Last night we had some wonderful friends over for dinner. Sam and her two girls who happen to be the same ages as my girls! Both husbands weren't able to be home for dinner so we had a girl's night complete with talking about our periods, 80's music on Pandora, and lots of giggling little girlies. It was fantastic.
I was 14 years old the first time I had macaroni and cheese from a box. I was staying with a friend and I loved it! My mother, chef du jour de la homemade food, was horrified. Since then I've elevated my tastes from Kraft to Annie's in a box but I'm back to realizing homemade is really the best.
Lessons learned:
- Food is always better when shared with friends.
- Homemade macaroni and cheese is a crowd-pleaser (unless your crowd includes someone dairy-free, which our party did not last night)
- A mix of american and sharp cheddar give the pasta slight twist.
- Fruit salad is extra delicious with a little bit of cinnamon.
- When I'm really hungry it's easy to forget to take a picture of the meal.
The official menu:
Homemade macaroni and cheese, broccoli, peas, fruit salad
Mac 'n Cheese My Mom's Way
1 box of elbow macaroni (last night = 1.5 boxes)
1 lb of American cheese (last night = plus 1/2lb sharp cheddar cheese)
Milk
Butter
Boil the elbow macaronies according to the box directions.
Drain the noodles and pour them back into the big pot.
Add some butter. (a couple tablespoons should be enough but it's all about personal taste)
Add some milk. (a tablespoon at a time as needed)
Break the cheese into small chunks. Add a few at a time stirring constantly.
Continue adding milk and cheese until the consistency looks good to you.
Eat. And if you're like me and my dad you'll want to add some pepper to your bowl.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Decent Pizza
I've caught something again. It seems like every time I get my affairs in order, I get sick, which means I fall behind on everything once again. I'm trying not to get too depressed about it and just get better. Last night I would have made pizza anyway, so I just asked John to pick one up for us on his way home. I've been wanting to try Decent Pizza, so that's what we did.
We ordered a 20" pizza (that's right) with Italian sausage. I thought it was better than decent, probably the best I've had in Tallahassee. Well, after The Loop closed, anyway. The crust was fluffy but not thick and the sauce had a nice flavor. The cheese was possibly a little thick, but it's hard to call that a flaw with a straight face.
The only problem was that our pizza was slightly burned. I didn't really mind, but John was scraping off the bottom of his crust. Because of that, I'm not sure I'll be able to convince him to give them another chance.
Score: 7/10
We ordered a 20" pizza (that's right) with Italian sausage. I thought it was better than decent, probably the best I've had in Tallahassee. Well, after The Loop closed, anyway. The crust was fluffy but not thick and the sauce had a nice flavor. The cheese was possibly a little thick, but it's hard to call that a flaw with a straight face.
The only problem was that our pizza was slightly burned. I didn't really mind, but John was scraping off the bottom of his crust. Because of that, I'm not sure I'll be able to convince him to give them another chance.
Score: 7/10
Monday, April 4, 2011
Coconut Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Mango
Menu: Coconut Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Mango; Sauteed Broccoli with Garlic and Soy Sauce
Lessons learned:
I was good and cooked the broccoli first. I don't know why I never saute broccoli, but I gave it a try tonight with peanut oil over medium-high heat. After the broccoli had cooked for two or three minutes, I added some minced garlic and a couple splashes of soy sauce. I let it cook for another two or three minutes, then decided it needed about 1/3 cup of water. As soon as that boiled off, they were still just slightly crunchy -- perfect.
Coconut Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Mango
8 ounces rice noodles, medium thickness
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled (deveining is good, too... I forgot tonight and we didn't notice)
More protein for kids, if needed
2 tablespoons peanut oil, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon minced pickled ginger
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 cup chopped or shredded carrots, your preference
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup coconut milk, or maybe a little more if you like
1 mango, cubed
Crushed red pepper to taste
Break the noodles (wrapping them in a dishcloth is helpful) and cover them with hot tap water. Let them soak for about 25 minutes, not much longer or they'll get waterlogged. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Prep the shrimp as needed and add it to the pan, letting it cook without stirring too much. (Note: I now add Quorn tenders to many meals with shrimp so my kids get some protein and I can still say it's from the same meal. I also happened to have some egg whites in my fridge, and I decided to use it with some cornstarch to coat the shrimp. I don't think this recipe needs the egg, but if it just happens to be convenient for you, it works well.) Cook the shrimp until it's pink on both sides, then take them out and put them aside.
Lower the heat under the pan to medium-high and add more oil if necessary (it probably is). Add the ginger, garlic, and carrots and stir-fry them for about 30 seconds. Then add the fish sauce and sugar and combine them evenly with the other items in the pan. Add the noodles, which should still be just slightly stiff and starchy. Pour the coconut milk over the noodles, then stir them continuously to ensure that they absorb the flavors in the pan evenly. Add the shrimp back to the noodles and stir in the mango, too. Sprinkle with red pepper and you're done!
This serves two adults and two kids pretty well. John and I both had small second servings, as we usually do.
Lessons learned:
- I don't usually saute broccoli, but I will be doing it often from now on. Tonight's was perfect.
- Don't forget to shake the can of coconut milk before you open it!
I was good and cooked the broccoli first. I don't know why I never saute broccoli, but I gave it a try tonight with peanut oil over medium-high heat. After the broccoli had cooked for two or three minutes, I added some minced garlic and a couple splashes of soy sauce. I let it cook for another two or three minutes, then decided it needed about 1/3 cup of water. As soon as that boiled off, they were still just slightly crunchy -- perfect.
Coconut Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Mango
8 ounces rice noodles, medium thickness
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled (deveining is good, too... I forgot tonight and we didn't notice)
More protein for kids, if needed
2 tablespoons peanut oil, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon minced pickled ginger
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 cup chopped or shredded carrots, your preference
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup coconut milk, or maybe a little more if you like
1 mango, cubed
Crushed red pepper to taste
Lower the heat under the pan to medium-high and add more oil if necessary (it probably is). Add the ginger, garlic, and carrots and stir-fry them for about 30 seconds. Then add the fish sauce and sugar and combine them evenly with the other items in the pan. Add the noodles, which should still be just slightly stiff and starchy. Pour the coconut milk over the noodles, then stir them continuously to ensure that they absorb the flavors in the pan evenly. Add the shrimp back to the noodles and stir in the mango, too. Sprinkle with red pepper and you're done!
This serves two adults and two kids pretty well. John and I both had small second servings, as we usually do.
Fresh Pasta Ravioli with Ricotta Cheese Filling
Menu: Fresh Ravioli with Ricotta Cheese Filling; Random Crunchy Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette and Rosemary
Lessons learned (so many tonight):
Even without the ravioli attachment, my pasta maker is not what I would call user-friendly, but at least you can learn the pitfalls and get used to them. Not that I have, but I'm trying.
Tonight I got the idea to let my food processor do a lot of the kneading of dough. It's no electric mixer, but it has a dough attachment, right? Definitely not worth it, as it turns out. I still had to do plenty of kneading, and just ended up getting a big dish dirty. This is the first lesson I learned.
After messing with my pasta maker for several minutes and learning that I needed to practically drench it with flour due to the consistency of the dough, I finally started rolling some sheets successfully. That's when I realized that I should have opened the wine first thing. I'd like to claim that my unkempt hair below is a result of my efforts in the kitchen, but I'm pretty sure it was looking that way all day.
As I was making the sheets, I had problems with them getting too long for me to handle, or too sticky to make it through the thinnest, most hazardous, setting. I learned to use pretty small clumps of dough -- like just big enough to fit in the palm of my hand -- and eventually I abandoned the last setting. Next time if I have more patience I might try it again. Here's what I finally ended up with:
Wow, that's a lot of flour. And you know what? THEY STILL STUCK TOGETHER. And to the paper underneath. Rrrrrrrrrrgh! OK, so next time I will dump a cup of flour onto the paper and definitely not let any of them touch each other. You will also notice that they are not gorgeous. After all the frustration with the pasta rolling, I decided I couldn't care less if they were pretty.
Let me address the obvious question here. Why make my own ravioli from scratch? Is it really that much better than frozen ravioli, or especially the fancy fresh ravioli that you can buy in many stores? I don't know if this would be true for other people, but my answer is yes. The filling was so fresh and fantastic. Not even in the same category as cheese ravioli from the freezer section; plus I got to use organic ricotta. Also I love that you can flavor homemade pasta any way you want. I just went with plain for tonight because I was so rusty on the prep, but in the past I've done spinach and lemon-pepper and they were yummy. I would also love to do roasted red pepper and one full of Italian herbs. The possibilities are endless. And the more I do it, the easier it will be. I'll get my method down. And they really were yummy.
I had to do a blind shopping trip this afternoon while we were out, so I ended up just throwing together an odd salad of lettuce, apples, carrots, radishes, and croutons. I threw in some rosemary and dressed it with the last of my mustard vinaigrette.
Fresh Pasta Ravioli with Ricotta Cheese Filling
2 1/4 cups all-purposed flour, plus more as needed (I needed LOTS more)
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated hard Italian cheese, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 egg
OK, so most recipes for fresh pasta that I've ever seen say to just pile your flour on the countertop or table and then make a "well" in the middle for your eggs, which you then start cutting in with a fork. I much prefer to just use a bowl! Put the flour, salt, and eggs in a small mixing bowl. For me, it worked to keep my canister of flour open and next to me with a scoop at all times during this process; that way I could always dip my ball of dough right in it if needed, or sprinkle it over any of the surfaces I was using. Once you're all set up there, just start kneading and keep going until the dough isn't sticky anymore. When it's the right consistency, cover the bowl with a damp towel to prevent the dough from drying out as you work.
Next make the filling, so it's ready to go when you need it. Just mix the cheeses, seasonings, and egg together in a bowl and keep it next to your work area with a small spoon.
I happen to have a pasta maker, so I'll give directions for that. For ravioli, you could try using a rolling pin, but that's just not going to get the dough as thin as a pasta maker will, so be warned.
Divide the dough into 8-10 pieces. Each piece may seem small, but as you feed it through the pasta maker at each setting, it can get very long and hard to manage without tearing it. Clamp the pasta maker to your counter or table, attach the feed tray, and turn the dial to the thickest setting (on my machine, that's number 1). Feed your first piece of dough through each setting once or twice, trying to keep the sheets straight and even as they go through. My dough was fine going through only once on each setting until I got to the thinnest one. If you're going to use the thinnest setting, you probably need to feed the dough through the previous setting at least twice beforehand. Mine tore and crimped each time I didn't do that.
Now you need to decide what size you want your raviolis to be. I ended up making larger ones. In my opinion these are tastier because there's a larger amount of filling to be had in each one. But they can look kind of shapeless and sloppy, too. If you want the large ones, lay out one sheet of pasta horizontally (from your view) on a floured surface and spoon large globs of filling onto either the right or left side of the sheet, spaced out by about 1/2" - 3/4". Then fold the other side over the filling side and press down around the globs to seal them in. If you're worried that it won't stick, sprinkle or brush a little bit of water on the dough first. If you want to make smaller ones, you can put smaller globs of filling all along the horizontal sheet on the half closest to you, then fold the far half over toward you and seal in the filling. When you're done, cut the squares with a pizza cutter and arrange them on a floured tray. Repeat until the dough and filling are all used. You can get 20-25 large raviolis or maybe 35-40 smaller ones.
Boil a large pot of water. When the water is boiling, add the raviolis but make sure you don't overcrowd the pot; they're done when they float at the top. It takes very little time, like less than 2 minutes. It's easy to work in batches if you have a slotted spoon or similar tool to fish the raviolis out when they're done.
Serve immediately with your favorite tomato sauce and some grated cheese. And save some wine for when you're eating.
Lessons learned (so many tonight):
- The first thing you need to do when making homemade pasta is pour yourself a glass of wine.
- The food processor doesn't make mixing the flour and egg any easier.
- Flour. Flour. Flour. Flour. Flour. Flour. Flour. Flour.
- The pasta maker is not my friend. Not yet, anyway.
- Roll the dough through the pasta maker in small batches.
- Flour, and flour some more.
Even without the ravioli attachment, my pasta maker is not what I would call user-friendly, but at least you can learn the pitfalls and get used to them. Not that I have, but I'm trying.
Tonight I got the idea to let my food processor do a lot of the kneading of dough. It's no electric mixer, but it has a dough attachment, right? Definitely not worth it, as it turns out. I still had to do plenty of kneading, and just ended up getting a big dish dirty. This is the first lesson I learned.
After messing with my pasta maker for several minutes and learning that I needed to practically drench it with flour due to the consistency of the dough, I finally started rolling some sheets successfully. That's when I realized that I should have opened the wine first thing. I'd like to claim that my unkempt hair below is a result of my efforts in the kitchen, but I'm pretty sure it was looking that way all day.
As I was making the sheets, I had problems with them getting too long for me to handle, or too sticky to make it through the thinnest, most hazardous, setting. I learned to use pretty small clumps of dough -- like just big enough to fit in the palm of my hand -- and eventually I abandoned the last setting. Next time if I have more patience I might try it again. Here's what I finally ended up with:
Wow, that's a lot of flour. And you know what? THEY STILL STUCK TOGETHER. And to the paper underneath. Rrrrrrrrrrgh! OK, so next time I will dump a cup of flour onto the paper and definitely not let any of them touch each other. You will also notice that they are not gorgeous. After all the frustration with the pasta rolling, I decided I couldn't care less if they were pretty.
Let me address the obvious question here. Why make my own ravioli from scratch? Is it really that much better than frozen ravioli, or especially the fancy fresh ravioli that you can buy in many stores? I don't know if this would be true for other people, but my answer is yes. The filling was so fresh and fantastic. Not even in the same category as cheese ravioli from the freezer section; plus I got to use organic ricotta. Also I love that you can flavor homemade pasta any way you want. I just went with plain for tonight because I was so rusty on the prep, but in the past I've done spinach and lemon-pepper and they were yummy. I would also love to do roasted red pepper and one full of Italian herbs. The possibilities are endless. And the more I do it, the easier it will be. I'll get my method down. And they really were yummy.
I had to do a blind shopping trip this afternoon while we were out, so I ended up just throwing together an odd salad of lettuce, apples, carrots, radishes, and croutons. I threw in some rosemary and dressed it with the last of my mustard vinaigrette.
Fresh Pasta Ravioli with Ricotta Cheese Filling
2 1/4 cups all-purposed flour, plus more as needed (I needed LOTS more)
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated hard Italian cheese, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino Romano
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 egg
OK, so most recipes for fresh pasta that I've ever seen say to just pile your flour on the countertop or table and then make a "well" in the middle for your eggs, which you then start cutting in with a fork. I much prefer to just use a bowl! Put the flour, salt, and eggs in a small mixing bowl. For me, it worked to keep my canister of flour open and next to me with a scoop at all times during this process; that way I could always dip my ball of dough right in it if needed, or sprinkle it over any of the surfaces I was using. Once you're all set up there, just start kneading and keep going until the dough isn't sticky anymore. When it's the right consistency, cover the bowl with a damp towel to prevent the dough from drying out as you work.
Next make the filling, so it's ready to go when you need it. Just mix the cheeses, seasonings, and egg together in a bowl and keep it next to your work area with a small spoon.
I happen to have a pasta maker, so I'll give directions for that. For ravioli, you could try using a rolling pin, but that's just not going to get the dough as thin as a pasta maker will, so be warned.
Divide the dough into 8-10 pieces. Each piece may seem small, but as you feed it through the pasta maker at each setting, it can get very long and hard to manage without tearing it. Clamp the pasta maker to your counter or table, attach the feed tray, and turn the dial to the thickest setting (on my machine, that's number 1). Feed your first piece of dough through each setting once or twice, trying to keep the sheets straight and even as they go through. My dough was fine going through only once on each setting until I got to the thinnest one. If you're going to use the thinnest setting, you probably need to feed the dough through the previous setting at least twice beforehand. Mine tore and crimped each time I didn't do that.
Now you need to decide what size you want your raviolis to be. I ended up making larger ones. In my opinion these are tastier because there's a larger amount of filling to be had in each one. But they can look kind of shapeless and sloppy, too. If you want the large ones, lay out one sheet of pasta horizontally (from your view) on a floured surface and spoon large globs of filling onto either the right or left side of the sheet, spaced out by about 1/2" - 3/4". Then fold the other side over the filling side and press down around the globs to seal them in. If you're worried that it won't stick, sprinkle or brush a little bit of water on the dough first. If you want to make smaller ones, you can put smaller globs of filling all along the horizontal sheet on the half closest to you, then fold the far half over toward you and seal in the filling. When you're done, cut the squares with a pizza cutter and arrange them on a floured tray. Repeat until the dough and filling are all used. You can get 20-25 large raviolis or maybe 35-40 smaller ones.
Boil a large pot of water. When the water is boiling, add the raviolis but make sure you don't overcrowd the pot; they're done when they float at the top. It takes very little time, like less than 2 minutes. It's easy to work in batches if you have a slotted spoon or similar tool to fish the raviolis out when they're done.
Serve immediately with your favorite tomato sauce and some grated cheese. And save some wine for when you're eating.
Surf 'n Turf
I've been trying to cut back on the amount of red meat we eat. Except for the occasional steak to grill we haven't really noticed. But there are days when my PMS is calling for some extra protein and iron in the form of red meat. Plus Grant really appreciates it when I make a bunch of his favorite dishes that also includes something for him to grill.
Lessons learned:
- Even if it's a really good cut of delicious grass-fed beef, rubbed down with yummy spices and grilled well, my girls still won't eat it.
- Panko really does make the best breading for fried seafood.
- I don't need anything to dip into the mango sauce. I could eat it on a spoon.
The official menu: Grilled strip steak, beer-battered fried shrimp (regular and coconut) with mango sipping sauce, grilled peppers and onions, tri-color cous cous, boiled corn on the cob, twice-baked potato (the last bit of our Omaha Steaks Christmas present from my grandparents- we are mourning the emptiness of our freezer.)
I obviously do not have mad food picture taking skills. Those white things that look like eggs are actually grilled onions. This is a picture of Grant's plate- he doesn't really like corn on the cob... The cous cous was mixed in with the veggies and the little mound on the other side of the steak is half of the last Omaha Steaks twice-baked potato.
I will say this was the best batch of fried shrimp I have ever made. It was perfectly golden and lightly breaded and Grant and I devoured a 1/2 pound of jumbo shrimp. And since our closest grocery only sells beer in 6-packs or larger I have several Heineken's left in the fridge to enjoy.
The girls ate cous cous and some veggies and I gave them some yogurt. Grant wants them to like meat but I say it just means more for us!
Beer-Battered Fried Shrimp - Regular and Coconut
Set out four bowls for dredging the shrimp.
Bowl #1:
enough flour to coat all of your shrimp
Bowl #2:
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup beer
1 1/2 baking powder (I forgot I had recently run out of this and so I couldn't add it and I didn't notice a difference)
Bowl #3:
Panko
Bowl #4:
Shredded sweetened coconut
Roll each shrimp in the flour, then the liquid mix, then either Panko or coconut.
Place on a baking sheet covered in wax paper.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat oil in a large pot- deep enough to cover one layer of shrimp. Heat it on medium or less. If the oil is too hot it will burn the shrimp and possibly pop and splatter drops of hot oil that may or may not hit the other hot burners on the stove where you are cooking and catch a kitchen towel on fire. It is quite possible I know this from experience.
Fry the shrimp for about 2 minutes, flip and fry 2 more minutes. Drain on a paper towel.
Serve with this amazing sauce:
Mango Dipping Sauce (I've also done this with orange marmalade with equally pleasing results)
Just mix these things according to your taste:
Mango Preserves
Brown, Dijon and/or Yellow Mustard
Horseradish or Vinegar
I've made all sorts of combinations using these ingredients and it is impossible to make it taste bad. I also use this as a marinade for fish.
Lessons learned:
- Even if it's a really good cut of delicious grass-fed beef, rubbed down with yummy spices and grilled well, my girls still won't eat it.
- Panko really does make the best breading for fried seafood.
- I don't need anything to dip into the mango sauce. I could eat it on a spoon.
The official menu: Grilled strip steak, beer-battered fried shrimp (regular and coconut) with mango sipping sauce, grilled peppers and onions, tri-color cous cous, boiled corn on the cob, twice-baked potato (the last bit of our Omaha Steaks Christmas present from my grandparents- we are mourning the emptiness of our freezer.)
I obviously do not have mad food picture taking skills. Those white things that look like eggs are actually grilled onions. This is a picture of Grant's plate- he doesn't really like corn on the cob... The cous cous was mixed in with the veggies and the little mound on the other side of the steak is half of the last Omaha Steaks twice-baked potato.
I will say this was the best batch of fried shrimp I have ever made. It was perfectly golden and lightly breaded and Grant and I devoured a 1/2 pound of jumbo shrimp. And since our closest grocery only sells beer in 6-packs or larger I have several Heineken's left in the fridge to enjoy.
The girls ate cous cous and some veggies and I gave them some yogurt. Grant wants them to like meat but I say it just means more for us!
Beer-Battered Fried Shrimp - Regular and Coconut
Set out four bowls for dredging the shrimp.
Bowl #1:
enough flour to coat all of your shrimp
Bowl #2:
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup beer
1 1/2 baking powder (I forgot I had recently run out of this and so I couldn't add it and I didn't notice a difference)
Bowl #3:
Panko
Bowl #4:
Shredded sweetened coconut
Roll each shrimp in the flour, then the liquid mix, then either Panko or coconut.
Place on a baking sheet covered in wax paper.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat oil in a large pot- deep enough to cover one layer of shrimp. Heat it on medium or less. If the oil is too hot it will burn the shrimp and possibly pop and splatter drops of hot oil that may or may not hit the other hot burners on the stove where you are cooking and catch a kitchen towel on fire. It is quite possible I know this from experience.
Fry the shrimp for about 2 minutes, flip and fry 2 more minutes. Drain on a paper towel.
Serve with this amazing sauce:
Mango Dipping Sauce (I've also done this with orange marmalade with equally pleasing results)
Just mix these things according to your taste:
Mango Preserves
Brown, Dijon and/or Yellow Mustard
Horseradish or Vinegar
I've made all sorts of combinations using these ingredients and it is impossible to make it taste bad. I also use this as a marinade for fish.
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