Philotic Web

Speaking of bread, can anyone explain why my bread always turns out pretty dense when I do it by hand? More yeast? Not rising long enough? Kneading too vigorously? What on earth am I doing wrong?

No such thing as kneading too vigorously when it comes to bread. It's likely to be not enough kneading then too much. It's probably the rise, though. Too long a rise and it can fall while it's cooking, too short a rise and it's not fluffy enough.

We went grocery shopping before it warmed up here, so we're stuck eating wintery foods even though spring has sprung. Over the weekend we made a really fantastic Ham and Potato soup that will be added to our wintery foodstuff lists for future years.

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We went to the store yesterday to pick up some grill foods and other goodies and found that they were very picked over. We got bratwursts, but couldn't get buns and the store was completely out of steaks. Looks like the buyers didn't expect a run on warm weather foods. We picked up a corned beef brisket that we're going to make with some cabbage though. (We're not irish, and it was heavily discounted on the day after St. Patty's day).

My Pintrest food experiment of the week: Zesty Slowcooker BBQ Chicken

It was delicious! It fell apart and became all pulled-chicken-ish with just stirring. Add some pickles and some potato chips and it was incredible! The only problem: Way too much food for 2 people. This is going to either have to get scaled down, wait til we have kids or be a company recipe. As it is, Nate has a medium sized mixing bowl full of leftovers in the fridge and 2 of the small pyrex bowls full in the freezer. Luckily, he'll eat the same thing all week.

Ingredients:
6 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 12 oz bottle of BBQ sauce
1/2 cup italian salad dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
Mix the BBQ sauce, salad dressing, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce in the slow cooker.
Add chicken and mix.
Cover and cook 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low.
Stir around until chicken shreds. Serve on buns/rolls. (with pickles!)

I made this last Wednesday:



The thing is, I never think the pictures I take of the few things I've made turn out looking all that good, this included, but I think they smell amazing and taste delicious. It's a 5 cheese ziti and I had it for dinner Wednesday and for lunch Thursday and Friday. I froze about 5 servings of it for later consumption.

It was damn good, I tell you. Damn good.



I also still hate cooking but if I don't do it, I don't eat, since I don't have much of anything (do I have anything?) that can be easily prepared.

That looks amazing!

This morning for breakfast we had german pancakes with strawberries, maple syrup and fresh whipped cream. Bacon on the side. It rated like spring.

What is a German pancake? Does it believe it is the one true pancake of the world?

What is a German pancake? Does it believe it is the one true pancake of the world?

Haha!

A german pancake is the same as a puff pancake or a dutch baby. It's made with lots of egg and little flour and baked in the oven. I'd link you somewhere, but I'm pwebbing from my phone and it's not the easiest thing in the world to do on it.

a puff pancake or a dutch baby

I knew Mormons ate babies...



I think Jan, maybe, made one of those? Or was it Mich? (Because they're easily mixed up and super interchangeable) I'm pretty sure someone made one of these in the last year or two and posted about it. I guess I could also Google it but you all are my friends, so I'd rather be lazy and let you all set me straight. (Not that I'm saying to do so from your phone, Steph, because I'm not. )

a puff pancake or a dutch baby

I knew Mormons ate babies...

It's something special we do on General Conference sunday.

I'm trying my hand at Hong Kong Egg Tarts this morning.

I think they are going to work well. My one concern is whether they will stick to my muffin pan or not. I hope they come out easily!

I'm trying my hand at Hong Kong Egg Tarts this morning.

I think they are going to work well. My one concern is whether they will stick to my muffin pan or not. I hope they come out easily!

HOLY COW AMAZING!!!

So tasty, didn't stick and they weren't really that hard to make! Now I have to try to not eat all of them.

Those look really good.

Currently my kitchen smells like seasoned red potatoes baking in the oven. With a hint of rising bread, that will go into the oven following the taters. It's a good night for my nose.

That sounds so good.

Flapjacks. Delicious, squishy, unhealthy flapjacks.

http://www.flapjackrecipe.com/chewy-flapjack-recipe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Replaced the banana with another 50g butter. Such an awesome breakfast to wake up to.

Tonight's pinterest offering of Strawberry Balsamic Pizza with chicken, onion, and bacon is a raging success.

Tonight's pinterest offering of Strawberry Balsamic Pizza with chicken, onion, and bacon is a raging success.

You evil temptress, you.

That sounds different but really good ! It's funny how when im really hungry I can imagine just how a new (to me) dish would smell and taste.

I think Jan, maybe, made one of those? Or was it Mich? (Because they're easily mixed up and super interchangeable) I'm pretty sure someone made one of these in the last year or two and posted about it. I guess I could also Google it but you all are my friends, so I'd rather be lazy and let you all set me straight. (Not that I'm saying to do so from your phone, Steph, because I'm not. )

Twas me.

Today I managed to ignore the tyrant long enough to put together chocolate-hazelnut dino shapes. It's awkward when you start something and they're all cool, but as soon as you get too far in to stop midway, they go hysterical, and you can either abandon your attempt wholesale or ignore them and push through.

Also made cinder toffee - holy cow, easy! And a double batch of gnocci, because the first batch of potatoes didn't cook quite enough and was lumpy, and it's for Easter dinner tomorrow and you can't serve second-rate food for Easter. Good thing it freezes.

My apartment smells like our family's Christmas cookies. I mixed the masa on Thursday, let it chill in the fridge (unnecessary but won't hurt), and baked two of the probably 4-5 dozen it can make. It is heavenly.

My kitchen doesn't smell like anything right now, but it's annoying me.

The fridge decided to quit, so everything we had in there had to be moved into a giant cooler.

I had just started a croissant dough because Will wanted to take some to work on Saturday. By the time I realized the fridge wasn't working (less then an hour) the dough had risen so much it broke through the plastic wrap. I decided not to give up and rolled it out anyways. Three hours later it seems to be doing fine (i'm chilling it the cooler also).

Also, the only time a repair man could come is early tomorrow morning. Tomorrow was my only day to sleep in for two weeks.

We just had smoothie night in my suite, followed up by delicious oreo/coconut/vanilla milkshakes. I'm STUFFED.

Tomorrow, I'm taking dinner to a family that's moving and the family they are staying with while their house is being packed. I needed something that was easy to cook for a large group. Cafe Rio it is! I'm cooking the pork shoulder today and then tomorrow I'll shred it and simmer it in the sweet coke sauce. I'm excited to make the creamy tomatillo ranch dressing again. That stuff is SO good. I'm hoping I'll be more successful with the cilantro lime rice. When I follow the recipe, it turns out goopy. I'll think I'll just cook it with my own skills, and I'm sure it will be better this time. It should be tasty tomorrow! I'm excited!

Oooh, cilantro lime rice? Care to share?

Tonight will probably be a nice hearty tagine. It's ugly, gross rainy weather out there, and something so nice and warm will be wonderful. I wish I'd thought to get some sweet potatoes, but I didn't and I'm trying to stick to my weekly menu plan and not "need" to go out and buy extra groceries.

http://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/2008/09 ... black.html

It may work better at your elevation and humidity. I'm going to have to play with mine.

Right now it smells like pineapple cupcakes! They will be filled with pina colada curd that I made last night (it's divine!!) and topped with whipped coconut cream. I'm very excited for the cupcakes!

Oh that looks lovely! Thank you, I am going to have to make that!

What kind of rice are you using? Some types of rice require different quantities of water to come out right, perhaps that is an issue? Anyway, if you manage to get it to work, let me know how?

I have good ol' plain long grain rice from costco. Maybe it's because the proportions end up wrong when I double? I'm not sure. I'll let you know what I figure out.

I was talking to my dad this weekend and he asked about my food situation, as he is wont to do, and I told him I tried making beef fried rice and how my rice came out too sticky. He must have had me on speakerphone because Voldemort asked what my elevation was here and I was like, "Uh...higher than [hometown]? I don't know. Is this important?"

You crazy kitchen folks with your knowing this stuff.

We eat a LOT of rice.

We have a 20kg bag of basmati sitting in the corner. Which I brought home across town on my bicycle. As well as jasmine rice and sushi rice.

As for cooking, for basmati, which is a drier rice, we use a ratio of 1:1 rice to water. The jasmine is 1:1.3 and the sushi is 1:1.2, according to the bag. Myself, I am inclined to do 2:3, but that runs into the risk of a gloopier rice. For plain long-grain rice I'd be inclined to try closer to 1:1.

I looked at the recipe again. Yep, found your problem. 3 cups of liquid to 1 cup of rice??? No wonder it's not turning out!! Reduce that to, say, 1 cup broth and 1/2 cup water, or 3/4 cup broth and 1/4 cup water. It'll turn out much better, I promise!

Alea, if you go with 1:1 on the rice and let it chill overnight, then crumble it into the pan with your hands when you go to fry it, it will probably improve. Rice for fried rice needs to be drier than you'd usually eat. I had a lot of trouble making fried rice until I got a Chinese coworker to tell me how she did it.

Holy cow! Thanks for that catch. I don't know where my brain was. I guess I was just assuming that if you're going to publish a recipe online you should probably know how to write a recipe in the first place. (I guess that was my mistake!)

Alea, if you go with 1:1 on the rice and let it chill overnight, then crumble it into the pan with your hands when you go to fry it, it will probably improve. Rice for fried rice needs to be drier than you'd usually eat. I had a lot of trouble making fried rice until I got a Chinese coworker to tell me how she did it.

Interesting. Thanks for the tip; I'll try that next time!

Menu this week so I don't forget what I'm doing:

Saag paneer
Greek salad and fresh bread
Lentil tacos
Penne alfredo
Baked cheesy pasta of some sort
Veggie bangers and mash

Best thing I ever got for my kitchen: Dry Erase Calendar. I always know what the smells are going to be.