latkes!

now that i had this jar (albeit, not completely full jar) of applesauce, i decided to try my hand at making latkes. it didn't hurt that it's hanukkah and everywhere i looked, there were recipes for them. it was probably why i even attempted to make applesauce in the first place.

LATKES

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/dining/061frex.html

i didn't have matzo meal but i saw on some other sites that they used flour instead, which is what i ended up doing. i used two big yukon potatoes and i think i shredded way more than three cups of potatoes so i threw in an extra egg at the end because i didn't think the two were enough? not that i really know what the consistency of the batter should be. it just seemed too dry?

and it was the first time i ever grated an onion. it was pretty hard b/c of the layers. like i would grate it a little and then one of the layers would come off so i ended up with a lot of big chunks and couldn't get good shreds. AND it was really releasing the stuff that makes you cry (apparently Syn-propanethial-S-oxide). like i don't think i have ever cried this much while dealing with onions. i also read somewhere that it was good to squeeze as much liquid out of the potatoes as possible before making the batter so i got some cheesecloth to help with the wringing.

i haven't had latkes in forever so i don't really remember what the consistency should be. i think it was pretty good but probably needed to be a little crispier? all the recipes talked about placing them on paper towels or something to absorb the extra oil, which i didn't really have to worry about so definitely a sign that i didn't fry them with enough oil or long enough.

oh, and i also failed at making a full meal. next time, i have to remember to make some meat to go with this.

i'm baaaack

yup! i'm baaaaaaaack! i know it's been forever and a day since i've posted but i'm having motivation again. my g/f got me a sweet camera for my birthday, so the first thing i thought of was taking pictures of food! everything i take pictures of looks artsy with that thing. and it lets me combine two things that i've been wanting to do more of, cooking and photography!

i'll probably update with some pictures of random stuff i made in the last nine months in a separate entry.

anyways, so i had a bunch of apples that i didn't think i would finish before i left to go home for christmas so i thought to make applesauce. i got some ideas online and just went for it. i had maybe eight apples to use but was worried that it wouldn't come out well so i scaled it back to five of them. i used one granny smith and four reddish-yellow ones that my aunts gave me. not really sure what kind they were.

i cut them into quarters and cored them and figured the skins would come off after boiling them. the skin came off the granny smith pieces pretty easily but it was a pain for the other ones. i think next time i'm just gonna peel them ahead of time, unless i get some kind of food mill to chop those puppies up.


i read a post where someone used some apple cider in the water and i didn't have any of that so i was like, why not orange juice? afterwards, i realized that it honestly had no point. i ended up scooping out most of the water i boiled the apples in because i realized that it was waaaaaaaay too much liquid. so i basically boiled it and boiled it until they got soft enough for me to smash with my wooden spoon. then i cooked it down some more til it wasn't as liquidy and more the constancy of applesauce.

i poured it into a jar that i've been saving, which ended up being perfect. i kinda wish i used all eight apples so then it could have actually filled the jar. oh wells. either way, it makes me wanna buy some canning equipment and then i can make a bigger batch next time!

i don't like my applesauce super sweet. i actually really like the mott's natural kind, especially the one they make out of granny smith apples. the g/f doesn't like cinnamon so i didn't add any of that either. i was thinking that it might be kinda cool to get a food processor or something and throw in like pineapple chunks. i think pineapple/apple sauce would be pretty yummy.

catching up

dude, i am so behind on this thing. i blame my computer. my video card or something is all messed up so like 3/4 of my screen is super fuzzy, which makes me not wanna sit in front of my compie for long periods of time. good news is that i bought my first lappie today! i get it this weekend. bad news is i'm super behind and have made a couple of things that i have neglected to share so i am staring at this blur right now.


okay, i made chicken pot pie like a couple of nights after my last post. bought like little disposable foil things for them at ralphs. they came in six to pack and i only used three of them, which means i have enough to make them again some time!



here is the recipe that i used (from betty crocker, of course):

CHICKEN POT PIE

Prep: 40 min
Bake: 35 min
Makes 6 servings

1 box (10 oz) frozen peas and carrots
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
2 1/2 to 3 cups cut-up cooked chicken or turkey
2 ready-to-use pie crusts

(1) Rinse frozen peas and carrots in cold water to separate; drain.

(2) In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour, onion, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken and peas and carrots; remove from heat.

(3) Heat oven to 425ºF.

(4) Ease the pie crust into ungreased 9-inch square pan. Pour chicken mixture into pastry-lined pan.

(5) Place the other pie crust over chicken mixture. Turn edges of pastry under and flute.

(6) Bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown.

i guess just as a note, the original recipe said to make your own crust and that you could use the store bought crusts to make it faster, which cuts the prep time in half. definitely what i did that night. maybe if i make it again i will attempt my own crust.


i didn't have a rolling pin and like i mentioned before, ended up making three little pies instead of one big one. i used a bowl that was a little bit larger than the foil things to cut out a circle for the bottom crust and then the foil thing to cut out a circle for the top crust. and rolling the dough back together with a cup was interesting.

the pies came out super tasty. i think the next time i make them, i will add some potatoes though. and i grilled the chicken on my foreman, so it ended up a little tough. gotta think of a better way to cook the chicken.

and then like last week the girl was in town and wanted meatloaf so this time i made tyler florence's meatloaf that i posted last time. here it is again: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/dads-meatloaf-with-tomato-relish-recipe/index.html

we tried buying a meat thermometer since there is pork in this one but i guess they forgot to put it in our shopping bag or it fell out or something. either way, it wasn't there when we got home.

anyways, the tomato relish was AWESOME. defs WAAAAY better than the sauce last time. however, i think i liked the meatloaf i made last time better. not sure if it's because i'm not a fan of the ground pork, or if it's because a couple of the spices were different. oh, and both times i used wheat bread instead of white since that's what i have around the apartment.

the tomato relish, halfway done and the food sitting on the stove

the finished product

valentine's day

so i'm sure people have been dying to know how the chicken marsala turned out on valentine's day...

anyways, the girl was super curious about what i was gonna make for dinner that night and i figured since she was going to go food shopping with me anyways, i might as well make it fun. so i decided to give her a bunch of clues until she figured out that it was going to be pasta, mushrooms, and chicken. even with all of that, she couldn't come up with chicken marsala.

i pretty much made it the way i did the second time, except i used the whole 8 oz. package of mushrooms that i bought and i used like maybe a cup of wine and a cup of chicken broth. (not really sure of the exact amount since i literally used a cup.)


i don't like mushrooms, so she ended up eating all of them, which were cooked in wine for a while before i added in the chicken broth. plus, she ended up eating three of the five pieces of chicken that i made, which is probably about 0.9 lbs since the whole amount was 1.5 lbs. so needless to say, she went into a food coma, but not before she made some yummy crepes! we put nutella, pineapples, and vanilla ice cream, with some orange butter she also made, inside.

mmmmeatloaf

so i finally got around to making that meatloaf tonight. i made the betty crocker one. it didn't have a sauce listed so i looked up some other recipes and just picked one of them.

oh and apparently i can't go to www.tastymeatloafrecipes.com at work. maybe because it has the word MEAT in the url?

recipes used:

MEAT LOAF

Prep: 20 min
Bake: 1 hr 15 min
Stand: 5 min
Makes 6 servings

1 1/2-lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried sage leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, finely chopped, or 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 large egg
3 slices bread, torn into small pieces*
1 small onion, chopped (1/4 cup)
1/2 cup ketchup, chili sauce, or barbecue sauce

(1) Heat oven to 350ºF.

(2) In large bowl, mix all ingredients except ketchup. Spread mixture in ungreased 8x4-inch or 9x5-inch loaf pan, or shape into 9x5-inch in ungreased 13x9-inch pan. Spread ketchup over top.

(3) Insert ovenproof meat thermometer so tip is in center of loaf. Bake uncovered 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until beef is no longer pink in center and thermometer reads at least 160ºF.** Drain meat loaf.

(4) Let stand 5 minutes; remove from pan.

*1/2 cup dry bread crumbs OR 3/4 cup quick-cooking oats can be substituted for the 3 slices bread.

**Due to the natural nitrate content of certain ingredients often used in meat loaf such as onions, celery, and bell peppers, meat loaf may remain pink even though beef is cooked to 160ºF done-ness. Always check meat loaf with a thermometer to make sure it has reached 160ºF in the center.

SAUCE

Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/meatloaf-with-tomato-gravy-recipe/index.html

so the meatloaf is pretty tasty with the ketchup. the sauce was yummy too but it kinda tasted like spaghetti sauce. potatoes are too heavy to carry all the way home from the supermarket so i didn't buy any to make mashed potatoes. instead, i ate it with rice. my g/f made fun of me and said i was soooo asian. ::sigh:: i am defs catching the FOB disease from her. haha

i think i might try this recipe the next time i make it:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/dads-meatloaf-with-tomato-relish-recipe/index.html

attempt numero dos

i made the chicken marsala again last week. it definitely came out better this time. i added some shallots & chicken broth and changed the order of cooking a little bit. there was more sauce and the wine taste wasn't as overpowering.


i think i've pretty much got it down so i won't be making it again until v day. plus, the girlfriend doesn't want me getting sick of whatever i'm making and not wanna eat it when the actual day comes. haha she has tried to trick me into telling her what it was but all attempts have failed so far.

soooo the next step is to figure out what my side dish is going to be. i'm gonna go with either a spinach salad or stinky pee sticks.

and i wanna start trying out another dish. the girl wants to try meatloaf so that might be what i will attempt next.

ewwww mushrooms

okay so i made the chicken marsala last night. i think it came out okay. i even tried one of the mushrooms but it was gross. defs reaffirmed the fact that i do not like mushrooms.



i followed the directions like exactly and still had the mushrooms in the pan when i cooked the chicken and i was thinking, "hmmmm maybe i should take them out?" like i had a mushroom shape on one side of the chicken when i flipped it over and was like, "definitely taking that stuff out next time."

the chicken was good though. there wasn't really any sauce for the pasta so i just had salt, pepper, and parm for that. definitely need to make it with more sauce so that there's something that goes on the pasta. i'm thinking of adding chicken stock and using a little more wine to get that?

i still have some extra ingredients leftover so i might try again later in the week. just need to pick up some shallots since i saw that in some other recipes online. and i got a bunch of helpful tips from one of my friends.

on another note, tonight i made fried rice for the first time in my life! my girlfriend told me how to make it over the weekend when i told her i had leftover rice and peas. it was pretty easy and super tasty. definitely going to have to make it again! i just added oil to the pan, scrambled an egg, and added the old rice into the pan. broke up the rice, threw in some tomatoes, and peas. finished with some soy sauce for color.