Chocolate? Yes, Please!

I love chocolate!  I found this recipe and they made the most delicious chocolate cookies with chocolate chips.  I found it on allrecipes.com, one of my favorite recipe websites!  Once I made the dough, I measured out balls 1 Tablespoon large, then divided the balls in half, rolled them into a ball.  Cutest bite size cookies!  Great size for lunches.

Here's the recipe: 

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies I

Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 10 Minutes Ready In: 45 Minutes Servings: 48

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened 1 1/2 cups white sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Pizza Recipe

I love this combination for pizza!  This was a recipe I found sometime ago and since we are having some friends over for dinner tomorrow we decided to bust it out along with California Pizza Kitchen's BBQ Chicken pizza recipe. 

Arugula Pizza on homemade dough with a white sauce

Pizza dough

         

Bread machine pizza dough recipe

            1 c Water, 80- 90 degrees

            ¾ tsp Honey or sugar

            1 ½ tsp Salt (sea or kosher)

            1 ½ T Extra virgin olive oil

            2 2/3 C. Bread flour

            9 T Whole wheat flour

            1 ¾ tsp. Yeast, active dry, instant or bread machine

            Put in pan in the order listed here.  Turn on in pizza dough cycle.

White sauce (enough for 2 pizzas)

2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
2 Tbsp fresh basil, minced
1/2 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese, shredded (or Kraft parmigiano)

Heat the butter in a small saucepan. add the flour and stir until thoroughly mixed. slowly whisk in milk, adding gradually. stir in remaining ingredients. the sauce will thicken upon standing.

Topping

            Caramelize onions in Balsamic vinegar

            Tomatoes, sliced

            Mozzarella

            Arugula (put on when it comes out of the oven)

About 45 minutes before making the pizza, preheat the oven to 500 F (or higher if your oven goes that high) with your baking stone or tiles on the lowest shelf or directly on the floor of the oven. If you don’t have a stone, you can bake on the back of a large baking sheet, but don’t preheat the baking sheet.
To shape the pizzas, dust a pizza peel or the back of a sheet pan with cornmeal or semolina flour. dip your hands in flour and pick up the dough round. Very gently lay the dough across your fists and carefully stretch it by bouncing the dough in a circular motion on your hands. keep it across your knuckles and it will slowly stretch as you bounce it. If it sticks, gently put the dough down and re-flour your hands. Eventually, you can move to a full toss instead of a bounce, and the dough will quickly shape into a large thin round.
Lay it on the pizza peel or pan and top lightly with your favorite sauces, cheeses, veggies and meats. keep in mind that this is a pretty thin crust, so a little topping goes a long way. slide your pizza from the pizza peel directly onto the hot baking stone or place the sheet pan in the oven and bake for 5-8 minutes. The edges will puff a little bit, brown and crisp up.  Remove the pizza from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Wait a few minutes for the toppings to set before slicing and serving.

Paella Dinner

I saw on Good Morning America Wolfgang Puck talking about doing the food for the Oscars.  I LOVE chef's like Wolfgang.  One dish that he showed how to make is Paella.  On Good Morning America's website they have a recipe for Paella as well.  I took most of what I learned from Wolfgang, some from the recipe and added my own flare.  Mostly I used things that I had in my cupboard.  When I told Joshua I had put my own twist on Wolfgang recipe he exclaimed, "What!  Wolfgang Puck's recipe is not good enough for you?"  That would be me...doing my own thing.  Here is the recipe:

1 small onion - diced
3 pieces of garlic - diced
Oil
Chicken (I used a pre-marinated Santa Cruz style chicken - it was on sale) - cut in small chuncks

1 yellow bell pepper - diced
1 red bell pepper - diced
About 3/4 cup white wine (this adds acidity to the dish and the alcohol cooks out- a citrus can be used as a substitue) 1 - 14 oz can of RoTel tomatoes (I used the store brand version)
cayene pepper - to taste
paprika - to taste
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste
Pinch of Saffron or Safflower
1/2 cups Rice (I used basmati because it is what I had)
1 can of vegatable stock
1 1/2 cup water

Sautee onion and garlic in pan for 2 minutes in oil.  Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes.  Add yellow and red bell pepper. Stir in rice.  Cook for 3 minutes.  Add all other ingredients, simmer for 5 minutes.  Put in oven preheated to 375 for  for about 30 minutes or until rice is done.

We loved this dish.  The dish had many layers of flavor.

Cooking Adventures of the Week.

I enjoy cooking however, finding the time and energy to do so can be a challenge for me.  With a new resolution to save money, and eat at home, cooking is a must.  Here are some helpful tricks I have learned in the last few weeks:

1. My grocery store often has meat for sale at a reduced priced because it's sell by date is soon approaching.  Today I bought 2.30 pounds of T-bone steaks (3 beautiful steaks) for $6.00.  This will last the two of us 2-3 meals.  I also bought some chicken that was in a marinade, they market it as a fresh minute meal.  I paid 1.80 for a pound of chicken. Today is the 21st and the sell by date is the 23rd.  We can either us it right away or freeze it.

2. Make something like muffins that I can eat in the morning for an easy breakfast.  I put some in ziploc bags so I could grab it on my way out the door.  I do so much better when I eat.

3.  Making things from scratch leaves me satisfied and we end up eating less preservatives and sodium.

Last Thursday, I made ribs one night with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes.  Our muffins for the week were apple - cinnamon muffins.

Saturday we made chicken that came in a Santa Cruz marinade, shredded the cooked chicken, and made it into a burrito with fresh made salsa, basmati rice made in the rice cooker, canned black beans & corn, cheese, and sour cream.

Sunday I made zuccinni chocolate chip muffins, rolls and broccoli cheese soup.  The rolls where made from scratch - dough was made in the bread maker.  The soup was a powdered soup mix I bought on sale this week.  I added fresh broccoli to it to make it more hearty and fresh tasting.  This fed 3 of us and we sent home a large container of soup with my brother-in-law.  We also have enough in the fridge for Joshua and my lunch.   

Today (Monday) I made a delicious Greek salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, red onion, feta, and lettuce with a Greek dressing).  We ate this for lunch and again at dinner.  Also for dinner we had T-bone steak, and steamed carrots.  I have never made T-bone steaks but I followed the directions of a recipe from food network and it was amazing.  Joshua ate a full steak and I ate a 1/2 steak.  This left us with 1 1/2 steaks left.  I have cut those up into small chunks and put them into containers with some other ingredients for our lunches tomorrow.

Tomorrow's lunches will be a steak stuffed burrito and grapes.  It will have in it the rest of the steak from tonight, the rest of the rice, beans, corn and last few pieces of chicken from Saturday, and cheese.  

Joshua eats dinner at school tomorrow and I'll finish up some leftovers.  This new way of shopping and eating just might pay off.  So far, we are eating better than we were, and spending less money per week.  We'll see how it continues to pan out and if I can keep it up.

Happy eating!

P.s. Here is the wonderful recipe I used for the T-bone steak.  It can also be found at:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/pan-seared-t-bone-steak-recipe/index.html

Pan Seared T-Bone Steak

1 1/2 pounds bone-in T-bone steak
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. A half-hour before cooking, remove steak from refrigerator.

Heat a large skillet over high heat. Pat steak dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Add oil to hot skillet and when it begins to smoke add steak. Reduce heat slightly and cook steak until browned, about 4 minutes on each side. Transfer skillet to the oven. Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted sideways into the steak registers 120 degrees F for medium-rare, about 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer steak to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes. Cut steak from the bone and carve meat across the grain.

Cooking Adventures

I love Indian food!  Joshua and I love Indian food.  For valentines we went to Bombay House in Provo, one of my favorite Indian food restaurants.  I had Lamb Saag, mulligatawny soup, and garlic naan - so good!  But eating out can be so expensive.  We tried to saved a few dollars by walking 2 blocks down to Bollywood Market to buy dessert of Gulab Jamun.  Really they make the Gulab Jamun at Bombay House where some of the husbands work, and sell them at Bollywood Market where some of the wives work.  It costs less to buy them at the market.

Tonight, I made Chicken Vindaloo, which was delicious.  In addition, I made for the first time my own Gulab Jamun.  Gulab Jamun is a popular dessert in countries of the Indian Subcontinent such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. It is made of a dough then deep fried.  It is then put into in a sugar syrup flavored with cardamom seeds and rosewater, kewra or saffron.  We like ours in rosewater syrup.  Gulab jamun is common at weddings.  Mine turned out so well!  It was very good.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup Carnation Milk Powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tablespoons butter -melted
Milk just enough to make the dough

Oil for frying

For the Sugar Syrup  (I did not use this syrup recipe because I used some I had left over from when we bought Gulab Jamuns at the market.)
2 cups Sugar
1 cup water

How to make gulab jamun:

• Make the dough by combining the milk powder, Bisquick, butter. Add just enough whole milk to make a medium-hard dough. Divide the dough into 18-20 portions. Make balls by gently rolling each portion between your palms into a smooth ball. Place the balls on a plate. Cover with a damp yet dry kitchen towel.
• Heat the oil on high and then lower the heat to medium. Slip in the balls into the hot oil from the side of the pan, one by one. They will sink to the bottom of the pan, but do not try to move them. Instead, gently shake the pan to keep the balls from browning on just one side. After about 5 mins, the balls will rise to the surface. The Gulab Jamuns should rise slowly to the top if the temperature is just right. Now they must be gently and constantly agitated to ensure even browning on all sides.
• If the temperature of the oil is too high then the gulab jamuns will tend to break. So adjust the temperature to ensure that the gulab jamuns do not break or cook too quickly.
• The balls must be fried very slowly under medium temperatures. This will ensure complete cooking from inside and even browning.

Sugar Syrup

• The syrup should be made earlier and kept warm. To make the hot sugar syrup add mix the 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water. Add 4-5 cardamom pods, slightly crushed and a few strands of "Kesar". Mix with a spoon and then heat at medium heat for 5-10 minutes until sugar is all dissolved in water. Do not overheat, that will caramelize the sugar.
• Transfer this hot syrup into a serving dish. Keep warm on stove. Add the fried gulab jamuns directly into the warm syrup. Leave gulab jamun balls in sugar syrup overnight for best results. They can be served warm or at room temperature.