Pasta e Fagioli and Baguettes

Tony and I used to love to eat out. Before we had financial and life goals, we enjoyed spending our money on a good meal at a restaurant. The truth is that we still enjoy doing that, we just don't do it more than once or twice a month now. We spend a lot more time eating at home, a lot more time cooking, and a lot more time on our couch. I don't think this is a bad thing. It's going to eventually help us procure the kind of life that we want, but for right now the compromise sucks a little bit.

The only thing that I can do to offset the general suck of being responsible adults is to make sure that the meals that I produce are amazing. So I go out of my way to make sure that when either of us has a particular craving for something or another, we can still have it. We just have it the home way rather than the being-served-by-someone-else-and-not-dirtying-all-of-our-dishes way. (Compromise is hell, folks. Hell.)

Tony told me not long ago that he had a craving for pasta e fagioli soup, Olive Garden style. It's his favorite soup at Olive Garden. I found a copycat recipe on Pinterest. Since soup is nothing without bread, I decided to make baguettes with a recipe I'd been meaning to try from Cooking Channel as well. I know it's weird and sort of strange to make an Italian soup with a French bread, but I ignore rules and do what I want.

I started the bread before the soup since it's a double rise. Then, while it was on it's first rise, I started the process for the soup. During the simmer time on the soup, I shaped the bread and started the second rise. When the second rise was done, in the oven they went with the recommended ice cubes. The nice thing was that the soup and the bread were both done at just about the same time.

The soup was everything we had hoped it would be. It tasted just like the Olive Garden version. Tony loved it! The nice part about making the soup for ourselves was that the vegetables were still a little crisp instead of being mushy. Tony said it tasted fresher than it's restaurant cousin. The bread was delicious. The outside got crusty because of the steam from the ice cubes. The inside was still tender. The texture was somewhat different from a usual baguette, but I'm thinking that may have been because I ended up using bread flour rather than all purpose flour since I only had about a cup or two left and the recipe called for more than that. The bread was very delicious even despite the change. It was perfection with a little bit of butter.

The soup is definitely going to be something I make again. It was precious little effort for the payoff. The baguettes were so good that I have another batch on it's second rise right now. We loved them. I do plan to experiment with making them with all purpose flour to see if the texture ends up being different, perhaps somewhat chewier is my prediction. I'm excited to give it a try. In the mean time, there's a few pieces of bread and some leftover soup calling my name right now.

Return of the Mac (And Cheese)

Ok, so I'm not so great at keeping up with things. I work pretty hard and I juggle a lot, and then one day, it all just turns into, "Nope, nope, nope." A little part of me shuts down. Much like Allie Brosh, I fail at being an adult. I was reaching critical mass on the fail part, when I finally hit my vacation. I had eight blissful days in a row of not having to go to work or be responsible for anything more than my personal hygiene and feeding myself and Tony. It was amazing. And it was very needed.

Here's the failure part: I made some awesome food that I in no way blogged about. I didn't even take pictures of it. I enjoyed my time doing nothing and lazing about. It was marvelous, but I missed some really good opportunities. To my credit, this is usually where my projects die. I hit the adult fail, critical mass, total meltdown point and then I just never go back to the things that I was doing before the breakdown. This time, I'm still trying. I came back! This is how you know I'm really trying to commit to this, internet. This is how you know! So I give you the post I meant to write before vacation about macaroni and cheese.

My very generous father recently sent me a copy of Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. It's a fantastic cookbook. It has wonderful notes on technique. It includes tons of variations on recipes. It's a great cookbook. The only thing I regret is that I don't have a food processor to use to fully appreciate the full scale of the cookbook.

I was craving macaroni and cheese. Since I'm the only one here who can really appreciate the joy of macaroni and cheese, I decided to make it for myself while Tony was at work. I opted to use Mark Bittman's recipe because it is a very simple recipe and incredibly easy to follow. It basically involves producing a bechamel sauce, adding cheese to it, pouring the mix over slightly under-cooked pasta, and baking with breadcrumbs on top.

It tasted phenomenal. I opted to use sharp cheddar, but I think it would be fun to experiment with other cheeses. I also used tricolor rotini because I like the extra flavor that particular pasta brings to the dish. The breadcrumbs gave a lovely addition to the texture. I think the only thing I would do differently is to perhaps add a little bit of garlic next time, since I pretty much love garlic in everything. I think the combination of the creaminess of the bechamel and the sharp cheddar would be wonderfully complimented by just a little garlic.

Sadly, I don't foresee myself making this particular dish very often. It makes quite a bit of macaroni and cheese, which I'm the only one eating. It would be a great dish for me to take to a potluck or party, though. I think that's what this recipe will become. It's simple and cheap. It's fairly quick to throw together. All in all, not a bad way to have dinner. It's just too bad no one here can appreciate cheese like I can.

Pizza

One of the best things that my father makes is his homemade pizza. When my twin brother, John, would come home from his college days at Purdue, my dad would always make pizza for him. My father likes doing things from scratch. He makes the dough, he lets it rest, he shapes it. He selects his sauces and his toppings, he seasons with herbs, and he bakes. It's a very methodical process.

Tony shares my brother's love of pizza. In fact, pizza is pretty much Tony's favorite food. It's the food that he claims to never get tired of. I, on the other hand, tire very quickly of pizza. I can have pizza maybe once a month. More than that, and I just feel gross. It's a food that for me is more of a treat than a regular meal.

What I share with my father is a love of the methodical process. I like having a plan, a system. I like playing around with a recipe and tweaking it until it's right. That's how I've been approaching yeast-based breads and dough. I've been experimenting with yeast and breads, and I've been using a KitchenAid cookbook which came with my mixer to try some new recipes. When Tony came across the recipe for pizza dough, he got really excited to try it. How could I say no?

Thus far, the recipes I'd tried from the KitchenAid cookbook had been relatively unsuccessful. I was a little skeptical when I was making this dough since it didn't come together very well. First, it seemed too wet. Then, it became too dry. It took longer to mix than the direction said that it would, so it was a lot more glutenous than it should have been. When I let it rise, the outside of it got a little bit strange, like a crust sort of developed. I did cover the dough while rising, so that shouldn't have happened.

I told Tony I was concerned about the potential results, but we decided to give it a shot anyway. I managed to spread the dough out over a cookie sheet, though it did tear a few times. We coated it in pizza sauce and toppings. Half of it had a little less cheese for Tony. We baked it for about 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

It actually ended up being pretty good. The dough was not exactly as good as I'd hoped. I have found another dough recipe to try on Pinterest, and I don't think that I'll be trusting the KitchenAid cookbook anymore. That said, you could do worse than some fresh pizza. And since even bad pizza is still pretty good, it ended up being okay. Next time, though, a different dough recipe would probably make a better result. Since this dough was a little bit bland, I'd also like to experiment with adding some herbs to make it a bit more flavorful. All in all, not a bad first run. Homemade pizza was not as hard as I thought it would be.

The Revelation of Risotto

My parents always encouraged my brothers and I to try new things. We were told as children that we didn't have to like everything, but we did have to try everything. I think this mentality served us well because we're able to enjoy so much more in the way of foods than so many other people. My brothers and I all enjoy a little bit of kitchen experimentation, we all enjoy talking about some great new place we found or some awesome new dish we made, and we all have a great time trying new things and branching out at restaurants. It is my firm belief that we have our parents to thank for this.

My parents approach food in the same way. They have a desire to try new things and new tastes. Lest you should think that we have no dislikes, my mother's aversion to peas and green peppers has limited her at times. However, in the name of trying something new, she has been willing to pick out these items and eat around anything to which she is averse. There are so many people that I see that completely refuse trying this or that just because they have a history of not liking those things or even just some of its ingredients. Tony, historically one of those people, is learning what it means to be open to these things, even if he would usually say no. To date, he has yet to regret it.

Despite my openness for food, it shames me to admit that I had never--until last night--tried risotto. I'd had opportunities at restaurants, but I always passed them up for other things that seemed more appealing. (I tend to latch on to a menu item and cling for dear life--not because I'm afraid to try new things, but because I get in the mood for something and it's all I want! It's something I'm working on.) Lately, since I've been watching videos and scouring cookbooks and websites for new cooking ideas, I've come across risotto technique and realized that it isn't so much of a pain as people make it out to be. It's just that no one has the appreciation required for fine foods that take time anymore. The advent of the age of 30 minute meals is upon us (sorry, Rachael, but it's true!), and it takes away from delicious dishes that we put aside for the pursuit of the faster and easier. I, too, am guilty of this way of thinking. Shame on me! Shame on us all!

Last night, in the pursuit of both trying something new and using up the mushrooms that I bought on sale, I made mushroom risotto. As the title says, it was a revelation. The natural starches in the rice release and make this dish so creamy. The flavor of the garlic and mushrooms pervade and meld with the white wine for an inexplicably delicious compilation of tones and undertones. It has an incredibly delightful mouthfeel. The garlic and onion sort of just melt into the rice, but the mushrooms maintain their sauteed texture, which greatly compliments the texture of the rice. Rice cooked in the risotto method has a different texture than regular rice, and it's actually really pleasing.

The risotto I created was sort of a cobbling of technique and recipe from several videos and sources, so it's uniquely my own in that I did not measure or keep a recipe out. I just recalled technique and went to town. Here's what I used:

• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Half of an onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• About 12 ounces white mushrooms (it was what I had left)
• About a cup of medium grain rice
• About a cup of white wine
• About six cups of chicken stock
• Parmesan cheese, to taste

First, I heated two tablespoons of the butter and the olive oil together in the pan. Then, I added garlic and onions until they got a little golden. Then, I added the mushrooms, tossed in a little salt, coated them in the fat, and let them cook down until they were a good color. At this point, I added the rice, coated it in the fat as well, and let it toast for a little while. Then, I added the white wine and let it cook until it was completely absorbed. At this point, I began adding the chicken stock in a couple of ladles at a time, stirring until it was completely evaporated and adding more. It took all of the stock to get the appropriate texture. I added another tablespoon of butter and served the risotto with the Parmesan cheese.

Tony and I were both somewhat surprised by how hearty and deep the flavor was. I think this would be great as a first course at a dinner party, but it also stands as a meal in and of itself. It would compliment a red meat very nicely. Tony suggested that the next time I make this, we serve it with steak. I never turn down a chance to have steak! While the process of making the risotto was marginally laborious because you do have to babysit it and stir constantly, the technique is simple and the final product is well worth the effort. I plan to keep this in my arsenal to impress guests with in the future. Let me just say, I'll be pissed if we don't have this again.

Asian Food Sick Day

Today and yesterday, I've felt like total crap. Bad enough, even, to call off of work. My only solution to not feeling physically well is, of course, to spend the whole day on the couch watching TV or in bed watching something on my laptop. The only exceptions I will make to this are food-related. Yesterday, since I was basically useless, I figured I could at least throw together some food.

I'd gotten out ground beef to make Korean beef, so I pretty much had to use it since I'd already thawed it. The good thing about that recipe was that it was pretty easy. I wanted something else to suit my Asian theme, though. So I also handmade some potstickers, which were not as easy but not as hard as I thought they would be. The Korean beef I made just before serving it. The potstickers were made a few hours in advance, and over half of the recipe was frozen for future Asian nights--Tony and I just really don't need that many potstickers in one sitting. I made the potstickers while sitting on the couch and watching bad 80's movies on HBO Go, so I didn't really completely give up on my couch TV routine.

I should also apologize in advance for the lack of pictures for this post. Since I felt so awful, I didn't really manage to take any pictures of the food I made. Probably we should all just take a moment to be impressed with the fact that I made any food at all. I could have just had Tony pick something up on his way home, but I felt somewhat bad that I hadn't really done anything all day. Since Tony and I had kind of been fighting, I wanted to do something a little bit better and create a sort of date night atmosphere. We ruined that a little bit with our choice of movie, which both of us disliked and did not finish, but at least the food was good.

The only thing I ended up leaving out of the Korean beef was the red pepper flake, but only because we didn't have any.  The potstickers only had one omission, and that was Sriracha, again because we just didn't have it. I also substituted white mushrooms for Shiitake just because I hadn't been able to find fresh Shiitake mushrooms when I'd done my grocery shopping. White mushrooms were on sale, so I bought white mushrooms.

I found myself surprised at the quickness with which this meal came together. The making of the potstickers was the most labor intensive part, and I did that while sitting on my butt! They fried surprisingly quickly, and the meat inside cooked more quickly than I had thought that it would. I think next time I might include the Sriracha for a little extra kick. The website I got the recipe from suggested serving them with soy sauce, which Tony and I both found necessary. We both agreed that next time we would put garlic and ginger in the soy sauce for dipping to give it a little more dimension.

The Korean beef was another dish that Tony said he would be pissed if we didn't make again. It had a really great flavor.  In retrospect, I think adding the red pepper flake would have added a little element of heat to this dish that would have been incredible. I'll be picking up some red pepper flake before we make this again. I would also consider amping up the ginger, since that flavor got a little bit lost in the soy sauce at the end of the cooking process.

The green onions are really what make the dish complete. The pop of freshness and flavor of the green onion added to the sweetness from the brown sugar and the umami of the soy sauce just brought everything together. The crunchiness of the scallion adds the perfect element to the texture of the dish as well. This dish was fantastic, easy, and cheap. It's a great go-to for busy people because it cooks so quickly. And if you pair it with Minute Rice, like we did, it makes for a dinner that's ready in under a half an hour. It's a no-excuses, real food kind of meal, which is the embodiment of everything I've been looking for lately.

It's nights like last night that really embody what I want out of a cooking experience lately: something fast and easy that doesn't disrupt my life. It want it to be quick so that I'm not wasting my life away in the kitchen, and I want it to be real food. I don't want hamburger helper and canned vegetables. I want to create a real meal. I don't want any excuses to keep from providing actual nourishing food to myself and the people I love. Last night's food was exactly that! If only everything could be so simple!

Italian Beef Sandwiches

In my last post, I said that my crock pot and I have become friends. Two days ago, I used my crock pot to create something that made us so much more than just friends. It really solidified the kitchen bond that we have together. Crock pot + Jessica, forever.

I'd seen a few recipes for Italian beef on a few different websites. They were all a little varied, but more or less the same. So I made and executive decision on ingredients and technique as cobbled together from the various recipes I'd seen. This is what I used:

• 3lb bottom round roast
• 2 packets zesty Italian dressing mix
• 1 cup of water
• 1 16oz jar of banana peppers

I poured everything together and let it go all day while I was at work. It was on a low heat setting for 10 hours. By the time I came home with the rolls to serve it on, it was pretty much falling apart. I used a few forks to flake it apart into uniform pieces, and then we served the beef as sandwiches.

Tony was apprehensive about the peppers. I, on the other hand, completely love banana peppers. I used to get them on pizza and on sandwiches. We discovered that with all of the time and heat, the banana peppers more or less just disintegrated into the meat. Tony was initially really upset because he had just intended to pick the peppers out. This was not to be. But true to his word to try new things, he persisted and tried it. 

Even for all his protestations about the peppers, Tony really loved the sandwiches. When I asked him if we should make this again, he said, "If we don't have this again, I'll be pissed." The only thing I would do differently is to serve the Italian beef on a hard roll. I had intended to buy a crustier bread, but there was only softer bread left at the store. I'm completely certain that this would be awesome with a crusty bread. We served it with chips and dip because I didn't feel like making sides or salads. And, really, the best way to have an Italian beef sandwich is with chips. 

The flavor of this beef was incredible. It was tangy because of the vinegar in the banana pepper brine. The seasonings coupled with the pepper flavor and meshed really well. The meat was tender and having the extra juice to put on the sandwich was really great. This is easily the greatest creation my crock pot has ever given me. 

Ground Beef Stroganoff

Part of the search for making more food at home for Tony and I was also searching for foods that would be easy to make after a long day at work. As I've mentioned before, I work ten hour days now.  Interacting with people--sometimes very unhappy people--all day can be really taxing. Sometimes after a particularly long day, I just want to come home and drop.

It's because of that need to have things fast and still tasty that we've been perusing busy-family type recipes. Easy mom foods that can be put on the table relatively simply for the days when I don't feel like slow cooking a whole roast all day and eating it for a week just because I didn't feel like making dinner after work. Soccer mom food. It's not what I love because these foods, I find, can rely a little heavily on canned soups and other such crap. However, in a pinch, it puts a cheap and easy meal on the table and saves us from fast food hell.

We found a recipe for ground beef stroganoff on Pinterest (it's always from Pinterest, isn't it?) that pretty much embodied what we were looking for in an evening meal. It was simple and fast to make. The ingredients were more or less on-hand already. It was filling and delicious. When we made this recipe, it fed four of us, since we included our friends Melody and Stacie in the meal. We also had left-overs that I took to work later in the week.

We served this over egg noodles, which was a great way to go. I wish that we had incorporated more of a vegetable with this meal because it can be a little bit heavy without something to kind of offset the creaminess of the stroganoff. That said, there was nothing about the recipe itself that I would have modified.

Also, let's just take a moment to talk about kitchen failures. I've been playing around with breads, as I've mentioned in past posts. I decided for the stroganoff to try to make some quick biscuits using the recipe that I found in the cook book that came with my KitchenAid. They were disaster. They were hockey pucks. When they were warm, they still tasted good; when they cooled, they were hard and terrible. They were more trash than contribution to dinner, so the trash is where they ended up.

Even despite my biscuit failure, I'll try again to make biscuits. I think it'll be easier for me when I have a food processor. Right now, I have to make them with either the mixer or by hand, and I feel like biscuits are generally more successful with a food processor--at least, that's what all the recipes and the YouTube videos seem to say. The food processor will probably be my next kitchen purchase, but I'm not sure when that will be. Right now, I'll just do what I can with what I have and try not to get discouraged if it doesn't always go the way I plan. That's the best I can do!