Crock-pot soup- Asian themed

Hello all!

So this weekend when I was supposed to be studying for neurobiology...BLECH...I came up with this wonderful recipe. My apartment smelled heavenly. If only you could capture smell in pictures. This soup combined two of my greatest loves in the kitchen: Asian flavors and my crock-pot. To me, the crock-pot or slow cooker whatever you want to call it, is the best invention ever....well for cooking devices at least. To just throw stuff in it, and slowly let it meld together and make the entire house fragrant, is just amazing and awesome. 

 This soup is super comforting, at least to me. It is has three strong flavors that are three of my favorite savory flavors- ginger, garlic, and sesame oil. I have been on such a ginger kick the past week. Putting sliced ginger in my water/tea with a squirt of lime....just make sure you don't cut the ginger on a cutting board previously used to cut garlic and put said ginger in tea, makes tea garlicky. Not so great actually. 

Ingredients:

4 chicken thighs- bone in, but skinned

~4 cups chicken broth ( I have since added 2-3 more cups because I added WAY to many noodles)

1 inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced,

4 cloves garlic- roughly chopped

~ 2tsp sesame oil or to taste. Remember sesame oil is very strong. A little goes a long way and it will overpower other flavors. 

~1/2 tsp sriracha sauce (rooster sauce)- once again a little goes a long way, it is flavorful but very hot. Best to add too little and add more later than add a whole bunch and not be able to taste.

1/2tsp cumin

1/2tsp dried onion

3/4tsp onion salt

3/4tsp celery salt

3/4tsp black pepper

~10 dashes of soy sauce

1 large carrot, sliced into coins

~2tsp of red wine vinegar (optional)

drizzle of agave (optional)- the vinegar and agave were to add a sweet/sour element...but not enough to really tell. 

Rice noodles- DON'T USE WHOLE 6OZ PACKAGE!!! WAY TOO MANE NOODLES!!!

lime, cilantro, and green onions for garnish

 Add all ingredients to crockpot (I used bullion cubes and added them in here)

 Add in 4cups of water

 Cover and set to high. Cook on high for ~5hrs, take chicken out and shred, set to low and cook 2 more hours.

 Add in rice noodles and let soften.

 

 Add garnishes of choice, and devour! Just looking makes my mouth water.

  

 Just a warning, I did not actually measure the spices, these are an approximation on the low side of what I used. Taste when chicken is cooked and alter to taste. 

What do you think of the recipe format? Any suggestions?

Happy eatings,

Smashley

MMM Queso

Hi everybody! 

Every time I want to write that I always here in my head "Hi Dr. Nick" from the Simpsons. I used to love that show. Key player in my childhood lol. 

So any-who queso, I love salsa con queso, queso dip, cheese dip, what every you want to call it. It is melty cheesy goodness in a jar. This time it was melty cheesy goodness over my chicken! MMMMM. My mom had bought me some cebollitas, I had half of a jar of queso, chicken, and thought why not throw some potatoes into that mix and boom dinner! So that is just what I did.

I started by making an adobo seasoning mix from this recipe. I made enough for two servings.

 Then I seasoned my chicken with juice from a lime (a very dry lime unfortunately), garlic powder, seasoned salt, paprika, and chili powder. Into the oven it went at 400.

 I seasoned the cebollitas with the adobo, oil (too much for my liking I discovered later), and a little extra salt and garlic powder. These went in for probably around 20mins, until the bulb was tender. Also unfortunately the greens got a little too crispy :(.

 The potatoes I tossed with the rest of the adobo and a little oil. Put in the oven until tender and a little crispy.

 See the ends were a little too crispy. This is supposed to be done on a grill, with much better results.

 Once I took the chicken out, I poured the cheese over it and let it sit while the potatoes finished cooking. It was delish!

So that was my impromptu dinner. I was originally going to have some soup from my grandma. But this was almost as good ;)

What is your favorite cheese meal?

Happy eatings,

Smashley

Curried tomato bisque

Hi everybody!

So for those of you who really know me, you know I have a strong dislike for tomatoes. I really really want to like them, I just haven't gotten there yet. I do like cooked tomatoes (IE spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, chili, ...), but I normally am not a huge fan of tomato soup...until now. This was seriously the easiest and best tomato soup or well bisque I have ever had to pleasure to consume. 

My mom found this recipe in a magazine and had been wanting to make it for a while. I had already wanted to make soup for dinner since the BF was coming over to watch a movie and hand out. This was not what I was planning in my head for the type of soup to make, but I am very glad I did.  

Here are the ingredients-

Small onion (chopped)

Two cloves garlic (crushed)

28os can whole tomatoes

Salt and pepper

2tsp curry powder

1/2 cup water

1tbsp EVOO

Splash of cream (optional)

 Here is the recipe.

 Saute the garlic and onion in oil with salt and pepper.

 Toss in curry powder and heat till fragrant (the actual recipe called for 1tsp, but you couldn't taste the curry enough so I upped it to 2tsp)

 Once fragrant, add in tomatoes with the juice from can and water. Bring to a boil.

 Remove from heat.

 Transfer bisque to blender

 Puree. I added a splash or two of half and half. Totally optional. We had some left over naan bread. So we smeared it with EVOO, added garlic powder, fresh mini basil, and fresh mozzarella. Baked until melty.

This was seriously amazing. So easy, the soup prob took about 10mins to make. Great for a cool winter day! 

How do you like your tomatoes?

Happy eatings,

Smashley

Crochet update :)

So Not only have I been busy cooking, but I have also been busy crocheting.  I have been working on the blanket for the BF and on mine occasionally (those have not been photographed), I made a baby hat that I forgot to take a pic of, a scarf-let for my mom, and slippers. I have pics of the slippers and the scarflet. 

They were both very easy to make, but for the slippers it is super important to use the proper sized needle and yarn. I was making the slippers for my mom's friend and ended up make three separate pairs because I used different yarn one time and the wrong needle the next time. This is the second pain with the too big hook. [Yes, I know how terribly pale my skin is...I am translucent as my friends say ;)] I got the pattern for the scarflet here and the slippers here. 

Do you crochet? If not be careful if you start- it is super addictive!

Happy crocheting!

Smashley

Leftovers re-vamped

Howdy all!

I don't know about you, but sometimes leftovers can be so blah. So why not make something new with them and make them ten times better? So that is what I did. We had some shish kabob and my mom and I needed a full dinner. So I got creative with some pasta and kabob. 

I sauteed some onion and garlic in EVOO with salt and pepper. Then I added in the kabob and some fresh cherry tomatoes cut in half and let them cook. Once everything was warm I added some white wine and a splash of half and half.  Finally at the end added in some fresh chopped rosemary, basil, and thyme. Before serving I  tossed in some spaghetti and cooked for a couple more minutes.  Whilst I was cooking, my mom made some garlic bread with crusty bread, butter, and chopped garlic. Every thing was great and pretty ;), except the cut of meat wasn't the best and was really tough...(some pieces were almost inedible lol).

What do you do in a pinch for dinner?

Happy eatings,

Smashley

Zucchini feast

Good morning!

I have a few posts I am going to do..lots of updates. So here is the first of I think at least 3 posts.

 One of my favorite parts of summer are the squash and zucchini. I know the best zucchinis are the small to medium ones, but when you grow them at home and don't go out every day, sometimes you get giant ones. Then you have a lot of food to make. I went a little crazy one night when I was left in charge of using a massive zucchini.  I made zucchini naan pesto pizza, grilled zucchini strips, and attempted to make baked "fried" zucchini. Everything was good, but my mom and I agreed hat the grilled strips were the best...they were also the easiest lol.

The pizza used garlic naan that I bought at an import store (but a pita would would also work fine), homemade pesto (we make so much right before the first frost and freeze it), EVOO, garlic, onion, tomatoes, rosemary, and of course zucchini and squash.

I first sauteed the veggies, garlic and onions until tender.  (next time it might be nice to use a little white wine...but I don't think we had any open at the time)

 After the veggies were tender and shrunken, I smeared the pesto on the naan, and topped with all of the veggies.

 Of course a pizza is not a pizza without cheese :D

 

I put the pizzas on the grill to melt the cheese. I did not put them directly on the grates, but put them on foil on top the grill. They cooked long enough the melt the cheese but I didn't want to burn the naan. 

 

Next I sliced the beast and tossed with EVOO, A&P, and some garlic powder. 

 I threw the slices on the grill on foil and let the grill do its magic. So easy and so tasty.

 

The last of the trip were the baked "fried" zucchini. I used Italian bread crumbs, seasoning salt, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning for the breading, and an egg and milk wash.

 I baked them at 400 till crispy...sorry I don't know the exact time.

Then enjoyed the feast. I made a sauce of (ok I know this sounds weird, but it was fab) mayo, ketchup, horseradish mustard, and my beloved Franks. YUM!

Hope the zucchini feast inspired for when you have some extra zucchini.  What is your fav summer veggie to eat/cook?

Happy eatings,

Smashley

New look

Hola amigos,

I was bored today and decided a change was needed. How do you like the new layout/background. I thought it was fun and cheery. Please give me your input!

Happy eatings,

Smashley

Fancy grilled cheese

Hello everyone,

Grilled cheese sandwiches are a great way to get rid of left overs (so is its Mexican cousins the quesadilla). Just about anything goes, I have heard of sandwiches with jelly, any kind of cheese, fruits, meat, just about anything. Like a blank canvas.  My lunch today came to me during my sun session. I was soaking up some sun this morning and saw our nice and big rosemary bush which made me think of our out of control basil plant around the corner. I couldn't help but want something with the fresh herbs. So I contemplated what to make. I knew we had some smoked, beer-can chicken my parents made this weekend. Originally I was thinking a salad, but then thought of the smoked horseradish cheddar cheese we had gotten in Wisconsin and the crusty bread on the counter. Light bulb! In a stroke of genius I thought of  this sandwich. 

The sandwich contains the crusty bread (buttered of course), a smear of horseradish brown mustard, the smoked horseradish cheddar, some regular cheddar, smoked chicken, and some freshly chopped rosemary and basil. It was a little messy to make, but super tasty. I made one of me and one for my dad. My dad's turned out nicer because I used two spatulas to flip and started at a lower heat to help melt the cheese a little. Next time I would use a George Foreman grill to get a more even toasting and less of a hassle flipping the sammy.

What is your fav grilled cheese?

Happy eating y'all!

Smashley