Cookie Time

So, it's probably apparent at this point that Dan does most of the serious cooking around here - I chop things up, smell them as they're simmering, and eat a lot of really, really good food. I like to cook too, but I don't think I get as much joy out of it as Dan does. He loves cooking more than he loves to eat, and I love eating and like to cook. So you see, it works out well.

What I DO love to do is bake. I'm still pretty new at it and am gearing up to try cakes soon. The other night I wanted cookies, so I took the America's Test Kitchen recipe for sugar cookies and added 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon to it, winding up with something similar to a snickerdoodle, but not the real thing (according to my grandmother's recipe, real snickerdoodles need cream of tartar).

I made two batches. The first I flattened too much and forgot to top with extra cinnamon and sugar. The second batch I left pretty thick and added the topping: they were at least 5 times better than the first.

I think some guy named Robert Fulghum said it best when he said, "Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap."

August 4th: Vegetable 'Stew' with Rice and Lentils

Ingredients

• 6oz(volume) brown rice
• 6oz(volume) green lentils
• 2 large white button mushrooms
• 3 carrots
• 1 small onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 28oz(volume) diced tomatoes in juice
• 32oz(volume) chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
  

The onion was diced, the garlic and rosemary minced, and the carrots sliced in 1/2 inch width sections. The above were sweated in olive oil(enough to coat the bottom of the pan) in Kat's 3 quart saucepan. After the onion started to turn translucent, the mushrooms(chopped) were added. After the mushrooms gained some color and began to reduce, the chicken stock, and diced tomatoes and juice were added to the pot along with the basil, rice, and lentils. Salt and pepper were added. The pot was brought to a simmer, then covered over low heat for 40 minutes and stirred every so often. It was served with hot green tea.

Reactions: Kat loved the fact it was warm(more in the Notes). I thought it was very acidic. It needed something to balance it out and I ended up adding a tin of sardines to my bowl. After that it was fine

What would I do differently: cut the rice and lentils to a 1/2 cup each. If I'm not going to add meat I'll have to find some way to balance the acidity(maybe cream?? I've never done that). If I had celery, I'd have definitely added it to the initial sweat

Notes: This meal came about because Kat was sick. She got home from work and was absolutely miserable so I started thinking about things which might help her feel better. I could have made chicken soup, but I decided to make a tomato-ish soup instead. The rosemary didn't do much for the meal EXCEPT for adding a bit of flavor to the mushrooms. White button mushrooms aren't too exciting as is, but they absorb flavors like nobody's business and can hold onto them. There really was too much in the way of rice and lentils. Even with the juice from the can of tomatoes, they absorbed more liquid than I liked.

August 3rd: Pasta with Chicken, Spinach, Olives, and Garlic

Pasta

Ingredients

• Pasta, something mini penne-ish
• Water
• Salt

The salt was added to the water, the water brought to a boil, and the pasta added. As per the package the pasta's cooking time was 8 minutes. We may have cooked it a tiny bit long as the chef(me) screwed up the timer. It was definitely not ruined however

Chicken, Spinach, Olives and Garlic

Ingredients

• boneless, skinless chicken breast - 1/2 pound
• 1 can green olives - about 6 oz drained
• Spinach, a double to triple handful, enough to fill a large soup bowl
• 4 cloves garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 cup flour(approx)
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

The chicken breast was cut into 4 strips lengthwise, then each strip was cut into pieces about an inch long. The flour was put into a bowl and salt and pepper was added. The chicken was tossed in the flour to coat. The garlic was diced. Olive oil was put in my 12 inch skillet, enough to coat the bottom, but not too much. This was mostly a saute, not a pan fry. The skillet was put over low heat and the garlic was added. Once the garlic was fragrant, the heat was turned up to medium, the chicken was added, and the skillet covered to speed cooking. After 1 minute, the chicken was turned and the cover replaced. After two to three more minutes the chicken was removed from the pan, and the balsamic vinegar was added. After the pan was deglazed the olives were added. After 1 minute, the spinach, which had been roughly shredded by hand was added to the pan and the chicken was returned, the heat was turned to low. Once the pasta finished cooking, and was drained(maybe a minute later), the contents of the skillet was tossed with the pasta and served.

Reactions: Kat liked it a lot. I thought it was good

What would I do differently: start with medium heat instead of low, use 1/2 cup to 1 cup liquid to deglaze, probably red wine + vinegar

Notes: The origins of this meal had everything to do with spontaneity. Kat decided she was hungry all of a sudden. This ruled out long cooking times(potatoes, brown rice, legumes, etc), so the choice was between white rice and pasta. Chicken was the available meat. Since a quick turn around time was paramount(hungry girlfriend), simmered sauces were inadvisable. The canned olives had been there for a while, and the spinach had to be used since we got it last week and it would go bad eventually. For an improvisation, it was pretty good, but there wasn't much 'sauce'. Next time, more deglazing liquid. Heck, pasta water probably would have been a decent choice. All in all though, not bad

August 2nd - Salmon, Portobellos, Corn and Black Bean Salad, Sweet Potatoes

So before the Boilermakers played at the Willowbrook on Sunday night, we had Kat's friend Joy over for dinner, along with her date Nathan. They shall be labeled Test Subject A and Test Subject B respectively for the purposes of this experiment.


Grilled Corn and Black Bean Salad

Ingredients

• about 10 oz(volume) of dried black beans
  
• three ears corn
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 clove garlic
• a good amount of olive oil(pure not EVOO)
  
• 1 lime
• cilantro
  

The dried black beans were cooked as is and left to cool. The oregano, paprika, and cumin were combined together. The garlic was diced and combined with the olive oil, cilantro and juice from the lime to make a dressing. The ears of corn were roasted over on the grill directly over the coals with a handful of soaked hickory chips on the coals(lots of smoke). Once they acquired some color(about 10 minutes), they were removed, the kernels were cut off and added to the beans. The spice mixture was then mixed into the salad, then the dressing.

Reactions: Generally good reactions from the test subjects, especially the vegetarian(Test Subject A)

What would I do differently: Maybe could have used more dressing. Definitely could have left the corn over the fire longer. when cutting the kernels off the cobb I faced the corn down and cut from the stalk to the tip. Next time I'm going to try facing the corn up and cut downwards from the tip to the stalk. I think I'll get more control that way

Salmon

Ingredients

• 3 filets of salmon, aprox 8 oz(by weight) each
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• a good amount of olive oil
• kosher salt
• ground pepper
  

The paprika, oregano, and cumin were wisked into the olive oil to create a marinade. The kosher salt, pepper then the marinade were applied to the salmon approximately 2 hours before the salmon was to be cooked with the fish left out to come to room temperature. The salmon was cooked indirectly in the grill(same grill as above, lots of smoke). Once the salmon passed the flake test(about 20 minutes), the filets were pulled off the fire, broken in the middle, and served.

Reactions: Test Subject B really liked the fish, felt it didn't have a fishy flavor

What would I do differently: Add cilantro and lime juice to the marinade. Other than that this is a good, fairly simple recipe, and will likely be a workhorse

Portobellos

Ingredients

• 3 medium size portobellos
• left over marinade from the Salmon
• 4 cloves garlic

The stems were removed from the mushrooms and the garlic cloves were slivered and worked into the gills. The mushrooms were cooked directly over the coals(same fire as above after the corn came off), gill side down for three minutes. The marinade was then applied to both sides and the mushrooms returned to the grill gill side up. They were left until they started to flatten out, indicating the insides were cooked(about 4-5 more minutes).

Reactions: Test Subject A really liked them and ate all three. As they were basically a vegetarian substitute for the salmon, everybody was fine with that.

What would I do differently: Marinate them beforehand maybe??? I didn't try any of it and the test subject devoured them, so I'm sort of ambivalent here.

Sweet Potato

• 1 gigantic sweet potato

The oven was preheated to 405 degrees per the controls(actually 400, Kat's oven runs 5 degrees 'cold'). 10 or so minutes after the oven was ready(I don't trust ovens) the potato was tossed in for 50 minutes. The fork test was positive(fork slid easily in and out), so at 50 minutes the potato was wrapped in foil and put in the microwave(turned and kept off) to finish cooking and keep warm. It was quartered for serving

Reactions: positive, but the chef(me) though portions were underdone. No one agreed, but I'm the chef dammit! ;)

What would I do differently: The sweet potato wasn't cooked evenly, but with a potato that large, it's tough to tell. I'll probably fork it in multiple places next time. I like using giant sweet potatoes.

Notes: A good session. The Corn and Black Bean salad was an idea I toyed around with from an old Grill It! Bobby Flay episode I saw over the Memorial Day weekend. This is why I like watching 'recipe' cooking shows. I may not, strike that - probably won't use the exact recipes, but ideas will float around in my skull to be retrieved later.

While salmon can stand direct heat, I like to indirectly grill them, especially when working with smoke.

Hello World

Hey There,

Thanks for reading our blog! This is the journal of Dan and Kat's kitchen adventures. It's mostly going to be about Food (SHOCKING I know). Occasionally it'll be about shopping, often it'll be about cooking, sometimes it'll be about eating, every now and then it'll be about philosophy, and maybe even a review of gadgets will sneak in here and there.

Why? Well, it's mostly about us, not you. Sorry, just got tell the truth. And really, do y'all care about what happens in Kat's kitchen* THAT much? I mean, once we start putting stuff here maybe you will eventually care, but right now you're probably reading this because you saw a link and were curious. Or we sent you a link and you felt obligated. Or some combination of the two. Anyways, I got laid off from my job of 9 years, and figured I should use some of the time I would have when not job searching to work on my cooking skills. Writing stuff down, aka taking notes, seemed like good advice, and if I was going to the trouble of taking notes, I might as well throw them up on the web somewheres. Kat, being the gracious, even keeled, and tolerant person that she is, consented to be a part of it. Cloud storage and all that ... and once it ends up on the wayback machine, I'll never be able to be rid of it. Gotta remember that, no political or religious rants ... must stay employable.

So, in conclusion, Welcome! Hope we make it worth your while to stick around.

*Kat and I do not live together, and her kitchen is better than mine, so you can assume most of what happens will transpire there unless informed otherwise.