Sunday Dinner: Chicken & Dumplings

As someone who cooks, it's nice when I try out a recipe for a second time and finally get it really, really right.

That's what happened a couple of weeks ago when I took my second stab at Chicken & Dumplings. The first time I made it, the chicken soup-like part of the dish turned out fine. But, I failed my dumplings. Instead of puffing up into nicely poached biscuits, they fell apart in the stew.

So, this time, I changed some things and finally got it right!

Chicken & Dumplings (adapted from Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn)

1 Cornish Hen
1 Onion, roughly chopped
Several Large Carrots, roughly chopped
1 bag Frozen Corn
2-4 Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut in fourths
2 Bay Leaves
Parsley (I almost never measure seasoning. Start with a teaspoon for each and add more later if you need to.)
Sage
Salt
Pepper

Dumplings

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Coarse Salt
Milk
Dill or Parsley
Garlic Powder
Tarragon

Put your chicken, onion, carrots, bay leaves, parsley, sage, salt and pepper into a large pot with a tight fitting lid, add enough water to cover everything and bring to a boil on high heat.

Reduce to a simmer, partially cover (or cover completely if the lid is vented) and simmer for 50 minutes. Take out the chicken and use a couple of forks to take off the skin and shred the meat as the broth and veggies continue to simmer. Add the corn and potatoes to the pot. Fish out your bay leaves. Add the meat back to the pot, taste to see if the soup needs more seasoning and add as necessary. Keep everything simmering.

In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients, including seasoning and mix well. Add milk until mixture is moist but still thick. Drop the dough by spoon fulls onto the simmering broth around the pot. Cover and simmer until dumplings have cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes.

Once you get everything into bowls, you can spice things up with some hot sauce and/or add some Parmesan or other grated/shredded cheese. Enjoy!

Tuesday Tipday: How To Cook Like You Mean It

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Preparing meals at home can save you some serious money. I happen to enjoy cooking; trying new recipes and making new dishes out of whatever I have on hand. If you're sort of useless in the kitchen, but want to get the hang of something other than boiling water, you're in luck. Here's how to give good food.

How To Cook Like You Mean It

1) Begin at the beginning. If you only eat at home by opening a box of this or a can of that, you need to get a handle on some basics first. You can get a fancy how-to-cook book from the library and stress out over reading it. But, I think it would be better to watch others cook more than anything else. Find yourself a cooking show you can get into and tune in as often as possible.

2) Start slow. Some of the easiest ways to get comfortable with cooking is to get started with something super simple. Like sandwiches. If all you ever do is slap baloney on bread with mustard, try adding fancy lettuce, a new type of bread or another flavor of mustard. Getting something easy right will give the the courage to try even more new things.

3) Know what you like. One of the keys to creating a good meal is knowing what flavors go together. Whenever you eat out, take your desire to try new foods along and experiment with different flavors, textures and things you haven't had before. It can also be helpful to eat old favorites in new ways, as well. If you think McDonald's has the best burger, go out and try a burger at Red Robin. If you don't already have a handle on it, start a list of all the foods/flavors you like and add to it whenever you find something new.

4) Get those toes wet. Now that you know some stuff the only thing left to do is start cooking. As soon as your favorite chef makes something you like the thought of, that is also easy to prepare, take note. If you're nervous to jump right into making a full blown meal, that's OK. Instead of making the whole dish, try acing part of it: pasta sauce, gravy, grilled fish, cheese sauce...You can always refrigerate or freeze that bit of the dish until you feel ready to tackle the rest.

5) Jump on in. Hey, you mastered that pasta sauce, didn't you? Watch that episode as many times as needed and go ahead and figure out the rest of the meal. Keep in mind that you don't necessarily need a bunch of fancy tools to cook a good meal. You can also substitute some ingredients for others to get the same type of flavor. A quick Google of "what can I use instead of (insert ingredient here)" should take you to other options. And don't be afraid of short cuts. I never buy heavy cream, for instance, instead I use a can of milk and everything turns out fine.

6) Experiment some more. Once you get that first dish down, keep trying. Now might be a good time to get a cookbook that focuses on your favorite type of food and to add to your cooking show watching. Also, take the list of foods/flavors and use it to help you spruce up simple things or create your own things. Found out you like caramelized onions? Find a recipe and add them to that boxed mac 'n' cheese you plan to make.

As someone who makes up dishes a lot I can tell you that you'll get a great meal 95% of the time if you mix ingredients that you enjoy. (Within reason, of course. Chocolate and ketchup on anything would probably be a disaster, you know.) The other 5% of the time, you'll get a good meal. And there's nothing wrong with that!

7) Make your debut. An official dinner party isn't necessary, but letting someone else eat your creations is. To really get comfortable with cooking you'll need some feedback to see what's working or could use some work. Who knows? The person you cook for might be able to help broaden your horizons even more.

8) Keep on truckin'. The first time I tried brown rice I hated it. Hated it so much, in fact, that it took me over 10 years to try the stuff again. But, when I did? I loved it! Now I can't live without it in the cabinet. The message here is to keep trying. Maybe you won't get the appeal of kale the first time you use it. Look for a recipe that has a lot of other things you do like in it and give it another shot. If you still aren't hot on it after that, it's fine to let it go.

I know that's sort of a long list, but it's not that hard to fix a satisfying meal from scratch if you give it a bit of effort. Good luck!

How do you add special touches to simple foods?

Sunday Dinner: Multi Use Steak

Fall is prime comfort food time. Everything warm and gooey is good to eat when the weather gets chilly.

Last week I made steak. It's so easy to cook things exactly the same way, but a tiny bit of effort will usually get you something you want to eat again and again that's also different enough to keep you interested.

My easy-way steak includes a simple salt and peppering, maybe some onions and a good stint in the oven. But, I found an easy recipe in Real Simple that I was able to turn into something that I think was even better.

Multi Use Steak

1 steak
pineapple juice
low sodium soy sauce
salt & pepper
1 medium onion, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 pound or more baby carrots, halved lengthwise
about a 1/4 cup butter or margarine
about a 1/4 cup whole wheat or regular flour
rice or pasta

Salt and pepper your steak and marinate it in equal parts soy sauce and pineapple juice, enough to at least cover the sides of the steak. Marinate for at least two hours, turning over half way through.

Bake, with juices, covered with foil on 350 degrees until done. For my medium sized steak it took 40 minutes.

Drain juices into sauce pan, add butter and heat on medium until melted. Stir in flour until you get a thick gravy. Cover and take off heat.

This can be eaten by itself with mashed potatoes, but you can get more creative. I sliced onion and green pepper and sauteed them with a bit of cooking spray until they began to caramalize. While that was cooking I roasted some baby carrots with olive oil, salt and pepper. Slice the steak thinly, add it to the skillet and you can pour this, with the gravy and carrots over cooked rice or pasta.

Or, (and this is how my husband ate it) you can add cheese sauce to the pepper/onion/steak mixture, put it on some hearty bread and have cheese steak sandwiches.

See? One steak easily gives us three different meal options. Not bad, huh?

What foods do you cook and reuse in different ways for multiple meals?

Sunday Dinner: Veggie Chowder

Sometimes procrastination and avoidance really work in my favor. I was passing time one night, and found a couple of episodes of The Barefoot Contessa on Hulu. Seeing as how I was taken with her show back in March while stuck in a hospital bed, I started watching. And, wouldn't you know it, I immediately saw something I wanted to make. Her East Hampton Clam Chowder looked divine. There was one problem, though. I detest the idea of clams and clam juice. Obviously, those are two main components of the dish. So, what did I do? I improvised.

Not to brag, but I grew all of these onions and some of the carrots I used. I rock! OK, that sounds like bragging, doesn't it?

Take out the icky clam stuff, add more veggies and you've got my all-new Veggie Chowder. It turned out really good; and I was able to get rid of some veggies that were starting to go south due to my lack of desire to turn on the stove or oven when it's hot outside. Try it, I think you'll like it.

Don't lie. You can tell these are homegrown. Look at that mutant carrot on the left!

Veggie Chowder

2 tablespoons butter
2 cups onion
2 cups mixed sweet peppers
2 cups carrot
4 cups potato
1 1/2 teaspoons thyme or Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cracked pepper
1 quart chicken stock, homemade if possible
1/2 cup flour, whole wheat if possible
1 stick melted butter
1 can of Mexicorn
1/2 cup sour cream
shredded cheese

First off, you melt the two tablespoons of butter in a big pot, add the onion and cook for 10 minutes. Add the carrot, potato, thyme/Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add your chicken stock and sweet peppers and let things heat and mingle as you prepare your thickening agent. Melt a stick of butter and whisk in the flour. Add a cup of hot soup to that and stir it until all the flour and butter is incorporated. Put that whole gravy-like glob into the larger pot of veggies and stock, stir it up and get your chowder thick.

Put your corn in with the sour cream, let it heat and add some shredded cheese of your choosing. If you like, the cheese can be added to the bowls when you serve it instead of the larger pot. You could also add in chunks of ham or shredded chicken if you need some meat, but I like it just the way it is. Feel free to serve this lukewarm if the idea of piping hot soup on a 105 degree day drives you batty. Or, just set your A/C on 60.

Dig in!

What have you cooked lately that you loved?

Domesticity And The Hulk

I did an amazing amount of cooking yesterday. HUBS and I needed something we could eat for dinner, plus we'd run out of bread so I could make sandwiches for him to take to work and there weren't any interesting sweets in the house. So, at around noon, I just decided to make everything.

The bread was first. I'd been wanting to try making Irish Soda Bread for some time, and since we currently had no bread and no extra cash to buy a loaf, this was the perfect opportunity. One big round mass of bread cut in half makes two loaves perfect for sandwich slices. It's also good warmed up and dipped in my mix of olive oil/cracked pepper/balsamic vinegar/grated Parmesan.

After the bread success, I decided to start on dinner by cooking a small pot of red beans. I have never done the whole soak-beans-overnight-first thing because my mom never did it. You sift through the dried beans to get the crappy ones and any rocks out, set it to boil and leave it for hours. Adding water so they never dry out or burn. Does it take a while? Yeah, I think this pot took roughly six and a half hours. But, if you're like me, you've got plenty of other things to do with that time.

Then I jumped into cleaning lettuce. What's that you say? Why am I cleaning lettuce? Because...It's from my garden! I grew that awesome butter lettuce you see and I'd cut some of it last Friday and needed to get cleaning so it wouldn't wilt to death in my fridge.

Can I share a secret with you? I got tired of washing lettuce long before I finished the gig. Also? There's still a shit-ton of lettuce in the garden. I'm afraid we won't be able to eat it all before it starts to bolt and turns bitter. I don't want the only real crop I have to go to waste! And even if we do eat it all, eventually it will turn cold and I'll have to buy lettuce again. Blah! Unnecessary fears!

My lettuce work turned into a scone making adventure. Back when I was living with my mom I made scones all the time that used yogurt. We don't have any yogurt and I wouldn't have felt like tracking down that recipe anyway, so I used one from Ms. Martha instead. I used half whole wheat flour and added the zest from one lemon to the mix. They turned out superbly and are already on their way to being all ate up.

Then I started on the sofrito. This was another thing I'd been meaning to make for months but hadn't. Since I was trying to think of something different for dinner, this was as good a time as any to jump in. The recipe didn't call for any seasoning other than cilantro (I used dried), so I added some salt and some hot madras curry powder. That did the trick, and you can use sofrito on just about anything.

While the sofrito cooked I watered the garden and pulled some weeds. HUBS came home after I finished my shower and I made noodles while he cleaned the litter boxes. We ate and I felt tired but good. I'd put in an honest day's work and got a lot out of it. Then, it happened.

I was putting the food away so I could go to bed and watch Craig in Scotland. I had a good two cups of sofrito left after using some for dinner. I put the lid on it and was about to walk it over to the refrigerator when...the container flew out of my hand, landed on the floor and spilled half of my sofrito.

Friends, there is nothing I hate more than wasted food. Add to that the fact that I'd used almost all of our tomatoes, my only red pepper and a whole onion...I was irate. I became so angry that it would be fair to say I Hulked Out. I threw a roll of paper towels and accidentally hit Tux. I crumpled up a pie pan and a platic storage bowl. I cursed and screamed and acted like a complete fool. And I couldn't quite stop myself.

At least, I felt like I couldn't. My rational mind, which I guess had worked enough for that day, was totally checked out. My immediate thought was That's what I get for working hard. You work hard and you get shit on anyway so why try?

See? Completely screwed up.

What's worse is that I got so angry I made myself sick to the stomach. Plus, I woke up angry today and had a horrible cuss-filled morning because of it. And that bout of glowing ire literally wore me out. I feel fuzzy headed even after a long nap. I've got a dull ache in my brain that a good meal couldn't even take care of, and it's all because of ONE CUP OF SPILLED SOFRITO.

I am nothing if not a teensy bit fucked up.

Sunday Dinner: Roasted Potato Leek Soup

A few weeks ago we went from being able to bank on 75 or 80 degree days to plunging back into what felt like winter weather. And in the weeks since then we've gone from one extreme to the other seemingly every day.

After watching a Ina Garten work her magic while waiting for my final late March medical guinea pig work to be done, I decided to make her Roasted Potato Leek Soup. Of course, since this is me we're talking about, I made some changes. This recipe is adapted from hers, though.

Roasted Potato Leek Soup

1 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 3/4 slices, unpeeled
1 lb red potatoes, prepared as above
4 leeks, well cleaned, chop white and light green parts only
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and cracked pepper
3 cups arugula/spinach
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken stock, homemade if possible
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
8 oz light sour cream
McCormick Hot Madras Curry Powder, optional
1 11 oz can Green Giant Southwestern Style Corn, optional
1/4 cup Parmesan

Get your oven to 400 degrees and arrange your leeks and potatoes in a single layer on a cookie sheet that's got some olive oil (or cooking spray) on it. Salt and pepper everything, drizzle some more oil on top and roast for 40 to 45 minutes. Throw your arugula/spinach in there and roast it all long enough for them to wilt, about 4 to 6 minutes. When that's done, pour your wine right onto the pan and scrape up any crispy bits. If things are still stuck, you can use some of the stock to help.

Now, pour all that into a big old pot. Add the rest of your chicken stock, the milk, sour cream and canned corn if using. Using an immersion blender, get everything all ground up to your desired chunkiness (of course, if you don't have an immersion blender you can instead dump the veggies into a food processor). Get the pot set over medium heat, add your seasonings to taste and get it hot. Pour into bowls, top with cheese and enjoy.

This was so good! Perfect for a chilly night. And if you're only feeding a couple of people, it will last at least a week for leftovers. I'll definetly make this again. Thanks, Ina!

Sunday Dinner: Brown Sugar Dijon Grilled Chicken & Spinach Garlic Noodles

I made this a couple of nights ago and really loved the way it turned out. The chicken was from a recipe I found online and played with a little bit.

Brown Sugar Dijon Grilled Chicken

1 to 2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders (If you buy breasts cut them into smaller pieces or that shit will never get done)
3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Juice from 1 can pineapple tidbits or chunks
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and cracked pepper to taste

Combine everything except the chicken in a dish deep enough to hold all the liquid. Stir it all together to get the brown sugar dissolved, and taste for salt and pepper. Add your chicken and marinate at least a half hour.

Heat up your grill or grill pan and cook away. I made mine in two batches; each batch took around 15 minutes and I flipped the pieces once about half way through the cooking time. I suppose you could combine more mustard, sugar and juice to use for a dip, but I didn't and it was still Hella good.

Now, the pasta was something I made up on the spot. It tasted awesome! I love it when that happens!

Spinach Garlic Noodles

4 cups cooked whole wheat (or regular) noodles
2 Tbsp garlic butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 handfuls spinach, cut or torn into strips
1/4 to 1/2 cup Hunt's Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes with Garlic, juice reserved
feta cheese, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste

Put your butter and olive oil in a pot and heat it up. Add your pasta and get it coated in the grease. Put in the spinach and let it wilt, then add the feta, tomatoes, Italian seasoning and pepper. Let everything heat up for a bit and give it a good couple of stirs.

If you need your pasta juicier, add the reserved juice from the tomatoes. Taste it to see if it's salty enough, if not add a tiny bit at a time until you get it where you like it (I hardly put any additional salt in mine at all).

This was so good! I plan to eat the last of the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. And really? I'm very excited about it!

Sunday Dinner: Braised Short Ribs

My open cookbook plus the newly cleaned, chopped leeks and celery.

Seeing as how I've been doing gobs of cooking lately, I really had planned to start this new feature several weeks ago (since around October), but since I'm sorta slow to get things done we'll be starting my Sunday Dinner posts now.

And, now is a great time. Why? Because on Wednesday night I made the most awesome thing ever, and for the first time.

Remember how I raved about Mad Hungry, the cookbook I've been pouring over since December? Well I made the short ribs recipe this week and Oh. My. Good. GOD! It is literally one of the best things I've eaten/cooked/seen in the entirety of my life.

This would be especially good for a weekend meal, because you need to let the meat marinate for at least six hours and then cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The result is so tempting, though, that when I finished cooking this at 1 a.m. Thursday morning (after we'd finished dinner several hours before) I immediately knew I had to have some. HUBS and I then proceeded to share two bowls of the stuff over whole wheat linguine.

*mouth waters*

If you like to cook, like meat or like yourself, you will need to make this dish. Here we go:

Recipe via Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn

thinly slice 1 onion
smash 4 garlic cloves (Or, sprinkle on garlic powder, which is what I did when I thought I was out of garlic)
thinly chop 1 carrot
thinly chop 1 cleaned leek (I'd never cooked one of these before. That bastard was super dirty! I cleaned each leaf twice, washing my hands in between cleanings.)
thinly chop 1 celery stalk
4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup red wine (I've heard that the general rule is if you'd drink it, you can cook with it.)
1/2 cup soy sauce/tamari
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper (Or good cracked pepper; I used that.)
3 1/2 pounds short ribs
2 to 3 Idaho potatoes, quartered (optional) (I used 1 Yukon Gold and 2 Sweet potatoes. Her recipe says to peel them, but I didn't.)


All the veggies in the pan! The foil after a few hours cooking. I like that it looks like a fairy tale crime scene...Don't judge me.

Now, after you get everything cleaned, chopped and poured, mix all the ingredients except the meat and potatoes in a roughly 9 x 15 roasting pan. Mine is actually a baking pan shaped like a gingerbread man, yours need not be.

Add the meat in one layer and make sure the marinade gets all over the pieces. Cover and let it sit in the fridge for at least six hours, up to overnight. Turn the meat once or twice during that time so that each side gets the marinade goodness. Take the pan out 30 minutes before you plan to cook it.

Put your oven on 400 degrees and cook for one hour. Then, turn the heat down to 350 degrees and cook for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If you want potatoes, add those 40 minutes before you finish cooking. I kept mine covered in foil the whole time and it never dried out, but if yours does, feel free to add some water while it's still cooking.

Finished dish? Glorious! Rich! Tasty! Probably shouldn't be eaten at one in the morning! But, oh well!

Tuesday Tipday Wednesday: For Your Kitchen, Or, Home Ownership Can Drive You Batty

Monday's exhausting night led into an even more exhausting Tuesday. A two and a half hour nap was brought on by what can only be described as Home Repair Despair.

As I was feeding the stray cats that morning, a neighbor pointed out to me that (wait for it...) our gutters were falling down! Looks like last week's snow has melted and refrozen just enough to clog our gutters and then drag them down from the heft. The panicked anger that followed really cannot be described.

After I found someone to come out and do an estimate, I called PT to vent and broke down like the champ I am: crying hysterically, yelling, pacing the floor and barely speaking coherently from all the not-being-able-to-quite-catch-my-breath. Why so freaked out, you wonder? Well, last weekend I was setting about fulfilling 2011 goal #5, when I did the math and realized that after paying off all those credit card bills last fall, HUBS and I will still be behind (by $32.20) when the 401k money runs out.

This means that we will, once again, have negative cash left after paying all our bills. No money for groceries, toothpaste, cat food or entertainment. None. So, once the 401k train has left the station, we'll be fucked yet again. And now we have a home repair to attend to. I was hoping it would cost no more than $120, but I can deal with the $385 first estimate to replace all the gutters with stronger ones.
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Well, on to today's tippy goodness. I told you last week how much I've come to lovelovelove Mad Hungry? Well, there's been one negative side effect: I think I'm addicted to cookbooks, because now I want every cookbook ever written. EVER.

I have spent countless hours since buying MH trolling Amazon for other cookbooks. I'm reading reviews and excerpts, comparing prices at other sellers and getting giddy from the thought of buying them. Now, since I haven't actually finished MH, I have been able to restrain myself and haven't bought a single thing. But, if chopping, peeling and measuring is your idea of a good time, today's tip comes courtesy of my current cookbook wish lists above and below.



So, what cookbooks do you love?

Tuesday Tipday: To Serve Man

For years now I've been against buying cookbooks. When you subscribe to as many magazines as I have (ok, do) you get plenty of recipes in your mailbox every month, not to mention the scores of cooking ideas you can find online, on TV, or from the library.

One of my favorite cooking shows is Everyday Food, and I also get the magazine from the library and scan the recipes I'd like to try. I was looking through an issue and saw that one of the hosts of the show, Lucinda Scala Quinn had written a cookbook that helps you deal with feeding men. Feeding men, y'all!

I cannot tell you how much she read my mind! After several months of low-level poverty where figuring out what to cook and eat was a daily trial, I needed this book. By the time I found out about it HUBS and I had recovered some financial stability, but I was still feeling like I didn't really know how to cook for us.

HUBS can only cook pasta with jar sauce, burgers and fries; if I want anything besides that I have to cook, and that's fine (usually), I like cooking. But, back when I was living alone, if I didn't feel like cooking or didn't have anything much in the house and didn't have much cash to shop, do you know what I did? I ate cereal, or a salad, or a sandwich and I was fine.



That won't work with HUBS. He needs massive quantities of meat to feel like he's eaten anything other than a snack. I believe I could feed him an entire box of cereal and a half gallon of milk for dinner and within two hours he'd go "Yeah, that didn't really feel like a meal."

I. Love. This. Book! It's not just the tips and the recipes but the book-iness of the book: the design of the cover and pages, the photography, the heft of it and the textured, cloth-like cover. In the intro she acknowledges that "men eat differently from women." Yes! I thought I was going crazy over here, watching HUBS eat five Arby's roast beef sandwiches with a large order of fries and a giant soda in one freakin' sitting! It's not just me, apparently. Men just do that.

For Tuesday Tipday I'm going to share one of her suggestions with you: serve the man you cook for. I know, I know. He's a grown-ass man, he can walk, you did all the cooking and the least he can do is fix his own plate, but guess what? If he's what I like to call a Hungry Jack, he'll literally eat everything if you let him.

Once I started putting reasonable portions on HUBS' plate, he ate it and was generally satisfied. He rarely even goes back for seconds now. This means that when I cook enough for six people, I will actually have four servings of leftovers instead of one! Amazing!

The long and short of it? If you like to cook, you can't go wrong with this book. If you like to eat, you can't go wrong with this book. And if you're still getting used to feeding a man, you cannot go wrong with this book!

Eat This Sandwich

Holy crap, it's like a god.

Everyone loves a grilled cheese sandwich. Well, everyone who loves cheese loves a grilled cheese sandwich. And if you don't love cheese you can't be American...Or human, so I've got no interest in what you eat, anyway.

But, cheese loving people all over the world need to find a way to make and eat this sandwich. Now, I've made grilled cheese all kinds of ways over the years. I think, though, that I've finally made the best one ever. You will need about four thinly sliced pieces of apple (I used a Pink Lady), three different types of cheese (for me it was fontina, Borden pepper jack and a shredded Italian blend), honey ham, good wheat bread, cracked pepper, Italian seasoning and cooking spray.

Now, lay out your first piece of bread and cover it with a cheese slice, top it with the apple slices, more cheese, cracked pepper, ham, Italian seasoning, cheese, and last piece of bread. Spray both sides with cooking spray and, here's what I think really makes a difference, put the sandwich in a hot panini press or Foreman grill. After a few minutes you can turn the sandwich 45 degrees to get cross-hatched grill marks, but as you can see from the photo it's not a requirement.

Take it off the grill and dig in. Oh. My. Gawwwwwwwd. The best part, the thing I found so amazing, is that it stayed hot the entire time I ate it. I've never made a grilled cheese that didn't get cold two seconds after I took it off the stove. Never.

Ok, finish your sandwich, wipe your mouth and hands and thank me. Aren't you glad you read this blog? I knew you would be...

Blast The Bah Humbugs!

Well, thank God! I've successfully pushed away my bah humbuggeries by getting off my ass, baking homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, blasting Ella Fitzgerald holiday tunes and putting up some additional Christmas decorations. I've been craving fresh baked cookies for weeks now, and I'm even cooking dinner for the first time since Monday. EEEEE!


Granted, I went up and down the stairs too many times (made me feel a bit weak and dizzy) getting out decorations, but overall? I feel so much better. Much of this is due to waking up and feeling like a real, non-sick human being this morning and having it last all day long. I didn't even have to take a nap!


Alright, maybe I went overboard with the cookies. But how was I supposed to know the recipe was going to make a million of them?

Listen to Ella, y'all, and make your yuletide gay!

Another New Thing I'm Trying

I know that I can be negative. It's one of the things about my personality that haunts me most. I've been prone to depressed cynical-ness since I was a little kid.

So, in an effort to recognize good stuff more, I'm going to try bitching about what I need to bitch about...And then writing down an upside to the problem at hand.

It'll go like this: HUBS and I have very little money for groceries. The good thing about that is that I've had to get seriously creative and have come up with some cool little recipes all on my own.

See that photo above? I made that all by my lonesome! No cookbook, cooking show or semi-divine inspiration from Daisy. Here's what I did:

Heat enough olive oil in a large skillet to cover bottom. Slice 2 or 3 medium potatoes (I use Yukon Gold) to no more than 1/4 an inch thick and layer in pan with sliced onion, fresh basil, pepper, sea salt and deli sliced honey ham. Cook without turning until the bottom layer is nice and crispy, then, flip the whole thing over and let that side get golden. Feel free to add more olive oil if you think things are sticking to the pan. I usually flip it one more time to let the stuff in the center get crispy, and then I put a lid on it for about 10 minutes to make sure all the potatoes are done through.

While all that's cooking I put a bed of field greens or baby lettuce (I prefer baby lettuce) on plates, drizzle on some red wine vinegar and sprinkle on some cheese (parmesan, reggiano and asiago work well). When the potatoes are done, throw them on top and you're ready to eat! The whole thing takes about half an hour.

Chow down, lovelies!