Category: cooks

Christmas Traditions

Every Christmas my family has a mushroom-sauerkraut soup.

We made a huge spread. . .

  • Soup
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes fries
  • Ham
  • Turkey
  • Gravy
  • Rolls
  • Green Bean Cassarole
  • Balalki
  • Seafood Salad
  • Smoked white fish
  • Sauerkraut balls
  • Two types of stuffing

Desserts

  • Oatmeal cookies
  • Apple pie
  • Pumpkin Pie
  • Cherry pie
  • 5 Chocolate Brownie (*that is blog on itself.)

 

Orange chicken.

Last night I made orange chicken legs in the crockpot. I learned it about timing and layers. I seasoned the chicken add a bit of butter and water.

We squeezed one orange over the chicken and sliced two oranges just before the last hour of cooking. That the orange peel didn’t get too bitter.

I also made sweet potatoes with it, as they also taste awesome with the orange flavor.

The Smell of Good Food

I love cooking when I can make the entire kitchen smell like whatever I am cooking or baking.

One of my favorite moments is when you open the oven door or take the lid off the pot and just have the overwhelming aroma of just awesome food.

Today we were cooking BBQ ribs in the slow cooker and the smell drove me crazy all day. However it was so worth the smell all day and wait. They were really good.

The sight of food and smell of food will easily bring people in. (personally my food doesn’t have to look like art, but just look like it’s not burnt or all smothered together, unless supposed to be.)

My favorite smells. . .

  • Chocolate chip cookies
  • Steak on a grill
  • Vanilla or Mocha Coffee
  • Chocolate
  • Roasted marshmellow

Another Huge Feast

Turtle, Zeroman and I take advantage when we can get access to the kitchen. We had access yesterday and we made a feast.

Zeroman made . . .

  • two type of meatloaf (Plain and BBQ Candied Bacon with a mountain of cheeses),
  • seafood pasta salad,
  • BBQ and Mayo chicken,
  • mashed potatoes
  • Potato salad

I made . . .

  • Lasagna: two sauces, seven types of cheese and layer of meatballs.
  • Cheese rolled Lasagna with a cheese sauce
  • Soured beans
  • glazed and roasted carrots
  • chopped Mac N cheese

Turtle helped with both.

We also baked. . . chocolate pudding cake and very chewy brownies.

The lasagna and the lasagna cheesy rolls.

Here is the plain and candied bacon BBQ meatloaf.

Roasted  and glazed carrots

glazed and roasted carrots

The soured beans had bacon and were sour and yet tangy. It was grandma’s recipe and my mom had asked for them, so we made them just for her.

The brownies were chewy.

The cake was soft with the creamy pudding on top. . . yum.

It was a nice way for us to celebrate Mother’s day as Turtle, Zeroman, and I got to cook for our mothers.

We had three days worth of food as we also have leftover for tomorrow as well.

Cooking Pet Peeves

I love to cook! I like being in a kitchen, turning on the radio and just making something yummy and awesome.

I enjoy making food. I really like it when I have people enjoying the food that I made. I appreciate feedback.

However, I have some pet peeves . . .  (I talked this over with Turtle and Zeroman, and they agree.)

  • I hate cooking with people who do not know their way around food or the kitchen. (They can’t even wash a simple dish. I don’t mind serving them, but they can stay out of the kitchen if they do NOT want to learn.)
  • Or people who think they know it all, because they have watched two cooking shows, but try to serve raw chicken. (The Food Network is amazing, I have so many show I love on there, but you need to know the basics first because imitating someone else’s cooking style.)
  • Picky eaters. . . (I hate cooking for hours at a time for someone to nick-pick my food. I think you should learn to cook for yourself)

 

Cooking is an exploring science. (Yes, most who know the kitchen, may not measure, but I always suggest taste as you cook, especially herbs, seasons, and sauces. Even the most studied chef will experiment with seasons, meats, veggies, and flavors.)
Baking to me is precise science. (You really need a recipe and to measure to get the brownies, cookies, cakes, or pastry exactly the way you need them. Measuring cups and spoons are baker best friends.)

If you don’t like to cook, then find friends who do.

If you are picky on your food, find people who are just ask picky.

Easter Dinner (Happy Ham Day!)

Happy Easter! Or Happy Ham Day!

Over the weekend, we have been cooking ham and other goodies to celebrate the holiday as we have done in past traditions.

Sandwiches. . . growing up we joked because we would make our sandwiches “Bleed” as we had an egg Easter bread, beet horseradish sauce, ham and cheese.
Cvikla s Chrenom – Beet and Horseradish Relish (http://slovakamericankitchen.blogspot.com/2014/04/cvikla-s-chrenom-beet-and-horseradish.html )

Easter bread: Paska (https://dcslovaks.org/slovak-easter-traditions-paska-bread/)

Easter Cheese: Veľká noc Cirák (https://slaviccooking.com/slovak-easter-cheese-cirak/)

We kept it simple (we didn’t make Cvikla s Chrenom, Paska, or Veľká noc Cirák but do remember them as a kid.)

 

We made three hams (actually my friend and my brother made the hams.)

I focused on the sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

What is awesome is that with ham. . . there are so many things you can do with the leftover. . .

  • You can add it to scallop or augrutin potatoes.
  • You can add into bean or split pea soups.
  • Add it to Mac N Cheese
  • Yes of course you can just keep it simple and make a bunch of ham sandwiches.

Note: Ham has a lot of salt, so make sure you drink a lot of water to get a lot of the salt out of your system.

This ham is addicting that I’m dealing with a stomachache from eating too much. So I am taking a nap now.

Busy Weekend

Theme: Bacon

Zero, Turtle and I got another change to work in the huge kitchen again. Saturday we made so much. It was a really nice night, and we accomplished so much.

Zero made Mayo and BBQ chicken  with homemade mashed potatoes.
The mayo chicken was creamy and really good with some black pepper over those mashed potatoes.

mayo Chicken.jpg

Then we got out the bacon. . . 

Zero made two meatloaves . . . Plain BBQ glaze and cheesy stuffed bacon wrapped one.
 I personally loved the bacon wrapped meatloaf just a bit more. (It was even better the next day.)

bacon meatloaf 2

 

Turtle made a roasted chicken with bacon and green pepper stuffing.
It was really good and very juicy. I also didn’t realized that green pepper was that good in stuffing. I learned a few things this weekend.

roasted chicken with stuffing and bacon

We also got a bag gruyere cheese from a friend as they have extra. We took the cheese sauce with thinly sliced potatoes and of course bacon and made our own homemade au gratin potatoes. 

 

gruyere augrutin potatoes

We also made bacon saute yellow squash and french fries. 

We had so much food left over. I didn’t have to cook on Sunday. We had left over for dinner and still some left. Yay.

It was nice that we put down the Internet and the phone and just focused on the food. Sometime we need to forget everything around us and focus on what in front.

By the way, I love bacon!

Lemon Pepper Chicken

Today, I took lemons and lemon pepper seasoning and put them in the boil water to cook the chicken thighs.

I pulled the thigh out when I felt they were cooked but not over cooked.

Then I took 1/2 cup of veggie oil, butter and infused lemons in it.

I fried the outside of the chicken thighs with the lemon oil.  I fried the lemon halves.

I made the skin crispy.

It turned out really good.  It was tart and with the grill marks had like a BBQ feel to it.