Grilled Stuffed Jalapeños

Hey folks!

One of my favorite cookbooks is a 30 Minute Meals Cooking Light cookbook.  It was the first one I ever bought and has the best light dishes I've found as a whole in a cookbook.  I am subscribing to the magazine now!  I picked one up last weekend and found a bunch of recipes that include vegetables I'm growing in my new garden. 

Jalapeños are one of the vegetables I've included in my urban garden but I'm not really sure what to do with them.  I don't particularly enjoy having my eyes water, throat burn, or choking on unnecessarily spicy foods.  The reason I love food is because it tastes good.  I want to enjoy the cheesy queso dip, not sweat to death while eating it because there are habanero peppers in it. 

MMMMM Queso!

OK... back on track...

My Cooking Light magazine (July 2011 issue) has a recipe for Grilled Stuffed Jalapeños.  I originally wanted to make this so I could use more than one pepper at a time from my garden.  They are coming up very quickly.

I made the stuffing first.  2 slices of crumbled bacon, 1/2 cup of cream cheese, 1/2 cup fat-free cream cheese, 1/4 cup of shredded sharp cheddar, 1/4 cup minced green onions, 1 tsp lime juice, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 small garlic clove.

That was easy!  Ok, next step, slice 14 peppers, halve them length-wise and seed them. 

That bit was more physically challenging for me.  Cutting and seeding Jalapeños makes your throat burn - kind of like how slicing onions affects your eyes.  BEWARE.  Also, I sliced off the tops of the peppers rendering them ineffective at holding anything "inside".  Especially a melty cheese mix, which if you have been paying attention, goes in these suckers.

In the months I've been cooking I've come up with one great idea.  For stuffing the peppers I decided to put the cheese mix in a zip lock bag and cut a hole in the corner to squeeze the stuffing out.  I stuffed them like I would ice a cupcake!  Brilliant.  Feel free to steal that idea.  I'm starting to visualize the consequences of my actions.  I thought ahead about what kind of disaster I would create trying to "spoon" the cheese mixture in the pepper.  The mental image wasn't pretty and involved a mop, tears, and a cheese covered spoon stuck to the wall.  See?  I'm learning.

It's time to grill!! I know you might be worried about me being around an open flame, but I did just fine.

I put them on the grill about 5-8 minutes and they blackened on the bottom and the cheese browned a bit.  Some cheese slid off the peppers that could not contain it due to my overeagerness with the kitchen knife.  That cheese didn't brown.  It caked onto the bottom of the grill.

I figured these would be insanely spicy and I would hate them.  I actually really really liked these!  They are spicy but not overwhelmingly so.  You could taste the cheese and the sting from the spice went away quickly.  Seriously, these were so good. 

Please try these and let me know how it goes!! Gracias!

My Garden

Hey folks! I know it's been awhile.  I've been working, traveling to California and engulfed in my new project... gardening!

Like other "womanly" activities that one might expect girls to naturally possess, gardening is one that I must teach myself.  When it comes to houseplants it is a known fact I have the black thumb of death.  I can kill fake flowers.  It's really that bad.  I have no knowledge of plant germination periods much less what some vegetables even look like.  Did you know squash grows above ground?  I bet you did.

Since gardening goes hand-in-hand with cooking, I wanted to make a post about my "progress" on the blog!

My apartment has something called an Urban Garden centrally located in the apartment complex with 20-something slots.  I was on the waiting list for about 5 months and now have my own patch.  After pulling weeds for an hour I was ready to go.

At first I planted basil.  I figured it wouldn't grow so I planted the entire packet in two rows.  I took statistics and knew I was going to at least get one plant out of those odds.  After giving one basil plant away and using 3 cups of basil leaves for pesto I still have five plants that are each 2 feet tall.  Basil is great to include in your garden when you need a swift validation of your gardening ability... or to hide a small child.

I planted red and green bell peppers...

... and Eggplant which I plan to make one of my favorites - Eggplant Parmesan!!

I also included jalapeños!  I am going to be making jalapeño poppers this week so stay posted...

Lastly, I included yellow summer squash.  I bought two plants and put them at the end of my garden.  This is embarrassing to admit but for some reason I assumed they would grow underground.  Imagine my surprise when I see the largest squash ever squashing (ironic?) the bell pepper plant next to it.  What is this sucker doing above ground?! Ectopic pregnancy??

The picture below is the plant after I've picked the squash (squashes... squashies... squai??) and cut the stems back.  I'll have you know, not two days later the stems grew back threefold.

So, as it stands now, my gardening project is going well and providing fresh vegetables for me to use in the kitchen.  I'll be back later this week to detail the poppers and hopefully the eggplant parmesan!

If you have any tips - feel free to leave comments below.

Thin-Crust Skillet Pizza

Hey everyone!  I know it's been awhile.  I've been traveling the world, going to trade shows, developing my own cooking show on TLC and starting my own restaurant. 

Just Kidding.

I know you've probably been frantic about where I was since you are aware of my tendency to injure myself.  Don't worry my fellow chefs, all is well in the kitchen.  I've just been {enter excuse here}.

This week I made a Skillet Thin Crust Pizza.  My dad accidentally left a Cook's magazine at my apartment full of skillet-made recipes.  I think this is a conspiracy to get me to try these, like them, and then make them for him.  It would only be more obvious if he marked the pages of the recipes he was "going to try to make himself".

The thought of making a time-consuming tasty dinner like pizza all in a stove-top skillet in under 30 minutes sounded great!

First, I diced 4 medium tomatoes, salted them, and let them drain on a paper towel for 10 minutes.  I suggest putting the salt in the dough instead of tomatoes.  It'll give the crust more flavor... or do both.  I don't care.  I'm not the boss of you.  (Or, am I?)

Next, I mixed 1 cup of fat-free shredded mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cup of shredded parmesan and 1/2 cup of chopped basil.  Don't use fat-free cheese.  You'll see.

While that drained I started the dough.  1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, sugar and add the salt here if you want.  Mix ingredients in a food processor.  My food processor decided it didn't want to work.  It's fine, I'll just transfer it to the blender.  I think this is where it went wrong.  Most of my ingredients fell on the floor during this process. 

While blender-ing you slowly add in 1/3 cup of beer.  I opened a Sam Adam's Light when I started the recipe but had to open another by the time I got to this step.  After the beer... 7 tbsps of olive oil.  SEVEN?! I think I could've put three and we would've been OK. 

Flour hands and counter (and floor and chair and stove if you have containment issues when it comes to flour), roll dough into a tight ball and loosely cover with saran wrap for about 10 minutes.  When the dough is ready, slice in two and roll out into 9-inch circle. 

Now, heat some olive oil in a skillet till it just starts to smoke.  Add dough and make sure to poke holes in any bubbles.  This is the fun part!

Cook until bottom is golden-brown and then flip!  They made the flipping part look easy but my crust did not want to stay together because it was ultra-flaky.  I like flaky so it worked for me. 

After you flip, immediately add 1/2 the cheese and tomatoes and put the lid on so the cheese will melt in the time the bottom browns. 

This is where we run into issues with the fat-free cheese.  Because it is made from... ?... it doesn't melt in the heat our ovens and stoves produce.  Nuclear energy might be able to melt it.  Maybe.   Finished product:

I definitely want to try the crust again but experiment with my own toppings.  I didn't think it had a whole lot of flavor.  Maybe I'll try putting meat on it as well, though that would require another skillet. 

Let me know if you guys try it and how it works for you!

Agnolotti: Foodie's Word for Ravioli

Hello Everyone!! 

No PHYSICAL accidents this week to tell you about!  However, my clumisness took a turn for the worst.  If you know me at all then you know I must have my glass of wine within arms reach while I'm cooking (It helps bring out my inner sous chef). I elbowed my wine glass onto the stove.  I know it looks like murder.  Let us take a moment of silence for the loss of my perfectly perfect glass of Blue Fin Pinot Noir.

Now, let's pour another glass of wine and get started!

This week I made agnolotti from scratch.  It looks like ravioli, it tastes like ravioli, therefore I will call it ravioli.  If you recall, I made my own pasta from the Ratio book I got for Christmas.  What's great is the author tells you how to make pasta dough and then gives you ideas on what to do with it.  There are many recipes in the back for different fillings, as well.  I chose the chicken and herbs filling.  My parents got me a Fluted Pastry Wheel for Valentines Day and I really wanted to use it on this! 

First, I made the dough.  9 oz of flour and 6 oz of egg.  I ended up with 9 ozs of flour and 3 eggs were 5 ozs so I added a bit of water to the mixture.  Check out my Pasta Post to see more details on the ratio and how to prep the dough.  After cutting the dough into 4 and rolling it out - you have 4 sheets approximately 18 in x 4 in.  I just kind of rolled it out until it was really thin.  Then, I used my pastry wheel and cut away. 

Note my fingers at a safe distance from the cutting tool.  Bravo!



After I made my little squares I tubed the filling in.  The recipe for the filling was from the book but you can find anything online.  The one I used was chicken and herbs.  1/2 lb of chicken thighs diced, 1 tsp of chives and tarragon, 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper, 1/2 cup of cream... mixed in a food processor. 

I egg-washed the squares so they would stick together, put the slices on top of each other, and then pinched the sides.  They actually looked like ravioli!!

Alas, I did not learn my lesson from the last time I made pasta and made my squares a bit big.  When I boiled them... they expanded.

After making this all from scratch, I popped open a jar of the finest $2 (2 for 1 at Publix!) tomato sauce and heated it on the stove.  Don't judge me, we can't all be Martha Stewart. 

In the end, it was fantastic!!! Great flavor and they just looked so cool!  I highly suggest people try this with different fillings.  It's not that difficult and kind of fun.

xoxo Peace, Love, and Good Food!

Wok it Out!

So I've talked the talk, now can I wok the wok?

Moving on...

I received a nice Williams Sonoma wok for Valentine's Day!  My parents bought me "The Breath of a Wok" by Grace Young and Alan Richardson for Christmas so now I can start using the recipes properly.  The book is stunning, the pictures are amazing, and some of the stories are very interesting.  It's half book and half recipes.  It gives tips on types of woks, what the wok means to the Chinese culture, how to season your wok and stories about the author's trip to China.  The book talks a lot about "wok breath" so my mission for this recipe is to get my wok to breathe all over my food.

First, to get the proper non-metallic breath from my wok, I had to season it.  The book has all different kinds of seasoning recipes.  I just used the regular veggie oil recipe that I did for my cast iron dutch oven because finding Chinese chives is difficult.  It's just a combination of heat and oil.  Heat it until it starts smoking, put some oil in it, heat some more, rub off the dirt and oil... and so on until the metallic residue has disappeared.  Sounds sexy, right?


So Shiny!!

Next, I get to start stir-frying!  I did the meat dish first. (Recipes at the bottom this time since they're kind of long.) I think I've only ever stir-fried once before.  Woks are easy to use.  There's a lot of engery involved - not really physically but the constant movement and how great it smelled really made me feel like a young Chinese immigrant on the streets of Chinatown!  Not really but it was a lot of fun and I felt like a chef.  And, if you look at the pictures you can clearly see the manifestation of wok breath.

That's not a finger smudge on my camera lens... that's the real deal, people! WOK BREATH!

By the time I started the veggies I had run out of clean measuring spoons.  I once read in Rachel Ray's cookbook about how to guess-timate amounts because cooking is all about being free and OCD like mine has no place in the kitchen (unless you're baking).  So I went Rachel Ray on these veggies which resulted in the water chestnuts absorbing entirely too much dry sherry.  So much in fact - that when I taste-tested them I had to spit it out in fear of vomitting in my new wok.  That's not the type of breath I want my wok to breathe on my food.  The snap peas turned out just fine so I just avoided the water chestnuts, which is a shame because those are my favorite.

In the end, it was incredibly tasty (besides the water chestnuts). I can't wait to try more recipes from this book.  I think beef and broccoli is next...

Stir-Fried Chicken and Shallots
1 lb skinless, boneless chicken thigh, cut into 1 in cubes
2 1/2 tsps soy sauce
1 tsp Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp fermented black beans, rinsed
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp veggie oil
4 small whole shallots peeled (about 1/2 c)
1/3 cup "homemade" chicken broth (yeah... right....)
1 scallion, chopped

1. In a medium bowl combine the chicken,  1 1/2 tsp of soy sauce, rice wine, 1/4 tsp sugar, salt, pepper.  Sprinkle the cornstarch over the chicken mixture and toss well to combine.  The chicken will be a little dry and sticky to the touch.  In a small bowl, using a fork, mash the black beans, garlic, ginger, and the remaining 1 tsp soy sauce and 1/4 tsp sugar.

2. Heat a 14-in flat-bottomed wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within  1-2 seconds of contact.  Swirl in the oil and carefully add the chicken, spreading it evenly in the wok.  Cook undisturbed 1 minute, letting the chicken begin to brown.  Then, using a metal spatula, stir-fry 1-2 minutes or until chicken is browned on all sides but not cooked through.  Add the black bean mixture, shallots, and broth and stir-fry 1-2 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is just thickened.  Stir in scallion.  Serves four as part of a multicourse meal.

Stir-Fried Sugar Snap Peas with Water Chestnuts
4 fresh water chestnuts
1 tbsp Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp veggie oil
3 slices of ginger
3 cups sugar snap peas, strings removed (about 8 oz)
1 tsp sesame oil

1. Peel the water chestnuts with a paring knife and then thinly slice to make about 1/2 cup.  In a small bowl combine the rice wine, salt, sugar, and pepper with 1 tbsp cold water. 

2.  Heat a 14-in flat-bottomed wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1-2 seconds of contact.  Swirl in the veggie oild, add the ginger, and stir-fry 5 seconds or until fragrant.  Add the sugar snaps and water chestnuts and stir-fry 1 minute.  Stir the rice wine mixture, swirl it into the wok, and stir-fry 30 seconds to 1 minute or until the veggies are just tender.  Remove from the heat and stir in the sesame oil.  Serves 4 as part of a multicourse meal.

Mini Meatballs

Hello Blog World!  I apologize for the cyber space silence this past week.  I hope you all had an excellent Valentine's Day!  What did you all end up doing??

I had a very small get-together at my apartment on Saturday night where we all made or bought finger food or hors d'oeuvres so people could see my new place, play fun games, and catch up!  There were some... logistics issues.  As a first time host I did not want to step into my "bossy pants" and straight-up tell people what to bring.  This resulted in a menu of miniature meatballs, cocktail weenies, bruschetta, fruit and veggies topped off with individual chocolate cakes and yogurt covered pretzels.  Oh yeah, and lots of wine.  Let's just say I was up at 4 AM, 6 AM and approximately 8 AM.  Lesson Learned. 

I made meatballs and the individual chocolate cakes for dessert.  I got the recipe from my Mom.  It is simple, dee-lish, and you can make it all ahead of time!  For the few ingredients it takes - it packs a lot of flavor.  I made the meatballs small on Saturday night so you could pick them up with toothpicks, but for this demonstration I made them bigger since they were my dinner. 

The Sauce:

1 jar of chili sauce

1 jar of grape jelly

What is chili sauce, you ask?  See the picture! It took two trips to the grocery store to figure that one out. It's in the ketchup aisle. Put both in a sauce pan and heat until bubbles.  Then, top on meatballs.

Meatballs:

1 lb of ground sirloin (I used lean this time around but Saturday used Sirloin)

1/2 sleeve of regular ol' crakers smushed (smooshed??) up

1/3 cup of ketchup

1 egg

salt/pepper

Mix ingredients in a bowl.  I didn't have a masher so I used my hands and it got a little messy.  I don't know the technical term for a masher.  Is that correct?? That seems to properly describe what its use is so I am going to go with it. 

Next, you roll them into balls (duh).  Like I said, I made mine a bit bigger this time around since this was my main dish, but I believe these are best served small.  They are easier to cook that way and you get more sauce on each one. 



Imma meatballa!

Oil up a pan, heat it up, and toss 'em in!  

I went heavy on the oil I think so they're a bit fried...

Once they were done - I just poured on the sauce and served them up! 

The way you can make these ahead of time is to keep it all in a crock pot on "warm", which is what I did.  Or you can get one of those fancy-shmancy serving dishes.  Heater and all.  But, that's only if you're one of those people that go all-out. 

Either way, these are great so I have to shout-out to my Mom... THANKS MOM!  Great recipe!  Everyone should try it but maybe not with cocktail weenies and chocolate cake in the same sitting. 

P.S.  Expect some pretty kick-butt Asian cuisine, soon!  Just got a wok from my parents for Valentine's Day. I'm thinking these kitchen gifts are hints that they'd like to be invited to my next taste-testing party??

My Adventures in Making Pasta

I just moved into my own apartment and started a new job.  I'm 23 years old and I live paycheck to paycheck (but who isn't!?).  I had under $100 in my checking account yesterday and I decided to spend $14 on three bottles of wine at Trader Joe's because I obviously have my priorities in line.  The cheapest thing at the grocery store you can buy is pasta and at my Publix it is 77 cents a box.  In order to afford my cheap TJ's wine I have to cut back somewhere else and this week it's pasta.  Yes, I made my own pasta.

It started with the book "Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking" written by Michael Ruhlman.  I'm going to go on a bit of a rant about this book.  I'm a little bit of a nerd and love knowing the science and numbers behind things.  This book breaks down every basic kitchen staple (and even more complicated things like pate a croux) into ratios.  Basic pasta dough?  3 parts flour : 2 parts egg.  BOOM.  DONE. 

First of all check out my cool new gadget.  Most ratios are broken down by WEIGHT and not VOLUME so this purchase was necessary although he does break it down by approximate volume in the recipes, as well.

Ok sooo... I already gave you the recipe.  3 parts flour : 2 parts egg.  For two large portions I used 9 ounces of flour and 6 ounces of egg (3 large eggs).  Part of the reason I wanted to try this particular recipe so badly is because they say its fun.  You literally put your flour in a mound (mine in a bowl because of counter space) and put the eggs in the middle and stir around with your fingers!

After you mix it well you knead it for 5 to 10 minutes until smooth.  Fold over and push down with the heel of your hand.  The dough then needs to rest wrapped in plastic wrap for 10 minutes.  Once it is done "resting" you cut into four equal pieces and " roll them to desired thinness and cut".  Alright.  This is where I got lost. 

First of all, oops, I don't have a rolling pin.  I got a bit creative and used a double-shot glass...  classy, yes, but I'm not giving up now! 

Second, I figured I didn't need a fancy cutting machine for my pasta.  I'll just cut it with my knife.  Ok, it'll be a little thick but maybe it will taste like fettuccine?

Third, THAT'S WHERE IT ENDS.  Now what?!  Do I let it dry?  The book stops talking about anything else relative to COOKING the pasta. Anytime I go to Italian restaurants they have dried pasta sitting in jars.  The pasta I buy for 77 cents is dried.  Am I allowed to just cook it right now or do I have to wait weeks to use these giant flaps of pasta?

Well, I put my big-girl decision-making panties on and I popped those suckers into the boiling water.

... and it expanded.  Brains for dinner anyone??

OK so it doesn't look that appetizing.  In the end it kind of tasted like gnocci but I blame that on how thick it was and not the ratio/recipe.  I ended up covering it with a sauce I made several weeks ago and froze (Giada DeLaurentiis) and some fresh ground beef.  Maybe I'll try this again when I have the tools for it.  Until then, I'll stick to 77 cent boxes of pasta. I hope you all try this and let me know how it goes!