Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

Pupusas

This week has been fairly busy around here.  Sunday was Liam's birthday party, Tuesday his actual birthday (how did my "baby" turn 11?!?), yesterday was my birthday and also when I registered for my fall classes (scary!).   Throw in work, laundry, cleaning and all the other fun family chores and I turn around and here it is Friday already.  This morning Adrienne is on a bus headed toward Washington, D.C. for her orchestra trip (she gets to do the coolest things!) and I'm honestly just glad we made it through the week.

As you can probably guess this week hasn't been the most awesome for cooking.  My goal was just to make sure we had some healthy things on our plate - and I think for the most part I succeeded.  Last week, however, I tried something new - pupusas.

Honestly don't ask me what possessed me to make them.  (Oh, don't know what they are?  From Wikipedia: "A pupusa (Spanish pronunciation: [puˈpusa], from Pipil pupusaw) is a traditional Salvadoran dish made of thick, hand-made corn tortilla (made using masa de maíz, a maize flour dough used in Latin American cuisine)" that is usually stuffed with cheese or a mixture of cheese and a ground meat paste.)

I opted to just make cheese pupusas and they came out really good.  The cheese I used was Panela, which is a slightly salty crumbly cheese, but I think I'd recommend using a cheese that melts a little better.  The dough was very easy to work with, though, and making the pupusas took virtually no time.  If you're going to make them, they taste wonderful warm but once they cooled they were very dry so I'd recommend having something to dip them in.

Queso Pupusas

• 3 cups masa harina
• 2 cups warm water
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese

Mix together the masa and water until a moist, firm dough forms.  You want to make sure that when you form it into small balls that it's not too dry and doesn't crack.

Preheat a skillet to 350 degrees.

With the dough, make balls roughly golf ball size.  Make an indentation with your thumb and put a small amount of the cheese in.  Seal the cheese inside the dough and then flatten the ball into a circle about 5 inches in diameter. 

Cook each pupusas on the skillet for about 3 or 4 minutes per side until lightly golden. 

Make Mine Sushi

Anyone that's a regular reader of my blog knows that I like to experiment with newly found grocery items.  Sometimes I just buy the stuff and it sits, and sits, and sits (sigh) but for the most part I get up enough courage to try something new and different.  This past weekend at Wegman's, I came across these:

Interesting, no?  Here's their website ... while I didn't find their website until after I'd made these, they do have some good recipes for different types of sushi rolls. 

Cauliflower Bake

Well, it's January 25th.  Are you still in your "resolution" frame of mind?  Eating healthy and all that jazz?  I'm still trying to incorporate more fresh produce into our diets and it's been a change for the better.

Growing up one of my memories is going to the grocery store with my grandmother on Fridays whenever I was out of school.  I loved it.  It was a very bonding time for us as strange as that may sound but it allowed me to feel closer to her.  One of the things I remember most is that she had a particular way she shopped.  Always produce first, then canned goods, then meat, dairy and frozen foods.  The funny thing is I inherited that trait from her and that's exactly how I shop today.  OCD anyone?

One of the interesting things about shopping this way is I can tell exactly how much I spend on produce, or dairy, or meat just by watching the checkout.  (Yes, I make sure to organize how my groceries actually go on to the belt as well ... sigh ...)  While our grocery bill has stayed about the same, there's been an interesting shift in the amount I spend on produce compared to dry goods.  I think that's a good thing.  I remember being told that if you're trying to eat healthy, at least 90% of your total bill should come from the aisles in the grocery store around the outside - totally avoid the middle aisles and you'll notice a difference in the quality of the foods you're eating.  And, lo and behold, that's right.

In purchasing so many vegetables, I now need to find recipes to use them up - because I refuse - REFUSE - to throw any of these good veggies away.  In keeping with that vein, I saw a post last week from Paula, the Cookbook Junkie, that was for a Cauliflower Gratin which she got from the American Dietetic Association cookbook, Cooking Healthy Across America.  It looked so delicious I knew I had to try it - even if I made a few changes to it.

Grilled Teriyaki Chicken

All week the buzz at work has been how weird our weather has been so far this year (and season).  While we usually get between 45 and 50 inches of snow a "winter", so far we've gotten only 10 - and 9 of those happened 3 days before Halloween.  This weekend we're supposed to get rain/snow mix as the temperatures plummet into the 20s for our high, but they're not expecting much accumulation.  I don't mind snow but I'm glad this weekend might not include heavy dumpings of it on us since Adrienne has several places she has to be and I'm her chauffeur.

What one thing this does mean, though, is that we can grill a little more often than we normally would during winter.  We have only a charcoal grill and I can't really imagine grilling once (if?) we get tons of snow on the ground, but this week in our quest to eat a little healthier we had grilled chicken twice.

PPN: Tuna Pasta Salad

This doesn't look like the base of your normal tuna pasta salad, does it.  Lucky for me, this is exactly what I created earlier this week when I set out making a healthy, filling lunch.

I am awful about making food for myself.  Someone wants me to make them something?  Wonderful!  99% of the time I'm happy to oblige.  Eggs or pancakes for breakfast?  No problem unless they're just for me.  Lunch I'd rather throw a piece of turkey and cheese on some bread and call it done than go to anything more elaborate.  Unless, of course, I'm cooking for someone else.

I have.to.stop.this.  I have to realize that what I put in my mouth is worth just as much as what I want to feed someone else.  So one of my resolution goals this week was be nicer to me.  Take the time to make what I want to eat even if that involves cleaning up a little afterwards.

I told you I'm also trying to get more vegetables into my diet and this salad goes along perfectly.  Add that I needed a post for this week's Presto Pasta Night (hosted by 6-time hoster Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, and as you know created by the lovely Ruth at Once Upon a Feast) and voila, a tuna pasta creation.

Roasted Dinner

I know this won't surprise you, but one of my "resolutions" for this year is to get back to eating healthy and get down to a healthy weight.  I'm taking these goals a little at a time and committing myself to doing the best I can.  That means I won't be perfect, but I will slowly retrain myself how to eat right again.

One of the things I have gotten bad about is getting enough fruits and vegetables in my diet.  I still remember clearly someone saying that if you focus on getting in 6 servings of vegetables and at least 2 servings of fruit the rest of your day will go okay because you won't have those "I'm so hungry" moments.  The past couple of days have shown me that there's a lot of truth in that statement.

Cranberry Apple Chicken

My normal way of going grocery shopping has always been make a menu for the week, write down all the ingredients I'll need, go shopping.  Lately, though, I've been short on inspiration so I've been showing up at the grocery store sans list.  It's a little daunting sometimes walking in there and trying to figure out what we're going to have for the next 6 or 7 days, but I think I've been doing ok.  My focus has been figure out what meat is on sale and build our meals from there.

This week I went to Gerrity's and they had chicken breasts (bone and skin), pork tenderloin, and quarter boneless hams on sale.  The ham I'll slice and serve with a mac and cheese I've been meaning to try, tonight is the pork with an interesting side dish, and last night I roasted the chicken breasts and created a cranberry apple sauce to top it.  What a great choice.

A Roast That's Actually A Roast

I'm one of those strange people that love winter.  I was never happy in Las Vegas with its brutal heat and wind - give me a nice Pennsylvania winter anytime.  So it was nice when we woke up yesterday morning to this:

It's our second snowfall of the year (the first was a few days before Halloween!), and I love the beauty of it.  I didn't even mind cleaning off the car when I had to run to the store - though I'm sure that will get old (last year I got to park in the garage - this year not sure that'll happen).   I also love that this time of year brings thoughts of comfort food - and food that you don't mind spending hours cooking.  This week the grocery store had a roast on sale and I decided to tackle it.

Now, my normal way of cooking a roast is in the crockpot.  I've tried several recipes for it but really, none of them I would consider a roast.  You know, that you could slice thin if you were talented enough - the kind that you can slice without it falling into many stringy pieces?  Well, I think I found what I was looking for.

Kale

Now that Thanksgiving is over for us here in the United States, I'm really going to try to focus on making the holidays feel like the holidays.  Today that means braving the crowds this afternoon (when most of you Black Friday shoppers are back home taking a nap) and purchasing some lights for outside the house (the only lights we have are the tiny ones and darn it, I want icicle ones this year).  It also means planning out my holiday cookie tray (that Adrienne said she'd help me with - yeah!) and food related gifts.  This is going to be a busy next few weeks, but I want to make the most of it unlike most years when we hit New Year's Eve and I wonder just where the time went.

One of my early resolutions is to make sure we all eat enough vegetables to offset all the not so healthy choices offered this time of year.  Don't get me wrong, I love vegetables but it's rare that I make them the star.  I think because they just don't get me excited when I eat them.  Or serve them.

Take kale for instance.  It's a member of the broccoli family that's very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, and vitamin C.  It also provides a good amount of calcium (and heaven knows I could always use more calcium since I don't drink milk).  But how often do you hear people ask for kale?  Um.... not often I'd wager.

I love the raw kale salad that Whole Foods makes.  I wish I could find their recipe (anyone have it?) because unfortunately that's another one of those stores that I'd have to drive to New Jersey to visit (sigh).  I've tried making my own and haven't found the right mix of ingredients to satisfy my palate.  That quest will continue but until then I've found a way to make it that even Liam will eat.

Not Corned Beef and Cabbage

Yes, I know today you're supposed to have corned beef and cabbage.  Yes, I even actually LIKE it but instead I opted to make something I like even better -- grilled chicken, somen noodles and stir-fry vegetables.

Since the time change I've been in the grilling mood.  Kind of hard to grill when it's pitch black outside and there is no light in sight.  (Okay, confession, I have grilled like that but it doesn't always come out pretty...)  The chicken I marinated in soy sauce, water, sugar, ginger, garlic, red chili paste and onion powder and the noodles and veggies were tossed with sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar and red chili paste.

See... this is one of my many excuses for not blogging ... most of my dinners lately are throw together - though Travis has told me he likes those kind better.  I tend to agree...