foot injury and one last hurrah.

so it's wednesday night and i'm excited about seeing the handsome devilz - yes, a smiths cover band. they were playing with mr. gray - a joy division cover band. so great. so we get off the train and we're walking towards the club when i fall of a broken sidewalk and hit the ground hard. glasses go flying, i cut my leg and i'm dying. it hurts so bad. BUT i must see the smiths so i keep going limping. but suddenly i can't take it anymore and my sandal is too tight and i make it to a bus stop bench and hold back the tears. after calling everyone we know with a car and getting all of their voicemails i hopped back to the train and mogan carried me down the stairs. fast forward to drinking a corona and crying about how i can't afford to go to the doctor.

now i'm working from home and the only thing i've eaten is the soup that alicia left on my back porch - thanks girl. this is my way of saying that i won't be cooking for a while. since my cooking style involves flying around the kitchen, forgetting ingredients and burning myself it will be a while before i can get in there without my stupid stupid crutches.

i'm very sad but i will be back soon after the wedding probably. but i got a new wok set and a mandolin so far so we'll be cooking soon.

watch out for cracks in the sidewalk!

love,
keighty

p.s before i broke myself i made roasted green pepper and ricotta raviolis.

to roast the peppers simply light them on fire. the easiest cooking technique! turn on your store and just put the pepper right on the fire. keep turning it to get all the skin nice and charred. once it's all black, put them in a zip lock bag, get the air out and seal it. let it steam for a few minutes. then rinse the peppers and peel off the charred skin. it should come right off. save the green parts. once you have all the green bits, chop them up into tiny, mushy pieces. throw in a bowl with a few spoons of ricotta, salt and pepper and mix together. then put in the 'fridge for later.

pasta dough.

3 1/2 cups flour
3 eggs
a tiny bit of water
1 tsp olive oil

make a well with the flour. in a separate bowl beat the eggs. pour the eggs and oil into the well. then slowly incorporate mixture. add water to make the dough form. use a little - you can always add more, but don't use too much! once you get a dough, knead it for a while. cover and let it rest for 30 minutes. roll out dough on a floured surface roll out the dough as thin as you can. if you have a pasta roller - get that crap out and use it. use a biscuit cutter and cut out circles. each circle has a partner so make enough! fill each circle with just enough filling. don't overfill because they'll explode everywhere. top with the partner circle and crimp with a fork. let rest, covered, while you make the sauce

milk

two pinches of flour
3 tbs butter
salt and pepper
pasta sauce - preferably tomato mountain brand

pour milk into a pan - the amount that you need for sauce - maybe a cup. add butter and flour. whisk together on high heat. keep whisking and watching while it boils and reduces until it is the thickness that you want. add pasta sauce and whisk together. serve on top of the raviolis.

enjoy.

polish day - blueberry perogi...

in honour of blueberry season denise and i made blueberry perogi! these are the polish answer to the potsticker. they make denise so excited and they're really delicious.

i learned her secret family recipe but can't repeat it - because it's in polish.

the only problem is is that it's all polish - measurements etc... but denise says you have to go to a polish grocery store and get all the ingredients... no english! except we used mick klug's blueberries. $20 for a 5lb box!


from watching her i can figure that the english translation is this.

1/2 kilo flour
1 egg
2 cups warm water
4 tsp oil
a pinch of salt (but we forgot that)

you can make whatever filling you want. obviously we chose blueberries. we filled a bowl with blueberries and coat them well with sugar.... polish sugar, and let it sit in the 'fridge.

mix is like you're making pasta. start with flour and make a well in the middle. add egg. then slowly add water a little at a time while you slowly incorporate it all into the flour. keep doing that until you have a dough. onto a floured surface drop this dough and roll as thin as you can. get a biscuit cutter and cut out circles. fill each circle with a bit of filling, fold them, and crimp the edges with a water-wetted fork (like ravioli).
boil a bit pot of water. once you have a rolling boil drop in a few perogi. and just like raviolis they will pop to the top of the pot when they're done. let cool for a few minutes and eat!

if you want to be extra fancy make some whipped cream to go on top.

1 pint heavy whipping cream
powdered sugar
vanilla

pour the whipping cream in a bowl and pour about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar. (i don't actually know the measurements for the sugar and vanilla. just keep tasting it. if it tastes like milk, add more). start whisking - fast. keep doing it until it's whipped cream. you can also you a hand mixer or a stand up mixer if you have one.

enjoy!

love,
keighty

fancy mac and cheese

mac and cheese is one of my favorite dishes. and you can still have it if you've given up shopping at the super market or eating food out of boxes. all mac and cheese doesn't start with elbow macaroni and powder cheese! phew.

first i want to take a moment to share my knowledge of macaroni. i am in super debt from the culinary school escapade so let me use what i learned! macaroni is the name for dried pasta, as opposed to fresh pasta. fresh being pasta that you make, let sit for a second, then throw in the pot. that pasta takes 30 seconds to cook, dried pasta, as you know takes longer. if you've never made your own pasta is incredible. it tastes ridiculous and, like baking bread, gives you this sense of wonder and excitement that you created something that you thought you only buy at the store. no one makes bread or pasta, they buy it! but someone made it and you can too! but for the time being we'll use this great pasta that i found at august that is made in chicago. you can also you pasta puttana but it's not bite-sized. 

all that to say, mac and cheese is just dried pasta and cheese. so you don't have to limit yourself to elbow macaroni and cheddar cheese. just because kraft says that's mac and cheese does not mean that's the only way. plus kraft says a lot of things that aren't true. so let's leave them now. 

pasta - penne is my favorite - i think it stems back to this time in my life when i would go to the market city caffe with my friend natalie and have fancy lunches. back when we worked so much and had nothing to spend our money on because we didn't drive and had no bills. we would always order chicken penne with cream sauce, no broccoli, every time. plus i really don't like slurping up spaghetti, it's unlady like. 

cheese sauce...

i got this recipe in an hilarious place. from a 'friends' cookbook. like the tv show. there are a lot of stupid recipes in there but this one is really great.

1 cup milk

3 tbs butter

1 1/2 tbs flour

1 1/2 lb of cheese -- any kind! i used a mixture of this ridic goat cheese and some cheddar

dash of cayenne pepper

start boiling the water for pasta.

heat up milk in a small pan.

melt butter in another pan until foamy. 

add pasta to water.

stir in flour and cook for two minutes.

slowly whisk in milk, until smooth.

continue cooking on low heat until mixture turns to cream (about five minutes)

add cheese, salt and pepper to taste and a little cayenne. 

drain pasta. put back in pot and pour cheese all over it! 

for extra fanciness add tuna! this is a far cry from laurel's m'n'c dinner  but it is equal if not better in taste... 

enjoy!

love,

keighty

appetizers for dinner.

i should apologize for my long absence. my sister, julie, was diagnosed with polycystic kidneys , i had bridal showers in california, i'm having a terrible time feeling comfortable in my own home. a lot of things have been going on with work. needless to say i've still been cooking so i'm going to update all my most recent dishes.


i got this cookbook called 'plates to share' and it's full of dinner menus that are made up of appetizer sized portions - a whole bunch of them.

for dinner i made mini pissaladieres - essentially mini french pizzas. this is the night i learned my family does not eat green olives but at the time i thought everyone did.

9oz frozen puff pastry (i do use frozen even though i make a lot of bread but puff pastry takes soooo long to make, yes all those Os are necessary.)
 1 1/2 lbs yellow onions, thinly sliced - in season right now, delish.
5 tbs olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs white wine vinegar
1 tbs dried herbes de provence
2 1/2 anchovy fillets, halved lengthwise (i actually skipped these, not because i don't like them, because i do! but because they were $10 at the store. plus raul and alisa probably would have taken them off anyway)
a small handful of green olives (or olive of your choice)
salt and pepper
grated havarti cheese (i added this. the nuttiness of the cheese mixed with the sweet onions and salty olives was perfect)

preheat oven to 400 degrees.
unroll pastry dough and use a pastry cutter to stamp out 20 circles. (i do have a pastry cutter but if you don't you can also use a drinking glass or something else round. you can even cut them out yourself with a pastry wheel aka. a pizza cutter) refrigerate until needed.
heat olive oil in a large sauce pan (actually a small pot, not a frying pan - confusing!). add onions and season will with salt and pepper. cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. add garlic, sugar and vinegar. reduce heat and gently saute for about 20 minutes until onions have caramelized. remove pan from heat.
Place the pastry circles on baking sheets and divide the onion between them.
arrange the anchovies (if you have those) on top, sprinkle with herbs and add a few olives.
here's where you grate a little cheese on top. you can do it again after they come out of the oven if you want.
bake for 25 minutes or until crisp.

i served this with fried bananas and zucchini.

the fried bananas are not really fried but i don't know what else to call them.

chop a banana into bite sized pieces. i used a real banana, not a plantain.
heat up a little bit of olive oil in the pan.
add bananas, placing them in there, rather than having a big pile. make sure each piece is touching the bottom of the pan.
sprinkle with sugar and salt and pepper.
flip them and repeat sprinkling.
serve warm.

i did the same thing with the squash.


hope you have the best dinner.

love, keighty

mini vacation for raul's birthday.

raul had his birthday last sunday. my dad was in town and we had a bunch of people over for dinner and it was too busy to make dinner. so my present to raul was a date night. a night away from the kids. simultaneously, raul got a great review at work, got a raise and a bonus! we went on hotwire to get the next cheap hotel room downtown. we found one for $90 at the swissotel right on the lake on the 29th floor!. we made a fancy dinner and packed it in tupperware, bought some champagne and then we got on the train to check into the hotel. it was a really nice night and that hotel is super fancy.

anyway here's the menu for the fancy birthday dinner.

portabella bella mushroom, chicken, squash quesadillas with a little spice
pan roasted potatoes with onions
homemade ranch dressing with assorted veg
fruit salad ala mick klug farms

quesadillas

1/2 squash - zucchini, chopped
2 small chicken breasts
1 portabella mushroom, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, fine dice
4 taco sized tortillas
grated cheese.
refried beans 1/4 can
3 tbs butter

melt 1 tbs butter in sautee pan. sautee veg. add jalapeno, stir well. you don't want one giant bite of jalapeno... or maybe you do if you're raul. set aside
cook chicken however you see fit - grill, bake, or pan fry like i did (p.s pan fry does not mean fry... this isn't kfc in other words, just cooked in a pan) set aside
lay out tortillas and layer the beans and top with the rest of the fixin's top with cheese. fold tortilla in half. repeat two other times.
melt 1 tbs butter in sautee pan and place two quesadillas in the pan and brown both sides. repeat with the last bit of butter and the last two quesadillas.
cut the quesas in half.

ranch dressing

1 cup milk
1 cup mayonaise
1 tbs chopped parsely
3 cloves garlic, chopped
salt n' pepp

mix it all together and refrigerate.

potatoes and onions.

self explanatory but just don't rush it. let potatoes and onions cook as long as they need on low heat.

by the time we got the hotel the food was a little less than warm but it was still good so when you make it at home and eat it hot it'll taste even better.

taste update.

everyone knows about my distain for fennel. it tastes like black licorice and tell me who would like that? last week i got a giant fennel bulb in my csa. not knowing what to do with it i just left it in the 'fridge. this week i got another one. in our newsletter the farmer told us to roast them and that they'll caramelize and taste sweet. i was very suspicious but i thought, why not just try it. i had nothing to lose. 

so tonight, i tried it. and it, my friends, was delicious. i'm in love with roasted fennel. it's so sweet and crispy with a bitter taste on the back of your tongue. it was great on my mushroom burger too. after dinner i sat there eating the ones that didn't make it onto that tiny burger. 

anyway, i have seen the light and it is roasted fennel. 

just chop some fenn up, drizzle olive oil, salt and pepp that bitch and roast on 400 for 20ish minutes. then eat straight or put on anything. 

i feel like i'm just starting to live. fennel, who would've thought?

girls night in.

wednesday night is man night. this is the night that chris, mogan, raul and les, and occasionally kelley, meet and talk man secrets.

tonight alisa and i took advantage of not having any boys and made a fabulous dinner.

in our csa we've been getting portabella mushrooms. they're huge and ridiculously tasty. so we decided on portabella mushroom "burgers" with coleslaw.

alisa made the coleslaw which from my angle was made like this...

there is some amount of the following ingredients. i'm sure you can just mix it together until it tastes right...

red cabbage
carrots
mayonnaise
apple cider vinegar - not too much of this, i'm guessing, or it'll be too runny
salt n' pepp

so good.

i took care of the rest.

portabella mushroom 'burger'

hamburger buns - ol' standby
(actually this time they were really doughy and dense - yeast was probably dead, my bad)

i roasted some veg - zucchini (my new favorite thing), onions, fennel.

you need to marinate the mushrooms!

2 cloves garlic, chopped.
2 tbl balsamic vinegar
6 tbl olive oil
thyme (didn't use it)
salt n' peppa.

put mushrooms on sheet pan and slather up one side with the delish dressing. roast for a little while then flip and slather other side. we roasted all the veg and the mushrooms on one pan since we don't like to do dishes.

slice buns. add fixin's. serve.

easy as pie.

follow up with a leisurely cigarette break on the balcony.


in other news i made these granola bars and you know, they were really good. my co-worker, mary, loves them so i bring them to the markets for her. they're really easy to store. the only thing is is that i added dark chocolate bits but they melted so it looks all smushy. it still tastes good though. i'm not sure when you would add chocolate so it didn't melt. i'll let you know what i figure it out.


sending my best.

love,
keighty

just a little news update.

last night i just made some chicken with some csa food. 
roasted red potatoes and some red lettuce. delish. 


but this post is really for this:


“Factory farms have already forced out many small producers by lowering the price that farmers are paid for chickens and pigs. The tough economic times are hitting everyone hard and many farmers are losing their contracts. The USDA has bought up surplus pork, chicken and eggs for nutrition and school lunch programs to absorb some of the over-supply, but still, the agency continues to back loans for new factory farms.”

                     -food and water watch


the money is behind factory farms but let's change that. it seems overwhelming and that we could never change the farm lobbies. but like they said in food, inc. we thought that about the tobacco lobbies but we stopped them. 


to read more and sign petitions etc. click here 

love,
keighty