Craving for Cake

Tonight, I had a rather strong desire for some cake. I didn't want ice cream. I wanted something solid and doughy and chocolatey. The problem was that I had just made dinner and was in no mood to go back into the kitchen to make a cake or anything remotely similar. Also, Kathryn was not willing to make me anything. :) So, I was resigned to eating some cookies. *sad face* I voiced my longing for chocolatey goodness to The High Mogul, and she told me, "Oh well." *really sad face* Then, she turned to me. "You know," she said, "I've heard of recipes where you can make cake in a mug in the microwave."
Hope dawned like the sun or a lightbulb being turned on. I went to get my computer, typed in google, and looked up recipes for cakes in mugs. One linnk popped up at the very top that only took 3 minutes, with a fairly simple list of ingredients.
I sojourned into the kitchen and gathered my ingredients. Pulling out Mom's mug, 'cause it's bigger than mine, I plopped all the stuff into it. I was very happy that the only dishes to get dirty was the mug, a tablespoon, and fork. Everything was stirred up and put in the microwave. It was very hot coming out, a little too hot, but I still tasted it.
While not stellar or anywhere near the best cake I'd ever had, it was still good and satisfied my craving for cake which was the only real purpose for it anyway. After eating a bit of it, I decided to dump it into a bowl and put just a bit of vanilla ice cream on top.

Here's the recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/3-minute-chocolate-cake-in-a-cup-339696

Cooking on day 2

Menu item? Spicy Orange Beef (curtesy of Chef Guy Fieri)
Sides? Rice and Vegetable Mix
Estimated Time? 55 minutes
Actual Time? 1 hour and 15 minutes

This recipe's original title was Spicy Tangerine Beef. However, Kroger was barren of tangerines, so I opted for the orange element. This recipe was a lot simpler than yesterday's, which was welcomed. I put the rice on, then got to slicing the beef. I used sirloin instead of the suggested flank steak/ tri-tip. It was very interesting on slicing the beef thinly on the bias. After marinating the beef, I put it into a large saucepan and "stir-fried" it. :D

Sadly, I did not get any pictures of the prep time. However, I did get a picture of the end result.  

This dish was greatly liked by all for the flavors, though there was not a strong orange flavor. Dad and I especially liked the dish. However, there was a bit of a problem and I can explain it in one simple way. Right by Dad's plate was his jar of red pepper flakes that's always there, and he puts them in almost everything. For this dish, he said it didn't need any peppers. Yes, the "spicy" in the title was well put there. It had quite a punch. So, if you like things a bit calmer, you might put in just one tablespoon of chili sauce instead of two. 

The recipe is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/spicy-tangerine-beef-recipe/index.html  

I'll leave you with a quote. "Argentina has good beef. Beef...and Nazis." - While You Were Sleeping

The Little Things

A knarled tree,
A twisted fence,
My fancy is caught
Like a thread on a nail.

An impression in a stone,
An unusual bird sitting high in a tree,
My fancy is caught
Like a thread on a nail.

A pair of interlocking ripples,
A group of parading catepillars,
My fancy is caught
Like a thread on a nail.

My eyes can see,
My ears can hear
The little things
In a writer's world.

Cooking on Day 1

Menu item? Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo Salsa (curtesy of Chef Tyler Florence)

Side? Spanish Yellow Rice

Estimated Time? 1 hour and 45 minutes

Actual Time? 3 hours

Monday dawned, and I knew that tonight I would be making dinner. I was not apprehensive or distraught. I was actually quite excited. I looked at the recipe and calculated the time I would need to have dinner ready by 6. I also factored in extra time because I'm slow whenever I'm cooking or baking. Then, I donned my Star Wars apron. Everybody should own a Star Wars apron. :D

My first task was to make the tomatillo salsa. I had to chop up the tomatillos, garlic, and put the jalapenos on a pan to roast in the oven. Then, I pulled the pan out after 14 minutes, and put it all, along with the juices of the onion, into the food processor. It was my first time using this appliance, and I liked very much pulsing everything and having it be so easy. The salsa was supposed to be combined well but still chunky. 

Around this time, I had to shred a whole deli chicken. Now, I've never shredded chicken before so it was quite an interesting experience. I'll let you know that your hands sure do feel nice and slimy afterwards. I didn't mind so much about ripping apart the rib cage and dismantling the legs. My issue mainly came with the jelly. You probably know what I mean, if you've eaten refrigerated deli chickens before. At the bottom of the tray or bag or whatever it's in, and often on the bottom of the chicken as well, is a nice browish colored jelly that consists of fat drippings and bone marrow juice. It's pretty nasty to just look at, but when you've got to plunge your fingers into the stuff and pull it from the meat, it gets a bit...not nice.  



After the chicken was shredded, my next step was to prepare the filling for the enchiladas. The first step of this was to dice an onion, which I've never done, and then carmelize it in a saute pan. I took the onion, it was actually just half, and poised my knife, remembering all my watchings of food network chefs dicing onions. I first cut it sideways, working my way up, but of course not going to the very end. Then, I cut down into the thin strips. Lastly, I chopped it the opposite way down, and voila, I had a not badly diced onion. That was the proudest moment for me. I had just diced an onion. It felt really cool! To the left is a picture of my nicely diced onion.

After carmelizing the onion, I added garlic to the pan, then cumin and flour, and then chicken stock. When the velout had thickened a lot, I added half of the tomatillo salsa and lastly, folded in the chicken. Next, the tortillas had to be filled.

Now, the recipe tells you to flash cook the tortillas on the stove top and then coat them in some of the remaining salsa. I tried it with one, and it had no affect on anything. So, I'd skip it entirely next time. I put the filling in the tortillas, sprinkled them with Monterery Jack cheese, and proceeded to roll them like a cigar. By the way, there was about half of the filling left, after all the tortillas were rolled. In the bottom of my pan, was a thin smearing of the salsa, so that nothing would stick. You put the tortillas down and then dump the rest of the salsa on top, as well as cover everything with a layer of cheese.

Getting all nice and melty

The enchiladas had to bake for 30 minutes, so that was just enough time to fix up the yellow rice. While everything finished cooking, I cleaned up the kitchen and had almost all the dishes loaded. I felt quite productive. Okay, now for the big question, how was it? They were good. They weren't stellar, but the flavor of everything was good, and the family all agreed on that point. I still prefer Mom's recipe, but, if we're wanting to make them a little different, this would be a good kind to make.

The recipe is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/chicken-enchiladas-with-roasted-tomatillo-chile-salsa-recipe/index.html

So, my first cooking day was a success. And, I'm very pleased to say that. I was hoping for a good kick off. Also, while it did take nearly 3 hours, because I'm so slow, I never really got flustered, and I enjoyed myself. Ready for meal #2. Here's a final picture to leave you with how it looked coming out.

New Designs

Yes, I've changed the blog look again. I was getting a bit bored with the rain look, so I decided to ask my brother (who's extremely gifted in the area of computers), if he wouldn't mind helping me out. Well, what do you think of his work? I love it! It's purple which is perfect for me and is fun and interesting at the same time. Thank you, Ryan for doing such a great job.

Chef for a week

For a long while now, I've been really wanting to learn how to cook. I want to be able to cook and cook well. Now, I can make a few things like meatloaf, Crockpot Chicken, and Chicken Chilie, but I haven't ever made anything new. Well, I have....once. But it was a horrible experience and a not much better meal, so I try to block that memory from my mind.
I've tried my hand at making pasta salad twice. Both times it's been fun and satisfactory to put some creative effort into my food and then eat it. Well, with these successes, I took the advice of my brother, Ryan, and decided to make a meal plan for the dinners of the week.
So, without telling anyone, I went snooping around foodnetwork.com for recipes that captured my interest. I knew I wouldn't have to plan anything for Sunday, and I wasn't going to do anything for Saturday either. So, I was going to find 5 recipes. Suddenly, everything started coming together so I talked to Mom and told her about how I wanted to take over the kitchen for the week. She was all too pleased, as you can imagine.
Well, I'm not going to tell you the recipes until I make them. However, I promise to write a post for each recipe so you can follow me on my journey of cooking. Also, I'll take pictures. :)

Tori's Birthday Outing

Even though this is rather late, I said I'd post it, so, I'm gonna post. I wanted to take my friend Tori out for her birthday. So, we planned to go shopping at Plato's closet which is a resale store that sells name brand clothing. Then, we'd go and hit the movies to watch X-Men: First Class. We hooked up and had so much fun looking through the racks and finding hilarious shirts.

Tori almost wanted to get this shirt. :D 

I thought this one was great.

After Plato's closet, we headed to the theatre where we walked around and looked at posters. On the way, we spotted the cut out for Taylor Lautner's new movie, Abduction. Tori had to stop and take a picture with him. So, I got in it too.  

We had such a fun time! It was really great and she enjoyed the movie as did I (I'd already seen it though). Can't wait to go out with her again.