Pinterest Recipe Success!

please excuse my sad iPhone pictures. My lost the charger to my camera. 

I have to share this with you.
I made this recipe tonight.

Chicken and Sun Dried Tomato Sauce

And it was AMAZING. 

Even Eveyln liked it! Which is awesome because she's been very picky this week. 

The only thing I did different was I added about double the garlic, and I used home made turkey stock instead of chicken broth. And I may have used a little more butter than the recipe called for. 

Served with fresh crunchy bread and steamed veggies.
I will make this again for sure.
The sauce would also go good with pork chops, or Paul suggested on pasta. 

Again, Check her out:

Damn Delicious: Chicken with Sun Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

And Follow me on Pintrest for more: 

           Visit Alana's profile on Pinterest.    

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Baked Avocado egg

I have seen this all over pinterest and a couple facebook friends have made it, so I thought I would give it a try. Avocado and Eggs, two of my favorite foods, what could possibly go wrong? 

I read these two recipes for my inspiration: All Recipes Baked Avocado Egg and Fit Sugar Baked Egg Avocado. They were the first two hits on google, and really I was mostly looking for baking temp and time. 

So I prepped my avocado, put in my egg, and popped it in the oven. 425* for 15 min (my egg actually took about 18m to set) 

topped it with Mortons seasoning salt, pepper and sriracha

Meh. 

It wasn't good. I think my problem was the warm avocado. That was kind of gross actually. I tried all the hot sauce in the world and I still struggled to choke down the warm avocado. 

I think I'll stick to For The Love Of Cooking's tried and true Mini Frittatas when I want baked eggs.

Just click the link to vote- 

High Altitude Corned Beef & Cabbage

I loved Corned Beef and cabbage, no matter what the holiday. It's one of my favorite meals. I like to buy a couple right after St. Patricks day and freeze them for later in the year. I am a bit sad that this year I will not be able to stock up because we are getting ready to move. 

We were well above sea level when we moved to Montana, but only the last year that we have lived in Butte, have we been "High - Altitude". We about 6500 feet in the hills above the city. I have found cooking has become quite the pain in the ass. Everything takes longer, and most everything is dry. I don't think I have made a successful roast since we moved here. Even in the crock pot things dry out faster because the air is thinner up here. 

A couple corned beefs ago I did a brown sugar/mustard dry rub and it was amazing. I modified it a little this year because I don't have any mustard in my fridge, only dry mustard. 

(all ingredients are estimates, you can do more or less depending on the size of your corned beef)

3 1/2 pound pre-packaged corned beef

rub-

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 tbsp pepper

1/2 tbsp dry mustard powder

dash of celery salt

packet of stuff that came with your corned beef

mix all the above ingredients in a bowl.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees

Place corned beef in a baking dish fat side up

squeeze about 2-3 tbsp of honey on the fat side of your corned beef and then sprinkle your rub on top of this, and then pat it down. You want to cover almost all the fatty tissue with your rub, you can go over the edges if you want, I didn't. 

after 2 hours I reduced the temperature to 300

cover your dish with lid or foil and place in oven for 3 1/2- 4 hours.

at 3 hours I added some small potatoes and raised the heat back to 325.

at 4 hours I added come cabbage wedges and placed back in the oven until they were soft (about 15-20 minutes)

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I love banana bread. I can easily eat the whole loaf in one day. Just banana bread, no butter, no anything else, just the bread. Yummm. 

Just a side note:

You know what's sad, those bananas, in the photo above, aren't the ones I used, they aren't over ripe. I collect mine in the freezer and I didn't have any "fresh-over-ripe" bananas when I made this, so my bananas are really ugly. Not photogenic at all. I used yellow ones in the picture because I was embarrassed at how ugly my bananas are.

seriously over ripe-previously frozen bananas

3-4 over ripe bananas

1 stick (1/2 cup) of room temp butter

2 room temp eggs

2 cups of flour

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp vanilla 

1/4 tsp cinnamon 

As many chocolate chips as you desire, I used about half a bag. 

(optional: a handful of white sugar for topping)

Preheat oven to 350*

Mix/mash your bananas and eggs together, add the butter and mix well. Next add brown sugar and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl combine  your dry ingredients, flour baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Slowly add your dry ingredients to your wet, like a 1/2 cup at a time. You can just add all the dry but you risk getting flour all over your kitchen. 

Finally add your chocolate chips and put in a greased loaf pan.

Optional: sprinkle the top with white sugar to get a nice sugary crispy top.

Bake for about an hour (I am at high elevation so my cooking time is more than an hour, close to an hour and a half)

It's done once a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

sprinkled with sugar,
see the bananas I didn't really use

delicious yummyness 

and done!
on my cute little Japanese animal plate.

Most Embarrassing Moment

I'm Co-Hosting! Go Link Up! 

My most embarrassing moment of my life, unfortunately came after two too many beers. 

The lesson of the story is don't drink too much when you first arrive in a foreign country or you'll make an ass of yourself. 

So let me set the stage:
Paul and I arrived in Japan and the bases were almost immediately put on lockdown because some service member screwed up really bad, and then another one did, and then another. So we were all grounded and not allowed to go to off base establishments, like restaurants.  Shortly before we were put on lockdown though, we had the chance to experience eating out Okinawa. Paul and I decided to walk out to the nearest main street and find somewhere to eat. We found a lovely place that served Yakiniku. They also had pretty cheep beer. We were new to Japan, and this was one of our first times eating off base, we were also alone, no other friends who were more familiar with dining Okinawa were with us. 

Among all the new things we were discovering, there was this round egg shaped thing on the table. 

Me being the curious girl that I am, I started to play with it. 

This is very similar to the one I was screwing around with. Source

The more I drank, the more I wanted to know what this thing was, so the more I played with it. 

Anyone who has lived in Japan is either cringing or laughing because they know where this is going. 

It took me my whole dining experience to realize that when I squeezed this, it made a ding overhead, this ding sent a server to our table. I had squeezed it about a gazillion times. Each time turning the server away, I am sure I was thinking the service was amazing because they returned to the table every 5 minutes to see if we needed anything. 

I tell myself that the staff probably laughed at me later because I am a silly American, and I didn't know what the thing did, and that I didn't piss anyone off that night. I hope that's the truth. 

I found the actual post from that night, with pictures and all.
You can read it here: What's it like to cook your own food

Bringing Back the Cast Iron

I've made a huge mistake.

I have spent my whole adult life thinking that cast iron is for browning/cooking meat, and that when you season cast iron it is supposed to have a thick crust on it. I don't know how I got to thinking this, I can't blame my parents, they correctly used cast iron (although not often) throughout my whole childhood.

It all started with a pin.

(im not linking the pin because I can't figure out what pinterest did, and I have no idea how to do it)

source

But I need to give credit where credit is due, and she gets her tutorial from Black Iron Blog.

that's a beautiful pan! 

I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I interchanged the word "seasoning" with "crust of burned on shit." 

But my cast iron was nasty, and for some reason I thought that was okay. 

Anyway. 

I saw the pin and thought "gee, mine doesn't look like that at all" 

after clicking on links and watching videos, I learned that a good test of a decently seasoned cast iron is to scramble eggs in it. Watching the video of scrambling eggs in cast iron made me sad that I have been neglecting mine so much. But it also made me wish I had more.  All I have is a 12 inch skillet and a 12 inch pan. So I set out to gather more. 

Within a day of posting an add on a local page searching for some I had three new (to me) pans, a 9 (inch) 8 and a 6 1/2. I could easily tell that the 6 1/2 stated that it was made in taiwan. If I were a real collecter this one would go into the giveaway pile.  But right now this is just fun. I could also see that the 9 pan had some sort of stamp on the back, but it could not be read because of the thick crust. Then I set off to clean them with the method shown in the pin, and on the Black Iron Blog. I really wish I had taken before and after pictures. 

The really sad thing is my cast iron are way worse off than the ones that I bought off some stranger and he had them sitting outside for a few years. I used mine maybe two months ago. 

After two days of soaking in oven cleaner the 6 1/2 pan was ready to be de-rused and seasoned. The others still have some days left. Mine will be close to a week I think. 

Also on the second day I discovered that the 9 pan is an antique, the brand stamped on the bottom is Wagner Ware Sidney O from what I gather this pan was made in 1940's

I worked save my two pans from the horrible burned on ick that I had put on them.
Sadly this took much longer than the other pans. The pans I bought off some guy on facebook? a couple of days. The pans I have used for years? a WEEK.
I am a horrible person. 

so pretty

But after much work and elbow grease, I have 5 wonderful cast iron pans. And I use at least one almost every day. I love my cast iron, it cooks so evenly and hold temperature very well.

One lesson I learned, don't season your cast iron in the summer, in a house with no AC. I choose one of the hottest days (why? I dunno) and it got almost to 90 in my house with the oven on at 500˚. 

Just a friendly reminder, I was nominated for the top 50 Military Mom Blogs by VoiceBoks, you can vote for me here. Thank you for your support. 

Shrimpy Salad

(I could come up with a better name)

1lb of medium cooked, peeled, de-tailed shrimp
1-2 avocado cubed
2 tomato cubed
2 limes, juiced
1-2 jalapeno, seeded and diced
1 handful of cilantro coarsely chopped
1/4 red onion diced
2+ tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir, season to taste. eat with spoon straight from bowl you made it in because it's that good.
I also like to use an avacado that is really soft, because it seems to blend into the lime juice and make a sauce that is just wonderful. 

As with most of my recipes, if you don't like something, leave it out, if you want more (like I think I'll use more avocado next time) then put it in. 

You could also cut the shrimp into smaller pieces and eat this with chips.
Would be good on top of shrimp enchiladas, or inside tortillas as cold tacos.

The entire recipe is 22 weight watchers points! But that's a lot to eat in one sitting...

Adapted From -
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/05/zesty-lime-shrimp-and-avocado-salad.html

I would also like to mention I have been nominated for Voice Books Top Military Mom Blogs I would love to have your vote. The top 10 blogs will get a spot on the website http://voiceboks.com/top-50-military-mom-blogs-of-2013/ Thank You for your support! 

Awesome dinner recipes (links)

I just wanted to share my yummy dinner tonight

Crock Pot Ribs

Only thing I did different was I didn't add any BBQ sauce while it was in the crock pot, I added it at the end before it went into the broiler. 

Sautéed Cabbage and Bacon

I added paprica and garlic salt, I also doubled the recipe 

The red beans and rice were a packaged mix that I got at the grocery store ages ago and I wish I had made them sooner because it was awesome! Red beans and rice for everyone! 

Lots of leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Yummo! 

Unpinned

Go link up with Joslin

We all love pinterest and Joslin has a link up where we can share a successes and failures from Pinterest! 

In the last week I have had my way with two recipes from pinterest.
First:

Source: mogwaisoup.blogspot.com via Alana on Pinterest

This was freakishly amazing. The only mods I made was instead of cream of celery (which I just didn't have on hand) i subbed cream of mushroom. And I also used one can of chopped green peppers and one can of chopped Jalapeños. This meal was a total success. We ate it as leftovers for a second night with...


Second:

Source: theobsessivechef.blogspot.com via Alana on Pinterest

Again, another success. I made a few modswith this one, I didn't have dried ancho chilies so I used powdered. And I threw in a few handfuls of shredded mexican cheese to thicken it up. Totally delicious.

Both these recipes will stay in my book for future use.

Go find Joslin

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

 

Best Invention EVER

I got this for my birthday, and it's seriously the best thing ever.

I am a one occasional cup of coffee kind of person.  I've been craving coffee through most of my second trimester. I usually ask Paul to just leave me some coffee in the pot in the morning. He usually makes a pot and drinks most of it. So I get old cold coffee when I get up a few hours later. I've been asking for one of these for a while now.

Well I got one for my birthday last week! Yay! 

It's fantastic. It's great for that one cup of coffee that I drink a day. It's great for the hot water for my tea and hot coco. It's great for just being great. I love my new toy, and I think Paul loves it too. He's been using it every day, I think we may even be able to move his big huge coffee pot out to his office and just use the Keurig. We've got the cool piece that lets you grind your own coffee too, I don't think he's used it yet, but that was a selling point for us, because Paul grinds his own beans.


Now run and get one, now, if you don't have one.


-Alana


 

Potato Salad

Happy belated 4th of July!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and didn't blow your hand off, or burn down your neighbors tree. 

I had a quiet day mostly, Husbeast worked, so I cleaned the kitchen and made my families famous Potato Salad. I made a few modifications that my father would never approve of, but my pregnant belly wanted.

before instagram

Potato Salad


1. The first rule of Potato Salad is you use the same amount of all the big stuff (except onion) since I only needed a small batch I did 4s
4 potato
4 egg
4 dill pickles (should have been, I'll explain)
1/2 small vidalia (sweet) onion

2. My favorite rule about Potato Salad is you can have fun with it and add or subtract things that suit your taste. Although my dad would never agree to this rule.
1/2 a can of olives
2 stalks of celery

3. Mayo is a must, regular mayo, no miracle shit, Mayo! and a sprinkle of powdered mustard, about 1tsp or more if you'd like.

4. Never forget your salt and pepper.

So I cut up my potato into bite sized pieces and boiled it on a low boil about half an hour (or until soft)

I tried a new method for hard boiling eggs, I baked them, Yep you read that right, Baked.
The pin I found the idea from gave great directions, although it's pretty idiot proof. First I did a test egg and it was perfect, so 330 was my temp, 30 min was my time, and my eggs were perfect, and peeled super dooper easily. You can jump straight to the directions here: Hard Boiled Eggs In the Oven
Once my eggs were done and peeled I used my Vidalia  Chopper to chop the eggs smaller, and I'm too lazy to use a knife.

4 dill* pickles . I didn't have regular dill pickles. and the corner market didn't have whole dill, or even dill spears. So I bought hamburger dill chips. And they worked perfect.  I also put them in my Vidalia Chopper and chopped them into small pieces.  I used about 1 cup once it was all chopped up.
Onion was the same, cut in half then into the chopper.

I added these three things to a big bowl and poured pickle juice over them, about a 1/8 to 1/4 cup, it's gotta soak into the eggs and potatoes before you add the mayo.

Now the ingredients my dad would never allow in his potato salad:
 I opened a can of olives, and took about half of it and put it through the chopper and added it to the bowl of goodness. 
2 stalk of celery into the chopper, and into the bowl.

Here is where I should have thought things through, It may have been easier to mix the mayo and the dry mustard before I put it on the salad, it also may have been easier to mix the mayo, mustard, olives and celery first. But it's too late I already sprinkled the mustard in the bowl of goodness.

About 1 1/4 cups of mayo later sprinkled on 1 tsp kosher salt and copious amounts of fresh ground pepper and I had Potato Salad!

Remember, it's your salad, you want super mayo, add more mayo, don't like dill pickles, well tough shit, you can't change that, well you can but the Potato Salad Police may arrest you. Have fun with it, add green or red peppers, or maybe jalapeños.

after instagram

* A word about Pickles.
I have spent the better part of the last three years searching for the perfect pickle. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I have bought nearly every kind of pickle in the store and could never find the ones that I ate as a kid, the really yummy ones my mom bought. At any given time I have 2-3 open jars of pickles in my fridge, that were failures, I still eat them, but I don't enjoy them. Just assuming my parents bought magic pickles at their grocery I just kept trying and never asked.
Well yesterday I asked, for the sake of potato salad I had to know what I was doing wrong.
Kosher dill. Not the same as Dill.
Did you know Kosher Dill, not only is made to Kosher standards but also uses garlic?
I didn't.
Dill is the secret, no garlic, not as sharp a flavor. I will never again buy Kosher Dill.



Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Crock Pot Pork Roast

Below you will find my recipe for an almost all in one pot dinner. 

Pork roast & potatoes with onions and garlic, all in one pot, 

The only thing made separate was the gravy. 

you'll need:
a bone in piece of pork
a few red potatoes
an onion
some garlic
a few sprigs of rosemary
salt and pepper

for the gravy:
drippings from your pork roast
corn starch
milk
more salt and pepper


For the roast:
add all the ingredients into the crock, I put onions and garlic down first so they can cook fast and release their oniony goodness, with some rosemary for flavor.
Then add your meat and potatoes, more rosemary.
liberally add salt and pepper.
Put that crock on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
Pork is done when it's approx 160 degrees.

When all is done with your roast, take it all out and pour your drippings into a small pan, in a little cup mix cold water with about 1/2 tbsp of corn starch, once it's mixed add it to your drippings. Turn the heat up to about med high and stir. when it starts to thicken add about 1/4 cup of milk and continue to stir until desired consistency is reached. If your gravy doesn't thicken up add more cornstarch, mixing it with water first. But depending on how much drippings you have (I only had about 2 cups) you don't want to add too much cornstarch or your gravy will be weird and gel like.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

disclaimer: 
I am not a cook, I am a woman who likes to cook. Most of my measurements are approximations. I hope that you enjoy my recipes as much as I do. But for any kitchen failures, I am sorry. 

Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Oven Roasted Potato Wedgies

Oven Roasted Potato Wedgies 

yes, I called them wedgies.

I think that sounds more fun.

preheat oven to 400
quarter a few red potatoes
drizzle with olive oil
sprinkle with desired toppings
-seasoning salt
-rosemary
-thyme
-garlic salt
stir
arrange on baking sheet
(it may not be necessary to place raised on a cooling sheet, but I feel it helps them cook evenly)
cook until desired tenderness is reached (mine are a tad overcooked)
(about 20-30 minutes)
enjoy with whatever dressing you like, I like plain yellow mustard.



Have a lovely day, and remember to find me on Facebook!

-Alana

Mom's Super Easy Salsa Recipe

In honor of Mothers Day I'm going to share with you my Mom's Super Easy Salsa Recipe, which I have adapted to my liking.

You need:
1 can of diced tomatos
1 can of rotel tomatoes
1 Jalapeño (remove seeds for less heat)
1 small Onion (about the size of a lemon)
1 hand full of Cilantro
2 cloves of garlic
1 dash of Cumin
1 big dash of salt
Juice from 1/2 lime

Put everything in your food processor (or blender),
turn it on,
turn it off,
enjoy.

The great thing about this recipe is if you don't like Cilantro? add less. Love it spicy? add more Jalapeño. It's highly versatile, and you can add or subtract ingredients to your liking. Yesterday I smashed up a few avocados and threw some salsa into them and it was amazing!
It will last in your fridge for about a week, if you don't eat it all by then.

Sadly as great as this is, my onion was extremely bitter, and I don't love it as much as I normally do. I think next time I'll use a red onion instead of a yellow one.

Any ideas on how to get the bitter out?

up close and personal with all that goodness