Dill Pickles

I love pickles.  So much so that the first thing that I did today at the Renaissance Festival today was throw a dollar at a wench and receive a pickle in return.  On my way out I almost bought another one, but then I realized that I already had a vat of pickles at home waiting for me.

I think that my love for pickles started because of my big sister.  Everything that she liked, I would like too.  That meant that I devoured enormous pickles like crazy when I was a kid, even though they were too sour for my taste buds.  My extended family also likes pickles, which is why I decided to take a shot at making my own for my grad party.  For the record, these were never served because I deemed them insufficiently aged by the time that my party rolled around.  However, the pickles are in their prime a week later.

The worst part of making pickles is dealing with the fresh dill.  I don't have any growing, so I had the option of going with dried dill or buying an enormous hunk of it from the grocery store.  I didn't know what to do with the hunk since I didn't want it to dry out, but I didn't want it to stank up my fridge either.  Anyway, aside from that making pickles is painless and relaxing in an old school way.

Make these pickles now.  Rating 10/10.

Recipe from Prevention RD

Supplies
2 1-quart mason jars (one for the brine and one for the pickles- or use just one jar and a glass that is a similar size)

Ingredients
4 pickling cucumbers- quartered into spears
8 sprigs of fresh dill
3 cloves of garlic- chopped
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp white sugar
1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
2/3 cup white vinegar
1 cup water

Begin by sticking as many cucumber spears as possible and the fresh dill in your mason jar.
Make the brine by mixing up the garlic, coriander, sugar, salt, and vinegar.  Shake vigorously until the salt and sugar have dissolved.
Pour the brine over the cucumber spears.  If some of the spears are still not submerged, fill with up to 1 cup of water until submerged.
Tightly screw on the lid and place in the fridge for at least 24 hours.  These babies improve drastically over time, so try not to inhale them all in one day.

I made these in bulk by making several batches with the above measurement of ingredients and then dumping them in a big stock pot.

Melon Smoothie

 If you like creamsicles and all things deceptively healthy, then you will for sure love this- it is like a  cantaloupsicle.  It is delightfully frothy, refreshing, and cleanses your palate.  Did I mention that it is healthy?

Rating 10/10

Ingredients
1/2 cantaloupe- chilled and cubed
1/2 honeydew- chilled and cubed
1/2 cup orange juice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Combine in blender
Serve immediately
Makes 2 servings

Suburban Kung Pao Chicken

Kung pao chicken was my favorite dish in China.  It was often the only thing that didn't have chicken heads or fungus mixed in with it.  Just kidding, almost.  Anyway, I have never ever made it before now but I had a serious hankering for some so I went to the store determined to come out with all of the fixings to make my beloved dish.

That was a huge failure of a shopping trip.  The grocery stores around here stink.  They think that an ethnic aisle should have soy sauce, rice, and tons of kosher food.  This doesn't work well for me, and it also doesn't help that in MN I can't check out the liquor dept on a Sunday to see if they have any rice wine there, since there is some outdated sabbath-inspired law that sends a lot of Minnesotan money over to Wisconsin.  Anyway, I made this recipe out of ingredients that anybody should be able to find in their adequately-stocked grocery store.

Rating 9/10

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken- chopped into 1 inch cubes

Marinade

• 1 egg white- frothed
• 1/8 cup dry white wine (I used up some leftover Riesling)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp corn starch

Flavor makers

• 1 tablespoon ginger- thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon garlic- thinly sliced
• 8-10 dried chili peppers
• 4 green onions- chopped into thin rings (reserve some of the green for garnishing the finished dish)
• 4 teaspoons black bean sauce (this comes in a squat jar in the ethnic aisle by all of the soy sauces)

Sauce

• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame seed oil
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar

Extras

• roasted unsalted peanuts

Marinate the chicken for 30-60 minutes

Heat up a wok and place the chicken and its marinade in it- stir fry until chicken is cooked through

Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked add in the "flavor makers" and continue to stir fry for another minute

Pour the sauce into the wok and stir to coat the chicken and other ingredients

Top with peanuts and green onion garnish

Serve immediately, probably with some sticky rice!

Buttermilk Pancakes

Due to our conflicting work/school schedules, Alex and I NEVER got to eat breakfast together.  I'm going to try to start up a Saturday morning breakfast tradition, starting with these delicious pancakes that I made with the byproduct of making butter the other day.  I used this recipe, which you can modify depending on how many people you are feeding.  Num!

Homemade Butter

Alex is home for a brief intermission from teacher bootcamp and I made him homemade butter to celebrate his return home (and the return of me eating square meals).  I think that I deserve best girlfriend award for this, or maybe the lamest person ever award since I made this on a Friday night.  Anyway, homemade butter is the way to go!

I made butter once in the 2nd grade during our Oregon Trail unit.  Ms. C had taped off an area in our classroom that was designated as a wagon, and we all scrambled to make sure that we had a "seat on the wagon" so that we didn't have to "walk" Westward.  That may have been my most favorite unit ever, and it didn't hurt that we made butter.

Way back in the olden days making butter was a big PITA.  You either had to churn it, or if you were a pioneer you could put the buttermilk in a pail and hang it off of the side of your wagon and let the bumps in the road churn your butter for you.  In the 2nd grade we made our butter by taking turns shaking a bucket.  I used a whisk attachment on my stand mixer to make my butter, then used my blender to wash it.  I would recommend just using a food processor to do this (not a mini chopper!), but you will have a lot more hard-to-clean dishes piling up in your sink.  Rating 100/10.

Ingredients

Heavy whipping cream

• Place your heavy whipping cream in a stand mixer or food processor and whip/pulse for about 10 minutes, or until your butter has obviously separated from the buttermilk.  It will be yellow and float to the top (or be stuck inside of your whisk).
• Strain the buttermilk and use a spoon to squish out any remaining liquid.  Reserve buttermilk for pancakes!
• Throw a cup of ice cold water into the butter and beat for 30 seconds, repeat the draining process, but this time discard the liquid.
• Pack in a covered jar and use within 14 days.  This shouldn't be hard.

Thai Pizza

I love pizza.  My problem is that I like gourmet pizza, and you can't find any of that around here with a reasonable price tag.  When Alex and I were in Iowa for a weekend we ate at a pizza place and I ordered this pizza without looking at the price.  Ooops.  I think that I paid $17 for a thin crust medium sized pizza.

I assembled this pizza for way under $10, and it could easily feed 3 people.  Oh, and it is better than the one from the restaurant.  No good photos because I inhaled it.  Rating 8/10.

Ingredients
Your favorite pizza dough (I used this one)
Peanut sauce- find it in your ethnic aisle
Chicken- cooked and cubed
1 red pepper- diced
broccoli florets
tomatoes- chopped (optional)
green onions- chopped (reserve some of the green bit for garnish)
cilantro
shredded mozz cheese

Prepare your dough ahead of time!
Preheat oven to 500 degrees with a pizza stone placed inside
Roll out dough to desired size and place on a pizza peel that has been generously sprinkled with corn meal
Spread out a layer of peanut sauce (not too much, not too little)
Top with chicken, red pepper, broccoli, tomatoes, and green onions
Bake until crust is golden (this varies on how thick your crust is and how accurate your oven's heating is so start keeping an eye on it at around 8 minutes).
Remove from oven and top with cheese, remaining green onions, and cilantro
Serve immediately

Mango Tango

Alex is off at a teacher bootcamp.  When Al is gone, so is my ambition to make legitimate meals.  One of the great things about this situation is that my dish pile is significantly smaller than usual.  !  Anyway, this is a super groovy smoothie.  I had one of Odwalla's Mango Tangos the other day and meant to recreate it.  I have since then lost the bottle and had to improvise with the ingredients, but it was still delish.  I don't have anything else to say about it.  Fatigue does that to you.  Lesson learned- don't take a three hour nap until 7 pm and then try to go to sleep at 10 pm.

Oh and a work related update- I've been doing nothing but working at homes that are on lakes.  This = lots of great lunch time views and breezes.  I wish that I could pack this to bring to lunch tomorrow!

Rating 9/10.

Ingredients

1 mango

1 banana

1/4 cup coconut milk (I used the kind that comes in a carton, not a can)

1/4 cup apple juice

1/4 cup orange juice

1 hearty squeeze of lime

4 ice cubes

Blend all ingredients together and serve immediately!

Serves 1-2

Krista's Summer Salad

I am forcing us to eat more salads in an effort to get back to my former shape that I abandoned when I stopped working out for a month straight when I moved home/lost access to a TV to watch my workout videos on.  I do have my TV back now and all of my glorious tapes as well, but I need to make my diet even healthier to balance out this extra pudge going on (somehow there is a indirect correlation to my access to TV and my access to ice cream).

Enter the delicious salad.  I love anything with fruit, and greens are no exception.  Add pretty much any berry that is on sale and you have a salad that you won't have a problem finishing.  The cinnamon roasted pear slices are great on their own, but if you don't want to run your oven then raw pear slices will work just as well.  Rating 8/10.

1 head of lettuce- chopped
1 handful of asparagus- chopped into 2-inch segments and blanched (placed in boiling water for 2 minutes and then drained)
1/3 cup walnuts
3/4 cup blueberries
3/4 cup raspberries
1 yellow tomato- sliced
1 red tomato- sliced

1 pear- skinned and sliced into 1-inch chunks *see baking preparation below
ground cinnamon

raspberry salad dressing to taste

Preheat oven to 375
Place pear slices in an ovenproof dish and dust with a generous dose of cinnamon.
Bake the pears for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine all ingredients and serve immediately
Makes 2 servings.

I am back in MN!
When I am not up north demolishing a cabin and trying to convince myself to hop in a kayak I am:

Working on the finishing touches on the headboard that I have reupholstered

Watering a few of these

Filling the pond up with water for the enjoyment of the frogs

And planting kisses on this handsome mug

Caprese Sandwich

Sorry for the lack of new posts- All of my kitchen tools and pantry items are packed away and sitting in storage.  In three weeks I hope to start up again- since Al will be coming up to Minnesota for my birthday (and bringing all of my precious boxes with him).

I had my first caprese sandwich while Alex and I were trying to pass the time in Waterloo, IA this past winter by ordering a caprese salad and toast.  I was in heaven.

I revisited this sandwich as part of my effort to use up all of my perishable food, and I'm proud to say that my fridge is much barer than usual!  I still can't believe that I am moving on Monday!  Yikes!

This sandwich is simple to prepare and tastes great- and is a fabulous alternative to making pizza when you don't want to make any dough.  Rating 9/10

Ingredients (per sandwich)
2 slices of bread
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp minced garlic
fresh mozzarella- enough thin slices to cover sandwich
fresh tomatoes- enough thin slices to cover sandwich
fresh basil leaves- enough to cover sandwich
balsamic vinegar- enough to drizzle on the sandwich filling

Heat a skillet over medium heat.
Coat the skillet with olive oil and garlic.
Place the bread on the skillet and toast only one side.
With the toasted-side of the sandwich facing the inside, arrange the remaining ingredients onto the sandwich.
Place the sandwich in the skillet and flip once the bottom is toasted.
Continue to toast the sandwich until the sandwich is toasted through and the cheese has started to melt.