Tormented Kitchen

I frequently go to Starbucks, not for coffee, but for their tea lattes. After much searching and testing, I have found an excellent clone that is super easy to make at home. First, you need Matcha. This is green tea powder that looks a lot like vibrant green cocoa powder. I have trouble finding this at local stores, so I ordered some off the internet. Second, you need milk or a milk-substitute. Third, and this is the trick to duplicate a Starbucks latte, is vanilla syrup. It's pretty easy to find this nowadays on the coffee aisle. I like Da Vinci syrups. Easy, huh? I like to add a little extra sugar to mine, usually a teaspoon of turbinado sugar is enough. Try it! Ingredients 2 teaspoons Matcha powder (you can halve this if you like it milder) 4 cups milk or milk-substitute 4 Tablespoons Vanilla Syrup sugar, to taste Method 1. I have a very interesting machine called a Cocoa-Latte Hot-Drink Maker. I put everything in it and turn it on. When it turns o...

Frog's Eye Salad. Doesn't that name just sound gross? It sounds kind of like Halloween food to me. When I look at this in a bowl, I think it should have a nice name. Maybe I will just call it something else. Maybe I will just call it ambrosia or picnic fruit salad. Or I will make up something odd like "insalata con acini de frutta" which really means nothing in Italian. I like making up words. How about Fru-cini? Prounounced Froo-cheenee. What about Fru-cina-lata (froo-cheena-laa-tah)? This dish uses a tiny shaped pasta called Acini de pepe . They are just little balls of pasta. For anyone unfamiliar with the pronunciation of Acini de pepe , the correct way to say it is "ah-chee-knee duh pay-pay". Wow, I didn't realize I was going to be giving Italian language lessons on a food blog. Go me! Anyhow, I gleaned this gem of a recipe from my dear hubby's stepmom. It makes a lot of food. This fills a very large mixing bowl, and it's fairly ...

When the carnivore comes out, sometimes you just need a good hunk of beef. To quiet the beast within, I usually go for a steak, a fat and juicy hamburger, or a roast. We've tried lots of different techniques for cooking, like long and slow, or even in the rotisserie, but for just a good "get 'er done" roast, this recipe is it. One thing I can't stress enough is using good meat. How do you know good meat from bad meat? If you can get your roast from a reputable butcher, it will be good. If it comes from Wal-Mart, it will probably be tough. Fork out the extra couple bucks for a fresh roast. Don't bother buying the one on sale that's turned a bit brown. It will be stinky to eat. As for the roast's preparation, it's so nice to have the butcher trim the rib bones off, then tie them back on. One local shop here (that recently went out of business) used to sell roasts with an extra layer of fat wrapped around the outside and seasoned between the la...

This recipe goes way back. I tweaked and tweaked back when I was in college to come up this. I even did a class presentation on this recipe for one of my engineering classes, using slides on a slide projector, showing my scientific process determining how different types of fat affect the crispiness/softness/chewyness of cookies. I determined that Parkay yielded the softest cookies compared to other brands of margarine. Butter yielded a crisper cookie. (Parkay cookies stayed softer after the cookies had cooled than butter cookies. Thank you trans fats, you rascals). Scientifically speaking, I made probably 10 batches of cookies so I definitely had a fair amount of data to work with. Now as deliciousness is concerned, even the type of oats impacts the texture of the cookie. For this batch, I used Quaker Old Fashioned Oats. They are whole. They add a more chewy, oaty-nuttiness than Quick Oats. It's up to you what you like better. Both are yummy. Ingredients 1 cup margarine...

This is one of my favorite dishes. It's super easy. Of course, using good basil is key to making this pesto. You may omit the parsley if you don't like it. I do. I think it adds a nice freshness that compliments the basil. I recommend this dish for pot-luck parties and picnics because you could keep the crab out separately (in the cooler) and add it to the pasta right before serving, if keeping the whole bowl cool is an issue. I could envision cooking the garlic first to reduce its pungency. I would probably mince it and sautee in the olive oil 1-2 minutes before adding it to the processor. Ingredients 2 cups basil leaves, large stems removed 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, large stems removed 1 clove garlic, peeled 3 Tablespoons pine nuts 3 oz. real Parmesan cheese, from a wedge or block, *NOT KRAFT* 1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil 12 oz crab, imitation or real if available 8 oz tri-color rotini salt to taste Method 1. Boil rotini according to package instructions....

Eric will be turning 4 this year. His birthday is 2.5 months away. I'm starting to plan his party and food. About two days ago, I asked what he wanted to do for his party. He wants to go to the bounce house place, have a Spiderman cake, and pizza. Dude knows what he wants. I occasionally check out Bakerella, but usually don't make anything. But I have this crazy idea to try making Spiderman cake pops. Can't you see them now? Little Spiderman heads on sticks? I wonder how they would turn out? I made a little doodle and scanned it. Then I realized it sucked once I looked at the scan. So I tried to colorize it in my very decrepit, obsolete version of Photoshop. It looked more like crap than before. So here it is, in all it's blurry glory. This puts my little original, shaded doodle to shame.

I know I mentioned enchiladas not too long ago in my post on Hawaiian Pork Roast , and even gave a rough listing of what goes in them. But, to save questions, I made them, documented it all, and decided to post it. I love Mexican food. Maybe you guessed so? This is going to sound silly, but it took me along time to figure out how to make them so we like them. Sure, Justin and I have eaten our fair share at various restaurants, but I never bothered to make them until maybe 5 years ago. I started out playing around with beef and red chile sauce, then chicken and pork, once I even used elk meat. Then I changed up the sauce from red to green, and I have even changed out the tortillas, corn for flour. Then I changed back and forth. Added something, took it out the next time. My recipes are always changing to accommodate something that catches our attention. Ingredients 2 cups shredded pork from the Hawaiian Pork Roast 8 flour tortillas, medium size 1 14 oz. can green chile enchi...