My life in the kitchen ...

Where Have I Been?

2006-10-23T01:20:00.000-04:00

Without my camera, that's where!! :( A couple of weeks ago, I dropped my precious Canon and it's off now being repaired. I don't know when I'll get it back, but I hope it's soon. I can't stand not being able to take pictures regularly!

Pumpkin Seeds

2006-10-09T23:45:00.000-04:00

I roasted seeds from 4 medium-sized pumpkins this weekend and they came out quite good! I found all of these recipes for the seeds online, but I decided to go the simple route. I lightly coated them with olive oil, sprinkled salt on them and let 'em bake. They were a hit!

Spinach and Artichoke dip

2006-10-07T10:04:00.000-04:00

I love Spinach and Artichoke dips! I used to go to restaurants just to eat some whenever I craved it. I always thought it would be too much of a hassle to make, but I finally decided to find out how to make it so I wouldn't have to go out and pay big bucks for it at some overrated chain restauarant.

This recipe from Kraftfoods.com is the best one I've found so far. I was surprised at how easy it is to make. Why didn't I get the recipe sooner? The only different thing I do is use real minced garlic rather than garlic powder. The crappy thing about this recipe is that the finished dip is such a small amount (for my family)! We eat it too quickly. Next time, I definitely have to double the recipe. Mine doesn't look as pretty as the one on the Kraft website looks, but it still tastes good!

I noticed that on the website, someone gave the recipe 1 star. I have to disagree with that person. Although, we do love spinach and cheese around here, so too much spinach is never a bad thing! I don't think this recipe is too thick and spinachy though. It's perfect.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2006-10-04T11:08:00.000-04:00

The Joy of Cooking is my favorite cookbook. Someday I'm going to read it cover to cover instead of skipping around and reading a chapter at a time. I absolutely love the section in the book on baking. I've learned a lot from it. These PB cupcakes are from a recipe in the book. The frosting is awesome! The cupcakes ... they're good, but only because of the frosting. I don't know if I'd make the cupcakes again. They were easy to make though, so I don't know.

Pesto

2006-10-02T09:18:00.000-04:00

I love pesto! But not traditional pesto. Instead of basil and pine nuts, I make mine using spinach and walnuts. It's one of my favorite foods, even if it is rich and fattening.

One of these days, I'm going to make several batches of my pesto and freeze them so that when the mood strikes, I'll have pesto in an instant. Not that it's hard to make or anything. I just throw all the ingredients (a package of frozen spinach thawed and drained, garlic, olive oil, walnuts, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper) in my food processor and it's ready within minutes. I like using it on bowties or penne, rather than noodles. Roasted red bell peppers tossed in add a nice flavor.

Garlic

2006-10-01T22:36:00.000-04:00

I'm going to smell like garlic for days! But that's okay because I like garlic (and so does my husband =P). Today I prepared my monthly supply of garlic. I got about 10 bulbs of garlic, soaked them in water overnight, peeled the outer skins off of them, broke them apart, soaked the cloves in water, peeled the skins off one by one, minced them in my cheapie (but works great) food chopper and stuck the finished product flat in the freezer on a cookie sheet. Phew! It's a lot of work, but it's worth it to me to have fresh (frozen) garlic on hand anytime I need it since I use a lot of it. I don't like the stuff that comes in a jar at the grocery store. It has a funky taste to me!

Now that my garlic is frozen, I'm going to break it up in chunks and put it in a glass jar and store it in the freezer.

Watercress

2006-09-30T11:53:00.000-04:00

Watercress is one of my favorite vegetables, when prepared Korean style that is. Even though it's time consuming to make and the end product is such a small amount, I do it anyway because it tastes so good!

Here is my last batch of watercress - 2 bunches of watercress thoroughly washed and picked over.

Done - seasoned with sesame oil, garlic, salt, a little bit of soy sauce and sesame seeds.

Strawberries

2006-09-29T12:54:00.000-04:00

During the summer, we picked strawberries and they were soooo much better than store bought. Prettier too! I wish I could grow my own.

Chocolatey Goodness

2006-09-21T20:50:00.000-04:00

Chocolate cake from scratch is the most wonderful thing ever! Especially with homemade frosting. I used turbinado sugar instead of white and it was delicious! Not too sugary sweet, but still sweet. And moist and so good. I want to make another cake now, but I don't know which kind to make next.

Making a cake from scratch isn't that hard. Boxed cake mix is convenient, sure. But you still need to add several ingredients, so it's not that much more convenient. I don't think I'll ever use boxed cake mix again. The taste between the two just can't compare!

Hello!

2006-09-19T00:56:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry for the lack of recent posts. I feel like I have a zillion pictures of my food to share, but haven't gotten to it yet. I promise to do it soon.

Stay tuned!

Vegetarian Chili

2006-09-12T23:45:00.000-04:00

Vegetarian Chili with all the "fixins" as they say in North Carolina.

This was made with Fantastic Foods Vegetarian Chili Mix. It's not my favorite vegetarian chili, but it's still good. We eat it on top of plain white rice. One of these days, I'm going to get around to making veggie chili from scratch and not from a box!

Back!

2006-09-06T19:55:00.000-04:00

We had a great Labor Day weekend. My father in-law returned from Iraq and I made a cake for him (my daughter did the letters). It was so good! I should make cakes more often!

Going out of town

2006-09-01T15:55:00.000-04:00

We're going out of town for the long weekend, so here are some pictures from my food set on Flickr. I've randomly chosen these photos to share the kinds of food I've been making over the past year. Some are newly tried recipes, some are staples, some are experiments that I wasn't sure would come out but did. One thing is for sure though, I'm obssessed with taking pictures of food!

Lasagna Pot Pie:

Made with Smart Ground. I love this stuff!

Pocket sandwiches made with the Pampered Chef Cut N' Seal:

The Cut N' Seal is a marvelous invention! My daughter loves it when she gets these sandwiches for lunch. I just wish it was a wee bit bigger.

Salad:

We love salads! I prefer them simple - romaine lettuce, cucumbers and sometimes red onions.

Stir Fried Coconut Peanut Tofu:

Teriyaki flavored Edamame:

Vegetable Sushi:

Egg Salad Sandwich:

Fried Rice:

Vegetable Curry and Rice:

This is the Japanese style.

Yogurt, granola and freshly picked strawberries:

Meatless Sloppy Joes:

So how's that for variety? :p Lots more to come!

Spicy Tofu

2006-08-29T23:40:00.000-04:00

Dinner tonight was GOOD! We had leftover soup from last night, a variety of Korean sides and this spicy tofu and sesame potatoes.

The spicy tofu was marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, red pepper paste, a tiny bit of ginger and rice vinegar. Then I sauteed it.

The potatoes were sauteed in a little bit of vegetable oil. When they were soft, I added soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar and sesame seeds.

I could eat like this every night!

Dinner tonight

2006-08-29T01:00:00.000-04:00

We could eat this kind of food every night, but we don't because I like experimenting and trying recipes out. We eat this way at least 3x a week. We have our rice, kimchi and various veggies and a main dish. Tonight it was denjang soup. It's basically made with Korean soybean paste and water and any veggies you want to add. I put potatoes, zucchini, garlic and green bell pepper in mine tonight, along with some red pepper paste for a little spice. It was sooooo good! And there's enough leftover for lunch tomorrow!

Smarter Fettuccine Alfredo

2006-08-27T22:53:00.000-04:00

I love the Kraft Foods website. There are so many good recipes there! And they're easily modifiable, always a plus with me since I don't like following directions. heh

Anyway, there's a Fettucine Alfredo recipe on the website that lots of people I know rave about, so I had to try it for myself.

The main ingredients are chicken broth and cream cheese and I was surprised at how GOOD it was! It tasted almost like traditional Alfredo. It was a big hit around here.

I didn't follow the recipe exactly how it's found on the website. I doubled everything, added more black pepper than what the recipe calls for, used a little more parmesan than called for and used real garlic. I also added a little bit more flour because I like a thicker sauce.

Asparagus Lemon Pepper pasta

2006-08-26T20:52:00.000-04:00

From the same Betty Crocker cookbook, I made Asparagus Lemon Pepper pasta. From the picture in the book, it looked really tasty. The recipe sounded interesting too.

I got all of the ingredients ready:

It smelled really good while it cooked:

And it looked so pretty!

But we give it a thumbs down. I didn't double this recipe and I used the exact measurements for everything (I tend to not follow those) and the lemon overpowered everything. The navy beans were just weird. I think if I were to make this again, I'd omit the beans, cut out the lemon juice and add more pepper.

But with the price of asparagus, this recipe wasn't good enough to spend another $4 on a pound of asparagus. The asparagus was the best part too!

Oh well, that's the whole point of experimenting, right?

Southwestern Fettucine Bowl

2006-08-24T23:51:00.000-04:00

Bowl? I have no idea why it's called a bowl when it's oviously just a pasta dish. This one is from a Betty Crocker vegetarian cookbook and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite cookbooks. So far all but one recipe from this book has turned out really well, including this Southwestern Fettucine pasta (I can't use the word bowl when describing this recipe anymore).

I've noticed that in this cookbook though, all of the portions are small. That doesn't work well for my family of foodies, so I've been doubling all of the recipes.

I'd post the recipe, but I've gotta research copyright violations and all that jazz. I'll do it sometime when I'm not feeling too lazy.

This recipe definitely got a thumbs up tonight! And I'll most likely make it again.

Yummy, healthy ...

2006-08-23T22:50:00.000-04:00

and easy to make! I used to make these 10 grain muffins all the time a few years ago. Then we moved here to North Carolina, to a town with limited choices in health food items. The selection seems to be growing now, and there are a lot more options than there were when we moved here more than a year ago. Lots of regular grocery stores carry health food items now, which makes me happy ... although I still like going to Whole Foods (1.5 hours away) every once in awhile!

Today I discovered a small health food shop of sorts and they had a whole bunch of Bob's Red Mill items including my favorite, the 10 Grain cereal mix which I ended up using for the muffins rather than eating as a cereal. Oh how I've missed these muffins!

Kimchi

2006-08-22T21:52:00.000-04:00

We're (half) Korean so we looooove our kimchi! My mother left my life at an early age so everything I know about making Korean food, I learned from my Grandma and Mother in-law. They've taught me well, but I'm still learning.

I made turnip/daikon kimchi today, also known as gaktugi. It's basically made the same way cabbage kimchi is made. There are soooo many ways to make kimchi that I couldn't post a recipe here. Everyone likes their's a certain way. It's all trial and error in my experience.

I took pictures of each step today.

First, I washed and peeled this large daikon.

Then I cut it up into cubes.

Next, I salted the cubes (and added a bit of sugar so it wouldn't smell so stinky while it sat) and let it sit for a couple of hours while I went out. It doesn't need to sit that long, but it doesn't hurt if it does.

After that, I rinsed all the salt off really well.

I made the base sauce out of sweet rice flour and water. Then I added garlic, salt, sugar, sesame seeds, crushed walnuts and red pepper flakes.

I added the sauce mixture to the cubed turnips and put some chopped green onions in it.

I put on some plastic gloves and mixed it up really well.

I put it in a jar, covered the opening with saran wrap, closed it tightly and done!

I'm going to let it sit in my sink for the next day or two because it'll probably leak and then it'll go into the fridge for a couple of weeks while we finish our current jar of kimchi.

No, it's not one sandwich ...

2006-08-21T13:57:00.000-04:00

We're going to the pool today and I put some sandwiches together to take with us so we don't end up spending money on junk food. We loooove sandwiches. There's something here for everyone: pastrami, turkey, chicken and veggie.

Nothing fancy about them. It's organic bread, mayo, lettuce, tomato and swiss or sharp cheddar cheese (we love cheese). I was going to add sun-dried tomatoes and leftover carrots from last night to the veggie sandwich, but that would have taken a little more time and I'd rather spend more time at the pool!

Pizza

2006-08-20T12:47:00.000-04:00

Last night was pizza night. My favorite one to make is the Pampered Chef Garden Ranch pizza . Since I've made it so many times now, I've modified the recipe to suit my tastes. Like, I use about 2/3 cup of mayo instead of the 1/2 cup the recipe calls for because the ranch powder is way overpowering with just 1/2 cup. I also use at least 4 cloves of garlic since we love garlic around here. I don't chop the veggies the way the recipe says, I omit the olives, I use a premade packaged (thin) pizza crust rather than the refrigerated dough, I don't measure how much cheese I'm using ... but it always comes out so yummy!

Since I had an extra crust leftover, I wanted to make something for the meateaters of the house and it was an experiment indeed. Barbecue sauce was suggested as the pizza sauce. Then I chopped up some bacon, tomatoes and hotdogs and added all of that. Covered it with cheddar cheese and put it in the oven.

It sounds like a weird combo, but it actually recieved good reviews. The only thing I could have done different was use a thicker BBQ sauce, as the one I used was too runny. But I didn't have any thick sauce on hand! Next time I know though ...

McD's

2006-08-19T10:46:00.000-04:00

First of all, I'm a vegetarian. It's not for health or ethical reasons or anything like that. Those are just perks. I've always hated meat. It grosses me out and I can't stand the texture of it in my mouth. Especially when I used to get those rubbery pieces of fat. ::shudder:: I was forced to eat it as a kid a lot of the time, and then as I got older, I got sneakier and could hide it in napkins and other stuff (like spitting it across the room when no one was looking and going to clean it up in the middle of the night before anyone caught it).

I'm the only vegetarian in my family, but they all seem to like my meat-free meals (most of the time). I have no problems cooking meat when it's available (like when grandma sends home buttloads of frozen precooked meat) or the occasional hotdog, but I won't eat it. And since I don't eat meat for all the reasons most people don't, I can handle eating foods that have touched meat, or meat soup stocks no problem. The taste of meat sometimes is okay, just not the meat itself. I even like some meat substitutions (more on that later).

We don't eat much fast food. I had to cut it out because it's expensive, plus I like to cook. But last weekend, we were out and everyone was hungry so we went to a McDonald's. I do like McD's french fries (dipped in their honey mustard) and whenever I go there needing something filling, I order a hamburger happy meal. Then I take the hamburger, remove the beef and put a layer or two of french fries down. It becomes a "french fry" sandwich. And it's surprisingly good! Lots of carbs though ...

We get to eat McD's again soon because they're going to have Mario Bros toys in their happy meals and we're suckers for Mario around here.

First Post!

2006-08-18T14:45:00.000-04:00

I love food. I love to cook it, experiment with it, eat it, take pictures of it ... so this blog is dedicated to food.

I don't really know what direction I'm going to go with this blog (recipes? food talk? reviews? all of the above?) so for now, I'm going to post whatever I feel like posting! As long as it relates to food, of course. Or not.