A break from cooking but not from the kitchen...

     I have a lot of leftovers so I'm taking a break from cooking for the next two or three days. I'm also sick of eating Beef Burgundy. I had it last night for dinner, lunch today at work and for dinner again. I'm sick of it like the way I am sick of that annoying Owl City song they keep playing on the radio. WTF is he singing about anyway... fireflies dancing, his dreams bursting at the seams... he might as well be singing about unicorns, puppies or rainbows. Gag.
     Anyways, adding to my busy schedule of work, school, cooking and getting myself fatter and blogging, I started a redecorating project. No major renovations that involve a lot of money or intense labor. Just things I could quickly do myself.
     Since I've been cooking a lot lately, I figure I might as well do the deed in a better looking kitchen.


Here's the inspiration for what I want to do.

I got this from the book Etcetera: Creating Beautiful Interiors with the Things You Love, by Sibella Court. First of all, I love the design of the book and I love how she is inspired by old, rustic and everyday items.

This is the color palette I would like to use for my kitchen because the walls are brown/chocolate brown.

I also really like the colors of these chair cushions and sign I recently purchased at Anthropologie.

That's it. I'm open to any tips on redecorating... especially ones that are free or cost very little :)

I think my next step is to paint my kitchen cabinets. I hope this isn't one of those projects I start and never finish. That happens frequently.

Hot Plate! (A Weekend of Cooking and Spending)

RAIN AND SOUP

     For five days the rain poured and the cold wind howled every night. Weather like this makes me want to eat soup—chicken soup to be exact. I looked up a recipe from the same book as my failed beef and stout dish, Complete Comfort Food, and found a recipe for chicken soup with dumplings. I have never had chicken soup with dumplings before so I’m not exactly sure what the dumplings are typically made of. This recipe called for Matzo meal to make the dumplings. I browsed through the baking aisle of Safeway because, to me, that would be the logical place to put them. I found Masa meal and said to myself, “hey they’re close in name so this must be it!” I couldn’t bring myself to buy it because my inner voice, my cooking angel or guide told me to call my friend Molly who loves to cook. She told me where to get the Matzo meal and voila! Kitchen disaster averted.

        I didn’t realize that soup would take that long because I started the dish at 9 p.m. so that I could have some for lunch the next day. I had already started, when I realized that I had to simmer the darn thing for 3 hours! Add that to the time I had to prep… ugh! You would think I would learn by now to read ahead.

     The soup turned out okay. I substituted a few things. The soup called for parsley, but I hate parsley, and had garlic as an option but I LOVE garlic. The Matzo balls were a little bit weird in texture for me. This was my first time tasting them. I invited my friend Amanda over for a soup dinner because she only eats chicken. I would invite her over for Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Burgundy), but I seriously think she only eats chicken -- which is something I will never understand. One of these days I’m going to take her to a restaurant where chicken is not on the menu :).

     Back to the soup, I think I would prefer my dad’s Chicken Tinola, a Filipino chicken soup with thin rice noodles and green papaya.

The book where I got the chicken dumpling soup recipe

WHOLE FOODS

     I went to Whole Foods Friday to get some dessert and cheese for Amanda’s visit. The moment I stepped into Whole Foods, I could feel the pretentiousness thick in the air. I felt like the shoppers could sense that I ate at McDonalds, ate foods with preservatives in them, don’t eat organic and I don’t make a six-figure salary. Although, I have to confess that I love Whole Foods because they offer a taste of the high life and what it’s like to eat gourmet and fine food all the time. You won’t see Captain Crunch Cereal or Kraft Cheese (the kind in the cellophane – that would be blasphemous at a place like Whole Foods).

     I walked away with Raclette cheese, two ready made chocolate mousse desserts, chocolate granola snacks, ready made orzo spinach salad and a bag of baked cheese puffs. I spent $50. I can’t say it was worth every penny, but I can say that all of it was delicious.

ARMED AND READY

     The kitchen is like a battlefield (you may now sing Love is a Battlefield substituting “love” for “kitchen”) and any cook has to be armed and ready. Over the weekend I went shopping for some kitchen tools. I went to the Le Creuset Outlet and purchased a 7.25 quart and a 4.5 quart pots. I got a great deal. The pots have some slight imperfections but the lids fit snuggly, which is important. I initially was going to buy one a Sur La Table, but that was incredibly expensive. At the outlet, I paid half of what I would’ve paid at regular price. I also bought some Kitchen Aid silicon tongs and spoons because I have gotten yelled at twice (by my brother and Molly) for using metal spoons on their Dutch ovens. My brother doesn't know this, but when I burnt the beef with stout dish, I took a knife and scraped the burnt parts off the bottom of his pot! He would be super pissed if he found out I did that.

     Armed with my Dutch ovens, proper cooking tools and my new cute apron from Anthropologie, I am ready to take on the heavy weights.

BOEUF BURGUIGNON – THE HEAVY WEIGHT

     Julia Child’s Boeuf Burguignon is as hard to cook as it is to say or spell. This is the most labor-intensive dish I have made thus far. Here’s a jest of what you do:

Fry bacon then remove

Brown beef in bacon fat then remove

Sautee carrots and chopped onions in bacon fat then remove

Remove fat

Return into pot and stir in flour

Put in oven for four minutes then remove

Stir in more flour, add herbs, wine and beef stock

Put in oven for 2:30 – 3:00 hours.

While beef is in the oven, brown mushrooms in butter and olive oil (but you can not crowd the mushrooms. I found this to be very true but also take a lot longer to brown half a pound of shrooms).

In another pan, braise pearl onions in beef stock, butter oil and herbs.

Once the beef is cooked, strain the sauce into a separate dish

Simmer the sauce and skim the fat.

Add mushrooms and pearl onions to the beef

Finally add the thickened sauce to the beef and simmer for 3 minutes

     WHEW!!! I’m exhausted. With directions like that I think it is justified that I got a bit confused. After I browned the beef and veggies, I couldn’t tell if I was suppose to mix them together. I did, then realized I shouldn’t have, so then I picked out ALL of the chopped onions and carrots! Then I had second thoughts and put them all back! Ugh!

     The end result was good—but not great. For the amount of work you have to do, I was expecting weak in the knees eyes rolled back good. I was expecting a food orgasm. However, I did eat the dish with rice the next day and it tasted much better. Julia Child was right, braised meats taste much better the day after.

     There are much simpler recipes for Beef Burgundy. I think I’ll try Tyler Florence’s recipe because he hasn’t steered me wrong so far. I’m having a lot of fun cooking and learning a lot but my ass is getting bigger and my food belly is growing… I can feel my clothes getting tighter as I write. I also have so much leftovers! I need to start hosting more dinner parties. Here's some pictures. 

You're suppose to pat the meat dry or else it won't brown. I did that, however, I don't think the meat browned the way it should have. This step is crucial to this dish. I think I need to eat Beef Burgundy at a restaurant to compare.

Mushrooms browned in butter is soooo yummy... I could snack on it.

Boeuf Bourguignon... I think mine had too much sauce because the pictures on the web doesn't look like the meet was swimming in sauce.

(Note: What I learned from cooking this dish is when pouring wine in a measuring cup, do NOT hold it close to your face to read the measurement because the wine splashed really hard and bam! Wine on my face and in my eye... which of course stung.)

THE SCORE

     I've decided to stop keeping score because it's become apparent that winning or losing is not as clear cut. For instance, my chicken dumpling soup was a successful failure. I think the execution was a success (as in no major disasters) but the end result was okay. Maybe it's the recipe, maybe it's me... but it's hard to tell.

     Next Challenge...

     As much as I like French cuisine and their love for cooking everything in bacon and butter, I think for my next cooking challenge I'm going to try to make some Asian dishes just so I can balance my food consumption with some healthier options.

Happy eating and cooking everyone!

Hot Plate! (Part 1)

 An Epicurean's Adventures and Mishaps in the Kitchen

Instead of blogging about "Acquiring New Skills," I have decided to write about my adventures in the kitchen because I am a novice. Now that school has started I don't have time to learn any other skill (like take a sewing class, which I was planning to do). I will stick to cooking because A.) I can do it from the convenience of my own home; B.) I love food; C.) I’m too poor to eat out for fine foods all the time; D.) It’s two of my ten resolutions: learn how to cook and eat healthy; and E.) This project could either make me fall in-love with cooking or reinforce my hatred for it.

I’ve had my share of failed dishes and it all started in 4th grade. I thought I could make bread by simply mixing flour and eggs. I then fried it because anything fried seemed to taste pretty good. The "bread" looked like dirty dough marbled with yellow scrambled eggs because I did not mix it very well. The concoction smelled like scrambled egg dough. I gave it to my brother who has been the victim of many of my food experiments. He poured half a bottle of ketchup on my egg bread before eating it. This is probably why he never wants to eat anything I cook now, even my successful dishes!

In a potluck, never claim it’s your dish unless someone compliments it. At my church’s last Christmas dinner, I made cake lollipops. I had tried them at my friend Kalu’s baby shower and they were delicious! I found Martha Stewart's recipe and it was simple – or so I thought. I do not know what I did wrong but they turned out really sweet. A person would have sugar shock after the first bite! I decided to bring it to the potluck anyways. I later heard this lady at church telling someone she ate one and got a bad stomachache. I never took ownership for the dish.

FONDANT FAILURE

Speaking of lessons learned, last month after I conquered Coq Au Vin (which is a level medium on the scale of cooking difficulty), I was on a cooking high! I felt like I could whip up anything—even decorate a cake comparable to one of Duff's Ace of Cakes masterpieces. 
 I decided to make fondant. One of the worst ideas I have ever had. I started late at night (my first mistake) and the recipe called for glycerin—which is not in the baking aisle at Safeway. I spent 20 – 30 minutes that night looking for glycerin all over the store. Why do I need glycerin for cooking?!? Isn’t that what soap is made of?!? I figured I could probably go without it. I also forgot corn syrup, but according to the recipe I found on the Internet, I can make corn syrup by boiling sugar. I did not have much sugar left and I probably did not boil it long enough—but I pressed on. The end result looked like fondant, but it was very difficult to handle because it was dry. The powdered sugar also left a colossal mess. I was miserable but determined to decorate a cake. I dyed the fondant red and green, cut out stockings and snowflake shapes and put them on my frosted cake. The cake was ugly so I plotted leftover (about 6) peanut MM’s all over the cake to make it look at least appetizing. The next morning, the fondant had cracked and they had turned into slabs of concrete! Never make your own fondant. No, I did not know you could purchase pre-made fondant at Michaels.

(The Fondant Recipe: 1 tbsp of unflavored gelatin, ¼ cup of cold water, 1 tsp of almond extract, ½ cup of light corn syrup, 1 tbsp of glycerin, 2 lbs of confectioner’s sugar, ½ tsp of white vegetable shortening.)

SIMMER DOWN!

My most recent mishap was when I attempted to make Steak with Stout and Potatoes from the book Complete Comfort Food. I get off work at 5 p.m. and had no dinner at home. I quickly gathered everything I needed for the dish because it takes about 2 hours to make, but for a novice like me, add an extra 30 minutes or so. I followed the directions carefully, except that I apparently do not know what it means to “simmer.” The fire was on medium, but should’ve been on low. I started to smell something “toasty” and was horrified to find that all the liquid had evaporated while there was still 30 minutes left to cook the dish! The beef had stuck to the pan so I added more broth and finished up the remaining 30 minutes. The Dutch oven (which I borrowed from my brother) was black and grimy at the bottom. I couldn’t make the mustard sauce that went with the dish because beef bits were welded to the bottom of the pot. I still ate the dish because at 10 p.m. I was starving, tired, and had a taste of failure. It tasted bitter and burnt.

THE SCORE

Kitchen – 2 (Fondant and Beef Stout); Sarah – 1 (Coq Au Vin)

Next Challenge: Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon (Beef Burgundy), inspired by the movie "Julie and Julia."

2010

The Year of the Tiger

I don't know if blogging about my new year's resolution is a good or bad thing. I could use it as a reference to see where I'm at in accomplishing my goals and help me keep on point OR it would just make me sad and miserable about how I've accomplished nothing.

In 2010 I will...

1. Pay down my credit card debt and use my credit cards less.
2. Save more money.
3. Get organized (as in organized closet, books, kitchen -- everything. My life is a mess).
4. Live a healthier life (physically, mentally and spiritually).
5. Give more of my time and money to those in need.
6. Take a trip to another country.
7. Learn how to cook and cook more.
8. Read all of my unfinished books (I have a lot).
9. Be more "out-doorsy" (as in camp, hike and whatever else out-doorsy people do).
10. Try to be more green.

The first four I have on my list EVERY YEAR. I have yet to accomplish a single one. I'm starting to think those goals are unattainable. I might as well put "Climb Mt. Everest" or "Get Married" at the top of my list. Nevertheless, I will remain optimistic. Onward and upward!