It's been a while

Oh, my! I'd started off 2012 with a new kitchen and plans to get back on board with this blog... and immediately failed.

Here was our kitchen:

Note the very little usable counter space (yep, it's that piece between the sink and the stove -- so your left elbow is effectively resting on the top burner as you prep) and the electric coil stovetop. And yes, the completely bare wall to the left was being used for extra pantry storage and cookbooks.

We'd planned to put in all new counters along that left wall as well as an island (peninsula) eat in option (since there's no room for a full table). After months of planning and meeting with cabinet folk, we had our design. And then we waited. And waited. We had our first piece done mid-May -- replacing the drawer bank and cabinets you see next to the fridge so that (when we had the funds) we could get a larger fridge. And we'd planned to buy a new oven as soon as we could as well.

And then we waited some more. In June we got the rest of the cabinets and the counters were measured. And we waited some more. End of the month, half of the counters were installed. Seemed they cut the sink into the wrong piece so our new countertops would have to wait just a bit longer. At that point we had the sink debacle. The old sink had warped along with the old countertops and could be installed wobbly or we could buy a new sink. Ick.

And there were cabinet reorders to address defects the install team noted. We waited quite some time on those as well. But I kept trucking along as best I could in the in progress kitchen.

By second week of July, we were done!

Or so we thought.

In September, our oven died. In calling the company I discovered it was 12 years old and I while they could send a tech out to identify the problem, the cost of that wouldn't apply to any work to fix said problem. Faced with fixing an oven we wanted to get rid of without even knowing what said repair would cost, we decided that although it wasn't the most convenient timing, we had been planning to buy a new oven. And so we did. Unfortunately the one we wanted was backordered for 6 weeks. Facing not having an oven or a stovetop for that long was really too much for me to handle. Instead, we were sold on a very similar model made by a brand the salesperson swore was tried and true.

A few days later it had arrived and was installed. Just three days after that we noticed it was making a horrendous noise while preheating. So we called the repair folks. Turned out the fan was wobbly. They ordered a new piece, it arrived a week later (this is early Sept now). But they couldn't install the piece until October 8. Oh well, at least we had one small oven and the stovetop to use. So it wasn't total torture.

Oct 8 arrives -- we've now had the oven in our house for just under a month and never been able to use it. The pieces is installed, takes just about 5 minutes to do. Fabulous! A working full-size oven, finally!

And now we have arrived at October 16, last night. I'd used the oven just once since last Monday and was planning to use it this evening to reheat a rotisserie chicken. Preheated the oven just fine, popped the chicken in, and went about my business.

After about 15 minutes I heard what sounded like something falling. We have pets so I didn't really think anything of it except a small niggle about the oven. I brushed that away thinking that surely our newly repaired oven should be working like a charm and there was no reason to believe the noise could possibly related to it.

I was wrong. As the yummy smell of cooked chicken spread throughout the house and my stomach growled with hunger, I approached the kitchen and was greeted by this site:

Yes, our one month old, only used twice bottom oven had apparently imploded. Nice. Now I'm facing not having an oven or stovetop for another indeterminate time. It's clear that this particular one is kaput and I wouldn't trust it even if they did replace the door. I'm trying to stay a bit more level headed than normal but trust me I'm quietly raging inside.

Just in case you needed a close up of the damage.

I heart Zingermans!

I have to thank my dad for introducing me to Zingermans. Were it not for him, I probably would never have heard about their uber fabulousness. They are actually a deli in Michigan, but they have a huge mail order operation for feeding the hungry foodie masses, like me.

Oils, vinegars, honeys, cheeses, and breads are just a few of the yummy items one can order. There are food clubs as well, where you can get a box set of different items each month.

So far, we've had:

Sea Salt & Chipotle Caramels (yum!)

Il Mongetto Diavola Sauce

Iberico Dry Cured Ham (which we ate with melon and honey)

Corbezzolo Honey (ate with the melon and ham)

French Lavender Honey (heaven)

Boat Street Pickled Figs (paired with the below bread and cheese)

(Better Than) San Francisco Style Sourdough

Bridgewater (cheese)

Wild Mugolio Pine Syrup (also awesome with the sourdough and Bridgewater)

Fig & Walnut Confit (with the sourdough and Bridgewater as well)

And we have a few items we have yet to crack open as well:

Il Mongetto Mushroom Sauce

Saba Balsamic Syrup

Vinaigre de Banyuls

Yeah, you can say it. My dad is awesome! Mike particularly enjoyed the Pine Syrup with homemade banana bread.

Happy New Year!

Being from the south, we stick to the New Year's tradition of pork, black-eyed peas, and cabbage for health, luck, and wealth in the New Year. Until I was out of college, it was up to my parents to put together said meal. My very first on my own was a bit of a scramble -- I can't remember the exact situation, but I wasn't able to go home (work) and so my boyfriend (now husband) and I scrambled to get some pork and cabbage egg rolls and a can of black-eyed peas to hit all the relevant food groups.

I'm too superstitious to let a New Year's dinner slide!

Since then, I've played with variations. I did pork cabbage rolls one year, a black-eyed pea dip another year, and this year I did a sort of black-eyed pea stew with ham and a side of creamed cabbage.

The stew was a variation of Hoppin' John recipes I came across. I soaked dried black-eyed peas overnight. The following morning, I sauteed a chopped onion with half a bell pepper, two sticks of celery and three cloves of garlic. Then I added diced ham leftover from Christmas dinner and added that to the pot along with the beans. Four cups of chicken broth, a bay leaf, a pinch of marjoram, and a pinch of thyme. Seasoned it all with salt, pepper, and Tony's and let it simmer away for the next two and half hours. I do have to say that this is one I would have cooked down much longer, but we were in a bit of a time crunch. If you were to let it cook down long enough for all the beans to be mushy and the liquid pretty much absorbed... yum!

The cabbage was super, super simple. I used Gojee to find this recipe: Five & Spice's Cabbage for Cabbage Haters. I highly recommend it as it was super tasty.

Neither dish was all that pretty, nor was it the healthiest New Year's dinner, but not the worst by far. Though my egg roll idea was inventive, I doubt I'll be returning to that unless I'm in dire straits.

What did we do with all that basil?

We got an aerogrow and recently had our first haul of herbs. It was pretty cool, I have to admit. I am notorious for my black thumb. The only plant I've ever managed to keep alive was a crazy spider plant that I totally ignored.

I have even killed mint. It's ridiculous.

But Mike set up the Aerogarden and things started growing. And growing, and growing. We just cleaned it out and started a fresh batch of seeds. Jalapenos, cubanelles, and cute little grape tomatoes. If it goes as well this time around as it did last, I'd expect plant within the next couple of weeks. Basically it speeds up the growth cycle by keeping a timed light on most of the day.

The last batch of seeds we did were basil, cilantro, dill, and sage. The sage never really took off (there was some chives in there, too, that never did anything at all). The dill got used in pickling mostly. The cilantro in many batches of salsas and various other Mexican inspired dishes. And the basil? We used that in Caprese salads and cracker stacks, Spicy Pasta Salad with Smoked Gouda, Tomatoes, and Basil, and, of course, pesto!

In fact, I was able to use my basil and some of the heavy cream from our local dairy together in Pioneer Woman's Pasta With Pesto Cream Sauce. Super yum! My latest batch was over some Buitoni Wild Mushroom Agnolotti and it came out fantastic. A keeper for sure for nights when I want something tasty with minimum effort.

My Peri Peri Chicken and Peppers

Hello, world! We hit up Austin recently on a short road trip to Texas, and of course I had to stop at Tears of Joy -- the best hot sauce shop ever!

Mike laughs at me about the hot sauce thing and frequently blames any ailment I might complain about on my penchant for eating spicy food. Since I couldn't go crazy, though, I limited myself to five bottles (plus Mike's bottle of Susie's, which was at one point too hot for even me).

One of my haul was a Peri Peri sauce made by Zulu Zulu. The shop usually has a handful of sauces out to try, and they had a similar Peri Peri out, but Zulu Zulu's bottle was larger and my idea was to make something in the sauce rather than using it as a condiment. Plus the guy in the store said the two brands tasted pretty similar.

Using a Jamie Oliver recipe as inspiration, I seasoned two chicken breasts with salt and pepper and sliced them into thin, two-inch long strips and sauteed them in some oil until they were cooked through. I then removed the chicken breasts and tossed some sliced onion and bell pepper in the skillet, cooking them through.

Meanwhile, I poured a layer of the Peri Peri sauce into the bottom of a casserole dish. Once the onions and peppers were done, I threw all of it (cooked chicken strips, onions, and peppers) into the casserole with the sauce and tossed it together. Then I baked it the oven (preheated) at 400 for about twenty minutes so that the chicken and peppers could really absorb the flavors of the sauce.

Jamie's recipe has a homemade piri piri -- and is from his 30-Minute Meals show in the UK, so I like the way the recipe is laid out telling you exactly what to do when for the time conscious cook. Also keeping his recipe in mind, I roasted off some potatoes (sweet and red) and tossed them with some olive oil, Mexican cheese and red chilies.

The sauce had a bit of a kick, but not too much. Probably a bit hot for mom, but I thought it made a great summer-time meal. It wasn't terribly heavy and the heat was enough to cool me off (funny how that works, right?). I found some coconut soda water and mixed a bit with some mango nectar (thicker than a standard juice) to go alongside. Yum!

I Swear I've Been Cooking!

I do, I swear it. It's been a long few weeks, but I have been in the kitchen.

I can't remember if I've mentioned it yet, but one of the best gifts I got last year, and one of the most useful, is my new foodsaver. For a while, I'd been buying bulk and freezing (meat, I mean) for those evenings when I really didn't want to head out to the grocery store and found myself scratching my head as to what to make for dinner.

Now that I have the foodsaver, I don't feel so bad about using so many ziplocs, for one, and an individual chicken breast defrosts a lot easier than two stuck together in the same bag. Never mind the fact that the meat doesn't get all freezerburned as easy (they tend not to stay in there long enough for that in the ziplocs anyway, but it is a plus for the foodsaver).

So I was in this spot a few weeks back. What to make, no desire to head to the store, and just staples in the kitchen. So I defrosted two chicken breasts and headed to my collection of saved recipes (yes, I hoard. I see something that sounds good, I bookmark it, and eons later I've yet to try it).

I picked Rachel Ray's Latin Chicken and Rice Pot -- a one pot meal with a bell pepper and green olive salsa and avocado sour cream. Plus the weather was nasty and this seemed like the right thing to warm me up. Throw on some Wallander and I made a weekend out of it with leftovers, too.

The recipe was super easy to put together. I don't know that I'd consider it a favorite, but if you're used to jambalaya, this is sort of a variation on that. Same basic cooking technique. The only real problem I had, though, was in cooking the rice. Rice tends to take longer here in Colorado anyway, and nowhere in the recipe does it say to cover the rice while cooking, which resulted (as I'd suspected it would) in a dry pot with raw rice. No big deal, I added more stock, brought it back to a boil, and covered it to cook longer.

This Dessert is So Wrong, But So Good!

So Saturday rolled around nice and sunny and pretty warm out. Mike bough grass seed to patch the yard and I found an unabeled container of something in the freezer. I decided to be brave and let it thaw so we could see what it was (it could have been any number of things ranging from homemade spaghetti sauce to chili).

Turned out it was Mike's homemade spaghetti sauce after all. We had spaghetti and meatballs and watched Friday's Fringe.

Then the sweet tooth craving hit.

I don't actually make a whole lot of desserts. We're not a desserts every night couple. It's more of a desserts on special occasions. Or if I happen to be walking the baked aisle at Whole Foods (because they usually have tasty looking treats).

I wasn't feeling too hot on Saturday either, a combination of allergies and a sinus infection, so whatever I came up with had to be completely on hand and very easy to make. I started to reach for the apple crisp recipe I mentioned last, when I remembered Banoffee Pie!

I few months back, Saveur posted this classic Banoffee Pie recipe and I'd stored it until I had the ingredients. But my bananas were always overripe, or Mike had eaten them all, or there was no sweetened condensed milk in the house. You get the picture.

It all fell into place on Saturday. Not only did I have everything on hand, I even had heavy cream from the local dairy!

Banoffee, if you don't know, is a banana toffee pie. A cream pie. No baking required. You assemble your crust (we used graham crackers). You cook your sugar, butter, and sweetened condensed milk (you know, I don't know how my grandmother felt about bananas, but I can't believe I didn't find this recipe in time to make it for her). You pour your filling into your crust and one full Fringe episode later, you slice your bananas on top and cover it all with freshly whipped cream -- as I said, I used the heavy cream from our local dairy, no sweetener added. It cut the toffee pudding quite a bit, which was nice.

And since I did two small individual ramekins, we have toffee leftover for dipping!

So wrong on so many levels. I mean, if you spend all day at the gym, you can probably not feel guilty about eating a dessert that's the equivalent of bananas smothered in sweetened condensed milk, but man, it tastes so good!

Sorry no pics. We ate it all.