Wedding "Junk" Food Photo Montage

A photo montage from our wedding, as shot by Tyson Trish Photographer. This is not a gourmand post at all but a celebratory post in honor our (George and my) Green Bay Packers for winning the Super Bowl!

Chicken Pot Pie

I'm home sick today (blah). I spent most of the day sleeping which is the best medicine. But I also made a chicken pot pie to feed George when he gets home from work tonight. I texted him at lunch: "Beef or Chicken Pot Pie?" "Chix" he quickly responded.


When I had enough energy, I got into the kitchen, ten steps away from my sick bay, and got to work.

I take certain, necessary shortcuts in cooking. Pie crusts is one of them. I use store brand ones to save $$$- this week it's Wegman's because they were $1.99.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, we need to get the roux started first.

Roux consists of butter, flour and if your choose, cornstarch. The last ingredient is not necessary but I just like it for some extra glue if you will.

To make enough roux for 1 9inch chicken pot pie, take 1 1/2 sticks of SALTED butter to about 4 heaping tablespoons of flour (I used white flour but last time I used wheat and it came out the same) and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.

Put the butter in at room temp. and melt on medium heat with flour/cornstarch on standby when the butter begins to soften. You have seconds before the butter melts. Then quickly stir with a spatula (best tool for this job).

Reduce the heat or turn off. Then lets get the chicken and veggies ready.

Since I was a sickie today, I cheated and had the pre-chopped veggies in a bag for soup . I put that in a skillet with a little chicken stock just to keep the pan from drying out. That warms up the onions and celery.

Chop of 3-4 chicken skinless breasts and put into the roux with some more chicken stock and warm up the roux again on LOW heat and don't burn that pan (Mine's currently soaking-opps!)

Yes, this means you now have two burners going at the same time but it's only for a few minutes. When you smell the veggies crisping up, STOP. They are ready to go into your pie pan.

Line the pan with one pie crust and put some of the veggies in. Then a little of the chicken and roux mixture. Then repeat until everything's all in the pie pan. Top with the second pie crust. Mark some vents at the top with a fork or a knife.

Then bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes and dinner's on!

Cooking Shows on PBS vs. Cable

I was watching a little Rachie (Rachel Ray) and a little Giada (whom my 3 year old nephew speaks of with great reverence at his house) when I got my pedi this weekend at the nail salon.

I usually spend my weekend TV time watching my cooking shows with a little Food Network and a little PBS. My new favorite is "America's Test Kitchen." George even got me their cookbook (DVD's are back-ordered) for Christmas. It's my only cooking reference book in the house now, since my other cookbooks are in storage.

I'm a visual learner, always have been, so cooking shows on TV have helped me become the cook I am today. While my mom is always there to tell me where I've gone wrong, "You didn't use enough flour" she advised me on the gloppy cookies I blogged about a few days ago, I use the cooking shows to help me expand my technique skill set.

The shows helped me choose kitchen tools and register for my wedding. I wanted tools that had multiple uses. That's not always easy but it can be done if you think beyond the actual name and use of the tool.

For example, a melon baller or ice cream scoop are good for making cookies come out the same size. Spray it with non stick cooking spray and depending on what size you want, choose your tool and go to town, cookie town that is.

Want a good chocolate chip cookie recipe? My "no fail" one is the on the back of the Toll House chocolate chip bag I buy when I want to make them- simple and delicious!

Setting a Timer? Is it Necessary?

Last night I went on a SuperBowl Party baking frenzy for my guys. I can't make it to the party today, but I want to make sure my crew has good sweet eats. With a little help from my friend, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, they now have a Funfetii cake, pigs in a blanket, and some lady fingers with chocolate dipping sauce.

When I bake with my current oven, I usually set the temp to 350 degrees. It gets the job done in 30-35 minutes.

That's enough time for (once again) George to wash my dirty dishes or for us to watch most of an episode of our current show catch up (first time for me) Battlestar Gallatica (the NEW series).
The one thing I'll complain about my kitchen layout is that the stove is RIGHT next to the sink so the heat radiates right over and sweats you out a little.

However, the stove is in close proximity to our living room couch which allows me keep an eye on the baking. I'm a smeller not a clock watcher when it comes to done-ness. Yes, I use the toothpick test as well.

Overall, I'm right 9 times out of times out of 10 I'm right about when something's ready to come out of the oven and cool before frosting... or outright consumption in the case of cookies!

Grilled Miso Chicken and Where to Get those First Four Ingredients

You wanted the recipes, my blog description promises them so here's the first one, Courtesy of Wei one of our groosmen.



Grilled miso chicken
Ingredients:
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce (usukuchi shoyu)
• 2 tablespoons sake
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons light miso
• 2 green onions, crushed and slivered
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger root
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 8 boned chicken thighs, skin intact
• 1 tablespoon seven-spice powder (optional)
Preparation/cooking time: 1 1/2 hours
Servings: 4
Miso marinade adds a rich flavor to this country-style grilled chicken. Thigh meat stays moist and tender, but boned chicken breasts are delicious, too. The chicken can be sauteed in a skillet



Now let's talk about ingredients and what to stock you pantry with.

Asian cooking is quick, healthy and ironically not filled with as much sodium as you might think. Once again our American palette has led us astray here people. Our Chinese and Japanese takeout chefs adapted THEIR recipes to OUR palette to sell us food.

You CAN actually buy MSG in the grocery store, I have a picture of it on my husband's phone- we laughed in horror when we saw it.

But I digress (and I will in these posts, sorry). Asian cooking has to be quick because in classic Asian cooking they simply had a limited amount of cooking fuel to use so their techniques had to be quick (ala wok cooking), etc.

So they chop their veggies and what proteins they put into their dishes very thin so it cooks quickly. The flavor, as with all ethic food, comes from spices and sauces. Asian cooking is no exception. The first four ingredients mentioned above in this recipe are the cornerstone to Japanese cooking- period.

If you like this style of food you will want to purchase these items in a larger size, depending on your kitchen storage size. I'm in the process of moving so I buy these in smaller sizes now.

All of these sauces will be in the same aisle in your grocery store, you shouldn't have to go to a specialty store to purchase since my readers live in major metro areas with a significant Asian population. Let me know though if you're having trouble and I'll research more into online resources as well for these items.

Movie Review "The Ramen Girl"

AUTHENTIC RAMEN is a complicated dish, not that dried crap we American buys buy at 88 cents a packet to survive college/dorm life. Ramen in Japan is an experience, a revelation really. I spoke to my Japanese coworker, Nagi, about it yesterday and I had to stop because it was making her homesick. She gave me an overview on the regional differences in Ramen style and how a broth is never dumped out at the end of the day but kept on a low fire constantly, hence why the shopkeep lives above his shop. That was not show in the film and would've help a lot. It uses fresh ingredients and is a balances of amazing depth and flavor specific to that region- I won't spoil the movie- watch and see what they put in the broth- it's cool.

The shop owner is simply a drunken, sad man who's upset his son left for Europe five years before and never came back to take over the family business and learn Ramen. Here comes a, sad American girl one rainy night whom he and his mousy wife feed and they become their own dysfunctional family for the next year.

She decides she wants to learn Ramen and begs him to be her sensei.

The shop owner slowly teaches the American girl how to cook with her heart, not with your brain. I made that mistake the other day when I wasn't watching myself make cookies and they came up all burned and tasteless instead of golden and delectable.

Watch the movie, be amused and have your heart warmed. Don't blame me if you need REAL Ramen afterward. But please don't buy that terrible stuff in the store. I'll track down a good recipe and some restaurant recommendations from our groomsmen, my Asian connection, Wei-San. And save the broth after, maybe don't keep a fire going but keep it in saved in a tupperware in your fridge.

Asian Recipes

I haven't opened this email properly yet from one of the groomsmen in our wedding this past summer but he's willing to teach me and George "how to cook Asian." He even wants to teach us "how to shop in an Asian supermarket" which is truly something I could use advice on.

There's a fantastic one in East Hanover,NJ Kamman Food. I discovered it, by accident, when I went for pizza went I worked in the area about 6 years ago in the same shopping center. And while it's VERY out of the way for us now, it's worth it. I go in there for loose tea and gadgets like tea pots and strainers. The Asian market in our neighborhood in Central NJ has been torn down and we don't know when or if it's going back up.

Back to these Asian Recipes. I'm toggling back and forth from the email while I'm posting this. There are 13 (lucky in this month of the Asian New Year) of them. When we visit our groomsman next weekend, I think we're in for some shopping and choppin'.

The foods we are to prepare us range from Kimchi Jigae ( kimchi stew ) which our friend says is a "great winter stew" to Korean Egg Dishes. That second one is a hard sell for me but I'll give it a whirl. In the eastern land of culinary cooking, I learn towards Japan and away from Korea. I just can't handle the fermentation in their cooking techniques. I'm all about sweet and sour but fermentation just takes it to another level I'm not prepared to go to yet.

Next weekend, I'll post an update on how the Trip to Eastern Cooking School went.

Tools of the Trade

I have some tools of the trade in the drawer and countertop next to my cooktop. Let me start by writing that my kitchen is not brand spanking new. It's from the 1960s and is slightly wider than a galley kitchen. It's got a gas wall oven that will not cook steaks in the broiler without setting off the smoke alarm. Then there's the cooktop. When I bought the condo almost three years ago one of the burners wouldn't turn on and the exhaust fan was coated with grease. I eventually removed it myself and closed the wall with drywall and had an electrician put in an overhead vent. Anyhow, enough DIY. The cooktop was also repaired by a very strong repairman. Now I'm firing on all 4 burners.

George came into the kitchen the other night and said "I wanna see you cook with all 4 of those burners!" Was that a challenge? So I got out some of my "tools of the trade" and got to work making Chicken Tikka Masala with rice and 'faux' Naan. By faux I mean I took some oldish flat bread and warmed it up with butter. By the end of the night, that man had a lotta dishes to clean, let me tell you!

You will see on top my tools of the trade. There are two pepper grinders- one is traditional black pepper and the other is Grains of Paradise which I put on at the last minute to enhance certain dishes and veggies. I read about it in Amanda Hesser's "Cooking for Mr. Latte". Great foodie read. Check out the blog she co-founded- food52. She saw where writing was headed- online- and has a great thing going for food writing. I visit that site a lot! I've listed it at the bottom.

What's in the nesting chicken, you ask? Why that's my salt- kosher salt to be exact. I do not cook with iodized salt. That's for the table, not for cooking darlings- that's just how I roll.
It will not melt on you right away but it wakes up your food and stays with you throughout the cooking process. Go ask your chem teacher to explain the rest, okay?

Okay, now don't ask me to explain why I read MSL (Martha Stewart Living)- it was free when I cashed in some airline miles I wasn't using. I basically like her cookie recipe at the back of the every issue and laugh at the calendar she insists on printing in the front. Like I care how often Martha does yoga every month?

I do adore Real Simple though. There's something that's worth schlepping over 26 bucks a year for that mag. I can thank the re-org of my closet and how to defrost meat properly to that publication.

New Year, New Blog Format

What a long, strange, trip it has been. I'm now married. Enough said.
This time last year, I was told there JUST enough time to order my wedding dress for my wedding 8 MONTHS away. That was the first of rapid fire decisions and a "binder" that became bigger and more stuffed with receipts I was happy to shred when George and I returned from our honeymoon.

Now my life happily consists of, among other things multiple trips to the grocery store during the week to master the art of cooking. There's more to that though, there's also Netflix directly to our Samsung Blu Ray Player (thank you gift cards when our DVD player died!).

My husband is very happy to eat my experiments and regular standard dishes, just the same. However, there are nights, like the last, when we worked late and decided to go to our "usual" place: RED ROBIN (YUM). George got his usual, the Bonsai. I've been trying a different burger each time.

This week, I tried the Royal Red Robin. It consists of a fried egg, apple-wood smoked bacon and cheddar cheese. I think I'm going to have to grow an apple-wood tree in my yard some day, I just love that taste it makes meat have. I was really full eating just half of it so there's leftovers for today. Hopefully I can reheat without drying it out.