamer basket directly on ingredients in pot and pour over water. Cook on high heat until you begin to see bubbles break through the surface of the liquid. Turn heat down to medium low so that stock maintains low, gentle simmer. Skim the scum from the stock with a spoon or fine mesh strainer every 10 to 15 minutes for the first hour of cooking and twice each hour for the next 2 hours. Add hot water as needed to keep bones and vegetables submerged. Simmer uncovered for 6 to 8 hours.

Strain stock through a fine mesh strainer into another large stockpot or heatproof container discarding the solids. Cool immediately in large cooler of ice or a sink full of ice water to below 40 degrees. Place in refrigerator overnight. Remove solidified fat from surface of liquid and store in container with lid in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days or in freezer for up to 3 months. Prior to use, bring to boil for 2 minutes. Use as a base for soups and sauces.

Chicken Pot Pie

We had leftover chicken on the bird, after we dined on Sunday night, so I picked those bones clean and used that leftover meat to make a Chicken Pot Pie on Tuesday night.

Not one part of that bird was wasted!

And the ingredients I bought for the stock (like a bunch of carrots, and a bag of celery, and a bunch of parsley) were also used in the pot pie. So I felt good about using up all the food wisely. I couldn't help but carve a special note in the pot pie crust for Chris, since he was so sweet while I cut out the chicken back. :)

I was especially proud of this pot pie because I do not kid myself a baker. I cook, I do not bake. But this recipe called for a homemade crust topping. Which didn't require baking per se, but it looked enough like baking that I got nervous I was going to frak it up. But it turned out great! I should never doubt America's Test Kitchen! (or myself, for that matter!)

Crisp Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

I roasted a chicken on Sunday. It was a perfect fall day to roast a bird in the oven and the final product was quite tasty! I will write out, at the end of this post, how I went about preparing and cooking the bird. By far the hardest part was cutting out the back bone. I had never butterflied a whole chicken before and cutting through bone with shears, and hearing that crunching sound, was not pleasant. Chris actually stepped into the kitchen to cheer me on while I fought the urge to upchuck on the bird. But I cut through the bones and pulled the backbones out, so...I guess that's something to be proud of.
**Please note in the "after" photo that we served this with a jar of homemade apple sauce! Yay!**

















Crispy Roast Chicken and Potatoes:

Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken, 3.5-4 lbs
1 cup kosher salt or 1/2 cup table salt
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 Ts olive oil

2.5 pounds roasting potatoes, Yukon Golds
3/4 ts salt
ground black pepper
1 Tb olive oil

Compound butter:
2 Tb butter
1 clove garlic, mashed
1 Tb dijon mustard
1 ts minced fresh thyme
ground black pepper

Brine chicken in solution of 1 cup kosher salt (or 1/2 cup table salt) and 1/2 cup sugar to 1/2 gallon water for 1 hour.

Pat chicken dry. Cut out backbone (try not to upchuck) to butterfly chicken. Flatten breastbone (just push down firmly).

Mix up compound butter. With your fingers, loosen skin across breast and as far down drumsticks as you can, do not tear skin. Spoon butter under skin and work across as much of the chicken as possible. Rub 1.5 Ts olive oil over chicken.

Slice potatoes 1/8" to 1/4" inch thickness. Salt and pepper lightly, toss with 1 Tb oil.

Line bottom of grilling pan with heavy-duty aluminium foil. Spread potato slices across pan evenly.

Place grilling rack over potatoes. Arrange butterflied chicken on top, folding drumsticks inward so they cover part of the breast. Roast at 500 degrees for 20 minutes, turn pan around, roast for another 20 minutes or until internal temperature in breast is 160.

Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. Take grilling rack off, pat potatoes which will have a fair amount of oil on them. Potatoes may stick to foil, peel as much off as possible. Cut chicken up and serve with potatoes.

Applesauce = Awesomesauce

Chris and I visited our friends Dan and Jess, up in Madison, WI this past weekend. Last year, when visiting, Jess and I spent a few hours prepping and cooking food for dinner. This year, we decided to do all that AND add on the task of making and canning homemade applesauce. It was a lot of work and our feet ached by the end of the day, but we get tasty applesauce to enjoy all winter long so it was worth the hard work!

First, we peeled and cored a bunch of apples that Jess got from a local orchard. In order to get a well flavored sauce, without adding spices or sugars, we used a variety of apples to make this sauce (such as Roma, Grannysmith, Fuji, etc.)
This antique-y contraption made the job of peeling a peck of apples quick and easy!















Once all the apples were cored, we tossed them all into a large pot with just a little bit of water and started them simmering.



This part took awhile, since we had to evaporate most of the water from the apples. But oh how the house smelled of fresh apples! Our mouths were watering!!















When the apples looked nice and soft we took Jess' handy-dandy hand-blender (I seriously need to get me one of these) and pureed the pot of apples into a nice, chunky sauce.



















Then we processed the sauce in canning jars. In the end we had 5 quart sized jars of sauce and a dozen jelly jars of apple sauce. YUM!! I find projects like this to be so much fun. They can be a bit time consuming, but they aren't hard by any stretch of the imagination. And I'll appreciate all the work we did come January, when I'm snacking on my fresh, healthy homemade applesauce!

Publican

My friend Aaron is in Chicago shooting the new Superman movie. Or, ehm...excuse me...I mean, he's shooting the new "Autumn Frost" movie. Whatevs. The set is all over Chicago. The cat's out of the bag.

I am SUPER (pun intented) excited that FINALLY a movie is shooting in Chicago that one of my friends' is working!  I have a good amount of friends in the movie industry but they never seem to work on the projects in Chicago. 

Anyhoo, Chris and I met up with Aaron on Sunday night for dinner at Publican. Publican received a lot of press when it opened and I continue to read only great things about it.  The menu is mostly pork/pig focused with some plates of seafood as well.  To say the least, I was really excited to dine here and was thrilled when Aaron said he was up for checking it out as well.

Random side note: the three of us actually dined in, what we dubbed, a "pig pen" (to stay with the pork theme).  It was a table closed off by doors. Quite interesting.

Anyway, onto the food. Everything is served family style, so you share all the plates. Here's what we ate:
-shrimp and grits with corn relish (pretty good)
-taste of three hams (OMG so good, especially the one from Tennessee!)
-croquettes – chicken and chorizo (sooo good)
-hanger steak with peaches (a MUST have)
-pork belly (meh…it was OK but not as awesome as I had hoped it would be)
-side of corn (SOOO good)
-side of beets (also incredible)
-dessert waffle with honey butter (excellent)
-plum tart (also excellent)
-coffee for the guys (with dessert) and sparkling wine for me (with dessert)

They drank beer and I drank white wine throughout the meal. So I really liked, if not LOVED, every dish we had except the pork belly. It was too fatty for my taste so I would probably just pass on this if ever we dined there again. It was a pricey meal but I'm always willing to drop moolah for good food and it was awesome hanging out with Aaron for the night.  Here's hoping another movie brings him out this way again, soon.

http://thepublicanrestaurant.com/

Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps

There are certain items I always buy at the grocery store, every week. My staples, if you will. They are: 1 container of hummus, pretzel crisps, milk, cheddar cheese slices, and 1 loaf of bread.

I love hummus and often turn to it whenever I want to snack. Sometimes I'll dip veggies in but usually I want something with some crunch, which is how I found Snack Factory's Pretzel Crisps. These things are delicious and super crunchy with just the right amount of salt.

Let's take a look at the ingredients, shall we?
Pretzel Crisp ingredients: wheat flour, sugar, malt syrup, salt.

Other pretzel ingredients (Snyder's): Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, folic acid), water, malt, canola oil, salt, maltodextrin, modified corn starch,enzyme modified butterfat (milk), natural flavors, yeast and soda.


Woah. That's a big difference. And everything in the Pretzel Crisp ingredient list are things I could locate in a grocery store. Perfect!

Chiogga Beets with Herb Goat Cheese

Remember those beets I posted about last week? They made a delicious side dish on Sunday night, while Chris' family was in town visiting. Here's how I prepare beets:

Wash the dirt of the beets.
Cut off the greens (save those for later) and the ends of each beet.
Peel the beat with a paring knife, like you're pealing an apple.
Slice the beet into 1/4" thick slices.
Put the slices on a piece of aluminum foil.
Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Pinch of salt.
Half a pinch of pepper.
Using your hands, toss the beets, oil, and seasonings together until well coated.
Fold up the aluminum foil and seal off all sides.
Place the foil package on a hot grill (about 350 degrees).
Cook beets for about 10-15 minutes. You'll know they're done when you can pierce them easily with a fork.
Remove them from the foil (careful not to burn yourself on the steam) and place them in a large low bowl.
Crumble herb goat cheese over the beets.

Then serve!

Now about those greens...

Take a knife and cut the green leaves from the center stem (which can be sort of tough).
Roughly chop the greens.
Heat a tbsp of EVOO in a skillet. Once shimmering, throw in some diced onion and minced garlic. Cook a couple minutes on medium heat until the onions are sweating and the garlic is browning.
Throw in the greens into the skillet and watch them wilt. Cook for maybe 1 -2 minutes (this won't take long at all).

Plate the greens, onions, garlic and oil and serve as a side dish. YUM!!

Rustic Pear Tart

On Saturday mornings I always head early to my town's farmer's market to get the best pick of produce. There is one farmer that I always buy my fruit from; he is such a nice guy and I love supporting 'nice' people.
So this week I picked up some blueberries and peaches. As I handed over my money the farmer asked if I liked pears. I said that I do but honestly I don't like them enough to buy a basket full of them. He said that they have a lot of pears that are really ripe and if they don't get rid of them they'll just rot by the following week, so he offered me a free basket of pears.
Free pears! I had a challenge on my hands!!

I wanted to use these free pears and I knew I needed to cook them up quickly before they got too mushy. I decided to try my hand at a pear and honey tart.

I got this recipe off the Food Network website, which I don't usually get recipes from there so this was a crap shoot. I wish I could say I loved this, but I didn't. There was too much cinnamon so it just made the finished product taste like apple pie. And I like apple pie, but not when I'm eating a pear tart.



Chris didn't seem to mind though...he ate the whole tart himself (minus the 1 piece I had when sampling the finished dessert). So I guess, use this recipe if you get free fruit from a farmer and have a hankering for apple pie:

Ingredients
Crust: you could do this from scratch but I just bought a store made crust.

Filling:
* 3 medium pears
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
* 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
*

Glaze:
* 1 teaspoon honey
* 1/4 teaspoon boiling water

Directions

To prepare the crust, in a medium bowl whisk together the whole-wheat pastry flour, all- purpose flour, granulated sugar and salt. Add the butter and using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until you get a pebbly, course texture. In a small bowl combine the buttermilk and ice water. Using a fork, gradually mix the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture. Pat the dough into a 4-inch round and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F, and prepare the filling. Peel the pears, core them and cut into 1/4-inch slices. In a large bowl toss the pear slices with the lemon juice. Sprinkle in the cornstarch, brown sugar and cinnamon and toss until the pears are evenly coated. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a large circle about nine inches in diameter. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and draping the dough over the rolling pin, transfer to the prepared baking sheet. If the dough breaks at all patch it up with your fingers.

Arrange the pears in a mound in the center of the dough, leaving a 2-inch boarder. Fold the border over the filling. It will only cover the pears partially and does not need to be even.

Bake the tart for 15 minutes, and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, keeping the tart in the oven all the while, and bake for another 40 minutes, until the pears are tender and the crust is golden brown.

In a small bowl stir together the honey and boiling water to make a glaze. When the tart is done remove it from the oven and brush the honey glaze all over the top of the fruit and crust. Transfer to a plate to cool slightly. Cut into 6 wedges and serve warm or a room temperature.

Caprese Salad

More photos of my garden goodness! It's August so my Roma Tomatoes are bursting at the seams with juice and my basil plant is ginormous.

I picked a bunch of basil last weekend and whipped up some pesto, which I then froze for use later in the winter months. But I couldn't help snagging a few leaves for a Caprese Salad lunch. Reminds me of being in Italy on my honeymoon. :)

Slice up that tomato, some fresh mozzarella, a leaf of basil, drizzle with EVOO, sprinkle on some salt and pepper and serve! YUM!!!

Beets! And Pictures of Beets!

I have been trying to upload photos from Facebook for like 6 months with no success. I just figured out a trick though and was able to get this picture, from my FB page, onto this site! Victory!

These are my beets. I planted my first vegetable garden this summer and it's been quite fun and I've learned a lot! I planted many rows of Chiogga beets and as you can see from the picture (yay! a picture!!) they're ready to harvest. I just pull a couple every night, mix them with some EVOO, salt and pepper, and stick them on the grill to roast. They caramelize and turn all sweet and yummy.

Yay! Beets! And Pictures of Beets!!

E&E Grill House

Chris and I had a great time in NYC, earlier this month. Lunch at Shake Shack was fantastic, even with the 20 minute wait for food. Only wish I had was that I ordered a 2nd burger (those things were small...like White Castle small). I devoured the burger and strawberry shake (Chris opted for a Chocolate and Vanilla swirl shake) and then we strolled through Central Park, stopping briefly to sit under a tree. It was awesome.
The week at the beach was fun - lots of swimming, reading, bike riding, and playing Settlers of Catan. The perfect summer getaway.
Book of Mormon was hilarious and I would recommend it for everyone to see. Memphis was o-kay. I wouldn't rush out to see that one, but it was still fun taking in some theater on Broadway.
Before our Memphis show, on our last night in the city, Chris and I dined at E&E Grill, a grillhouse in Midtown right near our hotel. It was a last minute decision to dine there but we got lucky with a fantastic meal! I ordered spinach ravioli and our waiter's family actually made the ravioli that morning! It was delicious!

Chris and I split a bottle of Malbec and treated ourselves to a rhubarb crumble for dessert. What a lovely meal. What a great trip. Thanks New York!

Flavour Shaker

Yesterday I turned 34 years old. It was a good day, all in all, despite Sasha not winning on So You Think You Can Dance. I got loads of phone calls from family members wishing me a Happy Birthday. My co-workers surprised me with cupcakes from Sugar Bliss. And Chris treated me to fun new cooking gadgets and magazines (along with some jewelry, but that's beside the point).

My new fun kitchen gadget is Jamie Oliver's Flavour Shaker! (I love how British the spelling is.) This handy little gadget is replacing my little Ball Jar I keep in the kitchen, and have used to mix up salad dressings for the past year or so. The Flavour Shaker comes with this heavy marble that can smash up whole cloves of garlic, fresh herbs, and even seeds (like caroway or sunflower). It will allow me to add so many layers of flavor (I mean, flavour) to my dressings and marinades!

What fun!