spoon

Recent Recipes

Brief and Minor Yet Exciting News

Comments (0) | Saturday, January 23, 2010

I have updates backed up and ready to go, but I do not currently have internet at home and therefore frequently forget/try not to update my food blog at work.

However, I am getting internet installed on Monday! Be prepared for MOAR FOOD.


Read More......

Snacks for Dinner

Comments (0) | Monday, January 18, 2010

Sorry for the lack of updates last week. I cooked quite a bit, but it was all tidbit type stuff. Hence this post: Snacks for dinner. Sometimes I come home and say, "Screw it, I'm just going to have [insert snack here] for dinner." I try not to do this too often, but I probably eat popcorn and nothing else at least once a week.
Anyway, the snacks I'm going to feature today are a little more substantial than popcorn. Like Garlicky Baked Fries:
Is your mouth watering? (It's ok if it's not, this isn't the world's best picture).
I won't re-post the recipe, but will instead direct you to the source: The Purple Foodie. I didn't augment her recipe at all, except that when I parboiled the potatoes in the microwave, I covered them with a towel instead of plastic wrap. It worked just fine. I should mention that I'm also sort of in love with this woman's blog. You should be reading it if you aren't already.

My boyfriend came to visit me last weekend, and I made him some Spinach Artichoke dip. Somehow or another this has become one of our favorite things, and so I had to try out this recipe:1 8 oz pkg of cream cheese, softened
1 cup of mayo
1 can of artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped
1 10 oz pkg of frozen spinach, thawed and drained
3/4 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
1/3 c. sliced green onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. Shallot Pepper (you could probably use garlic pepper or lemon pepper or whatever)

In a mixing bowl, stir together the cream cheese and mayo. Stir in the artichokes, spinach, Parm, green onions, garlic, and pepper. Mix everything together until uniform. Spoon into a greased baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes at 300F. Serve with pita chips or chunks of French bread.
It turned out pretty well, but if I had to do it again I would half it. This is enough Spinach Artichoke dip to feed a small army.

Last, but not least, my Friday offering. I've been programmed to think that Friday night = pizza night, and so last Friday I made due with what I had lying around my house:

On chunks of Italian bread from the local grocery store, I have:
pesto
Fontina cheese
Cheddar cheese
Parmesan cheese
Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle

Bake it at 375F for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is all melted. Simple and tasty.


Read More......

Spicy Sesame Chicken

Comments (0) | Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Life is good again. My ability to cook has been re-validated (as has my love of spicy food).

It is crazy cold here. We’re lucky if the temperature crests above zero. And don’t get me started on the wind chill, which has been -20ish.

On top of the arctic temperatures, I’m also starting to get ill. I woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat, which has persisted and I’m sure will eventually become a cough. This is what I get for spending my New Year’s Eve with my boyfriend, who is still fighting off the exact same thing. It’s not a huge deal, just annoying.

Anyway, it’s cold, I’m sick, and I want something hot. On the same page of my new cookbook (Taste of Home Down Home Cooking for One or Two) as the spicy chicken roll up is a recipe for Sesame Chicken Stir Fry. The original recipe calls for mushrooms, peas, and red peppers as well as broccoli and onions, but I’m not so much a fan of those so I left them out. The original sauce is pretty basic as well. I jazzed mine up considerably, and it seems like an easy base to augment. Here is what I did:

1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks
1 ½ caps of veggie oil
1 cup broccoli florets
¾ cup chopped onion
3-4 cloves of chopped garlic
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. sugar
½ cup cold water
3-4 Tbsp. soy sauce
About 2 tsp. Siracha
About 1 Tbsp. honey
½ tsp. powdered ginger
1 tsp. garlic powder

Crushed red pepper, sesame seeds, and chopped green onion for garnish

The original recipe asks you to do all of the stir-frying first before mixing up the sauce. I don’t know about you, but when I stir-fry I prefer not to get too distracted by anything in case whatever I’m stir-frying starts to burn. Therefore, I went ahead and mixed up the sauce first.

Combine cornstarch and sugar; stir in water and soy sauce until smooth. This is where you can start flavoring it to your liking. I wanted something spicy, so I added the Siracha. The honey, ginger, and garlic powder also went into the sauce as a result of me tasting and adding until I liked it. Once you’re happy with your sauce, set it aside.

Stir-fry the chicken for 6-8 minutes or until cooked thoroughly. Remove the chicken, and stir-fry the broccoli for a few minutes. Add in the onions and garlic. Stir-fry for a few minutes. Add the sauce to the skillet/wok/whatever you’re using. Bring to a boil and let cook for a few, stirring occasionally, until it starts to thicken up. Add the chicken back in and toss it all together. Let it cook for a few more until the veggies are tender, the whole thing is heated through, and the sauce is to your liking in terms of thickness.

Serve the whole thing on rice. Sprinkle with crushed red pepper (if you want), sesame seeds, and some chopped green onions. Eat. Be happy.

Folks, this was so good. All of my favorite stir-fry components plus a tasty Asian-style sauce. It was pretty spicy. I probably should have used less Siracha. But whatever. I was really happy with the whole dish.

I would probably add more broccoli the next time I made this. One cup of broccoli florets doesn’t really amount to much. I love broccoli, and would probably use more like 1 ½ -2 cups.

Not a terrible dish for warming up in this cold, cold weather.


Read More......

Note to self: Invest in toothpicks.

Comments (0) | Tuesday, January 5, 2010


Happy 2010! Sure enough, I kick off the new year (after my pontificating about my fear of chicken) by royally screwing up a relatively simple chicken dish.

I had one of those grocery shopping trips where I bought a lot of stuff preemptively. What if I need corn starch? Better grab it. Pretty sure I’m going to need Fillo dough eventually. Toss it in the basket. After that sort of insane trip to the local grocery store, I decided I wanted to cook something new and easy.

I slightly modified a recipe from the cookbook I got over winter break. The original calls for taco seasoning and pepper jack cheese. Well, I don’t really care for tacos and I didn’t have any pepper jack on hand. What I did have was something my boyfriend and I found called Buffalo Wing Cheese. I used chili powder instead of taco seasoning. The picture looks better than it tasted.

Spicy Chicken Roll Up

1 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 oz (approximately) of spicy cheese
1 Tbsp. chili powder (or whatever seasoning you think would sound good)
1 Tbsp. veggie oil.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Pound the chicken breast until it’s about ¼” thick. Slice the cheese, and line it up in the middle of the chicken breast. Fold the breast around the cheese and secure with a toothpick. Rub the outside with seasoning.

Heat up the oil in a skillet. Brown the chicken on all sides, and then toss into a greased baking dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

It sounds so great, right? It seems relatively easy and doesn’t seem to take much time. Well. It probably is. Leave it to me to mess something like that up.

Right off the bat I had an issue. I do not have toothpicks. I wracked my brain for some kind of replacement, and the only thing that came to mind was (man I can’t believe I’m confessing this) bobby pins. Yes. The ones for your hair.

I did use new ones for the sake of hygiene, but it was still pretty bizarre. They only sort of worked, and most of the cheese melted out.

The bigger issue was cook time. My chicken looked cooked all the way through, but it had that certain quality that made me think, “Hm, could use more time in the oven.”

Genius here tried to microwave it instead.

All in all a total loss. With toothpicks and longer cooking time, it would have been quite good I’m certain. My first shot, however, was a loss. Luckily I have plenty of hummus in my house, so I did not go hungry.


Read More......