Photos of Food

So I had a bunch of pictures on the camera of food that I've made recently, so here's a nice big post of them!

The shepherd's pie that I made for dinner on Friday, using leftover beef from the chili Thursday.

A close-up of the layers in the shepherd's pie. Ground beef, then frozen corn and peas, then mashed potatoes -- all baked until golden brown.

Making Vanilla Rhubarb Compote in order to make a rhubarb pie. I'm using chopped, frozen rhubarb.

After stewing and cooking down the 1.5 lbs of rhubarb (minus one cup or so), sugar, molasses and vanilla to a smooth texture.

After taking the compote off the heat, I stirred in the remaining cup or so of frozen rhubarb -- as it was frozen, I tried to submerge it in the compote and left it overnight.

Making awesome pie crust using the magic technique of grating frozen butter rather than using a pastry cutter.

I forgot to take a picture of the bottom crust, the layer of crushed corn flakes (to absorb excess moisture), and the filling added. But here's the top crust prior to trimming and crimping.

Crimped and with vents sliced in. I always tuck the top crust between the bottom crust and the pie pan, to ensure that it doesn't leak, and then crimp it between my fingers to seal.

All baked!

I also made "cookies" using the excess pie crust and cinnamon sugar -- the best part of baking!

Food

So last night I made chili, as it was horrible Romance movie night with a friend who can't have cow milk products or wheat. The chili turned out fabulous (of course, pshaw) and was super basic.

(I would love to have remembered to take a picture, but I didn't.)

I soaked Cannelloni beans until they were nice and plump. If I was smart, I would have cooked them now, but I forgot and I had to let the chili cook them as best as it could. I grated a HUGE zucchini that was hiding in my fridge, and used about 2 c. worth in the chili (I froze the rest). After grating the zucchini, I sprinkle salt on it to draw the water out, and then squeeze the excess liquid out of my zucchini. I tossed that straight into the crock pot. Also add in your beans, preferably cooked.

At this point I also boiled some more water and reconstituted three little chili peppers that I had. Once plump, I scraped out the seeds, chopped finely, and tossed in the crock pot.

I also tossed straight in a can of crushed tomatoes. I used about a cup or two of vegetable broth to rinse out the can and get the last little bits of tomato.

While I was getting all that set up, I chopped and fried two little peppers from my garden (yay!) and half of an onion. Once the onions were mostly translucent, I removed most of them from the pan and put them into the crock pot, and kept the rest in there to flavor the ground beef that I fried next. I had enough ground beef that it almost filled my pan, so it took a while for that to brown fully. Once it was done, I threw it in the crock and mixed it all up, trying to gauge how "chili-like" it was. It needed more liquid, so I added more vegetable broth. I also added tomato paste, salt, pepper, cumin and chili powder.

I let it cook for several hours (read: 5) and Mister bought a sheep's milk cheese that was to replace the cheddar I would have normally put on top. All in all, highly successful!

Recipes to keep track of

Since I have nothing better to do than drool over cooking blogs, here are some things that are cluttering up my browser.

Fried Plantains with Coconut Caramel Sauce
Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Walnuts, which is remarkably similar to...
Bacon Sprouts
Taiwanese Pork (Lo Ba)
Roast Banana Pumpkin Breakfast Bread
Hachis Parmentier (similar to Shepherd's Pie)

And to top it all off, Tasty Kitchen and Pioneer Woman are having Pie Week! What's a girl who's not celebrating Thanksgiving to do?!

Tasty Dinner

So yesterday, with $5 in my pocket from tips, I marched to the meat market, as Mister informed me that he wouldn't be bringing his car home, going to Whole Foods was out of the way, etc., etc. I returned with two steak-cut top round pieces. Oh beef, how I love you...

Since I've made the mistake of thinking of them as steak before, I figured I'd braise them or something, but that I'd at least get them marinating at first. So I put in apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper. [Mister was like "we had italian dressing?"]

After marinating for an hour or so, we got down to the nitty-gritty of figuring out what we were doing to this meat. Braising, awesome. Hmm, you have to sear it first...

We pull out the cast iron frying pan and Mister starts searing the sides while I prep the very sad looking parsnips and potatoes.

As we don't really have anything appropriate for the liquid to braise in, we decide upon water with bourbon, and some tasty spices, tucking little bits of parsnip, shallot and potato on the sides. We cover the pan, and put it in the oven at 250F (also making a dish of potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper).

After about 2.5 hours, we pull the meat out, and it is beautiful. So we plop the veggies and the meat onto a plate, and Mister sets about making a glaze. (Note, the potatoes on their own were still in the oven, we added a bit more olive oil to the top, and then broiled them at 500F.)

Mister added some more bourbon, sugar, corn starch, and probably more spices and set about making the most delicious gravy ever. He also came to the conclusion that bourbon is a spice. :-P



Verdict? Freaking amazing. Would eat that every day if I could! (The amazingly crunchy, salty, tasty potatoes didn't hurt... :-P)