Presents under the Tree!

Okay, so I know this could be considered bragging (Level=Internet Blog), but the way I look at it, it's a foreshadowing of awesome things for Friends, Food, and Love!

My most exciting, food related, Christmas gifts since A) Santa gave me an electric mixer, B) my 2nd momma gave me a rolling pin, or C) my other 2nd momma gave me spring-form pans and an incredibly extensive cheesecake cookbook! (All of which have been used A LOT, whether you know it or not!) They were all from my parents (or Santa, whichever), and they are awesome!

First up, NEW RECIPES!!!

Yes, the picture is backwards. I couldn't find a way to fix it on my Mac. Sometimes you love 'em, but other times... Anyway.

Gordan Ramsay! I pretty much love this guy. Yeah, he can be an @$%^*!&, but he's an amazing chef, and when he's not being churlish, he seems like quite a nice fellow. 

For our purposes, I suppose the chef part is the most important.

MORE GORDAN RAMSAY! 

I haven't even had a chance to look through these guys, but I am SUPER excited.

And anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE me some Masterchef. It's the only show I follow religiously (just ask my excoworker, there were bets), and am constantly wanting to jump through the screen to eat the food.

My favorite contestant thus far (and WINNER! Boom!) has not published her cookbook yet, but you can rest assured, one way or another, I will be getting it come May.

Next up, something to prop Gordan Ramsay up with (or the cookbooks, whatever)!

I'm actually quite excited about this one. It makes me feel fancy.

Alright, so this one isn't suuuuper exciting (I'm pretty stoked though), more something every cook should have in her kitchen (I only said her because, obviously, I am female. Guys can cook too.)

I think it's a pretty nifty doo-dad. And now I can stop guessing when things are 'done,' and risking poisoning my boyfriend.

Now, for the pièce de résistance...

This is my 'ERMAGERD!' face. 

You are looking at a pasta machine. Yup. A pasta machine. I can't even use exclamations marks, I'm so excited.

Seriously.

And it came with a fancy bottle of olive oil, and a kitchen towel illustrating different kinds of pasta (not pictured). Pretty excited about that too.

I'm sure this has been terribly exciting for you (it was for me!), and I'm sure you are just dying to know what else I got, but none of it is cooking related, so I can't really go into here. I know, disappointing. I can say, Lovie is amazing as well. He got me a few things, but the best of which was spending the day smashing down the mountain, in the snow with him. 

I hope you all had an equally wonderful (or even more wonderful, who am I to put a cap on your happiness?) Christmas!

Until next time,

Snow angels and Gordan Ramsay.

*UPDATE* I'm paging through the cookbooks, and I LOVE that when I read a sentence, I hear it in Gordan Ramsay's voice in my head! Just thought I'd share.

Food Babies and a Merry Christmas

My next post was going to be about pork chops. Juicy, delicious, never-knew-they-tasted-this-good pork chops. But I also made some pretty spectacular chicken fettuccine alfredo tonight... But now that I have mentioned the chops, I kind of want to write more about how awesome they were...
So, SURPRISE! Double recipe post!



First up, we'll deal with the pork chops. I have never been a fan of them. I smother them in apple sauce, and even still would much rather eat steak, or chicken. I have always thought they are dry, not very flavorful, and just all around unpleasant. I have never understood how they come from the same animal as bacon. Worst cut of pork ever.

Little did I know!

The other night, Lovie and I went grocery shopping. I have recently been exploring the Internet and thinking and talking about branching out and wanting to try cooking pork belly (bacon is pork belly cut and cured, but many Asian cultures use the whole cut).
Naturally, your typical grocer does not carry whole pork belly cuts, as it is not really used in mainstream cuisine, so you have to make a special trip to your Asian market for this cut. I mentioned this while we were in the meat section, and he suggested getting pork chops instead. I was definitely a little nervous about this idea, and honestly, was not looking forward to dinner. But he really wanted to get them (we've been having a lot of chicken and ground beef recently), so I figured I'd suck it up. It's only one meal, after all.

So we grabbed a pack of 4 fresh pork chops, some apples (because even if I was going to suffer through, I was going to try to cover up the horribleness of the chops as much as possible), along with our normal items.

I needed some help cooking the pork chops, because I have never cooked them myself and had no idea how to tell when they are done, so Lovie kept an eye on the chops while I made mashed apples. The chops we seasoned liberally with garlic salt and pepper, and cooked them at medium heat in a pan with butter.
For the apples, I basically made a compote. I chopped the apples into thin slices, leaving the skin on. This is partly because I'm lazy, partly because I'm not very good at peeling them with a knife, and partly to add texture. If you cook them long enough, the skin will get soft enough not to be an irritant, but add bulk.

I put them in a small pot with just enough water to cover them, no more. I then brought the water to a boil, and added 1/3 cup white sugar, 3/4 brown sugar, and probably about 1 teaspoon or so of cinnamon (I didn't really measure, just sprinkled till it looked good). Then I pretty much just let it simmer, and stirred until the apples were soft, and the liquid thickened, all the while mashing the apples with the spoon. It is best if you start the apple mix a bit before the chops, or they will not be reduced enough when the chops are finished cooking.

When all was said and done, those were the best pork chops I have ever had. I was in love with them. Seriously. And while the apples added to the flavor, I would have happily eaten those chops without them. Which prior to this experience, I wouldn't eat a single bite of chop without some sort of moistening addition.



Okay! Now that we have gotten the wonderful chops out of the way, we'll move onto the Fettuccine! (I am way over using my exclamation marks Sorry, Mr. Burdick.)

I'm not going to lie, for this one I actually took a recipe I found on the Net and made a couple adjustments. This is the original:

http://www.marthastewart.com/865666/chicken-fettucine-alfredo

It's a pretty bang-up recipe on it's own. Absolutely delicious, albeit a little rich.

For the garlic and heavy cream, I usually simmer it a bit longer than 10 minutes, probably closer to 15, while I cook the chicken. I start these on the stovetop at the same time, as well as the water for the pasta, with a dash of salt and olive oil to keep the noodles from sticking.
I use fresh or fully defrosted chicken breasts cut into strips, seasoned with garlic salt instead of regular salt and pepper (are you sensing I like garlic/garlic salt? You may be right.) I think the little bit of extra garlic in the salt gives it a nice kick. Don't use too much salt though. And it's a good idea to pay attention to the fact that the recipe calls for unsalted butter.
This is something I usually ignore (I know, I know, bad Cook! Bad!), but with this recipe you have a lot of different ingredients contributing to the saltiness, and with the Parmesan you add later, you want to be careful. Also worthy of note is that while the recipe calls for white pepper, you can use black. Based on my web research, they are essentially the same thing, the white pepper just makes your sauce look prettier.

Once the chicken is cooked through, I add the heavy cream (sans garlic cloves) to the chicken pan without draining the butter or anything. After it heats to a simmer, I stir in the Parmesan, and let them simmer together at a low to medium heat until the pasta is done, and the sauce has thickened to a nice creamy texture.
The chicken and sauce are so good, I could eat them all by themselves! The pasta just adds a little carb bulk, which everyone loves.

I always eat too much of this dish, and tonight when we had finished devouring it, I pushed out my stomach and said, "Hey babe, check out my food baby!" Lovie's face was priceless.



Until next time,
Fatty sauces and a very Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!

Life

It's a journey we all make. The trailblazers usually go it alone, the lucky make it with a person they love, and others spend their lives surrounded for far too long by people who are not a positive addition. This is a great tragedy.

If an individual does not enrich your life, or at the very least does not hinder or harm your well-being and quality of life, they should not be a part of it.

I have been fortunate to have a great many individuals in my life who have made wonderful marks and memories. Some have come and gone quickly, a few stayed a while and moved on, others have established a more permanent residence in my heart, but all have been worth the time spent. This is a great blessing.

Tell the people who make your life better as much. Appreciate them. Even if they do not leave this world, you do not know how long it will be before they leave your life. More often than not, this is not a matter of choice, only of happenstance. Don't feel bad, it's not even usually a reflection on how they feel about you, but I've found that shortly after you leave each others immediate, and frequented circles, you start to forget each other. You both may think of the other occasionally, and wish you still had the kind of contact you used to, but lives take different paths. It's a constant regret of mine. You may meet for only a day, but the effect can be lifelong. While others, sadly, you can know for quite some time, and then *poof* they are no longer a part of your everyday life, and you never think on them again.

That is not so for my friends I've recently left. I miss you all terribly, and at least one of you crosses my mind daily. It's not the same as having coffee dates, or slushy runs with location scoping. Watching stupid movies, and making even dumber videos. I really wish I had taken better advantage of our proximity while I had the chance.

We all make the journey of life. I will have my adventure, and it could be anyone that joins me along the way. But I'm glad it's you.


Sorry if this was rambly.
Hearts and moustache mugs.

Blogger Fail

So yes, I suck at blogging, as is evidenced by the complete lack of anything resembling a post in the last... Month?

More?

Who's keeping track? Not me.

Anyway, while I'm not particularly good at blogging, I do cook. A lot. And by a lot I might mean once a day. But it's still more than my roommates. Whom I'm hoping don't read this. Actually, I'm 90% certain even my boyfriend won't, let alone the roomies.

On Friday, even though I was sick, I was feeling antsy, so I decided to do some cooking. Lovie and I had just done grocery shopping a couple days prior, and he was kind enough to indulge my desire for baking supplies. So I set off on a cooking/baking/mixing binge. Or, a sort-of binge. Binge-for-a-not-particularly-special-I'm-sick-kind-of-Friday.

First, I made my lifelong, childhood favorite holiday dessert, Raspberry-Cranberry Jell-O Salad. It's the simple pleasures in life. Creamy, sweet, jiggly, with a tiny bit of tart to make you go back for seconds. And thirds. Maybe fourths. Yummmmm.

Second, I made Cocoa-Doodles. These are not the kind of cookies you get from the grocery store, separate, and bake. These are the kind where you measure every ingredient, mix it all together, risk salmonella poisoning eating the dough, and then shape each and every cookie before you put them in the oven. These cookies are actually a family recipe that only my momma can take credit for. They're amazing, and if you have been lucky enough to have them, you can attest to that.
But no, you cannot have the recipe. It's one of those secret ones.
This is the first time I've made these cookies that they turned out EXACTLY how I like them. Soft, moist, and honestly, more like mini-cakes than cookies. The fabulous result was probably due to the fact that I got some tips from my (younger) sister, who is a PRO at making these, prior to starting. I could eat them for breakfast. Maybe I have.

And third, I made dinner. Nothing fancy, just spaghetti with a meat sauce and garlic bread. I'm not gonna lie, I'm in LOVE with the french rolls we get from Wal-Mart's bakery. They're made with garlic and parmesan baked right into the bread, and actually smell very fresh! I just slice one down the middle, coat with butter and sprinkle with garlic salt before throwing it in the oven for a few minutes, and it's deliciousness.

I guess my cooking binge was a little heavy on the desserts, but that's what being sick will do to you.


Stay warm this holiday season!
Hearts and Cocoa.

P.S. I'll try to start taking pictures of my food, but that will require more forethought and preparedness in my blogging, which as we all know is not my strength.