back to the kitchen i go!

i took a bit of a break from the project the last few days and quite frankly, i think i really needed that! i tend to go full force when i start something and then burn out quickly, since this is intended for me to make a full year long commitment to, i figured i should slow up before i burn out! but, i did miss being in the kitchen and making new things so i'm glad to have a pot roast in the oven as i type this up! :)

pork butt in the crock pot getting ready to cook!

tuesday was a good cooking day for me. i had decided to finally try my hand at making pulled pork in the crock pot, made the tomato vegetable soup i had wanted to try, baked more banana muffins for stephen (or was that monday, i really can't remember) and made homemade french fries to go with dinner.

 finished pork butt...yum!

for the pork butt i just used a recipe that i found online at the good housekeeping website. the recipe was easy to follow and you could even change the amount of servings and it would change the amount of ingredients for you...that was a big bonus! i made a couple of substitutions (mainly because i forgot to pick up the items i would need while i was at the store...and let that be a lesson to me to always make a list!), but they didn't seem to alter the flavor in any way so it all worked out in the end! even the kids liked it...jordan put up her usual fuss, but ate it all anyway; stephen made a bit of a fuss, too but he also ate all that was on his plate. 

homemade french fries, made from a recipe in the joy of cooking book, were the last minute side item and while the cuts were of various size and shape they also turned out good in the end. stephen liked them the most!

homemade french fries

while the pork butt was in the crock pot and before deciding to make the french fries, i got everything together and made up a batch of tomato-vegetable soup from a recipe i found in one of the cookbooks i picked up at the library. it was so easy since it used canned tomatoes and frozen green beans and corn, along with some onion, carrot, celery and chicken broth (my homemade chicken broth, no less!). bonus of the recipe was that it was very low sodium/salt content since the tomatoes were the only canned item and i hadn't added any salt when i made the broth. yay, me for making something healthy...even if i am the only one eating it!

side view of the soup

since wednesday was st. patrick's day, i decided to try my hand at making irish soda bread. of course, the only problem with me making that was that i had never tried irish soda bread before so i would have no idea if it turned out well or not! but still, since i'm always one for trying new things, i went ahead and found a recipe in my good housekeeping baking book and dove right in! i made the alternate recipe that also uses whole wheat flour since i wanted to attempt to make it somewhat healthy. i followed the recipe as it was written and had no troubles with any of it. kneading and shaping the loaf made a nice floury mess on my counter and i had to add a few more drops of milk than it called for since the dough wasn't sticking together as well as it should have. but once it was all together and shaped into a somewhat decent ball, i popped it into the oven and just waited for it to get baked!

finished irish soda bread

i'm not even sure if it looks like it's supposed to, but it tasted very good fresh from the oven and even heated up for breakfast the next couple days. i'm finding that i am a complete bread-a-holic, if that's even a word!, and therefore, will be trying my hand at many other types of bread probably weekly just so i have fresh bread around whenever i want it! that's the bonus of this project i guess...being able to make things up whenever the mood strikes and finding out the kinds of things i really enjoy eating!

my newest kitchen toy!

thursday was the last time i baked anything, having made chocolate chip cookies for the family since i overbaked the last batch (even overbaked that batch still got eaten). so i went back into the kitchen today and broke in my newest kitchen "toy", a 6-quart enameled, cast iron dutch oven! it finally arrived wednesday night and i can honestly say that i had never been so happy to get a new pot, ever! now the pot roast is cooking in the oven and the mashed potatoes will be made up shortly...i'm so super excited to see how it all turns out since i've never made a pot roast in the oven, i've only ever made it in the crock pot. i'll post all about it sometime over the next week...so be sure to come on back to see the pretty pictures of the finished product!

who knows what else i will be making this week...i still need to make an angel food cake since i've promised stephen i would and i'm starting to crave monkey bread so i may have to make that again, too. there's an easy apple pie recipe that i want to try as well, so maybe i'll make that, too. and of course, i'll need to make up a fresh loaf of bread to have around as well, think i'll make the beer bread recipe that i found in the joy of cooking. oh, and there's also been a request for my chocolate truffle torte so i'll be making that at the end of the week! high hopes for baking this week...good thing i'm stocked up on flour, sugar, eggs, and of course plenty of butter!

come on back soon! more pictures and adventures to come!

and the project goes on: kitchen time

thursday was a no-baking day, although i did make dinner so there was time well spent in the kitchen! i tried out the recipe for chicken fried steak and gravy from my new cookbook, "the pioneer woman cooks" as well as mashed potatoes from "the good home cookbook". i learned a few things while making that dinner and had my patience thoroughly tested all at the same time!

covered cube steak ready for the pan

i got everything together and followed "the procedure" for setting up the steak and various dipping/coating stations so to speak. dipping the steaks created a lovely mess on my hands, as was totally expected since i was coating the steaks in an egg/milk mixture then into the seasoned flour mix...twice. my hands were so covered that i had to have stephen turn the kitchen sink on for me to wash my hands! but once all that was done and the steaks were ready i fried them up in the pan, just like the recipe called for...very easy, no problems there.

chicken-fried steak

while the steaks were frying, i was mixing up the potatoes in molly (my mixer...i've decided to name her since i've been using it so much, she just seemed to need a name), having already boiled them before getting the steaks ready. still very easy with no problems there.

the problems came when the steaks were done and it was time to make the gravy. if i had read the recipe more closely i may not have had such difficulty, but i didn't and so i had problems...and only myself to blame!

gravy attempt #1, when you don't follow the recipe correctly

see, had i paid closer attention to the recipe, i would have added all the milk at the same time, not gradually...because a lumpy, floury mess is what you get when you don't pay attention to directions. and let that be a lesson for everyone attempting to make gravy for the first time! so i dumped that mess, re-read the directions all the way through and caught the part about adding the milk all at once that i had so obviously missed, and ended up with a much nicer looking batch of gravy...after whisking the crap out of the whole thing! 

the final gravy results

so an hour or so after getting dinner started, we finally sat down to eat. i had no idea that it would take so long and that i would seriously snap at my child when he said he didn't like the meat...my nerves were shot by that point and i could've flown off the handle at any little complaint! but we all ate everything and the kids didn't even complain that the potatoes tasted different from the instant ones we normally have...so, note to self, i can now make mashed potatoes from real potatoes, not a pouch! the unfortunate part of the whole ordeal though, is that i realized i don't really like chicken fried steak! the gravy turned out to be the best part of the steak for me even though i thought it was a bit thick. 

oh, well, live and learn and don't try to make those again!

friday, i took the day off from the kitchen and really had every intention to not bake anything until next week, but i got a craving for pound cake and just had to bake one on saturday night. after checking through a couple of my cookbooks to find a recipe, i settled on the brown sugar bourbon pound cake from "the good housekeeping best of baking" book...it would require a trip to the liquor store since we had no bourbon in the house, but that allowed me to pick up some good beer, too so that was fine. (bill's is our local liquor store with beer on one side, liquor and wine on the other...crazy south carolina laws).

so, anyway, back home and after getting dinner cooked and eaten i started on the pound cake. it was the first time that i used my bundt pan and the first time in over 3 years that i attempted a pound cake again...the last one didn't get cooked all the way through and was chunked into the garbage. getting it together was easy enough and i followed the directions exactly as written since i didn't want to have any cake mistakes!

halfway through baking, i covered the edges to avoid burning

once the batter was all together, i poured it into the bundt pan and said a little prayer that it would all fit and not overflow. as i was pouring, jordan came into the kitchen and was asking all kinds of questions about the cake...one of them being that she asked for chocolate chips to be put in, i kindly declined that request.

i popped the cake in the oven, set the timer and walked away...kind of. i set the timer for half the cooking time so that i could rotate the cake halfway through and cover the sides if needed...it was needed. but then i relaxed more during the second part of the baking just checking on it every 5 minutes or so...i'm a little paranoid about overbaking cakes or cookies or really anything for that matter!

fresh from the pan!

once it was done baking and cooled the proper amount of time, it was time to hold my breath, say a little prayer to the baking gods, and flip the cake out of the pan. and voila! success...it all came out in one piece! i will admit that i gave a little cheer & did a little dance! but just a short one since i still had to coat the cake with the oj/bourban/sugar coating. once the cake was coated, i let it sit for a few more minutes to cool more before finally giving in and cutting myself a slice. it is one of the best things i can say that i've ever baked...very moist inside, with a little crust on the outside, so very yummy! it's definitely a keeper!

doesn't it look so yummy?!

and that's been the extent of my kitchen time over the last few days. i've decided to split up my postings between crafty ones and cooking/baking ones...that way none of them are overly long in nature. well, that's the hope anyway!

as a final note, more baking will be done today since the family will want cookies for dessert...i'm the one who's crazy about cakes! and i'm now anxiously awaiting the arrival of my dutch oven so that i can make a pot roast in something other than my slow cooker! think i'll use the slow cooker to make up some bar-b-que later this week though...i'm craving pulled pork!

come on back for more kitchen time! crafting time, too!

 

what to say? what to do? and who knew?

it's rainy and cold out today, so what better way to spend the time than updating my blog!?! of course it's only good if i can actually come up with things to write about...stupid blogger's block seems to have struck me again. but alas, i refuse to let that stop me...so take that as a warning that this may end up being very rambling. 

 

sunday's chicken broth attempt

since the last blog entry ended with me simmering the chicken broth on the stove, i figured that i would start this one showing off the finished broth in three stages. first is the picture above: showing all the veggies, water, and chicken after simmering for a couple hours. the house really smelled good from the cooking...well, i thought it did! next is the picture below: showing the broth separated from the chicken and veggies. i later removed the skin and bones from the chicken and shredded it into pieces to be used in other dishes that call for pre-cooked chicken.

 
 

the separated broth and cooked pieces 

finally, after letting the broth set up and cool overnight in the fridge i separated it into quart size mason jars for easier freezing. of course, before putting the broth into the jars i had to skim the fat that had collected on the top...that was a first for me! it wasn't so bad though...i just used a big spoon to skim it off the top, plus i poured the broth through a strainer before putting it into the jars. i ended up filling 4 quart size jars with the broth and then promptly stuck them in the freezer since i won't be making soup until next week at the earliest. to me...the broth looks very pretty in color and smells good, too...time will tell how it tastes though since i didn't even sample it!

 

the finished broth...jarred & ready to freeze

sunday was also the day that i decided to make banana bread and although i didn't get it started until after 7:30pm, i did get it made up and baked! i used the recipe from the joy of cooking, omitting the lemon zest and optional dried fruit and nuts. i have found that making bread (or anything in a loaf pan) in my oven can be very tricky...the last time i tried, the outer edges were burnt and the middle wasn't set! needless to say, that kinda turned me off from making bread or pound cake for quite awhile...but time had gone by and i thought i would give it another try. this time i altered the cooking time, placed aluminum foil around the edges of the pan covering the bread edges (leaving a hole open in the middle), and used a metal pan rather than glass. in the end, it all worked out great and the bread was perfect! stephen and i have been the only ones to enjoy the bread...he really likes it! so the recipe is a keeper and i now know how to make bread in my oven!

 

yum, banana bread!

now, back to monday...which was a surprisingly good day considering that it was monday! after the chicken and the broth was taken care of, i took care of a little housework...vacuuming and washing a load of laundry (i'm trying to do a load of laundry everyday so that i'm not overwhelmed with piles of dirty clothes every few days). after that i got the dough together for ginger cookies (cutting the recipe in half for the first time ever) and let it chill before shaping and baking a couple hours later. the recipe, from my mother in law, is a favorite at Thanksgiving/Christmas time and i normally get 8+ dozen cookies from one batch, i didn't need that many cookies this time so that's why i cut the recipe in half. luke thought it would be nice for me to make the cookies for stephen to take with him to his scout meeting since the speaker they were going to hear is very fond of them! and i was happy to oblige...although it did feel slightly odd making them after the holidays! 

 

ginger cookies, yes, there's one missing...i had to sample my work!

and now for dinner...chicken enchiladas...a recipe that i will more than likely not make again without some changes. i'm thinking that maybe i should stick with italian/pasta casserole type dishes, rather than mexican/tortilla type ones. they were not the best tasting and the corn tortillas were hard to work with and kept falling apart on me. in hindsight, i could have heated the tortillas up more to better soften them and i could have pureed the sauce more to make it more liquidy. in the end, it was enough for dinner for one night and a lesson learned for me.

 
 

underneath all that cheese lay the chicken enchiladas 

now that i have rambled on for long enough, i will bring this to a close...after a few more words and a couple pics! no more baking until this weekend and tonight's dinner will be a super easy mix of frozen fish, roasted potatoes, and frozen california style veggies...jordan is very excited about dinner tonight since these are all her favorite foods! more crocheting of the afghan and maybe a couple other quick projects to work on so i'll concentrate on those things. thought i would end by again saying that i'm really loving this project...i'm much happier than i have been in quite a while. my house is still a mess on most days, but that doesn't bother me so much since i am coming to full terms with the fact that i'm an awful housekeeper! and here's a couple pics to close out this entry.

 

why must they make toys so small?

that picture is of the doll shoe that i vacuumed up and then had to dig out of the dust/dirt canister...it is as small as my fingernail so that was fun to look for. and the final pic is of jordan in a pair of her pj pants...just wanted to show that she does like them! pay no attention to the messy counters in the background...it's simply proof of my shotty housekeeping skills!

 

she was moving her hair, not hiding her face!