Homemade Garam Masala Recipe

An odd spice, but nice to have on hand for last-minute dinners, it can be pricey! So, using the spices you already purchase, you can mix one up!

Quality is important with spices, so get the best.

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix well and keep in air-tight container–an empty spice jar works great!

As taken from The Best 30-Minute Recipe

Forget Reese’s!

Oh, wow! I just made a recipe from King Arthur Flour for no-bake peanut butter squares! Amazing! Of course, I made my own changes:

Updated Recipe:

• 6 ounces organic graham crackers
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks organic unsalted butter, melted
• 10 ounces organic confectioner’s sugar
• 1 cup natural peanut butter (I like crunchy)
• 1 cup fair-trade chocolate chips

1. Melt chocolate in glass container in microwave, or in small saucepan on stove over low heat—stir continuously. Remove from heat (or microwave) when only partially melted and stir well until melted completely.
2. Process graham crackers in food processor until fine crumbs. Add salt, butter and sugar. Pulse until well mixed. Add peanut butter and pulse until well-mixed.
3. Spread peanut butter mixture into greased 9 x 13 cake pan; Spread melted chocolate on-top, evenly.

Happy surprises: The crumbs melt into the product, so there is no graham-crunch. Perfect!

Hands-on time: ten minutes

Tired of the flavor of meat. I…

Tired of the flavor of meat. I need a restaurant-style marinade recipe. Suggestions?

Quickest and Yummiest Pasta Dinner!

I crave pasta…but, it has to be good. And, for it to be good, it has to be homemade—which does not mean it has to take a long time! My absolute favorite pasta is the Target brand 100% whole what angel hair. Absolutely divine.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of pasta (thinner is good, but use what you’ve got)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 28-ounce can of whole or diced tomatoes, pureed to desired chunkiness in blender (or other apparatus of choice)
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil flakes

TA DA! Seriously…that’s all the ingredients. Now…the twenty minute countdown to chow time begins.

1. Heat the oil in a skillet or shallow saucepan over medium to med-high heat. Bring a 4 quarts of water to boil in an 8-quart stock pot.
2. Chop onion (while oil heats). Throw onion in pot, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and basil. Stir occasionally.
3. About the time the onion starts to brown, the water will be boiling. Throw 1 tablespoon salt into boiling water (no need to stir; the boiling water takes care of that part for you). Now pour pureed tomatoes into pan with onions.
4. Add pasta to pot, and stir to make sure the noodles are separated. Stir sauce to scrape up yummy brown bits off of bottom. Continue to stir both, occasionally. In the meantime, set the table and grab condiments (freshly-ground parmigiana can’t be beat).
5. When the pasta is done, save about one-half cup of the pasta water (just dip a glass measuring cup in there—no need to be precise!!), then drain pasta. While pasta is dripping through strainer, in sink, grab sauce off heat. 
6. If you’re a mixer, toss both together in large bowl and thin as needed with pasta water. If you’re a separator (my family raises hands), place all three containers on table.
7. Enjoy! Wash and repeat. Many, many times.

(Optional). Okay—so, your’e thinking—-where’s the veggies?? I’ve got you covered!! Between steps 3 and 4, throw in one pound of chopped fresh broccoli into the boiling, salted water. Count to 60 (okay, one minute), and use a strainer to remove and place in serving bowl. Douse with loads of freshly-ground pepper and continue with step four. See? Healthy AND it only took an extra two minutes!

Roasting Asparagus & Sweet Potatoes

In the interest of frugality, I’ve got to use the veggies that I’ve in my house—before they spoil! Among them included a bag of locally-grown sweet potatoes and locally-grown asparagus. I happen to love sweet potatoes, and have had dishes which I’ve liked with asparagus, but I needed something fast.

Using my favorite kitchen tool, my mini oven (seriously—my very favorite!), I washed/trimmed the asparagus (just the woody ends) and rolled them in some extra-virgin olive oil, added a generous amount of sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and tossed them in the oven. I think around 425º. After seven or eight minutes, I rotated them around, then popped them back in. Once the tip of a paring knife could slide in/out easily, they were done!

As for the sweet pots, I’ve partaken of many fried strips at restaurants, but had no desire to fire up a pot of oil. So, mimicking the asparagus, I cut them into very long strips, about one inch thick perimeters, followed the same dressing idea and roasted away. Same temp, about the same time.

DIVINE!!

I now find myself wondering how many asparagus stalks and sweet potato sticks one can consume in my sitting without making oneself sick.

Best Carrot Cake I’ve had!

I had a serious craving for cake (no surprise there), but I decided to have a nice carrot cake, so I could pretend I was being healthy. In my quests of late to cut back on sugar, I’ve continued my intrigue with older recipes (pre-1950s) when cakes/muffins/cookies weren’t quite as sweet as they are now–at least in the U.S. In reality, if you pull down a Euro-Baking book, you’ll definitely get recipes with minute amounts of sugar—which I quite enjoy.

I pulled down one of my favorites, The Best Light Recipe,  to review the ingredients. However, I felt it still had too much sugar. Each night that I’m at the gym, I pass the time by watching an episode of Alton Brown on the Food Network; great knowledge and entertainment. Recently, he had done a carrot cake recipe, which is probably what sparked this whole thing…so, I flipped to his recipe.

Comparing the two, they were amazingly similar with only two exceptions: CI had more carrots, AB had less sugar. Success! I combined their efforts and I am delighted with the results!

Clickety here for recipe

My suggestions for change

1. Use one pound of carrots
2. Use a 9 x 13 cake pan (the double-layer 9″ took seemingly forever to bake)
3. I grated the carrots by hand
4. I used my KitchenAid mixer (too lazy to pull out the food processor)
5. Use the same weight of flour, but King Arthur Flour Organic 100% White Whole Wheat

Giver her a try and report back!

Eating local…for the satisfaction of it.

There are many arguments as to why (or why not) to eat local, but I propose to do so for this: straight-up and selfish satisfaction. Yesterday, though only 47º outside, I headed to the local farmer’s market to see many vendors who are proud, passionate, and dedicated to their foods. As they should be—they’re beautiful!

I purchased three things: one dozen eggs, one jar of homegrown and home-canned organic strawberry jam, and another of raspberry. Oh, wait. Four things: and a homemade raspberry-rhubarb pie that was heated in a toaster oven while waiting. Wow.

As I escaped the cold to head back to my car, I was filled with such a joy to have exchanged money with the farmer who gathered the eggs just a few days (if not the same day) earlier. Chatting with the berry grower and canner, and hearing the pride in in his voice as he shared about his process. More than anything…I know where my eggs came from. I know where my jam was grown and processed. And, I know that my money went to a good family.

Breakfast was lovely today.

A Free Cook’s Illustrated Book for your iPhone or iPod Touch

Another rockin’ app for the iPhone (or iPod Touch) has been released that will bring joy to the kitchen—Amazon’s Kindle App for the iPhone (or iPod Touch) — free!! I’ve observed the Kindle for a while, and loved it, but I don’t need to haul another electronic around with me. However, with the app, you’re able to do all the same with the iPhone or iPod Touch, as with the Kindle–including downloading books!

I got a tip about a free Cook’s Illustrated book for the Kindle. It’s the How-To Library from Cook’s Illustrated (you may be familiar with their PBS shows, “America’s Test Kitchen” and “Cook’s Country”). It is easy-as-pie to get the book, too!

1. Acquire a Kindle or Amazon’s Kindle App (for iPod Touch of iPhone); download and install
2. Browse over to Amazon.com to get The Cook’s Illustrated How-to-Cook Library: An illustrated step-by-step guide to Foolproof Cooking (Kindle Edition) (free!!!)
3. If you’ve not already registered your product, you will be directed how to do so.
4. Open Kindle (or Kindle app on iPod Touch or iPhone)
5. Get cooking!

I’ve already spent 30-minutes just drooling over the recipes. I own a few of the hard-bound “How-to” books—but, what can beat a freebie??

MacGourmet Touch–reviewed

Recipe piles (yikes!)

Love it! Love it!! Love it!!!

I’ve always been a “paper girl”—I would have stacks and stacks of paper of recipes that I was dying to try. However, eventually, they become a frightening mess. Despite my efforts to recycle, I saw that effort being undone by my waste of recipe printing. (note photo—yikes!)

I’ve tried many things…I believe this is the order in which they progressed:

1. Printing recipe; storing in binder
2. Printing recipe; storing in big piles
3. Finding recipes; adding to Delicious
4. Finding recipes; saving as PDFs on my computer
5. Finding PDFs; printing and storing in big piles

Enter: MacGourmet

I spent two or three hours seeking the recipes online that I had printed once-upon-a-time. Then, those recipes that seemed as those I really wanted to make, I used the simple keyboard stokes (genius!!) to import them perfectly into my program. I could insert a photo, if I chose, assign categories, and even courses to meals. These are all customizable, of course (love it!!)

Of course, now I’ve just taken a bunch of paper and put it on my computer, which resulted keeping my laptop on the kitchen counter. Better, but not ideal.

Enter: MacGourmet Touch

Wow!! Having my recipes RIGHT in front of me, complete with photos, shopping lists, recipes notes, blah, blah, has been fantastic!! I don’t even worry about spills, as I store it under a piece of saran wrap to protect from any misguided splatters. The setting to keep the iPhone (or iPod Touch) from going to sleep keeps the recipe alert and ready when I’m ready to scroll to the next directive.

I LOVE having my recipes with me when I’m on the go. When a craving hits for a particular dish, I don’t have to curse myself for forgetting an ingredient while at the grocery store—because it’s always at my fingertips! The shopping list feature is worth the $4.99 in and of itself. With the ability to add, edit and remove items while on the go—it beats out a paper list any day!

If you’ve been holding onto your five dollars for fear of value…it’s time to let it go. As consumers, we definitely are getting a bargain!

MacGourmet Touch at iTunes Store

MacGourmet program for your Mac (you need the base program to use the App)

This year I resolve to ________ in my kitchen!

With the new year comes new resolutions, and in the spirit of recycling, I’ve decided to recycle some resolutions from last year, too–maybe I’ll actually do them this time! My list seems to be growing in my head of what I want to do, but I think they each deserve their own post, with progress checks. I’ve listed below those that will be coming soon.

What resolutions do you have? Any advice to share with me on mine?? Please do!

1. Set-up a cooking pattern. (See, the thing is—I love to cook. A little too much, in fact. My hubby has started asking when we can have “meal xx” again, and I’m usually saying, “Are you nuts? I’ll die before I can ever get through my list of recipes TO TRY! So, this way, we can make a list of the all-time favorites, and make sure they don’t drop away forever).
2. Five days a week, go by the cooking pattern; try two new recipes/week. (I figure I can reduce some stress about getting to the grocery store to get the new, random ingredients I need. Plus, I eliminate the problem of resolution number one).
3. Clean out the cookbook shelf! (I’ve always thought people were nuts who have 100+ cookbooks sitting around. Oops–I’m almost there!)
4. Use MacGourmet Deluxe with all its super powers! (I’m loving this program, and I have so much use for it, once you understand all the cool tools—ironically, just like using a Mac Computer. I intend to combine it with goal #3)
5. Key-in “must-try recipes” to MacGourmet Deluxe. (Okay, this is kind of a cheater’s resolution, since it combines 3 & 4, but it’s such a HUGE one, it does deserve its own number! I plan to key in the well-loved recipes from books that I don’t want to keep, just for those recipes. What a waste of space! Besides, whenever someone asks for a copy of a recipe of something I’ve made—now I can email it [how cool is that!] from the program, instead of having to type it in for each requester).
6. Clean out my pantry—for the billionth time. (Seriously. I’ve lost track how  many times I’ve done this. I keep trying new things; hopefully, this time I’ll succeed. Suggestions, please??)
7. Organize my spices. (Okay, this is a cheater one, since I already did it—but the outcome is SO awesome, I have to make a reminder to myself to post about it!)
8. Figure out why I have so many baking pans, and if I really want them all. (The “before photos” will frighten you. They frighten me, and I purchased them all!)
9. More to come, I’m sure. For a KitchenNut, the work in the kitchen is never really done!

Cooking in a tiny kitchen–can it be done (successfully)?

I am intrigued by the article by Mark Bittman today, of how to cook in a tiny kitchen Click here to read the awesome article!

When I first learned to cook, I did so in the best of environments (AllClad, Wolfe, Sub-zero). Truly, it was fantastic! While visiting some families home, at which there were only a few pans with mis-matched lids, warped pans, etc, did I truly learn what the talent of cooking is! It’s really not about the granite counters, Sub-Zeros and gas ranges (good thing!); it’s really about the skill and doing what you can with what you have.

Please don’t spend the Holidays, or any other time, coveting that perfect pan—-work on your skills at hand, and be amazed what you can do with what you have! You will be surprised—and impressed.

Merry Christmas, y’all!

Is craving the cake zoebakes p…

Is craving the cake zoebakes posted!

Ugh–I ate way too much! Howev…

Ugh–I ate way too much! However, it was delicious. :)

Mmmm…homemade pizza (whole w…

Mmmm…homemade pizza (whole wheat crust) with homemade marinara (see site for recipe) that I had previously “put-away.” Fantastic!

Quick and Easy Salad Dressing

This quickly rose to my absolutely favorite salad dressing! I’ve made loads of homemade recipes, but hubby still wanted store-bought Italian. Annoyed, I refused to give-up! There had to be a dressing that made salad-haters excited to eat their leafy greens. And, voila! I have found it! It is fantastic on steamed broccoli, too!

Honey-Dijon Poppy Seed Vinaigrette (dresses 4 cups mixed greens)

using good quality ingredients makes all the difference

• 2 teaspoons good-quality cider vinegar (unfiltered)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons good quality Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
• 3/4 teaspoon poppy seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic (or one tiny pinch of dehydrated, ground garlic)
• pinch freshly-ground black pepper
• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil*

*vegetable oil: Rice Bran Oil, Good quality EVOO, Canola oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Simply toss into an empty jar with a screw-tight lid and shake with all your might. Dress greens. Serve immediately.

Enjoy. Sharing Optional!™