Computer Crash

First, I would like to apologize for having been so incredibly delinquent with my blog posts. I have in fact been making a few delicious things, however my computer crashed. This typically happens around finals (so convenient). Unfortunately, this time my computer didn't come back to life post-finals. So here we are. Hopefully my computer will be up and running again soon enough for me to show you all of the delicious things that I have planned for the Winter break.

For now I will let you all know how this past week has gone. As many of you may already know, I attempted going vegan. This lasted about three days, when my roommates said that if I didn't stop whining about missing cheese they would stuff macaroni down my throat. While I completely appreciate the vegan lifestyle (and some of the food) I just don't see myself choosing to live without cheese, meat, or eggs. Surprisingly, it was fairly easy to live without meat for three days. Unfortunately, being vegan means that you eat no animal or animal products. This includes butter.  Wine is completely vegan :) so I totally believe that some people can do this.

Just after I gave up on my attempt to go vegan, we hit finals. Several nights were spent sipping a glass of Pinot Noir and enjoying a delicious albeit expensive meal while talking with one of my best friends, Maddie Williams.We made it through finals and managed to pull out better grades that were expected (WHOOP!). Since finals have ended, my bank account has been on the emptier end of the spectrum (probably all that wine). For that reason I decided not to spend money buying groceries when I have perfectly good food at home. Lucky for me, I had some delicious vegan options still available. After my first experience I was nervous to try this out again, but I am pleased to say that it turned out much better than expected.

For dinner on Monday night, I made Vegan "Chicken" Piccata with a Mushroom Rice thingy. I really don't know how to accurately described my rice concoction, being that it was from a bag, but it was delightful.

For the chicken piccata, I used gardein chick'n scallopini. Using these as opposed to chicken actually made this dish much easier to prepare. The "chicken" is already perfectly thin, so no pounding out the chicken. I was also able to transfer the still frozen "chicken" straight from the flour to the pan. To begin, I started boiling water and a little bit of margarine for my mushroom rice. While that was going I started heating a pan with a little bit of olive oil (very, very little in fact because the "chicken" will just soak it up if you use too much) on medium-high heat. As the pan heated I covered the still frozen "chicken" in a light layer of flour. This step is pretty typical of any piccata recipe. Then I sauteed my "chicken" in the olive oil for about two minutes on either side. Once I just started seeing a little bit of color on the "chicken" I removed them and immediately added minced garlic, capers, and white wine (Messina Hof, Pinot Grigio). I am convinced that using Pinot Grigio as opposed to my typical choice of white wine for this dish is what made it so delicious. After letting that cook down, I added a little bit of margarine and returned the "chicken" to the pan. During this whole process, I added a bag of Kroger brand Rice with Mushroom sauce to the boiling water and margarine. Turning down the heat, I allowed the rice to simmer while I finished the piccata.

The whole meal took about 15 minutes to prepare and let me just tell you, it was fantastic. At first I thought the rice/pasta/mushroom thing was nothing special, but I realized that I just couldn't stop eating it. The piccata was fabulous from the beginning. I know many people are skeptical about meat imitations, but I can honestly tell you that of all meats, chicken is the easiest to imitate. Though the "chicken" itself was nothing special, the sauce was perfect. Normally I add lemon, but I was out of lemon and I had already decided not to buy groceries. I think in this case the lemon would have been overpowering, so I'm glad I happened to not have any more on hand.

The meal was so good, in fact, that I had it again the next night. There was quite a bit of rice left over, and it reheats very well. The gardein scallopinis come in a pack of four so I merely had to pop on more in a pan with flour and add more wine. If I weren't totally out of rice at this point I might seriously consider making it for a third night this week. I have much more vegan options remaining so you can count on seeing more of these food options later. I am especially excited about a recipe I have for raw, vegan "lasagna".

Tomorrow, I leave for Frisco to spend the Holidays with family and friends. The girls of my family are planning on a girls night in, complete with chicken mclovin'. I can't wait to share the laughter, the wonderful food, and memories with everyone next week. Check back next week for pictures and recipes for this weekends adventures.

Happy Holidays :)

A French Inspired Saturday Evening

This afternoon I started feeling a little hungry. I tend to just give my tummy whatever it wants, but today my tummy wanted a five star meal that would cost me over $50.00 at any restaurant that I could consider. While trying desperately to decide what to do, I called my mother. She started throwing together something that I could make. I have to say, what she suggested sounded delicious. But I wanted seafood. After a long discussion with my mother I was nearly ready to give up and just get fast-food because I was so hungry. Luckily, my inner foodie was not about to have Wendy's in place of five-start French cuisine. I knew what I wanted and Wendy's was nearly the complete opposite. So instead I made up something to fit EXACTLY what I was in the mood for. What I created was incredible, not to mention just what I was craving.

First I began by mincing 6 oz. of baby brown pearl mushrooms and 4 medium sized shallots. I sauteed the both of those in 4 tablespoons of butter and about a quarter cup of Chardonnay. After thoroughly drying the bay scallops and the shrimp, and cutting the shrimp into bite sized pieces, I added them to the pan, with half of the bottle of Chardonnay. I allowed the seafood to 'poach' in the wine and the wine to cook down. Finally, I added 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, a tablespoon vanilla pepper, and three tablespoons flour. I left all of that to simmer as I baked the puff pastries. I fully believe that it is important to take the caps off of the puff pastries about 5 minutes before they are totally baked, and replace them in the oven (so they are baking opened up). This allows the pastries to be perfectly flaky, and not to difficult to cut into bite sized portions.

What came out as the final result was a thick gravy-like sauce over buttery puff pastries with perfectly cooked thick asparagus. I had to stop my roommates from just drink all of the leftover sauce. Lucky for us there was a little leftover. I get the impression that this will be one of those meals that tastes even better the next day, because the flavors have had the time to meld together all night. I am so glad I had the patience to wait and cook this instead of curing my hunger with cheap fast food. 

Meat and Potatoes

It's that time of year again! I made meatloaf for the first time this semester and everyone was happy about it. The recipe for this meatloaf is my mother's recipe that has been adapted since I was little. Growing up it was your standard meatloaf. Now there are a few twists (one that I can proudly claim as my own).

The directions are pretty simple: mix all the ingredients really, really well and bake at 400 for 45-55 minutes. The real magic is in the ingredients. Originally this meatloaf consisted of 1 lb ground beef, 1 cup shredded cheese, 1 cup chopped onion, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1 egg, a shit ton of ketchup (yes, that is a technical unit of measurement equal to about 2 cups) and Cavender's to taste. Since then, we have added 1/2 a log of breakfast sausage (I used the sage variety this evening) and begun using a different ketchup. 

Heinz has always been a family staple, so we didn't stray too far. Now, Heinz has come out with a balsamic vinegar ketchup. This mixed in the meatloaf and brushed over the top is KILLER. Also, a "shit ton" of ketchup was altered to a "SHIT TON" of ketchup (2 1/2 cups). The traditional mashed potatoes and green beans served as sides so everyone finished with a full, happy tummy. :)

Friends & Football

This past week my very best friend Mason Scheer came to visit :) Every time he comes in town he experiments in our kitchen and it only makes me love him more. Having friends that appreciate food the way I do make cooking that much more fun. Mason told me that while he was in town, he wanted to make dinner one night. I've never tasted anything I didn't like that he made so, naturally, I was in favor of this idea. Getting in late Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday night were really the only reasonable nights for him to make dinner. Wednesday night, however, our apartment complex provided a free door to door dinner from Olive Garden (I'm not a super huge fan of Olive Garden, but I'm a broke college student. I don't say no to free food.) consisting of salad, bread sticks, and lasagna. When Thursday rolled around my roommates and I started asking Mason what he thought he might make. That's when I learned how secretive he is in the kitchen. Apparently, he doesn't like to tell people what he is making until it's ready (yea, right.), so I had to sneak around to find out exactly what he did. Trust me, you'll be glad I did because what he made was phenomenal. 

Unfortunately, my camera decided not to correctly save the photos I took of the stuffed peppers, but above is the mixture he put into the peppers. First, the red bell peppers were cut in half vertically and cleaned. Then the insides were brushed with a sun-dried tomato pesto. The delicious stuffing was loaded up into each pepper and then covered with the four cheese alfredo sauce and cayenne pepper. Finally, the peppers were popped in the oven for a bit and served hot. The result was killer. 

While the peppers were big enough to fill each of us up, Mason also decided to make steak. Below is a picture of the coffee rubbed steak. While I think this time there was a little too much coffee on the steak the flavors were still wonderful together. A little tweaking to the amount of rub and this will be a huge hit. Living in an apartment complex, we don't have a big grill readily available. Instead my roommate, Maddie, offered for Mason to use our fancy shmancy new grill pan. It's basically a large flat non-stick pan with ridges through the middle. We still got to enjoy delicious grilled steak with out the big grilling mess. I was very impressed at the way this was all just thrown together based on what looked good at the grocery store.

Friday afternoon Mason left to return to Austin. Believe me, next time he is in town I will have more pictures and posts to share. After that spectacular week, I was looking forward to some football this weekend. Last night our Aggies played LA Tech in Shreveport. Since the game was on ESPN U, I went to a friends house for a watch party. Boy was that a treat. When I arrived there was spicy cornbread and jambalaya ready to taste. On top of that, my good friend and party host, Craig, began baking a homemade loaf of bread during the party. While the Aggies nearly made me cry, the bread was fantastic. 

I think from now on I'm going to have something baking during every football game, for celebration or consolation. There's more on the way this week so check back soon!

Fall Weather Food

I have been so excited for the coming cool weather. I love cooking comfort food. Unfortunately, I live in Texas. Up until this past Saturday, it's still been well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. So I have been waiting, as patiently as I can manage, to make a meal like the one I made last night. Here's what I made:

Above you see Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes, Mashed Potatoes (with optional shredded Fontina), and Mixed Veggies. I started getting really excited when my mom started e-mailing me Fall themed recipes (thanks mom for the first one :) ). Most of the recipes she sends me sound pretty good, but this one just looked great. I had to give it a shot. After showing a few pictures of what it should look like to my roommates, they all agreed to present and hungry for dinner.

My roommates began the evening working out. Naturally, I decided I should start making dinner instead. They told me afterward that I was never allowed to cook while they were working out again. It smelled too good. A few tips that I have for making this dish: 1) the croissant dough can be tough to work with. I couldn't find the sheets that the recipe called for, so I just used regular cans of Pillsbury original croissants and pinched the perforations together. Using this method, the perforations still wanted to split when I rolled the sheets up. I made two batches so for the second I placed the croissants in the freezer for a few minutes while I prepared the filling. This made a huge difference. It was much easier to roll and cut the cupcakes, so try leaving the croissant dough in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before you roll them up. 2) The thyme in the recipe was a little overwhelming. I have the cutest little measuring spoons, just for 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32 of a teaspoon. I would try using 1/8 of a teaspoon for this recipe. It's just a little bit less overwhelming, and anyone with a sensitive tummy will thank you.

It blows my mind how many people use boxed mashed potatoes. Using real potatoes is just as easy and so much more delicious. I started by putting water on to boil while I peeled the potatoes. Once I had them all in the pot, I let them cook until I got the chicken pot pie cupcakes in the oven. The timing could not have been more perfect. As soon as I got the oven closed, the potatoes were ready to drain. I like my potatoes to mash pretty easily since my arms aren't too strong, but I also like a few lumps left so you occasionally get a bite of pure potato. After I got them all mashed I added some heavy cream, salt, pepper and butter. One of my roommates is lactose intolerant :( so I kept the shredded Fontina on the side. The potatoes were still plenty warm by the time we were eating, so the Fontina just melted right into the potatoes when stirred in. 

Sadly, everyone in my apartment is trying to lose weight. I can't really blame them. The food I enjoy making most is usually pretty unhealthy. It doesn't help that it's so good that it's hard to stop eating. Anyway, since everyone is trying to lose weight I decided to skip on making dessert and just make a batch of Pumpkin Spice Hot Chocolate. The recipe makes a little over two cups, which is perfect for four people in these cute little mugs that we have (got a set of six from World Market; they stack up and look so cute on our counter), and leaves just a little room for marshmallows or whipped cream. Last night was definitely a success. Of the 24 pot pies that I made, four are left. I think it was also nice how well they were portioned. Each person felt perfectly full (not hungry, but not too full) after dinner. Since having 'just one more bite' would mean eating another whole pot pie, no one over-ate.

This evening I ate left-overs but I decided to add a little appetizer to my meal. While in San Marcos this past weekend visiting my mom and sister (Go Bobcats!) we found the most delicious cheese. It reminded me of a cheese I tried at Mi Piaci in Dallas during restaurant week about three years ago. My friends and I had gotten a cheese tray with our meal, and I have been searching for that cheese ever since. 

Now that I have finally found it, I chose a similar mixture of flavors as I had originally tasted. The cheese tray was served with berries, honey, and pecans. Sadly, we don't have any pecans or fresh berries. I stuck with honey and water crackers. I placed some water crackers on a piece of foil with a dab of honey. Then, I shredded some of this cheese over the top of each cracker. Finally, I set my toaster oven to broil and let them bake for just under 5 minutes. I have to say that I was very pleased with the result :). The flavor from the water crackers was a little stronger than I had anticipated so I think next time I may try shredding the cheese, mixing it with honey and chopped pecans and then heating the mixture. Hopefully, then I can serve this as a dip with cinnamon sugar pita chips. 

Sometime this week or next I will be making a family specialty, Chicken Noodle Soup. My best friend and I have know each other since we were five years old. Over the years our mothers have become very close friends, too. As a result, a few of our family recipes have been altered and mixed a little bit. We like to call these recipes "Williams-Rochelle Family Recipes". More pictures and stories to come :)