Cooking, cross-stitch, and commuting

Why cook?

2010-01-17T22:47:00.000-08:00

(We're just going to ignore the fact that I haven't posted in a few months, and move on. :) )

So, I've been watching Food Network's "Worst Cooks in America," and I'm noticing something that sort of...bothers me. Many of the contestants are women - I think there are only two men left at this point - and several of them are wives and mothers. For those who don't know, the premise of the show is that two professional chefs take a group of people who are the worst cooks they could find (meaning, the worst cooks that auditioned for the show and fit the producer's vision of a reality-competition show contestant), and teach them how to cook. The two chefs have divided the cooks into teams, each chef leading a team, and in the end one cook from each team will be left. Those cooks will prepare a meal for a panel of restaurant critics, and the goal is to fool the critics into believing that the chefs made the food, not the cooks.

I really like the idea behind the show, and obviously the people on the show both acknowledge that they don't know how to cook and are willing and eager to learn. However, when the contestants do their little confessional type things, I'm noticing a theme when they discuss why they want to learn to cook. A lot of them will talk about how they feel like they're letting their families down or are a disappointment, or a bad wife or mother, because they can't cook. It makes me wonder - is being a good cook, or even just an able cook, a prerequisite for marriage and motherhood?

Now, I can feed myself. I can feed my husband, and he can feed me. We do best when we cook together, and I enjoy cooking for and with him. However, I don't know that I would feel like a failure if I couldn't or wouldn't cook. I guess I never really thought of it as something I'm "supposed" to do, because it's something we both enjoy doing. It almost feels like it hearkens back to the "Leave it to Beaver" era, where Mom has dinner on the table the second Dad and the kids come home from school, and woe becomes the woman who is unprepared for a dinner guest!

It bothers me. At the same time, I freely admit that I have my moments of June Cleaver Failure(tm), particularly with regards to housekeeping, so maybe I'm not one to talk. What about you? Do you think it's a woman's duty or responsibility to keep the family fed? Do you think any less of a mother who doesn't cook for her kids?

08/04/09 - Opa! Greek Cuisine

2009-08-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

Oh, yeah, updates! We decided to meet down in Tacoma, partly because we hadn't met that far south before, and partly because it guaranteed an appearance by Deleva's husband, Aaron. In addition to those two, we also had Anna, and, of course, Eric and me. We drew, and, as it happened, Deleva and Eric both chose Opa! Greek Cuisine, and conveniently enough, it got drawn.

It was a fairly small place, and didn't seem very busy. Then again, it's a Tuesday night. We got some pita and skordalia to start, but I was a bit too busy fighting for the very last bits to get any pictures.

Onto the entrees!

Lamb gyros - I believe everyone but Aaron and I ended up with them, and by all accounts, they were quite tasty.

A shrimp pasta dish with a tomato sauce, that Aaron was quite happy with.

I decided to be a bit more diverse, and got two appetizers instead of an entree.

This was basically a tiropita (like a spanikopita without spinach) with honey and grapes. The honey helped cut down on the salt of the cheese - I enjoyed this a lot.

Basically, gyro balls with tzatziki. They were fabulous.

Finally, the group shot:

From left: Eric, me, Anna, Deleva, and Aaron

It was great to see Aaron, and we look forward to next month's meeting. We'll be meeting in Everett (next week already! Sheesh!), so we hope to see you there!

07/06/09 - Miyabi Sushi

2009-07-22T23:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the delay in posting this - one of these days, I'll actually sit down and write the post-mortem after we get home. Anyway! As Eric and I had just gotten home from a friend's wedding in North Carolina, we decided to go back to the Southcenter as it's close to Eric's office. There were six of us this time - Deleva, Sean, Kyna, Anna, Eric, and me. Sean's choice was pulled (I think? It's been awhile, and the memory is not so good...), which was Miyabi Sushi.

The restaurant was having some sort of Hawaiian theme going on, which meant we saw things like this:

And very exciting drinks like this:

The big draw in this place was the bento box - nearly all of us got one (everyone but me, in fact). A couple of people got a bento with sushi, and the sushi came out before the rest of the food, in a boat!

The bowl in front had held miso soup, which was also part of the bento box deal.

Another boat of sushi (sashimi this time, I think?)

Realizing that the bento boxes would probably be way too much food for me, I got an order of spicy tuna rolls, and Eric got a side of cucumber rolls to go with his bento. They came out together:

For the record, I barely finished the tuna rolls - those suckers were HUGE! And tasty.

Finally, a couple of the bentos:

They all had a noodle salad of some sort, and I believe the rest was up to the customer. There were tempura vegetables, lots of fish, and some gyoza all made an appearance somewhere on our table. The majority was tasty, though I don't think anyone was impressed with the noodle salad.

And finally, the group shot:

Clockwise from bottom left: Anna, Deleva, Sean, Kyna, me, and Eric

I'm not sure where the next meeting will be - watch this space!

My husband, the king of the spaghetti sauce

2009-06-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

So, my husband, Eric, has often boasted that he makes some wonderful food. In the 5-and-change years we've been together, we've cooked together quite often, but he's cooked for me only a few times. Tonight, he decided it was time to make some spaghetti for me.

He doesn't use ground beef for his meat sauce, but rather ground sausage. In this case, it was the Jimmy Dean all natural regular pork sausage, because it was available and cheap. He started by sauteéing garlic in olive oil, and then adding the sausage and browning that down. After it was brown, he added a large can of tomato sauce, a small can of tomato paste, oregano, thyme, white wine, lemon juice, and Italian dressing. I'll admit, that last one threw me for a loop - I don't really use Italian dressing in, well, anything, so it never occurred to me to add it to a pasta sauce. We cooked up some spaghetti to go with it, using a tip I heard on Food Network where we drained the pasta and added it to the sauce to cook for the last minute or so, and then served it up.

I admit, I probably ate way too much, but it was SO good. Eric probably doomed himself, though - he's proven that he can cook well, and now I'm going to make him do it more often. :)

06/02/09 - Georgetown Liquor Company

2009-06-14T16:23:00.000-07:00

We ended up back down to our normal numbers this time, with four of us - Eric, Deleva, Sean, and me. We met up in Georgetown, and Sean's choice was pulled, leading us to Georgetown Liquor Company, a vegetarian pub.

I remembered to use the flash this time!

The menu - all the food is named after various sci-fi characters and such

DOOM!

It was a pretty tiny pub, with multitudes of geeky paraphernalia on the walls. The menu was fairly small, but seemed to have a pretty good variety. Eric was worried, because most vegetarian menus replace meat with mushrooms, and he's not a big fan, but there were many items that were fungus-free. But first, drinks!

The limeade (of DOOM!)

A vanilla martini

On to the food. Incidentally, it was pretty clear what kind of clientele this place normally gets, as we were each asked if we wanted "real cheese" for our food. Vegans in Seattle, I recommend this place highly!

My cheese and tomato enchiladas - very tasty

The salad and "forbidden black rice" that came with the enchiladas

Eric's massive pile of nachos, which were apparently well done and tasty.

Sean's sandwich and tomato soup. The sandwich had a vegetarian jus. In the front are the chips and salsa we had as an appetizer, with some of the best tortilla chips I've ever had.

Deleva's sandwich, also with tomato soup. Both sandwiches contained portabellos, I believe.

We skipped dessert this time, partly because they didn't really have much by way of dessert options and partly because we were stuffed. As usual, we used the self-timer option on the camera for the group shot:

Oops! Let's try that again:

From left: Me, Eric, Sean, and Deleva

As usual, we had a lot of fun, and are looking forward to the next time. Next time will be in Southcenter again, since Eric and I will be just coming back from a wedding.

The stats:
Attendees: 4
Food Type: Vegetarian Pub
Restaurant Located via: Yelp/prior knowledge

05/05/09 - 94 Stewart Restaurant

2009-05-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

We had our biggest group for this outing - Katie, John, Rob, Sean, Candice, Joe, Deleva, Eric, and, well, me. We met at the Cinerama in downtown Seattle. We had an actual hat this time! Katie's choice was drawn, which meant we strolled down to 94 Stewart Restaurant.

(I apologize in advance for the pictures - I really need to remember to use the flash for these.)

The drinks menu, which was highly entertaining

The restaurant was close to the water, and looked pretty small when we got in. They managed to get all of us at one table, though, which was fun. There was butcher paper on the table, and crayons, and, well...

The menu was pretty small, but had a wide variety of items available. The restaurant was also taking part of the Urban Eats promotion, which meant that several of us took part and got an appetizer as well as an entree.

First, the appetizers:

Coconut tomato soup (this one was mine, and it was quite tasty - the coconut was in the form of coconut milk, which gave it a bit of a Thai flavor)

Pea salad with salami and garlic cream

Strawberry and asparagus salad (this one seemed to be a pretty big hit)

I believe a mushroom risotto?

And the entrees:

Fried avocado with a crab salad (Deleva seemed quite impressed with this)

Fondue with toast points (this one was mine, and was lovely and light)

Pork loin with bacon and a chili cream sauce with mashed potatoes (also seemed to be a pretty big hit)

Roasted chicken with vegetables

Hanger steak over mashed potatoes

There were some tarts and ice cream for dessert, which I was a bit too busy eating to get pictures of.

And, of course, the crew:

Back row: John, Katie, Candice, Rob, Joe Middle row: Sean, Deleva, me Front row: Eric
We had a great time, and several people were already asking when and where the next one will be. We will probably be staying in the Seattle area for the next couple of months, since there are so many restaurants to try.

The stats:
Attendees: 9
Food Type: New American
Restaurant Located via: The Stranger

04/07/09 - Talay Thai

2009-04-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

(Sorry this update is so late - it's been a crazy couple of weeks.)

The participants in the most recent Seattle Dining outing were Rob, Sammy, Gahan, and, of course, Eric and me. We met outside the Borders at Alderwood Mall (which proved dangerous, as every good bookstore is), and then drew the restaurant out of the tripod case. One of these times, we'll have to actually use one of the hats we have around here. At any rate, my choice came up, and we ended up at Talay Thai.

The menu

As you can see above, the restaurant is pretty small, and in a strip mall next to a 7-11. Still, we were willing to give just about anything a shot - after all, part of the point of this group is to experiment and try new things. This was made even more clear when we discovered that Sammy doesn't like Thai food. It took some convincing, but we found a few things she was willing to try, such as:

Garlic chicken and veggies and

Ginger chicken (she rescued Eric from the evil mushrooms)

Among the other dishes:

Chicken satay with peanut sauce

Spring rolls with plum sauce (both of these were appetizers, and I forgot to get the camera out until we'd already eaten a fair amount)

I believe this was called the Talay Delight, but we referred to it as the Plate O'Meat

Fried rice with chicken (we went through a lot of chicken with this meal)

This was the pad thai with chicken, "as hot as you can make it", that ordered.

I also ordered a less-hot version of the pad thai, and Gahan had a chicken red curry that I somehow missed getting a picture of.

And, finally, the crew:

From left, in the back: Rob, Gahan, Sammy, and in the front, me and Eric.

Overall, the food was tasty, if not the best Thai food ever, and the company was fun and entertaining. Plus, we got to broaden some epicurean horizons, so all in all, I call it a success.

The stats:
Attendees: 5
Food Type: Thai
Restaurant Located via: Yelp

Recipe testing part 1

2009-03-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

So, a member of a LiveJournal community called cooking asked for folks to help her out. She's writing a cookbook, and she wanted people to test some of her recipes to get some feedback. I'm always willing to help out, especially when it leads to making (and eating!) great food. Since the author is hoping to sell the cookbook, I can't share the full recipes here, but I can show you some pictures and give you my thoughts on the process.

Our first meal was two recipes - Olive Oil and Garlic Steak, and Bacon Stuffing. We managed to use meat or broth from three different animals. Vegetarian we ain't.

The steak in process of searing. The steak was marinated in olive oil overnight, which made it beautifully tender. You can see a few of the garlic cloves in the pan in this picture - the garlic was placed in slits cut into the steak, and I don't think I cut them deep enough since so many fell out while cooking. This meant we were forced to eat pan-fried garlic with our steak and stuffing - oh, no!

The stuffing, fresh from the oven. We actually halved the recipe, as the original recipe makes serves six, and there are only two of us. The bacon is fried up before adding to the bacon, and in order to use up the entire package of bacon, we simply had to fry up the half not used for the stuffing and eat it while we prepped. It was torture, I tell you. The stuffing turned out beautifully - a little salty, but I blame myself for using the full amount of salt even though I halved the recipe.

And the finished plate - Eric took this picture. These two dishes worked very well together. We had been planning to steam some sugar snap peas to go with it, but we got so caught up in the bacon that we forgot to put them on. It's a seductive mistress, is bacon.

All in all, I would definitely make these recipes again. It was a little difficult making these and following the recipes as strictly as possible (with the exception of the salt fiasco), as I'm used to taking a recipe and then tweaking it. I wanted to try these as written, though, because that's the point of being a recipe tester.

Next time - Greek Stuffed Chicken and Roasted Garlic Basmati Rice.

03/03/09 - Blue C Sushi

2009-03-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

Last night was our most recent outing for Seattle Dining. Our participants this time were Deleva, Katie, John, and, of course, Eric and me. We met at Southcenter Mall, and each of us put our restaurant in the ~~hat~~ DS case. Katie's choice came up, which meant we went to Blue C Sushi.

The menu

We weren't entirely sure what to make of this restaurant when we came in, and saw things like this:

And this:

This is a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant. The plates come by the table, you pick the dish, and you repeat the process. The dishes are color-coded, so at the end of the night, the waiter counts up the number of each color plate, and that's how you're charged. The menu is available to request hot items, or specific items that aren't on the conveyor belt at the moment. So, a sampling of what we had:

Cucumber rolls and sesame noodles

Grilled eel and something involving caviar (sadly, my sushi knowledge is lacking)

California rolls

Either spinach or seaweed rolls

Sesame noodles mid-nom

We also had a variety of mochi, which were devoured before pictures could be taken. Deleva declared them "made of weird." All of the food was quite tasty - my experience with sushi is limited, and I steered clear of the raw fish, but what I had (avocado rolls, grilled eel, and some of the gyoza and chicken katsu that Eric ordered from the menu) were quite lovely.

And, finally, the group:

From the left: John, Katie, me, Eric, and Deleva

And the stats:
Attendees: 5
Food Type: Sushi
Restaurant Located Via: Mall directory

We had a marvelous time, trying out a restaurant that I, for one, would never tried on my own. The plan for next month is to head north - exact location to be determined, so keep an eye on this space to see where. See you next month!

02/03/09 - Mali Thai Cuisine

2009-02-03T21:27:00.000-08:00

Our inaugural outing was tonight, with the starting point at the Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, Washington. Since it was the dry run, and I were the only ones in attendance. We flipped a coin, and I won, which meant we went to my pick - Mali Thai Cuisine.

The menu

Now, I freely admit that we ordered far more food than normal - we both were possessed of a Great and Powerful Hunger. So, appetizers:

Tom Yum soup with chicken, at 2 stars. This soup is generally a hot and sour broth with lime juice and cilantro. This one was very tasty, with an almost silky texture. This has always been one of my favorite "comfort food" soups, and this particular one was solid, if not fantastic.

Chicken satay with peanut sauce. The chicken was nice and tender, and the peanut sauce was nicely spiced and had a lovely texture. Satay's pretty easy to dry out, so I was pleased.

Now, the entrees!

Massuman curry with chicken, at 2 stars. This curry has potatoes, carrots, onions, peanuts, and coconut milk with massuman curry paste. Again, this is one of my comfort foods. I could have probably gone up another star or so with the heat. It was good, if a little bland.

Garlic chicken with broccoli, at 2 stars. The broccoli in this dish was done perfectly, and the entire dish had a a buttery flavor. Again, I could have gone up a star on this, because I could scarcely taste any heat, but the flavor was wonderful.

Pineapple fried rice with pork, at 1 star. (Yes, I know, three entrees - I told you, we were possessed of a Great and Powerful Hunger.) The pork was a little dry, and the pineapple was really hard to taste. This was definitely my least favorite of the dishes, so it was a good thing that Eric liked it. Heh.

All told, I'd say the inaugural outing of the Seattle Dining group was a success. We will probably be meeting at the same place next month, as several of our friends said that the meeting place was in their neck of the woods. With luck, we'll have more people show up next month.

Seattle Dining group

2009-02-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

So! (Long time, no post, yes, I know. Moving on!)

Last week my husband, Eric, and I decided that we wanted to try something. A friend of mine online had started a dining group with some of his friends, and thought it sounded like a great idea. We created a community journal on LiveJournal (otherwise known as my primary home on the internet) called Seattle Dining, which outlined the basic "rules" for this group. Because I am lazy, I'm just copying what I wrote in my LiveJournal.

At present the plan is this:

The first Tuesday of every month, we meet somewhere. Eric and I will probably determine where that somewhere is - it could be as far South as Olympia or as far North as Mount Vernon. We give plenty of notice for where we are meeting so that people can check schedules and research local restaurants.

Once we have met, each individual puts one restaurant name into the hat. It could be a real hat, it could be a chart involving a die roll. It will not be a consensus discussion. The randomness is important, as it forces us to step a bit out of our comfort zones. Be aware that we may go somewhere you don't like. Or that has very limited options for you - Eric, for example, has a slight seafood allergy, which limits his options at a seafood restaurant.

The restaurant must be:
1) Near where we are meeting. If we meet in Tacoma, no Seattle restaurants. This means that once the next meeting place is set, you need to DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
2) Not fast food (unless there is some unique local fast food). We want to stretch a bit. And, while Frugal's in Tacoma is unique, we can't sit there and chat while eating. So it's right out.
3) Ideally not a national chain. While P.F. Chang's is tasty, we pretty much all know what it's like.
4) Not too expensive. The target is the $20 average per entree range. Or less. Since this is only once a month, that shouldn't be a significant hardship.
5) Somewhere we haven't been in six months or more. By "we," I mean, "the group." Since there are hundreds of restaurants in Seattle itself, this shouldn't be too difficult.
6) Able to handle us.

There are a few rules for us, too:
1) Unless the service is terrible, tipping is not optional. Even bad service should get around 10%.
2) I shouldn't have to say this, but please act like a grownup. It's not that hard. This means keep drama to a minimum, don't whine about the restaurant selection, and make an effort to interact with the rest of us.

I'm really hoping this idea catches on. I admit, I'm a little nervous, as we have several groups of friends that don't usually interact, who have all expressed interest in coming. It will be very interesting to see how our different circles of friends interact.

Restaurant food goodness

2008-07-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

So, Monday my darling husband Eric asked me if I felt up for an "adventure." Now, in Eric-speak, an "adventure" means "I want to take you someplace, but I'm not entirely sure where it is, so we'll probably get lost on the way, but don't worry, I've always managed to get us home! :)", but it is a great way of finding places we wouldn't have found otherwise. So I said sure.

Twenty minutes later, we came upon a little Italian place that looked intriguing, so we decided to stop. Whether or not this was the place he meant to take me has yet to be determined. On the menu, we saw something...interesting.

I was still feeling adventurous, so I figured, why not?

Eric, feeling slightly less adventurous, ordered his standby of chicken parmagiana. First came the salads:

Caesar for him,

garden for me (or, as my mother likes to refer to them, a "weed salad"). Look at all the parmesan! It was beautiful. We also got mozzarella sticks that were devoured too quickly for pictures.

Onto the main course! Eric's chicken parmagiana had marinara on the chicken, and a tomato cream sauce on the pasta:

(by the by, the cheesy garlic bread was FANTASTIC).

Mine didn't look like much on the plate:

but it certainly tasted wonderful! The sweet-tartness of the strawberries were an interesting foil against the garlic cream and the red onions. It's a combination I never would have thought of, but now that I have, it's one I'd love to try again and perhaps replicate in my own kitchen.

For those in the Seattle-ish area, the restaurant was Galliano's Cucina, with two locations - Tukwila and SeaTac. Completely worth getting lost. :) Also, the leftovers reheated very nicely.

Handicrafts and the modern (wo)man

2008-03-31T13:35:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason I first started this blog is because I feel a bit like a throwback sometimes. I'm not a housewife or a full-time mother - I work full-time in an office setting and my husband and I don't have any kids - but I tend to find myself drawn toward pastimes that seem to have faded from modern view.

When I was about 8, my mother taught me how to cross-stitch. This was primarily to give me something to do because I was driving her nuts - I was a bit of an energetic kid, what can I say? I learned patience and attention to detail with that first coaster, and I was hooked. Around the same time, my mother taught me how to crochet. It took a little longer for me to grow truly enamored of that one, at least in part because of same nasty yarn knots, but I did.

Now, I know that most children learn some kinds of crafts when parents, teachers, or camp counselors are trying to find a way to make them focus. The thing that I've noticed from a lot of people is that, as they get older, they lose the patience and the desire to work on those kinds of crafts. For some reason, I never really "grew up" like that.

Updates!

2008-02-11T10:41:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a long time since I've even looked at this blog, much less updated it. My apologies. I've decided to change the focus of this blog a bit, to emcompass more than just food and cooking. I've realized that I've been spending a lot of time focusing on needlework and seeing the domestic side of life, while trying to balance the challenges of working full-time. So, here it is - cooking, cross-stitch, and commuting.

Staples

2007-06-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

One of the most important parts about setting up a kitchen is figuing out what you need to keep on-hand. Now, for most of us moving out of the dorms or out of the parents' house, we come to our first "real" place with a mishmash of kitchen gear picked up on the cheap or snagged from the parents' place. I'll be talking about kitchen hardware in a later post - what I want to focus on now is the food aspect of the kitchen.

One of the important things to figure out first is to determine what your family's eating style is. Do you tend to eat a lot of rice or potatoes with your meals? Do you plan out meals in advance, or do you just go to the pantry and throw stuff together? Figure out what you know you'll use when it's available, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what kind of staples your family needs.

In order to keep our home running and fed, we keep rice, canned tomato sauce, chicken, ground beef, garlic cloves, and a few of those boxed chicken dinners on hand. With all of this, we could eat reasonably well for about two or three weeks. Of course, there are spices and seasonings that we keep stocked, as well - chili powder, garlic salt, and cumin chief among them.

All of these are things that will last a reasonably long time - we get the flash-frozen bags of chicken breast, and freeze what beef we buy and don't use immediately. These things will make sure that you don't run out of food if you can't make it to the grocery store - an important consideration when you're living paycheck to paycheck.

Figuring out what kinds of foods your family always keeps on hand is also a great way to take a closer look at how your family eats. For instance, looking at my family's staples, it's pretty obvious that we need to get a few more vegetables and fruits into our lives on a regular basis. By making a point to keep healthier things on-hand, you can make changes to your family's diet that can do a world of good in the long run. The best way to keep a household going is with a variety of healthy and satisfying foods on-hand - and "satisfying" is in the eye of the beholder.

Potlucks, part one

2007-05-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

Everyone's felt it - the thrill of terror when the powers-that-be decide that the next meeting/birthday/corporate party-type-thing will be a potluck. Suddenly, you have to actually bring food that other people will eat instead of just subsisting on the bologna sandwiches you usually bring for lunch. Now what?

What resources are available to you will determine what sort of food you can bring, of course. If you have a full kitchen available at the potluck location, then you can make things that are a bit more elaborate and should be served as soon as they're finished. If all you've got is a microwave, well, your options are limited.

Now, my standard for potlucks is arroz con pollo. It's simple to make, and I've been fortunate enough to be involved in potlucks in locations with actual kitchens (or, more importantly, stoves). In general, I avoid using a microwave to reheat something meant for general consumption - things rarely taste as good reheated as they do when first cooked. This dish works with two of my greatest strengths in the kitchen - Mexican food, and chicken. Finding something that you feel comfortable making is key when determining what to make for a potluck - it might not be the greatest time to try out a completely new, intricate recipe with ingredients you can't pronounce. Also, make sure it's something you'd be willing to eat yourself. There's no point in making something if even you wouldn't eat it.

The way I usually make arroz con pollo for a potluck is different from how I make it for dinner at home, obviously. In general, I try to do a fair amount of the work at home before going to the potluck - the less actual "cooking" done there, the better. I'll use the arroz con pollo as an example, but the techniques can be modified for many other kinds of dishes.

Arroz con pollo translates as "rice with chicken," which is basically all it is. To start, I cube some chicken breast meat (cutting off as much of the fat as I can), and saute it in a large skillet with some minced garlic in a bit of oil. Once the chicken is cooked through, I add uncooked rice - I prefer long grain white rice, but just about any kind of rice will work. Now, I freely admit that I am awful when it comes to figuring out how much rice to put into a dish. It depends on how many people you're cooking for, and whether or not you're expecting leftovers. The general rule of thumb for potlucks is to make enough to feed your party plus one. So, basically put in as much rice as you think you'll need. Brown the rice with the chicken - this will usually take about five minutes or so.

Now, here's where things diverge between cooking for a potluck and cooking for a dinner at home. For dinner at home, I would move straight on to finishing the dish and serving it, naturally. However, if you're trying to avoid having to reheat a dish at a potluck, this would be good place to stop the preparation at home. The rest of the dish can be finished up at the potluck if you have access to a stove or an electric skillet (and that is one of the high-end ones - you don't need to spend that much for good-quality cookware. But that's another post...).

Now would be a good time to mention another key for cooking for/at potlucks - don't expect to have ANYTHING that you'll need already there. If you know you'll need a fry pan of a certain size, bring it with you. Yes, it can be awkward to haul cookware with you, but it's either bring it with you or find a way to work with what you've got, and be prepared for the results.

At any rate, for the arroz con pollo, I would pack up the cooked chicken, garlic, and browned rice together, along with a small can of tomato sauce, a can opener (see above about having everything you need), chili powder, garlic salt, cumin, a large spoon for stirring and serving, and either my large skillet (when I have access to a stove) or my electric skillet (when all I have is an outlet to use). To finish the dish, put a bit of water in the skillet and add the chicken and rice mixture to it, giving it a few minutes to warm up. Once warm (the water will start to sizzle a bit), add the can of tomato sauce and enough water to cover the rice. Add the spices (chili powder will give it some heat, so if you're unsure of the spice tolerance of the people you're feeding, err on the side of bland and have some sort of hot sauce available for those who want it) and stir everything together. Bring everything to a simmer and cook until the rice is cooked through - the water will be absorbed when it's done. Keep stirring fairly frequently to make sure the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the skillet, and about halfway through, taste a bit of the chicken to see if you need to add more spices. You can use canned tomatos instead of tomato sauce, and saute onions with the chicken and garlic if you want to add some more texture. It works really well on a tortilla with grated cheese on top.

This is just one dish that works well for potlucks. The important thing for this kind of potluck dish is to assemble as much as you can beforehand (cooking the chicken, browning the rice) so that you have minimal actual "cooking" to do at the potluck. At the same time, putting things together at the potluck itself makes it taste (and appear) more like a dish prepared specifically for this event, and less like leftovers reheated at the last minute.

Pizza

2007-04-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

Ah, pizza. Ever since Americans have discovered it, it's become one of the most amorphous foods imaginable. Every family's probably tried making it at least once - with the invention of pre-made crusts and sauces, it's one of the easiest things to throw together and throw in the oven to shut the kids up.

For my family ("my family" meaning "when I was growing up"), Dad's pizza was a HUGE deal. Dad really only made two things - pizza, and grilled cheese and tomato soup. He got the fun stuff. At any rate, making pizza with Dad was a huge part of my culinary upbringing, as it was one of the first things my parents let me help out with. Admittedly, it was because I wouldn't leave my dad alone when he was making it, so he put me to work. It was quite a production - we always started with these pizza-in-a-box things from Chef Boyardee (which, sadly, no longer exist), and went from there.

The crust was very thin - the mix in the box was basically flour with a little bit of baking powder and yeast, to be mixed with water and coated with a bit of oil. Spreading out the dough was half the work - it needed to be pressed out to fill the entire pizza sheet, with no raised edge. The sauce was the stuff that came in the box with a dash of taco sauce, spread out with the patented Wood shimmy - basically, picking up the pizza sheet and shaking it around until the sauce reached the edges of the crust. Then came the meat - pepperoni and bologna slices. Hey, I never said my dad had the greatest taste in pizza toppings. Cover all that with cheese (half of one of the pre-shredded "Italian blend" with some parmesan on top), and into the oven it went.

Well, that was then. Now? Well, making it for my husband does automatically change some things. For one, I never would have tried those Boboli pre-made crusts if not for him. Admittedly, I don't particularly LIKE them as well, but, details! We'll alternate between the Boboli crusts and the Jiffy pizza crust mix.

We've experimented with different sauces, mixing up our own on occasion, and usually throw in a dash of hot sauce with the pizza sauce. The current mix is Ragu Original pizza sasuce with a dash (or three) of Cholula chili garlic sauce. We've also experimented with different cheeses, and stumbled upon one that's mixed with roasted garlic that works really well. We use twice as much cheese (one full bag per pizza) as my dad did - that was always the part I felt was lacking. The bologna is gone, and we generally stick with just pepperoni. We make it often enough to keep wanting more, but not so often as to get sick of it - another thing I always felt was lacking with my family. We never had it often enough for me.

My brother does the exact same pizza a little differently. He always uses the same pizza crust mix, and whatever's cheaper for the pizza sauce. He also includes olives and bell pepper on his pizza (I believe - it's been a long time since he's made it for me), and tends to use cheddar for the cheese. We both learned how to make it around the same time, but have made it our own as we moved on to create our own twigs of the family tree.

The best part of homemade pizza is the room for experimentation - mixing up your own sauce (tomato sauce with oregano, garlic, basil, and a little lemon juice works as a pretty good base), adding other toppings, changing cheeses, all of these things can be tested until you find the mix that works the best for you and your family. That way, you can create the perfect pizza that's unique to you and your family.

Hello and welcome, and all that jazz

2007-04-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

So, um, hi. You're probably wondering who I am, and what the heck I'm doing here. Two valid questions, to be sure.

Who I am is the harder of the two, so I'll leave that for later. What I'm doing here is much easier. Y'see, I've decided that the best thing about being a grown-up (if such a term could accurately be used to describe one such as I, and I have my doubts sometimes) is being able to take those recipes your family made when you were a kid, and making them the way you always WANTED them to be made. Say, you always wanted more cheese on the pizza your dad always made. Well, guess what? You can put more cheese on if you want to now. I guess the point of this blog is to talk about cooking, and how what you grew up with affects what you have now. And, of course, giving ideas for altering those old family recipes to make them synch up a bit more with your changing palate.

As for me? I'm Steph. I'm a gamer, a cook, a wife, a bookworm, and I'm owned by two cats. I'll try to update at least twice a month, but d0n't hold me to that too much.

So, yeah. Hi!