Kind of lost a year there...

From here.

It wasn't intentional to just stop writing. Things got in the way. What those things were escape me now. I tried to use Evernote to journal a bit but didn't stick to that either. I also wasn't cooking very much. Or apparently reading anything I felt so passionate about that I needed to share it. In many ways, 2014 apparently wasn't worth writing about for me. Let's start out 2015 (six days late) on a better note.

I need to cook more again. I am avoiding doing the analysis on my budget last year because I can guarantee my eating out spending was off the charts. What caused this? I'm not sure. A slightly demonic cat who gets into the way in the kitchen? A lack of good recipes to try? Complete and utter laziness...I'm actually voting the last one on this list. I have no excuse. This year's first goal, cook more! Even if it's not a new recipe, even if it's really just warming up something already in the cupboards. I need to curb the impulse to just stop at Panera on my way home.

I need to be better about sharing my reading. Looking back over my 2014 books read (GoodReads is an organizing loving book reader's dream), I didn't do much other than put stars on books. Did I really have nothing to say?! Again, laziness and a slight addiction to getting back to a Netflix binge after finishing a book. This year, I will take the time to reflect after I finish a book. Even if it's only two sentences worth! (See exhibit A, I finished The Palace Job on the plane rides back to Florida last week. It's a good read but I don't have tons to say just "A great caper read! I will admit some of the magic logic went over my head but it never took away from my enjoyment of the book. If you're looking for a fun ensemble led by one very cool kickass heroine, check this one out!")

I also have decided I need a more balanced reading diet. I am heavy on the fiction. Which isn't a bad thing but my to-read list, sub-group non-fiction, is getting longer every year and I rarely touch it. This year, my goal is one fiction book, one non-fiction book and so forth. I am currently reading The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop which starts me off nicely on this goal!

I also want to explore more. I got out a bit last year (I have partially finished blog posts to prove it) and explored around my neck of the woods more but I could share that better. I haven't even done Yelp reviews in forever. I like Tallahassee and it has some pretty neat places and things to do. I should let other people know about them! Added bonus, I would get off my couch since I want to read and cook, activity might be a good idea to add to the list...

Other than that, 2015 is a pretty blank year for me. I do turn 30 (the horrors!) so maybe other exciting things will come along. But mostly, I'd like do my nice cozy hobbies (cooking, reading, Netflix binging, protecting my bookshelves from a cat who thinks books are toys) and write about them again!

Turkey Chili Mac

I kept seeing commercials for this dish and it sounded tasty so I put it on my list to try at some point. Then, two Sundays ago, the recipe was also in the newspaper so I gave in and made it sooner than planned. I am always wary of anything with chili in its title because 1) that usually involved beans in some fashion and I find beans gross and 2) it usually is also spicy and I don't really do much spice. I don't find pleasure in burning my taste buds out for some reason, call me crazy. However, I am glad I tried this dish.

In many ways, it is a lot like my Grammy's goulash - just ground turkey instead of beef and a kick of chili powder rather than oregano. The recipe makes just as much - in fact, I didn't make this at the best time. I was leaving for a trip to the Mouse three days after making this which meant I had to eat it for lunch and dinner for three days to make sure none went to waste. I sadly did not have room in the freezer at the time to put some in tupperware to freeze. It could be a very plain dish but I cooked some green peppers and onions up and put them in there and that added to the heartiness of the dish. I also, full disclosure did not put the full amount of chili powder, but the amount I put in was just right for me. I recommend this for a cold, damp, grey day when you just want to curl up with tea and a book.

You could also top this with sour cream - yum!

Turkey Chili Mac

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 jar Ragu Old World Style Pasta Sauce
1 Tbsp. chili powder
8 oz. macaroni, cooked and drained
1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
1 medium onion, chopped (optional)
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

1) Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-heat heat and cook ground turkey, stirring occasionally until done.
2) At the same time, heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat and cook the green peppers and onions together until softened.
3) Once turkey and vegetables are done, stir into a single pot with pasta sauce and chili powder. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer covered 10 minutes. Prepare macaroni at this time.
4) Stir in drained macaroni and heat through.
5) Serve topped with shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Afternoon Tea

I fell in love with tea while I studied in England. Those pesky British make sure you are addicted to cream teas from the second you land. Finding a decent afternoon tea stateside isn't always the easiest though. So, I resigned myself to missing afternoon tea. Then, last time I was down in Walt Disney World, I dragged my mother to afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian and remembered what all the fuss was about. So, when it came time for my birthday, something I haven't paid much attention to the last few years, I decided to have a tea party. As well as being an excuse to read lots of fun tea cookbooks, and start a places to have tea bucket list, it also meant I could try out a recipe I'd been holding onto for years. Sally Lunn's is a famous tea shop in Bath, where I lived while in England. The shop is famous for Sally Lunn buns and it was only a few months after I got back to the States that a blog I followed posted a recipe for the famous Sally Lunn buns. However, I never really had any reason to make them. Until now.

I have lots of recipes to share from my afternoon tea but most are ones you can find in any decent tea cookbook. Jam cookies, cucumber sandwiches and a fabulous honey spice cake (which led to me have a fight with a bundt cake pan but that is neither here nor there). One thing I did learn from putting on afternoon tea is why it fell out of popularity when people stopped keeping cooks. It takes a LOT of work to put one of these together on your own. It was fun but I think next time I'll just find a nice tea shop.

My afternoon tea spread

The Sally Lunn buns are just behind the strawberries. I made clotted cream to go with them and served them with the choice of raspberry or strawberry jam. Of everything I made for the tea, the Sally Lunns were actually the easiest and baked the best in my oven. They baked up nice and golden and tasted exactly like they should have.

Sally Lunn buns with Clotted Cream

Ingredients:
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp. (1 package) instant yeast
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1 cup milk

Directions:
1) In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. In small saucepan, melt butter.
2) With electric mixer, beat eggs until fluffy and pale lemon yellow, about 5 minutes. Add milk and beat until smooth, about 1 minute.
3) By hand with dough whisk or wooden spoon, add the flour mixture to the egg mixture in three additions, alternating with the melted butter and beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Cover mixture and place in refrigerator for at least 24 hours or up to three days
4) When ready to bake, remove dough from refrigerator. Stir down the dough, just a few strokes, with a wooden spoon.
5) With a 1/4 measuring cup, scoop dough into well-greased or cooking sprayed standard muffin tins.
6) Lightly butter a sheet of plastic wrap and place, buttered side down, over the buns. Let rise until puffy but likely not doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours. During last 15 minutes, preheat oven to 375F
7) Uncover the buns. Bake at 375 about 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Turn the buns out of the tins and cool on wire racks. Serve warm or cool completely and then store.

Clotted Cream

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature

Directions:
1) In a small bowl, using an electric mixer, combine heavy cream and sugar. Whip until stiff peaks form.
2) Gently fold in sour cream and mix until very thick
3) Place in refrigerator and chill until time to serve

Freezer-Friendly Minestrone Soup

Because of my schedule lately, and a planned tea party I have coming up to celebrate my birthday, cooking has been put at the end of my list. At least until this week when I start seeing if my baking talents will hold up to making a tasty afternoon tea. So, I pulled out a batch of minestrone soup I made back in December to get me through last week.

It took me a long time to find a minestrone recipe I liked. See, I am weird and don't like beans. I find their texture gross and sadly, minestrone soup often has a lot of beans included. So, I was excited when I found this recipe on-line years ago. I also love that this recipe makes a LOT of soup - enough to freeze at least five Tupperware containers with two servings a piece in them as well as having enough left over to eat for a week after I make the original batch. I try to make it in November or December and I find I usually eat the last container around the end of March. The soup keeps well in the freezer though I find I need to add some water to each container when I first take it out of the freezer. Otherwise, the soup is almost too thick.

See, I have another dish!

Minestrone Soup

Ingredients:
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 small zucchini, chopped (2 cups)
2 medium carrots, sliced (1 cup)
1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 carton (32 oz.) chicken broth (4 cups) or 4 cups of water
4 cups tomato juice
1 cup dry red wine or water
1 Tbsp dried basil leaves
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups uncooked rotini, mostaccioli, and shell pasta mixture (I usually just use rotini straight)

Directions:
1) Spray 8-qt. nonstick Dutch oven with cooking spray; heat over medium heat. Cook garlic and onion in Dutch oven about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion is tender.
2) Stir in remaining ingredients except pasta. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 45 minutes.
3) Heat to boiling. Stir in pasta. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 10 to 15 minutes or until pasta is tender.

Beef Taco Skillet

Somewhere along the way, I cut a short, easy looking recipe from a newspaper. I can't for the life of me remembers which one or where I might have been living when I did so. I've narrowed it down to either my grad school days or since I moved out here but that's the best I can do. This Beef Taco Skillet used tomato soup for its base and I am a big fan of using Campbells for a starter - a recipe always seems fool-proof to me then.

This recipe is definitely one of the easiest I've ever put together and it cooked up quickly and easily. But then, what I ended up I wasn't quite sure what to do with. The skillet gives you a concoction of beef and tortillas cooked with salsa and tomato soup. It isn't quite thick enough to be a stew and not thick enough to be a soup. It's somewhere in the middle. I wasn't exactly sure how to serve it. I think for the leftovers I'll make rice to go with the dish, but for tonight I made do with tortilla chips and sour cream.

I liked this dish but the taste of tomato soup sort of overwhelms it. I also think if I were to make this again I would add a dash of taco seasoning to give a better kick to it. As it is, this is a very mild, bordering on bland dish but filling. I had only a small helping myself and I'm stuffed. I also, unlike what the recipe called for, didn't put cheese over the entire finished product, only my portion of it. As it will be eaten over the week, I figured I would prefer adding fresh cheese to each serving rather than putting it all on at once.

Honestly, I have a better Mexican skillet recipe in a cookbook I prefer to this one so it's one that is not getting a permanent place in my recipe box but I'm glad I tried it out. For a busy night when you aren't sure what to make and you know you have a pound of hamburger in the freezer, I could see this becoming an easy, go-to dish.

Beef Taco Skillet

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1 can tomato soup
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 water
4 flour tortillas (8" round, cut into 1" pieces)
1/2 cup taco blend shredded cheese

Directions:

1) Brown beef in 10" skillet until well-browned; drain fat
2) Stir in soup, salsa, water and tortillas.
3) Heat to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes
4) Stir and serve; top each serving with cheese.

Makes 4 servings

Chicken Cacciatore

So, I'm not big on New Years' resolutions but I do like to set some goals for myself that are usually reading orientated with a new year. Since I wasn't able to come up with concrete ones in reading (I have a few vague ideas but I'm still working on them), I decided maybe I should branch out and challenge myself elsewhere. The kitchen seemed an obvious place for me to go.

The running family gag is that I can't cook. I did have some unfortunate misadventures when I was younger and for awhile there it was just easier to be on kitchen duty than attempt to make a dish of some sort. Then of course I left the comfort of college dining halls and had to fend for myself. So, I learned to cook in a sense. I rarely make something that isn't edible so I always assumed that was a step in the right direction for me. The idea of cooking is so charming though that I became a recipe collector with more cooking blogs than I could keep up with. Over the years, I've learned my talent level better and said goodbye to some of the blogs that just made me hungry while producing gourmet worthy meals that I had no inclination or reason to make. However, the recipe collecting has continued until I think, it may, just be a little out of hand. I have an email folder full along with clippings, print outs and magazine articles overflowing my recipe binder and box. My problem with that is...I've made maybe a handful of the recipes I have. So, goal for the year? Make them and decide whether they are keepers or whether I'm never making them again.

I generally make my most complicated meal on Sundays; just the day of the week I have the most time to devote to chopping, cooking, baking, dishes and clean up of the kitchen. It has the bonus that anything I make tends to make me enough leftovers that I don't need to do more than reheat until Thursday - one of the bonuses to being single and recipes almost always assuming you're cooking for a family of four. So today I finally got around to starting on this goal. I've been set back a few times as grocery shopping where I currently live can be challenging to find what you need sometimes. Other times, I improvise.

My first dish of the year? Chicken Cacciatore from Bread and Putter with a few changes due to grocery availability. Overall, I loved this dish - it tasted delicious and was super easy to make. It also didn't require hours of chopping things which is always good in my book. I recommend this dish actually for the weeknight. You could get everything chopped beforehand, get it cooking in the skillet and then you have 40 minutes to get things done before it's ready which I like on a weeknight - makes me get some chores done before I settle in for a night of reading and/or TV watching.

The final product!

Recipe:

Ingredients: 1 lb. chicken (thighs or breasts I think work fine), 2 medium green bell peppers, 1 package (6 or 8 oz.) button mushrooms and 1 jar of marinara sauce

Directions:
1) Coat large, deep skillet with cooking spray
2) Chop chicken into cubes and then brown on skillet
3) Add chopped peppers and mushrooms; cook 2-3 minutes on skillet
4) Pour in marinara sauce, cover and let simmer for 40 minutes until chicken is tender

I served the dish with spaghetti but I think it would be just as good over rice.

Sigh...a kitchen goddess I am not

I love to think I can cook and bake. And really, most of the time, things do turn out just fine. But the moment I say I'll cook or bake something for someone else, something inevitably goes wrong.

Luckily, frosting hides all kinds of problems, like the fact I had to piece the brownie cake back together when it broke in pieces while I was changing it between pans so I could frost it. Let's hope it at least tastes good.

Sigh. I am a thwarted kitchen goddess. 

Update: never mind, frosting just highlights the issues once it settles. The cake looks like there are random caverns in the middle...Bother. Oh well...Happy birthday to my boss...

My first Thanksgiving

So, technically, this was not the first Thanksgiving away from home for me. That honor belongs to the dinner in Bath in 2005 which was great except, I mean, what do the English know about Thanksgiving? The stuffing came out in little balls. They tried and I was grateful. But my first Thanksgiving that I was in control of was going to go perfectly.

Oh come now. I'm not that naive. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving if there were not scares and hiccups and moments when you think the whole thing might blow up in your face. It started out early, before the parade even came on, one of my roommates started the turkey. We couldn't find the packet of giblets but we carried on, thinking perhaps they'd forgotten them. Seanna put all sorts of stuff in the bird, rubbed it down with miracle whip and successfully had it into the oven before 9 AM. Ahead of schedule. I liked this. However, the parade never started. Apparently, Detroit's Thanksgiving Parade is more important than the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Michigan. I was confused and found some sort of coverage on CBS. My parents later helped me figure out the problem and I flipped out. One tradition shot to dust. Luckily, my paper arrived on time and I plotted out my attack for the next morning. Yes, I am one of those nutters who leaves the house at the crack of dawn on Black Friday.

Anyhoo, we're swimming along just fine and then Julie appears. Our turkey is probably done. Three hours before planned. Me, the person who checks, double checks and triple checks anything to do with cooking hadn't looked up cooking times again after we decided to cook the turkey unstuffed...House thrown into frenzy, people running around, stuffing being thrown into oven, potatoes boiling. In the grand scheme of things, of course it worked out. In fact, the turkey ended up only being done an hour earlier than planned (our oven takes forever to do anything).

So, Thanksgiving was delightful in the end. We ate ourselves into food comas, recovered to have pumpkin pie and whipped cream and generally enjoyed a day with friends and less guilt for not working on papers.

And in the end, we found our packet of giblets. The take home message of the day? A turkey has two holes. Check both before cooking.