roasted potatoes

I've always really loved potatoes, but for some reason I have always been really underwhelmed by roasting them.  They were never flavorful enough, or too mushy, or there wasn't enough cheese.  However, potatoes are relatively inexpensive and I thought that I would try a roasted potato recipe to go along with my slow-cooked pork loin from the entry below.  I was really determined to have a wholesome home-cooked meal.  I was also incredibly hungry, so I didn't take any photos.  The picture below is an extremely accurate representation of what my potatoes looked like before roasting.

Image from Lovin' From the Oven

One of the great things about cooking for myself is that I am completely in charge of how I prepare my food.  Sure, this is kind of a drawback sometimes like when I turn pancakes into burnt pucks or perhaps burn myself with flying grease but I'm feeling optimistic today.  So, you know what?  I don't like my potatoes mushy: cook them longer.  I don't like them bland: add more garlic and salt.  I got my love of cheese from my Dad: add more cheese.  Always add more cheese.

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes
Adapted from: Lovin' From the Oven


Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes, rinsed and diced
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 4-6 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• 2-3 tsp shredded parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Pour the potatoes into a baking dish.
3. Drizzle olive oil on top of the potatoes. Sprinkle the rest of the seasonings on top. Use a large spoon to evenly coat all of the potatoes.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, making sure to move the pieces around every 15 minutes.

slow cooker pork loin

I am scared of both my slow cooker and large/expensive cuts of meat that I've never used before.  I was recently introduced to a chain of grocery stores (Market Basket) that I had previously avoided due to local horror stories and one ill-fated trip that ended up with me sewing my vagina shut and vowing (again) never to have children or to go anywhere where children are permitted to be present.  I was going to say "I don't know how you parents do it" but if my trip to the Somerville Market Basket is any indication, "do it" means "let your children roam free and screaming through a busy grocery store."  Also, I hate you.

But I digress.  I went to the Burlington Market Basket late one night and was escorted through the bakery section, eyes lit-up.  That there was enough to convince me to change my grocery store allegiance from Stop & Shop.  Imagine my delight when I found my long-lost favorite cereal just hanging out on the shelves waiting to be purchased.  Here, I will help you out so that you don't need to imagine: I immediately grabbed two boxes, clutched them to my chest, grabbed the arm of the person I was with, and possibly yelled "I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS FOR YEARS!"

Uh... but I digress again.  The moral of the story is that prices are very low here and it's worth the 15 minute drive versus the 5 minute walk to Stop & Shop.  I've been doing my weekly shopping here and recently purchased a five and a half pound pork loin on a whim.  $12 seemed like a very reasonable price for so much meat.  I often ignore the fact that I live alone when I grocery shop and go hog wild (ha ha) on things that are on sale.  I was smart this time and sawed that baby in two and froze half of it when I got home.

I decided to use my slow cooker that I got for Christmas last year (and have only used once, mostly out of fear) so I looked up a recipe.  I have modified the recipe for future cooking, as it didn't really come out perfect.  Also, there aren't too many pictures because meat is kind of gross looking.

Slow Cooker Pork Loin
Adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients:

• 2.5lb pork loin, not trimmed
• 1 envelope dry onion soup mix
• 1 cup water
• 3/4c red wine (I used pinot noir because that's all I had)
• 3tbsp minced garlic
• pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Put everything in the slow cooker.  Place the meat in fatty side up.
2. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours.
3. Check after 3 hours.  If pork has reached 145 degrees, you may take out.  If not, cook until it has reached 145.

oven-fried chicken tenders

It's been... a while.  I wish I could say that I've been cooking up a storm in my new kitchen, but cereal and pasta have been my good friends lately.  I finally dragged myself out of my non-eating stupor this month and decided I'd actually make dinner... a few weeks ago (I'm sorry).  I scoured my recipes for something quick, simple, and non-offensive.  I came up with oven fried chicken tenders.

This recipe once again called for panko-style bread crumbs and I finally bit the bullet and picked some up at the store.  I am glad that I did.  They stayed crispy where normal bread crumbs would have gotten soggy and gross.  I still haven't mastered the wet-hand, dry-hand method and ended up with club fingers while attempting to bread each chicken strip.

These turned out a little bland - I bought plain style bread crumbs and didn't add a great deal of seasoning.  I think that next time, I would add some herbs and spices to jazz things up a little bit.

Oven Fried Chicken Tenders
recipe from Taste & Tell

• 1.25 pounds chicken tenders or chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper
• cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 425F.  Line a baking sheet with foil, then put a baking rack on top.  Spray the baking rack with cooking spray.

In one shallow dish, place the flour.  In a second shallow dish, mix the egg and the water.  In a third shallow dish, place the panko bread crumbs, the Parmesan and salt and pepper.

Dip each chicken strip into the flour, then the egg mixture, then the bread crumb mixture.  Place on the cooling rack.  Spray lightly with cooking spray. (This is where the one dry hand and one wet hand method comes in handy...)

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until no longer pink and the coating is golden brown.

grill, meet hamburger

Perhaps I was too hard on the personal grill in my last entry.  During a recent trip to the grocery store, I purchased some short-dated hamburger patties (I know.  You are saying to yourself "Now wait a minute, she's eating red meat?  And what is this that I'm reading about short-dated red meat?  Am I on the right blog?  Kelly?"  Do not worry, friends.  This purchase was influenced by the $2 off manager's coupon stuck to the packaging and the promise that I could always just freeze the patties instead of consuming them all in one night.)  The original plan was to cook them as I always had: thrown in a frying pan over medium heat until cooked on either side, and then cover and put over low heat until cooked thoroughly.  Once home, I thought I would give the grill another chance.  My burns have healed.  Maybe we could be friends.

I sliced each patty in half to create 8 smaller patties instead of 4 behemoth patties.  Each sad-patty got wrapped in aluminum foil and tossed in a Ziploc bag to go in the freezer.  I'm really trying to master this cooking for one thing, and I think I might be on the right track.  It's taken me over 6 months to realize that if I cook an entire pound of meat at one time, then chances are that I will either tire of eating it or it will go bad before the week's end.  The short-dated hamburger represents saving money and not wasting so much food.

So I fired up the grill to just make one hamburger.  This would never be possible with a regular grill.  In fact, we rarely used the charcoal grill we had sitting on the porch last summer because I was often told that I didn't have enough to cook on it to make all the effort worth it.  Well, fine.  Jokes on you, because now I can have a hamburger whenever I want.

It was a success.  No burns were sustained, no grease flew anywhere, and a hamburger was done in mere moments.  I had a nice roll, some sliced red onions, a mix of mayonnaise and ketchup, and a bed of baby spinach for the hamburger to rest upon.  I've made a couple since then, relishing in the fact that I don't have to eat a hamburger for 5 days straight just because I bought a pound of meat.  Progress.

grilled chicken

The Christmas griddle was finally removed from its resting place under my butcher block and was used over the weekend.  I was originally going to do a another slow-cooker recipe this week, but I was feeling a little sorry (and guilty) for the Christmas gift that I have neglected for the past three months.  I read with trepidation the meager instructions it came with: turn on, wait for light to turn green, place food on grill, close top, remove food, eat.  I turned it on.

One of my favorite food stand-by's is Italian-dressing marinated grilled chicken.  Since I've moved away from home, I've had to satisfy myself with marinating the chicken and then baking it in the oven, which is certainly not as good as chicken fresh from the grill.  Since I am now in possession of my very own personal grill, I thought that Italian-marinated chicken would be an excellent inaugural choice.

As the grill warmed up, my kitchen was filled with the smell of melting plastic.  The instructions told me that this was normal and that I should just let the grill do its thing and the smell would dissipate over time (lie).  I retrieved my bag of marinated thin-sliced chicken breasts from the fridge and waited for the light on the grill to turn green, indicating that it was now safe to use.  It should also be known that the grill has three heating settings: low, medium, and high.  The instructions weren't clear about what setting would be ideal for my situation, so I chose "medium."  It seemed like the safest choice - not too hot, and hopefully warm enough to kill any salmonella.

I was feeling pretty confident at this point.  Once the grill had heated up, I grabbed a chicken breast and attempted to gently place it on the hot grill plates.  Here is where my confidence wavers and the story takes a dark turn.  I wasn't expecting grease to splatter so quickly from the meat onto my bare arms, but it did.  I leapt back from the grill after throwing the lid down on the chicken.  I was unclear as to how long I was supposed to leave the chicken to cook, so I approached carefully with one oven mitt on and a meat thermometer in the other hand.  Over time, I got very good at throwing the chicken down on the grill, slamming the lid closed, and leaping away while moaning in despair.

I sustained many burns that evening.

Italian Marinated Grilled Chicken

• Half bottle of Italian dressing.
• 1 lb chicken breasts (any size)
• Sandwich fixin's (ciabatta bread, baby spinach, mayonnaise, red onion in my case)

1. Marinate the chicken at least overnight in the Italian dressing.  I usually just throw it in a Ziploc bag and throw it in the fridge.
2. Cook chicken on grill.
3. Make sandwiches

pulled pork

Just in case you were all unaware, I am fairly lazy when it comes to cooking.  I enjoy eating a nice meal when I come home from work that includes both protein and fresh vegetables, maybe a nice warm crusty piece of Italian bread, but I do not want to put any effort forth to actually prepare said meal.  I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but in my fantastic imaginary life I come home and dinner is fresh from the oven and waiting for me when I get out of work.  I eat at the table every night with my boyfriend or a close friend and share funny anecdotes about our day at work (because surely those exist).

Reality:  I settle for frozen entrees (fancy name for TV dinners) - maybe some herbed chicken, mashed potatoes, and something resembling a vegetable.  What I waste in money I save in time.  Four to six minutes in the microwave and dinner is hot and ready to be eaten at my desk or in my bed while I watch old episodes of Gilmore Girls.  I've only eaten at the table 5 or so times and only when I have company.  Sometimes I even treat myself to a glass of Coke even though the caffeine makes my heart beat a little funny.  It's worth it.  I feel a little shamed buying these dinners at the store and even a little guilty after I eat them.  I feel like a failure at taking care of myself or completing even the most basics of tasks (feeding myself).  At least I take the food out of the plastic container and onto a plate.

I think my parents understand this, as they got me a slow cooker and a little personal griddle for Christmas.  Despite being comfortable using technology, something about kitchen gadgets makes me wary.  Every day when I come home from work, I take a look at the griddle and the slow cooker as I'm microwaving my food.  They look easy enough, but I'm scared.  It wasn't until earlier in the week that I finally decided to use the slow cooker.  It seemed easy enough on paper.  Put food in, turn cooker on, leave for work, return, eat.  I had visions of my apartment burning down while I left my food simmering away, the slow cooker overflowing everywhere, the food either being overcooked or undercooked when I returned.

I put away my fears and planned a pulled pork dinner.  I picked up pork and instructions for cooking from my Dad during a trip to Connecticut and began with trepidation.

Pulled Pork
recipe from my Dad

Ingredients:

• Boston butt/pork shoulder (mine was 5.5lbs, cut in half so only 2.75 was cooked)
• Mesquite barbecue seasoning rub
• olive oil
• 1-2 tbsp of liquid smoke
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 jar barbecue sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)

1. Prep the night before.  I had forgotten/fallen asleep and these steps happened at 1:30am.  I do not recommend that.  Cut up onion and place in the bottom of the slow cooker insert to keep the meat from touching the bottom.
2.  Pat dry pork and rub with a tiny bit of olive oil.  Afterward, rub with barbecue seasoning and place on top of onions.  Place insert in fridge overnight.
3.  In the morning, place insert into slow cooker and pour half a bottle of barbecue sauce and the 1-2 tablespoons of liquid smoke over the meat.
4.  Turn slow cooker on low and cook for 11 hours.
5.  Meat is done when it can be pulled apart easily with two forks.  You will wan to pull the pieces of meat apart and put them in a separate bowl.  Remove fat and discard with juices and onions.
6.  Add desired amount of extra barbecue sauce.  Serve alone or on a roll.

stuff

I haven't forgotten about this blog or the promise to cook more food.  But man oh man, 2011 has been rough so far.  Recently I've barely even had the energy to stand up for very long, let alone go get groceries or cook something.  It has felt like it's been one hit to my health after the other, leaving me sitting complaining in bed.  I've eaten a shameful amount of food that can be microwaved and for a brief stint I ate nothing but applesauce and Jello as it was the only thing I could swallow with my sore throat.  And oh, delivery.  Sweet sweet delivery.  Chinese food, cheeseburgers, and wraps delivered to my door in less than thirty minutes.  Bliss.

All I have wanted to do after getting out of the hospital on Saturday (after taking a much needed nap) is eat.  Sunday I was feeling a little better, and I actually decided to cook something.  It wasn't much of an undertaking, and most people find this kind of gross.  But it was exactly the simple/mildly hearty/iron-rich/comforting food that I needed.  I made Stuff.

Back when I lived at home, my mother would make stuffed peppers for dinner every now and then.  I haven't really been into peppers since I was a kid (insert story about how I'd grab fresh peppers from my grandfather's garden and just take a bite out of them here (with a brief stint a few years ago where I'd eat them sauteed, but that ended abruptly after a hit of the stomach bug one Easter)) so I would often just scoop out the insides of the stuffed peppers and eat that.  The insides were the Stuff.  After several years of this behavior, it came to my attention that I could just make Stuff whenever I wanted without having to go through all the effort of gutting peppers, stuffing then, cooking then, and throwing them away after.

Stuff has been the perfect food for when I'm feeling sort of peckish but want something filling and bland.  Because god, do I love bland food.

Kelly's Stuff
adapted from Mom's Stuffed Peppers

- 1lb ground beef
- 1 serving white rice
- ketchup/tomato sauce

1.  Brown ground beef on stove top in a skillet.  Drain excess water/fat when done.
2.  While browning, start cooking the rice.  I use generic minute rice because I'm lazy and poor.
3.  When both of the above are complete, mix the two together in a big bowl.
4.  Top with ketchup or tomato sauce to taste.
5.  Try not to eat it around anyone, as they will judge you.

macaroni and cheese

I have been thinking about baked macaroni and cheese now for weeks.  I have put it off or come up with excuses: I don't have a casserole dish, I can't find a good recipe, my grocery store doesn't sell cheese chunks in a bag.  I invited Ian* over for dinner last night and he picked macaroni and cheese over a "meat dish."  This worked out to my advantage as I had everything I needed already in the apartment.  It was like I was getting a free dinner!
* He plays a reoccurring role in these recipe recaps, as my motivation for cooking something other than cereal or pasta with old sauce on it for myself when I am alone is admittedly low.

Just kidding.  It was like I was getting dinner in exchange for an hour of manual labor and confusion.  Who knew macaroni and cheese took so much effort?  Can't I just throw a box of pasta into a pot of boiling water and toss in some cheese and some milk?  Doesn't a box of this stuff cost like 79cents?  I had already made a cake earlier in the day (recipe forthcoming) which means that a significant portion of my Saturday was taken up by preparing food.  How do people do this on a daily basis?  WHY do people do this on a daily basis?

I was already feeling vulnerable after the cake-making adventure, but I bucked up and put on my confident face.  This is macaroni and cheese.  How hard can this recipe be?  I gave it a once-over and immediately threw out some of the ingredients.  Onions in my macaroni and cheese?  Do I look like my grandmother?  No, thank you.  A bay leaf?  Honey, I don't even know what that is.  Clearly unimportant.  "Panko" bread crumbs?  That sounds like "Italian-Seasoned Stop & Shop brand Bread Crumbs" to me.

I'm not going to lie, I had to look up what tempering an egg was and I also sort of doubled the recipe but not really.  I wanted to use an entire box of macaroni instead of half a box so I roughly doubled everything else.  Except for milk.  The original recipe called for 3 cups, but I only really had 2 cups left.  Okay, that's a lie.  I had three but I wanted to save some for my cereal in the morning.  I really just made most of this recipe up.

Baked Macaroni & Cheese
Adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything who adapted it from Alton Brown

• 1lb of dry macaroni
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon powdered mustard
•  2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 2 large eggs
• 1 package shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to taste. I used about 1 cup
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
• bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large pot of boiling, extremely salted water cook the pasta to al dente.  Do not overcook it.  Drain pasta.
3. While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes.  Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes.  The original recipe says that "it will thicken, trust me."  Mine didn't.  In fact, it turned a weird brown color and smelled kind of like burning.  I feel that perhaps the bay leaf would have played some importance here.
4. Temper in the egg - I warmed it in a separate frying pan.  I put a handful of cheese into the warm egg and mixed it up until it became gooey.  I then threw this into the pot of drained pasta and mixed.
5. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese into the pasta and mix well.
6. Pour brownish butter/milk/mustard mixture into the pasta and mix.
7. Put pasta into a casserole dish.  I used a 9inch glass pyrex dish.
8. Top the pasta with remaining cheese and sprinkle on desired amount of bread crumbs.
9. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five to ten minutes before serving.  
10. Send half of it home with your boyfriend so it doesn't look like you are going to eat 5 pounds of pasta and cheese by yourself.

devilish

As promised, I began my new recipe making on Monday night.  You may be noticing that it is Thursday right now.  Let's move on.

I perused my recipe folder* on Sunday night and decided on something called "Deviled Chicken Breasts."  Chicken is really the only meat that I eat regularly and I have a soft spot for Dijon mustard, so it sounded right up my alley.  During my lunch break on Monday, I picked up the ingredients that were missing, which included a bottle of Chardonnay that will play a significant role later on.

I left work at 6, already dreading having to make dinner when I got home.  I am starving.  My sink is filled with dirty dishes left over from the weekend (Saturday and Sunday are generally my no-doing-dishes days).  My freezer is full of frozen chicken products that I could easily throw in the microwave and eat, tempting me.  I envision a particular disappointed looking face and persevere.  Let's do this.

For some reason, I seem to be lacking very specific adult skills.  I don't know if it is because I didn't go to high school, or if I'm just an idiot.  For instance, I have no idea how to style my hair or apply makeup successfully.  I also cannot open wine bottles.  A week ago I was at Trader Joe's (purchasing the aforementioned frozen chicken products) and impulse bought a $2.99 corkscrew (and a 29cent chocolate bar).  I felt so adult, imagining all the bottles of wine I would open and pour for all my friends at dinner parties (false).  I confidently screwed it into the cork and attempted to press down to pull the cork out.  The edge of the bottle seemed so far away from the metal part of the corkscrew and it would not latch on.  The bottle and I struggled for a good 10 minutes, during which I sent a flurry of fevered text messages and cursed Joe for his cheap goods.  I had witnessed the opening of wine bottles hundreds of times by now, why is this so difficult?  It finally popped out (through methods unclear to me), and I could get on with it.

The rest of the preparation went relatively smoothly.  The only tip I have to offer you, is to not submerge hands with cuts on them into the mixture of wine and mustard.

* Before I moved, I wanted to cut down on the amount of stuff I had to bring with me, so I went through most of my recipe books and marked all the ones that sounded appealing.  I then created a document template and just plugged recipe after recipe in. I had grand ideas to print them all out and organize them in a binder, but only got about halfway through before I lost steam/was no longer unemployed.

Deviled Chicken
Adapted from: Healthy Cooking for Two
makes: 4 chicken breasts

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 tbsp olive oil 
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• hot sauce to taste
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• 1 cup bread crumbs

1.  Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the mustard, wine, oil, thyme and hot sauce.  Stir in the shallots/onions.
3. Place the bread crumbs in a shallow dish.  Roll the chicken in the mustard mixture, then in the bread crumbs to coat.
4. Arrange in a single layer in the prepared pan and bake on the top shelf of the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the crumb coating is browned and the juices run clear.