my valentine

I wanted to do something special for Valentine's Day for my boyfriend. I had wild ambitions about the dessert I would make. After careful considoration I realized that I could make something simple, and it be just as wonderful as something complex.
I chose to make red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I had help. I am not a baker, for many reasons. Baking involves following the recipe completely and absolutely. I am not such a cook, and find myself always adjusting ingredients. However, in baking, cupcakes for instance, when it calls for a 1/4 teaspoon of salt, that is all the salt needed, and you don't want to forget it.
Anyway, Duncan Hines helped me. I used the red velvet cake mix and a tub of cream cheese frosting.

It is very simple to make the cake batter. Eggs, vegetable oil and water. The simplicity makes it much for enjoyable.

The color of the batter was very intense red. It is the color of a perfect valentine. I remember in elementary school the anticipation of valentine's day would set in the night before as I carefully packed my valentine's cards for my classmates. The batter reminded me of the red heart doilies valentine's, hand made, that I would receive from some classmates.

The finished cupcakes were a dulled bright red. I was a bit unhappy with the cupcake liners that I used. I bought them at target and they have a solid red bottom with black wording that said "Love" however a few of the bottoms burnt, however the cupcakes were fine. (You can see the evidence of this in the last photo of this post)

 I was very happy to learn that the oven held both trays of cupcakes so my backing time was cut in half, which meant I did not get much reading done while the cupcakes were baking.

The cupcakes were a hit, and he enjoyed them a lot. I was happy as well. It was a stress free day, which makes everything better.

Chicken Parmigiana

In the Martha Stewart Living February 2010 magazine there is a recipe for a lighter version of chicken parmigiana. Of course, since I am only cooking for two and live in a dorm I modified this recipe slightly. Instead of using chicken breast halves, I used chicken breast tenders, which cooked a bit faster and gave each of us three strips that roughly equaled one chicken breast.

To bread the chicken I crushed up about 10 garlic flavored Triscuits (I would recommend using more, we learned the hard way) by piling between layers of plastic wrap and then transfering to a bowl. Then I added a half a teaspoon of fresh oregano, but the recipe calls for dried, I just had it on hand. Then to that mixture I added flat leaf parsley, but since we could not find any fresh, we bought a tube of parsley.

In a separate bowl I added a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, small onion chopped in small bits, and 2 garlic cloves minced. I set this aside.

In one bowl I cracked one egg, and made a dregging station, setting the chicken on a plate at one end, then the egg, then the breading, and finally the baking dish. I coated the chicken lightly with egg and then coated the chicken lightly with the breading, and finally placed it in the baking dish.
The chicken cooked fast at a 425 degree oven, taking only eight minutes. I pulled the chicken out and then spooned the sauce over the chicken. I took a fresh ball of mozarella cheese and cut it in disc and layered carefully over each piece of chicken.

After 10-15 in the oven, the cheese was melted and the sauce bubbling.

We paired the chicken with rigatoni.

I have about a cup and a half of sauce left over which I am planning on freezing because I will be away this weekend.

a simple pair

A lemon and garlic sitting on my book shelf. I've been musing about what recipe I could use these two ingredients. Pasta, chicken, salad, or bread are the things I've thought. If I crush the garlic and add it to extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice and toss in warm pasta. Or I could crush the garlic and rub on chicken (either in pieces or a whole chicken), and then squeeze the lemon juice on top, and/or cut in half and put into the chicken cavity. I could make a garlicky lemon vinaigrette dressing, and finally make a lemon garlic infused oil to drizzle over toasted french bread.

Leftovers

After the Superbowl party we had sour cream, half a bag of shredded cheese, salsa and an avocado left. It made sense that our dinner Monday night would be tacos. After a quick trip to the store to pick up ground beef and a taco kit dinner was half made.

The ground beef we found at the store was processed for making chili. It had a high fat content, which I needed to drain away before adding the taco seasoning, but it made the chunks of meat larger and more substantial. Instead of the typical small tubes of meat, the ground beef was in thicker tubes. I had wished I made the taco seasoning myself, using chili powder and cumin, someday.

We had enough left over to eat tacos for lunch the next day, plus I ended mushing up the avocado and stirring in some fresh lime juice, along with the taco sauce from the kit to make a dip for the chips. We used up all the left overs from the Superbowl party and had two enjoyable meals.

Superbowl Party

It's been a few days since the Superbowl, but I wanted to share with you the yummy dip I made for the Superbowl party we attended.

I found a recipe for a 7 layer dip, however after I decided that two layers were uncalled for (crushed tortilla chips and shredded lettuce) it ended up a nice 5 layer mexican dip.

In a 9" round cake pan, I spread a can of vegetarian refried beans (a healthy choice without animal fat)

then half a jar of salsa, depending upon your liking of salsa, then a layer of guacamole (I made it fresh with two avacados and a store bought guacamole seasoning packet, plus some lime juice), followed by a layer of sour cream and a sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese.

I served the dip along side Tostitos scoops. I believe the dip was gone before the game even started. I wasn't sure if people would enjoy it, and I think next time I will double the recipe and either use two cake pans and bring one out half way through the party, or make it in a larger dish.

pasta sauce

I decided that I wanted to make my own pasta sauce. I found a recipe in Giada De Laurentiis' cookbook for a quick marinara and was excited. I found that it was very simple to make, only a few ingredients and cooked just a few minutes. 
I blended the canned whole tomatoes and added salt, basil, garlic, sugar and extra virgin olive oil. I was only suppose to cook it for a few minutes but I let it simmer for a while. I made extra and tonight I reheated some. I added fresh oregano, for fresh flavor and because I had some on hand. To finish the sauce I stirred in ricotta cheese to make it creamy.

Reheating the Tomato sauce

Whisking in the ricotta 

With the finished sauce, we added meat ravioli, however you could add any type of pasta. I liked the heartiness of the ravioli. The sauce, without the cheese added, can be stored in the fridge or freezer.

a simple dish

This is the dish I used to put bread and butter on today as part of our lunch. Even though I just had Spaghetti-o's I like to use beautiful dishes, I'll include pictures of the bowls we use in another blog.

welcome

This is a blog for my new hobby. I have recently discovered that I love to cook. I currently live in a dorm and attend graduate school so my cooking is limited. There is a full kitchen in the basement of my building, with a lot of random cooking supplies, however I am starting to collect my own to supplement.
When I was in undergrad, I began watching The Food Network constantly, and now I subscribe to the Food Network magazine. Since my school does not serve food on Friday or the weekend I need to be creative. Spaghetti-o's and Ramen noodles are only yummy in moderation, at least in my opinion. So I'm looking for creative, yummy recipes and a bit of adventure. I'm hoping to share recipes and success stories in this blog.

Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it. Julia Child