Tag Archives: cooking

Heaven in a Crock Pot

Posted on August 4, 2009 | 6 Comments

Let’s talk about meat for a second.

I grew up on a mainly vegetarian house. My mom has been a vegetarian off and on for a good part of her life. My brother as well. I was a vegetarian myself for a couple years. This was all fine and good and fairly easy, even as a fifth grader. That is until the summer camp vegetarian options presented themselves to me. I almost starved on lunches and dinners of iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing, until chicken fingers came to my rescue. I didn’t want to pass out at the campfire during a rousing rendition of “Give me gas in my Ford, keep me truckin’ for the Lord…” The second verse of that song actually has the line “Give me cheese on my cheeto, God is neato, neato, NEATO.” I am not making this up. I miss camp.

Anyway, I would be perfectly happy to be a vegetarian again, but it would make meals extremely difficult to plan. Justin likes meat, and I really don’t feel like making us separate dishes every night.

Maybe it is the weather, but I have a very low meat tolerance lately. I can’t seem to eat more than a couple ounces of the stuff without being totally full or turned off by the meal. Sometimes the smell of it turns me off. I will often negotiate a trade with my sweet meat-eating husband, and will end up with a heaping double order of brussel sprouts. I feel like I am the winner in this trade; I’m as happy as the kid in the cafeteria that traded her carrots for a Snack Pack.

So if you have any vegetarian entree ideas, that would satisfy a meat loving man as well, send them my way. I need help.

This all being said, my friend Casey bought 4 lbs of pork butt for a roof deck party she hosted on Sunday. Then she called around to ask people if she could BORROW A CROCK POT…people thought she had been kidnapped and that “crock pot” was some sort of code meant to secretly indicate her distress. It wasn’t possible that she really wanted one. The thing is, she doesn’t really cook. So when she announced that she was not catering the BBQ, but making it from scratch, we were all dumbfounded. But also curious.

Even with her lack of cooking experience, and my meat issues, I have to say that she knocked this one out of the park. I think she said that she cooked the pork for 13 hours total. It was good. Add a pickle, it was amazing. Casey better be cooking from now on. She can’t use excuses anymore. Because we know the truth.

Bravo! I am not sure this can look pretty in a picture, but I assure you it was divine.

Oh no he didn't...

Neato, neato, neato.

Photo credit: Mr. Boley.

Oh, goodness. Punk Marie is really a sucker for the Sutter Home. She is clearly a classy lady.

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Posted in Daily Picture

Tagged bbq, cat, chicago skyline, cooking, Daily Picture, friend, photography, photos, pork, roof deck, summer camp, vegetarian

Tomato Class

Posted on August 3, 2009 | 2 Comments

What is better than watching cooking shows on a lazy Sunday morning? Actually being in the chef’s kitchen and eating their food. That is kind of what I got to do yesterday.

Unless you are new to Megagood, you are probably aware that I am obsessed with fresh tomatoes. So when my friends, Ryan and Sarah, told me about a class at the Chopping Block featuring recipes starring tomatoes, I was definitely on board.

This was not one of the classes where we were in the kitchen cooking; we were sitting in the kitchen eating. And we excelled at it.

Here is the demo classroom. We sat at the oversized butcher's block counter.

We learned how to make Bloody Marys, Fried Green Tomatoes with Tarragon Aoli, Tomato Chowder, Heirloom Tomato and Peaches salad, and Mushroom and Goat Cheese Stuffed tomatoes. The dishes ranged from fairly to entirely delicious and all of them tasted like summer. The key was freshness.

The stand-out dish was the Heirloom Tomatoes and Peaches salad. I think Gimmeyummy will freak out about this one:

It doesn't look like much, but it is one of the best flavor combinations I have had in a long time. Slice up some peaches and fresh heirlooms. Drizzle good balsamic vinegar and olive oil over the mixture. Rip up some fresh basil and add it to the goodness. Then fresh-ground salt and pepper. You will love it. I'm 99% sure of it.

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Posted in Cooking/Baking, Daily Picture

Tagged basil, chopping block, cooking, cooking demo, Daily Picture, food, heirloom tomato and peach salad, photography, recipe, tomatoes

Nothing To Do With Swine Flu

Posted on April 29, 2009 | 1 Comment

Whole wheat pasta is a million times better for you than white pasta. It’s got fiber after all. Who doesn’t need LOVE fiber. OK, sometimes it tastes like:

It is just too rough, stiff, and woodsy. I like oak in my wine, not in my dinner. But when whole-wheat pasta is done right, it is oh so tastey. It’s not merely a vehicle for your sauce, it is really bringing something to the table (heh). It adds a subtle nuttiness and substance to your meal. Whole-wheat pasta can hold up to some abuse if you are doing a baked dish, a scampi, or hoping for leftovers that are more al dente than al mushy.

For the last few months I have been obsessed with Ronzoni Healthy Harvest pasta. Specifically the penne and linguine. The texture is so much better than any other whole-wheat variety that I have tried. It absorbs sauce like white pasta, is lighter than other grainy varieties, and still has 7 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber per serving. If you have another favorite, let me know because I would love to try it.

We had Ronzoni linguine with shrimp scampi with snap peas tonight. A good one-pot dish that was a happy meeting of random ingredients around the kitchen. Garlic, cherry tomatoes, red onion, lemons and olive oil mixed with some seasoning, shrimp, snow peas and pasta for a happy accident dinner for two.

Well aren't you cute.

Snuggling.

Everyone is getting along swimmingly in there.

I know it isn't gorgeous, but it is for eating, not looking.

I know it isn't gorgeous, but it is more for eating than looking.

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Posted in Cooking/Baking, Daily Picture

Tagged cooking, Daily Picture, dinner, fiber, food, garlic, healthy meal, ronzoni healthy harvest, shrimp, whole wheat pasta

Mega Mash Up

Posted on April 9, 2009 | 1 Comment

What are these gorgeous little purple flowers called? There is an army of them taking over Chicago. And I like it.

Here is a sneak peek at the roof-deck-garage that is being built in our backyard. I was going to wait until it was totally finished to do a post, but I am too excited to wait. Something that concerns me about the roof deck is the low power lines. What are they planning to do with those I wonder?

Now let’s talk about dinner.

I really love mashed potatoes. I love any buttery, cheesy, starchy comfort food. I have only made mashed potatoes once though. They are associated with holidays, and I have only hosted one holiday thus far. They take a long time to make unless you buy potato buds or instant mashed potatoes, but I have never attempted either of those. Last night, I thought I would try an alternative to spuds, and made a cauliflower mash up instead.

Results: OMG. Tastes way too good to be healthy. But it is indeed the healthiest comfort food I have eaten in months…if you don’t count the butter; but I bet you could use olive oil instead.

Megagood Cauli Mash Up

Rough idea of ingredients:

1 head of chopped cauliflower
Salt...um not sure how much. It is up to your taste.
Fresh ground black pepper
Shredded or grated Parmesan. I am sure you could do other cheeses as well, but Parm is really flavorful and you won’t need much. I bet goat cheese would be delicious also. Or cheddar? I will have to experiment a little more.
Your favorite blend of herbs. I used Italian Seasoning last night.
Horseradish. I can’t help but add a heaping couple of spoonfuls for kick.
Butter. About 2-3 tablespoons.
All purpose flour. Only a teaspoon. It helps everything stick together and adds body.

Pretty lousy directions:

Boil water. Generously salt the water. Add the chopped cauliflower and simmer for about 8-10 minutes or until a fork can easily pierce the cauli. Basically make sure it is seems “mashable” to you. Drain the cauliflower and put it into a LARGE mixing bowl. This could be messy.
Add all the rest of the ingredients to the mixing bowl and use an electric mixer or potato masher to blend all the goodness together. When it starts to look like the consistency of a starchy comfort food, you are getting somewhere.
Return the mash to the empty pot on the stove. Heat the mash on low and continue squishing the chunks in the pot. The cheese will get melty. Taste it. Add more salt if you want. Add whatever you want.
Plate it and then trick your dinner date into thinking they are eating indulgently on a weeknight.

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Posted in Cooking/Baking, Daily Picture

Tagged cauliflower, comfort food, cooking, Daily Picture, dinner, flowers, food, mashed potatoes, purple, recipe, roof deck

I <3 Garlic

Posted on February 5, 2009 | 9 Comments

Almost everyday after work I go to the kitchen and pull a couple cloves off the garlic bunch. Then I chop them up and get them cooking with some onions. This happens before I really know what I am cooking. Just seems like everything works with garlic and olive oil. The onions are my new love, but they will never beat garlic.

Onion skins are just about the prettiest things I throw away everyday. Most of the time they are discarded so quickly, no one notices them. They remind me of really delicate translucent handmade paper. They catch the light in an amazing glow-pearly kind of way. One of the best drawings I have ever done was of a giant onion in a still life back in school. Where is that thing?…(5-10 min later break) Holy crap! I couldn’t find the onion skin drawing BUT I did find another drawing I did freshman year of college. I can draw? Totally forgot about this. Need to revisit.

garlic

Little nugget of heaven. LOVE the crunchy papery sound of pulling the cloves off the bunch.

If they made paper like this, I would have printed my wedding invitations on it. And creative briefs. And grocery lists.

I used to draw stuff!!?!

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Posted in Cooking/Baking, Daily Picture

Tagged cooking, Daily Picture, drawing, garlic

Daily Picture 010909

Posted on January 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

Dinner!

I am no food stylist, but here is a plated dinner that Justin and I just enjoyed. I was determined to make chicken exciting and succeeded with this new dish I will call Megastuffed blue cheese chicken. It is baked with lemon, rosemary, oregano, fresh ground black pepper, garlic, tomatoes, olive oil, green olives and stuffed with blue cheese. The green beans are steamed with sliced oranges and sea salt which makes them savory and bright instead of mashy and boring.

Shockingly, there is no butter. My butter recovery is going pretty well. I need a new masthead.

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Posted in Cooking/Baking, Daily Picture

Tagged cooking, Daily Picture, dinner

Accidentally Delicious

Posted on January 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

One of my favorite things is creamy blue cheese bubbling on the top of a fillet. But this isn’t really the kind of heart attack I want to eat every week, nor can I afford fillet in most of my Peapod orders. So, I buy the blue cheese crumbles and throw them into things and pretend it is just as good.

Tonight, I threw the crumbles into a pan of mushrooms and it was more than good. So I thought I would share a rough estimate of what happened. We will call it a “recipe.”

Sometimes when I cook immediately after getting home from work, I am not paying 100% attention on how I get to the end dishes. I have to wind down from work and the commute, and generally during the week I go straight to the kitchen and begin the unwinding as I cook. Have you ever ended up in your driveway on the way home from a familiar place, and you can’t actually remember how you got there? This occasionally happens to me at the dining room table. This means I can’t duplicate certain things that I have made, since they were created without recipes or precision and probably depended on my sense of smell and mood at the time.

But here is a rough way to make delicious mushrooms and blue cheese. Very easy and rewarding:

Megagood Mushrooms

Heat olive oil in a pan on medium low heat.
Add slice mushrooms to pan. (By the way…do you wash mushrooms? There is a debate about this because many people claim that mushrooms are like sponges and they will absorb too much water, thus effecting taste and texture. hmmm.)
Add rosemary to the pan. I add a lot. But some people don’t like it as much as we do. Use your best rosemary judgement.
Add about a tsp of fresh lemon juice and a little zest if you are feeling frisky. Lemon adds freshness to a rich dish.
After the mushrooms have started to shrink up and brown, add one clove of chopped garlic to the pan. You want to do this at the end so that the garlic doesn’t burn and become bitter. It cooks much faster than your precious mushrooms.
Add fresh ground black pepper to taste.
Add blue cheese crumbles in the last 30 seconds.

Enjoy! Really easy and tastes delicious as a side dish. Or a meal if you eat the whole pan by yourself.

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Posted in Cooking/Baking

Tagged blue cheese, cooking, mushrooms, recipe

Christmas House and Daily Pictures

Posted on December 26, 2008 | 2 Comments

We just got back from the Christmas rental house that my mom’s side of the family rented in Michigan city. I am lucky that I didn’t have to travel to 4 different Christmas celebrations like many people have to do these days. It makes for a much more relaxing holiday when you can just wear your pajamas and eat food with your family for a few days. Here are some happiness photos. There is more than one…this is bending the rules slightly. Again, get your own blog.

122508

Meerkat in stocking!

Jordan and Justin making "Bienchers"

Justin rolling out the dough

Cutting the dough

Nomable Clementines.

Ice walk to the beach after dinner. 3-6 inches of ice on road.

122508_h1 122508_i 122508_j

Shoreline where the waves created ice waves.

There is one more photo of a certain gift of a certain special squirrel that will be uploaded soon. His name is Patrick and he has had a long journey. He is resting now and in no mood for a photo shoot. Yes I got a squirrel for Christmas. He is one of a kind though…you will see. Yes, this may happen again. Yes, I have asked you not to do this.

Overall the Christmas house was a success. The hateful pull out couch mattresses a dreadful bruise inducing failure. The puzzle a success. The ice a failure. The gifts a success. The paying off of one’s brother for a better sleeping situation a failure. The walk to the beach a success…unless you were improperly dressed…I of course was properly wrapped in down. The slipping on ice and falling on head a failure. The bienchers* a success.

*This is a dumpling that my grandparents have made for special celebrations or holidays since I can remember. My grandma grew up in China and brought the recipe back over. It is not spelled or pronounced bienchers…but we are mostly hoosiers and can’t help it. You have to roll out the dough, but circles, fill the dough with the meat and veggie filling, pinch closed (called bowing the bienchers), boil them, dip them in soy and vinegar, and eat no less than 50 of them if you are doing it properly. Grandma and Grandpa are passing down the recipe and would like to see more participants in the production of the bienchers. We are slowing catching on. It was fun to see Justin and Jordan rolling out the dough.)

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Posted in Daily Picture, family

Tagged beach, christmas, clementines, cooking, Daily Picture, family, lake michigan, meerkat, winter

Daily Picture(s) 122008 & Meatcake!

Posted on December 21, 2008 | 4 Comments

Daily Picture 122008_a

Last night we went to a friend’s surprise birthday party in Wicker Park. This meant waiting for the Damen Bus for a bit in the snow. Justin was a good gift carrying husband. This is the vegetarian photo for the day.

If you like meat, feast your eyes on the Damen #50 Meatcake:

Daily Picture 122008_b

This is really just a meatloaf, but it was for a birthday party and served at the cake. So meatcake seems right. It looks and sounds kind of gross, but it is very good. People took seconds.

I combined two recipes to make it. Emeril’s cocktail meatballs and a basic meatloaf recipe had a delicious meat baby. Here it goes:

Ingredients

3 pounds lean ground beef
1 cup crushed buttery round crackers (Ritz)
1-1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup finely chopped yellow onion
1 tablespoon of olive oil
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan
6 tablespoons milk
6 teaspoons Creole mustard
3 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1 1/2 teaspoon Emeril’s Essence, (recipe follows)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon hot red pepper sauce

Sauce/Frosting:

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup grated yellow onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt

………………………………………………………….

Essence (Emeril’s Creole Seasoning) *note* this makes a good amount of the seasoning to save for other recipes…you only need to use 1 1/2 teaspoons of it for this meatloaf.

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme

……………………………………………………………..

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Saute the yellow onions in the olive oil until translucent.

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients–including the sauteed onions–for the meatloaf. Mix well with your hands. Transfer to a 9×13 baking dish.

Make the sauce by combining all the ingredients in a medium bowl, whisking to dissolve the sugar and combine. Adjust the seasoning, to taste. Spread the sauce over the top of the meatloaf.

Cover the baking dish, walk to the bus stop. Wait. Ride Damen #50 bus for awhile in a snowstorm. This will mix the flavors nicely. Do not remove the meatcake from the seat next to you so others can sit down.

When you arrive at your destination, bake until the meat is cooked through, or about 40 minutes. While baking, talk about the meat as if it is a cake. Frighten the guests by the idea of a meatcake. Talk about the scene in Titus where they serve a similar dish. Remove from the oven and serve immediately. Get seconds.

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Posted in Cooking/Baking, Daily Picture

Tagged cooking, CTA, Daily Picture, Meatcake, Meatloaf, recipe

The Best Banana Muffins…in the world?

Posted on December 14, 2008 | 2 Comments

I like to cook.

No, really.

I used to be such a mess in the kitchen that I am sure there are people that are shocked by this “cooking” I claim to do. It started in Florida during my junior year of college. I decided to start eating healthy and bought the South Beach Diet book from Books-a-Million. I worked there in the cafe as a barista and had a lot of time to read cookbooks since they were in close proximity to my coffee bar. I also had to say things like “Thanks a million for shopping at BOOKs a MILLION!”…(more on customer service jobs later.) It then dawned on me that this eating healthy means I will actually have to cook meals. So my foundation in cooking comes from the South Beach Diet Cookbooks …which are quite tasty if you are considering a diet plan by the way.

I can’t claim that my recipes are as healthy as they began–obvious by the title of this post–but I am enjoying cooking more than ever. I have a decent kitchen set up now, too. This helps a lot. It is not always just about the dish I am making, but a lot about the process as well. I like hanging out in there with all the ingredients and my spice friends. I am a good friend with Garlic. I like when it chatters away in the hot olive oil and the beginning of most of my meal preparations. OH, and my buddy Cheese. I <3 you, Cheese. Another kitchen friend is Porpus. She likes to hang out on the perimeter to see if I will drop butter. She sits there all fat, squinty and cute and then smells whatever falls on the ground. Usually with disgust because it is not butter. How dare I not drop butter? Another favorite thing is when I have gone to the farmer’s market and have a huge bag of farmer’s cheese, tomatoes and herbs to work with. Then there are the smells. Smell is a big deal for me. I have always had a heightened sense of smell. It can alter my mood and nothing is more homey or comforting than the smell of bread baking or spicy Italian sausage soup simmering on the stove. It can transform the whole house into a happier place when things are brewing. Justin told me the other day that one of his favorite things is smelling dinner cooking from the living room.

If I don’t get to cook dinner at least several times a week, I feel kind of thrown off. This is why I would rather come straight home after work on the weekdays, rather than go out most of the time. I am lucky that my job is on a fairly regular schedule and I don’t have to work at all hours like many advertising agencies would have me do. It is one of the reasons I like the job…because I can do more than just the job and that keeps me a sane person. I like being home. I like cooking meals. I like eating dinner with Justin.

Since I have started cooking more, allrecipes.com has been my favorite place to get new recipes from. My first successful Thanksgiving dinner is largely due to some of the fine recipe contributors on that site. When I am cooking everyday meals I tend to just wing it and whip something up based on recipes that I have made before or I just mix flavors I think smell delicious together. It usually all works out deliciously. Baking however is not as forgiving. Since it is such a different science than “cooking,” I stick to the book (internet).

Today, banana crumb muffins were on my mind. I have been curious to make THE top rated recipe on the site. 3,107 ratings. 5 stars. This surpasses the 2nd highest rated recipe Clone of Cinnabon by almost a thousand votes. These muffins better be insanely good. So I made them. And they are pretty awesome. Justin liked them even though he doesn’t like muffins or bananas…which are clearly a big part of this recipe. Porpus even took a nibble, and she is not into people food unless plain butter counts. She and Paula Deen would have much to talk about.

Although the muffins were a good recipe, I am sticking to my belief that nothing tops fresh baked bread, and not too many breads top this rosemary bread. It is the best recipe I have tried from the site. If you eat the whole loaf in one night, it is OK. You are in good company.

Here is a visual banana muffin journey for you: cimg7379 cimg7386 cimg7402 cimg74041 cimg7408