Insert Pickle joke here...

Oh. good. god. Our curry last night was over spiced. In my own defense, I only have a couple years of experience in this realm under my belt. One day, when perfected, you will get a recipe. Until then, however, you have to listen to my frustrations. And Hubby didn't mind much, since that's basically how he likes it, but it was a bit much for this little white girl. Probably cause I used Madras curry AND garam masala, and it definitely needed more curry than masala, and significantly less of both. Yowsers.

So, yeah, my bad. But what I don't understand, when dealing with flavor-packed curries, is why pickle makes it easier to eat.


Do we not know pickle? (Yeah, I'm asking that kind of like an a-hole, cause I had no idea what it was pre-Hubby.) Pickle is basically a type of relish. Personally, I'm fond of either lime pickle or chili-mango pickle. The Husband likes his garlic pickle, not surprisingly…but no matter what kind you like, it's going to make whatever you're eating alongside it crazy tasty.

I really don't know how to describe it…it's super sour and spicy…like an insanely rich sour chutney? I don't know. It's not something you eat on its own, but I've had it on everything from plain white rice to super intense Indian foods. So if you're into Indian food, or just up for something new, I recommend picking some up and trying it for yourself. You probably will have to go to a specialty store, so if you're interested and don't have one around, let me know…I've got paypal and have a UPS guy on speed dial.

Seriously, it's good. Trust me on this one.

French Onion Chicken

Well, Laura, you asked...here you go.

I do love me some French Onion soup. As soup…as a side dish…and apparently, as chicken. This is totally one of those pantry meals that just worked out. Though caramelizing onions never doesn't work out. Ya know??

Hope you enjoy. I'm off to make the man some Indian curry.

French Onion Chicken
One yellow onion, halved and sliced
2 chicken breasts
2 slices provolone or swiss
Beef broth, about a half cup
Sherry
Thyme, chopped
S&P
Parsley to top

Cook onion over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until all brown and cooked down (in other words, caramelize them). Remove from pan and keep warm.

Sprinkle chicken well with S&P and fresh thyme.

Coat pan is cooking spray, brown chicken for about 3 minutes, then flip. Pour in a good splash of sherry and cook down. Add broth, turn to medium low, and cover. If needed, add more sherry as the chicken cooks, about 10 minutes.

Turn over chicken, and place one slice of cheese on each breast. Spoon over caramelized onion. Cover and let cheese melt for a couple of minutes.

Moroccan Beef and Butternut Squash Tagine

I'm still not feeling great, but after spending 18 hours in bed, I had to at least try and be productive. So I vacuumed, I cleaned the bathroom, I washed sheets...the essentials.

As a sidenote, I've also been putting the new TiVo Premiere to good use. This thing is amazing, and it's not even hooked up to cable yet! (apparently only 4 service guys in Kern County are familiar with TiVo Premiere, which requires a special cable card instead of the normal cable box. I am not joking. Couldn't get an appt for 3 weeks.)

You know I love Netflix. And I also love my TiVo. So the fact that this combines the two makes me oh-so-happy. (It streams Netflix and blockbuster on demand, pandora, YouTube, picassa, etc. etc. etc.)


Ramona helped set it up. Good god, every cat toy we own made it in this shot. Spoiled little shits.

Anyway, I have discovered the show Bones about 6 years late, and since Netflix carries the entire series on demand...it's embarrassing/disgusting how many epis I've watched this week. So to sum up, I love Netflix, I love TiVo, and I love Bones...and I'm not entirely sure what my point was there. And I love making the most of being sick? Sure. Moving on.

Being sick also means soup and not cooking. But since I bought meat for stew 3 days ago, I figured I better use it asap. So the Moroccan Beef and Butternut Squash Tagine I saw in Cooking Light it is.

I wish you could smell my house. It's cinnamony and spicy, garlicky and meaty.


(Yes, I shot from this angle so you can see my new adorable kettle. Everything in my kitchen is becoming orange and red and I love it.)

Here is the recipe I took this from. My only changes were pre-cut butternut squash, a bit of extra garlic and all spices, parsley instead of cilantro, and using a cheaper cut of meat. Problem with cheap meat, however, is that you've got to cook it differently.

Instead of only cooking 5 minutes once the tomatoes boil, I turned the heat to low, covered it, and let it cook slowly til soft for about an hour. Then I put in the squash and cooked until they were done. I also added a small mixture (a tbsp or so) of cornstarch and water to thicken it before I added the squash.



I chopped some extra shallots and garlic when I was prepping the stew, and sautéed them quickly for a couscous (below) to serve.


Herbed Couscous
1/2 cup couscous
1 cup broth
1 chopped shallot
2 chopped garlic cloves
1 thinly sliced green onion
About a 1/2 tsp fresh chopped thyme
Small handful chopped Italian parsley

Add the broth to the sauteed shallots and garlic, bring to a boil, then add couscous, turn off heat, cover, and let stand 10-15 minutes.

Add herbs. Add salt if you'd like (or are having it on its own), but with the Tagine it really doesn't need it.

New Year's cleaning time

What I really want (and by want, I obviously mean need) to clean today is my house. But as I'm in bed with the flu (again, damn you flu shot!!) I'm going to settle for cleaning out my phone instead.

My photo album on my phone is utterly ridiculous. It basically goes food, cat, food, food, food, cat, food, human, food...you follow me here. And the last few months of 2010 were crazy for us, so only a small number of these pics actually got blogged about, and there's no way for me to catch up now...so here's my solution.

As always, if something catches your eye, let me know and the recipe is yours. So here we go. Out with the old, so they say...here's a bit of what you missed.












We both know I have more, but I'm tired of photoshopping and this is making me hungry. So as of today, I am moving forward. No more 2010 food. Tonight, I'm going to attempt to get up and cooking, cause I want to try a Moroccan beef tagine. If it's worth it, I'll be posting. If not, the inevitable photo I take before digging in is going bye-bye. Cause really...I need more humans in my photo album.

-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.

Ever seen snow capped palms before?

Ahh, another new year. And for once, I have stories from the big night itself! See, we're bad about celebrating...I tried for hours to remember what we had done to ring in 2010, only to have hubby later remind me we sat on the couch and tried to keep our eyes open.

Festive, I know.

So this year, finally, we made plans to spend the weekend in San Diego. Hubs goes down every year around the 30th for a football bowl game (I'm not invited...), and I'm always trying to convince him to stay a few days longer and have me meet him there. Luckily, this year I had back up—our boy G-Lowe went with him to the game and was a big fan of the idea.

The weekend was awesome. It was also a borderline disaster. So let's just sum it up, shall we?

Wednesday: I realize I have no shoes to wear with my new dress. Decide to ensure a last minute zappos.com delivery by paying for overnight delivery.

Thursday: Literally track down my UPS guy on his cell phone and chase him around town to get my shoes. Alas, zappos=fail. Though he did have a Christmas present for Hubby I forgot I ordered. Eh.

Friday: G-Lowe's girl and I head out of town at 7:30am. UPS man calls at 9 (as we're already through LA) to tell me he's got my shoes. Great...

Make it to SD in record time-meet up with the boys, then head to Pizza Nova for lunch. Pizza Nova, btw, is delicious. Just in case you've got one around. The roasted garlic appetizer...yum. Lunch is followed by a drive around the bay to downtown, where we picked up some passes for the night, then back to the hotel for a nap for our tired, hungover men. (I watched Minority Report...wtf is going on in that movie??)

Dress up (sans new shoes). Taxi Downtown. Hennesey's Tavern. Rock Bottom. Minor panic attack on my account. Back to the hotel at 11. Champagne, champagne, champagne. Sleep.

Saturday: I needed the ocean, so we headed to Ocean Beach for lunch/wandering. Not much beats breakfast with a view...


Though walking the pier isn't exactly a terrible waste of time, either. Gorgeous day=happy campers.


I could stare at this all day.


Once they dragged me away (all the while shooting Mr. Iowa aka G-Lowe eye death-rays for saying the beach smells 'gross'), it was back to the hotel, minor drama at the Old Town Saloon, deliciousness with a handful of my faves at Harney Sushi, ridiculousness at the Lamplighter (including a Living on a Prayer karaoke duet by the hubby and the Canadian, natch), hotel, sleep.

Sunday: Ah, Sunday, the day the fun really started. See, it takes about 4ish hours to drive from San Diego back to the Central Valley. So by leaving at noon, we figured we'd have enough time to settle back home, give the poor kitties some much needed attention, do dinner, etc.

Not so much. Instead, it went like this.
12:30pm On the road
1:30pm Island's Restaurant in the OC (Mmmm, our necessary staple)
5:30pm Traffic stops. Snowing at the base of the pass (at like 1500 ft, wtf??). 5 freeway shuts down at the Grapevine, we are re-routed to the back highway (the 14, aka, BFE).

Let me just insert here that Californians, especially southerners, do not understand snow. It falls, everyone freaks out. And as people are freaking out and there are no snow plows, the five lane highway becomes, well, what I like to call a 'clusterfuck.' Actual lanes are not used...cars are turned sideways... Miatas are sliding into ditches...basically, after 30 miles and 2.5 hours of this business, it was time to pull over and reevaluate.

8:30pm Debate ensues regarding Motel 6 vs. powering through. The boys won. And so we stayed.

9:00pm Um, Motel 6s are GROSS.
"What IS that on the bed skirt?...What the eff is that SMELL?...Seriously? How many people are in the room next door?...SERIOUSLY, WHAT IS THAT SMELL????"

Monday:
6:00am Wake up to check the weather report. Not only is the 5 still closed, but now our alternate route is closed. And back to sleep we go. (the room still smelled, btw)

9:00am Debate ensues: Take the 101 (um, a 10 hour drive), or wait a bit longer until something changes. Decide on 101. Then change minds. Pack up so we can head across the parking lot for breakfast to kill some time. Open the door to find this. Kind of awesome.


10:00am Realize cops in Palmdale are assholes. Or just have way too much time on their hands, cause one drove through the parking lot at 8am ticketing the snow-covered cars with 2-day expired plates belonging to stranded people.
(Dear DMV, next year, a notice that my registration is due would be fantastic. This year you sent nothing, and I do not keep my car's registration date (Dec. 14, apparently) at the front of my memory. Cause, really? Come on. You owe me $34 for a ticket. Love/Screw You, Pammy)

Annnnnyway, we finally got home at like 3:30...27 hours after we first left. Exhausted, dirty (I was so not getting in that motel shower), hungry...ugh. But it was an adventure, for sure. I'm rather excited to spend next New Year's back on the couch.

And I'm still bitter about my ticket.


-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.

Thanks for the chopper, ma

I forget how time consuming Crunchy Chicken Casserole can be...it's not hard, but it's a lot of pre-cooking and chopping. So as I stood pouting about my lack of an egg slicer, the lightbulb went on—I got a dicer for Christmas!


If only I'd remembered before I'd chopped onion, celery, and water chestnuts.

Next time. In the meantime, I'll let the Vidalia Chopper speak for itself. (Mama, I love you for loving "As Seen On TV" stuff. Gadgets are fun.)

-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.

I have an idea.

I need to stew on it a bit, but it's incentive to cook new stuff (and in turn write about it). It involves one of my Christmas gifts. (and check out my new TOMs, too! Yay!)



Hmm. Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!

That's what I'm talking about.

Cold weather=soup weather. It's Pozole night.





-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.

This is a Thanksgiving post.

I know I'm not even posting in the right month (speaking of...crap, Book Club...), but better late than never, right? It's not like any one is needing holiday recipes in the 4 weeks between Thanks and Xmas. And if you are, well...sorry, my little elves. You're far more festive than I.


Let's start with apps, shall we?

Pretty easy. Chips and dip and salsa, a veggie tray (baby carrots, cukes, bell peppers, celery, raw green beans, snow peas) with dip, and a spinach cheese ball (beautifully rolled, Mrs. B.).


Look how cute I am. I mean, we are.
As for dinner itself, we kept it weirdly traditional this year, at least compared to last year. This turned out to be a good thing, since we ended up hosting a bunch of out-of-towners...many of whom needed their 'traditions.' Boys. (Shaking head) And so to my planned turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and tri-tip (hubby's addition), we also added corn, broccoli, and sweet potato casserole. (Guests were in charge of booze and dessert. Many thanks to Big Perm for the pumpkin pies. Delicious. As for the nickname, just go with it—for once, I didn't make it up.)

Let's focus on said casserole, shall we? Show of hands...who likes sweet potato casserole? You know, the one with marshmallows on top? That's actually made from yams, not sweet potatoes? Anyone? If you do, well, here's another recipe for it. If you don't, well, you might now. I even surprised myself with this one. Thanks, Mom, for the base for this recipe. For some reason this wasn't as sweet as I remember yours being, but I've refused to taste it for the past, oh, 20 years, so forgive any false memories.

Sweet Yams
About 4 medium large yams, peeled, quartered, and sliced
All spice
About 2 or 3 tbsp margarine
about 3 tbsp brown sugar
About 1/4 cup crushed pineapple
good pinch salt
mini marshmallows

Steam yams in steamer with allspice (I have a steamer with a screen for spices...if you have that, go for it. Otherwise, just steam however you steam veggies—If you don't, buy something that lets you. And eat some veggies, damnit—then add a pinch of all spice in the next step) about 20 minutes or until soft.

Preheat oven to 375 (or 400 or whatever your bird is at).
In large bowl, mash yams, margarine and brown sugar, then stir in pineapple and salt. Cover with marshmallows, cook about 35 minutes or until hot and marshmallows begin to brown.

As for the enormous 21lb bird...I totally threw my back out with this monster. After I got rid of all the nastiness inside (neck, giblets, ick), I rubbed the whole thing with a butter/fresh sage/S+P mix, rubbing as much under the skin as I could, too, then baked the whole thing at 375 for about 4 hours. (About 20 minutes less than I was 'supposed to,' and then wrapped it in foil, breast side down, for about 45 minutes. SO JUICY!) Annnd...voila.


I think everyone was happy. Or full, at the very least. And now I guess this means I should break out the Christmas decorations...and finish my book club blog. Sigh. One thing at a time...

This is not a Thanksgiving post.

Just wanted to make that clear from the get-go. Yes, turkey day was like 2 weeks ago. My bad.

But no, this is a rant about soup. Canned soup. Campbell's canned soup, to be exact.

The thing about Campbell's that bugs me is that Campbell's always tastes like Campbell's...in other words, all of their (broth-based condensed soups, at least) taste exactly the same. Is this a bad thing? Well...it's not a good thing, let me put it that way. Give me some variety! Chicken Noodle, Chicken with Rice, Chicken with Stars...one soup, different filler. Whatever. Not like I ever eat them, so I really don't care.

However. They now have this new "Taste Sensations" line, including a Won Ton variety. Now, we know how I feel about soup, Asian soup in particular...I can eat it all.day.long. So obviously I had to try it.



Hmm. Turns out I could have just eaten a can of Chicken Noodle; it tastes exactly the same. Even the 'wontons' were just little pasta pillows-thick and virtually empty. Bleh. On the upside, a whole can is only 125 calories. And I like eating entire cans of things.

Just in case anyone has seen this line and was curious...it's what I'm here for.

-posted out of laziness from my iPhone.