It's finally officially CHILLY out! I love it. I especially love that I can try making all different kinds of SOUP and not feel guilty! I sometimes have trouble eating leftovers but soup is easy to reheat for lunches during the week.
This week I tried making my sister's baked potato soup recipe. It was AWESOME! You can view a picture on her (somewhat defunct) food blog, but I'll post the recipe here (so I can refer back to it later!) This weekend I'm going to steal another awesome-sounding recipe from My Kitchen Apron--beef stew! Yum! I can't wait. :)
I had intended to make this on Wednesday night, so I was going to bake the potatoes on Tuesday so they'd be ready to go when I got home from work the next day. Of course, when I got home my husband informed me that he had been invited over to a guy friend's house on Wednesday for clam chowder and horror movies. So... I made my soup a night early and my husband had to wait an extra hour+ for dinner while the potatoes cooked. Oh well!
Restaurant-Quality Baked Potato Soup
3 russet potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups chopped white onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1/8 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups instant mashed potato flakes
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup heavy cream (I had some leftover cream from making mashed potatoes, so I did 3/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup 2% milk)
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
8 ounces bacon – cooked and crumbled
2 green onions, chopped (optional--I didn't have these.)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake potatoes for 1
hour, or until done. Set aside to cool. (Or put in the fridge for 3o minutes.)
Melt butter in a 3 quart saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until
tender and golden brown. Stir in flour, and cook 5 minutes to make a
roux.
Pour in chicken stock and water. Add cornstarch and mashed potato
flakes. Season with salt, pepper, basil and thyme.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove the skin from the cooled potatoes, and discard. Dice the
potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes, and stir into soup, along with the
half-and-half.
Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until thick. Spoon into
bowls, and garnish with shredded cheese, bacon and chopped green onion.
----------------
In non-food-related news, I'm so glad it's the weekend. It's been a really slow week but very stressful at the same time. Not a fun combination. I had to laugh at (with?) my husband tonight, though. He has a part-time gig where he supervises rental facilities--so people rent a building for a party or wedding reception or rehearsal dinner, and he sets up tables and chairs and sits in the back room watching TV until the event is over and he can mop the floor. A pretty easy gig, usually, but sometimes it's more than he bargained for.
Because my husband is in the back room with a TV, he can sometimes be a kid magnet. He often becomes the unofficial "babysitter" while Mommy and Daddy are drinking and chatting with friends in the other room. If the kid(s) sit down and watch The Incredibles and don't bug him too much, my sweet guy usually doesn't mind. Tonight, though, he had a couple of young boys in the room with him, running around playing while my husband tried to tune them out. Suddenly he heard, "I'm going to pee on you!!!" and turned around to find both boys, pants dropped, PEEING at each other (and all over the floor!) Of course he yelled at them, "What are you DOING?" and went and found their parents, but oh man... I can just picture it!
So now my husband says it'll be 7 years until we consider having kids. When we got married (less than a year ago) we said 5 years. A long weekend with the nieces and nephews (who did a lot of ear-splitting noises and crazy running around) made us say 6. And now we're at 7! Good thing we have older siblings who will be looked to first to supply grand-kids... at this rate, it's gonna be a while before we get around to it. ;)
Friday, October 28, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Apartment Living
Apartment living can be pretty hit-or-miss in terms of amenities. My first solo apartment was a modified studio. It had terrible drafts, a living room so long and narrow that any other place would have called it a hallway, and a kitchen with incredibly limited counter space. We're talking two 12" square counters, here. One on either side of the sink. Put in a tiny microwave and a toaster, and well... you can probably imagine why I didn't do a whole lot of cooking.
My second apartment was also a studio, although a much nicer one. It had the same stove as my first apartment--a very tiny apartment gas stove/oven. The top was maybe 12" x 16". I couldn't use some of my cookie sheets in the oven because they were too long. At least Apartment #2's stove looked like it was made in the last 10 years, unlike Apartment #1, and it had more counter space. Apartment #2 also had a dishwasher and a washer & dryer in unit. I've since decided that those are amenities I do not want to live without.
When my dear husband and I married (9 and a half months ago!) he moved in with me. It was definitely a challenge to share a studio apartment with someone else. I enjoy the quiet; my husband was used to leaving South Park dvd's on in the background all day. I had a full size bed; my husband was used to having a queen sized bed to sprawl out over. I go to work at 8; my husband has to be at work by 6. It was rough, but we managed to overcome our differences (and sleep deprivation) and now I can look back with fondness on our first few months sharing a studio meant for one.
Our current place is much bigger--two whole bedrooms! Real ones! With doors! A dining room! A fireplace! We got our in-unit laundry, and our kitchen has a dishwasher (although it's so old we have to completely wash everything by hand before we use it, which kind of defeats the purpose.) It has a full sized refrigerator (oh, the space!!) and best of all--a full sized electric stove and oven. I don't have to worry as much about burning everything I cook (if you've never had a cheap gas stove, I'll tell you--it has two temperatures. "Fire" and "off." There is no "low.") I have multiple oven racks so I can put more than one thing in the oven at a time. The counter space still leaves something to be desired, although it is an improvement over that first apartment I had.
I'm waxing poetic over things like counter space because I just cooked another dinner where I occupied every square inch of available space before I was done cooking. Fortunately my husband and I have this deal worked out where if I cook the dinner, he does the dishes. Works for me!
Tonight I tried a recipe from a blog I just discovered this week--My Kitchen Apron. All of her recipes seem very down-to-earth--no esoteric ingredients or specialized equipment required. I read all the way through the entire blog and only found a couple of things that didn't sound like something I would like to try. My husband is very anti-"foodie" so anything too "out there" doesn't fly. I think I'll be visiting My Kitchen Apron a lot in the future to find good new things to feed my man!
I also made mashed potatoes for the first time. A few weeks ago I tried making Pioneer Woman's Smashed Potatoes, except that recipe calls for a potato masher and I didn't have one. In what can only be classified as a moment of sheer idiocy, I thought a meat mallet would work as a decent substitute. I'm sure you can imagine the results. (Potatoes on the walls, anyone?) My mom took pity on me and the next time I saw her, she gave me my very own potato masher. I figured it was past time to put it to use!
So for dinner tonight we had Double Crunch Honey Garlic Pork chops and Perfect Golden Mashed Potatoes. The pork chops were really tasty, and I'm not usually a big fan of pork. The coating was crunchy and a little spicy; the sauce was a sweet honey/soy sauce glaze that really added a nice kick. The potatoes turned out well, I think, although I still am working on timing things to get done at the same time, so I had to reheat them a little and add a touch more milk which might have made them too creamy. I don't think my husband is used to Yukon gold potatoes, either, so he kind of thought that they "didn't taste like potatoes". He still ate them, though, so I don't think they were bad. He said the consistency was good. I'll definitely try making my own potatoes again another time.
Here are a couple of photos of our dinner--again, cell phone pictures of less than stellar quality, but enough to give you an idea.
So now I'll kick back, put my feet up, and relax while my husband does the dishes. :)
My second apartment was also a studio, although a much nicer one. It had the same stove as my first apartment--a very tiny apartment gas stove/oven. The top was maybe 12" x 16". I couldn't use some of my cookie sheets in the oven because they were too long. At least Apartment #2's stove looked like it was made in the last 10 years, unlike Apartment #1, and it had more counter space. Apartment #2 also had a dishwasher and a washer & dryer in unit. I've since decided that those are amenities I do not want to live without.
When my dear husband and I married (9 and a half months ago!) he moved in with me. It was definitely a challenge to share a studio apartment with someone else. I enjoy the quiet; my husband was used to leaving South Park dvd's on in the background all day. I had a full size bed; my husband was used to having a queen sized bed to sprawl out over. I go to work at 8; my husband has to be at work by 6. It was rough, but we managed to overcome our differences (and sleep deprivation) and now I can look back with fondness on our first few months sharing a studio meant for one.
Our current place is much bigger--two whole bedrooms! Real ones! With doors! A dining room! A fireplace! We got our in-unit laundry, and our kitchen has a dishwasher (although it's so old we have to completely wash everything by hand before we use it, which kind of defeats the purpose.) It has a full sized refrigerator (oh, the space!!) and best of all--a full sized electric stove and oven. I don't have to worry as much about burning everything I cook (if you've never had a cheap gas stove, I'll tell you--it has two temperatures. "Fire" and "off." There is no "low.") I have multiple oven racks so I can put more than one thing in the oven at a time. The counter space still leaves something to be desired, although it is an improvement over that first apartment I had.
I'm waxing poetic over things like counter space because I just cooked another dinner where I occupied every square inch of available space before I was done cooking. Fortunately my husband and I have this deal worked out where if I cook the dinner, he does the dishes. Works for me!
Tonight I tried a recipe from a blog I just discovered this week--My Kitchen Apron. All of her recipes seem very down-to-earth--no esoteric ingredients or specialized equipment required. I read all the way through the entire blog and only found a couple of things that didn't sound like something I would like to try. My husband is very anti-"foodie" so anything too "out there" doesn't fly. I think I'll be visiting My Kitchen Apron a lot in the future to find good new things to feed my man!
I also made mashed potatoes for the first time. A few weeks ago I tried making Pioneer Woman's Smashed Potatoes, except that recipe calls for a potato masher and I didn't have one. In what can only be classified as a moment of sheer idiocy, I thought a meat mallet would work as a decent substitute. I'm sure you can imagine the results. (Potatoes on the walls, anyone?) My mom took pity on me and the next time I saw her, she gave me my very own potato masher. I figured it was past time to put it to use!
So for dinner tonight we had Double Crunch Honey Garlic Pork chops and Perfect Golden Mashed Potatoes. The pork chops were really tasty, and I'm not usually a big fan of pork. The coating was crunchy and a little spicy; the sauce was a sweet honey/soy sauce glaze that really added a nice kick. The potatoes turned out well, I think, although I still am working on timing things to get done at the same time, so I had to reheat them a little and add a touch more milk which might have made them too creamy. I don't think my husband is used to Yukon gold potatoes, either, so he kind of thought that they "didn't taste like potatoes". He still ate them, though, so I don't think they were bad. He said the consistency was good. I'll definitely try making my own potatoes again another time.
Here are a couple of photos of our dinner--again, cell phone pictures of less than stellar quality, but enough to give you an idea.
So now I'll kick back, put my feet up, and relax while my husband does the dishes. :)
Monday, October 10, 2011
Sweet Autumn
I love autumn. There's just something about fall that makes everything seem rosy. I love the foods of fall, as well. They're warm and spicy and comforting.
One of my favorite foods in fall is apples. As a little girl, I remember looking forward to Jonathan apples every year as the first true sign that fall had arrived.
The grocery store has been selling big bags of Jonathan apples for a great price--a dozen or so to a bag. It's impossible for me to resist. My husband has been very tolerant of all the apple desserts making their way into our menu!
One of the easiest things to do with apples is fry 'em up. You don't need any special ingredients, just things that are already in the pantry. Quick, easy, and absolutely irresistible.
Skillet Fried Apples
5-8 medium apples
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Directions:
1. Slice your apples thin. I used an apple cutter and then cut each slice in half again, so I got 16 thin slices per apple. You don't need to peel the apples, just cut them and remove the core.
2. Melt your butter in a large skillet with a lid. Once the butter is all melted, put in your apples.
3. Add your brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I put in a little more cinnamon, maybe more like 1/2 tsp.
4. Stir everything up and cover with the lid. Cook 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Apples should be very soft (able to bend in half) and juices should be caramel brown and bubbly.
5. Serve hot, either plain or spooned over ice cream--or any other way you like!
All the tender apples and sweet spices of an apple pie in a fraction of the time. What's not to love?
One of my favorite foods in fall is apples. As a little girl, I remember looking forward to Jonathan apples every year as the first true sign that fall had arrived.
The grocery store has been selling big bags of Jonathan apples for a great price--a dozen or so to a bag. It's impossible for me to resist. My husband has been very tolerant of all the apple desserts making their way into our menu!
One of the easiest things to do with apples is fry 'em up. You don't need any special ingredients, just things that are already in the pantry. Quick, easy, and absolutely irresistible.
Skillet Fried Apples
5-8 medium apples
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Directions:
1. Slice your apples thin. I used an apple cutter and then cut each slice in half again, so I got 16 thin slices per apple. You don't need to peel the apples, just cut them and remove the core.
2. Melt your butter in a large skillet with a lid. Once the butter is all melted, put in your apples.
3. Add your brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I put in a little more cinnamon, maybe more like 1/2 tsp.
4. Stir everything up and cover with the lid. Cook 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Apples should be very soft (able to bend in half) and juices should be caramel brown and bubbly.
5. Serve hot, either plain or spooned over ice cream--or any other way you like!
All the tender apples and sweet spices of an apple pie in a fraction of the time. What's not to love?
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Chicken Pot Pie
My dear husband and I spent the weekend in Lawrence. Saturday was spent with my husband and his grandfather under my car, replacing the sway bar link that broke a few weeks ago and has been held together with duct tape since then. (I feel so white trash saying that!) Then today we went to the KC Renaissance Festival. My husband did NOT wear his pirate costume this time, which was kind of a relief. Until I have a costume I can wear, too, I feel pretty weird being the chick in jeans walking around with Captain Barbossa.
Of course, once we got home we were both pretty worn out. I decided to try and throw together something new for dinner that hopefully wouldn't be TOO hard. I started with this recipe (found via Pinterest) and made some changes. My apologies if the instructions aren't great--I don't have a lot of experience writing out my own recipes! I also apologize for the lame cell phone picture.
Easy Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:
1-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
3-4 small red potatoes
1 box chicken broth
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (peas/carrots/corn/green beans)
1 can cream of chicken soup
Seasonings (I used a bay leaf and a little sage and thyme).
1 cup all-purpose baking mix (like Bisquick)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I used a stoneware pie plate and put it in the oven as it was heating so the stone would be nice and hot.
2. Heat chicken broth in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Chop your potatoes into small, bite-sized pieces and put into hot broth. After 5 minutes or so, add your chicken pieces. You want your potatoes and chicken to be cut small enough to cook quickly. I threw the bay leaf in while these were cooking for a little extra flavor.
3. Stir chicken and potatoes occasionally until chicken is cooked through and potatoes are fork-tender. (Maybe 10 minutes once your chicken has been added.) Drain, but retain some of the chicken broth to go in your pot pie. (At this point, I removed the bay leaf and discarded.)
4. Chop or shred your chicken until it is in small, bite-sized pieces, if needed. (Use your best judgment--if you like bigger chunks of meat, you may not need to cut further.)
5. Put potatoes, chicken, and mixed veggies into a bowl. Add cream of chicken soup. Stir, adding in small amounts of broth until everything is well mixed. (Maybe 1/2 cup broth total.) Try not to have TOO much excess liquid or your pie may be too full (mine was!) Season to your taste (I just shook in a little sage and thyme.)
6. Pour your chicken/veggie mixture into pie plate and put in oven. (Since my pie plate was already in the oven, I just pulled out the rack and poured it in.) If you have 2 racks in the oven, it might be a good idea to put an empty baking sheet on the rack below your pie plate to catch any liquid that bubbles over.
7. While your chicken and veggies are heating in the oven, mix together the baking mix, egg, and milk. Carefully pour/spread the baking mix over the hot chicken/veggie mixture in your pie plate. It may or may not cover the entire surface. Hopefully your pie plate won't be as full as mine was--I had quite a few drips as I added the biscuit mixture on top. Thankfully I had that baking sheet in place!
8. Cook for 20ish minutes. Keep an eye on it--depending on your oven and your baking mix, the biscuit part may cook in more or less time. Remove when the biscuit top is nice and golden brown.
I've tried similar recipes before and always had trouble getting the biscuits on top to cook completely. The bottoms usually are super doughy. I think that having the filling already hot and then just pouring the biscuit batter on top (instead of forming and cutting out full, thick biscuits) helped the batter to cook all the way through. My husband ate two big helpings and practically licked his plate clean, so I think it was a success!
Of course, once we got home we were both pretty worn out. I decided to try and throw together something new for dinner that hopefully wouldn't be TOO hard. I started with this recipe (found via Pinterest) and made some changes. My apologies if the instructions aren't great--I don't have a lot of experience writing out my own recipes! I also apologize for the lame cell phone picture.
Ingredients:
1-2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
3-4 small red potatoes
1 box chicken broth
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (peas/carrots/corn/green beans)
1 can cream of chicken soup
Seasonings (I used a bay leaf and a little sage and thyme).
1 cup all-purpose baking mix (like Bisquick)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I used a stoneware pie plate and put it in the oven as it was heating so the stone would be nice and hot.
2. Heat chicken broth in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Chop your potatoes into small, bite-sized pieces and put into hot broth. After 5 minutes or so, add your chicken pieces. You want your potatoes and chicken to be cut small enough to cook quickly. I threw the bay leaf in while these were cooking for a little extra flavor.
3. Stir chicken and potatoes occasionally until chicken is cooked through and potatoes are fork-tender. (Maybe 10 minutes once your chicken has been added.) Drain, but retain some of the chicken broth to go in your pot pie. (At this point, I removed the bay leaf and discarded.)
4. Chop or shred your chicken until it is in small, bite-sized pieces, if needed. (Use your best judgment--if you like bigger chunks of meat, you may not need to cut further.)
5. Put potatoes, chicken, and mixed veggies into a bowl. Add cream of chicken soup. Stir, adding in small amounts of broth until everything is well mixed. (Maybe 1/2 cup broth total.) Try not to have TOO much excess liquid or your pie may be too full (mine was!) Season to your taste (I just shook in a little sage and thyme.)
6. Pour your chicken/veggie mixture into pie plate and put in oven. (Since my pie plate was already in the oven, I just pulled out the rack and poured it in.) If you have 2 racks in the oven, it might be a good idea to put an empty baking sheet on the rack below your pie plate to catch any liquid that bubbles over.
7. While your chicken and veggies are heating in the oven, mix together the baking mix, egg, and milk. Carefully pour/spread the baking mix over the hot chicken/veggie mixture in your pie plate. It may or may not cover the entire surface. Hopefully your pie plate won't be as full as mine was--I had quite a few drips as I added the biscuit mixture on top. Thankfully I had that baking sheet in place!
8. Cook for 20ish minutes. Keep an eye on it--depending on your oven and your baking mix, the biscuit part may cook in more or less time. Remove when the biscuit top is nice and golden brown.
I've tried similar recipes before and always had trouble getting the biscuits on top to cook completely. The bottoms usually are super doughy. I think that having the filling already hot and then just pouring the biscuit batter on top (instead of forming and cutting out full, thick biscuits) helped the batter to cook all the way through. My husband ate two big helpings and practically licked his plate clean, so I think it was a success!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Simple Pleasures
Sometimes things just suck. Work lately has been pretty crappy and it's hard to come home after 9 hours of blah and put a smile on my face. So, I've tried to come up with things that can instantly boost my mood. At the top of that list? French Bulldogs.
The Daily Frenchie is my one-stop-shop for adorable Frenchie faces to melt my heart and make me smile. Then of course there are all the YouTube videos out there of French Bulldogs. Here are a few of my favorites:
And the heartwarming conclusion:
There's also this one, which is just hilarious on so many levels. I love how the guy is in his underwear and apparently has no clue he's being filmed. The interaction between the guy and dog is just precious.
And last but not least, the Very Thirsty Puppy.
Watch his tummy at the end. SLOSHING.
Sometimes it's the little things in life that make us happiest.
The Daily Frenchie is my one-stop-shop for adorable Frenchie faces to melt my heart and make me smile. Then of course there are all the YouTube videos out there of French Bulldogs. Here are a few of my favorites:
There's also this one, which is just hilarious on so many levels. I love how the guy is in his underwear and apparently has no clue he's being filmed. The interaction between the guy and dog is just precious.
And last but not least, the Very Thirsty Puppy.
Sometimes it's the little things in life that make us happiest.
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