A Hobby

I've always loved to cook, well, I should say I have always been interested in cooking... the talent to make dishes taste good was a slow process. As a small child I used to stand in the kitchen watching my mom cook for us. She would get annoyed with me, standing there saying nothing, just taking in what she was doing. As I grew older I would ask questions occasionally, but I mostly remained an observer. I think my mom liked to teach me, she would occasionally just start telling me what she was doing and why she was doing it, I would make mental notes and later attempt things on my own.

When I lived at home our meals were never very adventurous, with a dad who eats almost nothing interesting and sister who refuses to consume anything with even a hint of spice, we had a fairly basic menu most of the time. Chicken Parmesan, Chili, Fish Sticks, Tacos, Salad, Tuna Casserole... you get the idea, your basic mid-western family dinner menu. The difference in our family was that almost all of the ingredients we used were fresh. My mom never bought canned vegetables or boxed mashed potato flakes. We used the basics, of course, canned soups and tuna, etc, but most food was fresh, which made a huge difference in the way I grew to understand and enjoy food.

I will eat, or at least try, almost anything you put in front of me (everyone has their limits, raw brains or anything the bizarre foods guy eats would probably not pass these lips.) I am just starting to get the point, however, that I will also attempt to cook anything I come across.

Cooking is now starting to become a hobby, which I wouldn't have considered it before. I am now constantly on the look out for new interesting recipes to try, new things to attempt. I have had the itch, lately, to try my hand at baking breads (without the aid of a bread maker, which we do not own and most likely never have). Last night we attempted (with our margarita fueled brains in tow) pizza. I had some boxes of Jiffy Pizza Dough Mix, some Mozzarella cheese, diced ham & pineapple... the perfect combination in our minds. Didn't come out as perfectly as we had envisioned. Turns out Jiffy Mix is barely worth the $.98 cents I paid for each box, the crust was chewy and tough and had absolutely no flavor. So, our next endeavor.. homemade pizza... dough and all!

Another new hobby I am starting to love is my slowly growing herb garden, which I would say is really more an offshoot of my cooking hobby. While I love plants, I think if I decide to grow more things they will all be for human consumption... with the exception of some day lilies possibly.

I just found out about twenty minutes ago that we will be moving. In a week. This is good news, our new home will have a front yard with a patio that I can have plants on along with space for a small garden. We will have a free exercise gym that we can use as well as a beautiful area to live.

Bad news... smaller kitchen. Good news... Gas Stove!

Plus, we will be closer to the husband's office, which makes it all even better. :)

I have a few photos of dinners to post... I will do that as soon as I can upload them.

Potato Pancakes & Wine and Cheese dinner

So I haven't been able to post my photos from the (very succesful) potato pancakes because I have been quite busy. The husband has Tuesday and Wednesday as his days off, so we spend them doing everything that needs to get done.

Anyway, I made the potato pancakes using this recipe and holy cow were they tasty. We have done latkes a few times (usually my husband makes them) and we have never used the mashed potato as a binder, turns out, the secret to the perfect texture is the mashed mixed with the raw shredded potatoes.

I served the latkes with sour cream (of course) and some homemade apple sauce, which I have never bothered to use a recipe for. I always just peel & slice, put a bit of water in the bottom of the pan, a bit of sugar and a bit of cinnamon and cook away until it is squishy, always turns out great.



The only issue I ran into was... what do you serve with potato pancakes? All we could think to suggest were pork products (which felt sort of inappropriate). We ended up just steaming some vegetables to have on the side. Not the healthiest meal ever... but worth it in flavor.









Last night we did our regular cheese & wine dinner and I decided to take photos of our table...


Duck Liver Pate w/ Cognac, Shrimp Cocktail, English Cheddar, Balsalmic BellaVitano & some goat cheese. All enjoyed with a Viridian 2007 Pinot Noir. Yum!

Lazy night

I took the easy way out last night. I was in no mood to cook so my husband picked up Little Caesars on the way home. Cheap & Easy, just what we needed last night.

Tonight I am going to try my hand at Potato Latkes, we have made them before, but I've never done them on my own, so it should be interesting. Off to research the best recipes...

Vichyssoise and Photo Dump

Last night's dinner was delicious! It is hard to mess up this soup (a side note: also sometimes called Potato & Leek soup, which it technically is, the difference is made when the soup is served chilled, which makes it specifically Vichyssoise), it is so easy to make yet so impressive when served garnished.

I was given a stick blender at my bridal shower as a gift and I was so excited to put it to use. The last time I made blended soup (lentil soup I think?) the blender exploded all over the kitchen and burned me and was just all around a mess. With the stick blender the soup was pureed in about thirty seconds, it was wonderful.

Usually I would serve Vichyssoise as the first course for a multi-course dinner, but it is fantastic as a meal with a piece of toast, which is what we did. At the farmer's market I bought a great garlic & Parmesan bread which when toasted is wonderful.

I had some fresh dill (which I used with the fingerling potatoes the night before) which I decided to use as garnish instead of green onions, which are the typical garnish, and the dill really added something different and tasty to the soup.

By the way, if you would like the recipe: here ya go.

Another great thing about this soup is that it could easily be done vegetarian. All you would have to do is suppliment vegetable stock for the chicken stock and I'm sure it would be just as delicious.

Now, time for the photo dump, here are a some photos I took over the course of a few months of dinners I have cooked and were especially tasty.

BLT Salad & Roasted Winter Vegetables with Cheesy Polenta

Broiled NY Strip Steak, Herb Butter Brussel Sprouts

& Herb de Provence Polenta with Pinot Noir

We decided to attempt our own version Peepshi, it was actually pretty good. We used coconut for sesame seeds & chocolate sauce thinned with milk as the soy sauce. Not something you would want to do more than once a year, but it was fun for the night.

I think I could watch Julie & Julia ten thousand times and not get tired of it. I wish I had the writing skills to do what she did (and the money, French cooking is expensive!).

Still being sick I wanted to make something for dinner tonight that would please both me and my husband who comes home from his miserably soul crushing job every night to a miserable sick wife, he deserves a good meal. Vichyssoise it is! Something that takes few ingredients, is fairly inexpensive and can be thrown together way ahead of time (in fact has to be in order to cool in time to be eaten) and will be cool and soothing on my throat.

So the leeks, onion and potatoes have been sliced, sauteed and are now simmering in chicken stock. Soon I will get out my stick blender and blend away until the combination resembles nothing close to its starting components.

Can't. Wait.

Chicken Cordon Bleu, Sauteed Asparagus & Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Dill

Last night dinner was great, but not completely my doing. I am currently feeling like complete hell, I've got a head cold and sore throat and along with that apparently comes an ear infection. I wasn't really up for creating something elaborate, so I resorted to help from the meat market.


The photos I took are from my phone, I couldn't find my camera, they will be better from now on.

Here are the chicken breasts cooking in my toaster oven (the greatest invention ever!). I use the toaster oven for things like chicken breasts and pork chops when I don't want to heat up the whole apartment.




The fingerling potatoes with butter and dill cooking.





The asparagus cooking.




The completed plate.



Everything was delicious. The asparagus cooked down a bit more than I had wanted, but it tasted awesome. The chicken cordon bleu (which was pre-stuffed at the market) was tasty, a bit too salty but still really good. The crispy cheese bits that oozed out while cooking were the best part. Lastly the potatoes were delicious! Turns out fresh dill compliments fingerling potatoes and butter extremely well, I will definitely be making those potatoes again as soon as I can get away with it. YUM!

Who I am. Who am I?

I have no schooling in cooking (well, except for that year of home economics that I took in Junior High) and the only real life training I have is cooking for my family and a 4 month stint as a pizza maker. Even so; I love to cook and I especially love to eat what I cook (usually).

I have worked at a gourmet grocery store/meat market, where I helped customers at the meat counter. While I was working at the meat market I learned a lot about food, meat especially. I know what fresh cuts of meat look like as well as what some stores do to make not-so-fresh meat look fresh. I learned what a good steak looks like raw as well as what to, or rather what not to do, when flavoring a steak.

My husband and I have a packed kitchen with more utensils and cooking tools than can fit into our small apartment kitchen, but most are used on a regular basis (including our new food mill which has already been used twice since my bridal shower).

I try to cook something out of my regular repertoire at least once a week... which sometimes means the only meal I cook for the week is something new.

I have started this blog because I have decided to challenge myself. With the use of our weekly farmers market in town and the local meat market I am going to attempt cooking creatively and deliciously on a newlyweds budget (aka; tiny). So lovely world, you who are reading this (which very likely could just be me) hold me to it: at least one meal a week that challenges me.

Please, feel free to offer me ideas because lord know there are only so many ideas in this head...