Sunday, December 11, 2011

Mom's Sugar Cookies

Mom's Sugar Cookies by KS Girl
Mom's Sugar Cookies, a photo by KS Girl on Flickr.

A holiday tradition in our house is making cookies to give to people. One of the stars of the basket is mom's sugar cookies.
Yes, thats the original card. People ask me all the time what is the ingredient that makes my sugar cookies so good. They ask if its milk, sour cream, or cream cheese, truth is nothing. My mom's recipe is simple, and what makes it special is that I use the original card that she used when I was a kid. She even wrote out the information to double and triple the recipe on the side of the card not shown. There are only two ingredients you don't see in the photo on the card, one is flour, and the other is baking powder. Until I met my husband I didn't even time them when they were in the oven, I could always smell when they were done. He likes a timer, so I time them now, they are slightly more consistent in color. People ask for me to give them recipe, but I am hesitant to give it up. I love to make them for people, and its a pretty straight forward simple recipe. I even screwed up the recipe this year, but you'd never know it. They are a big part of my christmas traditions, and I hope they always will be.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Pea's & Radishes

Pea's & Radishes by KS Girl
Pea's & Radishes, a photo by KS Girl on Flickr.

Adapted from the French Food at Home on the Cooking Channel.

1 Sm Bag of Frozen Peas
1 Bunch of Radishes
2 T Butter
2 t of Fresh Dill
2 t of Fresh Chives or Green Onion

Clean and quarter radishes.
Melt butter in skillet, add radishes, let cook for a few min add frozen peas. Cook until Radishes are soft and peas are warmed through. Remove from heat add in herbs and salt/pepper to taste.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Garden Fresh Stuffed Tomatoes, Steak Kabobs, and Herbed Rice

Stuffed Grilled Tomatoes

First get good hearty tomatoes. We purchased three that fit firmly in our hands.
Because I knew I wanted an onion flavor we picked up an onion roll out of the bakery case at the grocery store, we also grabbed a wheat roll to make bread crumbs out of. When we got home we cut up the bread into cubes and laid it out on a cookie sheet to dry it out, about 30m before I was about to cook dinner I put it in the oven for 5-10m on low 200deg to continue to dry out the bread to make crumbs. When we pulled out the bread we put it in a food processor and pulsed it a few times, so we had mix of sizes. Set aside.
Warm up grill.
Cut the tomatoes in half (side to side) and carefully pull out inside, we had one top that I put my thumb through. Which I had planned on having one or two that I screwed up. No big deal. Put the tomato meat and juice in a bowl and set aside. Put your hollowed out haves in a roasting pan for the grill. Line with foil or coat with oil.
Stuffing:
Add one clove of minced garlic to the bread crumbs, along with fresh -- 1t of thyme, 2t of parsley, 2 leaves of sage, and 2 T of green onions chopped up. Add in 1 egg and 1 T of Olive Oil, and if you need more moisture add a tablespoon or two of the tomato water to the stuffing mix.
Fill your tomatoes with stuffing, and top with slices of parmesan cheese.
Grill for 10-12m, until tomatoes are soft but not falling apart, and cheese is browning-slightly crusty.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Cooks Country Daisy Mae's Delight Cake

This is less about the recipe for the cake and more about my experience making the cake. I started out wanting to bake, I haven't done much all summer and it seems that I rarely have the time even when I want to. Usually I am too tired or stressed to even crack open a box and add some eggs and oil. However, Saturday I was determined and it seems that determination had to be tested by the kitchen. After reading several recipes and deciding that I was going to make a cake. I set out to make Cook's Country Daisy Mae's Delight out of America's Best Lost Recipes.
This recipe is different from regular cakes, instead of flour it has a special ingredient, graham crackers, and that I had plenty of in my cupboard. Due to summer fun and lots of Smore's I had three half opened boxes of graham crackers. After reading through the recipe I got out the cuisinart and started grinding up graham crackers.
I followed the recipe and even set-up two 9 in round pans to make a layer cake like the recipe suggested. I was out of Baker's Joy flour spray, and opted for the old fashioned grease and flour method. Put the cakes in the oven and went about cleaning up and taking care of other things around the house. Cakes smell wonderful. Timer dings and I pull them out and let them set according to the directions. Go to remove them from the pan and they stick, and then crumble out. I clean up the cake mess, and try a bit, surprisingly good. Upset that they tasted good but looked like mess, I decided making a layer cake isn't in the cards today. I quickly find a recipe for an old favorite Texas Sheet Cake and continue on. My husband comes into help out and starts on part of the cake and I work on the other, we get it together pretty quickly I double check a few measurements, and we begin to put the ingredients together in the kitchen aid mixer. I begin to think it looks thin, but keep on adding in the liquid. I get it all mixed and notice that it looks like soup. Give the recipe a quick glance, and I doubled the buttermilk. Frustrated and heartbroken, I go to the other room and my super sweet husband cleans up. I also believe he sampled a little bit of the cake soup. I have the items to make Daisy Mae's Cake one more time, yes I had that many graham crackers in my cupboard! We decide to put in a 9x13 and call it good. It bakes up lovely, and I made the frosting took it out to my parents house. We had fun playing guess the ingredient. With the cream cheese frosting it tasted more like carrot cake or zucchini than graham cracker. My husband said the kitchen missed me and that it played havoc on my baking so I would spend more time in there... I suppose I shall try to bake more regularly.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Coconut Curried Chicken

Coconut Curried Chicken by KS Girl
Coconut Curried Chicken, a photo by KS Girl on Flickr.

Its adapted from time to time... see notes

1 can of light coconut milk, use 1/2 C for the recipe, and use the rest when you cook the rice.


1- T Oil
Mince up one small onion
add it and oil to skillet and cook until onion is soft add
2 Chicken Breasts cubed
that have been tossed in:
1 t of curry powder

cook in skillet with onion and oil until almost done, whiles your waiting on chicken to cook mix up sauce:

1/3 C of lt Coconut Milk
1 T of Fish Sauce
1 t of red curry paste
stir until curry paste is incorporated and not settled at the bottom.

Check you chicken and if it is close to done, add your veggies which can be snow pea pods or green beans. On the night of the photo we had green beans.

Let cook a little with chicken and onion mixture. Then add sauce, and let cook down. If you need to to thicken add a T of Corn starch to 1/2 C of water mix and add slowly. Once the sauce thickens, add
1 SM can of cubed pineapple with juice.
Let pineapple heat through, stir and coat with sauce. Serve with rice, and top with shredded coconut.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Asian Crock-Pot Pork

Country Style Ribs
Marinate over night in:
1/4 light brown sugar
1 c low sodium soy sauce
2 T Olive Oil
2 T Rice Vig
2 T Lime Juice
2 T Minced Garlic
2 T of Ginger
1 t of Asian Hot Chili Sauce

Drain off sauce and discard in the morning or after 8hrs.

Cook on low for 6-8hrs depending on crock pot, ours took 6, but it cooks things quickly. Pull pork off bone and shred which shouldn't be hard.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

New Potatoes and Peas

New Potatoes and Peas by KS Girl
New Potatoes and Peas, a photo by KS Girl on Flickr.

One of my favorite summertime dishes my Grandma Wilson made for me as kid.

I didn't measure the potatoes, sorry.
New Potatoes with skins on, wash and cubed, boiled till tender.

In a skillet:
1 SM bag of peas (fresh or frozen) I had to use frozen.
This time I used 3 small leaks, but you don't have to, onion will work. I had leaks from my CSA bag so I used them.
Once your peas are warm and your onion or leaks are soft, scoot them to one side of the skillet.
Add 2 T of butter and let melt, add 2 T of ap flour, whisk and let cook for a min or two. Add salt and pepper at this point, I also added a teaspoon of garlic powder, but it is optional.
Whisk in one cup of milk then stir in the peas and leeks and let come to simmer it will get thick. When the potatoes are tender, drain off, but save back some potato water incase you need to loosen up the sauce. Incorporate the potatoes with the peas and sauce. Serve. I put a little parsley on top, but you don't have to... grandma certainly didn't.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Thai Cliantro-Peanut Noodles

This is a lot like Pad-Thai, however I combined several different ideas from a couple of different cookbooks. Sorry there is no photo

Boil Water for Rice Noodles, as soon as it comes a boil turn it off add handful of noodles. Stir occasionally, until soft.

Sauce:
Cook the following ingredients in a sauce pan over med-high heat, stirring occasionally:
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
2.5 T of sugar
2 T of brown sugar
2 T of low sodium soy sauce
1/4 t of Red Pepper Flakes (or more for more heat)
1 minced garlic clove

After sauce comes to a boil add:
2 T of Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter
stir in then add:
1/2 C of chopped Cilantro

Set sauce aside.

For the Chicken Mixture:
1 Chicken Breast Small Cubes
1 Nappa Cabbage (chopped up and cleaned)
1/2 of Red Onion diced
1 Garlic Clove diced
2 Carrots shredded

In a warm large non-stick skillet heat 1 T of Sesame Oil, add to it:
Onion & Garlic let soften then add chicken and let brown, once browned and cooked, add carrots and cabbage. Once things are mixed together and beginning to heat through add drained noodles (reserve some water, if pan is dry add to help soften cabbage and keep pan moist)
after noodles are incorporated add sauce and stir.

Top with Peanuts (chopped or not) and squirt with fresh lime juice.

Enjoy.
Serves 4

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Giovanis Pizzeria & Cafe, Topeka KS

Last night we ordered in, and we ordered local. We ordered take out from Giovanis Pizzeria & Cafe. They have been around for a while in Topeka, but recently moved to a space on Kansas Ave, by Kay's Cakes.

I was glad we ordered take-out, the restaurant is in its low-budget early stages. It feels like you are walking into someone's house, possibly someone's kitchen. Now, thats not necessarily a bad thing, it just lacked the coziness of a restaurant -- even a home style restaurant. They were advertising for a local artist to decorate there walls, and I'd like to see them upgrade there work station up from card table to a real prep table. I would hope that as their popularity grows they will begin investing back into the restaurant. You can see there kitchen without any problems, and they did keep it clean. However, if your not one for feeling like your walking into someone's home, then have it delivered.

As for the pizza, it was good. I had hoped after seeing the inside that it would be, I wanted to support this restaurant in the future and see them grow. We ordered the large pepperoni pizza and garlic knots. The garlic knots were like a garlic bread knot rolls that sat in garlic olive oil and topped with kraft-style parmesan cheese (you know the kind that comes out of a green can). They weren't swimming in garlic flavor and the olive oil was on the bottom of the pan so you could tap some of it off, the bread wasn't soggy from the oil either, it was still crusty, like a soft pretzel. I think these would also taste good in rolled in butter and topped with cinnamon sugar, mmm. The pizza dough was kind of a hand tossed size, they only have the one thickness because they really believe in serving an authentic New York Style Pizza. I haven't been to New York, so I have no idea if its authentic or not, but it did look like TV Style New York Pizza. The sauce tasted like tomatoes, and didn't taste artificial. The cheese was good, we would have ordered bacon cheese burger, but they didn't have cheddar cheese on the menu, only American, Mozzarella, Ricotta, Parmesan. However, it was cheesy and when I am eating pizza thats really all that matters. The pepperoni was nice big slices, it wasn't as spicy as I had hoped for, but it was crispy.

As you can see they cut it every which was from Sunday, but since we were at home we just used our pizza cutter and cut things down to our comfortable size.

So, at least give them a try. They do have a unique flavor, not like the chain restaurants, and it does smell like pizza place when you walk in. Unlike one of our other local pizza places.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sunday Morning Breakfast: Eggs on a Nest

I love breakfast! Its not secret in our house that if there is a great place to eat breakfast when we go on vacation I will find it. My husband has quoted me saying "I am professional breakfast eater, I just don't get paid." I will think on a new recipe for sometime before I make it. I would say this is parts of other recipes to make one great breakfast.

I made a variation on the hash-brown patties for Christmas Eve Breakfast, which is the breakfasts of breakfasts. Its a fairly simple recipe:
really this is the ratio
1-2 Yukon Gold Potatoes
2 T of Gluten Free Flour or Rice Flour
1 egg white
3T of green onions
Parmesan Cheese (however much you like), I probably do about a 1/4 of Cup.
Peel your potatoes, and grate (I use a food processor), and then rise until clear and ring out with an old rag (clean one preferably).
Mix in your flour, egg white, onions, and cheese, make into patties and place on oiled (we use pam spray) med warm skillet. Then place a teaspoon of butter on top of the patty whiles the other side is cooking. Once you start to see brown around the edges and the butter is melted flip. I kinda guess, and if I flip it too early I flip it back.

Poach your eggs one for each patty, and serve with a side of Canadian bacon. I also topped my eggs with a dash of parm cheese and salt & pepper.