This Ain't Your Mother's Cookin'

Chicken

2006-02-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I was out of red wine and really wasn't in the mood to cut up onions and garlic.
I found this easy recipe online at www.allrecipes.com

get yer chicken
a bottle of 'italian' spices
BBQ sauce.

Coat chicken with spices
bake at 350 for 20 min

dip in BBQ sauce
bake for 20 min

and you have this italian BBQ chicken

so easy that when my fiancee's brother called up and said he and another person were coming over for dinner, I just whipped up the rest of the chicken I had already defrosted, and shoved it in the oven.
All good and many happy stomachs

I would highly recomend the artichoke as a friend. Only prickley at the top and quite tasty with light sauce.
Brown rice as well as that nutty companion.

Orange Soup

2006-02-19T20:39:00.000-08:00

Mad props to the livejournal community VegRecipies.
I wrote a post saying I had all these oranges foods:

shredded carrots
butternut squash
acorn squash
sweet potatoes
garlic
onion
veggie stock cube
various spices

some people replied and said:
roasted veg soup

so I cut and covered with oil salt and pepper
the main ingredients and also covered with

parsley
thyme
Italian spices
salt
pepper
garlic cloves
onions

and roasted for about 40 min, or until soft

in that meantime, I cooked up the bullion cube.

so after the vegetables were soft, peeled the squash
and dumped everything into the stocked water

brought out my handy dandy oster hand blender
blenderized

seasoned a bit more

ate.

Vit A here I come!

still needs a bit something...I'm thinking either more salt, or red pepper
or curry
or something...

also chucked in a little bit of oj and lemon juice.
about a tablespoon of the mix

regardless of the mystery missing flavor
it's warm and filling
but not like apple pie,
more like warm orangey soup

I tried to do the previous, but this new veggie soup rocks

2006-02-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

However my quest to create a soup from my meaty base, well it failed.
By complete accident I left it out overnight and it smelled funny. Like gym shoes left in the locker with the stinky shirt smelled funny.
So I chucked it.
No worries, I have more of another batch in the freezer.

this soup, I came to create a bit a go and is super easy.
Keep on hand some sort of vegetable like zuchinni or summer squash because they are GREAT in soups.

Use one bullion cube(Telema)- I used the mushroom stock cube,
several cups of water,
left over rice
and half a zuchini,
added in some garlic and onion powder
chopped up some asparagus to add in last (already pre-cooked)
and I just let it simmer until the zuchinni was cooked thouroughly.

added asparagus last, about 3 stalks. and honestly it was something that could have been left out.
but no worries.
it's yummy. there's plenty for the week, since school has started and I have several late nights, or munchies at midnight, extra food is good.

Just to promote:
celestial seasonings makes Honey Vanilla White Tea 'Chai' and it is simply amazing
spicey but not overbearing like the regular chai
sweet but not their Bengal Spice sweet

tea rocks my casbah

meat soup

2006-01-31T07:30:00.000-08:00

or meatless. but a meat base.
here's the pre-story.

I had made chicken a while back, but kept the gravy and froze it.
I came home one night and started to make soup.
I grabbed from the freezer this brown bagged thing, thinking it was mine.
I looked and looked and dumped into a pot and realized it wasn't mine.
it was my roomates ground beef.
by that time it was too late to put it back in the bag.
so i cut up some zuchinni, threw in some tyme, parsley, and orgeno and a veggie bullion cube and hoped for the best.

turns out: when she had made these meat/egg patties things that are fried (think middle eastern jewish cooking) she had frozen the leftover batter.
so that's what I grabbed
and ate.

With some salt and re-heating the next night, it was surprisingly good.

What I MEANT to do was:

from the chicken that had red wine, onions, and garlic, black pepper all over it, and the gravy left over and frozen: was to make soup. pour in some other veggies such as zuchini and/or summer squash and eat it.

both instances are great!

Veggie Lasagna

2006-01-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

freezes well.

gather up:
barilla lasanga strips- you don't have to pre-cook them!
tomato sauce
and various vegetable of choice
mozerella cheese-lots of

I happen to use:
chopped tomato
mushrooms
green/red/orange/yellow peppers
zuchinni
summer squash
as well as two bags of MorningStar Veggie Crumbles

In a pot of some sort- a sautee pan
i mix a can of diced tomoatoes and the crumbles
add in some ginger, black pepper, cumin
and let it simmer for a bit

in a sauce pan
the can of tomato sauce with fresh herbs such as parsely and dill
or dried.whichever happens to be in the pantry
heat to blend flavors.

ladle out some sauce then lay pasta down in whatever size non-reactive pan you got-
in order to not have the bottom layer stick to the pan

sauce, pasta, crumble and veggies, cheese, layer up again to the top
turns out you don't use a lot of layers of pasta.
make sure to use a lot of cheese, keeps it all together.

cook until the pasta is cooked...having the right sauce ratio is a must, cooks the pasta!
eat!
freeze!
eat!
freeze!-but not what you just put in your stomach silly, what's left over is the frozen stuff.

And here we go!

2006-01-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

I like food.
I think we can all agree that we are a people that loves food.
and,
as a Jew, well of course dang it, we all love food.
and while i know not everyone loves MY food, this is for the people who do.

i'm not really a domestic diva.
i hate cleaning
i enjoy cooking on my own terms (ie time)
the laundry is still sitting waiting to be done
and well, martha stewart did not die and take up residence in my body.

this is my recipe book.
my collection
ideas and tips

i'm not a perfect cook (or writer)
even though i am a full time graduate student for my MFA in creative wrting
and i cook in my free time
so welcome enjoy and eat and think of me
think of me fondly....lalalalalala

tip #1:
(gee there are so many)

soup stock
-make in advance, saves well

white potato
sweet potato
onion
celery
garlic
black peppercorns
allspice berries
parsely

boil for an hour
drain 'water' into a container
strain veggies to best of ability
fridge or freeze stock

the left over veggies
-make more soup
-make veggie roll
-use potatos in a deli roll
-kugel (casserole type thing)

rolls:
super easy
buy pre made pastry dough
the veggie roll:

mozzerella cheese
sauteed onions
spinach
and the potatos(sweet and white mixed together)
line dough
roll up
cook till brown

deli roll:(same idea)
mix sweet and white potato
sautee onions
sautee deli meat

first line dough with potatos
then the onions meat mix
roll and cook utnil brown

enjoy!