Merry Mardi Gras!

I really love celebrating holidays.

Besides the major ones (Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter), I especially love celebrating the more minor ones (or totally bastardized American ones - like St. Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo).  Okay, okay, maybe "celebrating" is a generous word.  How about this - I really love at least somewhat acknowledging these holidays existences by making something yummy for dinner to represent them.

Anyway.

Today is Fat Tuesday, which means today is Mardi Gras!  Josh and I have never celebrated or even acknowledged Mardi Gras before, but I thought it would be fun to make something New Orleans-y (is that a word?) tonight.

I was browsing online this morning, looking for something to make but not really sure what do to or even what I was looking, when suddenly the word "etouffee" came to mind (not only have I never made etouffee, but I don't even think I've ever even eaten etouffee).

Completely random, right?  I don't even know where it came from, because it's not exactly like etouffee is a word that rolls around in my head very often (although, I'm wondering if I heard it on the Food Network recently).

I typed etouffee into Pinterest and, as usual, a thousand pins came up.  I literally picked this recipe because I liked the picture the best.

So, because I made something for dinner tonight that I've never even remotely tasted, I had no idea what to expect, but it turned out delicious!  It was time-consuming, because there were a lot of steps, but it wasn't hard.  It was really hearty and warm, and full of flavor.  It ended up being fairly spicy (Tabasco overload!), but even Josh liked it and wasn't put off by how spicy it was.

My only real criticism is that the tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce that the recipe called for seemed like an awful lot.  It's been an hour and a half since I stopped cooking this, and my house has a very Worchestershire-y smell in it still.  If I make this again, I probably would use like, half as much as the recipe says.

Along with the white rice, I warmed up a loaf of crusty French bread in the oven, which worked well for sopping up any liquid and bits that the rice missed.

So, since today is Fat Tuesday, which means that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.  I haven't figured out what I'm giving up for Lent yet, so ask me again tomorrow.  Until then, Happy Mardi Gras to you and remember: laissez les bons temps rouler!

Secret Santa

This is Secret Santa Week at work.  Last week, we all filled out surveys to help our Santa out - filled with ideas of our favorite treats, office supplies, magazines, fast food, scents, etc.  We could be as silly or as serious as we wanted when filling these out (one coworker wanted to answer everything with "wine"), and then we drew from the surveys to figure out who we were the Secret Santa for.

I was SO excited about the person I drew!!  She and I have similar personalities, so when I decided to be snarky and sarcastic about her gifts, I knew she would appreciate it.  For example, one of the survey questions was to name something we need more of, and she answered "time," so for Day One, I gave her a kitchen timer.  Under the category of things she can't live without, she wrote "pasta," so on Day Four, she'll be getting four boxes of different shaped pasta.

Did I also mention that each present also has a thoughtfully written haiku attached to it?

Despite her writing such helpful things on her survey, there were also things that I had to be creative with to accommodate.  One of her favorite smells is Warm Vanilla Brown Sugar, which is a Bath & Body Works scent.  Now, I hate shopping under normal circumstances (I mean, really hate it), and I especially hate shopping during the holidays (thank God for Amazon!), so I had NO desire whatsoever to trek anywhere near a Bath & Body Works to get something with this smell.  Another of her favorite things is homemade sugar cookies with icing.  I love cookie cutters to look at, but I really don't like actually using them.  I prefer cookies that I can just scoop up and drop onto the baking sheet.  Again, I had NO desire to spend an evening cutting shapes out of cookies for a gift.

Because clearly being someone's Secret Santa is all about me (*insert massive eye roll here*), I decided to combine these her favorite smell and her favorite treat into one gift.  I did a little Pinterest searching, and the Brown Sugar Cookies came to be.

Being that it was the first time I'd made these cookies, I stuck to the recipe exactly.  Josh, my faithful guinea pig and taste-tester, really liked them.  The recipe's description of these being a combination of a sugar cookie and a snickerdoodle is spot-on.  They're super chewy and the sugars that they're rolled in just before baking got nice and crusty on the outside.  I really like the difference in texture between the cookie and the sugar.

The only thing I'm not a big fan of with these cookies is their name.  I feel like for such a fun cookie, they need a much better name than just Brown Sugar Cookies.  I'm now taking suggestions to rename them something more creative than that.

Three dozen of these puppies are now cooking on wire racks.  Soon, they'll be packed into a bag or a box to be delivered to my secret person tomorrow morning (by the way, Coworkers Who Might Be Reading This, I am not your Secret Santa, so this post isn't ruining the surprise...and I think you all know who my person is anyway).  In case you're curious, here's tomorrow's haiku, just for good measure:

Homemade cookies, yum!
Brown Sugar Snickerdoodles
You don't have to share.

Thanksgiving Dessert Edition

Ohhhhh-kay, so it's been nearly a week since Thanksgiving, but it's never too late to post about a holiday meal that involved cheesecake, right?

I love cheesecake.

So.  Much.

Inside tip: I love cheesecake so much that, when playing the game Apples-to-Apples, if the red cheesecake card is played, I will always pick that one over all others.

I also love coming up with new variations of cheesecake.  Well, maybe not so much "coming up with" as much as "thinking of something yummy and then finding a recipe online."  Someday, I'll come up with something that hasn't been thought of already, but for now, there's always something online.

Thanksgiving seems like as good a time as any to make new cheesecake.  I've experimented with new recipes two years in a row now, and my toughest critic (my dad) has had good comments both times (which is astonishingly high praise).

This year, the recipe experiment was White Chocolate-Cranberry Cheesecake.

Oh yes, you read that right.

Not only was this delicious, but it was SO pretty (it helps that it was sitting on a pretty plate supplied by my mom)!

First of all, let's talk about that chocolate crust.  I used Nabisco chocolate wafer cookies (after a debate with myself in the grocery store about how horrible it would be to toss the chocolate animal-shaped graham crackers into my food processor before I actually found the plain chocolate wafers...seriously, I have issues), and it was fabulous.  With the bits of shaved chocolate blended in with the cookies - yum.  I've saved this recipe for future use if for no other reason than to remember the crust.

The cheesecake itself was really good, too.  I omitted the dried cranberries and amaretto liquor, but added in a generous spoonful of vanilla extract (homemade, by the way...insert pat on the back here).  I was hesitant about the semi-sweet chocolate mixed in, thinking that it should've been more white chocolate but you know what?  I was wrong.  Those little chocolate bits were great!  Baking it at the time specified in the recipe yielded a cheesecake that wasn't set quite as much as I'd have liked, so next time, I'll keep it in the oven for at least five more minutes.

Last was the topping.  I did exactly as the recipe said, except the raspberry jam wasn't seedless (it was, however, also homemade!), but it was all terrific.  It seeped into the cheesecake itself, and looked so great dripping down along the sides of the entire cake.

All in all, this cheesecake was a hit!  Honestly, I'm not usually a super huge fan of fresh cranberries, however the combination of cranberries with raspberry jam was spot-on.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday cooking and baking season, which is always exciting.  Stay tuned for upcoming holiday treat posts!  

And I hope your Thanksgiving was as delicious as mine!

Pancakes and Chicken Stock

Okay, okay, I know.  That's such a weird combination of things to be in one blog post, but there it is.  I made both of these things today, and I couldn't decide which to do a post about, so I decided to use one post for both (it's my blog, so I can write it how I want, right?)!

This morning, I woke up and wanted pancakes.  This is unusual because as delicious as pancakes are, they're not my normal choice for an involved breakfast (I will choose eggs Benedict over anything).  I think my want of pancakes has come from repeated conversations about pancakes with my co-teacher (her favorite food is pancakes).  Either way, I decided that today was the day for pancakes.

Because I don't make pancakes very often (or ever), I used the almighty Pinterest to find a recipe.  I searched for buttermilk pancakes, and just used the first one that came up, which was this.  The only problem with it was that I don't regularly keep buttermilk on hand, but I know that adding one tablespoon of white vinegar to one cup of regular milk (and letting it sit for 5-10 minutes) makes buttermilk, so I really didn't have any problem at all, did I?

As was mixing everything together, I had to go into my pantry to get more flour.  I saw that I had half a bag of milk chocolate chips sitting there, so BOOM!  Into the batter they went!

Oh yes.  That happened.  I know that I'm clearly not the inventor of the chocolate chip pancake, however, I was pretty excited that I found that bag of chocolate chips this morning.

Fast forward to this evening.  I made a fairly involved dinner of Lemon Chicken Breasts, roasted beets and Brussels sprouts, and lemony rice pilaf.  I'm only linking the chicken breasts because that's the basis of what I used for my chicken stock.

I used bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts for the recipe, knowing that I was going to make chicken stock after dinner.  The roasted chicken itself was just okay (not a ton of flavor, which surprised me, coming from an Ina Garten recipe), and I doubt I'll be making it again, but everything from the roasting pan went into the pot for the chicken stock.

I love making chicken stock.  It uses veggies in my fridge that are on their way to being done-for, and I like the idea of using all parts of the chicken.  Plus, it makes my house smell amazing while it's bubbling away!

So, as far as making the chicken stock goes, it's stupid-easy.  In addition to the bones, skin, juices,  and misc. chicken bits I put into the pot, I also added a bunch of mushrooms, carrots, celery, an onion and a half, and a head of garlic cut in half.  I put in some salt (only a teeny sprinkle) and pepper, as well as some dried oregano and dried thyme, then covered it with water, brought it to a boil, then let it simmer for about an hour or so.

Once it's done, I let it cool off for a bit, then strained it into a colander.  I filled up some plastic containers (I like the cylindrical ones for chicken stock...I have no good reason why).  They're currently in my fridge to keep cooling overnight and then tomorrow, into my freeze they'll go!  I'll be set on chicken stock for a while now, which makes me happy to know that I don't have to buy it for some time (win!).  :)

I really DO like lasagna!

Food confession: the foods that I dislike the most are the most seemingly "normal" foods.  The two biggest - okay, who am I kidding?  The only two foods that I truly dislike are Jell-O and marinara sauce on noodles.

What?!

It's true.  I hate Jell-O so much that I bought it for the first time in my life for Josh not long after we got married.  Josh was sick, and it was the one thing that he wanted while he was home recovering.  I wandered around the grocery store for a good 15 minutes before I found it, because I didn't want to actually ask someone where something as silly as Jell-O was located.  Then when I bought it, I followed the instructions to the T, and it still never set right.  It was only after I realized it hadn't set right that Josh asked me why I didn't just buy the little Jell-O snack packs...which I had to then admit that I didn't even know existed in the first place.

So, yes.  No Jell-O, and no marinara sauce on noodles.

WHAT?!

Due to a traumatic childhood experience involving random pantry ingredients and my dad being alone with a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old for a week, I was well into my twenties before I'd even try marinara sauce on noodles.  I was then even further into my twenties before I discovered that there was some marinara sauce that I actually liked!

Good thing that (some of) our tastes change as we get older, right?  Not only have I realized that there is a marinara sauce that I like (although, admittedly, I'd still really rather not eat it on noodles), but that when it's made with said marinara sauce, I really, really love lasagna!

I know that there are bajillion different ways to make lasagna, and everyone does it differently, but the one I go off of is Johnsonville's Italian Sausage Lasagna.  Now, the first time I made this, I misread the recipe, but my mistake ended up being the thing that I like the most about it.

Most of the ingredients and measurements are the same, but the big changes are these: I use sweet Italian sausage, an entire bag of fresh baby spinach, and an entire container of shaved Parmesan cheese (oh yes, an entire container).  The jarred marinara sauce that I found I like is Classico Vodka Sauce.  In this recipe, I use two whole jars of it.

The lasagna before!

Now comes the layering, which is where my biggest deviation from the original recipe comes in.  Rather than chopping the spinach up and folding it into the ricotta mixture, I leave the spinach whole and use it as its own separate layer.  My layers go sauce, noodles (which, by the way, I don't cook beforehand...I just put them in the lasagna straight from the box), ricotta mixture, spinach, mozzarella...repeat until all ingredients are used up.  I usually end up with two layers of everything, with an extra layer of spinach on the top, followed by a final layer of mozzarella, and the rest of the Parmesan cheese.

The result is this:

The lasagna after!

Is your mouth watering?  If not, then there's something wrong.

Here's an extra tip, too.  Because my 9x13 pan is stuffed pretty full, I always bake this on a cookie sheet, that way as it's baking, it doesn't drip all over the inside of my oven.

This leaves us with lasagna leftovers for days!  We had lasagna for dinner on Saturday night, then dinner again on Sunday, and I had it for lunch today.  There's also at least two more lunches for me left this week, too.

Oh yeah, PS - after pouring the marinara sauce into the browned sausage and onions, I also like to add a generous amount of red wine into the sauce (I actually had a random Parmesan rind that I threw in there, too, but that only happens occasionally).  I just use whatever I have on hand, which this time, happened to be a bottle of Goose Ridge's G3 blend (my favorite!).

Then we drank the rest with dinner.  That wine doesn't last very long around my house.

Squash Squash Squash

This Monday falls in the middle of a weird couple of weeks.

Josh and I spent the last five days in Southern California, celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary (which included two full days in at Disneyland!).  We got home yesterday afternoon, and by this Wednesday evening of this week, Josh will be down in Portland for work.  For a week and a half.

What this means is that I really wanted to make dinner tonight.  After five days of vacay and an upcoming nine days by myself, I wanted to make something Fall-ish and cozy and even a little more involved than normal for a Monday (today was an in-service day at work, so I got off work earlier than normal, so I had more time than normal once I got home).

The final product was this delicious recipe of Butternut Squash and Sausage-Stuffed Shells.  Yum!  It was full of sweet Italian sausage and ricotta and Parmesan cheese.  The butternut squash puree was fabulous - although I did pull the squash and onions from the oven after about 45 minutes, rather than the 50-60 that the recipe called for since they were more than fork-tender at that point.

I liked this dish a lot, but Josh wasn't such a big fan.  He liked the shells and the stuffing, but not the squash puree (however, he did say that he liked the texture of it).  I liked all of it!  I probably won't make it again exactly like the recipe, but I might play around with other sauces for it while still using the same stuffing mix,  The shells were too good to discard this recipe completely, so we'll see what happens!  Next time, I'd also add a lot more spinach than in the recipe (spinach wilts down so much!).

By the way, here's a sneak peek of the next blog post: Foods of Disneyland!  Keep an eye out for another post in the next day or so featuring the delicious things we in the Magic Kingdom!

Something Soupy

Happy Two Days 'Til Fall!

I love Fall.  My wedding anniversary is in the Fall.  Halloween and Thanksgiving are in the Fall.  Fall means blankets and tea and soups and casseroles.  Have I mentioned that I love Fall?!

As fun and wonderful as Fall is, it also means health screenings for Josh and me.  Every year at this time, Josh and I have to do a health screening for our medical insurance.  We do a mini-physical and have blood work done.  By doing so, we save some on our medical insurance rates each month for the next year.  It's easy and doesn't take much effort, except for the fact that the blood work is done after fasting for 9-12 hours, and with the hours that I work, I have no choice but to do this in the afternoon.  That means that I spend an entire day hungry and craving something rich and delicious for dinner.  

Having said that, Josh had a bit of an upset stomach last night, so he wanted the exact opposite of something rich.  He told me in the middle of the afternoon that he wanted soup for dinner.  Soup wasn't exactly the super yummy, rich meal that I wanted for dinner.  I decided that we were going to have grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.

I know, I know.  It's not really all that exciting, but stick with me here.

Instead of cracking open a good ol' can of Campbell's, I decided to make the Best Ever Tomato Soup from The Pioneer Woman.  Now, I've made tomato soup once or twice before from scratch, but within the last couple of weeks, I saw Ree make this tomato soup on her show, and it looked easy and yummy, so I just went with it.

Yum, yum, YUM.  Heavy cream, basil, tomatoes that I canned last summer...what's better than that?  Not much, actually, unless you add croutons and freshly shredded Parmesan cheese, which I did.

The croutons and Parmesan really just added that final pop to this.  It was warm and comforting and pretty much the perfect Fall food.  It was also rich enough that after fasting all day long, it really hit the spot for something more than just a can of soup.

Thank you, Pioneer Woman, for not failing me once again!