Eggplant Saute

Okay, so I have to admit that I don't really LOVE eggplant. But, I will eat it in an attempt to add variety to my diet and cooking repertoire. This is a anice little saute that is great with steak.
Totally easy too!

Eggplant Saute
1 large eggplant, peeled and cubed
1/3 onion
1 garlic clove, smashed then minced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons feta
Chopped parsley, too taste...(I like lots)
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper

Heat olive oil and garlic in saute pan. Add the cubed eggplant, making sure it has drained. Season with lots of salt and pepper. Cook eggplant until translucent. Add tomatoes. Remove from heat and add feta and parsley.

Roasted Salmon

I love Salmon. In fact, I would it eat like...everyday if I had the chance. I grew up with a dad and a grandpa who fished in the Northwest...home of the most amazing salmon. After summer fishing trips our garage freezers would be stocked full of cod, salmon and halibut. All vacuum packed to perfection. My dad doesn't often cook. Although, we do have home video of him teaching Jay-Bird(Andrew) and I to make oatmeal. But, his cedar planked salmon is absolutely insane, it is so good. Every major occasion and party calls for this treat! The following recipe doesn't quite compare, but it is a great little dinner.
Perhaps I am biased, but I only purchase wild-caught Pacific Salmon. None of that Norwegian, Atlantic or God-forbid ANYTHING farm raised. I know I have taken a stand against farm-raised seafood before...but I just have to reiterate. JUST SAY NO... Do you really want to eat seafood that might have been fed corn or chicken feces?? Might have added chemicals for color??Have WAY less Omega -3s???
I didn't think so. Buy wild-caught!!The way God intended, I think:)
I'll get off my soap box now:)

Roasted Salmon with Mustard, Bread Crumbs and Greens

Ingredients:
2 salmon fillets, skin on
1 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/3 c bread crumbs, homemade or store bought
Salt, pepper and olive oil
Zest from 1 lemon
Juice from 1/2 salmon
2 tablespoons parsley, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon chopped scallions

Preheat oven to 425.

On baking sheet lined with foil, lay out fillets. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread 1/2 of the mustard on each fillets. Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Zest lemon over fillets. Then squeeze juice over fillets. Sprinkle 1/2 of the parsley on the fillets. Roast for about 10 minutes or until fillets are cooked through.
Serve with lemon wedges, and another sprinkling of chopped parsley and the scallions.

Quick Dinner

Last night was snowy and Brian and I didn't get home until after 7. I almost resorted to my old days of laziness and ordered a pizza. However I did have pork thawed in my sink, so I figured I might as well whip something up. This is a really simple and easy recipe you can make in a hurry when you don't have a ton of time or energy. It's not fancy, but has great flavor.

Serves about 3
about 2/3 pork tenderloin, cut into cubes
2 small heads of broccolli, seperated
1/2 head cauliflower, seperated
2 large garlic cloves, smashed then chopped
2 scallions (white and green parts), chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, grated over pork
Red pepper flakes, to taste
Soy Sauce
Olive oil, kosher salt, pepper

Steam the broccoli and cauliflower, over boiling water. (A great way to tell if it's done is if it is bright green but still has a slight firmness. No one likes soggy broc.)
Heat a deep skillet with olive oil. When the pan is hot add the cubed pork, along with the garlic and some salt and pepper. Begin to grate ginger over pork. Drizzle a splash of soy sauce over the pork. Let cook until browned on all sides, and cooked thru. Add the cooked broccolli and cauliflower to the pan with a few spoonfuls of steaming water and one more tablespoon of soy sauce. (Not too much water and soy sauce thought!!)Stir in chopped scallions, red pepper flakes and season with additional salt and pepper.Serve in bowls. Eat:)

Chicken Chili

Thought I disappeared again? Well, I assure you I am back in the Kitch getting busy. I just uploaded some pictures from Brian's new camera to his computer upstairs. (Let me remind you my camera is pretty sad and my computer is broken, tucked away in a drawer.) So excited to share some of my most recent recipes with you. I also will remind you that my broiler is still spontaneous and kicks itself on just for the heck of it. I call this sort of phenomenon part of "real adult life" and it just keeps getting realer...(is that a word??)
So, it's a given I am facing several problems in my kitchen. My eyes will be watching that oven like a hawk and I will be trying my best to upload decent pictures.
Yesterday, I didn't want to fix dinner because I was just chapters away from finishing my latest book, The Help. I could hardly put the book down. Eventually, I shut the book and ventured into my dysfunctional kitchen.
Last week I saw Ina (surprise, huh) making a "Lite" meal for her friend, another cookbook author. I couldn't get over how EASY, simple and great this "chili" sounded. Last night I pulled together a little version of my own. I can't wait to eat it for dinner again tonight.


Chicken Chili
serves 4 at the very least

2 large onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, smashed then chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
A few pinches of Cumin, Cayenne Pepper and Red Pepper flakes
1 large can(28oz) San Marzano tomatoes, peeled and undrained with basil
1 (14 oz) can whole stewed tomatoes
1/2 tablespoon of Jalapeno Tabasco
Cilantro
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
Tortilla Chips
Sharp White Cheddar Cheese, Grated
3 petite boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
On a baking sheet, lay out chicken. Sprinkle with kosher salt, pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Roast chicken for about 30-35 minutes or until cooked through. Sit out to cool.
While the chicken is cooking, saute onions until translucent in a large pot. Add garlic and cook for a few mintues. Add peppers, along with spices and plenty of salt and pepper.
In a food processor, pulse the tomatoes. Pour into the pot and bring to a boil. Add in cilantro and jalapeno Tabasco. Let simmer for 20 minutes. Once chicken has cooled, cut into bite size pieces and add to pot. Let cook another 20 minutes, seasoning too taste. Garnish with cheese, tortilla chips and cilantro.

How Lame Am I???

Okay, so it's true. I am the lamest blogger you have ever encountered, followed, read, etc. I take no offense to the charge. Truth is, my last post was 2 months ago, which in blog years is equal to a little less than a century or something crazy like that. I had the best of intentions with this darn blog. I cook, so why not document my cooking for my friends and my family and those who don't cook? It started off great, then slowly it fizzled out as life got busier. My sincere apologies. I don't think I had any idea of what being a real "blogger" was all about. I left you all hanging with the promise of grand Thanksgiving recipes, and still have yet to post any recipe resembling stuffing, turkey or potatoes. Thanksgiving day, I think, is where this whole blog took a bit of a turn. I agree, I had been slacking leading up to Turkey day, but what happened on Thanksgiving put a little chip of my shoulder. Bear with me as a explain my absence from blogging and cooking...

As most of you know, Brian and I are currently living in Denver, Colorado. We moved out from Cali in August. During those first few months the blog gave me something to do. I had no friends, no family, no job and I left all my paint supplies in the old house garage in Bakersfield...so thus, no hobbies. All I had was my little Mac and an ability to make some kick-ass Mac and Cheese. Blogging about food, cooking, etc seemed to be a natural way to create and share a bit of myself.
I didn't know much about blogging though. I hated any computer class I ever had to take, and the only reason I made in thru AutoCAD in my design classes was because Dr. Murray thought I was fabulous in every other class.
So I did my basic posts and went on with my day. Then, curiosity got the better of me and I started researching blogs, food blogs, family blogs, all different kind of blogs:) And guess what I found out??? My blog looked pretty lame. It was hard to navigate, there was no central index for recipes, and my pictures were stupid looking. It was a little hard to swallow. And totally depressing.
Then, I got a job and got a little distracted. I cooked less because after being on my feet in platform stilettos all day I didn't feel like cooking. I felt like drinking a glass of wine and going to bed. I still posted, albiet at a slower rate and with recipes I tried to remember as I sat at the computer.
Leading up to Thanksgiving, I was so thrilled to make my first Thanksgiving all by myself. I thought I was going to be the bees-knees with the best from scratch, totally homemade Thanksgiving. I had a cooking schedule, a million dollars worth of food in the fridge and a plethora of family recipes. Then, I ended up working a few extra days. There went my cooking schedule. My friend Caitlin called a few days before Thanksgiving for some tips and I told her I hadn't got around to posting but gave her a laundry list of what I was making. "They'll be on the site in a day or two." At the time, it wasn't a lie. But, the days before Thanksgiving got filled with work, I was missing friends and family and my morale was low. Thnaksgiving morning I woke up early and started on my revised cooking plan. I immediately knew why my mom was always getting after all of us kids. We really didn't know how much work went into this whole day. So then, I became instantaneously annoyed with Brian, who is the best guy ever. Poor Brian, he thought he was going to have a nice Thanksgiving, just the two of us. And here I was bitching and moaning about all the work. How lame.
Anyways, I stopped complaining and went on with my cooking. I put my turkey in the oven, and the other dishes in the fridge ready to be warmed when the turkey came out. After a half an hour, I basted the bird and turned down the temp. A few minutes later I heard a sizzling and went to check the oven, even though the Turkey had hours left. And that freaking bird was burnt to a crisp. The broiler was on!!!! I looked at the temp. The oven read 325 degrees but the hairs on my arms could have sizzled off, that oven was so hot. Then, the oven shut down. It broke. Error messages flashed where the temperature is supposed to be displayed. I was defeated. Alone on Thanksgiving, with a burnt (yet still raw) bird and a stupid oven that somehow was heating a good 200 degrees over the set temp. And a broiler with a mind of its own, turning on whenever it wanted. I cried. I wasn't the type of girl who burnt turkey.
Eventually, hours later we ate the turkey. And it was an amazing turkey. I was forced to reheat my sides in the darn microwave, and the turkey cooked in the oven after it was OFF. (I told you that sucker was hot.)
We ate at 9'oclock.
Looking back, it is kind of typical and hilarious. But, at the time it felt horrible. I wanted to be with family. I wanted a perfect bird. I wanted to post beautiful pictures on my basic blog of our Thanksgiving Day spread.
I didn't get what I wanted, and I didn't feel like sharing my defeat in the kitchen. Which, aside from the time I made Tiramisu when I was fourteen, hasn't really happened.
The next weekend, having recovered from Thanksgiving I prepared for my two oldest friends to come out for a visit. Our weekend was filled with food and wine and long walks and memories I will always keep close to my heart. Thing is, after that wonderfull weekend I started feeling sorry for myself. Those were the first meals I had shared with friends since August. I decided cooking is not nearly as fun when you are not sharing them with friends and family. So, why do it?
Thus, the hiatus began. I still took pictures on my crappy camera and wrote in a notebook what I was cooking. I started a new blog format on wordpress, hoping that a new site would launch me back to culinary bliss. But, the wordpress site has been harder for me to set up in a way I like. Then, a few weeks ago I dropped my computer on the kitchen floor. And now, it is broke. Another defeat.
So here I am back at square one. Sitting at the computer in the office upstairs, trying to figure out where to go from here.

I guess what I am trying to say is this: I am sorry I am so lame. I will continue sharing recipes with you. I will continue missing my old cooking group, and celebrations with friends and food in California. But, I have to start somewhere. My blog will still be basic, my pictures will not be anything Ina would be proud of. My recipes will be full of estimations and "dashes" and "sprinkles." But, I will do it all with love. Thinking of you in your kitchens, exploring new dishes and old recipes of your own.