Twice Baked Potatoes with a Twist

Who doesn’t love potatoes? I can’t really think of a potato dish I don’t like. But my all time favorite is twice baked potatoes and I think I found a way to make them even better a few nights ago. A friend was coming in to town and he came with some nice cuts of filet mignon so of course it was going to be a good dinner. I decided that a killer twice baked potato was needed to accompany the wonderful beef and boy was I right.  

Back in the kitchen

It’s been an incredibly long time since I’ve posted here. Major life changes have taken place and I am now in a better place to begin posting regularly to the blog. After moving in with my girlfriend, I am now able to have free reign over the kitchen and the creative juices are flowing again. However, today’s post will not be a recipe, rather it will be about a nice new site I have stumbled upon called Tasty Planner.Now, I’ve registered for countless start-up websites such as this but I believe I may just stick to using this site. The premise is simple, it’s a repository for recipes that are user submitted and like many other sites it allows you to store your favorite recipes. But, unlike most of the other sites I’ve tried and forgotten, this site allows you to add appealing recipes to your weekly planner and in turn you can generate grocery lists based upon the ingredients needed for each respective recipe. Now your probably saying “so what” there are plenty of grocery list generators out there, and your right. Tasty Planner stands above the others in my opinion because it is a) aesthetically pleasing; b) provides enough information about the recipes for the average Joe to follow while still being complex enough to not feel like the generic Crock Pot of the Week recipe book; c) and this is my favorite thing, it allows you to access your grocery list from your iPhone/iPod touch. This final feature is enough for me to at least give the site a lasting chance. I’ve been looking for a nice, iPhone/touch optimized grocery list and I think this might fit the bill. Plus, this will give me a reason to generate a thorough grocery list more often and may even help me plan my meals ahead of time. 

Green Pea & Potato Soup if you please

This is a nice light and flavorful soup for a mid afternoon snack or it makes for a nice accompaniment to a spinach salad.

Ingredients:
1 – Yellow Onion, diced
2 – Medium cloves of garlic, smashed lightly
2 Cups – Green peas (can be frozen)
2 – Medium sized potatoes, peeled and cubed (Yukon golds or russets work fine)
5 Cups – low sodium chicken stock
1 1/2 tablespoons – Parsley, chopped
2 Tablespoons – all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons – unsalted butter
1/4 Cup – whole milk (per serving bowl)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil to drizzle

Directions:

1. In a soup pot or Dutch oven, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter and saute the onions and potatoes and garlic until the onions are slightly browned around the edges and the potatoes start to soften up.
2. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and potatoes and cook for a few minutes to get rid of the flour taste.
3. Add the 5 cups of chicken stock and bring to a boil, simmer until the potatoes are fork tender.
4. Add one tablespoon of the parsley and the peas and salt & pepper to taste. Cook until the peas still have just the faintest crunch to their shells.
5. Puree the soup in a blender until you reach your desired consistency.
6. Pour into serving bowls and drizzle with olive oil and drizzle the 1/4 cup of whole milk into each bowl. Garnish with parsley.

Spicy Bean & Bacon Chili

Spicy Bean & Beef Chili

After a long couple weeks of teeter-tottering weather conditions and midterm exams, nothing hits the spot like a nice pot of spicy chili. But not just any chili, spicy bean & bacon chili! A mixture of nice smoked bacon, onions, green peppers, ground beef, tomatoes, kidney beans, and black beans with the kick from a few Serrano chile’s. It’s sure to spice up your weekend and served with a few corn muffins might even be the perfect meal.

To Soy or not to Soy!

As I was browsing through my numerous different blogs today I came across an article featured on Slashfood’s website that links to an article about the nasty chemical called Carrageenan (Wiki link) that is found in many products we consume on a regular basis as well as in Soy Milk. Now I’m not an avid soy milk consumer but I’m sure that in the current state of health consciousness there are plenty of you out there who have given up the moo-milk for this stuff. Fanatic Cook’s post slaps together some fairly strong reasons why Soy milk is inferior to other milks and has the research to back it up! In short, the chemical Carrageenan can cause cancerous lesions in the intestines and digestive tract and yet the FDA still has it on their “Safe to Consume” list. The post is worth a click just to satisfy your hate for the FDA and its nonsense politics alone!

The other white meat… sandwich form!

Asian infused Pork Sammy!

I was craving contradictory flavors tonight. I started off with a hankering for pork sate, which then over time turned into just a hankering for asian flavored pork in general and then after Paula Deen’s cookbook caught my eye from the now packed bookshelf I decided a little southern touch would be nice so I decided to slap together a quick asian marinade for the pork chops and make myself a simple yet flavorful sandwich.

Ingredients

1 pork chop

1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

salt and pepper

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 square everything bagel (or a bagel of your choice) toasted

lettuce

red onion sliced thin

hoisin sauce and sirracha sauce mixed together for a nice condiment

Directions:

1. Salt and pepper the pork chops

2. in a container of your choice mix together the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and garlic salt for your marinade and cover pork.

3. let the pork sit for an hour in the marinade and preheat your oven to 450F.

4. bake pork on a sheet covered in aluminum foil for 15 mminutes and remove and cover with foil for 10 minutes.

5. assemble bagelwich. I start with lettuce on the bottom then pork then sirracha/hoisin mixture then onions and voila! you have yourself a tasty treat.

Back in the saddle again

The semester has begun and I’m finally gettin back into the cooking for myself groove again. The break has spoiled me, as I rarely had to cook for myself and actually spent a great deal of time frequenting restaurants and sandwich shops. But now that I’ve once again resumed student life i’ve been exploring a few new ideas and would like to take a venture into the realm of molecular gastronomy after spending the break reading Herve This’ book Molecular Gastronomy: The science of flavor. The fusion of science and cooking is by no means new but I would like to see what my imagination has in store and who knows maybe i’ll create a masterpiece (or at least something edible). I’ve also been exploring numerous different broth and stock recipes from different cultures and would like to dip my toes in that large pool of recipes. Anyways, back to reading about inkblots and crazy children. When I get a spare moment I’ll post the highlights from that wonderful book and the myth’s that it has dispelled.