Alfredo, trimmed down a little for us dieters..

Last nights dinner was homemade alfredo. Now before you go "OH HOLY SHIT THERE IS NOTHING DIET FRIENDLY ABOUT THAT" Oh yes there is. Oh yes there is.

Here is my version of alfredo that is pretty much nothing like the normal recipe.

1/2 box of penne pasta cooked and drained
1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)
Mix of veggies (I used bell peppers and sun dried tomato's)
3 chicken breasts sliced and cooked
2-3 tabl flour (you can use cornstarch, I am just out)
2-3 cups shredded parm cheese
2-4 cups of 2% milk
1 tabl garlic powder

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and then add in the veggies. Stir around till veggies are cooked. Add in the chicken breasts and then the flour. Stir around the heat for a few minutes to cook out flour taste. Add in the milk and stir over med heat until it starts to thicken up. Add in the cheese and continue stirring then add in the penne and garlic powder.

This serves A LOT if you stick to portion sizes. ~400 calories per 1.5 cup. Make some redneck garlic toast and you are right at 500-600 calories for the dinner.

Cole Slaw and Guiness Cake

So it's too hot to ride, too dry to set off fireworks, and well being outside sounds really really horrible. So I'm stuck in the house with a kiddo and 3 nutbag dogs. So I guess that means I'll find the time to clean and cook. Sounds about right.

I'm not going to go into tons of details about this cake other than its amazing. Here is the recipe http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-guinness-cake-3086/

Only thing I changed is a I used plain yogurt instead of sour cream. It will work with the yogurt. Here is what mine ended up looking like:

I also made a batch of coleslaw. This recipe comes from a friends friend.

8 cups cabbage
1/3 cup sugar
3/4's cup mayo
1/2 lemon juiced
Salt
Pepper
1/4 cup condensed milk

Just shred the cabbage, mix all the other ingredients and toss. Let it sit for a little bit to meld flavors and you are in business.

BTW, there is NOTHING like coleslaw on a good pulled pork sammich...

Cornbread!

As Joe says every time I make cornbread "ain't nothin wrong with that!"

I use a coffee cup to measure.... I know slightly unorthodox... but the ratios would be the same if you used a regular measuring cup.

Note that using a standard size coffee cup makes enough to fill a 13x9 cake pan.

1 coffee cup of yellow cornmeal
2 coffee cups of all purpose flour
3/4 coffee cup of sugar
2 tabl baking powder
1/2 teas salt
4 eggs
1.5 coffee cup of milk
1/4 cup of butter

Pretty basic here, mix all dry ingredients, melt the butter, and then add all the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix well and cook on 420F for about 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

This cornbread is exactly as I like it. Sweet, moist, and with the grittiness of the corn. I LOVE this. Took me 6 tries to get here, but it was worth it.

Give it a shot!

Tropical Fun Day!

This meal I'm about to post started all because I wanted cilantro, limes, and jalapeno's. Since the asian food store always has those in abundance, that is where I went to get it all. Then I saw a coconut, then, then, and then. So here we are, with a tropical kind of menu that I am sure will please friends once the weather warms up and you have some entertaining to do.

This is pretty freaking spicy, but that is because I am spice fan. The spice can be downplayed if you want to by removing the ribs and seeds of the jalapeno, but that, to me, takes the fun out of it!

Cilantro Grilled Chicken

2 limes, juiced
1/2 bunch cilantro
4-5 cloves garlic
2-3 chopped jalapeno's
Coconut water from a fresh coconut
1 tabls sugar

Whiz it all in a food processor and BAM! you have a marinade.

Coconut Rice

1 small onion
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup sugar (scant)
1/4 cup coconut
1/2 can water
Cilantro to taste
2 tabl butter
1 cup rice

Melt butter in a pot and add onions. Cook till onions begin to look translucent. Add rice and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add the sugar, milk, and water to the pot. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes. When rice is tender, remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Stir in chopped cilantro to taste.

The rest of the recipe is fairly simple. Marinate chicken (whatever parts you like) in the marinade for 1-2 hours. Simply grill them over a medium high flame till done, basting as needed. This chicken was AWESOME and I cannot believe I just made it up. I would highly recommend you try, unless you don't like cilantro, then I can't help you. I added chopped mango to my chicken for a little sweetness but you can do as you like. A white wine is your best bet with this dish. YUM.

I have no pictures because I ate it all. :(


Coconuts:

I actually bought a coconut for this dish, you can find hundreds of instructions on the right way to open them on the internet.. I highly recommend using an actual whole coconut for this recipe.

Gumbo!

I regret that our camera is in the car that Joe took to work this morning. I will have pictures of the finished dish, just not of the prep. I lied.....

Gumbo is one of those things that I seriously miss a lot about living in the south. There used to be this restaurant we went to on the gulf that had THE BEST seafood gumbo on the planet. Sadly, the restaurant has since closed down and I cannot just call up to get the recipe. If you ever get the chance, take a trip to SOUTH Alabama and Louisiana. Seriously, just go to eat. There are things that you will find to be so sweet and fresh, yet have so much love into preparing them, that you may not want to leave.

Now that being said, I do believe there are as many recipes for gumbo as there are people named Rachel. That's a lot. I generally stick to a chicken or shrimp gumbo with a chicken stock base, only because I don't make nor use seafood stock in my house. Though you can use any stock you want and have on hand. I would stay away from beef stock unless you are desperate and its all you have. My methods for gumbo are a combination of what I have read and my own experience, having adjusted to my own taste as such. It's all part of the fun of gumbo and it is fun!

Rachel's Gumbo

1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup flour
1-2 chopped onions
1-2 chopped bell pepper
4-5 chopped celery stalks
3 quarts chicken stalk
1-2lbs of andouille sausage
1-2lbs of shrimp or chicken
Dash of paprika
Dash of cayenne
Dash of crushed red peppers


1.) First things first you must make a roux. This for a first timer is a daunting task and all I'm going to tell you is SLOW DOWN. You will be standing above the stove for about 20 minutes, so have time set aside for this. Combine the oil and flour in a large soup pot and stir together with a long handled spoon.

Turn your burner or stove top on 3-4 on the heat range, NO MORE. Start stirring. It will start out looking a little lemony in color, but it's going to change as it heats up. Keep stirring and stirring and stirring. It will change to a tan color as it starts to cook. If you want to, stop here and continue with the recipe, I like my roux as dark as possible without burning so the choice is yours.

Keep cooking until it turns almost a milk chocolate color. If at any time you see a black speck throw it all out and start over. Burned roux has a horrid flavor that will not be saved by any means. The roux will also change texture as it gets to the chocolate color point, almost grainy like. Just be patient.

2.) Once the roux is to your liking add in all the chopped veggies. Be VERY careful with this step, roux is known as cajun napalm... and not for nothing. Stir really well and cook a little longer till the veggies start to soften.

3.) Add in everything else but the sausage and meat. Simmer for 35-60 minutes.
Then add your sausage and simmer another 30-60 minutes, then add the chicken till cooked.

You should have a nice thick gumbo at this point and serve it over rice. Now, there are other versions to this, some use okra and some others use file' powder. I prefer a roux gumbo and so this is what I make 99% of the time. You want to serve this with a good french bread either homemade or store bought. Yum!

I am the greatest cook alive!

No, not really. But I am quite happy about the results of dinner last night. It all started with this noodle bowl I ate for lunch one day that was spicy and sweet and the packaging said it was Korean. Soooooooooooo, I set out to make the sauce. This is not to say that the first time was wonderful, or the second, or the third. There was so much internet scouring for weeks trying to get a recipe that was similar. Low and behold, I think I have it.

Note that this is pretty spicy and there isn't a way to downgrade the spice without loss of flavor, so if you can't take the heat then you'll have to skip this one. Please also note that I'm not entirely sure that this is a Korean dish, I took the sauce and ran with it.

I do recommend going to an asian food store for the entirety of this recipe. You will save so much money by doing so.

Korean Sweet and Spicy Chili Sauce Noodles



The above should be what you need for the entire dish. Please note that I actually added Shrimp into mine at the end because I'm a badass like that.

Sauce:

6 Tbls Korean chili paste
6 Tbls Ketchup
1/4 cup sugar
1 teas sesame oil
1 teas soy sauce
1/2 juice lemon
1 teas rice vinegar

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside. The red pepper paste will come in a container like this:



The rest of the meal:

1 pkg asian style noodles
1 zucchini
1 bunch green onions
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 large handful frozen squid
As much radish kimichi as you can stand


For the noodles remove two sets from the packaging and put the rest back in the freezer. Here is a closeup of the noodles I used, there are a million noodles in the frozen food section of the asian food store, have fun!



Slice the zucchini in half and then slice into half moons. Chop the green onion and pull out some of the radish kimichi and slice into smaller chunks. Your set up should then look something similar to this:



Radish kimichi looks like this:



The rest of this dish is fairly simple. The noodles only require barely simmering water to cook and will cook quite fast. In a wok or saucepan, heat over high and add a tich of olive oil and throw in the squid. (shrimp too if you are using them) Cook till they are done and transfer to another bowl. Add the zucchini and cook for about 3 minutes till it is still firm and not squishy. Transfer to a bowl. Add the drained noodles to the wok and pour the sauce over them, stir till they are nice and really hot. Transfer to 2-4 plates and top with the remaining ingredients and the seafood. Sprinkle on the seeds and you are in business!

Recipe's Pt 2

Since I accidentally deleted the first go around... which took me like 30 minutes of my time to post.... here it is the second go around.

Chocolate Truffle Cake

This is a six layer cake that does take time to do. It does take some sort of know how around the kitchen to get it right. Definitely not a beginner's cake. Since it is soooo involved, I am just going to link the recipe here.

Cheese Ball

This is extremely easy and really really good. Be carefull, I've had friends gorge themself on this...

1 pkg cream cheese
1/4 cup minced onion
1 tabls worsh sauce
Good dash of wine
Pepper
Handfull of cheddar cheese

Mix everything together and shape into a ball. Roll in nuts or whatever if desired.


Hot Crab Dip

1 pkg cream cheese
6 oz of lump crab
1 tabls worsh sauce
1-2 tabl prepared horseradish (not the creamy)
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup minced onion

Mix everything together and bake for 20-30 minutes at 400F till bubbly.

Pork Wonton Soup

Tonight I was craving a pot sticker but wanted soup. So that prompted me to make a batch of pork won-tons. Now, for the record I have never made pot sticker's let alone a won-ton. So heavy internet searching was my best friend. What I came up with (even though my camera sucks at pictures) was a light broth with a delicious won-ton.

Pork Won-ton's

1 package won-ton wrappers
1lb pork
1/2 head of cabbage
2 tbls oyster sauce
1 tbls fish sauce
2-3 tbls soy sauce
1-2 tbls sesame oil
2 garlic cloves
1 tbls chopped ginger

I make my pork mix in the food processor because its easiest. You could chop all by hand and buy ground pork. Shred the cabbage in the food processor with the shredding blade. Dump into a large bowl. Add all the other ingredients to the processor with the grinding blade. Grind all till it is well mixed and somewhat pasty looking. Add to the cabbage and mix with hands. At this point I popped a small bit in the microwave to check the taste. I adjusted a few things, namely where the oyster sauce came in. Do not add any more fish sauce than the recipe calls for. You want a subtle background of it, that's all.

Place a small bit on each wrapper and fold the wrapper over. Use water to seal the edges. Don't let them touch when you pile them onto something, otherwise they'll stick. Boil a large pot of water and drop them in. When they poof and float their done.

Soup

1 carton of chicken broth
1 small peice of ginger chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
Mushrooms ( I used oyster)
Crushed red pepper
1 tbls soy sauce
1teas sesame oil

Basically put everything in the pot and put to simmer for about 15-25 minutes.

Ladle the soup into the bowls and top with won-tons. Perfection!


Note: that won-ton recipe makes ALOT of these suckers. Rest assured though, they can be prepared up till the boiling and frozen, ready for eating when you are. I saved my extras for tomorrow with my friends. YUM