Hungry and curious

So FoodTv has this show called The Best Thing I Ever Ate and while that show has 'famous' chef's telling you what they enjoyed, I got to thinking. What's the best thing I ever ate. A few things come to mind.

A mashed potato bake my grandmother made for one Christmas, it was tangy and smooth - warm and comforting. It had cream cheese in it and she sprinkled it with paprika. I've never gotten her recipe and I'm thinking if I asked her now, she may not remember it. (It was at least 25 years ago)

The second thing I remember is a Tomato and Basil soup I had at Warwick Castle in 1997. Delish! It was warm, perfectly spiced and I've wanted to recreate it myself, but never had the guts because if it didn't taste the same, I would be disappointed.

The third, and decidedly the best thing of late is a sandwich I had here, in Des Moines. It's a grilled sandwich with great crusty bread, goat cheese, beets and prosciutto...oh my heaven. The salty prosciutto and the tangy creamy goat cheese, with the tart beets. SO good. And yet, I haven't been back there to have it again. I fear my memory of it might out do its actual taste. I don't want to ruin the sensory memory, but my drooling may force me to try again.

What about the best thing YOU ever ate?

Club Quiche and why I'll never be a good food blogger

So with Thanksgiving over and done with I still have leftover turkey. And last night's dinner was going to incorporate it one way or another. (I'm tired of moving the leftover container of turkey around) And I wanted Quiche. I love pie crust and have a pretty easy recipe for it. So leftover turkey, quiche...what could I do with that? I really only like turkey when it is roasted - so Thanksgiving dinner and then the only other way I enjoy it is in a club sandwich. What's not to like, turkey, ham, bacon...wait! There's my quiche.

Club Quiche
1 9 " unbaked pie crust
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup evaporated milk
4 T. flour
1/4 tsp ground mustard
1/2 cup shredded turkey
1/4 cup diced ham, bologna - whatever you got
1/2 lb shredded colby cheese, approx 2 cups
4 strips cooked bacon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place pie crust in 9" pie pan and set aside. In medium bowl mix eggs, milk, flour, and mustard. Blend to combine. Stir in turkey, ham & cheese; pour into pie crust. Place bacon on top of filling. Bake for 1 hour, putting a piece of foil over the top if getting too brown.


And for the reason I'll never be a good food blogger...I ALWAYS forget to take pictures of the process. Part of it is because my only good camera is a film camera and I'd have to wait a while before loading the pictures and the other part is that I'm too excited to eat it. And when I discover I want to publish it on my blog...it's been devoured and I'm too excited to post the recipe before I make it again to take the pictures. So there, that's why I'll never be Pioneer Woman. That lady has patience and a little OCD. Otherwise how else could she make her blog look so perfect?!

thepioneerwoman.com

Irony in a cup

So I have this lovely coffee maker;


And I love it. It lets me grind fresh coffee (and if you have never ground your own beans - you are not having fresh coffee...ever. Seriously.) And I can make it half decaf if I want - which I do because fully loaded coffee makes me shake now (who knew?!)

But this morning, I was so excited to try the new creamer I got;
That I forgot to put the brew basket in the maker. So there was nothing there to catch the grounds as they are air forced out of the grinder towards the basket...its not even like the filter basket was there and I forgot a filter (which I've done before too) the whole middle part of the operation was missing.

So instead of a nice steaming cup of decaf Parisian almond cream coffee - I had a counter full of grounds and hot water. Luckily I stopped the brew function as I saw the counter, so not all of the 8 cups of water that were in the maker leaked out on my counter, but when I turned the coffee maker on its back to get the grounds out of the crevices, I forgot about the hole at the top (in the back) that lets water out in case of over filling... so then I did have a counter full of water. (how many more times can I say counter?...it might be counter productive, but at least once more right?)

I would have taken a picture of the mess to show you here, but my counters are a faux granite type with dark flecks that look like coffee grounds anyway and you wouldn't have seen the difference.

Needless to say I should have had my coffee before making my coffee this morning.

Two Things You Never Want To Hear From the Bathroom

My daughter potty trained herself. I had bought the potty chair early so that she could get used to its presence and use it as a stool for brushing her teeth. She loved the stool, it brought her up 10 more inches off the ground and she could see into the sink and the wonder that is the bathroom counter. so when I suggested she sit and pee on it, she thought I was crazy. So being the kind of mother that believes in guiding her child to what she is ready for, I didn't push it.

Then one day she was on a merry go round at a park with her uncle when she fell off and scraped her right butt cheek pretty nicely. Well not nicely, it was a big scrape and I felt my butt clench and my nausea kicked in when I saw her in pain. But that night when I was putting a fresh gauze bandage on her entire right side of her bum, I suggested that it might be a good idea to go #2 in the potty as she wouldn't want to get any poop on her band aid.

I had no idea what my suggestion started until the next day when she should have been taking her nap and I heard her moving her potty chair/stool across the bathroom floor and I called up the stairs to find out what she was doing...the conversation went as such;

Me "Kirah what are you doing up there?"
KCM "I'm going potty."
Me, amazed but not wanting to jinx it "Do you need my help?"
KCM "No, I need my privacy."

I was exstatic. But then it dawned on me that she is going to be like this for the rest of her life. She will learn about something new when she wants to, she will do something new when she wants to. I love my little independent child. Even when she is booting me out of the bathroom.

But two things you never want to hear from your potty trained child when you ask what she's up to and does she need your help, "No, I'm going poopy and I'm fishing."

I was in that bathroom in less then .7 seconds.

Ordinary Taters

When I started this blog I wanted to write about food and being a mother. But I seemed to shy away from posting things because I felt they weren't literarily evocative...whatever that means. And after finding that I most enjoy reading people's blogs when they are the ordinary every day life moments, I realized my blog doesn't need to be award winning literature to be worth reading. I mean c'mon, people read tabloid magazines...not that I'll be posting pictures of people's beach bums while you try and figure out whoes cellulite that is.
So on with the ordinariness.

I've been working with a community theatre as their stage manager and have been away from home 4 nights a week. Which means dinner is either a frozen dinner at 9pm or snacks at the theatre. And I really am missing cooking for my family and the weather has changed suddenly so I am craving hot comfort foods. Warm soups and filling meals of meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I love potatoes. Pretty much anyway you can cook a spud, I will eat it.

So today I wonder...how do you make your mashed potatoes? What do you add to make them creamy? Do you like lumps in them? Or do they need to be whipped into a silky smooth consistancy? I'm curious. I have my recipe and will share that next post. I just want to hear how YOU make them.

Patriotic Food Fun

Crazy Pre 1950 Flag Cake

Crazy Cake:
3 C. flour
2 C. sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1/3 C. cocoa
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vinegar
3/4 C. veg oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 C. water

9" X 13" cake pan - sift dry ingredients directly into pan. Make three wells into the flour mixture. In the first well put teaspoon vinegar, second well add veg oil, last well add vanilla. Pour water over whole thing and stir with a fork. DO NOT beat, there will still be small lumps that will cook out.
Bake 30-40 mins at 350 degrees F. until toothpick comes out clean at center.

Frosting:
1 8oz. brick cream cheese, softened
1 8oz. tub cool whip
1 C. sugar

Cream the cheese and sugar together with hand mixer until smooth. Beat in defrosted cool whip. Chill. Take 1/4 of this frosting and spread atop cake for smooth surface. Add sliced strawberries and blueberries in flag pattern. Using 9" pastry bag and small star tip, pipe stars between blueberries. Using larger star tip to pipe white stripes after layering in sliced strawberries.



**I had no idea I was going to get exactly 48 stars on here. I wasn't planning any particular number and just happen to count them - but aesthetically it seemed to work out!

Soups On

Black Bean Chicken Chili

1 whole boneless, skinless Chicken Breast
1 can reduced sodium Chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes
3 cans black beans
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 T Olive oil
1/2 tsp celery flakes
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin, divided
Salt and pepper to taste
Flour for dredging

Season Chicken breasts with salt, pepper and 1 tsp of cumin, sprinkle with a bit of flour. Heat Olive oil in large dutch oven or heavy stock pot over med - hi heat. Add chicken when oil is fragrant and shimmery - but not smoking. Meanwhile put canned tomatoes, two cans of beans in blender to puree, blend until smooth. Turn Chicken when one side is golden brown, about 4 mins. Continue to brown chicken until nearly done. Remove chicken, reduce heat to medium and place chicken on plate and cover with foil. Add onions, pepper, garlic to hot pot, saute until onions begin to soften. Stir in celery flakes, rest of cumin, ceyanne pepper. Pour pureed beans and tomatoes over veggies, add other can of beans and broth. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Shred up chicken and add to soup, let simmer for 10-15 mins or until chicken is completely done.
Serve with shredded monteray jack cheese ( I used pepper jack) and Taste of Lime Tortilla chips.

This can also be made vegetarian with Vegetable broth and I would reccomend adding a red pepper with the veggies. Then saute them until soft in the olive oil as your first step.

Fruit Pizza

At the last potluck I was at, someone brought in one of those fruit pizzas on a cookie crust and while I thought it was delish...I wanted to make my own. And it was a huge success. (see above) So here's the recipe;

Crust
1 stick marg. softened
1/2 C sugar
1 egg *
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp vinegar
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

Icing
3 oz cream cheese, softened
3 T. cool whip
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1-2 T milk

Toppings
Strawberries, sliced
Kiwi, sliced
raspberries, blueberries, drained mandarin oranges, toasted coconut (bananas don't work too well as they brown quickly)


Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Cream margarine and sugar together with mixer, beat the egg in a small bowl and only add half to mixer bowl, beat in vanilla and vinegar until well blended, mixture will look curdled. Mix dry ingredients together and add slowly to wet mixture and mix until flour is no longer visible. Form into a small disk on a floured board and transfer to a 13" pizza pan sprayed lightly with vegetable spray. With a rolling pin roll out the cookie dough to the edges of the pan, about 1/8" thickness. Bake for 7-8 mins or until golden brown. Let cool completely before icing. Beat the cream cheese until smooth in small bowl, add whip cream, orange zest and powdered sugar beating until frosting consistency, using the milk to thin if necessary. Spread onto cooled cookie crust. Add sliced fruit and sprinkle with coconut. Serves 12. (or 6 as the case may be!)



* This recipe is actually half of a sugar cookie batch. So if you double it you can make regular cookies and use the whole egg.

It's been a while since I've been here. I started this blog so that I could talk about cooking and being a stay at home mother and it seems those two things have just taken over my existence and I haven't wanted to talk about them. Really I just feel like my relationship with food is changing. I LOVE to eat, but I am realizing as I am getting older, that really I should only eat to survive and do less of the eating only what tastes good to me. But then I go back and think I only live once, so why not?!
So I'm vacillating between what to do with this blog, I even thought that maybe I should change its name, because in all honesty when my favorite meal is meat loaf, mashed potatoes and garlic green beans, how gourmet is that?!

Eh well. I just got a great recipe for some Irish Brownies from a friend and want to make them today. But I have no butter in the house - and its too damn cold to go anywhere today - so here I sit.