Good Noms

Good Noms Valentine's 2: Soup

2010-02-26T18:10:00.005-05:00

Part 1
Part 2 of the great Valentine's meal posts (but really part 1 of the meal itself) is wonton soup.
Wonton Soup

Chicken broth - 2 cups
Ground beef - 1/2 lb
Green onions - 1/2 stalk
Onion - 1/2
Leek - 1/2 stalk
Ginger - 2 tbsp
Wonton wrappers
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Rice Vinegar - 1 tbsp
Brown sugar - 1 tbsp
Sesame oil

Cut the leek to separate the white part of the stalk from the leafy part. Dice the white part. Mince ginger. Chop up half the amount of each type of onion. Add brown sugar, a little bit of salt and pepper, soy sauce, rice vinegar. Mix all these with the meat in a bowl.
Chop up the green part of the leek. Thinly slice the rest of the onion. Set that, the second half of the green onion (chopped) and the leek aside.

Dollop out the meat mixture into the wrappers. Dip your fingers in water to seal up the edges as you pinch them together. Don't overstuff or they'll explode.

Heat up the chicken broth (or vegetable or beef) to near boiling, then pop in the wontons. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add in all your set-aside veggies. Cook for another 10 minutes, until the wontons get floaty and soft looking. Right before serving add a tiny dash of sesame oil for an awesome smell.

Good Noms Valentine's 1: Risotto

2010-02-19T14:33:00.004-05:00

This is part one of a three part series that encompasses the meal that Tu made for me on Valentine's day. This meal has rekindled in me a fiery burning passion ... for beets. I seriously love beets. I guess Tu isn't bad, either.

So, Risotto.

2 cups arborio rice
8 oz mushrooms of your choice (shiitake)
3-4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 oz grated parmesan
dried parsley
1 oz Grey Goose*

Clean and cut the mushrooms. Sautee them in a small amount of the oil. Set aside. In a thick bottomed (heh) pot, put the rice into the oil on medium heat. Give a stir to coat. When it becomes glossy and transparent and you start to hear sizzle, you will first add the vodka**, then begin adding the broth. You will add half a cup at a time and wait until mostly absorbed to add the next half cup, stirring constantly. This will take about a half hour. Have fun.

When you are on your last half-cup of broth, throw in your sauteed mushrooms and parsley. When the last half cup is absorbed, add the cream and turn off the heat. Stir in the grated cheese. Let rest a bit to thicken. You now might be as good a risotto maker as old Italian ladies. For everyone's best, though, don't challenge them. Feel free to speak with an appropriate accent for the rest of the day.

For complete meal ideas, tune in next week.

*Typically you should use white wine. Tu thinks that since the dish is grains, and the grape (wine) is a berry, it doesn't go well together. Vodka, however, is made from grains/root vegetables, so makes more sense. If you'd rather use wine, it's about 4 oz.

**If you are using wine, add it in-between your stock portions in increments

Good Noms spinach dip

2010-02-13T19:13:00.006-05:00

Ingredients:

Spinach - 1 bunch - 2 frozen packages (thawed and drained)
Bacon - 4 slices
Cream cheese - 6 oz
Heavy cream - 1 cup
Cheese of your choice - 1 cup
1/2 stick of butter
Garlic powder, salt

Cook the bacon and place on paper towel to drain.
Rinse and chop up the spinach.
Melt some butter in a pot, add the cream. When the mixture begins to bubble, turn off the heat and add the shredded cheese, stirring vigorously.
Preheat the oven to 350. Once the mixture begins to thicken slightly, add the spinach and leave on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add the cream cheese and the garlic powder and a tiny bit of grated Parmesan cheese (optional) and salt. Place into a baking dish, chop up the bacon, sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. It will thicken as it cools. Enjoy warm. I recommend these chips. Delicious and nutritious.

Good Noms gingersnaps.

2010-02-06T13:12:00.004-05:00

I was craving cookies and seeing as we were snowed in completely (everything was closed), I just made my own. Thank goodness for a stocked baking cabinet. I will never stop recommending buying 2-3 different types of flour, sugar, and all your spices at once, even if you don't need them (provided you bake on some sort of regular basis).

Gingersnaps:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup molasses
2 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup white sugar for decoration

I skipped the sugar dip on some of the cookies (because honestly, the thought of so much sugar scares me). I even reduced the white sugar from 3/4 cup called for in the original recipe. These cookies were great starting with the dough. It was the perfect moist, but not sticky consistency. The King Arthur whole wheat flour hides perfectly in the rich brown color, so you can even sneak these to your less health conscious friends - they won't be able to tell! I didn't use proper measurements for the spices, my teaspoons came out heaping, and the smell of the baking/done cookies was insanely tantalizing. Not for those of us that don't like spice, though. If you want less fat, you can substitute apple sauce for half the butter. They are super soft and chewy when done. Mmm.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies (ie – bits of tasty heaven)

2010-01-31T12:00:00.000-05:00

So after the onslaught of cookies that the holiday season brought to my house I finally had the craving for something sweet again. I was browsing one of my favorite food sites the other day (www.seriouseats.com) and this recipe just about jumped out and kicked me in the face. I immediately started drooling and knew I had to make these cookies. I was not disappointed. These tasties come from the cook book Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson.

To make this little bit of toe curling heaven you need:

1c All Purpose Flour

½ tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Salt

1c Quick Cooking Oats

1 stick Butter

½ c packed Brown Sugar

½ c Sugar

1 Egg

½ tsp Vanilla Extract

½ c Dried Cranberries

½ c Chopped Peacans

¾ c White Chocolate Chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put your flour, baking powder, salt, and your oats into a small bowl. In a big bowl put your butter (softened) and your two sugars. Mix until creamy with your hand mixer. Then add in your egg and vanilla.

Next beat in your flour mixture. Once thats good and mixed add in (stir by hand) your cranberries, pecans, and white chocolate chips.

Take a tablespoon on dough, roll by hand and place on your cookie sheet. Then take a fork and squish the balls of dough down a bit. Bake for 15 minutes. They are done when gold on the edges (mine took only 13 minutes not the full 15). Let them cool for a moment on the cookie sheet before moving to your cooling rack. Let cool a bit then eat and be delighted!

Green Bean Pesto...

2010-01-30T17:36:00.002-05:00

Or "How to Get Rid of Produce"

I had some slightly sad green beans (off-season...what did I expect), some slightly sad cilantro, and a slightly sad lemon. What to do...

Ingredients:
1 quart green beans, washed and snapped
3-4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup yogurt (or sour cream, or ricotta, or some other tasty dairy product)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
dash ginger
1 lb pasta
2 bullion cubes

Put the water on for your pasta with the bullion cubes. Over medium heat, saute garlic and cilantro in olive oil with the salt and pepper. Typically I wouldn't cook the cilantro, but in this case I had to cook out the sad.

Add the green beans and cook until they have turned a darker green and are a nice al dente. I am fairly sure that overcooking would lead to a kind of icky pesto. Allow them to cool a little bit before you stick them in your food processor/blender/what have you. By this time, your water should be bubbling away; cook the pasta al dente.

Pulse the green beans and other remaining ingredients until the mixture reaches the consistency of coarse polenta/grits (depending on how Italian/Southern you are!)

Add about 1/3 of a cup of the pasta water and a dash of ginger and whirl again to combine. Stir it into the pasta and serve with a handful of parmesan or a dollop of yogurt. So very tasty!

a dorm-room classic, but better!

2010-01-24T10:52:00.008-05:00

I learned from my mother to create menus for each week before I go shopping; it saves you money and never leaves you sitting in the car on your way home "what the crap am I going to make for dinner!?" When I'm having menu-writer's-block I turn to my very small collection of cookbooks for inspiration.

One of my favorite cookbooks EVAR is The Japanese Kitchen by Hiroko Shimbo. She's basically the Julia Child of Japanese cuisine. Out of 250 recipes, none that I have tried has been bad. I love her so. The book is full of helpful illustrations, because some of the techniques are not used by your typical American home cook. And (thankfully) there isn't a single glossy photo. Those dang glossy cookbooks seem to fall apart if you breathe on them too hard.
ANYWAY, I was flipping through the Shimbo book and found a recipe for ramen broth, which I immediately knew I had to try. I have altered it a little (my love doesn't eat pork), but the recipe is essentially the same.
For those of you who love Vietnamese food (hi, Mommy!), this broth is quite similar to the broth used for Pho.

Ingredients:

2 lb beef soup bones (found in the frozen meat section of the grocery store, conveniently in a 2 lb bag) or pork knuckle bones, cracked by the butcher
2 lb chicken thighs, with all the skin and bones and whatnot
1 small onion, quartered
1/2 head of garlic, cut across the cloves to expose all of their deliciousness
the green part of a leek (RINSE WELL)
1 oz ginger, an inch or two square (depending on how much you like ginger), sliced, with skin
10 oz chukasoba a.k.a "Japanese curly noodles" or a couple ramen packages without the powder.

Put the meat bits into a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a hard boil and cook for one minute.

Lots of yucky stuff will float to the top, but we'll throw that away. Drain the meat and rinse off all the aforementioned yuck.

This is the yuck.

*Aside: if you are squeamish about raw meat, this may not be the recipe for you. When I was knuckle deep in bone marrow while rinsing the beef bones when I realized something. After months of working up the guts (no pun intended) to work with meat, my squeamishness has been cured. End aside*

Return to the pot or stick in your trusty slow cooker with all the aromatics. Simmer on low (high in the slow cooker) for seven hours. You heard me. This is another recipe for people with patience (i.e. people who are not me)

These are the tasty bits

Boil up your chukasoba according to the package directions, and rinse well with cold water until they are no longer starchy and slimy. Divide into bowls, pour over as much broth as you want, and garnish with anything you want. A little scrambled egg, some meat, or cold vegetables would be great. I went for fresh cilantro with some water chestnuts. Oh, lordy, how I love water chestnuts. I found it also needed a little tamari or soy sauce for extra salt and flavor.

Good Noms gets cheesy

2010-01-22T10:00:00.002-05:00

It's my birthday this week, and I made myself a cake. It's a really simple recipe.
Cheesecake:
Crust-

Graham crackers (one of the three individually wrapped packages in a box)
Butter - 1/2 stick

Cake-

Cream cheese - 3 packages
Egg - 1
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 can
Vanilla

Blend the graham crackers in a blender or a food processor. Alternately, crush them in a plastic bag. Melt half the stick of butter and mix it with the graham crumbs. Press into the bottom of a round springform or pie pan.

Blend the softened cream cheese with the can of milk. Do this before you add the egg, otherwise the cream cheese will clump and become coated in the egg and you will have trouble blending a homogeneous mixture. Add the egg and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes, checking after about 40. The cake will become firm, the center will be almost set. Let cool almost completely, then refrigerate for several hours, for best results overnight.

Barley Risotto!

2010-01-19T17:59:00.005-05:00

I am on what my man calls a "health bender", due to an alarming doctor's appointment in which my weight was revealed as, shall we say, less than ideal. And by less than ideal, I mean that I have become a fatty. So today's recipe is a lovely HEALTHY recipe, one (surprisingly) without butter.

If you have never had barley, you're really missing out! It's so chewy and lovely, and this recipe is full of lemon zest for a nice summery flavor in icky January.

Ingredients:

2 cups pearled barley
4 cups chicken broth (please use low-sodium if you get store-bought)
1/4 cup dry sherry or a little shy of 1 cup dry white wine
juice and zest of 2 lemons
1/8 tsp each of ginger and black pepper
1 tsp each of dried parsley and chives
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 a large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup parmesan
walnuts for garnish
water

Step 1: Heat the oil in a large pan on medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and lemon zest until the onion is on its way to getting soft.

Step 2: Add in the barley and stir constantly for a few minutes. Then put your sherry in a measuring 1 cup measure. Add the lemon juice, and top off with water. If you are using wine, put the lemon juice in the measure and top off with wine. Add this to the barley and stir occasionally until the liquid is almost completely absorbed. This is the part of the process that smells the most delicious!

I wish you could smell this through the screen, because it is AMAZING

Step 3: Now, add one cup of broth, and allow to absorb before adding another cup, and so on. Then add two cups of water in the same fashion. The barley will be plump and chewy; if not, add a little more water and see how it feels.

Step 4: Remove from heat, stir in the dairy, and serve, garnished with nuts.

How to completely suck...

2010-01-18T19:27:00.002-05:00

Put dinner in the Crock-Pot, leave town, and come back three and a half hours later so hungry that you forget to take a picture of it before you begin devouring it.
Another day this week, I suppose.

Turkey and Veggi Soup

2010-01-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

Here in the frozen area of Upstate New York it's the season for soup! Today I will share with you one of my new favorites. Every time I make this soup it comes out a little different. This is because I am always changing up whats in it depending on what I have around and what looks good to me when I am at the store. Feel free to change this one up as you see fit or to make a smaller or larger batch depending on who you are having over for dinner. I give you Turkey and Veggie Soup!

250g bacon (or smoked pork product) - diced
2 medium onions - diced
3 carrots - diced
2 celery stalks - diced
4 turkey thighs – bite size pieces
4 cloves of garlic - crushed
4 cups turkey stock
400g crushed tomatoes
2 zucchinis - diced
400g (1 can) cannellini beans
2 handfuls baby spinach - chopped
1 handful napa cabbage – chopped
1 container small mushrooms (portabella, or baby brown)
parsley or basil (your choice), salt and pepper

Start off by putting a little olive oil in your pot and cooking the bacon for a few minutes. Then add your onions, carrots, and celery and sauté for about 10 minutes until the veggis have cooked a bit.

Next add your turkey and garlic and sauté until the turkey is cooked. Once this is done you can add a cup of white wine to deglaze the pan and simmer to reduce. I did not have any on hand this time to I omitted this from the ingredients above.

Now add your turkey stock. If you are like me you have a metric ton of the stuff left over from what you made during thanksgiving waiting to be used in your freezer. If not then just go buy some! I recommend getting the low or no sodium kind so you can season to your own taste. Along with the turkey stock add the tomatoes. Give it a stir and bring it to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Now add in your spinach, cabbage, mushrooms, beans, and zucchini. Then season to taste with herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer for about 10 more minutes.
I suggest serving this with a small pasta such as orzo. You can cook the pasta right in the soup if you wish but I suggest cooking separate and then adding it in. This is a fantastic hardy soup that just begs to be changed every time you make it. Also if you end up with too much left over this freezes really well. Simply heat in a pan on low! Helps take the chill of those bones on any chilly night!
Yes, this is what I look like when I cook on a Sunday!

Good Noms makes curry

2010-01-16T11:36:00.008-05:00

Anyone that knows me well, will tell you that there are few things I love as much as a bowl of hot, yellow curry over rice. Very few things, indeed.

Yellow curry:

Carrots - 2 large
Red potatoes - 3
Sweet potato - 1 (Not a yam)
Onion - 1
Lemongrass - 1 stalk
Green onion - 1
Chicken thighs, or any other chicken with bones in it (4 thighs - 1 1/2 pounds)
Coconut milk - 150mL (a little over 1/2 cup)
Yellow curry powder - 1/4 cup
Curry paste - 1 tbsp
Basil
Rice

Cook the amount of rice you want according to instructions. Rip the skin off the chicken thighs with your best "Hulk smash" impression. Cut the meat parallel to the bone, set aside. Cut the meat around the bone perpendicular to it, but not through the bone. Take the bones with the meat still on it, put it in the pot on medium high. This is the braising process. If the meat begins to stick to the bottom, do not worry. It will detach with the addition of water, later.

MEANWHILE...
Wash, cut your potatoes, carrots, onions. With the onions, it is easiest to cut them into slivers, as shown below.

By this point, check on the chicken bones. They should be cooked enough to cut through. Take them out (carefully, hot) and cut them up. Put them back into the pot with the rest of the uncooked chicken meat. When it browns on the outside, add in all the vegetables, give it a stir. Once the vegetables begin to look coated with the fats and the onions begin to caramelize, add in all the spices, and it will look like a hot mess. Once the spices are absorbed, add about 4 cups of water, or enough to almost cover the vegetables. Let cook for about 40 on med-hi. Once the veggies get close to fork tender, give it a taste to see if any more spices are needed, turn down to low, then in goes the coconut milk. Give it a good stir.

Stand back and ponder Life, the Universe, and Everything. Turn off the heat and serve over rice.

Breakfast Burrito Bonanza!

2010-01-10T16:11:00.004-05:00

Every morning you run out the door and the last thing on your mind is stopping to make breakfast. Maybe you grab a bagel and stuff it in your mouth wishing for something with a little more flavor and perhaps a little healthier for you. Well I have the solution! The home made frozen breakfast burrito! You can put whatever strikes your fancy into these little guys. Just make sure your ingredients are dry or when you reheat your burrito it gets kinda soggy. You can make as many of these as you want at a time. I made a dozen of them this time and for that I used:

1 dozen eggs

12 burrito shells

1 pack lean turkey bacon

1 can black beans

Grated cheddar cheese

Salsa

Rinse and drain your beans well. Chop the bacon and cook well. Cook your eggs, but just before they really start firming up add in the turkey bacon and black beans and mix together. Cook your eggs all the way through (or burrito will be soggy!). Let the egg mixture cool all the way.

Now take your shells (I used whole wheat this time) and put a ½ cup of your egg mix in the middle, top with some salsa and cheese, fold up tight!

The important part to making these is really in how you freeze them. Place them on the freezer shelf, or on your cookie cooling rack, in a single layer with nothing covering them. Freeze them solid (takes maybe 2 hours). Then once they are solid you can store them in a big ziplock bag. When I need to take one with me I just take it out and put in a smaller ziplock in my lunchbox. Now to reheat wrap the burrito in paper towels and microwave for about 2 minutes. Tada! Insta-breakfast!

Crock-Potular success

2010-01-10T14:15:00.006-05:00

So...

I received a Crock-Pot for Christmas (thanks Paul and Caterina!!!) and have been ITCHING to try it out. So I present to you a recipe (with a few small modifications) that I found on the Crock-Pot website.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (halved, as my man doesn't like spice)
1 tablespoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 to 2 pounds beef brisket, scored with a knife on both sides
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup Jack Daniel’s, or other whiskey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Juice of 1 orange (about 1/3 cup)
2 cloves garlic, smashed
4 slices orange peel, 1/2" x 1/2" (careful to avoid bitter white pith when peeling)

Step 1: Rub
Combine cayenne pepper, ginger, salt and black pepper. Rub all over brisket and place in a plastic bag inside of a bowl (to prevent drippage).

Step 2: Marinade
Mix up the rest of the ingredients except the orange peel and garlic. Add in the last two ingredients and pour into the bag. Seal up, and for the love of God, put it on the bottom shelf of the fridge. You do not want the icky meaty greasy stuff all over your fridge if it spills. Let it marinade for 2 hours or overnight. I pulled mine out about halfway through a 3-hour soak and gave it a little massage.

Step 3: Cook
Stick the whole mess in your slow cooker and cook on high for 3½-4 hours on high or 7-9 hours on low, turning once or twice. Take the briskety goodness out of the pot and let it rest for 5 minutes or so before you carve it up with some of the pan juices spooned on top.

Good noms reminisces about Soviet Russia

2010-01-08T11:19:00.007-05:00

It snowed again in our not-so-wintry land of Mary, and Tu and I made soup. What sort of soup, you ask? Why the sort of soup I grew up eating as a wee lass. It's called borscht, or any number of alternate spellings, and can be (and has been) made vegetarian by omission of meat and substitution of vegetable broth/bouillon.

Ingredients:

MARROW BONES (I yelled it because this is the basis of delicious soup. If you don't want to eat meat in your soup but don't want to make it vegetarian, you must use bones. Trust me.)
Beets. 2 large or 3 small.
Potatoes. 3 medium.
Cabbage. 1/4 to 1/3 head, depending on size.
Onion. 1 whole.
Carrots. 2-3.
Meat (optional) (stew beef or chuck) 1/2 lb - cut into stew-pieces.
Olive oil for cooking.
Peppercorns.
Bay leaves. (3)
Salt/peppers.

Toppings/serving suggestion.

Sour cream.
Clove of garlic.
Really heavy and dark rye bread.

Bring a large pot of water with the bones in it to a boil (here you may notice I'm using my lovely Christmas LeCreuset, affectionately dubbed as LePot, 5 qt). Peel and halve the beets.

When the pot comes to a boil, you will see white foam come to the surface. Scoop it off. It is bad. It will make your soup taste bitter. Commit the look/consistency to memory, for the next time you decide to call someone a scumbag. After a few minutes (10-15) the scum production will slow down, add the beets. Chop up carrots and onions (I also like to leave the skins on on the carrots, not the onions though). Arrange in clever shape on your plate (optional).
When the beets are soft, take them out, add the potatoes that have been quartered (with skin on), meat, peppercorns and bay leaf. Sautee the onions and carrots in a bit of olive oil. You may season it with salt/pepper. Process the beets (basically shred them by hand or in food processor). Slice the cabbage really thin (think cole slaw/sauerkraut). Put all of above mentioned ingredients back into the pot. Turn to medium low, cover, do as you please for about a half hour.

This is important so pay attention. To serve - get out your fur hat (optional, but recommended). Pour hot soup into the bowl (add salt/pepper to taste), top with a dollop of sour cream. Eat with a clove of garlic, and a slice of dense, dark rye, taking alternating bites. Feel Russki.

Winter Stew

2010-01-07T01:24:00.006-05:00

While I was on holiday in the Northeast, I had my two and a half weeks of winter. Then I returned to Southern California where I walked around in my shirt sleeves after dark and thought about how happy I was to be back. But while I was East, I made a very wintery meal, which I will now share with you, to help you get through all those long, dark, cold days that you may or may not have ahead.

YOU WILL NEED:

4 white or yellow onions

6 or so fair sized red-skin potatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 parsnip

1 turnip

1 yam

1 pound of carrots

1 large steak

Oregano, thyme, black pepper, tarragon and bay leaf to season.

Olive oil, to cook in.

Begin by chopping your onions and pressing your garlic. In this case, I chose to use a garlic

press instead of just chopping it, because I wanted it to infuse into the broth that I was making.

Chop two of your onions into into small pieces. Set the other two aside. Press both cloves of

garlic. Fry these two things in olive oil in the bottom of a large soup pot.

Next, you will need to cut up your meat.

Once you have done this, add it, and more oil, to your pot.

Fry it until all the meat appears cooked.

Then add six to eight cups of water and a teaspoon of salt. You have magically created beef broth, free of all the extra crap and packaging usually associated with beef broth!

Let it come to a boil as you chop your vegetables.

You will need to peel and cut the turnip, parsnip and yam. All vegetables should be cut to about the size of a quartered, small potato. You should leave the skins on the potatoes and carrots.

The skins add flavor and nutrients to your food. You might want to cut up your carrots into smaller, coin sized rings. That's what I do.

Add the veggies to the pot, and then season it well with Oregano, black pepper, two bay leaves, thyme and tarragon. Don't over do it, but don't under do it.

Then get it simmering and leave it there for a while, uncovered. With soups and stews, I have the following rule of thumb: if you want it to thicken, uncover it. If you want it to keep its moisture, cover it. Stews should thicken out.

Then go do something else for about an hour. I recommend Mario Kart Double Dash.

Once you've totally won against your siblings and become the queen of your household once again, or if you did something else, about an hour later, the soup will be ready. You should check it in between every couple of races... I mean, every fifteen minutes or so, to make sure

nothing is sticking or burning. If it is, reduce the heat.

When the soup is finished, the yam will have cooked into the broth and all the rest of the vegetables will be mushy and tender. The meat, in my case, was tender enough to cut with a

spoon.

Now, I like to eat garlic bread with stew, personally. Garlic bread is easy to make. Its very similar to the recipe for garlic bread stuffing, but here it is again, just in case:

You will need:

About a half a stick of butter

4 cloves of garlic

Oregano and basil, to season

Thick bread, sliced.

Arrange the bread slices on a cookie sheet. Preheat the oven to about 375. Then melt the butter in the microwave so it is a liquid. Use a garlic press, or cut the garlic by hand into small pieces, and add all of it to the liquified butter. Season it. Stir it up.

If you have a little brush, you can brush it on the bread. If not, you can sort of pour it on with a spoon.

Bake for about five to ten minutes, keeping a weather eye, to make sure the bread gets to be your desired amount of crunchy without burning.

Dip the garlic bread in the soup. Mmmmmmm.

A simple dessert

2010-01-03T18:07:00.002-05:00

This is my half-assed attempt at Sunday night dessert. Sweet, tart, lovely blackberries were on sale at our local grocery store this week, and while I know I shouldn't indulge in off-season produce, I couldn't resist. Let's begin!

Ingredients:

Some sort of plain dessert (un-iced cake, some ice cream, anything you feel like. Vanilla or lemon flavors are a plus. I went for angel food.)

4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp brandy
Juice from half a lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
1 pint blackberries or other aggregate fruit-type berries. Raspberries or whatever. If you use a sweeter berry, you may want to cut back the sugar by half.

Give your berries a gentle rinse, place in a bowl, throw in the other ingredients, gently mix, and leave to macerate for an hour or two.

Come back and squish them up with a fork. If you don't care for the pulp or seeds, run the sauce through a sieve.
Spoon liberally onto your chosen dessert, and if it's cake, I recommend a little half-and-half for extra deliciousness.

Berry Tasty Muffins!

2010-01-03T12:38:00.006-05:00

I love a good muffin for breakfast and my favorites are filled with berries! In the summer I use fresh berries but in the winter frozen will do. This time I made them with frozen strawberries and this I do not recommend! The strawberries never quite get dry enough so you end up with soggy muffins. Try using frozen raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries as they work much better! Just make sure they are fully defrosted and let them sit for a while to dry out as much as possible. The less water on them the better! The recipe I use for muffins comes from my McCall's cookbook from 1963. I highly recommend finding some of these old cookbooks at book sales as they have lots of useful information and they come from a time before pre-made everything. So what you find in here is simple ingredients and good recipes.

Perfect Muffins
2c all purpose flour
1/4 sugar
3tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
1c milk
1/3c salad oil or melted shortening
1 egg (slightly beaten)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Take your muffin pan and either grease the cups or place paper liners in them. You will get about a dozen muffins from this recipe.
Mix your flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl.

Add your well drained berries to your dry ingredients and mix together. In another bowl put your milk, oil, and egg and mix together well. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and pour in your milk mixture.

Stir quickly with a fork until just mixed (your batter will be lumpy). Fill your muffin cups until just more the half full. Now bake for 20-25 minutes and you're done! These are great to take to breakfast with you or if you just want a quick snack.

Good Noms bakes chicken

2010-01-01T18:25:00.010-05:00

Today the Maryland chapter of Good Noms decided to fix a favorite for dinner.
Chicken Cordon Bleu (for 4)

2 chicken breasts
1 thick slice of ham
4 oz swiss cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
flour (1/2 cup)
3-4 medium potatoes
1/2 butternut squash
1 cup cream
4 oz cheddar or other cheese that you prefer
1/4 cup milk
butter

Slice each of your chicken in half completely into two equal portions. It helps if it's still partially frozen as you do this, lay it flat on the cutting board and pretend you are filleting a fish. Cut a piece of ham that's a bit smaller than each chicken half. Cut a piece of cheese that's about the same size of the ham, 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. With a thin sharp knife, cut a pocket into the chicken breast halves, being careful not to cut through either of the sides, the back, or your hand. Go slow.

Stuff it with the ham and cheese. Don't force it in, or you might rip your chicken pita.

Put some flour in a dish and roll the stuffed chicken in it. Wash/dry your hands. Arrange the following things in order: floured chicken; a bowl with two eggs, beaten; a bowl of bread crumbs; pan in which you will bake your chicken (we used a cookie sheet, but a pyrex dish or even a bread pan will work.)
Your right hand is now the wet hand, the left hand is the dry hand. Dip your chicken into the egg and coat it, with your wet hand. Place it in the bowl of crumbs. With your dry hand, help coat it with the crumbs, then place it in the baking dish. You will not accumulate an excess of egg/crumb conglomerate on your fingers, and you should start feeling pretty clever about now (I did.)

If you have some leftover crumbs, sprinkle some into your baking pan to prevent sticking/grossness. Bake at 350 40min to an hour, or until you start seeing melted cheese seep out. You can also use your meat thermometer here. If, by the time the chicken is done, the top is not golden brown enough to your liking, turn on your broiler for a couple minutes.

Peel the potatoes. Slice them horizontally into 8th inch thick "chips". Pop them into a pot of water set to boil.

While that's happening prepare (peel, de-seed, etc.) the squash. Chop into 1/2 inch cubes. Put into another pot of water. When the potatoes become translucent, drain and set aside. Using the same pot, melt 1/3 stick of butter and the cream. Once the butter melts, add the cheese in small chunks. When the cheese melts, add the potatoes and cook on med-low heat, stirring occasionally (and carefully, you want your potatoes to look good instead of crumbly) until potatoes are cooked all the way.
If, by this point in time, the squash is fork tender, drain it. Take out your potato masher and go to town. Add the 1/4 milk (little by little, you might need less) and 1/2 tbsp butter, salt and pepper to taste.

Serve. Bring to work if you want to impress your lunch-mates with your skill and make them salivate at your creations.

P.S. Consider yourself lucky if you have some old bread (not the mushy white kind you get for 99 cents, but the firm kind you get at the bakery or bake yourself). Get out your largest cheese grater and grate your hardened bread on it (or put it into the food processor, but I found this doesn't work as well as the other method). Spread the crumbs out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with seasonings (parsley, oregano, garlic powder, I stay away from salt because don't want the chance that my dishes will end up super salty). Bake at 350 for literally a couple minutes, until crispy. Put into an airtight container. Pat self on back.

GASP! A regular Wednesday Post!

2009-12-30T17:13:00.004-05:00

Oh ho! I wasn't full of talk yesterday! I'm still in New Jersey, spending time with my family, and I still don't have my camera cord, so you'll have to wait to see how yummy these cookies look until I get back to LA on the 4th.

Today my mom and I baked our traditional cookies: Russian Teacakes. These are small, powdery, butter and sugar cookies that taste really, really good. We make them before Christmas most years, but since I didn't get down until right before and we had so many things to do, we baked them right before New Years instead this year :)

You will need the following:

1 cup (2 standard sticks) of butter (this recipe is easily made vegan by substituting margarine. But my personal opinion of margarine is extremely low. Butter is where it is at!)

1/2 cup powdered sugar (aka 10x, aka confectioner's sugar, depending on where you are from)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat that oven to 400 degrees!

First, soften the butter either in the microwave, or if you are like me when I am in my apartment and do not have one, by heating it very carefully over the store. Do not melt it. Just get it nice and creamy.

Then mix the butter, the powdered sugar and the vanilla until it is a delicious cream with a very similar texture (and indeed, the same ingredients) to my homemade frosting.

Next, add the salt and stir, then add the flour about a half cup at a time, continuing to stir it in. At some point, you may need to abandon your spoon and use your hands. The texture once all the flour has been added will be more powdery and flaky than doughy. This is OK.

Next, add the nuts. If you are going to chop or grind your own nuts, try to get them to about the size of an M and M mini (NOT A REGULAR M and M!) When you add the nuts, the texture will change and the dough will be easier to deal with.

Now, roll the cookies into one inch diameter balls. These cookies do not spread, so make them look like you want your cookies to look. You can also make them into finger shapes, but we never do that. Balls are easier for the last step.

Bake the cookies for ten minutes at 400 degrees. Take them out right away and go on to the last step.

Get two plates. Cover one plate in a big pile of powdered sugar. While the cookies are still pretty hot, roll them in the sugar so they get totally covered on all sides. Then put them on the other plate, from which they will be picked up and eaten by your adoring friends and family.

OM NOM NOM!

Penance (without pictures): Garlic Bread Stuffing

2009-12-29T02:18:00.003-05:00

I have been a bad blogger indeed. My failure is made less noticeable by the other wonderful women that I share this blog with and their ability to do what they are supposed to do. But I will make it up to you. I will translate "I will update good noms every Wednesday, without fail" into Latin and write it in cursive 500 times!

Or, I could give you a recipe for garlic bread stuffing that made everyone happy and my young neighbor who won't eat vegetables eat celery without complaining.

Actually, I like that idea better.

Unfortunately, I will have to add in the pictures for this when I get back to California, since I left my camera cord there.

YOU WILL NEED:

1 roasting bird (chicken, duck or duckling, turkey, goose, pheasant, quail et cetera).
About half a loaf of ciabatta, or similar, bread. A little stale is OK.
1 large cooking onion
2 stalks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
olive oil
oregano, basil (fresh is always the best) salt, black pepper and cheyenne pepper (to taste)
The juice of half a lemon

To start, heat your oven to 400 degrees (F). Have your bird prepared: defrosted, cleaned out and sitting in whatever it is you opt to roast a bird in. Here's a helpful hint that I picked up along the way: if you get a bird that was butchered in a slaughter house, they may put the giblets in a plastic bag and shove it inside the bird. You should take those out. I heard that somewhere.

Chop your onions and celery first, then start cooking them in olive oil in your largest of cooking pans. I use a wok for this. Your house will fill with a delicious aroma. Make it more delicious by chopping up the garlic into nice, cajun sized pieces, which I define as being about the size of funfetti cupcake sprinkles (or a little larger, if you want to keep mosquitos from biting!) and adding that to the mix. You may need to add more oil to keep things from sticking. Be smart. Cook this until it is soft and all of it is ready to eat. The celery may still be a little stiff. This is good. Add more oil so that the mixture is a bit saturated with it (but not, you know, floating in it. We want to walk away from this meal).

Next, tear up the bread into crouton sized pieces and throw them into the pan. Cook these pieces in the onion, celery and garlic oil. Make sure to get the bread nice and toasty and to soak up the other flavors that are in the pan. At this point, you should add your herbs (but not the salt, pepper and cheyenne, they go directly on the bird).

Set this aside to cool a bit before you put it in the bird. In the mean time, prepare the bird to cook. Besides stuffing it, before putting a bird into the oven to roast I do the following:

I squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the whole thing
I rub salt, pepper and cheyenne into all the skin and
I place a couple of pats of butter on it, so that this will melt and cook into it in the oven. I know, this one isn't particularly healthy, but I love butter.

After you have done those things, you are ready to stuff the bird. Use a large spoon, or, if you are daring, your hands, to shove all your delicious garlic bread into the bird's cavity. It will overflow it if it is a small bird, like mine was. I arranged the rest of it around the bird in the pan. I do not cover birds that I roast because I like them to get very done and I never find them to be dry. My mother covers hers in a tent of tin foil and they come out well, but not golden and lovely as mine. So make your choice there :D

The time it will take you to cook your bird will depend upon what kind of bird it is. For a chicken, as I prepared with this recipe, it took me about an hour and it served about four, two of whom were teenage boys. Always make sure that your poultry is properly cooked and the juices run clear before serving. If the bread starts to get dark before the bird is done, scoop out the stuffing that is outside the bird and cover it until the meal.

Mia cupola. Forgive me.

don't worry...

2009-12-27T19:58:00.003-05:00

Photos will come later. I've just inhaled a pound of bacony macaroni and cheese and feel too much like death to edit them. On to the post!

We at Good Noms are doing our best to allay any fears you might have of homemade bread. We are obsessed with homemade bread, and when you turn out a tasty calzone in just an hour, you will be, too!
I know what you're thinking, now. Oh, God, did she say "calzone" and JUST AN HOUR!? She must be out of her damn mind.
Don't worry. Most of that hour is occupied by the fine art of sitting, and you can make the dough ahead of time if you'd like (I'll get into this later). It's really not that bad. The recipe is enormous, though, so cut it in half if you're worried about it going to waste. Let's do this thing.

Ingredients:

Dough:
4 cups of good flour
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp honey
1 1/4 cups lukewarm (approx. 110 degrees) water
1/4 cup milk
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) yeast

Filling:
8 oz whole milk ricotta
8 oz whole milk mozzarella

Step 1: Proof yeast
Mix honey and warm water, sprinkle yeast on top, and let rest for 5 minutes.

Step 2: Make dough
Make a well in the flour, pour in the proofed mixture, and add the milk and 2 tbsp of the olive oil. Before you begin kneading, set aside a small bowl of flour to dust your hands. Knead for several minutes until pliable and elastic. Drizzle the dough with the remaining oil and place in a warm area and let rest under a towel for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. If your yeast isn't nice and fresh, it may take longer.
If you would like to save the dough for later, punch it down, ball it up, and stick it in a storage bag. Come back half an hour to 45 minutes later and punch it down again. You can leave the dough in the fridge for 2 days or so.

Step 3: Make the filling
Mix the ricotta and spices together in a medium bowl. I also added some stray Parmesan that had been in the fridge for a little too long and needed to be eaten. Set aside.

Step 4: Assemble the thing
Punch the dough down and evaluate which side has more delicious extra virgin on it. Put that side face down on the a cookie sheet. Massage it into a circle (or a rectangle if it's too big to make a circle on your cookie sheet). Slather the ricotta on half of the dough and sprinkle the mozzarella on top. You could have mixed the two together, but I prefer the contrast of separate-but-equal cheeses. This is where you could cut out some of the cheese and add in other stuff, but my man and I can't agree on toppings for pizza. He likes extra cheese and I like anything that isn't pineapple or bell peppers (please don't judge me).
Fold the dough over and pinch together. Then, for added deliciousness, sprinkle some salt and garlic powder on top.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until nice golden brown on top.

Good Noms celebrates Christmas... with crab ravioli

2009-12-25T10:00:00.001-05:00

Since other blog members have brought up the idea of writing about Christmas traditions, Tu and I decided to spontaneously start some.
Crab Ravioli

1 packages wonton wrappers

Stuffing:

1/2 lb crab meat (finally acting like real Maryland-ers)
1 lb ricotta cheese
1 green onion, chopped
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 large onion, chopped
1/8 tsp allspice
1 tsp garlic powder
red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Sauce:

1 pint heavy cream or whipping cream
1/2 stick of butter
4 oz cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan/romano cheese
garlic powder

The party-crasher in this picture is the egg. We didn't end up using it for anything. In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the stuffing. Mix.
One by one, stuff the stuffing into the wonton shells. Involve the whole family. Begin by using a teaspoon-sized dollop in the center of the rectangle. You can fold in half diagonally as pictured below, or in half to make another smaller rectangle (the half-circle looks fancier, but the rectangle is less labor intensive).

Dip your fingers in water to help seal the edges, press in with a fork. If you like, you may use your favorite dough recipe (we don't have one) and a ravioli press to speed up this process.

For sauce, put cream in a saucepan on medium heat, then melt butter into it. Throw in cheddar little at a time once the mixture begins to bubble. Once the cheese is dissolved, add the parmesan/romano, lastly followed by the spices. It's perfectly acceptable to have a bland filling, because the sauce will be salty because of the cheese.

Lightly pan fry the ravioli until the outside becomes crispy and golden brown. Top with the sauce. Share at your your own discretion.

The Smell of Home Made Bread is like Heaven on Earth

2009-12-20T12:00:00.002-05:00

I find there is something so satisfying in baking a fresh loaf of bread that doesn't quite compare to any other baking project one can do. Watching your dough rise and knowing that you made it correctly is so satisfying. Not to mention how good fresh dough smells as it rises in the kitchen.
I love using this recipe to make fresh dinner rolls (great for bringing to dinner parties). However you can also use the same recipe to make a tasty loaf of white bread! It might not be as good for you as wheat bread but its still better then store bought brands. This dough is great because you can use it in so many different ways!
If you make bread a lot (I make it quite frequently) you know what a pain kneading dough by hand can be. I prefer a little bit of a cheat and I use the dough setting on my bread maker. Since this is the way I do it this is the way I am going to give the directions. However if you are a hands on person simply make the dough by hand as you normally would (or look up how to do so). Without further delay...

Super Easy and Totally Tasty Dinner Rolls!
1c Water (75-80 F)
1 large egg
4 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
3 1/4 c bread flour
1/3 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tbs butter

If you store your yeast in the fridge (I have a big jar) take the 2 ¼ teaspoons out and place in a dish. Set this aside. The yeast will warm up a bit making it more active when you put it in the bread. Follow your bread maker directions for layering your ingredients. Mine go into the machine in the order above. My one suggestion is your flour. As you can see I use King Arthur flour. I LOVE this flour and use it for everything I bake. Their flours are unbleached, not tampered with, and are produced by real people on real farms. I think this makes a big difference.

Ok so you get your mixer going. I find that I need to add one additional tablespoon of water to my dough as it mixes or it is too dry. See what your dough looks like and if its not sticking together nice then add a bit more water. Now let your bread machine do all the work (unless of course you are mixing by hand then you get to work!).

Before Rising and After Rising

After its done you will have a nice smooth dough. Take a 13x9 pan (metal is best but glass works too. I actually bake in 2 8x8 metal pans) and lightly grease. Pull off small bits of dough and form into balls. I like to take the soft side of the dough and fold all the edges under so your rolls look nice and smooth. Place into pan and let rise (cover them with a towel to there is no draft). I let them double in size which takes about an hour in a warm kitchen.

The Rolls before Rising (I didn't take a post rise picture)

While they are rising preheat oven to 350. When ready baste the tops of the rolls lightly with butter and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. When they are nice and golden brown on top test to make sure they are done (I use a tooth pick). If they are then take them out of the oven, let cool for a few minutes, then take them out of the pan. Eat them! NomNomNom!

These are excellent for bringing to dinner parties!

Christmas tradition (and recipes!) in a blended family

2009-12-19T19:01:00.008-05:00

With the holidays come a spate of food traditions, among others. My family includes my four siblings, my mom, my dad and stepmom, and her ex-husband. With so many members, my family has plenty of Christmas traditions to share!

My step-siblings' father is from Denmark, and his Christmas specialty is Danish sweet potatoes...not like the orange potato things that are sometimes (incorrectly) called yams. I found a recipe on About.com to illustrate the tooth-explodingly sweet goodness of the potatoes Jens makes.

Ingredients:
12-15 small new potatoes
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbsp. water

Directions:
Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork-tender, about 20 minutes. Remove, drain, allow to cool slightly, and peel. In a large frying pan, brown sugar over medium-low heat just until sugar begins to darken around the edges. Stir in the butter until mixture is smooth and slightly bubbling; mix in water. Add potatoes to pan, shaking pan to coat them evenly with caramelized butter. Allow potatoes to brown briefly, 5 to 10 minutes.

Seriously, though, don't load up your plate with these like you would regular potatoes. You will pass out and wake up diabetic!

Beetus

My stepmommy makes baked beans every Christmas from her mom's special recipe. It seems weird, yes, but they pair wonderfully with ham and fill the house with the smell of molasses, brown sugar, and sweet, sweet bacon. Here is a recipe from Paula Deen (Paula knows about bacon).

BACON!!!

Ingredients
6 slices bacon, diced
2 cups chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cups brown sugar
2 cans diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 cup water
4 (28-ounce) cans pork and beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat until browned and crispy. Add onions and a dash of salt and pepper. Allow to cook for a few minutes. In a large bowl, mix together pinto beans, brown sugar and diced tomatoes. Add to Dutch oven and allow cooking. Add 1 cup of water and pork and beans to pot. Cook for 30 minutes.

Now lets talk about the only holiday tradition from my mom and dad that I can think of. The whipping of the cream. The whipping of the cream come with much fanfare. There is a big to-do that morning when somebody announces that they are CHILLING THE BOWL. After dinner we pull the cold bowl out of the fridge and whisk the ever-loving crap out of the cream (by hand), passing it around as our arms become too sore to whip.

Ingredients:
Heavy whipping cream

Directions:
Beat the cream like a fi-dolla ho.

Not pictured: paralyzing arm pain (photo courtesy Toni Metzger Horrace)

No, we don't sweeten the cream. It's so wonderful, and adds richness to every dessert without making it sickly sweet. It is also excellent to dollop into your coffee if (like me) you don't take sugar in your coffee. You COULD add a little confectioner's sugar, and you COULD make it with a mixer, but it tastes so much better sweetened only with the pain and suffering of your entire family.

Good Noms bakes bread

2009-12-18T13:30:00.011-05:00

The recipe I am using today is brought to you by Bob's Red Mill. On one hand, I like Bob's Red Mill because they produce a huge variety of whole grain and minimally processed and organic foods that are commonly available in most grocery stores, on the other hand most of it costs so much that you will look at a 5 pound bag of store brand enriched bleached cocaine-white flour that's on sale for like 2 bucks and say to yourself "How bad can it be?"
But all that aside - here is Wheat Bran Cranberry Quick Bread
Ignore the butter, it snuck in there somehow without me knowing.

2/3 cups flour (I used the all purpose store brand kind)
1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cups wheat bran
2/3 cups brown sugar
2/3 tsp baking powder
2/3 tsp baking soda
2/3 cups chopped nuts (I used some pecans I had left over and a bit of walnuts)
2/3 cups chopped dried cranberries (if you buy a 6oz package of Craisins, then about half)
1 egg
2/3 cups milk
2/3 cups orange juice
2/3 cups melted margarine or vegetable oil (I used apple sauce)

By the way, these are the best way to spend $10 at Target (or what have you).

I find them a bit awkward for everyday things, but for things like brown sugar these little canisters are the best. They are airtight and the sugar never hardens.

Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients and nuts. Stir cranberries, egg, milk, oj, apple sauce (or oil) into flour mixture, stir until just combined. Pour into greased 9x5x3 pan and bake for 60-70 minutes, or until center is firm.
Alternately, place all ingredients into the bread machine that you tried to get your mother to give you for about a year and she refused with the excuse that she might use it (before that it sat unused for maybe another 3 years) until she finally gave it up in the order specified by the manufacturer. Select "quick bread" setting (this just means that there is no extra rise time because we aren't using yeast.)
The bread turned out well. It's sweet, with a great shot of sour when you bite into one of those cranberry bits. It was still a bit too sweet for me (unless I'm baking cookies, cake, or something else that is deliberately supposed to be sweet I like no more than a hint of sweetness). I'd cut the sugar down to 1/2 a cup next time, maybe even less.
Overall it's moist, dense, with a nice grainy texture (the nuts and the bran probably help with this). PS - I imagine this bread would be as delicious vegan with the omission or substitution of the egg.

Even more delays!

2009-12-17T00:07:00.004-05:00

I will be posting tomorrow night instead of tonight, since I have been having a rather busy time of things getting ready for my journey East to visit my family and friends in three places that were once my home. I haven't been cooking anything noteworthy for the past week or so, I'm afraid. Just a lot of tacos (and you've already been schooled on tacos) and basic pasta dishes, plus, I ate some excellent meals over with friends. Tonight I'm making baked zitti, but I think everyone can figure that one out. Tomorrow night, however, is my last night in CA for 2009 and I will be roasting a chicken with herbs, vegetables and homemade stuffing, so look forward to the report tomorrow night (and be jealous of my young neighbors, for they will be nomming with me).

Om nom nom,

dangersecond

Finally!

2009-12-16T20:29:00.004-05:00

Pumpkin-pecan cheesecake!!!

I'll be quick with my blurb today!

Paula Deen pumpkin cheesecake recipe.
Substituted Pecan Sandies for Graham Crackers.
Candied Pecans.

Ingredients

Crust:
1 dozen crumbled Pecan Sandies
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room (softened)
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Candied Pecans:

1 cup sugar
1 cup pecans
2 tbsp water

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Crust: Pecan Sandies are brittle enough to crumble in your hands if you don't have a food processor (like me). Squish this together with the other crust ingredients and press down into a 9" springform pan.

3) Filling: Beat the cream cheese until it's nice and smooth. Beat in the rest of the wet ingredients. Make sure to save the eggs for last if you forgot to set out your cream cheese before you left for work and had to nuke it when you got home (not that you would do that). You don't want accidental scrambled eggs in your cake. Add the vanilla, spices, and flour.

4) Bake: Pour the filling into the crust. At this point you may want to watch out for lumps. I always seem to have a little bit of cream cheese plastered on the bottom of the mixing bowl at the end, and we don't want those making the cake look all blobby and gross. Bake for one hour, cool to room temperature, and chill covered in the fridge (ideally overnight).

IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS: Put the springform pan on a cookie sheet in the oven. I found that a lot of water cooked out of the pumpkin and seeped out into my oven, making it a little stinky the next few times I used it. Blech. Because of this escaping moisture, your cheesecake may tend to crack. It doesn't matter, because we are going to cover the cake in nuts. However, if you are lucky enough to avoid cracking during baking, cook the cheesecake 5 to 10 minutes less, turn off the oven, crack it, and allow the oven and cheesecake to cool. This prevents cracking because it limits the differential thermal contraction of the cake, blah, blah, science, blah.

Above: Science

5) Candied Pecans: Grease or line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cook the sugar and water to 310 degrees. If you don't have a candy thermometer, this is the hard crack stage and you can tell when it has been reached by dropping a little of the candy into a glass of very cold water. If it has reached the proper temperature, it will be brittle and crack if you pull it out and try to bend it. Stir in the nuts, pour onto the cookie sheet, and allow to cool.

That is, as you may suspect, a tangerine holding down my parchment

6) Finishing: Crumble the bejeezus out of the pecans, discarding any extra lumps of sugar. If you won't be serving the cake immediately after preparing the pecans, store the nuts in a container with a piece of toast so they don't get soggy, and garnish at the last second.

I have lied to you.

2009-12-15T21:01:00.003-05:00

I've realized that I cannot post photos of the cheesecake I've made for tonight's post! I won't finish garnishing it until tomorrow just before we eat it, lest the candied pecans get soggy in the fridge! Back tomorrow!

Regular Monday Post...

2009-12-14T21:27:00.003-05:00

Moved to Tuesday! Why? Because I am making a pumpkin cheesecake tomorrow night for our office Christmas luncheon on Wednesday! So tune back in tomorrow night, for either a glowing success or a terrible bawling failure! Wheeeee!

Home Made Cookies Are Always Better!

2009-12-13T12:00:00.011-05:00

The holiday season is upon us and if your like me that means it is time to make cookies! Cookies may not be the healthiest food you could be eating but if you make them from scratch they are so much better for you then store bought cookies or pre-made batter.
For the first round of cookies this season I decided to make 'Chocolate Crunchy Tops with Peanut Butter Chips". I did not make these cookies organic (I had everything in my cupboard already) however everything you need to make them is easy to find in an organic brand.

To make these little bits of yum you will need:
7oz bittersweet chocolate (chop into small pieces)
7tbls unsalted butter
1/2c sugar
3 eggs
1teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup coco powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt

1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Take a heavy bottomed sauce pan and add in the butter and the chocolate. Melt these together on low until nice and smooth. Make sure to stir them frequently so you don't burn the bottom. Once melted remove from the heat and stir in the sugar until its dissolved. Then add your eggs one at a time stirring well after each one. Add in the vanilla and set aside.
Sift together your flour, coco, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. If you don't have a sifter mix the blend together well with a fork to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Add in the chocolate mixture a little at a time. You will have a soft dough when you are done. Then add in your peanut butter chips and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge until the dough is firm.

Preheat your oven to 325. Take the confectioners sugar and place in a small bowl. Scoop dough into small balls and roll around in your hands to make a good shape. Drop into the sugar to coat the dough then knock off any extra sugar. Then place on your baking sheet!

Bake your cookies for 10-15 minutes. You know the cookies are done when they feel slightly firm on top. Let sit for a few minutes on the cookie sheet then place on a cooling rack.

My dough was a little dry so they didn't quite have the look I wanted but they still tasted pretty yummy! You will want something to drink when eating these I can assure you!
One tip, if you are using a regular cookie sheet be sure to grease it just a bit. I prefer an air bake sheet which keeps the cookies from sticking and also keeps them from burning!

Enjoy!

Good Noms bakes

2009-12-11T12:05:00.009-05:00

I've been craving chocolatey minty cookies ever since Tu and I finished our Thin Mints. My search for recipes proved difficult, as there are practically zero recipes not involving Andes mints or not being a regular cookie with mint chips.
So I present to you - Chocolate Mint Snow-top cookies.
I found this recipe online and thought I'd give it a try
it calls for:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 package (10 oz) mint flavored chocolate morsels. They didn't have these at any of the stores I normally shop, so I used Nestle dark chocolate and mint morsels. Set 1 cup of these aside from the rest.
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
I also added 1/2 tsp peppermint extract (not pictured). The chips didn't smell/taste that minty, and I wanted to feel the coolness. Keep in mind though that the extract is pretty strong, so don't overdo it.
Confectioner's sugar (optional)

Combine the dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar. Melt 1 cup of chocolate pieces. The best way to do this is over a double boiler, or whatever it's called when you put a smaller pot into a pot of boiling water. This minimizes your chances of burning. If you are feeling ballsy (or are thinking to yourself that you'll just take your chances since these are going to be baked into a cookie anyway), pile them into a microwave safe container and after the initial 30 seconds, microwave at 10-15 second intervals, testing after each one. Once I made the mistake of thinking that since the pieces were still keeping shape they weren't melted enough. I want you to know that through the pure magical power of deliciousness chocolate and candy will keep shape even if it's all liquid inside. So poke it before to make sure, or else you'll burn it.
Now you'll want to break out your Kitchenaid (remember me singing its praise a few posts ago?) Beat in melted chocolate, vanilla, peppermint, eggs, flour mixture (in increments). Or you can do it by hand. I did this time (my mixer is indisposed). Stir in the remaining chocolate chips.
Cover and pop in the freezer for the duration of time it takes to watch an episode of cheesy anime on Hulu. Preheat the oven to 350. Then roll your dough into 1 inch balls. The recipe says to then roll them in powdered sugar. I did this for the first batch (I only own one cookie sheet, shameful, I know). I found that it did absolutely nothing, because by the time the cookies are done baking, the sugar (assuming you got a nice, even coat) will completely dissolve and become invisible.I got sort of a clumpy coat' so you can see some sugar on them, but I skipped the sugar bath for the two subsequent batches. The cookies bake for about 12 minutes, or until cracks appear in the top. I undercooked the second batch a little, they are flatter and darker than the first batch.Yes, I have eaten nothing but cookies today, and yes I did get sugar on my lens taking this last photo. I like these cookies a lot, they have an excellent minty flavor, nice round shape (if you bake them long enough) and a delicious crispy yet soft on the inside texture.

A Tale of Two Pies, Part 2

2009-12-10T02:29:00.006-05:00

We shall now continue our study of pies from last week. You may ask yourself "dangersecond, aren't you supposed to post on Wednesdays? Why do you always post early on Thursday morning?" There are two reasons for this, my friends. First of all, most of my friends live in the EST. I live in the PST. Also, I get off work at 8:00 PM and have a lot of things to do before I get to use the computer, such as nomming. So it ends up being late at night my time when I post. This is my explanation. Now here is an explanation of french apple pie.

If you recall, I left you last week with one completed pie and an extra pie crust. For this second pie, you will need the following ingredients:

Five to seven apples (depending on their size)
1/4 Cup white sugar
1/4 Cup brown sugar
3/4 Cup flour
3/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
A dash of nutmeg
6 Tablespoons of butter

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Slice up the apples to be nice and small. I like to make them about the size of a thimble, like this:

Cut the butter into slices that are a couple of millimeters thick.

Put the apples in the pie crust in a nice, big mound (sorry, that's the only word I could think of). Then sprinkle them with the white sugar.

Mix all of the remaining ingredients together in a mixing bowl and stir them until the butter is all crumbled up.

Pour this on top of the apples.

Put your pie in the oven and bake it for 35 minutes.

The pie that will result will not have a standard "dough top", but instead a delicious crumb top similar to coffee cake. The only problem I ever have with this pie is that sometimes it becomes too juicy and I have burned myself with delicious, hot apple pie juices (man, this post is inadvertently sexual). So indulge with care.

Sesame Noodz

2009-12-07T18:43:00.005-05:00

Today...sesame noodles! Super quick, super easy, super tasty!
Sesame seeds are one of my favorite things in the whole wide world of cooking. The seeds themselves, sesame oil, sesame paste. They are all delicious and work well in sweet or savory applications.

THAT BEING SAID, I must warn you, sesame oil should not be used as cooking oil. This is not because it will catch fire or release poison gas or anything. It just loses its flavor, and you end up using too much to get a good sesame flavor and your food goes to the table way too greasy.

My sesame noodles have mainly Japanese flavors, which means the sauce contains sweetener. I use honey because it really imparts a nice flavor and yields a thicker sauce. You can easily use sugar or splenda or stevia or whatever other junk you have lying around the house, though. And my cooking pretty much revolves around using what I have. This sauce is rather sweet, so if you think you may want to cut back, add half the honey and taste.

A few other things you may notice are the following:

I've used dry sherry in this recipe. You can use mirin (rice wine) if you want, but it is just too hard to find mirin that doesn't have a gazillion additives. You can also use any other dry wine, or nothing, but sherry is my favorite.

I've used basil in place of going out looking for shiso and ground ginger instead of fresh (it was snowing in VA this weekend, and we are straight up plowless in our town).

Step 1: Ingredients

2 tbsp honey or other sweetener
1/4 tsp ground ginger or 1 tsp fresh ginger
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp dried basil
1 tsp sesame paste
1 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp roasted sesame oil
3 scallions
1/2 small head of cabbage or bok choy
1/3 to 1/2 cup of onion
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 lb pasta

Step 2: Sauce

Whisk together honey, sesame paste, sesame oil, tamari, 1 tsp of the sherry, and the spices. Chop the scallions and add to the sauce. Set aside to marry.

Step 3: Cabbage

Roughly chop the onion and saute over medium heat in the butter. Chop the cabbage while the onion sautes.

After it cooks down, add the remaining sherry. Because you love sherry. Turn this to low and let it hang out and soften some more. Typically I cook everything al dente, but undercooked cabbage is just a bellyache waiting to happen.

Step 4: Pasta

Cook the pasta al dente in well salted water, according to the package's instructions. You can use any noodle, udon, bean threads, soba, yam noodles...but again, it was snowing, and I didn't feel like heading down to the specialty store for the good noodles.

Step 5: Finish up

Add the sauce to the noodles and stir well. The add the cabbage and serve!

Good Noms goes Mexicano

2009-12-04T00:00:00.005-05:00

Say it with me: Me-hi-ca-no!

Before I get into the cooking part - let me say that before I tasted lentil tacos, I was skeptical. I am a big fan of ordinary tacos, with spicy beef, hot salsa and cool sour cream, mmm. I wasn't so sure that a vegetarian knock off could deliver. I am not ashamed to admit that I was very, very wrong. And so I present to you - a 2 part post singing an ode to the glory that is lentil taco ... glory.

Part uno - adobo sauce.

2 jalapenos or ancho chilies
1/8 large onion
1/3 can (2 oz) tomato paste
3 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp dried thyme
small pinch of ground cloves
smaller pinch (smaller than the one above) hot pepper powder, or chili powder

Tu (my fiancee) would like me to tell you that he personally invented this spice blend for your enjoyment, so be kind and don't sell it (without at least telling him), in case he ever becomes famous.

Without further ado, slice your peppers in half and roast them slightly in a small amount of your choice of oil. Chop up your onion and add them to your pan. Cook this until the onions are turning clear and the peppers are getting a bit wrinkly. De-vein the peppers if you're a wuss. Toss everything (yes, everything, including the oil peppers cooked in, and all your spices) into your food processor or blender with maybe 1/2 a cup of water. Get this from the Alps, your Brita, your tap, if you're adventurous, really your imagination is the limit, unless you're living in a third world country.

Part deux - tacos (makes 8)

8 tortillas
1/2 lb dry lentils
1/4 lb beans (optional)
1/4 large onion
2 cloves garlic

salsa
lettuce
cheese
sour cream
anything else you want to crown your glorious taco creation

Soak your lentils, and your beans (separately) for a while (overnight if you want tacos for breakfast). Once they're ready, start by chopping up some onion, mincing some garlic, and putting it all in a pan with a bit of oil on medium heat. Add your drained lentils with a small amount of water (it'll cook away, it's just to keep it from getting too dry/sticky). Cook for 2 minutes, add about half of your adobo sauce, cook stirring for another 5-10 minutes, until lentils are soft (and your whole household is salivating over their plates).
Boil the beans on medium-high heat until they become softer (this might take a half hour so a good idea to start this beforehand). Drain them, add a little oil and continue cooking on medium heat. They will begin breaking down (you can help this along by smashing them). Continue cooking, adding a tiny bit of water if needed.
When the beans are more or less mushy, take a spoonful and smear it on the bottom of your tortilla shell. Heck, smear some on the sides if you want. Go nuts. On top, layer some of the lentils. For toppings - I like to go in this order: cheese (first so it can melt), salsa (or extra adobo sauce if you're packing serious huevos), lettuce (so it doesn't go limp from the heat), sour cream.
Stuff your face. Repeat as necessary.

A Tale of Two Pies, Part 1

2009-12-03T04:21:00.021-05:00

Hi there, loyal fans! I recently had Thanksgiving, like many other people. One of the best parts of Thanksgiving is pie. I made two pies this year: pumpkin and apple, because I am very traditional. I shall now embark on the task of explaining to you how to make both of these pies from scratch.To begin with, you will make the crusts. This recipe will make the pastry for two (2) crusts. You will need the following:

2 Cups of flour
1 Teaspoon salt
2/3 Cup shortening
About a cup of very cold water
A rolling pin or alternative

A quick note on the the ingredients: I prefer to use wheat flour and organic vegetable

shortening, but you can use what you want.

A quick not on rolling pins: I don't have a rolling pin. I used a tubular, metal water bottle as one. You can also use a wine bottle, a sturdy high ball glass or any other rolling pin shaped object as such.

First, you must mix the flour and the salt in a large bowl. Then you add the shortening. The next is the first important part of this procedure.

You must use two case knives, one held in either hand, to chop the shortening into pieces about the size of peas. I was cooking this without a camera man (as the professional was visiting his grandparents at the moment) so I took a photo myself which does not look very good:

What you cannot really tell is that I am holding one knife in each hand and using them to chop the shortening up. I am about halfway done with my chopping.

After it has gotten to about pea size, you will need to put your hands into the bowl and knead the pastry until it begins to become a doughy texture. I find that uncooked pie crust feels a bit like playdough when you're doing it right. Once you start kneading it, you will also need to start adding the cold water, about a tablespoon at a time, to improve the texture. The whole operation will start out feeling a bit dry. Keep kneading away and dropping in water until it reaches playdough status.

At this point, you will split your crust into two balls and place one a

side while we begin to form the first from a dough into a proper crust:

You will notice from this photo that, like a rolling pin, I don't have any nice pie plates. If you are like me in this way, you can get these for a dollar each at your grocery store. Now, after lamenting your lack of fine pie plates, or complimenting yourself on them should you have them, you should take one ball of dough and start rolling it out. Throw some flour down on a clean surface and get your rolling pin or rolling pin like object and start rolling your dough until it is about the right pie crust thickness: a couple of millimeters. Not too thin that it will fall apart, not so thick that you don't have enough dough to make an entire pie crust. Don't worry if it isn't exactly the right shape. You can patch it later:

As you can see, I need a new camera for Christmas,

and this doesn't exactly look like a pie yet.

Take your oddly shaped crust and place it in your pie plate. Then begin the process of shaping it to actually look like a pie. Rip off the bits that overhang your pan and, using more of your cold water, attach them to places where you haven't enough dough and the pan shows through. Take your time with this and make sure everything is covered:

If you have enough dough left, you can make thumb prints around the edge of your plate for a more fancy look. Your crust should look something like this when you complete it:

You can make your second crust from the ball of dough the same way you did this one.

Next, we'll begin making the pumpkin pie. If you don't want to make both a pumpkin pie and an apple pie you can either make two of one or freeze the other crust for a later time. Then it becomes just like a store bought frozen pie crust.

Unfortunately, my pumpkin pie is a little fakey, simply because I don't have any way to puree my own pumpkin.

The ingredients include the following:
1 Can of Organic Pureed Pumpkin
1 Cup of heavy cream
1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 Teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Eggs

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Pour your pumpkin into a bowl. When you open the can, if you are me, a smush-faced cat will appear and beg you for cat food, and you may have to sacrifice a bit of your cream to make it up to him:

Stir it up so its nice and liquidy. Then crack the eggs in a separate bowl and beat them nicely. Pour the eggs into the liquified pumpkin and stir it up. Then add the cream and stir again. Add the vanilla, which is my very important secret ingredient that makes this pie amazing, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir a final time.

Next, you will need to pour your very thinly textured liquid into the pie pan and carry it into the oven. This is not so hard if you have a real pie plate. If you, like myself, do not, BE VERY CAREFUL. Like, as careful as you have ever been, because if the foil pie plate bends, it will be all over. Your pie should look like this before it goes into the oven:

Allow it to bake for about a half an hour. You will need to check it frequently because I have found that baking times are never an exact science. Test your pie by poking a fork into it. If it does not appear to be pumpkin pie texture, it needs to cook longer. Although the ingredients for this pie are slightly different than a standard pumpkin pie, it should look and feel the same as a regular one, and this is important. It will taste a lot better than usual, too :D

Here is the finished pie:

If you would like to make a vegan pie, that is very easy. I can, first of all, tell you how NOT to do it. Some sites recommend using silken tofu blended in a blender or food processor in place of the dairy ingredients. DO NOT DO THIS. Instead, use almond milk (in my opinion, the superior false milk for baking) in an amount of one cup instead of the cream. You do not need to add anything to substitute the eggs. You can make this pie without eggs and it will still taste great, if you are allergic to eggs. The texture will not be exactly the same, but it will be tolerable. One year, I followed a vegan friend's advice and tried to make a tofu pumpkin pie. No one could eat it. In the end, we had to put it outside for the squirrels. They wouldn't eat it either, which had never happened before or since.

In the next post (which will happen tomorrow, because Blogger and I are not getting along. At all), I will show you how to make a Good Noms apple pie. I had to rewrite large parts of this post twice, and import each picture three times. C'est la vie. At least you can have pumpkin pie now!

Lovely holiday apple cake!

2009-11-30T20:30:00.008-05:00

This cake is full of apples, coconut, and walnuts, and is so dense you could lob it at Santa and mug him for presents while he is unconscious and entering a brown-sugar-butter-sauce coma.
Okay, maybe that isn't a good idea. But hopefully laughter or outrage will make you forget the fact that I forgot my usual ingredient shot.
Regardless, I got this recipe after our annual bake sale at work. I don't know what book it came from, so if anybody recognizes it, do tell!

Step 1: Ingredients

Cake
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp brandy
2 cups sugar
2 3/4 plus 1/4 cups flour, divided
3 cups of apples, chopped
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup coconut
1/3 cup butter

Topping
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp brandy

Step 2: Prep

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9" tube pan. Peel and chop the apples. I used one and half ginormous Granny Smiths. Mix them with the 1/4 cup of flour, nuts, and coconut. Set aside.

Lovely!

Step 3: Beat the eggs well. Add the oil, vanilla, brandy, and sugar, again beating well.

Step 4: Sift in the remaining flour, the soda, salt, and nutmeg.

If you are a little weird about your food like we at Good Noms are, you'll probably grind your cinnamon fresh. Why do this and get the nutmeg out of a shaker bottle? Here's why:

After you grind your cinnamon in your coffee grinder, your next few cups will be extra delicious, infused with a delicate cinnamon flavor. Yum!

Step 5: Fold in apple mixture.

Step 6: Pour batter (which will more resemble dough than batter) into the pan. Bake for 70 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Set the pan on a cooling rack.

Step 7: Put the sauce ingredients into a small pan over medium high heat. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes.

Step 8: Turn the cake out onto a plate large enough to catch any sauce fallout. Jab the cake with a fork so that the sauce will soak in better. Pour or spoon sauce over the cake. I suppose you could serve it warm, but that would risk losing the sauce while it is still very runny and liquid. When it's at room temperature, it it nice and thick and won't ooze off as you serve.

Naked cake

Oh my.

Delicious!

Good Noms celebrates late Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T07:00:00.001-05:00

Today Good Noms brings you a delicious and natural alternative to the jiggly and ribbed canned cranberry sauce. This recipe is really easy to make, tastes great, and is a hit with most eaters.
You will need:

1 cup orange juice.
between 1/2 and 1 cup sugar. I used closer to 1/2 because it seemed 1 full cup made the sauce too sweet (for me) last time.

1 package cranberries

Heat up the o-j and the sugar in a pot so that the sugar dissolves. Add the cranberries.
You will then bring the pot to a boil (the skins on the berries will begin to pop), and then simmer it for about 15 minutes. The berries will begin to lose their shape, and the sugar juice will begin to turn red. Transfer to a dish and chill for a while before serving (but don't worry too much because we ate ours still warm this year and it was still good).

All in all I had to think a lot about what I was going to write about this week as my co-chef and I are traveling all over NY this week (say hello to future in-laws kitchen!). As you see with minimum effort and time even more delicious food (as opposed to traditional Thanksgiving fare) is possible. I also made a pie (which isn't Good-Noms worthy due to store-bought crust). Happy Thanksgiving.

Bruschetta Pasta!

2009-11-26T16:50:00.004-05:00

After the ups and downs of an extremely busy past couple of weeks, you, dear reader, are finally given a post from your third author: A.K. My needs when cooking are simple: I want to enjoy food the way it was meant to exist, to prepare as much as possible from scratch, to avoid eating foods that my body cannot handle and to make things as delicious as possible! I strive to eat all natural, all the time and to only eat "whole corn", meaning, to me, kernel corn or course ground cornmeal. My recipes may also sometimes lack certain things, simply due to my long list of food allergies.

Now, without further ado, onto my first recipe for you! I present a favorite, simple dish: Brushetta Pasta.

To prepare this, you will need:

Pasta. I am still using pre-prepared pasta, so I use about 3/4 a box. If you make your own, more power to you! Simply prepare enough for the amount of people you wish to serve.
Six fresh tomatoes
Three cloves fresh garlic
1 large onion
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
Mozzarella or parmesan cheese, to taste (optional)

1) Prepare pasta as one normally would, by boiling it in water with a little salt and olive oil, or however you prefer to.

2) While this is cooking, begin by chopping all six tomatoes, being careful to save the juices. I like to chop them into chunks about the size of your average dice (this analogy is made more complicated if you, like me, are a huge geek. I am thinking of a standard D6, geeky friends!). You can then set these chopped tomatoes aside in a bowl. I do this first to allow the tomatoes to sit and let the juices flow out of them a bit.

3) Next, I chop the onion and garlic. I like to dice my onions to be fairly small, but leave my garlic in medium sized pieces, perhaps two millimeter cubes. While you are making preparations, you should wash and tear up or cut your basil into small pieces, tearing or cutting each leaf into at least quarters. I usually simply rip herbs and greens instead of cutting them because it makes them less smushed, but the choice is yours. Set the basil aside once you have prepared it.

4) Following this, place the onions and garlic in the pot you plan to cook in with the olive oil. I generally cook almost everything except stews and soups in a large wok, but if that is not available to you, use a good sized sauce pan. Fry the onions and garlic in the oil until they are soft and they fill your kitchen with a wonderful aroma.

5) Add the basil and cook it in the oil with the onions for a bit so that it gets soft and the flavors mix. At this stage of cooking it is hard to give a time estimation, but I would suggest a couple of minutes, while keeping a weather eye on things and making sure to stir continuously.

6) Once things are fragrant and looking delicious, add your tomatoes. Stir everything up. Allow these to come to a boil and then let them simmer for about fifteen minutes, or until your sauce is of the desired texture. It should yield a very chunky sauce that has little in common with a standard tomato sauce, since there are no crushed tomatoes involved.

7) Serve over your choice of pasta, which should have been finished and drained at some point. If you wish, you may choose to add mozzarella or parmesan cheese to the top, but it certainly isn't nessesary. Season each portion with salt as desired. I like to add salt to tomatoes all the time, but my partner prefers to allow the basil to speak more strongly.

8) Enjoy. This is a good nom!

How to make delicious pancakes...

2009-11-23T08:00:00.008-05:00

...And make people love you.

The fiance and I have Pancake Sunday every week. It used to be Cinnamon Roll Sunday, but they are just too packaged and processed for us to buy.

NOW, before we start, let's talk spatulas! Unfortunately, you get what you pay for. This baby cost me sixteen bucks, but let me tell you why it is so great. Silicone or plastic is easier to get under your cake than metal. Metal doesn't bend or warp (as much) over repeated use/dishwashing. This one is a metal spatula with silicone on the outside! WORTH THE MONEY! If you are going to make flip-necessary food, invest in a good spatula!

Step the First: Ingredients!

1 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick of butter (we won't use all of it)
1/3 - 1/2 cup pecans (optional)

Step 2: If you don't have buttermilk, start by making yourself some sour milk. Measure out 1 1/4 cups of milk and add a tablespoon of white vinegar. Let it sit on the counter for ten minutes and get all gloopy and gross. The reason I tell you to use less milk than buttermilk is because buttermilk tends to be a lot thicker and make a thicker batter than plain milk.

Step 3: Grab a large frying pan. If we were a super fancy blog, we would tell you to pull out a saute pan. But in my house, it is a frying pan. Be sure to put it on the range at medium-high heat so it's nice and hot BEFORE you start trying to put pancakes on there. This way you'll have pancakes that are consistently cooked throughout all the batches.

Step 4: Using a whisk or fork, beat eggs until smooth.

Step 5: Add 1 cup of the milk and the vanilla and whisk that in until combined.

Step 6: Add dry ingredients and beat in. For the love of Pete, do not overbeat this. A few small lumps here and there are totally okay in pancakes.

Step 7: Take a look at your batter. It's probably too thick, so slowly whisk in the remaining milk until it looks to be the right consistency, like a slightly too-thin cake batter. You may need to add a little more than called for. The reason the batter should be so thin is to get a nice evenly cooked pancake. Not to mention that if you have kids, you can do what my mom did when my brother and I were munchkins; make freehand pancake shapes. Pumpkins, apples, and round little baby chicks were our favorites! Here's how it should look:

Step 8: Butter! Use about this much:

Step 9: Gently pour 1/3 cup of the batter into the pan. It'll make a 4" - 5" pancake. If you are using pecans (or blueberries, or grated apple, or CHOCOLATE CHIPS) sprinkle them on now.

Step 10: Watch for bubbles. When there are some nice-looking bubbles happening, and the edge is golden-brown...flip!

Step 11: Serve with a big glob of butter and whatever other toppings you like.

Step 12: Bask in the compliments of your family and friends.

Good noms presents chili (non-veg)

2009-11-20T08:24:00.024-05:00

If there is anything anyone knows about my cooking style, it's that I'm not much of a cook. I know how to make maybe a half dozen recipes from my head. Of course, I can usually follow directions well enough to concoct something roughly resembling a new dish, but the real chef in the family is my future husband.
With that said, I eat home cooked meals every day. This is easier on the wallet (everyone knows that cooking for yourself is cheaper than having someone else do it for you), but it wasn't always healthier. I gained a little weight in the recent months.
But we made a vow to make a solid effort to eat naturally, and healthily, and so I present to you an almost all natural version of chili!
Soooo you will need:

About 2 lbs ground beef
2 green bell peppers
2-3 tomatoes
1 to 2 large onions
2-3 jalapenos
1lb red kidney beans
1/2 lb black beans
1 can tomato paste
2 cups beef broth
taco seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic

You might notice that many of these measurements are not precise. This is because you can make a good chili a number of ways. If you want a hot chili you will add more peppers. If you aren't big on onions you can have fewer. It's like your own custom chili generator!
This moves us on to the next part of the post - or How To Cook Your Chili. For your sake and those you like to feed, I hope you own (or can borrow) a Crock Pot. Basically, if I were told I was going to a deserted island... with electricity.. or I I were told that my house were burning and I only could save two appliances... anyway, no kitchen should be without a Kitchenaid mixer and a crockpot. Why? Because if you have a stand mixer and good accessories for it you will not need any other appliance (except a coffee maker if you're into that). You might not save money (most accessories for a Kitchenaid cost as much as a stand alone appliance that does about the same thing) but you will save counter space. And a crockpot is essential if you like hearty, warm homecooked meals and have to work 8 hours a day.
Back to chili. We start by rinsing and boiling the beans. You can use canned beans and skip this step. I like to use products that are as close to their original state as possible, so ideally I'd go to the farmers market and buy some beans there (I miss NY) but that's not an option so I got the middle choice of beans in a bag from a store. You have to boil them for a minute and then let them chill out in a bowl (if you look this up, this is not only so that they can be more delicious, but so that you don't get a stomach ache).
Here are some beans that have been boiled and are now chilling in a bowl of water. They look kind of wrinkly and gross, but that doesn't matter because they aren't trying to win a beauty contest (only a deliciousness contest).
Next we will brown the meat. Allow me to insert another Kitchenaid plug here. Ground beef doesn't go on sale very often at our local grocery store. However, various other kinds of meat do. Sometimes for as cheap as a dollar. We got the food grinder attachment for our mixer and I'm pretty sure it's paid for itself by now (or very nearly did) in money we saved buying and grinding our own meat (freeze it for burgers, meatloaf (especially easy since it's a mix of different meats anyway), tacos, nachos, pasta sauce, the list goes on).
So we are browning the meat, which is super juicy because it's part leaner beef ground at the store, part more fatty beef we did ourselves. Use a packet of taco seasoning to spice it up (after you drain it). Some garlic can't hurt either, if you have it handy.Veggies are easy. Chop up those onions, peppers and tomatoes. Wear gloves when de-veining the jalapenos, or wash your hands and don't touch your eyes. Next comes the most difficult part. Brace yourselves. Dump all your ingredients into your (5 quart) crock pot and go to sleep (it helps to dissolve the tomato paste in some broth).When you wake up, it will look like this.
I served mine over rice. By the way, that much cheese on top of anything is not healthy. And the slice of what could be vanilla cheesecake is actually cornbread. Fitting, no? Bon appetit!

Welcome to Good Noms

2009-11-15T10:50:00.010-05:00

Hello, and Welcome to Good Noms!

For our first recipe, I'll walk you through my latest adventure in baking, an adapted version of Cakespy's Cranberry Bliss Bars.
My usual cooking style involves a lot of fooling around with substitutions, mangling recipes to my own tastes...and my fiance's pickiness. Therefore I present to you...

Good Noms' Cherry Bars!

Step 1: Gather up your ingredients.

Cake base
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon brandy
1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Frosting
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
dash of salt (omit if using salted butter)

Garnish
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cherries

Step 2: Preheat oven to 350º F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" baking pan.

Step 3: Cream together the butter and sugar. It's really important to use softened butter, not melted butter, because the creamed butter and sugar add air to the batter, giving the end product a better texture.

Step 4: Add the vanilla, and the eggs, one at a time. Beat well after every addition. Now is the time to add the brandy as well, if you have it. I keep a well stocked liquor cabinet solely for cooking purposes. If you don't have any brandy, grand marnier, dark rum, or some other sweet liqueur will work just as well.

Step 5: Add in the dry ingredients. I have added some baking soda to the original recipe for a more tender, cakey bite. Because I love cake.

Step 6: Cherries and chocolate. You can use regular chocolate in place of white chocolate if you like, but inexplicably, I like white chocolate better in some recipes. DO NOT tell my mother this. White chocolate is one of several foods against which she has a vendetta.

Step 7: Bake for 30 mins, or until golden and a knife inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean (or mostly clean, depending on how many chocolate chips you run into). Cool completely before moving on to the frosting.

Frosting:

Step 1: Blend cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a bowl slightly larger than you think you will need. The confectioner's sugar will make a bit of a mess if you let it.

Step 2: Add in the sugar a little bit at a time, until fully incorporated.

Step 3: Glob onto your cooled bars and top with cherries.

Step 4: Lick spoon.

Topping:

Step 1: In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips. If the chocolate seems to be too thick to drizzle, add a little shortening to thin it out. Don't worry, this won't change the flavor or texture of your chocolate once it's cooled.

A saucepan and Pyrex bowl make a good makeshift double boiler

Step 2: Drizzle chocolate over your bars. Cut the bars while the chocolate is still melty or it will crumble and your bars won't look as nice when cut. Cut in half lengthwise and into four wide. Cut each rectangle into two triangles.

Step 3: Enjoy!

Eat with a cup of French Roast for maximum enjoyment!