Happy birthday to me!

Breville Stand Mixer from Williams-Sonoma

Happy birthday to me!

So as many of you know, my mom and I just got home from the Culinary Institute of America a little bit ago. We took the “Taste of the CIA” class. My project was to make braised short ribs. Post on that later this week (when I’m not so tired), but it was really an awesome experience.

But anyway, when I got home I still had cooking on my mind, and I had a gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma for part of my graduation present from family friends Dave and Deb. So obviously, I had to go shopping. I’ve been really wanting a standing mixer, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity! I bought the Breville Stand Mixer, which was $100 off the regular price (yum). It was still pretty expensive, but I think I deserve it.

Here are some of the specs, taken from the website:

• The 10-minute backlit LCD timer can be set to count either down or up to accommodate recipes with specific mixing times.
• Twelve speeds with easy-to-follow descriptions ranging from folding and kneading to whipping and aerating.
• The innovative scraper beater has flexible edges that continuously scrape the bowl’s interior, reducing mixing times by up to 60 percent
• An additional reverse speed mixes dry ingredients or loosens dough.
• The head moves in a planetary dual rotation for professional results.
• Lock the head in the tilt-back position for unobstructed access to the beater and bowl.
• Durable die-cast housing with brushed-stainless-steel finish.
• Auto-shutoff with sound alert prevents ingredients from being overbeaten.
• An attachment guide provides recommendations for attachment selection and mixer speed, ensuring foolproof results for a variety of tasks.
• For clutter-free countertops, the hideaway cord is conveniently stored inside the base.
• Includes 5-qt. stainless-steel mixing bowl, splash guard, flat beater, dough hook and wire whisk attachments.

What a dream. I’m going to use it to make the other part of that graduation present, which was a Danish pancake-making pan (The friends currently live in Copenhagen. They work for the government. Super-shady business.).

Ebelskiver Filled-Pancake Pan

But people, I am having non-buyer’s remorse. Williams-Sonoma had an absolutely adorable 10-piece bowl set that I now feel like I can’t live without. Did I make a mistake?

Should these bowls be mine?

Comment and let me know! Wah!

I think my dinner just gave me a hug…

Home style macaroni and cheese

There’s just something about comfort food that makes you feel better. Between graduating from college, getting ready to move out of my apartment and back into my parents’ house (ugh), starting a new internship and going back to my old job part-time, my stress level is at about maximum capacity.

So instead of summery salads and sorbets, I’m craving macaroni and cheese.

This recipe calls for:

• 7 ounces macaroni
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

I read reviews that said the sauce-to-pasta ratio was a little off, so I just used about 3/4 of the box of elbows. I also omitted the parsley– I was terrorized with it growing up.

So first, get your pasta cooked.

On the stove, melt the butter and stir in the flour until it mixes in and thickens.

Add the milk, salt, pepper, cream cheese and mustard and stir it up until everything’s incorporated. Then add your cheddar.

Next, stir in your elbows.

Pour the whole thing into a casserole dish. Then mix up a couple tablespoons of melted butter with bread crumbs and spread it on top. I added a little bit of paprika for some smoke?

Bake it in the oven for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Then eat it. And yes, I realize this picture looks very similar to the one just above it, but it’s different. It’s cooked.

Happy birthday to my Mommy!

Grilled Steak with Blue Cheese Potatoes

So today is my mom’s birthday and I wanted to make a yummy dinner for her. Thank goodness I can start cooking red meats again, because it was such a beautiful day out we needed to grill (my dad wanted to give a shout-out to Weber because he loves his new grill so much). So we decided to make this wonderful meal.

This recipe calls for:

• 3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary, plus sprigs for garnish
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 3/4 pounds skirt steak
• 1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes
• Coarse salt
• 3 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

The only ingredients I needed pick up from Stop & Shop were the rosemary, steak, potatoes and cheese. We also picked up some asparagus for our veggie. Anyway around it, this wasn’t a long shopping list, especially for how good everything ended up.

First put together your marinade by mixing together the rosemary, Worcestershire sauce and garlic. All the pictures tonight were taken by my brother bear, Andrew.

Put the marinade on the bottom of a baking dish. Please note my lavender toe nail polish in the background. I really like it. I also love my new gingham shirt from the J.Crew outlet. I know Lauren is jealous.

Coat both sides of the steaks with the marinade.

In the meantime, boil your potatoes and then let them simmer for about 15 minutes. I actually got potatoes that were a little large, but they were fine I guess.

When your potatoes are done, stick your steaks on the grill.

Slice your potatoes, brush them with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Add those to the grill with your steakies. Of course, Paratrooper Paul was in charge of the grilling. That is not my domain.

The potatoes come off the grill with pretty, perfect little grill marks.

Serve your blue cheese on the side! Yum yum yum!

Oohhh, summer grilling. Thank you to whoever invented you.

“People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.” -Oscar Wilde

Lady and Sons' Chicken in Wine Sauce

I was going through food recipes on one of my new favorite blogs recently and it lead me to search through the Food Network website where I found this recipe. It looked incredibly easy and it had great reviews.

My old roommate Annie (hi, Annie!) was coming to dinner and I wanted to make her something fancy-looking and yummy for her and Lauren and her boyfriend Mike stayed for dinner also, which is perfect because I am NOT a math person and, as far as I know, Allrecipes is the only website that converts measurements for you.

This recipe calls for:

• 4 large skinless boneless chicken breasts
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for casserole
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6 ounces (about 8 slices) Swiss cheese
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 cup herb-flavored stuffing mix, crushed

So literally I was finished prepping this dish before the oven heated to 325 degrees (we have a convection oven). First you just season the chickens. I only seasoned them with pepper because reviewers had said that the condensed soup makes the dish salty enough to begin with.

Then lay the slices of Swiss cheese over the chickens. I apparently got a deal on the “good” Swiss because it was on super-sale. Good for me.

Then mix the canned soup and wine and spread it over the cheesed chickens.

Spread the crushed stuffing (we stuck ours in the blender–and don’t try to use breadcrumbs) over the cheesed, sauced chickens.

Pour some melted butter over the top of everything.

Pop it in the oven for 45 mins and make your sides while it’s cooking. We paired it with a wonderful salad that I will be posting soon and roasted garlic rice pilaf. Anyhow, it looks like this when it comes out of the oven.

And right before you eat it, it looks like this on the plate:

Mike particularly liked this meal. He told Lauren to “take notes” and basically didn’t speak until he finished everything.

Hungry man-child.

Great success.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” -Henry David Thoreau

Soba noodles with tofu, avocado and snow peas

This is my first post as a graduate of the University of Connecticut. Commencement ceremonies were 
yesterday and after we all went out to dinner at Trumbull Kitchen in Hartford. Lauren and I split the lettuce cups and blue cheese and herb fondue for appetizers and I had one of my dad’s filet mignon appetizer. For my meal I had seared scallops and gnocchi and for dessert I had creme brulee! Yum!

The other day Lauren and I were looking for a  light, summery dish. Found this one, which was great because we love Asian-inspired meals.

This recipe calls for:

• 1 (two-inch piece) fresh ginger, peeled and sliced into very thin strips
• 1 serrano or jalapeno chile, seeded and sliced into very thin strips
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (about 3 limes)
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 package (14 ounces) extra-firm tofu, cut into 3/4-inch cubes and patted dry
• 1 package (about 8 ounces) soba noodles
• 4 ounces snow peas, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 English cucumber, peeled, halved crosswise, then sliced lengthwise into thin strips
• 1/4 bunch chives, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 ripe avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

We didn’t use the chiles because we don’t like hugely spicy foods and we forgot to put in the sesame seeds until we ate the meal for leftovers. Big mistake, apparently, so don’t forget the seeds! We also omitted the chives because you use so little and we don’t have the money to pay for it at this point in our lives.

Anyway, back to the recipe. First we sliced the ginger, which smelled amazing.

Then we cut up the tofu and used a ton of paper towels to soak water out of it (thanks Lynsey for that tip!).

To make the syrup, boil water, sugar and ginger (and chile if you’re using it) and then reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the ginger is tender. About five minutes.

Strain the ginger out of the syrup mix use two tablespoons of the syrup with lime juice, soy sauce and tofu.

Cut up the rest of the veggies.

Mix the peas and cucumber in with the cooked soba noodles.

Garnish with reserved ginger and avocado. Yum!

P.S. This is also where you would add the sesame seeds.

And I’m not the dessert type, but…

Balsamic strawberries over Greek yogurt

First of all, I know I said that my previous post was going to be my last post as a college student. I lied, okay? I just can’t stop. I blame Rick Hancock. So here we go.

My usually health-conscious roommate has been craving sweets recently. I don’t know if it’s the change in the weather or the finals-fueled stress that’s doing it, but she came downstairs yesterday complaining because I wouldn’t go with her to get ice cream down the street.

Meanwhile, Big Y has been selling strawberries with a buy one get two free incentive. So we had three cartons of strawberries sitting in the kitchen. I had recently read through a recipe about balsamic strawberries and thought to look it up.

This recipe calls for:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
• 1/4 cup granular sucrolose sweetener (such as Splenda®)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 4 scoops low-fat vanilla ice cream

I don’t do “sucrolose sweetners.” I used sugar. And I also used vanilla Greek yogurt instead of vanilla ice cream, because it’s what we had sitting in the fridge. In a recipe I looked at right before this one it said to use two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and since we really like balsamic, we decided to go that route.

In retrospect, that wasn’t really necessary. There definitely would’ve been enough flavor without it and we just ended up with a little bit too much sauce for what we needed.

So first you melt the butter in a medium sauce pan and add the strawberries.

Then you add the sugar. Great action shot, Lauren.

The balsamic goes in next.

The recipe says to cook the strawberries until they are heated through and turn a ruby red, but these are supermarket strawberries and I don’t know that they have that kind of capability. So I just cooked them until they were warm.

Right before we turned the heat off, Lauren and I each popped a strawberry. There were no words. Just bulging eyes.

Spoon the mixture over some Greek yogurt and you’re set!

I also realized today that I accidentally blocked my blog from getting picked up by search engines somewhere along the way. HUGE mistake. No wonder I’ve only been getting 60 hits a day. :-/

A walk down memory lane…

Pasta with heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar

So, as everyone knows, I am graduating from college in five days. This means that I have spent the majority of the last last 16 years of my life sitting in class. It also means that I have been cooking for four years now.

I was going through old Facebook albums the other day and stumbled across the first thing I ever cooked for myself. Pasta with heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar. It’s only fitting that I make this the last meal I will ever cook as a college student.

Ask me why I have not made this dish once this year and I will not be able to give you an answer. It is quite possibly the greatest taste for the minimal amount of work (optimization– thank you Jeff Farrar). And it’s healthy.

This recipe calls for:

• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 3-4 pounds Heirloom tomatoes
• 1 cup fresh basil , julienned
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 12 ounces pasta

So first mix the garlic, salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Then wash and chop the tomatoes and put them in a medium-sized mixing bowl. I threw a little extra garlic in on the bottom. Just because.

Julienne the basil and add that to the bowl also. If any of you were wondering, this is what Lauren’s julienned basil looked like. By the way, she was just selected to be the Greek Week PR Chair for 2011. Congratulations, Poodle!

Then cut the mozzarella into 1/4 inch chunks. Add that in to the mix, too.

Pour in the vinegar mixture and toss well.

Here’s what it looked like when I first made it back in 2006! I remember a couple of problems I had that day. One problem was that I didn’t know how to cook pasta (seriously?) and the pieces were still a little crunchy and stuck together. I also was really, really worried about measurements back then. I didn’t understand how I was supposed to weigh out 8 oz. of mozzarella because it didn’t come in that weight at the store. Poor me.

April showers bring May flowers

Spring Green Risotto a la Barefoot Contessa

I watch The Food Network when I’m hungry. No, it doesn’t help. Yes, it makes things worse. But I can’t help it. Anyway, the other day I watched this episode of Barefoot Contessa when she made spring green risotto, and I wanted it. I heard risotto is really hard to make, and I think that’s true because my rice came out kind of… hard. And I pictured it light and fluffy. BUT I DID EVERYTHING I WAS SUPPOSED TO! Maybe it’s supposed to be just really al dente, but the flavors were awesome in any case.

This recipe calls for:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks)
• 1 cup chopped fennel
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• 4 to 5 cups simmering chicken stock, preferably homemade
• 1 pound thin asparagus
• 10 ounces frozen peas, defrosted, or 1 1/2 cups shelled fresh peas
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/3 cup mascarpone cheese, preferably Italian
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives, plus extra for serving

I didn’t get the chives because I think they’re a little pricey for the flavor they give off. I am in college, after all. Anyway, first you coat the greens in olive oil and cook ‘em for awhile.

Add the rice and wine, stirring constantly until the wine is almost completely absorbed.

Blanche the asparagus. We didn’t cut them up as small as we were supposed to. Bite sized might’ve been nicer.

Then add simmering chicken stock two ladles at a time, waiting till the first two ladles have pretty much absorbed before adding another two. This takes forever. And your arm will get tired. Around the halfway point, add the asparagus and peas.

When all the stock has been added, add in the marscapone cheese, lemon juice and Parmesan.

Yummy, yummy flavors. Very creamy.

Cooking at the Courtyard

Watch Beren Michael Indiana Jones and Lauren Diane Cardarelli discuss the trials and tribulations of off-campus cooking at UConn. In the spirit of full journalistic disclosure, both interviewees received payment in the form of food.

“I attended less than two years of Conservatory in Mexico City.” -Placido Domingo

Chicken Enchiladas!

After my last recipe my dad told me that I was looking a little Martha-obsessed, so this will be my last Martha recipe for awhile. My next one is a Barefoot Contessa recipe, so watch out for that.

This recipe calls for:

• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 to 8 ounces each)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, such as safflower
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 to 2 tablespoons minced canned chipotles in adobo
• 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 8 corn tortillas (6-inch)
• 1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese (2 ounces)

This recipe, although super easy, made it very clear that I have begun to overestimate my cooking skills and not read the recipe completely before making executive decisions.

For example, the first time I made it I left out the chipotles with adobo sauce because Lauren and I don’t like spicy things. Half way through making the sauce, I realized it didn’t look quite right and looked up what adobo sauce actually is. Apparently it was the most ingredient in the sauce and I had to send Lauren’s boyfriend Mike out to pick it up. We ended up just taking out the chipotles and using the sauce. Still a fair amount of heat, but not unmanageable.

Next, I didn’t realize that you’re supposed to mix the sauce in with the shredded chicken until the second time I made this recipe (at my parents’ house), which didn’t make a HUGE difference I don’t think, but it might have been nice.

But here was the biggest problem: the second time I made this I accidentally DOUBLED the amount of flour. WHOOPS! So basically instead of having a liquidy sauce that seeps into the tortilla, I had… like… dough. My parents insisted that I was being ridiculous, but DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE because your entire thing will be too dry.

Also, use corn. So much yummier. Try to find roasted corn if you can. I know they have it at Trader Joe’s.

Okay so first cook the chicken. It says something about boiling it, and I did that when I was at my parents’ house, but it was much easier to cook it on the GFG.

Shred the chickens with two forks.

And start on the sauce. Cook up the garlic, adobo, broth and water. Reduce to a simmer and whisk occasionally for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix some corn (about 3/4 cup) into the sauce and pour some into the bottom of your baking dish then put your tortillas between four pieces of dampened paper towels and microwave for about a minute so they’re more pliable.

Roll the tortillas and place them seam-side down in the dish. When you have no more room for any more stuffed tortillas, top with the rest of the sauce.

Next, add cheese. I put on more cheese than the recipe calls for, because a little cheese never hurt anyone and it goes bad so fast it’s not like you can use it again the next week (but try telling this to my mom, who probably has six bags of opened cheese-gone-bad in her fridge right now). Then stuff it in the oven.

And ole! Yummy enchiladas to eat!