Kick Yo Ass Cookies

I have been talking about posting this recipe for months. Finally, I share the recipe for Kick Yo Ass Cookies. Try them, enjoy, and don't say we didn't warn you ;)

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp molasses

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 cups oats

3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup butterscotch chips

1 1/2 cup chopped, toasted nuts (combo of walnuts, pecans, and almonds)

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugars and add eggs, vanilla and molasses. In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients. After just mixed, add oats, chips, and nuts by hand.

Bake on parchment paper lined cookie sheets 8 to 10 minutes or until just done.

Kitchen Experiments

This weekend was full of deliciousness in our kitchen. First, I had some chicken in the fridge and some yogurt and decided I needed to find a recipe for a tandoori chicken marinade. I found one with tumeric and cumin and paprika and cinnamon and all sorts of other spices. I also decided I needed to eat lentils with dried apricots. So I cooked some up in chicken stock with some onion and dried mint and garam masala spice and then I added some fresh cilantro at the end. I don't know what got into me. I never eat Indian food, I've never tried to make Indian inspired food either. I was just inspired, I guess.

I also decided to experiment with puff pastry. I'm always hearing delightful things about the stuff, and I either don't remember to look for it at the grocery store, or when I do remember, I can't find it. Well, last week a box of it was sitting in the frozen food section at Trader Joes, just begging me to take it home. I put some squares of it in muffin pans and let it cook and poof up all delicately and flakily like puff pastry goes. And then I spooned in some chocolate pudding, some cool whip on top and then some chocolate shavings. It was a tasty first attempt at puff pastry. I'm excited to get some more and try different desserts, and even some savory dishes with the puff pastry.


As if there wasn't enough experimenting going on in our kitchen over the weekend, I decided to try making a little recipe for Gabriela. I cooked some lentils and sweet potato chunks in water with a dash of cinnamon until it got all mushy. Then I blended it up, added some breastmilk, and strained it so she has a nice smooth puree to eat. Today she is having this lentil mixture with strained mashed potatoes and a little bitty bit of carrot for lunch.

I am still trying to decide which food to introduce to her next.

Chicken Pot Pie

This is from my Martha Stewart Comfort Foods cookbook. The recipe calls for roasting a chicken and making chicken stock. I always buy rotisserrie chickens and then make stock from those. I just cut up a couple carrots, a few ribs of celery, take a whole head of garlic and cut it in half, a quartered onion, a Tbsp or so of whole pepper corns, and saute them all in some heated up olive oil. (sometimes I will add some fresh herbs like sage leaves or rosemary) then add the what's left of the chicken to the pan and put water in until the it's all covered and let it simmer for a a long time. Then strain it and make sure you separate all the chicken meat from the bones. (This is usually weekend cooking cos it takes so long, but I enjoy it and it makes for tasty soups or use in other recipes such as chicken pot pie).

So much of the time in this recipe involves making and chilling the crust. It is delicious. But, the last couple of times I've made this, I've just followed the instructions for boxed cornbread and dolloped some batter on top for my pot pie instead. It's much easier. If you choose to do this, make sure you don't use all the batter. Last time, I baked the left over batter with some extra mexican cheese and pickled jalapeños for a little snack.

So here's the whole recipe:

1 3-4 lb chicken
4 cups chicken stock
1 large yellow onion, split in half
2 dried bay leaves
1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 small bunch of fresh thyme
1 cup plus 5 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp salt
8 Tbsp (1 stick) plus 7 tbsp unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks
9 oz red potatoes scrubbed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
12 pearl onions, peeled and cut lengthwise if large
1 medium leek, white and light green parts only, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds and washed
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
6 oz button mushrooms quartered if large
1 cup milk
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp heavy cream

Enter commentary - use any potatoes you have, i never buy pearl onions, just chop up regular ones. And, i take the list of veggies for the filling as a guide. Last time we had fingerling potatoes, yellow onion, carrots, broccoli and peas in ours. Whatever feels right. I just used some dry parsley and squirted in some lemon juice because I didn't have fresh herbs or an actual lemon, but those ingredients work well if you have them on hand.

1. Combine the chicken, chicken stock, yellow onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, 3 thyme sprigs and celery in a stockpot and add enough water just to cover the chicken. Bring the stock to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour.

2. Pick enough thyme leaves to make 3 Tbsp. Combine 1 cup flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 Tbsp thyme leaves in the bowl of a food processor, and set remaining 2 Tbsp thyme aside. Add 10 Tbsp chilled butter cut into small pieces and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. While the food processor is running, add 3 Tbsp ice water and 1 egg yolk and process until the dough holds together. Turn dough onto plastic wrap, flatten into circle, and wrap well; refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3. Drain the chicken and reserve stock. Remove skin from chicken and remove all the chicken from the carcass. Shred the chicken into bite size strips and set aside. Strain the stock and set aside 2 cups. Reserve the remaining stock for another use.

4. Heat oven to 375. Melt remaining 5 Tbsp butter in large saute pan over med-hi heat. Add potatoes and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, 4 -5 minutes until the potatoes begin to turn golden. Add leeks, carrots and mushrooms and cook 4-5 minutes more. Add the remaining 5 Tbsp flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in reserved chicken stock and milk and bring to a simmer. Cook until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly 2-3 minutes. Add reserved chicken pieces, parsley, thyme, lemon zest, remaining 2 tsp salt and ground pepper; transfer to a large casserole dish. set aside.

5. Roll the dough until it is 1/4 inch thick and transfer to a baking sheet. Allow to chill 15 minutes. Make an egg wash: in a small bowl, whisk together the remaining yolk and heavy cream. Working quickly, place the dough over the top of the chicken mixture and tuck extra dough around the edges. Cut slits on top to allow steam to escape. Brush with egg wash and place on baking sheet. bake 35 to 40 minutes, until crust is golden.

Carnitas the Half-Mexican Way

I'm only half Mexican. I think this is the reason I find it perfectly normal and acceptable to cook carnitas in a CROCKPOT. I've never had good luck with crockpots in general. I just don't care for the texture or flavor of most crockpot dishes. In fact, the only two things I make in a crock pot didn't actually call for cooking in a crockpot. Go figure. But this is a total winner.
This recipe makes a lot of meat. You will have tons of delicious burritos if you make this.

Put the following ingredients in your crockpot

• 1 bone-in pork shoulder or butt roast
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 1 Tbsp each (I tend to put a little extra) cumin seed and coriander seed
• 2 jalapeño peppers, halved
• 2 bay leaves
• salt
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• Add chicken stock a little more than half way up the crockpot

Cook on low for about 8 hours. (if you don't have a crockpot, put everything in the pan, probably with a little more liquid, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer until meat is tender - about 5 to 6 hours)

Remove the oh-so-tender-falling-apart roast from the crockpot.

(Only do this step for the amount you will be eating right away) - shred some of the meat and place on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt. Pop it in the oven at 450 for about 10 minutes or until it starts getting brown and a little crispy.

Now you can make some rice, pop open a can of black beans and maybe add a little cumin, get some salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and cheese, and some fresh cilantro, monster sized tortillas, and you will have all the fixings for some kick-ass burritos.

Spanish Rice

This is how I make Spanish rice. Use this with your carne con chile recipe. OR, when you make burritos and especially when you make carnitas. I usually cook 1.5 cups of rice at a time.

Put a little oil in the bottom of the pan and toast your 1.5 cups of (regular ol’ long grain) rice. It will start looking a little opaque and also get a little fragrant.

In a blender or mini-prep processor, puree up ¾ to 1 cup salsa. Use this as part of your 3 cups of liquid to add to the rice. The rest should be chicken stock. It’s easier if you prep the liquid before you start cooking the rice.

Be careful as you add the liquid because it will start sizzling in the extra hot pan. Stir it up, bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and let it cook for about 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid.

If you want to get really fancy, you could chop up some fresh cilantro and add it in with the salsa/chicken stock liquid mixture. Delish.

p.s. Did you know you can even freeze cooked rice?? I was skeptical at first, too. But my mom taught me this fabulous trick when she was here helping us after Gabriela was born and stocked our whole fridge and freezer with food. I became kind of obsessed with freezing stuff, especially since I wasn’t sure how good I would be at managing my time working, being a mama and managing to feed our family. So far, so good.

Carne Con Chile

This recipe is super easy and good Mexican food. You can make it with some rice (let me know if you need a spanish rice recipe), or you could get really mexican and serve it over some eggs and tortillas for breakfast.

This recipe also calls for Caldo de Pollo, which is basically a chicken bouillon powder. I almost always use organic chicken stock from costco in my other cooking, but for some recipes, you've gotta bring out the Caldo. This is one of them. Sorry, this is also one of those recipes without any real amounts, but it's totally tasty and definitely worth trying.

Cut and trim some pork (loin, steak, or butt) - I usually buy tenderloin from Costco; it's way cheaper there than at the grocery store

Brown in small amount of hot oil

Add Caldo de Pollo - probably a couple tablespoons and a couple tablespoons of minced garlic.

When meat is well browned add tomato chile mixture:

• Blend serrano or jalapeño pepper in small amount of water. Add one can of diced tomatoes and blend even more.

Add to browned pork.

Add one can of water.

Allow to simmer until meat is very tender.

You can also throw in some chopped zucchini in the sauce. We made this for my nieces once and weren't sure how they'd handle the spicy. So, we transferred some of the browned meat (and garlic and Caldo) into a separate container with just squash and tomato sauce, and then added the jalapeño for the adults. It was a hit.

I have also frozen this dish and it was just as good the second time around.

Black Bean Stoup - Courtesy of Rachael Ray

I admit it, Rachael Ray is kind of kooky. But she never fails me with the good recipes. She calls things "stoups" that are thicker than a soup but not as thick as a stew. This recipe is totally easy. It's hardly any effort to double the recipe and it freezes really well. I usually put a bunch of (cooled) left over soup in a freezer ziploc bag and let it freeze flat. I hope you like it as much as we do over here. And let me know if you try it. I always love to hear that people enjoy recipes I share!

Black Bean Stoup (single recipe)
2 Tbsp EVOO
1 large onion, chopped
3 ribs of celery
4 cloves of garlic
1 jalapeño (you could leave out the pepper if you like stuff less spicy)
1 bay leaf
1 red bell pepper (I like to buy bags of frozen chopped bell peppers from TraderJoes. They are red, yellow, and green bell peppers)
3 15 oz. cans black beans
2 Tbsp cumin
1.5 tsp coriander
salt & pepper
2-3 Tbsp hot sauce
1 quart veggie stock (I always use chicken stock)
1 can diced tomatoes

Heat oil. Add onion, celery, garlic, jalapeño and bay leaf. Cook 3 to 4 minutes. Add red bell peppers. Add 2 drained cans of beans and mash up the 3rd can before adding to the soup. Add cumin, coriander, salt and pepper, and hot sauce. Add stock and tomatoes. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes on low. For extra zest, add some lime juice at the very end.

We like to serve this soup with some cornbread (out of the box!) or quesadillas.

It's Recipe Time!!

This is for all you Pesto Lovers out there... Courtesy of The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen. This recipe is so easy, you'll be able to make it sans recipe card in no time

3 packed cups fresh basil leaves
3 to 4 large cloves of garlic
1/3 cup lightly toasted pine nuts or walnuts (optional)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 grated parmesan
salt & pepper to taste

1. Place the basil leaves and garlic in a food processor or blender, and mince well.
2. Add the nuts, if desired, and continue to blend until the nuts are finely ground (trust me, you desire the nuts)
3. Keep the machine running as you drizzle in the olive oil. When you have a smooth paste, transfer to a bowl and stir in the parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. To serve on pasta, place room-temp pesto in a warmed serving bowl. add hot pasta and toss thoroughly Instead, I usually mix a ladle full of hot pasta cooking water in with the pesto and then mix that in with the pasta.

When I make pesto, I always put in a healthy squirt of lemon juice. I also always dump in a ton of fresh spinach in the serving dish along with the cooked pasta. You can even cut up some zucchini and/or asparagus spears and throw them in with the pasta water at the last minute...or even peas. Just last night we had pesto with fresh spinach and halved grape tomatoes and don't forget to save some extra toasted nuts to sprinkle on top all pretty. use whole wheat penne mmmm....

You can even freeze some pesto sauce for a super easy dinner another night. Can you tell this is one of my favorite things to make???

Try it!!

Easy Delicious Breakfast

Lane and I have rediscovered the wonder that is oatmeal. Okay, I admit it. It doesn't sound terribly exciting. But it can be! I cook dried fruit up with the oats - usually cranberries and chopped apricots. This gives them a chance to get all nice and plump. After your oats are cooked (like 5 minutes), serve it up in bowls. You can add in cinnamon, fresh ground nutmeg, some fresh fruit (like a diced peach or banana), and my favorite addition that I learned from my sister, Cynthia: a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter. Some chopped nuts on top never hurt anyone either. It's so delicious AND flavorful without any butter or sugar. Although, Lane likes to drizzle his with honey.

A couple times a week, I'll bring a ziploc bag to work with my measured out oats, dried fruit, cinnamon and nutmeg, dump it in a mug with water and cook it in the microwave for 2 minutes. mmmm.

Weekend in the Kitchen

Since it's been almost two whole weeks, without any mention of my kitchen adventures, I thought it was time to share.

Lane was feeling under the weather this weekend, so we stayed in and he rested. Thank goodness he's sick now, instead of next week. So I made him a HUGE pot of chicken soup.

Yesterday, I made banana bread, but just for the fun of it tossed in a bunch of fresh cranberries. Hadn't ever tried that before. After I tasted it, I wish I had put in more cranberries. They are wonderfully tart bursts of flavor. I decided plain banana bread is just boring.

But the grand finale of the weekend kitchen adventures was my butternut squash ravioli. On Saturday I roasted the squash and made the filling. Lane and I cheated by using wonton wrappers as the pasta. We cooked them up in a delicious sage butter sauce with red pepper flakes and garlic. We finished them off with toasted pine nuts. Lane made a salad with fresh apple slices, goat cheese, dried cranberries and pecans. We are definitely making this recipe again.

....

So, in my (long ago) 100 things about me post, I shared that I always have weird dreams. Here's a little tidbit to give you the picture: I had this dream that I was supposed to be at work, but was with my mom in Santa Cruz instead at this little international crafts bazaar and then remembered I should call work. She handed me her cell phone which was this oversized big yellow, juicy half pear shaped number. When I pressed the buttons they squished around and I couldn't remember who my boss was or who to call. The next thing I knew, Lane and I were at our apartment and someone was banging on the door. We opened it up to some really raggedy looking neighbors this one guy immediately punched Lane in the face. I gasped in horror and tried to yell at him, but nothing would come out. This guy stormed inside and started yelling at Lane for stealing his 3/4 cup measurer.

??? I don't get it either.

Solar Decathlon & Pizza

Lane and I had enjoyed our weekend together. Since he's worked extremely long days all week, I started staying late at work to get more done. I was prepared to do the same on Friday, when Lane called saying he was leaving at 5 and that his work was paying for a night of bowling madness. I could not have left work sooner. I was so excited he was leaving at a decent hour and that we were going to have fun.


Little did I know that I was the suckiest bowler in all of Virginia. My total score for a whole game was only 46!! But I more than doubled my score in the next couple of games. We had a blast. His work paid for everything, so people were playing game after game and ordering tons of drinks and food. Good times.


Saturday morning Lane declared he was not going in to work. yay!! We went to the national mall to check out the solar decathlon. 20 different schools competed by building fully functional solar powered homes that were on display for walk-thru tours. There were a series of 10 competitions for things like generating the most hot water, cooking a full meal and entertaining in the home, the market value, and all sorts of other things. We checked out our friend Scott's school and took pictures since he couldn't be there like he was hoping. We would have really liked to see him! I was fascinated touring the homes. They were built using all sorts of recycled materials - one house used recycled shredded denim for insulation and kitchen countertops made out of cement and recycled glass. There were systems set up to harness the rain water and use it on plants outside the homes. I would *totally* buy a solar powered home. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem very realistic because it's just not mainstream. I imagine that it would be SO expensive to design and get all the materials and have just one happy environmentally friendly solar powered home built. But it's totally the way to go. Here's the website so you can read all about it: http://www.solardecathlon.org/


We went across the street to Kabob Palace on Saturday night where we were happily greeted by our waiter from the first time we went (almost a year ago). He shook our hands and welcomed us, asking where we'd been for so long, and gave us samosas were on the house. Our kubideh and kabobs were simply delightful, as usual.


Unfortunately, Lane did go into work on Sunday. When he was gone I made pizza dough, pizza sauce, and prepared goodies for making pizzas. Lane thought of an awesome combination - i was so proud. He used fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and goat cheese. It was creamy deliciousness. Mine, on the other hand was spicy sausage, marinated mushrooms and feta cheese - not nearly as exciting. I couldn't resist taking pictures of Lane's culinary genius.

Kitchen Experiment

Last night I was looking on the food network for a good teriyaki marinade, and got really upset when practically every teriyaki search result was for teriyaki sauce, already made. So I decided to do something all together different.

I cut a few skinny tri tip steaks into cubes and doused them with Montreal Steak Seasoning and then cooked them with a little sesame oil.

When they were almost done, i removed them from the pan and covered them in foil, so they'd contine to cook up.

I put a huge onion in the pan, scraped the bottom of it to get all the seasonings up and poured some chicken stock in it until the onions absorbed it all and were really sweet and tasty.

Here's where I used help from Trader Joe's, I poured in 3/4 bottle of General Tso Stir Fry sauce, put the meat back, cooked it a few more minutes and served it with jasmine rice. We had edamame and fresh pineapple also.

the end.

Cilantro Garlic Flank Steak

I made this up the other night and the results were fantastic :) Try it!

I basically made a pesto sauce, but with cilantro instead of basil.

In a food processor, put about 8-10 cloves of garlic - mince them up and then add an entire bunch of cilantro. Mix this together. Drizzle in some olive oil while the processor is running until it makes a nice spreadable paste. It will be an amazingly vibrant green, which is just super pretty :)

Sprinkle grill seasonings (like Montreal Steak Seasoning) on both sides of a flank steak. Generously spread the cilantro mixture on both sides of the steak as well. Let it marinate for about 30 minutes. Grill the steak for approx 7 minutes on each side.

mmmm.

The Unthinkable Kitchen Catastrophe

Yesterday the unthinkable happened in my kitchen. People, I ran out of garlic. We had used the last of the fresh garlic the other day and I had just scraped the last bit of crushed garlic out of our quart sized jar from Gilroy (the garlic capital of the world). I don't think this has ever happened to me before. Alas.

Aside from this mild catastrophe, I put together a new dish last night. Heated up some olive oil with red pepper flakes and then added the fresh green beans for some saute action. After they'd cooked a couple minutes I added a couple tablespoons of soy sauce, some fresh grated ginger and then drizzled it all with honey. They were delicious - a little spicy, salty and sweet all together. You should try it.

And since I'm on a kitchen theme here, have you ever eaten grilled pineapple? My cousin grilled some fresh pineapple over the weekend. The sweetness is so much more intense, and the warm sweet tender fruit is unbelievable. I've got to try it at home soon. Add some green beans, some basmati rice and maybe some teriyaki chicken and i'll be good to go.