Grilled Pizza

Our friend Rai has a pool in her backyard and so she had a bunch of people over last Saturday. She asked for my advice on what she could serve easily and somehow Boy and I ended up making all the main dishes. O.o I never learn when to shut my mouth and let someone else do the cooking, do I?

It all worked out in the end. I finally found a pizza dough recipe I like, and I now have a GREAT pizza sauce recipe. Oh yeah, and I managed to grill pizza. I tried about a year ago to grill some pizza at out last house. I was going to make some for everyone who helped us move in. It didn’t go well. 😦 The dough just fell through the grate of the grill. I was so very upset.

This time, I baked each crust for a few minutes before taking them out to the grill to finish the pizza. It was amazing, and it made great leftovers too.

Omurice

It was Ryula’s birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday! It was just her, Draugr, and me, but we had a good time.

Happy Easter!

Easter for the past few years has had more meaning for me than it used to. My grandma died 3 years ago on April 1. Last year I started cooking my grandma’s Easter dinner for my mom, a little taste of the past for both of us. Every year I saw my grandma for Easter and for Thanksgiving, and that’s it. I have very vivid memories of those holiday dinners, shared with my aunts, uncles, and cousins, and I really regret that I didn’t have the same interest in cooking back then that I do now. I could have learned so much more if I’d stuck around the kitchen and watched my grandma.

Make ahead meals

I have started cooking large amounts of meat in my crockpot and then freezing them and it’s been wonderful. Everything is stored in ziplocks, portioned out by serving. It’s not a new idea and there are plenty of recipes that I haven’t tried in the freezer, but here’s what I’ve been up to, and some links to resources.

Here’s a look at what all I have in my freezer right now. Except the cat. She just likes being in all of my pictures.

St. Patrick’s Day

As per usual, here’s another late holiday post. I had some friends over for St. Pattie’s day and it was a blast. I made cottage pie, as per usual, but Em also asked me to make colcannon. Since it was her birthday that week and I didn’t get her anything, she got it. I have never even had colcannon before, let alone made it. Turns out, I love it.

Here’s the menu, as you can see, it needed some revision.

Coleslaw

I’ve never made it before. Never, ever made the classic american coleslaw. My mom always just put oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper on cabbage. No mayo, no nothing else. I really liked it because I like vinegar, but tonight I’m making Boy BBQ Shredded Pork and I want real coleslaw to put on my sandwich. I just tried stuff. O.o And I like it.

Mayo
White Wine vinegar
Celery Salt
Pepper
Salt
Grated onion
Sugar
Capers

And I threw some radish and bell pepper because I could. ^^ I’ll let you know how it goes with the BBQ Pork later.

P.S. Look at the amazing dessert from the Pioneer Woman I’m making. It looks wonderful…but I’m doing amaretto instead of grand mariner. ^.~

Beef Stew and Tortillas

I made beef stew a few days ago. I’m SUPPOSED to be taking pictures of my food to make these posts more interesting, but so far no good. My phone is fine for quick pics of the cat, but the pictures it took of my kitchen make me cringe. I need to get my Canon Rebel out. It’s old, over 5 years old, but it does a good job. So, I’ll just have to take pictures next time I make stew. If the weather keeps up like this, that’ll be sooner rather than later.

I have a weird hangup with beef stew. I can’t just chop everything up and throw it in the crock pot. I layer it. O.o I don’t know where I got the idea that it matters (and it probably doesn’t), but I can’t stop myself. Anyways, here is the recipe, in order that I layer them, from the bottom of the pot up.

Stew beef, generously salted and peppered, and doused with Worcestershire sauce

75% of my diced onions, some chopped garlic, and some thinly sliced shallots

Chopped carrots and celery, with some more salt and pepper

The rest of my onions

My potatoes

My herbs and spices

Then I pour in my broth and let it all cook for about 3 hours before I break down and stir it.

I understand layering the ingredients for a crock pot roast or one of those crock pot dinners, but for stew? I’m just crazy, I guess.

Tortillas, however, are crazy good. I made some from scratch for the first time. Oooooh. Ahhhhh. The dough was easy to make. They cooked quickly, but I didn’t burn any. They were tasty, if a little dry. The problem I had? Making a circle. I don’t have a tortilla press and now I really wish I did. It’s a uni-tasker, but one I’d like to use a lot. Fresh tortillas are so good that I want to make a habit of making my own. So I might break down and get one. No idea where I’m going to keep it, though. ><

Leftovers Curry

Leftover mayhem continues with more of the pizza leftovers. I actually used the leftover dough and sauce to make pizza last night. Shocking, I know. Today for lunch, however, I did actually try the Canadian bacon and pineapple curry. Oh wow, was it good. I’m a little sad that I don’t have the stuff to make more. 😦 Maybe later this week.

I mixed the Thai curry paste and coconut milk in a wok and added my Canadian bacon and my veggies. You can use anything you like, but I used:

Bell peppers

Thin sliced red onion

Mushrooms

Since that’s what I had on hand. I let them simmer until the veggies were soft before adding some canned pineapple. Make sure to get some of the juice, it compliments the curry and coconut very well. ^^ Then just let it cook long enough to warm back up (the pineapple cools it off quite a bit) and eat. I had mine with couscous since I didn’t think to make rice ahead of time. Basmati rice would be the best though.

I’m running out of leftovers. What should I make now?

Leftovers Ramen

Ryula and Drauger were nice enough to bring over pizza fixing on Saturday and make pizza for us as the movers got our furniture into the apartment. They made one with sweet chili sauce, cream cheese, jalapenos, pineapple, and Canadian bacon. Totally didn’t see that one coming, but it was amazing.
I’ll talk more about the move later. Point is, they left all the pizza making goodies over here, and so I’ve started using them. I’m super happy to start cooking again. ^^

Today I took:

Bell peppers
Red onion
Mushrooms
Jalapenos
Shredded chicken

and sauted them with some:

chili powder
salt and pepper
sesame oil

Then I cooked the Ramen noodles in some chicken stock. (Not the packet mix, real chicken stock)

Topped the soup with the veggies and chicken and added some tonkatsu sauce. Little salty, so I think I’ll add some extra water to the broth, but it was tasty!

Thinking that tonight I’ll give Canadian bacon stir fry a try. Or curry? With pineapple? *muses*

Chicken Enchiladas

Leftovers are not boy’s thing. He’s pretty resistant to eating any besides pizza. -_- It does make me flex my creative cooking skills a lot, which I find very fun. One of our favorite meals is this amazing braised chicken. It always makes more than we can eat, so leftovers are a given. This time I froze them instead of trying to get him to eat them, figuring that if there was a large enough gap, it wouldn’t be a problem. Well, instead I had an inspired moment and decided to use the left over chicken for enchiladas. It was great. I didn’t measure a thing, so here’s a list of what I mixed with the chicken to make the filling. Then I wrapped it up in tortillas, smothered them in enchilada sauce, and baked them until they were done. (No, I have no idea how long that was.)

Leftover paprika braised chicken, shredded

Low fat cottage cheese

Diced onions that I sauteed until soft

Canned diced green chilies (I used hot, but pick whatever heat level you want)

Canned diced tomatoes

Cumin

Chili powder

Savory

Salt and Pepper