Tormented Kitchen

A few years back, at Christmas, my mother in law had a great idea for Christmas dinner.  She wanted us to make a beef tenderloin roast with a layered potato dish.  Justin, his brother Brian and I set to work in the kitchen.  Brian took over the potatoes.  Justin took charge of the meat.  I made the sauce, dessert, and other goodies that night.  Since that fateful meal, Justin's creation has become a regular on our special-occasion menu. We've even tried grilling it instead of oven roasting.  Both are tasty, but I'm only going to focus on the oven version here. Now, before I get into the recipe, let me explain that there are two ways to get beef tenderloin.  Obviously, if you go to the butcher and ask for a beef tenderloin, you will get beef tenderloin. However, you could get it either as the single, long tenderloin muscle all alone, or as a roast that combines some of the other muscles surrounding the tenderloin as the...

It's springtime where I live.  That means it's getting to be asparagus season. I love asparagus! Apparently, I'm the odd one in my house.  Dear hubby isn't fond of it, which is strange because he grew up in family that loves all things wild. I know his parents used to hunt, fish, camp, and pick wild watercress and asparagus to go with their catch du jour. The kiddos, well picky little kids can be pretty hesitant to eat anything green.  My son is just finally starting to eat green peas. He likes broccoli, so I've been nagging him to eat "dragon grass" for about two years. I started calling it Dragon grass because he loves dragons and calling anything "dragon" makes it sound cool. Green tea? Not cool. Dragon tea? Cool.  (Because Celestial Seasoning's Authentic Green Tea has a dragon on the box.) Asparagus? Not cool. Dragon grass? Cool. (Are you familiar with Dragon Tales? Kids wishing themselves into a dragon universe? Jumbo-sized flowe...

Sugar cookies. What is more traditional that a special cookie only made for a holiday? I really fell down on the job for making special goodies for Christmas, so my guilt has been egging me on to make sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. I know, not really a holiday where you get time off from work, but it was an excuse to make some cookies. I found a cute new heart shaped cookie cutter with a hot pink silicone edge-grippy-handle-type protrusion. I needed some new cookie cutters. And it was half price. I only bought that one, but I saw a cute set with different size hearts, some were ruffly, scalloped edged hearts, too. Too cute, but I was able to resist. Lately, my son has been asking to help in the kitchen more and more. I made the cookie dough one night, letting him help measure ingredients and turn on the mixer.  The dough rested in the fridge overnight, then he helped me roll it out. This particular recipe is tad on the dry side, so we had a few tears in the doug...

If you want to make super cutesy decorated cookies, you have to make icing. I like that this is thin and easy to spread onto cookies. You could even use a piping bag to decorate your cookies. Ingredients 2 cups powdered sugar 1/3 cup butter 2 Tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract pinch salt food coloring, gel or drops Method 1. Combine sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk. Beat until fluffy. 2. Add additional milk to thin consistency or moisten if dry. 3. Frost cookies. Let them stand undisturbed so icing can harden. 4. If you are making different colors, divide white icing into bowls and tint each one separately. I like to use gel coloring and it only takes a tiny dab of coloring.  I use a toothpick to scoop out the coloring, then stir it in with a fork. 5. Store unused icing in the fridge. Beat again before using to refresh. (For my Sugar Cookie recipe, click here!)

Simple. Tasty.  These are two of my favorite concepts when it comes to cooking.  Sometimes less fuss is better.  You can make these on the stove or in an electric steamer, but I like to pop my little veggie steamer in the microwave because I usually have the burners busy with other good stuff. I normally slather all vegetable with butter, but a while ago I was in a phase of putting honey in or on everything.  I also like to use honey just to get my silly son to say it.  When he was yougner, he always called it "heena" instead of honey. So these carrots are sort of inspired by Eric because he likes baby carrots and he loves honey. Ingredients 1 16-oz. package peeled fresh baby carrots (or ruffle-cut frozen carrot coins) 1 Tablespoon butter 1 Tablespoon honey Method 1. Steam or microwave the carrots to desired doneness. I aim for more cooked than crispy, but not mushy. I usually cook them in the microwave for about 5 minutes w...

I have been messing around with this concept for quite a while now, making little changes here and there.  I have changed out the herbs, the wine, how long I cooked the beef, the cut of beef. You name it. I have made it for my parents, Justin's mom, and just for us in its many versions through trial and error. We were able to procure some Wagyu beef. It was not planned at all. We had asked for a regular beef tenderloin, but found out that some American Wagyu was available. Wagyu is a special type of beef. The cows were originally bred in Japan and they are prized much like Kobe. American Wagyu is a cross breed of Angus and Japanese Wagyu cattle. Wagyu beef has more marbling and a distinct flavor difference.  I happen to really like the flavor. Last night, as I made dinner, I kept thinking "This is going to be good!" The night before, I used some of the smaller pieces off the tenderloin to make Red Curry with Beef and Thai Beef Eggplant Salad with jas...

Wow, middle of January already.  The holiday season sure zoomed by.  And amazingly, I didn't do all that much cooking.  I still haven't really settled back into it either. We (hubby, kiddos, and pets) left town for a few days and spent Christmas in oh-so-exotic and (not) tropical Winnemucca.  We split up the trip between my parents and Justin's Grandma Rose's houses. Being guests meant that we could kick back and let Mom and Rose take charge of the food.  It's a good thing too. I was getting pretty side-tracked trying to buy and wrap presents. Then the New Year came and went.  Justin and I had a very swank night out at the Nugget, while his mom watched the kids. Last weekend, we went to San Francisco for the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl and rooted for our alma mater, Nevada.  (Woo Nevada won!) This was another fine chance to be a guest and enjoy Justin's mom and brother doing the cooking. And now here I am, home with nothing stopping me. Well. I did h...