Crabby Crackers

I'm having a fun afternoon in the kitchen

preparing for my annual New Year's Eve dinner party

Appetizer Numero Uno: Crabby Crackers

Ritz Crackers, Homemade Crab Dip, Radish Garnish

Love my new knives...sliced those radishes like soft butter!

Steak Tenders

What's better than chicken tenders?  Steak tenders!  Slice a thin skillet steak into strips, dip them in an egg wash, then in some cornmeal/flour/seasoning, and  fry them up with just a little bit of olive oil.  (My breading didn't really stick...probably should have floured the steak before the egg wash.)

Serve up the tenders with some sweet potato fries.  Yummmmmmm.

the chopped steak with one of my new kitchen "toys" (love my new knives!)

olive oil "art"

Secret Ingredient #1 : Pheasant

I have a slight obsession with the cooking show Iron Chef.  I love seeing what the chefs do with the secret ingredients.  Sometimes I get good ideas for my own cooking.  Sometimes I just drool over the yummy looking food...

Last night C decided to bring me a secret ingredient to make dinner out of.  It turned out to be Pheasant.  I was going to slice up the meat and pan-fry it or something...but then I realized that it still had all the bones.  So I stuck the birds in a pot with some bacon grease, sprinkled them with garlic powder and rosemary, put the lid on, and cooked them up, turning them over occasoinally.  I also put some home-made mac n cheese in the oven, and steamed some fresh pole beans and leeks.  And then I fried some bacon to add to the veggies. 

burnt cheese perfection!

Whiskey Corn

Caramel Corn with a Kick

Brought to you by GMcD's Kitchen...where crazy new food ideas are always welcomed and encouraged.

pop enough popcorn to fill a large bowl

in a saucepan, melt/combine 1 stick of butter, 1/2 c brown sugar, 1/4 c sugar, 1/4 c whiskey, 1/2 tsp salt

pour the sauce over the popcorn and gently stir to coat as evenly as possible

spread coated popcorn on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Whole Wheat Angel Hair Pasta with Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo

Shrimp

Shaved/Sauteed Parsnips and Carrots

Foccaccia with Avocado

Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio

Scrambled Avocado Eggs

Yes, you read that right. I put avocado in my scrambled eggs yesterday.  And some cheese.  I woke up and was all excited to eat my regular chocolate-chip pancake...and then discovered that I had no chocolate chips left.  I didn't have any potatos to fry, and scrambled eggs all alone are boring and not that appetizing, so I had to liven them up with something.  Worked out pretty well.  Avocado goes with everything...right?

Breakfast sandwich of champions?

I made sure to stock up on chocolate chips when I went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon...so this morning I got to have a normal breakfast again.

Pasta Primavera with Salmon

pasta with carrots, onion, zucchini, green beans, and salmon in a light sauce of olive oil/mustard/pesto

comida sabrosa

and tonight for your food-viewing pleasure...

chicken tenders

sweet potato fries w/ketchup, chicken tenders w/honey mustard, asparagus stems, leek mac n cheese

and here's some popcorn I popped a couple of nights ago...it was tasty

and here's some salmon-salad I had for lunch this past weekend

 it made a very tasty sandwich with tomato and avocado

the broccoli wasn't too bad either, nor were those sweet potato fries you can see in the distance



that's all for now folks.

Sweet Potato Fries

preheat oven to 450

peel 1 sweet potato

slice the potato into thin fries

put them in a bowl

sprinkle them with garlic powder, onion powder, and salt

pour some olive oil on top

mix it all up (the fries should be only very lightly coated with olive oil)

spread the fries on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for 12 minutes

turn the fries over and put them in for another 5 minutes

eat them

which will the fries go better with, the ketchup or the ranch?

Baked Chicken & Stuffing

There is never enough stuffing at Thanksgiving Dinner.  There never will be, as long as it continues to be everybody's favorite food.  I had just enough on Thanksgiving to remind me of how long it's been since the last time I ate stuffing, and of how delicious it is.  So of course I came home wanting more.  So, earlier this week, I decided to try making some.  Of course, it can't quite compare to Thanksgiving stuffing that's been cooked in the turkey, but it's not too bad. 

Chicken/Stuffing, Green Beans/Leeks, Mashed Potatos

Ingredients
 1/2 loaf whole wheat bread
 1 tbsp butter
 1 egg, beaten
 1 12 oz can of chicken broth
 herbs/seasoning

Preheat oven to 350.
I took the bread out of the fridge and laid it out to air dry.  I think it ended up sitting there for a day or two before I had time to actually make the stuffing.  I broke the hard bread up into bite sized chunks and threw them in a large bowl.  Then, in a seperate boil, I beat together the other ingredients.  I poured that over the bread crumbs, mixed it up, let it sit and soak for a bit, mixed it up some more, repeat, repeat repeat, until all the bread is moist.  Then, I smashed the bread down into a baking dish.  On top of the stuffing, I laid b/s chicken breast which I had cut into very thin slices, slathered with ranch, and dusted with cornmeal. 
Bake for 45-60 minutes

Steak Tetrazzini

I was looking up stuffing recipes online...and saw a recipe for turkey tetrazzini.  And suddenly realized that I can't remember the last time I had some of the deliciousness that is tetrazzini.  So, I said goodbye to my original dinner plans (which were only half-formed anyway), and decided to make tetrazzini.  I don't have any turkey.  But I bought some steak today, and decided that it would be perfect.  And I was right.

Ingredients
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp bacon grease
1/8 c white flour
1/8 c wheat flour
3/4 c milk
1/4 c heavy cream
squirt of ranch
garlic powder
mustard powder
1 c shredded cheese
thin steak
angel hair pasta (approx. 8 oz)

Directions
1) boil water and cook pasta, preheat oven to 350
2) while the water is boiling, chop up the steak and cook it in a skillet

3) once the pasta and steak are cooking, throw all the other ingredients in a saucepan, in the order I listed them.  Stir frequently, remove from heat when it starts to boil

(a busy stove makes me smile...meatballs cooking for this week's lunch, pasta, sauce, and steak for the tetrazzini)

4) put the pasta and steak in a casserole dish, then pour the sauce on top and mix it well
5) dust the top with breadcrumbs and a little bit of shredded cheese

6) bake at 375 for 30 minutes
7) serve for dinner with some veggies (I steamed some fresh green beans)

another culinary success story

Fish and Potatos

Special trip to Kroger today to buy food so I could eat dinner.  Tried not to get waylaid by the self-checkout attendant...but she saw me standing in the quick check out line and I let her talk me into using self-checkout.  Would have been fine...but I forgot to scan my Kroger card.  Shoulda stuck to letting a cashier do it for me...I coulda used those gas points!

My new quest in food is to learn to like white fish.  So I went to the fish counter to see what they had that wouldn't set me back too much.  Manager's Special was Perch Fillets...so that's what I brought home. 

The Menu

Baked Perch w/Onion Slivers, Roasted Herbed Potatos, Steamed Carrots and Baby Broccoli

The Fish

Put a thin layer of olive oil in the bottom of a casserole dish.  Rinse fillets and lay them in the bottom of the casserole dish.  Sprinkle with oregano and garlic powder.  Pour some sun-dried tomato vinaigrette on top and smooth it evenly over the fish.  Chop some onion into large slices and spread the pieces on top of the fish.  Bake for 20-25 minutes at 450.

The Potatos

Peel/clean/chop into bite-sized pieces.  Put the pieces in a bowl with olive oil, mustard powder, garlic powder, onion powder, and basil.  Stir until well coated.  Spread out on a baking pan and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 450.  (I put them in the oven at the same time as the fish...so glad they required the same temperature and approx. the same amount of time...worked perfectly!)

The Vegetables

Clean and chop 2 carrots and a bunch of baby broccoli.  Put in a microwaveable dish with about an inch of water, cover, and microwave for 2 minutes.   Stir, microwave for 2 more minutes.  Repeat. Drain the water, squeeze a little bit of mustard over the vegetables and stir well. 

Meatball Quesadilla

Slim pickin's from my fridge for lunch today.  Went grocery shopping this morning so that I would have something to eat for dinner tonight, but other than that I have to make do with what is in my fridge so that nothing goes to waste while I spend a few days in PA for turkey day. 

The ONLY meat I had in my fridge was 1 meatball.  Not much.  But vastly better than no meat.  I chopped it up and made a meatball quesadilla.  It was the only thing I could think of that make one meatball look more like a meal.  I also had a little bit of fresh spinach, so that went in the quesadilla as well. 

look at that oozy cheezy goodness...

Then I made a salad.  I have a lot of lettuce left...I have a feeling that I won't manage to eat it all before I leave tomorrow and it will go bad while I'm gone...oh well.  All I had to put on the salad was carrots, tomatos, and an avocado.  I still have 3 avocados left.  Maybe I'll eat 2 for lunch tomorrow and bring one with me...or maybe I'll just hope they can stay good til the weekend.  It is possible. 

mmmm avocado...

Tastes Like Chicken...

because it is chicken.

Oven baked chicken thighs again...but this time I slathered them with sun-dried tomato vinaigrette instead of honey mustard before I breaded them.  Turned out pretty tasty.

Dinner
 1 Chicken Thigh
Whole Wheat Pasta w/carrots and spinach tossed in a miz of pesto/mustard/olive oil (super yummy)
Green Beans

Guinness Float

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Dark Chocolate Sauce

Guinness

Deliciousness