The Pioneer Woman Rocks!

Posted in The Pioneer Woman on November 23, 2009 by loveisaverb

Yesterday was a big day for me and my friend Kimmy. We met The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond! Her recipes on The Pioneer Woman Cooks are responsible for this cheeseburger around my waist. Well that and my absolute lack of will power. *sigh*

Anyway, Kimmy stalked her site and found out that she was going to stopping in LA for her book signing tour, so we knew that was going to be our chance to meet her and convince her that we should be her BFFs. I’m not sure we were successful in that endeavor, but we did get to take pictures of and with her, and I’m sure Kimmy would agree that she is as lovely and and funny as we expected her to be.

Excited! And dorky!

Could they be any cuter? I’m pretty sure not.

Can you believe she is THIN? I know, me either. I mean COME ON.

So, for the book signing part…here’s how I expected it to go down. She would be sitting at that table you see above, and each person would walk by the front of the table, hand her their book(s), she would sign it and say “Thank you for coming!” and we’d scoot off and squee about how cute she was. But no! She had everyone come over and sit down next to her, and she chatted! For minutes! With everyone! Now, that wasn’t all that much good news when you were 75th in line, as the ladies in front of and behind us were happy to share every five minutes, but I knew that meant that we would also get the minutes sitting with her, and I was super ok fine waiting for my turn.

Also, props to Borders Torrance. They had the whole thing organized very well, but the smartest thing they did was have an employee dedicated to stand in front of the table and take pictures with the camera of whoever was visiting with her. It was great! I, of course, forgot my camera (because, you know, that’s how I roll), but Kimmy had her iphone, so the guy took pictures of both her time with Ree, as well as mine.

I know, I’m adorable. You don’t have to say it. I’m sure I was telling her how fffabulous she is, or how she’s my fffavorite fffood blogger, or that it was fffantastic being able to meet her.

Yet another reason she’s awesome. I told her that in ten minutes of her answering questions, she had completely inspired me to start posting to my food blog again. And she asked me to write down the address so she could visit the site! Here’s where I admit the embarrassing fact that I was actually SHAKING, I was so nervous, and have no idea if she will be able to read what I wrote down.  But she asked. And that was cool.

All of us, wee!
I sure wish I would have thought to crop these pictures before just now.

So that was our visit with The Pioneer Woman. Did I forget anything, Kimmy? OH, I know, I want to say one more thing that doesn’t involve oohing and ahhing over P-Dub. I just wanna give a shout out to Baby E. He was SO GOOD. Three hours we were in that bookstore, standing in one line or another, and he was as patient and sweet as he could be. Even after bonking his head, AND with us having forgotten his snacks in the car. What a trooper!

Thanks, Kimmy and PW, for a super-fun evening. Time to snuggle up with my newest and already favoritest cookbook. The kids can get their own dang breakfast!

Fruit Pizza

Posted in Other People's Recipes, Summatime, vegetarian on November 2, 2009 by loveisaverb

It’s been awhile since I’ve made a fruit pizza. But I ran across this picture today and immediately remembered how incredible the flavor of this sweet, fruity dessert is! While it’s fairly time consuming, the reason I don’t make it more often for special occasions or taking to guests is honestly because fruit is so dang expensive!

fruitpizza1

I love when food is pretty.

Here is the link to the recipe I used: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fruit-Pizza-II/Detail.aspx

Hmm…now that I think about it…my birthday is coming up (39–yikes)! I think that’s a SUPER special occasion that deserves a super special dessert…don’t you?

Moi’s Ceviche

Posted in Main Dish, Other People's Recipes, Summatime, seafood on May 30, 2009 by loveisaverb

First off, if you don’t know Moi, you should. And if you don’t have the opportunity to know him or his awesome wife Lori-Lynn personally, you should at least know about his music. So, before you go any further into this post, go here:

Moi Music

Download the NYC Sessions. Then come back here. Your reward will be some incredible tunes in your ear holes, and a recipe created by Moi himself.

moiscevicheMoi’s Ceviche

2 pounds imitation Crab
3 tomatoes diced
½ red onion chopped very thin
1/3 of a bunch of cilantro chopped
2 avocados chopped
5-6 limes
Salt and pepper
Tapatio or hot sauce of your choice (optional)
tostadas, or tortilla chips

Combine all ingredients. Squeeze lime juice over the entire mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over tostadas or with chips, top with hot sauce. Then, when you’re full, try and stop eating.

Just try.

Kung Pao Tofu with Honey-Roasted Peanuts and Asparagus

Posted in Main Dish, adventurous, vegetarian on May 29, 2009 by loveisaverb

Here’s a little something for my vegemetarian friends. Or for those who just like something hearty but are  frankly just a little sick of meat. And if you think tofu is yuck, you just haven’t had it the right way yet. Try it again.

I have this great vegetarian cookbook by this lady named Crescent Dragonwagon. Please, don’t even ask me. She’s wacky. But I do love her recipes! I will say though, most of her recipes take a little more time and effort than most are willing to put forth on a typical weekday.

But ohh, mmm, is this ever worth it.

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A couple of things before I post the recipe. It’s called “Kung Pao Tofo with Honey-Roasted Peanuts and Asparagus”. As you can see, there are no honey-roasted peanuts nor asparagus to be seen. This is because I had neither on hand. So I went without the peanuts and substituted green beans for the asparagus. Just think of how amazing it will be when you do it right?? Honestly though, no one in this house but me likes asparagus, so I may always make it with the greenie beanies. And I’ll for sure top it with peanuts, although maybe just some regular roasted ones. I’m not so much with the fancy.

Alllllllllll of that being said…here is the recipe (Source: Passionate Vegetarian cookbook, by Crescent Dragonwagon):

Kung Pao Tofu with Asparagus and Honey-Roasted Peanuts.

For the tofu: 1-24 hours prior to making this dish, you will need to marinade your tofu. Here is the recipe made specifically for this dish, which will give you tofu that is crispy on the outside, and perfect on the inside:

3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 T mirin (Japanese rice wine–not to be confused with rice vinegar)
2 T cornstarch
1/2 t salt
Freshly ground pepper
16 oz firm tofu, drained if necessary (some tofu comes vacuum sealed without water), cut into fat strips–about 1/2″ thick.

In a bowl, combine everything but the tofu and mix well. Add tofu, making sure each piece gets coated. (I wouldn’t do this in a big baggie, because the tofu will likely fall apart.) If only marinading 1 hour, let stand at room temp. If longer, put into refrigerator.

The rest:

2/3 c vegetable stock
3 T tamari or soy sauce
2 T mirin or dry sherry
1 T +plus 1 t of sugar or honey
1 T plus 2 t cornstarch
1 T peanut oil (or veg oil)
4-6 dried red chiles (optional)
2 T plus 1 t peeled and finely chopped ginger
1 lb fresh asparagus (snap off woody ends) or green beans (snipped) cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 c water or additonal stock
1 bunch scallions, white and green parts, sliced (green parts can be sliced in 3/4 inch lengths
1/3 c honey-roasted peanuts
Cooking spray
Hot brown rice (sure you can use white, but why would you?)

Preheat oven to 500F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, or line with parchment. Lay out tofu strips in a single layer. Bake until browned and lightly crisped on the bottom, 10-15 mins, then flip and bake until golden brown, about another 5-10 mins.

While tofu is baking, combine the stock, tamari, mirin, sugar and cornstarch, mooshing the cornstarch into the liquid with your fingertips to make a smooth sauce.

Prepare a mise en place tray with the sauce, tofu (once it’s ready), and all remaining ingredients, each in it’s own little bowl. Set tray near the stove. Spray a wok or skillet that has a tightly fitting lid with nonstick spray.

Add oil to pan and turn on high heat. Let it get very, very  hot. If you are using chiles, add now and stir-fry for one minute until they darken. Quickly scoop them out with a slotted spoon, leaving as much oil in the pan as possible. Place back in their bowl on the “mise” tray.

You know, now that I am typing this out, I’m realizing that you could skip the chiles and just use the Mongolian Fire Oil you can find in the Asian aisle of most supermarkets. Either replace the oil with it entirely, or use half peanut-half fire oil, depending on your heat tolerance. Of course, if you want to use the chiles later in the final dish, you’ll want to do it the way the recipe states.

K so now you’ve got your hot chili-infused oil, right? Add your ginger and garlic to the pan and stir-fry until they color slightly, about 10-20 seconds. It will want to stick, but you just keep stirring and scraping. Add asparagus or green beans and stir-fry for 10 seconds, then add the water and immediately pop the cover onto the pan. Let steam over very high heat until the asparagus or beans is crisp-tender and water has almost evaporated, about 3-5 mins. Remove lid and let any remaining water boil off, which it will do quickly. As soon as the last bit of water is gone, toss in the scallions and stir-fry for 20 seconds. Give the sauce mixture a vigorous stir to blend in the cornstarch again, and pour it into the hot wok. Cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce becomes a clear, very thick glaze, about 30 seconds. Continue stirring for a few seconds more, adding the overn-crisped tofu and honey-roasted (or not) peanuts.

Serve hot, ASAP, over brown rice.  Love.

P.S. If you want to make the best brown rice you’ve ever stuffed into your head, stay tuned. That’s next.

Wild Rice Salad with Feta Dressing

Posted in Side Dish with tags , , on May 26, 2009 by loveisaverb

I really, really love this rice dish. Because it’s a cold salad, I find that I typically only think to make it in the spring and summer. But honestly, it would be great any time of the year. The wild rice is firm but deliciously chewy, the veggies are crunchy and the dressing is tangy. There’s a lot going on, but not in a way that’s overwhelming. To make an awesome dish even more…awesomer–it’s beautiful!

WRS05

Not to mention super easy to make. If you’re not bothered by a bit of chopping.

For the rice:

Boil 6 cups of chicken broth, or 1/2 broth 1/2 water. Add half a cup of long grain brown rice and half cup of wild rice, and boil for about 30-35 minutes or until brown rice is tender and wild rice is chewy. Drain, saving cooking liquid. Rinse the rice, drain again, cool.

WRC01

While that’s cooking or cooling, get your knife. finely chop 1 – 2 stalks of celery and a half cup of carrot. Not so finely chop a half of a medium sized red bell pepper, a couple of tomatoes, and thinly slice a couple of green onions, white and green parts. Put them in a bowl and mix together. Pretty already, no?

WRS03

Next chop 4-6 asparagus stalks and about 3/4 cups broccoli. I probably go closer to one cup, because I love the stuff. Bring your rice broth back to a boil and blanch asparagus and broccoli for 3 minutes.

WRS02

If you chop your broccoli and asparagus on the same cutting board you used for the raw veggies and don’t wipe it off, your pot of green veggies should look like mine. Drain liquid and add to your bowl of raw veggies, along with your cooled rice.

WRS06

Lastly, make your dressing. To a bowl add a half teaspoon of crushed garlic, 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, and 3/4 of a teaspoon of dried, crushed oregano. Whisk together while adding about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Or leave it out if you want a lower fat version. I would leave it in though. Olive oil is good for you. Then add your feta, about 1/4 cup or so, mashing up the bigger chunks with your whisk. It should look a little like this:

WRS04

Gross.  Don’t worry, though. It mixes in. In fact, go ahead and do that now.

Normally it would be done now, and  I’d just dig into the bowl with a large spoon (not really.) (ok maybe once.), but as this was going to a barbecue, I prettied it up a little by adding some more feta and a sprig of fresh oregano.

WRS07

This is serious summer yum.

Recipe: Wild Rice with Feta Cheese Dressing

6 cups chicken stock or ½ stock ½ water
1/2 cup wild rice
1/2 cup white rice
4-6 medium asparagus, chopped
1 cup chopped broccoli
1-2 stalk celery, chopped
1/2 cup chopped carrot
2 green onions, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2  sweet red pepper, chopped

Dressing
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
2 T lemon juice
2 T red wine vinegar
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
3/4 tsp dried oregano
3 T olive oil

1. In saucepan, bring stock to boil; add wild and white rice and reduce heat.  Cover and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes or until just tender.  Drain, reserving cooking liquid. Rinse rice with cold water, drain again, and place in serving bowl.

2. Blanch asparagus and broccoli in boiling water.  Add to bowl along with celery, carrot, green onions, red pepper and tomato; mix well.

3. Dressing: In small bowl, whisk together garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, cheese, oregano and oil until well combined.  Pour over rice mixture and mix well.  Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Beef Korokke

Posted in Not A Recipe on May 23, 2009 by loveisaverb

First, please understand. It hurts me to my core that I can’t actually eat like this anymore. At almost forty, gone are the days of deep fried anything that doesn’t immediately turn into +3 on the scale the next day. Neither do I make these for my husband, and my kids get them maybe twice a year. They are so good they’ll make you want to smack your mama, so please be sure she’s out of the room when you take your first bite.

Beef karokke is…well, let’s put it this way. If an American comfort food-aholic and a brilliant Japanese person got together and decided to create something in the kitchen, this is what they would make.

The thing about this recipe is that I don’t really have a recipe for it. I will do my best to give you guidelines, but you may have to refer to the pictures, or any number of recipes you can find online. I’ll source some down below.

Here are some pics of the process:

bk01

Cook a pound of  ground beef (you probably want to go lean here, as the finished product has enough fat in it). You might even start with frying up some onion along with, if you’re feeling spicy.

bk02Boil and mash a couple of pounds of potatoes. Doesn’t matter so much in this recipe what kind of potatoes you use. Also, I think I usually make about double the potatoes and use the rest for mashed potatoes the next day.

bk03

Combine meat and potatoes, season well. You can go as easy as salt and pepper, add an herb or two, or go really nuts and throw in some curry powder.

bk04Now take some of the beef/potato mixture–about 1/4 cup maybe?–and roll it into a ball. Flatten a bit so it’s more like a patty than a ball.

Next you’ll want to preheat your oil–if you have a thermometer, you want it around 370, as you are only trying to crisp and brown the outside, not cook the inside.

Then comes the fun, and way super messy part. Get three bowls. Put some regular ol’ flour in the first one, a couple of well beaten eggs in the next, and some panko crumbs (can be found in the Asian aisle of most supermarkets) in the last one. Put them in a row close together, as in like such as:

bk05

Then do this:

bk06 bk07 bk08

After doing that about a million times, you will have a cookie sheet full of poorly lit korokke patties just waiting to get their fry on.

bk09

So, let’s give them what they want. Because we want it too.

bk10 bk11

Awww, yeah…

bk12

Now THAT is good stuff.

Some people, people who don’t know any better, like to top these with tonkatsu sauce, or even ketchup. But I think there’s nothing better than the tasted of just plain “fried”. I know you know what I mean.

So, hopefully the instructions are clear enough. You really can’t go too wrong with these. But if you really need something to go by, here are a couple of korokke recipe sources:

1. About.com korokke recipe

2. Group Recipes korokke recipe

Yogurt Marmalade Cake

Posted in Other People's Recipes on May 23, 2009 by loveisaverb

This post is the first of what will be many, many recipes taken from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Seriously–you should just go there now and cut out the middleman. Her blog is my favorite. Specifically the cooking portion of her site, but the rest of it is as brilliant. She’s funny (oh, so funny), modest, and kind. I’ll stop now before you think she’s paying me.

But really…how can you not love a woman who brings THIS into your life??

marmalade yogurt cake

Two words: Di. vine.

Source: PW Cooks: Yogurt-Marmalade Cake

Mix-y Match-y Mochi Cake

Posted in Desserts, Other People's Recipes on May 23, 2009 by loveisaverb

This one is blueberry, obv, but the fun thing about this cake is that you could do a range of flavors. I’ve made one with coconut milk that ended up tasting like Cream of Wheat (not bad, just a little strange), and next time I’m going to try using almond extract and cherries. And someday, if I’m feeling especially cheeky, I may even use chocolate chips. *gasp*

Mochiko is sweet rice flour, and can be purchased at most Asian Markets. (As I add more links, I’ll share the three I frequent in Riverside, plus more in OC and LA that I love.) Most likely you’re going to find Blue Star brand. If you’ve ever had mochi ice cream at a Japanese restaurant, or bought the yummy little ones from Trader Joe’s, it’s actually the chewy outside that is the mochi. Because of the other ingredients, this recipe turns out more cake than candy. A dense, chewy-ish, delicious cake, that’s gluten free, and when cut into cute little squares makes a great gift for friends and family members who suffer from celiac disease, or are simply allergic to gluten, like my son’s teacher.

No pictures of cute little squares this time, however, because I’m just getting back into food blogging and still forget all the steps. Nope, you just get a before baking and after baking today. You’ll take it and you’ll like it.

Before baking:

bbrymochi01

After baking:

bbrymochi02

Recipe source: The Food Librarian Click on the link for the recipe (oooh, and pics of it cut into cute little squares! Whaddaya know…)

Fauxstess Cakes

Posted in Copycat on May 21, 2009 by loveisaverb

One thing you will discover with this blog is that I’m not really all that great of a cook, or baker. What I am pretty good at is following recipes.  I will post photos of some of the yummy things I make, and point you to the recipe sources. Some food is just too good not to share! Like these, for instance:

hostess cakes

I call them Fauxstess Cakes, because I’m clever like that. You can call them whatever you want–just make them already!

Filled Chocolate Cupcakes (Allrecipes)

Chocolate Frosting (Allrecipes)

(The swirly topping was just created with a piping bag and some of the filling.)

These are rich, and super fun to make and eat!