my first spanakopita

I'm always looking to try a new recipe around the holidays or when I'll have family over for a big meal. This year I decided I wanted to try making spanakopita, which is Greek spinach pie.  I likely wouldn't have ever attempted making this; however, a coworker recently made it for a potluck we had at work before Christmas.   The filo pastry was flaky and buttery, the filling was rich, and overall it was just SO DELICIOUS!!!

I started searching for recipes since my coworker was on vacation and I couldn't ask for hers. (Actually, it's her grandmother's recipe.) I wanted THE authentic Greek recipe--I often agonize over this aspect when searching out a recipe and it drives me nuts--however, I quickly realized that there are so many recipes and they all purport to be "traditional" or "authentic." But like any other recipe, there are always variations and it all depends on how YOU make it. That's what makes it traditional or authentic to YOU and your family. I noticed that the difference the various recipes was the herb mix. Some used parsley only, others were a mix of parsley and dill, and others had parsley and mint. Measurements were all over the place. I found a few that called for a "bunch" of parsley and/or dill (that is A LOT of dill!), while others called for 1/2 a cup of parsley and 2 tablespoons of dill or mint. It was really frustrating to figure out which one I should use in order to get similar results to the one my coworker made. (I later found out that she used parsley only, though her mom and grandmother use parsley and fresh mint.)

I decided on this one since it seemed pretty easy, plus I didn't have to buy a bunch of special ingredients. Overall it was pretty easy, but I have to say that working with filo dough is tedious and tricky, and you have to work quickly otherwise the dough dries out before it can even make it to the pan. I used tips I found during my recipe search:  lay the dough out on a cookie sheet, cover it with a damp paper towel, cover that with plastic wrap, and work quickly!  This worked pretty well. My only issue was pulling the first piece of dough off the pile. It didn't want to come apart and it tore easily; however, it was going on the bottom of the pan so it didn't matter what it looked like. I made it through the next nine layers easily (there are 10 on the bottom, then the filling, and then another 10 layers of dough), brushing on lots of melted butter as I went along. The other trouble spot was separating the second to last piece from the last piece, and I wasn't able to save that one. Filo dough is paper-thin, though, and doesn't puff up, so I didn't notice that the finished baked product had 19 layers of dough rather than 20. Yes, spanakopita has 20 layers of filo dough!

I made the filling before pulling the dough out of the fridge. This ensures that the dough is fresh and everything is ready to go once you open the package. As I said, it dries out FAST, so you need to have everything ready before assembly. After I finished the painstaking work of layering the dough sheets, then the filling, then the remaining dough sheets, I cut it into 15 large pieces--this makes it much easier to portion out after baking.  I then baked it for about an hour and voila!

I waited until it cooled down a bit before trying it. OMG it was awesome! Rich, buttery and cheesy. My only complaint, which really isn't a complaint, is that the filling was very chunky. The one my coworker made had a very fine filling--I couldn't even tell there was feta cheese in it since it was chopped and blended so well. If I make this again, I will make sure to crumble up the feta more and put the spinach through a food processor. Even though the spinach was pre-chopped, it was a little stringy. I wish I'd thought about the food processor when I mixed everything and saw it was chunky.

It's safe to say I blew through this whole pan in a matter of days, all by myself; I basically ate it for every meal for three to four days. I just popped it into the toaster oven at 400 F for about 12 minutes.I should add that I ended up NOT making this for the family's annual "Christmas in January." The crappy weather that weekend prevented half the family from travelling. It worked out, though--more for me!! (Sorry, guys!)

Here's the finished product. Look at all that yummy feta and cottage cheese!  And here's the recipe:  Spanakopita. One change I made is to bake it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, rather than baking it in a casserole dish or baking pan. The filling really doesn't ooze out since feta doesn't melt all that much, and I found this method worked well for me.

homemade blackberry jalapeno jelly

Alright, I've depleted my supply of homegrown jalapenos, so here's my last batch of jalapeno jelly for the season (unless I decide to go buy some jalapenos, which I may do!).

This time we have blackberry jalapeno. I LOVE blackberry jam and figured this would be a good combo, and it is! Lucky for me I found blackberries at three 6 ounce containers for $10.00, which is a good price. Usually they're about $5.00 per container and I refuse to spend that much on something that may or may not turn out good. I've learned the hard way that I should wait for a sale when making certain recipes for the first time. There's nothing worse than spending a bunch of money only to have the dish turn out bad.

I used this recipe:  Blackberry Jalapeno Jelly. What I like about this recipe, even though it is slightly more work, is that it produces a seedless jelly. I love blackberry jam/jelly, but I hate the seeds. They're just annoying, and I don't like being annoyed while I'm trying to enjoy my food. I was able to put the berries in the food processor, which saves a ton of time and effort, and then mash them through my fine-mesh sieve. It wasn't difficult or time-consuming like I thought it might be. Note:  Make sure your food processor is big enough to handle all the berries at once. If not, break them into batches. When you puree the berries they tend to go up the sides of the food processor bowl and can ooze out between the lid and the bowl...onto your white counter top. Deep purple oozing out on to a white surface that stains very easily is not good. Thank the universe for the Magic Eraser! (Come to think of it, a blender would have been easier and less mess I think.)  I increased the jalapenos on this since the ones I had left were small and not as mature as the ones in my previous batches of jelly. It worked out just fine. As with the other jellies, the heat mellowed out overnight and the result was a pleasant, but present, heat. Also, this jelled firmer than my other jellies. It was likely a combo of this recipe calling for two packages of pectin instead of one, and boiling the jelly after the pectin is added for three to four minutes, rather than just one minute.

Marty was back to work, after an extended visit at the vet, and supervised this batch. (I can't tell if he approves or not?) Whenever I'm cooking, this is his spot.

Here's the finished product. I brightened up the picture a bit so the peppers are easier to see; blacberry jelly is pretty dark.  Although the recipe says it makes eight jars, I only got six full jars and one half-full jar, even though I used more blackberries than what the recipe says to use. Not sure what happened there. Maybe I didn't mash the pulp enough to get more juice out? No matter, it's still a lot of jelly that will take me awhile to use.

Since I have a very old house that has limited storage, and I have a lot of crap stuff as it is, I've been storing my jellies on one of the shelves of the hutch. It works for now. 

I'm thinking I'm done with jelly for the moment, although if the mood strikes I still have some pectin left. I have a lot of herbs in my garden, so I'm thinking I may try my hand at making herb jelly. I'm guessing I would use for glazing chicken on the grill or mixing it with goat cheese to make a spread, since rosemary (or sage or thyme) jelly on toast doesn't sound all that appetizing. Although I'm sure someone out there would enjoy that.

homemade jalapeno jelly

Yup, more jelly! I told you I had a lot of jalapenos to use up. And I'm finding I like this whole canning thing.  Once I figured out the timing of when I should start the empty jars to heating, when to start the jelly on the stove, etc., it got easier and not such a big project. I also decided to chop all the peppers ahead of time using my food processor, which made it flow a lot better. Plus, I'm quite happy that I've had only one jar fail to seal out of four batches of jelly. That's way better than when I first tried making jelly many years ago. That...didn't go very well.

For this recipe I used the Jalapeno Jelly recipe I found on Kraft's website.  Kraft makes CERTO, which is the liquid pectin I use to make the jelly gel, so it seemed like this would be the easiest and most fool-proof. There are SO many recipes out there for jalapeno or hot pepper jelly, and even when you Google "jalapeno jelly with liquid pectin," you get a ton of recipes that call for powdered pectin, which I didn't have on hand. Powdered pectin can be used, but there's a different order in which you assemble and cook the jelly. Since I'm new at this, I wasn't comfortable trying to adapt a recipe for liquid pectin.

As you can see, it looks pretty good even though Marty wasn't there to supervise this batch. (He loves to sit in the pass-through from the dining room to the kitchen and watch me cook.) I'm happy to say it jelled up firmly and isn't runny. It has a pleasant heat and isn't very spicy at all. I'm finding that the jelly has a lot of heat at first, but as it sits overnight it tends to mellow out. Because of this, my plan next time is to leave more of the jalapeno seeds intact--that's what holds most of the heat.

So, what will I use this for? I already gave away several to friends and family. The remaining jars will likely be used for making a goat cheese panini with jalapeno jelly. Messy, but delicious! I could also mix it with cream cheese to make a dip or spread. 

Next on this list is blackberry jalapeno, as I have several more jalapenos on my plant to use up before the end of the season. I LOVE blackberry jam, so I'm thinking this will be a good combination. Although blackberries are expensive, so I will wait until I see them on sale. 

homemade strawberry jalapeno jelly

OK, I'm officially on a jelly-making kick!  I just made strawberry jalapeno jelly and it's so yummy!  Marty supervised again, but I didn't get a picture of him this time.

The recipe I made was actually for strawberry habanero jelly, but I had jalapenos on-hand and needed to use them, so I just used more jalapenos. I couldn't figure out how many jalapenos would be required to replace three habaneros, and Google failed me this time on that front, so I just guessed. I used five and left most of the seeds in, which is where a lot of the heat comes from. It worked out just fine:  after leaving one jar of jelly in the fridge for 24 hours (jar didn't seal properly), the heat had mellowed out and the result was a sweet, very mild heat. When I first tried the jelly it was quite hot from the peppers, so letting it sit for a bit helped tone it down quite a bit.  Actually, I'd consider adding more jalapenos next time, or just leaving in all the seeds.

I'm not sure if it's because the jar didn't seal properly, or if I didn't boil the jelly long enough after adding the pectin, but it didn't set firmly like jelly normally does. It came out more like jam, which is fine because I actually prefer jam.  It just makes it more difficult to eat on a hot bagel or piece of toast.

As you can see, all the strawberries and peppers floated to the top. That happens with homemade jelly. Since you're not supposed to disturb the jelly once you take it out of the canning pot, you really can't shake it up while it's hot; you run the risk that the jar won't seal properly. That's OK. All I need to do is stir it up once it's opened at some point in the future.

This is the recipe I used:  Strawberry Habanero Jelly.  I used two 16 oz. containers of fresh strawberries to make this, along with five jalapenos. This made eight, 8 oz. jars.

Next I'm making hot pepper jelly. Then it's crab apple jelly using the crab apples from my own trees--I have six of them!

homemade pineapple jalapeno jelly

So, what to do with all the jalapenos that are growing in my garden? And how about all those canning jars I have? Make pineapple jalapeno jelly, of course!

The first and last time I canned anything was probably about 20 years ago. I had a cookbook for jams and jellies that I'd bought thinking, "I'm going to make delicious jams and jellies! I'm going to can them all! I'm going to sell them at farmer's markets!"  That's usually how my thought process goes with anything new and crafty I try...just like my mom. And, as usual, I lose interest quickly, either because I'm not as good at whatever "it" is, or it doesn't produce results quick enough, or any other excuse I can think of. I differ from my mother in that way; she'd follow through.  It might not always be a success, but she stuck with it to the end and then moved onto something new.

Armed with my new jam and jelly cookbook, I made the strawberry jam recipe a couple times and decided I wanted to can it, since there's only so much strawberry jam you can use at one time. It...didn't go very well. I must not have stirred it enough, or maybe the burner was too hot,because every time I ended up with a browned mess on the bottom of the pot. The jam itself was good, though. (I made it at my parents' house one time years ago, and my mother kept telling me I "burned" her pot. I disagree...)  The jars never sealed even though I followed the canning directions. Although I'll admit that I'm not good at reading through directions or a recipe BEFORE I start, which sometimes leaves me very surprised that I was supposed to X before doing Y, or I need to do something with a certain ingredient before using it, and that's why the recipe or whatever I'm doing doesn't go quite according to plan. A long way to say, it was probably me and not the recipe or the directions for canning, or an equipment failure. Pilot error...

On to the garden.

I have two raised bed gardens since I can't be bothered, at least right now, with digging a garden. Also, I'm a reformed plant killer and two 4x8 raised beds makes gardening easy and there isn't too much space in which to kill things. I have one bed for tomatoes and green beans (OMG the beans are producing big time right now!) and one for all my herbs; some are perennial, like sage and thyme, and others are annual, like basil.  I also planted one lonely green pepper plant; I got a whole two peppers off of it so far!  Anyway, I normally plant jalapenos, but I ran out of room in the garden. I planted one plant in a large pot this year, and it's really taken off. I'm glad I planted only one, because I have a TON of jalapenos!

I made jalapeno poppers last year, and those were pretty good, but I wanted to do something different this year. I decided to try my hand at jelly-making! I have plenty of jelly jars I've never used. although I do use them for homemade seasoning mixes sometimes. But what kind of jelly should I make? Something with jalapenos obviously. I thought about what combo I like most when eating something hot and spicy and the answer was easy:  pineapple and jalapeno. I'm always buying pineapple salsa (probably next on my list to make since, as you can see, the tomatoes are starting to ripen), so it made sense to make pineapple jalapeno jelly.

As usual, there are tons of recipes for the same thing. This is the recipe I settled on:  Jalapeno Pineapple Jelly.  It's just pineapple, jalapenos, red pepper, white vinegar, a little salt, liquid pectin, and a TON of sugar, which explains the sugar content in just a small amount of jelly. (Large amounts of jam/jelly on a bagel is something I really miss after gastric bypass; I can eat it, but definitely not as much as I used to.) It made six 8 oz. jars.

The process was easy enough, but, man, was the kitchen HOT! Not only because I had to stand in front of the pot and stir constantly for 10 minutes once it got boiling, but because of the pepper fumes.  I made the mistake of leaning over the pot to enjoy the scent of peppers--bad idea! Don't do that! I also had to prepare the jars for canning. That was a little tedious, but only because I have a small kitchen and haven't done it in many years.

As you can see, Marty supervised the whole process and kept me on track. He was there from start to finish.

No special canning equipment needed other than the jar lifter (special tongs). You also need a wide-mouth funnel to make the process of putting the screaming hot jelly into the jars, but it's not a requirement; it just makes it much less messy. I used my huge stock pot and the rack from my Instant Pot as the insert to do the canning part.

Batch #1

The finished product is delicious! It gelled up just the way it should. It has some heat, but it's a pleasant amount of heat. It looks pretty, too. It's a golden yellow color with red and green specks of pepper (I chopped them in my mini food processor) with some little bits of pineapple. I really want to dive into the jar, but the sugar content works out to 21g for one ounce (and 84 calories)! One ounce of jelly is a lot, though--a more realistic serving size is probably half that. I just used ounces since it was easier for entering the recipe into My Fitness Pal.

Isn't it gorgeous?! Liquid gold!

Overall, the first run through was a bit tiring, but I did it again last night and it went much easier this time. I prepared all the peppers first, then prepared the canning jars and pot for canning, then did the cooking. It was still a very hot process, and the whole house smelled like peppers and vinegar (sorry, dear!), but I found it easier this time. This time I used my big food processor for the chopping and it came out chunkier. I like chunky, so I'll probably stick with using the big one. I found that the mini food processor kind of pulverized the peppers and pineapple. That's fine, though, if you like a smoother product.

Batch #2
The jars are still hot and steamed up. Plus my phone camera sucks sometimes.

Some of the jelly is going to a family member and the rest is staying with ME!! (It's shelf stable for about 18 months.) I'm thinking I'll need to mix some of this with cream cheese to make a dip, or spread for bagels or crackers. Crackers are probably a better bet since bagels are my kryptonite...

Next on the list:  strawberry jalapeno jelly, hot pepper jam (or jelly), and crab apple jelly (I have crab apple trees in my yard).

homemade goodies, family and lots of snow

Emily enjoying the Christmas tree. Or plotting. Not sure which.

(I give up on trying to format this post to get things in the right spot. It is what it is. LOL)

I've been so bad about blogging lately. Something I said I'd do in the new year is to get better at posting more often. I guess it's better late than never!  The last couple weeks have been pretty busy, both at work and home. Mainly because of the holidays. Lots of cleaning, shopping, preparing, etc., as well as a new project at work, time off among team members and so on.

Last weekend we had our annual family Christmas get-together.  It was a bit smaller this year without my father and brother, plus some people couldn't make it, but it was a good time as usual. We had so much food left over! We had ham, lasagna, crock pot bourbon meatballs, potatoes, pasta salad, carrots, etc. We really didn't need that much food, but that's how it always plays out at the holidays, right?

The family room tree. 

Here are a few things I made last weekend for the get-together (sorry, forgot to take pictures):

• Homemade onion dip:  I've made this before and I love it. People still tend to favor the salty store-bought dip, but that's OK. 
• Shortbread:  I made this for the first time and it was so delicious! Crispy, light and so, so buttery.
• Rum Balls:  Another first for me. The recipe was super easy and made a lot, so this was a win for me. BUT....they are very potent. The recipe uses a combination of rum and bourbon, along with vanilla wafers, honey and pecans. They're supposed to mellow out in the fridge, but they really didn't mellow all that much over the course of a week. Very yummy, though.
• Chocolate Pie:  I've made this several times and it's always a winner. Very, very rich and chocolaty. And my pie crust came out perfect:  very crispy and flaky. Instead of hand-mixing the ingredients I used the food processor. It's so much easier and I think it comes out better since there's really no risk of overworking the dough.

Above is the family room Christmas tree. This is where we put the bigger tree since it's a bigger room. I also reserve this tree for all the modern lights and ornaments. Below is the living room tree. This is always the smaller one, and this is where we use the old-fashioned C9 lights, as well as the ornaments that have a more traditional look. We always get two because we use the family room the most, but we like having a tree that can be seen from the street. Since we normally go cut them down, the cost isn't much at all. This year, however, we had to buy from a lot since the timing just didn't work out right. As you can see, they look nearly perfect. I prefer a tree that looks more natural--fat with uneven limbs--but they're still really nice. This year I skipped using tree skirts. Mainly because I get tired of constantly fixing them--the cats love to lay on them or play under the tree, so they tend to make a mess of the them.

Living room tree. 

We had a white Christmas this year, which was really nice. There wasn't all that much snow, but it was just the right amount. Last weekend, however, we got about a foot and it was officially a blizzard. Oh, and the temperatures were BELOW ZERO! We had the wood stove and fireplace going the whole time since our house is old and drafty. We burned a ton of wood! (And today? The snow is all gone because it was 60 F and pouring rain all day yesterday, and now the yard is flooded.)

And now that it's all over, it's time to clean the leftovers out of the fridge. I really don't think I could look at another piece of ham. let alone eat one. Lasagna went into the freezer, along with the leftover kielbasa. The rest of it is getting tossed; there are only so many leftover potatoes two people can eat. Actually one person, because I haven't had any of them.

All the decorations are down; however, I can't claim they've been put away in the attic. They're sitting either in the hutch, ready to be brought upstairs, or they're upstairs and waiting to be put into boxes. I really want to go through all the boxes and toss whatever is broken or doesn't work, and maybe donate anything I don't want anymore. I know, I say that every single year and I've done it maybe once. Maybe this is the year?

I'll be posting an update about my back pain very soon. It's an ongoing battle, but I think there could be light at the end of the tunnel finally.

homemade turkey stock

I was on vacation from work last week. I actually had what people would call a "staycation," and a pretty productive one at that. Ick, I hate that term. "Staycation." Even though I was on vacation and stayed home, it's still a vacation in my book. Any time I don't have to be at work is a vacation.

Anyway, my plans were to go to physical therapy for my back issues, scan a ton of family photos, do some cooking, and do a little clothing shopping. I'm happy to report I did all those things! It was a great week, other than a neck problem cropping up, and even though I wasn't super productive, I rested a lot, had a leisurely week, and crossed some items off the to-do list, like dropping two more bags of clothing at Good Will.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I made a turkey. It was on my birthday, actually. I then used the carcass to make turkey stock. I had to cut the carcass up, because it was too long for my biggest pot. (As you can see, it still has a good amount of meat on it, which was used later for turkey salad.) I tossed in a bunch of vegetable scraps from my odds-and-ends bag I keep in the freezer for such occasions:  a couple scallions, some celery, celery leaves, and carrots. I also tossed in some fresh sage, parsley and rosemary from my garden, fresh onions, bay leaf, dried thyme, some peppercorns, and a little salt. I then covered it all in water and boiled it until the carcass started falling apart. There's really no set time I use. When it looks done and smells great, it's done. There's also no set recipe.  Whatever I feel like throwing in and actually have on-hand is what goes in; however, I will say that I typically use mostly the same things all the time.



Still lots of meat on that carcass!

Look at all those veggies! Everyone is going for a nice, long swim. :)

This is what I got when I was done:  five quarts of homemade, delicious turkey stock. You have no idea how good this smells (and tastes)! My intention was to freeze these jars, but apparently these canning jars are no freezer-safe; I had one casualty when doing a test freeze. I put the other four quarts into Ziploc bags and laid them flat on a cookie sheet to freeze. Kind of a bummer, because I really wanted to use the jars. I'll have to find another use for them since I have a dozen.



Thanksgiving leftovers: homemade turkey croquettes and sandwiches

Here's what I made with the leftover turkey and stuffing from Thanksgiving:  turkey croquettes and mini turkey sandwiches.

The croquettes were so simple. All I did was put 3 1/2 cups of leftover stuffing, one egg and 1 cup of leftover turkey in the food processor and then pulsed it until it was almost a paste. Then I shaped it into patties, rolled them in Italian flavored breadcrumbs and browned them in a skillet with some oil.  (I tried making the traditional croquette shape, but it just didn't fry up very well. And I was worried the egg didn't get heated enough.)  I reheated the leftover gravy, poured it on top and served with leftover carrots and corn.

I didn't include a picture of it on a plate with gravy. It just didn't look very appetizing at all.

My post-Thanksgiving favorite are mini turkey sandwiches.  It's just a dinner roll--potato in this case--lots of Hellmann's mayo, a couple pieces of turkey breast, a slice of jellied cranberry sauce (because no one in the two families will eat homemade, of course), and some salt and pepper. I used to eat three of these at a time before my weight loss surgery. Nowadays, this one sandwich fills me. Actually, I usually can't eat the last bite.

Looks big, but I put it on a small salad plate.

Even after the croquettes, a few lunches, and several turkey sandwiches, though, I still have a lot of stuffing and turkey left. I decided to freeze it all. Maybe I'll make hot open turkey sandwiches or bake chicken breasts with the stuffing.

homemade tabouleh

I recently checked out a few cookbooks from the library, one of which is Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (Leia is making sure it doesn't fall off the table).  As the name suggests, it gives you all the basics for just about any food you can think of, along with multiple recipe variations.

While flipping through it I found a recipe for tabbouleh that looked pretty easy. I tried tabbouleh once a long time ago and liked it. I've been wanting to shake up my diet lately, so I decided to try making it. It's a mixture of bulgar wheat, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, scallions, parsley, mint and tomatoes.

My team members at work gave me a Whole Foods gift card for my birthday, so I decided to buy the ingredients to make the tabbouleh. I even bought a citrus squeezer, which I've used several times already. (In case you don't know what that is, it's a handheld gadget used to squeeze the juice from citrus fruits like lemons and limes. It extracts the juice while leaving the seeds behind.) Can't believe I ever extracted fresh lemon juice without it!

The recipe called for roughly chopped parsley, leaves and small stems only. Have you ever seen a bunch of parsley? It's not easy to get only the small stems, which means either separating the individual stems and stripping them, or chopping off a large portion at the bottom and losing some of the leaves. Same goes for the fresh mint. And have you ever tried chopping parsley and mint?  It's not difficult, but it's messy. Same goes for seeding tomatoes. Again, not difficult, but kind of tedious and messy. The bulgar prep, on the other hand, was simple:  just soak it in some hot water for 30 minutes, drain it and squeeze out the excess water.

Here's the finished product. It tasted pretty good, but for the amount of prep that goes into it and the price of the ingredients, I'd rather just buy it ready-made.

One caveat:  you may want to check your teeth after eating this. Chopped herbs like to stick to, and in between, your teeth.

tomatoes are almost ready!

My cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen finally.  I only bought one plant, just in case I kill them (I'm a known plant killer!).  But they're growing well this year.  Basil is doing well, also. Although I think it's going to take the entire summer to get enough tomatoes for a Caprese salad. It's worth it, though.

 

homemade herbs de provence and seasoned salt

I have a big love for seasoned salt, especially Borsari.  It makes grilling meat so simple:  just shake it on and then grill.  It gives the meat a ton of flavor and people will think you used some Jedi mind trick to concoct a complicated spice rub.

I went to Whole Foods this weekend to get some more Borsari salt, but I just about fell over when I saw the price:  $8.99!!  I checked the Borsari website before I left the house.  Their price is $4.99, plus about $6.00 in shipping (I put two in the cart).  Last time I bought it at Whole Foods I remember it being $6.99, so I was pretty shocked yesterday to see $8.99.  Needless to say, I came home salt-less and sad. Instead, I bought some sea salt at the discount store and decided to make my own salt.

I found a recipe for Herbs de Provence seasoned salt, which calls for lavender (yes, I actually have that!), Herbs de Provence, and salt.  Of course I didn't have Herbs de Provence, so I found Emeril's  recipe online and made my own.  It didn't call for lavender, but I added it anyway since most Herbs recipes call for it. I then just added two tablespoons of the herb mix to 1/2 cup sea salt.  Viola! Seasoned salt.

Herbs de Provence (my version)

2 TB dried savory
2 TB dried rosemary
2 TB dried thyme
2 TB dried oregano
2 TB dried basil
2 TB dried marjoram
2 TB dried fennel seed
2 TB dried lavender

Put it all in a bowl and mix.

Herbs de Provence Seasoned Salt

2 TB Herbs de Provence
1/2 cup sea salt

Mix together in a small bowl.  Store in an airtight container away from moisture. Sprinkle on meats before grilling.

tonight's dinner: steak and mushrooms

Tonight I made rib eye steak on the grill, along with sauteed mushrooms.

Normally I don't buy rib eye.  I find it too fatty tasting for me.  Plus, it's usually more expensive than my preferred cut, the leaner strip steak.  But I got it for half price at the grocery store and it's been haunting my freezer for a few weeks.

I threw some Borsari seasoned salt on it and then grilled it.  I made sauteed mushrooms for my side dish; Bob got Mexican rice and corn. I sauteed the mushrooms is some olive oil, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little Worcestershire sauce.

This is the whole steak, which I didn't eat.  I was able to eat the left side of the steak and a few mushrooms.  Bob got the rest of my steak.

I really need to liven up my dinner plate with some color.  It's just a big plate of brown.

my first trip to an ethnic grocery store

Recently I found a fried rice recipe, which I'll post about later this week.  This weekend I went in search of two ingredients I would need:  oyster sauce and sesame oil.  I figured I could probably find them in the grocery store, but they would likely be more expensive; international foods usually are.  I went to several mainstream stores this weekend, as well as a couple discount stores, and although I could find them, it would have cost a total of about $11.00.  Not outrageous, but pricey considering the fact that I wouldn't get much use out of them and might have to throw them away before using them up.

Sunday I made the decision to try an ethnic grocery for the first time ever.  I've never had the need to try one until now, but I had heard that the prices are much better, and I would have a much better chance at finding exactly what I need and at a better quality that a mainstream store, which only carries one or two brands. So, I Googled and I went. 

The first store I tried supposedly carried Chinese, Indian, Japanese, etc.; however, it turned out they carried only Indian products, with a few Hispanic and British products mixed in. There was an interesting selection of foods, most of which I hadn't seen before.  There were some really large fruits with what looked like spikes on them, kind of like a cactus; I have no idea what they were.  What I found most interesting were the snacks.  Indian snacks are much different than American snacks.  There weren't piles of sugary cookies, cakes, candy and pies.  Most snacks were rice- or noodle-based, and were usually savory, rather than sweet.  And the selection of spices was nice.  No tiny little bottles that cost upwards of $5.00.  Most of the spices were in bags, which were quite large compared to what we get at a regular grocery store.  And the cost?  A large bag of whole cloves was $3.99.  Compare that to what you pay at Stop & Shop or Price Chopper. I ended up buying Tawa Fry Marsala spice blend, which was $2.49 for a really large container.  (Not a clue as to what I'll do with it. Ideas??)  I also bought a box of frozen pea-and-potato samosas (love these!) and a bottle of sesame oil.  The oil was double the amount I would have gotten at the regular store and cost only $4.49, which is cheap. But I still needed oyster sauce.  The cashier recommended a Chinese supermarket only two miles away, so I went there. 

The Chinese supermarket was quite large--roughly the same size as a mainstream store.  And the selection of foods was amazing.  I admit, there were a lot of foods that looked downright scary to me, but I'm a white girl whose never visited an ethnic market, so there you go. I also have to admit that I felt highly conspicuous walking through the store.  Although, no one seemed to pay me the slightest bit of attention.  It was my own self-consciousness, really.  Anyway, it took me awhile to find the oyster sauce, since I had no idea it's a form of soy sauce and that's where it would be.  I also decided to get more sesame oil, just in case the Indian version is different from the Chinese version.  Probably not, but you never know. The total for the two items?  $4.58 (versus $11.00 in a regular store)! I felt pretty good when I left.

I probably wasted the difference in gas driving to these places, but at least I discovered new places to go.  And places where I can get lots of spices on the cheap!

Anyone have any recommendations for me as to products to try?  What do you buy at these stores that you can't find in the supermarket?

Here are my goodies. 

today's lunch

Today's lunch is mixed greens with Craisins  (50% less sugar), pecans, goat cheese, rolled up ham, and Bolthouse Farms raspberry vinaigrette.  This is a take on the salad I had in Sturbridge last weekend. I didn't have grilled chicken, so I substituted ham.

last night's dinner

Last night was boneless pork on the grill, along with a little Rice-a-Roni.  Bob also had vegetables with his. 

I used my favorite seasoning, which is Borsari Seasoned Salt (typically sold in Whole Foods or online).  I'm so happy this stuff exists!  I don't have to look online for different concoctions that call for herbs and spices that I'll likely only use once and will cost an arm and a leg. I used to do that, until I ended up throwing away about 95% of my herbs and spices when I moved to the new house in 2014. I had to go out and buy all new stuff.  This time I was smarter about it, though.  I bought the items I use the most and bought the Badia brand when I could. Badia brand is much less expensive than buying the top brands, such as McCormick; most herbs and spices cost under $2.00 each and they're just as good.

I still have a few unusual spices in my cabinet, like lavender and savory.  I bought those in order to make my own Herbes de Provence.  Not sure why I decided on that particular herb mix.  I'm thinking I had found a recipe online using it as an ingredient and then I just never made the recipe--I do that a lot.  I guess that will have to be one of my missions in the next few months:  find a recipe using Herbs de Provence.

Any suggestions for an herb or spice I can try that's outside of the mainstream?  Do you have a favorite?

spinach pesto quinoa

Last week a recipe popped up on my bariatric surgeon's Facebook page, so I decided to try it.  It was a perfect way to use up the pesto I bought for my department's holiday potluck, as well as some quinoa and Parmesan cheese I had hanging around.  The only thing I needed to buy was some spinach. 

I went to the store Friday night after work to get the spinach and a few other things, which was the eve of the big East coast blizzard.  I expected the store to be mobbed, but it wasn't; however, the salad isle looked as though there had been a run on salad.  In my experience, customer usually buy all the milk, bread, and junk food prior to a big storm.  Not salad.  (I now know it was likely due to the Dole recall.) Even the salad bar had been completely emptied.  There were spinach leaves, but they looked like something the cat dragged in. So, I was stuck buying a giant container of spinach. I now need to figure out what to make with that.

I made the recipe over the weekend. It was very easy.  Just cook the quinoa according to the package directions.  When it's done, stir in the salt, pesto, spinach and cheese.  That's it.  I only made half a recipe, since this is something Bob isn't likely to eat.  He tried it without the spinach and liked it, but I don't think he would sit down and have a big serving of it.

It tasted pretty good, but I wasn't happy that it kind of formed this big mass of quinoa and spinach.  I'm guessing it's because of the cheese, which, of course, melts when you put it into a pot of hot quinoa.  Next time I might save the cheese for topping, rather than mixing it in. Or maybe I can have it as a cold salad and mix the cheese in once it's cold. 

Here's the recipe if you're interested in making it:  Spinach Pesto Quinoa.

homemade strawberry chia jam

I had last Monday off from work because of MLK Day.  I was feeling motivated, so I did a lot of cooking.  I used up the leftover ham and ham bone from the family dinner I had the previous weekend.  With the leftover ham I made ham hash for Bob; his dinner that night was hash and fried eggs.  I also made crustless quiches with ham and some sharp cheddar cheese that was left over; those are for me.  I used the ham bone to make pea soup for a friend.  I defrosted some cooked wheat berries and cooked chicken breast, and made Cranberry, Chicken and Wheat Berry salad.  And finally, I made strawberry chia jam.

I love jam, but it's loaded with sugar so I tend to stay away from it.  I've been looking for a good no-sugar-added jam, and I just can't find one that I would care to buy again. I was reading a weight loss blog and found a recipe for homemade jam with chia seeds and thought I'd give it a try.  All I needed was berries of my choosing--either frozen or fresh--, Torani sugar-free syrup, and some chia seeds.  I went to Whole Foods over the weekend to browse and saw they had chia seeds in the bulk bin.  With this recipe in mind, I decided to buy them. I also bought some frozen strawberries, since they were the least expensive.

This jam was so easy to make and didn't take long at all, about 15 minutes from start to finish. It tasted good, too.  Much better than the store-bought no-sugar-added stuff. I had been worried about the texture of the jam with the addition of chia seeds, but it was fine.  The texture reminded me a bit of tapioca. Chia seeds absorb a lot of liquid, so they soften and swell a little, which is what thickens the jam.

So far I've only used the jam on some toast, but you could use it anywhere you would normally use jam.

Here's the finished product.  It's not super pretty due to the chia seeds, but it tastes great.  You can find the original recipe here:  Chia Jam.  All I did was use frozen strawberries instead of a berry mix, and strawberry Torani Sugar-Free Syrup instead of Raspberry.  Next time I'm going to try blueberry!

glazed carrots

I was looking for a side dish to bring to my sister's house for Christmas, and had a ton of carrots in my fridge, so I decided to make this recipe.  I also wanted something a little different; I get tired of the same old holiday food.  (My family isn't overly adventurous in the food arena, so we don't typically deviate much from the standard holiday foods. I remember one year I made homemade cranberry sauce--we are strictly a canned, jellied cranberry sauce family-- and no one touched it, except my mother.  I'm not sure if she was just being supportive or if she really liked it, but I'm happy someone tried it. )

I Googled "glazed carrots" and I got many, many hits.  I found one that calls for whiskey, some with honey, some with orange juice or maple syrup, some with brown sugar only or white sugar only or some combination thereof, etc.  The Internet is great, but it can often be overwhelming to have so many choices and different variations of the same dish. I settled on this recipe from BakeSpace, which is pretty simple and doesn't call for any special ingredients other than fresh lemon juice.  (To me, a "special ingredient" is one I wouldn't typically have on hand, like lemons.  Other people might keep lemons on hand, but I don't.)

I found this recipe to be easy, but it was a little tricky to judge when the liquid was reduced enough before adding the lemon juice.  It wasn't difficult by any means.  I just wasn't sure what the right consistency should be.  But that will come with practice.  And, really, there's no way to ruin this dish unless you burn the sauce or way overcook the carrots.

I really enjoyed the end product.  The carrots were tender and sweet, but not overly so, and I could taste a small hint of the lemon juice. 

I made this for my in-laws last weekend, and the cause came out even better.  I plan to make this again next weekend.

The only change I made to the recipe was that I used pre-cut baby carrots.  I already had them on hand. Recipe below.

Perfect Glazed Carrots 

(Recipe found here:  Perfect Glazed Carrots, which is originally from Cooks Illustrated magazine)

Ingredients

1 lb carrots (about 6 medium), peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick on the diagonal (I used pre-cut baby carrots)

1/2 tsp salt

3 TB sugar

1/2 cup chicken broth 

1 TB unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces (I think salted would be fine)

2 tsp lemon juice (I used fresh)

Ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring carrots, salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, and chicken broth to boil, covered in 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, until carrots are almost tender when poked with tip of paring knife, about 5 minutes.
2. Uncover, increase heat to high, and simmer rapidly, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced to about 2 tablespoons, 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Add butter and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar to skillet, toss carrots to coat and cook, stirring frequently, until carrots are completely tender and glaze is light gold, about 3 minutes.
4. Take the pan off the heat and add the lemon juice. Toss to coat. Transfer carrots to serving dish, scraping glaze from pan. Season to taste with pepper and serve immediately.

last night's dinner: baked chicken breasts with stuffing

OK, it's not exactly last night's dinner, but I did make it for dinner last week.  I'm just late in getting to this post.

I made something I haven't made in a long time:  chicken breasts baked with stuffing and corn.  I wanted something easy:  you just bake the raw breasts in a casserole pan, which is covered for most of the cooking time, along with 5-minute stove top stuffing mix and some corn.  (It's also good way to use up the leftover corn and stuffing from Thanksgiving, which makes it even easier; you don't have to prepare a box of stuffing mix.) It's also an old standby I use when I don't know what else to make and nothing calls to me.

I've been on a boneless chicken breast buying kick lately; there have been some sales and one place, Price Rite, sells it really cheap most of the time.  Like $1.69-a-pound cheap!  And beef has been so expensive this past year, so I buy what's cheaper nowadays.  (Although, I've discovered that I can get it for half price, or less, by going early on a Saturday or Sunday morning and buying the meat that's dated to sell by the following day or the day after.  I got ribeye steaks for 60% off last week!) Plus, you can do so many things with chicken.

Anyway, I decided to crack open a pack of boneless chicken breasts.  The breasts were huge so I trimmed them of fat and then cut them into smaller pieces.  I then sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and partially sauteed them in a pan sprayed with cooking spray, so as to reduce the cooking time further (you can just use raw breasts if you don't want to do this extra step); I had just got home from work and I knew it would take at least an hour from start to finish to make this dish.  While the breasts were frying, I prepared the stuffing.  I sprayed the casserole pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Then I mixed the corn in with the finished stuffing and then put it all in the pan.  I then put the breasts on top, covered it, and baked it at 350 for about 40 minutes, until the breasts were cooked through.  It all depends on how thick the breasts are as to how long it takes to cook.

Here's the finished product.

And here's my portion.  I couldn't finish it, so Bob got the last bite.

eggs benedict with pesto

Last month I went to Whole Foods in the morning.  They had their hot food bar filled with breakfast food, which I love because this particular location usually has a couple of selections that are different.  One week they had a breakfast pizza, which was a crispy flatbread topped with scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese, with a touch of olive oil.  Another week they had their take on eggs benedict:  sunny side-up fried egg on top of an English muffin with Canadian bacon and cheese, and then topped with a little pesto.  This is what I've been wanting to try at home, and I finally had the opportunity.

Last week I attempted to make an appetizer for the Christmas potluck at work, but I ended up leaving it at home.  I made antipasto skewers, which consisted of grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, and marinated mushrooms.  Each skewer was then brushed with some jarred pesto sauce.  However, the skewers kept splintering and I didn't feel good about bringing them to work; I didn't want to chance someone getting a splinter in their mouth.  I ended up eating them at home throughout the week.  I then wondered what to do with the half-used jar of pesto sauce.  Then it came to me:  I'll replicate Whole Foods' eggs benedict!

What prompted me to decide to make it was that I fried bacon Monday morning. So, why not make my own version inspired by Whole Foods' version?  I, of course, didn't have any English muffins.  I improvised and used half a hamburger bun.  Not the same, but perfectly workable.   I toasted it and then spread some goat cheese on it.  (I didn't want to use plain old American cheese; it just tastes so...generic...these days.) I put the bacon on top.  Then I fried the egg sunny side up and put it on top.  I wanted to make the yolk somewhat congealed and not quite as runny, so I wrongly thought that broiling the sandwich would make that happen.  Wrong!  It just cooked the egg white on top. When I took it out the yolk was too runny, so I put it back in the frying pan to cook a little more.  But, of course, the yolk broke.  I put it back on the sandwich, and topped it with fresh ground pepper and some pesto.

It didn't look at pretty as I had hoped, but it tasted good! Unfortunately my Photoshop software is acting up, so I couldn't adjust the brightness or anything.

As you can see, my yolk broke and the pesto started weeping olive oil.

This kind of looks like a snail under a blanket.