Learning How To Cook: The Newlywed Experience

I'm back!

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:21:56 -0700

I apologize for the hiatus. It’s been about 10 months since I finished my blogging class and proceeded to graduate from Walla Walla University in June (2012). Well I have good news, I’m back!

Anyways, you’ve probably been wondering what I’ve been up to since graduating. First of all you should know that I’m still cooking, baking and exploring what the world of culinary has to offer. Since graduating I have much more free time to spend in the kitchen. Yay! Also, my post-grad job at the Career Center has allowed me to learn more…about cooking! Yes, although working at the Career Center has nothing to do with food there are several events that I plan that involve food. We all know that events are more attractive when we know there’s going to be food (weddings, birthdays, retirement celebrations, retreats, etc.).

I have coordinated the catering for all of the Career Center’s events thus far this past year (Graduate School Fair, Career & Internship Fair, plus various pre-professional club events & dinners). I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a professional event planner, it seems like a very attractive field to me. Lots of planning, decorating, coordinating catering, music, etc. Fun!

Anyhow, I’ve been thinking about changing the direction of my blog to include a wider range of food-related opportunities. The reason for the change came when I found a blog post about a photographer who took pictures of families food for a week in countries all around the world. Check it out: http://fstoppers.com/what-a-week-of-groceries-looks-like-around-the-world

For those of you who don’t know what “dead...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 14:03:00 -0700

For those of you who don’t know what “dead week” is, I will explain so that this post makes more sense. Basically dead week is the week before finals in college. Even though you hardly get any sleep (hence why its called “dead” week) its also a lot of fun. There are a lot of late night activities such as midnight breakfast, bed races and bouncy houses.

So why tell you about dead week? Well frankly I haven’t done any cooking during this past week. One of the lovely aspects of dead week is that there is a lot of free food, which I have relied on heavily for all of my meals. It’s really nice to take a break from cooking, but it has left me without anything to post. I have seriously had a free meal every single day in the last week including Saturday and Sunday.

Since I haven’t done any cooking and my final for this blog is due by Wednesday I decided that I will tell you about something I plan on cooking next week after finals are over and I’m back to cooking myself again.

I found this lime bars recipe on Pinterest and I am so excited to make it for graduation weekend.

Ingredients:

for crust—

1 cup flour

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, cold

for creamy lime filling—

2/3 cup fresh lime juice (from about 6 limes)

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

4 eggs

2 tsp lime zest

green food coloring (enough to produce desired green color)

powdered sugar for serving

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

To make the crust, combine the confectioners sugar, flour and sea salt in a large bowl. Cut in the cold butter and work with your fingers until the mixture resembles cornmeal. Press into a greased nine inch pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

To make the filling, whisk together the granulated sugar and flour in a bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Add the zest, lime juice and enough green food coloring to produce desired green color (but not enough to make your filling neon! watch out) and mix until everything is smooth and combined.

Pour filling over hot crust and return to oven to bake for another twenty minutes. When done, the filling will no longer jiggle. Let cool completely in the pan before slicing and dusting with powdered sugar.

Time:

1 hour

I look forward to making this and will post again after I make it with my own pictures and tips.

Enjoy!

I love pancakes! You can make them a million different ways and...

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:55:00 -0700

I love pancakes! You can make them a million different ways and they are usually pretty fast to whip up.

Since it was Memorial Day weekend I actually had time to make breakfast Sunday morning. I made some hash brown and eggs and one of my favorites, chocolate chip pancakes!

It’s really easy to make chocolate chip pancakes because all you really have to do is make the pancake mix and add chocolate chips.

Ingredients:

Hungry Jack Complete Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix

To make 6-8 pancakes, you’ll need 1 cup of mix and 3/4 cup of water

Directions:

1. Prepare skillet or griddle by lightly coating with vegetable oil or spray (Pam)

2. Heat skillet or electric griddle to 375 degrees

3. Combine pancake mix and water in a bowl, stir just until large lumps disappear, batter will be slightly lumpy, ADD 1/4 cup of chocolate chips!

4. Pour less than 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake

5. Cook each side for 30 sec to 1 minute or until golden brown

Maybe I’m just a pro when it comes to making pancakes, but I’ve got it down to a science. I cook each side for exactly 30 seconds and they always turn out perfectly. I first learned to make pancakes when my family went camping, but I still love them in all circumstances and at any time of the day.

Enjoy!

Mhhh Peanut Butter Chocolate Dessert! I really want to make this...

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:33:00 -0700

Mhhh Peanut Butter Chocolate Dessert! I really want to make this for my husband, he loves everything peanut butter!

I apologize for not posting very much last week, but I ran out...

Tue, 29 May 2012 15:23:00 -0700

I apologize for not posting very much last week, but I ran out of food and transportation at the same time. All I had last week were sandwiches and that’s not very exciting to blog about.

Over the weekend I walked to the store and stocked up on food. I decided to make my sister-in-law’s (Nevi) potato salad.

Ingredients:

7 red potatoes (don’t have to be red, that’s just a personal preference)

5 hard boiled eggs

1 package of frozen peas and carrots

1/2 onion (Walla Walla Sweet or some other kind of salad onion)

1/2 cup to 2/3 cup of Mayo

Salt

Pepper

Optional- celery, garlic salt

Directions:

1. Boil the eggs for 5 to 6 minutes

2. Cut the potatoes in half and steam them until tender

3. Mince the onion

4. Peel the eggs, cut up

5. Cut the potatoes up

6. Steam the peas and carrots

Put everything in a bowl and add the mayo, salt, and pepper

Stir

Chill for 1/2 an hour

Serves approximately 6 to 7 people

My family has made this particular potato salad several times for barbecues, birthdays, 4th of July and other fun events. Since I had never made it I really wanted to try it out. It turned out perfectly, I wouldn’t have done anything differently.

Enjoy!

White cheddar shells, broccoli, and crescent rolls. Sounds...

Wed, 23 May 2012 21:42:00 -0700

White cheddar shells, broccoli, and crescent rolls. Sounds amazing right?

It’s been a rough time for me lately. I’ll be graduating from college in 18 days so I’ve been eating a lot of sandwiches and other really really simple foods lately. I really wanted something good this week so I decided to make white cheddar shells, broccoli and crescent rolls.

Ingredients:

white cheddar cheese sauce

pasta shells

broccoli

crescent rolls

cheese

Directions:

Bring some water to boil, cook the shells for 7-10 minutes until tender

Heat up white cheddar sauce, mix with pasta

Steam broccoli

Cut slices of cheese, put inside crescent rolls, roll them up and put in over for about 10 minutes

This meal is one of my favorites because it includes many of my comfort foods. It’s well balanced and fairly quick to make.

Enjoy!

FISH STICKS! Okay, so I didn’t make these myself, they are...

Tue, 22 May 2012 20:19:00 -0700

FISH STICKS!

Okay, so I didn’t make these myself, they are actually from the frozen food section, but fish sticks are so cheap and tasty!

Directions:

All you have to do is preheat the oven and then put the fish sticks on a cookie sheet and toss them in the oven for approximately 10 minutes.

The key is to flip them half-way through cooking that way they are evenly cooked on both sides.

I like to serve them with mashed potatoes and some kind of vegetable such as corn or green beans.

Enjoy!

Came home a couple days ago to this wonderful creation, made...

Tue, 22 May 2012 20:15:00 -0700

Came home a couple days ago to this wonderful creation, made specially for me by my husband. All I can say is it sure helps to have a husband who loves to cook!

This is somewhat similar to the tostadas we made a couple weeks ago except there are a few new ingredients and the serving size is tripled.

Ingredients:

cheese

re-fried beans

chili

lettuce

rice

onions

olives

sour cream

salsa

Directions:

I think the directions are pretty self-explanatory since all you have to do is throw all the ingredients on top of your tortilla. It tastes amazing and is really quick to make.

Enjoy!

Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts, but it always seemed so...

Sun, 20 May 2012 22:02:00 -0700

Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts, but it always seemed so complex to me, which is probably due to the fact that they usually serve it at really fancy restaurants.

Last summer I came across a recipe for tiramisu cheesecake and I decided recently that I had to try it! Unfortunately, it wasn’t a big hit with my husband because he doesn’t like the coffee taste.

Ingredients:

1 package of Nilla Vanilla Wafers, divided

5 teaspoons of Maxwell House Instant Coffee, divided

3 tablespoons hot water, divided

4 packages of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of sour cream

4 eggs

1 cup thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Line 13x9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Spread half the wafers onto bottom of pan. Add 2 tsp. coffee granules to 2 Tbsp. hot water; stir until dissolved. Brush half onto wafers in pan; reserve remaining dissolved coffee for later use.

3. Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Remove 3-1/2 cups batter; place in medium bowl. Dissolve remaining coffee granules in remaining hot water. Stir into removed batter; pour over wafers in pan. Top with remaining wafers; brush with remaining dissolved coffee. Cover with remaining plain batter.

4. Bake 45 min. or until centre is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours. Use foil handles to lift cheesecake from pan. Top with Cool Whip and cocoa powder just before serving.

I added raspberries and 1 vanilla wafer to each as decoration. The tiramisu cheesecake tasted amazing, I would definitely make it again!

Enjoy!

So I found this recipe in a magazine for Father’s day....

Sun, 20 May 2012 21:38:00 -0700

So I found this recipe in a magazine for Father’s day. I’ve always wanted to make ice cream cake, but I didn’t know how.This recipe gave me the perfect opportunity to try something new.

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon strawberry ice cream (or whatever your dad’s favorite flavor is)

1 (10-inch) angel food cake, room temperature (store-bought or made from scratch)

Directions:

Take the ice cream out of the freezer and let it thaw until it’s softened and spreadable. Don’t let it melt down, however!

Cut the cake into thin slices.

In a 9x13 pan (or something else if you have an interesting-shaped pan to use), layer the bottom with cake slices. Then spread a layer of ice cream on top of the cake. Repeat the layers until you run out of both cake and ice cream. Cover with plastic wrap and place it back in the freezer for at least 2 to 3 hours. (The longer the better.) When you are ready to serve the ice cream cake, take it out and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes, then cut into pieces and serve!

This ice cream cake was really fun to make. However, it was kinda tricky and really messy. The ice cream is difficult to spread if its too frozen, but you don’t want to wait until its liquid. After the cake was done in the freezer it tasted great!

Enjoy!

I love eggs! No matter how you serve them I’ll probably...

Wed, 16 May 2012 13:52:00 -0700

I love eggs! No matter how you serve them I’ll probably still like them. Also, eggs are “brain” food so that’s a plus when your a busy college student.

One of my favorite ways to eat eggs is in a sandwich. My husband makes an amazing scrambled egg sandwich on wheat bread. He adds garlic, dill weed, salt, pepper, and possibly other spices when I am not looking. He also puts some grated cheese in the eggs while he makes them in a frying pan.

On occasion my husband will even put a slice of tomato in there just for me since he doesn’t like tomatoes.

Eggs sandwiches take hardly any time to make and are all naturale!

Enjoy!

My husband and I went to Safeway last week because we...

Tue, 15 May 2012 19:44:00 -0700

My husband and I went to Safeway last week because we hadn’t been there in a while and needed some fresh ideas of what to cook. Safeway has an amazing deli and poultry section. They have fresh salmon and lots of different meats to choose from.

Tye noticed an interesting piece of chicken which was already prepared, all you had to do was take it home and cook it. Turns out its called chicken kiev, which is a very popular way to prepare chicken. So we took it home and followed the directions and made a side dish to go with it.

Since we don’t know exactly how its prepared I looked up a recipe online from Rachael Ray’s recipes.

Rachael Ray’s Chicken Kiev:

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil

4 pieces of boneless, skinless chicken (6 to 8 ounces)

10 blades of fresh chives, chopped up to equal 2 tablespoons

A palmful of fresh parsley, finely chopped to equal 2 tablespoons

A palmful of fresh dill, finely chopped to equal 2 tablespoons

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

6 tablespoons of butter

1 cup of flour

2 eggs

1 cup of plain bread crumbs

1 lemon wedge

Salt and pepper

Plain, round toothpicks

Directions:

1. In a large, deep skillet, heat 1 1/2 inches vegetable oil over medium high heat. The oil needs to be 360 degrees F for frying. If you do not have a frying thermometer, add a cube of white bread to hot oil. If the bread browns in a 40 count, the oil is ready.

2. Cover work surface with waxed paper. Arrange breasts on paper. Butterfly small chicken breasts, cut into flesh and across, but not through the breast, and open them up. The 6-ounce thin cut breasts may just be removed from package and arranged on waxed paper. Cover breast meat with a second sheet of waxed paper. Pound out cutlets to 1/4-inch thick with a small heavy skillet or a rubber mallet. Be careful not to tear meat. Roll up waxed paper and breasts and set aside.

3. Combine chopped herbs on cutting board with chopped garlic. Cut 4 (1 1/2 tablespoons) pieces of cold butter and coat each piece liberally with the herb garlic mixture.

4. In 3 disposable pie tins, set out flour, eggs beaten with a splash of cold water and bread crumbs. Uncover chicken and squeeze a wedge of lemon over breasts. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place an herb-covered piece of butter on each piece of chicken. Wrap and roll cutlets tightly up and over the butter cubes. Discard pie tins used for breading. Secure stuffed chicken with toothpicks. Roll stuffed breasts in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs.

5. Fry the Kiev bundles 7 to 8 minutes on each side until deep golden brown all over.

We actually put our Kiev in the oven so the way Safeway does it is a little different. I am sure there are many different ways to make it. All in all, the Kiev was amazing and I definitely plan on making it again. It’s great with mashed potatoes and vegetables on the side. Love it!

Enjoy!

So I love making chocolate chip cookies. It’s one of my...

Sun, 13 May 2012 20:45:00 -0700

So I love making chocolate chip cookies. It’s one of my all-time favorite things to bake. Also, my rule of thumb is that you always have to have a tall glass of milk when you eat chocolate chip cookies. They just taste better that way!

I found this recipe online, its amazing. Plus its super easy!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.

3. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until it becomes creamy.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, gradually beat in flour mixture (from step 2).

5. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (I didn’t use nuts, I’m not a fan).

6. Use a spoon or other scooper to place small drops of cookie dough on an ungreased baking sheet (I like to just use my hands).

7. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown (I always take my cookies out when they are still soft and let them harden, that way they melt in your mouth).

8. Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes

These cookies turned out amazing. I’m pretty sure it would be really difficult to mess up chocolate chip cookies since they are so easy to make. Feel free to experiment with cookie recipes, there are probably millions out there.

Enjoy!

So I promise that when I’m finished with college, which...

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:54:00 -0700

So I promise that when I’m finished with college, which will be in about 4 weeks, I will make more food from scratch. But for now this is how we college kids make cheesecake!

I picked up a box of Jell-O No Bake Cheesecake, which includes the filling and crust mixes. It also only takes about 15 minutes of prep time, now you know why this is a college student’s dream!

I followed the directions on how to make caramel-pecan cheesecake on the back of the box, except I also added chocolate chips, you know me, I have to have my chocolate.

Ingredients:

For the crust-

2 tbsp. sugar

5 tbsp. margarine or butter, melted

For the filling-

1-1/2 cups of cold milk

Directions:

1. Stir crust mix, sugar and melted margarine or butter in 9-inch pie plate until crumbs are evenly moistened. Press onto bottom and up the sides of the pie plate.

2. Pour milk into medium bowl. Add filling mix. Beat with mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, then beat on medium speed for 3 minutes. (The filling will be thick!)

Spoon into crust. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Drizzle cheesecake with 1/4 cup caramel topping. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup chopped toasted pecans.

4. I also added chocolate chips!

I’ll also include some tips from the back of the box.

Tips- To freeze, wrap tightly, freeze up to 2 weeks. Thaw in refrigerator 3 hours before serving

To double recipe, prepare 2 packages in 13x9-inch pan

This cheesecake tasted amazing! It doesn’t take very long to make and also is very inexpensive. Love it!

Enjoy!

So one of my posts last week was about guacamole. Since I...

Thu, 10 May 2012 12:36:00 -0700

So one of my posts last week was about guacamole. Since I mentioned that we had tostadas with the guacamole I thought, “why not tell you guys how to make tostadas!?” So here goes:

Ingredients:

Corn tortillas

Ground beef or veggie meat

Taco seasoning

Re-fried beans

Toppings:

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Cheese

Onions

Salsa

Sour cream

Extra:

Guacamole

Chips

Directions:

1. Grate cheese over corn tortillas and heat them up on a frying pan

2. Cook the ground beef or veggie meat, add taco seasoning

3. Heat up some re-fried beans in a small pot

4. Dice the tomatoes

5. Dice the onions

6. Add the toppings to the tostadas

7. Serve tostadas with the chips and guacamole

There are tons of toppings that go great with tostadas so feel free to experiment.

Enjoy!

This is another breakfast item that’s super easy to make...

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:05:00 -0700

This is another breakfast item that’s super easy to make in the morning when you’re running out the door.

I tried Nutella for the first time at the beginning of this school year. I can’t believe what I was missing out on! Nutella is amazing! First of all I love hazelnuts because its one of the few nuts that I can handle. And of course I love Nutella because I love chocolate.

You don’t have to buy Eggo waffles, but they are super easy to make. All you have to do is put them in a toaster and then add whatever you want on top.

Most of the time I spread some Nutella on them, but you can also use peanut butter, syrup and butter, fresh or frozen berries and whipped cream.

Some days are so crazy and hectic that I hardly have any time to...

Thu, 03 May 2012 17:11:00 -0700

Some days are so crazy and hectic that I hardly have any time to eat. On those days I have to make lunch as quickly as possible or I don’t eat.

One super quick meal that I like to make includes: Top Ramen (a college student staple) and 1 hot dog.

You can make this on the stove-top or in the microwave. Most of the time I make it in the microwave, but the same directions apply to making it on the stove-top.

Directions:

1. Open package of Top Ramen and empty noodles into a microwavable safe bowl

2. Fill the bowl with water until it covers the Top Ramen noodles

3. Place the bowl in the microwave

4. Set the microwave to cook for approximately 2 minutes

5. When the noodles are done set the bowl aside to cool off while you put a hot dog in the microwave for 30 seconds, no more than 30 seconds!

6. Cut the hot dog into pieces and put in bowl of noodles

7. Add the seasoning from the Top Ramen package

8. Stir everything together and serve!

There are many other ways to cook Top Ramen, but this is one of the fastest. Sometimes I like to add my own vegetables such as corn, carrots, etc. Have fun with it and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Enjoy!

So last Friday I decided to make guacamole to go along with my...

Wed, 02 May 2012 22:40:00 -0700

So last Friday I decided to make guacamole to go along with my husbands tostadas. We invited several friends over for dinner and they loved it! Just for the record, I’ve never made guacamole before, so this was a completely new cooking experience for me.

My husband found a recipe for guacamole online that I tried to follow.

Ingredients:

Three avocados

1 Garlic Clove

Salsa

Lemon Juice

1 Tomato

Salt

Directions:

1. Cut open the avocados, lengthwise. Take out the seed and scoop all the avocado into a bowl.

2. Add a few drops of lemon juice to the avocado.

3. Peel 1 garlic clove. Mince the garlic. I used an OXO “slap-chop” to mince the garlic - super easy!

4. Add the garlic to the avocado.

5. Slice tomato into small chunks, add to avocado

6. Add a few spoonfuls of salsa. It’s hard to say how much salsa you should add, its up to your own personal taste.

7. Add a dash of salt.

Mix everything together. If it still doesn’t taste right you may want to add a little more salsa, salt, or some other ingredient(s).

For my first time I have to say this guacamole turned out really well. All our friends liked it and I myself enjoyed it.

Enjoy!

pbs-food: Food blogger Marc Matsumoto has a few suggestions for...

Wed, 02 May 2012 12:57:52 -0700

pbs-food:

Food blogger Marc Matsumoto has a few suggestions for taking your typical French toast recipe to the next level with a few alternate techniques. Think crème brûlée…

I love french toast, this recipe sounds delicious!

French Toast Brûlée Recipe | Fresh Tastes Blog | Marc Matsumoto

bakeitinacake: Bake a heart into a cake! If you’re too shy to...

Tue, 01 May 2012 22:29:09 -0700

bakeitinacake:

Bake a heart into a cake! If you’re too shy to tell someone you love them, you can just let the cake do the talking. Here’s how you do it.

So awesome, I want to try this someday!