Tormented Kitchen

Oh dear. I just realized I apparently have a tremendous love for potatoes and garlic. Funny. That sure sneaked up on me. See, I never used to eat that much garlic.  I guess you can blame credit my dear hubby for being the garlic-aholic he is.  I started eating more garlic so I wouldn't be so scorched by his garlic breath (sorry dear!). You know, I thought if I had garlic breath, then I wouldn't notice his garlic breath, like they would cancel each other out. Then that idea backfired on me because he just kept asking for more, more, more. Shoot. Garlic is really pretty tasty when you use it right. I even like roasted garlic on bread with butter. Just be careful about breathing on people. Watch out for that look they get. You know the one, the watery eyes, and sometimes they get a little blue from holding their breath. Anyhow, dear hubby usually orders garlic mashed potatoes when we go out for steaks. He's not the baked potato lover like me. I decided to spruce up s...

Well, hello again my dear readers.  Today's message was prompted by my own clumsiness. See I have furlough today. I have finished up my last-minute Christmas shopping and came back home to wrap and clean. I have laundry running, dishes in the machine, mildew spray-treated the shower, and put toilet cleaner in the toilets. In the melee, toilet-cleaning gel chemicals got all over my hands.  I got a faulty squirt lid on the toilet cleaner bottle so oops. Bad, bad, bad thing to have happen, you know? Rinsing and rinsing under cold water didn't get it all off and I could feel my thumb really starting to burn. Not good. So I run to the kitchen and grab the box of baking soda and pour it into my hands so I can stop the chemical reaction. I rubbed it in really well. Then I rinsed under freakishly cold tap water until my hands no longer felt slippery. Chemistry lesson of the day: baking soda also known as sodium bicarbonate + nasty things like toilet cle...

This is probably going to sound really silly, but I never tried Chicken and Dumplings until I was about 22 years old. My mom never made it. We had lots of homemade chicken noodle soup, but never chicken and dumplings. I think they are very much alike so if you have a chicken soup recipe you love, it's very easy to leave out the noodles and add dumplings. My story for this goes back about 10 years. I was at work one day, talking to my boss about food. She told me about her favorite cold-weather comfort food, chicken and dumplings. So I had a total lightbulb moment and tried it myself. I started out like I was making chicken soup, made a few alterations, and ended up with a happy combination. You may have noticed from the recipe index that I don't have much for chicken recipes. My dear hubby is not crazy for chicken. This is one of the few ways he will actually eat chicken and like it. Blame him for the chicken recipe shortage. (wink wink, love you sweetheart) ...

If you like sweet potatoes, I think you will love this. Mom's way of making these has been one of my favorites for ages. Honestly, I like it this way much better than the marshmallow way. If you want to use canned sweet potatoes, I guess go ahead. I have never used them myself. Let me know how they work out. If  you're wondering what the difference is between sweet potatoes and yams, in the US, the difference is moot. True yams are not available here. We have all sweet potatoes with different skin and flesh colors. I found some very cool reading on this from TAMU. Other cool things about food are available on Food Timeline. Ingredients 2 sweet potatoes 2 Tablespoons packed brown sugar 2 Tablespoons brandy 1/3 cup light corn syrup 2 Tablespoons butter, diced 1/3 cup pecan halves (or more or less to your liking) Method 1. Boil whole sweet potatoes until tender, about 30 minutes. When done, remove from water and let cool until cool enough to handle. 2. Peel swe...

French toast is one of my favorite things for breakfast. Of course, I love most breakfast foods covered in maple syrup. I learned the basics of French toast from my mom ages and ages ago. Oh wait, that makes me sound old. I'm not old. I'm experienced .  (Ha ha! Just kidding!) Anyhow, as a kid, my mom normally made French toast using white bread, like for sandwiches. Once I moved out on my own, I started using different breads and experimenting with quick-dip or long soak in the egg mixture. I have heard people absolutely rave about "overnight French toast." Ahem. Excuse me. That is not French toast. What you have in that case is actually bread pudding. Yeah. Bread soaked in egg mixture and baked in a pan is bread pudding. Sheesh people. I have held onto the concept that True French Toast must be made from French bread and dipped in eggs. (My husband likes me to use sourdough occasionally. It's good too.) Of course, I have strayed from what is in the eggs, ...

Flan is such a treat!  If you're unfamiliar with flan, you must try this.  It's simply custard with caramel in the bottom of the baking dish. It's smooth, cool, sweet, and beautiful. Now, I've had some bad flan. Let me tell you. There is one very popular Mexican eatery in Downtown Reno that I just don't like. Their flan is very firm, not very sweet, and tastes almost cheesy. Yuck. And then there are times you get flan that is so good, so amazing that it's like your mouth has found paradise. There is one particular person from the church back in my hometown that made pans and pans of amazing flan for church functions.  Amazing isn't even descriptive enough as a word. A lot of the flavor has to do with the caramel.  If your caramel is very dark, your flan will take on a toasty flavor with a bitter nutty, coffee-like aftertaste. I like my caramel a bit lighter, so there are hints of that toastiness, but it's not so noticeable. Those flavors wil...

Here is a recipe with some history I can relate to. Back in the 1920's this dish was created at Caesar Cardini's restaurant after he was running low on food. Someone there started throwing things together and made a tasty salad. I can totally relate to this, and I know I'm not the only one. Sometimes you go home and look in the fridge. Then you look in the pantry. Then you look in the freezer. Finally, you think "Damn. I have all kinds of weird things that don't go together!" So kudos to Mr Cardini and his staff for this. It's a fine example that sometimes you just start tossing things together and see what happens. Thinking back, I believe the first time I ate a Caesar salad I was a "tween", probably 11 or 12. I recall eating at a place in Carson City that has long since closed down. Mom and Dad ate something normal, probably grilled chicken sandwiches. They looked at me funny for ordering a Caesar salad, like "no way will she like th...