Lisa Klow

C25K and a New Drink

 

Jasmine Myers, blogger at Eat Move Write and our C25K leader, wanted us to take pictures of our faces post-workout (and send them in), so here's me yesterday morning. If I look beat, it's because I was. Great run, though. The nearly-80 humid muggy Memphis weather gave way to a temperature drop and wind, so it was chilly and the Lake Michigan waves were crashing. (C25K = Couch to 5K. For details, see Jasmine's blog post here - and while you're at it, check out her blog because she's a talented and engaging writer.)

We have been taking evening walks down to the Lake. Last weekend, or maybe the weekend before, a family were flying a kite right next to some trees and one of the trees ate the kite! Just like the kite-eating tree in Peanuts! I'm still slogging my way through the incredibly detailed Charles Schulz biography. It's very good, it's just taking awhile. It's my night-table reading. I'm sailing through Mary Karr's Lit on the train. That kite is still in the tree.

So, I invented a new drink. I'm sure I'm not the first one to mix coffee and vodka, but I couldn't find a drink like this in my Bartending for Dummies book (the closest involved Rum, cold coffee and cream), so lacking a proper predetermined name, Steve dubbed this a Brown Russian. We looked online and there are numerous different drinks called Brown Russian, so this is our Brown Russian.

We have vodka in the house, and I've been wanting to mix it with my Iced Coffee. Which, by the way, I've been having the Starbucks way vs. my usual way. I used to do an iced au lait and shake it in a drink mixer. But I haven't replaced the one that cracked on the bottom, so I've been having it the way I have it when I buy iced coffee (unsweetened) at Starbucks, with only Half & Half. Just as good. Anyway, here's the drink:

Brown Russian

1 Tbsp Vodka

2 Tbsp chilled iced coffee

Half & Half till it's the color you like your coffee

Serve over ice. Can be doubled.

Wow was that good! I usually need something sweet to have with vodka, like cranberry juice, which I prefer over orange juice. This drink was sweet enough with no sweetener. And the coffee didn't get me buzzed on caffeine so I couldn't sleep, even though I had a second and doubled the recipe. So I have a new sipping vodka drink. Without sugar. That's why I gave up my UV Blue. Rain organic vodka is a nice sipping vodka that is good plain, but it's a bit pricey. And we're trying to watch our spending. But we're still under a bit of pressure, hence the purchase of alcohol. I made this drink with Skyy vodka.

 

Just FYI, for cheaper drinks, Goose Island Brewery, local to Chicago, makes great beer.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I need to give up stress baking. Stress + Baking = Polar Bear Reaction. That’s a Martha Beck term. It’s been awhile since I’ve written an update on my Martha Beck activities. (FourDay Win by Martha Beck)

I was busy and stressed before, during and after our move to Evanston, IL. Discovering the slow Chicago job market has been a source of additional stress. I have continued my Martha Beck relaxation exercises, turning the Watcher on myself to analyze what I’m feeling. I have made some progress.

I decided to take up running. Usually when I begin an exercise program, I throw myself into it, reaching exhaustion in a week, then I give up for several weeks until I guilt myself into starting again. I’m doing something different this time. I am listening to my body and taking several days of rest in between workouts. I am going out to run about three times a week. This is working out well because I am slowly building up endurance, and my workouts feel so much better when I am well rested rather than dragged out yet forcing myself to go through the motions.

As far as eating, we have continued to watch our portions. As an example, about a year ago Steve and I could finish off an entire homemade pizza by ourselves. These days, we cut the pizza into six slices and one slice is enough for a meal. And we only use half the sausage, mushroom and onion topping on the pizza, so the rest can be used for an additional meal over pasta with the leftover pizza sauce, or even a second meal after that tossed with scrambled eggs. White sugar has been replaced with Sucanat (evaporated cane juice) in our coffee. We’ve been eating more salads, now that we have access to quality vegetables at Whole Foods.

And then I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. To use up the brown sugar. (Isn’t that a great rationalization?! How much is brown sugar, like two bucks? Martha Beck even has an entire chapter devoted to throwing away food. We aren’t human garbage cans, you can throw away food.) I rolled the entire batch into balls and put them in the fridge, to be baked on a future date (we’d never eat two dozen cookies before they went stale). But I’ve been scarfing down cookie dough balls all week. Which just makes me want more. Brown sugar needs to go on my Avoid List, like High Fructose Corn Syrup and high carb snacks like pretzels, all of which make me want to eat and eat and eat and eat.

I’ve resisted going on a strict diet because it’s hard to cut out entire food groups (like no carbs), but sugar is not a required food group. And while I can resist sweets for awhile, if several triggers combine (stress, tiredness, my Period week (sorry, TMI?) and low blood sugar because I didn’t have snacks) then I come home ravenous like I did yesterday, and craving more chocolate chip cookies – although I did not have any. After dinner we went for a walk to Dick Blick so I could get a sketchbook, and on the way home I was feeling a little light-headed. I knew cookie dough would make me feel awful in the morning (Sugar! Sugar! Sugar!). Instead Steve suggested a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice, then he sent me to bed at 8:00 pm.

However, if you’d love a killer Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, here is the one I use, from Martha Stewart: Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have tried many chocolate chip cookie recipes. I know many swear by the one on the Nestle’s bag, but I don’t like it. I think it’s boring. I like my cookies chewy, and that recipe is not chewy enough. The one above made me stop testing recipes.

And a tip from Alton Brown to make the cookies ultra-chewy perfection: bake until they are just done – until the wetness is gone from the tops of the cookies. Then take them out of the oven and leave them on the baking sheet (I use my Pampered Chef baking stone) 10 minutes. Then move to a cooling rack. Chewy perfection.

But for now I need to put the recipe away and concentrate on healthy eating. And we will have less stress now that Steve found a job!

 

Thank You for Biscuit Tip, Heartless Contessa*

While watching Barefoot Contessa recently, I realized she was making biscuits in the stand mixer. Really?! You can do that?! Cold butter and all?! Yes, yes you can.

*Why "Heartless Contessa" -? Check out David Dust's blog post where Ina allegedly refuses a Make-A-Wish Foundation request. Be sure to click on David's updates as well (bottom of his blog post).

Anyway, on to Biscuit News:

The worst part about making biscuits is mixing the dry goods and butter (and cream cheese in my case). I have used my Mom's ancient wire biscuit whisk, a brand new biscuit whisk, and just resorted to crushing the ingredients with my hands. (Who ACTUALLY uses two knives? Seriously!?) The butter gets caught up in any implement you use, and doing it by hand is a pain. I've heard food processors are great, but we don't have one. But we do have a Kitchenaid mixer.

See my original post with Biscuit Recipe here. Updated recipe is below.

 Look! All dry ingredients plus butter and cream cheese on low with paddle attachment - mixed to the correct crumbled consistency!

 Then add buttermilk and mix till the dough just comes together (a little sticky is okay).

That's all!

 Pat down on floured surface and cut. That is my Mom's old biscuit cutter.

 Ready to bake.

 Biscuit!

 We're both kind of tired and stressed, so when the timer went off, we managed to ignore it. So the biscuits came out a little over-browned.

 But still delicious!

 We had biscuits with Lemon Pepper Chicken for dinner. Instead of serving the chicken over rice, we had it over a salad (greens and herb mix tossed in blue cheese dressing with a bit of buttermilk to get the remainder from the jar). Very good, but the salad didn't absorb the sauce the way rice does. Steve makes the sauce by deglazing the pan with fresh lemon juice.

BISCUITS

2 Cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp sugar (or more if you want the biscuits sweeter)

1 tsp kosher salt

3 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter

1/2 brick Neufchatel cream cheese

3/4 Cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 - YES, 450 degrees (I had to write that in my cookbook - YES, 450!!). Unless you know your oven runs hot, then try 425.

In a stand mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. I always sub 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour for 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour. Drop in butter and cream cheese in small chunks. Run on low with the paddle attachment until the butter and cream cheese bits are about the size of a pea. Add the buttermilk and run on low just until the dough comes together. DO NOT OVERMIX. It's okay if it's a bit sticky. Biscuit dough, like pie crust, needs a gentle touch or the biscuits will come out tough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and gather dough together, turning it over to coat both sides with flour. Roll it out or just pat it down. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits. Squeeze leftover dough together and roll out or pat down to cut out more biscuits.  Arrange biscuits on whatever baking sheet you are using, ungreased. My favorite is a rectangular Pampered Chef baking stone.

Bake biscuits 12-14 minutes, depending on your oven.

Biscuit recipe from A New Way to Cook, by Sally Schneider (original recipe uses sour cream, but I use Neufchatel and results are better).

Enjoy!

I'm a Bad Italian Cook!

I thought I knew how to cook Italian food, being half Italian, with an awful lot of perfectly-cooked al dente pasta under my belt. But I've been wrong about one detail, which I realized during the recent Top Chef Italian Challenge.

Tom Colicchio pointed out that Dale's dish tasted like all the components had been cooked separately and then thrown together to serve. And I realized that's what we do! We boil pasta, prepare a sauce or topping, serve pasta, then serve topping. But, that's wrong!

Then I remembered something I read recently in Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, in a chapter where he was explaining the various stations in a restaurant kitchen.

They par-cook pasta in restaurants, then dunk a serving in boiling water to finish, THEN toss the pasta with the sauce! Duh!

We were planning a simple linguine and jarred sauce meal, so we drained the pasta, then tossed our servings with the heated sauce. The result:

 Fantastic.

Then we had some linguine with fried eggs on top. I heated some olive oil in a pan and toasted some walnuts, then added the pasta and some pasta water. Those few ingredients were enough to make a sauce. Then topped with some cheese and two fried eggs. The result:

 Fantastic.

Lesson learned.

Burgers!

This weekend we made burgers:

 

This new grill pan from Randy is perfect for burgers! It distributes the heat better than the iron skillet.

We use our Meatball recipe for burgers. It's the same as a meatloaf recipe. We like it better than just straight ground beef. The added onions, garlic and spices (Penzey's Bavarian Seasoning this time) make the meat very tasty. Do not use red onions! After cooking, they turn a very unappetizing purple. Sweet yellow onions or Vidalia onions are best.

MEATBALLS:

1 lb. Ground Beast

1 lb. Ground Pork

1 Cup Bread Crumbs

1 Egg

1 Yellow Onion, chopped small

1 Tbsp chopped Garlic

Salt

Pepper

Herbs, if desired (fresh or dried)

Lightly beat egg.  Combine all ingredients – gently.  Don’t overmix.

For burgers, cook 5 mins per side.

For Meatballs: Lightly oil muffin baking stone. Put stone in oven to preheat, at 400. Bake 20 mins total, but flip meatballs at 10 minutes.

 Burgers, Fries and Beer!

Except that was too much food. We each only ate one burger. We wrapped the other two in foil and reheated later for Dinner II. Same for the fries, which are the frozen bake-in-the-oven type.

 Close-up!

Burger with Havarti Cheese, Blue Cheese Dressing and jar Jalapenos.

We used to get a burger similar to this in Springfield, MO at a bar & grill called Ebbets Field. They called it the Fernando. So every time I ordered it I had that ABBA song in my head. One time the song played on their jukebox!

 Yum!

 Someone commented that Steve looked like he was eating something that needed ketchup and mustard!

Week of Salads

We were planning on having salad for dinner. This was either last week or the week before, at this point I can't remember. Anyway, I was tasked with getting lettuce at Whole Foods. We planned to have chicken cooked in the iron skillet over it. Then someone at work got a box of fruit and I brought home two oranges to add to the salad, plus the Salt Dressing.

Then I got a gift at work - a lovely unfinished wooden box with almonds, dried apricots and dried cherries inside. We decided to add the dried fruit to the salad, and the almonds, after they were tossed into the iron skillet after the chicken was pulled. Was that good. Take a look:

 

Chicken Salad

Skinless boneless chicken breast cooked in iron skillet

Almonds added to hot iron skillet after chicken is pulled (don't burn them!)

Red Leaf Lettuce

Fresh orange segments

Dried apricot, cut into small pieces

Dried cherries

Salt Dressing

Awesome.

The next night we wanted the same thing, with the leftover chicken, so I got more oranges at Whole Paycheck.

 Just as good the next day.

Then we wanted it again. Still had everything but chicken. So I picked up two avocados at WP.

 I forgot to take a photo till I'd eaten half of it!

It was just as good with the avocado as with the chicken. We need to do this more often.

Our New Yellow Cake

 

I used a recipe from Baking Bites Blog.

For the longest time, we used a Betty Crocker cookbook recipe for our go-to Yellow Cake. But after awhile, we tired of it. It was light and fluffy, but not rich enough. Then we used a Martha Stewart recipe, but it was too heavy and dense, more like a pound cake. This recipe falls between the two - it is rich enough, yet not too heavy - still fluffy.

I baked it in a 9x13 pan and doubled the frosting recipe.

I followed the cake recipe, but next time I see no need to reduce the speed to add the rest of the liquid - I'd rather add it slowly, then increase the speed till it's fluffy, then pour into the pan.

And I used the frosting mixing method from the Car Bomb Cupcakes Recipe, adding the powdered sugar a little at a time, so I probably added about half the amount the recipe called for (a cup and a half vs. 3 cups). We didn't want the frosting too sweet. It's perfect.

p.s. I had this post in Draft form for weeks! I forgot about it. I made this again for Steve's birthday, which was over a week ago. I did not reduce the speed as noted above - just added the ingredients slowly, then sped up the mixer until the batter got thicker. Perfect.

*BAKING TIP*     I've been having trouble baking because butter set out doesn't get soft enough. It's too cold in our kitchen! Beware! Put the butter in the oven if you have to or it will stay lumpy no matter how much you beat the crap out of it.

Salt Dressing

Steve came up with this salad dressing that is so simple, yet so incredibly good. We call it:

Salt Dressing

2 Tbsp Canola Oil (or you could use Olive Oil)

1 teaspoon vinegar (any kind - Rice Wine Vinegar, Cider, whatever you have on hand)

1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt (or any salt)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Assemble ingredients in a bowl and just stir with a spoon, then pour over salad.

Now, about salad:

We've gotten to where we like our salad paired with our main dish. Salad by itself in a bowl is quite boring. But - served over a quesadilla, or even with some baked beans on top, now that is good. Or over chicken and rice. Really, over or under anything warm is really good. And not boring. We don't feel like rabbits eating salad like this.

 "I said that rabbits eat lettuce"!

 Look what's hiding underneath - a chicken, rice, goat cheese quesadilla! See the oily dressing on top? Mmmmm.

 What's for dinner? Hot dogs and baked beans?

We should have some salad with that.

 Just put the beans on top. Yeah, that's good.

Shepherd's Pah

Here is what a perfect roux looks like. This is equal amounts canola oil and flour, in the iron skillet after ground beef, onion and carrot have been cooked. (We also added cooked frozen peas to the filling mixture, and, of course, mashed potatoes on top).

This is what I mean when I say a roux should be "fluffy and bubbling" - can you see all the tasty bits being scraped up from the skillet? I think Emeril calls those "yum-yums." Steve added vegetable broth to make the gravy (broth we made with onion and carrot as well as salt and a few whole peppercorns).

 Can you say Comfort Food?

...and have you noticed that most of our recent cooking has been Comfort Food?!

What can we say...

So, we had so much of the filling that we only used half of it to make the Shepherd's Pah. What to do with the rest? Serve over Angel Hair pasta with a gravy (canola oil, flour, salt, pepper, vegetable broth and milk, because we used up the broth and it still needed more liquid).

 This was so good.

Can you see the "ribbon" pattern from pouring the gravy?

We should seriously be plenty comforted by now. Here's a Food Porn shot:

 Nom Nom Nom...

Seductive Carbs and Kielbasa

Project Tasteless Challenges!

Yes, it's the last two challenges from Rachel Wilkerson's Project Tasteless. The last two challenges were to a) create a seductive meal and b) use the elements in breakfast the next day.

BTW awesome blog title by my Sweetie Steve.

Seductive Carbs and Kielbasa!

Kielbasa (real full-fat pork Kielbasa, not low-fat, not Turkey)

Fresh Rolls

Oven Roasted Potatoes

Cheese Sauce

Token Green Vegetable (Spinach, served in a ramekin, not photographed but mostly ignored)

Dice potatoes (Yukon Gold are best), toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in 400 degree oven 45 minutes.

Prepare 1 batch Yogurt Rolls (recipe from Baking Bites blog). This is our Go-To recipe for yeast rolls, and yesterday I made them in the Pampered Chef muffin tin (it isn't actually tin or metal, it's the Pampered Chef stone). I oiled up the muffin wells, and after the first rise in the mixing bowl, I divided the dough on a cutting board with a knife into 12 squares, pinched them round and put them in the muffin wells, and let them rise a bit while we prepped other items. The rolls went into the oven when we started cooking, and came out just in time for plating. They were perfect, and the oil made them crispy on the bottom. Perfect.

Slice up the Kielbasa and brown in iron skillet (or other skillet).

Start the Cheese Sauce:

2 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp flour

1 & 1/2 Cups milk

Salt, Pepper

1 Cup shredded Monterey Jack (we just love that Monterey Jack Cheese - you can use Cheddar or whatever)

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk - the heat should be high enough that the roux is fluffy and bubbling. If it's too dry, add more butter. If it's too liquid, add more flour. Whisk until it browns a little bit, but don't get it too dark or your sauce will be grainy. It should be a light brown color. Add milk and whisk. Bring to a boil - then it will start to thicken. Add cheese and whisk till smooth.

Is the Kielbasa done? Drain on a paper towel and toss the oven-roasted potatoes into the Kielbasa grease - yes, into the grease! And add some butter while you're at it! YES, ADD BUTTER! Toss till they are even more browned. SEXY HOME FRIES!

Assemble your plate:

Break open a hot fresh roll on the plate. Pour Cheese Sauce over. Scatter Kielbasa on top and Home Fries around. Serve. Lust. Eat. Feel sexy!

 Sexy enough? No, not really. Let's zoom in.

 Is this Food Porn?

 HOW ABOUT THIS?

"Did I seduce you, Sweetie?"

 *kiss* *kiss* *kiss* >CENSORED<

 ...fade to black...

MEANWHILE, THE NEXT MORNING...just add a Fried Egg on top.

 Break the yolk for a sauce!

We saved half the Kielbasa, so we browned it in the iron skillet fresh. We also saved half the oven-roasted potatoes so we browned them in the skillet fresh, too, as above. We broke two rolls in half and heated in the toaster oven. We heated up the rest of the cheese sauce in a small saucepan, adding a little milk and stirring until smooth again. We served as with dinner, then added a fried egg on top.

 Saucy!

 Here's the Food Porn shot - even soft-focus!