Tuesday Treats – Wiscuits

…or Baffles. Whichever you prefer.

Yesterday, we touched on the fact that I lack patience in some areas. Now, while I love cooking, I have a bad habit of undercooking certain items. French fries, biscuits, cookies; I keep checking on them thinking, “they must be done now” and inevitably remove them too soon. It could have more to do with my desire to eat aforementioned items than my actual lack of patience.

My parents were kind enough to get me a waffle maker some months back. I was in love with how quickly it cooked up a thick, delicious waffle. Yet, I don’t eat waffles every day, so the cool new kitchen toy spent a good amount of time in a cabinet.

That is, until I discovered that a waffle maker can be used for so much more.

For this recipe, you’ll need a waffle maker, store bought biscuits, and whatever you like to stuff inside. I used jalepeños and cream cheese for my savory baffle, and jam for the sweet wiscuit. I recommend trying variations that include bacon (of course) or Nutella.

The possibilities are endless. And delicious. Enjoy.

[Yes, this video was created by me, for you all. Music by The New Standards.]

Amber’s Favorite Things for 2012 – Just Like Oprah, But With Less Free Stuff

I’ve spent a lot of time this past weekend thinking about the year ahead. I’m not one to make resolutions, but the end of a year always make me think about what’s next.

As I make plans, I thought I would take the opportunity to share with you some of the things that are part of my plan for 2012.

Organization, Cleaning, and General Home DIY:

Remember when I talked about the cleaning kick I’ve been on? It’s growing. To that end, I’ve encountered this great calendar for organizing your house across the entire year. I have a tendency to forget to pace myself when I start on a kick, which is why it usually is just a “kick”. It lasts for days, maybe weeks, then I return to my old ways.

This schedule breaks organizing the home into smaller daily tasks. Over time, your entire house will be together (and some charity will likely be very happy). Very excited about getting started

In line with keeping the house organized, I’m also on a quest to keep it super clean, and finding ways to do it without spending a fortune on chemical-laden cleaners. I’ll be experimenting with herb-infused vinegar, baking soda, and even some homemade detergent.

Pinterest has become a special kind of drug in my house-helping madness. So many amazing DIY ideas, including ones like this. My bathroom and kitchen are on the schedule to be renovated by little old me, armed with paint, brushes, and sponges. I’ll be sure to blog about it, failures and successes.

Speaking of projects, I’ve already begun one, a budget rehaul of the hubs drab office into a geeky man cave. Pictures and details to follow in the new year.

And I won’t even begin to list the many crafty projects ahead. Let’s just say that I discovered CraftGawker.

Blogging, Writing, and all that:

This week I wrote up a review of a fantastic book on blogging for writers. Which, being that I had pretty much written off books like this, is pretty amazing. I’m a critical student, so any book that ventures to teach me something gets an extra critical eye. However, upon completion of Novel Blogging, I actually see myself putting a lot of it to use. Strike that. It has me excited about putting it to use.

Now, being excited about Novel Blogging, setting goals for my writing is going to be very important, so I’ve decided to join up with the ROW80 crew again, and put my goals out there for all to see.

I’ll use the goal setting group to help me work through the non-fiction project I have brewing, with the aim of having it written by the summer. ::gulp::

30 Day Challenges 

Also while on Pinterest, I’ve come across a lot of 30 day challenges. I kinda love the idea of giving myself one little assignment each day across the span of a month that helps me work on something. Whether it be my love of drawing and photography, or a plan to help me be more fit. (Couldn’t link to the original on that one – if you are on Pinterest and want to see that 30 Day Challenge, check my boards.)

I may even create some of my own.

Social Butterflying

No, I am not talking about Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, G+, or any other way of socializing online. I’m talking about in real life. I have a bad habit (particularly in the last 3 years) of being a bit of a hermit. Which, while I am an introvert, isn’t completely healthy for me.

I’m motivating myself to do more with people with new recipes. What good is cooking fun stuff if there is no one around to eat it? I may have a tea party with the ladies so I can bust out this quiche, or a pajama dinner where we all indulge in yummy breakfast treats.

Whatever I make, the key is there will be people there to enjoy it. And I’ll be there to enjoy them. (That sounds creepy. See? Not around people enough.)

What tools will you be using to accomplish new things in 2012?

Tuesday Treat – Slow Cooker Pork Tacos

I am celebrating the final month of the year with a lot of cleaning and organizing of the house. I’ll admit, I am not naturally the neatest person in the world. Yet, as each year passes, my desire to be that person grows, as do my cleaning frenzies.

What begins one day as a simple “let me organize the pantry” turns into a full-on attack of the kitchen; pots and pans strewn about, scrubbing tiles on my hands and knees. It’s not pretty. Well, actually, I’m not pretty, but the room is when it’s all over.

When I find myself “in the zone” having to stop and cook, dirtying dishes and breaking my stride, is the last thing I want to do. But having a floor so clean you can eat off of it is pointless if there is nothing to eat.

Enter the crock pot.

Thanks to a super special deal at Costco, I got myself a 7 quart beast to make cooking simple. Aside from making life easy, slow cooking allows you to buy inexpensive cuts of meat and turn them into deliciousness.

Also thanks to Costco, I found myself with an enormous boneless pork shoulder ($1.89/lb).  After severing it into ten large chunks and tossing them in the freezer, I started mentally preparing for what I could do with all that food.

The first place my mind went was tacos.

Now, there are probably a million different ways I could have thrown this together, and I’ll probably share them as I discover them, but this turned out great with ingredients in the house and little effort.

Also, the key to making these tacos extra delicious is topping them with this simple “slaw” rather than the myriad of taco toppings you might usually opt for. Delicious, and again, cost effective.

Slow Cooker Pork Tacos with Lime-Cilantro Slaw

1-2 pounds pork shoulder
1 can crushed tomatoes (I used the 14 ounce can – you could use the smaller can, but you may need to add a little liquid)
1 onion (yellow, vidalia or red preferable)
4 cloves garlic
1 T cumin
1/2 T sugar
2 tsp salt
pinch chili powder
Spoon garlic chili sauce (see photo)

This is spicy deliciousness. Amount used depends on your taste for heat.

Chop onion and skin garlic gloves.  Throw tomatoes, onion, garlic, pork and spices in crock pot. Cook on low setting for 10 hours (you could shorten the cooking time if cooked on high, probably 5 hours).

Pull pork apart with fork about an hour or so before serving so all the sauciness really mixes in. This isn’t necessary, but if you are able, it helps all the flavors integrate with the meaty goodness.

Lime Cilantro Slaw

Cabbage
Lime
Cilantro
Sour Cream
Salt

You’ll notice there are not measurements above. I think the slaw should be made according to your individual taste. I love lime and cilantro, so I used the juice of a whole lime and chopped a good handful of cilantro for about 1/3 head of cabbage. I tossed that with a heaping spoon of sour cream and salted to taste. Give it all a good mix (toss it in a tupperware container and shake it around for good measure) then stick it in the fridge until dinner is ready.

I used corn tortillas for mine, but you can use whatever you prefer. I recommend having a fork ready, and lots of napkins, as it can get messy. But messy is good, right?

So hungry I couldn't hold the camera straight.

More slow cooker recipes to come in the near future…

Meatless May Update

The asparagus looks like he might kill me...

I’ve been meaning to let you all know how the Meatless Month of May has been going.

I meant to do it on a Monday, but then there was the crazy dream I had to share.

And then I was feeling all inspired to work on my WIP, so I couldn’t sit here typing about food when there were characters asking to come out and do their thing.

Rather than wait until next Monday, just so I can call the post “Meatless Monday”, today I shall update you.

First off, it’s going well!  I haven’t had any meat all month and I am not finding that I miss it terribly.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, if someone offered to make me breakfast as I type this that involved copious amounts of thick cut bacon, the temptation would be great.  But for the most part, I’m not even thinking about the lack of meat.

We’ve been eating lots of quinoa, lentils, pasta with veggies – everything has been sort of thrown together at the last minute.  You know what?  It all tastes good.

Lentils?  Use the seasonings you like on meat.  No big secret there.

Veggies?  If they are fresh, a quick sautee’ with olive oil is all it takes.

In a rush and can’t cook?  Coscto carries a perfectly suitable Eggplant Parmigiana in the frozen section.  It’s not exactly calorie friendly, but I’ll get to why that doesn’t seem to matter much.

Now I know that some of you are sitting there thinking, “Will you just give us a recipe, already?”  So I did choose one item I made so far this month that I will share, since it involved more than dumping onions and garlic in a pan, followed by any other veggie in the fridge.

But first, some of the side effects of my meatless month.

I’m down five pounds, ya’ll.  (Yes, I said ya’ll…I was born in the NorthEast, but I’ve been in the South a LONG time.  Sometimes it creeps in.)

I haven’t been doing any special exercise routine.  Unless you count dancing to “The House of Tom Bombadil” with Jonas.

I have been eating ice cream and bread and the like with wild abandon.

And I am still DOWN five pounds.

I guess filling up on healthy grains and veggies agrees with me.  Enough that I can fill the spaces with Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream.

My other concern with this experiment was our budget.

Healthy eating tends to be expensive.  It sounds like it should be cheaper, but when you start looking at “fake” meat products, tofu, and the like, the grocery bill climbs VERY fast.

My solution was to primarily buy “unpackaged” foods.  Bulk lentils and grains.  Fresh produce.  Cheese.

End result?  So far, the weekly grocery bill is down considerably.  I’d say 35% cheaper.

What does this mean?  Well, aside from the fact that with the leftover weekly funds I can save for other items, like new clothes, when we are at the end of our experimental month, we can reintroduce meat back into our diet.  But now, it will be happy meat.  And only once a week (or every other week).

Any drawbacks from the experiment?  Eating out CAN be difficult.  Or eating at a friend’s home.  But there is generally a workaround available.

Ok, ok.  As promised, a recipe.

Roasted Garbanzo and Walnut Quinoa

1 can Garbanzo Beans (I used can, so I didn’t have to soak, blah blah blah)
1/2 C Walnuts
1/2 Onion (I use sweet onions, but red would be delish too)
Half to Whole Head of Garlic
1 C quinoa
Olive Oil
Lemon Chevre

Set oven to 375.  Pour garbanzos, walnuts, chopped onion and garlic cloves/head (you can leave the skins on, but if you do, stick the garlic head/cloves in the corners of the pan rather than scattered throughout) in a large ziploc bag.  Add generous amount of olive oil.  Add salt and a pinch of cumin.  Feel free to be creative with your spices.  Close bag and shake it to evenly distribute the oil and seasoning.

Dump all of that goodness onto a cookie sheet and stick it in the oven.  I probably let mine cook for about 30 minutes (welcome to the Amber school of Cooking…it’s a lot of “about” and “some”).  You want the garlic to be be softened and the garbanzos to have a nice roasted taste and color.  Don’t OVER cook – you don’t want crunchy beans.

Cook 1 C quinoa on stovetop (2 C water, bring to boil, then down to low…just like rice).  If you want more flavor, you can cook the quinoa in broth.

Slide everything off the cookie sheet into a pan.  If you left the garlic skins on, you’ll want to pop the garlic out of the skins before putting them in the pan (that’s why you stuck them in corners where you could easily find them).  Dump your finished quinoa in the pan.  Give it all a good toss.

Voila!  Top with some crumbled lemon chevre.  Or feta.  Or any nice crumbly cheese that you love.

If you want a little something extra, fry an egg and put that on the very top.  The yolk running in adds some extra goodness.

There you have it!  I may post another recipe or two before the month is over.  I meant to have a photo, but I was ravenous when it was done cooking.  Maybe next time.

Currently Listening to:  Jonas making his blocks talk and laugh at each other

Your Weekly Cupcake

I’ve never been much of a baker. While I have always loved to cook, there was always less occasion to bake, and it didn’t draw me like cooking. I know it has everything to do with the exacting nature of the act. Measurements needing to be just so for things to turn out, leaving little room for experimentation. Or at least that is how I saw it.

When I would bake, since I did it so infrequently, I didn’t have any of the proper tools to make it easier, so it made me dislike it even more. Some time ago, when it looked like the hubs was employed again (but turned out to be a disaster) we purchased a stand mixer. A beautiful, bright yellow stand mixer. Combine this new “toy” with a diminishing hatred for math and everything exact, and you get a new interest in baking.

The other day, I posted a Facebook status asking people what flavor cupcake, if they could have any, even if it didn’t exist. The comments came flooding in. Which inspired me to try making a new cupcake every week. It doesn’t have to be “new” (e.g. I can make red velvet if I like) but it has to be from scratch, cupcake to frosting.

Sunday, I set about making my first one using ingredients I already had in the house. Being that its actually cold in Florida right now, I really liked the idea of a spice cupcake. I love ciders and mulled wine this time of year, and I knew I had plenty of cinnamon, nutmeg and even some crystallized ginger in the pantry, so this seemed like a doable idea.

Now, I am not a big frosting person. I have a tendency to scrape it off of cake when offered a slice. I DO love cream cheese frosting, but outside of that, I don’t know of many others, so I thought this would be a really good area for experimentation. Plus, pairing a flavored frosting with the spice cake sounded like fun.

Having been sick the past week or so, I knew that we had plenty of citrus in the house, which inspired me to create an orange buttercream frosting. I love using citrus when I am mulling wine, so it seemed like it would be a good pairing.

In the end, the cupcakes were tasty, but the frosting is what really surprised me. The orange buttercream was awesome and so simple. A perfect fall treat (even if it is winter. )

Photo taken without contacts – forgive the quality

Spice Cupcake

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg and/or allspice
chopped crystallized ginger (2 T or more depending on how much you like ginger)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, spices, ginger and salt. In a larger bowl, beat the butter until it’s pale and creamy. Pour in the sugar and continue to beat for 3-4 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

Stir the vanilla into the milk. Add about one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir it in by hand or with the electric mixer on low speed, just until it’s combined. Add about half the milk in the same manner, then another third of the flour, the rest of the milk, and the rest of the flour, mixing just until the batter is blended.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350.

Orange Buttercream Frosting

1/4 C butter
2 C confectioners sugar
orange rind (1 T)
3-4 T orange juice

Cream butter and sugar. Add rind and OJ.

Chowdah.

For the longest time, I was never a huge fan of soups. Having been in Florida for many years, the thought of pulling myself up to a bowl of piping hot broth was less than desirable 95% of the time. And I despised that tinny flavor canned soups possessed.

That changed when I moved to Seattle and moved in with two soup obsessed roomies. Soup was the perfect food for so many reasons. While it is obvious that the damp, cold winters lend themselves to warm comfort food, my roommates taught me the other values of a good homemade soup.

Like how chopping vegetables is cheap therapy after a bad day at work.

Or how you can make soup from just about any variety of leftovers and pantry staples when the grocery budget runs out early.

Or how there is always plenty leftover for lunches and dinners later in the week.

And how easily a bowl of soup transforms into a complete meal with the addition of homemade bread.

Even though I am back in Florida, and the weather often doesn’t cooperate with my new found love and appreciation of soupy goodness, sometimes I just have to crank up the A/C, throw on a sweater, and get to chopping and brewing.

Inspired by my Massachusetts office mates, I set out to make a New England Clam Chowder this week. I should warn the chowder purists out there, I probably broke all sorts of chowder rules in the making of this soup, but in my mind, that is the beauty of homemade soups/stews/chowders. The discovery of a lack of ingredients, or the sudden craving of a particular flavor can transform it into something it wasn’t meant to be, but something still equally satisfying.

I started (as I often do) with chopping therapy. The stresses of the week beautifully laid out across my chopping block. (sidenote: I love how it looks when I am preparing a mirepoix…it’s like a foodie flag, with it’s orange, green and white) For the chowder, I chopped a sweet onion and a couple stalks of celery, including the leaves.

a knife and some veggies – all the therapy I need

The onions were tossed in the pot with a generous helping of chopped bacon. When the bacon was looking sufficiently “crackly” and the onions slightly translucent, I mixed in the celery and added a bottle of clam juice, along with the the juice from the canned clams (yes, yes, I know – canned! But this is Central Florida – good fresh clams aren’t exactly available around the corner).

mmmmm…baaaacon

Now this is where I took a huge step away from what you should do when making a proper seafood chowder. In all honesty, I don’t like things that are especially fishy tasting. I didn’t have time to make a proper fish stock, and didn’t trust purchasing one from any local stores. So I used chicken broth. It’s what I had in the house. So sue me. I then tossed in three chopped up Russet Potatoes and a few sprigs of thyme and let it all simmer for about 15 minutes – enough that the potatoes were softened but far from mushy.

Once I was satisfied with the potatoes, I added some half and half (2 cups maybe? I don’t measure things…) 2 cans of clams as well as some crab meat, which probably makes this more of a seafood chowder then a clam one. That simmered very briefly and was finished off with a few splashes of cream sherry.

makes me want to drop my r’s just looking at it

As the chowder was finishing up, the house filled with the smell of a homemade loaf of Guinness bread.

what could be better than a pint of guinness and some homemade bread? this.

The soup turned out very tasty, perhaps a little oilier than it should have been (I blame it on the generous amount of bacon and the chicken stock), but delicious.

Since baking does actually require that you pay attention to things like measuring, here is the recipe I used for the bread:

1 bottle of Guinness (room temperature)
2 tbsp veg oil
3 cups flour
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
tsp salt
1 packet of active dry yeast

Thanks to a friend who was tossing stuff before a big move, I have a handy-dandy breadmaker to do the work for me on this. Toss in wet ingredients, toss in dry, turn on breadmaker. Three and half hours later, the house smells of fresh bread. Guinness bread has a pleasant bitterness to it that pairs nicely with a hearty soup, or a generous slather of butter.

Cuddled up with my chowdah and Guinness bread, I looked out the window at our yard covered in white gravel (the in-progress patio the hubs is building…more on that later) and almost felt like I was snowed in for the evening.

Almost. Sigh.

Coho Salmon and Swiss Chard

Since when did this become a food blog?

It’s not.

No. Really. I promise.

You see, the thing is, when you are working and taking care of a new baby, there isn’t much time for adult interaction. Or leaving the house. Or much of anything really.

Which leaves little to write about. The one thing that I do still find the time to do (partly, because I can’t have my family starve, and partly because its something I enjoy and falls during a time of day that Jonas usually naps) is make dinner.

It also gives me something to take pictures of…food can be pretty.

And, I didn’t want this to suddenly become an “all baby, all the time” place, so I had to either take a hiatus from the blog or find something to write about.

So here we are.
………………………………………….

I am not a huge salmon fan, or at least not an Atlantic Salmon fan. But Coho was on sale this week, so I figured a little fish in our diet was a good thing.

And I love chard. It’s so pretty.

So here it is, a very simple dinner.

Toss a couple of garnet yams in the oven in foil at 400 degrees. (So you have a filling carb on the plate) If you haven’t had garnet yams before, they are delicious. They need NOTHING. No butter, no sugar, you can even skip the salt. Not to say you shouldn’t add butter or salt (or sugar if you want them to be super sweet). Just do so in moderation.

Once you can tell these are starting to soften, throw a diced onion and a couple sliced cloves of garlic in a pan with a little olive oil (and a little butter if you don’t care about calories). Once they are translucent, you can add your chopped up chard. If you like your veggies mushy (I like them to have a bite) you can add a little water and turn the heat down to a simmer. I just cook them a little past the point of the leaves wilting.

Season your salmon with salt and pepper (you can add other spices to your taste – tonight I used a little of Emeril’s stuff). While your chard is cooking, in a separate pan, toss your salmon skin side down on it, medium to medium high heat. Two minutes on each side to give it color and then finish it off in the oven (which should only take a few more minutes – the Canadian rule is 10 minutes per inch of thickness total cooking time).

A simple dish, with simple ingredients. Simply delicious.

Listening to: Harry Connick Jr’s Red Light Blue Light CD

Pumpkin Madness

It’s fall! You wouldn’t know it based on the mid-90 degree weather and still green leaved trees, but it is autumn. I know this because Starbucks is now serving a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Since I have been spending a lot of time indoors, between work, taking care of baby, and trying to keep my house from turning into a disaster area, I figure I may as well make it feel like fall indoors. Crank up the air and bring on the comfort food!

Inspired by J’s pumpkin pie baking last week (still enjoying the fruits of his labor…) I decided to make a pumpkin soup. And not from a Libby’s can. From the actual pumpkin.

There it is, in all its pumpkin-y glory

Since I decided to do this on somewhat of a whim, it is a very simple soup – but that’s what comfort food should be, shouldn’t it?

I have NEVER made anything from a pumpkin before. So I had to start off with the fun process of cleaning out the seeds and stringy bits, which was surprisingly therapeutic. Like being a kid playing in the mud. It is interesting to see how many different ways people go about this process to make it easier – I simply used a big knife to cut it open, and a large spoon to gut it. (“I gut you like a sheep!”)

My fancy pumpkin prepping tools

Once the pumpkin pieces had been prepped for cooking, I tossed them in a steamer pot for about a half hour, took them out, scooped the flesh into the blender, and made my puree. This collective process was the most difficult, as I have no patience and insisted on scooping the flesh before it had cooled. Ouch.

The rest was easy – diced half an onion and an apple and sauteed them in butter. Once the onions were translucent, I tossed some* vodka in the pot, let that simmer down, then added a bit of chicken broth, water, and half and half. (Basically, I tossed what I had sitting in the fridge that sounded good.)

For seasoning, a couple pinches of curry powder, chili powder, ground about a quarter nutmeg, dash of cinnamon, and some* salt.

Looks like baby food…yum?

Now the plan was to toss all of this back into a blender and make it smooth and creamy. Things did not go as planned, however, as our 9 week old had finally fallen asleep after a very difficult afternoon full of screaming, so the desire for a happy child outweighed the desire for a creamy soup.

But we still ate it. And it was still good – probably not so much for someone who isn’t a fan of texture, but the flavors were all there.

And it looked like fall. A messy, tasty fall.

Kind of like jumping in the pile of leaves your dad just raked.

I may not be pretty, but I get the job done…

* If you are reading this and thinking about following a “recipe”, you’ll notice that I say “some” a lot. Not a cup, or a tablespoon. Just some. I don’t measure things when I cook. Which is why I seldom bake. Baking is all math and science to me – cooking is art. Just slap that paint on the canvas.

Listening to: the sweet sounds of no screaming…and a song from Sondheim’s “Company”
Current Mood: autumnal. yes, I am making it a mood