Korean - Spiced Beef & Cabbage

YUMMMYYYY!!!!!

Tonight is the second time I have made this recipe and we both love it. It is super simple and quick to make, perfect for weeknights. I found it in the Jan/Feb '08 issue of Cooking Light, it actually calls for you to make a dough and mix the filling in to make a roll. This seemed it would take too long for a week night so I decided to serve over rice instead, maybe I will try the dough sometime....

1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup low- sodium soy sauce
1 tbls. sesame seeds
1 tbls. dark sesame oil
1 tbls. dry sherry
2 tsps. sugar
1/4 tsps. black pepper
1/4 tsps. minced fresh ginger
1/4 tsps. minced garlic
1/8 tsps. crushed red pepper flakes
1 lbs. ground sirloin (lowest fat content you can find, I use 93/7)
1 tsps. peanut oil
2 cups thinly sliced green cabbage


Combine first 11 ingredients in a large bowl.

Heat a large skillet with peanut oil over medium heat. Add beef mixture to the pan; cook 8 minutes or until fully browned. Stir in cabbage; cook 4 minutes or until cabbage is tender.

Serve over white rice with a drizzel of soy sauce.

Taco Sunday

The Gilbertson's and the Kallos' came for dinner last night as well as for Peter to take some photos of the kids. Seemed that everyone had a great time and I know for sure the boys had very fully bellies (mine was not far behind) and I believe Jeremy may have severally hurt himself trying to keep up with the likes of the Kallos' brothers!

On the menu was Guacamole, Salpicon (shredded beef), Ranch Beans, Mexican Rice, & Blondie's with ice cream for dessert.

The Guacamole is a recipe I have had in my head for years.

3- Ripe Haas Avocados
1- Sm. Jalapeno, seeded & finely diced
1/4 Sweet Onion, finely diced
1- Sm. Tomato, seeded & finely diced
1/2 Tsp. Cumin
Juice of one Lime
Salt & Pepper

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl mashing the avocados until almost smooth but still chunky.

The Salpicon is a recipe I first made for Peter's 30th birthday party almost two years ago. It was a hit then and I made it once or twice shortly after but had not in a long while which is what inspired the entire meal.

The recipe is from a book, Fiesta Mexicali, By Kelley Cleary Coffeen and is described as "a cold marinated beef salad". Cold did not appeal to me so I adapted the recipe to be served warm in tortilla's, the only difference is I serve it immediately rather than waiting for it to cool.

5-6 Pound Beef Brisket
2- Large Onions, quartered
4- Whole Garlic Cloves
1- Cup Cilantro, chopped
1- 12 oz. can Whole Tomato's
1- Tbls. Chipotle in Adobo, finely diced
3/4 Cup- Italian Salad Dressing
Salt & Pepper

Place brisket slow cooker and just cover with water. Add onions, garlic, and 1/2 cup of the chopped cilantro, along with the tomato's, salt, & pepper. Cover and cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8.

Remove meat and cool slightly. Shredded meet with a fork. Place shredded beef in a large bowl. Thoroughly combine the chipotle in adobo, salad dressing, reserved cilantro, and several of the cooked tomatoes. Pour over beef stirring to combine.

I served the beef on fresh tortilla's which I literally fought a woman for at Whole Foods in Alpharetta. Apparently these tortilla's are in high demand, which I can see as they are truly delicious!

Traci rounded out the meal with the Mexican Rice and Ranch beans, both recipes can be found on epicurious.com and were very good. I will try them both myself the next time we have a craving for Mexican food.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/109800
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/103144

Dessert was Blondie's from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook- The Original Classics which I served with vanilla bean ice cream. The recipe calls for Kosher Salt which I thought was very odd but it turned out to give the blondie a sweet yet slightly salty taste which I love. The recipe also calls for chopped pecans which I do not care for, so I substituted them with chopped toffee bars. They turned out great!

12 tbs. unsalted butter, room temperature

1.5 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup semi- sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup Heath bar, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in center of the oven. Butter a 9-inch square cake pan, and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping the sides occasionally. Add the eggs and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add the flour mixture; beat on low speed just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and Heath bar.

Spread batter into pan. Bake until the surface is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out barely clean 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer to wire rake to cool. Cut into squares.

If at First You Don't Succeed....Try, Try....and Probably Try Again

Woke up at 6:45 this morning due to Peter pushing on my ankles in his sleep.......Happy Saturday to me! Since I was awake, and had drank a 1/2 pot of coffee, I decided to give the muffins from last week a try again.

Recipe was just as easy to follow and came together beautifully. I took Peter's suggestion from last week and soaked the dried fruit in hot water for about 20 minutes before mixing it into the batter, yet I still think the muffins could be a bit moister. I have two theory's on this, either I mixed the batter too much, the recipe says no more than 10 strokes but that did not seem to moisten the batter enough, or the fresh fruit is really needed for the extra moisture. Next time I will try the fresh fruit.

A quick note about the marinara sauce from my calzone & carrot cake blog. I had frozen the leftovers and had a hankering for it last night at about 10:00 while watching a good, but very sad movie, Away From Her, a story of a couple who have been married for 44 years and when she comes down with Alzheimer's they decide it would be best for her to move to a nursing home. If you are going to watch it be prepared to ball your eyes out. Anyhoo, my snack was tasty, but I do not think the marinara froze well, it was rather watery this go round.

On to a more pressing matter. This Kallos Clan is very upset, Lucy brought the latest offence to my attention this morning. It seems that our beloved garden gnomes, mainly our backyard gnome, Gnomenclature, have a bad influence in there lives. This morning we found Gnomenclature (yet again) is this state........

Completely passed out in a drunken stupor.......so disappointing. The good news is we feel we have finally found the culprit, this is war!

He Liked It...He Really Liked It!

Chicken & Dumplings

Over the past weekend I had picked up two whole chicken's (something I rarely do) because they were on sale, although I had no real plans for them. Last night I roasted both, we ate some for dinner and I saved the rest for tonight's chicken & dumplings, one of my all time favorite comfort foods.

I did some research for a good recipe and found many delicious ones in cookbooks and websites that I frequent and decided on this one from Cooking Light, http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1134065 I liked it because it was much lower in calories than most of the others, but also seemed that it would have the richness you find in the traditional recipe.

Since I had already cooked the chicken I couldn't make the homemade stock the recipe suggests, instead I started with the fresh root vegetable's that were called for and sauteed them until they were soft and then added boxed 99% fat free low sodium stock.

Then it was on to the thickening agent, the recipe said to heat a cast iron skillet for 5 minutes and then "toast" 1/4 cup of flour to make a dry rue, very interesting. After this the toasted flour is mixed with cornstarch and some of the chicken stock before being added to the pot. Turned out lovely and I do think the toasting of the flour gave a depth of flavor.

After the soup begins to thicken you add 3 tbls. of heavy cream, much less than traditional recipes, and the chicken which simmers while you make the dumplings.

The dumpling batter came together very easily and was added into the pot to cook for about 5 minutes.

We both really enjoyed it, so much so that I can't wait for lunch tomorrow. Peter liked it so much that when I was packaging up the leftovers and mentioned I would be taking some to Max & Lindsey this evening, along with the pork stew from earlier in the week, he got a little snippy and wanted to be sure there would be some left for us!

Looks like I can give myself a pat on the back, and we can add yet another recipe to Peter's ever growing approval list.

Pork Stew Update, From the Mouth of Peter

Lunch has come and gone and I really enjoyed the stew, thought it was light and clean. Peter however had a different take on it. We had an email conversation about his thoughts......here is what he had to say.

Emily: How was lunch?

Peter: uhmm... not that good. I didn't like the flavors. Onion salsa.

Emily: What does that mean? There was an onion in there maybe the size of a plum....salsa? What does that mean? I thought it was very tasty.

Peter: I didn't like it. Sorry.

Emily: That's fine. I guess I will give some to Max & Lindsey, I won't be able to eat all of that.

Peter: Well I can eat it, I just didn't like it very much. Too many vegetable flavors in there that I didn't like.

I loved the way he described it, gave me a good chuckle. Looks like I lost wifery points on this one. I probably won't make it again unless I have someone else to share it with, but this should not discourage anyone else, take it from this vegetable lover, it was very good.

Ate Dinner Out...Couldn't Risk it Again

Tonight after returning home from a rather boring and mind numbing day at work we decided that the only remedy would be to eat Mexican food. This did the trick temporarily, to restore brain function, however my belly is still uncomfortably full of cheese and tortilla chips. Because of this I decided that we could not risk this feeling again by eating lunch out tomorrow so I made the dinner I had planned for this evening.

Springtime Pork Stew, even though spring feels years away, I was drawn to this recipe for all of the great colorful veggies it calls for. Once again from The Martha Stewart Living- Classics Cookbook (can anyone tell I just received the two Martha Stewart Living books as gifts). Here are the beginnings of this colorful stew.

Start with browning the pork, I had pork tenderloin on hand so that is what I used. I would not recommend a fatty cut of pork as the recipe is intended to be low in fat and calories, I also think it would make the stew greasy.

Then remove the pork from the pot and add 1/2 cup of chicken stock followed by the sturdier root vegetable; onions, celery & carrots. After cooking these for about 5 minutes, to soften, in goes the softer vegetables; zucchini & peppers.

Then the pork is added back in with a can of whole tomatoes. The stew simmers for 20 minutes and then is to be served over rice.

I have only taste tested for flavor and so far I am pleased. I will comment back tomorrow after enjoying it for lunch, and fingers crossed, I will hopefully be happy to report that Peter enjoyed it too, zucchini and all.

A Sunday of Messes and Successes

This morning I woke up early and sweet talked Peter into going to the grocery store for me to pick up just a few things so that I could test out a couple of recipes. It did not take too much groveling on my part, just the promise of breakfast.

I started the day with Breakfast Muffins from Martha Stewart Living- The New Classics. I wanted to test out the dried blueberries and cherry's that I had recently picked up to see how they would compare to fresh berries in the muffins. Also, the recipe called for vanilla bean which I have never used before but had also just recently purchased. These muffins were easy to prepare, came together like a typical muffin and looked fabulous coming out of the oven.

Much to my dismay this is would be the last time I would see most of these muffins in the beautiful state in which they came out of the oven. As directed I cooled them in the muffin tin for 15 minutes and then removed them......this is what I found.

Completely raw in the middle!!!! This was to no fault but my own, I knew I should have done a toothpick test before removing them from the oven.......lesson learned. Luckily there were two that survived and we enjoyed them for breakfast. I was happy to find that the dried fruit worked great and during the baking process became soft and plump again.

Onto Black & White Cookies, http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/106171. I have had this cake like cookies several times so I decided to give it a whirl. No problems to speak of while putting them together. The batter was a pretty yellow which was very thick and cake like.

The cookies baked up beautifully. The only thing I will do different next time is to flatten the raw dough out a bit more before baking. These cookies did not spread very much and I think by doing this it will create a flatter cookie.

The frosting was tasty as well and very simple to make. Next time I will add less water make it a little thicker as to avoid dripping.

I took these tasty treats over to the Gilbertson's for friends to enjoy. Unfortunately some of the frosting was "damaged" in the transport, but none the less they were enjoyed by all. We had a great Sunday afternoon chatting and watching football.

I did not have a chance today to sit down and plan out our weekly menu's but will get to it tomorrow. I am thinking of making roasted chicken, since I have two whole chickens in the fridge now, and maybe chicken and dumplings.......I wonder if Peter will eat chicken and dumplings. I think it is worth a shot, I am still feeling victorious over the meatloaf from last week!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow....in ATLANTA

Tonight it is snowing and we have high hopes for a snow day tomorrow....I doubt that will happen but it is beautiful now. Makes me miss home.....again. I haven't seen this much snow here since I moved here in 2001! Peter and Lucy stepped outside for a bit to take in the sights too.

A Small Victory in Getting Peter to Eat Like an Adult!!

The "slimmed down" meatloaf, again from Feb. Cuisine at Home, that I mentioned in my last post seems to be a success. He ate it kicking and screaming at first, but in the end said it was "good, don't add anything to it". I did compromise and left out the onions and parsley to minimize the complaints.....seemed to work.

No photos of this one, just full bellies and empty plates.

Stir Fry Tonight....Yucky Sauce, Leave it and the Calories Off Your Plate

Tonight I tried another recipe from the Feb. issue of Cuisine at Home. I have to say I am excited about this issue for the first time in a long while. I find that when Tracy first sent me a gift subscription that I would hate waiting the month and a half or so (bi-monthly publication)for the next issue because all the recipes where so great. Then somewhere in there I got less interested and not as intrigued by what I saw. This issue however has restored my enjoyment and I can't wait for the next.

Onto the Sirloin Steak Stir Fry and Sauteed Red Cabbage on pages 38-39. Tracy first pointed it out and said she thought she would try it which surprised me as she is not normally one for Asian style cuisine. I read over the recipe and decided to add it to my weekly list. Preparation was very easy for both the stir fry and cabbage, here are the beginnings before cooking.

Both the cabbage and meat looked great while cooking and I was getting hungry.....as was Peter who constantly asks how long it will be....as if at 31 years old he has ever starved to death.

Everything was close to being done as was the sauce which smelled strangely sweet and vinegary, but not in the good way that one would normally think. The recipe called for this sauce on the side so I tasted it and decided it tasted worse than it smelled. After closer study of the recipe I saw that with the sauce we were looking at 830 calories per serving...YIKES!!! After that little discovery, can't believe I missed it when I originally read the recipe, I decided then that if I didn't like it, Peter would for sure think it was horrible and that if I was going to eat that amount of calories in one sitting it would have to be something so good I couldn't possibly live with out it. In the end, I decided to just add a little soy sauce and sesame oil to the beef and vegetables which already had a little brown sugar and red pepper flakes and it was delicious and far more friendly to the hips!

Another bit of exciting news to make this meal more memorable, while eating it my best friend Jamie, from back home in Wisconsin, called to say that her ultrasound looked great....and it's twins!!! I almost choked, such great news, I am totally ecstatic! It is times like this I hate being so far away from her!

Tonight as all other nights Lucy helped make dinner. Well, more accurately, she was under foot the entire time I was making dinner. Here she is to say hello, half naked and all (notice her favorite pose, one ear back!)

That's all for now, possibly more tomorrow when I try "slimmed down" meatloaf which is made with ground pork & chicken rather than beef. Peter has agreed to try meatloaf for what I am pretty sure will be his first time but I think he has already convinced himself he won't like it which is a totally typical thing for him to do. I still hold out hope that he will one day not be a picky eater.

Changing the look and trying to figure out photos....oh yeah, and I cooked last night

So, I decided that although I love polka dots as much as the next, that my template for this blog was far too busy...funny how that worked out seeing as I find that in life as well, things get far too busy. So I played around with it and am much happier with this new look.

Also, I spent a good deal of time yesterday trying to figure out how to upload photos to the blog. With the help of my husband & guest blogger (see previous post, not written by Mrs. Kallos nor is this a photo of me) I figured it out but am still needing to master placement of the photos. This to be tacked over the weekend I think.

I am having a grand time with this blog though and intend, OK hope, to keep it up. I look forward to looking back on these posts in 2009 and remembering with fondness the adventures of 2008.

Cooking last night......... I made Black Bean Tortilla Pie (also added shredded chicken) from the Everyday Food Cookbook, can also be found at http://www.marthastewart.com/, http://www.marthastewart.com/favorite-tortilla-and-black-bean-pie?autonomy_kw=black%20bean%20tortilla%20pie&rsc=header_1. Turned out very well, though I was afraid the tortillas would be soggy by lunch today. I must say I was pleasantly surprised that it was still very good. I think I will make it again for sure.

I am always trying to think of new healthy, quick, and appetizing breakfast foods which I have found challenging, and I grow tired of just plan eggs all the time. So last night I also made a Potato Onion Frittata, again in Everyday Food Cookbook and marthastewart.com, http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/favorite-potato-and-onion-frittata?autonomy_kw=potato%20and%20onion%20fritta&rsc=header_26 and was happy for another good result but again, I thought that reheating would be an issue, however it turned out well and I will be enjoying it for breakfast probably for the rest of the week.

All around Yummyness I have to say!

Photo fun

My husband takes such good pictures. I love him soooo much. Even more than our sexy wiener dog Lucy.

Weekend Cooking Fun

Cooked and baked for several hours on Saturday and had a blast, Peter reaped the benefits as well and seemed to be a happy husband!

Started with making dough for calzones that were in the Feb. issue of Cuisine at Home. Most everyone knows this, but Peter's pizza addiction is truly a disease, so I knew he would appreciate this. Anyhoo...I have tried pizza dough several times and it never seems to work well. This was tasty and the texture was good but still I thought the dough was stiff. I refuse to give up though and will try again soon, will probably invite some friends over to try this recipe out on since we liked it so much.

Then it was on to carrot cake as requested by Peter. The frosting was really yummy but I personally did not try the cake due the the walnuts. Peter, and all the friends I shared it with, seemed to really enjoy it. Got the recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com/ which was shared with me several months ago by my friend Tracy. I love this site, gives lots of info and photos of every recipe. I have made several and have always been happy.

Then moved onto making the marinara sauce, also in Feb. Cuisine at Home. I really liked it, Peter would have preferred it to be thicker, but the flavor was great. Then it was onto the filling and baking of the calzones. Mine was Chicken & Spinach (Feb. Cuisine at Home) and Peters a creation of his own with Canadian bacon, mozzarella and green peppers. I also added some of my plain chicken as I made too much.

All and all everything turned out well and I will make all again.

First Time Blogger

I am sure this site will be used for my personal enjoyment only, however if others like it too that will be even better!

As I move through 2008 I plan to document all my cooking adventures (and maybe some others along the way) with commentary and photos. I think it is going to be a blast.

New Year's Resolution # 118......Keep up with this blog! :-)