Chop Chop Saute

07/16/2012 - And We Begin! This is a day that will be remembered for ever. Or maybe not, but either way, this is my first post for this blog. I had a full plate this weekend, if you'll pardon the pun, with three different recipes. Sure, two of them were fairly easy desserts that I had made before, but the other was a new recipe that I hadn't tried. It promised to be a fun weekend. First up, Saturday night I was making calzones for the family. We're a family of five, so I had to make quite a few to feed everyone. In the end, I needed four batches to have enough for everyone to be filled. It took over three hours to get them all done. Next time, I'm going to have to try and speed it up a bit. Everyone seemed to enjoy them, though, even with the wait. With those finished up, the next day I made our desserts/snacks. Batting leadoff were the Chocolate Coconut Bars, courtesy of our friends over at Taste of Home. Everything was going well up to the point where it needed to cool. I had baked the crust and the coconut pecan filling, but that had to cool completely before I could pour on the chocolate topping on top. It cooled off enough that I could give it the topping before I had to go to my mom's house because my dad's weekend was over, but sadly the chocolate topping hadn't set, so I wasn't able to get any. Maybe they'll be some left when I go for my overnight at dad's this week. While the bars were trying to cool, I moved on to the chocolate oatmeal drop cookies. Those went really, really, well. I think they might have been the first recipe I've made where nothing went wrong. I'm sure Dad will think of something else where that happened, but I can't. I was able to get a few of those before I left, and they were tasty. I love those cookies. A word of advice, though, you don't want to eat too many of those at once. I ate a couple before dinner on Sunday, and they just destroyed my appetite for anything else. Also, the pan tends to be a pain to get clean when they're made, so keep that in mind. All in all, the menu for the weekend went well. Next up, how to grill steaks, mashed potatoes, and dinner rolls!

Let's Cook Like it's 1945! This past week, America's Test Kitchen has been running a contest where the goal was to make what was called a 'wacky cake'. Unlike the name suggests, this isn't five feet high, 12 different flavors, or anything like that. It's called wacky because, when it was created during World War II, there were no eggs or butter they could use to make it, so they had to improvise. They replaced the eggs and butter with baking soda and vinegar, to provide lift from the "violent chemical reaction", and carried on. The challenge given to us by America's Test Kitchen was to recreate it, based off their recipe. Challenge Accepted. On the surface, it seems to be a fairly simple recipe, and it really is. All you have to do is pay attention to what you're doing. While I didn't get the "violent chemical reaction" I was promised, it turned out really well, nice and fluffy, and rose really well. All in all, I think it turned out really well. Now we just have to wait and see what the Test Kitchen thinks of it. I'll give you an update as soon as I know anything!

I.O.U. One Steak Dinner As promised in my last update, we'll be doing steak, potatoes, and dinner rolls this time. In my opinion, there is nothing quite a nice, juicy, grilled steak. But the problem is, it's so easy to mess up. This weekend, I set out to find the best way to grill it. Just as an FYI, it's not during the middle of a dust storm. Yes, my planning was so bad, I ended up grilling in a dust storm, followed by a thunderstorm. It could have gone better. The steaks turned out pretty well. I got most of them right at medium, the temp I was going for, but a couple of them were closer to mid-rare than medium. That's better than overcooking them, but you still want to get it right. I didn't actually use beef for the steaks. In an effort to be more health conscious, I used bison steaks. It's one of the healthiest meats, much better than beef, and in some ways, is better for you than chicken. Best part is, you cook it the same way, and there's not much difference in the final product. The mashed potatoes and the dinner rolls were much easier in comparison, mostly because I wasn't trying to avoid getting grit in the food. A couple of people in the family suggested that I might have made the rolls a bit too big, but, personally, I don't think that's possible. That said, they may have been closer to hamburger bun size, rather than dinner roll size. Sadly, I did kind of mess up the potatoes a bit. Instead of measuring out the heavy whipping cream (Just to let you know, I usually use whole milk, but happened to have some whipping cream on hand), I just poured it in, and way to much came out. Needless to say, they were pretty runny, and not really all that good. There was one complete failure, though. I was making some Peanut Butter Cup Stuffed Cookies to put up on here. I was kind of guessing at the time that we normally cook them for, since I couldn't remember, and I pulled them out to soon. They were inedible. Completely raw in the middle. Probably needed another five minutes, but I thought they were close enough that the residual heat would finish them off. Oh well, guess you can't win them all… The menu went pretty well with only that one big issue. I'm not really sure what I'll do next, but when I know, I'll tweet it out (@chopchopsaute) and let you know!

Hydroponics: It's not just Science Fiction hy·dro·pon·ics - noun (used with a singular verb) the cultivation of plants by placing the roots in liquid nutrient solutions rather than in soil; soilless growth of plants. What that definition doesn't tell you, is that it's actually fairly easy, can be done indoors, and is downright cool. Since there is very little better than fresh herbs, I decided, with the help of my dad, to build a hydroponic garden for our house. We just had one rule: it couldn't have an outrageous price tag. First off, I have to give a big shout out to the guys over at Hydroponics Depot. They were super helpful, and the main source of knowledge when it came to designing our bay. We got most of the supplies from them, and they were just really nice people. What we did was a very basic, DIY-type hydroponics set up for under $200. You can go basic like us, or you can snoop around on the internet and get a more sophisticated, expensive, and less-work model. But that's not nearly as fun. Or as much work. Or have nearly as much contact paper involved. Speaking of contact paper, I have to congratulate you people out there who can put wall paper up nice and neatly, or, even better, do it professionally. You are better people than I. It was horrible! When we were finished, it was all crinkled, and had bubbles in it. Ugh! Not cool stuff. As far as plants go, we went pretty basic. In this set up, you can only do small plants, nothing big or with vines, so we just went with herbs. Four basil plants, three thyme plants, and three oregano plants, to be specific. We also started some rosemary and coriander, but they took too long to get ready. We'll put them in another set up later on when they've grown a bit. As far as food goes, there wasn't much happening this weekend. Most of my time was devoted to the hydroponics project, and what cooking I did, I'll post later. That's all for now, but until next time, cook (and garden) on!

More Grilling! The BBQ might be my favorite way to cook food. It's fun, tasty, and, here in Arizona, you can do it all year round. Also when you're cooking for a crowd, it's hard to go wrong. Even though I wasn't cooking for a crowd, I decided to fire up the grill once again this weekend and make some Well Done Burgers Done Well and an Herb Baked Goat Cheese salad, all coming from Americas Test Kitchen I don't know if you've ever been to my home town of Phoenix, but in the summer, it gets very hot, and in August, you can throw in humidity on top of that. Not really all that pleasant. That was the situation that I set out to grill under. Despite the fact that the burgers started grilling before I got within ten feet of the grill, the turned out really well. However, I had just put them on the grill when I remember: I forgot to make the buns! So emergency trip up to the store, got some store bought ones, and settled for them. Not as good as home-made, but serviceable. I have to say, though, this recipe might be one of my favorites that ATK has. As long as you follow the directions, you'll get juicy, wonderful burgers, cooked to well done every single time. Now in this epic tale, we move on to the chapter of the Herb Baked Goat Cheese Salad. This was for the "Cook like it's 1977” competition they were doing on ATK's blog, The Feed. It was good. The goat cheese balls rich and cream, and the whole thing was surprisingly filling for being a salad. My only complaint was that the vinaigrette that they suggested we use didn't quite cover the entire salad when it was well-tossed. Next time, I'll be sure to double it. Well, that's all for this entry. Make sure to check out the Pantry tab of the blog. It's got smaller recipes that aren't really worthy of an entire blog post, but are rather cool and important in their own way. Alright, tune in next time for Personal Lasagna!

Apollo 13 Touches Down in my Kitchen It's been an interesting week for my culinary adventures. I had one success, one near disaster, and something very close to a failure. That's not really a good record, is it? The week started off with Personal Lasagna. Those went really well. The only complaint I got from the Peanut Gallery was the fact that I didn't make enough, something I agree with entirely. Then a few days later, I made a Grasshopper Pie, once again from the fine folks over at Cook's Country. This is where the Apollo 13 reference comes in. With Apollo 13, pretty much everything went wrong that could have gone wrong, but everyone still came home safe, so in that sense, the mission was a success. Pretty much the same thing happened with my pie. To start off with, I didn't pay attention, and just mixed together the first five ingredients together in a bowl right off the bat, and almost poured in the crème de menthe before I realized what I was doing. The good news is we had extra of all the stuff, so it worked out. But wait! There's more! When it came time to whip up the cup and a half of cream, I used my mom's half & half instead. Just as an FYI, half & half does not form stiff peaks no matter how long or how fast you beat it. Despite my completely lack of paying attention, the pie somehow turned out well, and was amazingly delicious. Now this next dish I made, I can't post the recipe up here, but I can give you the link. It's from Alton Brown, star of Good Eats and a few other shows on Food Network, and I made it in honor of the season premiere of the classic sci-fi show Doctor Who. It was Fish Fingers and Custard. Now before you say that's disgusting, it's a reference to a meal the Doctor ate right after his most recent regeneration. That might not make any sense, so watch this YouTube clip. Okay, now that you know what I'm talking about, I can explain how they were a (almost) total failure. They just fell apart! I think it was because that I didn't chop the fish fine enough. I'm going to be making them again, and will succeed next time! I think I'll be making a soup for the next blog post. Talk to you then!

Testing new recipes! This past month or so, I've been busy testing out new ideas for recipes to post up here, and let me tell you, it's hard work! I mean, parts of it are fairly easy, like how I have to keep making the dishes over and over again to work out any flaws, but then I have to eat it all! Do you know how difficult eating all sorts of tasty meals is? Yeah, you're right. It really isn't. : Actually, I've been having a ton of fun. The first dish I've been experimenting with is fresh, home-made pasta. Now, actually making the pasta is really easy when you use the pasta extruder attachment that you can get for the KitchenAid mixer (which later on, I'll be reviewing for you all), but I've been running into some problems with the dough. Here in Arizona, we have a really dry, arid climate. So when I followed the recipe that I was using, the dough came out very crumbly, due to the lack of moisture in the air. I've been playing around with the recipe, trying to get it to come out dough-like every time. I'm almost there, and should have those instructions and subsequent blog post up sometime next week. The other dish isn't so much perfecting a recipe, as it is starting from scratch, mostly. What I'm trying to make is mac-n-cheese bites, based off a dish I had at a restaurant once. Right now, they aren't quite where I would like them to be, but I have a few ideas, and let me tell you, the early returns are delicious! Probably, there will be a few more weeks though until that recipe is ready to be published. So for right now, I'll instead share a wonderful Potato Poblano Bacon soup. It's like a baked potato soup, but with a little kick. The great thing is, you can make it as mild or as spicy as you like, as long as you use green peppers. I hope you enjoy!

My Birthday!!! Over the past week, I was once again able to celebrate another year of living, bringing my total to 17. In my family, that involves a celebration at Dad's house and then another at Mom's house. And what better way to celebrate than with cake? I couldn't think of a better one The cake at Dad's house was a PB&J cheesecake, with a glaze of homemade grape jelly. Cheesecakes are awesome things. I mean, think about it. You take cheese and cake, two of the greatest things on earth, and combine them together in one amazing dessert. I don't know who came up with the idea, but they should be given a medal anyway. And when you make it into a Peanut Butter and Jelly cheesecake, well, then the fun starts. It's always a good way to celebrate just about anything from birthdays to Tuesday. At Mom's house, I made Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting. This might be my favorite frosting recipe I've ever found. It's almost like eating a creamy, sweet coffee drink with a cupcake underneath. It does give my sisters quite the sugar high. Or maybe it's a caffeine high. It's a little hard to tell. The best part about these cupcakes, though, is the fact that the first pictures of them I took looked horrible once I looked back over them, so I was forced to remake them. My life is tough. Not really, but it is tasty!