What I Do

Revamp: Chinese New Year =

tdepriest — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:44:13 +0000

my New Year’s resolution! Yes…it took me a month to get this out here – January was just too cold/snowy/lazy/white/gray/boring to get anything done.

My New Year’s Resolution: well, I don’t really believe in those, but I do believe in life changes, ones that really count. So far my life has been full of changes – marriage, career, moving – you name it! The change I want to make this year is my blog. I love to cook and I enjoy writing about my cooking adventures – but that is just one part of my life/interests.

I love to garden! I love to read! I love to go see live music! I love to travel! I love to do it all…and I did no longer want to limit this blog to one topic.

We will see how this works. If it isn’t any fun for me or you I will change. But for now, this is what you get!

Diet-Shmiet

tdepriest — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:25:33 +0000

It’s really about life changes, not about “diet.” Or, when you say “diet” you do not mean “eat this strange menu for six weeks and then back to the old grind”, you really mean “these are the foods I regularly eat – in moderation.”

So – as much fun as my cooking adventure is I confess that I need to modify this journey just a bit. I will continue to blog about my cooking experiences, and I will continue to cook recipes from Cook’s Illustrated. I will also talk about other cooking adventures. The adventures that will lead me back to a healthier life. A life where my blood sugars are once more controlled, weight is not gained – but lost and maintained, and a life full of activity and exercise.

I love to cook. I love to eat. I will be around a long time to do more of this…and I hope you will stay with me and read about my journey.

Fried Chicken – Success!

tdepriest — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:56:45 +0000

Never thought I would ever say this: I made the BEST homemade fried chicken I have ever tasted. I followed the recipe – it was so incredibly easy, foolproof, even – and I picked a good one! I confess, I do not make homemade fried chicken. I have eaten my share of this food, but I have no experience preparing this dish. My reason? I didn’t particularly like homemade fried chicken because of the many bad examples I had in the past. It was either too dry, not crispy, undercooked, greasy, oily, flavorless…the list goes on.

Behold! My juicy, tender, crispy, grease free, flavorful fried chicken:

Drool, slurp, YUM!

It was easy…AND delicious! And I will probably make this once a year…because it IS fried, you know!

No Future Plans

tdepriest — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:06:31 +0000

…for cooking anything. I had an exhausting weekend away from home and when I returned yesterday I had no energy. So, I will regroup, relax and reenergize and return to cooking soon.

My very rough plan this week: use up the 3 1/2 cups of chicken broth in the refrigerator AND the 2 cups of buttermilk. I am thinking soup and biscuits. I will keep you posted.

By the way, the pizza I made for my brother on Saturday was good. Not great, but good. The first time I made this pizza I was blown away by the crust. This time the crust was not as crispy or flakey or tasty. The sauce seemed too sweet to me. I just was not pleased with the results. I think I am a fan of the thin crust pizza now…

Bacon…and a LOT of it!

tdepriest — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:13:45 +0000

Remember when I told you about that bacon wrapped meatloaf? Remember how I told you about the one gillion strips of bacon?

I didn't lie...

Here it is in all its raw glory! Sorry, I forgot to take pictures when it was in its cooked state.

FYI – we got four meals (eight servings) out of this monster!

Deep Dish Pizza…Again?!

tdepriest — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:02:03 +0000

My brother’s birthday is coming up on Monday. To help celebrate this joyous event I offered to make whatever he wanted for dinner. My smart little brother has been on a very healthy eating kick this winter. No breads, only whole grains, low-fat, etc. It came as no surprise that his meal of choice was deep dish pizza.

I made this recipe one time before, coincidentally for my brother, and I am very pleased to have the chance to make it again. This recipe involves a process called “laminating”, whereby you roll out the dough, apply generous amounts of butter, fold up the dough and let it raise a second time. And the crust is flaky and delicious.

Finally, I get to make deep dish pizza…again!

Healthy Eating

tdepriest — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:38:27 +0000

…sounds like a great idea, maybe I will try it sometime! One thing I will say about my recent cooking experiences: butter! Or other yummy fatty goodness. Either way, I have been meeting my recommended daily allowances of fat, calories, and deliciousness.

On Monday, the day I did not work and spent the day in the kitchen, I made four recipes from Cook’s Illustrated and three of the four were not the most healthful selections. Oh, but they were delicious! (I am writing text now and will add photos later.)

First up – my menu plan for Monday was “soul food” and I did a pretty good job with that. I used my go-to cornbread recipe as the foundation for the menu plan. I remembered that there was a recipe from the September CI that I had wanted to try and today was the day! Easier Fried Chicken - the title was no lie. Well, I should state that I have no idea if this recipe is “easier” than any other fried chicken recipe because I have never made fried chicken before. So, “easier” was relative to nothing in my case. ANYWAY…I do know that I love good fried chicken and there is a little local restaurant (more like Walk-in/Pick-up/Take-home-aurant) that makes divine fried chicken. (Rooster’s, if you must know.) Guess what?! This homemade fried chicken is just as good. Just. As. Good. Spicy, crunchy, juicy, tender, fried chicken deliciousness!!! Definitely a keeper…one I will make maybe once a year! To accompany the cornbread and fried chicken I made some lovely greens with garlic and red pepper flakes. So, very good, and a nice nutritious addition to a carb-heavy, fat-friendly meal.

I mentioned that I made four recipes, three that were only borderline nutritious. The fourth recipe I made was a meatloaf. Again, while mining the CI website for recipe ideas I stumbled upon this gem. Here is what went into this healthy (NOT) recipe: ground beef, pork and veal, eggs, yogurt, Worcestershire sauce, onion, garlic, parsley, saltines, fat (oh, wait, that is just part of the meat, eggs and yogurt), etc. And then…you shape this into a 9 inch x 5 inch loaf, cover it with a glaze made from chili sauce, cider vinegar and brown sugar, and then you wrap the entire thing in about one gillion pieces of raw bacon. Or nine pieces, I lost count. Bake it for an hour, let it cool and smell it for several hours before you wrap it up, put it in the refrigerator and save it for Tuesday’s dinner. Not sneaking a taste of this was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I have excellent willpower, as I now know. Serve this with mashed potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts and dinner is served. Droooooooool….

Healthy eating? Not recently, but I may try it someday…

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

tdepriest — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 15:15:21 +0000

The past weekend was a complete bust when it came to cooking. Rather than blame the late nights and lack of motivation, I will blame a website.

Sunday night we made the thin crust pizza recipe from Cook’s Illustrated again. This time we used our very own brand new baking stone and baking peel. I would like to say that the effort of moving the cold pizza from the peel and onto the hot stone was minimal. I would really, really like to say that. There must be some trick to this and I am willing to learn that trick ASAP. Please share, if you know, and I will be forever in your debt. Anyway, that was the extent of our weekend cooking experience.

But wait, there’s more! Monday was a holiday and I did not have to work. I had the entire house, including kitchen, all to myself. I made excellent use of that kitchen and I promise I will share more about that experience very soon. In the meantime I will leave you with this teaser: I made four brand new recipes, all from my favorite resource, yesterday. And they were awesome!

Oh, about the title to this blog: the Cook’s Illustrated website was not functioning this weekend. It would be available one minute and then down the next. Awfully hard to follow a recipe when the site keeps crashing! So, you see, I really did experience technical difficulties.

Birthday Cooking

tdepriest — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:26:14 +0000

For some reason my mind was on auto-pilot and I forgot that I have this coming Monday off. The reason I am off – it is a holiday commemorating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King. I have decided to have my own birthday party for Dr. King. I will work on a menu and let you know what I come up with…I am sure it will involve cake.

Pizza, Pizza!

tdepriest — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:06:14 +0000

In the most recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated there is a recipe for thin crust pizza. Earlier in this blog I think I mentioned my woeful experience with pizza crust. As much as I enjoyed the flaky deep dish pizza crust from the same magazine, I am more of a thin-crust kinda girl. I was pleased to have a new thin crust pizza recipe to try out…except…I needed equipment. Special pizza making equipment. That is not cheap.

As much as I love to purchase new equipment for the kitchen, I confess I was hesitant to purchase a pizza stone and a pizza peel just to test a recipe that I may not even like. I mentioned this to my Dad when I was visiting him at Christmas. He reminded me that he is the proud owner of a pizza stone that is like new – only used once. In 20 years.

I took the stone, tested the recipe, and it was pretty fab! So much so that I ran out to the cooking supply store this past weekend and purchased my very own stone AND pizza peel. Because, let me tell you, trying to get the pizza onto the hot stone was quite an experience. The fact that the oven was a toasty 500 degrees, that I pretty much had to use my fingers to get the pizza onto the stone, and the reality that I didn’t do a very good job with any of the above…well…it did not diminish the texture, flavor, all-round yumminess of the pizza.

This weekend I will make this recipe again – with the proper tools – and I will share my results. I love this recipe – it makes two pizza’s – one for dearest husband and one for me. He can have his pineapple monstrosity and I can stick with my sauceless veggie pizza. Win-win!