Who doesn’t love tots? January 24, 2010

Okay, I know I said I’d post this recipe from my dear friend Marti, like, eons ago, but I appear to not have… what’s that called again?  Oh, yeah, free time.  But I’m sitting around right now, so I figured I’d share this amazing recipe with the world, with my notes on what I do differently…

Shepherd’s Tot Pie

Ingredients:

1 T. olive oil
1 lb. hamburger
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 – 1 1/2 c. frozen peas & carrots  (I actually use peas and corn because I don’t care for frozen carrots)
4 T. butter
4 T. flour
2 T. worcestershire sauce
2 c. beef broth (I don’t bother buying canned … just make up 2 cups of instant from granules), heated
1/2 bag (aprox) frozen tater tots (I use Crispy Crowns because I like the surface/potato ratio better than tots)

9″ x 9″ casserole dish, greased with cooking spray

1) Preheat oven to 350-degrees

2) Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Brown hamburger for a few minutes, breaking it up as you cook. Add onions and saute together until onions are soft and hamburger is browned all the way through. Add peas & carrots, stir together with meat mixture, turn off heat and set aside.

3) Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add flour to make a roux and cook a few minutes. Stir in worcestershire sauce. Add hot beef broth and wisk to make a smooth gravy. Add gravy to beef mixture and stir to combine.

4) Pour meat mixture in casserole dish. Arrange frozen tater tots on top of beef mixture.

5) Bake in 350-degree oven for 45 minutes – 1 hour, or until sauce is bubbling and tater tots are browned.

I think the next time I make this I will actually use ground turkey and make chicken gravy.  Just a tiny, tiny bit healthier, I suppose.  But it’s also like two recipes in one, which means I can make something crazy easy, but it doesn’t have to taste the same every time I make it.  And we could definitely use some variety in our meals.

Hi, August 25, 2009

My name is DK, and I’m addicted to corn.  I especially love corn on the cob, which makes this time of year almost dangerous.  I live in a house of two, yet I cannot buy just two ears of corn.  Not when corn is 6 ears for $2.  At least here in MN, you can’t go past a street corner, grocery store produce section, or farmers market without seeing sweet corn for sale at lovely prices. So, yeah, I end up buying lots and lots of corn.

Tonight I came home with six ears with the intention of blanching them and freezing them.  Apparently they were smaller or my instructions sucked or something because they cooked, not blanched.  Even after only a few short minutes.  No matter; I saved three in the fridge and froze the other three.  I can polish off the first three in no time flat.  In fact, I already ate one…

NOM NOM NOM

Seriously, kids.  I love corn so much that picture almost didn’t get taken.  It was getting between me and my corn.  And I wasn’t hungry.  But the three ears I let sit to cool before freezing them made the whole house (the whole house consists of only four rooms, really, so it’s not much of a stretch) smell like corn.  How could I resist?

I love the spiral pattern on that ear.  It made it a little awkward to eat though.  I’m kind of particular about how I eat my corn.  It must be eaten typewriter style.  I am comfortable biting through three or four rows, but any more or less and I start to feel weird.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still eat it…  I’ll just feel weird doing it.

Also, those cob holders up there?  Awesome.  I won them at a baby shower with my mad word finding skills.  From what I heard, most people were on the second or third word out of ten when I finished.  I rule at word finds and word scrambles (yet I suck at tapwords on my ipod…) so I knew I would win.  Here’s a close up of those puppies:

Photo from Amazon.com

These are the Zyliss Interlocking Corn Holders by name, but I like to call them corn holders from heaven.  It helped that they were free, but even if they hadn’t been, they’re cheap and totally worth the $6.  They lock together, so there aren’t a million little corn holders floating around my drawer or taking up a plastic baggy and poking it full of holes.  The size is on the bulky side, which is really comfortable in the hand.  The pokey bits are long and sort of spread apart, which I think makes it easier for them to hold onto the corn–even on the narrow end.  I always end up losing the holder on the narrow end with most cob holders.  I haven’t lost and ear yet with these, although I did once have one pokey bit poke through to where I was eating.  It was easily remedied, though.

One last thing about corn….  There’s only a mere 10 days before I get my hands on Minnesota State Fair roasted corn and other MNSF goodies.  I’m going on the 4th and the 7th, and I’m going to eat.  Tons.  Possibly more than tons.  I might need to be rolled home.  Both days.  Because my favorite thing in the entire world is the Minnesota State Fair.  I get teary-eyed when I drive by off-season.  I kid you not.  Ten days.

This post is half a week overdue August 3, 2009

I few Fridays ago, Rocketdog and I were watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  Something got me thinking about falafels, and ever since then I’ve felt a strong desire to make them.  I’d like to point out that I’d never in my life eaten a falafel.  I knew they were made from chickpeas, and I love hummus (also made from chickpeas), and I knew they were fried.  And yet, I needed to make them.  So I did.

I very, very loosely followed this recipe.  I usually have a rule of following recipes exactly the first time I try them, but I was lacking some spices and a food processor.  I didn’t have cumin or garlic, so I decided to substitute seasoned salt and garlic salt.  Also, I hate cilantro, so that was just plain out.  I used my potato masher, and while it took some muscle, I think I ended up with a better finished product than I would have if I’d used a processor.  I’d read some other recipes online, and they all said that the falafels didn’t cook well when made with a food processor.

I know from the same reading that falafels can either be balls or patties.  Since I was planning on putting them in pitas, I decided to make patties.  Nom nom, fry-y goodness.

Whole wheat pita, lettuce, falafel, and the yogurt sauce in the recipe above.  And it was ridiculously delicious.  Salty, but delicious.  I bought cumin today, so I’ll be making them again.  Probably tomorrow for lunch.  Because I’m officially obsessed with them.  And I have yogurt sauce to use up.

As promised July 6, 2009

Last week I was feeling extra domestic. It sucks when this happens because I need to squeeze it into one or two days. Last week I was lucky enough to get two days, but the reality is, I would love to play this game every day. The other blog will (eventually) feature the crafty project I did, but here I’ll share my culinary project.

I started by saving the heels from every loaf of bread we’ve eaten since, oh… March?  The Hippy won’t eat wheat bread (and I feel the need to be healthier) so we always have two loaves of bread in the fridge at once.  That made for a lot of heels.  I pulled them out Monday morning and began toasting, two by two.  Probably would have been faster in the oven…

That is, incidentally, how I like my toast toasted.

I toasted up that entire stack, broke them into pieces, and threw them in my blender.  It was touch and go for awhile–I really wish I had a food processor, but in a kitchen the size of mine, the blender was more practical–but I ended up with lovely, lovely bread crumbs.

Lotsa crumbs!

Because they were still a little moist, I turned my oven to 150ºF and spread the crumbs out on a cookie sheet to bake.  After a half hour or so I had dry, clump-free crumbs.  I took out a cup of crumbs, added a half a teaspoon each of garlic salt, onion powder, basil and oregano.  But what to do with those crumbs?

Shake, Bake...

Uh… duh!  Oven “Fried” Chicken!  I more or less followed that recipe, but since I thought I was short on time, I cranked the oven to 425ºF and cooked about 15 mins on each side.  The chicken came out PERFECT.  I don’t even *like* chicken all that much, but I could probably eat this every day.  I also read the comments and followed the advice of the person who put the flour and crumbs into a bag instead of dishes.  No dishwasher=strong desire not to dirty a ton of dishes.  Also prevented “THE CLUB!” (Hand crusted in layers upon layers of flour+egg+crumbs)

NOMNOMNOMNOM

I apologize for the bad photography on that one… The Hippy had just gotten home, was outside watering the flowers, and I didn’t want him to see me taking pictures of food.  So it had to be fast and secretive and done while the chicken was still in the oven.

To add to the meal, I made crock pot polenta and glazed carrots.  It was such a decadent meal.  The carrots and the parmesan on the polenta were almost a little too rich, but oh my god was everything good!

Who’s the Hippie Here? June 8, 2009

I’ve been calling The Hippy The Hippy for over four years now, and for the most part it’s unfounded.  I call him that because very early in our relationship (second date while ice skating around a little pond) he called himself a hippie and it stuck.  He later spelled it hippy in an IM chat, though I prefer hippie–hence the spelling.  He is incredibly liberal and incredibly active in politics.  He’s also a conspiracy theorist who had really long hair until a year ago.  But that’s where the similarities ended.  He’s quite preppy, wants to be stinking rich, and doesn’t like hacky sack.  He hates folk music and being around people.  He is also meat+potatoes+junk food.

No.  If anyone in our house is the hippie, it’s me.  Given my druthers, I would cook whole wheat everything.  I would have vegetarian days (but I wouldn’t be veg.  I love me some meat) and I would conserve and recycle like mad.  I love folk music, and I think the *idea* of living in a commune or participating in a co-op are amazing (in practice, however, I know communes especially are terrible, terrible ideas for the most part).

To fulfill the requirements of one of my hippie badges, I felt I really, really, really needed to make granola.  I scoured the internet for recipes that used only things I currently had on hand.  I found this one, and decided to give it a shot.  I highly, highly recommend it.  It cooked up super fast, and even though I didn’t have molassass, it turned out great.  I substituted syrup, and it seems just fine.  Dumping in a bunch of coconut was the final touch.

In the tradition of DK’s cooking, I hurt myself.  Rather severely this time–or at least it feels that way…

Left hand shot, sorry so crappy

It doesn’t look like much, but it hurts like hell.  I hit the side of the pot as I was dumping out the granola.  I am currently sitting here with an ice pack wrapped around my arm.  It’s the only way the burn doesn’t rub on things as I type.

Yeah, yeah, I know… You didn’t come here to see pictures of my clumsiness.  Onto the goods!

Mmmmm, barry goodness

I read in the comments that this was a great recipe to press and cut into bars, so that’s my intention.  My taste of it so far comes in cleaning off the spoon.  It needed a good, thorough cleaning, to be sure.  I haven’t yet cut into the bars, but I doubt they’ll last long.

Good thing I got that Wii Fit……

Parties should be fun… April 20, 2009

Right?

I had to attend two surprise parties this week.  I’m not really a party person, but I don’t hate them.  At least not when I know a few of the people there enough to hold a conversation with them.  But they can be kind of stressful when they’re placed on top of a full week of stuff and you have to cook something for them.  Now that everything is behind me, I can recognize that nothing was bad as I made it out to be.  I will admit that a small part of my stress might have come from the giant Pepsi I consumed.

I digress.  People don’t come here to read me complain about how stressed I am.  People come to see pictures of the yummy things they won’t get to eat.  How do marble cupcakes with mousse frosting sound?

Seriously kids, I love baking from scratch, but box mixes are your friend.  They’re cheap, they’re easy, and most importantly, they make delicious cakes.  They also make fabulous cookies.  Yup.

Maybe someday I will learn the art of cake decoration, but who cares, really?  They taste FAB.  The only way this frosting could be easier is if it were the jello I made for the second party.  Because I’m so generous–and because it’s not my original recipe–I will share this tasty little secret with my favorite readers.  If you’ve heard of this before, pretend to be surprised, because this was truly earth shattering for me…

1 pint whipping cream

1 box instant pudding

a little milk to thin

Whip these three up until they form a fluffy whipped cream.  The pudding thickens this quickly, so add the milk as you feel is necessary so it isn’t too dense.  Don’t whip for too long, or you’ll end up with butter.  Honestly, I someday want to whip it so far I get butter, because I think it would be great on bagels, but it would not be great for putting on cakes.

I didn’t think to take pictures of the jello I made because I was constantly on the move on Sunday, but I figure I should share that recipe as well.

1 cup applesauce

1 box green jello

1 cup lemon-lime soda

Heat the applesauce until just before it boils.  Or, if you’re like me, after it’s already boiled.  Stir in jello and soda and allow to chill.  That’s it.  The texture is so unreal.  There’s a very, very slight tingle from the soda.  The applesauce makes it a denser set, but it’s still the jiggly fun you’d expect from jello.  There’s just more mouth-appeal.  It looks a little weird–like, well, cloudy jello–but it tastes great.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to eat the remaining whipped cream.  Don’t judge.

My contribution April 13, 2009

What is brunch without cinnamon rolls?

Boooo-ring

Sure, cinnamon rolls are great, if you’re into that kind of thing.  Personally, I can take cinnamon rolls or leave them.  This comes in handy at the mall–Cinnabon has absolutely no sway over me whatsoever.

What if your thing is more… shall we say… bacon?  What is one to do?

Now we're talking

The idea came from Bacon Today.  That’s right, kids.  And entire website devoted to bacon.  Though, given many of the internet circles I travel in, I was sort of under the impression that the entire internet was devoted to bacon.  Contrary to that picture of mine, there were two strips of par-cooked bacon in each roll.  I nuked them first, and perhaps could have nuked them a little longer.

Bacons make us Hooooooooooge

As it turns out, I never have any of the bakeware that my recipes call for.  I enjoy employing aluminum foil in the space-filling process.  I could have made these in a silicone pan I have, but I didn’t feel like doing two batches.  Two batches is lame.

Ta DA!

The rolls do not seem disturbed by the foil or the bacon.  My verdict?  I’ve had both the plain and the bacon from this batch, and I guess I could go either way.  The bacon actually leaves sort of a weird after-taste (and, I’m sorry to say, an even weirder after-burp).  It’s tasty while it lasts, and my brother-in-law ate one.  My brother-in-law won’t eat anything new or different.  I consider that a victory in itself.

Cooking with Rocketdog April 9, 2009

These pictures aren’t actually from cooking with Rocketdog, but it’s a recipe we “made up” based on the Baked Potato Pizza at Pizza Luce in Minneapolis.  I mused that it would be funny to write a cookbook or a cooking blog using the way we speak while we’re cooking.  So, I bring you…

Mashed Potato Flatbread Pizza

by Rocketdog and Danger Kitty

Make potatoes.  We’ve used… Hungry Jack flakes, Market Pantry frozen potatoe cube things, and real potatoes.  The photos I’m including are made with real potatoes with ricotta mixed in (of which, I am sure, Rocketdog would not approve).

Put flatbread (we’ve used garlic and plain, garlic is infinitely better) on baking sheet.

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes…

Meat, meat, meat (we’ve used bacon and bbq chicken.  Both are delicious)…

Broccoli, broccoli, broccoli…

Cheese, cheese, cheese (we’ve used mozzerella, cheddar, colby jack, but mostly mixtures of any of the above.  A sharp cheese is definitely a bonus to this pizza)…

Bake, bake, bake… Broil.  To be honest, I don’t know what temp the oven was at.  I think I had mine on 375° F  Just bake it til it’s melty, and broil it til it’s brown.  That’s how we roll.

Here’s a finished slice:

To be honest, now that I’ve typed it all out, the way Rocketdog and I talk to each other isn’t at all funny.  Nonetheless, I wanted to share this little treat with the world.  Two slices should really be enough for the average person.  It’s a weighty pizza.  Should you require more, salads are always a good option.  Don’t forget dessert.

The week everything went wrong March 6, 2009

Actually, things going wrong is a common theme around these parts.  It’s pretty much why I haven’t sewn in forever.  Because I keep failing, and it’s depressing the hell out of me.  Anyway…

I tried making grilled cheese sandwiches for The Hippie last night.  Grilled cheese, people.  Short of burning it, I thought grilled cheese was impossible to screw up.  Apparently I was wrong.  Either the bread or the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter was to blame, but the sandwich would not grill.  It merely stuck to the bottom of the pan, smushing the bread at the mere thought of flipping it.  What was left was a soggy, buttery, disgusting mess.  Anything that browned stuck to the pan.  Anything that didn’t just smushed up into a misshaped blob.  The Hippie came in to try his hand and the same thing happened.  He ended up eating the sandwiches, but he said they were pretty bad.

About five days ago, I tried to make ice cream.  I’ve been making ice cream successfully thus far, but for some reason this batch will not ice.  I tried it twice before reading that maybe I was filling to drum too much.  So today I’m trying it again with way less of the mixture.  Still it’s just half and half floating around in a bucket.  I’m resigned to throwing it out now.  I’m convinced there’s a problem somehow with my mixture, but I have no clue what that could be.  It’s just a standard eggless vanilla ice cream recipe.  It’s not fancy, it’s just not working.

Before I chuck the mix, does anyone have any suggestions?  What can I do with ice cream that won’t ice??

Oh my life is so boring… February 12, 2009

I wanted to blog the other night.  I’m pretty sure I had something incredibly important to say, but I might have wanted to extoll the virtues of Cheese Sauce.  Alas, I was without internet, and therefore unable to post.  Granted, I was without internet partially by choice.  I neglected to tell The Hippy it wasn’t working, and I also neglected to poke around on our network computer to see if the password was saved.  I still don’t know, to be honest, because sometimes I really need a reason to keep the computer turned off.

So instead I sewed a little (will blog about that later) and decided I would take up yoga.  I’ve had a beginners yoga video for years that I got at a thrift store.  I’m pretty sure I saw the screen that told me I would need props and said “screw this.”  But I decided there was no time like the present, props be damned.  As it turned out, I could have used the props, but I just improvised.  I may or may not look into a block, but it may also be that I scrounge around the house until I find something block-like.

Proud Warrior--harder than it looks...

I thoroughly enjoyed yoga.  Way more than I ever thought I would.  I would truly like to keep it up, simply because I have longed to be flexible my entire life.  I like to think it will also help my posture.  And it can’t hurt my bowling.  I’m blogging right now when I should be doing yoga and ball exercises–I only have so much time before The Hippy comes home and laughs at me for exercising.  But the house was too cold, and I was getting too hungry.  I will.  I promise.

But first, I still need to extoll the virtues of cheese sauce.  I made my very first cheese sauce last week.  I’ve never been one to shy away from a gastronimical challenge, so I certainly wasn’t going to allow myself to be daunted by a cheese sauce.  And I’m so glad I didn’t!  I followed this recipe and used brown rice instead of pasta.  I also used frozen peas and broccoli.  And I ate the whole damn thing myself.  Over the course of a few days, natch.  The Hippy doesn’t know what he missed.  He wasn’t home for dinner, and he has an irrational fear of leftovers.  Which works well for me.  I don’t have to make lunches anymore!

Mmmm… Cheese sauce.  (Seriously, given my love of nacho cheese, why are we surprised I loved this recipe?  Hmm, now I want a cheesy double beef burrito……..)