A Bittersweet Existence » cooking/baking

Wordless Wednesday: I’m Makin’ The Cake

Dawana — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:08 +0000

Come on…don’t copy- get your own material. Nobody likes a cheater! Original & Hand Written Plagiarism Will Be Detected. This site is being monitored by CopyGator. Mmkay? Thanks.

Cooking With Momma: Week of 3/21

Dawana — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:47:20 +0000

Yesterday: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Monday: Mashed Potato Bowls (Got the recipe from MomStart) Grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy & topped with cheese- in a bowl.

Tuesday: One-Pot Mexican

Wednesday: Beef Stew & Rice

Thursday: Mesquite Chicken & Mac/Cheese

Friday & Saturday: Take Out

Come on…don’t copy- get your own material. Nobody likes a cheater! Original & Hand Written Plagiarism Will Be Detected. This site is being monitored by CopyGator. Mmkay? Thanks.

Cooking With Momma: Pantry Must-Haves

Dawana — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:33:40 +0000

Although I try to make a menu every week, sometimes, it just doesn’t happen. I wanted to list a few things that I believe are must-haves in the pantry. With these things in my pantry and freezer, I will always have a meal to make.

Pantry Must-Haves:

Diced tomatoes- there is ALWAYS a meal that can use diced tomatoes, so I always have at least two cans of these in the pantry.
Black beans- I can give you three recipes that I have right now that call for black beans and one of those recipes takes about 20 minutes to make- fast. easy. That’s my thing. So I always have about two cans of these.
Rice- Do I even need to say why? You should never run low on rice, or the next three items:
- Macaroni
- Spaghetti
- Mashed Potato Mix
With those, you always have a side for whatever meat you are cooking or you have a meal (with the spaghetti).
Corn- This is my go-to veggie. Hubby and I are pretty bad about cooking vegetables, but I’ve always got a can of corn that I can throw in.

Freezer Must-Haves:

I buy my meat in large packages, this way, I don’t have to buy it every week. We don’t eat too much beef in here (as I am an ex-vegetarian, I still limit my beef intake) so when I do want to cook beef, I just go buy it. Here are my must-haves for the freezer:

Diced Onions- Since there are only 3 of us in this house and I don’t necessarily use onions unless it’s called for, when I do buy a whole onion, sometimes it goes bad and I get pissed. If I have a bag of frozen onions ALREADY DICED a) I cut back on prep time because I don’t have to cut it and b) I can use it when necessary and therefore don’t have to throw away an onion that’s gone bad.
Peppers- I always. always have a bag of pre-cut peppers in the freezer. Red, yellow & green peppers and I actually have one bag of diced green peppers in there too (so if a recipe calls for green peppers, I don’t have to pick them out one-by-one in the mixed bag). I have a ton of recipes that call for peppers, but just like onions, sometimes they go bad and I hate wasting stuff.
Frozen carrots- Same excuse. Carrots come in a really large bag and we won’t usually eat ‘em all.
Ground Turkey
Chicken Breasts- I usually buy these at Costco, but sometimes if you go to the grocery store you can find a large tray of breasts on sale because they are set to expire in a day or two. The prices are drastically cut and if you know you are going to take it home and freeze it right away- you just saved a bunch of money. I bought two trays on sale at WalMart about one month ago and just replenished that supply today.

Now, if you don’t own a Crock-Pot/slow cooker- you better ask somebody. Hubby got me one for Christmas about three years ago- best. investment. ever. Seriously, on those very lazy days when you know you don’t even FEEL like slaving over a hot stove- the slow cooker is your friend.

I had an issue few weeks ago:

To which my Tweep, The Renegade Mom replied:

Ya, I put frozen chicken, a can of diced tomatoes and frozen red peppers with a little water into the slow cooker and BAM! Hubby came home and said “Mmm watcha cookin’ honey?”

That’s right… don’t hate. That’s how we do things around here.

Come on…don’t copy- get your own material. Nobody likes a cheater! Original & Hand Written Plagiarism Will Be Detected. This site is being monitored by CopyGator. Mmkay? Thanks.

Cooking With Momma: Week of 2/14

Dawana — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:39:41 +0000

You may have noticed that I didn’t put up my weekly menu this Sunday. Here are the reasons why:

I didn’t make one because:
I don’t feel like cooking this week- at all.

Alas, I did cook.

Yesterday we had grilled chicken & baked french fries.
Today? I have no clue what we are going to eat yet… Ah well.

Come on…don’t copy- get your own material. Nobody likes a cheater! Original & Hand Written Plagiarism Will Be Detected. This site is being monitored by CopyGator. Mmkay? Thanks.

Cooking With Momma: “It’s Italian” Sausage Soup

Dawana — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:11:50 +0000

I don’t know what cooking magazine I tore this recipe out of, so I don’t know who to give props to for this recipe.

I DO know that it looked good on paper, then I started to cook it and thought “uh-oh this is gonna be gross.” That ever happen to you?

Alas, I think I just got overwhelmed by the smell of tomatoes in the kitchen, you know like when your kid puts too much ketchup on the plate, then it just sits there? That smell.

It’s actually really tasty. So, I thought I’d share. This recipe makes 8 servings (according to them), so I split it in 1/2 so we didn’t have a whole bunch.

Cooking Time:

Prep: 1 1/4 hrs.
Chill: 2 hrs.
Heat: 35 mins.

Ingredients:

1 lb. bulk Italian sausage (I use turkey italian sausage)
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
8 cups chicken broth
1 14 1/2-oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp. dried basil, crushed
1/2 tsp. dried thyme, crushed
1/4 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed (I left these out)
1/2 cup dried Orzo pasta
Finely shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)

In 4-quart Dutch oven, cook sausage, onion, carrot and celery over medium heat until sausage is brown. Drain off fat.
Add broth, tomatoes, tomato sauce, bay leaf, oregano, rosemary, basil, garlic, thyme and fennel seed. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Transfer to storage container. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours. (I’m not really sure why they have you do this)
To serve, return mixture to Dutch oven. Bring to boiling. Stir in pasta. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Discard bay leaf. If desired, sprinkle each serving with Parmesan cheese.

*Nutritional Info (for my friends watching what they eat):
Per Serving: 286 calories, 19 g total fat (6 g saturated fat), 46 mg chol., 1,622 mg sodium, 17 g carbo., 2 g fiber, 12 g pro.*

Come on…don’t copy- get your own material. Nobody likes a cheater! Original & Hand Written Plagiarism Will Be Detected. This site is being monitored by CopyGator. Mmkay? Thanks.

Cooking With Momma: This Week’s Menu 2/7

Dawana — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:11:34 +0000

“It’s Italian” Sausage Soup

Turkey Meatloaf & Baked Potatoes

Spaghetti & Meat

Pasta e Fagioli Soup

A1 Beef Stew (frozen 2 weeks ago)

2 Days allowed for take out

Come on…don’t copy- get your own material. Nobody likes a cheater! Original & Hand Written Plagiarism Will Be Detected. This site is being monitored by CopyGator. Mmkay? Thanks.

Cake Making #Fail

Dawana — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:26:56 +0000

I thought I would get my Betty Crocker on again yesterday and this is the result.

Come on!! It looks like a mushroom!

So, my baking friends. I ask: Why did this happen? Why did the top sink in like that? I haven’t tasted it yet, but my dear husband- who would eat a rock if I cooked it- said it was “good.” Pffffff

Come on…don’t copy- get your own material. Nobody likes a cheater! Original & Hand Written Plagiarism Will Be Detected. This site is being monitored by CopyGator. Mmkay? Thanks.

Gettin’ My Betty Crocker On

Dawana — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:19:06 +0000

Sometimes… I get these waves… and I feel the need to bake. A lot.

It usually hits me in the grocery store. Probably because I see the boxes of baked goods on the shelf and my mouth waters at the thought- so I pick it up. I guess I could bake from scratch, but what’s the fun in that? I’m a boom-bang chef. I want it done- now or yesterday, whichever. So on this particular trip to Wal-Mart, I was wandering down the baked good aisle looking for something that I could make the husband for breakfast to take to work. He usually leaves in such a hurry that he only grabs a bar on the way out of the door.

Have you seen these?

Betty Crocker now makes Fiber One Muffins. You know Fiber One, they make the good-for-you but still tastes good stuff. Hubby is a HUGE fan of their bars, but they are super expensive. So I went to Costco- wholesale extraordinaire- and bought him a box of like 90. Problem solved.

So back to the muffins. They are banana nut muffins and supposedly super good for you. Now, I don’t eat banana anything. Not banana bread, not banana candy- nothing. I only like bananas right out of the peel. So I knew in making these muffins that only Hubby would be eating them. But I also know how much he likes banana goodness and so I figured he’d appreciate these. So, I bought it and threw those bad boys in the oven when I got home. Now, I must admit they smelled amazing! But never would these teeth sink into those- ever.

The other thing Hubby loves is oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. His absolute favorite. One of my favorite people on Earth and pastry chef extraordinaire (sorry, but I like that word), Val made Hubby a batch a while back before we moved. Since I’m not trained in the kitchen like she is, I scooped up a bag of this:

Did I see the part on the bottom of the bag that says “Makes 3 Dozen 2-Inch cookies”? Uhh no. If you can multiply, 12 x 3 is 36 and who the hell is eating 36 cookies? Especially since I don’t eat oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? Not my husband. Oh well, commence “make hubby’s favorite cookies.” I did lick my fingers at every chance while making these (only because I knew only my husband would be eating them, of course) and while the batter was yummy, I didn’t eat any cookies. My husband later professed that I am “trying to kill him” (because I made him stuff that I wouldn’t eat).

Oh ye of little faith, if I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t spend all of this damn time slaving over a hot ass oven to do it. I’d just be straight up about it. I’m sure there are easier ways to kill your husband.

Anyway. The end result- was some good looking baked goods. I got the step ladder and dusted off my cake thingy (I don’t know what you call these things) cake dish? Whatever. I put the cookies and muffins in there. Felt like a real housewife for a second… only a second. Then it passed.

Take that Betty Crocker, you ain’t got shit on me… Oh wait, you’re the reason these came to be… never mind.

Come on…don’t copy- get your own material. Nobody likes a cheater! Original & Hand Written Plagiarism Will Be Detected. This site is being monitored by CopyGator. Mmkay? Thanks.