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Poached Eggs and Eggs Benedict

Jan29

So I have to confess that growing up I was never a huge fan of eggs. I did not mind them in things like cakes or cookies. The only way I ate them was hardboiled and made into deviled eggs. Then I met my husband and he liked to make breakfast on the weekends, how could I say no to that. So slowly he got me to eat scrambled eggs with cheese of course. Then came the omelette, which is really scrambled eggs with extra stuff. I must admit that my husband makes wonderful omelettes. So when I stated working on my list of things to make this year, I had poached eggs on my list. Which I had not made up until this point. I asked my husband if he had eaten poached eggs. His response was that poached eggs were what you used to make Eggs Benedict. Having made hollandaise sauce before, this should be easy right? Over the weekend I poached my first eggs and made Eggs Benedict. It was very tasty and rich. My first three eggs were a little over done having cooked them for four minutes, the next three I cooked for three minutes and turned out perfect.

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Potato Leek Soup

Jan25

So when I went to the asian supermarket I went a little crazy and bought a lot of tasty goodies to cook with and will soon be future blog post. Among them were these beautiful leeks that I just had to get. Normally, I do not buy leeks, I do however love my onions and these just seemed too good to pass up. I just had to make Leek Soup that was in my Julia Child cookbook after pouring through cookbooks for blog inspiration. This soup can be served either cold or warm. the night I made it I served it warm with fresh homemade bread. The next day I had for lunch and tried it cold. this is a simple soup and not complex in flavor. For those who like easy, this is for you. Bon Appetit!

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 stick)
2 cups finely chopped leeks (pale green and white parts only)
4 cups peeled, medium-dice russet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (from 4 medium thyme sprigs)
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
3 cups water
1/3 cup heavy cream

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When the foaming subsides, add leeks, season with freshly ground black pepper, and cook until leeks are softened, about 5 minutes.

Add potatoes, salt, and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Increase heat to high, add vegetable broth and water and bring just to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until potatoes are fork tender, about 10 minutes.

Blend soup in a blender in 2 batches until smooth. Return soup to the saucepan over medium heat, stir in cream, season with additional pepper as needed, and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes.

Recipe from :
http://www.chow.com/recipes/27576-creamy-potato-leek-soup

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Chicken Piccata

Jan24

One of my favorite movies is “Simply Irresistible”. What is not to like little romance, food and magic. Having watched it recently I was inspired to make Chicken Piccata. I have never had Chicken Piccata, but it just sounded so exotic and had to try to make it. Surfed many sites, but of course my usual addiction to Pinterest won out. I found a nice recipe that looked pretty simple and gave it a try. My choice was to serve it over angel hair pasta with a side of steamed broccoli and homemade bread.

This recipe was great because I got to use one of my kitchen gadgets. My mandolin which is not used a whole lot, but try to use when I can so my daughter does not classify it as UKG (useless kitchen gaget). For the longest time she has given me a hard time about getting a gadget for the kitchen and it not really serving a pourpose. She has finally seen the use of our egg slicer, but other stuff in the kitchen drawers she has not given into.

The pin I found led me to this website for the recipe
http://www.afamilyfeast.com/chicken-piccata/

My family enjoyed it but my daughter was not to crazy about the capers. Which I had drained and rinsed several times before adding. So next time I make I will make her plate then add capers to the rest of pan for my husband and I.

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Japenese Hot Cakes-Hottakeki

Jan24

While in Japan I was lucky enough to sample Japanese Hot Cakes at breakfast. I loved these sweet little cakes. They are small,sweet fluffy, and sometimes come in green tea flavor. When I returned home I just had to make them for my famly. The first thing I did was go down to our local Asian Market and was able to find the mix on the shelf. Which was great because I so wanted easy. The back of the box had nice little pictures for directions. When I got up on Sunday morning to make for my family, I realized that after looking at the box I did not know if you used milk or water. So I searched the internet to find the company website. Which I did with ease, their website was all in Japanese and had the same nice picture directions. They had an English button, unfortunately it only led to their company information and not the actual products with cooking directions. So here I was stuck with the delima of which to use, milk or water. Then it dawns on me to stick the web address into my Google Chrome browser. I normally do not use it on my iPad so it did not occur to me right away to use it for the translate page function. Thank goodness it worked. However I always warn that using Google Translate. It does not always translate correctly. Its translation while not totally correct, it was fun to read. Here is my attempt to make Hottakeki (Japanese Hot Cakes). If you do find this mix, use milk to make the mix up.

Since I made used the mix, I have found another site that has the recipe from scratch. Which I plan to try next.

http://www.tarasmulticulturaltable.com/hottokeki-japanese-hot-cake/

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The Crazy Road I Travel

Jan11

Hello all my Foodies out there. Where have I gone and what have I been up to? Life has been crazy and thought I had posted an update about my whereabouts for the end of October and November, sadly it did not go out as it should of. I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Japan for 2 1/2 weeks. While there I did sample many different foods and even was lucky enough to have a cooking class. Getting back from Japan and having the holidays begin led to more craziness. While I did cook and have some future blog entries for what I made. The new year has had me busy organizing and researching for the blog. I chose not to make resolutions this year but a list of recipes I had not made before. Today I have 60 different recipes on that list. Two of those I have made in the last week and will be posting about soon. Hopefully I will be on track and post every week with some new surprises. Including some treats from Japan.

Crock Pot Potato Soup

Oct9

Easy Potato soup in the crock pot and it’s done in a couple of hours. This is one that you can make ahead and take to pot lucks. It was a part of my Crock Pot week of recipes. I paired it with some homemade bread that I did put into the oven. Dessert was Baked Apples in the crock pot, which will be a post at a later date.

 

Recipe:

2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup

1 can Cream of Celery

1 bunch green onions chopped (reserve some for toppings)

1 pint of Half & Half

4-6 peeled and chopped potatoes

6 tablespoons of butter

Pinch of pepper

 

Mix all ingredients and cook on low for 6 hours. Add grated cheese and onion on top of serving. Bacon could be a good topper as well.

 

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Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

Oct8

Last week I ended up browsing through Pinterest for some time. I was looking at recipes to try out as I knew it would another busy week. So I tried out several Crock Pot recipes. There were several good ones and lots of links to sites. I was not looking to store food in the freezer and do a full month of recipes but something simple and easy for the week. My favorite was this one for chicken tacos. I ended up adding extra to it and think this was the reason for such a tasty dinner. It was so good my husband practically licked his plate clean. I was very hungry as I had only eaten breakfast that morning and got in late from a meeting that I did not get a picture from that night. Yes I admit that I too licked my plate clean. It was so good that I had for lunch the next day. Which is what the picture is from. My flour tortillas are from Trader Joe’s and they are the closest thing as I can get to tortillas from where I grew up in Arizona. Probably because they are made in a factory in California.

Original Recipe
1 ½ pounds chicken breast (boneless skinless)
1 packet taco seasoning
1 10 ounce can Rotel

What I added extra
3 cloves of garlic diced up
1 chopped onion
¼ jar of Cilantro Sauce from Mexican food aisle

I simply added all ingredients and set on low for at least 6 hours. Shredded the chicken when I got home. I mixed it all together and served on flour tortillas with taco toppings. It is super simple and easy.

 

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Research

Sep30

So how does one make a food blog good? Research of course. Well that seems to be all I have been doing the last week. Recently I talked with my Mother and she felt my food pictures needed to be better. She suggested that I do not use my beautiful blue plates, use some linens instead of my counter top and try photographing from a different angle. So I thought about this and looked at my pictures so far of food and think that my mom might have a point to what she was saying. She is a photographer after all. The next thing I did was buy several books online about food photography and styling, and some on food blogging. I looked at so many food blogs, tons of post on Pinterest and lots of food photos online. It was so much information out there and it was all very informative. The next thing I did was shop for some linens, plates and photo equipment. Now I did not go out and break the bank for this because this is just a hobby for me, A journey in expanding my culinary education. So in the next few post I will be using my camera and not my Ipad, which is what my first few photos were taken with.  This weeks menu will be cooking some new things in a crockpot and baking as well. Yes I fully think Pinterest is an evil place that I go to look at food stuff and loose half of my day. I know have business cards and a new Facebook page as well that has been keeping me busy.

Tea Party

Sep24

Tea is such a soothing thing and what is better than tea? A Tea Party of course. Yes my cookbook collection grows yet again. Went to the Le Creuset store to see if they carried any fuel for my fondue pot. The day I made fondue I ended up using a sterno can to heat up my fondue pot. I was out of fondue fuel and unable to locate any locally. So I stopped by the outlet store to see if they had any, which of course they did not. However they did have this cute recipe book and was easily given into buying it. My daughter said to me that why yes I did need another cookbook. I needed one to make her tea sandwiches and other goodies. She is like me and loves the idea of taking tea and having others over for it. A tradition in the United States that is just not common anymore, but there are tea houses are now popping up instead.  So the plan is to have a tea party and invite guests for tea. Serve several pots of tea, eat cute little sandwiches and tasty desserts, and of course have lots of fun. Now to plan the menu as this is not the only book on tea parties I own. Wonder who I will invite?

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More Cookbooks

Sep23

Last week I was out shopping Michael’s craft store and was lucky to find a local used bookstore. They were small and charming. I love books and have stated before that I am cookbook addict. So of course while in there I picked up these three babies. The Julia Child book I had never seen so of course it had to go right into the shopping basket. The Joy of Cooking was another one that I have been looking at getting for years, but had wanted to get an older addition. This one was from 1986 and was loved well.  The last was something I could not resist. Potatoes are my favorite vegetable and I can never seem to get enough of them. While I do have a tried and true family recipe that I use to make potato salad, I feel it is time to step out of the box and try some new potato salad recipes.

 

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