Tonight was a convenience food night for us with a touch of the homemade. With the new addition of a car payment we are going to try more often to eat in, so I have been in the process this week of cooking wonderful yummy dinners and tonight was another of those dinners. I purchased a pork tenderloin yesterday while at the store and grabbed one of those McCormick seasoning pouches with cooking bag as well, followed the instructions on the seasoning pouch to place the pork tenderloin in the baking bag and then sprinkled the seasoning mix all over, sealed up the bag, and stuck it in the oven to cook. While that cooked I mixed up a box of scalloped potatoes au'gratain, the Betty Crocker ones and put them in the oven. Finally I mixed together a batch of buttermilk popovers, why so specific about the buttermilk popovers, well last week I sent Ashley out for a 1/2 gallon of 1% milk and he came back with a half gallon of 1% BUTTERmilk; as mom would say both useful, however not always interchangeable. At least buttermilk does not really work if you are eating a peanut butter sami. Back to the buttermilk, I have this 1/2 gallon that I needed to figure out something to do with and I started searching for recipes using buttermilk, I found a popover recipe on someone else's blog and thought I would give it a shot; they were delicious!!! I did mine in the giant muffin pan as suggested, though I would not say that you can fill up the pans to the top as the recipe suggested I probably filled mine up 2/3rds of the way full and placed them in the oven. They were so yummy, I can say though that the hardest part for me was to leave the oven alone while they baked I wanted to look so bad. They came out so pretty and they rose so nicely. We will be having them again. All in all dinner was a success the pork loin, the potatoes, and the popovers. Happy cooking everyone who's reading... Until next time.
Kim
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
New Car
Okay so that is not a post about a recipe, but I could not resist. We got a new car last night, to replace my car. I say we because occasionally we will both drive it, but over all it is my car. The poor old Neon had a number of miles on it and was frankly going to need a hefty amount of money to replace it, yes I know a new car is a hefty amount of money too, we just could not see spending the money on the car that was breaking down and had almost 125000 miles on it. The dealership gave us KBB value for our trade in and we left after a very long day with multiple test drives with my Dodge Nitro. Photos to follow post. The decision was not an easy one, but we had been talking about it for about a week, and then consulted all the parents for their thoughts, and "support." Thanks! Love the car, hope to get much enjoyment out of it!
Kim
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Sunday dinner...before work.
So you know, I have more late posts to add regarding my jam processing, but those will come with time, my hope is some time this week.
Tonight I actually felt like I had the energy to make a wonderful dinner for the hubs and I, to follow along pull out your trusted Better Homes and Gardens plaid cookbook, mine is pink. For those of you who don't know I work nights every weekend from Thursday to Sunday, which is why I at times do not have the energy to cook much; tonight however was not one of those nights, we had Steak Au Poivre, fried potatoes and onions, and artichokes with herbed butter.
So how did it all go. I used beef tenderloin steak for the steak, it actually cooked really quickly, Ashley's was a little underdone for him as he prefers a more medium well steak. I on the other hand have moved from the overdone well done of my youth to a perfectly cool medium/medium rare. Once the steaks were all done, I completed the sauce for the steaks. The recipe calls for beef broth, and tonight amazingly I had none in the house, and I had no bullion cubes to cheat with so I just added water in place of broth. The sauce was delish and easy to make, brandy, water, cream, Dijon mustard, and the drippings from the steak. I decided to add a bit of salt after tasting, remember the importance of not salt is not necessarily about salt but about enhancing the flavor.
The artichokes took a bit more time to prepare and cook. This is my first time to EVER prepare artichokes and I was a bit nervous about the task, however it was much easier then I imagined. So I pulled off some of the petals that were not firmly attached to the base, snipped the petals that were remaining on, and cut about an inch of the top off, finally peeling the stalk after removing almost all of it. Once done with preparing the artichokes they were placed in acidulated water (or water with lemon juice) until the water for cooking had come to a boil. After the water was to a boil I placed the chokes in the boiling water, and placed a lid smaller then my pot on top of them to hold them into the water as the float, placed the lid on the pot and simmered for 30 minutes. While they were cooking I prepared the butter sauce, adding dried herbs as opposed to fresh, as well as adding a dose of parmesan oil dipping seasoning so there was a bit more flavor to the sauce.
The final dish was the fried potatoes and onions, this one goes way back in my dads family I am guessing. This recipe starts with peeled sliced potatoes, thinly sliced. Then you put those in a skillet with a bit of oil, while those are starting to cook peel an onion and cut in half then slice thin, add to potatoes. I use about 4 smallish potatoes and two onions, because I love the onion flavor. To the potatoes and onions in the skillet add salt and pepper to preference and place the lid on the skillet cooking until tender and browned.
The overall opinion of the meal, the potatoes are my favorite so those I know will make a repeat. The steak was good, and the sauce was good as well, now Ashley surprisingly liked the sauce as well, I worried because it has brandy in it, and he generally does not like the flavor of liquor. The artichokes, were not as difficult to work with as I expected, however they were rather bland, requiring salt and the dipping sauce was a must! I will try the artichokes again however not this recipe; most likely a recipe that roasts the artichokes.
Well that was dinner, and now I should go prepare for my final shift of the week. Hope all are well and happy eating!
Kim
Tonight I actually felt like I had the energy to make a wonderful dinner for the hubs and I, to follow along pull out your trusted Better Homes and Gardens plaid cookbook, mine is pink. For those of you who don't know I work nights every weekend from Thursday to Sunday, which is why I at times do not have the energy to cook much; tonight however was not one of those nights, we had Steak Au Poivre, fried potatoes and onions, and artichokes with herbed butter.
So how did it all go. I used beef tenderloin steak for the steak, it actually cooked really quickly, Ashley's was a little underdone for him as he prefers a more medium well steak. I on the other hand have moved from the overdone well done of my youth to a perfectly cool medium/medium rare. Once the steaks were all done, I completed the sauce for the steaks. The recipe calls for beef broth, and tonight amazingly I had none in the house, and I had no bullion cubes to cheat with so I just added water in place of broth. The sauce was delish and easy to make, brandy, water, cream, Dijon mustard, and the drippings from the steak. I decided to add a bit of salt after tasting, remember the importance of not salt is not necessarily about salt but about enhancing the flavor.
The artichokes took a bit more time to prepare and cook. This is my first time to EVER prepare artichokes and I was a bit nervous about the task, however it was much easier then I imagined. So I pulled off some of the petals that were not firmly attached to the base, snipped the petals that were remaining on, and cut about an inch of the top off, finally peeling the stalk after removing almost all of it. Once done with preparing the artichokes they were placed in acidulated water (or water with lemon juice) until the water for cooking had come to a boil. After the water was to a boil I placed the chokes in the boiling water, and placed a lid smaller then my pot on top of them to hold them into the water as the float, placed the lid on the pot and simmered for 30 minutes. While they were cooking I prepared the butter sauce, adding dried herbs as opposed to fresh, as well as adding a dose of parmesan oil dipping seasoning so there was a bit more flavor to the sauce.
The final dish was the fried potatoes and onions, this one goes way back in my dads family I am guessing. This recipe starts with peeled sliced potatoes, thinly sliced. Then you put those in a skillet with a bit of oil, while those are starting to cook peel an onion and cut in half then slice thin, add to potatoes. I use about 4 smallish potatoes and two onions, because I love the onion flavor. To the potatoes and onions in the skillet add salt and pepper to preference and place the lid on the skillet cooking until tender and browned.
The overall opinion of the meal, the potatoes are my favorite so those I know will make a repeat. The steak was good, and the sauce was good as well, now Ashley surprisingly liked the sauce as well, I worried because it has brandy in it, and he generally does not like the flavor of liquor. The artichokes, were not as difficult to work with as I expected, however they were rather bland, requiring salt and the dipping sauce was a must! I will try the artichokes again however not this recipe; most likely a recipe that roasts the artichokes.
Well that was dinner, and now I should go prepare for my final shift of the week. Hope all are well and happy eating!
Kim
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Super Saucy.
So a few weeks about my mother was visiting with us here in Hutto. While here she and I went to pick our peaches in Fredericsburg, Texas, this is something we have been attempting to make a yearly event. While at the orchard we go to, Maurburger Orchard, we noticed that they were overgrown with tomatoes, mom and I decided we just had to have some. We purchased about 14 pounds of tomatoes thinking that would be enough for a decent amount of canned tomatoes. Once home we looked and all of the canning recipes we had for tomatoes required 40-45lbs, no where near the 14lbs that we purchased minus a few that we needed to eat, you know to make sure they were good. So we set out to figure out a way to can some tomato sauce with the limited amount of tomatoes we had, Ball Canning fortunately in years past has put out a number of canning books, one of the recipes we were able to accommodate to what we wanted to do.
Fresh tomatoes waiting to cook.
Once blended you have to push through a fine sieve.
And push through.
This is what the sauce starts to look like, isn't it beautiful.
So what have I learned with this experience? I love that I can say I learned to can my own tomato sauce. I know every ingredient that is in that jar, tomatoes, lemon juice, and heat. I know when I finally use it in a recipe it will make some killer tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, or enchilada sauce; and I will be able to say I made it completely from scratch. Then the final lesson I have learned, the tomato sauce you purchase in the grocery store is way under priced for the process, all in all it took my mom and me from start to finish 4 hours. Was it worth it, yes, will I be doing it again, most likely; just because I had so much fun doing it! It was all the more fun with my mom! I think the thing that I enjoyed most was that it was truly something my grandfather would have been proud of! What a fun thing to share with my mom.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
My husbands ice cream
So Ashley fell in love with brownie batter ice cream from Ben and Jerry's some time ago and all of the stores near us have stopped carrying it, not sure if anyone else does or not. Regardless, I thought I would be a good wife, and yesterday morning when I woke up I got my stuff together to make homemade ice cream yesterday afternoon. I looked all over the Internet and found a site that had a recipe for brownie batter ice cream, it is another woman's blog, and her site had the recipe for brownie batter ice cream on it, I did make an adjustment to the vanilla because I am using Mexican vanilla and it tends to be very strong. I mixed up all the ingredients and placed them in the fridge to chill. Once we were done with dinner I poured the mix into my ice cream freezer (Cuisinart) and 20 minutes later we were enjoying a small dish each of brownie batter ice cream. It was very yummy, not my favorite because chocolate is not really my thing but still good. Ashley enjoyed it, and the jury is still out, so I am sure after he has a bit tonight I will get a full verdict. This is the time for ice cream, I may need to bust out the books and find a few more recipes. Happy eating.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Steak...
I love beef, and I really love it in the form of a really good steak. I have been craving beef and last night while at work one of my co-workers let me sample a piece of rib eye that he had grilled Sunday with a steak/meat rub called Grub Rub. It was so yummy, and I had been thinking of that steak repeatedly today so thought it is time for steak at home. I had to go to the store to get stuff for dinner regardless of what the dinner plan was to be, so I looked to see if they had Grub Rub, and as my co-worker said there was only one bottle on the shelf, he reports that HEB can not keep it on the shelves. The rub is a sweet savory dry rub that also has some tenderizer in the meet. I also picked up two rib eyes from HEB that looked to be marbled perfectly and a good steak is always cooked on the grill so grabbed a bag of light the bag coal, this stuff makes grilling a snap.
Once home I checked the burn warnings in Wilco, and while we are in a burn ban, the ban order states that as long as we are not in a red flag day you can grill, so I attempted to fire up the grill, I say attempted because I really used an entire box of matches trying to light the stupid little bag, it is windy out where we live. I was able to finally get the coal going even if it did come with some cursing. I slathered on the rub and rubbed it into each side of the steak and let the steaks come to room temperature while the coal were warming, there are mixed theories about letting it come to room temp first some say do some say don't when I have the time I do I feel like it allows for more accurate cooking times. Once the coal was ready on went Ashley's first because he wants it more well done, so his was medium to medium well and mine turned out a perfect medium rare. Just delish sweet savory crust that does not over power the perfect flavor of the steak. Yumm with a baked potato and a salad, all costing less then what one would spend at a not so good steak house.
Until next time...
Once home I checked the burn warnings in Wilco, and while we are in a burn ban, the ban order states that as long as we are not in a red flag day you can grill, so I attempted to fire up the grill, I say attempted because I really used an entire box of matches trying to light the stupid little bag, it is windy out where we live. I was able to finally get the coal going even if it did come with some cursing. I slathered on the rub and rubbed it into each side of the steak and let the steaks come to room temperature while the coal were warming, there are mixed theories about letting it come to room temp first some say do some say don't when I have the time I do I feel like it allows for more accurate cooking times. Once the coal was ready on went Ashley's first because he wants it more well done, so his was medium to medium well and mine turned out a perfect medium rare. Just delish sweet savory crust that does not over power the perfect flavor of the steak. Yumm with a baked potato and a salad, all costing less then what one would spend at a not so good steak house.
Until next time...
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
We went to Greece, not grease today...
So I had to borrow the title from a question my dad asked my mom when he called tonight. Mom is in town and will be here for just another night, she goes home on Friday. We have had a wonderful time while she has been here, shopping and browsing, cooking and eating, and a lot of talking. I love times like this when I get to really spend time with my mom. What's even better is this trip has not been rushed like some in the past have been.
For starters I loved having mom here to help and she did. When I first started to crave this menu Ashley suggested that I wait until she came to visit for the birthday, so I did. Anyway we were going to have spaghetti if I learned she did not like lamb, but I was sure she did so once confirmed, Greek it was.
Regardless of all of that, I am sure the reader may be wondering about the title, well here is the deal. There is nothing more wonderful then a vacation to an exotic world, one where you can experience culture and cuisine. So tonight we went to Greece, not grease...
What was on the menu for this evenings dinner:
Shepherd's Salad
Lamb Kabobs with Tzatziki
Greek Potatoes with Lemon Vinaigrette
Hummus and
Pita bread
Let's first start by saying if you do not like lemon, olive oil, or Garlic you will not like this dinner. We all enjoy all of those flavors. It is a lot of work but if you have help in the kitchen you can get through it all pretty quick. Momma started the Shepherd's salad while I worked on mixing up the meat, then once we were both done with that it was on to the Tzatziki and the potatoes, mom doing the tzatziki and me the potatoes. Let me just say it is all delish!!
The hummus was my own and I have a slight variation on hummus every time I make it. I always start with Garbanzos that I drain (making sure to drain the liquid into a glass for later use), they all go into a food processor with some tahini, a touch of olive oil, a touch of lemon juice, a garlic clove, and then seasons; today's was and olive sun dried tomato bruschetta spread I had in the fridge along with salt, pepper, and a sprinkle or two of cumin; it turned out delish.
The important thing about dinner I think is that it allowed for a get away while sitting at my own table. This is the second time I have done the Greek menu, only the first time I also did Sunny Anderson's baklava cups, which you can access through the links for the lamb and the salad, as those are both hers, the are delish, had I not had birthday cake here from mom I might have made those too.
With full tummies and tired feet following a long day of shopping and a great dinner I got to fix with my momma we were ready to return back to the reality of Texas Summer and 100 degree temps. For now though we are a bit more relaxed because of our momentary get away, or maybe that's just that we are all so full none of us want to move. It was all delish!!!
Until next time...
For starters I loved having mom here to help and she did. When I first started to crave this menu Ashley suggested that I wait until she came to visit for the birthday, so I did. Anyway we were going to have spaghetti if I learned she did not like lamb, but I was sure she did so once confirmed, Greek it was.
Regardless of all of that, I am sure the reader may be wondering about the title, well here is the deal. There is nothing more wonderful then a vacation to an exotic world, one where you can experience culture and cuisine. So tonight we went to Greece, not grease...
What was on the menu for this evenings dinner:
Shepherd's Salad
Lamb Kabobs with Tzatziki
Greek Potatoes with Lemon Vinaigrette
Hummus and
Pita bread
Let's first start by saying if you do not like lemon, olive oil, or Garlic you will not like this dinner. We all enjoy all of those flavors. It is a lot of work but if you have help in the kitchen you can get through it all pretty quick. Momma started the Shepherd's salad while I worked on mixing up the meat, then once we were both done with that it was on to the Tzatziki and the potatoes, mom doing the tzatziki and me the potatoes. Let me just say it is all delish!!
The hummus was my own and I have a slight variation on hummus every time I make it. I always start with Garbanzos that I drain (making sure to drain the liquid into a glass for later use), they all go into a food processor with some tahini, a touch of olive oil, a touch of lemon juice, a garlic clove, and then seasons; today's was and olive sun dried tomato bruschetta spread I had in the fridge along with salt, pepper, and a sprinkle or two of cumin; it turned out delish.
The important thing about dinner I think is that it allowed for a get away while sitting at my own table. This is the second time I have done the Greek menu, only the first time I also did Sunny Anderson's baklava cups, which you can access through the links for the lamb and the salad, as those are both hers, the are delish, had I not had birthday cake here from mom I might have made those too.
With full tummies and tired feet following a long day of shopping and a great dinner I got to fix with my momma we were ready to return back to the reality of Texas Summer and 100 degree temps. For now though we are a bit more relaxed because of our momentary get away, or maybe that's just that we are all so full none of us want to move. It was all delish!!!
Until next time...
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