Tormented Kitchen

Doesn't that sound fancy? Vinaigrette beans.  They sound like more work than they really are. They are easy, so easy. Especially if you use canned beans. Hold on, you say? Canned green beans are what? Not your favorite veggies? (*GASP*) You can make these with fresh green beans, frozen green beans, or beans in a can. However, if you want to stay true to Justin's camp-food tradition, they have to be cut green beans in a can. These do originate from Justin's camping vittles repertoire, so don't expect gourmet cooking out in the sagebrush. We like them both at home and camping. Since I don't get out camping much, the only chance I eat these is at home. Now, if you want to elevate them to something gourmet, use fresh beans and steam them. You could even add some chopped fresh herbs if you had some laying around, say from the garden. Let's stay super simple today. Get out a microwaveable dish (I used my Pampered Chef Micro-Cooker). Bust out the EVOO and vin...

Last week, my dear hubby Justin went hunting.  He left me and the kids at home. I was OK with that. I'm not much for outdoorsy activities. I'm sort of like a fish out of water when it comes to camping and hunting. I also really like the convenience of running water and electricity.  There seems to be a shortage of both when using a tent in the wilderness. I might be OK a couple days, but then...I miss all the conveniences of home. And I get a bit stir crazy. My folks came up for the weekend to help and keep me company.  It was nice to have the extra hands. Mom and I cooked up a storm. Pecan bars, goulash, muffins, and kraut chops. Mm. I rarely get to eat anything with kraut because hubby doesn't like it. And if he won't eat it, no sense in making a whole batch of this for just me. Right? Anyhow, we made this in an electric skillet. You can make this on the stove. Just make sure you have a really big skillet that can hold everything. I know, electric skill...

As I was preparing this post I realized something. It has been ages since I've made dumplings!  Honest to goodness dumplings are so tasty on top of a pot of chicken soup, deer stew , or beef barley soup. These were nice and puffy. The last time I made dumplings, I tried a German potato dumpling that didn't turn out well. They kept shrinking and dissolving as I cooked them instead of setting up. They were pretty gummy and nasty and made the soup cloudy. I think perhaps something was lost in translation. This time, my folks were in town so I snagged Mom's trusted recipe. (Thanks Mom!) I think I have my own. Somewhere. At least, I used to have my own dumpling recipe. I'm good at losing recipes. I have tons of cookbooks, tons of recipe notecards, so things get mixed up and "lost" easily.  That is really why I started posting recipes on the internet so many years ago. It was an attempt to keep my favorite recipes somewhere accessible all the time. If I trav...

Not too long ago, I had a hankering for baked goods that tasted like green tea. I tossed some matcha powder in my pancake mix. It was tasty! (I even had ideas for matcha crepes and matcha souffles but have not found the time to try them out.)  I then branched out and made a whole cake with matcha. I've had people ask me what matcha tastes like. Well. It tastes like green tea, because it's pulverized green tea leaves. If you don't know what to expect, go to a Chinese, Japanese, or Thai restaurant and get a scoop of green tea ice cream. It's sort of, well for lack of a better word, green . In ice cream, it's sweet, and creamy, not too different from pistachio ice cream, save the nuttiness. You know that "green" is a slightly generic term for something vegetal and fresh. It's refreshing and interesting. I tell people they just have to try it to know what I mean. A while back, I bought a few different matcha blends from Teanobi. I've been ...

Did you know that children's TV channels often advertise things that are not geared toward children as well as things that are annoyingly interesting to children? I don't mean just toys, Skechers, and movie advertisements. I mean stupid thing like aluminum wallets and bacon-cooking devices for the microwave. First, ages ago, Eric was enthralled with the Baby Bullet.  Are you familiar with the Magic Bullet blender/food processor? Well, this device is the same thing aimed at mothers who would want to make baby food from scratch.  Eric insisted that I needed one to make healthy food for his baby sister. (I did not buy this already owning two food processors, a blender, a manual baby food mill and no desire to spend more $$$.) Shortly, actually perhaps a year later, he saw a puppy house-training pee pad. Since we had just brought Topaz home and he was having serious issues with going everywhere we didn't want him to go, all the time, Eric insisted that we needed...

Sometimes I find myself very disappointed with cakes when I buy them from bakeries and grocery stores. They just taste like they are loaded with artificial flavors, preservatives, and who knows what kind of fat is in there. I know butter is not the best thing for heart health, but at least it's natural. And it tastes so good! Sometimes I do use a combination of shortening and butter, but that is when I decorate the exterior with piping and it needs to set up firm and hold well. Using only butter here, makes this work well as filling too. No, I don't use egg in my buttercream. I know some recipes call for egg, but honestly I don't want to worry about salmonella contamination every time. You should get about 3-4 cups of frosting from this recipe. Ingredients 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature 4 cups confectioners sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (clear if you want it really pure white) 2-4 Tablespoons milk Method 1. With an electric mixer, beat the b...

I picked up this recipe from my hubby's grandmother. The first time I had polenta, I couldn't believe how good the sauce was.  I have made a few small changes to her recipe, but it's pretty much like hers.  I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned. I chose Roma tomatoes, since they are plump and sweet, and a few vine-ripened regular tomatoes. They cooked down nicely. Make sure to use regular onions. As much as I like sweet onions, they don't taste right in tomato sauce like this. I was too starved for dinner to make my polenta formed and toasted, so I scooped it into bowls, added some of the sliced meat, then poured about a ladle-full of sauce on top. It was fantastic! This sauce it worth the effort. One more thing, I have heard from dear hubby that this is also great made with wild birds instead of chicken. Since hunting season is coming up, I will have to wait and see if he brings home any chukar or sage hen for me to cook up. Ingredients 2 boneles...