Tormented Kitchen

This is one of those comfort foods that is quite versatile. It really hits the spot for dinner during cold weather. My mom has even made it for breakfast when she has visitors. You can make it without sausage and use it as a side dish. Then it's a lot like the stuff from Cracker Barrel. Just a thought, if you are trying to clone theirs, make sure to use cheddar cheese instead of the Colby-Jack blend I like. I would sautee the onions in a little butter to soften them up since they wouldn't get cooked with the sausage. I find if you use regular full-fat and full-sodium ingredients this is pretty salty and greasy.  To save a few fat grams and calories, use the reduced fat sausage, "healthy" version of the canned soup, and reduced fat cheese and sour cream.  I've never bothered to really look at the calorie counts, but it just makes sense overall. Ingredients 1 30-32 oz. bag of frozen hashbrown potato shreds, thawed 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup 1 8-oz...

My first experience with bubble tea was a few years ago in San Francisco. I was curious about it.  Gummy balls mixed with tea? It is not for everyone.  My first taste was loaded with anticipation. The tea was good and then I'd slurp up a ball. The balls in bubble tea are tapioca, so it's nothing truly exotic or gross. The balls are basically flavorless, so sipping the tea and chewing was novel.  Justin and his brother had fun shooting them at each other and nearby things. Bubble tea sometimes goes by other names like tapioca pearl tea or boba tea. I found some tiny tapioca pearls at the market on Oddie when I last went to buy glutinous rice.  They were so cute! You can also make juice drinks or plain teas with these tapioca balls.  Eric loved them, so I may end up sneaking them into soup just to get him interested in soup (I'm kidding. Sort of. He really doesn't like soup. Weird kid? Probably.) There happens to be a pho noodle restaurant close to...

  As a small child, I decided that I liked rice.  I liked it a lot. I liked it steamed with soy sauce at the Chinese restaurant, or at home from an Uncle Ben boxed mix, and my favorite was in Mom's rice pudding . Then one day, a guy I was seeing (back in college) took me on a date to a Thai restaurant.  It was very cozy and we had no idea what we were getting.  We pretty much pointed at things onthe menu and the waiter brought out amazing, delicious foods. One of those amazing things was dessert, sweetened rice with mango covered in coconut milk sauce. Khao Nieow Ma Muang. I was in love. With the food. Not the guy. (Sorry!) I tried making it at home using regular rice, trying to adapt my mom's rice pudding recipe with medium grain rice. (I had not realized back then that glutinous rice existed  I was only 19 and fairly naive). Then I tried aborio rice, then sushi rice. At some point I became aware of glutinous rice. Regular supermarkets did not carry it...

I know in some of my previous posts I have said how much I like Mexican food, and pork. In my youth, I was not really an adventurous eater.  Once I hit my teens, I started trying different things.  After I had left home for college, I started eating at a well known Mexican cantina on the south side of Reno. That is where I first tasted Carnitas. It was awesome! So much porky flavor concentrated in each bite! Since then, I have tried them at other restaurants.  They are all a tiny bit different from each other, but still delicious. My recipe is pretty basic. The use of OJ gives the pork a subtle sweetness.  You may find other recipes that use lime juice or broth or stock.  I will leave that decision up to you.  I have found simmering the meat and then frying it makes it very tender.  To shred it, all you need to do is apply a little pressure with a fork. Ingredients 3-4 pounds pork shoulder roast 1 teaspoon garlic sal...

OMHYGOODNESS! I have been absolutely crazy for bread. I tried one of those "no-knead" recipes (with a few minor adaptations) and it turned out very well. I had the big stand mixer handy just in case, but I didn't actually need it. I had been planning on making bread for a few weeks now. I made time yesterday and recruited my son to help. A little boy, just shy of 4 years old, is actually an excellent assistant for this since it doesn't require the stove until the very end. Eric lost interest about half way into the first raise. No surprise there. I let him go play with the neighbor's girl, while I kept up with the dough. I ended up letting the dough rise extra after I shaped them into loaves. I have noticed that when baking here (high altitude and low humidity) that sometimes you have to really watch things during rising so it doesn't get dehydrated. Damp towels, plastic wrap and steamy spots in the kitchen help me get successful results. I baked up th...

Lately I have been completely in love with the matcha powder I bought. I have heard of matcha cakes and matcha frosting before and was compelled to try something. I figured buttercream icing is one of the easiest things to customize, so I decided to toss some matcha in and give it a try. WOW! It was so good! Not too sweet and the hint of tea made it kind of refreshing compared to typical vanilla frosting. I tweaked the cake recipe too. I wanted to use melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder to be different. I've made lots of cakes with cocoa powder and this one was just tasty, I think texture was better, more moist and smooth. The color wasn't as deep, the flavor a tad lighter, but it was it was still unmistakably chocoate. Together, the cake and frosting were quite tasty, plenty rich and decadent without really looking that indulgent. I think people are used to seeing something nearly black and equating the color with chocolate richness. That is something I wanted to di...

Yum, just had these last night and my tummy is happy. My folks are visiting. Justin is away dealing with his uncle's estate, so I'm looking to fix things Justin doesn't like. He's not big on bell peppers, and this is a great time to have them. My grandmother Katherine used to make stuffed peppers using green bell peppers. I happen to prefer orange or red peppers. You can use green if you like, or even purple if you happen to grow those. If you like, this recipe translates well into Cabbage Rolls. See the note below for details. Ingredients 2 lbs hamburger 1/4 cup chopped onion 1 baggie of 10-Minute Boil-in-Bag rice, not boiled 2 eggs 3 medium bell peppers (I like red or orange) 2 c. water 4 T heaping brown sugar 2 cans condensed tomato soup 2 small cans V-8 1 15-oz. can tomato sauce pepper & salt to taste Method 1. Mix V-8, water, tomato soup, tomato sauce, and brown sugar in a saucepan. Simmer until warm and thickened. 2. Combine ri...