I know, I've been seriously remiss in my postings.

Due to an extended illness (that has lasted nearly two months!), I've not been updating this as I should, and I know it.  I'm about eight or nine recipes behind now, ugh; but fear not, ladies and gentlemen, we are indeed working behind the scenes right now and we're still photographing what we're making.  There just hasn't been much time to organize it or put it all together. 

We will definitely have a new post up soon.  What, did you think we'd forget you?  Not a chance.  :p

Thanks for your patience as we continue to recover from the crud that is called a cold.  Or two.  Or sixteen.

Week #6: Sloppy Lasagna + News + Apologies

Despite what the post title says, I'm going to start off with apologies here that I've not been updating this as I should.  However, my Federal workload has been so heavy recently that I've been struggling with a Federal headache, heh.  I've also been quite sick, ever since Super Bowl Sunday, and it's not gone away as I'd hoped it would, so I have been trying to take it easy.  Most likely when the crunch on time eases up, I'll be posting double and triple recipes over the course of a week, but until then, we'll be one recipe behind.  I may make up for it this week, if I can.

So, now the news:  the Love of My Life and I have recently acquired our own car, which will make a huge difference in the types of things we can prepare.  I know that a good deal of you may not understand why this news impacts us so heavily, but I must hasten to explain that the area in which I live in (Baltimore City) is a virtual "food desert"; there are no adequate grocery stores within walking distance in this place.  We don't live far from Lexington Market, which is a virtual smorgasbord of food options, but you can't get everything there - there is no place to buy fresh milk or eggs, for example, and I do NOT trust the market inside of there for anything that isn't in a can.  Sad, but true.  Up until this point, we were ordering groceries online from Safeway, or making a short trip to a local store where the prices are six thousand times higher than a regular supermarket.  The car now assists us in going not only to a regular store, but also warehouse clubs like Costco where everything is dirt cheap.  It's so much improved that we are now discussing a new refrigerator purchase, because the one we have now is too small for any type of storage.

Just trials and tribulations in the life of an amateur cook, eh?

Also, while I've not done any heavy cooking recently, I have prepared sauerkraut and sausage for myself a couple of times since our last update.  (The Love of My Life refuses to eat this dish, which is a shame, but a lot of people dislike such things.)  I was raised with Pennsylvania Dutch customs, and this is one of them.  In any case, I have learned not, not, NOT to put brown sugar in sauerkraut.  It is, in a word, Godawful.  Never again.  Ever.

With all of this said, it is now time for Week #6's recipe:  Sloppy Lasagna.

I got this recipe from, of all things, the Food Network website; apparently it's a Rachael Ray masterpiece.  While Rachael Ray is a good cook, I personally find her a bit of a goofball.  (The Love of My Life only watches "30 Minute Meals" with me because he likes the occasional glimpse of her booty.  But I digress.)  However, this recipe was supposedly "easy", and I'm all for anything easy, so... what the hell.

This is a LOT of ingredients, though....

There are apparently three parts to this recipe:  the pasta, the tomato sauce, and a "white" sauce commonly known as bechamel (besh-SHA-mel).  (Yes, another French cooking term.)  I started as the recipe indicated, which was to make the pasta first.

Hey, that's a damned mess!

Now, "sloppy lasagna" is exactly as it sounds - it's not perfect.  The instructions are to break up the pieces into odd, bite-sized shapes.  While it doesn't specify NOT to use no-boil noodles, in this case I wouldn't here - just cook them as you would normally.  I set the timer here for 9 minutes, 1 minute less than the package indicated; the idea is to have the noodles a little less than "al dente", since you're going to be baking them in the oven and you don't want them mushy.

While the pasta is cooking, you want to start setting up to make the tomato sauce.  I used my Le Creuset stockpot for this (something that I've been using a lot more often); it'll make a good bit of sauce.  The first thing you want to do is brown the meat, if you're using any; the recipe calls for ground beef/veal/pork mix, but a lot of grocery stores surprisingly don't carry this, and even if they do, I find it a bit too bland for my tastes, so I used Johnsonville ground sausage - it's much more flavorful.  A little olive oil in the bottom of the pot will help to release the meat - I laid it in the pot and let it cook over medium-high for a few minutes:

"CHARLOTTE!!!"  "Oh, Wilbur..."

While the meat was searing, I prepared a whole large-sized onion in my food processor.  All that I can say is, thank God for my food processor.  If I'd had to chop this entire onion by hand I would have been sobbing like a punished child on the playground.

Food processors rule.

After a few minutes on the heat, the instructions state to add the onions and let them soften for a few minutes along with the meat.  I was surprised to see that the sausage hadn't really released any oil or juices; must've been a really lean package.

Looks really appetizing, I know.

When the onions were done softening and releasing their liquid, I then added the garlic, salt, pepper, cinnamon and bay leaves.  Now, if you read the recipe, there is something missing in my version of this - the grated carrot.  I don't know about you, but for me there is NO PLACE in lasagna for carrots unless you're making a vegetarian version of it.  I'm sorry, but no.  This is not how we roll in this house.

So, anyhow, I let that cook for a couple of minutes before adding tomato paste.  Now... I must say this about tomato paste, okay; the tube version is probably the handiest thing I have ever run across!  I've never had occasion (yet) to use an entire can of the stuff in a recipe, so the tube is a good idea because I don't waste a thing - but I still have what I need.  It's recommended that you spoon out extra sauce and freeze it, but who has the time for this?  (Or the room in the freezer, for all of that.)

No more waste.  How cool is that?

I let the tomato paste caramelize in the pot for another minute or two before adding the white wine.  Any good white wine should do; we're not too picky in this house.  I think we just used a plain old Chardonnay that we picked up in the grocery store.  Neither of us are "drinkers", really, so wine in this house would only be for cooking purposes - but if it matters to you, a "better" wine can of course be selected.  

Then comes the ubiquitous 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes.  It says "San Marzano" on the recipe.  As far as I'm concerned, plain old Furmano brand is fine by me - what is this 'fancy' crap?  It's lasagna, for Chrissake.

Okay, most of this portion of the recipe is done.

By this time, my kitchen is starting to smell like a drunkard's paradise, with all of that wine going on.  Hopefully by this time you've removed the pasta from the heat, drained it, and set it aside.  I'm writing this on the assumption that you've done so - if not, you have issues and I take no responsibility for your ruined pots.  :p

It's now time to make the bechamel, or white, sauce.  For this portion you will need a smallish pot, butter, flour, milk, nutmeg and cheese.  That's right, cheese - Parmagiano-Reggiano, for all that.  We'll discuss that in just a moment. 

A roux is made from flour and butter.  It's really best if you melt the butter first over medium-high heat; don't add the flour until it's good and hot, or you'll be sitting there like I did waiting for this stuff to get brown.  You'll have lumps, too, which isn't a good thing - I had to whisk that sauce like mad once I added the milk.

DON'T do this.  This will not bode well.

Once you mix the flour in and the concoction gets nice and golden-brown, add the milk in a slow stream.    The recipe says "eyeball the amount" - I used 2 cups, but you can go up to 2.5.

This is why you shouldn't do what's in the picture above.  Notice how lumpy the roux looks.  I had to beat it up good to get it to the proper consistency.

After you whisk in the milk, add the nutmeg (you might not think it's needed here, but it does work).  Then, the recipe calls for .5 cup of grated Parmagiano-Reggiano cheese.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a block of Parmagiano-Reggiano cheese.  I am holding nearly 14 dollars in my hand in this picture:

Even the Costco brand is freaking expensive.

I broke down and bought this cheese because it was a bit less expensive at Costco, and I knew that I could use it in other recipes.  So, I ended up having to grate this cheese in the baking dish, because with it being the price that it is, I wasn't going to waste even a sliver of this stuff.  I used a microplane to do this, and it turned out to be a good idea.  No, a great idea.  I wouldn't use anything else for this job, not even a box grater.

For all this work, it better be worth it.

After mixing the grated cheese into the bechamel sauce, it was time to put this lasagna together - probably, so far, the easiest damned part of the recipe.  After removing the bay leaves from the tomato sauce, I poured the pasta into the stockpot and folded it into the sauce gently, so as not to break up any of the pasta or sausage pieces.  Then I simply layered half of the pasta and sauce into the baking dish.  I spooned out ricotta cheese over the pasta (no eggs required in this dish), then covered that layer with the rest of the pasta.  I then poured the bechamel sauce over everything.

Here is where the recipe officially "ends".  No baking and no other ingredients.  But, really, folks - there's two things missing here.

1.  You have to bake this, even if it's just for five damned minutes.  All that work and it's only half hot?  Uh, hell, no.

2.  Rachael Ray obviously has no concept of what a true lasagna is, because one of the ingredients missing here, for me, is mozzarella cheese.  Where's the mozz, Rach?

So I added a few handfuls of mozzarella cheese to the lasagna top.  I'd guess it was about a cup full, though I didn't measure - I just added what looked good to me.

Now THIS is what lasagna should look like.  Eat your heart out, Rachael.

I stuck this into the oven for about 25 minutes to let the top get good and melty, and here is the finished product:

For something not perfectly layered, it looks pretty damned good...

And now... (drumroll)... here comes the Love of My Life, with a plate out and a happy grin.  I think he's pretty hungry this time.  What say you, Greg?

The saying on his shirt doesn't give one a lot of confidence.....

Greg's Verdict:  "This is much better than the last time you made lasagna!  No, really, it's light, creamy, not overpowering.  You can't really taste the wine in it, but at the same time you can, it makes the sauce bold and challenging.  Thumbs up."

My Verdict:  This was actually pretty decent.  The wine does add a different spin to the sauce, but it's a pleasant spin.  I do think that without the mozzarella cheese, it would have actually been a bit boring and bland, so I'm glad I added that toward the end.  My only complaint about this recipe is that it does NOT take any damn 30 minutes to make.  As you can see in the screenshot, it actually SAYS that the prep time is only 35 minutes.  

BULL.  SHIT.

35 minutes, my ass.  Maybe if YOU have a team of kitchen assistants chopping vegetables and mixing sauce and grating cheese for you.  Otherwise, you're looking at 2 hours, easy.  Because that's how long it took me.

A weekend-only recipe.  This is not for busy Tuesday nights.

Final Score:  9 out of 10

Recipe Cost:  Expensive (due to the inclusion of Parmagiano-Reggiano, a 14 dollar block of cheese all on its own) (More than $20.00 to make)

Time to Make:  Intensive (More than 2 hours)

Original Recipe Found Through:  FoodNetwork.com

No Recipe This Week - Illness in Family

Due to a rather severe illness (cold) striking both myself and the Love of My Life, there will unfortunately not be a recipe made for this week.  While I know that everyone has been waiting with breathless anticipation for the next installment (:p), neither of us are strong enough physically to attempt to cook anything more complicated than Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup at the moment.  We hope that everyone will understand.

We will return next Sunday with an all-new posting of something delicious (and hopefully nutritious as well, though I wouldn't count too much on that, heh), and we will definitely make up for this week at a later date. It's still 52-a-year; number 6 is just going to have to wait for a bit.  :p

Thanks for understanding.  Pardon me while I crawl under my covers now and wish for death.  Blah.

Until next week.  Sorry for the inconvenience!

Week #5: Beef Stroganoff

I apologize for the lateness of this post; normally I post my experiments on Sundays, but this past week has been hellish to the extreme, both career-wise and school-wise.  This is precisely the reason why I decided to limit my cooking recipes to once a week; life just gets too crazy.

Not only am I cheating by posting late, but this week's recipe, Beef Stroganoff, was also made on January 22, the same day that I'd made Week #4's recipe.  Oooooo, I'm a BAD girl.  :p

Anyhow, I should be back on track with this week, and I promise that Week #6's recipe won't come nearly so late.  My bad.

Week #5:  Beef Stroganoff

Because, as I'd explained above, I was actually making two recipes simultaneously, I didn't really get around to setting up the display for my ingredients here.  Therefore, you get to view a rare glimpse of my kitchen, as I'm cooking the item.  Note that there's barely room to breathe.

This jumbled mess actually looks better than usual while I'm cooking.

Beef stroganoff is a pretty simple recipe to make.  Some use ground beef, others use steak pieces for the meat portion.  In this case, I used about a pound of steak pieces, as well as the usual ingredients; onion, 2 cans of beef broth, a bit of flour, about a pound of white-button mushrooms, a bit of butter, and sour cream.  No, it's not that healthy, but it's delicious, I promise.

The first item of business was to chop the vegetables.  The mushrooms I can do by hand; that's not an issue.  The onions, however, are a different story.  It's only recently that I've been hugely bothered by chopping onions; I used to have an immunity to the gases they produce, but here lately I've been bawling like a child that's gotten stuck with a safety pin every time I haul out the knife.  

I must take this time to thank Greg for his practical, thoughtful gift of a food processor this past Christmas.  I so love you, babe.  So do my eyes.

"You can't make me cry.  I got away from you, I never thought I would!" - "Oh Father", Madonna

So, with my vegetables chopped and ready to go, I set them, together, in a pan over medium heat and turned my attention to one of the best parts of the meal - the meat.

Ready to saute!

A good tip that I've learned from watching enough cooking shows (specifically, the America's Test Kitchen people); dry your meat off before you lay it in your cooking device.  Why is this?  I've seen it myself; if the meat is still wet when you lay it in a hot pan, all it's going to do is steam, not sear.  Drying it is essential if you want a good "crust" of flavor.  I've tried this myself, and again they're correct - it really does improve the overall taste if you dry it beforehand.  All you need is a paper towel or two.

You'll be amazed how much will sop up from meat if you try this technique.

So, after melting some butter in the pot (you could probably also use olive oil here if you wanted, but I was following the actual recipe being used), I added the meat and let it sear for a couple of minutes.  My little Le Creuset stockpot worked wonders here; it reinforces my unwavering intention to purchase a Dutch oven (which would really have worked here, but you use what you have).  

Love the smell of frying meat in the evening....

The recipe calls for sauteing the vegetables and the meat in the same pan, but you know what?  My crappy frying pans are too small to be doing that, so my way rules.  At least until I can buy some new cookware.  :p

Once the meat is completely browned on all sides, the next step is to add four tablespoons of flour to the pot.  Yes, flour.

I can hear it now.  "Oh my God, what have you DONE?  Eeeeewww!"

The reason for the flour is very simple;  we're creating the sauce for the stroganoff, and flour is the way to thicken it up.  It's not very different from cornstarch or other methods of thickening sauces.  Butter and flour mixed together and browned in a pot is called roux (pronounced roo, like the Winnie the Pooh character) - yes, another of those annoying French cooking terms.  It's described as one of the most important methods of thickening sauces and it's used in many, many recipes around the world.  So what I just did up there is not only a classic move, but a necessary one.  Neener.

At this point, I added the two cans of beef broth, and took the whole mixture for a stir over medium heat.  I left the meat and sauce to bubble on the stove for about 10 minutes or so.  

INTERMISSION - CUE EASY-LISTENING MUSIC HERE

"Let's all go to the lobby... let's all go to the lobby.... let's all go to the lob-BEEEE, to get ourselves a treat!"

END INTERMISSION

After about a ten to fifteen minute wait, I returned to my stove to see that the sauce was bubbling away merrily in the pot.  Note the difference between what it looked like before and how it looks a bit later on in the cooking process:

It's getting there.  But not quite done yet.

By this time, I hope that your vegetables are done (and that you didn't forget about them).  Mushrooms and onions don't take that long to saute; after they release their moisture, they cook up pretty quickly.  Chances are that they've finished sometime during the intermission up there.  At this point, you add the vegetable mixture to the pot and stir.  Your mushrooms should be tender and the onions nicely golden and caramelized.

This is the fun part; now you add the sour cream.  The recipe calls for one cup of sour cream, but I'm a firm believer in "adding to taste", even if it's a vital ingredient such as sour cream.  You do want to be careful not to add too much, as the mixture won't cook up properly and you'll end up with gloppy, loose sauce.  It'll taste a bit "off", as well.  I used about a cup and a half for our concoction below:

The smell, at this point, was unbelievable!

Mix in your sour cream, and heat it over a low-medium setting to let the entire sauce heat through.  While doing this, prepare your egg noodles as directed on the package. 

Any type of pasta will work, though egg noodles are traditional.

I prefer to use Pennsylvania Dutch or Mueller-brand egg noodles, though of course any brand will work.  I'm not really a brand snob (as I had to be in Week #4's recipe); but it is true that sometimes generic-label foods will not work as well or at all in cooking.  It's a fact.  

When the noodles are done, drain them and return to your pot.  A bit of a tip:  save a little bit of your pasta cooking water.  Why?  If your sauce is too "tight" or the pasta won't come apart, adding just a bit of that water will help to loosen things up, and the cooking water contains starches that were boiled out of the pasta.  Very helpful advice, and a tip that's worked for me countless times.

Stir the sauce one more time to re-combine ingredients, then add the noodles and mix together. 

Here's the finished recipe!

My mouth is watering already!

Okay, so now it's time for the Boyfriend's opinion of this delicious-looking beef stroganoff.  What say you, Greg?

"When's dessert?"

Greg's Verdict:  Honestly, he really didn't say much for this one other than "it's good" as he was shoveling it down.  I think that means he liked it.  He did mention that he probably would prefer this dish to be made with ground meat instead of meat pieces; this is definitely a personal preference and can be adjusted to an individual's taste.

My Verdict:  Delicious, and surprisingly easy to make.  Total prep time was less than half an hour, and probably would have been even less if I'd made it as stated with everything in one pot.  I have an affinity for sour cream-based dishes in the first place, but this in particular was very good.  Well worth the time and money spent.  An addition to our repertoire!

Final Score:  8.5 out of 10 

Recipe Cost:  Inexpensive (Less than $10.00 to make)

Time to Make:  Minimal (Under 1 hour)

Original Recipe Found Through:  Allrecipes.com

Week #4: Fluffy Two-Step No-Bake Cheesecake: Plus, News!

There's not much "news" to tell, really, except that I've purchased a Lodge Logic 12-inch Cast Iron Skillet. "Wow," you might be thinking, "how earth-shattering."  It's not - to you, perhaps - but for me and my smaller-than-a-postage-stamp kitchen, it's major news.  I am in the process of phasing out my (now-ruined) non-stick pots and pans, and I've always heard great things about cast iron; that they're superior to any other type of cookware available.  In a few days, we shall see if that's true, though I remember as a child that my family used nothing but those cast iron skillets to make almost everything you can imagine; sauces, steaks, cornbread (and if you've never had real Southern cornbread made in an iron skillet, you are cuisine-impaired, that's all I'll say about it).  I needed a 12-inch skillet because I don't have anything large enough to make stir-fries in, and I will not use an inferior piece of equipment such as a wok for that.

"What?  A wok isn't an inferior piece of equipment!"  I know what you're thinking, I know.  But at least in this country, it is, and Chris Kimball from America's Test Kitchen explained it best as to why:  a wok is made so that its bottom is placed directly over a fire, with the heat curving gently upward to cook the food. In this country, burners are flat - not curved.  Therefore, the heat will not reach the outer portions of the wok, leaving the food raw and uncooked.  And there's nothing worse than a raw stir-fry.  Eeeewww.  So, Kimball explains that a flat skillet, made to fit American stoves, works better and more efficiently.  Makes sense to me.  I've tried it, and he was correct - it does work a lot better.  So, a 12-inch skillet it is.  

Besides, bigger is always better.  Ask your wife or girlfriend;  I bet she'll agree.  :p

One more thing before we get to the recipe this week:  the Love of My Life, otherwise known as our brave taste-tester Greg, has recently begun to experiment in our kitchen himself, something that I am profoundly pleased and grateful for.  Though he hasn't decided on which recipe he would like to tackle for the blog, he has definitely expressed an interest in doing so.  Therefore, G. has been officially elevated to "Occasional Guest Cook" as well as "Incredible Boyfriend" and "Brave Culinary Soul".  Do welcome him when he appears with all of the fanfare that you would provide for me - you know, the mariachi band and the streamers and.... oh, wait, wrong audience.  :p

With that, I now present Week #4's recipe:  Fluffy Two-Step No-Bake Cheesecake.

I had asked Greg what kind of recipe that he wanted me to do this week.  Since we're still in "hunker-down, it's winter mode" in the house, I had thought that maybe he wanted another kind of soup, or something in the realm of "comfort food".  Not this man.  "I want a dessert!   I want something sweet!  Screw this healthy eating stuff, I want sugar!"  This coming from a man that can eat six Dunkin Donuts in a sitting.  Sigh.

All right, so I can roll with this, a dessert he wants so a dessert he shall get.  Since I'm still in the process of getting equipment, it's going to have to be the lazy kind (as I'm well known for, heh).  I do a quick search on Allrecipes and find a no-bake cheesecake, but decided to get a bit more ambitious and make a nice strawberry sauce to top it off.  Two recipes in one post - how lucky can one get?

The ingredients for the cheesecake are simple;  cream cheese, sugar, whipped dessert topping (you know, Cool Whip or similar), and a pie crust.  Most of the time, the good cheesecakes have a graham cracker crust, so that's what I got.  (Yes, I know how to make my own - but this is the "lazy way", remember.)  The strawberry sauce takes... well, yeah, strawberries.  And a bit of sugar and lemon juice.

Can you make a cheesecake out of this???

In order to make the strawberry sauce, I just took about a cup of frozen strawberries, put them in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of sugar, and a bit of lemon juice to give it a bit of acidity (frozen fruit is notoriously sweet, sometimes too much so), then let it simmer gently over a slow, low heat.  

Preparing the strawberry sauce.

The water and juices will release while cooking, and the strawberries will thicken to what is almost a jam-like consistency. 

Mmmm, this looks good!

While the sauce cooked on the stovetop, I started to prepare the cream cheese/sugar filling.  I want to give you a couple of tips concerning this recipe that may help you out, here:

1.  Do not, do not, do not use "inferior" branded cream cheese.  I'm telling you, just don't do it.  Even though it may sting your economic senses to purchase a block or two of Kraft Philadelphia (it did more than sting mine, it outright freaking hurt), the quality of the ingredients here will make the recipe that much better.  You will taste the difference.  I promise you.

2.  Take the time to let the cream cheese soften up.  Don't do what I did and plop it into a bowl with a bunch of sugar.  Not unless you want to be mixing it up for the next thirty minutes.  Like I did.

I am seriously lazy.  

The recipe calls for only 8 ounces (1 block) of cream cheese.  Do not pay any attention to this.  There won't be enough filling to cover your pie crust if you just use one.  Increase the cream cheese to 2 blocks, and the sugar measurement from 1/3 to 2/3 cup.  You'll thank me later - probably while you're eating it.

Twenty minutes of mixing and I get this?  

So, judging by the above photograph, you're probably wondering just how the hell this is going to turn into a delicious (though faux) cheesecake.  Ah, but we're missing an important ingredient; the Cool Whip.  Yes, the same dessert topping that one only buys once a year to slap onto pumpkin pie because people think that makes it taste better.  (Hey:  pumpkin pie is delicious any time of year, with or without creamy whipped stuff.  But I digress.)

I've never seen so much unhealthy stuff in one place before.

So, the recipe instructions now say to "gently fold" the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture.  Yes, the entire tub, people.  This is faux cheesecake, not a spinach and strawberry salad; a ton more of sugar isn't going to make one bit of difference in this case.  Now, when they say "gently fold", that means to delicately turn it over and over with the back of a spoon, not to take a wire whisk and beat the living crap out of it.  It took me a long time to learn the difference.  

Here is the mixture after the whipped topping has been added:

This is beginning to look a lot like.... a dessert.

At this point, there's really nothing more to do than to scrape the filling into the crust, and smooth it out so that it has a nice texture.  Since I currently do not own a rubber scraper (yet another thing to place on the "must buy this" list), I was at a loss as to how I was going to straighten out the top so that it didn't look like I just dumped it all out into a plate.  Then.... an idea appeared unto me.  It was so fantastic that I hadn't even thought about it.

A spreader.

It looks for all the world like something to beat your spouse with, doesn't it.

I had purchased a small "starter" Wusthof knife set, and this spreader came in the package.  I remember looking at it and thinking to myself, "I am never going to use that for anything, what a ridiculous item to put in this set."  But the Great Knife Gods at Wusthof apparently knew that I was going to make dessert items and would eventually need something to spread frosting and fillings with.  Bless their sharp-edged little hearts!

Here is the (almost) finished product:

T-minus 3 hours and counting....

At this point, you refrigerate both the cheesecake and the strawberry sauce for at least three hours.  This will give it time for the filling to set and the flavors to meld.

I then went upstairs and had my heart broken as the Ravens lost the AFC Championship game to the New England Patriots, 23 to 20.  Good try, guys.  Maybe next year.  :(

Three hours and one football game later....

One faux cheesecake with strawberry sauce.  Ohhh, yeah.

And now... here's Greg, with this week's verdict.  What did you think of this recipe, babehdoll?

"I was licking the top of the pie plate before she got downstairs."

Greg's Verdict:  "The sauce was a little tart, and there was a bit more of a citrusy flavor that I'd expected, but it was still good.  As for the cheesecake itself.... I think I'm going to have to have a couple more slices, though, to be sure."

My Verdict:  I don't remember this cheesecake tasting quite that "light", to be honest.  It's not going to be anything remotely like a real New York style cheesecake (which I do plan to eventually make), but it's a nice substitute and easy if you want something rich-tasting.  The sauce, in my opinion, was perfect, but I do like my sauces a bit on the "tart" side.  I think that I'll try my hand at a "real" New York style cheesecake next time, though.

Final Score:

Cheesecake:  7 out of 10  (Not quite the real thing.... but good enough.)

Strawberry Sauce:  7.5 out of 10  (Lost points for "tartness"; we have differing opinions on this one.)

Recipe Cost:  Moderate (between 10 and 20 dollars, due to the brand-name cream cheese that has to be used with this recipe)

Time to Make:  Moderate (More than 3 hours, however most of the time is due to the cooking method required.  Little prep work.)

Original Recipe Found Through:  Allrecipes.com (Cheesecake).  Strawberry Sauce recipe literally made up on the fly in my head - contact me if you want it.

Blog Improvements and Brief Commentary.

First, I just would like to express my overwhelming surprise and appreciation for all of the recent readers this blog has picked up just in the last couple of weeks.  I am truly delighted that you are all interested in my culinary adventures!  I like to believe that I'm providing a bit of a service by trying these recipes out and sharing my personal experiences with them; it may in the end save you time, money and hassle.  That's a benefit and a bonus of doing this blog.  So, Greg and I thank you very much for your readership!  Feel free to spread the word about 52ayear.org; we love doing this and if we entertain, that's a definite plus.

I just want to alert you to a couple of minor changes; it's mainly doing a bit more "setup" on the blog itself, such as links and other sites of interest.  I've provided a few links to some of my favorite cooking shows over the years.  I particularly have fond memories of "Yan Can Cook" and "The Frugal Gourmet", two of the very first cooking shows I ever watched.  As a young child, I was fascinated with Martin Yan's knife work; I could never figure out just how he could chop vegetables in a simple blur.  Even at the age of nearly 39, I still can't figure it out.

I will say that PBS is the source of most of my favorite cooking shows; without public television, I wouldn't be nearly as interested in this hobby as I am, and I consider it a valuable resource for American society.  If you watch a lot of public television, consider a small donation to your local station; with the economy the way it is, they're really hurting badly right now, and could use all of the help they can get.

I have also provided links to brands of cooking equipment that I prefer to use, such as Le Creuset, Oxo, KitchenAid, and others.  Don't take that as a hint, however (though if you want to send me some lovely appliances, I sure won't argue with you).  I provide these with the hope that you will see the worth in these brands.  They really are considered some of the best in the culinary scene.

Again, Greg and I thank you for your continued support of this blog.  As long as you all keep reading, we'll keep cooking!

Week #3: Tomato Bisque

This week's experiment can be somewhat credited to my friend Jennifer, who was nice enough to share a new recipe site with me called Skinnytaste.  (Though some may not consider sending a friend a recipe site designed to help you lose weight "nice", but a backhanded slap in the mouth.  Knowing Jennifer like I do, it was a nice backhanded slap in the mouth.  We're kinky like that.)

Anyhow, I got to looking at the site and said to myself, "Hey.  Great recipes here.  I should try one or two of them."  After consulting with the Love of My Life, we determined that a good, hot pot of soup was just what we needed after a frighteningly cold week here in the Mid-Atlantic.  I make a lot of soup and chili in the winter, so I didn't have to be convinced too much.

And, so, I now present Week #3's recipe:  Tomato Bisque.

The ingredients for this soup are a bit different than the old recipe I had;  in my old recipe, you use a lot of half-and-half and butter.  This incarnation, however, promised a lot of flavor with very little fat; according to the recipe on the site, there are only 125 calories in 2 cups' worth of soup.  Huh.  We'll see about that, won't we.

Preparing for soup goodness.

The basic items for this soup are the usual mirepoix (a cup each of carrots, celery and onions), a box of chicken broth, about a tablespoon of butter (or in my case, the bad stuff, Shedd's Spread; one hundred percent evil, I tell you), a 28 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes, bay leaves, basil leaves, 3 cloves of garlic, and 2 tablespoons of sour cream.  (Yes, there is an extra can of tomato sauce in there.  The recipe actually calls for 30 ounces of "fresh" tomatoes.  It's the middle of winter here; even if I had a garden, which I don't, I'm going to get sweet F.A. for fresh tomatoes this time of the year.  So a 28 ounce can of tomatoes plus an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce will just have to do.  Neener.)

Since I had an extra container of celery and onions from my sojourn at Whole Foods a week ago, I decided to use them up, along with the baby carrots.  Note that the celery and onions are pre-cut; nevertheless, I took them for a spin in the food processor, along with the carrots.  

Why does the best tasting food look like utter crap when you first fix it?

The next step was to saute the mirepoix and the crushed garlic cloves in my Le Creuset stockpot until the vegetables were soft and slightly browned.  (Side note:  my stockpot is currently the only LC piece I own.  It is the best cooking utensil ever.  Expensive... but worth every cent.)  Note:  I really did only stick to three cloves of garlic here.  After last week's garlic-infused fiasco, I learned my lesson well.  (Though I just finished that hummus off Friday night - and God help me if I did NOT love it as it was.  I might do it again just the same way, even if my breath is enough to make dogs collapse for blocks around.)

The Le Creuset in a rare action shot!

After sauteing the vegetables for about 10 minutes, I added the chicken broth, tomato sauce, and whole tomatoes.  I will say here that using whole peeled tomatoes was probably a bit of a mistake; I had to fish each tomato out with a slotted spoon and break them up in order to get any kind of action started as far as the soup was concerned.  As you can see in the shot below, the soup simply looked like chicken broth with big red dumplings in the middle of it before I broke the tomatoes up:

Before:  I don't even want to say what those red balls look like.  Seriously.

And, the aftermath of tomato violence:

After:  Yes, Officer.  I confess.  I'm a veggie murderer.

Moral of the story, children:  Crushed tomatoes are probably a better bet here, if you're going to use stuff out of cans.  As for using garden-fresh tomatoes, I don't know how that would work, really.  Perhaps when tomato season comes around, I'll try.  Or maybe not; I'm known for being pretty lazy.  :p

At this point, you add 2 bay leaves and basil.  The recipe says to use 10 basil leaves, but as usual I didn't have what it requested.  I have crushed basil, not whole; so I decided to pinch between my fingers, and add as much as I thought 10 whole leaves would be.  Hey; sometimes you have to improvise.

I then put the lid on the stockpot and left the whole lot simmering for 30 minutes while I watched the San Francisco 49ers beat the crap out of the New Orleans Saints for a bit. 

I came back to a very flavorful, steaming broth base.  Since that was a success, the next step was remove the bay leaves, then to puree the soup using an immersion blender (which the recipe recommends); since I don't as of yet have one of these handy devices, I tried blending it together in my food processor.  Which... sort of worked, but not quite.  My food processor is a small one, very apropos for two people, but it's not designed to puree almost half a gallon of tomato bisque.  I had to ladle the broth out seven times to get it all done, dirtying a Pyrex mixing bowl, my countertop, and accidentally spilling a bit into the base of my Keurig coffee machine (something that I consider sacred, heh).  

Immersion blender on my next paycheck.  Count on it.

The last step is to puree 2 tablespoons of sour cream into the soup.  Repeat, I don't have one.  So I decided that an old-fashioned whisk would do just as well.

Two tablespoons of sour cream?  Let me stop laughing now.

After whisking the called-for amount of sour cream, I looked down at my soup and said, out loud, "This is about as far from bisque as you can imagine."  And proceeded to put in about four more ounces, whisking it quickly in order to avoid it lumping up.

So much for that 125 calories, huh.

In the end, this is the finished product:

Someday I'll have better display dishes than Tupperware.  -_-

You can add a touch more basil if you want, or a bit of Parmigiano cheese on top, though they're not really needed;  it's more for garnish than anything (and I can't see spending 15 dollars a pound on a topping, so sorry).  

So it's now time for the verdict.  What do you say, oh, Love of My Life?

You should have seen the face he tried to pull before THIS shot.

Greg's Verdict:  "This is pretty good.  I like the fact that there's a bit of texture in it; it's not perfectly smooth or bland.  There's a bit of a garlicky flavor, but it's not overwhelming.  And it tastes great on a cold winter night."

My Verdict:  This is probably the best recipe I have made yet for this blog.  The bisque was very fresh-tasting, with no hint of artificial flavoring.  The vegetables did not process the entire way, leaving tiny bits and pieces; this might be a sticking point with some, but for both myself and Greg, we liked it that way.  The amount of sour cream was exactly right for us; two tablespoons would have been way too little.  

This is the first recipe made for this blog that has had zero leftovers!

Second helping.  There goes the last of my experiment!

Final Score:  10 of 10  (The absolute best.)

Recipe Cost:  Inexpensive (Less than $10.00 to make)

Time to Make:  Minimal (Under 1 hour)

Original Recipe Found Through:  Skinnytaste