My Herb Garden

I finally decided to grow an herb garden! I've always loved growing basil in the summertime, but this year I decided to branch out. We are also growing oregano, chives (!!), and cilantro. YUM.

I, being overzealous of course, wanted to grow about twenty varieties of fresh herbs, but our budget and the fact that we're moving in a few months won't allow for that. So we're sticking with four. (Although I wish we could have found seeds for mint. I've always wanted to cook with fresh mint.)

We picked up ceramic pots, seeds, and special seed-rooting soil at Home Depot (love that place) and I painted them when we got home. They were going to look much cooler but I got lazy. :)

As for their plant tags, I cut hearts out of the front of the seed packet. Then I glued them onto cardstock and cut out rectangles. I wrote the seed name on the front and their germination time on the back. Then I laminated them using packing tape and stuck them in the soil using toothpicks. (This entire project made me feel like a true homemaker.)

Most of them should be sprouting within one - two weeks, with the latest being 21 days. Waiting for them to sprout is exhilarating. I feel like a little kid all over again!

Chicken Fajitas

Tonight I made Chicken Fajitas for dinner. First I asked Tyler what Mexicans put in their fajitas (he served an LDS Mission in Leon, Mexico for two years before we met, so he knows his stuff.) He told me they don't really make chicken fajitas and we've super-Americanized the term fajita.
Sad. No luck there.

Then I was too lazy to find a recipe, so I just started making things up as I went along. (Yes, Mom. I know your jaw just dropped open in surprise, but I really did! And it turned out fantastic!)

It had a little bit of sweet from the raisins and a little bit of smoky flavor from the cumin to it. We'll definitely be making it again soon. Here's the recipe:

Chicken Fajitas

Serves 4

15 minutes or less (!!)

4 chicken tenders (1/2 lb, maybe?)

1 red bell pepper

1 small tomato

1 onion

1/2 can black beans

1/4 c. raisins

large palmful of ground cumin (2 T. maybe?)

small palmful of coriander (1/2 T.?)

s & p

Toppings: 

Avocado

Sour Cream

Pepper Jack Cheese

Tortillas (8)

Chop onion, bell pepper and tomato. Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Sautee onion, pepper, tomato, and chicken in a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until chicken is cooked through and onions are translucent. Add beans and raisins and mix well. Add cumin and coriander, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat and cook until warm throughout.

Serve with warm tortillas, avocado, sour cream and cheese.

Notes: 

-The raisins sound weird. I know. But I tried a similar fajitas recipe several weeks ago with raisins and I couldn't get it off my mind! Every fajita needs raisins for that sweet punch.

-If I had roasted sweet bell peppers I would have used those instead of a fresh pepper.

-This should easily serve 4 people. If you want to add more chicken, it could serve 6. 

-We used fresh, uncooked tortillas from Costco and cooked them ourselves. Once you've tried them, you'll never go back to store-bought, pre-cooked tortillas!

This is how I organize my spices. It's very convenient and easy to find exactly what I need.

I'm big on tubs and jars and boxes to organize things. I even have a box in my freezer filled with bags of vegetables. I decided several years ago to do the same thing to my spices. Now I just reach up and pull the entire tub down, find what I need, and put it back. No more digging through cupboards, knocking things over. This way I can see every spice that's in there and reach it easily.


So basically this was one of my best ideas ever. Ever.

Recipe Renovation

This, friends, is my little black book.

Okay, more like my giant black book. And it's filled with recipes instead of gentlemen's phone numbers. 

I just revamped and reorganized it completely. It makes me so happy to flip through it now! I'll take you on a tour:

The 1st section starts off with my weekly menu planner. I make a copy of this each week, and write down my menu and all of the ingredients I need to buy. Then this goes on the fridge by our calendar.

 Right after this I have some recipe inspiration lists. Two pages full of dinner ideas, so I can just spot something quickly that looks good.

After this I've got conversion charts and some cooking tips, and then a short (hopefully will become longer) baby food section. Recipes for homemade baby food. 

The 2nd section is chock full of my favorite recipes. If I hadn't made it in the past year or if it didn't sound healthy or appetizing anymore, I tossed it. Here's how my sections broke down:

-appetizers (dips, beverages, things I'll probably rarely make)

-main dishes (taco soup, fried chicken, pasta, caesar salad...)

-side dishes (green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, roasted broccoli)

-snacks (mostly lunch ideas, like my couscous salad)

-cookies (snickerdoodles, levain's chocolate chip, rootbeer cookies)

-desserts (chocolate bliss cheesecake, cinnamon rolls, brownies)

-breads (artisan bread, french bread, all sorts of yummy breads)

-breakfast (sour cream coffee cake, whole wheat pancakes, quiche)

Basically I grin every time I get to open it now. With an organized "black book", menu planning is so much simpler!

grinding your own wheaties

(Just kidding. Man, I wish I could grind my own wheaties. We'd save a bundle on frosted mini wheats. Tyler eats a huge bag of generic frosted mini spooners in a week or two. Not kidding.)

This weekend I ground my own wheat. (Look, Ma! I'm so domestic!) Mom and Dad bought us a wheat grinder a couple of Christmases ago. I was terrified of it at first because it's so noisy, but it's the easiest thing ever to do. Plug it in and pour in the wheat kernels. Easy peasy. I like to grind it outside so it's not as loud on Jack's ears.

We bought our wheat at Costco. It comes in a giant tub. My neighbor Jess came over (no doubt wondering where all that loud noise was coming from) and said, "Ooooooooooohhhhhh! I didn't know what you were supposed to do with the kernels! I always wondered how they turned into flour." Yep, you grind them.

My grinder has settings from coarse to fine. I choose semi-fine. I have found when I grind my own whole wheat we 1) save money and 2) can use it in place of white flour. I just substitute the whole wheat flour in directly for the white all-purpose flour. I used buy whole wheat flour from the store because I was lazy and didn't have a wheat grinder, but the store-bought flour was dense and heavy. It made any recipe I tried taste terrible. With freshly-ground wheat flour I can replace the white flour with whole wheat and it's still light and fluffy. Problem solved!

Green Onions

How have your green onions been? Mine have been growing and growing. I've used them in three different recipes just this past week!

Some stalks look like they're on their last bit of life, but others are still growing strong.

Hard-Boiled Eggs

One thing I've always struggled with is making hard-boiled eggs. No matter how well I seem to follow the directions, I always end up with a runny center! What the heck??

Then I discovered I could make hard-boiled eggs in my steamer! Yes way! They turn out perfectly every.single.time.

But today I don't want to get out my entire steamer for two eggs, so I'm going to try this website's instructions. (And the graphics are cute to boot!) In three steps (How big is your egg? Is it straight from the fridge? How do you want it?) you can make the perfect hard-boiled egg.

Egg Watchers: the egg timer that entertains you

Recipe: Baked Onion Rings

My sister gave us some large onions this past weekend, and I decided to cut one up and test my mad cooking skills. (Apparently my cooking skills are awesome if you didn't know. Haha. But really, occasionally there is a diamond found in the rough here.)

I made oven-fried/baked onion rings and they turned out so so good! We scarfed down the entire plate in about ten seconds flat between the two of us and had a hard time waiting for the second batch to bake! They are much healthier than the fried variety, and I think they turned out just as crispy and delicious! I just kind of made up the recipe as I went along, so there aren't really exact measurements. (Just learn from my mistake though and don't add too much cayenne pepper! Even though it looks like paprika, it sure doesn't taste like paprika!)

Oven Baked Onion Rings

1 large onion

self-rising flour*

salt & pepper

cayenne pepper

garlic salt

1 egg

olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a sheet pan with non-stick cooking spray.

 Cut off both ends of the onion, and peel off a few layers of skin. Slice up the onion in rings and set aside.

 Beat egg in small bowl with a little bit of water. Mix about 1 cup flour, some garlic salt, cayenne pepper, and s&p in another bowl. 

Dip individual onion slices in egg wash, and then dredge in flour mixture. Spread out evenly on your greased sheet pan (it's okay if they overlap). Drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, flipping/tossing onion rings in pan halfway through. Onion rings should be golden brown and crispy.

*The trick to anything breaded is to use self-rising flour. Tyler and I have finally perfected our Thanksgiving chicken wings by using self-rising flour. It rises as it cooks, making the breading lighter, fluffier, and crispier.

To make your own self-rising flour, mix 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt to 1 cup all-purpose flour.

Cast Iron Skillet Steak

image from here

We're definitely on a tighter budget right now. We just had a baby, just bought a new car, and are currently paying for our last semester of graduate school. So we really can't go out to eat as often as we used to. But I just love food. I have a relationship with food that I can't even describe. I love to make it, eat it and look at it way too much for my own good. 

Sometimes this tighter-budget-but-absolutely-adore-ingredients thing is hard. I've actually done well with it lately. With more practice, I've been able to decipher when I should (and can) spend a little bit more on quality ingredients. For example: before when I went to the spice section of the grocery store, I'd get the cheapest kind. Store brand, if they had it. But over Christmas break Tyler entered an Iron Chef competition (at my Dad's bbq competition) and bought Lawry's Garlic Salt. Had I gone shopping with him, I would have bought the cheap kind. But now I'm addicted to the Lawry's kind (green lid!) and I realize it makes a HUGE difference in my cooking. The same goes for mozzarella cheese. When it is a major component of my dish (ex: my fried eggplant pizza) I splurge a little and get the fresh kind that comes in a ball. No more pre-shredded mozzarella at this house.

On Valentine's Day we stayed home (to conserve our sanity and budget) and I made Tyler a killer-good meal. We had (cheaper but still good - see below) steak, crisp asparagus, and oven-fried yukon gold potatoes. The entire meal was well under $10 but was restaurant-quality. Tyler was so impressed with my cooking skills!

Steak went on sale again this week ($3.97 a pound!) so we picked up 3/4 of a pound for under $3. I added fresh green beans and our leftover yukon gold potatoes as side dishes. Tyler told me that was some of the best steak he's ever had in his life. (!!!) So now I'm on cloud nine. Ladies, when your husband has been to some of the best steakhouses in San Diego (and spoiled with $40-a-plate Roy's for his birthday dinner) and he tells you your steak is comparable, it's a big deal. 

...................

Here's how to make really awesome steak, without a backyard grill:

Melt-in-Your-Mouth Steak

steak (we used boneless top sirloin)

butter

salt & pepper

olive oil

cast iron skillet

Place your cast-iron skillet in your oven and preheat the broiler. When blazing hot, remove and place on a hot burner. Drizzle olive oil in your pan. Liberally salt and pepper your steak and place in pan. Here's the most important part: don't move the steak once you put it in the pan. Let sear for about 1 1/2 minutes, and then flip and sear the other side. (You'll know when it's ready to flip when it comes off the pan easily. If it is still sticking, it's not ready.) Smear about a 1/2 tablespoon of butter on the top of the steak and let melt. After about a minute, stick your steak in the oven, right under the broiler. We like our steak medium-rare, so we remove it from the oven by the two minute mark. Remove steak from pan and place on a plate or cutting board. You have to let it rest for about five minutes before cutting into it.

These directions will vary depending on how thick your steak is. The thicker the steak, the longer you'll need to keep it under the broiler. Our steaks have been 1" or less thick. When your steak bounces back well, it is medium-rare. If it doesn't yield and bounce back as easily, your steak might be over-cooked.

Side dishes to go with your amazing steak:

For my asparagus, I boiled it in an inch or two of water for six minutes.

I did the same for our green beans, and then topped with grated romano cheese and salt and pepper. 

To make the oven-fried potatoes, wash and slice yukon gold potatoes. Place them in a 9x13 pan and drizzle olive oil, salt & pepper, and garlic salt on them. Toss and bake in a 400-degree oven for 35-40 minutes, tossing every so often.

PG-13 Cookies

Here are some hilarious, sexy cookies made for Tyler and I for Valentine's Day by our friend Linze. Get it?

FREE Printable Weekly Grocery List

I subscribe to the Real Simple magazine. It's always full to great tips and tricks to make life easier and simpler. (If you don't subscribe I would highly recommend getting on their email list. It comes about once a week and has pretty much the same stuff the magazine does.) 

My favorite feature from a couple of months ago was the grocery list they included. They have it free to print on their website, and I print off one for each week. I use it while shopping, and love it because I can easily see what I need from each area of the store. I then tape it to our fridge and then can see my menu for the week (along with the list of fresh ingredients I bought for each recipe so they don't get lost or forgotten in the fridge). I love the graphics on it, and being this organized makes me actually look forward to grocery shopping. Imagine that!

Click here to print your own from Real Simple.

**Sorry guys, at first the link didn't work but I fixed it!**

E-V-O-O

I love Rachael Ray. Most of the time. 

I think she's got a great TV personality, but I don't care for most of her recipes. I think they're strange.

But one thing I love love love is all of her cookware! If I could only fill my entire kitchen with her bright, modern lasagna dishes, spatualas, and pots and pans!! Right now I am totally digging her olive oil bottle. How cool and funky would the yellow one look in our kitchen??

Chef Tyler

TWO nights in a row this past weekend Tyler cooked dinner. He really spoils me sometimes. :)  He has this thing about cooking meals that he's never tried before (or even making up recipes) when we have people over for dinner. It drives me crazy, but I think luckily he's (almost always) been successful. Our poor friends Lindsay and Matt! They always seem to be our taste-testing friends when Tyler goes on a cooking spree.

This past Saturday he made some sort of chicken thing, and on Sunday night he made Pastel Azteca (for just us two). [Correct me if I'm wrong, Tyler] but I believe it's an aztec/mayan food. Basically it has fried tortilla, lots of gooey cheese, hand-shredded chicken and some sort of sauce. Not entirely sure what was in it, but it was delicious. A little spicy for me though, so I was heaping on the sour cream!

He also used his Christmas present for the first time. I got him a lemon squeezer, just like the one that Paula Deen and Guy Fieri use on Food Network. It works so well and the limeade was delicious.

Pesto

You all might have guessed by now that I am in love with pesto. It's my favorite dish, and it's so versatile! (Though I only use it a couple of ways. I'm still working on expanding that.) I found a tip online a while back, and just got around to trying it out.

Because the baby is coming soon (5 weeks!) and so is the frost, I harvested my poor basil plant last week. I chopped off all of his vibrant, green leaves and made a giant batch of pesto with them. I doubt poor plant will grow back before the frost hits, but he served me well this summer!

Here's my basic pesto recipe. This time, Tyler told me it was the best I have made, but I think it's because I was trying to thin it out so I poured some milk in there. Thus, it was creamier than my previous versions.

a bunch of basil leaves

sunflower seeds (pine nuts work great, but they are so expensive!)

walnuts

lemon juice
 garlic

parmesan or romano cheese

olive oil

salt & pepper

milk (to make it creamy), if desired

I pretty much just throw it all in the blender and add more olive oil until it is close to the consistency I want it to be. I felt like I had added a TON of olive oil this past time, so after I scraped the pesto out of the blender, I stirred in milk with a spatula. It turned from an olive green color to a brighter, lighter green.

Here's the best part. I am always disappointed at a) how much prepared pesto costs at the store, b) how much fresh basil costs at the store (hence the basil plant that lives on our porch), and c) that basil plants do not thrive in the winter here in Utah (haha, I wish!). So I remembered a tip I had heard: to freeze the pesto. But how? In ice cube trays, of course!

It was much easier than I thought it would be. I set aside some pesto for that night's dinner, and then spooned the rest into ice cube trays, and stuck them in the freezer overnight. Then I popped them out of the trays, and zipped them up in a quart baggie. Now whenever we want pesto, I can just pop a few "cubes" out of the freezer, thaw them out, and enjoy! I think the best part is that there is no mess, and they now come in individual servings. So I can go ahead and eat that pesto sandwich for lunch, and not have to worry about the mess it took to make. :)

How to Cook Steak in an Oven

Last night for dinner I made Tyler top sirloin, potatoes, and asparagus, served with french bread. YUM. Tyler and I love to eat steak, but it's really hard to cook if you don't have a grill and it's 32 degrees outside. But my good luck chimed in and just in time this email popped into my inbox titled "How to cook steak in the oven". Perfect!
We tried it, and it was EXCELLENT. No burnt edges, and our kitchen didn't smoke up the whole house like it normally does. We did have to cook it a bit longer under the broiler though because our steak was pretty thick.
Directions here.


And while we were at Sunflower Market, I spotted this goof. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this picture? (Besides Tyler's hair—don't worry, we got it cut that same afternoon)

RECIPE: Taco Soup

I really need to be better at taking pictures.

So I took pictures of dinner tonight (which was entirely handmade and fabulous, by the way).
I decided while taking pictures that I want a nice camera someday. An SLR. I want raw files, not jpegs. I use them at work all the time and they are so easy to edit! I also want CS4( photoshop and illustrator) so badly. I use that at work too, and it has a few really good updates I miss when I come home to my laptop with CS3. Eh, someday. (But maybe soon, while I can still get the student discount??)

 

K, I know that looks disgusting, but it is soooo yummy!

Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef

1 onion, diced

1 package taco seasoning

16oz. can corn

16oz. can kidney beans

(2) 15oz. cans diced tomatoes

8oz. can tomato sauce

Cook the ground beef with the onion.

Dump everything into a large pot and cook on medium heat until it starts to simmer. 

Garnish with cilantro, sour cream, cheese. Serve with chips.

Ta da! That's it. It took me about ten minutes total. 

Although I left off the sour cream and the cheese because I'm not eating dairy for a while. My stomach has been a little upset these past few months, and I'm starting to think that dairy might be the cause of it. (I was lactose-intolerant in high school and my freshman year of college. Ordering pizza without cheese is really embarrassing and awkward. I was cured for these past few years due to Lactagen) Thus, Tyler and I went to Costco and bought the huge case of shelf-stable soy milk. It's much cheaper than buying it at the grocery store, and the best part is it doesn't have to be refrigerated until you open it.

Anyway, the point is, tonight was a good cooking night. I'm starting to have those more often, and it's really exciting. :)

Helvetica Cookie Cutters

I saw this on DesignMom's blog today and fell in love. I want them.

From Beverly Hsu

the most delicious dessert...

Cake bites, my friends. It's all about Cake bites.

It's the most delicious and easy dessert! I've been hearing about them all over the internet, on tv, and even at several baked goods shops we have here in Provo. Surprisingly, they are cheap and easy to make. Tyler even helped me whip out a batch last night. :)

Here's the recipe from Bakerella, with tips from me on the side:


Red Velvet Cake Balls
1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake) (you can use ANY type of cake. I used funfetti last night.)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.) (again, you can use ANY type of frosting. I used funfetti because that's what I had around, but I bet cream cheese frosting is even more delicious.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate) (I just warmed 12-oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 T. shortening in the microwave until smooth. Obviously I didn't have chocolate bark.)
wax paper

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.) 
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.) (I used my cookie dough scooper, which is perfect size, and then rolled them into nice balls from there. However, I gave up rolling them into balls halfway through—laziness—and the ones I just scooped directly onto the pan don't look as nice. The chocolate doesn't seem to cover them as smooth afterward.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.) (It's much easier to dip them when they are more firm. Don't freeze them, though.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)
I also only melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot. (Agreed. I had to reheat my chocolate mixture several times because it got too thick.)

Enjoy, friends! They are WONDERFUL.

images via bakerella