Let's go, cocoa-mo!

I've decided to face a fact: I might not be such a terrible cook. Maybe it's just that my kitchen is painfully tiny and my stove doesn't work like a stove should. I'm not even trying to make excuses. I was more than happy to admit my shortcomings. If nothing else, it got me out of cooking.

But this afternoon I made the choice to do something about it. If I truly want to get my cook on, and let the culinary goddess burst forth, I have to do something about my plight. I made a call to my apartment manager, informing him that my stove will burn things on the outside but leave them gooey and uncooked on the inside and this is an issue for me. He agreed that it was an issue and quite possibly very frustrating. Yes, very. So I've got an order in for an appliance maintenance person to come through. Hooray? Sure!

For my first time back, I wanted to go hard or go home. I've recently discovered I love asparagus. I do not know how to prepare asparagus so I scoured the cooking blogs in search of a recipe that would make asparagus as delicious as possible. Eventually I found, and settled on, a shrimp and quinoa dish that sounded delightful. Excitement bubbled inside; I could barely contain it. Several alterations later and dinner was served:

Lime Shrimp and Vegetables with Red Quinoa

1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon tamari
shrimp (whatever kind you prefer in whatever amount seems reasonable)
1 cup red quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 red onion, diced
6 fresh asparagus spears, diced
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 tablespoon minced ginger


Remove the tail and devein shrimp. Or use the kind where that's already done, like I do. Rinse. Pat dry. Place in bowl, mix with lime juice and tamari. Leave to marinade for several hours (I stirred the shrimp around every couple hours).

Cook Quinoa according to directions. Or, if you screw up like I did, for as long as it takes to absorb the vegetable broth (you can also use water, but I wanted more body).

In large enough skillet, heat olive oil. Add bell pepper and red onion. Sautee until onions become clear. Add asparagus, raisins, and shrimp (adding the lime juice and tamari too). Stir everything together. Simmer. Add ginger. Stir. Allow to cook until shrimp is opaque and asparagus is tender.

Right away, the four year old disapproved. She tried a bite of everything, but decided it was all just "too yucky" - fine, be that way. I found the dish fulfilling and satisfying.

How you decide to serve this is your call. The recipe I let guide me suggested I mix everything together. I didn't choose to do that. The recipe also mentioned this dish would be delicious served warm or cold. I'm not sure about all of that. I do know that I don't know where my digital camera ran off to and the translation of the meal is a little lost with the camera on my phone so there is no picture to share. Despite that, I'm incredibly proud. Maybe I do really have this, after all.

Oh, noodles!

This afternoon, after we got home from trekking in the cold to and from the library, I had an intense craving for Top Ramen. I don't mean authentic ramen soup. I mean Nissin Top Ramen, the kind that used to cost 10 cents or less. I have a long standing love affair with this low cost junk food. Working hard to cut this type of food from my diet (full of all the bad stuff with none of the good stuff) I craved but I didn't cave. I knew I couldn't afford, financially or health wise, to just go buy a few packages from the store. I also knew I had plenty of food in my kitchen that needed to be used.

I think this counts as my first official recipe where I didn't use a recipe and just went with my instinct. And let me tell you, it was good.

Rainy Day Ramen

Ingredients
whole box of Pacific Organic Free Range chicken broth
handful of whole wheat thin spaghetti noodles, broken in half
1 cup cooked, diced/shredded chicken
one egg
kosher salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
garlic to taste (I used a tsp of the already chopped kind)
pinch of cumin
one chive stalk, chopped

Directions
Bring chicken broth to a boil, add noodles. Allow noodles to soften, add diced/shredded chicken. Stir. Add salt, pepper, garlic, cumin. Blend. Beat in egg. Allow egg to cook completely. Add chives. Stir.

Serve. Eat.

Seriously, it's delicious. It cured my craving. I am both thrilled that I made something I didn't immediately want to throw away and I have an appropriate substitute for a food that I love but can't justify eating. Next time I would like to add vegetables, and use angelhair or udon noodles instead of spaghetti. For now I think I'll go have another bowl simply because I can.

How love why

Through observation I have discovered that my male friends are far more willing to talk about cooking with me than my female friends. I don't know if this suggests anything. All I know is that I spend a lot of time in conversation with my male friends talking about about food. One of these friends enlightened me as to why I suck as a cook, and why my food always turns out horrible. He said:

"Love. The difference between your cooking and my cooking is that I put love into mine and you do not. You rush things. You can't rush. You have to take time and put love into what you cook."

So I had an epiphany: it isn't that I need to teach myself how to cook, it's that I need to teach myself how to love cooking. How does one learn to love cooking when one openly admits to hating it, regards it as a chore? Well, I think I have to take into consideration why I wanted to teach myself how to cook in the first place.:

1. I'm in the midst of a revolution with myself. I'm demanding of myself a healthier lifestyle. Which means changing my eating habits. Which means leaving the fast foods behind and the boxed foods on the shelf.

2. When my daughter gets older I want her to have those meals that I cooked for her where she says to someone she cares for "My mom used to make this delicious _________ all the time." We all have those dishes and we all brag about them. I want bragging rights.

The essence of why I even started on this journey is rooted in love. The challenge is channeling that love. Additionally these recipes are going to call for patience, virtue, improved time management, fearlessness, and a better attitude. If I can get over feeling like cooking is a chore, that I try to avoid, perhaps I can actually produce a meal I'm proud of.

When I make entries into Eat What's on Your Plate! I repost it to my other social networking sites (potentially irritating my friends and family). I only know of a small handful of people who actually take the time to read this blog. For this one entry I urge you to take the time and effort to comment with one recipe you think I should try. Maybe I'll love your recipes better than I love mine.

Drip drip drop

Oregon, infamous for it's liquid sunshine, delivered some fantastic downpours over the course of yesterday. It marked just one of many wonderful rainy days to come. I woke early, excited that I would be forced to spend time inside, hopefully catching up on much needed housework. As Autumn quickly approaches I'm searching the depths of food blogs everywhere to find warm, inviting, and comforting food. Yesterday was my first sincere adventure in making beef stew. I figured the day was perfect for it, and after spending a large portion of the afternoon splashing in mud puddles, the 3YO could use a warm meal at the end of it all.

It didn't start off well, the beef stew. The beef I had taken out of the freezer had a green tint to it and a smell that made me curious. Leaving me a bit panicked because I had wanted to slow cook the stew, I made a quick run to the store to pick up some more beef. Fortunately my mom saved the day and informed me I could cook the stew on high for fewer hours and everything would turn out just fine. This is exactly what I did. While at the store I also picked up a bag of Rhodes, sadden that they didn't carry the whole wheat. Once home I searched both foodgwaker and TasteSpotting and found a simple enough recipe for Old Fashioned Beef Stew Recipe for Slow Cooker. Perfect.

My version of the recipe
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1 pound lean stew beef (already diced)
½ onion, quartered
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 cups beef broth
1 cup cold water
½ teaspoon ground pepper
½ teaspoon paprika
2 bay leaves
3 carrots, cut in pieces
4 medium potatoes, cut into pieces
3 celery stalks, cut into pieces
1 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup cold water blended with 3 tablespoons flour for thickening

Directions
Wash, peel, and cut veggies into 1 inch pieces

Combine ¾ cup flour, 1 teaspoon garlic salt and 1 teaspoon paprika in a plastic bag, shake to mix well.

Toss the beef cubes in the flour and shake the bag to coat evenly. Remove the beef from the plastic bag, shaking off excess flour mixture.

Brown the beef in a skillet with a little oil in batches.

Place the beef at the bottom of the crockpot. Top with carrots, potatoes, celery, and onion. Add the seasoning ingredients.

Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4 to 5 hours. A half hour before serving add the peas and the thickening mixture (1/3 cup of cold mixed with 3 tablespoons flour). Allow stew to thicken before serving.

I made a joke on Facebook that my stew is better than your stew. However, I felt my stew lacked in flavor. I added more salt and pepper and I think this made a world of difference. This is definitely a recipe I feel confident playing around with. It seems full proof and, considering my kitchen experiences, that is just what I need out a recipe. I can't wait for the left overs tonight.

Slim pickings

A boiling chicken carcass is enough to make me consider a vegetarian crossover. The entire process I've been through with this chicken has been repulsive. The smell emanating from my kitchen repulses me.

Yesterday began my not-so epic journey with this whole chicken. I had planned to do what my mother used to do: make several meals out of one bird. Usually she made a turkey, baked it, served it as dinner, then we ate on it for a few days before she boiled it and made a soup. I wasn't in the mood for turkey so I picked a young chicken. The first step, defrosting it, was easy. The next step of removing the neck and the gizzards from the cavity was disgusting. I failed as I should have kept both but they ended up in my trash. I know how to use gizzards for making stuffing and I know neck bones offer some of the best flavor (at least that holds true for pork, I assumed this would also be true for chicken). Handling the chicken was my least favorite part. It was just a tiny baby of a chicken and my heart mourned for it.

But I went on. I served it alongside homemade gravy (which turned out greasy) and mashed potatoes. Still, it made me feel ill. Something about the chicken, being whole. I can't really place my finger on it. So I decided to boil it, albeit prematurely, to get all the meat off that I will divide between chicken enchiladas and chicken and dumplings. Currently I have several cups of chicken meat, cooling. Tonight I'll make enchiladas, using this homemade sauce.

We'll see if we ever really do that vegetarian crossover. For now I'm lighting candles and trying to get the smell of boiled chicken out of my sinuses.

The cheese stands alone

In my kitchen there are lessons to be learned. Today's lesson, for example, is to trust your instinct and use a big enough baking dish to leave space for your Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake Bars to rise while they cook. Otherwise you end up with something looking like this. You may also end up with a dessert that would have otherwise been delicious, if it had actually cooked completely. Of course your mileage may vary.

I spent a lot of time in my kitchen today. I'm ignoring the pile o' dishes that, as my luck would have it, are probably procreating behind my back.

Not everything in my kitchen was fail today. I have come to discover that I can, with confidence, make Mexican food. I find it to be simple, versatile, and delicious. I've grown slightly bored with tacos, I wasn't in the mood for enchiladas, and I have yet to brave tamales so when I found this recipe for taquitos I knew I had to try them. Thing is, I don't really measure with stuff like this. I eye it, estimate, season to taste. It didn't matter at all that I didn't follow the recipe to the letter. They still tasted way better than any frozen, boxed taquito. I felt that black bean salsa and sour cream were the only appropriate toppings for this flavorful dish.



The black bean salsa was simple. Two small tomatoes, half a can of black beans, heaping pile of cilantro, salt, and pepper. Dice, drain, chop, sprinkle, blend. Very simple, very tasty. Since I used the cilantro in the salsa, I omitted it from the taquito. I also thought the recipe called for too much cheese so I just used the cream cheese. I opted for green chilies instead of green salsa, and I didn't have any green onions so they didn't make it, either.

I admire my own perseverance. Just when I think I'm going to give up, I find a recipe that I want to try. I think I can do this, guys.

I also think I need to handle those dishes now.

Across the universe and other galaxies

I think somewhere, deep down inside, there is a fantastic cook waiting to burst forth. I think if I keep trying to nurture this beast I will one day look back and laugh at myself. Laugh at myself for getting frustrated and throwing the spatula, laugh at myself for feeling claustrophobic in my kitchen, laugh at myself for feeling inadequately prepared in terms of supplies and utensils (which you can totally help with by the way). Some day I will get to that place, I can feel it.

In 2002 I had a friend named Adam who had a girlfriend named Sarah who had a lovely set of parents. While vising with them one weekend, Sarah's mother introduced me to something that sounded so incredibly disgusting that I didn't want to try it but it made her kitchen smell so delicious that I couldn't resist it. My mother also taught me to never refuse a meal, and at this juncture in my life I couldn't afford to turn down food. Thus I was given my first taste of Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

It was... it tasted like brownies but had a cake consistency. It was pretty much everything I had ever wanted in a sweet, quick bread. I think I ate four loaves by the end of the weekend. And from here on out I felt it was my personal duty to enlighten the masses, to inform them about this wonderful treat. I made it for Thanksgiving dinner with the family, I made it for staff meetings, I made it for the naysayers. It became my absolute favorite thing to make not to mention one of my absolute favorite things to eat.

My mother finally emailed me my recipe that never made it's way with me. She didn't change anything, sending me the recipe verbatim as I wrote it in 2002. I would suggest playing around with this recipe some. It calls for large amounts of ingredients and makes a lot of bread. Which isn't a terrible thing since I can guarantee you won't be able to stop eating it once you start.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

2 Cups shredded zucchini
3/4 Cup shortening
2 Cups sugar
3 Eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 Cup milk
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 Cups flour
1/2 Cup cocoa
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Stir flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together. Mix with remaining ingredients. Pour into loaf pans and bake 1 hour @ 350 degrees. Makes 2 loaves in 7' x 10' pans. Enjoy!!

This time around my Chocolate Zucchini bread didn't turn out very well. As stated, my kitchen isn't really prepared for all of this. I have one large loaf dish and three cake pans. Heed my advice: do not try to use cake pans for this. You end up with crust. Burnt crust to be more specific. Also try to use fresh zucchini. While the zucchini doesn't really lend much flavor (mostly moisture), I think I should have chucked the zucchini that was on it's way out and used fresher ones; that may have made a world of difference.