Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Beat Goes On

La-dee-da-dee-dee, la-dee-da-dee-da. I'm still working on Spring Has Come, but you can see I'm getting close to the end. I'm holding off on filling in the house for now. It's supposed to be white but I'm considering going with something that will add a little more color to the piece. Besides, I'll go cross-eyed trying to stitch white on white and end up in bed with a migraine for two days while they uncross!

Last night's dinner was homemade pizza. Food pictures have always been a challenge for me, but Phil got me a fancy pants camera for Christmas and I think I'm getting better results with it. My son was the 'photog of record' for this one here. He was also the executive pizza maker so I had a night off from kitchen duties. Woohoo!

Looks like today is going to be a errand running, taking care of business kind of day. We have rain in the forecast so I'm hoping it holds off until I'm back home and safely tucked into my stitching chair. I love a good storm as long as I don't have to be out in it!

Thanks for popping in to visit! It was great seein' ya!

Friday, December 23, 2011

White Chicken Chili

Ah yes! Another post about food! But 'tis the season to eat, drink, and be merry and, by gum, I plan to do all three!

At the risk of repeating myself I have to say this stuff is gooo-oood! My sister-in-law, Tammey, introduced me to white chili a couple of years ago and, well, it had me at hello. Our "go to" recipe comes from Cook's Country magazine, and we pretty much follow it verbatim except for substituting chicken breasts for the thighs. I have an extremely low tolerance for dark meat chicken. We also leave out the fresh cilantro which I have an even lower tolerance for after having a job that required me to chop mountains of the stuff. One whiff of cilantro and I'm on the floor in a fetal position sucking my thumb. Luckily I don't have the same reaction to the dried, flakey variety so we use that instead. Now, this recipe has a secret ingredient that really sets it apart from any other recipe we tried: a can of white hominy, drained, rinsed, and pureed. It smells gross (oh ye of the sensitive nose) and pureed beans look exactly how you'd think they'd look (ick!), but it really does add a lot of flavor and helps to thicken the chili. Plus it's easy to deal with the hominy when the recipe also includes this:

Four chopped jalapenos! Hoo doggie! These bad boys should come with a warning label: Do not touch any part of your body for 24 hours after handling! No amount of hand washing seems to help, either. You just have to let it wear off.

Anyhoosie, if you're tired of the same ol' same ol' and want to mix it up a bit, give this white chicken chili a try! The recipe can be found online right here:

White Chicken Chili

Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Roti

I had a request from Staci for our flatbread recipe so today's blog post is brought to you by my son, Evan. Enjoy!

This is a recipe for Indian-style flat-bread called roti. roti is a lot like naan, however roti is chemically leavened and naan is leavened with yeast. This makes roti much quicker to get on the table, however some time should still be set aside and work out your schedule before starting your meal.

Ingredients:


12 & 3/4 ounces (3 cups) unbleached, all-purpose flour (if you have a kitchen scale USE IT! it's much more accurate and efficient than measuring flour by volume)

1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. vegetable oil

6 to 8 ounces (3/4 to 1 cup) water (start at 6 ounces and work your way up to achieve a proper dough consistency)


-In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add oil and water. mix on low using dough hook, or by hand with a wooden spoon or your bare hands to create a soft, but not sticky dough, adding water as needed (your dough will feel dry and be crumbly if you need more water.)

Crumbly:

Good:

-Let dough rest for 30 minutes, then cut into 8 equal pieces (scale helps again here too) and cover with a clean towel and let rest again for 5 minutes (don't skip this part, it allows the dough to relax so it rolls out easier)


-Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat. Meanwhile, roll the dough balls out into 6-8 inch circles (helps to have a helper do this while you cook the roti... but that's just me)


Brush or spray griddle or skillet with oil (brush dough with oil too if desired) then place roti on the griddle or skillet and cook until the top begins to blister.


Flip and cook roughly one minute more, then remove to plate. Repeat with remaining dough.


(Don't take these instructions at face value, you may need to play with the heat or cook the roti a little shorter. It doesn't take long, and may be better to just go by sight. nice dark spots and a bumpy blistered texture are what you're going for.)


I like to have my roti with curry, but they're also very good for sandwiches too. The roti will stay warm if stacked on a plate and tented with foil for about 30 minutes, but they can be kept in a warm oven too, and re-heat in the microwave nicely. You're lucky if they make it to the table at all though, I'm always catching myself tearing off bits and snacking as the remaining ones cook.

And that's lunch!


Thank you, Evan, for being my very first guest blogger! I hope you all enjoyed his recipe and give it a try sometime soon!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Sigh Heard 'Round the World

I thought I'd made some decent progress on Season Of Plenty tonight. And then I realized I'd used the wrong color green for the top part. Siiiiigggghhh! I sat there for a good 15 minutes contemplating ripping it all out and re-stitching it, but ultimately decided no one would ever know. Until I posted it on my blog of course, but then I know you guys will never tell, right? Mum's the word!

Daughter Sarah came for dinner and a movie tonight, so son Evan whipped up a delicious chicken curry. I'm glad he has the patience to follow one of those multi-stage recipes, otherwise we'd be eating one dish casseroles every night. He even made flatbread which I had to eat hot out of pan to the point where I was burning my fingers, but I swear that's when it's best!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Dinner Time

We pulled out our copy of America's Best Lost Recipes and made runsas for dinner tonight. It's a slightly sweet bun stuffed with a filling made of beef, cabbage, and onions. Not much to 'em but, boy, are they delicious. I doused mine with brown gravy because I do find them to be a little on the dry side and, hey, any excuse for gravy is a good one!

Monday, November 08, 2010

Hot Diggity Dog

I've been obsessing about the Tex-Mex foot longs they have at Sonic, but that monster weighs in with a little more fat, calories, and sodium than I feel I should consume in one sitting. So I did the next best thing and made my own abbreviated version. It was quite delicious, and I didn't end up in the emergency room.

I've been busy working on Pumpkin Patch so I'll have a progress picture to share tomorrow.

Goodnight!