yummy

jack always makes a pot of coffee before work, but only drinks a cup or two and by the time i wake up it's cold. so, when i read this recipe [via], i filed it away to try. did you know it's hard to find ice cube trays? i found some at wal-mart last week and have been freezing a tray of coffee cubes a day since then. 

i kinda followed the recipe, but it didn't seem like enough coffee (6 cubes?) so i added a bunch more to the blender, then more chocolate and sugar to balance it out. i only used about half a cup of milk and half a cup of half-and-half because that's all i had of each. 

the best soup ever

i made up my very own recipe - and it is so good! although i have no way to tell if it's actually as good as i think it is. jack loved it, but he doesn't count. really he doesn't - once he came home and i yelled to him from the other room to try my beans. he said: this is so good, honey, but maybe it needs a little salt. when i went in, i realized he had eaten a spoonful of the soaking beans (only half fit in my pot so i left the rest on the counter in a bowl of water). seriously.

anyway. maybe someone can try this recipe and let me know? it's quick and easy. this is for a little pot (2 big, big bowls), but you could double it for more.

cajun corn and crab soup

ingredients
4 tbsp. butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 c. onion, chopped (1 small)
1/3 c. celery, chopped
1/4 tsp. garlic, minced
2 tbsp. flour
15 oz. chicken broth (1 can)
15 oz. sweet corn cream-style (1 can)
1 c. heavy whipping cream
6 oz. crab meat (1 can)
1/4 tsp. liquid crab boil
salt
pepper
thyme

directions
· Melt 2 tbsp. butter in sauce pan. Add chopped onion and celery. Cook until soft (about 10 minutes).
· Whisk in flour. Cook for 2 minutes.
· Stir in chicken broth and liquid crab boil. Sprinkle in thyme, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes.
· Remove from heat. Stir in crab meat, cream and remaining butter. Let sit for 1 hour.
·Reheat gently. Do not boil.

today

woke up this morning much earlier than usual and feeling sort of mad at everything. i realized there was absolutely nothing i had to do today. then realized this could be a very good thing.

turned up the music (afi - the accidental default since it's first on the ipod), made a cup of coffee, printed out a new recipe and my perhaps favorite to start on, and maybe will put on my favorite background movie clueless just for good measure.


*my pumpkin honey muffins were so good! perfect for the season. i used the linked recipe, but changed a lot i guess. i left out the raisins - don't like them in muffins or cookies. i didn't have whole wheat flour, used all-purpose. didn't have pumpkin pie spice, so used some cinnamon, ginger, and black pepper. (then found pumpkin pie spice in the cabinet and added it too.) accidently added 2 cups of pumpkin instead of 3/4 cup, then added 1/4 cup self-rising flour to compensate.

i love that now i'm comfortable enough cooking that i can switch things up a bit and still have good results. i particularly liked the black pepper taste to the muffins, it was unusual.

why i heart the internet

remember this? well, not anymore. turns out you don't need cookbooks if you have the internet. really, it taught me how to cook. since i've been enjoying people's cooking adventures on blogs lately, i figured i'd update my own.

it started last thanksgiving. i was away from my family, and couldn't bear the thought of not having thanksgiving the way it used to be, so i made my own. i looked up the recipes for the things i wanted and called my mom to fill in the details. and although i was imagining disaster a la pieces of april, everthing turned out perfectly.


i couldn't believe how easy cooking is, turns out i'm really good at following directions. and everthing you need to know, for instance what blanching is and how to chop celery, is right there on the internet.

i search allrecipes, which has awesome reviews were people rate recipes and also leave comments on what to change and what to leave, and find things that i want to make, and print them for my recipe binder (yes, i'm a nerd). i usually try at most one a week, but it's something i really look forward to. (seriously, half of my christmas list is kitchen supplies.)

ok. so here's what i'm most proud of. my grandma used to make me these big pans of stuffed peppers and they were so good. i'd been craving them for, like, the last 8 years. and i couldn't find a recipe that sounded exactly like what she did, so i made my own. seriously. i took maybe 10 recipes and read them all to see what people did, and made up my own from a distant memory of my grandma's peppers. and they were just like hers. maybe better. and so easy. i think i've made them 4 or 5 times already:

classic southern stuffed bell peppers

ingredients:

4 green bell peppers
1 lb ground sirlion
1 cup chopped onion (about half of a big one.)
3/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 (8 oz!) can roasted garlic tomato sauce (or plain and some minced garlic, i suppose)
tonys (original creole seasoning - this is the secret to everything!)

what to do:

1) cut peppers in half and remove seeds and stems and stuff. blanch*.

2) brown meat and onions in a skillet.

3) in big bowl, mix the meat mixture in big bowl with 1/2 can tomato sauce, almost all the bread crumbs, worcestershire sauce, and then shake tonys all over the top. i stir it, then shake tonys all over the top again.

4) put peppers in a pan, then spoon meat mixture into it, packing well. top each with a spoonful of tomato sauce and sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs.

5) Bake for 30 minutes on 350 degrees.

*ok, to blanch them you bring to boil one cup of water, throw half the peppers in, cook them for 5 minutes, covered, moving around a little. then you take them out and put them directly into a big bowl of ice and water. then repeat with the other half. this is how i do it anyway.

new cooking spree

i never learned to cook. we basically live on lean cuisines, cans of soup, and going out to eat.plus i hate raw meat -- buying it at the store, having it in my freezer, and especially touching it.

last night, i "cooked" a whole dinner of salads, corn chowder and biscuits. and it only really took about 30 minutes. well, for the corn chowder it was two cans of snow's corn chowder, but it totally counts as cooking because i heated them on the stove in a pot instead of the microwave. i slowly mixed in milk at very low heat. and i even modified the "recipe" by using only 2/3rds of the milk listed and some butter and pepper. folks this is good for me. and it was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s.

but the real accomplishment: i made homemade biscuits with flour and everything instead of the canned pillsbury kind. i remember when i was little my granny used to have a big jar of flour and she'd just make a well in it and scoop a handful of crisco into the center and just mix it up and scoop it out and make the best biscuits. i didn't do that. i used this recipe. but they reminded me of my granny's biscuits.

i've bought cookbooks in the past, but didn't really find them helpful and only used a few cookie or cake recipes out of them. i need some very basic instructions, and i found a couple at the bookstore the other day that are aimed directly at me: i don't know how to cook book and how to boil water. i haven't bought them yet, first i'm going to see if the cooking urge continues. because it might just be a stage -- until recently, i've never wanted to cook. maybe having so much spare time has inspired me. (or maybe the two years of living on lean cuisines and cans of soup.) besides, it's really amazing how you can type simple and recipe into google along with whatever you are looking to make and find some easy recipes.



usually people complain about having not enough cabinet space, i have entirely too much. i have one whole cabinet devoted to a box of garbage bags. another to a christmas platter someone gave us. and finally i have enough stuff to have a baking supplies cabinet.



see the cute little heart tins and sprinkles? i'm going to try to make something for v-day. maybe even bring some to the neighbor.

but the best part, now i have an excuse to buy these measuring cups from fred flare:

kitchen fantasies

ok, i am not a kitchen person. i actually had pots and pans and stuff that went so unused that i just gave them away when i moved. but lately, i've been baking a little (cake mix muffins, and instant pancakes) and thinking maybe i'd like to do more. i bought one 2 quart pot and a flat pan and a cupcake baking tin and that's it. i think it's time to move on, but slowly, with these:

and i don't know why, but i really, really, really want this:



in case you can't tell what it is, it's a magic mushroom print apron from anthropologie. i know.

yeah, not so good at cupcakes.

truth: i suck at muffin making. i bought all the stuff to make my cupcakes, but shit still went wrong. first, i didn't have a bowl, but i do have a small pot so i mixed them in there.



second, i forgot to put the oil in. i bought it, poured it, took a picture of it, then realized when i was cleaning up that i forgot to use the damn oil. i knew the cake batter tasted funny, i thought maybe eggs tasted different here. (first time i bought eggs in six months.) and are you supposed to pour unused oil down the garbage disposal? i seem to remember my mom pouring it into an old milk jug after frying fish... did i f*@# it up?



and third, some of the little f!#kers overflowed. but i threw them all away and ended up with a crop that doesn't look half bad if i do say so myself...



ok, who am i kidding, they look pretty sorry.