Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 221
KitchenKatalog: Blog 221
Friday, December 18, 2015, 12:00 AM
Pretty simple meal. I used to do this pretty often.
I cut and roasted:
And probably other stuff I do not recall. I chopped it all, tossed it with olive oil, and seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, and rosemary.
I roasted it for 20-25 minutes at 425, then added diced chicken sausage, tossed it, and did another 20 minutes.
As usual, it came out very good. Lots of food but no starchy vegetables. It had a kick from the poblanos and the crushed red pepper (something I sadly found out were spicy after a trip to the bathroom....)
Wednesday, December 16, 2015, 12:00 AM
We again did what we like to do with leftover pimento cheese (from here), we made grilled cheese. The pan was a bit too hot so it blacked a bit but didn't taste burned at all and was still really good. The pimento cheese was a bit smokier than when we made it other times, but it worked well with the grilled cheese.
We also made Roasted Broccoli Soup. We approximately 1.25x to 1.5x the recipe. Except we forgot the lemon (which we often do).
We used the Vitamix to blend it all (in batches) so it was super smooth. Also, despite increasing the recipe, we only used about 3 oz of cheddar (added grated to the Vitamix to really blend). This worked well enough. We also topped it with cheddar. Also, I added some garlic powder to the broth and, as the recipe suggests, went heavy on the bouillon.
Actually, we made the soup the night before, refrigerated it, and reheated it today. As always, it was incredibly good. I think the broccoli just brings out so much flavor. And it is a pretty easy soup to make which is nice.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015, 12:00 AM
Meredith and I made Lighter Lasagna Soup. Like the last time, we used that vodka sauce. Other than that, we really didn't mess with the recipe except to skip the bread and use regular pasta.
We shredded mozzarella from a block. The chicken sausage was a Spicy Parmesan Sausage. We had about a full pound but it was also very, very stuck to the casing so there is no way that much got into the soup.
It was really good. The recipe is pretty easy and doesn't take much creativity, but it's still really good!
2016-05-18 Update: Recipe moved to its own page
Saturday, December 12, 2015, 12:00 AM
Somehow I forgot to take photos, but we were going to two different parties so we made more food.
We made this for our first party. We followed the same recipe as the first time with the addition of green onions.
I do not know what is with that recipe but it really needs 2-3x the mayo.
The flavored seemed a bit off this time but adding more tabasco helped. I still don't think it was our best showing...
We again made Ramen Rice Krispies like last night except we made a few changes.
We actually made two half batches but for both, the biggest change was that we doubled the butter (well, halved everything but the butter). I read on this site that butter makes it softer since they were very crunchy the day before. They essentially have the same amount of dry stuff and marshmallows but double butter. That worked well!
We also experimented. We made one batch with 1 Tbsp tahini to up the sesame flavor. That was a bit strange. I think it added too much toasted flavors and was a bit too rich.
The other batch was with wasabi. We started with about 1/4 tsp wasabi powder and kept going up since we couldn't taste it. We ended with around 1 tsp but still was too weak. So this batch was better but mostly because it tastes regular.
Sadly, this was not a hit at the party. I think in the future, I won't tell people it has seaweed. That got some strange reactions.
Friday, December 11, 2015, 12:00 AM
Meredith and I had friends over so we decided to make some strange and different foods. They brought the salad which was very good but I do not know what was on it. I talk about the things we made below
We made Lebanese Moussaka using the same recipe as last time including those changes (canned chick peas, tomato liquid, extra seasonings including pomegranate mollasses, etc).See note below about pomegranate mollasses.
Other than doubling everything, we stayed pretty true to the recipe. I should note that we didn't have ground all-spice so I ground it myself but they ground easily. We also let it cook for a good, long, while.
The one thing of note though is that I tried to make my own pomegranate molasses. I used this Alton Brown recipe (local) except that I apparently had some trouble. I followed the recipe closely, but I think that I let it go too long (either time or heat). When it cooled, it was like taffy. And made much less than the 1 cup. Then, after it was in the fridge, it turned to a solid block! I was able to microwave it (and turn it essentially molten) and use in. I used the planned amount (roughly double the Moussaka recipe) but note that it was probably even stronger.
I think, in the future, I will not be making it myself. I am sure I saved calories over the super-sweet store-bought stuff, but it just doesn't make sense. The cost of the pomegranate juice plus the time and effort aren't worth it.
Still, I thought the Moussaka came out pretty good. I was worried as it was cooking since it didn't have the full flavor, but as it cooked down, it started to taste great. I think next time, I will see if my Lebanese Cookbook has any different suggestions just to mix it up (though it would probably be less easy then). We served it with a double portion of Cauliflower Rice
Pomegranate Syrup or Molasses (From Alton Brown, via The Food Network)
Local Copy -- (U: guest, P: name of my dog, lower case)
This was a strange one...
Meredith found this recipe for Ramen Rice Krispies on Joy The Baker (local). The broken (junky) ramen noodles are interesting enough, but when you add the furikake (to quote: "sweet/salty/seaweed/umami") seasoning, it gets very, very strange.
Making it was easy enough, though I used my hands to toss (since that is really the only way to do it) and it was HOT!. We just halved the recipe, which made more than enough for us (we only had one pack of ramen).
The only other changes we made were to use pam on the pan, and to use all of the ramen in the mix and just furikake on top.
Meredith seemed uncertain but I really (really!) liked it. I love salty sweets and this was a great example of it. We bought the regular furikake (see pictures below) but they also had others including one with bonito (fish) and one with wasabi. We will not be touching the fish one any time soon but the wasabi could be interesting!
Only thing that would have been better was if they were chewier. They came out hard as a rock.
Ramen Rice Krispie Treats (from Joy The Baker)
Local Copy -- (U: guest, P: name of my dog, lower case)
Wednesday, December 09, 2015, 12:00 AM
We made standard and simple Zucchini Fritters (or Latkes) for Chanukah. Not much to them. The regular recipe but doubled. I tried using some nutritional yeast for extra flavor and that worked ok. I am not sure if I tasted it or not.
Tuesday, December 08, 2015, 12:00 AM
Simple meal of seared salmon and leftover (really, extra) corn-pudding from the other night. The salmon was done with Penzeys Northwoods Fire seasoning. The website describes it as:
What could be better than two types of Northwoods Seasoning? Northwoods Fire has the same great flavor as the original, with the added kick of smoky ground Chipotle and hot Cayenne red pepper. A wonderful seasoning for all grilled foods--steaks, fish, chicken and chops, even grilled vegetables.
Hand-mixed from: coarse flake salt, paprika, ground chipotle pepper, black pepper, cayenne red pepper, thyme, rosemary and granulated garlic.
Anyway, we baked the corn pudding from cold for about 20 minutes at 350. That was enough to get it warm, but it (for better or worse) wasn't too hot. I think if it got hotter, it may have leaked or spilled. I think I may have liked them more tonight, but that could have also just been in comparison to everything else.
Monday, December 07, 2015, 12:00 AM
We used the leftover turkey from the other night to make Monte-Cristos.
We based it on this recipe (no local link since it really wasn't much). Essentially, we made a turkey sandwich with some fancy mustard and leftover cranberry sauce, dipped it in egg, and grilled it. We let the first one bake a bit in the oven while the other was being grilled, then baked them both in the oven for a bit to try to cook more of the egg
They got a bit too soggy; especially the first one but the flavors were good. I think it is something I would try again, but I would try to use less egg and maybe read some tips on how to do it.
