Whoa Nelly! It’s been a while hasn’t it? As life goes, on occasion, things got a bit hectic there for a bit. Usually “no news”…is dull…but “no news” is also known to be “good news”. I got a bit of news, one of those things is my Dad’s struggles with his health (insert frowny emoji here) there is really no point in going into details but for the last several years he has faced some serious setbacks. He is still here to tell about it so that in itself is pretty admirable. I think our society needs to be more open and respectful towards age related issues, add ageism to the agenda, but Dad has again dodged a bullet and I was chatting and laughing with him via telephone 10 minutes ago and I am very glad we could. My oldest child is 10! That’s a decade….a decade is a large chunk of existence….that feels like a milestone (cue the inspiring “eye of the tiger” style music) I remember folks telling me when she was a newborn “how fast it goes” and I remember in my sleep deprived mind thinking how bad I just really wanted to shower….but it is…..time goes by…before you want it to and you try to preserve a tiny little taste of the moment before you lose it. A big shoutout to instagram for helping out in that department, I ain’t much of a scrapbooker myself so digital recording helps me. Last month’s degustabox was a winner, I made that pretty pizza at the top of the page with the Boboli crust sample, and it turned out quite well. You can really barbeque chicken anything if you follow a few simple steps:
Chicken, cooked, it can be breast chunks, or thigh shreds, or ground. Just cooked in advance, about two cups worth.
½ or more cups of barbecue sauce, feel free to chose your own adventure here, I really like that I can buy Podnah’s at Freddy’s!
Smoked gouda…trust me….a few handfuls
Red onions or green onions, do you.
Cilantro good for contrast and adds a fresh element.
Bread like product, premade pizza crust, homemade pizza crust, pita, French bread, country bread, gf pizza loaf, cauliflower crust for you pinteresters!
Bacon is optional
Heat your oven to 450 degrees, top bread of choice with sauce, chicken, cheese, bacon, onions…bake 10 min or so….remove from oven and sprinkle with cilantro.
Eat!
We went to Astoria….again…I have these fantasies sometimes to escape the perils of urban living, like when I have to move a homeless camp to park or hit another pothole in traffic, I imagine what life would be like if I lived in Astoria…no one blocking my driveway! Smoked fish ery’day! BEER! But then I zip back to reality and realize that I really actually like where I am….but I do love checking out Astoria homes on Zillow! Anyway, we went to Astoria for a few days while the kids were out on Spring break and for Ava’s birthday it was awesome…well there was one steamer pail of sandy clams…but besides that it was awesome. I, of course drank great beer, ate good stuff, and had fun, but this trip I also met some “characters” you know the type, kinda chatty, but not in a creepy way, randoms that you meet at coffee shops, bowling, shopping, or at crab shacks. You don’t encounter these types often, but when you meet an authentic stranger it can really make the human part of life more inspiring…you will never see these people again, but you had an authentic conversation in that short meeting…and authentic conversations are hard to come by in the city.
One of these “characters’ was “Fast Eddie” he was the sole cook and employee on duty when we went to a crab shack on the way back to Portland. He took orders, handled the cash, cooked, and served! And while doing all this with a rather busy crab shack, he narrated stories about his life. I knew when he told me to ladle my own chowder he would a great guy to work with. He was quite “Fast” indeed and everyone was happy. As he was busing our table as we left I asked if I could take his picture and he seemed rather flattered, he posed by the door to the kitchen and was quite proud, it was inspiring and he seemed familiar to me, like the ghosts of all the cooks who were mentors in my cooking journey. Sadly, Eddie told us that he had a heart problem that was pretty serious and that he isn’t quite as fast as he used to be, but I told him he could smoke guys half his age…and he seemed pleased. My favorite line was when a guy walks in and says “What’s good?” and Eddie says “Everything is good, this is the best seafood on the coast, I fished Alaska for 35 years..what kind of question is that?” then he up sold them a plate of crab cakes……priceless.
I really like people…but sometimes I need a recharge….and changing my scenery sometimes makes what I already have show its full worth and my full admiration.
Bircher muesli
The month of love is almost done, therefore it is time to review this month’s Degustabox.
I am going to start with the recipe for my picture above. Bircher muesli is a delicious blend of yogurt and fresh fruit mixed with crispy stuff, usually coconut and oats. Invented by the Swiss I have never had a bircher muesli I didn’t like. Luckily, this month’s box included some Grace Foods coconut chips which I really liked on their own, crispy like a potato chip and just as addictive they were a great, low sugar way to add texture to my dish. I used Walker’s shortbread cookie crumbs in place of oats….these cookies are so good after the entire container was devoured by my family I had to find a use for the crumbs left in the package!
Bircher Muesli
1 cup yogurt, I used a full fat European style plain variety, but choose your own adventure here.
A handful of your favorite fresh berries or fruit of choice
A few tablespoons of Coco chips
1 Tablespoon of Walker’s shortbread cookie crumbs
A drizzle of honey
Seriously this is sooo simple and presents beautifully for guests at a brunch. Give it a go!
So I made Cincinnati style chili (recipe post to come) and topped it with a bit of the Nando’s peri-peri sauce I received, and I really enjoyed the diversity in flavor it provided in comparison to the usual sriracha or tabasco. Nando’s has really delicious citrus notes that highlighted the fruity elements of the Bird’s eye chilies in the sauce, I would use this anywhere you would use hot sauce and I would recommended it to any of the “Chili heads” out there.
I’ve always liked Jones soda, and this month we received a bottle of the “Orange and cream” variety. I tried a sip before I made the kids small Jones’ soda floats with vanilla ice cream. If I am going to give my kids soda I would pick Jones over many others because the flavors and delicious and they are made with pure cane sugar.
I have tried Popchips a few times, and I have never been a huge fan. I was really surprised by how much I loved the ones with ridges that were in our box. If I could tell the popchips folks directly, all of their products should have ridges! They make them so much tastier, and the texture is crunchy and light.
The Ricola immunity drops were great, they are packed with ginseng and they really came in handy while I had a cold.
I am yet to try the slendier noodles, but I am excited to use them in a recipe for traditional noodles. I can say my kids ate the PR bar I received before I got to taste it, but with they enjoyed it with gusto, so I am guess it is quite tasty and it is gluten-free and full protein. Last but certainly not least is the Green & Blacks dark chocolate with sea salt, the salt is the flaky variety and lends an addictive crunch to the rich, dark chocolate. Happy Cooking!
(I was given these products as a sample to review, the opinions are mine.)
Apple Strudel
Happy Lunar New year!!! The world is a strange and interesting place lately…and I must say it is odd to be alive in such a tumultuous environment. It’s hard to choose optimism and kindness for many folks who are struggling right now, but I think the only choices are.. well…optimism and kindness. I know the hip thing isn’t to be nice, but it’s the right thing. I haven’t always viewed things this way, for many being a jerk is a great way to put a wall up with others and to protect your insecurities…but in order to live authentically, this defense mechanism needs a kick to the curb. Even now when I expose my soft spots, acknowledge my hurt feelings and anxieties, I feel awkward about it, so I know it isn’t easy. As I get older I realize honest communication is actually a strength opposed to a weakness, it’s human to want others to like and accept you. Studies have shown that a sense of “community” can lengthen life span and overall happiness. I feel like my circle has shrunk considerably in the last decade, but I feel like those who are in it now are there for the long haul. We all want to be liked, but we also can’t control how others feel about us….so I figure…as my mother always told me “you will catch more flies with honey than vinegar” and I want my aura to give off kindness…GOALS! Not quite there yet….but I am done burning bridges…that’s easy to do….I want to have real, authentic relationships from now on…and I am willing to start over if the other party is willing. We all are just humans and humans are imperfect, and most things can be forgiven if both parties are willing to own their shit, it does take two to tango!
Well I made some strudel, apple strudel! My mom makes great apple pie, I used her filling recipe for the most part, but instead of pastry I used phyllo. Phyllo is great, it’s a quick and forgiving way to wrap things in buttery carbohydrates! This made quite a few, and in order to not eat them all I gave ¾ of them away to my kids teachers and some neighbors, nothing says “I appreciate you” better than apple desserts! Actually maybe fat stacks of cash are better….LOL.
Here it goes:
You will need:
6 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into chunks.
½ C. granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean split
¼ C. lemon juice
1 tsp. Cinnamon
Pinch of salt
Zest of 1 orange
Juice from same orange mixed with 2 tsp cornstarch.
Throw them apples in the pan with everything except the orange juice/cornstarch mixture. Crack your heat up to medium high, and bring apples to a simmer, cook for 10 minutes, add cornstarch mixture, stir well and reduce heat, cook an additional 10 minutes. Set aside to cool (I made mine the day before and refrigerated it).
1 box of phyllo thawed, or go crazy and make your own! Whatever you like.
2 stick of butter melted.
1 pastry brush
I used large phyllo sheets, so I had to do a bit of folding but the assembly is the same as my Tyropita recipe click here to follow see how I wrap them into triangles…basically like folding a flag!
I used about ⅓ of a cup of filling for each pie, I just made them until I ran out of filling, it made a bunch! I still have about five sheets of phyllo left, which I will use for some quick spanikopita! When you got your strudels rolled butter the tops and place on greased sheet pans. Cook in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 18 minutes until golden. One thing I may do next time is make a small slit on the top of each one before baking to release steam, a few of mine burst at the seams whilst baking. After they cooled I covered my pies in a mixture of ½ cup confectioner’s sugar and a heaping tsp of cinnamon. You can do a quick glaze if you prefer. I also cut each one in half, that is also optional.
January smanuary
I have had some writer’s block lately, I have been cooking up a storm but have been trying out other people’s recipes, I am obsessed with this recipe for Sicilian style Grandma pie I have made it twice now, and it gets you great results for making pizza at home. Slowly, I am coming out of my fog. Wow! What a month…not all bad…mostly…but not all. Portland got record breaking snowfall! So much so,that the whole city shut down for 9 days or so….and some other stuff that is all over google news happened. I would review it, but google does a superior job of it. One thing that I did enjoy and came in handy was this months Degustabox, in fact I liked it so I couldn’t pick a favorite, I had several, the Cello whips were one of them for sure, I opened the bag and had few, and then hid it to save for our dinner later that night, I made this ribollita recipe and wanted to top them with the crispy, pure Parmesan snacks, when I went to grab them, I found an empty bags and a trail of crumbs leading to my kindergartner’s room, so stamp of approval on that with kids as well. The “Prince of Peace” ginger honey crystals were an unexpected favorite (I would’ve added a website but I didn’t find one for the company, just where to buy it). I work with a lot of ginger at work, and find the medicinal qualities of it fascinating. These crystal make a hot beverage that I found quite addictive, they had the perfect amount of sweetness, and were perfect for making a twist on the classic hot toddy. The kids loved the Jolly time popcorn,both the Go Organically and Welch’s fruit n’ yogurt varieties of fruits snacks, but I was quite surprised by how much we all liked the HungryJack pumpkin pancake mix all you add is water and mix them up. We topped ours many ways, but the favorite was jam, bananas, and a sprinkle of powdered sugar! Sometimes a bit of convenience is a good thing especially when you are snowed in!
Rog’s garlic cheese bread
I sometimes suffer from random insomnia, I will go to sleep at a reasonable hour but wake up at 3am and be flooded by memories from my life. This happened to me recently and I decided then I would need to blog this “recipe”, not because it is difficult, fancy, or exciting, but because it was there as a comfort in a formative period in my life. Continue reading “Rog’s garlic cheese bread”
Frosty the cupcake
How is everyone enjoying “The most wonderful time of the year”? I will tell ya, I’m not quite as “bah humbug” as a week ago, but I also will be relieved when the “holidaze” is over! Last week we got snowed in, well more like “ice rinked” in. Walking to the car took the skill of a young Tonya Harding….ok that may be slightly exaggerated…but it was slippery! My December Degustabox had so much great stuff for being snowed in that it really came in handy. The Pillsbury Purely Simple cake and frosting mix is what I would like to review today. I was super impressed with these as a convenience product they use milk, eggs, and real butter instead of the usual water and oil, and the frosting mix comes dry and you add the milk and butter yourself. I really do think these turn out more like homemade then any other cake mix I have used. I subbed in eggnog for milk in both and the family loved them. It makes 24 cupcakes, but I used four of my cupcakes to make the snowman cake truffles for the top. I got the idea from Christina Tossi of Milk Bar, all you do is crush your cooled cupcakes into crumbs and add 1/4 cup of frosting, mix together to form a thick paste, shape into snowman sized balls, roll in coconut and assemble. You can choose your own adventure here and shape them into whatever you would like, if it seems dry add a bit more frosting. Once your snowmen are assembled, frost the cooled cakes, and put a snowman on each, I used sprinkles for eyes, mini chocolate chips for buttons, and pretzels for arms, but this is all open to creative expression. I let the kids decorate their own and to be honest it was a really fun activity and they were as tasty as some homemade cakes I have made.
Making holiday memories isn’t always easy for me, I get caught up in schedules and practicality, but I am sure the kids won’t remember how clean the floors were or how organized the laundry is…they will remember Frosty the cupcake and the fun snow day that we had. I hope your holidays are wonderful, I know things aren’t easy for anyone right now and the future seems uncertain. I struggle everyday with my anxious feelings but sometimes I have to breath deep and take each moment at a time, focus on really living and being present with the kids…..I fail at times…daily….but sometimes I feel it and my heart melts and I remember why the struggle is necessary to really understand the good stuff. This day was a good one, and I hope I can inspire you to create your own memories, not about being photogenic or perfect but to feel that warmth and joy that comes with letting go and being present. Feliz navidad.
V. Tacos and the Special sauce
Let’s just skip over the election shall we? Yeah had enough of that on Ye olde’ Facebook feed. But just to not be without a bit of snark….today I made tacos! VEGAN TACOS! I gotta try and preach some plant based love, I feel like anyway I can take the edge off the heat of the world I should. I’m an omnivore, I am not trying to say different, but there is really no reason I shouldn’t be focusing on plant based recipes….really good ones, I think that its the way the world has to go to sustain life. I have kids, and “footprint” guilt, I want them to be better than me…so I need to do what I can by making plant based eating a normal option for dinner at least 50% of the time. Continue reading “V. Tacos and the Special sauce”
Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey recipes that are anything but boring!
I bought a 20 pound turkey, and cooked it recently just to explore ways to utilize holiday leftovers without getting bored. I remember as a kid getting so burnt out on the microwave heated plates of Thanksgiving spread we would eat for the week after. The stuffing was half cold and mushy, the gravy congealed, the green bean casserole a hot mess, the clumpy taters had seen better days and all of it topped off with a helping of chalky leftover turkey meat. My mother never let us waste an ounce of the meal she would prepare, and I love her for it, but I do recall wishing for another way to eat the turkey…of course there is Turkey soup which I discuss at the bottom of that post about the turkey my mother always made, which is the recipe I used, but I wanted to explore other ways. Continue reading “Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey recipes that are anything but boring!”
Roasted cauliflower soup with bacon and white cheddar
Wow, October is officially donzo! I can’t say I am sad about that, I love Halloween but the lead up, execution, and clean up tend to be exhaustive. I think I figured out the rub with the holidays….especially the three month gauntlet we Americanos love to prioritize….its the expectations. Whether it be from the kids, extended family, or friends, it is inevitable that failure will occur within one of those facets. With age comes social intelligence (well it should at least, I know a few special exceptions..ugh), and with social intelligence comes self preservation. “Pick your battles” is finally a concept I utilize now, and realizing that I feel that my priorities are more substantial, people that cause you drama are doing it for themselves….don’t fall victim to it! All we have is our time, use it to do things you love, we inevitably end up in the same humble position so choose your poison wisely and drink it in small doses. Continue reading “Roasted cauliflower soup with bacon and white cheddar”
Corpsy McCalzone the Zombie you can eat!
It’s that time of year again folks….HALLOWEEN!!! Some of you may recall one of my early posts Mummy Calzone, probably my most viewed post ever, I still find it hilarious. As I “ROLL OUT” (in the style of Ludacris) my new site, I figured it was time to add to my creepy food fetish with a Zombie friend. I made the Roberta’s Pizza dough recipe but instead of regular water I boiled a cup of water and added two handfuls of chopped kale, and pureed it, cooled it down a bit and added the yeast, I feel that it encapsulated the perfect decomposition look! You can of course use store bought as I did with the mummy…but this recipe makes two full zombies, and its super easy and cost pennies on the dollar, you can sub your favorite recipe for pizza dough. Depending on dietary preference, you can make him gluten free, Vegan (won’t it be fun to watch the vegans eat a zombie? Very soylent green chic if you ask me), or fill him full of your favorites!
So instead of braiding the dough all the way down, I cut it differently to make arms and legs, I added torn whole milk mozzarella inside the legs and arms,folded them over making sure to seal them well to avoid cheese leakage, and I also placed salami underneath and tore holes in the dough for a tasty take on flesh wounds! The image below is a example. Really there are no limits to what you can do with this idea.
I used some cooked fusilli pasta for “guts”, used some purple onion for his mouth, and olive eyes.
and I used some of the Barilla Protein plus penne that was in this months Degustabox for hair, but it ended up looking more like our zombie was impaled by sharp objects, which added some unintended, gory, fun.
I folded the head over some cheese and pepperoni for a “Night of the living dead” style open skull look as well as making a bouquet of “flowers” out of the white part of a green onion, and some flat leaf parsley, and those nasty looking chompers….those are tasty sunflower seeds! I cooked him in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 18 minutes.
I fiddled around with presentation, one idea I had was to lay him in a bed of arugula, oh and don’t forget the “bloody bolganese” I used some ground beef and added the jar of Barilla Marinara that I received in this months box as well. It was a great addition and freed up more time for Zombie design!
There is a visceral pleasure in tearing off his limbs and dipping them through the bolganese jacuzzi!
Nothing is quite as much fun as watching the kids munch into your zombie’s head, better eat him before he eats you! Happy Halloween!
