Had to do something with all the rest of that bacon!

This is not an Abby/Betty Project recipe, but I had to post pics. I had to do something with the remaining bacon and the 2 eggs we had left in the fridge, so I made strawberry pancakes and bacon. I accidentally started making strawberry pancakes because we had some strawberries we needed to eat one day, so I cut them up and put them in my usual Quaker Oatmeal Pancake Mix pancakes. It makes a pretty pancake, and Shane and I agree they're tastier than blueberry pancakes!

Another organic thing that is worth buying in my opinion: Organic Maple Syrup. I recently discovered that Aunt Jemima's Syrup is high fructose corn syrup with some maple-y flavoring mixed in. That grossed me out, so I switched to Organic Maple Syrup. Even though it costs like $10 as compared to Aunt Jemima's $1.50, it tastes way better and requires much less syrup to make pancakes taste good. Shane doesn't even eat syrup on the strawberry pancakes though, because he says the strawberries make them sweet enough.

Does anybody know what you're supposed to do with bacon grease? The bacon produced a ton of grease, and I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to pour it down the sink. For now we poured it in a jar. I'm not to the point where I want to keep it to season things... I don't know if I'll ever get to that point.

It may not look like much, but this is EATIN' food!

HOLY BALLS. The food I made today was sooo good! I achieved my goal of making a true comfort meal after a week of restaurant food and being away from my boys, Shane and Frankie.

I changed my menu a little bit from the original, because my cookbook doesn't have the scalloped potatoes recipe. I'll have to get that from Beth. I made the mashed potatoes that were part of the Thanksgiving Dinner recipes. I also enhanced the green beans recipe. I called Mom and asked her how to season the potatoes (thinking she would say salt and pepper and butter or something like that) and she explained how to make them with bacon and onions, so I decided to do that. I'll do the run-down of what I made, but it was all AWESOME!

1. Outrageous Chocolate-White Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Pecans. I am not a huge fan of cookies, but objectively, these are really good! I had a little trouble cooking them. The ingredients were hard to mix up and made kind of a crumbly mixture that looked more like a streusel than cookie dough. I was able to fix it by mixing it up a little more on low with the handheld mixer, and smooshing it all together in an ice-cream scoop to make the cookies stick together. They still came out a little crumbly, but they taste delicious!
2. Meatloaf. A Momma-made comfort-food classic. Baked with ketchup on top. YUM. I will share a piece of wisdom I had even before the Abby/Betty Project: organic ketchup is SOO GOOD. I learned this because Shane's mom is into all things organic, so I had it at their house. It is one of the things that is worth paying the extra money for just because it tastes good, even if you aren't into the whole organic thing.
3. Mashed Potatoes. BAM! I aced the mashed potatoes. All the tricks Mom shared in our phone conversation this morning surely helped: (a) Don't boil the crap out of the potatoes. Bring them to a boil with the lid on, then just lightly bubbling for the remaining time they are cooking. (b) Cook the potatoes a little more once you drain them to get rid of the excess water. (c) Use giant brown russet baking potatoes. They taste yummy, and I think they also take less time to peel because it's just a few huge potatoes instead of a lot of small ones. Other than that, I just added warm milk, Brummel & Brown, salt, and pepper, and I totally redeemed myself for the nasty garlic smashed potatoes!
4. Green Beans with Bacon and Onions. O. M. G. These are good. I mean, there's probably a rule that if you put bacon fat in something, it's good, but I would still like to take full credit. I "blanch and shocked" the green beans: boiled them at a rolling boil until tender, then drained them and put them in iced water, which kept them bright green when they were done. I cooked the bacon, then cooked the onion slowly in the bacon grease, then added the green beans and bacon back to the mixture. Yum.

Now Shane and I are sitting on the couch watching a movie on Comedy Central drinking Lone Star Beer and Gold Peak Sweetened Iced Tea, respectively, our bellies all full of delicious food :).

Home Cookin'

Eating out all week at this conference has made me want some real home-cooked comfort food. For the first time ever, I think I might be able to create this for myself. (Previously, Mom's cooking was just about the only way I ever got real home-cooked comfort food). So, even without my cookbook, I have decided on the following menu:

Meatloaf

Scalloped Potatoes (because Jane likes them, and because I want to redeem myself for nasty garlic smashed potatoes)

Green Beans (if I can find some fresh ones that look good)

I'm not feeling like making dessert for this weekend. Maybe we'll just have some ice cream cones, or I'll get some fresh figs and we can eat those. I heard they have yummy fresh figs at Whole Foods now, so maybe they're in season. I'm not sure if Shane likes figs. Dad and I love figs. He had a fig tree at our old house, and we used to eat the fresh figs. Mom cussed at the tree every time she walked by, and cussed every time we brought the figs in the house to eat them. I guess she can't get past the weird, furry fruit with funny-looking insides and realize that they taste delicious!

I forgot to share this about my garlic smashed potatoes. I nearly chopped off my finger when trying to cut the garlic! Apparently you're not supposed to cut the garlic bulb to separate the cloves. Next time I'll just pull them apart! There was quite a bit of blood gushing from my finger, and way more pain than I thought I would have from my super sharp knife. Luckily, after washing my finger with warm, soapy water, applying pressure for 30 seconds to stop the bleeding, and three days of Hello Kitty band-aids, my finger is pretty much healed!

Sorry no pictures this time. The internet at this hotel is too dreadfully slow!

Abby/Betty Project Status: 16 down, 89 to go!

At the suggestion of Beth, who also owns the Betty cookbook, I am going to provide a status update. Here are the 16 recipes I have cooked so far:

1. Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries (Yum!)
2. Strawberry-Spinach Salad (Yum!)
3. Buffalo Wings (Yum!)
4. Strawberry Shortcakes with Shane and I agree this is the best thing so far)
5. Guacamole (Yum! Say the nurses Shane works with)
6. Ham and Cheese Egg Casserole a.k.a. Egg Strata (Yum, although too salty because of preserved ham)
7. Fruit Salad with Lemon-Honey-Poppy Seed Dressing (Yum!)
8. Blueberry Muffins (A little dry, but apparently had perfect peaks!)
9. Lasagna (Yum! Probably the second best thing so far, and made the house smell good!)
10. Tirimisu (Yuck!)
11. Italian Salad with Garlic Lemon Vinaigrette (Double Yuck!)
12. Garlic Bread (Yum!)
13. Apple Crisp a.k.a. Apple Betty (Yum, although had too much nutmeg)
14. Lemon-Dijon Baked Chicken (Yum!)
15. Garlic Smashed Potatoes (Need work)
16. Cooked Carrots (Yummy, simple, and fast!)

I have 89 recipes to go. Beth has listed brown rice with lentils and the scalloped potatoes as some of her family's favorites. Maybe I'll redeem myself this weekend after the mediocre-to-poor garlic smashed potatoes and make some delicious scalloped potatoes. I don't have my cookbook here in Austin, so I can't plan my next menu until Friday or Saturday!

An Update From Austin

Okay, things are a little crazy this week. I am in Austin for work and there is a lot going on, but I made some good food this weekend, so I desparately need to update! (Also, this computer does not have automatic spell check, so please excuse my spelling mistakes).

This weekend's recipes:

1. Apple Crisp (a.k.a. Apple Betty)- I made this from organic apples from H-E-B. I cut the apples and tasted them before baking the Apple Betty, and they were gross. Once baked, the apples tasted yummy. So, at the very least, this recipe is a good use of mediocre to gross apples. This was an easy recipe that included cut up apples and a streusel on top made of oatmeal, brown sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg. I think this recipe will be perfection with less nutmeg (just a tiny pinch!) and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top. Shane loved this and has eaten it for breakfast for the past few days!

2. Lemon-Dijon Baked Chicken- If you know me, you know this was a BIG DEAL. Raw chicken FREAKS ME OUT! Interviewing people who had bloody diarrhea and vomiting from foodborne illnesses for work will do that to you. Shane brought me home some gloves from the hospital to handle the chicken. This was a Shake 'n' Bake style recipe. I dipped the chicken in a mixture of melted butter and dijon mustard, then shook it in a baggie full of parmesan cheese and bread crumbs (acquired by mashing a 3-day-old loaf of french bread with a potato masher). The results were delicious! I was so amazed at how the disgusting, pink, slimy raw chicken breasts turned in to real, yummy food at the work of my hands!

3. Garlic Smashed Potatoes- These were red potatoes mashed with the skins still in with garlic and parsley. The recipe called for sour cream and did not call for any butter. I think this was a mistake. The result tasted something like an un-seasoned baked potato. I think this recipe needs 1. more garlic and 2. butter and 3. possibly less parsley and/or more skin so it tastes less like plants. Meanwhile, Shane solved the problem by treating them like a baked potato and melting cheese on top of the leftover potatoes. (I feel like such a good fiance; I left Shane at home for this conference in Austin all week and I left him with real, home-cooked leftovers to eat!)

4. Cooked Carrots (Boiled)- This recipe was so simple! It was actually easier than buying steam-in-a-bag carrots and the result was much tastier. Once I peeled and cut up the carrots, I boiled water with a little salt and a lot of sugar in it, put the carrots in, covered the pot, and boiled them for 7 minutes (which is about how long it takes to microwave a steam-in-the-bag!). Shane LOVES cooked carrots, and you will notice in the picture of our plates that his carrots are already gone :). These were perfection. We didn't even add any other seasoning once they were cooked.

My next post will be a full-on project status update. Also, shoutout to Cousin Beth, Joel, and Jane, who gifted me the awesome apron I'm wearing in the picture. Please disregard the state of my hair and the kitchen in this photo. I was focused exclusively on my cooking :).

Garlic Bread = Yum

Today I made the garlic bread, finishing out the 8 recipes I had planned for last weekend. So, maybe 8 was a little much for one weekend, especially when Shane was home and we had other stuff planned! I also prepared some whole wheat pasta with H-E-B Tomato Basil sauce to eat for dinner tonight, and then packed it up for lunches for the rest of the week. I may not look like much, but it's better than a freakin' Lean Cuisine!

Well, the garlic bread was delicious. I mean, really how can you go wrong by spreading butter and garlic on a delicious baguette and then baking it? Well, there is one way. I learned when I made the salad that if you put too much garlic powder in something it's NASTY! Same with really strong espresso or rum extract with the tirimisu. Also, the preparation of garlic bread is a good use of my skill at cutting things into straight and even pieces. This is a skill that even Chef Linda (a.k.a. Mom) has me help her with at times, along with multiplying fractions to double a recipe.

Oh yeah, and I LOVE H-E-B! They have the best store-brand stuff (Tomato Basil Spaghetti Sauce, yum!), tons of produce, and a bakery that makes fresh-baked baguettes and labels them "SCRATCH BAGUETTE." I thought only Nanny and Mom used "scratch" as an adjective, like "scratch cake" not "box cake." Maybe it's a Texas thing?

Pretty salad. Pretty disgusting!

Today I made the italian salad that was supposed to go with the delicious lasagna I made this weekend. And it was utterly disgusting. Let me list the problems one by one.

1. The olive oil lemon-garlic vinaigrette that I made on Saturday (it said you could make it two days ahead!) had congealed by the time I poured it over the salad today.

2. Onions and garlic are yucky. I like them both cooked, but the raw onion (in the salad) and the garlic powder (in the dressing) were overpowering in the salad. Yuck!

3. Artichoke hearts are okay (if you ask me, they didn't really have a taste in this salad, kind of like the jicama in the spinach salad) but Shane made an awful face when he tasted them. Shane, who would eat anything!

Now I'll go over the good parts of the salad (you've got to accentuate the positive, right?)

1. Jumbo ripe black olives (Mario brand, pitted) are delicious.

2. Eating this salad involved using my new salad hands that I've wanted FOREVER and my new $2 blue salad bowl from target, making it extra pretty.

3. The Blue Bell Ultimate Neopolitan (you have to try this flavor!) ice cream in a fudge-dipped cone that I ate afterwards to clear my palette of all the disgusting garlic and onion taste.

So, at least we had fresh veggies for dinner! And ice cream, for both of us, but that has strawberries in it, so that covers another food group! If I need to make a salad to go with the lasagna next time I'll either (a) have a potluck and have someone else bring the salad (Jen makes pretty delicious ones) or (b) keep it simple with romaine lettuce, olives, and croutons and some oil and vinegar.

Lasagn-yum and Tirimi-ew

So, I made the lasagna and tirimisu this weekend, but didn't get to the garlic bread or the salad. I'll make those during the week to stretch the lasagna into more meals for us. Plus, I found myself getting home from work last week (thanks to my awesome government job schedule, I get home at 4:30) wishing I had something to cook! So tomorrow I'll make the salad (we already have all the ingredients) and Wednesday I'll make the garlic bread after we can go to the store and get a fresh loaf of French bread.

So, let's start with the bad news first. The tirimisu was AWFUL! The recipe called for espresso and rum or rum extract. Shane makes espresso all the time, so I had him make some for this, and we shop at H-E-B (where they don't sell rum) and only ever drink beer or wine, so we just bought some imitation rum extract. First, espresso was WAY too strong and gave the cake a really bitter coffee flavor. (Shane likes it, because he is a coffee fiend). Next time I'll just go downstairs to our apartment's coffee dispenser and get some regular coffee. Second, I accidently put too much imitation rum extract and it freaking smelling like fingernail polish remover! Even Shane didn't like the overpowering rummy taste. Next time I'll use regular rum (Shane wants to start making mojitos anyway, so we can buy some) and that way even if I add a little too much it will probably still taste good.

Now for the good news. The lasagna was awesome! We still have a TON leftover. It made an entire 9x13 inch pan full of lasagna, which is like 12 or so generous servings. I made the sauce from scratch (from ground beef, onions, diced tomatoes, tomato soup, tomato paste, basil and parsley) and it smelled SOO good. Then I layered the lasagna in the pan and put it in the fridge until we were ready to bake it today. It would be super convenient for a dinner party, and it was SO GOOD! I already have some packed up to go in my lunch tomorrow, along with some of the leftover fruit salad (the apples still didn't turn brown thanks to the lemon-honey-poppyseed dressing).

So for the weekend I had a few successes and a couple of failures, but what's learning if you don't have to do some of it over again?

Ham&Cheese Egg Casserole, Fruit Salad, Blueberry Muffins!

After a late(ish) night out last night for Elizabeth's birthday, I woke up this morning and made brunch! I made an "egg strata" which was an egg casserole with ham, cheese, eggs, chives, and bread with paprika sprinkled on top and some other seasonings. For this recipe I had to use "fully cooked smoked ham." Ew. See picture of sketchy ham attached. The casserole turned out tasting pretty good in the bites that didn't have any ham. The ham was REALLY salty, so we'll be looking for a different brand next time. Or maybe when I learn to cook ham I can chop some up and freeze it and save it for this. Also, I forgot to grease the pan for this one. Woops!! One of the pictures is of the stuck-on-food pan-flunk. Shane cleaned it though! He totally makes all this cooking possible by washing ALL the dishes.

I also made a gigantic fruit salad with a pineapple (my first time ever cutting up a pineapple!), grapes, oranges (that I cut up chef style, cutting out the individual sections from the orange), apples (cut with my trusty apple-cutter that you can see in some of the pictures), and grapes. I made lemon-honey-poppyseed dressing and tossed it all together in a big Tupperware. It tastes delicious! And as an extra perk, the lemon juice keeps the apples from turning brown. Note: if you're going to make fruit salad, cut up the apples LAST before you put the lemon juice or dressing on, because they start to turn brown really quickly.

Last but not least, I made blueberry muffins with fresh blueberries. We haven't tasted those yet, but with flour, sugar, and blueberries, how can you really go wrong? The recipe was supposed to make 12 muffins but I think the ice cream scoop I used for the batter was too big so it only made 10.

Learned today: I inherited my mom's tendency to cuss when I cook! I could have sworn this would be less messy than making buffalo wings, but it soo wasn't! I cracked eggs all over the counter, tried to shake up an inadequately closed tupperware and flung dressing and pineapple chunks everywhere, and got 4 knives, 2 cutting boards, and more than one set of measuring cups and spoons dirty. If this didn't make a lot of delicious food that Shane could eat, I don't think he would be so tolerant of my mess!

Guacamole for 4... to feed 15 nurses!

Today we went to the grocery store and got the ingredients for all eight recipes that I'll be cooking this week. I can't wait! When we got home I made guacamole for Shane to take to work tomorrow for a nurse's birthday party. The recipe said it would make 16 servings, which was totally wrong! It called for 2 avacados, then chopped tomato, cilantro, lime juice, and cayenne pepper. It made what looked about enough for 4 people if they were eating chips and dip, maybe 8 or so if they were just using it as a topping for fajitas or something. Eek! I hope I don't anger the hungry nurses! Shane insisted that we did not need to go back to the store and get more avocados. He said the "homemadeness" would make up for the small quantity. Hopefully there is lots of other food and a lot of nurses who don't like guacamole. I didn't taste it because there wasn't very much, so I'll have to wait for Shane's report tomorrow.

We brought home a bunch of produce, which is kind of unusual, and Frankie discovered it immediately and wanted to sniff it/play with it. Don't worry, we moved it to one of the few Frankie-free zones in the house on the shelves above the sink. Knock on wood that he doesn't figure out how to get there! I have also been locking Frankie in the study when I'm cooking so he doesn't get up on the counter. The way Frankie acts when I do anything domestic reminds me of the time Mom used cloth napkins at dinner at our house. We were entertaining a potential new doctor for Weimar, and she had made a nice dinner and set the table with cloth napkins. I asked "Mom, where did we get these?!" and she gave me a look like "Shh! Act like we use them all the time!" When I cook or clean Frankie is the same way. "Mom, what are you doing?!" It gives me away, I wish he would act like I do it all the time!

4 down, 101 to go!

Things I learned this week:

1. Cooking is easier than I thought it would be. When I follow the recipe, the food actually tastes good! (Part of the reason is that my mom the awesome cook helped me pick out the recipe book. She set me up for success. :)

2. Shane is super fun to cook for because he thinks everything I cook tastes good.

3. Three recipes is no way to keep busy for a whole weekend. It took way less time than I thought to cook, so this weekend I'm going to try... 8 recipes! Also, this weekend Shane will be off work so we will be able to eat more than last weekend, when I went out to lunch with friends both days and he ate at work.

When I was looking through the book trying to pick recipes for this weekend, I was having a hard time finding things that matched and would make coherent meals. I think I got this from my mom. I can't stand to eat foods that don't match. Or meals that don't have more than one color of food (except when I consider mac'n'cheese a meal, that's all one color). One of the things I want to learn during the Abby/Betty project is how to plan entire meals with things that go together, plan a week's worth of groceries that will make multiple meals, etc. So this week to get started with that I am going to make two of the meals that are included in the cookbook: Casual Lasagna Dinner and Weekend Brunch. I am also going to make some guacamole because Shane has to take some to work for a birthday party.

So, here are my 8 recipes:

1. Make-Ahead Lasagna- Apparently I need a dutch oven for this. Does anybody know what a Dutch oven is, besides someone farting and putting the covers over your head? Can't I just use a normal pot?

2. Italian romaine salad

3. Garlic bread

4. Tiramisu!

5. Ham and cheddar strata- Does anybody know what to do when it says to use cooked smoked ham? Can you buy that? Is it something obvious like just buying lunch meat? It's for this egg casserole thingy.

6. Mixed fresh fruit salad with honey poppy seed dressing

7. Blueberry muffins

8. Guacamole

I am looking forward to a lot of cooking!

Buffalo Wings: Success! Bleu Cheese Dressing: Not so much.

So, the buffalo wings were a success! They turned out really good. They weren't too spicy but they were still flavorful. The marinade had Cholula red pepper sauce, honey, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce, and then I sprinkled paprika on the chicken before cooking it. I was a little worried that they would be spicy because of the red pepper sauce, but they really weren't. (In fact, if you liked spicy things, I think you would need to put more hot sauce on after they were cooked. They were great though! Major milestone: I bought raw chicken and cooked it!

The homemade bleu cheese dressing was not good. It wasn't exactly nasty, but it just didn't have any flavor, and it was too thin to be a dip for the celery. The ingredients were plain yogurt, mayonnaise, and bleu cheese crumbles. Maybe more bleu cheese crumbles would have made it taste better? At any rate, next time I make buffalo wings I think I'll just serve the celery sticks with ranch dressing or use a ranch dressing mix to make some dip. I'm not a huge fan of raw celery, but with some ranch dressing or veggie dip it can be delicious!

We also ate the leftover strawberry shortcakes for dessert, which were delicious all over again! The strawberry shortcake recipe is probably what I'll bring next time we have a pot luck or I'll make at a family gathering. I'm not sure I want to share the recipe, it can be my secret :).

After our delicious real food dinner, which Shane at in his scrubs standing up right when he got home because he was so hungry, we went out for 4th of July. We had no idea, and were really surprised as we drove to a friend's house to see cars parked all over the medians and the shoulders, and even some in the lanes, waiting to see the fireworks. Traffic was super slow just because people were waiting to watch the fireworks from the raised freeways. I kind of felt like we were going to get shanked or run over someone driving through parts of it, especially by our apartment, but once we got to Patrick's house we got out and watched the fireworks from a bridge on TC Jester, and it was really fun! All in all, a successful 4th of July. Too bad I have to work today!

I got my domestic on today!

Today I got my domestic on! Along with much laundry and adventurous raw-grocery shopping, I went to Mad Potter with Jen and Katherine and painted this awesome plate! We get to pick up our pottery next week once it's glazed and fired. It's going to be microwave and dishwasher safe, so I can use it to serve some of my new delicious cooking!

Now, Shane and I are sitting on the couch watching a House marathon on TV, happily full from our HOMEMADE supper. (I know, lame for a Saturday night! But Shane worked a 12 hour shift today and he's working another one tomorrow starting at 7 am.) Today I made two of my three planned recipes: the Spinach-Strawberry Salad and the Strawberry Shortcakes.

I surprised myself with the salad! I usually hate salads that I make, but this salad (at least the dressing) will be a repeat recipe! The salad had spinach, strawberry, kiwis, and jicama. I tasted the jicama plain and thought "ew!" but it actually tasted really good with the dressing on it. I have to share this recipe!

Just pour this all in to a bottle and shake it up:

2 tbsp vegatable oil

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp orange joice

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp poppy seed (my favorite!)

2 tsp Dijon mustard

For desert, we had strawberry shortcakes. The shortbread is OMG good! I don't think we'll have enough strawberries to cover all six shortcakes that I made, but the shortbread will be good on its own or with honey for breakfast tomorrow :). I am planning to make some Jell-o to enjoy with the remaining whipped-cream. By the way, shortbread dough is delicious raw. I love raw dough in general (cookie, bread, cake batter). Shortbread dough is even better because there's not even anything in it that you're not supposed to eat raw. Although technically I'm not sure you're ever supposed to eat shortening, raw or cooked.

It's really fun to cook for Shane, because one he's so hungry when he comes home from work, and two he thinks all my food is really good, even when it's not! He hates salad dressing, and will usually choke down raw spinach and carrots with no dressing just to eat his veggies (blech!) but today he ate my dressing and he liked it! Great success. Also, I hate raw spinach, and the aforementioned dressing almost made the raw spinach taste good. Along with the strawberries and kiwis.

So, the recipes for tonight were successful! I have homemade bleu cheese dressing and cut up celery in the fridge now to eat with our buffalo wings tomorrow. I found chicken wing drummetes and I'm going to prepare those tomorrow morning and let them marinate to cook for dinner. Then we can have strawberry shortcakes again for dessert. Yay!

Cooking today was really fun, and easier than I thought it would be! Maybe I'm not as incompetent as I though (knock on wood). I did have to spend a lot of money though. The raw ingredients cost less than we usually spend on groceries, but the supplies I had to buy cost about $90. I think that won't happen again though, because I was buying really basic stuff that I'll use again (a good knife, measuring cups, a salad spinner, meat thermometers). Yay cooking!