More Experimenting in the Kitchen

So, a Southern lady should be able to cook- we have established that. And so I have decided to take it upon myself to cook more. Of course, having a willing participant/sous chef/test pilot makes a huge difference.

First on the menu is a beer chicken cooked in the crock pot. I got the recipe off of Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/MakeItWorkMolly/lil-foodie/ and http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340491864/).

Ingredients:

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle or can of beer
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper

Cook in crock pot 6-7 hours.

I actually used two cans of beer, Bud Light in this case because someone ended up with a bunch of it and doesn't drink it, and David's crock pot tends to cook a whole lot faster than it should so... two cans. It was stupidly easy and turned out really, really well. With this we also roasted brussel sprouts. We've made them before with olive oil and salt, but this time I threw in some balsamic vinegar as well. I think it added just another touch to them.

We also made this lovely cocktail (http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340122020/):

Ingredients:

2 parts ginger ale
2 parts cider
1 part bourbon

Well guess what- I misread and I am just now realizing it. I read "ginger BEER" not ginger ale. Oops. And I used sparkling cider. David actually mixed the cocktail up but as it was, my mistake turned out something really quite good. Yummy-yummyness.

I had planned to also make this cheesy, garlic bread for this meal but somehow it just didn't happen so that was last night instead. (http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340303511/)

Ingredients:
pizza dough
garlic butter
cheese

Well, the damn pizza dough didn't want to roll out properly so I had to knead it up and spread it out by hand best I could. I mixed garlic powder and unsalted butter and heated in the microwave to let it spread better. Then put mozzarella cheese and pepperjack cheese along the dough- after having put the garlic butter on. Then drizzled the rest of the garlic butter on top. Rolled up and placed in the oven. The oven was already on 350 for the chicken cordon bleu we made (not from scratch- courtesy of The Fresh Market) so I sat it in there for the last ten minutes the chicken was cooking. As it was, I should have done it sooner. Because I did not cut up the roll of bread as the directions said, it took a lil longer. I'd say about 20 minutes, I also got impatient and turned the heat up to 375 about halfway through. They turned out pretty well but I think I used too much cheese and not enough garlic butter. Lesson learned- less cheese. So- what should I try next? Here are the choices:

Entrees:

Bruschetta chicken http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356339868691/

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340446692/

Sides:

Potatoes baked in chicken broth http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340910902/

Oven roasted mushrooms http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340522660/

Desserts:

Peanut butter and yellow cake and chocolate http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340968400/

Golden graham bars http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340968458/

Cocktails:

"Shock Me" http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340971984/

Crimson Spice http://pinterest.com/pin/74098356340446683/

Til next time yall...

This Southern Lady Attempts To Cook

I am not a cook. Really I'm not- but the funny thing is, I can cook when I want to. Not exactly sure what that means. I didn't learn cooking from my mom (sorry, Mom) growing up we mostly ate some kind of meat along with canned veggies. That was what Dad liked. Well that's not totally true- I remember helping Mom break off the ends of snap beans.

Anyways. So yesterday I was off from work for a photoshoot with Sabrina Sikora and I had my history final but in between I decided to cook for myself and David. He let me in to his house and frankly- I think he was scared. Hell he was scared the night before when we made mashed sweet potatoes and pork- he even told me I wasn't allowed to use "the big knife" to cut the potatoes. ("You don't know how to do this?" ummm it's been a while.)

You would think being a Southern Belle such as myself knowing how to cook would be a prerequisite. Eh- not so much. I am a bit more modern for that. Maybe too much so. But the funny thing is I really do wish I knew more.

So two nights ago, I attempted to make mashed sweet potatoes while supervised. And they turned out really well. Although David really should take credit for finding the recipe Martha Stewart I believe. Sweet potatoes, brown sugar, butter and milk. (We used soy milk.)

But last night, all by myself like a big girl, I attempted lasagna. I actually made it before when I worked at Tic Toc and Luigi's, but that was ages ago and David didn't trust me alone in the kitchen.

Imagine his damn surprise when it turned out really well. I'll be honest- I didn't make it as usual. Once before I made them in a "roll-up" style rather than layering the pasta. I really didn't even measure while cooking. I used a smaller pan than the recipe I originally found called for, hell I couldn't find the original recipe either. I had a large can of crushed tomatoes, once regular sized sauce can, tomato paste, lasagna noodles, and a pound of ground beef.

I browned the beef and drained off the fat, and added the crushed tomatoes, sauce and paste. Then some ground oregano leaves and garlic powder and black pepper to taste. Then, let the sauce simmer while I cooked the noodles. While cooking them for about eight minutes each, I pulled out nine pieces and laid them on foil. While cooking the noodles, I took ricotta cheese (15 ounces) and added Parmesan cheese- close to half a pound- and heated up in the microwave to melt the cheeses together. I then took the cheese and placed it along each noodle, and then layered the meat sauce over the cheese.

In the pan I placed enough meat sauce to cover the bottom. Then, I rolled up each lasagna noodle (being careful to not lose much cheese and sauce) and placed them in the pan. Once I got all of them in I placed more meat sauce, then the cheese blend, more meat sauce and then sprinkled the Parmesan over it.

Later that night we cooked it at 350 for 30 minutes- but it probably should have been at 375, as it wasn't quite as hot as it should have been. But it was still very good. At least, that's what he said ;) Maybe I am a cook after all.

Oh and- thankfully we did have a lovely McManis zinfandel to go with it. Cheers!