Whatever will I do with all these mashed potatoes?

Come on! I can't be the only person who has ever looked in my fridge and thought this. Really? Actually, I think this came from a combination of me looking for something to have with our eggs one morning and something I recalled hearing/seeing on Food Network. I have been making these for so long now that I don't even remember where the idea officially came from.

So what is my great idea, you ask? Potato pancakes! Who doesn't love a good potato pancake? But they are so much work for a lazy weekend morning. What, with all that potato shredding and pancake forming and frying. Just like a proper child of my generation, I love a good shortcut as much as the next girl) and this, my friends, is where the mashed potatoes from last night's dinner come in. I love this quick side dish so much, I have been known to make mashed potatoes for the sole purpose of making potato pancakes. Instant potatoes, of course. I AM a product of the 70s and 80s after all. Just like hash browns but faster :-)

This is one of the easiest and most difficult recipes all rolled into one. It's easy in the fact that you take leftover mashed potatoes, spoon them into a pan and cook them like pancakes. Seriously, it's as easy as that. A small hint: spray the side that is up with Pam spray. You will need to flatten the pancakes down a little once they start to soften and the Pam will help them to not stick to the spatula. If you want to season them up, try sprinkling a little parmesan and oregano on them. This makes them really good for a lunch or dinner side dish.

This is when it gets tricky. If you make the mashed potatoes specifically for this purpose, make them a little tighter than you might normally for eating. If you are using leftovers, keep in mind that when they get hot, they will loosen up. LEAVE THEM ALONE ONCE YOU PUT THEM ON THE PAN!!!!! Remember, I am here to make the mistakes and learn the lessons so you don't have to. I have made this mistake too. If you try too soon, you will not be able to turn them. Let the crust build up on the side that is down since this will help you turn them. You might also want to use a veeeerrrrry flexible spatula. The one I used was not very flexible and I needed to use a butter knife to help me. This is an option, of course, but since I like any excuse to buy more kitchen stuff, I think I need the new super-flexible Rachael Ray spatula. This one:
Also keep in mind that when you first take them out of the pan, the pancakes will be a little loose. Never fear. When they sit on the plate for a little but, they will tighten up and be more manageable. That being said, you might want to cook them early and let them sit for a while before serving them so that you can get them from the serving plate to the eating plate. Unless of course you like torturing your guests or laughing at them while they fight with their food. If that is your thing, feel free to try to serve the pancakes right out of the pan. It's ok, I won't judge. Promise.

And just like vodka, these potato pancakes are not just for breakfast. Yes, I am kidding, we never drink vodka before noon. But I am serious about the potato pancakes. They are a good side dish for any meal.

why you shouldn't let facebook interfere with your cooking

If you read my grilled cheese post, you will see that I said you don't need to leave the sandwich cooking for very long. Well, in case you didn't read it or didn't understand the consequences of leaving the sandwich on for just a shade too long, this is the result of about an extra 30-60 seconds of cooking:

Seriously, this happened in the time it took me to walk to my computer, comment on someone's status (a brief comment even, not one of my standard diatribes) and walk back to the stove - and the stove wasn't even on medium, it was just a little shy of medium (on the lower side). My house isn't that big. I can get from the computer to the stove in about 10 steps - not even big ones, just normal steps. So please heed my warning. Just like drinking & driving or driving and texting, or even drinking and texting for that matter, cooking and Facebooking just don't mix.

Again, I am here to learn all the lessons the hard way so that you don't have to...

delish.com, i love you!!!

I must confess, the majority of the foods I make start out as a recipe I find somewhere and then completely bastardize. I recently bought Light & Delish: 400 Calories or Less! because when I looked through it, there were some good sounding recipes. If you want some good recipes, I recommend picking this magazine up (the label says "display until April 30, 2010, so there is still time to get one if you want). Well worth every penny. But then again, you can also find the recipes on www.delish.com so you could always find them there...for free...

Last night was Chicken Bolognese. I wasn't planning to make it, but I found the perciatelli pasta that hubby wanted and decided to pick up the rest of the ingredients. He was a very happy guy when he got home yesterday and saw what I made. Unlike my usual manner of cooking, I followed the recipe pretty closely (except for the fact that I did cook the sauce a little longer than the recipe calls for since I was waiting for hubby to get home before I put on the finishing touches). SInce I followed the recipe, I will save myself some typing time (also, since I didn't take pictures, there are photos of it here). Here is a link to the recipe: http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/chicken-bolognese-pasta-recipes?click=recipe_sr The only change I made is that I used perciatelli instead of linguine (it looks like really big spaghetti). And I didn't use freshly grated parmesan because I was feeling lazy...and because hubby is strange and likes the stuff in the jar better anyways (yeah, he's weird like that).

Tonight, I made Poblano Corn Chowder with Grilled Shellfish: http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/poblano-corn-chowder-grilled-shellfish-rbk0208?click=recipe_sr but this time, I did make some changes.

If you compare the image on the recipe page with this one, you will notice that my shellfish (shrimp & scallops) are not grilled. This is because 1) I did not want to deal with the grill and 2) I have yet to really figure out how to work the broiler on my stove. Because of this. I changed how I added the seasoning. Instead of brushing it on, I put the shellfish in a pan and poured the mixture over it. I stirred it around to get all the meat covered and then stirred it around every few minutes while I was preparing the chowder. When it came time to cook the shellfish, I cooked it in a cast iron skillet. The recipe says grill for 2 min each side, but it definitely took longer than 4 mins in the pan. The shrimp were already cooked, so they were quick. The scallops were a different story since I am not so good with scallops. I just cooked them till they looked done and then relied on my meat thermometer to tell me that they were plenty hot enough. I took the shellfish out of the marinade when I put it in the pan so I had marinade left over and didn't want it to go to waste. When I was done with the shellfish, there was a little browned marinade in the pan, so I decided to experiment with deglazing the pan to make a roux with the rest of the marinade. I poured it into the pan, scraped up the brown bits (see, I DO learn from watching Rachael Ray) and reduced the sauce. When it was thickened to my liking, I poured in over the shellfish (which, I should have mentioned, were in a bowl at this point) and mixed it up. I think this was a very good addition to the dish.

I made the chowder pretty much according to the recipe, so there is nothing to tell on this.

My only real "addition" to the meal was fat free refried beans and this is only because I love refried beans so I will have them any chance I get.

I completely intended to make something for dessert too, but I didn't get around to it. It's a good thing too, since we were so stuffed after dinner that there was no room for dessert...

I make a mean grilled cheese

and i am modest too...

The grilled cheese sandwich, a favorite of kids and currently maligned by the new Carl's Jr. ad. Apparently, the ad people for Carl's Jr. think that grilled cheese sandwiches are just for kids and adults will be made fun of if they order it, unless they order the new Grilled Cheese Bacon Six Dollar Burger...with 990 calories, 610 of which are fat calories (69 fat, 28 saturated fat!!!). Seriously! If you don't believe me, here is the link: http://www.carlsjr.com/menu, you can check it out for yourself. No thank you Carl's Jr. people. I will stick with my old fashioned grilled cheese. Maybe it's just me, but when I see the ad, I don't start craving the burger, I actually start craving a grilled cheese. Maybe it's just because this is one of my favorite sandwiches (right up there with PB&B - peanut butter and banana). If I want to add something, it will be tomato, ketchup (yes! don't knock it til you try it) or egg (as I did this morning).

And while the grilled cheese seems easy (which, relatively, it is) and something to be made fun of, it really does take some work to get it right. It's not a cold cut sandwich. You can't just slap some cheese on bread and throw it in the pan. It takes some work if you want a really good grilled cheese. One that looks like this one:

Hint #1: Whatever you do, do not, and I mean DO NOT, use fat free cheese. it does NOT melt well - trust me on this. All you will get is a big old mess in the pan and very little cheese on your bread.

Hint #2: Someone taught me one time that the key to a good grilled cheese is to get the butter on every bit of the bread before you put it in the pan. And this is true. I made a whole lot of mediocre grilled cheese sandwiches before I learned this.

Hint #3: Temperature matters too. You don't want it too high so that you burn the outside of the bread while the cheese doesn't even melt. You can't rush good food and a grilled cheese is no different. I cook on a gas stove, which REALLY takes a lot of getting used to. But you want to get the pan heated up before you put the food in it. I cook on medium or just a little lower. And, since I had egg on the sandwich, the pan was nice and warm. Have all your supplies ready before you put the 1st thing in the pan. This will ensure you don't have any delays that cause your sandwich to overcook.

A little spray of Pam spray and you are ready. The rest is pretty easy - layer it in the pan like so: bread, butter side down, cheese, egg or whatever else you are putting on there (cook the egg 1st), more cheese, bread, butter side up. LEAVE THE SANDWICH ALONE TO COOK! let the bread toast for about a minute or so. then very gingerly lift up the corner to see if the color is what you want. if not, let it go a little longer. then flip and repeat the toasty/melty part. i have found that the best guide of when the bread is ready to my liking is when the cheese is just melted. But this is something that is personal preference, so you will have to find your guide. Who knows, maybe you really like a blackened grilled cheese and the sign it is done is smoke and, perhaps, flames coming out of the pan. But since I have probably never made you a grilled cheese, or seen how you like them, I don't know. It's up to you.

Valentine's Day Dinner

Maybe this post should be called "Confessions of a formerly super picky eater (now just a kind of picky eater).

Instead of cooking at home like we originally planned to do, we decided it would be more fun to let someone else do the cooking for once (of course, this doesn't come without a cost, but it was sooooo worth it). I say this like we never eat out, but we do...a lot. I have learned that having a planned out to eat night every 2 weeks or so really helps keep me on my 'A' game when it comes to eating the other 13 days. Of course, my birthday will mess this plan up this week as it means that we eat out again on Saturday, but that's ok, how many birthdays do I have a year? But I digress. Back to Valentine's Day. I only wish I had thought to take some pictures of what we had for our Valentine's dinner .

Many, many praises to Stables Restaurant at Tubac Golf Resort (http://www.tubacgolfresort.com/ ). They offered a 4-course, prix fixe meal that was absolutely spectacular and worth every penny we paid. The appetizer, salad and dessert were more "samples" of flavor but it was done very well as we didn't have anything left over at the end of the meal and were just the right amount of full. I saw a lot of people leaving with to-go boxes, but we prepared for this feast and only had breakfast (egg, cheese & veggie sausage wraps if you really want to know) and played an hour or so of tennis in the afternoon. So we had plenty of room...and nothing went to waste. I darn near licked the plate clean!

The appetizer was the most...um...interesting part of the meal as it really took a lot of guts for a picky eater like me. The crab cake was easy since I love me some crab cakes and, honestly, I could have eaten an entire plate of these. The aioli was superb and added just enough flavor. The oysters, well, they went directly to hubby's plate. I WAS being adventurous, but there are just somethings I don't like no matter what. Oysters on the half shell is one of them. But he like having 2 extras, so everyone was happy. Then we got to the beef tartare. I debated all day about how brave I would be and whether or not I would try it. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but when I saw it on the plate, it wasn't a large amount and then I reminded myself that if you give me a plate of raw fish, I will be all over it, so I really need to be fair to the cows (yes, it was beef - we are in Arizona, not France!) and give the beef tartar a shot. So I tried it, and it wasn't too bad. Would I specifically order it? Probably not. But if I am in a position where it is part of a set meal, I will have it again. I am so proud of myself. And you would be too if you knew just how picky I have been for most of my life. Seriously. I wouldn't even eat raw tomatoes until a couple of years ago. But around the time I turned 30, I realized I needed to be a little bit more adult in my eating and try things just in case my tastes had changed over the years. And guess what? They did. Yes, it took me until I was 30 to be open minded about eating. Give me a break. I am still working on it, but I AM a lot better than I used to be.

But what I am most proud of is that I, the girl who used to have trouble finishing an 8 oz. prime rib, polished off an entire 12 oz. ribeye. And oh boy was this an awesome steak. The only way I can describe the tenderness was that it was like a steak-flavored marshmallow. Yes, it was that tender. And the potatoes au gratin. Well, anyone who knows me knows that I think anything is better with cheese. Ok, almost anything...

Dessert. Well, how can you go wrong with chocolate. 'Nuff said there.

It's a good thing Valentine's Day only comes once a year...

Onion Rings

Occasionally, I get the harebrained idea to make the messiest foods I can possibly make. You other cooks know what I mean - the foods that are not messy to eat but leave your kitchen covered in flour and the floor crunchy. That was me yesterday. When I made the menu for this week, I was trying to keep it interesting and, since we have been eating SOOOO healthy lately, one of the meals I decided to make was Shake & Bake chicken (surprisingly, one of hubby's favorites) and onion rings with remoulade sauce. I should probably blame this event on Rachael Ray , since last week, she had a segment on making restaurant-tasting foods at home and onion rings were included.

Anyhow, as many of you know, I started Weight Watchers in January 2007. Along the journey to lose my weight (50 lbs in all), I decided that, as a foodie, I needed to keep my mouth happy if I was going to be successful and I set out to recreate my favorite foods in a way that they would fit in the program (or at least be a little healthier) AND satisfy my cravings. All I can say is thank God for the internet. There are a lot of recipes out there so I did my research then took that knowledge into my kitchen and experimented and came up with what works for me and my taste buds (not too worried about my husband. you remember the "mikey likes it" kid? yeah, i am pretty much married to that guy - even the name is right!). We love appetizers so occasionally we crave fried zucchini and onion rings. In our house, thanks to our lifestyle, just ground beef actually means veggie crumbles and fried actually means baked in the oven. It works - mouth is happy, weight stays down, pants still fit :-)

I have tried many many different ways to get the bread crumbs to stick to the onion rings - water, egg, milk. Last week, I watched Rachael and her segment had a new trick to try, so I did. I think her recipe called for frying the onion rings since the recipe called for vegetable shortening. But I don't really know since I stopped reading after the part I was looking for - the breading part. Any how, it seems this recipe is pretty much a batter-dipped onion ring - or at least it gets to be that way at the end when the milk turns into a milk-and-flour gloop. OK, enough chatter, you're bored with me, I know. Here is the recipe (Rachael's inspiration and my changes):

ONION RINGS
Ingredients:

• White or sweet onions (# depends on how many people you need to serve)
• Milk
• Flour
• Breadcrumbs
• Pam spray

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  
• Put milk, flour & breadcrumbs into 3 different bowls (one thing in each bowl people, they will get mixed up enough on their own during the process)
• cover a cookie sheet or baking pan with aluminum foil & spray with Pam spray
  
• Slice onion into 1/2 slices and separate the rings
• dip each ring in the following order: milk, flour, milk, flour, milk, breadcrumbs and then place in a single layer on the baking sheet
• When the baking sheet is full or all your onion rings are breaded and on said sheet, whichever comes first, place sheet in oven and bake until crunchy on the outside & soft inside (you should be able to squeeze them and they will give. be careful if you try my technique of testing by eating - they are HOT!)

I think the key here is the double flouring. At least that's what the guy on the Rachael Ray show who did it says. And I know that they definitely were crunchier than when I only did 1 dip or when I didn't use the flour at all.

REMOULADE SAUCE (for those who like it)
Ingredients:

• Mayo or Miracle Whip
• Mustard (i used horseradish mustard)
• Ketchup
• Horseradish (just a dash - that stuff is strong!! omit if you don't like this or if you use horseradish mustard)

Directions:
Unfortunately, since I don't measure anything, all of the ingredients are "to taste" except the mayo, which is the base of the sauce. Use as much of this as you think you will need sauce. Actually, use a little less since the other stuff will fill it in.

• Mix all ingredients in a bowl until you get the color and flavor you like (since I am trying to recreate Outback's remoulade sauce, this is my guide and I try to make it taste like that).
• Chill for at least 1 hour to let flavors mingle
  

lunch 2/3/10

yeah, i know it's not a really interesting title but if i tell you too much in the title, you might not read the posting. i bet you are really intrigued and dying to find out what i made for lunch today. see, there is a method to my madness.

lunch today was tostadas , or what you can do with leftovers to make them more fun. and the recipe is easy peasy!

Ingredients:

• tortillas (i used corn)
• refried beans
• taco meat (for my non-meat eating friends,veggie crumbles work well. i have used them in the past and they still make an awesome tostada)
  
• cheese
• toppings of your choice

Directions:
Toast the tortillas in the oven @ 400 degrees (give or take) until crispy (i did this on my pampered chef pizza stone for a nice crispy shell). Heat up the beans (BE CAREFUL if you do this in the micro as beans + microwave = explosion when you take it out. trust me, i learned this one the hard way) and the meat. Once the tortillas are done to your liking (keep an eye on them while they are cooking), top them with a layer of beans, a layer of meat and a layer of cheese. Pop them back in the oven for a minute or so to melt the cheese. Remove from oven and top with sour cream and/or any other toppings you might want to use. Enjoy!

Note that this is not a meal that does well when eaten at your computer while trying to update your blog. Trust me, again, this is a lesson I learned for you :-)

Now if I had only thought to buy some pudding while I was at the grocery store, i would be a happy girl...

attempt at baking

Again with the way back machine, just not so way back this time - we are only going to Christmas on this trip. I have a friend, Yvett, who puts on the most awesome theme parties. Seriously, she could make a career of organizing parties and everyone would be jealous at the people who have Yvett-planned parties. Maybe I will talk to her about this... But I digress. This was a Cookies & Cocktails party so, yep, you guessed it, I had to step out of my comfort zone and (the horror!)...bake!! It was an adventure to say the least. Besides the stomach ache I gave myself from eating all the uncooked sugar cookie dough, I learned some things about making cookies.

Like other things, I learned a lot about what not to do before I learned what to do. I decided to make linzer sandwich cookies because they looked pretty easy but still a little fancy. Apparently "easy" is a relative term. I thought it would be really cool to cut the center in nice Christmas shapes rather than boring old circles-in-circles. So I bought some really cute little cookie cutters from Michael's in fun shapes like a bell, holly leaf (not really recommended for use on this type of cookie, but more on that later), tree, angel and gingerbread man. I also decided to take the easy way out and use Pillsbury sugar cookie dough.

The first lesson was that the dough softens while you are working with it. A LOT. And this makes cutting the centers a little difficult and results in some seriously deformed gingerbread men and decapitated angels. Since I am not one for the blasphemous act of decapitating angels, it took some time to get this just right. But I persevered and they finally worked out, or so I thought...

Lesson #2 was that the cookies grow considerably while they are baking and the center cutouts close up almost completely. So then I decided that I could fix that by recutting the center when I took them out of the oven...but if you wait to long, the cookies harden a little and they don't cut very smoothly, leaving a lot of broken bits to snack on (again, not so good for the tummy ache). In some cases, they don't really cut at all and just leave a cookie cutter shaped indention in the cookie, with an oddly shaped remnant of the original cut in the center. This wouldn't normally be a huge problem but I had to take these cookies to a family party...with kids...and people my husband works with...and I initially tried this with the holly leaf. The result was a fairly vulgar cookie that was definitely NOT appropriate for family parties or people my husband works with. I am sure you can use your imagination but if you really really want to see what I am talking about, I will be more than happy to email you the picture privately (no pun intended here).

Anyways, I finally figured out that I needed to recut them and all was well and they got boxed up and taken to the party.

Here are the 2 ingredients:

• Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough
• Seedless jam (NOT preserves) in your favorite flavor - I used raspberry, blackberry & strawberry (one flavor per cookie).

Roll out the dough and cut an even number of large circles. Divide those circles into 2 groups and cut the center out of 1 group of them (leave the other group intact - these will be the bottom layer). Bake according to directions on the package (more or less). When you take the ones with the center cutout, you may need to recut them. Do this as soon as you take them out of the oven, while they are still soft. Be careful, they are hot and if you are using metal cookie cutters, they will heat them up. Trust me. I learned this lesson so that you don't have to. Once they have cooled enough to handle, spread the jam on the bottom layer and top with a cutout cookie. Enjoy with your beverage of choice...

getting in the way back machine

Since I have been delinquent in my postings, we will now have to take a trip in the way back machine to Thanksgiving. One of the traditions in our house (mainly because I am such a dork) is taking a picture of our Thanksgiving table once all the food is on it. This started our 2nd Thanksgiving together because it was the 1st time either of us had ever made a turkey. Since we didn't really know what we were doing or what to expect, we were VERY pleasantly surprised that it came out so good (trust me folks, the turkey bag is the way to go!!). I have never liked turkey in the past but I LOVE our turkey. Seriously, it is the only turkey I have ever really gotten excited about. Must be the fact that we make something that is relatively healthy a lot less healthy once we add all the "extras" to season it (you'll see what I mean if you keep reading) Anyhow, here is Thanksgiving 2009:

Here are the details of the menu:

• Turkey seasoned with olive oil, oregano and garlic and stuffed with garlic, lemon, asiago cheese, romano cheese & parmesan cheese
• Mashed sweet potatoes
• Caesar salad
• Whole berry cranberry sauce (yes, I use the canned one. maybe one year I will be brave enough to try making it from scratch. maybe this will be the year...)
• Gravy (again, jarred - from Williams-Sonoma. I have made gravy in the past but there is just never enough juice to make enough gravy so I rely on the jar)
• Crescent rolls

It was super yummy and the 18lb turkey barely made it through the weekend (and there were only 3 of us for dinner and 2 of us for the leftovers).

newly motivated

Well, since I still don't have a paying job yet (definitely not for lack of trying though), and since I noticed that 6/1 was the last time I updated this baby even though there have been A LOT of meals created and cooked since then, I decided to put my energy (energy that is otherwise spent on facebook) into keeping up my blog.

So here is my goal: Until I find a job, I will photograph and post all new meals I create.

Whether this proves to be easier said than done is another story, but I will try...