Ja cię kocham…

I went to the grocery store today so sweaty (I work outside at a camp), so tired (I work outside at a camp), and so not in the mood to do much when I got home.  Did I mention that I work outside at a camp?

I could barely put one leg in front of the other let alone think about dinner.  In my zombie-like trance (which is my fault since I am turning into an insomniac), I managed to muster up the energy to walk alllll the way to the back of the store to the recipe kiosk thingy.  I clicked on “healthy on a budget” and “steak”, and here you go.   Something I should have thought of before!   I cannot begin to tell you how simple it was to throw together and cook.  Just an FYI – I served the salad on the side rather than under the steak.

It’s funny because after the long walk to the back of the store, I realized that there was a recipe kiosk thingy right as I walked in.   How did I miss that one?

Steak with Pineapple Salsa

Source: Giant Recipe Solutions
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 cups peeled, cored and chopped fresh pineapple
1 cup fresh orange slices, chopped OR 1 can mandarin orange sections, drained
1/2 cup red or green pepper, chopped
1/3 cup green picante sauce or green taco sauce (in the Ethnic or Goya section)
12 oz boneless sirloin steak
1/2 tsp. mexican seasoning or chili powder
1 Tbs. olive oil
6 cups torn mixed salad greens

Directions:

For the salsa, in a medium bowl gently stir together pineapple, oranges, bell pepper, and picante sauce.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Trim fat from steak and slice it thinly across the grain.

Sprinkle steak pieces with seasoning, toss evenly to coat.

In a large skillet, cook and stir half of the seasoned steak in hot oil over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes or to desired “doneness”.   Remove from skillet.

Repeat with the remaining steak.

Arrange salad greens on plate, top with steak and pineapple salsa.

These are too good to be true.

Just looking at these makes me want to eat the whole batch.

As I tell my friend Caren, overindulgence and I battle frequently over sweets.

Overindulgence is sitting next to me right now telling me to eat a cinnamon bun.  He’s a bad, bad influence.  Why must you tempt me?

I cannot give into him NOW.  I already had a cinnamon bun.  Ohhhh but they look so good.  I’ll just have a bite… or two.

No.  I must fight it.  I must.

I did fight the urge to put the ooey, gooey cream cheese icing on top.  Okay, I’m lying.  I just didn’t have any cream cheese, but they didn’t need them…

Be ready to stir, roll, bake, and eat in a little over 30 minutes.

Fastest Cinnamon Buns

Source: Cook’s Illustrated’s recipe made by The Kitchen Sink

Makes 8 cinnamon buns

Ingredients:

For the Buns:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup packed (5 1/4 ounces) dark brown sugar
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon plus 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

For the glaze
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 cup (4 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

For the Buns:
Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 425°F. Brush a round 9-inch nonstick cake pan with 1 tablespoon butter. Spray a wire cooling rack with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine the brown sugar, 4 tablespoons granulated sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon melted butter and stir with a fork or fingers until the mixture resembles wet sand; set the filling mixture aside.

Whisk together the flour, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk and 2 tablespoons butter in a measuring cup. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until the liquid is absorbed (the dough will look shaggy), about 30 seconds. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth and no longer shaggy about 30 seconds.

Pat the dough with your hands into a 12 by 9-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle the dough evenly with the brown sugar filling, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Press the filling firmly into the dough. Using a bench scraper or metal spatula, loosen the dough from the work surface. Starting at a long side, roll the dough, pressing lightly, to form a tight log. Pinch the seam to seal. Roll the log seam-side down and cut it evenly into 8 pieces. Turn the pieces over on their flat sides, and with your hand, slightly flatten each piece of dough to seal the open edges and keep the filling in place. Place 1 roll in the center of the prepared pan and then place the remaining 7 rolls around the perimeter of the pan. Brush the rolls with the remaining 2 tablespoons butter.

Bake until the edges are golden brown, 23 to 25 minutes. Use an offset metal spatula to loosen the buns from the pan. Wearing oven mitts, place a large plate over the pan and invert the buns onto the plate. Place the greased cooling rack over the plate and invert the buns onto the rack. Cool about 5 minutes before glazing.

For the glaze:
While the buns are cooling, line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (for easy cleanup); set the rack with the buns on the baking sheet. Whisk the cream cheese and buttermilk in a large bowl until thick and smooth (the mixture will look like cottage cheese at first). Sift the confectioners’ sugar over the mixture and whisk until a smooth glaze forms’ about 30 seconds. Spoon the glaze evenly over the buns; serve immediately.

Egg McMuffins from Mickey D’s rock my world.  I can eat one in a matter of moments.  I TRY to savor the taste of each bite but it never works because no sooner I bite the sucker, it’s gone.  My excitement is over.

I try to make “Egg McMuffins” at home but they are always so dry – even with the cheese.  I’ve sprayed/slathered the English Muffin with butter to try to moisten it, but nooooo, the sandwich remained disgustingly dry.  After making my Blue Stilton Cheese Sauce, which is essentially blue cheese with milk, flour, and butter (simple), I decided to use it to alleviate the over-crustiness of my sandwich.  Over-crustiness?  You get my point.

Since I’m “off” from work this week to focus on my thesis for grad school – being “off” is a whole other story in itself – I’ve been making heartier breakfasts.  This particular sandwich is for Jay because it’s really spicy, but the heat can easily be turned down for a heat-sensitive palette.  All that I did was add XXX hot sauce to the cheese sauce recipe.  It was really good but my mouth was on FIRE.  Perfect for Jay.  Then I threw some hot peppers on top.  He loved it.  I should call the sandwich Jay’s Inferno or eat this and your tongue will fall out.  Like I said, don’t do the hot sauce or the hot peppers, and there is no heat.  You’ll survive.  And so will your tongue.

Bacon Egg, and Spicy Cheese Sandwich

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 english muffins
2 eggs
4 slices reduced sodium, bacon (I like center-cut)
Blue Stilton Cheese Sauce + hot sauce stirred in it (hot sauce optional)
hot peppers (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook bacon in a medium/large skillet.  When it’s almost done, push bacon to the side of the skillet and cook the eggs.  If you want to saute your peppers, throw them in the skillet as well.

While eggs are cooking, toast your english muffins.

Place your toasted english muffins on your serving plate and spread the top half with the cheese sauce.  On the bottom half add the egg, bacon, and peppers.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Close them, arrange them so they look pretty on your plate, and enjoy!

This chicken was a huge accomplishment for me.  For months I could not go near meat.  I was utterly repulsed.  I blame the Travel Channel and their wacky food shows.  Thank you Travel Channel for ruining meat for me for several months.

I have since overcome this repulsion and am back in the omnivorous swing of things.  What makes this particular recipe an accomplishment is the fact that it’s an entire chicken.  I can easily consume chicken, but when it’s whole… let’s just say I tend to stop in my tracks, stare at it and eeeeeew.  I have the same issues with the Thanksgiving Turkey.   I will spare you my exact thoughts.

What makes this less of an accomplishment for me was the fact that Jay did most of the hands-on prepping with the raw chicken.  I prepared the herbs and whatnot, and he put it on the chicken.  I can’t touch a whole chicken.  Weird, I know.  Again, blame the Travel Channel.

Once the chicken was cooking and the unbelievably appetizing aroma began swirling around my house, my phobia/repulsion/”sissy-ness” subsided.  Forget you and your creepiness whole chicken.  I will not let you ruin me!  Although I wussed out on tying the arms of the chicken back to prevent them from burning… Next time, chicken!  Your arms will be mine to defeat!

Boy… this whole chicken thing is a little outta control, don’t you think??

Emeril rocked this recipe!  This is a simple roasted chicken that takes 45-50 minutes to cook!  I love it!  It wasn’t the 2 1/2 hour ordeal that other recipes require.  AND the ingredients were not hard to find.  They were all in my kitchen cabinet.  ANNNNND buying a whole chicken is way cheaper than buying a pack of chicken breasts.  My whole chicken was $5.50!  Perfect for a family of two for dinner and lunch the next day.  See?  I’m starting to love this whole chicken business more now.

Emeril Lagasse’s Perfected Roasted Chicken

Mildly Adapted from FoodNetwork.com

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

3 carrots, peeled and cut into thirds
3 ribs celery, peeled and cut into thirds
3 onions, peeled and cut into quarters
1 (3 1/2 to 4 pound) chicken, rinsed and patted dry
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons cracked white pepper
1 lemon, halved
2 fresh bay leaves
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
4 sprigs rosemary, roughly chopped, plus 1 tablespoon for gravy
5 fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
1 Tbs. dried celery flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup chicken stock*
2 tablespoons roasted garlic*
1 cup dry white wine*

** denotes ingredients for chicken gravy, which I did not make**

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

In a 9 by 13-inch roasting pan, add the carrots, celery and onions.

Season the chicken both inside and out with the kosher salt and white pepper. Squeeze the lemon halves over the chicken and place the rinds inside the cavity. Place the bay leaves inside the cavity.

In a small bowl, combine the garlic, rosemary, sage, celery flakes, olive oil and butter. Rub the chicken both inside and out with the garlic rosemary blend and place in the roasting pan.

Place the pan in the oven and roast the chicken for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the juices run clear. To test this, insert a thermometer in the thickest part of a leg. It should register at 160 degrees internal temperature. Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.

Pour off excess fat from pan and return to heat. Whisk in chicken stock, roasted garlic, white wine and chopped rosemary, scraping up the bits on the bottom of pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Reduce gravy by half, until thickened.*

Serve chicken with gravy on the side.*

** denotes directions to make the chicken gravy, which I did not make**

Happy 100th post, Ja cie Kocham!  This blog was started merely for me to keep track of my own recipes.  I’m notorious for cooking something and not being able to find the recipe for future use so this blog was initially meant to serve as a private food diary for me.  Well, that lasted all about a month when my friends and family kept asking to see it.  So I gave in and made my Ja Cie Kocham visible to the public.  And here I am 100 posts deep.

To make this post even more special it happens to fall on my beautiful puppy’s 1st Birthday.

We don’t have children of our own (yet) so Noodles gets all of our energy and love.  We HAD to celebrate her birthday!  What kind of parents would we be if we didn’t?   I know it sounds corny and quite frankly even ridiculous – I have seen those crazy Dog Moms on Oprah and Dr. Phil that treat their dogs like humans and even chew their food for them – but rest assured that we’re not THAT crazy.  We just love any excuse to celebrate.  And yes, we love our Bean!

And Bean loves her Peanut Butter!  (I let her lick the spoon after I was done scooping the peanut butter…)  She also loves getting presents…  she waits patiently… well, as patiently as a birthday puppy can!

When we first got Noodles, she was so little and had lots of black hair.

As you can clearly see in her more recent posts, her dark black hair has turned a whitish-gray.  She’s half Maltese and half Yorkie so I guess the Maltese in her is coming through!

So let’s talk about these dog cookies.

1. They are so simple to make.
2. You can’t screw them up.  It’s impossible.
3. The original recipe CLAIMS to yield 10 “biscuits”, but mysteriously I ended up with 36!
   
4. And you can eat them, too.  They are not sweet at all so I added some chocolate
   

Please note that Noodles is watching Mommy partake in a cookie….

Peanut Butter Banana Doggie Cookies

Source: Allrecipes

Yields A LOT of cookies…

**Feel free to make the cookies really thick to cut back on the amount and to appease your larger doggies.  My dog is little (10 lbs) so I made the cookies thin so she could easily consume them.**

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup mashed banana
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 egg white, lightly beaten, for brushing

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.

Stir together the egg, peanut butter, banana, and honey in a medium bowl; blend thoroughly. Stir in the flour and wheat germ; mix well.

Turn dough out onto a floured board and roll to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter, place on prepared baking sheet, and brush tops with egg white.

Bake biscuits in preheated oven until dried and golden brown, about 30 minutes, depending on size. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Most mornings during the week I wake up so early that I don’t want to have breakfast.  Sounds bad, I know, but the reason is because if I eat at 5-5:30am, I’ll be ready for a full-blown lunch by 9am.  I try to hold off breakfast until 7… at least by then it’s a suitable breakfast time that allows me to have a noonish lunch.  Mind you my breakfast is a last minute thought every morning as I’m heading out the door.  “Oh crap, I need breakfast!”  Breakfast bars are my typical breakfast during the week.  As much as I love the convenience, it gets old.  I want something more substantial to start my day.

Then I met Muesli.

This recipe is wonderful because you mix all of the ingredients with the exception of the fruit in a bowl and let it sit overnight in your fridge.  When you wake up, you have a superbly healthy breakfast.

You can also make this an oatmeal.  By cooking the oats and milk for a minute, then throwing in the rest of the ingredients once the oats are  cooked, you can have a quick, gourmet-looking, hearty breakfast.  Your choice.  Muesli or Oatmeal.  I’ve done both and they are both good.

Pick your favorite milk – soy, skim, almond, rice (or just water)…
Pick your favorite nuts and dried fruits – almonds, walnuts, pistachios, sunflower seeds, craisins, golden raisins…
Pick your favorite fresh fruit – nectarines, peaches, cherries, apples, pears…
Mix in some coconut flakes and brown sugar (optional)

And you will have a delicious breakfast!

Coconut and White Nectarine Muesli

Ingredients:

Adapted from Daily Unadventures in Cooking

Serves 2-3

1 cup oats
1 cup soy milk or milk of your choosing
2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut
2 tablespoons golden raisins and dried cranberries
2 tablespoons almonds
1 tablespoon flax (optional)
1 fresh nectarine
2 cherries for garnish

Directions:

Combine all of above up except nectarines and stir. Cover and put in the fridge overnight. In the morning chop up your fruit and serve on top.
**This will not be super sweet.  If you prefer it to be sweeter add some brown sugar on top.**

I love pesto.  Basically anything with basil in it gets a thumbs up from me.  What I never thought about was how versatile pesto is.  Basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, cheese… that was pesto to me.  Oh how I was wrong!   You can change up the pine nuts with walnuts or almonds… change the basil to thyme… throw in red pepper flakes… or even sun-dried tomatoes!

A little bit of this particular pesto goes a long way.  I think I actually made too much.  Because I have so much left over, I’m putting on my chicken, crackers with cheese, on my sandwiches, as a dip for my raw vegetables, and anything else that I can think of.

I’ve cut the recipe in half.  The changes are reflected in the recipe below.

Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Red Pesto

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Serves 4

Ingredients:

12 plump, chewy sun-dried tomatoes (about 2 ounces)
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
a couple big pinches of red pepper flakes
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
handful of fresh basil
1/4 cup walnuts or pine nuts, lightly toasted
zest of half a lemon

Directions:

Pulse all ingredients in your food processor until it reaches a crumbled texture.  If you are using the pesto with pasta, add 1/2 cup of the pasta water with 2/3 of the pesto sauce and then add the rest of the pesto to the mixture.  If not, use a small amount of hot water to thin it out.  I suggest gradually adding the water so you can get the consistency that you prefer.

This was an absolute last minute meal.  Jay picked me up from the train station later in the evening and asked me what I wanted to do for dinner.  All that I knew was that I wanted chicken.   What kind of chicken was beyond me.  We stopped at Wegmans for some cutlets where we happened to walk by the gourmet cheese section.  In a matter of minutes I lost Jay in the abyss of cheese.  When he finally surface he had a nice chunk of Blue Stilton Cheese.

The thoughts about what to do with my chicken started to come alive.

This recipe is really simple.  I just made a rue sauce with the Stilton.  Ooooh was it good!  Good thing that we stopped at Wegmans.  This one is a keeper.

Chicken with Blue Stilton Cheese Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. olive oil
4 thin chicken breast cutlets
salt and pepper
1 Tbs. butter (I used yogurt butter)
1 Tbs. flour
1 Tbs. cream/half and half (optional)
1/2 cup skim milk
2 oz blue Stilton or your favorite blue cheese

Directions:

Make sure you have all of your ingredients ready and within reach.

Preheat a large skillet to medium heat.  Add olive oil.  Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.  Add chicken to skillet.  Cook 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

While chicken is cooking, preheat a small saucepan to low heat.  Add butter and stir until melted.  Whisk in flour.  At this point your are going to continually whisk.  Once the butter/flour mixture thickens, whisk in cream.  Gradually whisk in skim milk until desired consistency.  Add cheese and a generous amount of pepper.  Whisk until incorporated and cheese is melted.

On a serving platter, arrange chicken and top with cheese sauce.

Today we had a heat index of 105 degrees F.  And I was outside pretty much allll day looooong.  Needless to say, I wasn’t about to have anything hot for dinner.  I needed something cool and refreshing.  It was a night for salad.  I did it a little differently.  Instead of throwing it all in a bowl, I decided to make a platter out of it and put the lettuce on the side.  So go ahead.  Make a salad platter.  It makes the simplest of meals look beautiful and fancy.

My platter from Left to Right:

Red bell peppers
Green hot peppers
Avocado
Bacon
Chicken
Eggs
Scallions
Mushrooms
Roma tomatoes

I used endive lettuce and ranch dressing.  I know I should have used blue cheese, but I just love ranch!

ENJOY!

Man do we love homefries and hash browns in this house!  Normally we buy the frozen hash browns and have to stand around for 45 minutes or so for them to cook.  Today was a little different.  I had some left over potatoes from another dish that I decided to use for my OWN homefries.  Boy did they turn out good.  Even with the chopping, these were WAY quicker to make than our frozen hash browns.

There are only two rules that I must share with you when you embark on homemade homefries:

1.  You MUST use butter.  I used a butter/olive oil combo so the butter wouldn’t burn in the skillet, but it is the BUTTER that turns these babies into a beautiful, crispy, golden brown.  Do not skip the butter.  Even if it’s a tiny pad of butter… it’s a must to get the best results.  (And this is coming from a girl that usually uses olive oil for everything!)

2.  When you initially put the potatoes in your skillet.  Do not… I repeat, DO NOT stir them or move them for the first 5 minutes or so.  You want them to turn nice and crispy and this won’t happen if you constantly stir them.  So… place them in the skillet, go sit by the tv for a minute with your freshly brewed coffee and relax.  Let them crisp!  We don’t want mushy potatoes!

So go ahead… make your own diner deluxe breakfast.  Toast, eggs, bacon, and homefries.  It costs only pennies per person and it tastes soooo good.

Homemade Homefries

Serves 4

Ingredients:

5-6 small baking potatoes (I used butter gold potatoes), chopped into 1-inch cubes.
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 Tbs. butter
salt and pepper to taste
cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced

Directions:

Heat large skillet to medium-high.  Add olive oil and butter.  Once butter begins to melt, swirl it around coating the entire skillet.

Add potatoes in a single layer.  Add salt, pepper, and cayenne.  LEAVE ALONE for 3-5 minutes or until the one side is golden brown.  (Time varies depending on your stove top.)

Give them a good stir.  Let sit for another 2-3 minutes.  Repeat one more time.  Add garlic when your potatoes are almost done.  you don’t want it to burn.

**Once my potatoes were pretty much done, I scooted them over to one side of my skillet (mine is 14 inches) so I could cook up some eggs.**

Remove from heat once potatoes are nice and crispy on the outside and relatively soft on the inside.  Season with salt and pepper again.

One of the rare times that I use ketchup!