Tormented Kitchen

First of all, I was totally expecting to have a fantastic amount of good stuff to show off here. And then Things Didn't Go Well. It's not like a cut myself, but I had some big Uh-Oh's in the cooking process of my great Thai-themed dinner.  I had planned chicken satay, Lahp Moo (pork wraps), with peanut dip and jasmine rice. The only things that turned out right were the dip and the rice. Let me recount what went wrong. I was all over town because 1. Daughter went to preschool. 2. Son and I got breakfast then shopped for birthday party paraphernalia. 3. Took son to Dentist appointment. For a filling!  4. Lunch with hubby and goofy son (thank you nitrous gas) at evil Golden Arches Restaurant. (Please don't say the actual name! I'm so tired of the kids begging for pancakes and cheeseburgers!) 5.Shopped for food, including going to two different grocery stores because I forgot things the first time. Then we got home and I tried to cook. I overdi...

The other day I felt like making asparagus for dinner. I didn't want just regular steamed (or nuked) asparagus with butter. So I grabbed a roasting pan, turned the oven on, and tossed a few things together. I really like when things are easy and they are tasty. Just a note, for the kiddos, I can cut the spears into bite-size pieces.  If you want to start with smaller pieces for the whole batch, go ahead and chop them to size before roasting. Just for fun, I served this on my corn-cob plates.  You know, those long, narrow, sculpted porcelain plates that look like corn, designed to hold one cooked ear of corn-on-the-cob? Mine have been gathering dust all winter. (Since there was no corn on the cob to use them with, I got creative.) I think you can find them at Williams Sonoma in the summer. They are one of those cute, seasonal things that you may have to wait until corn season to find. Ingredients 1 bunch thin asparagus, about 1 lb. 2 Tablespoons olive oil 2 ...

Added Feb. 19, 2016: Dear Readers, I've seen my recipe get reposted by a lot of different websites, and subsequently pinned on Pinterest, since I published this in 2011. Please give proper attribution. It hurts my heart that so many other bloggers are pirating my content and claiming it as their own. If you'd like to re-use this, just ask! I appreciate you all. Just remember, we are all people with feelings and families to support. And believe me, Dear Pirate, I noticed when you copied my text, word for word .  --Jenny Did you know, the gingerbread loaf cake at Starbucks is really pretty good? It's also a bit expensive. You don't always notice the $1.85 when you buy a few drinks. I had to wait a whole year to get my fix, because this treat is only available between Thanksgiving and roughly New Year's. I scoured the Internet last January but didn't find a suitable recipe. I gave up and ate Lemon Pound Cake or Pumpkin Bread. This gingerbread season, I man...

I just realized that I completely forgot to post Eric's birthday cake from last year when he turned 4.  I guess I was less excited to post the cake because I ordered it from Safeway. And it was slightly different from the cake catalog, which is the same as this Transformers Bumblebee and Optimus Party Cake Topper Set . I think it's worthy of appearing on Cake Wrecks. See what we got? You know, it tasted OK, but the looks just really bothered me. It was kinda like looking at a turd, wondering if it was really a turd, and then eating it, but it tasted like chocolate. Anyhow. On his actual birthday, we gave him some things, including a big, new, bike. His party day started out with a few close family members giving him some presents at home. Then we ventured to the bounce-house bonanza birthday extravaganza. The kids were wild hyenas. By the time we sat down for pizza and cake, all kids were sweaty and tired. The grandparents took it easy on the sidelines....

 I have been meaning to do up this post on chocolate dipped strawberries since early February. Well, time has not been on my side lately. So I'm too late for Valentine's Day, but just in time for Mother's Day. Well, Mother's Day in the US.  Not so sure when that falls in other countries. Men and inexperienced cooks take note. This recipe is so easy, even you can do it! It's impressive, but always has an impact, even if the chocolate isn't perfect. You don't have to use strawberries either. You could actually dip anything you like in melted chocolate. Cookies. Pretzels. Potato chips. Just keep in mind the typical shelf life or refrigerator storage lifespan of the item you are dipping. For berries, they are good for about 3 days. I'd even go for a banana, but you'd have to eat it right away so it didn't turn brown. And apparently my sister and bro-in-law grill bacon and cover it in chocolate.  So get creative! Ingredients 1 1-lb pac...

I have not always like cucumbers. It was one of those foods that I looked at with a touch of disgust as a child. It wasn't until I was grown and on my own that I realized I had misjudged the lowly cucumber. Once I started liking cukes in salads dunked in ranch, I tried my mom's German-style Cucumbers in Cream . Then after I ventured into the realm of eating Thai food, I realized this stuff is pretty good! My favorite Thai restaurant serves their cucumber salad as a side to their appetizer chicken satay. Once I fell in love with that combination, I had to try making it at home. Ingredients 1 English seedless cucumber, peeled and sliced into rounds 1/2  a small red onion , sliced into slivers 1 carrot , peeled and sliced into matchsticks 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar 1 Tablespoon white granulated sugar 1 Tablepoon some variety of "light" oil, I use canola salt to taste Method 1. Mix together rice wine vinegar, sugar and oil in a mixing bowl. ...

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was pretty uneducated in the kitchen. It was with great pride that I figured out how to make my own flavored butters to put on foods that then were cooked in the oven. Now, thinking back, I used to eat a lot of salmon with pesto butter. Then I got damn sick and tired of salmon. Because, I think I had too much of a good thing. To this day, I'm still ho-hum about eating salmon unless it's in a sushi roll with jalapeno pepper and deep fried. But I digress. Back to flavored butter.  Flavored butter sounds hard, but it's really one easy way to add flavor and buttery goodness to food.  Garlic bread has to be one of the easiest examples.  You make up the butter, add bread, cook it. Voila.  You could make a larger batch of flavored butter and keep it in the freezer. Just bring up to room temperature before use.  If you try to keep in in the fridge, it won't have a long storage life.  It will only be good for...