The Learn To Cook Gift List

It’s 8 days until Christmas! And, I am woefully behind on my shopping. But, I figured I would add my voice to the chorus of food bloggers out there writing about great holiday gifts for cooks/foodies. But, I’m adding a More Than Easy Mac twist.

My list comprises all things that you need in your starter kitchen that make life so much easier (beyond the obvious pots and pans, plates and silverware). Nothing too expensive or high maintenance, just really basic stuff. 

Knives — I realized in grad school that I was getting older when I got way too excited about receiving a nice knife set for Christmas. I use these knives almost every day.  And quite frankly, existing without a big, heavy duty knife is pretty hard. You will never split a butternut squash without one.

A Collander — Even if you don’t cook that much, you probably know how to make spaghetti and consider it a staple for lazy nights when you have had a long day and don’t want to cook.  Therefore, you need a collander. My grandma gave me mine right before I moved to D.C. for an internship in college. It was my first non-dorm experience (i.e. no meal plan), so I used it at least once a week, probably more. I ate a lot of chicken and pasta during that semester.

Seriously, life without a crock pot is just dismal. Ok, only kidding on that one.  But really, I love my crock pot, which Santa brought me last Christmas. My roommate in college had one, and every game day (Let’s go State!) we would put meatballs and sauce in the crockpot and come home after the game to meatball sandwiches. It was marvelous.  Now, I use my crock pot for chili, soup, and even roast.  You can just Fix it and Forget It!

A few decent/easy to understand cookbooks. You can see my copy of Fix it and Forget It on the counter there, but my real favorite is that white binder. It’s a cookbook put together by my two great aunts and their cousin. A nicer, bound edition is currently at my mom’s house, so I got the first copy. I love it.  Of course, my mom sometimes has to translate for my aunts. For example, oleo means margarine in my aunts’ world. I also have a clipboard of printouts of emails from my moms with recipes, or pages from magazines that I’ve ripped out.

And a few things that I didn’ t get a chance to take pictures of before my camera batteries died. A blender! You can use it for soup,  smoothies and chopping up veggies. Pretty much anything you need to blend.  Also, just a fun thing that my sister gave me in grad school that I love to use — a quesadilla maker!

Early Morning Cooking — Sausage Dish

I failed at cooking yesterday. It was a long day, and it just wasn’t happening when I got home. I’d also had a big lunch, so I didn’t really want dinner. Two clementines and a banana sufficed.

I redeemed myself this morning. I’ve been waking up unusually early this week (6:30 a.m.-ish) and so after I got ready for work, I thought it would just be a wonderful idea to make my sausage dish so that I could just come home and heat it up tonight.

Note to self: Eye makeup should not be applied prior to cooking a dish that involves cutting up onions.

Anyway, on to the cooking. Despite the problem of my mascara running while cutting the onions, the recipe is pretty easy to make. It’s one of my favorites, and my Mom has made it for years.  It’s a good, hearty, winter dish. (Though, I live in Florida now, so winter is relative)

Ingredients:1 lb Italian sausage, 1 cup onion, ½ cup chopped green pepper,1 clove garlic, chopped, 1 can (16 oz) stewed tomatoes,1 cup tomato juice,1 (4 oz) can button mushrooms, 2 beef bouillon cubes, ½ tsp Italian seasoning, 1 cup parmesan

Directions: Cut up sausage into chunks then in large pot or skillet, brown and drain.  Add onion, green pepper and garlic. Cook and stir until tender. Add tomatoes, juice, mushrooms, bouillon, and seasoning. Mix well. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Stir in ½ cup cheese, heat through. Serve with remaining cheese.

Now I just have to eat it! That’s either my lunch or dinner. And, I can eat it at my table, which is now fully constructed with chairs!

OK, I confess that there is still one chair that needs to be put together, but I have the table up against a wall, so I only have room for three chairs.

Sausage Dish

1 lb Italian sausage

1 cup onion

½ cup chopped green pepper

1 clove garlic, chopped.

1 can (16 oz) stewed tomatoes

1 cup tomato juice

1 (4 oz) can button mushrooms

2 beef bouillon cubes

½ tsp Italian seasoning

1 cup parmesan

In large skillet, brown sausage and drain. Add onion, green pepper and garlic. Cook and stir until tender. Add tomatoes, juice, mushrooms, bouillon, and seasoning. Mix well. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Stir in ½ cup cheese, heat through. Serve with remaining cheese.

Healthy, Cheap Meals

Happy Sunday!

I survived my week of parties and had so much fun, despite the stress of it. The final menu at last night’s potluck was as follows: Deep fried turkey, mac ‘n’ cheese, shrimp curry, apple-spinach salad,  broccoli slaw, three types of cake, the chocolate peppermint bark cookies and drinks. We were all really happy and full by the end.

We also had an amazing cocktail that my friend Lynn invented at her Halloween party. It consists of vanilla ice cream, ice and rum. She also sometimes puts daiquiri mix in it, but it’s been decided that just the vanilla ice cream taste is better. 

Sadly, we didn’t really take pics. No idea why.

Anyway, on to more pressing matters, the menu of the week. I try to make out my menus a week ahead of time so that I can plan for economical and healthy grocery shopping.  My mom was pretty good at teaching my sister and me to eat balanced meals and how to be thrifty.

I spend anywhere from $30 to $50 on groceries per week. It usually only hits upward of $40 if there are a lot of baking items or wine in my shopping cart, which has been normal for December. I also try to make one big dish that yields leftovers.  And I buy frozen chicken and fish in bulk every few months as well, so it’s not always on my list.

I’m finishing up some leftovers for today, but here’s the rest of the week. I’m not including breakfast, but I usually choose between oatmeal and fruit or scrambled eggs and fruit.

So here, it goes.

Monday

L: Salad and soup, 2 clementines, cookie

D: Chicken pesto wrap, some salad

Tuesday

L:  Tomato/mozzarella/pesto wrap grilled on the Foreman, warm apple slices with cinnamon

D: Sausage dish (A stew that is basically Italian sausage, mushrooms, stewed tomatoes and a bunch of spices)

Wednesday

L: Portabella burgers, two clementines

D: Fish and veggies

Thursday

L: Apple/cheddar quesadilla

D: Sausage dish leftovers

Friday

L: – Out probably

D: Tomato/mozzarella /pesto wrap, some fruit

OK, gotta head to the gym to work off all these parties. Then I have to finish putting the dining room table chairs together. If there’s some extra time, I might attempt gingerbread cookies.

But first, a clip from another favorite Christmas movie — Love Actually.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies — Part III

Almost time for party No. 5!

My friends and I decided a month ago that we were going to have a potluck this weekend, not knowing of course, that this would be the week for every other Christmas party. But this is the main event. There will be turkey, mac ‘n’ cheese, shrimp curry, apple-pecan-spinach leaf salad (me), pie, and chocolate peppermint bark cookies (me again).

I usually try to stick with things I know for potluck events. But these cookies looked so good that I had to try them. (And it was one of the few Bon Appetit recipes that didn’t intimidate me)

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Ingredients: Nonstick cooking spray, 2 cups all purpose flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla,
1 large egg yolk, 6 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped, 1/2 cup  peppermint candy or candy canes (about 3 oz), 2 oz. white chocolate

Directions: Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13×9x2-inch metal baking pan with nonstick spray. Line bottom of pan with long strip of 9-inch-wide parchment paper, leaving overhang on both short sides of pan. Whisk flour and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in sugar. Continue beating until mixture is light and fluffy, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla, then egg yolk. Gradually add flour mixture, beating on low speed just to blend.

Drop dough by tablespoonfuls into prepared baking pan, spacing evenly. Using moistened fingertips, press dough to form even layer over bottom of pan. Pierce dough all over with fork.

Bake cookie base until light golden brown and slightly puffed and edges begin to come away from sides of pan, about 30 minutes. Place pan on rack; immediately sprinkle bittersweet chocolate over. Let stand until chocolate softens, about 3 minutes. Using small offset spatula, spread bittersweet chocolate over top of cookie in thin even layer. Immediately sprinkle chopped peppermint candies over.

Stir white chocolate in medium metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Using fork, drizzle white chocolate all over cookies. Chill until white chocolate is set, about 30 minutes.

Using paper overhang as aid, lift cookie from pan and transfer to work surface. Using large knife, cut cookie into irregular pieces.

DO AHEAD Can be made 1 week ahead. Store in refrigerator in airtight containers between layers of waxed paper or parchment paper.

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OK, well I had to adjust a few things out of necessity. I hadn’t read the directions prior to going to the store today and so I didn’t have any parchment paper. Given that the cookies aren’t supposed to be cut in perfect squares that didn’t seem to matter. I was able to cut them in weird bark-like pieces anyway.

I also thought 30 minutes was too long to bake the shortbread part, at least in my oven. Twenty-five minutes should suffice.

I did have one minor mishap with the white chocolate because I’m just impatient. I decided to stick the white chocolate in the microwave even though it had already begun to soften. Apparently, it doesn’t take much to burn chocolate. Oops. Get the white chocolate back out and start melting it again, slowly.

But then I restarted and was able to melt the white chocolate nicely and spread it over the cookies.

And the final result…

OK, gotta put the salad together and get my party shoes on. Hope everyone has a nice Saturday night!

Rain, Rain, Go Away…

It’s pouring outside and just the type of day that makes you think you want to stay in bed all day.

I have survived my week of parties! There’s one  more tonight, but I have all day to rest, run errands, cook, etc. And, we should also note that I learned yesterday that even at 7:30 a.m. on the day of a potluck, I should never make plain Bisquick rolls. They were so incredibly bland. It was just bad. Ugh! Oh well.  (This probably means I shouldn’t post about Bisquick rolls so early in the morning as well)

But, it’s Saturday! My big exciting day’s agenda is as follows.

* Gym (Haven’t been there in about a week — not good)

* Grocery shopping

* Baking cookies and preparing salad for party while watching a  Christmas movie

* Perhaps putting together the dining room chairs that have been sitting in parts in my living room for a week

OK, enough rambling from me.  Here’s the news and notes for the week!

Self.com had a great little blog mention about how more Americans are using microwave dinners now that the economy is down. People are “cooking” at home to save money, but cooking means just popping something in the micro.

Shape Magazine has four ways to burn off the holiday calories. My guess is this doesn’t include my activity for this past week, which was party hopping.  (OK, that sounds ridiculous. I was at a lot of parties, but they certainly weren’t wild and crazy.)

Happy Hannukah! Bon Appetit has an interesting slide show about Jewish communities in Mexico and their foods.

Rockin’ around the Christmas tree… Paula Deen says don’t let a tight budget kill the party. OK, Paula.

A nice touching holiday story. A top chef teach the less fortunate how to cook for less, while still making good choices. They talk about everything from nutrition labels to cost effective meals.

Spain is going to open its first cooking school based on science. The Basque Culinary Center will house the future University for Gastronomical Science and the Center for Gastronomical Research and Innovation. It’s set to open in September 2011. Kinda cool.

And finally, Mark Bittman talks to the Today Show about cooking homemade meals in a hurry when you have guests to feed. I could have used this a week ago, Mark.

And I’m out! Time to tackle that to-do list (and eat breakfast too).

Thank God for Bisquick

I’m continuing with the whole cooking on deadline mantra from two days ago. And in fact, I’m really pushing deadline at this point.

Last night was my company’s Christmas luau, which featured a pig roast. Trust me, it’s a little weird to see a whole pig on the table. Not sure how I feel about it.  But the party was a big hit with my coworkers and some other colleagues from other news organizations who work out of Tallahassee.

But at some point during the evening, it occurred to me that I had not lifted a finger for today’s noon potluck at my company’s office building.  The building landlords throw the party and everyone brings something. I had this grand idea of doing it after the party, but when I got home at about 11:30 p.m., I quickly concluded that wouldn’t happen.

(How Julie Powell got through “Art of French Cooking” and still slept is beyond me. I can’t even find time to make a quick dish for a potluck.)

This is where we get the slogan, “Thank God for Bisquick.”

I rummaged through the pantry at about 7:30 a.m.  to figure out what I could make and happened to look at the side of the Bisquick box. The box featured possibly the easiest dinner roll recipe. Bisquick, I <3 you.

From the recipe on the box:

Ingredients: 2 1/4 cup Bisquick, 2/3 cup milk

Directions: Mix the two ingredients together and put in spoonfuls onto a cookie tray. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.

Confession: I haven’t tried them, so I can’t vouch for their tastiness. So, I’ll just put out an apology to my colleagues right now if they taste like crap.

And now… a clip from the original Miracle on 34th Street, where Santa meets a Dutch girl who can’t speak English.

12 Days of Christmas Cookies — Part 2

I was trying to come up with some clever slogan about once you start baking you can’t stop, but I failed. I did pretty well during the poetry units of Enlish too. Hmm. So, we’ll stick with the Pringles slogan — Once you pop, you can’t stop.

Anyway, once I finished with the sausage balls, I was still feeling pretty chipper and figured why not continue with the pecan snowballs.  So, at 1:11 a.m., I’m sitting in my living room amidst piles of un-assembled dining room chairs waiting for the second batch to finish baking. (And now I remember why I don’t keep college student hours)

Anyway, the cookies are pretty easy to make, though they only make about 18. And I had one crumble on me, so make that 17. And I was more than happy to eat the “damaged” cookie as a taste test before I took the cookies to the company party tomorrow.

I differed from the given recipe slightly, but it’s more because I have a problem reading directions. My third grade teacher once failed me on a quiz because I didn’t read the directions, but I clearly haven’t learned.

The recipe called for 1/4 pound butter, which is one stick of butter. Well, I’m used to seeing butter measured in cups in recipes. So, I just looked at the 1/4 part and assumed it was calling for half a stick of butter. The problem you run into when you only use half a stick of butter is that it doesn’t thicken up your batter sufficiently. And if it’s not thickened, you can’t really shape it into balls, now can you? So, I added about 1/4 cup of water to mine. Of course after that, I realized my error, and added the other half of butter, while feeling very foolish about the whole thing.

The cookies taste great to me, but obviously, I don’t know if the water did anything significant to alter them.

The first batch — they don’t look pretty at all.

Ingredients: ¼ pound butter or margarine, 1 cup flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup chopped pecans, ¼ teaspoon salt (optional), powdered sugar. (You could also add about 1/4 cup water if you want to be cool like me)

Directions: Combine all ingredients (except powdered sugar) and shape into balls. Bake in a 350° oven for 15 minutes.

Roll in powdered sugar while hot. Cool, and roll again in powdered sugar.

2 Parties Down, Three To Go

Cooking, like journalism, is best done on deadline.

OK, that might not be true, but it’s my mantra for tonight, as I wait for the timer to beep  to tell me I can rescue my cookie sheet laden with sausage balls from the oven.

I’ve had a hectic week, so far. You know, the type where you get home at the end of the day (which is not 9 to 5 to begin with), and you just want to sit and not do anything. That’s been the first half of the week. It also included party 1 ( a Christmas tree lighting at the Governor’s mansion) and party 2 (a Mary Kay party hosted by my friend Brittany).

All this “partying” plus work had led to little post work productivity, and though I’ve intended to cook  for my company party/luau since Sunday, it has not happened.

Well, the party is tomorrow, so unless I decided to wake up at the crack of dawn, cooking needed to happen tonight. So at about 10:30 p.m. after I finished my soup (I hadn’t had dinner yet) , I got out the mixing bowls and some sausage, cheese and Bisquick.

The result is basically, a cheesy, sausage biscuit. It makes a great appetizer!

I shared a similar recipe  the other day for the sausage balls my mom makes every year at Christmas, but now, here’s my mom’s recipe. Plus a picture!

Ingredients: 1 lb hot or sweet Italian sausage, 1 lb sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (if you need to think about conversions, 1 lb = 16 ounces, and one pack of cheese is about 8 oz), 3 cups Bisquick, 3/4 cup water

Directions: Brown sausage after removing casing, drain well and let cool. Make sure the sausage is broken up into small pieces.  Mix remaining ingredients, add sasuage and roll into 1 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on greased (or foiled) baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes. (I only needed 12)

And now, because, I just feel the need to spread more Christmas cheer, another youtube clip! Dudley Moore, David Huddleston and John Lithgow made Santa Claus, the Movie in the 1980s and my mom used to make us watch it every Christmas. It’s not my favorite Christmas movie, but I still like it.

In this scene, the man who would be Santa is taken to his new workshop for the very first time. It has that magical Christmas feel to it.

Deck The Halls!

Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa lalalala la la la la. Sorry, can’t help myself. I’m a Christmas geek. I love the holidays. Unfortunately, it’s such a busy week, that I’m so sleepy and haven’t had time to be full of holiday cheer. And it’s only Tuesday!

So yeah, those cookies I was going to make Sunday night. That didn’t happen. And I sort of just vegged after work yesterday. My goal (goal mind you, not an absolute) is to make the pecan snowballs this evening, plus the dish  for the Thursday party.  Mind you, I’m thinking about this while I sit outside a meeting room waiting for my meeting to start. Send all energy my way, please!

I’m on my work laptop at the moment, so I don’t have the sausage ball recipe that I’m making for Thursday easily accessible. But I found a recipe on cooks.com that looks roughly similar, so I thought I’d share it and then give my mom’s version later.  I like looking at different versions of recipes anyway.

Ingredients: 1 lb. hot sausage, 1 lb. mild sausage, 12 oz. sharp cheese (softened), 12 oz. mellow cheese (softened), 4 cups Bisquick

Directions: Mix all ingredients. Roll into small balls. Place on cookie sheets. Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes, or until done (depends upon the size).

Best served warm.

And the Christmas movie clip of the day!

A Mini Cooking Hiatus

Happy Monday!

Hope you all had a lovely start to the week. Mine was far too busy. Sadly, no real cooking tonight other than a quick chicken pesto wrap for dinner.  More dining room table construction and a 90 minute convo with my grad school pal Jenna took up a good chunk of the night too.

So, needless to say, I’m slacking in my holiday cooking duties. So, instead, I’ll leave you with a clip from one of my favorite Christmas movies.