Tormented Kitchen

Recently, Mom brought me a couple bags of potatoes from her garden. I was quite pleased to get her potatoes since my potatoes failed thanks to bugs.  Darn it for trying to figure out organic gardening. So what do you make with lots of potatoes? A while ago, I was looking up French potato casserole recipes, like potatoes dauphinoise and potatoes a la boulangere. They are very similar in technique. Both require peeled, thinly sliced potatoes baked in a dish with some liquid.  Dauphinoise uses cream or milk, while boulangere uses stock or broth. Now let me remind you, food does not turn out perfectly for me every time. I wish it did! This was tasty, but a bit soupier than I wanted. I managed to use onions from my garden and they were so good! I added bacon because everyone loves bacon and it really compliments potatoes in general. Ingredients about 4 pounds of potatoes, I used Mom's red potatoes 4 slices of thick bacon, sliced into lardons 1 large onion, sliced 1...

Justin gave me a whole bunch of ingredients today for Mystery Box Dinner #3. There is enough leftover from tonight's meal to have a decent dinner tomorrow, too. Today, I received fresh Brussels sprouts, green beans, beef top round steaks, pork ribs, corn tortillas, dill gherkin pickles, a chunk of banana squash, basmati rice, canned whole mild chiles, canned whole tomatillos, prosciutto, pancetta, fontina cheese, goat's milk cheese, pinto beans, and red kidney beans. I raided the fridge and pantry for vegetable oil, lemon, white wine vinegar, a habanero chili pepper, mayonnaise, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, chicken bouillon, a green apple, agave nectar, a peach, and herbs and spices.  I combined the tomatillos, half the can of mild chiles, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and a tiny bit of the habanero chili to make salsa verde. The pinto beans got smashed with some diced mild green chili, oil, and spices to become refried beans. The basmati rice, combined with c...

I had 10 pounds of tomatoes sitting in the fridge. I decided we couldn't eat all the tomatoes from the garden right away and that canning them (actually preserving them in a jar) was a good idea. It's a lot of work to preserve anything in a jar. I had forgotten this.  It's been a few years since we've had enough of anything to make canning worthwhile. Thankfully, Mom was around to help me. Also I relied heavily on my copy of the Ball Canning and Preserving Blue Book. I got my supplies together and washed. We blanched the tomatoes to get the skins off then cut out the stem-end core. We sliced them in half and loaded them into hot jars with 2 T. lemon juice and 1 tsp. kosher salt per quart jar. I did not add water or pre-cook the tomatoes. This was a pack-in-its-own-juice type of recipe. Then we boiled them forever, or for what seemed that long. They actually cooked for 1 hour 35 minutes thanks to the altitude adjustment. (Please research c...

This weekend, I was hungry for something sweet. Not too long ago, we had dinner at Campo which was finished off by their dessert sampler. We got a tiny Mason jar of panna cotta topped with berries, a tiny slice of chocolate cheesecake, and another tiny Mason jar of salted caramel budino. I have been thinking of the panna cotta and budino ever since.  Budino is Italian for pudding. I did some Internet research and happened upon a recipe that I decided to give it a try. My littlest helper was happy to smash cookies, mix them with melted butter and spoon it into cups. I took care of all the hot stuff over the stove, like making the two separate batches of caramel, one to flavor the budino and another to pour over top of the completed product. It was a bit time consuming. I've never spent so much time making pudding before. I had to separate my eggs, mix milk and cornstarch, temper the yolks with the hot milk, them mix, mix, mix and cook some more. Then it went th...

Tonight's dinner was my second mystery box. Our made-up rules for the mystery box are: 1. I can use anything in the mystery box, all or some. 2. I can use anything in the pantry, fridge, or freezer at home. 3. I have 1 hour to cook and serve. 4. I must prepare a meal that fits the time of day, such as dinner at dinner time. Here's what I got. Coconut milk, coconut juice, a whole coconut, Asian eggplant, mango, carrots, figs, and a Chilean sea bass fillet. I added from the "home stores" olive oil, limes, mint, curry paste, bell pepper, jasmine rice, plus kaffir lime leaves, potatoes and seasonings that aren't shown here. I made a lime mint vinaigrette to marinate the fish in after removing the scales. I later grilled the fish. I made curry with the coconut milk, carrots, potatoes, red bell pepper, mango, lime juice, red curry paste, and a splash of fish sauce. The fish took longer to cook than I wanted it to.  Fish always takes twice...

I'm not sure who knows or realizes this, but I tried out for Masterchef in December 2011. I also sent in a video the year before since I couldn't make auditions in person. They didn't pick me either time. However, I'm not fazed. I'm going to audition again.  Let me tell you, after watching the current season, it's a good thing they didn't pick me because I would have wiped the floors with the competition.  I mean, I'm good at desserts, but I can cook a steak, a burger, sushi, all the kinds of eggs they wanted, you name it. I'm not a pro and have never received any pro training, but I'm way, way better than some of those goofs on the air. So, dear hubby has presented me with a fun challenge. He's giving me weekly challenges, let's call them Freddy's Mystery Box.  I thought I was off the hook this weekend.  Nope. Tonight's mystery box was two sourdough baguettes, plus whatever I felt like from the fridge and pantry. Right aw...

High altitude bakers, this is for you! We all do it. We all have to add extra flour to boxed cake and brownie mixes. Because the box says so and they are right that things don't cook up the same here as low altitude. The box says use all-purpose flour, good old nutritionally lacking AP flour. I use unbleached whole wheat flour instead.  I can't tell a difference because it's usually only 1/4 cup of extra flour. Your food will not taste like cardboard because you changed part of your flour.  My Ghiradelli box-mix brownies turn out great with this. Health-wise, I know it's only a teeny tiny microscopic improvement, but it's still a teeny tiny improvement. I also use some unbleached whole wheat flour in gravy and for dredging pan-fried meats. If that is too "natural" for you, try making tiny steps toward better nutrition by using unbleached all-purpose flour. I promise it's not a huge difference so I know you won't come back and tell me...